Little Guy in the Eye

Act 12:4 And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.
Act 12:5 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

Adam Clarke

The term Easter, inserted here by our translators, they borrowed from the ancient Anglo-Saxon service-books, or from the version of the Gospels, which always translates the το πασχα of the Greek by this term; e.g. Mat_26:2 : Ye know that after two days is the feast of the passover. Wite ye that aefter twam dagum beoth Eastro. Mat_16:19 : And they made ready the passover. And hig gegearwodon hym Easter thenunga (i.e. the paschal supper.) Prefixed to Mat_28:1, are these words: This part to be read on Easter even. And, before Mat_28:8, these words: Mar_14:12 : And the first day of unleavened bread when they killed the passover. And tham forman daegeazimorum, tha hi Eastron offrodon. Other examples occur in this version. Wiclif used the word paske, i.e. passover; but Tindal, Coverdale, Becke, and Cardmarden, following the old Saxon mode of translation, insert Easter: the Geneva Bible very properly renders it the passover. The Saxon Earten, Eartne, Eartno, Eartna, and Eartnon are different modes of spelling the name of the goddess Easter, whose festival was celebrated by our pagan forefathers on the month of April; hence that month, in the Saxon calendar, is called Easter month. Every view we can take of this subject shows the gross impropriety of retaining a name every way exceptionable, and palpably absurd.

It is clear from looking at multiple Bible dictionaries that Easter is a counterfeit of the Pesach (Passover).

Just as ancient Israel slipped into idolatry a generation after Yehoshua ben Nun, so too did the congregation of Messiah.

Jdg 2:7 And the people served YHWH all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who prolonged their days after Joshua, who saw all the great work of YHWH which He had done for Israel.
Jdg 2:8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of YHWH, died, being a son of a hundred and ten years.
Jdg 2:9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance, in Timnath-heres, in the hills of Ephraim on the north of Mount Gaash.
Jdg 2:10 And also all that generation was gathered to their fathers, and another generation arose after them who had not known YHWH, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel.
Jdg 2:11 And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of YHWH, and served the Baals.
Jdg 2:12 And they forsook YHWH, the God of their fathers, who brought them out from the land of Egypt. And they went after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves to them, and angered YHWH.
Jdg 2:13 Yea, they forsook YHWH, and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

Shaul warned of the same thing happening to early believers in Messiah Yahshua

“For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29, 30

HEGESIPPUS RECOUNTS THE APOSTASY

The Ancient Nazarene Historian and commentator Hegesippus (c. 180 CE) writes of the time immediately following the death of Shimon (Peter), who succeeded Ya’akov (James) as leader of the Nazarene Sanhedrin and who died in 98 AD. Up to that period (98 AD) the Assembly had remained like a virgin pure and uncorrupted: for, if there were any persons who were disposed to tamper with the wholesome rule of the proclaiming of salvation, they still lurked in some dark place of concealment or other. But, when the sacred band of Emissaries had in various ways closed their lives, and that generation of men to whom it had been vouchsafed to listen to the inspired Wisdom with their own ears had passed away, then did the confederacy of godless error take its rise through the treachery of false teachers, who, seeing that none of the emissaries any longer survived, at length attempted with bare and uplifted head to oppose the proclaiming of the truth by proclaiming “knowledge falsely so called.” (Hegesippus the Nazarene; c. 185 CE; quoted by Eusebius in Eccl. Hist. 3:32) Hegisippus indicates the apostasy began the very same year that Ignatius became bishop of Antioch. Ignatius was one of the main leaders of the generation directly following the Apostles. In short, Ignatius was one of the main factors in leading believers away from the faith once delivered to the saints and into a synchronized ‘Christianity’ that Constantine further perverted.

Elijah Message

click here

Elijah came to battle the followers of Baal and Ashtareth, to turn Israel back to YHWH their Elohim.

1Ki 18:19 And now send, gather all Israel to me, to Mount Carmel and four hundred and fifty of the prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the prophets of the sacred pole (Asherah), who eat at the table of Jezebel.

This needed to be done because the people were hopping (pasach) between two opinions.

1Ki 18:21 And Elijah came near all the people and said, Until when are you limping* over two opinions? If YHWH is God, follow Him; and if Baal, follow him. But the people did not answer him a word.

*This is what Easter is. It is hopping between two opinions. It is trying mix the Pesach with spring festival customs of the heathen. It is another golden calf. Worshipping YHWH in accordance with heathen rites.

Exo 32:5 And Aaron saw, and he built an altar before it. And Aaron called and said, A feast to YHWH tomorrow.
Jeroboam instituted the same system. Mixing the holy and the profane. He also changed the calendar during this time. This is a theme seen in the Easter Passover controversy and passes down today in arguments of when to start the new year amongst believers who are trying to return to the Torah.

1Ki 12:28 And the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!
1Ki 12:29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
1Ki 12:30 And this thing became a sin, for the people went before the one, to Dan.
1Ki 12:31 And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
1Ki 12:32 And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, in the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah; and he offered on the altar, so he did in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves which he made; and he made stand in Bethel the priests of the high places that he made.
1Ki 12:33 And he offered up on the altar that he made in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he devised out of his own heart; and he made a feast for the sons of Israel, and offered on the altar, to burn incense.
2Ki 17:16 And they left all the commands of YHWH their God and made for themselves casted images, two calves, and made an Asherah, and bowed to all the host of the heavens, and served Baal,
Exo 32:4 And he took them from their hand and formed it with an engraving tool. And he made it a casted calf. And they said, These are your gods, O Israel, who made you go up from the land of Egypt.
Exo 32:5 And Aaron saw, and he built an altar before it. And Aaron called and said, A feast to YHWH tomorrow.
Exo 32:6 And they rose early on the morrow, and they offered burnt offerings and brought near peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

Why does the current Jewish calendar start some years in winterclick here?

Jewishencyclopedia.com

“Hillel determined to provide an authorized calendar for all time to come, though by so doing he severed the ties which united the Jews of the Diaspora to their mother country and to the patriarchate.

The emperor Julian showed himself particularly gracious to Hillel, whom he honored on many occasions. In an autograph letter to him, Julian assured him of his friendship and promised to ameliorate further the condition of the Jews. Before setting out for the war with Persia, Julian addressed to the Jewish congregations a circular letter in which he informed them that he had “committed the Jewish tax-rolls to the flames,” and that, “desiring to show them still greater favors, he has advised his brother, the venerable patriarch Julos, to abolish what was called the ’send-tax.’”

There is much more history about the above, so why did Hillel II change to the closest to the Vernal equinox?

Clearly, it had a lot to do with the Catholic church. Read this below.
The emperor Julian the Apostate was gracious to Hillel, whom he honored on a number of occasions. In an autograph letter to him, Julian assured him of his friendship and promised to ameliorate further the condition of the Jews. Before setting out for the war with Persia, Julian addressed to the Jewish congregations a circular letter in which he informed them that he had “committed the Jewish tax-rolls to the flames,” and that, “desiring to show them still greater favors, he has advised his brother, the venerable patriarch Julos, to abolish what was called the ’send-tax’”.
But what is that to do with his Jewish Calendar? Here is part….
For Years the Roman Catholic church looked to the Calendar of the Jews to determine when Easter should be. However from the time after the temple was destroyed, the Jews changed their calendar many times. So, Julian appointed a Jew, Hillel II to work out a calendar they could depend on.
“The commonly stated rule, that Easter Day is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs next after the vernal equinox, is somewhat misleading because it is not a precise statement of the actual ecclesiastical rules. The actual conditions to determine the date for Easter are (1) Easter must be on a Sunday; (2) this Sunday must follow the 14th day of the paschal moon; (3) the paschal moon is that of which the 14th day (full moon) falls on or next follows the day of the vernal equinox;* and (4) the equinox is fixed in the calendar as March 21. Easter can never occur before March 22 or later than April 25.” *
The Catholic church…. Notice?
The church based in Rome changed from determining the Passover from the first Holy Day of Unleavened Bread as succeeding the equinox to the time frame where Easter was the first Sunday following the Paschal Moon (i.e. the Full Moon of 15 Nisan). The New Moon could occur before the equinox, but the Full Moon could not fall before the equinox. Thus, 14 Nisan might fall on the equinox but 15 Nisan could not fall on the equinox.
So, Hillel II wrote his calendar that brings that to pass, by selecting the New Moon closest to the VE, not before. That assures the Catholic church of having their Easter when they wanted. He was rewarded by �committing the Jewish tax-rolls to the flames�.

“The Easter controversy raged in the early Church and still exists between the
Western and Eastern churches. The final conditions arrived at in the West are that Easter must be kept on the Sunday after the paschal moon (the calendar moon whose fourteenth day falls on or after the vernal equinox), reckoned from the day of the new moon inclusive” (The Encyclopedia of Religion, (MACMILLAN, 1987, ed. Mircea Eliade), Vol 10, p. 86).

See Calendar study for more information on the Biblical Calendarclick here.

Easter

The name Easter derives from the goddess Eostre/Ishtar.

International Standard Bible Dictionary

Easter
ēs´tẽr (πάσχα, páscha, from Aramaic פסחא, paṣḥā’ and Hebrew פסח, peṣaḥ, the Passover festival): The English word comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eastre or Estera, a Teutonic goddess to whom sacrifice was offered in April, so the name was transferred to the paschal feast. The word does not properly occur in Scripture, although the King James Version has it in Act_12:4 where it stands for Passover, as it is rightly rendered in the Revised Version (British and American)

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

EASTER
Is improperly put for PASSOVER, Ac 12:4; Passover being the name of the ancient Jewish festival here referred to; while Easter, from the Saxon goddess Eostre, is the modern name of a Christian festival, in commemoration of the events of Passover-week, and fixed at the same period of the year.

Easton Bible Dictionary

Easter
Originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons, in honour of whom sacrifices were offered about the time of the Passover. Hence the name came to be given to the festival of the Resurrection of Christ, which occurred at the time of the Passover. In the early English versions this word was frequently used as the translation of the Greek pascha (the Passover). When the Authorized Version (1611) was formed, the word “passover” was used in all passages in which this word pascha occurred, except in Act Gen_12:4. In the Revised Version the proper word, “passover,” is always used.

Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary:
“Easter … estre … eastre … ostarun … from the prehistoric West Germanic name of a pagan spring festival.”

Easton’s Bible Dictionary:
“Easter, originally a Saxon word (Eostre), denoting a goddess of the Saxons.”

Encyclopedia Britannica:
“The Anglo-Saxon priest Venerable Bede in the 8th century derived [the English name Easter] from the Anglo-Saxon spring goddess Eostre.”

Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1894:
“Easter. The Saxon goddess of the east, whose festival was held in the spring.”

Catholic Encyclopedia:
“The English term [Easter] … relates to Estre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring … Anglo-Saxon, easter, eastron; Old High German, ostra, ostrara, ostrarun; German, Ostern.”

1908 Catholic Encyclopedia

Easter
The English term, according to the Ven. Bede (De temporum ratione, I, v), relates to Estre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring, which deity, however, is otherwise unknown, even in the Edda…April was called easter-monadh….The Greek term for Easter, pascha, has nothing in common with the verb paschein, “to suffer,” although by the later symbolic writers it was connected with it; it is the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word pesach (transitus, passover)…THE FEAST Easter is the principal feast of the ecclesiastical year. Leo I (Sermo xlvii in Exodum) calls it the greatest feast (festum festorum), and says that Christmas is celebrated only in preparation for Easter. It is the centre of the greater part of the ecclesiastical year. The order of Sundays from Septuagesima to the last Sunday after Pentecost, the feast of the Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and all other movable feasts, from that of the Prayer of Jesus in the Garden (Tuesday after Septuagesima) to the feast of the Sacred Heart (Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi), depend upon the Easter date. That the Apostolic Fathers do not mention it and that we first hear of it principally through the controversy of the Quartodecimans are purely accidental. The connection between the Jewish Passover and the Christian feast of Easter is real and ideal. Real, since Christ died on the first Jewish Easter Day; ideal, like the relation between type and reality, because Christ’s death and Resurrection had its figures and types in the Old Law, particularly in the paschal lamb, which was eaten towards evening of the 14th of Nisan. In fact, the Jewish feast was taken over into the Christian Easter celebration; the liturgy (Exsultet) sings of the passing of Israel through the Red Sea, the paschal lamb, the column of fire, etc. Apart, however, from the Jewish feast, the Christians would have celebrated the anniversary of the death and the Resurrection of Christ. But for such a feast it was necessary to know the exact calendar date of Christ’s death. To know this day was very simple for the Jews; it was the day after the 14th of the first month, the 15th of Nisan of their calendar. The connection between the Jewish and the Christian Pasch explains the movable character of this feast. Easter has no fixed date, like Christmas, because the 15th of Nisan of the Semitic calendar was shifting from date to date on the Julian calendar. Since Christ, the true Paschal Lamb, had been slain on the very day when the Jews, in celebration of their Passover, immolated the figurative lamb, the Jewish Christians in the Orient followed the Jewish method, and commemorated the death of Christ on the 15th of Nisan and His Resurrection on the 17th of Nisan, no matter on what day of the week they fell. For this observance they claimed the authority of St. John and St. Philip.In the rest of the empire another consideration predominated. Every Sunday of the year was a commemoration of the Resurrection of Christ, which had occurred on a Sunday. Because the Sunday after 14 Nisan was the historical day of the Resurrection, at Rome this Sunday became the Christian feast of Easter. Easter was celebrated in Rome and Alexandria on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, and the Roman Church claimed for this observance the authority of Sts. Peter and Paul. The spring equinox in Rome fell on 25 March; in Alexandria on 21 March. At Antioch Easter was kept on the Sunday after the Jewish Passover. In Gaul a number of bishops, wishing to escape the difficulties of the paschal computation, seem to have assigned Easter to a fixed date of the Roman calendar, celebrating the death of Christ on 25 March, His Resurrection on 27 March (Marinus Dumiensis in P.L., LXXII, 47-51), since already in the third century 25 March was considered the day of the Crucifixion (Computus Pseudocyprianus, ed. Lersch, Chronologie, II, 61). This practice was of short duration. Many calendars in the Middle Ages contain these same dates (25 March, 27 March) for purely historical, not liturgical, reasons (Grotenfend, Zeitrechnung, II, 46, 60, 72, 106, 110, etc.). The Montanists in Asia Minor kept Easter on the Sunday after 6 April (Schmid, Osterfestberechnung in der abendlandischen Kirche). The First Council of Nicaea (325) decreed that the Roman practice should be observed throughout the Church. But even at Rome the Easter term was changed repeatedly. Those who continued to keep Easter with the Jews were called Quartodecimans (14 Nisan) and were excluded from the Church. The computus paschalis, the method of determining the date of Easter and the dependent feasts, was of old considered so important that Durandus (Rit. div. off., 8, c.i.) declares a priest unworthy of the name who does not know the computus paschalis. The movable character of Easter (22 March to 25 April) gives rise to inconveniences, especially in modern times. For decades scientists and other people have worked in vain for a simplification of the computus, assigning Easter to the first Sunday in April or to the Sunday nearest the 7th of April. Some even wish to put every Sunday to a certain date of the month, e.g. beginning with New Year’s always on a Sunday, etc.

Quartodeciman controversy

1909 Catholic Encyclopedia

Easter Controversy

Name given to a long drawn-out dispute in the early Church over the exact date for the celebration of Easter. The dispute originated between the West and East, about the middle of the 2nd century, over the practise followed in the Eastern Church of terminating the Lenten Fast and beginning the Easter celebration on the 14th day of the Jewish month, Nisan, regardless of the day on which this date might fall. This was the day on which the Jews celebrated the Passover, and hence, as the Easterners maintained, the day on which Christ had kept the Pasch and instituted the Blessed Eucharist. Therefore, to their way of thinking, since the two great festivals, Hebrew and Christian, stood to one another in the relation of type and reality, it was only fitting that the Christian Pasch be celebrated on the same day. Although they claimed to have received this practise from the Apostles, John and Philip, they were called by the Westerners “Quartodecimans” (quartus decimus, fourteenth) and “Observants,” since, while they did not keep the festival of the Jewish Pasch, still they “observed” the day.

The Western Church, on the other hand, always celebrated the Christian Pasch on the Sunday following the 14th day of the full moon of the vernal equinox, because that day was regarded as the exact date on which Christ arose from the dead, finished the work of redemption and accomplished our deliverance from the Egyptian bondage of death and hell. In support of this practise the Westerners appealed to the authority of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Discussion waxed hot and a schism was probably averted through the energetic, if somewhat harsh measures of Pope Victor I (189-199 A.D.), who terminated the quartodeciman controversy by threatening with excommunication all those who failed to comply with the Roman custom. The East accordingly adopted the Sunday celebration. The Church of Antioch, however, instead of computing this Sunday as the first after the 14th day of the full moon of the vernal equinox, began to compute it as the first after the 14th day of Nisan. This made a difference, and gave a new turn to the controversy. The Christians of Rome and Alexandria charged that the Jews had adopted very arbitrary methods in determining their year and had become neglectful of the law that the 14th of Nisan must never precede the equinox. The charge seems to have been well-founded, as discrepancies soon appeared between the Easter celebration at Antioch and in the rest of the Christian world.

The General Council of Nice (325) paved the way to a final settlement of the difficulty by ruling: that Easter must be celebrated by all throughout the world on the same Sunday; that this Sunday must follow the 14th day of the paschal moon; that that moon was to be accounted the paschal moon whose 14th day followed the spring equinox; and that some provisions should be made for determining the proper date of Easter and communicating it to the universal Church. Long after the Roman Church had adopted the cycle of 95 years for determining the date of Easter, the Celtic Church still followed a cycle of 532 years and celebrated the feast on a Sunday differing from the rest of Christendom. By the 9th century the Easter question was settled in all parts of the Celtic Church, and the cycle of 95 years followed everywhere.

Beginning with possibly Telesphorus or possibly Hyginus or maybe Sixtus (there are no contemporaneous records, only an unclear report 5-6 decades later written by Irenaeus), what is now called Easter began to be observed in Rome. First, it was apparently a change in date of Passover from the 14th of Nisan to a Sunday. This is believed to have happened because there was a rebellion by Jews and that any distancing between Jews and Christians seemed physically advantageous (at least to some in Rome and the Greeks in Jerusalem).

Samuele Bacchiocchi noted that the change to Easter-Sunday and to a weekly Sunday was due to persecution (the new Gentile hierarchy he is referring to are Greek bishops in Jerusalem, which took over after the rebellion was crushed):

The actual introduction of Easter-Sunday appears to have occurred earlier in Palestine after Emperor Hadrian ruthlessly crushed the Barkokeba revolt (A.D. 132-135)…

The fact that the Passover controversy arose when Emperor Hadrian adopted new repressive measures against Jewish religious practices suggests that such measures influenced the new Gentile hierarchy to change the date of Passover from Nisan 14 to the following Sunday (Easter-Sunday) in order to show separation and differentiation from the Jews and the Jewish Christians…

A whole body of Against the Jews literature was produced by leading Fathers who defamed the Jews as a people and emptied their religious beliefs and practices of any historical value. Two major causalities of the anti-Jewish campaign were Sabbath and Passover. The Sabbath was changed to Sunday and Passover was transferred to Easter-Sunday.

Scholars usually recognize the anti-Judaic motivation for the repudiation of the Jewish reckoning of Passover and adoption of Easter-Sunday instead. Joachim Jeremias attributes such a development to “the inclination to break away from Judaism.” In a similar vein, J.B. Lightfoot explains that Rome and Alexandria adopted Easter-Sunday to avoid “even the semblance of Judaism” (Bacchiocchi S. God’s Festival in Scripture and History. Biblical Perspectives. pp. 101-103).

J.B. Lightfoot himself specifically wrote:

But the Church of Ælia Capitolina was very differently constituted from the Church of Pella and the Church of Jerusalem…not a few doubtless accepted the conqueror’s terms, content to live henceforth as Gentiles…in the new city of Hadrian. But there were others who hung to the law of their forefathers…

…the Churches of Asia Minor…regulated their Easter festival by the Jewish Passover without regard to the day of the week, but…those of Rome and Alexandria and Gaul observed another rule; thus avoiding even the semblance of Judaism (Lightfoot, Joseph Barber. Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians: A Revised Text with Introduction, Notes and Dissertations. pp. 317, 331

It is likely that if Telesphorus made this change at the time to attempt to distance himself from the Jews in Rome. If he was the one who did it, and if he thought that this would spare his life, he was wrong as he was later killed by the Roman authorities (circa 136 A.D.). On the other hand, it is perhaps more likely that Hyginus, who was also Greek decided to introduce the Passover Sunday tradition, perhaps to decrease the wrath of the anti-Jewish Roman authorities. Since Anicetus’ account claimed that this practice was began by presbyters who preceded him, it would need to have been no later than the Greeks Telesphorus or Hyginus, as they were followed by Pius who was then followed by Anicetus.

Around 155 A.D. Polycarp of Smyrna went to Rome to deal with various heretics and he tried to persuade the bishop not to switch Passover to Easter Sunday. Irenaeus records this:

And when the blessed Polycarp was sojourning in Rome in the time of Anicetus, although a slight controversy had arisen among them as to certain other points…For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp to forego the observance [in his own way], inasmuch as these things had been always observed by John the disciple of our Lord, and by other apostles with whom he had been conversant; nor, on the other hand, could Polycarp succeed in persuading Anicetus to keep [the observance in his way], for he maintained that he was bound to adhere to the usage of the presbyters who preceded him. And in this state of affairs they held fellowship with each other; and Anicetus conceded to Polycarp in the Church the celebration of the Eucharist, by way of showing him respect (Irenaeus. FRAGMENTS FROM THE LOST WRITINGS OF IRENAEUS. Excerpted from Volume I of The Ante-Nicene Fathers

The Orthodox Church reports this brief explanation in one of its timelines:

193 A.D. – Council of Rome, presided over by Bishop Victor, condemns the celebration of Pascha on Nisan 14, and addresses a letter to Polycrates of Ephesus and the Churches in Asia.

193 A.D. – Council of Ephesus, presided over by Bishop Polycrates, and attended by several bishops throughout Asia, reject the authority of Victor of Rome, and keep the Asian paschal tradition.

Many decided to make the Roman/Greek change, with probably those in Alexandria the most supportive. Those in Asia Minor mainly refused to switch Passover to Sunday.

Even over a century later, there still were those, even amongst the Romans that wanted to observe it on the 14th of Nisan. This was distressing to Emperor Constantine and had this as an agenda item for the Council of Nicea that he had convened in 325 A.D.:

…the emperor…convened a council of 318 bishops…in the city of Nicea…They passed certain ecclesiastical canons at the council besides, and at the same time decreed in regard to the Passover that there must be one unanimous concord on the celebration of God’s holy and supremely excellent day. For it was variously observed by people… (Epiphanius. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Books II and III (Sects 47-80), De Fide). Section VI, Verses 1,1 and 1,3 pg 471-472

According to Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, Book III chapter 18, the Roman emperor Constantine:

Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

1170 At the Council of Nicea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14 Nisan) after the vernal equinox (Catechism of the Catholic Church. p. 332).

Because many did not accept this Sunday decree, a later Roman Emperor decreed the death penalty:

Edicts of Theodosius against the heretics, A.D. 380-394…Theodosius…decreed that…by the death of the offender; and the same capital punishment was inflicted on the Audians, or Quartodecimans, who should dare to perpetrate the atrocious crime of celebrating on an improper day the festival of Easter {Passover} (Gibbon E. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume III, Chapter XXVII. ca. 1776-1788).

John Chrysostom wrote this about the Council of Nicea a few decades later:

Three hundred Fathers or even more gathered together in the land of Bithynia and ordained this by law; yet you disdain their decrees. You must choose one of two courses: either you charge them with ignorance for their want of exact knowledge on this matter, or you charge them with cowardice because they were not ignorant, but played the hypocrite and betrayed the truth. When you do not abide by what they decreed, this is exactly the choice you must make. But all the events of the Council make it clear that they showed great wisdom and courage at that time. The article of faith they set forth at the Council show how wise they were…At that time the whole synodal gathering, welded together from these champions, along with their definition of what Christians must believe, also passed a decree that they celebrate the paschal feast in harmony together. They refused to betray their faith in those most difficult times [of persecution]; would they sink to pretense and deceit on the question of the Easter observance? (5) Look what you do when you condemn Fathers so great, so courageous, so wise (John Chrysostom. Homily III Against the Jews, III:3,4-5. Preached at Antioch, Syria in September, 386 AD).

