THE ENERGY ENHANCEMENT MEDITATION COURSE BY VIDEO
Quotron
The Da Vinci Code
Myth Making for the Second Coming
presented by Kenneth Warren
May 2, 2004 at 2:00 p.m.
Lakewood Public Library
15425 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood Ohio
"The Magdalene Society had its own agenda, clearly, and there was no reason to assume that its agenda was peculiarly American - or liberal" (203). Jim Hougan, from Kingdom Come
Program Premise
Stripped of seven patriarchal demons, Mary Magdalene becomes the novel twenty first century hypothesis for the regulation of hysteria through self-assertion by Aquarian Grrrl power, which having digested Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is now duly possessed in daytime by the historicity of the first witness to the resurrection and in nighttime by the fantasy of the hieros gamos.
Plot Line
"A curator is found dead and a cryptologist is brought in to assist in the
case. As it turns out he is also a suspect. The story involves an homage to
Leonardo di Vinci who is known to be a prankster who left messages in some
of his most famous paintings. An analysis of The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper
and Madonna on the Rocks illustrates that Leonardo was suspected to be a
member of the Priory of Sion, a secret society which descended from the
bloodline of the marriage union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. A Bishop in
Opus Dei, a conservative Catholic organization actually arranged the events
leading to the murder of the museum curator following an ultimatum from the
Vatican. The motivation for the murders was to gain information about the
possessors of the Holy Grail which by legend involved the cup Jesus used at
the Last Supper. Additionally the Grail is believed to contain information
regarding the descendants of offspring of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.
Moreover, the book asserts that the early Church, dating back to Constantine
was involved in a conspiracy to suppress notions of feminine
goddess-worship. It also implies that today's Church maintains efforts to
prevent any revelation about this manipulation of knowledge." Sister Joan,
from "Sister Joan
Discusses The
Da Vinci Code"
"The battle over control of the Holy Grail in which the two protagonists (a
Harvard professor and a French police cryptologist) are caught up is between
the “Priory of Sion” and Opus Dei. The former has been given charge of the
Holy Grail, which might reveal secrets that will severely damage
Christianity. The latter has been charged by the Vatican with destroying the
priory and the secrets of the Grail." Andrew Greeley, from
"DaVinci Code is more fantasy than fact"
"The priory struggles to keep alive a religion of balance between male and
female (celebrated in ritual intercourse) which Constantine crushed out of
Christianity to strengthen male power. The Holy Grail is not a chalice but
the memory of Mary Magdalene who was the consort of Jesus and the mother of
his daughter, Sarah, whose descendents are still alive." Andrew Greeley,
from
"DaVinci Code is more fantasy than fact"
Sources
Dan Brown's reliance on Holy Blood, Holy Grail is readily apparent..." Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, from "Cracking the Anti-Catholic Code (Part II)"
At
the official website Dan Brown provides the following "Partial Bibliography
for THE DA VINCI CODE"
The History of the Knights Templars
--Charles G. Addison
Rosslyn: Guardians of the Secret of the Holy Grail
--Tim Wallace - Murphy
The Woman With The Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail
--Margaret Starbird
The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ
--Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince
The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine
--Margaret Starbird
Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
--Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
The Search for the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood
--Deike Begg
The Messianic Legacy
--Michael Baigent
The Knights Templar and their Myth
--Peter Partner
The Dead Sea Bible. The Oldest Known Bible
--Martin G. Abegg
The Dead Sea Deception
--Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
The Nag Hammadi Library in English
--James M. Robinson
Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians
--Timothy Freke, Peter Gandy
When God was a Woman
--Merlin Stone
The Chalice and the Blade. Our History, our Future
--Riane Eisler
Born in Blood
--John J. Robinson
The Malleus Maleficarum
--Heinrich Kramer & James Sprenger
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
--Leonardo da Vinci
Prophecies
--Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci: Scientist, Inventor, Artist
--Otto Letze
Leonardo: The Artist and the Man
--Serge Bramly, Sian Reynolds
Their Kingdom Come: Inside the secret world of Opus Dei
--Robert A. Hutchison
Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei
--Maria Del Carmen Tapia
The Pope's Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New
Sects in the Church
--Gordon Urguhart
Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Secret Society Struggling for Power
Within the Roman Catholic Church
--Michael Walsh
I. M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture
--Carter Wiseman
Conversations With I. M. Pei: Light Is the Key
--Gero Von Boehm
from "The
Official Website of Bestselling Author Dan Brown"
"Brown’s selected bibliography for The Da Vinci Code... lists few scholarly works (Peter Partner’s The Knights Templar and their Myth being one exception, although Brown ignores all of Partner’s conclusions and research) and a number of sensational books marked by conspiracy theories (Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy), shoddy scholarship (The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ), feminist agendas (Margaret Starbird’s The Woman With The Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail and The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine), and antagonism towards the Catholic Church (Their Kingdom Come: Inside the secret world of Opus Dei and The Pope's Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New Sects in the Church). Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, from "Cracking the Anti-Catholic Code (Part II)"
Issues and Trends
"He thought someone was reprogramming the collective unconscious - introducing new archetypes, revitalizing old ones" (127). Jim Hougan, from Kingdom Come (2000)
“…one can distill a consensus list of the most prominent elements in the Protestant ethos of nineteenth-century America. The five elements that observers emphasized at the time, and that stand out in retrospect, are Biblicism, individualism, moralism, activism, and millennial optimism” (63-4). William R. Hutchison, from Religious Pluralism in America (2003)
"Catholics tend to be vertical, hierarchical and centralised...in other words, they tend to be corrupt, autocratic, with more susceptibility to the Mafia and maximum bureaucracy." Marc Luyckx, quoted in the Sunday Telegraph and presented on page 75 in The Principality and Power of Europe by Adrian Hilton
“In the closing years of the twentieth century, something dramatic happened to women: they were allowed ordination in some denominations…At roughly the same time, something dramatic happened to church-going gays and lesbians. Here and there, we would find Baptists, Methodists or Presbyterians marrying same-sex couples…What a religion had to say about God mattered less than what it had to say about sex” (xii). John Portmann, from Sex and Heaven: Catholics in Bed and at Prayer (2003)
"The role of Mary Magdalene continues her meteoric rise in our culture. Yet the exaltation of Mary Magdalene and the morphing of her into a politically correct symbol have no solid root in early church history" (91). Darrell L. Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
"When the feminization of the new world order religion is established, the religious icon of Diana will long have been engraved in the human brain...If allowed, she will have achieved a status equal to God." Celestial, from "DIANA,THE AL QAEDA THE TRUTH BEHIND THE IRAQI WAR, #1"
"In the last two decades, many best-selling books (such as The DaVinci Code, The Templar Revelation and Holy Blood, Holy Grail) have pointed to... a phenomenon related to... a global movement which is revising our understanding of Christianity and also of femininity. Cover articles in Newsweek, Time and the like, have brought awareness of the subject to a wider audience." from The Basye Vortex
"Some say the book's popularity is part of a current trend in society that spirituality is good, while institutional religion, with its secrets, its power, its misogyny, is bad." Leslie Scrivener, from "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" in Toronto Star Apr. 10, 2004
"One generally accepted observation about new religions is that periods of renewed spiritual activity emerge in the wake of disruptive social and economic changes: The established vision of "how things work" no longer seems to apply, and people begin searching for new visions" (219). James R. Lewis, from Legitimating New Religions (2003)
"The explosion of a single coherent worldview into multiple fragments, none
of which carries any necessity and all of which must be chosen from a
situation of plurality is a defining attribute of radical modernity" (348).
Paul C. Johnson from "Shamanism From Ecuador to Chicago" in Shamanism: a
reader edited by Graham Harvey (2003)
"Our modern world seems particularly prone to social and economic
disruptions.....we are suffering from a broad-ranging "legitimation crisis"
that calls into question our very foundations" (219). James R. Lewis, from
Legitimating New Religions (2003)
"Jung made many contributions to modern culture. While the depth of their dynamics and their implications are still not fully grasped, his identification of "complex," "persona," "shadow," "archetype," "collective unconscious," "personality," "typology" and "individuation" are part of the modern mainstream now. But his greatest contribution may be found in his insistence on remembering and valuing the role of "psyche" (the Greek word for soul) in our cultural and personal lives at a time when most psychology and psychiatry fractionates humanity into behaviors, cognitions and psychopharmacological functions. Respect for soul affirms that we are, in our core, meaning-seeking creatures and that deflections of purpose or eroded connection to transcendent values will manifest in the world as personal or social pathology." James Hollis, from "Seeking meaning: Jung's biography thoroughly researched"
"Jung used active imagination and mandalas to reach the "unconscious". Modern technology uses electromagnetic and acoustical stimulation. The fields of "subliminal psychology" and "psychology of the unconscious" postulated by Carl Gustav Jung are the keys to understanding this synergy of brain and psyche. To summarise the brain phenomenology behind these novel technologies of light and sound, brain entrainment occurred by (because of) the auricular and occular pieces of the machine, and the effect was the alteration of the (levels of the ) neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine and beta endorphins by Alpha and Theta induced states." Leading Edge Research Group, from "Neurological Magnetic Fields and Altered States"
“The Nag Hammadi sources, discovered at the time of contemporary social crises concerning sexual roles, challenge us to reinterpret history – and to re-evaluate the present situation” (69). Elaine Pagels, from The Gnostic Gospels (1979)
“…many fine scholars are suggesting that the Christian story, loved by millions…has been imposed upon the Christian church by imperial and ecclesiastical authority. In other words, for almost two thousand years, Christians have been subjected to the mushroom treatment. If you want mushrooms to grow, you keep them in the dark and feed them rubbish” (xvii). Francis J. Moloney, from “Foreword” to Darrell L. Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
"Richard Hofstadter already observed in the 1960’s that "Anti-Catholicism has always been the pornography of the Puritan," a topic further commented on by Daniel Pipes in "Conspiracy" (1997). In time, these motifs came to be linked to themes of American nationalism. By the 1870s, with American nationalism in the ascendant, Catholics were suspect as the pawns of a foreign power whose interests were thought to diverge from those of the United States. Through the efforts of such nativist organizations as the American Protective Association, these fears peaked in the 1890s, a time of both rampant nationalism and (at least in the early part of the decade) severe economic dislocations." Eric P. Wijnants, from: "Conspiracy Theories in the 21th Century P.4"“Esoteric philosophy, which is also referred to as the perennial philosophy, identifies a number of different planes of existence – usually seven worlds or spheres – extending from the world of matter to the world of Spirit “(14). Fran Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)
“We have seen how the mystical universe has been variously interpreted by the Gnostics, Neoplatonists and Hermeticists as emanationist – successive levels of being, each emanation in turn from a Divine and transcendent source. Also, that the medieval alchemists and their later counterparts, the Freemasons and Rosicrucians, shared a common interest in spiritual rebirth and the idea of the archetypal perfected human. These elements all seem to be central to the ever-mutating but nevertheless essentially Gnostic idea that has evolved into the magical consciousness of the twentieth-century – becoming in our own time the individual transpersonal quest to incarnate the God and Goddess. High magic, or gnosis, is essentially about embodying deity – about becoming as gods and goddesses on the path of transcendence” (124-5). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
Questioning the Text
"1) Is the narrative literally true based on history, archaeology, and
science? 2) Are there internal inconsistencies, anachronisms, or other
internal clues which invalidate the narrative if it is to be considered
historical or to be taken literally? 3) Is the reasoning behind the
narrative and the ethical beliefs derived from it based on a world view that
is foreign to our own sense of ethics? 4) Is there a mythic meaning to the
narrative that is quite different from what a literal interpretation of the
narrative might imply? 5) What social or political stance do believers
derive from the biblical narrative, and how valid is their use of the Bible
to back up their personal and political positions?" (4-5) Tim Callahan, from
Secret Origins of the Bible (2002)
"In short, the Bible is yet a sealed book. The cloak of esoteric concealment thrown over the writing by ancient sagacity has proven too hard a nut for both medieval and modern acumen to crack in eighteen centuries of mulling over the sage literary relics." Alvin Boyd Kuhn , from MARY MAGDALENE and Her Seven Devils
In
Transformation J.G. Bennett outlines the following steps toward
“right learning:”
1. Ask yourself whether what you are told or read can be verified. If so
how? Verify before you accept.
2. If you have no means of verification, do not reject what you are told
without first asking yourself whether it really matters to you if it is true
or false.
3. If it really does matter, examine the source from which the knowledge comes and ask yourself if you are prepared to trust it until some means of verification turns up.
4. Never take anything you learn as final. Be prepared to look at it again.
5. Cross-checking is useful. It can give us confidence if we find that two bits of knowledge supplement and tend to confirm one another.
6. But remember that it is only possible to cross-check items expressed in the same language. We get terribly confused if we try to compare one teaching with another unless we are sure that we know what both of them are trying to tell us.
7. Practice impartiality. Do not let “like and dislike” influence your judgment.
8. Nevertheless, you must give full weight to your “instinctive”
reactions. They are often more penetrating than your thoughts.
9. Learning “what” and learning “how” are not the same and yet they can
never be separated. We do not really know something if we do not know how to
make use of the knowledge. Knowing how – leaning to go through the motions –
will not take us far unless we know what we are doing. In other words, the
distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge is only a matter of
convenience. The two must always be blended if they are to give positive
results.
10. Remember that all partial knowledge is precarious. Always try to see the whole to which an item of knowledge belongs. Even if you cannot succeed in seeing the whole, it is better to make the attempt than to remain with an isolated fragment.
11. Open your mind more and more.
12. Knowledge that is shared is better understood than knowledge which is
hoarded “(22-3).
J.G. Bennett, from Transformation (2003)
“The Da Vinci Code is not a mere work of fiction dressed in the clothes of quasi nonfiction. It reflects an effort to represent and, in some cases, rewrite history with a selective use of ancient evidence that it ironically claims was the failing of the old story. It reflects an effort to redefine one of the key cultural forces standing as the base of Western Civilization, the Christian faith” (149). Darrell L. Bock Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
Thought Contagion and Concepts of the Divine"Thought contagions are beliefs or ideas that "programme" for their own spreading--ultimately affecting whole societies. Because they strongly affect how people live, such ideas achieve self-propagation by inducing evangelism, manipulated receptivity, abundant child raising, dropout prevention, and competing belief suppression. Ideas harnessing these human functions most effectively win out over weaker variants. Evolving like life forms, through evolution by natural selection, thought contagions vie for ever stronger influence in human lives. The process influences the population dynamics of health, financial markets, sexuality, family, politics, religion, and mass conflict." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"Though thought contagions affect so many important phenomena, the evolutionary epidemiology of self-spreading ideas does not replace existing social sciences. Rather, thought contagions should be considered as part of the overall picture in mass conflict and other social phenomena." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"The term “thought contagion” is neutral with respect to truth or falsity, as well as good or bad. False beliefs can spread as thought contagions, but so too can true beliefs. Similarly, harmful ideas can spread as a thought contagions, but so too can beneficial ideas." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"... a 1976 book by Richard Dawkins called The Selfish Gene...was so popular that it became by far the main source from which scientists and lay readers learned about evolutionary cultural replicator theory. Unfortunately, it also led many to believe incorrectly that evolutionary cultural replicator theory was an outgrowth of sociobiology. This obscured important aspects of evolutionary cultural replicator theory. Evolutionary psychology does offer important insights into the psychology of violence and warfare. But evolutionary cultural replicator theory cannot be expressed entirely in terms of the actions and evolution of biological genes. An early lack of definition has also caused confusion over the word “meme” coined in analogy to the word “gene.” That led to profusion of widely conflicting definitions for the word “meme.” The situation has given some utility to using more self-explanatory terms such as “cultural replicator,” “idea,” “belief,” “behaviour,” “artifact,” “thought contagion,” and so forth in evolutionary cultural replicator theory." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"The process of self-propagation of ideas – the process of thought contagion – generally involves some form of imitation. Yet it frequently also involves inculcation behaviours. Ideas that often lead present adherents to engage in more inculcation behaviours can thereby out-propagate ideas that seldom cause inculcation behaviours." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
According to philosopher Ken Wilber evolution reveals "a spectrum of concepts of the divine".
7. Emptiness/Godhead Ultimate
6. God the Father Causal
5. The Great Goddess Subtle
4. The Hero Mental
3. The Great Mother Mythical
2. The Devil Magical
1. Uroboros Archaic
"In our era, however, God the Father is on the decline. In New Age circles many insist that the return of the Goddess is necessary to redress the balance following centuries of patriarchy...Rather than returning to God the Mother, or clinging to God the Father, we need to progress to God as Emptiness - a concept of the divine that mystics also refer to as the 'Godhead'. If the Goddess corresponds to the sphere of the body, and God the father to the sphere of the mind, the Godhead relates to the sphere of the Spirit, which can only be known in the silence of one's own internal world. As far as Wilbur is concerned, God the Mother and God the Father have both served their purpose for the modern individual. They are concepts that belong the childhood and adolescence of humanity" (103). Frank Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)
"According to Wilber's hypothesis each of these structures of consciousness generates its own distinct form of culture or religion. By the same token, all forms of cultural or religious expression can be traced back to the underlying frame of mind that led to the expression, given that the expression itself will show unmistakable signs of this particular frame of mind. And since the principle of development by means of transcendence and inclusion automatically implies that all of the earlier stages of development are still present within our modern Western consciousness, in the same way that the modern individual occasionally shows signs of magical behavior and mythical imagination in addition to rational thought and intuitive consciousness, we can also trace contemporary forms of culture and religion back to more fundamental phases of thinking" (109). Frank Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)
“For example, in the field of religion we can make a distinction between magical religion (ritualistic religion motivated by primitive impulses), mythical religion (with its focus on nature and a cyclic concept of time), mental religion (with its focus on the individual and a historical concept of time) and mystical religion (which is geared towards interiority with an emphasis on the present.) (109). Fran Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)
“The origins of
Gnostic mysticism remain a matter of debate, but there is a broad consensus
that Gnosticism as a historical movement parallels the rise of early Persian
dualism, while others believe that it developed in response to the failure
of Jewish apocalyptic expectations, and have dated its origins to around 70
CE – coinciding with the fall of the Jerusalem Temple. Others regard
Gnosticism as the result of early Christian devotees forsaking religious
faith for spiritual inner knowledge when the Messiah failed to return” (46).
Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"The whole struggle between Catholic and Gnostic Christians was thus about a realistic Jesus of the Catholics versus a metaphysical-idealistic Christ of the Gnostics, not a dispute about "historicity" in the modern sense. The Gnostic says that the Christ's essence is a perennial, spiritual one, whereas this world is woven of phantasm and error. The Catholic says that this world is divinely created; consequently, the Gnostic Christ is wholly separated from the world, the Catholic Christ is interwoven with it and participates with it in the flesh, and Catholic doctrine identifies the creator with the father of the Christ." Klaus Schilling on van den Bergh van Eysinga's "Does Jesus Live, or Has He Only Lived? A Study of the Doctrine of Historicity"
“In
Christian Gnosticism Christ emerged as a heavenly spiritual redeemer sent by
the unknown, supreme God to mediate the gnosis to men (or else to the
Pneumatics) and the Demiurge vainly endeavored to thwart his mission” (72).
Yuri Stoyanov, from The Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
“Christian Gnostic traditions elaborated different versions of Christ’s
mission but according to most of them Christ assumed only an appearance
(dokesis) of humanity and accordingly his Passion and Crucifixion were also
apparent. This Docetic Christology distinguished the heavenly Christ from
the earthly Jesus, while sometimes substitute figures like Symon of Cyrene
were introduced to replace Christ at the Crucifixion” (72). Yuri Stoyanov,
from The Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
"The study of Christian origins is a very large and controversial question ... but it is quite evident that the literalisation of these narratives (Gospels etc.) was due to the fact that those who ultimately obtained the ascendancy in the Church Councils, and were the framers of the Creeds which have been current for so many centuries, were not those who were instructed in the Gnosis. They were in fact miserably ignorant, not merely of that Gnosis, which lies at the heart of all the allegories, myths and fables in the Christian, as in other ancient and pre-Christian Scriptures, but also of geographical, astronomical and anthropological facts well known to other peoples for thousands of years prior to the Christian Era, and which – when known as they were to the initiated Church Fathers, who were, however, declared to be heretics by these same creed-makers – entirely alter the whole structure of the traditional Creeds" (84). William Kingsland, from The Gnosis in the Christian Scriptures (1993)
"Yet all the sources cited so far--secret gospels, revelations, mystical
teachings--are among those not included in the select list that constitutes
the New Testament collection. Every one of the secret texts which gnostic
groups revered was omitted from the canonical collection, and branded as
heretical by those who called themselves orthodox Christians. By the time
the process of sorting the various writings ended--probably as late as the
year 200--virtually all the feminine imagery for God had disappeared
from orthodox Christian tradition." Elaine Pagels, from The Gnostic
Gospels (1979)
"What is the reason for this total rejection? The gnostics themselves asked
this question of their orthodox opponents and pondered it among themselves.
Some concluded that the God of Israel himself initiated the polemics which
his followers carried out in his name. For, they argued, this creator was a
derivative, merely instrumental power whom the Mother had created to
administer the universe, but his own self-conception was far more grandiose.
They say that he believed that he had made everything by himself, but that,
in reality, he had created the world because Wisdom, his Mother, "infused
him with energy" and
implanted into him her own ideas. But he was foolish, and acted
unconsciously, unaware that the ideas he used came from her;
"he was even ignorant of his own Mother." Elaine Pagels, from The Gnostic
Gospels (1979)
"It's a revival of the old gnosticism," says Rev. David Reed, professor of theology at U of T's Wycliffe College. "We've turned inward to ourselves to find the god within. It's preferring individual spiritual truth to any kind of commitment to a God who speaks to us through texts, such as the Bible or the Qu'ran." In gnosticism, seekers yearn for a special truth that comes through secret knowledge that few have access to — in contrast with truths revealed through the Christian gospels, which are available to everyone." Leslie Scrivener, from "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" in Toronto Star Apr. 10, 2004
“…another teaching that these Albigensian circles regarded as esoteric and
again was taught in their ‘secret meetings’ claimed that Mary Magdalene was
in reality the wife of Christ and she was also recognized as the Samaritan
woman to whom he said, ‘Call thy husband’” (222) Yuri Stoyanov, from The
Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
“This Albigensian belief in Mary Magdalene as Christ’s wife is confirmed by
two additional Catholic tracts on the Cathar heresy, although in their
versions the Cathar attitudes to the ‘terrestrial’ Christ and Mary Magdalene
were modified by dualism applied to the gospel story itself“ (222). Yuri
Stoyanov, from The Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
“In these two exposés the precepts of absolute dualism were transposed on
the nature of Christ and there appeared two Christ figures – the celestial
and the terrestrial, the latter being an evil or pseudo-Christ” (222). Yuri
Stoyanov, from The Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
"The Christ of the Gnostics was a true ideal, possible to all men. But an
Historic Christ is a false ideal! Where is the sense of supposing a God
sliding down to earth on a ladder with no steps to it, and then asking us to
walk up minus the foothold? Also, it is in vain we set up an objective ideal
for outer worship of that which can only be a reality within the soul."
Gerald Massey, from THE
COMING RELIGION
"The god-man of the Gnostics was not a man-god, but the god or divine nature
in man, which represented the spiritual image of the Invisible God, the
formless in our human form; not in our human form of individual personality
as an historical Christ, or Horus, or Buddha. That was but the symbolical
presentment of the matter. The historical realisation was meant for all men
and women, not for one man Jesus, or one female Sophia. We do not want to be
beguiled, or to have our children deceived any longer with the most
beautiful biography of the man in the moon, who came down too soon, and
whose second coming has been looked for so vainly during 1800 years. We are
in search and in need of some truer illumination than moonshine. Gerald
Massey, from THE COMING
RELIGION
“That among those who gave the Christian faith its present form – and we are speaking not just of those active during Christ’s life, but of those who contributed in the several generations thereafter and who edited the sacred texts – there were powerful men who were, secretly, wholly devoted to the Old Religion, and its ways. They were what we today would call double agents. While outwardly helping to formulate a new religion which would break decisively with the past, they secretly ensured that the most potent symbols, rituals and concepts of the old tradition were firmly enshrined at the very heart of the new order” (192). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
“That those – all of them this time – who founded the Christian faith were not double agents at all. They were single agents, collectively devoted to the Virgin Moon (to the female principle), to the Goddess of Wisdom and her causes. But they saw the times were changing, had indeed already changed. The new moods, variously, of sun worship, the male principle, rationalism, scientific enquiry even, had gained considerable ground on all sides. The Old Ways were under considerable threat as never before. But those we are speaking of were determined to hand on the core of the old tradition (of the magical path) to future generations, in a form in which those who looked hard enough, who were knowing or Gnostic enough, would always still recognize for what it was. Accordingly, the founders of Christianity re-fashioned the Old Faith in a new format, shone upon it something of a more modern light. In this attempt they were very like marketing managers today – they looked for a new image, a new package, that would sell a product fast going out of fashion. The product itself was not basically changed – only the packaging, the inessentials” (192-3). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"There is an agenda here. It is the rejection of Christian faith as a historically unified set of core beliefs held over the centuries starting from the earliest period" (88). Darrell L. Bock, from Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
"Here we begin to discover the real secret and code behind The Da Vinci Code. It is nothing less than a conscious effort to obscure the uniqueness and vitality of the Christian faith and message" (95). Darrell L. Bock, from Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
“According to Jung, we are responsible for our own spiritual destinies. This is a profoundly Gnostic attitude – quite different from the spiritual message of most forms of Western institutional religion” (209). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"Conspiracy theorists are not kooks, they are a front line in the latest eruption of populism. In some ways, they invoke the carnivalesque, a festival which turns the political order upside-down." Brian Redman, from "Paranoia: It's So Much Fun"
"In breaking The Da Vinci Code we have discovered there is much more going on here than the creation of an entertaining novel - there is a revision of what Christianity was and is. It is virtual reality at work" (150). Darrell L. Bock, from Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
Myth and Practice
"Myth operates by bringing a sacred ... past to bear preemptively on the present and inferentially on the future ..." Jaan Puhvel, from Comparative Mythology (1987)
"Myth...is a serious object of study, because true myth is by definition deadly serious to its originating environment. In myth are expressed the thought patterns by which a group formulates self-cognition and self-realization, attains self-knowledge and self-confidence, explains its own source and being and that of its surroundings, and sometimes tries to chart its destinies. By myth man has lived, died and – all too often – killed" (2). Jaan Puhvel, from Comparative Mythology (1987)
"Mythology is a projection of a community's collective beliefs onto the scrim of the cosmos" (254). Leonard Shlain, from Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution (2003)
"Mythology begins with this vague and merely elemental phase of external phenomena, alternating in night and day. In a secondary stage, it was observed that the battle field of this never ending warfare of day and dark was focused and brought to a definite point in the orb of the moon, where the struggle betwixt the two personified powers of light and darkness went on and on for ever, each power having its triumph over the other in its turn,--these being depicted in one representation as the solar light and the serpent of darkness, in another by the lion and the unicorn. These phenomena of light and darkness were at first set forth by means of animals, reptiles, birds, and other primitive types of the elemental powers; and lastly the human type was adopted, and the cunning of the crocodile, or the jackal of darkness, is represented by the Egyptian Sut, the Norse Loki, the Greek Hermes, or the Jewish Jacob, the dark deceiver; and to-day, we find the Christian Evidence Society engaged in defending such characters as that of Jacob, in the full and perfect belief that Jacob was a human being, and one of God's chosen race. Whereas, he was no more a person than was Sut-Anup in Egypt, or Reynard the fox in Europe! The human form, like that of the earlier animal type, was only representative of some power manifested in natural phenomena. This mode of representation was known when these sacred stories were first told of mythical characters; it was afterwards continued and taught in the so-called "mysteries" by means of the Gnosis. When the art or Gnosis was lost to the world outside, the ancient histories were ignorantly supposed to be human in their origin; mythology was euhemerized (that is, the ideal was mistaken for the real), and Egyptian mythology was converted into Hebrew miracles and Christian history." Gerald Massey, from LUNIOLATRY: ANCIENT AND MODERN
"...mythology is especially useful for looking at the way a culture's myths
create a specific 'world view' (or 'cosmology'). In this respect the modern
Western world view is every bit as mythological as, say, the medieval one...
One way of thinking about myths is to regard them as ideology fleshed out in
'seductive' story form." Bob Trubshaw, from "foamy
custard's ingredients"
'Cosmology' is, confusingly, used by modern day astronomers and physicists
to describe their cosmogonic myths of the origins of the universe.
Mythologists use the words 'cosmogonies' and 'cosmogenesis' to refer to the
great diversity of myths about the origins of the cosmos (although beware of
'mythogenesis' as this is refers to the origins of myths rather than myths
about origins). For mythologists, cosmology is the study of the organisation
of the cosmos, not necessarily its origins. Cosmological myths can be
thought of as not so much the contents of consciousness as deep structures
that shape the contents of consciousness (Bennett 1980); although this has
absolutely nothing to do with Freudian or Jungian models of human
thinking." Bob Trubshaw, from "cosmologies
as 'deep structures'"
"...mythical thinking is a specific form of consciousness that relates not to the objective world or even to society but to the organizing principles of the human mind - that is, myth is an early stage of the self's experience of its own consciousness. Its substratum is feeling" (127). Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
"Myths operate at many different levels. They can be explanatory and account
for, for instance, the origins of the world, of the tribe, or of some
particular natural phenomenon. Sometimes they contain authentic historical
accounts. Often they serve to define humanity in relation to the natural
order and to the divine. At their best they provide a profound insight into
the human condition. They also express unconscious fantasies in such a way
as to render them acceptable to the ego as, famously, in Freud's reading of
the Oedipus myth. Myth differs from dream in that it exists both within and
as an expression of a particular cultural setting." Brendan McMahon, from "psychotherapy,
myth and meaning"
"All mythologies are more or less echoes of these early metaphysical
speculations, and whatever form they take - epic or plastic - they translate
the basic assumptions of a tradition into easily perceived images, that is
to say into a system of beliefs, memories, observations, and social
structures. It is certainly quite hard to disentangle what is ancient from
what is more recent in the mythological narratives that have come down to us
most often in literary form, which means they have been manufactured,
learned, codified, and possibly altered" (111). Jean Markale, from
Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars (2003)
"Mythologists tend to be dominated by an interest in religious myths, even though political myths are at least as prevalent as religious ones. Mythology can mean the study of specific mythic motifs (such as hero-figures, or the creation of the universe) and their distribution in the cultures of different times and places." Bob Trubshaw, from "foamy custard's ingredients"
"Repeated exposure to myths – or merely mythic motifs – rather than conscious learning is responsible for embedding myths into the structure of our consciousnesses. Such 'deep structures' manifest in the modern world not so much as fully-formed mythical narratives but rather as 'fragmentary references, indirect allusions, watchwords, slogans, visual symbols, echoes in literature, film, songs, public ceremonies, and other forms of everyday situations, often highly condensed and emotionally charged"(84). Christopher G Flood, from Political myth: A theoretical introduction (1996)
"Myths which face hostility...tend to sclerose and lose their analogic quality... The search for a one-dimensional, objectively verifiable truth necessarily both limits and falsifies experience. The more a belief system is based upon the notion of objective reality the more exclusive and distorted it tends to become, since any attempt to challenge it seems like a denial of reality; a blasphemy against the world as it really is." Brendan McMahon, from "psychotherapy, myth and meaning"
"...it is through myth that society makes and remakes itself…Yet at the same
time...mythology masks this truth, veiling its references to nature,
humanity, and society under a cloak of mystery" (126). Karen L. King,
What is Gnosticism (2003)
"The work of sociologists...clearly illustrates that thought is a kind of
practice, that the formulation of social ideology has a practical link to
social relations, economics, and politics. The evocation of a symbol, or
telling an old story a new way, can in and of itself produce a practical
social effect. In trying to interpret ancient texts, we do well not to
essentialize their contents but to ask what they are doing in practice, and
for whom" (13). Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
"...Freud held that myth is the key to an underlying reality; it belongs to
the earliest stages of psychic development, childhood. Myth is an expression
of the human subconscious, whether a veiled expression of repressed desires
or infantile wish-fulfillment.(127) Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism
(2003)
"Jung... gave myths a positive function in the communication of the
unconscious to the conscious, but for him, myths are not mystifications of
some other reality but archetypes of the collective unconscious necessary
for maintaining a healthy psychological balance" (127). Karen L. King,
What is Gnosticism (2003)
"The Jungian archetypes are psychic propensities...Unlike the archetypes of Platonism or of Christianity, they belong to the temporal order and have come into their present state by some historical or evolutionary process. Now if the cosmos is essentially a theophany, as Christian doctrine maintains, then the Jungian archetypes, too, must in a way reflect the eternal "ideas" which are said to reside in the Logos or Wisdom of God. Only we must not forget that the nature or quality of this reflection depends upon the factor of mental purity: and that is just where the problem lies. None but the "pure in heart" shall see God. But there is little reason to suppose that the unconscious in its present state, whether private or collective, conforms to exceptionally high standards of purity" (131). Wolfgang Smith, from Cosmos & Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
"... myths are difficult to analyse because they are intimately linked with our basic cognitive processes... Simon Danser, from "The Matrix as metamyth"
"...myths 'are like the lenses of a pair of glasses in the sense that they are not the things people see when they look at the world, they are the things they see with. Myths are the truths about society that are taken for granted.' (Bennett 1980: 167) Simon Danser, from "The Matrix as metamyth"
"...myth is an expression of some fundamental reality (society or human consciousness), and therefore worthy of interpretation. But...interpretation is understood as demystification, as the reduction of illusion" (127). Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
Religion: Feeling and/or Thinking about Prophet Motive, Bloodline, Purity
and Sexuality
"Religion, mysticism and magic all spring from the same basic 'feeling;'
about the universe: a sudden 'pick up' accidentally, as your radio might
pick up some unknown station" (xxxvi). Colin Wilson, from The Occult
(2003)
"Almost all religions with a historically specifiable point of origin are
initially founded by a single person. In this regard, new religions are much
like new businesses: new businesses are almost always the manifestation of
the vision and work of a single entrepreneur" (29). James R. Lewis, from
Legitimating New Religions (2003)
"Seems to me that religion---something so deeply touching the human mind,
often sentimentally imprinted on it at a very early age, its inculcation
never the fault of the child inheriting it---has to be treated very
carefully." Gary Leupp, from "The
Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels"
"Religio means a 'binding back' to the sacred...(76)" David Tacey,
from Jung and the New Age (2001)
Below is the Great Chain of Being:
"God
Spirit Beings
World
Humans
Beasts
Zoophytes (half plant, half animal
Plants
Metals
Stones
Suffice it to say, the Great Chain of Being links humans to nature, and
nature to the hand of God. When this idea is represented pictorially,
humankind is often placed in the center of the universe, and nature is
portrayed as a young woman wearing sun, moon, and stars. People are thus
connected to God and the heavens just as they are to the earth and its
creatures” (48). Dan Burton and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery and Science:
The Occult in Western Civilization (2004)
"What are religions? Religions are psychotherapeutic systems. What are we doing, we psychotherapists? We are trying to heal the suffering of the human mind, of the psyche or the human soul, and religions deal with the same problem. Therefore our Lord himself is a healer; he is a doctor; he heals the sick and deals with the troubles of the soul; and this is exactly what we call psychotherapy. It is not a play on words when I call religion a psychotherapeutic system. It is the most elaborate system, and there is great practical truth behind it. I have a clientel which is pretty large and extends over a number of continents, and where I live we are practically surrounded by Catholics; but during the last thirty years I have not had more than about six practising Catholics among my patients. The vast majority are Protestants and Jews" (181-182) C.G. Jung, from Analytical Psychology
"Sexual purity and virginity matter to Catholics a lot. In their churches, Roman Catholics tend to use candles made of beeswax. The traditional reason might have been that bees produce offspring without having sex" (22). John Portmann, from Sex and Heaven: Catholics in Bed and at Prayer (2003)
"There is a culture of sexual permissiveness in the priesthood. For a long time, pedophilia was accepted as another sexual preference. Church leaders thought it wasn't an abuse of power; they saw it as a psychological problem a few men had, which they would handle internally. They never looked. And they didn't think that that was harmful to children. In my research, it didn't surprise me how that kind of criminal thinking developed from the very beginning. Last week, someone forwarded me an article in which the archbishop of Mobile, Alabama, says that he did not know sexual activity with adolescents was illegal. This is just last week!" Karol Jackowski , from "Divine Intervention: A Nun Speaks Out on Sex Abuse in the Church"
"First of all, the Cathars and Parzival hold in common an obsession with purity" (135). Jean Markale, from The Grail: The Celtic Origins of the Sacred Icon (1999)
“According to Koranic commentator Al-Ash’ari (d. 935), “Each time we sleep with a houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the Elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each chosen will marry seventy houris besides the women he married on earth, and all will have appestising vaginas” Al-Ash’ari, as quoted on page 18 by John Portmann, in Sex and Heaven: Catholics in Bed and at Prayer (2003)
"In order to approach consciousness from an overtly physical perspective, let us travel back to the early twentieth century laboratory of Wilhelm Reich, psychoanalyst and natural scientist who introduced the term "body armor." Reich separated from Sigmund Freud and the stodgy analytic establishment when he saw how existing therapeutic methods, which allowed patients to intellectualize their emotions without feeling them, were not eliminating people's dysfunctions. Utilizing his knowledge of biology, botany, chemistry, anthropology, history, politics, and quantum physics, Reich gave us insights and techniques for reuniting the mind with the body that preceded the numerous bodyoriented therapies popular today. He discerned the life force (which he called "orgone") in a healthy person as free-flowing vertical streamings, confirming both the existence and direction of what the Hindus had perceived as kundalini." Nina Silver, from "The Cosmic Pulse of Wilhelm Reich Where Science, Sex and Spirit Meet"
“The common principle of sexuality and religion is the sensation of nature in one’s organism. When natural sexual expressions were repressed in the human animal during the development of patriarchy, this produced a severe, unbridgeable contradiction between sexuality as a sin and religion as a liberation from sin. In primitive religion, religion and sexuality were ONE: orgonotic plasma excitation. In patriarchy, orgonity becomes “sin” on the one hand and “God” on the other. The functionalist understands the identity of emotions in sexuality and religion, the origin of the estrangement and the dichotomy it created, the fear of sexuality among religious people, and the pornographic degeneracy among the excommunicated. The mechanist and the mystic are a product of this contradiction, remain trapped in it, and perpetuate it. The functionalist breaks through the barriers of this rigid contradiction by finding the common features in emotion, origin, and nature” (107). Wilhelm Reich, from Ether, God and Devil and Cosmic Superimposition (2000)
"In terms of socialization theory, the plausibility of any given symbolic universe is maintained by the ongoing process of conversation with co-inhabitants of a particular belief system" (179). James R. Lewis, from Legitimating New Religions (2003)
"According to Jung, religion serves a paradoxical role in the psychic
economy. Religion performs the double function of relating us to the divine,
yet also of protecting us from annihilation in the divine. Religion teaches
relationship without fusion or identification, and when the ego is tempted
to identify itself with the divine, religion warns that such grandiosity is
sinful and evil" (76). David Tacey, from Jung and the New Age (2001)
"Religion consists of an offering up of prayers, gifts and honour to
divine beings who operate quite independently of the human race and are
infinitely more powerful than it" (289). Ronald Hutton, The Pagan
Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1993)
"Religion can tell the difference between a God and a demon, a spirit and a
complex., because it understands this deeper reality in the same way that
science, for instance, understands the material world (76)." David Tacey,
from Jung and the New Age (2001)
"All real religion produces physical results. But the question of how to be
toward these results is the most easily lost element in a teaching. It is
the very first thing to go when a tradition begins to disperse. Both magic
and religion are necessary components of every complete teaching" (92).
Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery
(2003)
"Liberalism has meant the reduction of religion to the private sphere, or at
most to the realm of civil society" (94). Gianni Vattimo, from After
Christianity (2002)
"The rebirth of religion in our common culture must pose a problem for a
philosophy that is accustomed to considering the question of God irrelevant"
(87). Gianni Vattimo, from After Christianity (2002).
"One of the most deplorable aspects of the postmodern era and its so-called
'thought' is the return of the religious dimension in all its different
guises..." (1). Slavvoj Zizek, from The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the
Christian legacy worth fighting for (2000)
"...the sacred response of faith, which emanates from a higher level
than the ego in man, became confused with the ordinary reaction of belief,
only one of the numerous egoistic mechanisms within the mind that seem
designed solely for the purpose of making people feel they are in the right
and that everything is going to be all right" (35). Jacob Needleman, from
Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"The doctrine that only pure Israelites would share in the redemption brought about by the Messiah resulted in the belief that salvation itself depended on purity of blood" (121). Kevin MacDonald, from A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora Peoples (2002)
"The distinctive marks of early Christian thinking can be set down in a few
sentences. Christians reasoned from the history of Israel and of Jesus
Christ, from the experience of Christian worship, and from the Holy
Scriptures (and earlier interpretations of the Scriptures), that is to say,
from history, from ritual, and from text" (xvii). Robert Louis Wilken
from The Spirit of Early Christian Thought (2003)
"...Christianity perceives the cosmos as a theophany...For it affirms not
only that there is indeed a transcendent paradigmatic reality, but that God
himself is the supreme Archetype, of which the cosmos - and all that it
contains - is but a partial and imperfect likeness. All of Nature is "but a
glass" reflecting the Face of God" (58). Wolfgang Smith, from Cosmos &
Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
"With the disappearance of the Ptolemaic world-view Western man lost his
sense of verticality, his sense of transcendence. Or rather these finer
perceptions had now become confined to the purely religious sphere, which
thus became isolated and estranged from the rest of culture. So far as
cosmology - Weltanschauung in the literal sense - was concerned, European
civilization became de-Christianized" (142). Wolfgang Smith, from Cosmos
& Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
"The emotional nature of Christian faith, indeed, shows how intimately it
was related to the older faiths which had a phallic basis. In Christianity,
we see the final expression of the primitive worship of the father as the
head of the family, the generator, as the result of an instinctive reasoning
process leading up from the particular to the universal, with which,
however, the dogma of the "fall" and its consequences--deduced so strangely
from a phallic legend--have been incorporated. The "phallic" is, indeed, the
only foundation on which an emotional religion can be based." C. Staniland
Wake, from
Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity
"As
a religion of the emotions, therefore, the position of Christianity is
perfectly unassailable. As a system of rational faith, however, it is far
different; and the tendency of the present age is just the reverse of that
which took place among the Hebrews--the substitution of a Heavenly King for
a Divine Father. In fact, modern science is doing its best to effect for
primitive fetishism, or demon-worship, what Christianity has done for
phallic worship--generalize the powers of nature and make of God a Great
Unknowable Being, who, like the Elohim of the Mosaic cosmogony, in some
mysterious manner, causes all things to appear at a word. This cannot be,
however, the real religion of the future. If God is to be worshipped at all,
the Heavenly King and Divine Father must be combined in a single term; and
he must be viewed, not as the unknowable cause of being, but as the Great
Source of all being, who may be known in nature--the expression of his life
and energy." C. Staniland Wake, from
Influence of the
Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity
"While over 60% of the Americans claim to believe in the fundamental truths
of Christianity; the Virgin Birth, Physical Resurrection, and Divinity of
Jesus (Washington Times, Dec. 21, 2003), Dan Brown's blasphemous novel, The
Da Vinci Code with 4 million copies in print, is a runaway best seller. It
has been #1 on the New York Times list for months. The theme is simple. It
is about an alleged sexual relationship between Jesus of Nazarteth and Mary
Magdalen, the perfidy of the Catholic Church in covering up this
relationship, Sacred Sex and the Eternal Feminine. For the educated
Christian reader this sort of writing is simply ludicrous, but the book has
obviously struck a chord in the collective imagination of a large segment of
the population. Its appeal, in fact, does not, however, stop at our shores.
The Da Vinci Code has, to date, been translated into 35 languages. What is
the appeal of this book?" Hamilton Reed Armstrong, from "The
Da Vinci Code Decoded"
"No wonder the idea of dogma, which has become such a negative word for most
modern people, developed in the way it did. Mystery exists, the basic truths
of the teaching exist, but they are hidden from us. But then, how did dogma
become such an oppressive element for so many Christians? How did it change
from being a system of ideas to guide one's search for relationship with the
Higher into a rigid set of assertions that provoke the reaction of belief or
disbelief? (42-3) Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey of
Rediscovery (2003)
"The real division, the real choice, is not between "reason" and "faith."
The important distinction is between consciousness of one's own states and
the unconscious reactions of both thought and emotion" (37-8). Jacob
Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"But the fact remains that this assumes that man is able to reach God by his
own powers. Christianity must categorically deny this, for two reasons. The
first is the reality of original sin. This consists in a separation between
man and God, which man cannot abolish by himself...The second reason is that
the Christian God is absolutely inaccessible. He alone can, therefore,
introduce man to this participation in His nature which is supernatural life
is." Jean Danielou, from "The Transcendence of Christianity," Chapter 9 of
Introduction to the Great Religions (1964) as cited by Jacob
Needleman on page 50 of Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery
(2003)
"It is likely that humanity's perception of the dual nature of life and the
world began to be formulated once humans reached a point where they found
some freedom from their biological concerns (food, protection, and
procreation) and thus had time to reflect on their destiny. This inevitably
led to a speculation that could even be classified as metaphysical: The
perception of death attested to a necessary evil principle, from which
emerged the idea of struggle against this principle and an anxious
speculation as to what came after" (111). Jean Markale, from Montsegur
and the Mystery of the Cathars (2003)
"Like all the major religions of the world, Christianity is more than a set
of devotional practices and a moral code: it is also a way of thinking about
God, about human beings, about the world and history" (xiii). Robert Louis
Wilken from The Spirit of Early Christian Thought (2003)
"One becomes a full member of a community not simply by identifying with its
explicit symbolic tradition, but when one also assumes the spectral
dimension that sustains this tradition: the undead ghosts that haunt the
living, the secret history of traumatic fantasies transmitted 'between the
lines', through its lacks and distortions" (64). Slavvoj Zizek, from The
Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for
(2000)
"If you adhere to a certain religion, for instance, you may be discouraged from questioning certain things - or even forbidden to ask certain questions. Perhaps you cannot inquire into what God is, or you cannot inquire into Christ, or you cannot ask if Buddha's enlightenment had any limitations. This means that there is a boundary around your questioning; certain areas of inquiry are blocked. And that boundedness will limit the creativity and unfoldment that is possible. So true inquiry has to be absolutely iconoclastic. It must be able to inquire into, challenge, and question any belief, any position, any experience, any supposition, any knowledge, anything and anybody" (27). A.H. Almaas, from Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey (2002)
“It
is only when religion emphasizes its heart and soul and essence – namely,
direct mystical experience and transcendental consciousness, which is
disclosed not by the eye of flesh (give that to science) nor by the eye of
mind (give that to philosophy) but rather by the eye of contemplation – that
religion can both stand up to modernity and offer something for which
modernity has a desperate need: a genuine, verifiable, repeatable injunction
to bring forth the spiritual domain” (167) Ken Wilber, from Marriage of
Soul and Sense (1998)
"Religion in the modern and postmodern world will rest on its unique
strength – namely contemplation – or it will serve merely to support a
premodern, predifferentiated level of development in its own adherents: not
an engine for growth and transformation, but a regressive, antiliberal,
reactionary force of lesser engagements" (167). Ken Wilber, from Marriage
of Soul and Sense (1998)
Fact, History, Knowledge, Lie and Secret
"All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in
this novel are accurate." Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code (2003)
"It's also driven theologians mad and peeved art historians, because of the air of fact that's implied, though the book, by Dan Brown, is clearly fiction. Not to mention the claim, made by one of The Da Vinci Code's learned characters, "that almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false."The distorted theology, and what some claim is Catholic-bashing, has so alarmed some academic and religious writers that at least four more or less scholarly books refuting this work of fiction will be published in the next few weeks. "His ideas are as wild as you can get in religion these days," says James Beverley, professor at Toronto's Tyndale Seminary." Leslie Scrivener, from "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" in Toronto Star Apr. 10, 2004
"The lie plays a tremendous role in human life. The world is swallowed up in lies...Through the organising of these myths, lie runs the world, a watch-guard over human society. Ancient myths arose out of a collective subconscious creativity, and at their foundation was always some sort of reality. Contemporary myths are characteristically and consciously an organised lie. In them is no naivete. This may sound pessimistic, but it must needs be recognised, that lie is mortared into the foundation of the organisation of society." N. A. Berdyaev, from "The Paradox of the Lie"
"Almost everything people believe in as grown ups consists of lies they were told as children. Culture is nothing more than agreed upon lies." Christopher S. Hyatt, The Tree of Lies
"In practice of course most people are so absorbed within the 'structure' of reality that they acquired as children that they have no awareness that entirely different world views are possible. It is as if they live inside bubbles with 100 percent internal reflection. Others may be able to see into their bubbles but they cannot see out." Bob Trubshaw, from "cosmologies as 'deep structures'"
“In Reich’s implied philosophy of history, all the crimes of the patriarchal period of humankind (c. 4000 B.C.E. to the present) stemmed from the emotional plagues that had coursed through the communal psychic systems that shaped individual lives. Having lived through the human emotional plagues that spawned the two world wars, Reich saw that none of the major events of wartime could be blamed on the will of selected individuals acting rationally. Rather, those travails were products of leaders and followers who could not act rationally because they were trapped in an overwhelming disorder that had its roots in the unconscious and it shaping by the antisexual forces of patriarchy. By the same logic, such plague responses as racism, sexism, and xenophobia were all rooted in ancient patriarchal structures that abjected otherness in the same way that they denied the unconscious, even while in its grip” (174). Robert S. Corrington, from Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist (2003)
“One history passes by in full view and, strictly speaking, is the history of crime, for if there were no crime there would be no history, All the most important turning-points and stages of this history are marked by crimes: murders, acts of violence, robberies, wars, rebellions, massacres, tortures, executions…This is one history, the history which everybody knows, the history which is taught in schools. The other history is the history which is known to very few. For the majority it is not seen at all behind the history of crime. But what is created by this hidden history exists long afterwards, sometimes for many centuries, as does Notre Dame. The visible history, the history proceeding on the surface, the history of crime, attributes to itself what the hidden history has created. But actually the visible history is always deceived by what hidden history has created” (344-5). P.D. Ouspensky, from A New Model of the Universe (1967)
“We
can look back from this world-conception to ancient times when man’s picture
of the universe was very different. All that has remained of it or those
traditions which in the form in which they exist today – in astrology and
the like – are sheer dilettantism. That is what has remained of ancient
astronomy, and it has also remained, ossified and paralyzed, in the symbols
of certain secret societies, Masonic societies and the like. There is
usually entire ignorance of the fact that these things are relics of an
ancient astronomy. This ancient astronomy was quite different from that of
today, for it was based, not upon mathematical principles but upon ancient
clairvoyant vision” (40-5). Rudolph Steiner, from The Bridge Between
Universal Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of Man (1958)
"Mystical knowledge refers to the private, ineffable and non-verbal
communication (i.e., the vision quest); it always remains secret." Jerome H.
Neyrey, from "The
Sociology of Secrecy and the Fourth Gospel"
"Theological" knowledge is a kind of "deep knowledge that penetrates below
the surface," thus providing mythical frameworks of interpretation or
rationales for perception and action; novelist Tony Hillerman has gained
special access to this through informers." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The
Sociology of Secrecy and the Fourth Gospel"
"Liturgical" knowledge refers to the correct manner of conducting ceremonies
and rituals, i.e., dances and chants, or simply about "behavior" within the
group." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The
Sociology of Secrecy and the Fourth Gospel"
"Dogma" refers to a superficial form of knowledge about the group; it
involves a rote form of learning and represents the official "received"
views of the group..." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The
Sociology of Secrecy and the Fourth Gospel"
"Participatory" knowledge represents... a miscellaneous category for the
various pieces of information that low level performers and spectators have
(e.g., liturgical participation in a language foreign to those attending).
Certain people know more than others, because information is controlled so
that certain people know more than others. Those most "in the know" with
knowledge of the core myths and rituals rank highest. Those with specialized
knowledge of this or that item belong in the middle, while others who know
little or understand superficially are ranked lowest. This may be easily
verified by inquiring into the degrees of membership in various secret
societies, such as the Masons or the KKK." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The
Sociology of Secrecy and the Fourth Gospel"
“Thus, taking Christianity for a model, one might ask: What was the teaching of Jesus? Was it only what he said? Or does it not include what he did and suffered? But does the teaching stop even there? A critic may claim that Jesus failed because Christian life has become what it has become. But is not the distortion, the crucifixion of the teaching, also, in a larger sense, part of the teaching itself? And if man is to become a Christian, perhaps it is absolutely necessary that he witness the same process of distortion within himself. How else will he understand that it is in one’s one own thought and emotion that the “crucifixion,” the distortion of the truth, really takes place?” (13) Jacob Needleman, from A Sense of the Cosmos: Scientific Knowledge and Spiritual Truth (2003)
"Karl Popper’s system of falsificationism requires a theory to have enough of an empirical basis that it can be proven false, and any hypothesis that fails this test is not a valid possibility. This is a serious challenge to the mystical disciplines and one that points to the importance of demonstrated reliability and coherence in a theory for it to be distinguishable from a fantasy or a lie." from "Science, Mysticism, and Revolutions"
"The falsification test is valuable in cases where trickery is suspected, or in cases where it should be suspected. However, it is possible to argue that some beliefs classified as magical can be falsified. For example, it is commonly observed that various magical systems “work” best in the context of the culture from which they are derived, suggesting a psychological mechanism in magic that operates on the common values and fears of a particular culture. Therefore, a voodoo hex using an object representative of the intended victim (i.e., a doll or photo) can be quite harmful to a citizen of Africa who believes in its power and who can probably pick up on subtle suggestions from other people who know about the hex. The target of the hex will begin to experience increased vulnerability and will perhaps become ill. A citizen of Europe, however, is less likely to suffer if he is hexed, because the cultural system that favors the hexing process is not present in European surroundings. In Africa, then, the belief system of voodoo has an empirical basis in the effectiveness of hexes and perhaps therefore can be falsified." from "Science, Mysticism, and Revolutions"
"There has been...two secret traditions that have gone hand in hand. One is
the Bloodline, which goes back to the Nephilim. The other is the Tradition
-- the Authentic Tradition. The two have complemented one another, and
sometimes they have worked against each other, like when witches and
magicians were destroyed in countries where the Bloodline was alive. This
double Tradition is also implied in the dual fathers of Merovée, and the
questions concerning the fatherhood of Jesus. With the dual fatherhood of
Merovée we could say that on the one hand, a descent from the Houses of Troy
/ Arcadia / Phoenicia, on the other the Jewish intermarriage with the
Visigoths. This Jewish intermarriage could have included offspring of the
historical personage who has been given to posterity under the name of
Jesus. And it could include persons such as the Magdalene, a Benjaminite,
and a popular Saint in France. This would account for the Legend of the Two
Fathers. And the Yeshu of the Johannite Legend could have been an
Incarnation of Horus, as proclaimed by the Priests of Heliopolis." from "
THE
BRETHREN OF THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE
GIFT"
"In those distant and ancient times, covered up with dust and mold, Divine
Rule was the highest rule possible. This was usually facilitated by
Divinities mating with Humans to produce offspring. The Stuarts ruled by
Divine Right, being directly descended from the Celtic Royal House. The
Hohenstaufens also, and, of course, the Merovingians, lest we forget; and
the kings of the Ancient World all ruled by Divine Right. This is carried
back to Sumer, when Kingship was lowered from Heaven." from "
THE
BRETHREN OF THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE
GIFT"
"In Bloodline of the Holy Grail it was related that the modern style
of Christianity, which evolved from the Roman Church in the 4th century, was
actually a created hybrid - a religion based on themes from numerous others
including, of course, Judaism. Now it transpires that Judaism itself was no
less of a hybrid in the early days, being a composite of Egyptian, Canaanite
and Mesopotamian traditions, with the stories, hymns, prayers and rituals of
the various and sundry gods brought together and related to a newly
contrived One God concept." Laurence Gardner, from "Genesis
of the Grail Kings"
"What is particularly interesting is that, historically, this was not fully
contrived in the time of Abraham, nor even in the later time of Moses. It
did not happen until the 6th century BC, when tens of thousands of
Israelites were held captive by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Until that time,
the Hebrew and Israelite records referred to any number of gods and
goddesses by individual names, and under a general plural classification of
the Elohim." Laurence Gardner, from "Genesis
of the Grail Kings"
"When we are told by the Roman Catholic Egyptologist, Renouf, that "Neither Hebrews nor Greeks borrowed any of their ideas from Egypt," we can only think of such a dictum as an intentional blind, or as a result of putting up the glass to an eye that cannot see. It is simply impossible for the non-evolutionist, the bigotted Bibliolator, or the Müllerite, to interpret or to understand the mythology of Egypt. Its roots go deep, and its branches spread too far, for their range of thought." Gerald Massey , from LUNIOLATRY: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Grabbing the Occult
"Brown's approach seems to consist of grabbing large chunks of his stated sources and tossing them together in a salad of a story. From Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Brown lifts the concept of the Grail as a metaphor for a sacred lineage by arbitrarily breaking a medieval French term, Sangraal (Holy Grail), into sang (blood) and raal (royal). This holy blood, according to Brown, descended from Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene, to the Merovingian dynasty in Dark Ages France, surviving its fall to persist in several modern French families, including that of Pierre Plantard, a leader of the mysterious Priory of Sion. The Priory — an actual organization officially registered with the French government in 1956 — makes extraordinary claims of antiquity as the "real" power behind the Knights Templar. It most likely originated after World War II and was first brought to public notice in 1962. With the exception of filmmaker Jean Cocteau, its illustrious list of Grand Masters — which include Leonardo da Vinci, Issac Newton, and Victor Hugo — is not credible, although it's presented as true by Brown." Eric P. Wijnants, from "DaVinci Code Revealed: The Movie, P.1"
“For these reasons, we feel the occult is a vitally important subject. Scholars increasingly see it as a “third current,” no less important to the shaping of Western civilization that Greek rationalism and Judeo-Christianity” (2). Dan Burton and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (2004)
"Not all mysterious theories are science disguised as mysticism. True occultists are defined by their primary orientation toward non-falsifiable phenomena outside the realm of physical experience. During the Renaissance, unlike the contemporary period, mystics could also be respected as rational scientists to some degree. There was significant overlap of magic and science in hermetics, a framework for studying the universe which derived from the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus and was first translated in the fourteenth century as a document called the “Hermetica.” The Hermetica encouraged religious skepticism and independent evaluation of scripture, a perspective that is often in agreement with modern science. Although hermeticists tended to reject the scientific perspective in favor of mysticism, there are many themes within hermetics that concurred with the science of the sixteenth century, particularly the belief in harmony and mathematical patterns in the heavens." from "Science, Mysticism, and Revolutions"
"Astrology...was the language of occult philosophy" (73). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
"What is nowadays referred to as the Occult actually derives from Esoteric or Hermetic Philosophy, which in the Western European Tradition is based on the three symbolic languages of Qabalah, Astrology, and Tarot. While there is a great deal of speculation as to where the basic systems of Western Esotericism originated from, let it be suffice to say at this point that what is now known as the Occult also contains significant contributions from Greek, Celtic, Egyptian, Atlantean, Lemurian, and Extra-terrestrial sources." Frater R.S., from "The Occult"Magic and Emotion, Christ and Wisdom
“Magic is as old as humanity itself. From the earliest animist concepts of a
universe alive with potent spiritual forces to the emergence of Wicca and
contemporary Neopaganism, magic has helped invest the cosmos with sacred
meaning. For the practitioner, the magical arts provide a sense of power and
purpose in an essentially mysterious world” (6). Nevill Drury, from Magic
and Witchcraft (2003)
“Magic uses sacred and personal symbols to convey spiritual significance.
From a magical perspective, symbols provide a meaningful bridge between the
familiar world and the much less predictable world governed by gods, spirits
and unseen forces” (6). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft
(2003)
"Magic is simply the way the world looks when you only have images and symbols, not concepts, not rules, not formal operations, not vision" (276). Ken Wiber from Eye to Eye (1997)
"Without magic, Christianity turns man against nature, the creation of God,
and eventually against God himself" (92). Jacob Needleman, from Lost
Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"Without, religion, however, magic by itself draws man fatally under the
thrall of influences which pervade the earth and for which human emotional
forces are nothing more than fuel" (92). Jacob Needleman, from Lost
Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"Reich indicates "emotion" means "moving out." ... [T]ake the word "emotion" literally in speaking of sensations and movements. Microscopic observation of amebae [sic] subjected to slight electric stimuli renders the naming of the term "emotion" in an unmistakable manner. ' Basically, emotion is an expressive plasmatic motion. Pleasurable stimuli cause an "emotion" of the protoplasm from the center towards the periphery. Conversely, unpleasurable stimuli cause an "emotion" -- or rather, "remotion" -- from the periphery to the center of the organism. These two basic directions of biophysical plasma current correspond to the two basic affects of the psychic apparatus, pleasure and anxiety" (146). Wilhelm Reich, Selected Writings (1961).
"Christianity does not work with either mechanical or psychic energy, but
with a different level of force to which the name of "spirit" or "spiritual
energy" is given" (93). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A
Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"It is when humans can say, "Not I, but Christ in me," that the world can be
touched by sacred magic, and God's will can be united with human will to
bring about healing restoration and redemption." Joan M. Aldrich, on "Sophia's
Astrology of the Soul"
"Pre-Christian religions remain at the level of 'wisdom'; they emphasize the
insufficiency of every temporal finite object, and preach either moderation
in pleasures (one should avoid excessive attachment to finite objects, since
pleasure is transitory) or the withdrawal from temporal reality in favor of
the True Divine Object which alone can provide Infinite Bliss" (96). Slavvoj
Zizek, from The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian legacy worth
fighting for (2000)
"Christianity, on the contrary, offers Christ as a mortal-temporal
individual, and insists that belief in the temporal Event of
Incarnation is the only path to eternal truth and salvation. In this
precise sense, Christianity is a 'religion of Love': in love, one singles
out, focuses on, a finite temporal object which 'means more than anything
else' (96). Slavvoj Zizek, from The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the
Christian legacy worth fighting for (2000)
"There are many gradations of energy within the band of transition between
the mechanical and the psychic. But the main point is that the world of life
is to a great extent created and maintained through the expression of
emotional energy" (93). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A
Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"The control and manipulation of emotional energy is the secret of all
magic, for good or evil" (93). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity:
A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
Initiation and Planets; Mysteries and Math
"Initiation leads to the stream that, once entered, sweeps a man onward until it carries him to the feet of the Lord of the World…"(14) Alice A. Bailey, from Initiation, Human and Solar
“This ancient star-wisdom was in no way akin to the arithmetical astrology sometimes considered valuable today, of it was a wisdom voiced by the initiates in such a way that impulses for individual action and conduct went forth from the Mysteries” (7-9). Rudolph Steiner, from The Influence of Lucifer and Ahriman (1954)
"These ancient mysteries were originally given to humanity by the Hierarchy, and were-in their turn-received by the Hierarchy from the Great White Lodge on Sirius. They contain the clue to the evolutionary process, hidden in number and words....They veil the secret of man's origin and destiny"(330). Alice Bailey, from The Rays and the Initiation (1955)
“The movements of the planets were carefully monitored by priests and astrologers throughout the ancient world because it was felt that they controlled human fate” (60). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
"C.F. Dupuis, pantheist and multitalented scholar of late 18th century,
studied the origin of religion in general from astral mythology... God is
seen as the cosmos itself. Religions vested natural observances, especially
astronomical ones, in allegories and myth, building clergy and superstition
on top." Klaus Schilling on Arthur Drews,
The Denial
of the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present"
"The male-female polarity plays a great role in Dupuis' theories. The
sky/heaven took the father role, the earth a mother role. Another polarity
is that of darkness and light, which naturally translated to ethical
dimensions. This is now applied to Christianity. In autumn, when light
retires and darkness starts to prevail, the constellation of the serpent
rises with the sun. The paradisic times of summer ends, and the hard times
of winter are approaching. In spring, the constellation of the sheep rises
with the sun. This gives the paradise fall of Genesis and the resurrection
of the lamb as the cornerstones of Christian religion, fall into sin and
redemption. Due to precision, the above astronomical context is no longer
valid. Dupuis also explained many more Christian aspects from astral
mythology. As all the biography of Jesus from the Gospels is written in the
sky, it's obsolete to even think about a historical man. All ancient
testimonies are just secondary hearsay based on Gospel legend and thus
historically pointless." Klaus Schilling on Arthur Drews,
The Denial
of the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present"
“The individual had derived from each (planetary sphere) a specific
temporal-spatial quality, which on the one hand contributed to his
character, but on the other was a limitation. Hence, the seven stages of
initiation were to facilitate passages of the spirit, one by one, beyond the
seven limitations, culminating in a realization of the unqualified
state”(255). Joseph Campbell, from The Masks of God- Occidental Mythology
(1974)
“The seven sacraments can be seen as a sort of ladder and once more correspond with the planetary spheres. Thus we have Baptism (the Moon); Penance, (Mercury); Marriage (Venus); Communion, (Sun); Confirmation, (Mars); Holy Orders, (Jupiter); and Last Rites, (Saturn)” (61). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
“What is Christianity? It is void of form. It never becomes a fable. It does not give its appearance as a phantom. Christianity is living the Christ principle, the wise man in the manger of consciousness in action and it meets you through every house of the Zodiac and through every experience” (89). Frater Achad, from Melchizedek Truth Principles (1988)
"The mathematical zodiac, or celestial mapping grid, as invented under Nebuchadnezzar (or shortly before his reign), quickly diffused to nearby cultures, and in the process inspired many to amend certain traditions, i.e., the Greeks reworked the myths of Heracles and Jason, and the Hebrews infused their sacred writings with numerical suggestions they too knew the newly-created twelve ‘signs’ of the zodiac. As the zodiacal cult of Mithras grew and spread in Roman times, the zodiacal narrative was combined with the life and teachings of Jesus, empowering the new religion of Christianity to take its place alongside of its competitors, as it too reflected the knowledge (read: mastery) of the Heavens through the understanding of its workings." Richard D. Flavin from, "The Zodiacs: Maps of Heaven and History"
“Moreover God, as Shepherd and King, leads [and rules] with law and justice the nature of the heaven, the periods of sun and moon, and the changes and progressions of the other stars – deputing [for the task] His own right Reason (Logos), His First-born Son, to take charge of the sacred flock, as though he were the Great King’s viceroy.” Philo on “Heavenly Man” as quoted on page 157 by G.R.S. Mead in Thrice Greatest Hermes (1964)
"The theology of Philo is a blending of Platonism and Judaism. The Jewish
doctrine shows God as intimately concerned with the world; the Platonic,
though insisting upon the divine governance and divine formation of the
world, does not hold that the relation which God has to the world‑is
necessary or automatic. The Middle Platonism recognized a hierarchy of
divine beings, insisted upon the transcendence of God, and regarded the
visible world as being governed and made by lower intermediary divine
powers. Philo had to reconcile these two conceptions. C.A Qadir, from "Alexandrio
Syriac Thought"
"Philo believed in one God, eternal, unchanging, passionless, far removed
above the world of phenomena as the First Cause of all that exists.
Causation, however, implies change and so God could not be regarded as
directly creating the universe. Intermediary powers are, therefore, needed
to explain the governance and formation of the world and what it contains.
These powers Philo described very confusedly. Sometimes he talked of powers,
sometimes of two powers, sometimes of one." C.A Qadir, from "Alexandrio
Syriac Thought"
"The problem before Philo was that of the development of multiplicity from
absolute unity. The solution was sought in the inability of the
contemplating mind to reproduce the absolute unity in itself. Philo gives an
account of the "multiple" apparition of God to human intellect in the De
Migratione Abrahuami.When the soul is illumined by God, it sees Him triple,
one with a double shadow; but at the highest point, the shadow vanishes and
God is seen as One. In the Quaestiones in Genesim, Philo says that the mind
"sees God triple" due to the weakness of its vision. "Just as the bodily eye
sees a double appearance from one light, so the eye of the soul, since it
cannot apprehend the one as one, makes a triple perception, according to the
appearance of the chief serving powers which stand beside the One." C.A
Qadir, from "Alexandrio
Syriac Thought"
"Certain numerological conceptions of the Neo‑Pythagoreans appear grotesque to the modern mind It was held by them that the movements of the heavenly bodies were harmoniously adjusted by number‑an idea of Egyptian origin‑and so certain numbers were regarded as having a sacred character, particularly number 10 which represents the sum of a pyramid of four stages, 4‑3‑2‑1=10. In such conceptions, their imagination ran riot to such an extent that one can gain the impression that Neo‑Pythagoreanism is nothing more than astrology, occultism, and twaddle about the mysterious properties of numbers."
C.A Qadir, from "Alexandrio Syriac Thought"
“The period around Christmas also had a symbolic meaning. At this time of the year the sun is in its most southerly position of the sky. Around this time Orion rises just before sunset to be followed by Sirius after the sun has gone down. In other words, Orion, the constellation associated with John the Baptist, is not seen until the star which is in Egypt symbolized Isis, and in Christian times the Virgin Mary, appears above the horizon. These two travel through the sky together visible throughout the night, but the sun passes behind the earth. Out of sight, it symbolically enters the ‘waters of the abyss’, passing through the deepest levels at midnight. This in the Koreion of Alexandria, was the rebirth of the Logos and the idea seems to have been associated in Christian minds with the idea of Christ being baptized in the Jordan. The symbolism is certainly apt. John (Orion) stands visible in the night sky as the side of the ‘Jordon’ (Milky Way), whilst the Logos or Christ, symbolized by the sun, is immersed in the waters of the deep” (215-6). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
"The Candidate has now become more than an individual man, because he is aunit in a tremendous force. On every planet the Solar Logos has His Representative acting as His Viceroy. On our globe the title given to this great Official is the Lord of the World" (120). C.W. Leadbetter, from The Masters and the Path
“When the pupils of these Mysteries pronounced Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in their respective languages, they were referring
to a sequence of spiritual beings. Today, these words refer to the coarsest
physical substance of the planets, and the most important aspect is thereby
omitted" (9-10). Rudolph Steiner, from The Spiritual Hierarchies and
Their Reflection in the Physical World (1970)
"Once again the ideas of number and harmony began to exert their perennial
power to enthrall. We know that Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) came under
the direct influence of this school while he was a student at Bologna, and
certainly the subsequent triumph of his astronomical theory could only
serve, in turn, to strengthen the already growing enthusiasm for the
mathematical sciences" (26). Wolfgang Smith, from Cosmos & Transcendence:
Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
"The zodiac was designed to function as a "grid-map" to establish a means to
position the sun, moon, and planets with mathematical precision. This
invention was possible because of millennia of constellation traditions and
observations. Clear correspondence must be allowed between many ancient
myth-cycles and the wondrous movements of the stars--such has always been
known, but sometimes overlooked. Later, the zodiac influenced much, and
apparently without any supporting belief in the supernatural claims of
astrology, the zodiac became more than a "grid-map." Richard D. Flavin
from, "The Zodiacs: Maps of
Heaven and History"
"Most are familiar with references to the Magi and the Star of Bethlehem,
Virgil’s "virgin," the early Christian equation of Jesus with the sigil of
Pisces the Fish, and the tradition of "The Twelve." I believe these
elements, and others too numerous to include at this time ("numerous," as in
I believe all usage of 'number' in scripture is symbolic), were associated
with the Jesus Narrative to help suggest such a "progressive narrative"
alignment as I propose between Jesus and the zodiac." Richard D. Flavin
from, "The Zodiacs: Maps of
Heaven and History"
"Several previous suggestions are described in Richard Allen's classic Star
Names and Their Meanings: "In England the Venerable Bede, 673-735,
substituted the eleven apostles for eleven of the early signs, as the Corona
seu Circulus sanctorum Apostolorum, John the Baptist fitly taking the place
of Aquarius to complete the circle. Sir William Drummond in the 17th
century, turned its constellations into a dozen Bible patriarchs; the
Reverend G. Townsend made of them the twelve Caesars; and there have been
other fanciful changes of this same character. Indeed, the Tree of Life in
the Apocalypse has been thought a type of zodiac, as 'bearing twelve manner
of fruits, yielding its fruit every month.'" Richard D. Flavin from, "The
Zodiacs: Maps of Heaven and History"
"A dust-jacket description from Hamlet's Mill sums up the matter neatly,
"The authors say... ‘Mythology is the work of science; science alone will
explain it.’"" Richard D. Flavin from, "The
Zodiacs: Maps of Heaven and History"
"These two different systems of surplus management were brought into being
by two different types of power. The first type was to remain external and
remote; its remoteness, or not-of-this-worldness, was heavily underlined by
the sacralisation of the royal reign, which ceremoniously reproduced the
immutability of the eternal order of supremacy. This supremancy boiled down
in practice to the upward flow of agricultural surplus." Zygmint Bauman,
from "Ideology and the Weltanschauung of the Intellectuals"
Moon Memes, Magic Anatomy and the Imitation of the Gods
"Man lives and evolves by 'eating' significance, as a child eats food. The
deeper his sense of wonder, the wider his curiosity, the stronger his
vitality becomes, and the more powerful his grip on his own existence"
(xxvi). Colin Wilson, from The Occult (2003)
"When you imitate someone else, something is passed on. This "something" can
then be passed on again, and again, and so take on a life of its own. We
might call this thing an idea, an instruction, a behaviour, a piece of
information ... but if we are going to study it we shall need to give it a
name. Fortunately there is a name. It is the "meme". Susan Blackmore, from:
The Meme Machine
"Memes are insubstantial entities which pervade our human world, harboring
and thriving in our brains and books. Like viruses, they go from center to
center, replicating themselves. Most of the times, the replication is rough
rather than exact. But every thought and idea that props up in your brain
(mind) may not be a meme, though a good many of them are, as are also
conventions, traditions, rules, crafts, and the like. Moreover, since there
are millions of memes floating around to find a place, no human brain is,
indeed can never be, without any thought.... To empty the mind of all
thoughts would be like ridding the home of all dust particles: just not
possible. Memetic crowding is a better imagery than simply saying that
thoughts are concomitant with blood streams in the brain. “Susan Blackmore,
from:
The Meme Machine
"As
the material portion of man's constitution had its origin on and from the
moon, the mothers were almost always likewise linked with the moon, and
called lunar goddesses. So we find The Secret Doctrine (Vol. 1, p. 400)
saying: "All the lunar goddesses had a dual aspect,--the one divine, the
other infernal. All were the virgin mothers of an immaculately born Son --
the Sun." Alvin Boyd Kuhn, from "MARY
MAGDALENE and Her Seven Devils"
"Now the moon, in the Hebrew Kabala, is the Argha, or ark, or womb, in which
is hatched the egg or seed of all material life. And when we find the
ancient wisdom expressly telling us that the "- hovah" portion of Jehovah is
identical with Binah, Eve and the other lunar goddesses, we are assured that
the creative powers are spirit and matter linked together in wedlock. The
Secret Doctrine states that Jehovah and the Assyrian Anu are "both viewed
from a dual aspect; male or spiritual, female or material, or spirit and
matter, the two antagonistic principles." And if there is any question as to
water sharing the symbolism of matter, The Secret Doctrine settles it
categorically: "The Flames or 'Fires' represent spirit or the male element,
and 'Water,' matter, or the opposing element." And again: "Water is the
symbol of the female element everywhere; matter, from which the letter M is
derived . . . a water hieroglyph. It is the universal matrix or 'the Great
Deep.' Venus, the great Mother-Virgin, issues forth from the sea-wave, and
Cupid or Eros is her Son." All life is born in and from water. In the Orphic
cosmogony of Greece the maiden Kore gave birth to an aeon." Alvin Boyd Kuhn,
from "MARY MAGDALENE and Her
Seven Devils"
“... all ‘Neanderthal’ and moon ceremony always points to orgiastic practice...Briefly here, for Neanderthal sex is religion and religion is sex. We need only look at ‘satanism’ today. (165-6) ). Stan Gooch, Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
“…for all Semitic/Hamitic peoples the moon was originally the supreme deity.
Many of the moon elements have today been purged from Judaism and
Mohammedanism – menstruation, but much else besides” (139). Stan Gooch,
Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"The name “Chaldean’ means ‘moon worshippers’ and the ancient town of Ur
(whence Abraham) was named after their moon god. Prior to Mohammed ‘the sole
divinities of the Arabs were the male and female forms of the moon, where
popular local tradition relates that Abraham bought Mecca from the old woman
of the moon. The black stone of Mecca is still the most sacred object in
Islam – but this (as we might judge from its colour) is originally the altar
and symbol of the Moon Goddess” (139). Stan Gooch, Cities of Dreams:
When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
“In ancient Babylon also, the national religion was moon worship. Ishtar,
the Babylonian Moon goddess, was horned, and indeed a cow. The portrayal of
the moon goddess as a cow, and her horned husband (Tammuz in this case) as a
bull, is in fact universal in the geographical areas in question” (139) Stan
Gooch, Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
“…Earth is in fact the Moon’s daughter…just as Mary made God/Jesus, so Isis,
Ishtar, Demeter and Artemis have made the world….The so-called Black
Madonnas or ‘Black Virgins’…are found in medieval Monserrat and Einsiedelu,
where they still call Mary ‘the Moon of the Church’” (164). Stan Gooch,
Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
“The Virgin Mary, however, is certainly the Virgin Moon. Tales of
virgin…goddesses giving birth to…gods are in no way uncommon in world
mythology” (172). Stan Gooch, Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the
Earth (1995)
"The fish as the symbol of the early Christians and the eating of fish on
Fridays among both Catholics and Jews, are again ancient moon signals. And
of course the sabbath itself is, in origin, the festival of the menstruating
moon goddess" (194).
Stan Gooch, Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"Why, the very date of the great Easter Festival of Christ's resurrection is, to this day, determined by the moon" (193).Stan Gooch, Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"The whole universe is the great world, the macrocosm; its parts are small
universes in themselves, microcosms. Such a microcosm is man, who is
in himself an image of the universe and a perfect being. But the great
universe is likewise a man, and as it is 'God,' God has human form. 'In
his own image,' therefore, was man created. This was still the belief of
the mediaeval medicine, which we know have to have had (chiefly for the
purpose of bleeding) a method of dividing up the human body according to the
twelve signs of the zodiac (head, ram; neck, bull; arms, twins; and so on).
On this the 'scientific' treatment of a patient was based..." Hugo Winckler
as quoted by Otto Rank on page 115 in Art and Artist: Creative Urge and
Personality Development (1989)
"This relating of microcosmic and macrocosmic positions forms the basis
of...the "magic anatomy" intended for practical purposes and for augury"
(117). Otto Rank, from Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality
Development (1989)
"...this tendency to symbolize one's own body is by no means peculiar to the
dream, but belongs to the activity of the imagination generally...Thus this
subjective "explanation" of mythical phenomena by psycho-biological
happenings leads us out again to the very problem that it was fetched in to
solve: namely, to that of the particular nature of that type of human
thought and imagination which, in contrast to our logical process of though,
is called "unconscious" by Freud, "autistic" by Bleuler, "symbolic" by Jung,
"prelogical" by Levy-Bruhl, and "mythical" by Cassierer. All these names,
variously as they may be interpreted, are at bottom only modes of
emphasizing, as against the older views, the fact that this "primitive"
thought of ours - so opposed to our logical and scientific scheme of
connecting and concluding - is not purely arbitrary, but obeys "a law of its
own peculiar sort and cast"" (119-20) Otto Rank, from Art and Artist:
Creative Urge and Personality Development (1989)
"In any case, since the appearance of Durkheim's great work we have no
excuse for regarding totemism of the primitives as a mere principle of the
social structure, but must see in a universal principle of world-partition"
(121). Otto Rank, from Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality
Development (1989)
"The two polaritys of the Abrahamic seed are:
1)-The ''M'' letter in IsMaeL name (Ismael of Hagar of the Egyptian
lineage). Representing the Eastern geophysical polarity in relation to Lunar
astrophysical correspondancys.
2)-The ''R'' letter in IsRaeL name (Sarah of the Summerian lineage).
Representing the Western geophysical polarity in relation to Solar
astrophysical correspondancys." from: "The
Two different polarties streams of the Abrahamic seed"
"And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth(1) of God, was
produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was
crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound
nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons
of Jupiter. For you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribed to
Jupiter: Mercury, the interpreting word and teacher of all; AEsculapius,
who, though he was a great physician, was struck by a thunderbolt, and so
ascended to heaven; and Bacchus too, after he had been torn limb from limb;
and Hercules, when he had committed himself to the flames to escape his
toils; and the sons of Leda, and Dioscuri; and Perseus, son of Danae; and
Bellerophon, who, though sprung from mortals, rose to heaven on the horse
Pegasus. For what shall I say of Ariadne, and those who, like her, have been
declared to be set among the stars? And what of the emperors who die among
yourselves, whom you deem worthy of deification, and in whose behalf you
produce some one who swears he has seen the burning Caesar rise to heaven
from the funeral pyre? And what kind of deeds are recorded of each of these
reputed sons of Jupiter, it is needless to tell to those who already know.
This only shall be said, that they are written for the advantage and
encouragement(2) of youthful scholars; for all reckon it an honourable thing
to imitate the gods." Justin Martyr, from "The
First Apology of Justin"
"It should also be noted that Rome’s official religion was not sun worship.
"Rome's official religion" states Dr. Margaret Mitchell, Associate Professor
of New Testament and Early Christian Literature in the Divinity School at
the University of Chicago, "was the cult of Roma-the goddess-and of her
deified emperors, and the Capitoline trio Jupiter, Juno and Minerva." Carl
E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, from "Cracking
the Anti-Catholic Code (Part II)"
"In The Da Vinci Code, the historian Teabing states that Constantine "was a
lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed, too weak to protest." He
claims the official religion of Constantine’s time was "sun worship-the cult
of Sol Invictus, or the Invincible Sun-and Constantine was its head priest."
He adds that in 325, Constantine "decided to unify Rome under a single
religion. Christianity." (p. 232) This is a mixture of truth and error,
most of it again drawn from Holy Blood Holy Grail (see pages 365-8),
although that book’s account is more accurate than what is found in Brown’s
novel. The existing evidence indicates that Constantine did become a sincere
and believing Christian and sought to renounce his former worship of pagan
gods. Yet it is also evident that he did struggle with reconciling his
attachment to the Sol Invictus cult and his belief in the God of the
Christians. Part of this was due to his position as emperor, the fact that
the majority of the population was pagan, and likely his own inner decision
to be a ruler before being a Christian." Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel,
from "Cracking
the Anti-Catholic Code (Part II)"
"The rich syncretism that was typical of the Hellenistic world had become a
thing of the past. Christianity triumphed over the Gnostic sects -
Valentinians, Marcionites, and others - which were bastions of paganism.