But this was simply not the faith of the true second century Christians in Asia Minor as Polycrates testified. The last words of his response to Roman bishop Victor about changing the date of Passover to Easter Sunday was:

I, therefore, brethren, who have lived sixty-five years in the Lord, and have met with the brethren throughout the world, and have gone through every Holy Scripture, am not affrighted by terrifying words. For those greater than I have said ‘ We ought to obey God rather than man.’ (Polycrates. Letter to Victor. As quoted by Eusebius. Church History. Book V, Chapter 24) .

Notice what the Encyclopedia Britannica stated in 1910:

There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers…The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it of Christ as the true Paschal Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed (Easter. In: The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and General Information Edition: 11 Published by Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1910

Epiphanius wrote:

The Quartodecimans contentiously keep Passover on the one day, once per year…They keep the Passover on whichever day the fourteenth of the month falls…Christ had to be slain on the fourteenth of the month in accordance with the law (Epiphanius. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis, Books II and III (Sects 47-80), De Fide). Section IV, Verses 1,3;1,6;2,6., pp. 23-25).

“In the early Messianic Congregation celebrating the festivals together with the whole of the Jewish people was never questioned, so that it needed no special mention” The New International Dictionary of the New Testament Theology, vol. 1, p. 628

“The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the mind of first believers…who continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed.” The Encyclopedia Britannica vol. 8, pg 828 11th edition

Wave Sheaf offering

It is commonly taught that Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of the Messiah, however this shadow picture was already rehearsed for over a thousand years by the wave sheaf offering the day after the sabbath during the week of Passover.

Lev 23:10 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them, When you come in to the land which I am giving to you, and have reaped its harvest, and have brought in the sheaf, or the beginning of your harvest, to the priest,
Lev 23:11 then he shall wave the sheaf before YHWH for your acceptance; on the morrow of the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lev 23:12 And you shall prepare a lamb in the day you wave the sheaf, one without blemish, a son of a year, for a burnt offering to YHWH.
Lev 23:13 And its food offering shall be two tenths part of flour mixed with oil, a fire offering to YHWH, a sweet fragrance; and its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine.
Lev 23:14 And you shall not eat bread, nor roasted grain, nor fresh ears, until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God; it is a never ending statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
Wave Sheaf Offering

Ronald Dart of Christian Education Ministries noted that there was a Jewish/Christian observance on the Sunday after the Passover crucifixion:

On the evening after the Sabbath was over, the very first sheaf of grain of the early harvest was cut from the ground. It was prepared that night by threshing the barley from the chaff and then parching it over a fire. The next morning, the priest lifted an omer of the grain to God as the presentation of the firstfruits of the harvest. Now, compare this to Christian theology of the resurrection.

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

It is clear enough that, in referring to “Christ the firstfruits, Paul is referring directly to that first sheaf offered on the morning after the Sabbath by the priest. His wording leaves no room for doubt. James will refer to this as well: “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). What we see here is Christ as the first of the firstfruits in the resurrection, with the remainder of the firstfruits to follow at his coming.

So this particular Sunday was important to both Jews and Christians. To Jews, it was the day of the offering of the firstfruits, the first day of the seven weeks to the Feast of Firstfruits. To Christians, it was the morning of Jesus’ presentation to the Father and of his first appearances to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead. And it was the first day of the seven weeks to Pentecost.

For the first Christians, the symbolism of the Jewish observance was seen to point directly to Christ. The connection was clear and strong from the start. The early church had not adopted a calendar different from that of the Jewish majority in the first century, the calendar was crucial, because it defined the time of observance of the feasts. There is not a word in the New Testament to suggest any change from the Jewish observance…so the comparison between liturgy and events was, to them, even more apparent.

Now consider this carefully. This Sunday was celebrated early on as the day of Christ’s first appearances after his resurrection. It was an anniversary that appeared on the Jewish calendar on the first Sunday after Passover every year. As explained in the last chapter, every place in the New Testament where you see the expression “The first day of the week” it is referring, not to a Sunday, but to a singular day of the year. The first day of the seven Sabbaths or weeks leading up to Pentecost. It is an annual, not a weekly observance. It was, for want of a better term, “wave sheaf Sunday” (Dart R. From Passover to Easter. April 12, 2006).

Easter – the Queen of Heaven

Webster’s New World College Dictionary:
“Astarte … a Semitic goddess of fertility and sexual love, worshiped by the Phoenicians and others: see also ASHTORETH, ISHTAR.”
“Ashtoreth … the ancient Phoenician and Syrian goddess of love and fertility: identified with ASTARTE.”
“Ishtar … see ASHTORETH … the goddess of love, fertility, and war.”

Encyclopedia Britannica:
“Astarte/Ashtoreth is the Queen of Heaven to whom the Canaanites had burned incense and poured libations.”

Soul Vision website:
“Known by many names, across time and space, Lilith or Eve, Anath and Asherah, Astarte, the Queen of Heaven, the Shekhinah and the Matronit…. No matter Her name, she was loved.”

Shekhina Hebrew Goddess website:
“Shekhina [is] the Hebrew Goddess of the Kabbala.”

Encyclopedia Britannica:
“Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart of the West Semitic goddess Astarte.”

Encyclopedia Britannica:
“Through her identification with the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, Inanna-Ishtar, the queen of heaven, still survives in Roman Catholic iconography – e.g., as the Virgin Mary standing on the moon.”

Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1894:
“Queen of Heaven with the ancient Phoenicians, was Astarte; Greeks, Hera; Romans, Juno; Trivia, Hecate, Diana, the Egyptian Isis, etc., were all so called; but with the Roman Catholics it is the Virgin Mary.”

Temple of the Temptress:
“Diana was called the Mother goddess and Queen of heaven, just as Mary is called Mother of god and queen of heaven.”

Israel fell into the idolatrous worship of Easter/Asthoreth and so too did the believers in Messiah Yahshua. History repeats itself.

Jdg 2:11 And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of YHWH, and served the Baals.
Jdg 2:12 And they forsook YHWH, the God of their fathers, who brought them out from the land of Egypt. And they went after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves to them, and angered YHWH.
Jdg 2:13 Yea, they forsook YHWH, and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
Jdg 2:14 And the anger of YHWH glowed against Israel, and He gave them into the hand of plunderers; and they plundered them. And He sold them into the hand of their enemies all around, and they were not able to stand before their enemies any longer.
Jdg 2:15 Wherever they went, the hand of YHWH was against them for evil, as YHWH had spoken, and as YHWH had sworn to them. And it distressed them very much.

Jdg 10:6 And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of YHWH again, and served the Baals, and the Ashtoroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. And they forsook YHWH and did not serve Him.
Jdg 10:7 And the anger of YHWH glowed against Israel. And He sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hand of the sons of Ammon.

1Sa 7:3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, saying, If you are returning to YHWH with all your heart, put aside the foreign gods from among you, and the Ashtoroth. And prepare your heart to YHWH, and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
1Sa 7:4 And the sons of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served YHWH only.

1Sa 12:6 And Samuel said to the people, It is YHWH who made Moses and Aaron, and who caused your fathers to go up from the land of Egypt.
1Sa 12:7 And now stand, and I will contend with you before the face of YHWH regarding all the righteous acts of YHWH which He did with you and with your fathers.
1Sa 12:8 When Jacob came into Egypt, and your fathers cried to YHWH, then YHWH sent Moses and Aaron; and they brought your fathers out from Egypt and made them dwell in this place.
1Sa 12:9 And they forgot YHWH their God. And He sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them.
1Sa 12:10 And they cried to YHWH and said, We have sinned, for we forsook YHWH and served the Baals and the Ashtoroth, but now deliver us from the hand of our enemies and we will serve You.

1Sa 31:8 And it happened on the next day, the Philistines came to strip the wounded. And they found Saul and his three sons fallen down on Mount Gilboa.
1Sa 31:9 And they cut off his head, and stripped off his weapons, and sent into the land of the Philistines all around to proclaim the news in the house of their idols, and among the people.
1Sa 31:10 And they put his weapons in the house of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
 

1Ki 11:1 And King Solomon loved many foreign women, even the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites;
1Ki 11:2 of the nations which YHWH said to the sons of Israel, You shall not go in to them, and they shall not go in to you; they shall turn aside your heart after their gods; Solomon clung to these in love.
1Ki 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
1Ki 11:4 And it happened, at the time Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect with YHWH his God, like the heart of his father David.
1Ki 11:5 And Solomon went after Ashtoreth, goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites;
1Ki 11:6 and Solomon did evil in the sight of YHWH, and did not go fully after YHWH like his father David.
1Ki 11:7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the sons of Ammon;
1Ki 11:8 and so he did for all his foreign wives, who burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods.
1Ki 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces for yourself. For so says YHWH, God of Israel, Behold, I am tearing the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and giving to you the ten tribes.
1Ki 11:32 And he shall have the one tribe for my servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
1Ki 11:33 Because they have forsaken Me, and bow themselves to Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh the god of Moab, to Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and have not walked in My ways, to do the right in My eyes, and My statutes and My judgments, as his father David did.

Jer 7:17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 7:18 The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me.
Jer 7:19 Do they provoke Me, says YHWH? Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?
Jer 7:20 So the Lord YHWH says this: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and will not be put out.

Jer 44:1 The Word which was to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who were living in the land of Egypt, those living at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the land of Pathros, saying,
Jer 44:2 So says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel, You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah. And, behold! This day they are a ruin, and no one lives in them,
Jer 44:3 because of the evil which they have done, by provoking Me to anger, by going to burn incense, by serving other gods that they did not know, they, you nor your fathers.
Jer 44:4 And, I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending, saying, Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate!
Jer 44:5 But they did not listen nor stretch their ear, to turn from their evil, not to burn incense to other gods.
Jer 44:6 For this reason My fury and My anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem. And they are for a waste and for a desolation as at this day.
Jer 44:7 And now so says YHWH, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you work great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, not leaving to yourselves a remnant,
Jer 44:8 to provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, there where you have gone to reside, that I might cut you off, and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
Jer 44:9 Have you forgotten the evilness of your fathers, and the evilness of the kings of Judah, and the evilness of his wives, and your own evilness, and the evilness of your wives, which they have done in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 44:10 They are not crushed to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in My Law, nor in My statutes which I have set before you and before your fathers.
Jer 44:11 So YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel says this: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah.
Jer 44:12 And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, to reside there; and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword, and by the famine. They shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword, and by the famine, and they shall be a curse, a horror, and a shame, and a reproach.
Jer 44:13 For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague,
Jer 44:14 so that none of the remnant of Judah which has gone into the land of Egypt, to reside there, will be a refugee, or a survivor, or turn back to the land of Judah to which they are lifting up their soul to return back to live there, for none shall return, except the escapees.
Jer 44:15 Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah saying,
Jer 44:16 As for the Word that you have spoken to us in the name of YHWH, we will not listen to you.
Jer 44:17 But we will certainly do whatever thing goes out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings, and our rulers, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. And we had plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.
Jer 44:18 But when we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked all things, and have been devoured by the sword and by the famine.
Jer 44:19 And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her, without our men?
Jer 44:20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people; to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who were answering,
Jer 44:21 The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you, and your fathers, your kings, and your rulers, and the people of the land, did not YHWH remember them? Yea, it came into His heart.
Jer 44:22 And YHWH could no longer bear because of the evil of your doings, because of the detestable things you have committed. For this reason your land is a waste, and a horror, and a curse, without one living in it, as at this day.
Jer 44:23 Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against YHWH, and have not obeyed the voice of YHWH, in His Law, or in His statutes; and because you did not walk in His testimonies, therefore this evil has happened to you, as at this day.
Jer 44:24 Jeremiah also said to all the people, and to all the women, Hear the Word of YHWH, all Judah in the land of Egypt.
Jer 44:25 So says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hands, saying, Performing we will perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her. Lifting up you lift up your vows and performing you perform your vows.
Jer 44:26 So hear the Word of YHWH, all Judah who reside in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says YHWH, that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord YHWH lives.
Jer 44:27 Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah in the land of Egypt shall be destroyed by the sword, and by the famine, until they come to an end.
Jer 44:28 And he who escapes the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt to the land of Judah, few in number. And all the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt, to reside there, shall know whose word shall stand, theirs or Mine.
Jer 44:29 And this shall be a sign to you, says YHWH, that I will punish you in this place, so that you may know that My Words standing shall stand against you for evil:

Act 19:21 And when these things were fulfilled, passing through Macedonia and Achaia, Paul purposed in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, saying, After I have come there, I must also see Rome.
Act 19:22 And sending into Macedonia two who ministered to him, Timothy and Erastus, he stayed a time in Asia.
Act 19:23 And about that time there was no little disturbance about the Way.
Act 19:24 For a certain silversmith named Demetrius was making silver shrines of Artemis, providing no little trade for the craftsmen.
Act 19:25 And assembling the workmen about such things, he said, Men, you understand that from this trade is our wealth.
Act 19:26 And you see and hear that not only Ephesus, but almost all of Asia, persuading, this Paul perverted a considerable crowd, saying that those being made by hands are not gods.
Act 19:27 And not only is this dangerous to us, lest our part come to be in contempt, but also the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted nothing, and her majesty is also about to be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.
Act 19:28 And having heard, and having become full of anger, they cried out, saying, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
Act 19:29 And all the city was filled with confusion. And they rushed with one passion into the theater, keeping a firm grip on Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, traveling companions of Paul.
Act 19:30 And Paul intending to go in to the mob, the disciples did not allow him.
Act 19:31 And also some of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sending to him begged him not to give himself into the theater.
Act 19:32 Then others indeed cried out a different thing, for the assembly was confused, and the majority did not know on what account they came together.
Act 19:33 But they dragged Alexander forward out of the crowd, the Jews thrusting him in front. And waving his hand, Alexander desired to defend himself to the mob.
Act 19:34 But knowing that he is a Jew, one voice was from all, as they were crying out over two hours, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
Act 19:35 And quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, Men, Ephesians, for what man is there who does not know the city of the Ephesians to be temple keepers of the great goddess Artemis, and of That Fallen From the Sky?
 

The Example of Josiah. Josiah destroyed the pagan religious customs that Israel had adopted and he returned to the Torah and the keeping of the Passover.
 

2Ki 22:1 Josiah was a son of eight years when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty one years in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
2Ki 22:2 And he did the good in the eyes of YHWH, and walked in all the way of his father David, and did not turn aside to the right or the left.
2Ki 23:1 And the king sent, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:2 And the king went up to the house of YHWH, and every man of Judah, and all the ones living in Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, from small to great; and he read in their ears all the Words of the Book of the covenant that was found in the house of YHWH.
2Ki 23:3 And the king stood by the pillar, and made the covenant before YHWH, to walk after YHWH, and to keep His commandments, and His testimonies, and His statutes, with all his heart, and with all his soul, to lift up the Words of this covenant that were written in this Book. And all the people stood to the covenant.
2Ki 23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring out from the temple of YHWH all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for Asherah, and for all the host of the heavens. And he burned them at the outside of Jerusalem, in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
2Ki 23:5 And he caused to cease the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had given place to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah, and in the places around Jerusalem, and those burning incense to Baal, to the sun, and to the moon, and to constellations, and to all the host of the heavens.
2Ki 23:6 And he brought out the sacred pole from the house of YHWH to the outside of Jerusalem, to the torrent Kidron, and burned it at the torrent Kidron, and ground it to powder, and threw the powder of it on the graves of the sons of the people.
2Ki 23:7 And he broke down the houses of the male prostitutes that were in the house of YHWH, where the women were weaving shelters for Asherah.
2Ki 23:8 And he made all the priests come in out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests burned incense, from Geba to Beer-sheba, and broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man’s left hand at the gate of the city.
2Ki 23:9 However the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of YHWH in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
2Ki 23:10 And he defiled Topheth in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, so that no man could cause his son and his daughter to pass through the fire of Molech.
2Ki 23:11 And he caused to cease the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of YHWH, by the room of Nathan-melech the eunuch, that was in the suburbs. And he burned with fire the chariots of the sun.
2Ki 23:12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of YHWH, the king broke down, and ran from there and threw the dust of them into the torrent Kidron.
2Ki 23:13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the idol of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the idol of the Moabites, and for Milcom the idol of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.
2Ki 23:14 And he broke the images in pieces, and cut down the Asherahs, and filled their places with the bones of men.
2Ki 23:15 And also the altar that was in Bethel, the high place that Jeroboam the son of Nebat had made by which he made Israel to sin, both that altar and the high place he broke down, and burned the high place; he ground it into powder, and burned the Asherah.
2Ki 23:16 And Josiah turned and saw the graves that were there in the mount, and sent and took the bones out of the graves and burned them on the altar, and defiled it according to the Word of YHWH that the man of God had proclaimed, who had proclaimed these things.
2Ki 23:17 And he said, What is this monument that I see? And the men of the city said to him, The grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done concerning the altar of Bethel.
2Ki 23:18 And he said, Let him alone, let no one touch his bones. And they let his bones escape with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
2Ki 23:19 And also all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, that the kings of Israel had made to provoke to anger, Josiah took away, and he did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.
2Ki 23:20 And he slaughtered all the priests of the high places who were there by the altars, and burned the bones of man upon them, and returned to Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:21 And the king commanded all the people, saying, Perform a Passover to YHWH your God, as it is written in this Book of the covenant.
2Ki 23:22 Surely none has been performed like this Passover from the days of the Judges who judged Israel even to all the days of the kings of Israel, and of the kings of Judah;
2Ki 23:23 but in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was prepared to YHWH in Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:24 And also the mediums and the spirit-knowers and the family gods, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah put away in order to fulfill the Words of the Law that were written in the Book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of YHWH.
2Ki 23:25 And there was no king before him like him, who turned to YHWH with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; and after him none rose up like him.
 

Asherah

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance: Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary:
“842. asherah … Asherah (or Astarte) a Phoenician goddess; also an image of the same: —grove.”

Encyclopedia Britannica:
“Asherah. Ancient West Semitic goddess, consort of the supreme god…. The word asherah in the Old Testament was used not only in reference to the goddess herself but also to a wooden cult object associated with her worship.”

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia:
“ASHERAH … mistranslated ‘grove’ in the Authorized [King James] Version…. Was the name of a goddess whose worship was widely spread throughout Syria and Canaan; plural, Asherim…. It is probable that it was originally an epithet of Istar (Ashtoreth) of Ninevah…. Asherah was the goddess of fertility.”

The New Scofield Reference Bible:
“The groves (Hebrew asherim) so often mentioned in the O.T. were devoted to the worship of Ashtoreth, who was the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, the Aphrodite of the Greeks, the Venus of the Romans.” (Deuteronomy 16:21 note)
“Ashtaroth, plural of Ashtoreth … were figures of Ashtoreth, the equivalent of the Phoenician goddess of fertility, Astarte.” (Judges 2:13 note)

Amplified Bible:
“Asherim … symbols of the goddess Asherah.” (Exodus 34:13 note)

Exodus 34:11 Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; New Scofield margin: Asherim, images of the heathen goddess, Asherah; RSV: Asherim]:
14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.

Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
5 But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], and burn their graven images with fire.

Deuteronomy 12:2 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:
3 And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.
4 Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 16:21 Thou shalt not plant thee a grove [Strong's: asherah] of any trees [NKJV: plant for yourself any tree, as a wooden image; NIV: set up any wooden Asherah poles; RSV: plant any tree as an Asherah] near unto the altar of the LORD thy God, which thou shalt make thee.

Judges 3:5 And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and Jebusites:
6 And they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
7 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgat the LORD their God, and served Baalim and the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV, NIV: Asherahs; Lamsa, AMP: Ashtaroth; Fenton: Ashteroth; RSV: Asheroth].
8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia: and the children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim eight years.

Judges 6:24 Then Gideon built an altar there unto the LORD, and called it YHWH Shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
25 And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; RSV: Asherah] that is by it:
26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: image; NIV: Asherah pole; RSV: Asherah] which thou shalt cut down.
27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.
28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; RSV: Asherah] was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.
29 And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.
30 Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; RSV: Asherah] that was by it.
31 And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.
32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar.

1 Kings 14:15 For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], provoking the LORD to anger.

1 Kings 14:22 And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.
23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], on every high hill, and under every green tree.
24 And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

1 Kings 15:11 And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.
12 And he took away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.
13 And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: an obscene image of Asherah; NIV: a repulsive Asherah pole; Moffatt: an obscene image for Astarte; RSV: an abominable image made for Asherah]; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.

1 Kings 16:33 And Ahab made a grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; Moffatt: image of Astarte; RSV: Asherah]; and Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

1 Kings 18:17 And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
18 And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.
19 Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV, NIV, RSV: prophets of Asherah; Moffatt: prophets of Astarte] four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.
20 So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.
21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

2 Kings 13:5 (And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians: and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents, as beforetime.
6 Nevertheless they departed not from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but walked therein: and there remained the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah pole; Moffatt: Astarte image; RSV: Asherah] also in Samaria.)

2 Kings 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
10 And they set them up images and groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:
12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; Moffatt: image of Astarte; RSV: Asherah], and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

2 Kings 18:1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.
3 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his father did.
4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherah], and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

2 Kings 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; Moffatt: image of Astarte; RSV: Asherah], as did Ahab king of Israel; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
4 And he built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD said, In Jerusalem will I put my name.
5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
6 And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
7 And he set a graven image of the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: Asherah; NIV: Asherah pole; Moffatt: Astarte; RSV: Asherah] that he had made in the house, of which the LORD said to David, and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever:
8 Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them.
9 But they hearkened not: and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
10 And the LORD spake by his servants the prophets, saying,
11 Because Manasseh king of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:
12 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.
13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down.
14 And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies;
15 Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.

2 Kings 23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, and for the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV, NIV, RSV, Fenton: Asherah; Fenton note: the pagan goddess; Moffatt: Astarte], and for all the host of heaven: and he burned them without Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them unto Bethel.
2 Kings 23:6 And he brought out the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; Moffatt: idol of Astarte; RSV: Asherah] from the house of the LORD, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people.
7 And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV, RSV: Asherah; Moffatt: Astarte].
2 Kings 23:14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], and filled their places with the bones of men.
15 Moreover the altar that was at Bethel, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, both that altar and the high place he brake down, and burned the high place, and stamped it small to powder, and burned the grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden image; NIV: Asherah pole; RSV: Asherim].
16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount, and sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and polluted it, according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.

2 Chronicles 14:2 And Asa did that which was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God:
3 For he took away the altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down the images, and cut down the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim]:
4 And commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment.

2 Chronicles 15:16 And also concerning Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: an obscene image of Asherah; NIV: a repulsive Asherah pole; Moffatt: an obscene object for Astarte; RSV: an abominable image for Asherah]: and Asa cut down her idol, and stamped it, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

2 Chronicles 17:3 And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto Baalim;
4 But sought to the Lord God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not after the doings of Israel.
2 Chronicles 17:6 And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD: moreover he took away the high places and groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] out of Judah.

2 Chronicles 19:2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.
3 Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherahs] out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.

2 Chronicles 24:17 Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.
18 And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.
19 Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them again unto the LORD; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.

2 Chronicles 31:1 Now when all this was finished, all Israel that were present went out to the cities of Judah, and brake the images in pieces, and cut down the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], and threw down the high places and the altars out of all Judah and Benjamin, in Ephraim also and Manasseh, until they had utterly destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel returned, every man to his possession, into their own cities.

2 Chronicles 33:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem:
2 But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; Moffatt: images of Astarte; RSV: Asherahs], and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.

2 Chronicles 33:18 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer unto his God, and the words of the seers that spake to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel.
19 His prayer also, and how God was intreated of him, and all his sins, and his trespass, and the places wherein he built high places, and set up groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] and graven images, before he was humbled: behold, they are written among the sayings of the seers.