These repressive episodes in the evolution of Western thought effectively
closed the door on communication with the Gaian mind. Hierarchically imposed
religion and, later, hierarchically dispensed scientific knowledge were
substituted for any sort of direct experience of the mind behind nature"
(424). Terence McKenna from "A Brief History of Psychedelics" in
Shamanism: a reader edited by Graham Harvey
Catholicism, Hellenism and Anti-Semitism
"Astrology at first brought, in its own manner, the idea of cosmic law... The planetary gods, with their supposed malign influence over human destiny, later became dreaded tyrants. Their dominance was to be overcome by magic or by prayers to a higher god. Thus the conflict of the Christians is said to be "not against flesh and blood, but against the princedoms, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spirits of evil in the celestial spaces" (Eph. Vl. 12)." Thomas Whittaker on "PROF. G. A. VAN DEN BERGH VAN EYSINGA"
"For the anti-Jewish gnosis the God of the Jews was the God of necessity. When Christianity is set against the oppressiveness of the Jewish law, the thought is Hellenistic. Yet there were curious intermediate types that led the way to the "catholicised" gnosis; such as the "Jewish-heathen" sect of the worshippers of Sabazius - the Lord of Sabaoth of the Septuagint combined with the Phrygian-Thracian Dionysus. Many representations in the catacombs that have been taken for Christian belong to these intermediate types. The coming in of specifically Christian imagery dates from the end of the second to the beginning of the third century. Motives of the Dionysus-cult made their way into Christianity through eclectic Alexandrian Judaism." Thomas Whittaker on "PROF. G. A. VAN DEN BERGH VAN EYSINGA"
"The uppermost idea with Hellenism is to see things as they really are; the
uppermost idea with Hebraism is conduct and obedience. Nothing can do away
with this ineffaceable difference...the bent of Hellenism is to follow, with
flexible activity, the whole play of the universal order, to be apprehensive
of missing any part of it, or sacrificing one part to another....An
unclouded clearness of mind, an unimpeded play of thought, is what this best
drives at. The governing idea of Hellenism is spontaneity of consciousness;
that of Hebraism, strictness of conscience. Christianity changed nothing in
this essential bent of Hebraism
to set doing above knowing." Matthew Arnold from
Culture and Anarchy, 1869, chap.1V
“Nevertheless, it is worth considering the possibility that anti-Semitism
played a prominent role in the development of hegemonic, corporate
Catholicism in the late Roman Empire….With the advent of the Christian
Church…anti-Semitism became based on a powerful, emotionally compelling
ideology and was institutionalized in an organization that aspired to and
often possessed a great deal of political power. I propose that the
Christian church in late antiquity was in its very essence the embodiment of
a powerful anti-Semitic movement that arose because of gentile concern with
resource and reproductive competition with Jews” (112). Kevin MacDonald,
from Separation and its Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of
Anti-Semitism (2004)
“The adversos Judeaos tradition represents the overall method of Christian
exegesis of the Old Testament…It was virtually impossible for the Christian
preacher or exegete to teach scripturally at all without alluding to the
anti-Judaic theses. Christian scriptural teaching and preaching per se is
based on a method in which anti-Judaic polemic exists as the left hand of
its Christological hermeneutic’ (121). R.R. Ruether, from Faith and
Fratricide: The Theological Roots of Anti-Semitism (1974)
“It must be emphasized how extremely hostile toward Jews the 4th-century
Christian polemicists were. The most intense anti-Semite of this period was
St. John Chrysostom (b. 349), whose writing and orations “are presented with
such violence and at times such a coarseness of language as to be without
parallel” (Simon 1986, 217)… While the great majority of Chrysostom’s
comments derive Jewish evil from Christian theology, he also describes Jews
as numerous and wealthy, and he complains about the wealth of the Jewish of
the Jewish Patriarch (Contra Jud. et gent. 16: 48. 834-5). He states that
the patriarchs are not priests fulfilling a purely religious function, but
rather they are shopkeepers and businessmen (Cohen 1976, 4), indicating that
Chrysostom viewed Judaism more as an economic entity than a religious
organization. Jews are often compared to predatory beasts and are accused of
virtually every evil, including economic crimes such as profiteering”
(124-5). Kevin MacDonald, from Separation and its Discontents: Toward an
Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (2004)
“The intensely anti-Jewish St. Jerome also refers to Jews as encircling
Christians and seeking to tear them apart (Feldman 1993, 407). Jerome
decries the Jews’ love for money in several passages (Parkes 1934, 191) and
he complained that the Jews were multiplying “like vermin” (in Baron 1952,
II, 220) – a comment that clearly suggests a concern with Jewish
reproductive success”(125). Kevin MacDonald, from Separation and its
Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (2004)
“Particularly irksome to Christians were slurs on the Virgin Mary” (253).
Kevin MacDonald, from Separation and its Discontents: Toward an
Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (2004)
“The Hebrew chroniclers vented their helplessness by denigrating Mary as the
harlot mother, the menstruating mother, and denigrated her son’s worshippers
as the worshippers of a ‘putrid corpse’” (141). M. Cohen, from Under
Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages (1994)
"The long history of Anti-Jewish thought contagions in Europe not only helped start the Nazi movement, but they also helped start the Zionist movement. Under conditions of adversity, many Jews were highly receptive to the idea of forming their own separate nation. Those who accepted this idea probably also felt a need to spread the word to others. Motives for retransmission could include such things as a desire to help fellow Jews. But any Jew who already accepted the idea of Zionism would have also known that the idea needed to be imparted to millions of other Jews in order for the plan to be implemented. That would have increased the desire to persuade others. Thus, transmissivity and receptivity factors combined to spread the Zionist movement – a movement that eventually led to further conflict in the Middle East. By helping to create this movement and raising its retransmission rate, the earlier anti-Semitic ideas thus continue to affect major world events." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
The Second Coming of Isis
"The Da Vinci Code drags out several of the standard lines-many taken nearly
verbatim from Holy Blood, Holy Grail (see pages 367-8)-about how everything
in Christianity was taken from pagan sources. Langdon makes mention of
"transmogrification" and insists that "the vestiges of pagan religion in
Christian symbology are undeniable." He states:
"Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis
nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our
modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the
elements of the Catholic ritual-the miter, the altar, the doxology, and
communion, the act of ‘God-eating’-were taken directly from earlier pagan
mystery religions." (p. 232) Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, from "Cracking
the Anti-Catholic Code (Part II)"
“Matthew wrote his Gospel a generation after the events he describes and his expected readership was probably more Gentile than Jew. He needed to prove to the Egyptians, Greeks, Syrians and others that his Messiah, the Jesus of the Gospel, was not just a Jewish prophet but a universal saviour. He needed to have established credentials and part of this was the association of the Messiah with Sirius, the royal star of Isis and Horus (86). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
“Very important, among the new documents in the Sommario are the indications of Bruno’s view of the cross as really an Egyptian sacred sign, A fellow-prisoner reports him as having said that the cross on which Christ was crucified was not in the form shown on Christian altars, this form being in reality the sign which was sculptured on the breast of the goddess Isis, and which was ‘stolen’ by the Christians from the Egyptians” (63) Frances Yates, from Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (1982)
"Hermetics is a belief system and an intellectual craft in the Platonic tradition that involves finding power in nature and expanding on it in a process of contributing to the creation of the natural world. It teaches the concept that human mages can re-unite with God through the understanding, appreciation, and mastery of nature. Copernicus, in De Revolutionibus, quoted Hermes Trismegestrus at several points to support his hypothesis. Areas of magical study within hermetics include astrology, tarot, alchemy, and numerological tables of correspondence similar to some of Kepler’s work. Giordano Bruno was involved in hermetics and, like Kepler and Dee, supported the Copernican hypothesis. He was raised Calvinist as Kepler was. But Bruno rebelled against Calvinism and threw himself into occult studies. He was not as careful as other scientists and occultists of the time to censor himself in consideration of the danger posed by the power of the Catholic Church, and was burned at the stake in 1600." from "Science, Mysticism, and Revolutions"
"Rudolf Steiner taught that the current epoch we live in, is to be a
resurrection of Egyptian Star Wisdom, whose mother was Isis. We now live in
a time searching for a New Isis called today Mary-Sophia. Her Wisdom of the
lives of the Spiritual Hierarchies in the sidereal canopy and planetary
spheres, is the Wisdom of Isis plus the moral impulse of Christ for world
evolution. In this book the Star Wisdom of the Divine Feminine is presented
as the hope of the soul for her resurrection into eternal life. Rudolf
Steiner used the word astrosophy to properly name the Star Wisdom of Sophia
-- the New Isis reborn." On: "Sophia's
Astrology of the Soul ------ by Anonymous "
'The most important single fact in the early history of Western religion and
sociology was undoubtedly the gradual suppression of the Lunar
Mother-goddess's inspiratory cult, and its supercession . . . by the busy,
rational cult of the Solar God Apollo, who rejected the Orphic tree-alphabet
in favour of the commercial Phoenician alphabet-the familiar ABC - and
initiated European literature and science." Robert Graves from The White
Goddess, Five Pens in Hand as quoted on page 82 by Colin Wilson in
The Occult (2003)
"In his 1782 treatise Die Natur, Goethe wrote "Nature! We are surrounded and
enveloped by her - unable to step outside her, unable to get into her more
deeply. Un-asked and unwarned, she takes us up into the circle of her dance
and carries us along till we are wearied and fall from her arms...Men are
all in her and she in all...Even the most unnatural is Nature , even the
crudest pedantry still has at touch of her genius...Life is her fairest
invention, death but her artifice whereby to have much life... All is there
in her always. She knows not past or future. Present is her eternity. And
she is good and I praise her in all her works." Hamilton Reed Armstrong,
from "The Da Vinci Code
Decoded"
"The current manifestation of the divine needs new doorways, new pathways to
enter our world. We are being asked to change our ways of thinking and being
so that we can contain the new consciousness that is now available. The
qualities, attitudes, and states of being that will most effectively
receive, hold, and transmit this consciousness are...feminine, or female in
nature" (xiv). Hillary Hart, from The Unknown She (2003)
"The moon goddess was the goddess of magic, of the subconscious, of poetic
inspiration. Human mythology has been 'solarised' and then, in the West,
Christianised, and the masculine god of reason has usurped an increasingly
important place, armed always with the irresistible argument that you can
see a thing more clearly by sunlight than by moonlight. But this is untrue.
On the contrary, certain things become invisible in a strong light. Highly
conscious, rational modes of thought are like a wide net through which all
the smaller fish escape." Colin Wilson, from The Occult (2003)
"What is the story that we are discussing? The Neanderthal lunar religion,
has the moon sacrificing the sun on the last day of the year, then
graciously resurrecting it so that life on Earth may continue. In the actual
ceremony, the “King for a Year” is killed by having his genitalia cut
off--to turn him into a menstruating woman (cf. the “spear” in Christ's
side, and the “spear through both thighs” of the Fisher King). The genitals
are then eaten and the blood drunk--hence the same acts symbolized in the
Christian Eucharist. On the biological side it is rather obvious that
contemporary humans have inherited two conflicting sets of instincts, formed
during the very different pasts of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon--precisely
what transpires when widely contrasting animal species are crossed in the
laboratory. Neanderthal was sexually promiscuous in the extreme, including
homosexuality, lesbianism, and what is today called child abuse. But
Cro-Magnon had evolved pair-bonding, with one partner for life. And this is
the reason we long for everlasting love “forsaking all others,” while at the
same time eagerly pursue “one-night stands.” Stan Gooch, from
Cities of Dreams,
London, Rider/Century Hutchinson, 1989; London, Aulis Publishers, revised
and augmented edition, 1995
"The prophets finally succeeded in emptying nature of any divine presence. Whole sectors of the natural world—the “high places,” stones, springs, trees, certain crops, certain flowers—will be denounced as unclean because they were polluted by the cult of the Canaanite divinities of fertility…" Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas, Volume I
"In
the first century A.D., a time when Hellenistic values were pervading all
Mediterranean cultures, rabbis, uncomfortable with the Torah's masculine
bias, introduced the concept of a Shekina, She represented the essence of
the divine anima, which they believed was the missing aspect of God.
Around the same time, the Gnostic Christians began venerating a deity that
possessed both feminine and masculine traits. They elevated the divine
Sophia to a place coequal with God" (257). Leonard Shlain, from Sex, Time
and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution (2003)
"Again, there can be no doubt that the Shekhinah is identical with God. More
precisely, she is his "mode of existence" on earth and among Israel" (91).
Peter Schafer, from Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the
Bible to the Early Kabbalah (2002)
"All the words, signs, and symbols, which were formulated to describe the
experiments in their obscure “laboratories”, possessed multiple meanings and
were only comprehensible to the “initiated”. Just as in some tantra texts,
“secret” practices were represented by “harmless” images in the European
treatises; this was especially true of the topic of erotic love and
sexuality. This strong link to the erotic may appear absurd in the case of
chemical experiments, but the alchemic world view was, just like that of
Tantrism, dominated by the idea that our universe functions as the creation
and interplay of a masculine and a feminine principle and that all levels of
existence are interpenetrated by the polarity of the sexes." Victor und
Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"Key dates for the politically inspired removal of the Buddhist teachings
from Christianity are -
In the East, the Second Council of Constantinople 553 AD.
In the West, the Synod of Whitby in 664.
The
process was completed with the Papal extermination of the Cathars
(Albigensians) in the 13th century." from "Dorje
Shugden and Saint George - Brothers in arms"
"Both the tantric and the alchemic writings are therefore maps of the erotic
imagination and anyone with a little speech psychology can recognize the
pervasive sexual system of reference hidden in a hermetical text from the
16th century. At that time people did not have the slightest qualms about
describing chemical processes as erotic events and erotic scenarios as
chemical fusions. They behaved in exactly the same manner in the West as in
the East." Victor und Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"One of the further results of our hybrid nature remains at the social
level, where left and right-wing politics vie--with no other explanation for
this universal polarity. Thus the Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and “ethnic
cleansing” arise from the instinctive Cro-Magnon attempt to destroy its
equally innate Neanderthal rival... in the “final solution.” The French and
Russian Revolutions as well as various anticapitalist movements are efforts
by the Neanderthal to obliterate the CroMagnon aspect. So Communists,
Socialists, and Democrats reflect the Neanderthal strain, whereas Fascists,
Conservatives, and Republicans evoke their Cro-Magnon anthesis. Of course,
we are all simultaneously both, therefore the contrived solutions never
endure . . ." Stan Gooch, from
Cities of Dreams,
London, Rider/Century Hutchinson, 1989; London, Aulis Publishers, revised
and augmented edition, 1995
Chapter 1 - Symbolism
"Tonight's lecture - a slide show about pagan symbolism hidden in the stones
of Chartes Cathedral - had probably ruffled some conservative feathers in
the audience" (7). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"Chambers Dictionary describes a symbol as:
An emblem: that which by custom or convention represents something else, a
type: a creed, compendium of doctrine, or a typical religious rite, the
Eucharist: an object or act representing an unconscious or repressed
conflict (psychological), or the Greek word symbolon from the verb symbolien,
to put together means each of two halves or corresponding pieces of an
object, such as a potsherd." Brendan McMahon, from "psychotherapy,
myth and meaning"
"Control over our deeper powers comes from symbols rather than
straightforward acts of will" (134) Colin Wilson, from The Occult
(2003)
"The Greek word for symbol, symbolon, actually means, an object which is
broken in half. That is why communication systems are not monadic or
unitary, they are always dual or dyadic... The breaking of the symbolon
symbolizes the split in human consciousness itself. A split between the
animal intimacy, which we can hypothesize as our Semian heritage, and the
idea that consciousness and self are two different things. As soon as that
split occurs we have a symbolic system at work, where one thing stands for
another. The same holds true for all language systems, all musical systems,
all dance systems, anything which can possibly communicate on any level
whatsoever. These are all symbolic systems. Language is a symbolic system.
All computer programs are symbolic systems."
"It is important to remember that in any symbolic system this split, the
doubling consciousness, the hypothesis of consciousness which is actually
prothesis, obtains something which is outside the body and which can act in
the world. In the history of religion, this desire for lost intimacy, this
desire to recapture unified consciousness, is the cause of yet a further
split. We see the whole idea of sacrifice that is meant to heal this wound
in the cosmic structure. Sacrifice appears very early in human religion, at
least as early as agricultural systems in the Neolithic Age, if not sooner,
and it is violent. Initially, it probably involves human sacrifice." Peter
Lamborn Wilson, from "Islam
and the Internet: Net-religion, a War in Heaven"
"Semiotics means the study of the study of signs and symbols. The word derives from the Greek semeion, meaning a mark, sign, trace or omen. Semioticians see human culture as comprising of signs. Material objects are important (literally, 'significant') for the meanings we give to them, that is what they 'signify'. Semiotics stands at the furthest extreme from materialist visions of human culture." Robert Tubshaw, from "semiotics"
"For Jung (1934) the wider significance of symbolism was of the utmost importance. He postulated the existence of two layers of unconsciousness, the personal, relatively superficial stratum, which contains material derived from individual experience, and a deeper level, the collective unconscious, the receptacle of universal, archetypal symbols, which are thought to have the same characteristics everywhere, in all individuals and cultures (Jung 1934). These symbols have their roots in the infancy of the human race, rather than in the infancy of the individual, and Jung's theory is implicitly critical of the reductive monotony of Freudian dream interpretation, which is limited to discovering the repressed wish when the dream is assumed to fulfil. Jung (1956) believed that important parallels were to be drawn between ancient mythology and the similar thinking found in primitive religion, dreams, an the thought processes of childhood." Brendan McMahon, from "psychotherapy, myth and meaning"
"A symbol is an inevitably imperfect attempt to represent an archetype. Jung, borrowing a phrase from Bukchardt, described archetypes as primordial images which have imprinted themselves on the human mind over the millennia but which are modified by the specific circumstances of the period in which they manifest themselves. Among the key archetypes to be identified were: the persona, the mask we are required to wear in order to make ourselves acceptable to other people; the anima, or female side of the male psyche, and animus, the male side of the female psyche; the shadow, or animal side of the psyche, which bears some resemblance to Freud's concept of the id; the self, which is the organising principle of the personality (Hall and Nordby 1973)." Brendan McMahon, from "psychotherapy, myth and meaning"
"Systematic analysis of "secrecy" is generally traced to Georg Simmel's publication of "The Secret and the Secret Society" (1907; 1950). Recently Simmel's work has been given new attention by sociologists who examine the phenomenon in cross-cultural perspective (Hazelrigg 326-30; Tefft; Frizby ). Some biblical scholars have begun to tap into this theory for purposes of biblical interpretation, notably John J. Pilch (1992; 1994). In surveying the literature on "secrecy," we are attempting to construct a model of the "secrecy process," which will be cross-cultural and so applicable to the Fourth Gospel." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The Sociology of Secrecy and the Fourth Gospel"
"Mathematics is a language that exists beyond any cultural or political
agenda. The reason for this is because numbers are indicators of proportion
and directly reflect the balance of a greater universe beyond the
limitations of human ego.
"Certain perfect relationships between numbers have been recognized by the
human intellect, the result being that these proportions were then
subsequently used to create both a mythos for our spirituality and the
physical forms of our societies. Probably the most utilized of these perfect
ratios has been the Phi ratio or “Golden Mean” as developed by the Greek
Philosopher and Mathematician known as Pythagoras." Frater R.S. from "Symbolic
Ignorance"
"As
Christian ritual involves bread and wine, Tantric ritual involves wine,
meat, fish, grain and sexual intercourse (called maithuna), and the
worship of Durga and Kali (the firece forms of the goddess) often associated
with violent sexual orgies" (178) Colin Wilson, from The Occult
(2003)
"Without going into numerous further parallels between Tantrism and the
“great art”, we would like to concentrate here upon a primary event in
European alchemy, which we term the “alchemic female sacrifice” and which
plays an equally central role for the adept of the high art as the “tantric
female sacrifice” does for the Tantric. There are three stages to be
examined in this sacrificial event:
The sacrifice of the “dark woman” or the “black matter” (nigredo)
The absorption of the “virgin milk” or gynergy (albedo)
The construction of the cosmic androgyne (rubedo)"
Victor und Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"...they are attempts to organize 'linear knowledge', our intuitive sense of
'meanings' behind reality, into some kind of system" (136). Colin Wilson,
from The Occult (2003)
Chapter 2 Église de Saint-Sulpice
"Each had told Silas the exact same thing - that the keystone was
ingeniously hidden at a precise location inside one of Paris's ancient
churches - the Église de Saint-Sulpice" (13). Dan Brown, from The Da
Vinci Code
"The building of the Église de St-Sulpice commenced in 1645... Quite
possibly the church of Saint-Sulpice - and that earlier, 12th C. edifice -
had been built on the site of the very shrine of Isis after whom some
believe the city of Paris (Par-isis - the earliest inhabitants were known as
the "parisii") was named."
The
Black Madonna - Secret of Saint-Sulpice
"St Sulpice (d. c.647). This contemporary of St Dagobert also has his feast
day on 17 January. He was the second Bishop of Bourges, which is on the zero
meridian of Paris, like Rennes-les-Bains, and was successful in converting
all the Jews of his diocess. He was the protege of the goldsmith of St Eloi,
Grand Vizier of Dagobert I. The famous seminary and church dedicated to him
in Paris contains the obelisk with the copper line down the centre marking
the exact point of the meridian. St Sulpice, in the grounds of St
Germain-des-Pres (qv), had connections with the Prieure from its foundation
in 1642." [Ean Begg, The Cult of the Black Virgin, Arkana, 1985, p.110.]
The Zero Meridian is the 33rd degree longitude. To understand the
significance of this meridian see under the section on Locations "C.
Territories of Dan in the Land of Israel" in The Lost Tribe of Dan report.
from "The Occult Calendar" from
"The Occult Calendar"
"A great mystery is believed to be associated with Saint-Sulpice and the
neighboring church of St-Germain, necropolis of the Merovingian kings - and
the two continue to attract the attention of students of alchemy, Christian
mysticism and the occult sciences. It is not only that Saint-Sulpice, named
for St-Sulpicius, the 6th C. Archbishop of Bourges, was and still is a
center for worship of the Black Virgin - a mysterious and popular form of
Virgin Mary worshipped all over the world and represented by statues and
figures in many churches in Europe and elsewhere; there is something else,
the threads of the legends of the Templars, the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau
- and the so-called "alternative history of Jesus."
The
Basye Vortex
" This "saint" is associated with the Knights Templar cult of the Black
Madonna. [Biagent, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, p. 37] "The Black Madonna cult is
central to the Priory [of Sion]...To them at least, there is no doubt about
the significance of the Black Madonna. Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair writes
explicitly, 'The Black Virgin is Isis and her name is Notre Dame de Lumiere
[Our Lady of the Lights]." Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair is former Grand
Master of the Prieuré de Sion) [Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, The Templar
Revelation, p.79] from "The
Occult Calendar"
"The focal point of the mystery is the tiny Pyreneean village of
Rennes-le-Chateau in the South of France. It was here, in the 1890s, that a
series of strange events began to unfold after the apparent discovery by an
impoverished though flamboyant priest of a fabulous treasure connected with
the Visigoths, Merovingians and medieval Knights Templar." Danny Carey, from
"The Grandest Puzzle of Them
All"
"Berenger Sauniere, penniless priest finds a set of manuscripts in the
church (or in a Visigothic pillar). They include genealogies and two cipher
documents. Sauniere takes the documents to Saint Sulpice in Paris and gets
them deciphered. He buys a postcard of Poussin’s Shepherds of Arcadia and
then proceeds to rebuild the church, do elaborate works in the village and
leave cryptic clues to the source of his wealth".
Andrew Baker from
"Shugborough and Rennes Le Chateau"
"While engaged in a minor restoration of the dilapidated 11th-century
church, Sauniere found hidden in a hollow archaic pillar that supported the
altar stone several coded parchments. With the aid of church scholars at
Saint Sulpice in Paris (including some with associations in the city’s more
occult circles), he was eventually able to decipher the messages concealed
within the parchments’ Latin text. What happened next has been the subject
of much speculation, but many believe the message led to the priest’s
fateful discovery. Upon his return to Rennes-le Chateau, Sauniere began more
ambitious renovations inside the crumbling church, exhuming an ancient
Carolingian flagstone from the choir floor which concealed the entrance to a
crypt beneath. And there by the glow of a lantern he discerned several shiny
objects. Whatever the nature of his discovery was, it was evidently of
considerable consequence and importance to someone, for the priest suddenly
found himself living in the lap of luxury, spending money on a grand scale."
Danny Carey, from "The
Grandest Puzzle of Them All"
"It is known that Berenger Sauniere took his parchments to the Abbe Bieil,
of the seminary of St. Sulpice, which was where the Abbe's nephew Emile
Hoffet launched the Catholic Modernist rebellion which would eventually land
Modernist works on the Vatican's "banned" list. Saint Sulpice's feast day,
January 17th, is the date of Sauniere's sudden stroke. He was the bishop of
Bourges, on the Paris Meridian, and in his seminary is an obelisk with a
copper line marking the exact point of the alignment. from
"The Mysteries of
Rennes-Le-Chateau"
"But here is also where we run into a heretical undercurrent. Contemporary
researchers allege that, indeed, in her ultimate identity the Christian
Black Madonna is not the mother of Jesus, but she is in fact Mary Magdalen.
This stunning theory further proposes that the child that a black madonna
holds (in cases where it is a mother and child statue) is not the infant
Jesus, but the offspring of Jesus, begotten with the Magdalen. We believe
that on the level of the evidence - as opposed to conjecture supported by
circumstantial factors - these theories are neither proved nor disproved. In
the Gnostic Gospels the Magdalen certainly has a stature and importance that
is radically distinct from everything we have traditionally been told. In
the Nag Hammadi texts the Magdalen is referred to as the "companion" of
Jesus - an ambiguous term which might equally indicate that she was his
mystical companion (the sufis for instance speak of "friends of God" in this
sense), or it might be a delicate way of saying that she was Jesus's lover.
If however there is any substance to these allegations about a bloodline of
Jesus, then the Saint-Sulpice Meridian, also known and "The Rose Line," may
symbolize not only initiation into the mystery of Gnostic consciousness, as
always thought, but also the line of the heirs of Jesus - a genetic link to
the mystical source of dominion in heaven and earth. Of course such a line
of the "heirs" of Jesus does not need to be physical and literal (as the
best-selling Holy Blood, Holy Grail would allege), but can in fact represent
the spiritual heirs of Christ. The fact that this latter theory is less
sensational than the idea of literal blood-descendants of Jesus and the
Magdalen walking among us, does not make it any less likely to be the case.
The
Basye Vortex
"Speculation as to the nature of this treasure varies among the numerous
investigators and includes the following: that which was stolen from the
Temple of Jerusalem, The Ark of the Covenant, The Holy Grail, The lost
secrets of alchemy (a formula for turning baser metals into gold, or for
turning baser man into a more perfected being), the wealth of the Cathars
and Knights Templars, whether of a monetary or spiritual nature, genealogies
attesting to the survival of the royal Merovingian bloodline, the tomb and
preserved remains of Jesus or the reliquary of some other saint such as Mary
Magdalene, catacombs filled with the Lords of old adorned in their
glittering finery, a stargate technology for journeying to other heavenly
realms, a doorway to another dimension by which one can escape the
apocalypse and enter paradise, an enormous geometric temple encoded with
information of a high-tech nature, occult manuscripts, tunnels leading to
Atlantis, and even the entrance to a cavernous underground base that is/was
the home to a race of reptilian extraterrestrial beings." Danny Carey, from
"The Grandest Puzzle of Them
All"
Chapter 3 - The Meaning of Invisible Connections
"As someone who spent his life exploring the hidden interconnectivity of
disparate emblems and ideologies, Langdon viewed the world as a web of
profoundly intertwined histories and events. The connections may be
invisible, he often preached to his symbology classes at Harvard, but
they are always there, buried just beneath the surface" (16). Dan
Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
“You look up to the stars, saying that something is streaming from them that
can be perceived man’s sense-organs here on earth. –But what you behold
when you gaze at the stars is not of the same nature as what you perceive on
the earth in the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. In reality it proceeds
from beings of intelligence and will whose life is bound up with those
stars. The effects appear to be physical because the stars are at a
distance. They are not in reality physical at all. What we see is in
reality the working of will and intelligence which at a distance appears as
light” (73). Rudolph Steiner, from The Influence of Lucifer and Ahriman
(1954)
"All this is to say that 'magical systems' the Hebrew Kabbalah, the Chinese
Book of Changes, the Tarot pack, the Key of Solomon, the Egyptian and
Tibetan Books of the Dead - should not be regarded as primitive and
unsuccessful attempts at 'science', but as attempts to express these depths
of 'lunar' knowledge in their own terms" (97) Colin Wilson, from
The Occult (2003)
“True, the connections of the whole universe are present in man: man is
related to Saturn, Jupiter, etc.; but the relations are concealed in the
depths of our organization. At the risk of offending current modes of
thought, I would suggest that the astronomical affiliations form the most
deeply unconscious regions in man, they are transmuted into the most
secluded of his organic processes” (121) Rudolph Steiner, from Spiritual
Science and Medicine (1989)
"The writings of the psychologist Carl Jung proved immensely influential,
frequently being treated as a discovery of objective truth about the past
rather than accurately as unproven hypotheses. His concepts of
synchronicity, archetypes, the shadow and the collective unconscious were
especially useful in imposing modern concepts upon old sources. People
persuaded by them no longer had to accept the accept the actual context and
apparent message of the latter: they could claim that, like a psychologist
treating a patient, they were probing through to realities of which the
people leaving the evidence had themselves been unaware" (338). Ronald
Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature
and Legacy (1993)
"The psychologist C.G. Jung justifies all this by a principle that he calls
synchronicity, that is, the assumption that 'accidents' and 'coincidences'
are, in some way, linked with the unconscious mind" (101). Colin Wilson,
from The Occult (2003)
"C.
G. Jung had some sympathy with Nietzsche's philosophy - i.e. that man
projects aspects of himself into or onto external images, which he then
imbues with power. [One can explain, for instance, some aspects of the Hindu
pantheon of gods
in these terms, and the age-old techniques used in the imitative magic
process, with Aleister Crowley as one of its better known adepts.]
Recognising this process and then taking responsibility for these forces
that properly originate within the self, was
seen by Jung as an indispensable step in becoming a mature and whole human
being. Jung emphasised, however, the need for humility in dealing with these
normally unconscious forces within the self. Otherwise he warned that the
Ego becomes solely inflated with a sense of power-producing or rather (in
Rushdie's case) paranoid and grandiose arrogance, with the symptoms of
disintegration of the self and frank insanity following later." David Musa
Pidcock, from
Satanic Voices
Chapter 4 - Goddess cult and Wicca
"Not only did Sauniere have a personal passion for relics relating to
fertility, goddess cults, Wicca, and the sacred feminine, but during his
twenty-year tenure as curator, Sauniere had helped the Louvre amass the
largest collection of goddess art of earth - labrys axes, hundreds of Tjet
ankhs resembling small standing angels, sistrum rattles used in ancient
Egypt to dispel evil spirits, and an astonishing array of statues depicting
Horus being nursed by the goddess Isis" (23) Dan Brown, from The Da
Vinci Code
"... `I am Nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements,
primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the
dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and
goddesses that are.' `... Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by
countless names, and propitiated with all manner of rites, yet the whole
round earth venerates me... Some know me as Juno, some as Bellona of the
Battles; others as Hecate… and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning
worship me with ceremonies proper to my godhead, call me by my true name,
Queen Isis.' " Lucius Apuleius, from
The Golden Ass
"The Goddess manifests in many different forms, some of which shatter
stereotypes that are commonly associated with womanhood. Sovereignty, war
and hunting are all within her remit. She is autonomous, sexual and strong.
The sum of all her parts is a total divinity which the human mind is
incapable of fully defining (6)." Shahrukh Husain, from The Goddess:
Power, Sexuality, and the Feminine Divine (2003)
"Le Combel contains a Black Goddess stone tree only partially emerged from stalactites, fissures, and folds. Possibly as early as 25,000 B.P., Cro-Magnon people identified and marked this proto-World Tree" (210). Clayton Eshleman, from Juniper Fuse (2003)
"Most aptly, then, the maternal function of earth has been recognized in the common poetic designation "Mother Earth." We have no similar phrase ascribing motherhood to water, but the ancients did give to the primal mother of life the very name for "sea" in several countries. In Berosus' account of the Chaldean Creation, Tiamat, the first Mother, is named Thallath, which is the Greek thallasa, the sea. The feminine Sephiroth, Binah, is termed by the Kabalists "the Great Sea." And Mary is allied in derivation with maria, the plural of the Latin mare, the sea." Alvin Boyd Kuhn, from "MARY MAGDALENE and Her Seven Devils"
“Inseparable from the creative, beneficently generous element in the ancient mythologies of the mother-goddess is her sexual attraction. In her Venus-Aphrodite aspect she presents almost irresistible temptation: her ancient worship was frequently augmented by the services of prostitute-priestesses. Just as that aspect of Isis which encapsulates the concept of the protective, all-providing and loving mother – especially when she is depicted with the infant Horus in her arms – has led to he later comparisons to the Virgin Mary, so the overtly sexual aspects of Venus-Aphrodite have led to be being compared to Mary Magdalen, “the woman who was a sinner.” Strangely, in the ancient, pagan goddess cults, three powerful but paradoxical and seemingly contradictory elements were frequently concurrent to a greater or lesser degree: the strength and generosity of the protecting mother; the purity of the virgin; and the blatant sexual attraction of the harlot (39). Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, from Secrets of Rennes le Chateau (1992)
"The recognition of the divine feminine distinguishes Gnosticism from the Jewish and Christian presentations of God. The Judeo-Christian tradition argued that God lacks gender. In fact, males and females were made in God's image (Gen, 1:27). The closest that these other Jewish and Christian views of God came to such feminine understandings appears in the metaphorical portrayal of Wisdom as female (Prov, 8)" (75). Darrell L. Bock, from Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
"But the modern scholastic mind is shortly to achieve the realization that
Mary Magdalene as a mythical figure will live more vitally in world thought
than she ever did as an alleged historical woman. It may fall with a certain
severity of shock upon orthodox ears to be told bluntly that the woman whom
the Christ was believed to have loved was never a living personage of flesh
and blood, and challenging beauty. Yet to state that the Gospels of the New
Testament are but spiritual allegories, the enacted drama of the human soul
in its incarnate experience, is only to assert that which is the common and
assured knowledge of every erudite student of ancient Comparative Religion
and Mythology. The truth of this statement is now safely past the point of
ridicule or controversy. Many scholars and more mystics have loudly
proclaimed the mythical nature of the Gospels; but by some strange quirk of
psychology or some unaccountable want of courage, few if any have ever dared
to take their stand by the obvious implications of this declaration and
announce the positive non-historicity of the dramatic characters involved.
It is insinuated generally that by some miracle of coincidence or
parallelism veritable persons did live whose lives ran off an exact copy of
the incidents recorded in the Gospels. Without considering that the chance
of such a total matching of a mass of personal occurrences in the careers of
living people with the events of an actually existing drama would run to one
in millions, the assumption fails utterly to take into account that decisive
fact that the material entering into this Gospel narrative, featuring those
same incidents and figures, had been extant prior to the year one A.D. for
at least some thousands of years! Are we asked to believe that suddenly
around the time of the first Christian century there appeared a fairly large
group of individuals whose life history fell into the pattern and relived
the history of a set of dramatic personae that had already been recorded for
centuries? The claimants for the historicity of the Gospel characters have
never fairly met this predicament. It would seem that the prior existence of
the Gospels as spiritual dramas should write a decisive finis to a debate
that should never have been begun. But religion is the most conservative of
influences, traditional inculcations die hard, and it can be predicted that
even the plain proof of the purely allegorical and dramatic character of the
Gospels will be met with the same disdain by religious parties as has been
the case heretofore." Alvin Boyd Kuhn, from "MARY
MAGDALENE and Her Seven Devils"
"The Craft is one Western spiritual tradition that has customarily placed
more emphasis on the physical aspects of existence than on the so-called
spiritual. In Europe's Old Religion, Goddesses and Gods were part of daily
living, imbuing fertility into all of nature. Pleasure was one's birthright,
celebrated with life-affirming rituals in which people sometimes communed
with the cosmos by having sex with each other. The attainment of religious
ecstacy was considered an outgrowth of consummate connection on the physical
plane. The afterlife was seen as a continuation of one's consciousness after
leaving the grosser physical plane, and people's interest in it was
generally confined to assisting their friends toward a peaceful passage.
Adherents of the Craft did not think in terms of someday being freed from
the tyranny of the body (which included pain and pleasure). Such an attitude
missed the point of being alive, and perpetuated self-loathing under the
guise of religious enlightenment. The edict "Do as ye will, but harm none,"
pretty well summed it up. Life was sex and sex was life; what more could
anyone want?" Nina Silver, from "The
Cosmic Pulse of Wilhelm Reich: Where Science, Sex and Spirit Meet"
"In essence, modern witchcraft is a Nature-based religion with the Great Goddess as its principal deity. She can take many forms: the Great Mother or Mother Nature, or, more specifically, Artemis, Astarte, Demeter, Diana, Aphrodite, Hathor, Isis, Persephone, and many others" (162). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"In Wicca ritual the Hight Priest 'draws down the Moon' into the body of the High Priestess who becomes the incarnation of the Goddess" (162). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"...Goddess worship first emerged in the American feminist movement as a spiritual perspective clearly at odds with mainstream, patriarchal religion" (176). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"Adam and Eve were certainly not the first people on Earth, but they were
the first of the alchemically devised kingly succession. Nîn-khursag was
called the Lady of the Embryo or the Lady of Life, and she was the surrogate
mother for Atâbba and Kâva, who were created from human ova fertilized by
the Lord Enki." Laurence Gardner, from "Genesis
of the Grail Kings"
"It was because of Nîn-khursag's title, Lady of Life, that Kâva was later
given the same distinction by the Hebrews. Indeed, the name Kâva (Ava or
Eve) was subsequently said to mean 'life'. There is an interesting parallel
here because, in Sumerian, the style Lady of Life was Nîn-tî (Nîn meaning
Lady, and tî meaning Life). However, another Sumerian word, ti (with the
longer pronunciation: 'tee') meant 'rib' - and it was by virtue of the
Hebrews' misunderstanding of the two words, tî and ti, that Eve became
incorrectly associated with Adam's rib." Laurence Gardner, from "Genesis
of the Grail Kings"
"Both Enki and Nîn-khursag (along with their brother Enlil - the later
Jehovah) belonged to a pantheon of gods and goddesses referred to as the
Anunnaki which, in Sumerian, means 'Heaven came to Earth' (An-unna-ki). In
fact, the Grand Assembly of the Anunnaki (later called the Court of the
Elohim) is actually mentioned in the Old Testament's Psalm No. 82, wherein
Jehovah makes his bid for supreme power over the other gods." Laurence
Gardner, from "Genesis of
the Grail Kings"
"The blood extract in question was, in the first instance, that of Enki's
sister-wife Nîn-khursag, the designated Lady of Life. It was a sacred
Anunnaki essence, defined as the most potent of all life-forces and
venerated as being Star Fire. It was from the womb of Nîn-khursag that the
royal line was born and it was with her blood, the divine Star Fire, that
the Dragon succession was supplementally fed. In ancient Egypt, Nîn-khursag
was called Isis and, by either name, she was the ultimate mother of the
Messianic line, for hers was the matrilinear gene which constituted the
kingly beginning." Laurence Gardner, from "Genesis
of the Grail Kings"
"ONE would naturally suppose the color of a Deity would be the same as the
complexion which belonged to the worshipers of it. Black Gods and Goddesses
were met with among the Egyptians, Hindus, Greeks and Romans--yes, in
Europe.) In explanation of these facts, Dr. Inman remarks that "the female
generative structure in some countries is of a dark or black color; that
Buddha and Brahma were as often painted black as white." There was a black
Venus at Corinth. Osiris, Isis and her child Horus, were black. A black
Virgin and black child are to be seen at St. Stephens, in Genoa; at St.
Francisco, in Pisa; at St. Theodore, in Munich; and in other places. These
Somber facts seem to explain a passage in the Song of Solomon, where a woman
is made to Say, "I am black, but comely" (i, 5)." Sha Rocco, from "The
Masculine Cross and Ancient Sex Worship"
"Although there are many variants, the fundamental gnostic mythos, as
denounced by the Church Fathers and confirmed by Nag Hammadi texts, is as
follows: The Pleroma„ is divided into 30 Aeons„ (personified forces) which
live in syzygy„ or paired opposites making up the Ogadoad, (eight), the
Decad (ten) and Duodecad„ (twelve) uncreated forces of the cosmos which one
may call divine. The last Aeon of the Dodecad is Sophia (Wisdom) through
whom the created order comes into existence.
The Nag Hammadi text; Thunder, Perfect Mind, offers an extraordinary poem
spoken in the voice of Sophia as the feminine divine power:
I am the first and the last I am the honored one and the scorned one I am
the whore and the holy one I am the wife and the virgin... I am the barren
one, and many are her sons I am the silence and the incomprehensible I am
the utterance of my own name..." Hamilton Reed Armstrong, from "The
Da Vinci Code Decoded"
“Simon Magus and Menander, spoke of ‘the existence of a subordinate female
creative principle, superior to world creating angel’, and encouraged the
use of magic. (Is this not- to put it very simply- the repressed moon
religion versus the now dominant sun religion? After all, the Gnostic Jews
did set out to build a thirteen-zodiac with a central eight-legged moon
goddess.)” (184). Stan Gooch, Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the
Earth (1995)
“The mythological connection between Mary as mother of the living Jesus and Hathor as mother of the rising sun, both of whom rest in a grove of sycamore trees, would have appealed to Gnostic Egyptians” (107). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
"Images of the Virgin drew upon some of the attributes of the chaste
goddesses Artemis and Diana...Some of the Black Madonnas of Italy and Sicily
occupy churches upon the sites of notable temples to Ceres and Cybele,
goddesses of fertility, and their cults are associated with the growth and
the harvesting of crops. Their colour may be intended to increase their
identification with the soil" (285) Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of
the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1993)
"This makes a lot of sense...with Isis as Our Lady of Above/of the light.
One could be Venus as the Morning Star, the Other, Venus as the Evening
star..... one the herald of the sun/light, the other, the herald of the
moon/darkness." Nebankh, from "The
Stone That Fell from Heaven"
"As for the Black Madonna, ... she goes hand in hand with the White Goddess
- there's always an opposite in everything, particularly alchemy and
spiritual symbolism...Cybele's influence was so enormous... I thought the
Black Madonna was just part of the "of the earth/underworld, veins of the
dragon" thing. She's the one connected with "ley lines" (the veins of the
dragon/earth) With Venus we have the "Herald/Bringer of Light/ As above"
side but also the opposite...Cybele is most likely equal/opposite to Isis,
though not the same." Nebankh, from "The
Stone That Fell from Heaven"
"Both of these Goddesses seem to have been considered varieties (for want of
a better word!) of the goddess Anat who is also associated with "Ishtar",
but that doesn't rule out what we have been discussing, as we have for
instance "Anunit or Anunitu was the patron-goddess of the city of Akkad and
associated with Venus as evening star; daughter/sister of the moon-god Sin.
She became - in the course of time - absorbed into the great figure of
Ishtar who also took over her role as ruler of the city." Nebankh, from "The
Stone That Fell from Heaven"
"Incidentally it was reported that a Black Virgin was found in one of the
subterranean rooms of the Paris Observatory - built precisely on the line of
the Paris Meridian, under the direction of Colbert, Louis XIV's Finance
Minister, in 1667. La Vierge Noire is associated with the unconscious; with
our deepest knowledge of the divine, with fertility - and hence with supreme
humility and receptivity. Experts think she is the Christian version of the
Egyptian goddess Isis, whose energy brings about the flowering of the
natural world, and whose unconditional love assured the resurrection of the
god Osiris." The
Basye Vortex
"The Crone is also Mary Magdalena in Her role as the Death Goddess. It is
She who anoints the Chosen One with oil, signifying the Sacrifice to be
made. In paintings and sculptures the Magdalena often appears with a skull
at Her feet. For many She is the main incarnation of the Black Goddess, the
Sophia or wisdom of the Gnostics." Kathy Jones, from
"The Goddess in Glastonbury -Part two"
"The Minoan cult object is said to have been used as a weapon with which the
sacred bull was slaughtered. This bovine blood ritual, which according to
reports and myths of antiquity was widely distributed among the matriarchal
cults of the Near East, brings the ancient male sacrifice into the
discussion once more. Then the bull is considered a historically more recent
substitute for the husband of the tribal queen, who herself was supposed to
be the incarnation of a goddess. Following the expiry of his period in
office, the priestesses sacrificed him and soaked the soil with his royal
blood in order to generate fertility.Aside from this, it is highly likely
that ancient castration were linked with the double-headed ax (Hummel, 1954,
pp. 123ff.). At any rate, the almighty Cybele bore this sharp implement as
her emblem of power. Classical authors report with horror how the fanatical
priests of this Phrygian mother-goddess let themselves be ritually
emasculated or performed the mutilation themselves. “Cybelis” is said to be
a translation of “double-headed ax” (Alexiou, n.d., p. 92). Victor und
Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"The Great Bear Archetype of "Mother" is a lunar symbol...In Greek
mythology, the bear was the companion of Artemis, the goddess of the Moon
and focus of bloodthirsty rites, and the goddess often manifested herself in
the guise of a bear. This creature of the Moon incorporates one aspect of
the dialectic attached to the lunar myth, potentially both aggressor and
sufferer, priest and sacrificial victim. In this sense the bear stands in
contrast with the hare, typically representing the aggressive, cruel,
sacrificing-priestly side of the myth. Hence the interpretation given by
Jungian psychoanalysts. Like all lunar manifestations of the divine, the
bear's relationship is with the instincts. Given its strength, Jung
considers it the symbol of the dangerous aspect of the unconscious." Anne
Wright, from: "Ursa Major The Greater Bear"
"Tradition will show that the measures of a new world had to be procured
from the depths of the celestial ocean and tuned with the measures from
above, dictated by the 'Seven Sages'... They turn out to be the Seven Stars
of Ursa Major, which are normative in all cosmological alignments on the
starry sphere....The ancient Pythagoreans, in their conventional language,
called the two Bears the Hands of Rhea (the Lady of Turning Heaven), and
called the planets the Hounds of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Far
away to the south, the mysterious ship Argo with its Pilot star (Canopus
which ancients thought was the southern pole star) held the depths of the
past; and the (Milky Way) Galaxy was the Bridge out of Time. These notions
appear to have been common doctrine in the age before history - all over the
belt of high civilizations around our globe. They also seem to have been
born of the great intellectual and technological revolution of the late
Neolithic period". Giorgio de Santillana and Herta von Dechend from
Hamlet's Mill, An Essay On Myth and the Frame of Time (1969)
"Author Lynn Picknett (‘Mary Magdalene’ and ‘The Templar Revelation’), feels
that Magdalene may have even come from Ethiopia, a dark-skinned, powerful
and wealthy queen. These dark-colored mother and child images are often
associated with Isis and Magdalene cults, the dark Mother Goddess nourishing
her children, and associated with the hidden mysteries of the sacred
marriage or Hieros Gammos and the alchemy of high sexual magic. Similar
‘madonna’ images can be seen in Egyptian temple scenes with Horus at the
breast of his mother Isis." Ani Williams, from "Mary
Magdalene: Mistress of the Grail"
"Take, for example, the following passage from the Gospel of Thomas:
‘... the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. But Christ loved her
more than all the disciples, and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The
rest of the disciples were offended... They said to him, ‘Why do you love
her more than all of us?’ The Saviour answered and said to them, ‘Why do I
not love you as I love her?’
Although some commentators have tried to explain away this, and other
similar passages, as merely a reflection of a typically tactile Gnostic
friendship - their meetings were characterized by passionate hugs and
kisses - it must be said that this does not apply in the case of the
Magdalene and Jesus. There is distinct evidence that this was not a platonic
relationship - as the Cathars and the doomed citizens of Beziers believed so
passionately. The word used for ‘companion’ in this particular passage
encapsulates the true situation perfectly. This is the Greek koinonos, which
specifically means ‘consort’ or ‘companion of a sexual nature’." from "The
Magdalene Files"
"…the sacred union of Jesus and his Bride once formed the cornerstone of Christianity….the blueprint of the Sacred Marriage, that the later (church)builders rejected, causing a disastrous flaw in Christian doctrine that has warped Western civilization for nearly two millennia." Margaret Starbird, The Goddess in the Gospels
"As
a cultural practice, earth-centered, matriarchal Paganism embodies a
relatively cohesive belief-system enacted through a core of common
practices, of which the central and decisive feature is the ritual
celebration of the annual life-cycle of birth, childhood, sexual maturity,
fertility, old age and decay, death, and so on. In its matriarchal
manifestation, however, the chthonic imperative shares with Christianity a
drive towards the integral and the total... Paganism and Christianity are
effectively incompatible. The former celebrates earthbound existence, not
least through sexuality; the latter involves constant vigilance with regard
to the flesh (sarx) that wars against spirit (pneuma)" (71).
Richard Roberts, from "The Chthonic Imperative" in Nature Religion
Today (1998) edited by Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts and Geoffrey
Samuel
"According to medieval theories of materialism, all of creation was formed
from the four universal elements of fire, air, water and earth....this
system aligned women with the "grosser" elements of water and secondarily
earth; and men with the "nobler" elements of fire and secondarily air (143)"
Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in
the Middle Ages (2003)
"...Christianity also breaks with the pagan notion of the circular death and
rebirth of the Divinity - Christ's death is not the same as the
seasonal death of the pagan god; rather it designates a rupture with
the circular movement of death and rebirth, the passage to a wholly
different dimension of the Holy Spirit" (119) Slavvoj Zizek, from The
Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for
(2000)
"Having said all this, it is important not to take too far the process of
identification of the old religions with the new one. There is a powerful
tendency, which began with Protestant reformers, was continued by
nineteenth-century anti-clericalists and is preserved by many modern
writers, to assume that medieval Christianity was simply paganism given a
thin layer of Scripture" (286) Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the
Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1993)
"Magdalene can currently be seen rising out of a long, imposed sleep. Like
the story of Sleeping Beauty, she and her people have been ‘drugged’ into
unconsciousness for two thousand years, by an extraordinary effort to
suppress ‘the other half of the story’, Her story. From the moment that
Peter’s Church formed the ‘rock’ and foundation of Christianity, she was
written out of accepted doctrine, save for references to her as sinner, a
woman from whom seven devils were removed by Jesus, and the one who dried
the sweat on his body with her long hair. Peter’s religious authority
stemmed from the church’s acceptance that he was the first disciple to see
Jesus appear after the crucifixion. Yet, three of the gospels claim that
Magdalene was the first to see him in the Garden. The sacred Grail pattern,
that requires presence of the feminine, was severed at the core during the
founding of the Church, yet the pieces are revealing themselves to any who
choose to awaken." Ani Williams, from "Mary
Magdalene: Mistress of the Grail"
“Elaine Pagels [author of The Gnostic Gospels] has drawn attention to
the polarity that was seen to exist from the second century between Mary
Magdalene and Peter. All the writings that extolled the role of Mary were
ultimately excluded from the canon. In the Pistis Sophia, Mary tells Jesus
of her fear of Peter: ‘Peter makes me hesitate; I am afraid of him, because
he hates the female race.’ If we think of this polarity not in personal
terms but as two traditions within Christianity, what we see are the church
of Peter, catholic, orthodox, male dominated and victorious, and the rival
church of Mary, Gnostic and heretical, worshipping a male/female deity and
served by priests of both sexes. In the legend of the Prince of Marseilles
(Ch.4) Peter's role is that of a guide to the historical sites of Jerusalem,
while Mary has the power of life and death. Triumphant Rome tried to
exterminate the Church of Mary, but only succeeded in driving it
underground. The rights of women were likewise repressed, though in the
Celtic world they retained many of their considerable ancient freedoms"
(129). Ean Begg, from The Cult of the Black Virgin
"Although touted as being true to Scripture, “The Passion of the Christ” is
largely based on the visions of two Catholic mystic nuns: St. Anne Catherine
Emmerich, an 18th century Augustinian nun, and Mary of Agreda, a 17th
century Franciscan nun. Of the former, Gibson said, “She supplied me with
stuff I never would have thought of.” (The New Yorker, Sept. 15, 2003). We
don’t doubt that she did, considering the Eye of Horus, a symbol of occult
illumination, which hovers over Anne Emmerich on an Augustianian website.
Emmerich’s book, The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, opens with a
strange encounter with Satan who is accusing Jesus of “having spent the
price of the property of Mary Magdalen at Magdalum.” Whatever that means,
Emmerich exalted Mary Magdalene above the apostles, most of whom desert
Jesus at the cross, while “Magdalen” accompanies the “Blessed Virgin” and
apostle John along the Via Dolorosa, performing the ‘Stations of the Cross’.
“I beheld the spiritual communication which [Jesus and His mother] had
with each other, under the form of rays passing to and fro between them. Our
Divine Lord thought also of Magdalen, was touched by her distress, and
therefore recommended his Apostles to console her; for he knew that her love
for his adorable Person was greater than that felt for him by any one save
his Blessed Mother, and he foresaw that she would suffer much for his sake,
and never offend him more.”
On ABC’s Primetime interview with Mel Gibson, Diane Sawyer noted the
centrality of Mary Magdalene in the film as the friend who remained close to
Jesus throughout His ordeal: “What you see is his mother Mary, not far from
her Mary Magdalene, the sinner who stayed by Jesus’ side.” Barbara Aho, from
"Mel Gibson’s Film “The
Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
" Who is that “Principal Figure”– the friend of Jesus who never falls? The
wording is ambiguous, poorly written, so that “Principal Figure” could be
taken to refer to “Him” in the next sentence, meaning Jesus. However,
previously Mr. Dean stated, “Jesus’ friends – they all fall. Everyone,
except the Principal Figure.” In other words, the “Principal Figure” is one
of Jesus’ friends. The term “Principal Figure” turns up not infrequently in
occult literature with reference to the Great Mother Goddess and her
replications. A few examples are:
“A pantheon was presided over by the father of the gods, but a goddess was
the principal figure in the Phoenician pantheon.” (Phoenician Canaanite
Religion–Pagan)
“In addition to Vaishnavism and Shaivism, however, there is yet another
tradition in the later centuries of the Common Era, known as the Shakta
tradition or simply Saktism, in which the Great Goddess herself becomes the
principal figure.” (The Power of the Great Goddess)
“Morgana, a principal figure in Celtic legend and Arthurian romance…” (Dark
Goddess: Remembrance of Deities Past)
Virgo, the Great Mother Goddess of remote antiquity, was the archetype after
which the various mother goddesses of paganism were patterned, including the
Merovingian adaptation of Mary Magdalene. It was in the pagan culture of
Alexandria, Egypt that Gnosticism, the synthesis of paganism and
Christianity, was born. There the dark-skinned Mother Goddess, Isis, evolved
into another Black Virgin, Mary Magdalene. According to The Cult of the
Black Virgin by Ean Begg:
“The Black Virgin [is] a continuation of the cult of Isis, as Christianity
took over her chapels and her images... [M]any of the finest Gnostic
writings are of Alexandrian inspiration or origin. Alexandria is also the
main source of Gnostic works linking Jesus with Mary Magdalene. According to
this tradition it was through the Magdalen, rather than through Peter and
the male apostles, that Jesus transmitted his secret doctrine.” (p. 128)"
Barbara Aho, from "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
Chapter 5 - Opus Dei
"As president-general of Opus Dei, Bishop Aringosa had spent the last decade
of his life spreading the message of "God's Work - literally Opus Dei"
(28). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"The problem of any organized religion is always the same: how to imbue its
followers with such a profound sense of purpose that old habits and
personality patterns are permanently remoulded" (387). Colin Wilson, from
The Occult (2003)
In The Da Vinci Code, "the plot revolves, in part, around a blindly
obedient member of the Catholic organization Opus Dei who commits murder to
conceal ancient evidence that the group believes would destroy the Christian
faith." Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
"Opus Dei (Latin, "The Work of God", "God's Work") is a Roman Catholic
organization founded on October 2, 1928, by St. Josemaría Escrivá, a Spanish
priest.Opus Dei has approximately 85,000 members in 60 countries, and is
based in Rome. It was erected as a Personal Prelature by Pope John Paul II
in 1982, who also canonized its founder on October 6, 2002."
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
"The aim of Opus Dei is "to contribute to [the] evangelizing mission of the
Church by spreading the universal call to holiness"; it "encourages
Christians of all social classes to live consistently with their faith, in
the middle of the ordinary circumstances of their lives, especially through
the sanctification of their work." From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Early Opus Dei flourished in the atmosphere of religious fervor within the
winning side of the Spanish Civil War. Its founder, Josemaría Escrivá de
Balaguer, was a strong supporter of the "Crusade" as the Spanish bishops
labeled the war. He wrote his main book -- Camino (The Way) -- during the
war, in Burgos, close to the Franco headquarters, where he made
well-connected friends. Camino sums up Escriva´s "national catholicism", the
Trento doctrine which canonized the union between Church and State. Escriva
conceived Opus Dei as a sort of Catholic answer to the liberal, secularist
Institución Libre de Enseñanza which was blamed by the Spanish Church for
the growing secularization of Republican Spain in the thirties and he
enrolled young intellectuals to devote their lives entirely to the cause."
Alberto Moncada, from "The
Evolution of Opus Dei"
"Opus Dei's political ideology has changed little since the 1950s when two
of its leading strategists, Rafael Calvo Serer, a former director of the
Spanish Institute in London, and Florentino Perez -Embid, published their
treatises on Opus Dei as a Catholic regenerator with worldwide reach. They
maintained that the emergence of a new Spain within the European Community
presented a God-given opportunity to recreate a form of militant Catholicism
initiated by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in the 16th century. Charles V was
known as God's viceroy on earth. His imperial policies brought Spain to the
height of her creative success, but they also aggravated the European rift
between Catholics and Protestants and ended up bankrupting the empire.
Nevertheless he placed on Peter's throne two popes of his choosing." Robert
Hutchison, from "The
Vatican's Own Cult," The Guardian (London)/September 10, 1997
"Opus Dei crossed
the Atlantic and took root in Chicago in 1949. Since then, according to Opus
Dei’s Office of Communications, it has spread its “apostolic activities”
into about 35 cities in the United States. Internationally, the Work is
known foremost for its members’ conservative political influence, according
to the British journalist Robert Hutchinson, author of Their Kingdom
Come: Inside The Secret World Of Opus Dei, and a reporter for The
Guardian. Hutchinson argues that Opus Dei’s political contacts
“blossomed” in the United States during the Reagan years when the Work
“placed its agents inside the White House and recruited among the middle
ranks of the Pentagon.” Elizabeth W. Green, from "Opening
the doors of Opus Dei"
"Of course, it's fiction. But in the front of the book, a page headlined
"FACT" offers this description of Opus Dei: "a deeply devout Catholic sect
that has been the topic of recent controversy due to reports of
brainwashing, coercion and a dangerous practice known as 'corporal
mortification.'" Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
"The organization is also controversial for its practices of mortification
of the flesh; its founder is recorded as having whipped himself until the
wall of the room was splattered with blood. In his writings, he stated:
"Blessed be pain. Loved be pain. Sanctified be pain. . . Glorified be pain!"
(The Way, 208)." From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Historians have long noted that medieval writers and theologians spoke
about the body as a material aggregate of the individual's moral status"
(158). Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic
Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"They always say we are not monks, we are just normal, ordinary Catholics,"
explains Revered Alvaro de Silva, a priest who left Opus Dei in 1999 after
35 years. "I said, 'Wait a second, how can you say you are like everybody
else? You cannot read Raymond Brown, you cannot go to the movies, you have
to go to confession every week. That is not normal." Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
"Escrivá's obsession with Vatican innovations put him in continual conflict
with other church leaders. Before he died it seems that he declared to his
"children" that, as things stood, Opus Dei was the only group faithful to
the Gospel, that Biblical remnant of Israel to which God confided the
mission of returning the flood waters to their channel." Alberto Moncada,
from "The
Evolution of Opus Dei"
"Pope John Paul II gave the movement a unique status in the church, making
it a "personal prelature." That exempts the group from the jurisdiction of
local bishops, a move Opus Dei had long campaigned for and which previous
popes resisted. Some observers think the pope, a conservative, saw the
movement as a useful ally in the church's version of the culture wars — the
struggles between progressives and traditionalists ongoing since Vatican
II." Ron Grossman, from "Covert
Catholics?: Group keeps a low profile but commands high influence"
Author Dan Brown says, "I worked very hard to create a fair and balanced
depiction of Opus Dei....Their portrayal in the novel is based on more than
a dozen books written about Opus Dei, as well as on my own personal
interviews with current and former members." Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
"The secretive, intimidating style of recruitment continues after the child
or adolescent joins Opus Dei. He or she is distanced from family and
friends; reading materials are restricted; schedules, choice of studies, and
place of residence are imposed; consciences are manipulated; members are
controlled professionally and economically; Opus Dei becomes a Spanish,
Catholic version of hermetic sects in which religion works basically as bait
to attract new members." Alberto Moncada, from "The
Evolution of Opus Dei"
In reaction to The Da Vinci Code, "Brian Finnerty, Opus Dei's U.S.
communications director, said a letter was sent asking Doubleday to remove
the "FACT" page and to correct such claims as the novel's notion that Opus
Dei had drugged college students to recruit them." Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
"Despite the clear parallels between current anti-cultism and the passions
of earlier conflicts, the negative stereotype of cults is so widely accepted
that most nonspecialists would disagree with the characterization of cult
mind control as pseudo-scientific. It is thus important to note that almost
all mainstream academic researchers reject the popular stereotype of new
religions deceptively recruiting and brainwashing their members, and that
almost all of the studies supporting the notion of cultic mind control are
so obviously biased that mainstream social scientific journals routinely do
not publish them" (160). James R. Lewis, from Legitimating New Religions
(2003)
"Robert Hutchinson, Their Kingdom Come (1996) and Maria del Carmen
Tapia, Beyond the Threshold (1998) have reported that Opus Dei
falsifies and destroys documents. These claims are credible because they are
consistent with my own experience. During my stint as a numerary, I
witnessed the numeraries, including the directors, intermittently burning
books in the garden at the back of the center. Usually, Protestant Bibles
and books on the theory of evolution." Joseph I. B. Gonzales, from
"The Vocation Trap"
"Robert Royal, president of the Washington-based Faith and Reason Institute,
said Opus Dei has "a kind of energizing spirit" that has attracted many
well-educated young people. "I don't know many Catholic things that have
that kind of juice," he said. "It's kind of remarkable. I think the attack
on it is because it's been successful and it's been powerful in its kind of
way." Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
"Harvard has been producing a steady stream of leaders in Opus Dei for
nearly half a century. Over the past 40 years, at least three of those
holding the highest position of authority within Opus Dei’s U.S. branch were
Harvard graduates." Elizabeth W. Green, from "Opening
the doors of Opus Dei"
"In the United States, former FBI Director Louis Freeh is rumored to belong
to the organization, as are Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas. Opus Dei denies these rumors. The Boston Globe reported
connections between the Opus Dei priest Father C. John McCloskey and some
conservative Catholic politicians, and convicted spy Robert Hanssen was an
Opus Dei supernumerary."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"In 1990, for example, after a stormy five-year tenure at Princeton
University, McCloskey was dismissed as an associate chaplain after students
and faculty petitioned for his removal. They claimed that McCloskey violated
academic freedom by counseling against taking courses taught by professors
whom McCloskey deemed "anti-Christian," which McCloskey argued was part of
his pastoral role. Advising Catholic parents shopping for a college for
their children, he later wrote, "If you encounter words and phrases like
'values,' 'openness,' 'just society,' 'search,' 'diversity,' and
'professional preparation,' move on." Charles P. Pierce, from
"The Crusaders" Boston Globe, 11/2/2003
"McCloskey personally baptized Judge Robert Bork, political pundits Robert
Novak and Lawrence Kudlow, publisher Alfred Regnery, financier Lewis
Lehrman, and US Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, whose baptismal sponsor was
another senator, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. In 2000, McCloskey baptized
Mark Belnick, the embattled top lawyer at Tyco International, who responded
by donating $2 million to a Catholic college and to an antiabortion group."
Charles P. Pierce, from
"The Crusaders" Boston Globe, 11/2/2003
"...Tyco counsel, Mark Belnick, gave the Work a black eye when he was
charged with embezzling millions that allegedly went to the Work." Craig
Offman, from "Thank You Lord May I Have Another" in GQ December 2003,
page 273
"The conservative opposition is tied in to the elites of Washington, D.C. --
McCloskey's high-profile catechumens are hardly the only example -- and its
magazines and think tanks are funded by the same foundations that have been
the fountainhead of movement conservatism over the past three decades."
Charles P. Pierce, from
"The Crusaders" Boston Globe, 11/2/2003
"Escrivá had placed special emphasis on Opus Dei's journalistic endeavors --
"We must wrap the world in printed paper" he used to say." Alberto Moncada,
from "The
Evolution of Opus Dei"
"The sect also... operates what it calls an "apostolate of the press"
through which it secretly controls a significant number of broadcast
networks, news publications, press agencies, film production companies and
publishing houses. It admits that members are present on the staffs of more
than 600 newspapers, magazines and scientific publications world-wide."
from The Herald (Glasgow)/August 11, 1997:
"Church braced
against book on powerful cult working at its core"
"The meeting at the Cosmos Club was a perfect amalgam of conservative
Catholicism and conservative politics, both being addressed on parallel
tracks. Besides Noonan, the gathering included Frank Hanna 3d, an Atlanta
millionaire who was one of the founders of Newt Gingrich's GOPAC political
operation and who, to the Federal Election Commission, also has contributed
heavily to Republican candidates all over the country. Robert George, a
member of the President's Council on Bioethics and a leading opponent of
stem-cell research, also was at the meeting. George had been appointed to
the council at the last minute by the first President Bush, and he served as
a conservative gadfly on the panel throughout the Clinton years. Among other
things, George regularly compares the abortion pill RU-486 to the Zyklon B
gas used by the Nazis in concentration camps during World War II." Charles
P. Pierce, from
"The Crusaders" Boston Globe, 11/2/2003
"One of Spain's leading theologians, Juan Martin Velasco, remarked: 'We
cannot portray as a model of Christian living someone who has served the
power of the state and who used that power to launch his Opus, which he ran
with obscure criteria - like a Mafia shrouded in white - not accepting the
papal magisterium when it failed to coincide with his way of thinking'.
Robert Hutchison, from "The
Vatican's Own Cult," The Guardian (London)/September 10, 1997
"More to the point, we need to ask what secrecy, class-bound caste systems
and sado-masochistic abuse have to do with our church. What possible
activity could any Catholic group be engaged in that justifies secrecy? If
the work of Opus Dei is so vital to the Vatican, why not shout it from the
rooftops and make both their membership lists and their practices public?
Is there something that the Vatican does not want us to know about them?
These are questions we’re long overdue in asking and it should be evident to
all Catholics that any organization that claims the need to live under cover
of darkness has nothing whatever to do with Jesus Christ." Catharine A.
Henningsen, from "Luminous
Fallibility: Spies, Spooks and The Catholic Church?”
"In Belgium, France, Germany, and Italy, Opus Dei members are highly placed
in the commercial and central banking sectors and within the government
bureaucracy. Opus Dei was introduced to the Catholic aristocracy of Europe
by former Queen Fabiola of Belgium, who is related through the House of
Aragon to the Spanish Borbon family. One of Opus Dei's bitterest reversals
occurred earlier this year when a Belgian parliamentary commission placed
the organisation on a list of dangerous religious sects, proposing
legislation to bring them under stricter control." Robert Hutchison, from "The
Vatican's Own Cult," The Guardian (London)/September 10, 1997
"On the secular front, Opus Dei is well represented throughout Latin
America, where it has penetrated all levels of government, the military, and
the business and financial establishments. In Peru, for example, Opus Dei
forged a coalition of business and banking leaders with high-ranking
bureaucrats that gave its backing to President Alberto Fujimori." Robert
Hutchison, from "The
Vatican's Own Cult," The Guardian (London)/September 10, 1997
"Should an Opus Dei pope be elected, the sons of Josemaria Escriva will have
successfully created a neo-Renaissance power structure with striking
parallels to the one constructed by God's viceroy in the 16th century."
Robert Hutchison, from "The
Vatican's Own Cult," The Guardian (London)/September 10, 1997
"Still, de Silva said Opus Dei members can be justifiably upset at the
group's portrayal in "The Da Vinci Code." But he shared a hope that is also
a premise of the plot: That the next pope will be skeptical of Opus Dei. "My
hope is that Opus Dei will change and embrace modernity and the modern
Catholic Church," he said. "Maybe the next pope is going to be different,
and then Opus Dei will have to change." Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
Chapter 6 The Pentacle
"The bloody star, centered on Sauniere's navel, gave his corpse a
distinctly ghoulish aura" (35). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"The human being on earth within the old Pagan world view felt himself
membered into the whole cosmos. He felt how the forces at work in the
movements of the stars extended into his own actions, or, better said, into
the forces taking effect in his actions. What later passed for astrology,
and does so still, is but a reflection – and a very misleading one at that –
of the ancient was them gleaned from contemplation of the stars in their
courses and then used as the basis for precepts governing human action.”
Rudolph Steiner, from The Influence of Lucifer and Ahriman (1954)
“All of the signs of the Zodiac are occult signs. One just needs to learn and understand what they mean. The pentagram is also such a sign, to which you learn to connect certain sensations and feelings; it is a counterpart to astral processes. This language of signs, learned as esoteric script, simply reproduces the laws of the higher worlds” (130). Rudolph Steiner, from Esoteric Development (2003)
“The pentagram represents the fivefold human organization, secrecy, and what lives behind the species soul of roses. If you connect the petals in an image of a rose, you will see a pentagram” (130). Rudolph Steiner, from Esoteric Development (2003)
"The five-pointed pentacle was widely used as a symbol of health - or more
exactly, of those forces in the body that promoted health...Since the name
Jesus has five letters, the early Christian numerologists recognized the
power of the pentacle and used it as an amulet...the number 5 was also the
number of rebirth or resurrection"(38-9). David Ovason, from The Secret
Symbol of the Dollar Bill (2004)
"He gave the pentacle to his necromancer friend to hold, and he put the rest
of us in charge of the fire for the perfumes. And then he began his
incantations. All this lasted for over an hour and a half. Several legions
[of demon] appeared, till the Colosseum was filled with them." Benvenuto
Cellini, from The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini as quoted on
page 294 by Colin Wilson in The Occult (2003)
"1) The pentacle was linked with The Goddess Venus both in a primitive shape
reference and also in the fact that the PLANET Venus traces a perfect
pentacle across the ecliptic sky every 4 years. 2) Every 4 years is the
cycle used for the Olympic Games whose symbol was almost the pentacle but
was modified to use the 5 concentric rings representing harmony. 3) The
pentacle is the perfect representation of the mathematical idea of PHI also
known as the Golden ratio or the divine proportion." Clint, from "The
Pentacle"
"Are the "Sons of God" from Venus?
"John HESSDER, in an American work on the universe, published in
1938:"ASTRONOMY "- page 231 - seems to give us the answer: "Advances in
science prove to us that nothing is impossible, man has already conquered
the air. Tomorrow, in twenty or fifty years perhaps, they will strike out to
conquer space, ils franchiront comme des bolidea les espaces
interplanétaires, tel est l'éternel retour des choses".
In our solar system, this land might not have been the first conquest of
this race from venus, the colonization of our planet at one remote time gave
us the civilizations of the Lemurians, Gondwanians, Muians, Atlantians and
the Bible is extremely explicit (see Genesis VI/2/3):
".....when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters
were born to them, that the "Sons of God" found "the daughters of men" that
they were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves of all whom they
chose.... "
And still this passage ("Genesis VI/4"):
"the giants (2)
[ (2) These giants, the Titans, children of the "Sky and Earth" whose only
vestiges that remain are the famous monoliths, themselves struck down. ]
"There were giants on the earth in those days and also afterwards, when the
"Sons of God" came in to the "Daughters of Men" and they bore children."
Pierre Plantard, from "Are
the "Sons of God" from Venus?" in Circuit No 3 September 1959
"The war mentioned between the yellow and the black men, relates to a
struggle between the "sons of God" and the "sons of giants," or the
inhabitants and magicians of Atlantis." H. P. Blavatsky, from
The Secret
Doctrine -- Vol. 2 on THE "SONS OF GOD" AND THE "SACRED ISLAND."
“One advanced student of magic…felt certain that Sauniere was secretly performing a ritual known as “The Convocation of Venus”. According to this informant, that ritual is a very effective and accurate way of forecasting the future…This particular spell was believed to have been facilitated by the presence of a “natural” pentagon on the ground at Rennes, and by its correspondence to the celestial pentagon which the planet Venus appears to trace out every eight years. It was also hinted that there were strong sexual overtones in the convocation ritual, as Venus-Aphrodite was traditionally the goddess of physical love (3) “ Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, from Secrets of Rennes le Chateau (1992)
"Anyway, 2 interesting books I had read on it were Genisis by David Wood and Geneset: Target Earth by David Wood and Ian Campbell. Their conclusion, from studying the geography of the area, is that the "mystery" is the origin of human beings on this planet. The seed of Set (Satan) came in the form of a comet and planted life on this planet. This is the "big secret" that the Vatican has been hiding and the Priory of Sion have been preserving." dtop23 from "Tue Mar 16, 2004 2:18 am"
"June 8 of this year marks the once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event called the “Transit of Venus”. Interestingly, 8, June marks the death of Mohammed and the founding of Islam. The Transit of Venus is an astronomical event much like a solar eclipse, except the planet Venus crosses between the Sun and Earth. In addition to this year, the Transit will re-occur again on June 6th, 2012. The year 2012 stands out in South American lore as the culmination of the Mayan calendar, and Venus is associated with Quetzal Coatl, the Mayan Christ figure who roamed the earth in AD 40. Transits of Venus are associated with huge leaps forward in human knowledge. For example, the last Transit of Venus occurred back in 1882, right around the discovery of electricity. This transit also coincided with the eruption of the Krakatau volcano shortly afterwards, and the shockwave was mistaken for an earthquake for miles. As a result, particle dust blocked out enough harmful solar radiation to cool the planet by 1.2 degrees in 1883." reader "A" from "Transit of Venus, Terror and the Caldera"
"... The letter 'Q' derives from the Venus symbol (circle with cross below it) - a symbol equally attributed to Isis, Nin-khursag, Lilith and Kali, all of whom were deemed 'black but beautiful' (Song of Solomon 1:5). Lilith and Kali were both titular names, with Kali appropriated from kala (the periodic time of the female lunar cycle), while Nin-khursag was the ultimate Lady of Life. Hers was the genus which constituted the true 'beginning' of the sacred bloodline - the Genesis of the Grail Kings" (132). Laurence Gardner, from Genesis of the Grail Kings (2001)
"...each of the five points are also associated with one of the planets.
Starting at the head, and working clockwise, these are: Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Mercury, and Venus....To reach Sunday (literally, Sun's Day), you
move from Saturn, up the center of the leg, to the symbol that represents
the Sun, on the man's stomach. This is an example of how the magical
pentagram, or five-pointed star, is linked in magic with time - that is,
with the sequence of days" (40-1) David Ovason, from The Secret Symbol
of the Dollar Bill (2004)
"The use of the pentagram in Christian sacred geometry is due in no small
part to the writings of Hildegard of Bingen, the twelfth century Benedictine
nun and abbess. For her, the pentagram was the central symbol of the
microcosm, the reflection on Earth of the divine plan and the divine image.
Hildegard saw the pentagram as representing the human form because we have
five senses – sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch; and five extremities
– two legs, two arms and a head. And, because humankind was made in God’s
image, she also saw the pentagram as representing God. Other Christians saw
the symbol as representing the five wounds of Christ and, as such, it was
considered a potent protection against evil. Earlier Hebrew tradition
associated the pentagram with the Pentateuch, the first five books of the
bible." from "A Sacred
Geometry Primer"
"Any thing that existed in the image of God had resistance to demons. Thus
medieval theologians and preachers regularly asserted that the human soul,
of either sex, was off limits to demonic invasion" (139). Nancy Caciola,
from Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages
(2003)
"This invulnerability of the soul to demonic infiltration is, of course,
intimately related to its sacrosanct status as an image of God..."(139).
Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in
the Middle Ages (2003)
"Thus anything in imagine Dei possesses the apotopaic quality of
warding off demonic attack. The implications of this position are clear: if,
as Aquinas and others argued, the souls of men and women were equally images
of God, then the souls of both sexes were equally resistant to demons. In
the case of the body, however, there was a distinction between the two
sexes. A man's physical participation in the image of God constructed his
body as more fully resistant to the physical invasions of unclean spirits
than the female body" (139). Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits:
Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"Lacking the physical image of God, the female body lay open and defenseless
against demonic invasion. Though it certainly is true that adult men
sometimes were believed to be physically possessed by demons, their relative
scarcity among demoniacs may be attributable , in part, to the prevalence of
broad symbolic associations such as these...Since women's bodies did not
possess the imprint and image of the divine, demons had little to fear from
entering them. Unclean spirits could transgress, boldly, into female bodily
space, possessing their physical territory and stopping short only at the
borders of the soul" (139) Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits: Divine
and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"During the Middle Ages the pentacle acted as a password of sorts, being a
sign of recognition to members of the ‘invisible college’ or those who
pursued the forbidden knowledge of the sciences despite the inherent dangers
of doing so at a time when such academic interests as mathematics and
astronomy were deemed by the Inquisition to be synonymous with black magic
and sorcery and were punishable by death by being burned alive. But why did
these men choose the pentagram as there ‘password?’ As well as exemplifying
the Golden Ratio, the pentagram is featured in a little-known astronomical
phenomenon. By mapping the position of Venus when occulted by the sun, the
planet inscribes an immense pentagram within the zodiac over the course of
eight years. (NOTE: 8 and 5 [as in the 5 points or angles of the pentagram]
are also part of the Fibonacci sequence). In that Venus (the bright morning
star, i.e. Lucifer or the Light-bearer) is the only planet in the solar
system that traces such a precise geometrical pattern, the sign was adopted
by the ancient Magi (Mesopotamian astronomers) as well as other adepts who
studied and recorded the motions of celestial bodies." Danny Carey from:
PAR CE SIGNE TU LE
VAINCRAS
"The five-pointed star was, and still is, considered to be a symbol of the
spirit in communion with the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. In
the course of his drawings Leonardo da Vinci illustrated this communion by
equating the microcosm of a single person, himself, with the macrocosm of
the cosmos by staking himself out naked upon an irregular pentalpha … the
"as above, so below" principle. At the time this would have been considered
to be a very daring version of the crucifixion of Jesus on the Cross … at
least by those people who understood the esoteric meaning."
"Within this Great Year are four Seasons, which are defined by the Spring,
Summer, Autumn and Winter Equinoxes. For this reason the Great Year is also
referred to as the Precession of the Equinoxes. Within each Season are three
Ages. For example, within the Zodiacal Season of Taurus there are the three
Ages of Taurus (the Bull), Aries (the Ram) and Pisces (the Fish). Within the
Zodiacal Season of Aquarius there are the three Ages of Aquarius (Man),
Capricorn (the Sea Goat) and Sagittarius (the Archer). Each Zodiacal Season
comprises a 90-degree right-angle … like a set-square. Each Zodiacal Season
is a one fourth part of a circle and, like Leonardo da Vinci, is standing on
the square. Although he was not technically a Freemason Leonardo was,
perhaps not surprisingly, a member of the Prierre de Sion., the Priory of
the Sun. As such he would have been well aware of the Royal Arch of the Ages
of the Zodiac and the concept of Precession. At the time however it would
have been considered heresy to admit to such knowledge. When the
five-pointed star is circumscribed by a circle, as it was in Da Vinci's
illustration, it becomes a pentacle. It is uncanny that Nature has
reproduced this Sacred Geometry in France, near Rennes-le-Chateau, in the
form of five mountains virtually equidistant around the circumference of a
circle." Sacred Stars and Treasure Maps."
"Of further interest to those students of Thelemic occultism is the notion
that Sauniere attended a Martinist Lodge in Lyon and may have traveled in
the same esoteric circles as those initiated into the Rite of
Memphis-Misraim, the French OTO, and Gnostic Church. All of these were
quasi-Masonic Orders whose rituals of the higher degrees involved sacred
sexuality (i.e. a western version of tantra) with the various elixirs
produced being the preferred sacrament (see OTO Rituals and Sex Magick by
Reuss and Crowley). In the light of these new revelations, there may be an
overriding sexual component in the symbology encoded in the statuary group.
A tantric formula concerning the nature of baptism by true Holy Water which
the angels have dipped their fingers into prior to making the sign of the
Venusian pentagram." Danny Carey from:
PAR CE SIGNE TU LE
VAINCRAS
"Telepathically, the "man" informed Adamski he was from Venus, and that he
was concerned about the possibility of atomic bomb radiation from Earth
reaching other planets in the solar system, and that various beings from
throughout the galaxy were visiting Earth harboring these same concerns.