2 Chronicles 34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years.
2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left.
3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], and the carved images, and the molten images.
4 And they brake down the altars of Baalim in his presence; and the images, that were on high above them, he cut down; and the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], and the carved images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them.
2 Chronicles 34:7 And when he had broken down the altars and the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], and had beaten the graven images into powder, and cut down all the idols throughout all the land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.

Isaiah 17:7 At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel.
8 And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect that which his fingers have made, either the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim], or the images.

Isaiah 27:9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] and images shall not stand up.

Jeremiah 17:1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] by the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin, throughout all thy borders.
4 And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.

Micah 5:10 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots:
11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strong holds:
12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers:
13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands.
14 And I will pluck up thy groves [Strong's: asherah; NKJV: wooden images; NIV: Asherah poles; RSV: Asherim] out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.

Mary was proclaimed as the ‘Queen of Heaven’ in the 7th century in Ephesus where Artemis/Diana was worshipped as the Queen of Heaven.

Truth Matters Walter Veith pg 216

Queen of Heaven and the ‘New World Order’

Rulers of Evil – Tupper Saussy pg 219-220

“Six hundred years after Isaiah {Isaiah 7:14; 9:6}, Virgil solemnly announced in the Fourth Eclogue that the Prince of Peace would be produced by the unrolling of a New World Order (‘NOVUS ORDER SECLORUM’):

Now returns the Golden Age of Saturn, now appears the Immaculate Virgin. Now descends from heaven a divine Nativity. O! Chaste Lucina, speed the Mother’s pains, haste the glorious Birth, and usher in the reign of thy Apollo. thy consulship, O Pollio, shall lead this glorious Advent, and the new world order shall then begin to roll. Thenceforth whatever vestige of Original Sin remains, shall be swept away from earth forever, and the Son of God shall be the Prince of Peace!

Rulers of Evil pg 212-13
 

E. Pluribus Unum “of many, one”.

According to Manly Hall this phrase comes from the ancient Bacchic Ritesclick here which he says was the forerunner to Freemasonry. The Bacchic rites are built upon the story of the Titans causing Bacchus to become enthralled with himself in a mirror. While he is being mesmerized by himself the Titans seize him and tear him to pieces where they boil him and then roast him and eat him. This grieves all his loved ones, hence his name, Bacchus which cames from bakhah which means to weep or lament. Bacchus’ sister, the virgin Minerva, rescues his sacred heart from the four elements and places them before Jupiter in heaven. Jupiter then turns the Titans to ashes with his thunderbolts. The rains further reduce the ashes to slime which are mingled with the four elements of Bacchus strewn body parts. From this slime, Jupiter forms mankind from which the ‘Bacchic idea’, or rational soul, must be released. The Bacchic idea is released by the slime’s sexual energy, especially when facilitated by alcoholic drink…hence Bacchus is associated with grapevines, wild dancing, phallic symbols and fornication. {More on this below}

When death and sex have rescued the rational soul from the four slimy corners of the earth, a transfigured, eternal Bacchus is resurrected as the flaming Sun. He is E Pluribus Unum, One from Many, a resurrection symbolized by the pentagram, the one rising out of the four to make five. This, says Manly Hall, is the ‘magical formula of man,’ rising out of the bondage of the animal nature.

Queen of Heaven & the Pentagram

The pentagram symbol is based on Venus (the Queen of Heaven). From a fixed location over an eight year period, the planet Venus travels a unique celestial pathway that exactly describes a pentagram.

Carl Ljungman- Dictionary of Symbols

“As the orbi of Venus is closer to the sun than the earth’s position, she is never seen more than 48 degrees from the sun. During a period of 247 days, Venus is visible as the Evening star that is, withing 48 degrees or less of the sun after the sun has set. Then Venus comes too close to the sun for us to see her. She remains invisible for 14 days, then reappears as the Morning star (or Eastern star) immediately before the sun rises in the east….Only Venus possesses the five-pointed star sign.”

Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

The Targum is,

“how art thou fallen from on high, who was shining among the sons of men, as the star Venus among the stars.”
Keil & Delitzsch commentary on Isaiah 14:12

(Note: It is singular, however, that among the Semitic nations the morning star is not personified as a male (Heōsphoros or Phōsphoros), but as a female (Astarte, see at Isa_17:8), and that it is called Nâghâh, Ashtoreth, Zuhara, but never by a name derived from hâlal; whilst the moon is regarded as a male deity (Sin), and in Arabic hilâl signifies the new moon, which might be called ben- shacar (son of the dawn), from the fact that, from the time when it passes out of the invisibility of its first phase, it is seen at sunrise, and is as it were born out of the dawn.)*

*This is interesting to note in that the crescent moon is a symbol of Astarte/Ishtar/Semiramis etc. More on this below
 

“In ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the five-pointed star, or pentagram, was also called the Shield of David, or Star of David, while the hexagram was sometimes called “Solomon’s Seal”click here . We shall deal briefly with the pentagram symbol.
As far as we know, 6th-Century Byzantine scholars were the first to speak of the pentagram as the Shield of David, while in the Middle Ages this idea was occasionally taken up by Jews and Muslims as well.
Judging from archaeological evidence, artists were drawing pentagrams long before they started drawing hexagrams. One of the oldest known artifacts is a clay jug with a pentagram painted on it, found in Jamdad Nasr (modern-day Iraq) and dated to the 4th millenium B.C.E.
Similar designs were found in Megido, one on a seal dating from the 19th Century B.C.E., the other on a clay jug, dated 17th Century B.C.E.
One of the many other findings worth mentioning is the impression of a pentagram on a jar handle – probably an official seal (possibly royal) in the Kingdom of Judah. In its angles appear the word “Jerusalem”, written in ancient Hebrew characters. Fine examples can also be found on Celtic broochesclick here:
Another outstanding example is a pentagram carved in stone, with disks in its five angles. It can be seen in the ruins of Kfar Nahum, in the following design
Although no other known design of this type exists, the five disks in the angles of the star may well symbolize the five planets known in ancient times, pointing to the astronomical connotations of the design.
In ancient times, the pentagram was indeed the sign of those initiated into the wisdom of astronomy and astrology. Priests imbued with this knowledge calculated the calendar with its agricultural and religious seasons. It is for this reason that the ancient Babylonians were known as Chaldeans – still a byword for astrologers, for their religion was based upon such calculations.
All in all, the pentagram can be seen as a symbol for nature, i.e. the material aspect of Creation. This would be supported by the fact that the entire pentagram can be drawn without lifting pen off paper, while the interwoven hexagram depicts polarities in their balance requires that its two triangles be drawn separately. (To be sure, one could draw the hexagon first and then add the six outer triangles without lifting the pen, but that would not do justice to the meaning of the symbol). – Interestingly enough, the ancient Pythagoreans gave the name “health” to the pentagram. It was probably before this background that later on it went into magic.
True, the Jewish people in their worship of the Creator of Heaven and Earth also had to develop a calendar based on the “lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and to be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years…”(Gen.1:14), so it should not be surprising to find the figure of the pentagram with the five disks in a synagogue next to the six-pointed star (see fig.6-8); nor should it be surprising that the five-pointed star is often called Solomon’s Seal. The Tanakh says Solomon was renowned for his wisdom in both heavenly and earthly matters, and this could explain why the five-pointed star as a symbol of wisdom was attributed to him, and named after him. However, we should keep in mind that the termמגן , magen, shield, is used in connection with Abraham and with David, while the term חותם , hotam, seal, is used in connection with Solomon irrespective whether the pentagram or the hexagram is related to him.”

Seal of Solomon – Connection to the hexagram & Pentagramclick here

Joseph Jacobs and M. Seligsohn wrote in the Jewish Encyclopedia the entry Solomon, Seal of.

The legend that Solomon possessed a seal ring on which the name of God was engraved and by means of which he controlled the demons is related at length in Gittin 68a, b.

B. Arabic development of the Jewish legend
This legend is especially developed by Arabic writers, who declare that the ring, on which was engraved “the Most Great Name of God,” and which was given to Solomon from heaven, was partly brass and partly iron. With the brass part of the ring Solomon signed his written commands to the good genii, and with the iron part he signed his commands to the evil genii, or devils. The Arabic writers declare also that Solomon received four jewels from four different angels, and that he set them in one ring, so that he could control the four elements.

C. Another legend
The legend that Asmodeus once obtained possession of the ring and threw it into the sea, and that Solomon was thus deprived of his power until he discovered the ring inside a fish (Jellinek, “B. H.” ii. 86-87), also has an Arabic source (comp. D’Herbelot, “Bibliothèque Orientale,” s.v. “Soliman ben Daoud”; Fabricius, “Codex Pseudepigraphicus,” i. 1054; and see Solomon in Arabic Literature).

D. Josephus
The legend of a magic ring by means of which the possessor could exorcise demons was current in the first century, as is shown by Josephus’ statement (“Ant.” viii. 2, § 5) that one Eleazar exorcised demons in the presence of Vespasian by means of a ring, using incantations composed by Solomon Fabricius (l.c.) thinks that the legend of the ring of Solomon thrown into the sea and found afterward inside a fish is derived from the story of the ring of Polycrates, a story which is related by Herodotus (iii. 41 et seq.), Strabo (xiv. 638), and others, and which was the basis of Schiller’s poem “Der Ring des Polykrates.”

E. Six-pointed star
The Arabs afterward gave the name of “Solomon’s seal” to the six-pointed star-like figure (see Magen, Dawid) engraved on the bottom of their drinking-cups.

F. Table of Solomon
It is related in the “Arabian Nights” (ch. xx.) that Sindbad, in his seventh voyage, presented Harun al-Rashid cup on which the “table of Solomon” was represented; and Lane thinks that this was the figure of “Solomon’s seal” (note 93 to ch. xx. of his translation of the “Arabian Nights”).

G. Pentacle
In Western legends, however, it is the pentacle, or “druid’s foot,” that represents the seal. This figure, called by Bishop Kennet the “pentangle” of Solomon, was supposed to have the power of driving away demons. Mephistopheles says to Faust that he is prevented from entering the house by the druid’s foot (“Drudenfuss”), or pentagram, which guards the threshold (“Faust,” in Otto Devrient’s edition, part i., scene 6). The work entitled “Claviculæ Salomonis” contains treatises on all kinds of pentacles. The tradition of Solomon’s seal was the basis of Büschenthal’s tragedy “Der Siegelring Salomonis,” specimens of which are given in “Bikkure ha-’Ittim,” v. 3 et seq. (German part). A work regarding a magic signet-ring is ascribed to Solomon (see Solomon, Apocryphal Works of). See also Asmodeus; Solomon in Rabbinical Literature.

Pentagram is connected with the Hexagram

The pentacle is also the logo of the Theosophical Society. Founder H.P. Blavatsky identifies the pentacle as: “Any geometrical figure, especially double equilateral triangle, the six-pointed star, (like the theosophical pentacle).” The Theosophical Glossary, p. 251.

Theosophist Charles Leadbeater wrote in The Hidden Life of Freemasonry: “The blazing star is properly six-pointed.” The History Of Freemasonry, p. 79.

Albert Pike, stated: “…the blazing star… represents [the] Star of Horus…Morning Star…Star of Set…Lucifer.” Cathy Burns, Hidden Secrets Of The Eastern Star, pp.52-53
Since the quintessence is symbolized by the pentacle or six-pointed star, we may infer that this essence which enhances material elements is Lucifer, symbolized in occult language by the eagle or phoenix.

In Hebrew the word for eagle is:

H5404
נשׁר
nesher

Interestingly, the Hebrew word for calf (ie. golden calf) is עגל which sounds like eagle. Yet another connection to Ishtar-Baal golden calf worship.

H5695
עגל
‛êgel
BDB Definition:
1) calf, bull-calf

The Pentagram, Hexagram and the United States/New Atlantis

Secrets of the Dollar Bill – David Ovason pg 19

“The stars on the first Great Seal of 1782 were six-pointed.

Secrets of the Dollar Bill pg 23

‘The chief difference between the eagle roundel on the dollar bill and the eagle on the first Great Seal (1782) was in the number of radiants or points on the stars above the head of the eagle. On the dollar-bill roundel, the thirteen stars have five radiants. The thirteen stars on the Great Seal of 1782 had six radiants.

Secrets of the Dollar Bill pg 126

“In Medieval art and symbolism, the eagle was associated with the five-pointed star. In the Medieval period, the eagle was regarded as a magical figure….Villard de Honnecourt traced in the heraldic image of a displayed eagle the form of the five-pointed star, or pentagram. This meant that the eagle was viewed as being the equivalent of the five-pointed star – in terms of both symbolism and numerology.

Secrets of the Dollar Bill pg 139

“As a matter of fact, the eagle was widely used in alchemy. In certain texts, the crowned eagle was seen as a symbols of a successfully completed stage in the search for the manufacture of the secret Philosopher’s Stone, which would confer long life and incredible riches.”

As will be seen below, the Philosopher’s Stone is intimately connected with Ishtar and the mark of the beast.

Queen of Heaven & the Rose

The constellation of the Virgin usually has her holding wheat, corn or a five-petaled flower. This represents the BRANCH {tsemach}, which is used 5 times in the Scriptures, all referring to the Messiah.

Isa 4:2 In that day the Branch of YHWH will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth for pride and for glory for the survivors of Israel.
Jer 23:5 Behold, the days come, says YHWH, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and act wisely, and He shall do justice and righteousness in the earth.
Jer 23:6 In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is His name by which He shall be called, YHWH our Righteousness.

Jer 33:15 In those days, and at that time, I will cause a Branch of Righteousness to grow up to David. And He shall do judgment and righteousness in the land.
Jer 33:16 In those days Judah shall be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell in safety. And this is the name that shall be called on her: YHWH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Zec 3:8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your associates who are sitting before you; for they are men of symbol.
Zec 3:9 For, behold, I will bring forth My Servant, the BRANCH. For behold, the stone which I have given before Joshua, on the one stone are seven eyes. I will engrave its engraving, says YHWH of Hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
Zec 3:10 In that day, says YHWH of Hosts, you shall call each man to his neighbor to sit under the vine and under the fig tree.

Zec 6:12 And speak to him, saying, So says YHWH of Hosts, saying, Behold! The Man whose name is THE BRANCH! And He shall spring up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of YHWH.
Zec 6:13 Even He shall build the temple of YHWH; and He shall bear the majesty, and shall sit and rule on His throne. And He shall be a priest on His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between the two of them.

In all of the pagan holidays that have been passed down to us as benign ‘Christian’ holidays, the counterfeit system is seen over and over. The shadow pictures & symbology of Messiah Yahshua were applied to counterfeit Christs. The same symbols have been applied to Mary as the Queen of Heaven, who is in reality Lucifer.

The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital pg 161-162
‘This same sense of spiritual redemption was presaged in the ear of wheat, the Spice, in the hand of the stellar Virgin. The wheat signaled the germinal poewr that would grow from that Virgin onto the Bread of Life. It was the Plant of Life which had been opposed by the Tree of Death – the wheat which could grow from the darkness of the grave….There is a striking similarity in the pelanos, or sacred bread of the ancient Mystery lore, and the holy bread of the hose in the Christian Mysteries. This point has often been developed by scholars. The idea is clearly indicated in the 18th century engraving, alongside, which portrays the World Mother, the Virgin goddess, not only with her many corn ears, but with a version of the holy bread marked with what may be interpreted as a wide cross.’ {See Below for more information on ‘hot cross buns’.}

The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital pg 157
‘the wheat (in the Virgin’s hand) was sometimes transformed into a flower – very often into a five-petaled rose.’

Children of the Matrix pg 171
‘The Romans called the rose the ‘flower of Venus’ and this was a term used for the goddess, including Queen Semiramis. The red rose was symbolic of female sexuality and the white rose or lily is the virgin goddess.’

Easter Lily – White rose connection

Son 2:1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.

Notice again the hexagram (easter lily) (6) & pentagram (white rose) (5) connection.

http://www.appleseeds.org/easter-lily.htm

The Easter Lily. For many, the beautiful trumpet-shaped white flowers symbolize purity, virtue, innocence, hope and life—the spiritual essence of Easter. History, mythology, literature, poetry and the world of art are rife with stories and images that speak of the beauty and majesty of the elegant white flowers. Often called the “white-robed apostles of hope,” lilies were found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ’s agony. Tradition has it that the beautiful white lilies sprung up where drops of Christ’s sweat fell to the ground in his final hours of sorrow and deep distress. Churches continue this tradition at Easter time by banking their altars and surrounding their crosses with masses of Easter Lilies, to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and hope of life everlasting.

Since the beginning of time, lilies have played significant roles in allegorical tales concerning the sacrament of motherhood. Roman mythology links it to Juno, the queen of the gods. The story goes that while Juno was nursing her son Hercules, excess milk fell from the sky. Although part of it remained above the earth (thus creating the group of stars known as the Milky Way), the remainder fell to the earth, creating lilies. Another tradition has it that the lily sprang from the repentant tears of Eve as she went forth from Paradise.

David Ovason, in his book Secret Architecture of our Nation’s Capital connects the ‘Weeping Virging’ with Isis her weeping over the death of Osiris. In esoteric thought this weeping is associated not only with death but also with resurrection & ‘initiation’ into the mysteries. John Simons, a Masonic author, believed that Egyptian hieroglyphics were closely linked with Hebrew and traced hieroglyphic for the above concept of tears or milk falling from the gods with the Hebrew word yarah. The Egyptian hieroglyphic mst which is translated as dew is actually water falling from heaven, or the gods throwing drops of sacred water.

This is the root of the word Torah.

John Simons points out that this Egyptian hieroglyphic for dew is also linked with Egyptian baptism, with the notion of shedding celestial dew on the head of the neophyte with initiation. He referes to a plate which showed an Egyptian initiation scene where the gods Horus and Thoth pour sacred waters on the head of the neophyte. This is a false baptism, a false ‘born again’ experience, a false resurrection. In Masonic accounts, the virgin weeps because the Temple is left unfinished. This is speaking of the perfecting of man and is what the image on the back of the dollar bill of the unfinished pyramid represents.

The pure white lily has long been closely associated with the Virgin Mary. In early paintings, the Angel Gabriel is pictured extending to the Virgin Mary a branch of pure white lilies, announcing that she is to be the mother of the Christ Child. In other paintings, saints are pictured bringing vases full of white lilies to Mary and the infant Jesus. St. Joseph is depicted holding a lily-branch in his hand, indicating that his wife Mary was a virgin.

The legend is told that when the Virgin Mary’s tomb was visited three days after her burial, it was found empty save for bunches of majestic white lilies. Early writers and artists made the lily the emblem of the Annunciation, the Resurrection of the Virgin: the pure white petals signifying her spotless body and the golden anthers her soul glowing with heavenly light.…

http://campus.udayton.edu/mary//meditations/samaha9.html

In the Greco-Roman culture, the rose represented beauty, the season of spring, and love. It also spoke of the fleetness of time, and therefore inferred death and the next world. In Rome the feast called rosalia was a feast of the dead.

The rose as the queen of flowers was evidently a privileged symbol for Mary, Queen of heaven and earth. The rose is a symbol of Christ, too, as we see in the German Christmas song from a poem by Goethe, Es Ist ein’ Ros’ Entsprungen.

The Marian symbolism is well illustrated by Dante in his description of Paradise. His guide, Beatrice, invites him to contemplate among the heavenly inhabitants the beauty of Mary, the Mother of God:

“Why are you so enamored of my face that you do not turn your gaze to the beautiful garden which blossoms under the radiance of Christ? There is the Rose in which the Divine word became flesh: here are the lilies whose perfume guides you in the right ways.” (Paradiso, 23, 71-75)

Later the influence of the the Song of Songs led to the rose symbolizing the mystical union between Christ and his Church, or between God and each member of his people. Because Mary was honored as the model of our union with God, the rose became a privileged symbol of the union between Christ and Mary. The litany of Loreto includes the title, “Mystical Rose.”

During the Renaissance the rose garden theme came to represent human love and lovers. But at the same time the religious, Marian symbolism of the rose was popularized by the devotion of the rosary.

The structured prayer form of 150 Hail Marys was termed a “rosary.” This expression came from the Latin rosarium or rosarius, a name given to works collecting the best of some teaching. For example, Arnold of Villanova wrote a Rosarius Philosophorum, explaining that it was a compendium, a thesaurus, a treasury of philosophy. Here the symbolism of the rosary stands as a precious anthology of spirituality.

Our Lady of the rosary is Our Lady of the roses, because the flowers are the symbols of greeting offered to the Mother of God. We greet her with spiritual flowers.

In a different perspective, Mary and the Child Jesus offer the rosary to their devotees. In his Feast of the Rosary (1506), Albrecht Durer represents Jesus and Mary handing out crowns of roses.

The Rose & the Heart

The rose in hermetic and alchemical texts could symbolize either the solar, male (red) or lunar, feminine (white) currents or properties, but it also could be used as a symbol for the heart. Scholars of the past believed the heart was inclined at an angle of 23 degrees, “like the axis of the earth against the path of the sun. And the heart is like the bud of the lotus flower … while the Egyptians worshipped the flower of the sun (Isis).” – August Strindberg, “A Blue Book,” Munich (1918).

More on this lotus flower/heart connection below.

Two Babylons pg 169
In the Church of Rome a new kind of devotion has of late been largely introduced, in which the beads play an important part, and which shows what new and additional strides in the direction of the old Babylonian Paganism the Papacy every day is steadily making. I refer to the “Rosary
of the Sacred Heart.” It is not very long since the worship of the “Sacred Heart” was first introduced; and now, everywhere it is the favourite worship. It was so in ancient Babylon, as is evident from the Babylonian system as it appeared in Egypt. There also a “Sacred Heart” was venerated. The “Heart” was one of the sacred symbols of Osiris when he was born again, and appeared as Harpocrates, or the infant divinity, * borne in the arms of his mother Isis.
* The name Harpocrates, as shown by Bunsen, signifies “Horus, the child.”

Rose & Sion

Numerologically, the letters of the word ROSE are 9615, same as the first letters of the Egyptian royal family

I for Isis = 9
O for Osiris = 6
N for Nephthys = 5
S for Set = 1

Interestingly, these letters also spell SION, as in the Priory of Sion.

“The Templars riding with their red cross were
the keepers of the secret of the rose within the chalice.”
‘The Sword and the Grail’ by Andrew Sinclair

http://www.aniwilliams.com/magdalene.htm
 

The Rose with its word anagram ‘Eros’click here {Eros is another name for Cupid…another rose-heart connection, click link for more info}, 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.

The unusual solid stone barrel-shaped ceiling of Rosslyn Chapel is divided into five sections, and is covered with carved five-pointed stars, lilies, roses and other flowers. These stars have an ancient association with Venus, Isis and Magdalene and are also found on the ceilings Egyptian temples. (The pentagram’s proportions are a perfect example of the Golden Mean, or PHI ratio, and the sacred geometry used in ancient temple architecture). Another section of the ceiling containing a series of cubes is said to correspond to PHI and a Fibonacci musical scale.

Rose Mystery

 

In ancient Rome…the rose was known as the Flower of Venus and lent itself ultimately as an instrument of worship represented by the rosary.

Rosa Mystica of the Zohar

The Zohar, a book of Jewish mysticism contains texts that deal with the mysteries of the Rosa Mystica and her Son. In the texts the Rosa Mystica is called Matronita, a Heavenly Warrioress Queen who “leads her warriors to become like Elohim”, she is also named ‘Kneset Yisrael’, ‘Woman of Israel’ and ‘Queen of the Sabbath’. She is the Spouse of the Ruach ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit), and as a woman She is sometimes named ‘Isha’. She is said to be clothed with the Sun standing on the Moon.

The opening passages of the Zohar quote a verse from the Song of Songs: “Like a rose among thorns, so is my darling among the maidens” (Song of Songs 2:2). The Aramaic word for ‘mystery’ is ‘raza’ – a word very similar to Latin ‘rosa.’