According to Adamski, he was taken aboard one of the alien ships and flown
around to several venues throughout the universe, including the dark side of
the moon. During the course of his ariel foray, Adamski took an array of
spurious photographs that have been widely viewed as a hoax. In
"Unidentified Fascist Observatories", John Judge asserts that Adamski was an
asset of the CIA, who in his lecture tours throughout the 50's and 60's
dispersed disinfo on behalf of the Company. Adamski's colleague--George
Hunt Williamson--went on to author several UFO books, such as Other
Tongues--Other Flesh, and promulgated the idea of a cosmic good-versus-evil
battle taking place between the "good guys" from the dog star, Sirius,
versus the evil shit-kickers from Orion. Strangely enough, the planet Sirius
is a recurring theme found throughout Occult and UFO lore." Adam Gorightly,
from "Ritual
Magic, Mind Control and the UFO Phenomenon (Part 1)"
Chapter 7 Women's Rights
"Sadly, while most of the Catholic Church was gradually moving in the right
direction with respect to women's rights, Opus Dei threatened to reverse the
progress" (41) Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"The current resurgence of Goddess spirituality manifests in many ways. In
the Christian church, hymnals have been produced in which the deity is
female, and some branches of Christianity now recognize women as priests"
(168). Phillip Shallcrass, from "A Priest of the Goddess" in Nature
Religion Today (1998) edited by Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts and
Geoffrey Samuel
"Women were the weaker sex, the softer sex, the less rational sex. Women's
bodies were the glory of man, not the image of God. Women were moist; they
were cool; they received impressions readily. The female temperament was
sluggish, but paradoxically women also were hysterical, prone to fantasies
and frenzies. Women's wombs filled up with corrupting humors that clouded
their minds and vision" (151). Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits:
Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"Thus Albertus Magnus, having discussed the elements and humors in his
Questions on Animals, asks whether men are better able to learn moral
behavior than women. The answer: yes, "because the coldness of complexion in
the woman diminishes her perceptive abilities...and in consequence she is of
weaker intellect" (144). Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits: Divine
and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"A brief review of church writers gives us a window into their attitudes:
Women cannot touch the host because "that blood is so execrable and impure"
(Rufinus)
Women cannot touch sacred vessels because birth of a girl child is doubly
cursed (Sicardus of Cremona)
Women are the last choice for baptizing
Women forbidden to enter the sanctuary, approach the altar or carry
communion to the sick
Women cannot touch altar vessels, clothes or incense the altar
Conception during menstruation causes deformity (Origen, Jerome, and Clement
of Alexandria, Caesarius of Arles)
Menstruation as symbol of uncontrolled worldly passion (Ambrose)
Menstruation as symbol of ignorance (Augustine)" Kim E. Power, from "
Tradition or
Tyranny? Women and the Catholic Church Yesterday and Today"
"Women have already been disparaged as inferior to men on account of their
perceived greater materiality. Now they are also demonised as evil
temptresses, profane and polluting. Christianity portrays women as the
Devil's gateway, while the Buddha liberalised the metaphor: 'It is better
that your penis enter the mouth of a hideous cobra or a pit of blazing coals
than enter a women's vagina'." (112), Elizabeth Puttick, from "Goddesses
and Gopis: In Search of New Models of Female Sexuality" in Nature
Religion Today (1998) edited by Joanne Pearson, Richard H. Roberts and
Geoffrey Samuel
"And so since the woman is deficient in intellectual operations, which
consist in the understanding of good, and the grasp of truth, and fleeing
from evil, she therefore is more directed toward the sensual appetites,
which tend toward evil...Hence the senses move woman to every evil, just as
the intellect moves man to every good" (265). Albertus Magnus,
Quaestiones de animalibus 15.6 as quoted by Nancy Caciola in
Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages
(2003)
"What is clear to all who survey the Gospels is that Jesus treats women in a
manner that can only be described in his day as radical and subversive. He
contravenes all cultural and rabbinical restrictions on contact and teaching
of women. Attitudes which stand out in the numerous encounters he has with
women are always affirmative of their full humanity and the integrity of
their moral being." Kenneth H. Maahs, from "Male & Female in Pauline
Perspective: A Study in Biblical Ambivalence," Dialogue & Alliance,
vol. 2, no. 3 (Fall 1988), p. 20
"Speaking before a recent Opus Dei gathering in New York... the Rev. Malcolm
Kennedy, an Opus Dei priest for more than 30 years, criticized feminism as
being against the spirit of the Virgin Mary. He also said "the sexual
revolution" helped contribute to a decline in purity and innocence in
American culture." David Ruppe, from: "Opus
Dei: A Return to Tradition," ABC News/June 18, 2001
"Though both men and women were made vulnerable by the seven sensory
openings of the body...the additional association between women and a more
general porosity rendered her especially defenseless" (158). Nancy Caciola,
from Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages
(2003)
"...Opus Dei spokesman Finnerty was quick to highlight comments by the
group's current leader in Rome, Bishop Javier Echevarria, in favor of what
he called "true feminism" and the "equal dignity of men and women." "At the
heart of true feminism there has to be, as is obvious, an increasing
awareness of women's dignity," said Echeverria. "This is very different from
those other, usually aggressive, types of feminism, that try to claim that a
person's sex is a purely physical thing, with no deeper human or social
relevance." David Ruppe, from: "Opus
Dei: A Return to Tradition," ABC News/June 18, 2001
" Thus, among other things, women sleep on planks and used to have to ask
permission to drink water between meals, although the latter rule was
recently abolished. Needless to say, women count for little in internal
government and limit themselves to applying the resolutions taken by male
authorities. " Alberto Moncada, from "The
Evolution of Opus Dei"
"Huxley attributed the relative disappearance of trance states in
contemporary society to improvements in diet, and he proposed this as a
major factor in lessening the influence of the Church" (132). Leonard
Shlain, from Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human
Evolution (2003)
"Sharon Clasen, who lives in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, was introduced
to the group as a Boston College freshman. The dormitories were full, so a
friend recommended Bayridge, an off-campus women's residence hall run by
Opus Dei. She moved in, was attracted by the warm and supportive atmosphere
and eventually became a member. "After I joined, they gave me a barbed-wire
chain to wear on my leg for two hours a day and a whip to hit my buttocks
with," said Clasen, who has since left the group." Ron Grossman, from "Covert
Catholics?: Group keeps a low profile but commands high influence"
"Clasen said that the bloody whippings Silas gives himself in "The Da Vinci
Code" are exaggerated, although less severe than the beatings Escriva is
reported to have given himself." Paul Moses, from
"Fact Fiction
and Opus Dei" in Newsday - August 26, 2003
“The cohesion of sadistic brutality and mystical sentiments is usually to be met with wherever the normal capacity to experience orgasm is disturbed. And this is as true of a mass murderer of our time as it was of the inquisitors of the Middle Ages or the brutality and mysticism of Phillip II of Spain. If hysteria does not stifle unresolved excitation in nervous impotence, or a compulsive neurosis does not stifle the same excitation in futile and grotesque compulsive symptoms, the patriarchal-authoritarian compulsive order offers sufficient opportunity for sadistic-mystical discharges. The social rationalization of such behavior effaces is pathological character” (137-8). Wilhelm Reich, from The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1970)
"They have, besides giving over all of your salary and your letters to be
read both going and coming and all your reading and books and everything,
they directed you to use the cilis which is a spike chain. [Tammy holds up
the cilice.] The purpose of it is penance and trying to identify with the
sufferings of Christ and offering that up for the different people that you
want to join Opus Dei." Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees, from CNN transcript
"Secret
Societies: Opus Dei"
"Woman should be given the same opportunities as men, the prelate said, and
noted women in Opus Dei pursue all types of careers. With equal
opportunities, he said, "a woman can retain her identity and not fall into
the trap of thinking she will find her true identity by aping men or
imitating their ways and gestures. Women, Echevarria said, should rebel
against pornography as well as against "the sorry, misguided claim that
abortion should be a right, and against divorce, which can only be described
as a social disaster, quite apart from being an offense against God." David
Ruppe, from: "Opus
Dei: A Return to Tradition," ABC News/June 18, 2001
"Escrivá shared the misogyny frequent in Catholic theology and discipline
and created a structure in which the primary activity of women was to care
for houses and centers of the Work. Indeed one type of female members, who
come from modest homes, were termed "servants" in the first edition of the
Constitution. The result of this setup is that the numeraries are the last
remaining males in Western countries, especially in Spain, who enjoy the
prerogatives of traditional gentlemen, who do not get involved in household
matters because that is the business of the women of the family or, in the
present case, of his sisters in the apostolate."
Alberto Moncada, from "The
Evolution of Opus Dei"
"If, for example, the Eucharist was believed to "seal" the body against
demonic influence, then the predilection of lay religious women for frequent
communion may have additional overtones beyond the obvious, and
well-documented, aspects of divine union implied in the practice. In
addition, one could interpret the incorporation of the Body of Christ as a
temporary means of enfolding within oneself the imago Dei - Christ
himself. Since all that was in God's image was thereby rendered more
invulnerable to demonic possession, frequent reception of the Host would
indeed have been a sealing technique" (159).
Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in
the Middle Ages (2003)
"It is harder today, but perhaps even more necessary, to affirm the
sacredness of the erotic... AIDS...has become an excuse for an attack on the
erotic, especially on those forms that do not meet society's approval...If
society valued the erotic as sacred, AIDS research would be a top priority,
as would research on safe forms of birth control" (9). Starhawk, from The
Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess
(1979)
"Many of the spiritual exercises most intimately associated with inspired
women in the later Middle Ages may be read as attempts to "seal" the
elementally open and porous body....Not only does fasting involve refusal to
bring food or drink from outside the body in, but there is a corresponding
cessation of normal purgative activities, such as menstruation, sweating,
urination and evacuation....Thus by putting a stop to all such purgative
processes and exchanges, the ascetic woman may be understood as having
de-feminized - that is, sealed - her body" (159). Nancy Caciola, from
Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages
(2003)
Chapter 8 Draconian
O, Draconian devil! (43). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"Genealogical examinations extending back at least four generations of mothers on each side (five if the prospective bride was a Levite or Israelite) were very carefully performed for all priests and for some Levites, as well as their wives. The extreme seriousness of these concerns can be seen from by the fact that priestly families typically went beyond the law by invoking draconian penalties on anyone whose sexual behavior might bring defilement on the family" (120-1). Kevin MacDonald, from A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora Peoples (2002)
"In addition to the connection of Magdalene to the sea, there appeared a general connection to water. La Dompna del Aquae (Mistress of the Waters) was a term for her who, legend has it, was buried at Aix en Provence (Acqs – water). Royal descendants in Grail lore, the Merovingian kings, became known as Fisher Kings - the successor to the French throne is the "dauphin", dolphin! The Red Dragon of Wales emblem evolved from serpents, dragons or Holy Crocodile, Draco, that represented the Pendragon Celtic kings." from "Mermaids - Spirits or Goddesses?"
"There is a considerable body of literature pertaining to what has been referred to as Blood Atavism (in Kenneth Grant's usage of the term, at least) -- or the Atavistic powers of the Blood. On the negative side, this is just the sort of thing racial purists use to promote their highly flawed doctrines. On the other side, though, it is a truth, a law of nature, which applies to all races. The Blood is just as Royal, in African lineages as it is in Aztecan, Mayan, Incan, or Celtic and Frankish lineages. Each has its symbols and rituals to activate it. We who happen to come from the same set of factors which produced the Merovingians, the Celts, etc., activate it through the Myths, Legends, Symbols, and Rituals of our collective past. Our vast mine of legends, from Sumer and Egypt; Greece; Phoenicia; Rome and Europe, covering a very wide expanse in terms of Space-Time, a figure amounting to at least 5 digits, is ours to utilize. We are our Ancestors, today! Their stories, their rituals, are ours. The problem with so many of us in America is that we have had a break in the transmission, due to both the less positive effects of the Reformation, and due to lack of interest. Many of us have brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, parents and grandparents who didn't care to continue the traditions, whether family folk stories or Masonic connections, because post-WW2 America was more alluring and important. True, in many cases, it was, for a time, but the Past, and Its Legacy, is Eternal." THE BRETHREN OF THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE GIFT
"In
European alchemy the coarse starting material for the experiments is known
as the prima materia and is of a fundamentally feminine nature. Likewise, as
in the tantras, base substances such as excrement, urine, menstrual blood,
part of corpses and so forth are named in the alchemic texts, no matter
which culture they belong to, as the physical starting materials for the
experiments. Symbolically, the primal material is describe in images such as
“snake, dragon, toad, viper, python”. It is also represented by every
conceivable repulsive female figure — by witches, mixers of poison, whores,
chthonic goddesses, by the “dragon mother” so often cited in depth
psychology. All these are metaphors for the demonic nature of the feminine,
as we also know it from as far back as the early phase of Buddhism. We may
recall that Shakyamuni compared women in general with snakes, sharks and
whores." Victor und Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"In strict terms, the original Star Fire was the lunar essence of the
Goddess, but even in an everyday mundane environment, menstruum contains the
most valuable endocrinal secretions, particularly those of the pineal and
pituitary glands. The brain's pineal gland in particular was directly
associated with the Tree of Life, for this tiny gland was said to secrete
the very essence of active longevity, referred to as soma - or as the Greeks
called it, ambrosia.
In mystic circles, the menstrual flow-er (she who flows) has long been the
designated flower, and is represented as a lily or a lotus. Indeed, the
definition 'flow-er' is the very root of the modern word flower. In ancient
Sumer, the key females of the royal succession were all venerated as lilies,
having such names as Lili, Luluwa, Lilith, Lilutu and Lillette.
In pictorial representation, the Messianic Dragon bore little relation to
the winged, fire-breathing beast of later western mythology. It was, in
essence, a large-jawed serpent with four legs - very much like a crocodile
or a monitor. This was the sacred Messeh whose name was Draco. This
sovereign beast was a divine emblem of the Egyptian pharaohs, a symbol of
the Egyptian Therapeutate in Karnak and Qumrân, while also being the Bistea
Neptunis sea-serpent of the descendant Merovingian Fisher Kings in Gaul."
Laurence Gardner , from "Lecture
1 - Bloodline of the Holy Grail"
"The Therapeutae and the Essenes also used the symbol of the ‘messeh’, the
‘Draco’ crocodile of Egypt, the fat of which anointed the Pharaohs under the
authority of the Royal Court of the Dragon. The Essenes had a detailed
understanding of drugs, including the hallucinogenic variety, which were
used in mystery school initiations and for entering other states of
consciousness.. The properties of the ‘sacred mushrooms’ or ‘Holy Plant’
were so much part of the life in the secret brotherhood that the Jewish high
priest wore a mushroom cap to acknowledge their importance. They had special
rituals for their preparation and use. The mushroom, too, was given ‘son of
God’ connotations (what wasn’t) and it was connected to the sun cycle."
David Icke, from "Chapter
Four - The Suns of God" - The Biggest Secret
"Altho a major upstart of the Gardner/Sitchen scholarship is to show that
the bible's Old Testament is mostly watered down mistranslating of the
Sumerian tablets ( SUMMAIRE MEANS DRAC/DRAGON/DRACO in Celtic.. the An from
Ori/an.. Ur [light from]An.. ) ..they do little to explain what that means
to the genepool the An-nunaki/Enlil/Yalweh/H-Niburu crew hacked up (our
cro-magnon ancestral dna worm ancestry) to make their borgs (tak-adama=borgs
from orion)." Dan Winter, from "OrionGen
of Arthur: Blood Of Merkabbah- Messeh/Messiah Reptile Blood, Germain Origins
of Vampire Myth"
"We WERE conceived literally in the dream to make gold, but at that time
THEY did not know that MEANT a heart of gold (MAGnetically imploding EKG
actually COULD accelerate the DNA into the high rent district - superluminal
penetration into time travel /ensoulment. ) To those shape shifting Drac's
we can now say: careful what you wish for, because you may get it. The kids
you conceived by taking cromagnon sperm into a human/reptilian cross Innana
Niburu woman, to improve your gold mining slave holding, SUDDENLY HAS
UPSTAGED YOU in the galactic worming squabble over who steers the stars.
Whatever genepool gets skill level in embedding suddenly rules the roost
because suction into their dna worm imploding GETS TO STEER!" Dan Winter,
from "OrionGen of Arthur: Blood
Of Merkabbah- Messeh/Messiah Reptile Blood, Germain Origins of Vampire Myth"
"This voyage of Prophet Muhammad is very similar to the voyage of Prophet Enoch....The journey of Muhammad is known as 'Merage'. It is a fascinating account of a cosmic ride... In this story too 'Throne of God' exists and we have many reasons to believe that it is a palace which exists somewhere in Draco." sheraz from "This voyage.."
Chapter 9 454
"Apparently, 454 was Sophie's remote access code for picking up her
messages while away from home" (52) Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
There are 454 pages in The Da Vinci Code.
Chapter 10 Twenty Million Euro
"Twenty million euro, the bishop thought, now gazing out the plane's
window" (59). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"Roman Catholic imagery is endemic in Europe, and has been wholeheartedly embraced by the European government. The design of the European flag was inspired by the halo of 12 stars around the pictures of the Madonna, and appears prominently on the Council of Europe stained-glass window in Strasbourg Cathedral" (49). Adrian Hilton, from The Principality and Power of Europe (1997)
"Novalis's intuition is confirmed today at a time when at the political level there is an effort to overcome precisely the Europe of national borders. Evidence of this position's validity is the decisive role the current pope had in the liberation of Eastern Europe from communist domination, which is certainly one of the conditions for the "recovery of the West." At a time when people think again of a unified Europe, Christianity - and Catholic Christianity in particular - has gained a renewed currency" (75). Gianni Vattimo, from After Christianity (2002)
“On 15th December 1995, the EU’s leaders agreed that the intended single currency would be called the ‘Euro.’ The Spanish finance minister of the day, Pedro Solbes, made a play on Jesus’ words to the Apostle Peter about building the Church by affirming that the Euro would be the very foundation of a united Europe. This remark needs to be evaluated in the context of the EU’s past use of a poster of the Tower of Babel, over which the EU’s flag’s circle of stars are displayed in the inverted form of a pentagram (113) Adrian Hilton, from The Principality and Power of Europe (1997)
"The organisation was linked, through its connection with the Vatican bank
and Banco Ambrosiano, to the Italian financier Roberto Calvi, dubbed "God's
Banker", who was found dead under Blackfriars Bridge in London. Mr Hutchison
first became interested in Opus Dei in the 1960s when a banker in Geneva
told him that the organisation was one of the largest speculators in the
Eurodollar market." from The Herald (Glasgow)/August 11, 1997:
"Church braced
against book on powerful cult working at its core"
"Another amazing sign of the times is the "Euro" currency... This single
currency ties together....European nations into one economy. Nothing like
this has ever happened before, and it is the rising of the beast system
before our very eyes. The symbol of the "Euro" currency looks like a large
letter "C" with two horizontal lines running through it. The "C" is more
like an abstract crescent moon, and the symbol is usually displayed with a
background of five-pointed stars or pentacles indicating the elements of
earth, wind, fire, water and spirit.... The horizontal bars represent the
astral plane, and the two sides of the "force" in witchcraft. (5) Last
Trumpet Ministries, from "Illuminism,
A Beast System Marked For Destruction!"
Chapter 11 Fibonacci Sequence
"This is the Fibonacci sequence," she declared, nodding toward the piece of
paper in Fache's hand." A progression in which each term is equal to the sum
of the two preceding terms"" (60-1). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"The mathematician credited with the discovery of this series is Leonardo
Pisano Fibonacci and there is a publication devoted to disseminating
information about its unique mathematical properties, The Fibonacci
Quarterly Fibonacci ratios appear in the ratio of the number of spiral arms
in daisies, in the chronology of rabbit populations, in the sequence of leaf
patterns as they twist around a branch, and a myriad of places in nature
where self-generating patterns are in effect. The sequence is the rational
progression towards the irrational number embodied in the quintessential
golden ratio. This most aesthetically pleasing proportion, phi, has been
utilized by numerous artists since (and probably before!) the construction
of the Great Pyramid. As scholars and artists of eras gone by discovered
(such as Leonardo da Vinci, Plato , & Pythagoras), the intentional use of
these natural proportions in art of various forms expands our sense of
beauty, balance & harmony to optimal effect. Leonardo da Vinci used the
Golden Ratio in his painting of The Last Supper in both the overall
composition (three vertical Golden Rectangles, and a decagon (which contains
the golden ratio) for alignment of the central figure of Jesus." National
Occult Research Association, from "What
is Sacred Geometry?"
"The actual dimensions of the Golden Mean are 1 to 1.618…, which is
illustrated in a number sequence known as the “Fibonacci Series.” Discovered
by an Italian Mathematician named Leonardo of Pisa who was more popularly
known as “Fibonacci,” the series derived from his observances of the
patterns in nature whereby it was calculated that each number in the series
after one would be determined by adding together the two numbers that
precede it. For example, 0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3. 2+3=5 and so on, resulting in
the following pattern;
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…………..
Beginning with the number 3, if one were to divide any number in the series
by the number which precedes it, the answer would get progressively closer
and closer to 1.618… as the size of the numbers increase, therefore making
the Fibonacci Series the perfect algorhythm for growth.
The never ending decimal that represents the proportion of the Golden Mean
is the basis for the perfect figures of Plane Geometry as well as the so
called “Platonic Solids” (which were actually derived by Plato from the work
of Pythagoras). Many of these perfect figures such as the Pentagram (5
pointed Star), Hexagram (6 pointed star), and Heptagram (7 pointed star)
also have an esoteric or hermetic meaning beyond their basic mathematical
significance, the reason for this being because the Ancient Adepts
recognized that the most efficacious way to express eternal concepts was
through infinite symbols which held no cultural bias. Frater R.S. from "Symbolic
Ignorance"
"The book has some great information in it- which is the problem! It
popularises the secrets and pagan influences of the Catholic Church and
makes it avalible to anyone!... I think it's the kind of stuff you learn in
University or at some lecture in Illinois, not in an easy to read fiction
suitable for 12 year olds! Not only that, it perverts the Fibonacci
sequence....I just feel...betrayed because things that i have known and
suspected for years have been stolen. Dan Brown popularises things that
should not be popular...a great percentage of people who read this book will
go around saying "I'm a Goddess-worshipping Pagan!" and draw pentacles on
their arms." Meggles, from "Dan
Brown Go Home!"
Chapter 12 13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
"13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
O, Draconian devil!
Oh, lame saint!
P.S. Find Robert Langdon" (67) . Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"Before he died, Sauniere stripped and lay down on the floor in the position
of a male figure in a famous anatomical drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci, the
Vitruvian Man. He also drew a pentagram on his stomach in his own blood, and
left a bizarre message written in a black light marker near his body. Tim
Callahan from "The
Royal Myth of the Da Vinci Code"
"This sequence of
numbers is defined as -the numbers in the Fibonacci sequence 0, 1, 1, 2, 3,
5, 8, 13, 21, . . . , each of which, after the second is the sum of the two
previous ones (source). These numbers are used many time through the book,
excluding the zero, and normally in the mixed up sequence of
13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5." Chris Ogden, on "The
Da Vinci Code"
"The numbers, when sequenced from low to high, are a Fibonacci series:
scrambled: 13-3-2-21-1-1-8-5
unscrambled: 1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21
This is a sequence of numbers created by adding the last two numbers in the
sequence to get the next one. Thus, starting with 1, we get 1 + 0 = 1, then
1 + 1=2, then 1 + 2 =3 , etc. This sequential system was invented by the
13th-century Italian mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci. Sophie then reveals
to Langdon the final line of the coded message, which Fache had covered up:
"P.S. Find Robert Langdon." This is why Fache suspects Langdon of the
murder. However, it turns out that the message Sauniere left wasn't for the
police at all, but for Sophie Nevue: P.S. stands for Princess Sophie,
Sauniere's nickname for her. Sophie is his granddaughter. Langdon figures
out that the rest of the coded message is an anagram:
O Draconian devil! (Leonardo Da Vinci)
Oh, lame saint (The Mona Lisa)
Tim Callahan from "The
Royal Myth of the Da Vinci Code"
Chapter 13 The Vitruvian Man
"The Vitruvian Man," she said flatly.
"Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man was originally an illustration for a book on the
works of the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (1st century B.C.), who
designed many of the most beautiful temples in Rome... Echoing the ancient
Greeks, the human body was seen as symbolic of all Nature, the microcosm
reflecting the macrocosm. Thus Nature, in the form of the human body, was to
be the architect’s (or the artist’s) guide. In this form of architecture (or
art, engineering, or planning, etc.) the science of geometry is employed by
means of small whole numbers to build the composition. In this manner
Vitruvius delineated the proportion of a male human body that Leonardo so
faithfully reproduced in his Vitruvian Man. Obviously this drawing contains
many layers of geometry and symbolism" (8) Rosicrucian Digest Vol. 81 No. 3
2003
"The reader is treated to examples of Langdon's lectures: in one, the
Vitruvian man becomes a vehicle for explaining the "divine proportion," or
golden section, as a fundamental building block of nature. This concept was
popular in the Renaissance and derived from a treatise by the ancient Roman
architect Marcus Vitruvius. Many artists drew the Vitruvian man, hoping that
it would unlock the secret relationship between the microcosm of man and the
macrocosm of the world. Bruce Boucher, from
"Does 'The Da
Vinci Code' Crack Leonardo?"
"If
we want to grasp the true nature of matter, we need to understand that the
members of secret societies such as the Masonic Order are required to swear
on pain of death that they will “ever conceal and never reveal” the secrets
of the Order, and for a Royal Arch Mason and above, “murder and treason
[are] not excepted.” (Duncan, 1865, Still, 1990.) One of the ultimate
Masonic secrets is that geometry is the hidden key to unlock the mysteries
of the Universe – i.e., “God Geometrizes.” (Lawlor, 1985)." David Wilcock
with L/L Research, from "The
“Matrix” is a Reality"
Chapter 14 P.S.
"P.S. Find Robert Langdon" (72). Dan Brown, from The Da
Vinci Code
" P.S. in Sauniere's message not only means Princess Sofie, but Priory of
Sion as well." Tim Callahan from "The
Royal Myth of the Da Vinci Code"
"One of Brown's "facts" includes existence of a secret society, known as the Priory of Sion, founded in 1099 with a membership roll that includes Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo. "It was created in the 1970s and used forged documents that were slipped into the national library in Paris. No historian believes there's any historical basis to it," says Gasque. And on top of that, says Dorothy McDougall of the Toronto School of Theology, the keepers of the great secret of the sacred feminine were a brotherhood. "So the author himself falls prey to a patriarchal framework." "There are real gender and institutional issues that need to be considered," she says. "The church is the last male bastion and needs to be critiqued. But I don't see it as a conscious conspiracy. It's unconscious and The Da Vinci Code raises it to a conscious conspiracy in a way that isn't altogether fair to history." Leslie Scrivener, from "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" in Toronto Star Apr. 10, 2004
"However extravagant the legends surrounding the Merovingians, they would
seem to rest on some concrete basis, some status enjoyed by the Merovingian
monarchs during their own lifetimes. In fact the Merovingians were not
regarded as kings in the modern sense of that word. They were regarded as
Priest-Kings -- embodiments of the divine, in other words, not unlike, say,
the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs. They did not rule simply by God's graces. On
the contrary, they were apparently deemed the living embodiment and
incarnation of God's grace -- a status usually reserved exclusively for
Jesus. And they seem to have engaged in ritual practices that partake, if
anything, more of a priesthood than of kingship" (236). Laurence Gardner,
from Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
"The demonic Merovingian bloodline ruled Europe from the 5th to 8th
centuries. In 751 A.D., a 5th century document was discovered called the
Donation of Constantine, which gave the Pope, as Christ’s representative,
sole authority to appoint kings. The last Merovingian king, Childeric III
was promptly deposed and, in 800 A.D., Charlemagne became Holy Roman
Emperor. Following their demise, the Merovingians proceeded to infiltrate
the Roman Church by building Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries, which
gave rise to the Prieuré de Sion (a ‘priory’ is a monastery) and the Knights
Templar who were warrior-monks." Barbara Aho, from "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"That the Merovingian bloodline came from elsewhere is clear because of the
legend that surrounds their founder, King Merovee, who is said to have been
the spawn of a "Quinotaur," a giant fish or a sea monster, who raped his
mother when she went out to swim in the ocean. Now it becomes clear why he
is called "Merovee," because in French, mer means sea. And in some
traditions, Atlantis was called Meru, or Maru. (It is also the name of the
famous "World Mountain" of Eastern tradition.) For these gods, navigation
above all was important to them, for it was their sea power that maintained
their military might and their successful mercantile trade. (Mer is also the
origin of the word "mercantile.") The Atlanteans were associated with the
sea and were often depicted as mermen, or sea monsters, with scales, fins,
and horns. And they were variously associated with a number of important
animals, whose symbolism they held sacred: horses, bulls, goats, rams,
lions, fish, serpents, dragons, even cats and dogs. And as we will see, all
of these things relate back to the sea imagery with which these gods were
associated."
Tracy R. Twyman , from "The
Merovingian Mythos: Its Symbolic Significance and its Roots in the Ancient
Kingdom of Atlantis"
"Now lets go back to the Quinotaur, which some have named as being
synonymous with Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea and, according to Plato,
one of the famous kings of Atlantis. Others have seen it as being emblematic
of the fish symbol that Christ is associated with, thus indicating that he
was in fact the origin of the bloodline." Tracy R. Twyman, from "The
Merovingian Mythos: Its Symbolic Significance and its Roots in the Ancient
Kingdom of Atlantis"
"VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING on the Internet about the Priory of Sion can be
described as pure hokum that cannot be treated seriously. The various
accounts found on all the websites are all similar to each other and are
mostly plagiarisms of the accounts found in The Holy Blood and the Holy
Grail [1] and in The Messianic Legacy." Paul Smith, from
"Priory of Sion Misconceptions
–Robert Richardson and Steven Mizrach
"The whole history of the Priory of Sion is one of deception and confidence
trickery – it was a fake society that never existed – simply the product of
someone by the name of Pierre Plantard who had spent time in prison during
the 1950s over breaking French Law relating to fraud and embezzlement." Paul
Smith, from "Priory of
Sion Debunked"
"The historical evidence shows that the Priory of Sion was founded in 1956
and named after the nearby hill to Saint Julien-en-Genevois called Mont Sion
– and had nothing whatever to do with the ‘Sion’ in Jerusalem – the alleged
‘history’ of the Priory of Sion dating from the period of the Crusades and
Godfrey de Bouillon as mentioned in the Priory Documents is a historical
fiction concocted by Pierre Plantard during the 1960s – and here again,
Steven Mizrach refuses to comment upon the virulent anti-semitism of Godfrey
de Bouillon (and this ‘history’ was revoked, rejected and replaced by
another ‘Priory of Sion history’ concocted by Pierre Plantard during the
late 1980s/early 1990s)" Eric P. Wijnants
"DaVinci Code
Revealed: The Movie, P.1"
"Pierre Plantard had a shadowy background – he was a supporter of the Vichy
regime in Wartime France – and his past involved anti-semitic, right-wing
politics within an esoteric framework – in 1942 he founded an Order of
Knighthood called the Alpha Galates, and was sentenced to four months in
Fresnes prison for not registering it with the authorities (Secret Service
Report, dated 13 February 1945)." Paul Smith, from "Priory
of Sion Debunked"
"That the Alpha Galates were anti-semitic in nature is specified in Article
Seven of their Statutes: "The Order is rigorously closed to Jews and to any
member who is recognised as belonging to a Judaeo-Masonic order." [8] The
part stating "belonging to a Judeo-Masonic order" is a reference to the
Grand Orient – the French Masonic Body that was accused by the Right of
causing the French Revolution and the downfall of the French Monarchy
through the manipulations of Adam Weishaupt (a German Jew) following the
Masonic Congress of Wilhemsbad in 1782, which was responsible for
introducing rationalism into Freemasonry [9]. This created the Tradition of
the Grand Occident in France (the word ‘Occident’ is frequently found in the
pages of Vaincre) – involving Right Wing Roman Catholicism, anti-semitism
and Counter-Revolutionary objectives in general – this Tradition manifested
itself into Orders of Chivalric Knighthoods in France by World War Two
following the dissolution of French Freemasonry and the Grand Orient by
Marshal Pétain in 1940." Paul Smith, from "Priory
of Sion Misconceptions –Robert Richardson and Steven Mizrach"
"...people get lost in certain obsessive details regarding this mystery, in
particular details having to do with the life of Jesus, the idea of some
type of mysterious bloodline with genes from
(G-d/aliens/angels/Nephilim/Merovech/take your pick), lost artefacts (the
Shroud of Turin, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the head of John
the Baptist, etc.), or conspiracy theories (on the part of the Catholic
Church, the French Geographic Institute/IGN, and various ludicrous New World
Orders)." Steven Mizrach, from "Priory
of Sion: The Facts, The Theories, The Mystery"
"The “Prieure de Sion”, or “Priory of Sion (Zion)” first began publicizing
itself, in modern times, at least, in 1956, when an explosion of written
material regarding Rennes-le-Chateau, the Templars, and the Merovingians
began to appear in France. The majority of this material appeared to the
authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail to have originated from the same group of
people - although credited to divergent and supposedly unrelated authors.
Most of these authors appeared to have inside knowledge of the
Rennes-le-Chateau affair, and this information was leaked systematically
through tantalizing tidbits that served to whet the reader’s appetite, and
increase the aura of mystery already surrounding the whole affair. In short,
it appeared to be “propaganda” which promoted the subject of
Rennes-le-Chateau and the Merovingian monarchy on the part of this shadowy
organization. Tracy R. Twyman, "A
History of the Priory of Sion and Their Involvement with the Knights Templar"
"Sion: It's not clear which Sion the Priory of Sion takes its name from: Mt.
Sion in Jerusalem, or Mt. Sion in Switzerland. In 1956, the PoS registered
itself at Annemasse, not too far from Sion, Switzerland. Many of the first
"prieure documents" seem to have been released through the Swiss Grand Loge
Alpina (GLA). The full name of the group, according to its statutes, is the
Priory of Our Lady of Zion, or "Sionis Prioratus", with the subtitle
CIRCUIT, which is said to stand for Chivalry of Catholic Rules and
Institutions of the Independent and Traditionalist Union. In the 19th
century, Sion-Vaudemont was the site of an unusual series of events: a
restoration effort of the Catholic shrines on the mountain by the Brothers
Baillard was "derailed" by the Church, only to be resumed by a Norman
Johannite mystic named Michel "Elias the Prophet" Vintras whose Church of
Carmel preached the Joachmite dispensation and said the Magdalene would be
the Mediatrix of the New Age." Steven Mizrach, from "Priory
of Sion: The Facts, The Theories, The Mystery"
"The origin of Plantard’s 1960s claim to be descended from the Merovingian
Kings of France was investigated during the mid-1980s and has been traced to
an article by Louis Saurel which appeared in the 1960 French magazine ‘Les
Cahiers de l’Histoire’ Number 1, ‘Les Rois et Les Gouvernements de la
France: des origins à nos jours’. This article creates the impression that
Dagobert II (who Plantard claimed to be descended from) was the last
Merovingian King before the advent of the "Mayors of the Palace" took over
(the forerunners to the later Carolingian Kings of France). Saurel’s article
was copied virtually word-for-word in a 1965 Priory Document ascribed to
Anne-Léa Hisler ‘Rois et Gouvernants de la France: Les Dynasties depuis
l’origine’, and the whole genealogical framework found in other documents by
a ‘Henri Lobineau’ which contained the added fictitious names of Plantard’s
"ancestors" were all inspired this 1960 article by Louis Saurel." Paul
Smith, from "Priory of
Sion Debunked"
"One of the most significant “Priory documents” was Le Serpent Rouge. This
consisted of a prose poem, thirteen stanzas in length, each dedicated to one
of the houses in the thirteen-house zodiac system used by the Priory of Sion
(which we will discuss more later on.) It also contained a Merovingian
genealogy, two maps of medieval France, and a map of the grounds of the
Seminary of Saint Sulpice. The poem, although cryptic, made clear allusions
to Rennes-le-Chateau, Mary Magdalen, January 17th, Freemasonry, alchemy, and
a host of other subjects pertaining to the mystery at hand. It appeared to
provide, in coded language, step by step instructions for discovering the
secret of Rennes-le-Chateau. The authors were purported to be named “Louis
Saint-Maxent, Pierre Feugere, and Gaston de Koker”, three men who, just days
after the poem was deposited in the library, were found hanged without
explanation." Tracy R. Twyman, "A
History of the Priory of Sion and Their Involvement with the Knights Templar"
“…Le Serpent Rouge (The Red Snake), was published or at any rate appeared publicaly for the first time in 1967... The document speaks of a red snake ‘cited in the parchments’ uncoiling across centuries. This comment the authors consider to be a reference to a bloodline. However, this symbol and its colour is already familiar to us from many other contexts which have nothing to do with bloodlines, but always with the moon. The entry for the sign of Leo contains these words: ‘From she whom I desire to liberate….Formerly some named her ISIS, queen or all sources benevolent….To others she is MAGDALENE, of the celebrated vase filled with healing balm. The initiated know her true name: Notre DAME DES CROSS’ The reference to Isis here of course takes us back a very long way before the time of Christ, and she of course is a moon goddess” (188). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"...the guiding force behind Pierre Plantard's activities. His name is Paul
le Cour. The guiding influence behind Paul le Cour is Alexis de Sarachaga...
one of Sarachaga's interests was Christian Esotericism.
"In 1877, the Hieron (du Val d'Or) became a society with four explicit
purposes.
1. The demonstration of the origins of Christianity from the mythical
Atlantis
2. The reconstitution of a universal sacred tradition
3. The preparation for the year 2000 of a politic and social reign of
Christ
the King
4. The teaching of the sacred name of Aor-Agni - Light-Fire - as the key to
the whole knowledge." Christine Gater, from "Paul
Le Cour's Atlantis"
"As the years progressed, the Priory itself became the target of Roman
Catholic hostilities, albeit in a far less drastic fashion. In 1619, the
Priory of Sion was evicted from their house at Saint-Samsom. They had
incurred the wrath of the Pope and the King of France for spending
extravagantly, boycotting Catholic services and being generally irreverent
towards all authority. From that point on, they disappear from the pages of
history, at least apparently, until their reemergence in the 20th century."
Tracy R. Twyman, "A
History of the Priory of Sion and Their Involvement with the Knights Templar"
"... Plantard was a typical example of a certain personality type - a
fantasist with a rich imagination, who wanted people to believe that he was
more important than he really was... Plantard strikes me as being very
similar to a certain Guido von List.... Born plain Guido List in Vienna in
1848 (he grafted the aristocratic “von” onto his name in the early 1900s in
the same way that Plantard added the “de Saint Clair” to his name), he took
over the family leather business on the death of his father; however, he
found that he wasn't cut out for commerce and retired, making a precarious
living from journalism instead. List claimed that the ancient Teutons had
practised a gnostic religion (Wotanism) emphasising the initiation of man
into natural mysteries. According to List, the priesthood of Wotanism was
called the Armanenschaft, named after one of the tribes in ancient Germany.
In succeeding centuries, he maintained, the Armanenschaft had gone
underground; its tenets were kept alive by a group of secret agents
including Pico della Mirandola and Giordano Bruno. (Does this sound anything
like the list of Priory of Sion Grand Masters to you?) " Miriam Ibbotson,
from "The
Priory of Sion Hoax: an A-Z"
"We cannot point to one man and assert that he is Jesus' lineal descendant.
There are at least a dozen families in Britain and Europe today -- with
numerous collateral branches - who are of Merovingian lineage. These include
the houses of Hapsburg-Lorraine (present titular dukes of Lorraine and kings
of Jerusalem), Plantard, Luxembourg, Montpezat, Montesquiou, and various
others. According to the 'Prieuré documents,' the Sinclair family in Britain
is also allied to the bloodline, as are various branches of the Stuarts..."
(409-10, 145-46). Michael Biagent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln, from
Holy Blood, Holy Grail, (1982)
"According to the Occult Roots of Nazism, List was one of the people whose
ideas influenced Nazism. Another was Madame Blavatsky, inventor of
Theosophy; the subjects she discusses in her works - Atlantis, race (in
particular the concept of “root races”) and hidden Tibetan cities - also
appear in Plantard’s Vaincre. What all these people - List, Blavatsky, St
Yves d’Alveydre and others - had in common is that they espoused the idea of
an elite, who are repositories of a secret body of knowledge which is too
complicated for the rest of us normal mortals to understand: only the
"chosen ones", the members of the inner circle, are fit to have access to
this knowledge. It’s a seductive notion: give up all ideas of personal
responsibility and let the “hidden masters” take care of things! But this
mindset, in common with the belief that a group of “outsiders” - i.e. the
Jews - were the cause of Germany’s problems - is precisely what led to
Hitler’s Third Reich." Miriam Ibbotson, from "
The Priory of
Sion Hoax: an A-Z "
"The Grand Masters of the Priory were officially called 'Nautonniers' or
navigators. Perhaps like real navigators they steered by the Great Bear"
(191). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth
(1995)
Chapter 15 The Keystone
"The Keystone. It will lead us to our final goal" (74).
Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"The term lapsit exillas can be translated as either "stone from
Heaven" or "stone from exile" - which some scholars believe could mean a
meteorite" (135). Karen Ralls, from The Templars and the Grail: Knights
of the Quest (2003)
"There is first of all an alchemical allusion, lapis exillis being
quite close to lapis elixir, which is the term used by the Arabs to
designate the Philosopher's Stone. Next the stone of the Grail guarded by
angels irresistibly summons thoughts of the Ka'aba stone in Mecca...One is
reminded in particular of the tradition that states that the Grail was
carved into the form of a vessel from the gigantic emerald that fell from
Lucifer's forehead...In addition, Wolfram's Grail/Stone bears a great
resemblance to the Manichaean jewel, the Buddhist padma mani, the
jewel found in the heart of the lotus that is the solar symbol of the Great
Liberation and which can also be found in the Indian traditions concerning
the Tree of Life" (133-4). Jean Markale, from The Grail (1999)
"The concept of a Black Madonna may be based on the material used to make
some of her earliest images - black meteoric stone. Historians show that the
Romans brought early images of the goddess Cybele from Phrygia in 204 B.C.
to what is now Vatican Hill in Rome and also to other areas in Europe. Some
of these early images of a black stone goddess, whom the Romans call "Magna
Mater," were later Christianized and became the Black Madonna. Similarly,
the shrine containing the black stone sacred to Islam, the Kaaba in Mecca,
is said to have been dedicated in pre-Islamic times to the triple goddess
Manat, Al-Lat, and Al-Uzza, and the new religion subsumed the sacred sites
of the old one" (71). Karen Ralls, from The Templars and the Grail:
Knights of the Quest (2003)
"This is Mt. Dindymus, the holy mountain of the ancient Phrygians, sacred to
the mysteries of the goddess Cybele, Queen of Heaven and Mother of the
Gods....This ancient pile of ruins was the sanctuary of the Goddess who
descended to earth as a stone, a large black and silver flecked cube of a
meteorite. Caves wind from the sanctuary all the way down to the river
below, and the actual mysteries were conducted in large corbel-vaulted
underground chambers. On Mt. Dindymus, little remains of these chambers, but
at the Cybele temple in Vienne, France, we can still see the walls of the
crypt and its pillars. These massive underground chambers would provide the
foundational support for many of the Gothic cathedrals, including Chartres,
Notre Dame de Paris and Amiens, just as the myth of Cybele, and her Grail
stone would provide the spiritual insight and soaring imagery. And, at the
heart of the hermetic expression, lay the ancient art and science, the
three-fold transmutation of alchemy." Vincent Bridges, from
Mysteries of the Great Cross at Hendaye: alchemy at the end of time
"The Priory has created a secret keystone that reveals the secret location
of the Holy Grail. However, in order to find the keystone, a series of codes
must be broken, including riddles and world scrambles that lead to famous
Leonardo da Vinci paintings that reveal secrets to lead to the next step of
the quest for the Grail." Liz Conway, from "Grail
quest chronicled in Code"
"Later in the story Wolfram says the Grail stone is an emerald that fell
from Lucifer's crown during the war in Heaven; angels who took neither side
in that war brought it to earth, where in remains" (135). Karen Ralls, from
The Templars and the Grail: Knights of the Quest (2003)
"There are some very good French books on Rennes-le-Château, based entirely
upon primary-source historical material. Then there are those who substitute
the Plantard myth with their own myths - be it landscape geometry, ufo's,
Mary Magdalene's remains, bloodline of Jesus Christ, or Saunière's
connections with Martinism, P-2, Opus Dei and even the key to the meaning of
life itself, some profound mystery revealed - anything and everything
except real history. It is not too surprising to witness those who become
intoxicated by the myth of a priest who allegedly discovered parchments
hidden in his church and consequently stumbled across an alternative history
of the world, giving him immense wealth. This is a tremendous pull and I was
one of those who were attracted to this fairy tale. But everything has to be
put to the test. If we are to be honest with ourselves we have to be
critical with the things we choose to believe in, otherwise we no longer
become historical researchers, but instead followers of a dodgy cult. Paul
Smith, from "11/02/00
- Message de Paul Smith"
"Should we then consider the veneration of Mary as the Mother of God to be
an extension of the cult of Cybele the Great Mother? The answer seems to be
yes, and Christian tradition appears to agree. After the crucifixion, Mary
was reported to have travelled to Ephesus in Asia Minor where she died and
was buried. As we know from the Acts of the Apostles, Ephesus was the center
of the cult of Artemis, the Roman Diana, as the Great Mother. After
preaching against the temple, St. Paul was accosted by a silversmith who
declared: "Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Yet it is in Ephesus that Mary
was first officially declared theotokos, or Mother of God, in 431
CE." Vincent Bridges, from
Mysteries of the Great Cross at Hendaye: alchemy at the end of time
"As the church labored on into the Dark Ages, the ancient statutes and
shrines of Our Lady were dedicated to the Virgin. The most sacred and
venerated of these statues depicted the Mother Goddess as black, echoing the
stone itself, and they
became the Black Virgins. Their sacred sites and shrines are in the same
places, springs and wells, caves on mountains tops and grottoes of all
kinds. The Black Madonna of Lyons is enshrined on a hilltop in a church
built from the ruins of the
former temple to Cybele, a case of direct transfer still visible to the
modern tourist. The crypts of Notre Dame de Paris and Chartres held its
Black Maddonas and shrines to Matrona. The Black Virgin of Chartres, Our
Lady Underground, is still there. All of these cave sanctuaries echo the
caves, grottoes and caverns that riddle Mt. Dindymus in Phrygia. The
original Kabiri were cave dwelling shaman/smiths and Fulcanelli instructs us
that "real, but occult, power… develops in the dark." Vincent Bridges, from
Mysteries of the Great Cross at Hendaye: alchemy at the end of time
"In the Secret Dossiers, there is a quote from historian René Grousse
stating that the kingship of De Bouillon’s brother, Baldwin I, rested upon a
“royal tradition”, itself “founded on the Rock of Zion”, which was described
as “equal” to that of all European dynasties. This is strange, considering
that at that time, Baldwin’s office as “King of Jerusalem” was an elected
position. But if Baldwin was indeed a descendant of the Merovingians, and
thus Christ and King David, this would explain the allusion to the “Rock of
Zion”, a reference to the sovereignty of David’s god-ordained kingship and
the divine right of his bloodline to rule. Further, if Baldwin had in fact
been installed in his office by an organization which represented that
bloodline, this would explain how he “owed his throne” to the Ordre de Sion.