Flowers Through the Ages by Gabriele Tergit contains many pages on the history and folklore of the rose.
“…Soon the mysterious rose, sacred to Venus in earlier times, became the flower of the Virgin Mary, who herself became the Rosa mystica. The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus became St. Peter’s, the temple of Juno Lucina the church of S. Maria Maggiore, and the processions honouring the Mother of God walked on rose petals, just as the processions carrying the images of the pagan gods had done.” (p. 43)

“The rose was dedicated to the goddess of love, that is, to the eternal mystery of the continuity of life. As such it was the symbol of mystery and secrecy. ‘Mystery glows in the rose bed, the secret is hidden in the rose,’ sang the Persian poet and perfumer, Farid ud-din Attar, in the twelfth century. A more prosaic explanation is that the folded structure of the rose, by its nature, conceals a secret inner core. … in Germany, we read in Sebastian Brant’s Narrenschiff, [Ship of Fools] in the late fifteenth century: ‘What here we do say, shall under roses stay.’” (p. 46)

The Latin phrase sub rosa means “under the rose” and is used in English to denote secrecy or confidentiality. The rose was the emblem of the god Horus in ancient Egypt. Later, the Greeks and Romans regarded Horus as the god of silence. The rose, with a characteristic five-petal shape imitates the pentagram – a five-sided star also a symbol.
The labyrinth on the floor in the Chartres Cathedral in France has a rose in the center. The cathedral was built incorporating sacred geometry and it is alleged, was built to represent the form of the human. Looking at it from the air, it appears to be in the shape of a cross, however if one looks at Leonardo DaVinci’s drawing of man with his arms outstretched and the pentagram overlaid, the cathedral could very well be to represent human form.
A sixteenth century lexicon states that the rose is a symbol that has many very profound meanings in all branches of the Hermetic mystery. The Rosicrucian esoteric fraternity adopted the rose on a cross as their symbol.

Roses, Ashes, Resurrection & the Phoenix

click here

A phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek).

Manly P. Hall The Phoenix: An Illustrated Review of Occultism and Philosophy

“Among the ancients a fabulous bird called the Phoenix is described by early writers … in size and shape it resembles the eagle, but with certain differences. The body of the Phoenix is one covered with glossy purple feathers, and the plumes in its tail are alternately blue and red. The head of the bird is light in color, and about its neck is a circlet of golden plumage. At the back of its back the Phoenix has a crest of feathers of brilliant color … The Phoenix, it is said, lives for 500 years, and at its death its body opens and the new born Phoenix emerges. Because of this symbolism, the Phoenix is generally regarded as representing immortality and resurrection … The Phoenix is one sign of the secret orders of the ancient world and of the initiate of those orders, for it was common to refer to one who had been accepted into the temples as a man twice-born, or reborn. Wisdom confers a new life, and those who become wise are born again.” [p. p. 176-77]

Barbara Walker Now Is The Dawning , p. 281

“Egyptians believed that the Phoenix was the representative of a god who “rose to heaven in the form of a morning star, like Lucifer, after his fire-immolation of death and rebirth …”

William Schnoebelen, in his book, Satan’s Door Revisited , p. 4. “The Phoenix, of Bunnu is believed to be a divine bird going back to Egypt … This Phoenix destroys itself in flames and then rises from the ashes. Most occultists believe that the Phoenix is a symbol of Lucifer who was cast down in flames and who … will one day rise triumphant. This [belief] also relates to the raising of Hiram Abiff, the Masonic ‘christ’.”

Manly P. Hall The Lost Keys of Freemasonry pg 108

“These were the immortals to whom the term ‘phoenix’ was applied, and their symbol was the mysterious two-headed bird, now called an eagle , a familiar and little understood Masonic emblem .”

Biederman’s Dictionary explains the symbolism of the eagle: “In ancient Syria, the eagle was associated with the sun-god. It was said to be capable of rejuvenation, like the phoenix.”

Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark pg 265

“They {Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton} knew that the Stone {Philosopher’s Stone} was directly related to higher degrees of consciousness and perception, while being represented by the legendary Phoenix which rises from destruction in a blaze of rebirth and new light.”

Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark pg 27

“In the romance of Parzival by the Bavarian knight Wolfram von Eschenbach, we read: ‘Around the end of the stone, an inscription in letters tells the name and lineage of those, be they maids or boys, who are called to make the journey of the Grail. No one needs to read the inscription, for as soon as it has been read it vanishes.’ The stone being discussed here was said to be the ‘perfection of earthly paradise,’ with remarkable healing and anti-ageing properties. It was called Lapis Elixis, a variant of Lapis Elixir, the alchemical Philosopher’s Stone. The text continues: ‘By the power of that stone the Phoenix burns to ashes, but the ashes speedily restore him to life again. Thus doth the Phoenix Destiny.”

Albert Pike associates the Great Secret with the discovery of the Alchemists “Philosopher’s Stone.”

Morals and Dogma pg 64
…Grand Arcanum,…that secret whose revelation would overturn Earth and Heaven. Let no one expect us to give them its explanation! He who passes behind the veil that hides this mystery, understands that it is in its very nature inexplicable, and that it is death to those who win it by surprise, as well as to him who reveals it. This secret is the Royalty of the Sages, the Crown of the Initiate whom we see redescend victorious from the summit of Trials, in the fine allegory of Cebes. The Grand Arcanun makes him master of gold and the light, which are at bottom the same thing, he has solved the problem of the quadrature of the circle, he directs the perpetual movement, and he possesses the philosophical stone. Here the Adepts will understand us. There is neither interruption in the toil of nature, nor gap in her work. The Harmonies of Heaven correspond to those of Earth, and the Eternal Life accomplishes its evolutions in accordance with the same laws as the life of a dog. “God has arranged all things by weight, number, and measure,” says the Bible; and this luminous doctrine was also that of Plato.

Azoth was considered to be a ‘universal medicine’ or ‘universal solvent’ sought in alchemy, its symbol was the Caduceus (the rod of Hermes)click here and so the term, which being originally a term for an occult formula sought by alchemists much like the philosopher’s stone, became a poetic word for the element Mercury.

As the works of more of the alchemists have come to light, it becomes clear that the philosopher’s stone wasn’t really a stone at all—even though it is always referred to as such. Sometimes the catalyst of transmutation is described as a divine child, an angel, a dragon, an elixir, a tincture, or an as-yet unknown chemical compound.

Many alchemists began to consider that somehow the philosopher’s stone was not a thing at all, but a system of knowledge. Once the alchemist truly perceived the reality that lay behind the symbols, he would achieve an intellectual and spiritual level wherein he would become one with the power that existed within the mysterious goal for which he searched so long. Once he understood what the philosopher’ stone represented, he would have found it at last—and he would have become one with it.

Many scholars have since insisted that the true alchemists sought not to turn base metals into gold, but to transform the dense material of their physical bodies into a spiritually evolved immaterial entity. In this perspective, the philosopher’s stone becomes the Holy Spirit that mystically transmutes humans into true manifestations of God on Earth.

Ishtar/Isis/Queen of Heaven was symbolized by the dove. The dove, Biblically is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. More on this below

Saturn, Hexagram connection

The Talisman of Saturn became known as the Seal of Solomon.click here

From James Fausset Brown commentary on Amos 5:26
the star of your god — R. Isaac Caro says all the astrologers represented Saturn as the star of Israel. Probably there was a figure of a star on the head of the image of the idol, to represent the planet Saturn; hence “images” correspond to “star” in the parallel clause. A star in hieroglyphics represents God (Num_24:17). “Images” are either a Hebraism for “image,” or refer to the many images made to represent Chiun.

John Gill commentary on Amos 5:26

Holy Blood Holy Grail pg 297
Quoting from Perlesvaus pg. 359
“Well I know that many brave knights dwell with the Grail at Munsalvaesche. Always when they ride out, as they often do, it is to seek adventure. They do so for their sins, these templars, whether their reward be defeat or victory. A valiant hose lives there, and I will tell you how they are sustained. They live from a stone of purest kind. If you know not know it, it shall here be named to you. It is called lapsit exillis. By the power of that stone the phoenix burns to ashes, but the ashes give him life again. Thus does the phoenix molt and change its plumage, which afterward is bright and shining and as lovely as before. There never was a human so ill but that, if he on day sees that stone, he cannot die within the week that follows. And in looks he will not fade. His appearance wills tay the same as when the best years of his life began, and though he should see the stone for two hundred years, it will never change, save that his hair might perhaps turn gray. Such power does the stone give a man that flesh and bones are at once made young again. The stone is called the Grail.”click here

“Lapsit exillis might be a corruption of lapis ex caelis– ‘stone from the heavens.’ It might also be a corruption of lapsit ex caelis – ‘it fell from heaven’; or of lapis lapsus ex caelus- ‘a stone fallen from heaven; or, finally, of lapis elixir -the fabulous Philosopher’s Stone of alchemy.”

Guardians of the Grail pg 43-44

“Trevor Ravenscroft writes in the Cup of Destiny that Percival rides through the constellations of the zodiac in his quest for the golden cup. His destination is Aries, where lies the castle of the Holy Grail. According to the doctrine of the ancient mystery cult, as he enters the Grail castle, he is entering the mystery world of the human body, the brain. It is there that ‘the stone of light’ resides. The stone is supposedly the pineal gland, located at the base of the brain. It is at the so-called ‘center of man’s consciousness’.”

This ‘magic square of the sun’ is associated with the ‘The Philosophers stone’

The Philosopher’s stone is associated with the hexagram…a symbol that comes up over and over again in connection with the number 666click here.

The Hexagram of Earth represents the Solar energy that makes concrete matter that we can move and touch, in short, The Philosophers Stone.

Dr. John Dee, the court astrologist of Queen Elizabeth I, in his book Hieroglyphic Monad, includes the following quote:

“‘Mahatma Letters,’ page 345: ‘The double triangle viewed by the Jewish Kabbalists as Solomon’s Seal is…the Sri–Antana of the Archaic Aryan Temple, the Mystery of Mysteries, a geometrical synthesis of the whole occult doctrine. The two interlaced triangles are the Buddham-Gums of Creation. They contain the ’squaring of the Circle,’ the ‘Philosophers’ Stone,’ the great problems of Life and Death–the mystery of Evil. The Chela who can explain this sign from every one of its aspects is virtually an Adept.’”John Dee, Hieroglyphic Monad, Dr John Dee, WEISER BOOKS, Boston MA/York Beach, ME, page 76

Albert Pike associates the Great Secret of Freemasonry with the discovery of the Alchemists “Philosopher’s Stone.”

The philosopher’s stone is a legendary substance, allegedly capable of turning inexpensive metals into gold. It was sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For a long time, it was the most sought-after goal in Western alchemy. In the view of spiritual alchemy, making the philosopher’s stone would bring enlightenment upon the maker and conclude the Great Work. It is also known by several other names, such as ‘materia prima.’ Ultimately, it is about bringing heaven down to earth. Or the Sun (father) joining with the earth (mother) according to occult belief.

Tetractys the Cross & the Philosophers stone

Secret Teaching of All Ages pg 182
The TAU cross was inscribed on the forehead of every person admitted into the Mysteries of Mithras. When a king was initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries, the TAU was placed against his lips. It was tattooed upon the bodies of the candidates in some of the American Indian Mysteries. To the Qabbalist, the TAU stood for heaven and the Pythagorean tetractys. The Caduceus of Hermes was an outgrowth of the TAU cross.
1. The Tetractys symbolized the four elements — earth, air, fire, and water.
2. The first four numbers also symbolized the harmony of the spheres and the Cosmos.[citation needed]
3. The four rows added up to ten, which was unity of a higher order (in decimal).
4. The Tetractys represented the organization of space:
1. the first row represented zero-dimensions (a point)
2. the second row represented one-dimension (a line of two points)
3. the third row represented two-dimensions (a plane defined by a triangle of three points)
4. the fourth row represented three-dimensions (a tetrahedron defined by four points)

A prayer of the Pythagoreans shows the importance of the Tetractys (sometimes called the “Mystic Tetrad”), as the prayer was addressed to it.

“Bless us, divine number, thou who generated gods and men! O holy, holy Tetractys, thou that containest the root and source of the eternally flowing creation! For the divine number begins with the profound, pure unity until it comes to the holy four; then it begets the mother of all, the all-comprising, all-bounding, the first-born, the never-swerving, the never-tiring holy ten, the keyholder of all”.

The Pythagorean oath also mentioned the Tetractys:

“By that pure, holy, four lettered name on high,
nature’s eternal fountain and supply,
the parent of all souls that living be,
by him, with faith find oath, I swear to thee.”

Pythagorean tetractys
The correspondence between the Shem ha-meforash and the Tetragrammaton (IHVH) is revealed when we apply another rule of gematria to the four-letter word
There are some who believe that the tetractys and its mysteries influenced the early kabbalists. A Hebrew Tetractys in a similar way has the letters of the Tetragrammaton (the four lettered name of God in Hebrew scripture) inscribed on the ten positions of the tetractys, from right to left. It has been argued that the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, with its ten spheres of emanation, is in some way connected to the tetractys, but its form is not that of a triangle.

Here we see a connection of the Sacred Name, the tetractys, & the cross on the forehead. Again, a counterfeit is seen.

As seen in Ezekiel 9, the ‘tav’ is marked on the head of the righteous

Eze 9:4 And YHWH said to him, Pass through in the midst of the city, in the midst of Jerusalem, and mark a mark on the foreheads of the men who are groaning and are mourning over all the abominations that are done in her midst.

In the Book of Revelation it is seen that the sacred Name is marked in the foreheads of the righteous

Rev 14:1 And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion! And with Him were a hundred and forty four thousands, with the name of His Father having been written on their foreheads.
Rev 22:4 And they will see His face; and His name will be on their foreheads.

His Name is the Word
Rev 19:13 and having been clothed in a garment which had been dipped in blood. And His name is called The Word of God.

Rosicrucian symbolism

Here the Phoenix is seen with Rosicrucian symbology. The Phoenix is a symbol of resurrection as well as the coming antichrist kingdomclick here.

INRI….IESVS·NAZARENVS·REX·IVDÆORVM (Yahshua the Nazarene King of the Jews)…is the Latin parallel to YHWH.

Here the name of YHWH is on the four points of the cross and the name Yahshua is in the 5 points of the pentagram.

Fra. Thomas D. Worrel, VII
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2092/paper3.htm

The cross is a symbol that is about as universal and ancient as any symbol that has emerged out of man’s psyche. The cross symbolizes the meeting at right angles of horizontals and perpendiculars. Forces going in quite opposite directions but meeting at a central point, a common ground. It can symbolize the union of opposites and the dualism in nature. It can be the outstretch archetypal man with the infinite possibilities of growth being immortal. It represents eternal life. The cross can symbolize the decent of Spirit into matter.

It is the intersection of the level of time with the Eternity of the Spirit.
The cross is the axis of the cycle of the year whose spokes are the equinoxes and solstices. It is the crossroads where the four directions meet. In a Christian sense the cross signifies acceptance of sacrifice, suffering, and death as well as immortality. There is a legend that the cross of Christ was made out of wood from the Tree of Knowledge, the cause of the Fall, making it the instrument of Redemption. In the Egyptian mythos the crux ansata or – a type of cross – was a symbol of life, immortality, and health. It is held by the gods and goddesses. It also represented the union of Isis and Osiris.
Numerologically, the cross is sometimes represented by the number four. Within our own teachings: “No.4 is the Mystic number, and indicates the operative influence of the four elements.

Under this number, or the geometrical square, Pythagoras communicated the Ineffable Name of God to his chosen disciples.” In the Hebrew alphabet the last letter is called Tav. And Tav means “mark” or “cross” and its original form was written much like ankh or cross. I could go on with many more examples but I think we can see that the cross transcends human culture in both time and space. It is a symbol that ties us all together as a Brotherhood of Mankind. It is a symbol that goes to the very root of our being.

The rose (Latin, rosa, in Greek, rhodon) also is a symbol that has a rich and ancient history. And like the cross, it can have paradoxical meanings. It is at once a symbol of purity and a symbol of passion, heavenly perfection and earthly passion; virginity and fertility; death and life. The rose is the flower of the goddess Venus but also the blood of Adonis and of Christ. It is a symbol of transmutation – that of taking food from the earth and transmuting it into the beautiful fragrant rose. The rose garden is a symbol of Paradise. It is the place of the mystic marriage. In ancient Rome, roses were grown in the funerary gardens to symbolize resurrection. The thorns have represented suffering and sacrifice as well as the sins of the Fall from Paradise.

The rose has also been used as a sign of silence and secrecy. The word sub rosa “under the rose” referring to the demand for discretion whenever a rose was hung from the ceiling at a meeting. In the Mysteries roses were sacred to Isis. It is also the flower of her son Harpocrates or younger Horus, the god of silence. Numerologically, the rose represents the number 5. This is because the wild rose has 5 petals. And the petals on roses are in multiples of five. Geometrically, the rose corresponds with the pentagram and pentagon.Our teachings state: “No.5 is the emblem of Health and Safety; …it represents Spirit and the four elements.” The Pythagorean brotherhood used the pentagram as the symbol of their school.
The number five being associated with the rose has linked them with the 5 senses. In an absolute sense the rose has represented the expanding awareness of being through the development of the senses.

The Symbolism of the Rose-Cross
The basic rose cross symbol is that of a rose appended to the junction of the two lines of the cross – the center point. But the traditional Rosicrucian symbol is a cross of 6 squares whereon is a red rose of five petals. The cross is of 6 squares for a number of reasons. It relates the cross to the number six which is the number of the Tree of rife Sphere to which it corresponds, that is, the Sphere of Tiphareth (Beauty) also known as the Sphere of the Sun. The cross of six squares is also the unfolded cube of six faces. The perfect cube has been used to represent the Holy of Holies since Old Testament times. We know the tabernacle was 10 cubits in length, breadth, and height. The Sanctum Sanctorum of Solomon’s Temple likewise was cubically shaped using the measure of 20 cubits (666)*.

*Esarim Amah (20 Cubits) = 666

The number 666 is associated with the Tabernacle as can be seen by the Gematria of the following words: This does not mean that the Temple/Tabernacle was evil but that this number is intimately connected with the Tabernacle/human body.

In Revelation (21:17-18) the New Jerusalem is likened to a perfect cube of pure gold. Gold is related to the cube, cross, and Sun sphere for a number of reasons. Gold is the metal associated with the sun. But also Qabalistically, the cube unfolds to a cross of six; this means that the units around the cross (the perimeter) add up to 14. The Hebrew word zahab means gold and the letters of the word add up to 14 (Zain + Heh + Beth or 7 + 5 + 2 = 14). In addition, all these symbols that correspond to six correspond geometrically to the hexagram.

Genesis of the Cosmos Paul A. LaViolette pg 177
“Several key aspects of this physics of cosmogenic process are summarized in the Rose Cross, an emblem consisting of a single circular rose at the center of an equal-armed cross. During a lecture in 1785, Alessandro Cagliostro, a renowned Sicilian scholar of the esoteric, reportedly stated that the ancient magi wore the Rose Cross around their necks on a golden chain.
Its origin was attributed to the god Hermes-Thoth, founder of the Order of the Magi. It was said that four letters were written between the branches of the cross, each letter expressing a mystery of nature. According to Cagliostro, these letters, taken from the 22 character “Alphabet of the Magi are as follows

So as not to reveal this sacred word to the profane, the magi replaced these letters on the Rose Cross with the four zodiac figures that compose the sphinx. The bull (Taurus), lion (Leo), eagle (Scorpio) and water bearer (Aquarius). The meanings ascribed to these four sacred letters of the magi alphabet correspond to the four sacred Hebrew letters yod he vav he. According to Sefer Bereshit, these four letters designated the divinity and were said to contain the key to all the sciences, divine as well as human. Yod signified the masculine unity principle; he, the femine duality principle; vav, the dynamic linking or uniting of these active and passive principles; and the second he signified the transition from one world to the next. The Rose Cross also relate to this creation theme. The cross signifies the implicit order, yod-he-vav. Like the Egyptian ankh and Tibetan dorjes, it symbolizes the crossing and coupling of the two primary ether transmutation streams, that unique juncture in the ether transmutation network that give birth to our physical universe. The rose, which is superimposed on the cross, apparently signifies the higher-level manifestation represented by the second he. Like the blooming cosmic lotus of Egyptian and Hindu mythology, it represents the physical creation. Applies to spiritual evolution, the Rose Cross also signifies the rebirth of the spirit into the afterlife.

In the Garden of Eden there were two choices. The tree of Life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Both trees gave the choice of life. The tree of Life which synonymous with Messiah Yahshua/the Torah/the Word which gives eternal life, or the tree of knowledge which is synonymous with the antichrist/lawlessness/religion which offers a false eternity…’ye shall not die.’ So too, there are two choices today. Lent & Easter which is a part of the counterfeit system of the beast, or Passover and Unleavened bread which are a part of the true holidays of the Most High.

Queen of Heaven & the Dove

Two Babylons pg 81
The dove, the chosen symbol of this deified queen, is commonly represented with an olive
branch in her mouth (Fig. 25), as she herself in her human form also is seen bearing the olive
branch in her hand; and from this form of representing her, it is highly probable that she has
derived the name by which she is commonly known, for “Z’emir-amit” means “The branchbearer.”
*

Assyrian Trinity
In confirmation of this view, it must be stated that the Assyrian “Juno,” or “The Virgin
Venus,” as she was called, was identified with the air. In Chaldee the same word which signifies the
air signifies also the Holy Ghost. The statement of Proclus, that “Juno imports the generation of
soul.”

Thus, then, the deified Semiramis, (the wife of Nimrod) when in all respects regarded as a
veritable woman, was at the same time adored as the incarnation of the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of
peace and love in the form of a dove. In the temple of Hierapolis in Syria, (the city of obelisks) there
was a famous statue of the goddess Juno, to which crowds from all quarters flocked to worship.
The image of the goddess was richly habited, on her head was a golden dove, and she was
called by the name peculiar to the country, Semeion. What is the meaning of Semeion? It is evidently
“The Habitation;” and the “golden dove” on her head shows plainly who it was that was supposed
to dwell in her. Even the Spirit of God!

Two Babylons pg 79
Then Rhea, “the gazer,” the mother of mankind, was identified with Cybele “the binder with cords,” or Juno, “the
Dove,” that is, the Holy Spirit. Then, in the blasphemous Pagan sense, she became Athor, “the Habitation of God,”
or Sacca, or Sacta, “the tabernacle” or “temple,” in whom dwelt “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” Thus she
became Heva, “The Living One”; not in the sense in which Adam gave that name to his wife after the Fall, when the
hope of life out of the midst of death was so unexpectedly presented to her as well as to himself; but in the sense of
the communicator of spiritual and eternal life to men; for Rhea was called the “fountain of the blessed ones.”

Two Babylons pg 81
Now in her, as the Tabernacle or Temple of God, not only all power, but all grace and goodness
were believed to dwell. Every quality of gentleness and mercy was regarded as centred in her;
and when death had closed her career, while she was fabled to have been deified and changed
into a pigeon, * to express the celestial benignity of her nature, she was called by the name of
“D’Iune,” ** or “The Dove,” or without the article, “Juno”–the name of the Roman “queen of
heaven,” which has the very same meaning; and under the form of a dove as well as her own, she
was worshipped by the Babylonians.

As seen above, Alexander Hislop links the dove imagery that is associated with the Queen of Heaven to the Holy Spirit indwelling the believer or the Shechinah of Elohim dwelling in the Temple. More on this below, in the section on the Stairway to heaven.

Also, as seen above, the Holy Spirit is linked with the ‘Philosopher’s stone’. Many scholars have since insisted that the true alchemists sought not to turn base metals into gold, but to transform the dense material of their physical bodies into a spiritually evolved immaterial entity. In this perspective, the philosopher’s stone becomes the Holy Spirit that mystically transmutes humans into true manifestations of God on Earth.

This is a direct counterfeit of the Holy Scriptures.

The Spirit is likened to a dove at the Baptism of Messiah. Baptism is a symbol of rebirth, hence the Spirit/Dove is linked to rebirth and resurrection.
Luk 3:21 And it happened, in the baptizing of all the people, Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened;
Luk 3:22 and the Holy Spirit came down in a bodily form as a dove upon Him. And there was a voice out of Heaven, saying, You are My Son, the Beloved; in You I have been delighting. Psa. 2:7; Gen 22:2; Isa. 42:1

The Creation

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth;
Gen 1:2 and the earth being without form and empty, and darkness on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moving gently on the face of the waters,

The word for ‘moving gently’ in Hebrew is a picture of a bird/dove hovering over its nest. Here, a connection to the egg is seen. This is another reason why Ishtar is associated with eggs.

A replay of this was seen when the virgin Mary conceived and brought forth the Messiah…the Light of the world. The Spirit hovered over her ‘waters/womb’, the Seed (the Word) was implanted and she brought forth the Tree of Life.

Luk 1:35 And answering, the angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for this reason that Holy One being born of you will be called Son of God.
 

Psa 139:13 For You have possessed my inward parts; You wove me in the womb of my mother.
Psa 139:14 I will thank You, for with awesome ways I am distinguished; Your works are marvelous, and my soul knows it very well.
Psa 139:15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret; when I was woven in the depths of the earth.
Here we seen that the womb is likened to the earth. In Hebraic thought, the womb is also likened to waters.

http://www.memministries.org/myst_letter.html

Water
In ancient Hebrew thought, the letter Mem symbolizes water. In fact, its name is derived from the Hebrew word for water, mayim. The connection of Mem to water is very significant given the other concepts with which the letter is interconnected.

The Number 40
Each Hebrew letter has a numerical value. The value of Mem is 40. This is significant in several ways:

1. The number 40 appears numerous times in both the Old and New Testaments connected to the concepts cleansing or refining. Two such examples are the flood of Noah and the temptation of Jesus. Furthermore, many of these accounts that mention 40 are closely associated with water. Noah’s flood was a massive cleansing by water, and Jesus’ temptation took place immediately after he was baptized in the Jordan river.

2. The Mikvah, or Hebrew ritual immersion must contain at least 40 sa’ahs of water (about 200 gallons) to be a mikvah. Thus the number 40 and the concept of water again connect the idea of cleansing intimately to the letter Mem.

A Womb and a Tomb
Mem is already associated with water and cleansing, but the depth of symbolism goes even further. In both Jewish and Christian understanding, immersion/baptism is a place of death and rebirth. Our old self dies, and our we are born again, clean and renewed. As if this simple symbolism were not enough, the letter Mem literally illustrates this concept.

There are two forms of the letter Mem, one used at the beginning or middle of words (open), and one only used to end a word (closed).

This concept of the letter Mem being a picture of the womb, reveals an important mystery of the Messiah being born from a virgin (closed womb/mem).

Isa 7:14 So, The Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold! The virgin will conceive and will bring forth a son; and she shall call His name Immanuel.
Isa 9:6 For a Child is born; to us a Son is given; and the government is on His shoulder; and His name is called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isa 9:7 There is no end to the increase of His government and of peace on the throne of David, and on His kingdom, to order it, and to sustain it with justice and with righteousness, from now and forever. The zeal of YHWH of Hosts will do this.

In the Hebrew text an amazing mystery is revealed showing that the Prince of peace will come from the closed womb. The closed mem should only occur at the end of a word, but in the text it occurs in the middle. This is the only time in Scripture that this happens.

In Genesis 8, Noah sends forth a dove to when the waters had subsided enough for the earth to be seen. This too, is a symbol of rebirth. All throughout Scripture, the number 3 is associated with resurrection as can be seen in the Book of Jonah and the resurrection of Messiah for examples. On the third day, the earth came forth out of the waters and brought forth life.

Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be collected to one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so.
Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land, Earth. And He called the collection of the waters, Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:11 And God said, Let the earth sprout tender sprouts, the plant seeding seed, the fruit tree producing fruit according to its kind, whichever seed is in it on the earth. And it was so.
Gen 1:12 And the earth bore tender sprouts, the plant seeding seed according to its kind, and the fruit tree producing fruit according to its kind, whichever seed is in it. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:13 And there was evening, and there was morning the third day.

The Spirit is linked with rebirth

1Pe 3:18 Because even Christ once suffered concerning sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God; indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of the One having raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One having raised the Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies live through the indwelling of His Spirit in you.

Born Again from Aboveclick here by the Spirit/Word
 

Joh 3:3 “Yes, indeed,” Yeshua answered him, “I tell you that unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
 

Tit 3:5 He saved us, not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His compassion, through the washing of rebirth, and renewal by the Set-apart Spirit,
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
1Jo 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Jam 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Jas 1:21 On account of this, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of evil, in meekness receive the implanted Word being able to save your souls.

Jonah’s name, who was ‘resurrected’ after 3 days and nights in the belly of the fish, means a dove. Again the link between the Spirit and rebirth.

H3124
יונה
yônâh
BDB Definition:
Jonah = “dove”

 

Lilith

Isa 34:14 The desert creatures (Targum – monsters) shall also meet with the howlers; and the shaggy goat (satyr) shall cry to his fellow. The screech owl (Heb. lillith Vulgate- lamla (witch)) shall also settle there, and find a place of rest for herself.
H3917 לילית li^yli^yth
BDB Definition:
1) “Lilith”, name of a female goddess known as a night demon who haunts the desolate places of Edom
1a) might be a nocturnal animal that inhabits desolate places
Līlīth (Syr. and Zab. lelitho), lit., the creature of the night, was a female demon (shēda^h) of the popular mythology; according to the legends, it was a malicious fairy that was especially hurtful to children, like some of the fairies of our own fairy tales.

Owl association

The Myth of the Goddess
“The Sumerian word for owl is ninna and the name Nin-ninna given to the goddess in her owl form meant ‘Divine Lady Owl’. The ancient texts also give the Akkadian word kilili for Nin-ninna, and this name was one shared by Innana and Ishtar. (Perhaps kilili is the original derivation of Lilith, who, much later, in biblical times, is called ‘night-owl or screech-owl’.”

Rafael Patai (The Hebrew Goddess 3rd ed. 1990) relates that in the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh and the Huluppu Tree, a she-demon named Lilith built her house in the Huluppu tree on the banks of the Euphrates before being routed by Gilgamesh. Patai then describes the Burney plaque:

“A Babylonian terra-cotta relief, roughly contemporary with the above poem, shows in what form Lilith was believed to appear to human eyes. She is slender, well shaped, beautiful and nude, with wings and owl-feet. She stands erect on two reclining lions which are turned away from each other and are flanked by owls. On her head she wears a cap embellished by several pairs of horns. In her hands she holds a ring and rod combination. Evidently this is no longer a lowly she-demon, but a goddess who tames wild beasts and, as shown by the owls on the reliefs, rules by night.”

Wolkstein and Kramer (Innana: Queen of Heaven and Earth 1983) present a psychological comparison of Lilith and Innana in a discussion of Ereshkigal, goddess of the Underworld:

“Ereshkigal, the neglected side of Innana, has certain qualities that are similar to Lilith’s. Both are connected to the nightime aspects of the feminine- the powerful, raging sexuality and the deep wounds accumulated from life’s rejections- which seek solace in physical union only. Lilith usually flees from rejections; Ereshkigal withdraws ‘underground.’ In ‘The Huluppu-Tree,’ when Lilith could not have her own way, she resentfully and destructively smashed her own home. The powerful Lilith of Innana’s adolescent days had to be sent away so Innana’s life-exploring talents could be developed. But now that Innana has become queen of her city, wife to her beloved, mother to her children, she is more able to face what she has neglected: the instinctual, wounded, frightened parts of herself…”

Talmud
Although references to Lilith in the Talmud are sparse, these passages provide the most comprehensive insight into the demoness yet seen in Judaic literature, which some speculate to echo Lilith’s purported Mesopotamian origins and prefigure her future as the perceived exegetical enigma of the Genesis account. Recalling the Lilith we have seen, Talmudic allusions to Lilith illustrate her essential wings and long hair dating back to her earliest extant mention in Gilgamesh:
“Rab Judah citing Samuel ruled: If an abortion had the likeness of Lilith its mother is unclean by reason of the birth, for it is a child but it has wings.” (Niddah 24b)
“[Expounding upon the curses of womanhood] In a Baraitha it was taught: She grows long hair like Lilith, sits when making water like a beast, and serves as a bolster for her husband.” (‘Erubin 100b)
Unique to the Talmud with regard to Lilith is her insalubrious carnality, alluded to in The Seductress but expanded upon here sans unspecific metaphors as the demoness assuming the form of a woman in order to sexually take men by force while they sleep:
“R. Hanina said: One may not sleep in a house alone [in a lonely house], and whoever sleeps in a house alone is seized by Lilith.” (Shabbath 151b)

Comparing ‘Erubin 18b and Shabbath 151b with the later passage from the Zohar: “She wanders about at night, vexing the sons of men and causing them to defile themselves (19b),” it appears clear that this Talmudic passage indicates such an adverse union between Adam and Lilith.

Male & Female Androgyny

And the Serpent, the Woman of Harlotry, incited and seduced Eve through the husks of Light which in itself is holiness. And the Serpent seduced Holy Eve, and enough said for him who understands. And all this ruination came about because Adam the first man coupled with Eve while she was in her menstrual impurity – this is the filth and the impure seed of the Serpent who mounted Eve before Adam mounted her. Behold, here it is before you: because of the sins of Adam the first man all the things mentioned came into being. For Evil Lilith, when she saw the greatness of his corruption, became strong in her husks, and came to Adam against his will, and became hot from him and bore him many demons and spirits and Lilin. (Patai81:455f)

Lilith pictures with Adam and Eve

http://jewishchristianlit.com//Topics/Lilith/aNePics.html

Another similar monster was the Greek Lamia, who likewise governed a class of child stealing lamia-demons. Lamia bore the title “child killer” and was feared for her malevolence, like Lilith. She has different conflicting origins and is described as having a human upper body from the waist up and a serpentine body from the waist down.
(Some depictions of Lamia picture her as having wings and feet of a bird, rather than being half serpent, similar to the earlier reliefs of Greek Sirens and the Lilitu.)

Lamia had a vicious sexual appetite that matched her cannibalistic appetite for children. She was notorious for being a vampiric spirit and loved sucking men’s blood.

Her gift was the “mark of a Sibyl,” a gift of second sight. Zeus was said to have given her the gift of sight. However, she was “cursed” to never be able to shut her eyes so that she would forever obsess over her dead children. Taking pity on Lamia, Zeus gave her the ability to remove and replace her eyes from their sockets.

Western Mystery Tradition

The western mystery tradition associates Lilith with the Klipoth of kabbalah. Samael Aun Weor in The Pistis Sophia Unveiled writes that homosexuals are the “henchmen of Lilith.” Likewise, women who undergo willful abortion, and those who support this practice are “seen in the sphere of Lilith.” Dion Fortune writes, “The Virgin Mary is reflected in Lilith,” and that Lilith is the source of “lustful dreams.” Indeed, if one meditates on negative (or inverted) Binah, one readily finds Lilith; to worship Lilith is to use the power of the Holy Spirit for negative purposes.

Note that the serpent has a woman’s head and torso. Detail from Temptation, Fall, and Expulsion from Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1411-1416. Brothers Limbourg, Franco-Flemish.
Is Ishtar/Astarte/Ashtoreth/Venus/Satan male or female?

http://bnaiavraham.net/teaching_articles/english_teachings/Satan/was_satan.htm

For most people the word “god” has masculine connotations — whereas “goddess” is attributed to the female idols. However, they are one and the same! The “GOD” that is worshipped throughout the whole world is really the Queen of heaven-Satan/Helel .The Queen of heaven often tales on BOTH male and female characteristics

The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol.3, page 975, says of Ishtar: “Ishtar, the goddess of love and fertility, who was identified with the VENUS STAR and is actually entitled the “Mistress of Heaven” in the Amarna tablets. The difficulty is that the VENUS STAR was regarded in Palestine as a male deity..”

Unger’s Bible Dictionary, on page 412, says,”Ashtoreth, Astarte, a Canaanite goddess. In south Arabic the name is found as “Ashtar” a GOD identified with the planet VENUS.The name is cognate with the Babylonian Ishtar (Easter!), the goddess of sensual love, maternity, and fertility. In the Ras Shamara Tablets are found BOTH the masculine form “Ashtar” and the feminine “Ashtart”…

The History of Religions, by the University of Chicago, 1991,pages 261-278, confirms, “Inanna-Ishtar is a liminal figure; she is ANDROGYNOUS (having the characteristics of both sexes, man, head, woman) marginal, ambiguous. Inanna-Ishtar combines male aggressiveness with the force of superabundance of female sexuality. She is herself the “Harlot of Heaven”. LIONS are especially associated with Ishtar. She is the only goddess to have an epithet of lioness, and with her fierceness and raging power it is indeed a fitting epithet, even more befitting the MALENESS of the goddess. The chief participants and actors in the goddess cult are well known by name. There is an ambiguity about their sexuality-whether they were eunuchs, hermaphrodites, or simply transvestites. Their transvestitism simulated the androgyny of Inanna-Ishtar. It was perhaps the inversion of the male-female binary opposition that thereby neutralized this opposition. By emulating their goddess WHO WAS BOTH MALE AND FEMALE, they shattered the boundary between the sexes.”

Both the words in this Scripture (1Kings 11:33) are translated from the word elohim. The Hebrew-English Lexicon by Brown, Driver, and Briggs 0n page 43 tells us that elohim can mean –”Pl.intensive, a.a god OR goddess.” Satan/Helel then possesses BOTH characteristics-Male and Female as a malak, and may be worshipped as BOTH a “God” and “Goddess”.

1Ki 11:33 Because they have forsaken Me, and bow themselves to Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh the god of Moab, to Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and have not walked in My ways, to do the right in My eyes, and My statutes and My judgments, as his father David did.

Queen of Heaven & the Caduceus

As seen above, the pentagram was associated with health.

In the Egyptian mythos the crux ansata or – a type of cross – was a symbol of life, immortality, and health. It is held by the gods and goddesses. It also represented the union of Isis and Osiris.
Numerologically, the cross is sometimes represented by the number four. Within our own teachings: “No.4 is the Mystic number, and indicates the operative influence of the four elements.

Azoth was considered to be a ‘universal medicine’ or ‘universal solvent’ sought in alchemy, its symbol was the Caduceus (the rod of Hermes) and so the term, which being originally a term for an occult formula sought by alchemists much like the philosopher’s stone, became a poetic word for the element Mercury.

To the Qabbalist, the TAU stood for heaven and the Pythagorean tetractys. The Caduceus of Hermes was an outgrowth of the TAU cross.

The link between the caduceus of Hermes (Mercury) and medicine seems to have arisen by the seventh century A.D., when Hermes had come to be linked with alchemy. Alchemists were referred to as the sons of Hermes, as Hermetists or Hermeticists and as “practitioners of the hermetic arts”.

The caduceus was the magic staff of Hermes (Mercury), the god of commerce, eloquence, invention, travel and theft, and so was a symbol of heralds and commerce, not medicine. The words caduity & caducous imply temporality, perishableness and senility, while the medical profession espouses renewal, vitality and health.

Notice the EMS symbol’s combining of the cross and the hexagram.

Hermes and Saturn
Planet Saturn and the Trickster
Saturnclick here , the grim reaper, rules responsibilities, restrictions, limitations, and the lessons you must learn in life. He does not deny or diminish imagination, inspiration, spirituality, or good fortune, but he does demand that these things be given structure and meaning. The karmic lessons we have come to experience and overcome in this lifetime are expressed by Saturn. Saturn is a great teacher if you allow it to be so. If you resist, then you feel like you have been dealing with the Trickster. It takes spiritual maturity to move beyond the challenges of the Trickster and to embrace Saturn the Teacher.

Money & the Cross

The Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill pg 7
“One of the symbolic forms, which was linked with the idea of healing, was represented as follows:”

Is the caduceus the origin of the dollar symbol?

Secret Symbols of the Dollar Bill – David Ovason pg 3
“The word dollar is derived from the German taler. The name taler was first given to silver coins made in 1519. This metal was mined in Joachimsthal (Joachim’s valley, or thaler), in what was Bohemia.
The obverse of one thaler showed the crucified Christ. On the reverse was the image of a serpent, hanging from a cross.”

Pg 4
Near the serpent’s head are the two letters NU, and on the other side of the cross the number 21. This is a reference to Numbers 21.

IBID pg 5
“It is this origin that has led some historians to claim that the thaler image of the serpent-cross is the origin for the dollar sign.

Connection to Saturn, hexagram

The Goddess ‘America’ who holds the caduceus in her hand is a link showing the link between the Queen of Heaven/Virgo and Mercury/Hermes.

Secret Architecture of our Nation’s Capital pg 160-163

‘Those images which show Virgo clutching a caduceus are surprisingly close to most ancient literature pertaining to Virgo. In astrology, the planet Mercury is the ruler of Virgo….17th century English astrologer John Gadbury, indicates that the Mercury of astrology is the communicator between Man and God…The fleet-winged Mercury is the messenger of the gods, the one who communicates between the realm of matter and the realm of spirit…

Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital pg 167

“Mercury is truly a hermaphrodite. Although associated for thousands of years with the male Hermes, the planet is nonetheless said to take on the sexual coloring of the sign in which it is located. Thus, when Mercury is in the feminine sign Virgo, it demonstrates most completely its feminine attributes.

Serpent Goddess

Children of the Matrix pg 146
“The serpent goddess is known under countless names around the world, including Diana, Artemis, Semiramis, Barit, Britannia, Hecate, Rhea, Persephone (‘First Serpent’) and so on. These same names have also been used to symbolise esoteric concepts like the phases of the Moon and female energy, but at its foundation this goddess worship of the Illuminati would seem to relate to the DNA transmitted through the female and possibly originating in the constellation of Orion….this DNA source symbolised in various cultures as the Dragon Queens, the Orion Queen or Queens, and the ‘Snake Mother.’ Artemis is depicted with eggs all over her chest and she is associated with beesclick here. One of the prime symbols of the Merovingian bloodline, so connected to Artemis/Diana worship, is the bee and the hive.

Children of the Matrix pg 147
Sir Laurence Gardner is a spokesman for the Imperial Royal Dragon Court an Order that represents the interests of the ‘Dragon bloodlines’ seeded by the DNA of the ‘Dragon Queens.’ He says that this symbolism and the themeof the Dragon Queens goes back to the ‘founding mother’ of the Annunaki he calls Tiamat, the Sea-dragon in Mesopotamian accounts. These queens, he suggests, were commonly represented as mermaids and were called Ladies of the Lake. Throughout the lands settled by former Atlantean-Lemurian peoples you find the worship of the serpent goddess and her serpent son, who is often symbolised as a bull.

Zeus is represented by the Eagle/Phoenix. Here the cabbalistic design of the great seal of the United States is seen with intimate connection to the Queen of Heaven.

Notice the link between the pentagram and hexagram above the head of the eagle as seen above, both are linked to the seal of Solomon. E Pluribus Unum refers back to the Bacchic rites of the ‘awakening’ of man where the resurrected Bacchus is seen as the flaming Sun which is seen above the head of the eagle which in reality is the Phoenix.

Phoenix

Notice that the Phoenix is coming out of the egg…

A phoenix is a mythical bird with a colorful plumage and a tail of gold and scarlet (or purple, blue, and green according to some legends). It has a 500 to 1,000 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of twigs that then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again. The new phoenix is destined to live as long as its old self. In some stories, the new phoenix embalms the ashes of its old self in an egg made of myrrh and deposits it in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (sun city in Greek).

Barbara Walker Now Is The Dawning , p. 281

“Egyptians believed that the Phoenix was the representative of a god who “rose to heaven in the form of a morning star, like Lucifer, after his fire-immolation of death and rebirth …”

William Schnoebelen, in his book, Satan’s Door Revisited , p. 4. “The Phoenix, of Bunnu is believed to be a divine bird going back to Egypt … This Phoenix destroys itself in flames and then rises from the ashes. Most occultists believe that the Phoenix is a symbol of Lucifer who was cast down in flames and who … will one day rise triumphant. This [belief] also relates to the raising of Hiram Abiff, the Masonic ‘christ’.”

Venus & the Phoenix

Apart from its brightness, the most distinctive feature of Venus is its cycle as a morning star and evening star. Accordingly, the Egyptians symbolized Venus as the Bennu, a heron-like bird commonly equated with the phoenix. Venus represents Lucifer, the ‘morning star’.

 

Mammon Ra

Mammon Ra was the Babylonian/Egyptian god of wealth and riches…is this why the eagle/phoenix is on the back of the dollar bill?

Notice on the head of the eagle the little ‘tuft’ of feathers on the back of the head…this is not on an eagle but was placed there to allude to the phoenix.

the Czar and the Phoenix…Czar in Russian means Caesar.

America & Rome

The United States of America has been linked to The Vatican since its birth. Before the Revolution, Roman Catholicism was an extremely small minority in America and the colonists sought to keep its presence out of their land due to their memories of why they left Europe in the first place. Numerous books chronicle the Vatican/Jesuit infiltration of America and their strategy to bring about the American Revolution so that a Constitution could be written where freedom of religion, and hence, freedom for Catholicism to grow would be instituted. There is a vast amount of information regarding this topic which will need to be discussed in a future article, Yah willing. For the purposes of this study, it is being noted because Rome dedicated the United States of America to the ‘Queen of Heaven’ Mary. Two books to read which chronicle a great deal of this information is ‘Rulers of Evil’ by Tupper Saussy, and ‘The Grand Design Exposed’ by John Daniel.

The Rulers of Evil pg 1

“Professor Carol. A Brown of the University of Massachusetts fired off a letter to Time’s {see image of Reagan and Pope John Paul above} editors saying,

Last week I taught my students about the separatino of church and state. This week I learned that the Pope is running U.S. foreign policy. No wonder our young people are cynical about American ideals.

What Brown had learned from Carl Berstein I had discovered for myself over several years of private investigation: the papacy really does run United States foreign policy, and always has.”

Washington D.C. was originally called Rome

New Catholic Encyclopedia 1908 on Daniel Carroll

The capitol was built on the land transferred to the Government by Carroll, and there is additional interest to Catholics in the fact that, in 1663, this whole section of country belonged to a man named Pope, who called it Rome.

Secret Architecture of our Nation’s Capital pg 8

“When George Washington first rode over the woody site he had visualized as the future federal capital, the highest hill was owned by Daniel Carroll…In 1663, the owner of this tract of land had been one Francis Pope. It has been suggested that Pope was slyly joking with his own name when he called the hill Rome — and the inlet marking the western boundary of his land the Tiber, after the famous river of the ancient city…but local tradition twisted the story into something altogether more marvelous. From such tradition, we learn that Francis Pope had the power of prophecy: he predicted a more mighty capital than Rome would occupy the hill, and foresaw that:

‘later generations would command a great and flourishing country in the new world. He related that he had had a dram, a vision, in which he had seen a splendid parliament house on the hill… which he purchased and called Rome, in prophetic honor of the great city to be.’”

David Ovason shows in the above book that Washington D.C. was designed to be an earthly representative of the heavens. As above, so below. The primary constellation that is seen in its design is Virgo, the Virgin…the ‘Queen of Heaven’. Daniel Carroll, a Catholic, donated the tract of land that would become the capital. Carroll was a direct descendant of the Calverts, who were the owning family of the original Maryland…Mary’s land. Cecilius Calvert came to America with a Charter from King James I on two ships, the Ark and the Dove {both symbols of the Queen of Heaven}.

Rulers of Evil pg 5
“The American Capitol abounds with clues of its Roman origins. ‘Freedom,’ the Roman goddess whose statue crowns the dome, was created in Rome at the studio of American sculptor Thomas Crawford. We find a whole pantheon of Roman deities in the great fresco covering the dome’s interior rotunda: Persephone, Ceres, Freedom, Vulcan, Mercury, even a deified George Washington. These figures weere the creation of Vatican artist Constantino Brumidi.
The fact that the national Statehouse evolved as a ‘capitol’ bespeaks Roman influence. No building can rightly be called a capitol unless it’s a temple of Jupiter, the great father-god of Rome who ruled heaven with his thunderbolts and nourished the earth with his fertilizing rains. If it was a capitolium, it belonged to Jupiter and his priests.

Jupiter’s mascot was the eagle, which the founding fathers made their mascot as well. A Roman eagle tops the governing idol of the House of Representatives, a forty-six-inch sterling silver and ebony wand called a ‘mace.’ The mace is ‘the symbol of authority in the House.’ When the sergeant-at-arms displays it before and unruly member of Congress, the mace restores order. Its position at the rostrum tells whether the House is in ‘committee’ or in ‘session.’