This is certainly what it sounds like when contemporary chronicler Guillame
de Tyre writes that as soon as Jerusalem had been captured, a secret group
of unknown men, one “a certain bishop from Calabria”, met to offer the
throne of the new kingdom to Godfroi de Bouillon. For whatever reason, he
declined the “King” title, but accepted that of “Defender of the Holy
Sepulcher”, and when he died in 1100, his brother Baldwin gladly accepted
the crown." Tracy R. Twyman, "A
History of the Priory of Sion and Their Involvement with the Knights Templar"
Chapter 16 Sacre-Coeur
"And to the right, high atop the sloping of Montmarte, the graceful
arabesque dome of Sacre-Coeur, its polished stone glowing white like a
resplendent sanctuary" (78). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"The Cult of the Sacred Heart was the religious representative of the
deposed French Monarchy, whilst the figure of the Devil in his church is the
personification of the French Republic (he himself mentioned this in his
sermon)....The split between church and state in France occurred in 1905,
and it was following this event that Saunière was compelled by his Bishopric
(by which time it had become the puppet of the Republic, purging the
Monarchist priests) to explain his source of wealth. The Bishopric, in
effect, was trying to corner Saunière into admitting he was involved in
Anti-Republican activities. Over 1,000 Monarchist priests had action taken
against them following the split between church and state in 1905.
Pilgrimages to Catholic shrines were part and parcel of Anti-Republican
activity; when pilgrims reached their shrines, they made donations to the
priesthoods there. The Abbè Saunière set up a shrine devoted to the Virgin
of Lourdes - and Lourdes was a focus of anti-Republican activity...Saunière
was a Monarchist priest who arrived in Rennes-le-Château at a period of time
when the conflict between church and state was reaching its climax,
dividing the Monarchists and Republicans- those who would deny that Saunière
was politically active simply do not know their onions. They want to envelop
the village of Rennes-le-Château with mystification and occultism just to
sell their books." Paul Smith from "01/23/01
- Message de Paul Smith"
"The Sacred Heart: Thanks to Mary-Margaret Alacoque, the Sacred Heart of
Jesus seems to have become a curiously nationalistic symbol in France (like
that of the Chevalier Bayard), connected with the church and the monarchy.
It also became a central symbol for esotericists like Guenon. Guy Patton
argues that the Sacred Heart cultus in France is deeply associated with the
PoS, which he sees as a largely Catholic Traditionalist society, opposed (as
many Sacred Heart believers were) to modernism and liberal democracy. Paul
Smith, another researcher, thinks that Sauniere was primarily involved in
covert efforts to turn the Sacre-Coeur Basilica of Paris into a rallying
point for a restored Catholic monarchy. However, the Sacred Heart is a
multi-valent symbol, and there are those that argue that for the PoS, the
Sacred Heart they venerate is that of Mary Magdalene, not Jesus." Steven
Mizrach, from "Priory of
Sion: The Facts, The Theories, The Mystery"
"Some "prieure documents" suggest Sauniere was loosely connected to a type
of aristocratic and Hermetic Freemasonry (despite his being a priest) known
as the Hieron du Val d'Or. There seems to be a hint that the Hieron was the
"guise" of the "PoS" during that time period. From what people have written
about it, the Hieron seems to have been an 'esoteric research center'
located at Paray-le-Monial, "ground zero" of the Sacred Heart cult in
France. It conducted research into Atlantis and esoteric Catholicism. The
"prieure documents" also suggest that after Sauniere's death, the surrealist
artist/poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau became "GM" of the PoS in 1918.
Interestingly, right around the same time, Cocteau seems to have partnered
with Satie and Picasso on a production (Picasso's work was dominated by
PoS-type esoteric themes), and then he and Satie went on to form a musical
composing group, "Le Six," that were based on improvisation from Debussy's
work. The link between these two "GM"s was Erik Satie." Steven Mizrach, from
"Priory of Sion: The
Facts, The Theories, The Mystery"
Chapter 20 Tarot
"They played Tarot? The medieval Italian card game was so replete
with hidden heretical symbolism that Langdon had dedicated an entire chapter
in his new manuscript to the Tarot. The game's twenty-two cards bore names
like The Female Pope, The Empress, and The Star" (92). Dan
Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
“Numbers represent actual potencies in nature, such as the sequence of chemical elements in the periodic table, the notes in the musical scale or the wave lengths of colours in the visible spectrum. But, the sequence of natural numbers is more than just a way of counting quantity. It is this later mechanism which tarot uses in its organization” (13). A.T. Mann, from The Secrets of the Tarot: A Guide to Inner Wisdom (1993)
"In terms of its basic construction, the Tarot is comprised of 78 picture cards that are divided into two sections, the Minor Arcana or “Suits” containing 56 cards and the Major Arcana or “Trumps” containing 22 cards. The Minor Arcana is structured in the same way as our contemporary playing cards that are used for gambling and other such games of amusement, with 4 suits containing numbered cards from 1 to 10 followed by “Court Cards” depicting images of the traditional stations associated with Medievil royalty. By contrast, The Major Arcana is a collection of talismanic images commonly associated with the archetypal structure of the human experience. It is the images of the Major Arcana that are further associated with the Hebrew alphabet, both of these systems fitting perfectly into the conceptual map of the Qabalah known as “The Tree of Life.”“The most telling clue to link the Tarot cards with the Albigenses is the Tarot trump the Female Pope. In 1206 Dominic Guzman, the founder of the Catholic Dominican order, began to preach against the Albigenses. He accused them of ordaining women priests and of claiming spiritual descent from a female pope. He referred to her as “Joanna Aquila” – Joan the Eagle” (169-70). Graham Phillips, from The Chalice of Magdalene (2004)
"It
is not known whether the story of Pope Joan is true. The first known
reference to her occurs in the thirteenth century, 350 years after her
supposed reign. Around this time her image also began to appear as the High
Priestess card in the Tarot deck." from The Museum of Hoaxes on "Pope
Joan"
"The Catholic Church at first seemed to accept the reality of Pope Joan.
Marginal notes in a fifteenth century document refer to a statue called "The
Woman Pope with Her Child" that was supposedly erected near the Lateran.
There was also a rumor that for some years the chairs used during papal
consecrations had holes in their seats, so that an official check of the
pope's gender could be performed." from The Museum of Hoaxes on "Pope
Joan"
"During the Reformation in the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church began
to deny the existence of Pope Joan. However, at the same time, Protestant
writers insisted on her reality, primarily because the existence of a female
pope was a convenient piece of anti-Catholic propaganda." from The Museum
of Hoaxes on "Pope
Joan"
"Modern scholars have been unable to resolve the historicity of Pope Joan."
from The Museum of Hoaxes on "Pope
Joan"
"JUST one facet of the development of Pope Joan's legend remains to be looked at, but it is important, for above all others it is the one which has made her image familiar to vast numbers of people. However, the Female Pope or High Priestess card in the Tarot pack only appeared some 200 years after the story of Joan first arose, so it cannot have influenced the myth in its formative stages. The card is normally given the number two in the Major Trumps, and card number five, The Pope, is its logical opposite; just as The Empress and The Emperor (three and four respectively) counter-balance one another. The Female Pope is usually portrayed as a seated woman wearing clerical dress and a triple crown, and holding an open book on her lap. A detailed discussion of her particular significance to fortune-tellers and other Tarot card readers would be out of place here. Suffice it to say that she is supposed to represent hidden or esoteric knowledge, which is appropriate enough for a figure like Pope Joan who was noted for her scholarship and, so some writers claimed, her experience in the occult sciences." Rosemary and Darroll Pardoe, from "The Female Pope: The Mystery of Pope Joan"
"Renaissance art also depicts the legendary Pope Joan. For example, she appears among the historical popes in the 15th century Cathedral of Sienna. Joan was an Englishwoman who entered a monastic order disguised as a man. She rose in prominence and was elected pope, only to have her secret revealed when she collapsed in childbirth during a procession. The legend was quite popular during the time of the invention of the tarot, and persisted for centuries. However, Pope Joan is ordinarily depicted as giving birth or holding her baby." from "The High Priestess"
"Little ( The Hermitage: A Tarot History Site) develops the idea that the
Papess did not represent an individual person so much as a dualistic
principle to balance the male Pope card, just as the Empress forms the
female dual of the Emperor. This dualism, evident in many of the Tarot
trumps, may stem from Catharism, a popular dualist heresy that flourished in
the city states of northern Italy." from "The
High Priestess"
"As a public entity, Catharism was eradicated by the Inquisition by the
middle of the 14th century (Lambert, M. 1998. The Cathars. Blackwell,
Oxford) but dualistic concepts continued to influence Italian culture well
into the 15th century and beyond. This explanation is appealing because it
helps explain why the Papess evolved into the High Priestess even as its
dual, the Pope, evolved into the Hierophant." from "The
High Priestess"
"However, there are also hints that the Papess image was associated with a
Pagan goddess/priestess from the beginning. For example, the Papess may
represent Isis who was very much a part of Late Medieval and Renaissance
thinking. Peter Comestor wrote an influential history of God's People in
1160 that discusses Isis as the inventor of letters and writing. Isis also
appears as a complete chapter in the History of Jacopo da Bergamo (1483).
And we should not forget Plutarch's influential work: "Isis and Osiris" from
which we can get the modern associations with the crescent moon and water
seen in the Waite-Smith deck." from "The
High Priestess"
"An image of Isis appears in the Appartmento Borgia in the Vatican (Yates:
Giordano Bruno, plate 5). She is seated on a throne between two pillars with
a veil stretched between them and a book in her lap. There is also a
Renaissance image of Isis with the orb and horn crown (Shumaker: Occult
Sciences in the Renaissance, p 247)." from "The
High Priestess"
“It is with the story of the female pope that we find the most compelling evidence to link the Tarot with La Folie Perceval. Perceval is with the Pope in the Grail chapel before he is mysteriously transported back to the forest to find himself accompanied by the wise woman. After she reveals his lineage, the woman explains how she is so knowledgeable: “I was once as he who sent you here.” As it was the was the pope figure who seems to have transported Perceval from the Grail castle to the wise woman’s forest, she appears to be saying that she too was a pope. Her next line is even more significant: “I am the eagle who flew higher than any who dwelt in Rome.” According to Dominic Guzman in 1206, the female pope was called “Joanna Aquila,” Joan the Eagle, and as pope she would have ranked higher than anyone in the Roman Catholic Church. This clearly shows that not only is the wise woman in the Folie the Female Pope of the Tarot pack, but she is also perceived as Pope Joan” (171). Graham Phillips, from The Chalice of Magdalene (2004)
"So could the tarot Papess be Pope Joan? No doubt it is an association that would have come to mind for many who used the cards in their first centuries. Still, it seems a bit out of keeping with the character of the tarot cards taken as a whole. None of the cards are ever referred to by the names of specific personages. The kings are generic kings, the queens are generic queens, the Empress, Emperor, and Pope likewise. Furthermore, when Pope Joan is depicted in art, she is usually made recognizable by the inclusion of her newborn infant or, more gruesomely, by being shown hung from a gallows for her crime of impersonating a man. So it is unlikely that the tarot inventor intended the Papess card simply to portray Pope Joan as a specific person." Tom Tadfor Little, from "The History of the High Priestess (Papess) Card"
"According to Begg, the Tarot card associated with the mother goddess (Virgo) exalts her promiscuous character rather than any virtue: “Rákóczi writes of this card: To the more licentious it represented the ‘virgin quality’ that is gained, not by pure living, but by plunging into the abyss of sexual indulgence; here we have the exultation of the prostitute as a saint and the saint treated as one who is ‘impure’. Hence, Gypsies often call this the Magdalene card... ” Barbara Aho, from "Mel Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
Chapter 22 Rose Line
"Here, the glistening Rose line took a ninely-degree vertical turn
and continued directly up the face of the obelisk itself, ascending
thrity-three feet to the very tip of the pyramidical apex, where it finally
ceased" (103). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"The Rose with its word anagram ‘Eros’, has long been associated with ‘Our
Lady’, whether she be in her role as Mary the Mother, Magdalene the Lover,
or Saint. It is also associated with the heart of Christ, the Rose of
Sharon. The five-petalled rose, Rosa Rugosa, is the earth’s oldest known
variety of rose and is a repeating symbol present at many Templar church
sites that we visited." Ani Williams, from "Mary
Magdalene: Mistress of the Grail"
Chapter 23 Feminine Deities
"And it all fits perfectly with their fascination for goddess iconography,
paganism, feminine deities, and contempt for the Church. Priory has a
well-documented history of reverence for the sacred feminine" (112). Dan
Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"In the period after World War II, Western Society began to turn its
attention to the Goddess. The war had emphasized the disparity between
women's inferior social status and their contributions to all areas of life.
The gender imbalance had become glaringly obvious, and mainstream religion
appeared to endorse it. At the same time, post-war re-industrialization and
a growing materialism in society alienated an increasing number of people
who were looking for a spiritual alternative to technological progress. The
Goddess provided that alternative, offering not only the liberty to choose a
different style of worship, but also a concept of the human being as a part
of Nature" (150-1). Shahrukh Husain, from The Goddess: Power, Sexuality,
and the Feminine Divine (2003)
"Before forming the Priory of Sion in 1956 with three colleagues situated
close to the Mountain of Sion in the Haute-Savoie region of France, Pierre
Plantard was a wartime pro-Pétain supporter who formed an anti-semitic and
anti-freemasonic organisation in 1942 called the Alpha Galates. The
Merovingian genealogies and his claim to be the direct lineal descendant of
King Dagobert II as found in the later Priory Documents (1964 onwards) are
merely varied manifestations of his earlier pro-monarchist sympathies (he
was in fact descended from a 16th century peasant who picked walnuts).
Whereas Plantard was on the fringes of right-wing politics, operating merely
only one type of many marginal esoteric nationalistic groups
(unsuccessfully) during Vichyite France, Saunière was far more successful
and more in contact with the mainstream right-wing tendencies of his period,
simply because he was a priest. France was still on the verge of restoring
the monarchy during the late 19th century and anti-Republicanism was a
considerable threat due to the monarchist priesthood, which used Catholic
shrines like the one at Lourdes to influence their congregations to vote
against the Republic." Paul Smith, "10/27/00
- Message de Paul Smith "
"Alpha Galates (The First Gauls): Esoteric, nationalistic group founded by
Pierre Plantard in wartime France. Its journal was Vaincre, edited by
Plantard. "Miriam Ibbotson, from
The Priory of
Sion Hoax: an A-Z
Chapter 24 "The Keystone is Hidden beneath the Rose Line"
"The Keystone is Hidden beneath the Rose Line" (115). Dan Brown, from
The Da Vinci Code
"The starting point for an alchemical experiment is in both systems, the
European and the Indian, the realm of coarse matter, the ignoble or base, so
as to then transmute it in accordance with the “law of inversion” into
something beneficent." Victor und Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"The Rose-Line Marker toppled by the Albino. Umberto Eco said it marked the
Vortex of Earthly Forces." from "Da
Vinci Code Rival: Dark Protocols A Conspiracy Thriller"
"The MÈridien de Paris is marked by 135 little bronze disks embedded in
pavement and floors across Paris... called the Arago markers. It is based on
the median line of the Observatory of Paris, founded on the summer solstice
in 1667 and built by 1672. (The meridian is sometimes called the rose line
because of the navigational compass rose.) from "Good
Morning Low Country"
"The longitude of the Great pyramid was regarded as the prime meridian in
the remote past. More recently, the rose line that runs through Paris,
France was regarded as the prime meridian and presently the longitude of
Greenwich, England is regarded as the prime meridian. Paris is located at 2°
19' east longitude. Just as 2° 19' of longitude separates Alexandria from
Port Said, 2° 19' of longitude also separates Greenwich from Paris." from "ANCIENT
EGYPTIAN GEODESY"
"Barry Dunford says that Roslin (older spelling) refers to the Rose Line, an
energy alignment running through Rosslyn and connecting southward on the
early mystic’s pilgrimage route to Avalon and ultimately to Santiago de
Compostela (translating as field of stars) in Spain. In fact, the clamshells
received as confirmation that one had truly accomplished the long road to
Compostella, are still left as offerings on an altar stone within Rosslyn
Chapel."
Chapter 26 Da Vinci
"But actually Da Vinci left a big clue that the painting was supposed to be
androgynous (120). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"Brown’s revisionist interpretations of da Vinci are as distorted as the
rest of his information. He claims to have first run across these views
“while I was studying art history in Seville,” but they correspond point for
point to material in The Templar Revelation. A writer who sees a pointed
finger as a throat-cutting gesture, who says the Madonna of the Rocks was
painted for nuns instead of a lay confraternity of men, who claims that da
Vinci received “hundreds of lucrative Vatican commissions” (actually, it was
just one…and it was never executed) is simply unreliable. Brown’s analysis
of da Vinci’s work is just as ridiculous. He presents the Mona Lisa as an
androgynous self-portrait when it’s widely known to portray a real woman,
Madonna Lisa, wife of Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo. The name is
certainly not-as Brown claims-a mocking anagram of two Egyptian fertility
deities Amon and L’Isa (Italian for Isis). How did he miss the theory,
propounded by the authors of The Templar Revelation, that the Shroud of
Turin is a photographed self-portrait of da Vinci?" Sandra Miesel, from 'The
Da Vinci Code': Don't Believe Everything You Read"
Chapter 28 Patriarchal Christianity
"The Priory believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully
converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by
waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine,
obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever" (124). Dan Brown,
from The Da Vinci Code
“Emperor Constantine (who made Christianity the state religion) was a
“passionate anti-Semite” (122). Kevin MacDonald, from Separation and its
Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (2004)
“Moreover, it is more than doubtful that Constantine’s anti-Semitism arose
from purely theological reasons. Constantine was not even baptized until
shortly before his death, and most commentators have viewed him as rather
tolerant toward paganism” (123). Kevin MacDonald, from Separation and its
Discontents: Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism (2004)
"In the paganism from which Constantine came there was but one earthly power, which, unlegitimised and unennobled by Christianity, was permitted by God only as a consequence of sin. When Constantine became a Christian, he resigned his earthly power to the Church, to receive it back from the Church renewed by Christianity, that is, as legitimate power, recognised as such because recognised as coming from God. In Constantine in his quality of Emperor all human power is symbolised; through the Church the Empire became Christendom. The secular power might be acquired through a variety of human forms, succession, election, nomination, popular choice, but its legitimation came through the intervention and consecration of the Church. Power proceeds from no one but God, but it is through the Church that its divine origin is proved, rendering it theologically lawful. That is why the Pope, as legate of God, has a general authority over the earth. Luigi Sturzo, from Church and State, I
“Let us recall, for instance, the austerity of Catholic dogma and especially the cruelty of the Inquisition, which accompanied religious hypermorality and pretended to protect it. The religious demand for and observance of asceticism itself resulted from deep-seated guilt feelings; the original sin in the myth of Adam and Eve was a genital act forbidden by God the Father. The external denial developed into an internal prohibition, exactly as in compulsion neurosis. Furthermore, Freud and [Theodor] Reik have proven that religious ceremonies obey exactly the same laws as compulsion-neurotic ceremonials. However, to the best of my knowledge, the fact that it was the suppression of genital impulses which produced brutality has not yet been given due recognition. Sadism developed first and was subsequently perverted to religious masochism. Thus medieval masochistic orgies and the excessive brutality of the Inquisition were essentially discharge manifestations of libidinal energies” (178-9). Wilhelm Reich, from Genitality in the Theory and Therapy of Neurosis, vol. 2 of Early Writings¸ trans. Philip Schmitz (1980)
“At the other extreme, one clear mark of the triumph of patriarchy is somatically/semiotically manifest in the genital zone with male and female circumcision, introduced violently and against the will of the victim and in especially horrific forms for young women. The patriarchal idea is always that if you sexually mutilate a potentially libidinal woman, then you take away her genital pleasure so she has no motive other than an economic one to enter into a relationship with a male” (100) Robert S. Corrington, from Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist (2003)
"The Fathers had to indulge in incredible mental contortions in order to get
Paul on their side against sex, but they managed it, and the anti-sex nature
of orthodox Christianity has been one of the main tenets of any respectable
anti-Christian creed for centuries..." (82) Rosemary Haughton, from Love
(1971)
"It is commonly and proverbially and popularly said that women are more
deceitful and weak, irresolute, immodest, eloquent in lies: in brief, a
woman is nothing other than a devil in the likeness of a human form" (265)
Albertus Magnus, from Quaestiones de animalibus 15.II as quoted by
Nancy Caciola on page 161 in Discerning Spirits: Divine and Demonic
Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"How did the newly dominant religion differ from the pagan cults as a moral
and social force...As for political behaviour, the new religion had been
adopted by emperors because it appeared to increase chances of success in
ruthless and bloody competition. Its god was a god of battle and
victory...It sidestepped the social hierarchy rather than attacking it,
offering a sense of communal solidarity and individual moral worth in a
world of increasingly rigid social boundaries. Unlike the pagan 'mystery
religions' and confraternities, it admitted all ranks of society and both
sexes" (248). Ronald Hutton, from The Pagan Religions of the Ancient
British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1993)
"We can see here how thoroughly heterogeneous is the Christian stance to
that of pagan wisdom: in clear contrast to the ultimate horizon of pagan
wisdom, the coincidence of opposites (the universe is the abyss of the
primordial Ground in which all 'false' opposites - of Good and Evil, of
appearance and reality, up to the very opposition between wisdom itself and
the folly of being caught in the illusion of maya - coincide),
Christianity asserts as the highest act precisely what pagan wisdom condemns
as the source of Evil: the gesture of separation, of drawing the
line, of clinging to an element that disturbs the balance of All, The pagan
criticism that the Christian insight is not 'deep enough', that it fails to
grasp the primordial One-All, therefore misses the point: Christianity is
the miraculous Event that disturbs the balance of the One-All; it
is the violent intrusion of Difference that precisely throws the
balanced circuit of the universe off the rails" (121)" Slavvoj Zizek,
from The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian legacy worth fighting
for (2000)
"But in recent years, as the Christian faith continues to lose its grip upon
the popular imagination and the national culture, an opposite ideology has
been articulated. It belongs to that radical section of contemporary thought
which produced 'alternative archeology' and sustains belief in the golden
age of the Neolithic Mother Goddess, and rests upon the same instincts as
those visions: that the ancient world embodied many of the ideals of these
modern writers and that a series of evil occurrences drew Western
civilization away from them" (249). Ronald Hutton, from The Pagan
Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1993).
"The novel "misdates the development of the doctrine of Christ's divinity"
making it "an invention of the Roman emperor Constantine," says Sandra
Miesel, a medievalist. Also, she says, "though I can't address legal
plagiarism, he borrows heavily" from two earlier works of amateur research,
"The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ"
and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," a speculative look into Jesus' bloodline. Both
have been discredited by most scholars. Similarities between "The Templar
Revelation" and "The Da Vinci Code" include an interpretation of Leonardo da
Vinci's "Last Supper" as depicting the figure to Jesus' right as Mary
Magdalene rather than an effeminate John the Baptist, who is otherwise
nowhere to be found." Celia McGee, from "'Code'
hot, critics hotter" in New York Daily News // 04 September 2003
"In short, the mythic Magdalen could be utilized in all kinds of ways to
advance patriarchal agendas. In addition to those mentioned above, we should
appreciate the special frisson created by the juxtaposition of male Savior
and female slut. Celibate men seeking, not always successfully, to model the
assured abstinence of the Savior could find in the myth of Jesus and the
Magdalen a paradigm for the management of their own sexuality. The Jesus who
dined with Simon, and the resurrected Christ of ‘noli me tangere’,
illustrated how it should be done. The fact that Jesus also sat with the
mythic Magdalen, in her capacity as Mary of Bethany, demonstrated the fruits
of his influence in the conversion of the former whore to a self-possessed
woman who was content to sit in humble admiration at his feet. Later,
according to John’s gospel, the Magdalen, in her guise as Mary of Bethany,
would go further and once again anoint those same feet before Jesus faced
his own sacrifice." John Watt, from The "Strange
Fate of Women in Christian Culture"
"The Biblical records, coupled with artistic insight, tell us something
about the Magdalen that is quite different from the standard myth
constructed by orthodox Christian theology. Instead of the repentant whore,
what we see is a woman who deeply loved Jesus and who was deeply loved by
him. Indeed, according to Gnostic records, she was his most intimate
companion. It is this aspect of intimacy, rather than the apparent choice of
her as apostle to the apostles, that seems to have caused most trouble to
orthodox Christianity. The possibility that the Magdalen and Jesus might
have had a relationship of loving intimacy was simply too much of a
challenge to a religion whose priesthood (and monkhood) was for centuries
anchored on a foundation of male celibacy and to a large extent still is. In
addition, the notion of the Magdalen as primus inter pares ran up against
powerful belief systems that regarded male expression as the ultimate image
of divine spirituality and female expression as an imperfect and secondary
manifestation of human flesh. These beliefs, rooted in arcane patristic
theology, underlie continuing Western notions about the superiority of male
in relation to female life." John Watt, from The "Strange
Fate of Women in Christian Culture"
"The virtus of men - virtue, strength, active ability - enables a
discernment of spiritual character via physiological appearance. In point of
fact, angels were depicted exclusively in male terms, in medieval theology
as in medieval images. This angelic virility echoes in the later Middle
Ages: the "good" pole of the supernatural is exclusively, insistently male.
By contrast, the feminine is associated, again, exclusively with weakness,
sexuality, and evil nature" (162). Nancy Caciola, from Discerning
Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
“Belief in Satan was fuelled in the twelfth century by another group of heretics – the Cathars. The Cathars were Gnostic Christians: they believed that a Spirit of Evil had imprisoned the human soul ‘in a cage of flesh’ and that the God of the Old Testament was therefore the Devil. They also believed that all the principal figures in the Old Testament, and John the Baptist in the New Testament, were demons. As a pure spirit, Christ had come to the world to show his followers how to overcome the limitations of the physical world. In their view, the Catholic Church had been established by the Devil to deter believers from true spiritual salvation” (63). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
“Indeed Cathars agreed with Plato and St Bernard that salvation began with
love of bodies. Troubadours even went so far as to suggest that one must
tend towards heaven through the love of women. Although both marriage and
fornication were qualified as ‘adultery’, extra-marital union, undertaken
freely, was preferable to the conjugal bond. It might even symbolize the
return of the soul to its spirit after death.... Cathars and troubadours
were perfectly in agreement that true love –– from the soul –– purified from
the false love associated with marriage..."(137). Ean Begg, from The
Cult of the Black Virgin
“Once women are free to bestow their favours and affections where they
will, the whole structure of patriarchal society starts to crumble. In the
long spiralling progress of the history of ideas this seems to be the point
that we have once again reached. Now it is an idea whose time has come and
no crusades have so far been launched by Church and State to quell it. If
the Black Virgins really do carry a charge from the goddesses, perhaps, now
that they have been ‘found’ yet again, they are whispering in our ears like
the female serpent of Eden, ‘You won’t really die.’” (137). Ean Begg, from
The Cult of the Black Virgin
Chapter 31 John
"Oddly, though, rather than the usual Jesus-blessing-John scenario, it was
baby John who was blessing Jesus...and Jesus was submitting to his
authority" (138). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"It
is posited here that, in an earlier tradition of the Fourth Gospel's
community, the now "anonymous" Beloved Disciple was known to be Mary
Magdalene. It is further posited that Mary Magdalene is the true founder and
hero of what has come to be known as the Johannine Community (i.e., Mary
Magdalene was one of the original apostolic founders and leaders of the
early Christian church." Ramon K. Jusino, from "Mary
Magdalene: Author of the Fourth Gospel?"
"The reason that the Beloved Disciple was turned into a man in the text was
because this disciple was clearly the founder and hero of the community that
produced this Gospel. At some point after the death of Jesus, the emerging
male leadership of that community simply became embarrassed about having a
female founder. (Remember, we're dealing with male attitudes towards women
2,000 years ago.) In order to "mainstream" their community, they suppressed
some of the more radical practices that Jesus taught them through his
example -- such as treating everyone with equal dignity and respect,
including the sick, the poor, the oppressed, the outcast, and women. Jesus
apparently did not object to men and women sharing power and positions of
leadership. Some of his successors, however, were not courageous enough to
be so radical. So, in the case of the Gospel of John, the female Beloved
Disciple had to become male." Ramon K. Jusino, from "Mary
Magdalene: Author of the Fourth Gospel?"
"Primarily on the basis of John 19,25-17 and 20,1-18 , but also on the basis
of John’s caution concerning female discipleship, on the basis of the
repressive elements within and without the Johannine community when the
authority of women is at stake, and on the basis of Charlesworth’s eight
criteria, I conclude that Mary Magdalene should be seen as a serious
candidate for the identification of the anonymous disciple Jesus loved in
the Gospel of John." Esther A. de Boer, from "Mary
Magdalene and the Disciple Jesus Loved"
"The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, unlike many other Gnostic texts, is lucidly
beautiful and contains many sophisticated yet easily comprehended teachings,
such the Teacher’s response to a disciple’s question about whether matter
will live forever:
‘All that is born, all that is created, all the elements of nature are
interwoven and united with each other. All that is composed shall be
decomposed; everything returns to its roots; matter returns to the origins
of matter. Those who have ears, let them hear.’
from "The
Magdalene Files"
"And to a question from Peter about the nature of the ‘sin of the world’ the
Teacher responds: ‘There is no sin. It is you who make sin exist, when you
act according to the habits of your corrupted nature; this is where sin
lies.... This is why you become sick, and why you die: it is the result of
your actions; what you do takes you further away [from the Kingdom of the
Son of Man].’ This understanding of the connection between the mind/spirit
and bodily illness is extraordinarily modern, prefiguring the insistence of
today’s holistic therapists (and, increasingly, many mainstream physicians)
that negative thoughts and habits (which equate to ‘sin’ and ‘corrupted
nature’) actually create dis-ease within both mind and body." from "The
Magdalene Files"
"Not all the Gnostic books have this remarkable clarity of vision: it must
be said that much of the text of the Pistis Sophia is impenetrable
gobbledegook. Significantly, though, this curious Gnostic book contains a
very plain statement by Jesus, to the effect that:
‘Mary, thou blessed one, whom I will perfect in all mysteries of those of
the height, discourse in openness, thou, whose heart is raised to the
kingdom of heaven more than all thy brethren.’
Later, in the same text, he declares: ‘Where I shall be, there will also be
my twelve ministers. But Mary Magdalene and John, the virgin, will tower
over all my disciples and over all men who shall receive the mysteries...
And they will be on my right and on my left. And I am they, and they are I.’
If Jesus ever really proclaimed the superiority of Mary and young John in
the group - and taken together, the evidence suggests he did - one can
imagine the feelings of the rough Galilean men, not easily persuaded to give
way to women. This would have applied especially to the Magdalene, who seems
gloriously oblivious to the sensitivities of the others, although there may
be other reasons for their dislike of her. The text of the teaching may
often prove impossibly hard work for modern readers- even seeming downright
ludicrous in many places - but once the individuals speak and reveal their
characters, the Pistis Sophia lights up." from "The
Magdalene Files"
"This inside knowledge of the clash of personalities within the coterie of
Jesus’ closest disciples seems to have been shared by the wider Gnostic
community, for similar sentiments appear in other lost gospels. Simon
Peter’s hostility to the Magdalene - and to women in general - is also
reflected in passages such as this brief declaration of Simon Peter to
Jesus, taken from the Gospel of Thomas: ‘Let Mary leave us, for women are
not worthy of life’. If to the modern eye this appears to be a flat
statement of shockingly extreme and unashamed misogynism, perhaps even more
disturbing is Jesus’ response, which on the surface appears to endorse
Peter’s hatred of women: declaring that Mary must ‘become male’ in order to
become a ‘living spirit, resembling you males. For every woman who will make
herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.’ Elaine Pagels interprets
this not as an attack on the Magdalene personally by Jesus (one has the
feeling that even he would never dare openly criticize Mary the
Magnificent), but on the whole subject of sexuality. She may be right -
certainly the Gnostics, such as the Cathars, often had a rigorously puritan
attitude to sex (at least in theory), but Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince in
The Templar Revelation claim that there is evidence that both Jesus and John
the Baptist saw things differently: to them, sacramental sexual ecstasy was
in quite a separate category from common-or-garden licentiousness. In any
case, a more modern interpretation of Jesus’ words may be that he is
empowering the women, just like men, through the sacred mediation of the
Light. And it may be significant that several Egyptian goddesses, such as
Isis, were sometimes portrayed as having beards, the idea being that as men
were powerful and women were weak, to take on male characteristics would
automatically bestow greater potency on the woman." from "The
Magdalene Files"
"Long had I despaired of the meaning of the mysterious John, Joannes, Jonas three days buried in a fish, the fish-avatar Vishnu, or Oannes treading on the head of the Serpent ~~ bruising the Serpent's head.... Janus or Jana, Iona or Columba having the same name as Jehovah, li, and of Jove, the Yoni, the opposite of the Linga ~~ the sect of the Jains the successors of Buddha,(36) John the Baptist, John who should live till Jesus came again, Joannes, Butta, Deus, the Prester Johannes, ~~ persons seemingly so difficult to reconcile or account for ~~ when I discovered that the old Sanscrit word for Wisdom or Gnosij was Jnana. This at once lets in a load of light upon us, ~~ gives us a clue to all the mysterious Johns." Godfrey Higgins, from Anacalypsis
"Gnostics also pretend to venerate Jesus along with John the Baptist as the
‘twin messiahs’, however, as Begg reveals, John and Jesus really represent
the pagan gods who rule at the summer and winter solstices respectively:
“Despite the divinity of Christ, it was John who remained the master, whose
knowledge was greater. Esoterically, John and Jesus, born at the poles of
the year, symbolize our two natures, mortal and immortal, like Castor and
Pollux.” (Begg, p.124)" Barbara Aho, from "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"In Greek mythology, Castor and Pollux were Apollo and Hercules, the twin
sons of Jupiter, king of the gods. Moreover, Begg avers that ‘John’ is the
French variant of the bisexual Roman god, Janus/Dianus [Diana]
(p.7). Barbara Aho, from "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"...Alexander Hislop has disclosed in The Two Babylons a yet more esoteric
interpretation:
“The name of John the Baptist…in the sacred language adopted by the Roman
Church, was Joannes. To make the festival of the 24th of June, then, suit
Christians and Pagans alike, all that was needful was just to call it the
festival of Joannes; and thus the Christians would suppose that they were
honouring John the Baptist, while the Pagans were still worshipping their
old god Oannes, or Tammuz. Thus, the very period at which the great summer
festival of Tammuz was celebrated in ancient Babylon, is at this very hour
observed in the Papal Church as the Feast of the Nativity of St. John. And
the fete of St. John begins exactly as the festal day began in Chaldea.”
(p.121) as quoted by Barbara Aho in "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"Students of Scripture may recognize Oannes as the Philistine god, Dagon,
but may not realize that this fish-god is also the ‘beast that rises out of
the sea,’ in Rev. 13:1. Barbara Aho, from "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"Dagobert’s Revenge identifies Oannes as ‘Lucifer’ whose fallen angels sired
a race of giants, the Nephilim, in Genesis 6.
“...Dagon or Oannes, a half-human, half-fish combination who was known as
the ‘Lord of the Flood’...was said to rise out of the sea every day to teach
his secret knowledge to those who followed him. He is mentioned in Samuel,
Chapter 5, when the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant and place it
in the Temple of Dagon. Two nights later, ‘Dagon was fallen upon is face to
the ground before the Ark of the Lord; and the head of Dagon and both the
palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon
was left to him.’ It is this character upon which Satan or Lucifer is based,
but the physical description attributed to him applied to an entire race of
‘gods’, or as they were described in the Bible, Nephilim, or Fallen Angels,
the ‘Great Old Ones’...” as quoted by Barbara Aho in "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,
and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of
men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose…
There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the
sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to
them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Gen.
6:1-4 as quoted by Barbara Aho in "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"Oannes was the same fish-god described in Bloodline of the Holy Grail
as the ‘mysterious sea-beast’ which sired Merovee, the Frankish king who
founded the Merovingian dynasty. The Merovingian dynasty were designated
“Fisher Kings” for good reason:
“Despite the carefully listed genealogies of his time, the heritage of
Meroveus was strangely obscured in the monastic annals. Although the
rightful son of Clodion, he was nonetheless said by the historian Priscus to
have been sired by an arcane sea creature, the Bistea Neptunis..
“The Sicambrian Franks, from whose female line the Merovingians emerged were
associated with Grecian Arcadia before migrating to the Rhineland. As we
have seen, they called themselves the Newmage – ‘People of the New
Covenant’, just as the Essenes of Qumran had once been known. It was the
Arcadian legacy that was responsible for the mysterious sea beast – the
Bistea Neptunis – as symbolically defined in the Merovingian ancestry. The
relevant sea-lord was King Pallas, a god of old Arcadia... The immortal
sea-lord was said to be ‘ever-incarnate in a dynasty of ancient kings’ whose
symbol was a fish – as was the traditional symbol of Jesus." (pp.166,175) as
quoted by Barbara Aho in "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the
sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and
upon his heads the name of blasphemy...and the dragon gave him his power,
and his seat, and great authority.” Rev. 13:1-2 as quoted by Barbara Aho in
"Mel Gibson’s Film “The Passion
of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"The important consideration here, as far as an Incarnation of Horus on the
one hand, and our paradigm on the other, is that when names are used in the
legends, they do not always bear the same meaning that modern-day
archaeology provides, or present-day meanings of the same names and
characters.
Horus, for example, has been equated with Ninurta, one of Enlil's sons. He
has been equated with Herakles, who has in his turn been equated with
Melcarth / Nergal, one of Enki's sons and chief rival of Ninurta.
Nergal, also, has been identified with Set, adversary of Horus. Horus and
Set have also been fused into one entity.
In the days when the expounders of Freemasonry were elaborating their
legends, Hiram, Hermes, and Horus were equal, or at the very least, were
close.
Horus and Hermes find an analogue in ORMUS.
If "Jesus" / Dositheos, etc., was an incarnation of Horus, then, it must be
as an Enkite deity rather than as an Enlilite one, since these had been
responsible for the destruction and slavery that had befallen Egypt.
The paradigm, then, pertains to a succession of incarnations of JON -
DOSITHEOS - OANNES - ENKI, and/or their Priests; personified in the Egyptian
language as one of the Horus deities, perhaps Ra-Heru-Khuti (RA-HOOR-KHUIT),
perhaps Heru-Behutet (HADIT), the former representing the two horizons, as
we see our Johannites (later, in Part Three of Book Two), adored the Morning
and Evening Star. This Johannite practice, too, is something derived from
the Cult of Hathor, a Goddess of Supreme Importance". from "
THE
BRETHREN OF THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE
GIFT"
"The Story of ORMUS, and of the succession of Saints John in the List of
Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion, is not peculiar to their work, or to
the Priory itself. Indeed, if the Priory exists, and if it has existed since
1099 c.e., then it is but one arm of a Tradition that goes back far enough
past Gnosticism, past the origins of Christianity, past the failures of the
Old Empire, way, way, back, back, back... to the Priesthood or Order of the
Wise Men, established in Eridu by Enki, Lord and Master of Magick and Occult
Science, the original Borderland Scientist, Hermetic Brother of the Interior
Circle, and Father of Our Race. And this EnKi, this EA, is the IA or Yah,
who is the God who has Given the GIFT. The original Jon, Oannes, U-An.from "
THE
BRETHREN OF THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE
GIFT"
“As a kind of subtitle, the Priory also now adopted the name Ormus. The device for Ormus consisted of the zodiac sign for Virgo…with the other letters, o,u,r.s, entwined within it. Ours is the French word for bear. What is Ormus?” (189). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
“The sole purpose of creating this artificial Latin word would seem to be to have a symbol for Virgo (alias the Virgin Moon, alias Virgin Mary) plus the letters of the French word for bear, ours. So the device and motto would seem to be telling the initiate, or Gnostic one, the Virgin Moon leads to the cult of the people of the bear” (189). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"The Freemasons, by the way, claim that Ormus was an actual Egyptian sage and Gnostic adept, who lived in the early years of the first century AD. This Ormus allegedly converted to Chritianity, and gave his followers a new symbol - a red or rosy cross" (190). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"Lastly here, the word Ormus also occurs in Zoroastrian thought, where it means light or enlightenment (190). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"Johannes or John was called Xrhjov Iwannhv by Julian. This Xrhjov I believe
always means the god or genius of a cycle. This Xrhjov Iwannhv decreased as
the IHS Xrhjov increased." Godfrey Higgins, from
Anacalypsis
"This Joannes, whom Mr. Bryant identifies with the OANNES of the Assyrians,
whom the Portuguese call Presbyter and John, who was descended from Solomon
and the Queen of Sheba in Abyssinia, and whom Mr. Maurice has declared to be
the fish Avatar of India, and the God Dagon, and who, Nimrod observes, was
Johannes Butta Deus, was in reality a renewed incarnation of Buddha; or,
perhaps, rather a superstition which took its rise from the half-understood
doctrine of the renewal of the Indian incarnations. Jesus is made to declare
that Joannes should remain till he came; that is, that, as the fish
incarnation, he would remain until the end of the six millenaries, which, as
the Equinoctial Incarnation, he would do; for the fish would remain the
equinoctial incarnation, or the emblem of it, till the ten less avatars were
all finished. This suggests a doubt whether all the Equinoctial Avatars were
not Buddhas. Of this Oannes or John Mr. Bryant says, 'Oannes appeared En tw
prwtw eniautw, (29) for time commenced from his appearance.(30) Godfrey
Higgins, from
Anacalypsis
"We are now in the centre of the land of mysticism. Everything is a parable,
an enigma, a mystery. What can be more mystical than Matthew's expression,
that Jesus should increase and John decrease? What can be more mystical than
what we have seen respecting the Joannes, and Butta, and Deus? What more
mystical than the expression, that John should stop till Jesus came again in
his glory? What more mystical than that the Baptist was Elias, that is, in
plain Greek, the Sun ~~ '/Hliov? Godfrey Higgins, from
Anacalypsis
"Jonas, the amphibious, was swallowed, and returned again in three days from
the fish. He was the same person as Hercules, or as Heri-Clo, the Saviour
608, swallowed at the same time and place with Jonas,, who prophesied the
destruction of Nineveh about the year 600 B.C. This was the time of the
famous central eclipse of Thales, or conjunction of the Sun and Moon, the
time when the Oriental Messiah, Cyrus,(31) was born, he having the solar
title, and who having established the Persian Monarchy at Babylon, restored
the Jews and abolished idolatry. He is still worshipped, under the name of
Jonas, on Mount Libanus, bu the Curds or Culdees formerly named.(32) He has
the same appellation, according to Mr. Bryant, as the half-man, half-fish,
or amphibious being called OANNES, who appeared for the instruction of
mankind, etc., according to Sanchuniathon,(33) the same as DAGON, which was
the name of the fish which harboured Jonas, or saved him, and the meaning of
which is Saviour. This Oannes, or Ioannes we find again after about 600
years, born of an aged woman, called Anna, the name of the mother of the
Italian Janus, miraculously foretold by the prophet Zacharias, to whom his
birth was announced by an angel. He was the forerunner of Jesus Christ, and
called, as above-mentioned by the celebrated Julian, Xrhjov Iwannhv. He was
by profession a Saviour of Men by means of baptism or immersion, like Jonas
in the water. Jonas was immersed three days in the ocean for the salvation
of the Ninevites, as Jesus afterward was buried three days for the salvation
of the Jews and of mankind. After this we find another person called
IOANNES, a fisherman, beloved by Jesus, of whom Jesus declared from the
Cross that he should not die till his return. And after this, another
Ioannes, who had revelations from God; and, at last, we have that Ioannes
ordered by Jesus to remain till his return, as Ioannes, Butta, and Deus, or
the Fish, or Oannes God Buddha.(34) ....And John the Baptist, or Saviour of
Men by means of water, was the Oannes or Avatar of Pisces, as Buddha was of
Taurus, and Cristna of Aries; or, according to Mr. Parkhurst's doctrine,
Oannes was the type of the Baptist, if ever he appeared, and if he did
not....the history must have been a figurative representation of an avatar,
foretelling the Baptist."(35) Godfrey Higgins, from
Anacalypsis
Chapter 37 Knights Templar
"The Knights Templar were obliterated? (180) Dan Brown, from The Da
Vinci Code
"And, the Templars, Pike says, were initiated into the doctrines of John --
that which was of the Ancient Time, that which was of Old, the Origines, the
Old Faith. from "
THE
BRETHREN OF THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE
GIFT"
"The Templars, it was said, imposed a denial of Christ and blasphemous
rejection of the cross on their novices, required them to kiss their
receptor's posterior, told them that homosexuality was lawful, adored an
idol, and had the custom of not consecrating the Host when priests in the
order celebrated Mass. To this extraordinary farrago of nonsense were added
variant tales - of eucharistic heresy; worshipping a cat, betraying the
cause of Christendom to the Moslems, of laymen in the order hearing
confessions and granting absolution, of unlawful gains and sinister secrecy
in chapter meetings... it does not seem that anyone outside of France
believed them, and no modern historian of repute will accept them as true"
(180). Malcolm Lambert, from Medieval Heresy (1992)
"The Templars brought with them the devotion to the Black Madonna from
Ethiopia. The colors of their order was black and red symbolizing light and
sacrifice. They even wore a double black and red cord around their necks
that represented this and their flag also had black, white and red colors.
For them, the Black Madonna also reminded them of the Queen of Sheba and her
son Menelik, the first Emperor of Ethiopia when they were the guards of the
Ark of the Covenant under Emperor St. Lalibela who developed the stone cross
Churches of Lasta Province. But the Templars were devoted to the Mother of
God specifically under her titles of "Our Lady of Light" and "Ark of the
Covenant." For this reason, which is quite in keeping with the Eastern
Church's theology and iconography, the Templar Madonnas were Black. " from "What
About White Madonnas"
"The Merovingian stories of miraculous Black Madonnas arriving in
self-propelled vessels seem to be directly attributable to the Cybele
stone's voyage to Rome. Even Peter the Hermit stopped at every major Black
Madonna shrine in France as he preached the First Crusade. Clermont, where
Urban II announced the First Crusade, has no less than five ancient Black
Madonnas. The one in the cathedral crypt was originally a Roman statute of
Cybele of the Springs, and the cathedral itself was built over the older
temple, using, as was common, its underground vaults as the foundation.St.
Bernard, who brought devotion to the Virgin into the religious mainstream,
was inspired by a direct, and miraculously alchemical, encounter with the
Virgin herself. As a youth, St. Bernard would spend hours in prayer before
the Black Madonna of Dijon, another Roman Cybeline statute, this one with
enormous breasts and a pregnant stomach. Finally reciting the Ave Maria
Stellis, "hail the star of Mary," before the Black Maddona one night, the
Virgin appeared to him and fed him three drops of her milk. Like the drops
from Ceridwen's cauldron that gave the Celtic shaman Taliesin the
understanding of the language of the birds and knowledge of all hidden
things, these drops of milk transformed the young Bernard into the eloquent
saint and reformer who almost single-handedly revitalized the church.
Vincent Bridges, from
Seven of Mysteries of the Great Cross at Hendaye: alchemy at the end of
time
"According to the “Priory Documents”, especially those found in the
Biblioteque Nationale, there was another hidden order behind the foundation
of the Knights Templar: the Priory of Sion. The purpose of the Priory, which
has continued, unlike the Templars, intact unto the present day, was and is
the preservation, support, and eventual restoration to the throne of the
Merovingian bloodline. In fact, not only are the Merovingians considered by
the Priory to still be the rightful kings of France, they are also
considered to be eligible for other thrones throughout Europe, as well as
that of Jerusalem. This is by virtue of the fact that they passed their
divine lineage on, though dynastic intermarriage, to most of Europe’s
leading royal and noble houses, and most especially to a certain few,
including the lines of Blanchefort, Gisors, Saint-Clair/Sinclair, Plantard,
Hapsburg, and Lorraine. The Priory, according to the documents, possessed in
its day a great deal of clout in the realm of international politics, and it
still does today, secretly commanding the allegiance of a number of key
individuals in politics, diplomacy, banking and finance, especially in
Europe, and especially in France." Tracy R. Twyman, "A
History of the Priory of Sion and Their Involvement with the Knights Templar"
"Jungian analyst Ean Begg, in his study of the Black Madonna and Black
Virgin sites in France, tells us that accounts say Bernard 'received while
still a boy three drops of milk from the breast of the Black Virgin of
Chatillon'....In ancient Celtic myth receiving "three drops" of a special
liquid from a goddess often symbolized a hero's spiritual initiation,
resulting in a life-altering experience. In helping to revise the Templar
Rule in 1129, St. Bernard commended to the knights "the obedience of
Bethany, the Castle of Mary and Martha'" (68). Karen Ralls, from The
Templars and the Grail (2003)
"One aspect of the Roman triple-goddess is the "lunar virgin." The *al-mahs*
served as maidens of Diana, the lunar virgin. In France, the Cult of Diana
was so powerful that it wasn't until the Middle Ages until the French gave
up worship of the pagan goddess. The *true* Knights Templar are sworn to
protect the Merovingian blood -- i.e., that of the *true* royals, such as
Lady Diana." - Ru Mills from "Whoever Controls Princess Diana Controls the
World"
"Some popular authors postulate that the "Our Lady" of the Templars could in
fact be Mary Magdalene. The reception ceremony oath shows no direct evidence
for this idea, so scholars understandably refute this argument. However,
though rarely mentioned, a Vatican document does show evidence that the
Templars on the island of Mallorca venerated a 'Black' Maria'" (69). Karen
Ralls, from The Templars and the Grail (2003)
"Vatican documents have come to light showing that the wholesale massacre of
the Knights Templar in the Middle Ages for alleged “heresy, idolatry and
sexual perversion” — an episode still shrouded in mystery — took place even
though the Pope had exonerated them in a secret trial. The revelation will
put pressure on the present Pope, who has asked the Muslim world for
forgiveness for the Crusades, to apologise for the persecution of one of the
main Crusading orders as well..."Richard Owen, from: "Vatican file shows
pope pardoned massacred Knights"
"L’Avvenire, the Catholic daily, said that the record of the Pope’s
investigation was thought to have been lost when Napoleon looted the Vatican
during his invasion of Italy in the 18th century, and that its rediscovery
was an exceptional event." Richard Owen, from: "Vatican file shows pope
pardoned massacred Knights"
"Barbara Frale, a researcher at the Vatican School of Paleontology, said
that the consensus among historians was that Clement V, who was himself
French and a former Archbishop of Bordeaux, had been pliant and weak, and
had colluded in Philip the Fair’s scheme to wipe out the Templars and seize
their fortune. But documents found in the Vatican archives, including a
long-lost parchment, proved that the Pope had in fact manoeuvred “with skill
and determination” to ensure that his own emissaries questioned de Molay and
other leading Templars in the dungeons of Chinon castle in the Loire in
1308, in what amounted to a papal trial...The Pope had accepted the Knights’
explanation that the charges against them of sodomy and blasphemy were due
to a misunderstanding of arcane rituals behind closed doors which had their
origins in the Crusaders’ bitter struggle against the Muslims, or Saracens.
These included “denying Christ and spitting on the Cross three times”, as
well as “kissing other men’s behinds”....these were intended to simulate the
kind of humiliation and torture that a Crusader might be subjected to by the
Saracens if captured. They were taught how to abuse their own religion “with
the mind only and not with the heart”. Richard Owen, from: "Vatican file
shows pope pardoned massacred Knights"
"Janet Jackson is "black" and a "Madonna" type (female Hollywood singing)
entertainer...i.e. "The Black Madonna"! This might be the key to the whole
message-the Templars are now finally (again) in charge!!!!!" Noel, from "The
Templars Are Now Finally Again In Charge!"
Chapter 38 Holy Grail
"Holy Grail is the literal meaning of Sangreal" (162). Dan Brown, from
The Da Vinci Code
"A common Christian interpretation of the Grail is as the cup Christ used as
the Last Supper...The Celtic cauldron of plenty was a Grail prototype..."
(130) Karen Ralls The Templar and the Grail: Knights of the Quest
(2003)
"Another idea, which has persisted for centuries, especially in France, is
that the Precious Blood represents the bloodline of Jesus Christ, continued
through his children with Mary Magdalene, his wife. In this context the
Grail is "the vine," linking Jesus' bloodline to the Merovingian kings of
France" (131). Karen Ralls The Templar and the Grail: Knights of the
Quest (2003)
"The Grail is not a bloodline. This false story originated in reams of
fraudulent documents created by an extreme right-wing French sect. The group
responsible for these fictions, calling itself the "Priory of Sion" and
claiming an ancient esoteric lineage, has kept its own authentic history
carefully hidden. How it constructed its fraud has not been revealed. It is
long past time for the light of truth to reveal the "Priory of Sion" and the
fictional bloodline it has promoted for what they are really are -- a fraud.
The background of this group reveals its actual motives and sources of
information." Robert Richardson, from "The
Priory of Sion Hoax"
“But the Grail legend – like the deaths of Balder, Arthur and Christ – is nevertheless concerned specifically with the (yearly) castration and execution of the sun king. This act does, certainly, un-man the king, removing his sexual gender and turning him into a menstruating woman. In the real ceremony the blood which flowed from the king’s genital wounds would have been caught in a vessel, passed around and drunk. Probably the High Priestess herself ate the testicles. Subsequently the rest of the sacrifices’ blood would also have been consumed, and the body eaten” (177-8). Stan Gooch, Cities of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"This one goes all the way back to the beginning, to the events at the heart
of Christianity: Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection three days
later. According first to Hugh Schonfield in his 1967 book, The Passover
Plot, and expanded later into a near-cosmic conspiracy stretching over two
millennia by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln in Holy Blood,
Holy Grail (Dell, 1982), those events are indeed mysteries, but of the
Sherlock Holmes rather than the supernatural sort. Schonfield conjectured
that Jesus faked his death on the cross. In one version of the argument, the
wine mixed with a drug offered to Jesus just before the crucifixion (Mt
27:34) was actually a soporific intended to help him simulate death. His
followers revived Jesus three days later, and voila: the Resurrection. Great
theater, Schonfield said, but hardly a time-to-change-religions sort of
miracle. How is this plot Vatican-related? Enter Messrs. Baigent, Leigh and
Lincoln, who more or less go along with Schonfield, though their central
claim is even more startling: Whether or not Jesus expired on the cross, he
had at least one assignation with Mary Magdalene, giving her a child and
Jesus an heir. After lying low for a while, the "Jesus family" legged it to
the Provencal region of France, where they founded the Merovingian dynasty
of French warrior-kings, rumored to have gnarly mystical powers. Following
one of history's great betrayals in the eighth century, when the pope
recognized the Carolingian dynasty and dumped the Merovingians, Jesus'
descendants variously founded or co-opted a number of secret organizations,
most notably the Knights Templars, and the Priory of Sion, all to a single
end: to protect the royal bloodline of Jesus himself." - John Allen, Power,
Secrecy Feed Conspiracy Theories in Vatican City, National Catholic
Reporter, 7/31/98
"The Sumerian Gra-al, which biblical tradition calls the Mark of Cain, was
an emblem dignified as the Cup of the Waters, or the Rosi-Crucis (the Dew
Cup), and it was identified in all records (including those of Egypt,
Phoenicia and the Hebrew annals) as being an upright, centred Red Cross
within a Circle. Throughout the ages it was developed and embellished, but
it has always remained essentially the same and is recognized as being the
original symbol of the Holy Grail." Laurence Gardner, from "Genesis
of the Grail Kings"
"Graal is illustrated doubly in this first axis. On the one hand, "In
ancient Egypt this Sirian trinity was also represented by the Royal Family
of Osiris (Father-God: Sirius A), Isis (Mother-Goddess: Sirius B) and Horus
(Son-Superboy :Sirius C)." from "Jerusalem,
the sacral point for the ancient Atlantean consciousness seeding programe"
"Sirius: In 1973, Gerard de Sede claimed in La Race Fabuleuse that the
Merovingians were descended from beings from Sirius, thus irrevocably
linking the PoS mysteries to the "Sirius Mystery". Sirius is a complex
subject in the world of esoterica. Antonin Artaud wrote a play about the
"Dog Star" in the 1920s, called "The Broken Firmament", suggesting it was of
interest to the Surrealists. Since the 1970s, a number of people have
claimed contact by the Sirians - Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Philip
K. Dick, etc., shortly after the publication of Robert K. Temple's Sirius
Mystery, claiming that the Dogon tribe of Mali had been given knowledge of
this binary star by "Nommos" from that solar system. Crowleyans like Kenneth
Grant claim that "Lam," the being that communicated the Liber AL, was from
Sirius. And Sirius, in the form of the "Ennead of Heliopolis," also talked
to Andrija Puharich, Uri Geller, and a group of channelers organized by
Puharich. However, to find the weird links between this group and what the
authors term "The Stargate Conspiracy", a fascist plot to make the planet
believe that the gods of ancient Egypt were extraterrestrials who created
our civilization, you should read the book by the same name by authors
Pincknett and Prince. The Order of the Solar Temple also expected to be
reborn near Sirius..." Steven Mizrach, from "Priory
of Sion: The Facts, The Theories, The Mystery"
"The Greek version of the Canopus Decree speaks of the rising of the star of
lsis... as marking the beginning of the new year; the hieratic and
hieroglyphic versions, however, assign the same role to Sothis, or Sirius.
Velikovsky, on the authority of Pliny, identifies the star of Isis as the
planet Venus and explains that both Venus and Sirius had a role in the
Egyptian calendar, the real purpose of the Decree being to make the calendar
independent of Venus. Egyptologists generally consider both “star of Isis”
and “Sothis” to refer to Sirius." Livio C. Stecchini, from "Venus
and Sirius"
"That the star of Isis and Sirius are not one and the same is clearly
indicated in one of the Isis-Aretalogies from Memphis where Isis is made to
say: “I am she who goes out to the Dog-Star.” Livio C. Stecchini, from "Venus
and Sirius"
"In his book "Morals and Dogma", Freemason Grand Master Albert Pike writes;
"Sirius still glitters in our Lodges as the Blazing Star, the Guardian and
Guide of our Souls". Her ancient, hidden plan to bring her children into a
new dawn is nearing completion. As the Earth passes into a new age of
heavenly alignment, the Halls of Power beneath her radiant form will "ring"
to her sacred song, and those who seek to walk within her temples, will
either join in chorus, or pass from within her walls..." from
"Sirian Nation"
"Elsewhere in Templar records and in folk myth, there are records of great
technological stockpiles under the Scottish Mountains; robots or 'dollmen',
particle weapons, and great 'alchemical laboratories'. It may be that much
of the splendor of Atlantis was partially submerged and inhabited by a semi
aquatic species from which came the princess of the original dynasty that
mated with the original Aryans. The marriage of the Mero and the Vingians,
and the subsequent creation of humanity - a sexual gendered species happened
in Scotland." Phoenix, from "ELS,
ATLANTIS, SCOTLAND & EGYPT"
"The symbol of the Bloodline and the Goddess descent is indeed the clamshell
a device used by Robert the Bruce a King of Scotland. Indeed the historic
pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella in Celtic Spain actually more
anciently went farther to the port of Finistere also known anciently as the
End of the Earth - the pilgrim traveled clamshell in hand to what must have
been a muster point at which to take flight to the stars. The pilgrim route
is known as the Milky Way. From the Center of the Universe in the land of
the Giants or Mero in Moray northeast Scotland to the End of the Earth -
folk history records that these people took ship to the stars." Phoenix,
from "ELS,
ATLANTIS, SCOTLAND & EGYPT"
"It may then be that after the fall and the destruction - the remainder of
the architects of Eden took their skills and deployed them amongst the
cultures they then wandered into. It is a truth that History belongs to the
victors - and over the millennia - much of what we take today for history
has been distorted and edited to glorify the interests of the strongest and
the few - usually covering up crimes of great magnitude. The truth about the
Holy Land of Scotland went to print by an author called Barry Dunsford - who
amongst other things pointed out that Pontius Pilate was born in central
Scotland at a place called Fortingale, near Killin. It always seemed strange
that a family - the Pilate family central to the destruction of one of Gods
and Histories central characters was located not very far from Edinburgh,
Scotland. Dunsford’s source was the books by W Comyns Beaumont on the riddle
of prehistoric Britain, and Britain - the key to World History. It is
therein suggested that the ancient Merovingians wandered the planet but that
the origins of the Jews may well be rooted in the Scottish Atlantean
Mystery. After the deluge - the ruling tribe of Aryans returned. These
people were known historically as the People of the Cat, the lion rampant
their symbol - the popular flag of Caledonia Scotland and also of the King
of Norway - also anciently a country part of Atlantean Thule. Edinburgh,
having a very sphinx like hill later called Arthur’s Seat, which looks like
a lion couchant was also known as the City of the Lion. The patron Saint of
Edinburgh is David." Phoenix, from "ELS,
ATLANTIS, SCOTLAND & EGYPT"
“The established Roman Church may have betrayed the Templars, but in
Scotland they found something far more trustworthy and tangible: a sacred
royal house, and a Priest-King of the Celtic Church succession. ...the
Knights became part of the Scottish Government as the appointed Royal
Bodyguard, with the Order established as 'Guardian of the King of Scots by
day and by night... A new order was then formed, called the Elder Brothers
of the Order of the Rosy Cross... Many historians have presumed therefore
that the Knights Templars must have been disbanded in Scotland, but this was
not the case; it was simply that Bruce had contrived the secret Order to
become even more secretive. Indeed, the Order of the Knights of the Rosy
Cross...was a very successful cover” (65). "Prince" Michael Stewart, from
The Forgotten Monarchy of Scotland
"One apparent goal of the Montauk Project was to send military operatives back in time to alter historical events, allowing the Montauk Group to hold the future hostage; to manipulate it for their own nefarious means, thus manipulating reality. (Chica Bruce refers to these exploits as "high tech Black Magic.") This notion has been seconded by Montauk experiencer Stewart Swerdlow, who--after attending a Preston Nichols lecture some years ago--experienced the sudden resurfacing of suppressed memories regarding the Montauk Project. Among other wild and woolly claims, Swerdlow says he was sent through the Montauk time portal packin' a pistol, on a mission to blow Jesus Christ to Kingdom Come. But when Jesus materialized in old town Jerusalem--and came sauntering down the steps of the temple all beatific and such--Swerdlow got cold feet and opted not to pull the trigger. (Perhaps the thought of burning in Hell for all eternity had something to do with his decision!) Later, Swerdlow was sent back in time again, and on the next occasion encountered Christ on the cross. On this occasion, Swerdlow was charged with the mission of extracting vials of holy blood from the crucified Messiah and, in the course of events, was apparently successful in this endeavor. The whole motivation behind this madcap Montaukian scheme was to clone the holy blood of Christ and then shoot psychic superstar Duncan Cameron up with it. Then--according to the Montauk Project game plan--the medical community would test Cameron's blood against the DNA residue on the Shroud of Turin, which would unanimously confirm the revelation of Christ's Second Coming. As a result of this psychic vampirism, humanity would then fall to its knees and worship this pseudo Christ, Duncan Cameron, the second only begotten Son of God! The ulterior motive behind all these blasphemies was to create the actual anti-Christ, thus ushering in a New World Order." Adam Gorightly, from "Ritual Magic, Mind Control and the UFO Phenomenon, Part 2"
Chapter 74 Hieros Gamos
"It's called Hieros Gamos," he said softly" (308). Dan Brown, from The Da
Vinci Code
"When a husband and wife...seek unity with one another, they are attempting
to achieve in their union a perfection which exists permanently in God"
(64). Andrew Greeley, from Sexual Intimacy (1975)
"...sexual hunger is not merely a hunger for the Absolute and the Real; it
is also a hunger for a union between the Male and the Female, which union
exists permanently in God. In such a perspective, it becomes possible to say
that when a husband and wife who are deeply in love with each other reach
the climax of their sexual orgasm, they have achieved something that is, in
the strict sense of the word, "godlike," becasue they have temporarily fused
the Male and the Female" (64). Andrew Greeley, from Sexual Intimacy
(1975)
"The Age of Horus was based on the union of male and female polarities. This meant that the legendary symbol of the androgyne - a sacred figure in spiritual alchemy - assumed special importance" (149) Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"Sexual intercourse was in fact a religious ritual among those Hindus and
Buddhists who practiced "tantra." The practitioners of tantra were inspired
by visions of cosmic sex and the acquisition of sexual energy. Through
tantra, by having sex with a woman, one might gain access to wisdom or
understanding of the cosmic mystery of creation: Shakti, the divine mother.
However, restrictions on where one could have sexual intercourse (not in
public) and certain types of sexual acts such as oral sex, were prohibited
as well as sex with strange women or those of a lower caste. Nevertheless
the joys of sex were continually emphasized and embraced. Hence, the Kama
Sutra, the "love text"." Rhawn Joseph, from "Sexually
Forward"
"The ancients personified the elements, air, water, fire, the earth, the
sea, the celestial orbs; in imagination gave superintending Deities to some
and deified others. The Sexual ability of man and Nature was also
personified, and likewise supplied with a governing Deity, which was
elevated to the niche of the Supreme. Once enthroned as the ruling God over
all, dissent therefrom was impious. A king might be obeyed, but God must be
worshiped. A monarch could compel obedience to the state, but the ministers
of God lured the devotee to the shrines of Isis and Venus on the one hand,
and to Bacchus and Priapus or Baal-Peor on the other, by appealing to the
most animating and sensuous force of our physical nature. The name of this
God bore different appellatives in different languages, among which we find
Al, El, Il, Ilos, On, Bel, Jao, Jah, Jak, Josh, Brahma, Eloihim, Jupiter,
and Jehovah. Being God of the genital power, he became the reputed sire of
numerous children, and numberless children were born under his auspicious
rule. The names of his dutiful descendants were composite in signification,
and in many, ways characterized the honored Deity. Hence, derived therefrom,
we meet with the El God in Michael, Raguel, Raphael, Gabrael, Joel, Phaniel,
Uriel, Sarakiel, Bethel, Chapel, Eli, Elijah. Al, El, Il, are used
interchangeably, one for the other; likewise Jah, Ju, Jao, Yho, Iah, Iao,
Iu. On expresses the idea of the male Creator. Am, Om, Um, or Umma,
represent the female Deity. From Am we have Amelia and Emma. On is an
integrant of many names, as Abdon, Onan, Aijalon, Ashcalon, Ezbon. From Ra,
Re, or Ri, arise Rebekah, Regem, Rehoboam, and Reba, which signifies "sexual
congress." The cognomens in which Jah enters are almost unlimited, as in
Isaiah, Hezekiah, Zedekiah, Padiah, Maniah, Jehu." Sha Rocco, from "The
Masculine Cross and Ancient Sex Worship"
"Others claimed to bear Christ crucified in their hearts, to have exchanged
hearts with Jesus, or to have supernaturally expanded hearts from the
infusion of the Holy Spirit. Nor were these simply metaphorical
understandings. Rather, they were quite literal and material expressions of
incorporation, into the human body, of the divine. Finally, some religious
laywomen were reported to manifest a severe bloating that they explained as
being made "pregnant" with Christ, in yet another image of literal
incorporation" (61). Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits: Divine and
Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"Her bridegroom...made her uterus as large as if she had within it a
remarkably large living fetus already close to parturition, and the
character of it was such that she weighed more from the bearing of it and
the pressure, that if she were being in her uterus a huge natural fetus. For
on account of the inconvenience and the constriction of the pressure she was
undecided where and how she should turn herself, or in what way to sit down
lie down, stand, or walk....To this the Lord responded, "I have generously
come to you with a violent affection, desiring to do you a great violence in
your body. I desire that it should give birth to me into your soul. But how
would my bride be able to know that she had conceived me or that she was
bearing me if I did not grow or increase within her?" (163) from Die
Akten des Kaninisations-prozess Dorotheas von Montau edited by R.
Stachnick, A. Triller, and H. Westpfahl (1978) as quoted in Discerning
Spirits: Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003), 61.
"The Papal religion is essentially feminine, and built on the ancient
Chaldean basis. It clings to the female element in the person of the Virgin
Mary. Naphtali (Gen. xxx, 8) was a descendant of such worshipers, if there
be any meaning in a concrete name. Bear in mind, names and pictures
perpetuate the faith of many peoples. Neptoah is Hebrew for "the vulva,"
and, Al or El being God, one of the unavoidable renderings of Naphtali is
"the Yoni is my God," or "I worship the Celestial Virgin." The Philistine
towns generally had names strongly connected with sexual ideas. Ashdod, aish
or esh, means "fire, heat," and dod means "love, to love," "boil up," be
agitated," the whole signifying "the heat of love," or "the fire which
impels to union." Could not those people exclaim, Our "God is love?" (I.
John iv, 8). The amatory drift of Solomon's Song is undisguised, though the
language is dressed in the habiliments of seeming decency. The burden of
thought of most of it bears direct reference to the Linga-Yoni. He makes a
woman say, "He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts" (S. of S. i, 13).
Again, of the phallus, or linga, she says, "I will go up to the palm-tree, I
will take hold of the boughs thereof" (vii, 8). Palm-tree and boughs are
euphemisms of the male genitals. Solomon, like the ancients before him,
worshiped at the high sanctuary of sex." Sha Rocco, from
"The Masculine Cross
and Ancient Sex Worship"
"The statue of Isis with her child Horus has a fish on her head; likewise...
Ardanari stands with an intrepid dolphin on his or her head--for one head
seems to answer for the two persons." Sha Rocco, from
"The Masculine Cross
and Ancient Sex Worship"
"The modern idea in regard to the physical influence of fish as an article
of diet is, that it is specially adapted to repair waste brain tissue, on
account of the phosphatic elements it contains. Phosphates are larger
constituents of brain than of other portions of the body. But the ancients
took to fish repasts wholly for another end, and for the support of a full
vein of divine ardor. They believed it benefited the virile powers." Sha
Rocco, from "The
Masculine Cross and Ancient Sex Worship"
"Says Dr. Inman: "I have ascertained that eating fish for supper on Friday
night is a Jewish custom. It is well known that fecundity among that people
is a blessing specially promised by the Omnipotent. So it is thought proper
to use human means for securing the desired end on the day set apart to the
Almighty"--Almighty Asher of old. "The Hebrew Sabbath begins at sunset on
Friday. Three meals are to be taken during the day, which are supposed to
have a powerful aphrodisiac operation. The ingredients in their dishes are
meat and fish, garlic and pepper. The particular fish selected, as near as I
can determine, is the skate that which in the Isle of Man is still supposed
to be a powerful satyron?" Sha Rocco, from
"The Masculine Cross
and Ancient Sex Worship"
"Layard remarks: "In our days, indeed, the Druses of Lebanon, in their
secret vespers, offer a true worship to the sexual parts of the female, and
pay their devotions every Friday night--that is to say, the day which was
consecrated to Venus, likewise the day in which, on his side, the Mussulman
finds in the code of Mahomet the double obligation to go to the mosque and
to perform the conjugal duty." Sha Rocco, from
"The Masculine Cross
and Ancient Sex Worship"
"Mythology informs us that the body of Osiris, when killed by Typhon, was
carried in a chest to Byblos, there found by Isis and brought back to Egypt;
but the malignant demon cut up the body, and threw the places away. All were
recovered but the pudenda, which were replaced by a model thereof, and this
image, enshrined in an ark, became one of the symbols of the God. The
missing parts are said to have been eaten by a fish. Thus we see "the Ark,"
"the Fish," and "Good Friday," brought into parallelism. We are also told
that the holy chest (ark) of Isis was carried once in a year, in November,
to the seaside; the priests, during the passage, pouring drink-offerings of
water upon it from the river. The signification of this lavement must at
once be apparent to those who know that the Hebrew mi in the text signifies
not only "water," but "semen virile." Sha Rocco, from
"The Masculine Cross
and Ancient Sex Worship"
"In the foregoing we have seen how the eroto-religious feeling of antiquity
deified the male members of the body under Asher, Ann, and Hea. We here
perceive the same genius has divinized the female structure. With a fish
diet, the male God was believed to be omnipotent and all-powerful. Joshua
was the son of Nun. Nun in Hebrew is the name for fish; it also signifies a
woman, or, rather, the sexual part of a woman." Sha Rocco, from
"The Masculine Cross
and Ancient Sex Worship"
"Many well researched books have been written by Western writers and
journalists exposing the secrets of Freemasonry, but to my knowledge none
have attempted to seriously use material from Islamic sources in order to
reach a better understanding of the subject; out of fear, one suspects, that
it might also provoke serious interest in Islam as a viable alternative to
the world’s problems. The Qur’an points out the dangers posed by secret
societies, in particular Masonic type brotherhoods who opposed practically
every Prophet, and clearly condemns their practice of invoking help from the
devil in their rituals, like the brotherhood of 9 who conspired to commit
murder and perjury amongst the people of Thamud. The Royal Arch Degree
actually invokes the devil in its rituals which consist of 9 men in groups
of 3 incanting the ancient name of Satan in disguise: Jehovah Jah-Baal-On:
The large phallic obelisk at ancient ON was called God, the father, by the
priests of On. The Washington Monument is a much larger replica of that
Satanic obelisk erected by Priapic Senuseret 1st at ancient On. Hence the
term “ The great Satan” comes from this symbol." David Musa Pidcock, from
Satanic
Voices
"Jehovah-Jahbulon, or Atum, the aboriginal deity, as he is described by R.T.
Rundle Clark, in The Magic of Obelisks by Peter Thompkins, was The Rock That
Begot, the phallus of Ra-Atum, symbolised as an Obelisk. The self-engendered
Atum-Ra rises up as a primeval hill [jabalon in Arabic means hill or
mountain], the Temple Hill of the Sun at Heliopolis-ON, the dwelling place
of the High God manifesting himself as light and symbolised as an obelisk,
or the Pillar of Heaven, the Rock of Ages. It continued the cult of
Terrestial-Phallicism, started by Nimrod and his Tower of Babel, and
commemorated the following prayer:
Oh Atum, when you came into being
you rose up as a high hill.
You shon as the BenBen stone Obelisk,
in the Temple of the Phoenix at On-Heliopolis.
According to Hargrave Jennings, in Phallicism -Celestial & Terrestial [page
73] The Egyptians, among whom of ancient nations the Obelisk and the
Pyramid were the most frequently employed as significant objects, held that
there were two opposite powers in the world perpetually acting and reacting
against each other... The Obelisk always means the male instrument, while
the Pyramid signifies the female corresponding tumefactive, or rising power
- power not submissive, but answerably suggestive; synchronised in the
anatomical clitoris, - root, in the Greek, probably, from clyte, Sun-flower
as turning to the sun, that eccentric, minute object, meaning everything in
the Rosicrucian mystic anatomy.
Clark states in Symbol and myth in ancient Egypt that:
For the Heliopolitan morning was marked by the shining sunlight on an erect
pillar or pyramidion on a support shaft which could reflect the rays of the
rising sun. In the beginning, a light-bird [i.e the Phoenix, the holy
spirit] had alighted on the sacred stone, an obelisk, known as the Benben,
to initiate the great age of the visible god...When Atum, the aboriginal
deity and ultimate but hidden godhead, at first alone in the Universe, came
into being, symbolised by the primeval serpent in the dark waters of the
abyss, his act was symbolised as Autoerotic." In one sense, says Rundle
Clark, he is the Atum figure of Heliopolis, performing creation by
masturbation..." David Musa Pidcock, from
Satanic
Voices
"The evidence that Mary Magdalene and Jesus together provided the model for
the "hieros gamos" (Sacred Marriage)in Christianity is found in the Gospels
themselves. The numbers coded by gematria in her name indicate that Mary
Magdalene was the "Goddess" among early Christians.5 They understood the
"numbers theology" of the Hellenistic world, numbers coded in the New
Testament that were based on the ancient canon of sacred geometry derived by
the Pythagoreans centuries before.
The Greek epithet "h Magdalhnh" bears the number 153, a profoundly important
value used among mathematicians to designate the Vesica Piscis--the ()-shape
identified with the "sacred Feminine' in the ancient world.6 This symbol,
the "vulva," has obvious attributes of feminine regeneration and the
"doorway" or "portal" of life--the "sacred cauldron of creativity." It was a
very ancient ancient, even archetypal symbol for the Goddess. It was called
the "holy of holies" and the "inner sanctum." Almonds were sacred to Venus.
The symbol abounds in cave art of ancient peoples discovered in shrines
where the fertility of the earth and the female was honored. It was no
accident that the epithet of Mary Magdalene bore the number that to the
educated of the time identified her as the "Goddess in the Gospels.""
Margaret Starbird, from "Mary
Magdalene: The Beloved"
"When most people hear the term “Occult,” images come to mind of Demons,
Witches, ghosts, and goblins, yet it never occurs to the average person that
these dark energies really represent what we don’t know about ourselves and
how we project that ignorance into the world we have created around us. The
emergence of modern Psychology was generally a step in the right direction
in terms of facilitating matters so that the average individual could gain
greater personal awareness, however the dark, inner recesses of the human
psyche only seemed to get darker and deeper for many after the Psychologist
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) labeled it all under sexuality and then
recommended controlling our biological imperative and subjugating it to the
societal forces that were repressing us to begin with. It was subsequently
through the work of Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) that these same inner
drives were linked to the Ancient Hermetic Archetypes of Alchemy and Tarot
so that our inner nature would not be feared or repressed but instead seen
as a force we needed to ally ourselves with in a mystical sense. The
Scientist and Psychologist Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) went one step further
when he saw sexuality as an extension of Orgone energy, the most pure and
constructive force in the Universe. Of course the above only represents a
mainstream, Psycho-analytical summary of the major trends in 20th Century
consciousness. The Ancient Adepts knew all along that human sexuality was a
mirror of the greater creative process of the Universe." Frater R.S., from "The
Occult"
"By having as its founding principle the spiritual hieros gamos, or sacred
marriage, the true partnership of love and fertility between Goddess and
God, priestess and priest, the Christian church can at last come home to its
true partnership role as a guardian of the germ-line of the biosphere for
the benefit of all - caring for and celebrating the unfolding of eternal
life in this conscious, intentional and complementary wave-particle,
mind-body universe. The eternal Kingdom finally enters into harmony with the
immortal Garden. Chris King, from "The
Rebirth of the Church and the Transfoliation of Life"
"Although the Gnostics were given to fantastically complex and fanciful
cosmologies and angelic hierarchies, which was ridiculed by the Church,
there was an essential simplicity about them. Believing that they mirrored
the primitive church of Jesus himself, they tended to uphold the spiritual
equality of women, often openly and in defiance of the emergent Roman
Church. Indeed, the Gnostics - whether or not they consciously supported
the feminine - seem to have naturally honored those qualities that are
associated more with women than men. In the recently-discovered Nag Hammadi
text Trimorphic Protennoia, (The Triple-formed Primal Thought) a divine
female figure speaks:
‘I am the Voice. It is I who speak within every creature... Now I have come
a second time in the likeness of a female, and have spoken with them... I
have revealed myself in the Thought of the likeness of my masculinity.
‘I am androgynous. I am both Mother and Father, since I copulate with
myself... and with those who love me... I am the Womb that gives shape to
the All... I am Meirothea, the glory of the Mother.’ from "The
Magdalene Files"
"...China could be considered a possible origin for both the “high art” and
Indian Tantrism. On the other hand, European alchemy of early modern times
(16th to 18th century) has so many similarities to the symbolic world of
tantric-alchemic India, that — since a direct influence is difficult to
imagine — one must either posit a common historical, most probably Egyptian,
origin, or must assume that both esoteric currents drew upon the same
archetypal reservoir of our collective unconsciousness. Most probably, both
are the case.In the West, the close relationship between occidental alchemy
and Tantrism has been thematized by, among others, the religious studies
scholar Mircea Eliade and Carl Gustav Jung, the depth psychologist. Jung
more than once drew attention to the parallels between the two systems."
Victor und Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
Chapter 76 Baphomet
"Langdon quickly explained to Sophie that Baphomet was a pagan fertility god
associated with the creative force of reproduction" ( 316). Dan Brown, from
The Da Vinci Code
"It is semi-Greek: Baphe Metis. Initiation by origin of water (baptismo) and
Wisdom of Measurement as by math (metes - metric). In esoteric lodge
literature there is shown the far more ancient Babylonian version of the
word: Bahu Mid. Unfortunately, this is not easy to come by. The Templars,
whatever else they may have been, were Roman Catholics that would be able to
read the Bible in Greek. "Baphe" is pseudo-Greek, and "Metis" is proper
Greek. The Apostles themselves, wrote the New Testament in Greek.
"It is very possible that the Knights Templar were Roman Catholics and at
the same time used the image of Baphemetis-Sophia! Sophia is not just the
Goddess of Wisdom from the Hellenic and Pythagorean tradition associated
with Gnosis; Sophia is also the Goddess and considered to be the Bride of
God! Note also that Mary, Mar, is associated with Water - as in the
Babylonian/Hebrew word Bahu "The Waters" and Miriam." from "SYMBOLS OF
SATAN? - BAPHOMET - FOUR ARTICLES"
"These misogynous terms for the prima materia are images which on the one
hand seek to describe the untamed, death-bringing nature; on the other one
readily admit that a secret force capable of producing everything in the
phenomenal world is hidden within “Mother Nature”. Nature in alchemy has at
its disposal the universal power of birth. It represents the primordial
matrix of the elements, the massa confusa, the great chaos, from which
creation bursts forth. On this basis, Titus Burckhardt, an enthusiastic
expert on the great art, brings the western prima materia into direct
comparison with tantric Shakti and the black goddess, Kali: “On the idea of
Shakti are based all those tantric spiritual methods which are more closely
related to alchemy than to any other of the spiritual arts. The Hindu,
indeed, regard alchemy itself as a tantric method. As Kali, the Shakti is on
the one hand the universal mother, who lovingly embraces all creatures, and
on the other hand the tyrannical power which delivers them over to
destruction, death, time, and space” (Burckhardt, 1986, p. 117). The
alchemic first substance (prima materia or massa confusa) cannot be better
personified in Tantrism than by Kali and her former retinue, the
crematoria-haunting, horrifying dakinis." Victor und Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"In late versions of the Set-Osiris myth, myths continuing well into the
Roman Empire after Christ, Set was considered to have dismembered Osiris.