America’s national motto, ‘Annuit Coeptis,’ came from a prayer to Jupiter. It appears in Book IX of Virgil’s epic propaganda, the Aeneid, a poem commissioned just before the birth of Christ by Caius Maecenas, the multibillionaire power behind Augustus Caesar. The poem’s objective was to fashion Rome into an imperial monarchy for which its citizens would gladly sacrifice their lives.

Fascism may be an ugly word to many, but its stately emblem is apparently offensive to no one. The emblem of fascism, a pair of them, commands the wall above and behind the speaker’s rostrum in the Chamber of the House of Representatives. They’re called fasces, and I can think of no reason for them to be there other than to declare the fascistic nature of American republican democracy.

A fasces is a Roman device. Actually, it originated with the ancient Estruscans, from whom the earliest Romans derived their religious jurisprudence nearly three thousand years ago. It’s an ax head whose handle is a bundle of rods tightly strapped together by a red sinew. It symbolized the ordering of priestly functions into a single infallible sovereign, and autocrat who could require life and limb of his subjects. If the fasces is entwined with laurel, like the pair on the House wall, it signifies Caesarean military power. The Romans called this infallible soveriegn Pontifex Maximus, ‘Supreme Bridgebuilder.’ No Roman was called Pontifex Maximus until the title was given to Julius Caesar in 48 B.C.. Today’s Pontifex Maximus is Pope John Paul II.”

How did the Vatican gain control of America? According to sufficient evidence provided by authors such as Tupper Saussy and John Daniel, the Jesuits and the Black Pope Lorenzo Ricci infiltrated Masonic lodges of America and fomented a Revolution. It was through these Jesuit controlled Masons that the Declaration of Independence was written and the Constitution that allowed freedom of religion to a hitherto weak Roman Catholic presence in America.

Manly P. Hall writes of an ‘august body’ that secretly gave assistance to the Masons during the Revolution.

Prior to Lorenzo Ricci’s ascendancy to the throne of the Black Papacy in 1758, American colonists were ‘blissfully loyal to their mother country.’

Contrary to what is taught to Americans, revolt and rebellion is not biblical. ‘Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God’, is not Biblical.

Benjamin Franklin likened himself to Moses. However, Benjamin Franklin was far from being a type of Moses. Franklin was a satanist who was a member of the ‘Hellfire club’ of London. The club motto was Fais ce que tu voudras (Do what thou wilt), a philosophy of life associated with François Rabelais’ fictional abbey at Thélème and later used by Aleister Crowley. According to Horace Walpole, the members’ “practice was rigorously pagan: Bacchus and Venus were the deities to whom they almost publicly sacrificed; and the nymphs and the hogsheads that were laid in against the festivals of this new church, sufficiently informed the neighborhood of the complexion of those hermits.” Dashwood’s garden at West Wycombe contained numerous statues and shrines to different gods; Daphne and Flora, Priapus and the previously mentioned Venus and DionysusBenjamin Franklin & the Hellfire Club start at 7 minute mark.

Rebellion in Scripture

Pro 17:11 An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Act 23:5 Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.

Exo 22:28 Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.

Jud 1:8 Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

Rom 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Rom 13:2 Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
Rom 13:3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
Rom 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
Rom 13:5 Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake.
Rom 13:6 For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God’s ministers, attending continually upon this very thing.
Rom 13:7 Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
Rom 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Tit 3:1 Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,

Pro 24:21 My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:
 

YHWH is in control of all governments. He uses them to accomplish His will. We are to seek to change ourselves from within to be molded into the Image of Messiah, not to change government.
 

It is through the Revolution that the Vatican has been able to infiltrate America whereas previously Colonists considered allowing any form of Catholicism into the Colonies as tantamount to surrendering their land to a foreign conqueror.

The Declaration of Independence has many parallels to Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine’s anti ‘Divine right’ writings.

Lorenzo Ricci the professor

Rulers of Evil pg 199
‘Manly P Hall Secret Teachings pg 200
“It was a grave moment and not a few of those present feared that their lives would be the forfeit for their audacity. In the midst of the debate a fierce voice range out. The debaters stopped and turned to look upon the stranger. Who was this man who had suddenly appeared in their midst and stransfixed them with his oratory? They had never seen him before, none knew when he had entered, but his tall form and pale face filled them with awe. His voice ringing with a holy zeal, the stranger stirred them to their very souls. His closing words rant through the building: ‘God has given America to be free!’ As the stranger sank into a chair exhausted, a wild enthusiasm burst forth. Name after name was placed upon the parchment: the Declaration of Independence was signed. But where was the man who had precipitated the accomplishment of this immortal task – who had lifted for a moment the veil from the eyes of the assemblage and revealed to them a part at least of the great purpose for which the new nation was conceived. He had disappeared, nor was he ever seen again or his identity established.”

Learning Against Learning

Rulers of Evil pg 157

“There appeared in 1763 a highly controversial book by an obviously pseudonymous person, called ‘Justinius Febronius.’ The psuedonym belong to Bishop Nikolaus von Hontheim, Chancellor of the University of Trier….Trier University had been run by Jesuits for more than a century…The book, of which there is apparently no published English translation out of its original Latin, is entitled On the State of the church and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pontiff.…Crucial to Febronianism’s application is ‘thorough popular education.’”

After the Protestant Reformation, one of the greatest tools that the Jesuits created to destroy the idea of ‘Sola Scriptura’ (Scripture only), is the use of ‘learning against learning’. The Holy Scriptures were the first book that was ever printed by Gutenberg and his printing press. This gave access to the common man to the truths of the Holy Scripture and would destroy the teachings of Rome and end the ‘dark ages.’ At this time, from a decree by Pope Gregory IX, unauthorized Bible study was a heresy. At first, Bibles were burned and heretics killed but the persecution could not stop the tides of change. The next step in regaining control of the masses was by instituting a concept of ‘learning against learning.’

Giulio d’Medici (Pope Clement VII)

Guilio d’Medici became Pope Clement VII in 1523 in the height of the Protestant Reformation. Clement was advised by Niccolo Machiavelli, the inventor of modern political science and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Chancellor of England. Machiavelli and Wolsey both stated that both printing and Protestantism could be turned to Rome’s advantage by employing movable type to produce a literature that would confuse, diminish, and ultimately marginalize the bible. This project was named by Wolsey, as ‘learning against learning.’

An enormous amount of gnostic learning had been brought from the eastern Mediterranean by agent of Clement VII’s great-grandfather, Cosimo d’Medici. So extensive was the Medici library’s philosophical influence that even scholars today consider it the cradle of Western Civilization.

Martin Luther warned of this Vatican based education system.

“Though our children live in the midst of a Christan world, they faint and perish in misery because they lack the Gospel in which we should be training and exercising them all the time. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Schools will become wide-open gates of hell if they do not diligently engrave the Holy Scriptures on young hearts. Every institution where men are not increasingly occupied with the word of God must become corrupt.”

Rulers of Evil pg 160

‘Although Bishop von Hontheim lived in Trier, he was Archbishop of Mainz….Von Hontheim was thus the spiritual counterpart of the ruler of Hesse-Hanover, Frederick II. Frederick II of Hesse was married to the aunt of the King of England, which made him King George III’s uncle. Frederick of Hesse was one of Europe’s richest rulers. Much of his business was handled by his son, Prince William, also a Rosicrucian Freemason. In September 1769, Prince William appointed Meyer Amschel Rothschild of nearby Frankfurt to transact some of his financial affairs in the capacity of Crown Agent. Aware that the Rothschilds are an important Jewish family, I looked them up in Encyclopedia Judaica and discovered that they bear the title ‘Guardians of the Vatican Treasury.’ The Vatican Treasury, of course, holds the imperial wealth of Rome. Imperial wealth grows in proportion to its victories in war – as the Jesuit empowerment Regimini militantis ecclesiae implies, the Church-at-War is more necessary than the Church-at-Peace. According to H. Russell Robinson’s illustrated Armour of Imperial Rome, Caesarean soldiers protected themselves in battle with shields painted red. Hence, the appropriateness of the name Rothschild, German for ‘red shield.’ …I believe this appointment explains why the House of Rothschild is famous for helping nations go to war. It is fascinating that, as Meyer Rothschild’s sons grew into the family business, the firm took on the title Meyer Amschel Rothschild und Sohne, which gives the notariqon MARS. Mars is the god of war, and the red planet.”

Rulers of Evil pg 161

“As things were developing, General Ricci needed an American financial crisis to provoke the colonists into resolving the utter necessity of war….During July of 1772, the British banking system underwent a severe credit reduction. This consequently threw American merchants into an extreme financial distress that did not end until the Revolutionary War itself produced a business boom in 1776. Rothschild, with his access to Hesse-Hanover’s vast wealth, and conceivably that of the Jesuits as well. had power to affect a credit reduction in British banking. And Rothschild’s profiting from the Revolutionary War is well known.

Rothschilds & the Vatican

Top 13 Illuminati Bloodlines, p.154

CO-MASTERS OF THE WORLD–management of the Catholic and Czars’ wealth and the
capture of the Orthodox Church’s wealth.
Early in the 19th century the Pope came to the Rothschilds to borrow money. The Rothschilds were
very friendly with the Pope, causing one journalist to sarcasticly say “Rothschild has kissed the hand
of the Pope…Order has at last been re-established.”39 The Rothschilds in fact over time were entrusted
with the bulk of the Vatican’s wealth. The Jewish Ency., Vol. 2, p.497 states, ,,It is a somewhat
curious sequel to the attempt to set up a Catholic competitor to the Rothschilds that at the present time
(1905) the latter are the guardians of the papal treasure.” Researcher Eustice Mullins writes that the
Rothschilds took over all the financial operations of the worldwide Catholic Church in 1823.(40)
Today the large banking and financial business of the Catholic Church is an extensive system
interlocked with the Rothschilds and the rest of the International Banking system. The great wealth of
the Russian Czars was entrusted to the Rothschilds, $35 million with the Rothschild’s Bank of
England, and $80 million in the Rothschild’s Paris bank. The Rothschilds financed the Russian
Revolution which confiscated vast portions of the Orthodox Church’s wealth.

It appears that the Medici were involved in the Rothschild takeover of the Vatican’s financial operations and, indeed, all of Italy, as well as the creation of a new front for the disentitled Bavarian Illuminati, the Carbonari, of which the Alta Vendita was the highest lodge:

“In 1821 Carl [Kalman Rothschild] was sent to Naples, Italy to oversee loans there that were meant to finance Metternich’s forces who had arrived to quell a rebellion. While in Italy the Rothschild ‘mantle’ came upon Carl and he made a series of ingenious deals with the Italian government that forced Naples to pay for its own occupation. He also helped Luigi de Medici of the Black Nobility to re-gain his position as finance minister of Naples, and later did business with the powerful man. Due to his success it was decided that he would stay in Naples and set up his own bank. He became financier to the court, the ‘financial overlord of Italy.’ Carl ‘…wound the Italian peninsula around his hand.’ He did business with the Vatican, and when Pope Gregory XVI received him by giving him his hand rather than the customary toe to kiss, people realized the extent of his power. The Pope conferred upon him the Order of St. George.

“It appears that in Italy Carl became a leader of Carbonarism. After the Bavarian Illuminati was exposed, Carbonarism (or the Alta Vendita) became the major European occult power. Carl’s leadership in this group is very significant. In 1818 a secret Alta Vendita document, that Carl had participated in preparing, was sent to the headquarters of Masonry. A copy of this document was lost, and the Masons got very upset, and offered rewards for the return of this copy. The title of the document translates ‘Permanent Instructions, or Practical Code of Rules; Guide for the Heads of the Highest Grades of Freemasonry’.” [Top 13 Illuminati Bloodlines, pp.179-180]

Bloodlines of the Illuminati pg 117
It has been said all roads lead to Rome. For this book, it could be said all paths of investigation lead to the Rothschilds.

Jonathan Gray, author of the book Ark of the Covenant on, page 505 wrote the following:

“In 1994, the Vatican had signed an agreement with Israel to gain sovereignty over [holy sites in] Jerusalem. The city would stay in the capital of Israel, but would be administered by the Vatican. The city would have an Israeli mayor and a Palestinian mayor, both under orders from the Pope. Jerusalem would become a second Vatican.”

Jonathan Gray’s Ark of the Covenant pg 20

Some men led by Tom Croster of Winfield, Kansas claimed to have discovered the Ark of the Covenant in a cave under Mt. Pisgah. They took some color photographs, but did not touch the alleged ark. They informed the press, but refused to release the pictures.

“Croster said that God had instructed him to give them only to David Rothschild, the London banker – because Rothschild was a direct descendent of Jesus Christ. And Rothschild had been chosen by God to build the next Jewish Temple, where the Ark would be installed.

Crescent Moon, Lucifer & the Queen of Heaven

Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

The Targum is,

“how art thou fallen from on high, who was shining among the sons of men, as the star Venus among the stars.”
Keil & Delitzsch commentary on Isaiah 14:12
(Note: It is singular, however, that among the Semitic nations the morning star is not personified as a male (Heōsphoros or Phōsphoros), but as a female (Astarte, see at Isa_17:8), and that it is called Nâghâh, Ashtoreth, Zuhara, but never by a name derived from hâlal; whilst the moon is regarded as a male deity (Sin), and in Arabic hilâl signifies the new moon, which might be called ben- shacar (son of the dawn), from the fact that, from the time when it passes out of the invisibility of its first phase, it is seen at sunrise, and is as it were born out of the dawn.)

H7720
שׂהרן
śahărôn
BDB Definition:
1) moon, crescent
1a) as ornament
Part of Speech: noun masculine
A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from the same as H5469

You can find in the book “The Secret Language Of Symbols” written by David Fontana, ISBN 0-818-0462-3 (with index) or ISBN 0-8118-0489-5 (without index). There are many references to the Queen of Heaven in Scripture, that being one of the “trinity” godhead of the christian religions.
You can find on page 121 shown with the icon, “A symbol of ascent from the underworld (the three days of the dark moon). The crescent moon is an attribute of Isis, the Great Mother of the Egyptians, and in Christian iconography, of the Virgin Mary”.
 

Deu 17:2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant,
Deu 17:3 And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded;

Deu 4:15 Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire:
Deu 4:16 Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,
Deu 4:17 The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flieth in the air,
Deu 4:18 The likeness of any thing that creepeth on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth:
Deu 4:19 And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.

Jdg 8:21 Then Zeḇaḥ and Tsalmunna said, “Rise yourself, and fall on us. For as a man is, so is his might.” So Giḏʽon arose and slew Zeḇaḥ and Tsalmunna, and took the crescent ornaments which were on their camels’ necks.

Isa 3:18 In that day יהוה takes away the finery of the anklets, and the headbands, and the crescents,

wikipedia.org
Artemis later became identified with Selene, a Titaness who was a Greek moon goddess, sometimes depicted with a crescent moon above her head. She was also identified with the Roman goddess Diana, with the Etruscan goddess Artume, and with the Greek or Carian goddess Hecate.

“Goddess of the forests and the Moon,
Diana of the Silver Crescent,
I chant my praises to you.
I lift my arms to your heavenly Crescent.
My thanks to you for caring for the woodland creatures,
For protecting the forests and meadow lands.
Protect me and mine, for we are your spiritual children.
Lovely Diana, I sing your praises.
from “Moon Magick” by D. J. Conway
This is the picture of worshiping to Sin was carved on the walls in Ziggurat Temple. See the picture of Crescent moon was carved on the wall.

Isis

“Isis was often represented standing on the crescent moon, with twelve stars surrounding her head. In almost every Roman Catholic church on the continent of Europe may be seen pictures
and statues of Mary, the “Queen of Heaven,” standing on the crescent moon, her head surrounded with twelve stars.”
-From Bethlehem to Calvary – Chapter Two Alice Bailey

“Goddess veneration of the “virgin with child”
has been a central belief for various societies
throughout history, including some aspects of
Christianity. Indeed, many leading occultists
see striking parallels between the Roman Catholic
“Virgin Mary”–the “Queen of Heaven”–and the
goddess Isis. And the comparison is startling.
Presently, Roman Catholicism holds Mary
to be eternally virgin, just as Isis was.
Catholicism also contends that Mary was
without sin, making her into a type of “god.”
In fact, there are some who claim that Mary
is the “fourth person” within the Trinity.
This belief is linked to Catholicism’s
claim that Mary now has a direct say in
mankind’s salvation through her role of
co-redemption and mediation. Hence, the
elevated Mary becomes a “goddess” in the
Catholic faith, just as Isis was a goddess
in the pantheon of Egyptian deities. And just
as Isis was (and still is) called “Mother of
the World” and “Queen of Heaven,” so too
Mary is now exalted with these same titles.”
-Isis: “Queen of Heaven”
by Carl Teichrib

Ishtar

Mother & Child in China

A symbol of the Sun, a star or rosette surrounded by buffalo horns or a crescent is a common variation of this motif. In Sumer, the eight-pointed star in the crescent could stand for Inanna-Ishtar, associated with the planet Venus, and also possibly at the same time her twin brother, Utu the Sun God. Both Inanna and Utu were children of Nanna-Suen, whose symbol again is the crescent Moon.

Golden calf worship
 

Mary – Mother goddess

Shiva

The crescent moon is also a symbol associated with the Hindu’s iconography: with the deity Shiva, who wears it at the top of his matted hair.
 

Allah

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm
 

Evidence gathered from both North and South Arabia demonstrate that Moon-god worship was clearly active even in Muhammad’s day and was still the dominant cult. According to numerous inscriptions, while the name of the Moon-god was Sin, his title was al- ilah, i.e. “the deity,” meaning that he was the chief or high god among the gods. As Coon pointed out, “The god Il or Ilah was originally a phase of the Moon God.” The Moon-god was called al- ilah, i.e. the god, which was shortened to Allah in pre-Islamic times. The pagan Arabs even used Allah in the names they gave to their children. For example, both Muhammad’s father and uncle had Allah as part of their names.

The fact that they were given such names by their pagan parents proves that Allah was the title for the Moon-god even in Muhammad’s day. Prof. Coon goes on to say, “Similarly, under Mohammed’s tutelage, the relatively anonymous Ilah, became Al-Ilah, The God, or Allah, the Supreme Being.”

Al-Kindi, one of the early Christian apologists against Islam, pointed out that Islam and its god Allah did not come from the Bible but from the paganism of the Sabeans. They did not worship the God of the Bible but the Moon-god and his daughters al-Uzza, al-Lat and Manat. Dr. Newman concludes his study of the early Christian-Muslim debates by stating, “Islam proved itself to be…a separate and antagonistic religion which had sprung up from idolatry.” Islamic scholar Caesar Farah concluded “There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that Allah passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews.” The Arabs worshipped the Moon-god as a supreme deity. But this was not biblical monotheism. While the Moon-god was greater than all other gods and goddesses, this was still a polytheistic pantheon of deities. Now that we have the actual idols of the Moon-god, it is no longer possible to avoid the fact that Allah was a pagan god in pre-Islamic times. Is it any wonder then that the symbol of Islam is the crescent moon? That a crescent moon sits on top of their mosques and minarets? That a crescent moon is found on the flags of Islamic nations? That the Muslims fast during the month which begins and ends with the appearance of the crescent moon in the sky?
 

http://amos37.com/2009/11/13/hilal-means-crescent/

The crescent and star, while generally regarded as Islamic symbols today, have long been used in Asia Minor and by the ancient Turks, earlier than the advent of Islam. According to archaeological excavations, Gِktürks used the crescent and star figure on their coins. The 1500-year-old coin includes three crescent moon figures and a star near a person. The crescent is one of the oldest symbols known to humanity. Together with the sun, it appeared on Akkadian seals as early as 2300 BC and from at least the second millennium BC it was the symbol of the Mesopotamian Moon gods Nanna in Sumer and Sin in Babylonia, Sin being the “Lamp of Heaven and Earth”.

For ages the crescent was the emblem of the Chaldean Astarte, the Egyptian Isis, and the Greek Diana, all of them Queens of Heaven, and finally became the emblem of Mary the Virgin. “The Greek Christian Empire of Constantinople held it as their palladium. Upon the conquest by the Turks, the Sultan adopted it.

“Sîn, moon god of Semitic origin, worshiped in ancient Middle Eastern religions. One of the principal deities in the Babylonian and Assyrian pantheons, he was lord of the calendar and of wisdom. The chief centers of his worship were at Harran and at Ur, where he was known as Nanna.” (encyclopedia.com, Sîn). Haran is also known as the city of the moon god. This is the place where Abraham was called out of. We are called out of darkness and into His marvelous light. The bible is our source of light.

He is commonly designated as En-zu, or “lord of wisdom.” During the period (c.2600-2400 BC) that Ur exercised a large measure of supremacy over the Euphrates valley, Sin was naturally regarded as the head of the pantheon. It is to this period that we must trace such designations of Sin as “father of the gods”, “chief of the gods”, “creator of all things”, and the like. The “wisdom” personified by the moon-god is likewise an expression of the science of astrology, in which the observation of the moon’s phases is an important factor.

His wife was Ningal (“Great Lady”), who bore him Utu/Shamash (“Sun”) and Inanna/Ishtar (the planet Venus). The tendency to centralize the powers of the universe leads to the establishment of the doctrine of a triad consisting of Sin/Nanna and his children.

Sin had a beard made of lapis lazuli and rode on a winged bull. The bull was one of his symbols, through his father, Enlil, “Bull of Heaven”, along with the crescent and the tripod (which may be a lamp-stand). On cylinder seals, he is represented as an old man with a flowing beard and the crescent symbol. In the astral-theological system he is represented by the number 30 and the moon. This number probably refers to the average number of days (correctly around 29.53) in a lunar month, as measured between successive new moons.

Egyptians

They are subdivided, like the rest, into seven classes or Hierarchies, In Egypt although the moon received less worship than in Chaldea or India, still Isis stands as the representative of Luna-Lunus, “the celestial Hermaphrodite”. Strange enough while the modern connect the moon only with lunacy and generation, the ancient nations, who knew better, have, individually and collectively, connected their “wisdom gods” with it. Thus in Egypt the lunar gods are Thoth, Hermes and Chons; in India it is Budha, the Son of Soma, the moon; in Chaldea Nebo is the lunar god of Secret Wisdom, etc., etc.

The Greeks used it to represent the goddess Artemis or Diana of the Romans. Typically depicted as Goddess of the hunt with a bow and crescent moon. These are mentioned in the New Testament which we see in Acts 19 where it is recorded… “And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, [Ye] men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the [image] which fell down from Jupiter?”

This image that fell down in Ephesus from Jupiter is reported to be given to Abraham when he was reconstructing the Kaaba. Ishmael reportedly was given the original transparent hyacinth stone, but became black by reason of sinners kissing. Which is performed as idol worship every year during pilgrimage at Mecca. It was according to tradition given to be the corner stone of the rebuilt Kaaba to attest to Gabriels diety.Source:Nature – Google Books It is the one and same idol of the black rock of the Kaaba which is a meteorite. The ancients worshipped these meteoric stones that where super heated and smooth attributing heaven as it’s source. Of note also is the Greek goddess took a meteorite (stone that fell from heaven) to Tyre according to Eusebius to worship it there in a shrine.

Catholic – Islamic connection

Calvin and Luther saw the Antichrist as both the papacy and Islam: The papacy was the Western Antichrist and Islam the Eastern Antichrist. Calvin refered to them as the two “horns” and Luther called them the two “legs” of the Antichrist. (Luther’s Works, Weimer ed., 53, 394f)
“Lyke as Mahomet saith ty his Alcoran is ye soveraine wisdome, so saith the Pope of his owne decrees: For they be the two hornes of Antichrist.”

The Sermons of M. John Calvin upon the Fifth Booke of Moses called Deuteronomie

“the Pope is the spirit of antichrist, and the Turk is the flesh of antichrist. They help each other in their murderous work. The latter slaughters bodily by the sword; and the former spiritually by doctrine.”
—Martin Luther, Tischreden, Weimer ed., 1, No. 330

Albert Rivera – The Prophet

What I’m going to tell you is what I learned in secret briefings in the Vatican when I was a Jesuit priest, under oath and induction.