Isis recovered all Osiris's fragments except - noteworthy - his phallus;
that, was eaten by a letos fish. The symbolism here is: donkey cults
(literally, Sethians, Semites) murder dark cults. There was always a war
within the Semite groups between the dark mother cults and the patriarchal
solar father group, see "The Hebrew Goddess" by Patai. When Mother Goddess
cults try to put the dark cults back together, they are emasculated by the
FISH: fish representing Christianity! Noteworthy also, a later Gnostic
heresy of Clement of Alexandria's followers known as the Sethian heresy,
claimed that Seth was an earlier incarnation of Jesus. There were mystical
Essenes in the first century AD called Ebionites, who believed that the Holy
Spirit was female. Some of these became Christians and developed into the
second century Clementine Gnostics. They believed the Virgin Mary was a
vessel of this Holy Spirit. It is well known that Christianity persecuted
any mother goddess cults. And don't think the mythopoetic telling of this
tale ends so long ago. In Mahdia (pronounced MAK-tee-ah) the story goes that
the cults managed to kill the fish, get back the phallus and plant it: and
out of it grew the GOAT OF MENDES! BAPHOMET (Bahu Mid, Baphe Metis) was born
- the war sigil of 3 cooperating groups was made and an alliance was born:
Pythagoreans, Ophites, and remnants of Wicca-type groups or Arcadians." from
"SYMBOLS OF SATAN? - BAPHOMET - FOUR ARTICLES"
"Baphomet, as interpreted by the terms Baphe and Metis, literally,
"immersion into measurement" (or the Babylonian Bahu Mid) has a technical
meaning of "initiation," but not in the sense used by neo-pagan "spiritual"
paths. Satan is the Great Initiator of Cosmos; in this sense, Satan is the
unmanifest essence from which all comes, and back to which all goes." from
"SYMBOLS OF SATAN? - BAPHOMET - FOUR ARTICLES"
“A very important further link between Templars and Druids/Celts is the cult of the severed head... the spot where Christ was crucified is Golgotha, the place of the skull…The cult of the severed head… signifies literally what it implies. The Celts removed heads from their sacrificial victims and placed them in specially prepared niches at shrines and altar sites. (Interesting, of course, that Neanderthal man had done precisely the same with the heads of bears: Celts themselves being also noted bear worshippers). As for the Templars, they were said (both before and at their trials) to worship a bearded head, called Baphomet (185-6). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"Fulcanelli has much to say about the Black Virgin, and her miraculous milk,
as we will see in the next chapter, but perhaps the most significant thing
Fulcanelli has to impart concerning the Virgin is this: "Obviously what is
dealt with here is the very
essence of things… the vase containing the Spirit of things: vas
spirituale." Vincent Bridges, from
Seven of Mysteries of the Great Cross at Hendaye: alchemy at the end of
time
"Following the consumption of the “virgin milk”, the drawing off of the
gynergy, the ethereal feminine is dissolved in the imagination of the
alchemist and now becomes a part of his masculine-androgyne being. Thus, the
second sacrifice of the woman, this time as “Sophia” or as an independent
“spiritual being” takes place here, then the goal of the opus is reached
only when the adept, just like the Tantric, has completely obliterated the
autonomy of the feminine principle and integrated it within himself. To this
end he works on and destroys the “chaste moon goddess” or the “white woman”
(inana mudra), once more through the element of fire. The Italian occultist,
Julius Evola, has described this procedure in clear and unvarnished terms:
in this phase “sulfur and fire become active again, the now living masculine
exerts an influence on the substance, ... gains the upper hand over the
feminine, absorbs it and transmits its own nature to it” (Evola, 1983, p.
435). Accordingly, the feminine principle is completely absorbed by the
masculine. Somewhat more prosaically expressed, this means the alchemist
drinks the “virgin milk” mentioned above from his flask. Victor und Victoria
Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
Chapter 77
Atbash Cipher
"Finally, a scholar applied the Atbash Cipher to the word, and his results
were mind-numbing" (319). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"Atbash is a simple substitution cipher in Hebrew. It consists of
substituting aleph (the first letter) for tav (the last), beth (the second)
for shin (one before last), and so on, reversing the alphabet. A couple of
words in the Book of Jeremiah, Leb Kamai and Sheshakh, are atbash for Kasdim
(Chaldeans) and Babel respectively, probably written thus." from "Atbash
cipher From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia"
"In order to understand the Atbash Cipher theory, as it relates to the
Baphomet mythos, it is first important to examine the origins of the code.
As early as 500 BC Scribes writing the book of Jeremiah used what we now
know to be the ATBASH cipher. This cipher is one of the few used in the
Hebrew language. The cipher itself, ATBASH, is very similar to the
substitution cipher. A substitution cipher is one where each letter of the
alphabet actually represents another letter. In the case of the Atbash
cipher, the first letter of the alphabet is substituted for the last, the
second for the second last and so on. The letter A becomes "Z"; the letter
"B" becomes "Y" and so on."
Baphomet: The Atbash
Cipher Theory"
"According to both Manly P. Hall's The Secret Teachings of All Ages and
David Wood's GenIsis: The First Book of Revelations, the Khem of Mendes was
the origin of the Templar's "Baphoment" that they were accused of
worshipping. There have been many connections drawn between the
Rennes-le-Chateau mystery and the many mysteries concerning the Templar
Knights. Also, "Baphoment" was revealed, using the Essene Atbash cipher, to
mean "Sophia". Sophia was the Gnostic (The Cathars of the Languedoc region
of France were gnostics) goddess of Light, who was been identified as the
Egyptian goddess Isis. Those who have studied Rennes-le-Chateau know that
the Priory of Sion many references to Isis again and again in their
documents, particularly concerning Mary Magdalene. And, of course, Isis was
identified not only with the constellation of Sirius, but with Venus, the
morning star, that's orbit forms the pentagram through the ocean of the
zodiac." Beau Berger, from "The
Pentagram, The Age of Capricorn, and theme of Arcadia"
"Dr. Hugh Schonfield was one of the original researchers working on the Dead
Sea Scrolls found at Qumran and is the author of many books on Biblical
history, most notably "The Passover Plot." While working on the Dead Sea
Scrolls, Schonfield used the cipher to translate some words that were
undetectable to the scholars. For example applying the Atbash cipher to the
word "hagu," he got the Hebrew word, "tsaraph," which means, "test." The
"hagu" passages are important for they deal with "The Teacher of
Righteousness," which some scholars believe to have been Jesus. Latterly,
Schonfield became very interested in the charges of heresy leveled against
the Knights Templar and particularly the etymology of the Baphomet. It was
decided by Schonfield that he would apply the Atbash cipher, which he was
convinced the Templars were aware of, to the Baphomet." from
Baphomet: The Atbash
Cipher Theory"
"If one writes the word Baphomet in Hebrew and remember Hebrew letters read
from right to left, the result is as shown below:
[taf] [mem] [vav] [pe] [bet]
Baphomet In Hebrew Right to Left
Applying the Atbash cipher, Schonfield revealed the following:
[alef] [yud] [pe] [vav] [shin]
Results In Sophia A Greek Word Written In Hebrew Right To Left
Although written in Hebrew it reads as the Greek word Sophia that translates
into "Wisdom" in English. However, there is another connotation to the term,
for Sophia was the Goddess and considered to be the bride of God. It has
been held by many that the Templars were followers of the goddess or at very
least in reestablishing the feminine aspect of divinity that had been
excised by the church. It should be remembered that their patron, St.
Bernard of Clairvaux had an absolute obsession with Mary and was responsible
for her being named the queen of Heaven and the Mother of God." from "Baphomet:
The Atbash Cipher Theory"
"In her pivotal position, raised above human beings and angels alike, Mary
is identified with biblical wisdom. Her assumption into heaven not only
reunites her with her son Jesus but elevates her into the holy Trinity" (12)
Peter Schafer, from Mirror of His Beauty: Feminine Images of God from the
Bible to the Early Kabbalah (2002)
Chapter 82 Rosy flesh and seeded womb
"The poem's final reference - Rosy
flesh and seeded womb - was a clear allusion to Mary Magdalene, the Rose
who bore the seed of Jesus" (335). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons; so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the peoples of the lands." (Ezra 9:2)
"The use of the phrase "holy seed" is particularly striking - a rather unvarnished statement of the religious significance of genetic material and the religious obligation to keep that genetic material pure and untainted" (60-1). Kevin MacDonald, from A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora Peoples (2002)
"The very core of pagan Wisdom lies in its insight into this cosmic balance
of hierarchically ordered Principles - more precisely, into the eternal
circuit of the cosmic catastrophe (derailment) and the restoration of Order
through just punishment. Perhaps the most elaborated case of such a cosmic
order is the Ancient Hindu cosmology, applied first to the social order, in
the guise of the caste system, and then to the individual organism itself,
in the guise of the harmonious hierarchy of its organs (head, hands,
abdomen...); today, such an attitude is artificially revived in the
multitude of New Age approaches to nature and society" (120) Slavvoj Zizek,
from The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian legacy worth fighting
for (2000)
"The set of somatic miracles associated with religious women - stigmata,
other bleedings, bloating, facial transfigurations - not only was a broad
manifestation of the essential "coporeity" of feminine devotion, but also an
expression of something narrower and more precise: the literal interior
incorporation of the divine" (63) Nancy Caciola, from Discerning Spirits:
Divine and Demonic Possession in the Middle Ages (2003)
"Christianity (and, in its own way Buddhism) introduced into this global
balanced cosmic Order a principle that is totally foreign to it, a principle
which, measured by the standards of pagan cosmology, cannot but appear as a
monstrous distortion: the principle according to which each individual has
immediate access to universality (of nirvana, of the Holy Spirit, or,
today, of Human Rights and freedoms): I can participate in this universal
dimension, directly, irrespective of my special place within the
global social order" (120) Slavvoj Zizek, from The Fragile Absolute or,
Why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for (2000)
"As the female correspondence to male sperm the texts nominate the seed of
the woman (semen feminile). Among Tantrics it is highly contested whether
this is a matter of the menstrual blood or fluids which the mudra secretes
during the sexual act. In any case, the sexual fluids of the man are always
associated with the color white, and those of the woman with red.
Fundamentally, the female discharge is assigned an equally powerful magic
effect as that of its male counterpart. Even the gods thirst after it and
revere the menses as the nectar of “immortality” (Benard, 1994, p. 103). In
the old Indian matriarchies, and still today in certain Kali cults, the
menstruating goddess is considered as one of the highest forms of appearance
of the feminine principle (Bhattacharyya, 1982, pp. 133, 134). It was in the
earliest times a widespread opinion, taken up again in recent years by
radical feminists, that the entire natural and supernatural knowledge of the
goddess was concentrated in the menstrual blood." Victor und Victoria
Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"Outside of the gynocentric and tantric cults however, a negative valuation
of menstrual blood predominates, which we know from nearly all patriarchal
religions: a menstruating woman is unclean and extremely dangerous. The
magic radiation of the blood brings no blessings, rather it has devastating
effects upon the sphere of the holy. For this reason, women who are bleeding
may never enter the grounds of a temple. This idea is also widely
distributed in Hinayana Buddhism. Menstrual blood is seen there as a curse
which has its origins in a female original sin: “Because they are born as
women,” it says in a text of the “low vehicle”, “their endeavors toward
Buddhahood are little developed, while their lasciviousness and bad
characteristics preponderate. These sins, which strengthen one another,
assume the form of menstrual blood which is discharged every month in two
streams, in that it soils not just the god of the earth but also all the
other deities too” (Faure, 1994, p. 182). But the Tantrics are completely
different! For them the fluids of the woman bear Lucullan names like “wine”,
“honey”, “nectar”, and a secret is hidden within them which can lead the
yogi to enlightenment (Shaw, 1994, p. 157)" Victor und Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"If we consider that, like Cybele and her stone, the Grail and the Grail
Queen, the Shekinah, are identical, then the vessel of Our Lady, which
contains the vital spirit, is the mountain top temple, cave or grotto. This
container acts a "house" that allows the ethereal spirit to coalesce into
the physical form of the goddess. We find this in the Bahir, where in verses
four and five we told that the "House" is built by wisdom and filled with
understanding, out of which flows the stream of gnosis. This is the Supernal
temple, and the "bayit" or house of Joseph where the Virgin dwells before
giving birth to the Christ. Formed of the sefirot Chokamh, wisdom, and
Binah, understanding, which in turn creates the non-sefirot of Daat or
knowledge. Daat is a void or a vessel, in which, when filled by mind, the
animating spirit of matter, is the reflection of Kether, the Godhead, which
cannot be approached while still in the body. Gnosis, knowledge or Sophia,
the light filled void of the Buddhists, is as close to the divine as we can
come." Vincent Bridges, from
Seven of Mysteries of the Great Cross at Hendaye: alchemy at the end of
time
"The Merovingian legend of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is simply a Gnostic retread of the ancient legends of the pagan messiahs, Osiris and Isis, and before them, Nimrod and Semiramus". Barbara Aho, from "Mel Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"The Jewish magi clearly understood the movements of Venus, and their entire national aspirations appear to have been centered upon a superstitious belief that the light of Venus rising before dawn in conjunction with another bright planet would allow them to win wars and to go on to greatness....Our line of investigation was leading us to demonstrate that Jesus was driven by a belief in the power of the Shekinah - which turns out to be little more than astrology on a grandiose scale" (259). Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, from The Book of Hiram (2003)
"The three influences - Abraham of Sumer, founding father of Judaism, Moses of Egypt, creator of the Holy Law of the one True God; and Hiram of Tyre, Phoenician king, builder of the Temple of Solomon, and both son and husband to 'Our Lady of Heaven' - all came together to eventually form the beginning of the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam" (289). Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, from The Book of Hiram (2003)
"These astrological ideas from European Stone-Age religion were the intellectual driving force behind the belief system of the Enochian Jews which said that great events happened and great leaders (messiahs) were born when the Shekinah, the visible glory of God's presence, shines just before the sunrise. And that if the Shekinah fails to appear this is a sign of God withdrawing His favor"(289). Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, from The Book of Hiram (2003)
Chapter 98 Pisces
"The end of Pisces and the beginning of Aquarius was allegedly the
historical marker at which the Priory planned to release the Sangreal
documents to the world" (401). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
“The astronomical effect underlying “the dawning of the Age of
Aquarius” is the precession of the equinoxes. As the earth rotates on its
axis, it wobbles slowly like an off-balance spinning top and thereby traces
out a circle with its pole. This means the axis of the earth is slowly
changing its orientation, drifting away from the North Star so that even
this star, supposedly a fixed star around which all other stars revolve
(from out perspective on Earth), eventually become a revolving star. (In the
process, however, another star may take its place. A second consequence of
this wobble is that the sun, upon completing its yearly journey through the
zodiac, fails to return to exactly the same point from which the journey
began. This tiny discrepancy builds up over time so that after about two
thousand years the sun will have shifted into a new zodiacal constellation
on any given day of the year. Whereas once it was in Aries on the vernal
equinox (March 21), it shifted into Pisces at about the birth of Christ and
is now close to moving into Aquarius. Each of these periods, slightly longer
than two thousand years, is called a World Age and all together they make up
a Great Year of twenty-six thousand years” (109) Dan Burton and David
Grandy, Magic, Mystery and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization
(2004)
“From about 4000 to 2000 B.C, the ruling sign was Taurus and worship of the Bull was common in many cultures. When Aries (the Ram) replaced Taurus, militaristic civilizations arose, the most prominent of which was Rome. Then, as Pisces displaced Aires, Rome fell and a religion betraying its Piscean origin emerged: Jesus was a fisher of men, some of his apostles were fishermen by trade, fish figure into several New Testament miracles, and the Greek word for fish, ichthys became an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior (Iesous, Christos, Theou Yios, Soter. (109) Dan Burton and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (2004)
"'Eon,' a long length of time, also meant for Jung the two-thousand-year
Christian eon, which coincided with its astrological sign, Pisces, in which
one fish represents Christ and the other its future opposite, the
Antichrist. Below all this works the archetype of the hostile brothers; too,
the astrological characteristics of the fish contain essential components of
the Christian myth: the cross, the moral conflict and its splitting into two
figures, the son of a virgin, the classical mother-son tragedy, the danger
at birth, and the savior. For the alchemist, the fish also symbolized the
Lapis; for Jung, unconscious wholeness." Craig Chalquist, from "Jungian
Terms"
"The doctrine of the world ages occurs as early as the Babylonian Enuma
Elish..., dated to the middle of the second millennium BC. It has analogues
in Iran, Greece, Rome, the Norse Edda, and elsewhere. . . . it represents
the slow eastward drift of equinoctial constellations in the sky."... This
method of combining 'myth' with a specific or series of celestial phenomena
seems corroborated and widespread in many cultures around the globe and
throughout various historical periods." Richard D. Flavin from, "The
Zodiacs: Maps of Heaven and History"
"In the Age of Pisces, it is Iesus Kybernautus Ikhthus, the Fish who rules for 2,300 years." Richard D. Flavin from, "The Zodiacs: Maps of Heaven and History"
“Although Christianity has never been willing to embrace astrology – suspecting its pagan origins and a cosmological dynamic in competition with the will of God – the same cannot be said of Islam” (103). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"At
this juncture, it is worthwhile to take note of another mythological
association of the constellation Piscis Australis, the Southern Fish, which
we have seen to be so strongly linked to both the Papacy as an institution
and to Karol Wojtyla individually. According to ancient sources,(72) the
Fish was originally conceived as the sky symbol of the Mesopotamian demigod
Oannes, who was depicted as being part man and part fish. While he was
credited with imparting the knowledge of the sciences, art and agriculture
which gave rise to the Sumerian civilization, Oannes was, oddly enough, at
the same time viewed as a repulsive being, an "Abomination". In fact, as the
precursor to the Philistine human/fish idol Dagon, Oannes undoubtedly was a
prototype of the "Abomination of Desolation" in the prophecy of Daniel.
Simultaneously a Promethean benefactor and a hideous monster, Oannes is a
perfect example of the paradoxical riddles Nostradamus is so fond of posing
in his Prophecies:
When the terrestrial and aquatic fish
Is beached by a strong wave,
Its form strangely attractive, yet horrific,
Emerging from the sea, the enemies soon at the walls(73)
Thomas Jude, from "The Fall
of the Papacy"
"Astrologically interpreted, the designation of Christ as one of the fishes
identifies him with the first fish, the vertical one. Christ is followed by
the Antichrist, at the end of time. The beginning of the enantiodromia would
fall, logically, midway between the two fishes. We have seen that this is
so. The time of the Renaissance begins in the immediate vicinity of the
second fish, and with it comes that spirit which culminates in the modern
age" (232-33). C.G. Jung, from Aion "The Sign of the Fishes"
in Jung on Christianity selected and edited by Murray Stein
(1999)
"Carl Jung was astounded by the correlation with the fish symbolism
surrounding Christ. The precession of the equinox point into Pisces
inaugurates ... "an age in which the 'fish' was used as a name for the God
who became a man, who was born as a fish and was sacrificed as a ram, who
had fishermen for disciples and wanted to make them fishers of men, who fed
the multitude with miraculously multiplying fishes, who was himself eaten as
a fish, the 'holier food', and whose followers are little fishes, the
'pisciculi'". He notes other astrological symbolism such as the bathing of
the disciples' feet (Pisces) at the Last Supper, and Christ's appearance to
the disciples after the resurrection. They were fishing on the shore and
took another great draught of fishes. Even the virgin birth echoes the
Piscean polarity through its opposite sign of Virgo." Maggie Hyde, from
Jung and Astrology
"Looking at the constellation of Pisces..., we see that the two fish are
bound by a cord at the star alpha, known to the Arabs as Al Rischa, the
Knot. They swim in different directions, the eastern fish moving vertically
north from the ecliptic, the western fish swimming horizontally along the
ecliptic. This is understood to represent a dual nature in the sign, a
vertical and a horizontal, two opposite qualities, which cross but are
forever bound up with each other. They are the fish of spirit and the fish
of matter, and the crucifixion of the Messiah of the Piscean Age is
indicated by the symbolism of this crossing. Christ, the first fish of
spirit, is crucified on the cross of matter. The great themes of
Christianity - sacrifice, renunciation and redemption - are also the
defining qualities of the sign of Pisces. For Jung, the duality inherent in
the fish of Pisces reflects Christianity's irreconcilable opposites.
Theistic religious systems have to reconcile the 'dual' nature of God; God
in manifestation as both positive and negative, male and female, spirit and
matter. God is often seen as that principle which unites opposites but
Christianity has a difficulty in reconciling this dualism. This manifests in
the European intellect as the 'Good versus Evil' problem and in the
challenging question of how an all-good God can create evil..." Maggie Hyde,
from Jung and Astrology
"His question was most likely based on his reading of Ernest Renan's Life
of Jesus; namely, how to understand the historical actuality of Jesus
Christ the man rather than the God-man that organized religions had imposed
upon the world. There had been little progress in understanding "the person
of Christ," Jung argued, saying also that Christ was "not a 'normal man,'"
but one who should be regarded as he saw himself: "namely, as a prophet, a
man sent by God." Jung argued for the reinstatement of the "mystery of a
metaphysical world, a metaphysical order" to the center of the Christian
religion. He posited the unpopular view that Christ came to Earth with a
sword rather than peace, "for he unleashes the conflict of the dualistic,
divided will." In Jung's view, Christian religion had been in decline for
almost the two thousand years of its existence, but it was not yet fully
extinguished" (45-6). Deirdre Bair, from Jung: a Biography (2003)
In "The Zodiacs: Maps of
Heaven and History," Richard D. Flavin tracks the celestial analogues of
the Gospel as follows:
1) Jesus=Jason. The Healers.
2) Water=Baptist John. The first narrative progression, see Mark 1:1-11.
On the round zodiac, Water is opposite Lion--this may reflect the incident
in 'The Argosy' where Heracles (wearer of the lion's skin) makes an oar for
the Argo from a tree. Thus, the oar "dips" into Water.
3) Goat=Temptation in desert. 'The Argosy' provides the narrative
solution--the isle and women of Lemnos serve as temptation for the crew of
the Argo. Likewise, the Jesus Narrative progresses with Jesus entering the
desert and temptation. There is a tradition, see Mark 1:13 and Matthew
4:1-11, Jesus resisted temptation by not calling out the Name of God.
4) Bow=Simon/Andrew (Nets). See Mark 1:17 "Come ye after me, and I will
make you fishers of men." Chinese myths substitute nets with bows.
Hunter-devices appear to differ with region. Also, on the round zodiac
Simon/Andrew is opposite John/James (Thunder Sons). Thus, a "pillar" is
formed--the four leading apostles.
5) Scorpion=Kingship/Wounding. I believe a Mediterranean castration myth
should go here, i.e., following Uranus, Chronos, Zeus, and Apollo, not to
forget Noah. In 'The Argosy' this is reflected in the loss of Hylas. In
the Jesus Narrative, after Frazer and Graves, a 'ritual laming' may be
present as part of a sacred kingship.
6) Scales=Matthew (Caesar's Coin). The constellation and zodiac sign
Libra was
known to the Babylonians as zibanitu, meaning "scales." Graves supports
Newton's alignment of Scales with Alcinous, the king of the Phaeacians, who
"weighed" his choices regarding the return of Medea to the Colchians. The
alignment is much clearer in the Jesus Narrative, as the tax-collector
Matthew is best represented with Scales. See Mark 2:14. Perhaps combined
with the incident of Caesar's Coin, see Mark 12:13-17, Matthew 22:15-22, and
Luke 20:20-26.
7) Virgin=Mary On the round zodiac Jason/Jesus are opposite Medea/Mary.
It is unclear which Mary is referred to in the Jesus Narrative, as all were
important.
8) Lion=Just James I believe the legend of just James to be an important
one, and deserving of reinstatement into the Jesus Narrative. Early
Christians recognized the importance of Just James from the many
non-scriptural sources that marked his passing. A “strong-boy” belongs
here, and I can think of none more steadfast than Just James. As with the
incident of Heracles and the oar being “dipped” into the Water, opposite
Just James on the round zodiac is Baptist John, perhaps connecting
traditions of austerity.
9) Crab=Lazarus On the round zodiac, a direct line may be traced from
Lazarus to Temptation in the Desert. In the Jesus Narrative, the raising of
Lazarus is accomplished by the use of The Name of God. According to later
tradition, this was
Jesus' only real crime.
10) Twins=John/James (Thunder Sons). Castor and Pollox, from 'The
Argosy', are here replaced by John and James Zebedee, the Boanerges, or
Thunder Sons. Together with the opposite sign of Simon/Andrew they form the
"pillar" of basic apostles.
11) Bull=Audience before Pharisees. An allusion to the Golden Calf, a
problem shared with Moses. Strengthened by being opposite the sign of
Kingship/Wounding.
12) Ram-Before Pilate/Cross. Graves says the Golden Fleece was purple and
only trimmed in gold, therefore its name. Pilate gave Jesus a purple robe.
Better, I think, would be the opposition to Scales, where Pilate is viewed
as the agent of Caesar's Coin. Also, though tenuous, is the coincidence the
Golden Fleece was “in a grove of Ares, hanging from an oak tree . . . “
[The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus, translated, with notes and
indices by Keith Aldrich, Coronado Press: Lawrence, Kansas, 1975. Book I,
109.] Like the Golden Fleece, Jesus was also hung from a tree (the Cross).
Richard D. Flavin from, "The
Zodiacs: Maps of Heaven and History"
"Aion became an important milestone in the unfolding of his mature
theory becasue in it Jung posited the idea that full self-realization was
the only foundation for successful unity of being. Juxtaposing his concept
of the self and the process of individuation against religious symbolism,
particularly Christian, Jung concluded that relgious symbols disappointed
the contemporary person becasue both the historical and symbolic Christ
figures were incomplete symbols of the self. These religions, with their
symbolic presentations, did not permit Christ to have a dark side, an
"inferior" aspect of personality. The insistence upon the all-powerful and
the all-good did not contain archetypes of the shadow, the anima, the
animus, and thus related in an incomplete and unsatisfying symbol. In Jung's
psychology, the archetype could not be whole and complete if it did not
allow for the expression of both good and evil within the conscious and the
unconscious" (526). Deirdre Bair, from Jung: a Biography (2003)
"From the Zadok priests of the Temple of Solomon to the Knights Templar, and
from the Freemasons to the Rosicrucians, all employed symbols representing
the union of opposites, and the balanced union and equilibrium of male and
female force. A brief overview of the symbols used by these groups should
reveal a striking consistency of fundamental outlook." Boyd Rice, from
"Toward the Undivided - Sacred Sex, The Hermaphrodite, and the Dual Nature
of God"
"If, as seems probable, the aeon of the fishes is ruled by the archetypal
motif of the hostile brothers, then the approach of the next Platonic month,
namely Aquarius, will constellate the problem of the union of opposites. It
will then no longer be possible to write off evil as the mere privation of
good; its real existence will have to be recognized" (226). C.G. Jung, from
Aion "The Sign of the Fishes" in Jung on Christianity
selected and edited by Murray Stein (1999)
"Some saw creation as dyadic in reality, some only in metaphor and others
allowed it either nature. They generally take their viewpoint from the first
genesis account in which male and female are created together in the
likeness of the Elohim, in which "the divine is understood in terms of a
harmonious, dynamic relationship of opposites - a concept that may be akin
to the Eastern view of yin and yang, but remains alien to orthodox Judaism
and Christianity" (74). Elaine Pagels, from The Gnostic Gospels
(1979)
"1937
Paul Le Cour, 'L'Ere du Verseau' (The Age of Aquarius).
Quoting Peter O’Reilly: "In it Le Cour looks forward to the future Age of
Aquarius as bringing with it the return of Christ in the role of Christ the
King. It is a work of esoteric and apocalyptic Christianity in which the
author also voices his belief in an esoteric spiritual tradition that
originated in Atlantis…(and quoting from the book) "The work of 'Atlantis',
founded the 24th of June 1926, is inspired by the same directives as those
of the director of the Hiéron (i.e. de Sarachaga) whose signet ring
representing Cybele was bequeathed to me by Mlle Lepine."…[the book
contained a drawing of an octopus subtitled] "une symbole de la tradition
primitive: le poulpe" (a symbol of the primitive tradition: the octopus)."
Paul Smith, from "Pierre
Plantard, "Le Poulpe" and PAUL LE COUR (real name, Paul Lecour)"
"In the Piscean Age, we were content to follow the voice of authority - teachers recognized by the established churches," writes Pagan thinker Vivianne Crowley in Phoenix from the Flame (1994). "If people believed something different from those hallowed teachers, they were wrong and evil. Under Aquarius, a sign of intellectual curiosity and challenge, we are not content to follow the thought of others. We must and do question" (26).
"...certain vast ‘stars’ (or aggregates of experience) may be described as Gods. One of these is in charge of the destinies of this planet for periods of 2,000 years. In the history of the world, as far as we know accurately, are three such Gods: Isis, the mother, when the Universe was conceived as simple nourishment drawn directly from her; this period is marked by matriarchal government. Aleister Crowley, from The Book of the Law, Introduction to the 1936 Edition
"Next, beginning 500 BC., Osiris, the father, when the Universe was imagined as catastrophic, love, death, resurrection, as the method by which experience was built up; this corresponds to patriarchal systems. Now, Horus, the child, in which we come to perceive events as a continual growth partaking in its elements of both these methods, and not to be overcome by circumstance. This present period involves the recognition of the individual as the unit of society... Every event, including death, is only one more accretion to our experience, freely willed by ourselves from the beginning and therefore also predestined. This “God,” Horus, has a technical title: Heru-Ra-Ha, a combination of twin gods, Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-Paar-Kraat. The meaning of this doctrine must be studied in ‘Magick.’ (He is symbolized as a Hawk-Headed God enthroned.) He rules the present period of 2,000 years, beginning in 1904." Aleister Crowley, from The Book of the Law, Introduction to the 1936 Edition
"Everywhere his government is taking root. Observe for yourselves the decay of the sense of sin, the growth of innocence and irresponsibility, the strange modifications of the reproductive instinct with a tendency to become bi-sexual or epicene, the childlike confidence in progress combined with nightmare fear of catastrophe, against which we are yet half unwilling to take precautions. Consider the outcrop of dictatorships, only possible when moral growth is in its earliest stages, and the prevalence of infantile cults like Communism, Fascism, Pacifism, Health Crazes, Occultism in nearly all its forms, religions sentimentalised to the point of practical extinction. Consider the popularity of the cinema, the wireless, the football pools and guessing competitions, all devices for soothing fractious infants, no seed of purpose in them. Consider sport, the babyish enthusiasms and rages which it excites, whole nations disturbed by disputes between boys. Consider war, the atrocities which occur daily and leave us unmoved and hardly worried. We are children." Aleister Crowley, from The Book of the Law, Introduction to the 1936 Edition
Chapter 99 Sacrifice
"Every Grail quest requires sacrifice" (412). Dan Brown, from
The Da Vinci Code
"From deeper down in my mind, something I have known about the Orthodox
tradition rises to awareness: the whole of the universe rests on the
sacrifice of God." (31) Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A
Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"Sacrificial rituals first of all serve to establish an order of
distinctions within society: distinctions between the sacred and profane,
high and low, pure and impure, inside and outside, norm and transgression.
They thus set up a world of human culture, a habitus distinct at once from
the order of gods, the order of animals, and the order of divine or bestial
violence. Equally essential, they proceed to stage a representation of the
proper relations between the terms thus distinguished" (34). Owen Bradley,
from A Modern Maistre: The Social & Political Thought of Joseph de
Maistre (1999)
"Human existence is of its nature imbalanced, excessive, disproportionate,
ambivalent. This is what it is to have a body, blood, life. Thus body, life,
and blood are spent to redress imbalance, excess, and disproportion. This
moment of expenditure, however, must have its measure if it is to restore
good order, and that is the social role of ritual" (37). Owen Bradley, from
A Modern Maistre: The Social & Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre
(1999)
"Experimenting around with the primal material sounds quite harmless to
someone who is not initiated. Yet a symbolic murder is hidden behind this.
The black matter, a symbol of the fundamental feminine and of powerful
nature from which we all come, is burned or in some cases vaporized, cut to
pieces or dismembered. Thus, in destroying the prima materia we at the same
time destroy our “mother” or, basically, the “ fundamentally feminine”. The
European adept does not shy away from even the most crass killing metaphors:
“open the lap of your mother”, it says in a French text from the 18th
century, “with a steel blade, burrow into her entrails and press forward to
her womb, there you will find our pure substance [the elixir]” (Bachelard,
1990, p. 282). Symbolically, this violent first act in the alchemic
production is located within a context of sacrifice, death and the color
black and is therefore called nigredo, that is “blackening”." Victor und
Victoria Trimondi,
The Shadow of the Dalai Lama
"The life energy of a sacrificed animal also might help in this regard. Demons may resist a weak summons, but an incantation strengthened by the sudden release of animal energy will likely compel them. Going further, human sacrifice will liberate even more energy for incantational purposes - that at least was the determination found in some grimoires" (52). Dan Burton and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (2004)
"In
the year 2000 Anno Domini (A.D.) respected journalist Jim Hougan branched
out and a "fictional" book by him was published. In Kingdom Come, Hougan
offers an all-embracing theory, a "unified field theory", explaining various
anomalies. Hougan, former Washington editor of Harper's Magazine, has also
written such non-fiction books as Spooks (about U.S. intelligence/spies) and
Secret Agenda (about Watergate). In Kingdom Come he uses a fictional vehicle
to describe his conspiracy theory which explains disparate occurrences such
as the birth of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Roswell incident,
crop circles, cattle mutilations, Ezra Pound's postwar committment to St.
Elizabeth's hospital, the cult of the Magdalen and the Merovingian kings.
Hougan's theory is deep stuff. Notably, his book was published more than two
years before Dan Brown's bestseller, The DaVinci Code. In Kingdom Come
Hougan anticipates some ideas later made widely known by Brown.... Cattle
mutilations serve as animal sacrifice for the Magdalen cult." from "Hougan's
Unified Field Theory"
"In “The Matrix Reloaded”, which set a new opening box office record
($42.5M), Monica Belluci’s role as wife of “The Merovingian” conveyed an
esoteric message to occultists everywhere, who won’t need subtitles to
understand the Aramaic/Latin script of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion.” A
contributing editor of the Wall Street Journal wrote, “This is a story
marked by, among other things, a certain amount of intrigue, and some of it
is like something out of ‘The DaVinci Code’.” Although Peggy Noonan was
referring to the equivocations of the Vatican regarding Gibson’s movie (and
whether or not John-Paul II said after viewing the film, “It is as it was”)
the reference to Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code should not go unnoticed.
(Incidentally, should the Vatican in Rome be issuing favorable comments
about a film starring an Italian porn queen? Surely the Pope and his
prelates know about Ms. Bellucci. Shouldn’t they be warning the faithful
instead?) Barbara Aho, from "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
"The DaVinci Code is a best-selling Merovingian novel in which hidden clues
in DaVinci’s paintings lead to the discovery of a secret which promises to
“shake the foundations of Christianity.” (Leonardo DaVinci was Grand Master
of the Prieuré de Sion, the high command of secret societies, from 1510 to
1519.) On ABC’s Primetime, Diane Sawyer predicted, “As of tonight, there are
some signs that ‘The Passion of the Christ’ might even turn out to be a hit
movie. Producing the joke out in Hollywood that now everyone will rush to
make the sequel.” This may be a knowing reference to The DaVinci Code, which
is being converted into a movie to be released in 2005. Of interest, the
director of The DaVinci Code is Ron Howard, who also directed the 1996 movie
“Ransom” which starred Mel Gibson." Barbara Aho, from "Mel
Gibson’s Film “The Passion of the Christ” AN INTERNATIONAL HOAX"
Chapter 100 Corporal Mortification
"His Holiness has become uneasy with your aggressive recruiting
policies and your practices of corporal mortification" (415-6). Dan Brown,
from The Da Vinci Code
"...heaven irritated against the flesh and blood, could only be appeased by
blood..." Joseph de Maistre, from "Eclairissement" as quoted by Owen Bradley
on page 42 of A Modern Maistre: The Social & Political Thought of Joseph
de Maistre (1999)
"Adding to the complications of near starvation was the religious practice
of self-flagellation, which the Church tacitly encouraged. A whip applied to
the thick skin of the back excoriated it, leaving long superficial
lacerations, not deep enough to cause death but severe enough to cause
bleeding and anemia. These wounds, superimposed on a body reeling from the
effects of incipient starvation, would then begin to suppurate. A low-grade
bacterial infection would incrementally add to the debility of one who had
scurvy, anemia, and starvation. These conditions would coalesce just as
Easter approached. The mental states of many people were so affected by
these dietary and systemic toxicities that whole cities had mass
hallucinations. Clerics in an age of extreme religiosity assumed that they
were bonafide revelations" (133). Leonard Shlain, from Sex, Time and
Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution (2003)
“It is impossible to say exactly when the attitude of hatred and fear of the body became associated with Christianity. Even the medieval monks who practiced “mortification of the flesh” did not necessarily understand the body itself to be the enemy. For many of them the enemy was the tendency to form a fixed image of oneself based on experiences of physical pleasure and pain. This is the essence of the idea of sin for both Christianity and Judaism: the attraction to a false or incomplete picture of one’s own possibilities” 46). Jacob Needleman, from A Sense of the Cosmos: Scientific Knowledge and Spiritual Truth (2003)
Chapter 104 Rosslyn Chapel
"Rosslyn Chapel - often called the Cathedral of Codes - stands seven miles
south of Edinburgh, Sctoland, on the site of an ancient Mithraic temple"
(433). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
"Rosslyn Chapel, or the Collegiate Chapel of St Mathew as it was to have
been, was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair, third and last St Clair
Prince of Orkney. It is in fact only part of the choir of what was intended
to be a larger cruciform building with a tower at its centre. More than
thirty-seven collegiate churches were built in Scotland between the reigns
of James I and James IV (1406-1513). They were secular foundations intended
to spread intellectual and spiritual knowledge, and the extravagance of
their construction depended on the wealth of their founder." from "Rosslyn
Chapel"
"The Presbytery records of Dalkeith reveal that in 1589 William Knox,
brother of John Knox and minister of Cockpen, was censured 'for baptizing
the Laird of Rosling's bairne' in Rosslyn Chapel, which was described as a
'house and monument of idolatrie, and not ane place appointit for teiching
the word and ministratioun of ye sacrementis'." from "Rosslyn
Chapel"
"In a flash of intuition Langdon, states that the "blade" Λ represents the
"masculine" and the "chalice" V represents the "feminine" and that worn in
over the empty vault of Roslyn Chapel are the footprints of countless
cultist pilgrims forming on the floor, the union of these two symbols. It is
the "Seal of Solomon" A, the ancient Gnostic symbol for "Sacred Sex." The
riddle thus solved, the hero falls to his knees and hears, "a woman's
voice...the wisdom of the ages...whispering up from the chasms of the
earth." That's the end of the story." Hamilton Reed Armstrong, from "The
Da Vinci Code Decoded"
"The famous Grail Seeker Trevor Ravenscroft claimed in 1962 that he had
finished a twenty year quest in search of the Grail at Rosslyn
chapel.....His claim was that the Grail was inside the Prentice Pillar (as
it is known) in this chapel. The chapel is often visited now by Grail
Seekers and many references to the Grail can be found in its stonework and
windows. Metal detectors have been used on the pillar and an object of the
appropriate size is indeed buried in the middle. Lord Rosslyn adamantly
refuses to have the pillar x-rayed." Christopher Knight , Robert Lomas, from
The Hiram Key:
Pharaohs, Freemasons and the Discovery of the Secret Scrolls of Jesus
Epilogue The Quest
"The quest for the Holy Grail is the quest to kneel before the bones of
Mary Magdalene" (454). Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code
“The debate concerning the Gospel of Thomas will no doubt continue. However, the fact still remains that the Gnostics believed that the Gospel contained Jesus’s secret words – a tradition that seems to have influenced the Grail romances. Here, the Gospel of Thomas almost certainly became the Holy Grail in La Folie Perceval – seemingly the original romance. In the story Perceval inherits the Holy Grail – the Gospel of Didymus – and the Gospel of Thomas is the Gospel of Didymus” (183). Graham Phillips, from The Chalice of Magdalene (2004)
"The Incarnation of Christ into the body and blood of the human Jesus was the descent of the Sun Spirit into the Moon Chalice, the configuration which became the symbol of the Holy Grail in the Middle Ages" (283). Trevor Ravenscroft, from The Spear of Destiny (1973)
"Steiner reveals in Jesus the union of two human streams, the fusion of the sinless nature of the soul before the Fall with the fullest earthly wisdom gained by millennia of reincarnating development after it. And he conceived this mystical union between heavenly innocence and earthly wisdom to constitute the Vessel of the Holy Grail" (276). Trevor Ravenscroft, from The Spear of Destiny (1973)
"Grail, as the essence of the Goddess, must be housed in a vessel or temple before Sophia, Gnosis, can become tangible enough to communicate her blessings, or the Christ Emmanuel, the christos within us, can be born." Vincent Bridges, from Seven of Mysteries of the Great Cross at Hendaye: alchemy at the end of time
"Writers examining the lives of Christ and Mary Magdalen in search of clues to
the Grail mystery have been left with more questions than answers. And those
going over the Bible with a fine-toothed comb have come up equally empty-handed.
Undoubtedly the reason for this is due to the fact that the Holy Grail has
virtually nothing to do with Christianity per se. Christ may have been a key
figure in a long line of servants of the Grail, but its legacy is not to be
found within the context of the religion founded in his name. Not a single one
of the crucial clues relating to the Grail mystery can be satisfactorily
explained in terms of orthodox Christianity. Indeed, it would appear that the
Grail story was Christianized precisely to conceal a legacy that was wholly
unchristian. It is a legacy that goes back to Ia, and the mysterious race of
which he was a descendant." Boyd Rice, from "That
Which Has Fallen"
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2004 Lakewood Public Library
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