A Jesuit cardinal named Augustine Bea showed us how desperately the Roman Catholics wanted Jerusalem at the end of the third century. Because of its religious history and its strategic location, the Holy City was considered a priceless treasure. A scheme had to be developed to make Jerusalem a Roman Catholic city.

The great untapped source of manpower that could do this job was the children of Ishmael. The poor Arabs fell victim to one of the most clever plans ever devised by the powers of darkness.

Early Christians went everywhere with the gospel setting up small churches, but they met heavy opposition. Both the Jews and the Roman government persecuted the believers in Christ to stop their spread.

But the Jews rebelled against Rome, and in 70 AD, Roman armies under General Titus smashed Jerusalem and destroyed the great Jewish temple which was the heart of Jewish worship_in fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy in Matthew 24:2. On this holy placed today where the temple once stood, the Dome of the Rock Mosque stands as Islam’s second most holy place.

Sweeping changes were in the wind. Corruption, apathy, greed, cruelty, perversion and rebellion were eating at the Roman Empire, and it was ready to collapse. The persecution against Christians was useless as they continued to lay down their lives for the gospel of Christ.

The only way Satan could stop this thrust was to create a counterfeit “Christian” religion to destroy the work of God. The solution was in Rome. Their religion had come from ancient Babylon and all it needed was a face-lift. This didn’t happen overnight, but began in the writings of the “early church fathers.”

It was through their writings that a new religion would take shape. The statue of Jupiter in Rome was eventually called St. Peter, and the statue of Venus was changed to the Virgin Mary. The site chosen for its headquarters was on one of the seven hills called “Vaticanus,” the place of diving serpent where the Satanic temple of Janus stood.

The great counterfeit religion was Roman Catholicism, called “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth.” Revelation 17:5. She was raised up to block the gospel, slaughter the believers in Christ, establish religions, create wars and make the nations drunk with the wine of her fornication as we will see.

Another problem was the true Christians in North Africa who preached the gospel. Roman Catholicism was growing in power, but would not tolerate opposition. Somehow the Vatican had to create a weapon to eliminate both the Jews and the true Christian believers who refused to accept Roman Catholicism. Looking to North Africa, they saw the multitudes of Arabs as a source of manpower to do their dirty work.

Some Arabs had become Roman Catholic, and could be used in reporting information to leaders in Rome. Others were used in an underground spy network to carry out Rome’s master plan to control the great multitudes of Arabs who rejected Catholicism. When “St Augustine” appeared on the scene, he knew what was going on. His monasteries served as bases to seek out and destroy Bible manuscripts owned by the true Christians.

The Vatican wanted to create a messiah for the Arabs, someone they could raise up as a great leader, a man with charisma whom they could train, and eventually unite all the non-Catholic Arabs behind him, creating a mighty army that would ultimately capture Jerusalem for the pope. In the Vatican briefing, Cardinal Bea told us this story:

A wealthy Arabian lady who was a faithful follower of the pope played a tremendous part in this drama. She was a widow named Khadijah. She gave her wealth to the church and retired to a convent, but was given an assignment. She was to find a brilliant young man who could be used by the Vatican to create a new religion and become the messiah for the children of Ishmael. Khadijah had a cousin named Waraquah,, who was also a very faithful Roman Catholic and the Vatican placed him in a critical role as Muhammad’s advisor. He had tremendous influence on Muhammad.

Teachers were sent to young Muhammad and he had intensive training. Muhammad studied the works of St. Augustine which prepared him for his “great calling.” The Vatican had Catholic Arabs across North Africa spread the story of a great one who was about to rise up among the people and be the chosen one of their God. While Muhammad was being prepared, he was told that his enemies were the Jews and that the only true Christians were Roman Catholic. He was taught that others calling themselves Christians were actually wicked impostors and should be destroyed. Many Muslims believe this.

Muhammad began receiving “divine revelations” and his wife’s Catholic cousin Waraquah helped interpret them. From this came the Koran. In the fifth year of Muhammad’s mission, persecution came against his followers because they refused to worship the idols in the Kaaba.

Muhammad instructed some of them to flee to Abysinnia where Negus, the Roman Catholic king accepted them because Muhammad’s views on the virgin Mary were so close to Roman Catholic doctrine. These Muslims received protection from Catholic kings because of Muhammad’s revelations.

Muhammad later conquered Mecca and the Kaaba was cleared of idols. History proves that before Islam came into existence, the Sabeans in Arabia worshiped the moon-god who was married to the sun-god. They gave birth to three goddesses who were worshipped throughout the Arab world as “Daughters of Allah” An idol excavated at Hazor in Palestine in 1950′s shows Allah sitting on a throne with the crescent moon on his chest.

Muhammad claimed he had a vision from Allah and was told, “You are the messenger of Allah.” This began his career as a prophet and he received many messages. By the time Muhammad died, the religion of Islam was exploding. The nomadic Arab tribes were joining forces in the name of Allah and his prophet, Muhammad.

Some of Muhammad’s writings were placed in the Koran, others were never published. They are now in the hands of high ranking holy men (Ayatollahs) in the Islamic faith. When Cardinal Bea shared with us in the Vatican, he said, These writings are guarded because they contain information that links the Vatican to the creation of Islam.

The next plan was to control Islam. In 1910, Portugal was going Socialistic. Red flags were appearing and the Catholic Church was facing a major problem. Increasing numbers were against the church. The Jesuits wanted Russia involved, and the location of this vision at Fatima could play a key part in pulling Islam to the Mother Church. In 1917, the Virgin appeared in Fatima. “The Mother of God” was a smashing success, playing to overflow crowds. As a result, the Socialists of Portugal suffered a major defeat.

Roman Catholics world-wide began praying for the conversion of Russia and the Jesuits invented the Novenas to Fatima which they could perform throughout North Africa, spreading good public relations to the Muslim world. The Arabs thought they were honoring the daughter of Muhammad, which is what the Jesuits wanted them to believe.

As a result of the vision of Fatima, Pope Pius XII ordered his Nazi army to crush Russia and the Orthodox religion and make Russia Roman Catholic.” A few years after he lost World war II, Pope Pius XII startled the world with his phoney dancing sun vision to keep Fatima in the news. It was great religious show biz and the world swallowed it. Not surprisingly, Pope Pius was the only one to see this vision.

As a result, a group of followers has grown into a Blue Army world-wide, totaling millions of faithful Roman Catholics ready to die for the blessed virgin. But we haven’t seen anything yet. The Jesuits have their Virgin Mary scheduled to appear four or five times in China, Russia, and major appearance in the U.S.

What has this got to do with Islam? Note Bishop Sheen’s statement:

“Our Lady’s appearances at Fatima marked the turning point in the history of the world’s 350 million Muslims. After the death of his daughter, Muhammad wrote that she “is the most holy of all women in Paradise, next to Mary.” He believed that the Virgin Mary chose to be known as Our Lady of Fatima as a sign and a pledge that the Muslims who believe in Christ’s virgin birth, will come to believe in His divinity.

Walter Veith – Catholic Islam connectionclick here

Queen of Heaven & the Mystic Egg

*The ‘ark’ that landed in Egypt that the Dogons describe may trace back to the ‘mystic egg’ of Astarte.

In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. According to their traditions, the star Sirius has a companion star which is invisible to the human eye. This companion star has a 50 year elliptical orbit around the visible Sirius and is extremely heavy. It also rotates on its axis. How did a people who lacked any kind of astronomical devices know so much about an invisible star? The star, which scientists call Sirius B, wasn’t even photographed until it was done by a large telescope in 1970.

The Dogon stories explain that also. According to their oral traditions, a race people from the Sirius system called the Nommos visited Earth thousands of years ago. The Nommos were ugly, amphibious beings that resembled mermen and mermaids. They also appear in Babylonian, Accadian, and Sumerian myths. The Egyptian Goddess Isis, who is sometimes depicted as a mermaid, is also linked with the star Sirius.

The Nommos, according to the Dogon legend, lived on a planet that orbits another star in the Sirius system. They landed on Earth in an “ark” that made a spinning decent to the ground with great noise and wind. It was the Nommos that gave the Dogon the knowledge about Sirius B.

According to Credo Mutwaclick here, the Zulu people call the star Sirius the ‘Star of the Wolf’ and their ancient accounts say that a ’sea-dwelling fish people’ from Sirius came to earth.

Syrian goddess Atargatis, the “Lady Goddess of the Sea,” is often depicted as a mermaid. She is associated with Canaanite goddesses Anat, Asherah, and Astarte. Here she is seen with her symbol, the serpent.

The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom pg 25 states that the symbol of the Sirians (from Sirius) in Atlantis was a triangle, sometimes with an eye in the middle. This all seeing-eye symbol traced through Egypt as the eye of Horus/Osiris/Ra/Isis which is what is seen on the back of the dollar bill.

The all-seeing eye, on a deeper level, connects to the pineal gland…

John Gill commentary on Amos 5:26

*This is important to note in that it connects to the ‘Holy Grail’.

Holy Blood Holy Grail pg 297
Quoting from Perlesvaus pg. 359
“Well I know that many brave knights dwell with the Grail at Munsalvaesche. Always when they ride out, as they often do, it is to seek adventure. They do so for their sins, these templars, whether their reward be defeat or victory. A valiant hose lives there, and I will tell you how they are sustained. They live from a stone of purest kind. If you know not know it, it shall here be named to you. It is called lapsit exillis. By the power of that stone the phoenix burns to ashes, but the ashes give him life again. Thus does the phoenix molt and change its plumage, which afterward is bright and shining and as lovely as before. There never was a human so ill but that, if he on day sees that stone, he cannot die within the week that follows. And in looks he will not fade. His appearance wills tay the same as when the best years of his life began, and though he should see the stone for two hundred years, it will never change, save that his hair might perhaps turn gray. Such power does the stone give a man that flesh and bones are at once made young again. The stone is called the Grail.”click here

“Lapsit exillis might be a corruption of lapis ex caelis– ‘stone from the heavens.’ It might also be a corruption of lapsit ex caelis – ‘it fell from heaven’; or of lapis lapsus ex caelus- ‘a stone fallen from heaven; or, finally, of lapis elixir -the fabulous Philosopher’s Stone of alchemy.”

The ‘Christmas Tree’ is also another representation of the ‘opening of the third eye’/pineal gland. The Christmas tree is an asherahclick here .

Interestingly, it is believed by some people such as Robert Bauval and Robert Temple that the Giza pyramids are a mirror image, the Earthly representation of the Belt of Orion.

According to Wiegel, Orion was represented by the Two-Headed Eagle (Phoenix). Interestingly, Washington D.C. was also set up to be a represenation of ‘heaven on earth’, with the constellation of Virgo as the preeminent figure. The L’Enfant triangle/Federal triangle lines up with the triangle that goes around the constellation of Virgo. David Ovason’s book ‘The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital’ goes into great detail proving this. They symbols used, the dates chosen to lay foundation stones of important buildings and even the date for the declaration of Independence (July 2-4 ‘Annunciation of the Virgin’) all point to Virgo/the Virgin.

The Punishment of the Fallen Angels – the Legends of the Jews- Louis Ginzberg

When the angels came to earth, and beheld the daughters of men in all their grace and beauty, they could not restrain their passion.

Shemhazai saw a maiden named Istehar, and he lost his heart to her.

She promised to surrender herself to him, if first he taught her the Ineffable Name, by means of which he raised himself to heaven.
<> He assented to her condition.
But once she knew it, she pronounced the Name, and herself ascended to heaven, without fulfilling her promise to the angel.

God said, “Because she kept herself aloof from sin, we will place her among the seven stars, that men may never forget her,” and she was put in the constellation of the Pleiades. The Pleiades is an open star cluster which is visible to the naked eye in the constellation Taurus (the bull).From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country:

“An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian Goddess”–that is, Astarte.

Easter Eggs & Pagan customs

1908 Catholic Encyclopedia

Because the use of eggs was forbidden during Lent, they were brought to the table on Easter Day, coloured red to symbolize the Easter joy. This custom is found not only in the Latin but also in the Oriental Churches. The symbolic meaning of a new creation of mankind by Jesus risen from the dead was probably an invention of later times. The custom may have its origin in paganism, for a great many pagan customs, celebrating the return of spring, gravitated to Easter. The egg is the emblem of the germinating life of early spring. Easter eggs, the children are told, come from Rome with the bells which on Thursday go to Rome and return Saturday morning. The sponsors in some countries give Easter eggs to their god-children. Coloured eggs are used by children at Easter in a sort of game which consists in testing the strength of the shells (Kraus, Real-Encyklop die, s. v. Ei). Both coloured and uncoloured eggs are used in some parts of the United States for this game, known as “egg-picking”. Another practice is the “egg-rolling” by children on Easter Monday on the lawn of the White House in Washington.3.

The Easter Rabbit

The Easter Rabbit lays the eggs, for which reason they are hidden in a nest or in the garden. The rabbit is a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility (Simrock, Mythologie, 551)

In the northern parts of England the men parade the streets on Easter Sunday and claim the privilege of lifting every woman three times from the ground, receiving in payment a kiss or a silver sixpence. The same is done by the women to the men on the next day. In the Neumark (Germany) on Easter Day the men servants whip the maid servants with switches; on Monday the maids whip the men. They secure their release with Easter eggs. These customs are probably of pre-Christian origin (Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringsfeld, Das festliche Jahr, 118).6. The Easter FireThe Easter Fire is lit on the top of mountains (Easter mountain, Osterberg) and must be kindled from new fire, drawn from wood by friction (nodfyr); this is a custom of pagan origin in vogue all over Europe, signifying the victory of spring over winter. The bishops issued severe edicts against the sacrilegious Easter fires (Conc. Germanicum, a. 742, c.v.; Council of Lestines, a. 743, n. 15), but did not succeed in abolishing them everywhere. The Church adopted the observance into the Easter ceremonies, referring it to the fiery column in the desert and to the Resurrection of Christ; the new fire on Holy Saturday is drawn from flint, symbolizing the Resurrection of the Light of the World from the tomb closed by a stone (Missale Rom.). In some places a figure was thrown into the Easter fire, symbolizing winter, but to the Christians on the Rhine, in Tyrol and Bohemia, Judas the traitor (Reinsberg-D&uuml;ringfeld, Das festliche Jahr, 112 sq.

Jeremiah 7…Cakes to the queen of heaven (v. 18). Probably a reference to the Babylonian fertility-goddess Ishtar, goddess of the planet Venus (from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary

Jeremiah 7… What the sin is with which they are here charged-it is idolatry, v. 18. Their idolatrous respects are paid to the queen of heaven, the moon, either in an image or in the original, or both. They worshipped it probably under the name of Ashtaroth, or some other of their goddesses (from Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible

Easter Ham

In addition to rabbits and eggs, another popular Easter custom had pre-Christian origins: “Also popular among Europeans and Americans on Easter is ham, because the pig was considered a symbol of luck in pre-Christian European culture” (The Encyclopedia of Religion, 1987, p. 558, “Easter”).

Two Babylons pg 98
In many countries the boar was sacrificed to the god, for the injury a boar was fabled to have done him. According to one version of the story of the death of Adonis, or Tammuz, it was, as we have seen, in consequence of a wound from the tusk of a boar that he died. The Phrygian Attes, the beloved of Cybele, whose story was identified with that of Adonis, was fabled to have perished in like manner, by the tusk of a boar. Therefore, Diana, who though commonly represented in popular myths only as the huntress Diana, was in reality the great mother of the
gods, has frequently the boar’s head as her accompaniment, in token not of any mere success in the chase, but of her triumph over the grand enemy of the idolatrous system, in which she occupied so conspicuous a place. According to Theocritus, Venus was reconciled to the boar that
killed Adonis, because when brought in chains before her, it pleaded so pathetically that it had not killed her husband of malice prepense, but only through accident. But yet, in memory of the deed that the mystic boar had done, many a boar lost its head or was offered in sacrifice to the
offended goddess. In Smith, Diana is represented with a boar’s head lying beside her, on the top of a heap of stones, * and in the accompanying woodcut (Fig. 28), in which the Roman Emperor Trajan is represented burning incense to the same goddess, the boar’s head forms a very
prominent figure.

Alexander Hislop- Two Babylon’s pg 101

Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was very early introduced into
Britain, along with the Druids, “the priests of the groves.” Some have imagined that the Druidical worship was first introduced by the Phoenicians, who, centuries before the Christian era, traded
to the tin-mines of Cornwall. But the unequivocal traces of that worship are found in regions of the British islands where the Phoenicians never penetrated, and it has everywhere left indelible marks of the strong hold which it must have had on the early British mind. From Bel, the 1st of
May is still called Beltane in the Almanac; and we have customs still lingering at this day among us, which prove how exactly the worship of Bel or Moloch (for both titles belonged to the same god) had been observed even in the northern parts of this island.

Pg 102
If Baal was thus worshipped in Britain, it will not be difficult to
believe that his consort Astarte was also adored by our ancestors, and that from Astarte, whose name in Nineveh was Ishtar, the religious solemnities of April, as now practised, are called by the name of Easter–that month, among our Pagan ancestors, having been called Easter-monath. The festival, of which we read in Church history, under the name of Easter, in the third or fourth centuries, was quite a different festival from that now observed in the Romish Church, and at
that time was not known by any such name as Easter. It was called Pasch, or the Passover, and though not of Apostolic institution, * was very early observed by many professing Christians, in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ.
* Socrates, the ancient ecclesiastical historian, after a lengthened account of the different ways in which Easter was observed in different countries in his time– i.e., the fifth century–sums up in these words: “Thus much already laid down may seem a sufficient treatise to prove that the celebration of the feast of Easter began everywhere more of custom than by any commandment either of Christ or any
Apostle.” (Hist. Ecclesiast.) Every one knows that the name “Easter,” used in our translation of Acts 12:4, refers not to any Christian festival, but to the Jewish Passover. This is one of the few places in our version where the translators show an undue bias.

Pg 104

That festival agreed originally with the time of the Jewish Passover, when Christ was crucified, a period which, in the days of Tertullian, at the end of the second century, was believed to have been the 23rd of March. That festival was not idolatrous, and it was preceded by no Lent. “It
ought to be known,” said Cassianus, the monk of Marseilles, writing in the fifth century, and contrasting the primitive Church with the Church in his day, “that the observance of the forty days had no existence, so long as the perfection of that primitive Church remained inviolate.” Whence, then, came this observance? The forty days’ abstinence of Lent was directly borrowed from the worshippers of the Babylonian goddess. Such a Lent of forty days, “in the spring of the year,” is still observed by the Yezidis or Pagan Devil-worshippers of Koordistan, who have
inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians. Such a Lent of forty days was held in spring by the Pagan Mexicans, for thus we read in Humboldt, where he gives account of Mexican observances: “Three days after the vernal equinox…began a solemn fast of forty days in
honour of the sun.” Such a Lent of forty days was observed in Egypt, as may be seen on consulting Wilkinson’s Egyptians. This Egyptian Lent of forty days, we are informed by Landseer, in his Sabean Researches, was held expressly in commemoration of Adonis or Osiris, the great mediatorial god. At the same time, the rape of Proserpine seems to have been commemorated, and in a similar manner; for Julius Firmicus informs us that, for “forty nights” the “wailing for Proserpine” continued; and from Arnobius we learn that the fast which the Pagans observed, called “Castus” or the “sacred” fast, was, by the Christians in his time, believed to have been primarily in imitation of the long fast of Ceres, when for many days she determinedly refused to eat on account of her “excess of sorrow,” that is, on account of the loss of her daughter Proserpine, when carried away by Pluto, the god of hell. As the stories of
Bacchus, or Adonis and Proserpine, though originally distinct, were made to join on and fit in to one another, so that Bacchus was called Liber, and his wife Ariadne, Libera (which was one of the names of Proserpine), it is highly probable that the forty days’ fast of Lent was made in later times to have reference to both. Among the Pagans this Lent seems to have been an indispensable preliminary to the great annual festival in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, which was celebrated by alternate weeping and rejoicing, and which, in many countries, was considerably later than the Christian festival, being observed in Palestine and Assyria in June, therefore called the “month of Tammuz”; in Egypt, about the middle of May, and in Britain, some time in April. To conciliate the Pagans to nominal Christianity, Rome, pursuing its usual policy, took measures to get the Christian and Pagan festivals amalgamated, and, by a complicated but skilful adjustment of the calendar, it was found no difficult matter, in
general, to get Paganism and Christianity–now far sunk in idolatry–in this as in so many other things, to shake hands.
The words of Socrates, writing on this very subject, about AD 450, are these: “Those who inhabit the princely city of Rome fast together before Easter three weeks, excepting the Saturday and Lord’s-day.” But at last, when the worship of Astarte was rising into the ascendant, steps were
taken to get the whole Chaldean Lent of six weeks, or forty days, made imperative on all within the Roman empire of the West. The way was prepared for this by a Council held at Aurelia in the time of Hormisdas, Bishop of Rome, about the year 519, which decreed that Lent should be
solemnly kept before Easter. It was with the view, no doubt, of carrying out this decree that the calendar was, a few days after, readjusted by Dionysius. This decree could not be carried out all at once. About the end of the sixth century, the first decisive attempt was made to enforce the observance of the new calendar. It was in Britain that the first attempt was made in this way; and here the attempt met with vigorous resistance. The difference, in point of time, betwixt the Christian Pasch, as observed in Britain by the native Christians, and the Pagan Easter enforced by Rome, at the time of its enforcement, was a whole month; * and it was only by violence and bloodshed, at last, that the Festival of the Anglo-Saxon or Chaldean goddess came to supersede that which had been held in honour of Christ.

Pg 105
Such is the history of Easter. The popular observances that still attend the period of its celebration amply confirm the testimony of history as to its Babylonian character. The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites
just as they do now. The “buns,” known too by that identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Easter, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens– that is, 1500 years before the Christian era. “One species of sacred bread,” says Bryant, “which
used to be offered to the gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun.” Diogenes Laertius, speaking of this offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed, saying, “He offered one of the sacred cakes called Boun, which was made of fine
flour and honey.” The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering when he says, “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven.” *
* Jeremiah 7:18. It is from the very word here used by the prophet that the word “bun” seems to be derived. The Hebrew word, with the points, was pronounced Khavan, which in Greek became sometimes Kapan-os (PHOTIUS, Lexicon Syttoge); and, at other times, Khabon (NEANDER, in KITTO’S Biblical Cyclopoedia). The first shows how Khvan, pronounced as one syllable, would pass into the Latin panis, “bread,” and the second how, in like manner, Khvon would become Bon or Bun. It is not to be overlooked that our common English word Loa has passed through a similar process of formation. In Anglo-Saxon it was Hlaf.

The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten, on the festival of Astarte; but this leaves no doubt as to whence they have been derived. The origin of the Pasch eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druids bore an egg, as the sacred emblem of their order. In the Dionysiaca, or mysteries
of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The Hindoo fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden colour. The people of Japan make their sacred egg to have been brazen. In China, at this hour, dyed or painted eggs are used on sacred festivals, even as in this country. In ancient times eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. (Fig. 31). From Egypt these sacred eggs can be distinctly traced to the banks of the
Euphrates. The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians; and thus its tale is told by Hyginus, the Egyptian, the learned keeper of the Palatine library at Rome, in the time of Augustus, who was skilled in all the wisdom of his native country: “An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank, where the doves having settled upon it, and hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was
called the Syrian Goddess”–that is, Astarte. Hence the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter; and accordingly, in Cyprus, one of the chosen seats of the worship of Venus, or Astarte, the egg of wondrous size was represented on a grand scale. (see Fig. 32)

From LANDSEER’s Sabean Researches, p. 80. London, 1823.

The occult meaning of this mystic egg of Astarte, in one of its aspects (for it had a twofold significance), had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race were shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. If any be inclined to ask, how could it ever enter the minds of men to employ such an extraordinary symbol for such a purpose, the answer is, first, The sacred egg of Paganism, as already indicated, is well known as the “mundane egg,” that is, the egg in which the world was shut up. Now the world has two distinct meanings–it means either the material earth, or the inhabitants of the earth. The latter meaning of the term is seen in Genesis 11:1, “The whole earth was of one language and of one speech,” where the meaning is that the whole people of the world were so. If then the world is seen shut up in an egg, and floating on the waters, it may not be difficult to believe, however the idea of the egg may have come, that the egg thus floating on the wide universal sea might be Noah’s family that contained the whole world in its bosom. Then the application of the word egg to the ark comes thus: The Hebrew name for an egg is Baitz, or in the feminine (for there are both genders), Baitza. This, in Chaldee and Phoenician, becomes Baith or Baitha, which in these languages is also the usual way in which the name of a house is pronounced. *
* The common word “Beth,” “house,” in the Bible without the points, is “Baith,” as may be seen in the name of Bethel, as given in Genesis 35:1, of the Greek Septuagint, where it is “Baith-el.”

The egg floating on the waters that contained the world, was the house floating on the waters of the deluge, with the elements of the new world in its bosom. The coming of the egg from heaven evidently refers to the preparation of the ark by express appointment of God; and the same thing seems clearly implied in the Egyptian story of the mundane egg which was said to have come out of the mouth of the great god. The doves resting on the egg need no explanation. This, then, was
the meaning of the mystic egg in one aspect. As, however, everything that was good or beneficial to mankind was represented in the Chaldean mysteries, as in some way connected with the Babylonian goddess, so the greatest blessing to the human race, which the ark contained in its
bosom, was held to be Astarte, who was the great civiliser and benefactor of the world. Though the deified queen, whom Astarte represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the
flood, yet through the doctrine of metempsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it was easy for her worshippers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived in the Antediluvian world, and passed in safety through the waters of the flood. Now the Romish Church adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. A form of prayer was even appointed to be used in connection with it, Pope Paul V teaching his superstitious votaries thus to pray at Easter: “Bless, O Lord, we beseech thee, this
thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c” (Scottish Guardian, April, 1844). Besides the mystic egg, there was also another emblem of Easter, the goddess queen of Babylon, and that was the Rimmon or “pomegranate.” With the Rimmon or “pomegranate” in her hand, she is frequently represented in ancient medals, and the house of Rimmon, in which the King of Damascus, the Master of Naaman, the Syrian, worshipped, was in all likelihood a temple of Astarte, where that
goddess with the Rimmon was publicly adored. The pomegranate is a fruit that is full of seeds; and on that account it has been supposed that it was employed as an emblem of that vessel in which the germs of the new creation were preserved, wherewith the world was to be sown anew
with man and with beast, when the desolation of the deluge had passed away. But upon more searching inquiry, it turns out that the Rimmon or “pomegranate” had reference to an entirely different thing. Astarte, or Cybele, was called also Idaia Mater, and the sacred mount in Phrygia,
most famed for the celebration of her mysteries, was named Mount Ida–that is, in Chaldee, the sacred language of these mysteries, the Mount of Knowledge. “Idaia Mater,” then, signifies “the Mother of Knowledge”–in other words, our Mother Eve, who first coveted the “knowledge of good and evil,” and actually purchased it at so dire a price to herself and to all her children. Astarte, as can be abundantly shown, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God, but also of the mother of mankind.10 When, therefore, the mother of the gods, and the mother of knowledge, was represented with the fruit of the pomegranate in her extended hand (see Fig. 33), inviting those who ascended the sacred mount to initiation in her mysteries, can
there be a doubt what that fruit was intended to signify? Evidently, it must accord with her assumed character; it must be the fruit of the “Tree of Knowledge”–the fruit of that very “Tree, whose mortal taste.
Brought death into the world, and all our woe.”

The knowledge to which the votaries of the Idaean goddess were admitted, was precisely of the same kind as that which Eve derived from the eating of the forbidden fruit, the practical knowledge of all that was morally evil and base. Yet to Astarte, in this character, men were
taught to look at their grand benefactress, as gaining for them knowledge, and blessings connected with that knowledge, which otherwise they might in vain have sought from Him, who
is the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good and perfect gift. Popery inspires the same feeling in regard to the Romish queen of heaven, and leads its devotees to view the sin of Eve in much the same light as that in which Paganism regarded it. In the Canon of the Mass, the
most solemn service in the Romish Missal, the following expression occurs, where the sin of our first parent is apostrophised: “Oh blessed fault, which didst procure such a Redeemer!” The idea contained in these words is purely Paga n. They just amount to this: “Thanks be to Eve, to whose sin we are indebted for the glorious Saviour.” It is true the idea contained in them is found in the same words in the writings of Augustine; but it is an idea utterly opposed to the spirit of the
Gospel, which only makes sin the more exceeding sinful, from the consideration that it needed such a ransom to deliver from its awful curse. Augustine had imbibed many Pagan sentiments, and never got entirely delivered from them.

As Rome cherishes the same feelings as Paganism did, so it has adopted also the very same symbols, so far as it has the opportunity. In this country, and most of the countries of Europe, no pomegranates grow; and yet, even here, the superstition of the Rimmon must, as far as possible, be kept up. Instead of the pomegranate, therefore, the orange is employed; and so the Papists of Scotland join oranges with their eggs at Easter; and so also, when Bishop Gillis of Edinburgh went through the vain-glorious ceremony of washing the feet of twelve ragged Irishmen a few years ago at Easter, he concluded by presenting each of them with two eggs and an orange.
Now, this use of the orange as the representative of the fruit of Eden’s “dread probationary tree,” be it observed, is no modern invent ion; it goes back to the distant times of classic antiquity. The gardens of the Hesperides in the West, are admitted by all who have studied the subject, just to have been the counterpart of the paradise of Eden in the East. The description of the sacred gardens, as situated in the Isles of the Atlantic, over against the coast of Africa, shows that their
legendary site exactly agrees with the Cape Verd or Canary Isles, or some of that group; and, of
course, that the “golden fruit” on the sacred tree, so jealously guarded, was none other than the
orange. Now, let the reader mark well: According to the classic Pagan story, there was no serpent
in that garden of delight in the “islands of the blest,” to TEMPT mankind to violate their duty to
their great benefactor, by eating of the sacred tree which he had reserved as the test of their
allegiance. No; on the contrary, it was the Serpent, the symbol of the Devil, the Principle of evil,
the Enemy of man, that prohibited them from eating the precious fruit–that strictly watched it–
that would not allow it to be touched. Hercules, one form of the Pagan Messiah–not the
primitive, but the Grecian Hercules–pitying man’s unhappy state, slew or subdued the serpent,
the envious being that grudged mankind the use of that which was so necessary to make them at
once perfectly happy and wise, and bestowed upon them what otherwise would have been
hopelessly beyond their reach. Here, then, God and the devil are exactly made to change places.
Jehovah, who prohibited man from eating of the tree of knowledge, is symbolised by the serpent,
and held up as an ungenerous and malignant being, while he who emancipated man from
Jehovah’s yoke, and gave him of the fruit of the forbidden tree–in other words, Satan under the
name of Hercules–is celebrated as the good and gracious Deliverer of the human race. What a
mystery of iniquity is here! Now all this is wrapped up in the sacred orange of Easter.

10 The Meaning of the Name Astarte
That Semiramis, under the name of Astarte, was worshipped not only as an incarnation of the Spirit of God, but as
the mother of mankind, we have very clear and satisfactory evidence. There is no doubt that “the Syrian goddess” was Astarte (LAYARD’S Nineveh and its Remains). Now, the Assyrian goddess, or Astarte, is identified with
Semiramis by Athenagoras (Legatio), and by Lucian (De Dea Syria). These testimonies in regard to Astarte, or the Syrian goddess, being, in one aspect, Semiramis, are quite decisive. 1. The name Astarte, as applied to her, has reference to her as being Rhea or Cybele, the tower-bearing goddess, the first as Ovid says (Opera), that ” made
(towers) in cities”; for we find from Layard that in the Syrian temple of Hierapolis, “she [Dea Syria or Astarte] was
represented standing on a lion crowned with towers.” Now, no name could more exactly picture forth the character
of Semiramis, as queen of Babylon, than the name of “Ash-tart,” for that just means “The woman that made towers.”
It is admitted on all hands that the last syllable “tart” comes from the Hebrew verb “Tr.” It has been always taken for
granted, however, that “Tr” signifies only “to go round.” But we have evidence that, in nouns derived from it, it also
signifies “to be round,” “to surround,” or “encompass.” In the masculine, we find “Tor” used for “a border or row of
jewels round the head” (see PARKHURST and also GESENIUS). And in the feminine, as given in Hesychius
(Lexicon), we find the meaning much more decisively brought out. Turis is just the Greek form of Turit, the final t,
according to the genius of the Greek language, being converted into s. Ash-turit, then, which is obviously the same
as the Hebrew “Ashtoreth,” is just “The woman that made the encompassing wall.” Considering how commonly the
glory of that achievement, as regards Babylon, was given to Semiramis, not only by Ovid, but by Justin, Dionysius,
Afer, and others, both the name and mural crown on the head of that goddess were surely very appropriate. In
confirmation of this interpretation of the meaning of the name Astarte, I may adduce an epithet applied to the Greek
Diana, who at Ephesus bore a turreted crown on her head, and was identified with Semiramis, which is not a little
striking. It is contained in the following extract from Livy: “When the news of the battle [near Pydna] reached
Amphipolis, the matrons ran together to the temple of Diana, whom they style Tauropolos, to implore her aid.”
Tauropolos, from Tor, “a tower,” or “surrounding fortification,” and Pol, “to make,” plainly means the “towermaker,”
or “maker of surrounding fortifications”; and P53 to her as the goddess of fortifications, they would
naturally apply when they dreaded an attack upon their city. Semiramis, being deified as Astarte, came to be raised to the highest honours; and her change into a dove, as has
been already shown, was evidently intended, when the distinction of sex had been blasphemously attributed to the
Godhead, to identify her, under the name of the Mother of the gods, with that Divine Spirit, without whose agency
no one can be born a child of God, and whose emblem, in the symbolical language of Scripture, was the Dove, as
that of the Messiah was the Lamb. Since the Spirit of God is the source of all wisdom, natural as well as spiritual,
arts and inventions and skill of every kind being attributed to Him (Exo 31:3; 35:31), so the Mother of the gods, in
whom that Spirit was feigned to be incarnate, was celebrated as the originator of some of the useful arts and sciences
(DIODORUS SICULUS). Hence, also, the character attributed to the Grecian Minerva, whose name Athena, as we
have seen reason to conclude, is only a synonym for Beltis, the well known name of the Assyrian goddess. Athena,
the Minerva of Athens, is universally known as the “goddess of wisdom,” the inventress of arts and sciences. 2. The
name Astarte signifies also the “Maker of investigations”; and in this respect was applicable to Cybele or Semiramis,
as symbolised by the Dove. That this is one of the meanings of the name Astarte may be seen from comparing it
with the cognate names Asterie and Astraea (in Greek Astraia), which are formed by taking the last member o f the
compound word in the masculine, instead of the feminine, Teri, or Tri (the latter being pronounced Trai or Trae),
being the same in sense as Tart. Now, Asterie was the wife of Perseus, the Assyrian (HERODOTUS), and who was
the founder of Mysteries (BRYANT). As Asterie was further represented as the daughter of Bel, this implies a
position similar to that of Semiramis. Astraea, again, was the goddess of justice, who is identified with the heavenly
virgin Themis, the name Themis signifying “the perfect one,” who gave oracles (OVID, Metam.), and who, having
lived on earth before the Flood, forsook it just before that catastrophe came on. Themis and Astraea are sometimes
distinguished and sometimes identified; but both have the same character as goddesses of justice. The explanation of
the discrepancy obviously is, that the Spirit has sometimes been viewed as incarnate and sometimes not. When
incarnate, Astraea is daughter of Themis. What name could more exactly agree with the character of a goddess of
justice, than Ash-trai-a, “The maker of investigations,” and what name could more appropriately shadow forth one
of the characters of that Divine Spirit, who “searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God”? As Astraea, or
Themis, was “Fatidica Themis,” “Themis the prophetic,” this also was another characteristic of the Spirit; for
whence can any true oracle, or prophetic inspiration, come, but from the inspiring Spirit of God? Then, lastly, what
can more exactly agree with the Divine statement in Genesis in regard to the Spirit of God, than the statement of
Ovid, that Astraea was the last of the celestials who remained on earth, and that her forsaking it was the signal for
the downpouring of the destroying deluge? The announcement of the coming Flood is in Scripture ushered in with
these words (Gen 6:3): “And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet
his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” All these 120 years, the Spirit was striving; when they came to an end, the Spirit strove no longer, forsook the earth, and left the world to its fate. But though the Spirit of God forsook
the earth, it did not forsake the family of righteous Noah. It entered with the patriarch into the ark; and when that
patriarch came forth from his long imprisonment, it came forth along with him. Thus the Pagans had an historical
foundation for their myth of the dove resting on the symbol of the ark in the Babylonian waters, and the Syrian
goddess, or Astarte–the same as Astraea–coming forth from it. Semiramis, then, as Astarte, worshipped as the dove,
was regarded as the incarnation of the Spirit of God. 3. As Baal, Lord of Heaven, had his visible emblem, the sun, so
she, as Beltis, Queen of Heaven, must have hers also–the moon, which in another sense was Asht-tart-e, “The maker
of revolutions”; for there is no doubt that Tart very commonly signifies “going round.” But, 4th, the whole system
must be dovetailed together. As the mother of the gods was equally the mother of mankind, Semiramis, or Astarte,
must also be identified with Eve; and the name Rhea, which, according to the Paschal Chronicle was given to her,
sufficiently proves her identification with Eve. As applied to the common mother of the human race, the name
Astarte is singularly appropriate; for, as she was Idaia mater, “The mother of knowledge,” the question is, “How did
she come by that knowledge?” To this the answer can only be: “by the fatal investigations she made.” It was a
tremendous experiment she made, when, in opposition to the Divine command, and in spite of the threatened
penalty, she ventured to “search” into that forbidden knowledge which her Maker in his goodness had kept from her.
Thus she took the lead in that unhappy course of which the Scripture speaks–”God made man upright, but they have
SOUGHT out many inventions” (Eccl7:29). Now Semiramis, deified as the Dove, was Astarte in the most gracious
and benignant form. Lucius Ampelius calls her “the goddess benignant and merciful to me” (bringing them) “to a
good and happy life.” In reference to this benignity of her character, both the titles, Aphrodite and Mylitta, are
evidently attributed to her. The first I have elsewhere explained as “The wrath-subduer,” and the second is in exact
accordance with it. Mylitta, or, as it is in Greek, Mulitta, signifies “The Mediatrix.” The Hebrew Melitz, which in
Chaldee becomes Melitt, is evidently used in Job 33:23, in the sense of a Mediator; “the messenger, the interpreter”
(Melitz), who is “gracious” to a man, and saith, “Deliver from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom,” being
really “The Messenger, the MEDIATOR.” Parkhurst takes the word in this sense, and derives it from “Mltz,” “to be
sweet.” Now, the feminine of Melitz is Melitza, from which comes Melissa, a “bee” (the sweetener, or producer of
sweetness), and Melissa, a common name of the priestesses of Cybele, and as we may infer of Cybele, as Astarte, or
Queen of Heaven, herself; for, after Porphyry, has stated that “the ancients called the priestesses of Demeter,
Melissae,” he adds, that they also “called the Moon Melissa.” We have evidence, further, that goes far to identify
this title as a title of Semiramis. Melissa or Melitta (APPOLODORUS)–for the name is given in both ways–is said
to have been the mother of Phoroneus, the first that reigned, in whose days the dispersion of mankind occurred,
divisions having come in among them, whereas before, all had been in harmony and spoke one language (Hyginus).
There is no other to whom this can be applied but Nimrod; and as Nimrod came to be worshipped as Nin, the son of
his own wife, the identification is exact. Melitta, then, the mother of Phoroneus, is the same as Mylitta, the well
known name of the Babylonian Venus; and the name, as being the feminine of Melitz, the Mediator, consequently
signifies the Mediatrix. Another name also given to the mother of Phoroneus, “the first that reigned,” is Archia
(LEMPRIERE; SMITH). Now Archia signifies “Spiritual” (from “Rkh,” Heb. “Spirit,” which in Egyptian also is
“Rkh” [BUNSEN]; and in Chaldee, with the prosthetic a prefixed becomes Arkh). * From the same root also
evidently comes the epithet Architis, as applied to the Venus that wept for Adonis. Venus Architis is the spiritual
Venus. **
* The Hebrew Dem, blood, in Chaldee becomes Adem; and, in like manner, Rkh becomes Arkh.
** From OUVAROFF we learn that the mother of the third Bacchus was Aura, and Phaethon is said by Orpheus to have
been the son of the “wide extended air” (LACTANTIUS). The connection in the sacred language between the wind, the air,
and the spirit, sufficiently accounts for these statements, and shows their real meaning.
Thus, then, the mother-wife of the first king that reigned was known as Archia and Melitta, in other words, as the
woman in whom the “Spirit of God” was incarnate; and thus appeared as the “Dea Benigna,” “The Mediatrix” for
sinful mortals. The first form of Astarte, as Eve, brought sin into the world; the second form before the Flood, was
avenging as the goddess of justice. This form was “Benignant and Merciful.” Thus, also, Semiramis, or Astarte, as
Venus the goddess of love and beauty, became “The HOPE of the whole world,” and men gladly had recourse to the
“mediation” of one so tolerant of sin.

Asherah- Tree of knowledge

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Ashtoreth
The moon goddess of the Phoenicians, representing the passive principle in nature, their principal female deity; frequently associated with the name of Baal, the sun-god, their chief male deity (Jdg_10:6; 1Sa_7:4; 1Sa_12:10). These names often occur in the plural (Ashtaroth, Baalim), probably as indicating either different statues or different modifications of the deities. This deity is spoken of as Ashtoreth of the Zidonians. She was the Ishtar of the Accadians and the Astarte of the Greeks (Jer_44:17; 1Ki_11:5, 1Ki_11:33; 2Ki_23:13). There was a temple of this goddess among the Philistines in the time of Saul (1Sa_31:10). Under the name of Ishtar, she was one of the great deities of the Assyrians. The Phoenicians called her Astarte. Solomon introduced the worship of this idol (1Ki_11:33). Jezebel’s 400 priests were probably employed in its service (1Ki_18:19). It was called the “queen of heaven” (Jer_44:25).

John Gill

the star of your god {hexagram/Talisman of Saturn/seal of Solomon/star of David}, which ye made to yourselves; or the star “your god” (q); meaning the same with Chiun or Saturn; perhaps the same with the star that fell from the air or sky*, mentioned by Sanchoniatho (r); which Astarte, the wife of Chronus or Saturn, is said to take and consecrate in Tyre; this they made for themselves, and worshipped as a deity.

Astarte was the wife of Saturn. Otherwise known as the wife of Nimrod. Please notice in the image above that the hexagram was her symbol as well. More on this at the bottom of this study.

ISBE (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)

In Assyrian asirtu, which appears also under the forms asrātu, esrēti (plural) and asru, had the further signification of “sanctuary.” Originally Asirtu, the wife of Asir, and asirtu, “sanctuary,” seem to have had no connection with one another, but the identity in the pronunciation of the two words caused them to be identified in signification, and as the tree-trunk or cone of stone which symbolized Asherah was regarded as a Beth-el or “house of the deity*,” wherein the goddess was immanent, the word Asirtu, Asherah, came to denote the symbol of the goddess. The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life*. It was as a trunk, however, that it was forbidden to be erected by the side of “the altar of Yahweh” (Deu_16:21; see Jdg_6:25, Jdg_6:28, Jdg_6:30; 2Ki_23:6). Accordingly the symbol made for Asherah by his mother was “cut down” by Asa (1Ki_15:13). So, too, we hear of Asherim or symbols of the goddess being set up on the high places under the shade of a green tree (Jer_17:2; see 2Ki_17:10). Manasseh introduced one into the temple at Jerusalem (2Ki_21:3, 2Ki_21:7).
*This connection between the Christmas tree the House of God (Bethel) and the tree of Life is important to note. The Christmas tree is a counterfeit tree of life which is really the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life represents the Messiah who is pictured by the menorah. The tree of knowledge represents the adversary who is pictured by the Christmas tree/Asherah pole.

Exo 23:24 You shall not bow down to their gods, and you shall not serve them. And you shall not do according to their works. But tearing you shall tear them down, and smashing you shall smash their pillars.

H4676 מצּבה matstsêbâh
BDB Definition:
1) pillar, mastaba, stump
1a) pillar
1a1) as monument, personal memorial
1a2) with an altar
1b) (Hophal) stock, stump (of tree)*

*This is the word used in Genesis referring to the stone that Jacob anointed and proclaimed as Bethel.

Gen 28:18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar{H4678 matstsebeth}, and poured oil upon the top of it.
Gen 28:19 And he called the name of that place Bethel {H1008 house of God}:: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Gen 35:14 And Jacob set up a pillar(H4678 matstsebeth) in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon {This is a strong reference to the Messiah, which means anointed one.}.
Gen 35:15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel{H1008 בּית־אלbeytḣ’el house of God}

Messiah is the image of Elohim
2Co 4:4 in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the brightness of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.

The congregation of believers are to be the “image” of Messiah
Rom 8:29 because whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be the First-born among many brothers.
2Co 3:18 But we all with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord Spirit.

Here we see that the pillar that Jacob anointed is to be the house of Elohim. His house are His people (Hebrews 3:6). His body. Pictured by the menorah, the tree of Life. The counterfeit is a pillar/Asherah which is called Bethel. The antichrist’s house are his people. His body. Pictured by the Asherah, the tree of knowledge.

Our “star,” Greek ” aster,” Latin stella, is akin*. Her worship was most licentious and abominable; closely connected with that of (See ASHERAH, “THE GROVE”. Ashtoreh is the goddess, asherah “the grove,” the image or the symbol of the goddess, of wood;* asher, yashar, “to be straight,” a straight stem of a tree living, or fixed upright (1Ki_18:19; 2Ki_21:7; 2Ki_23:6; 2Ki_23:13-14; 2Ki_23:15; Jdg_6:25; Jdg_6:30). The “bringing out the asherah from the house of the Lord,” and the “cutting down,” suit such a symbol, not a grace in our sense. The active and passive powers of nature, generative and receptive, suggested the male and female deities, Baal and Ashtoreh. {This is seen further in the principle ‘as above, so below’ which will be discussed in connection to the mark of the beast in a future study, Yah willing}

Again, another connection to the star (hexagram/pentagram) and the Asherah.

Exo 34:11 Take heed for yourself what I am commanding you today. Behold, I am about to drive out from before your face the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Exo 34:12 Take heed to yourself, that you not cut a covenant with the people of the land to which you are going in, that it not be a snare in your midst.
Exo 34:13 But you shall cut down their altars, break their pillars, and you shall cut off their Asherahs.
Exo 34:14 For you shall not bow to another god, for YHWH whose name is Jealous, He is a jealous God;*

1Co 10:20 But the things the nations sacrifice, “they sacrifice to demons, and not to God.” Deut. 32:17 But I do not want you to become sharers of demons;
1Co 10:21 you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and a cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and a table of demons. {Mixed worship..ie Easter}
1Co 10:22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He? Deut. 32:21

Deu 7:5 But you shall deal with them in this way: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces the cult-stones; and you shall cut down their Asherahs; and you will burn their carved images with fire.
Deu 7:6 For you are a holy people to YHWH your God. YHWH your God has chosen you to be His own treasure out of all the people on the face of the earth.

John Gill commentary on Deu. 7:5

Deu 7:5 But thus shall ye deal with them,…. The inhabitants of the land of Canaan:

ye shall destroy their altars; on which they sacrificed to their idols:

and break down their images; of their gods, and the statues and pillars erected to the honour of them:

and cut down their groves; sacred to idols, which were usually planted on hills, and about Heathen temples, and under which idols were placed to be worshipped. The Targum of Jonathan calls them trees of their adoration, under which they worshipped; though there was a worship paid to them, not indeed directly to them, or for their sakes, but for the sake of the idols they were sacred to, or were placed under them; soMaimonides (e) says, a tree which at first was planted to be worshipped is forbidden of any use (or profit); and this is the אשרה, or “grove”, spoken of in the law, a tree planted and lopped, of which a graven image is made for an idol; and so the tree that has been worshipped, though the body of it is, not forbidden, all the shoots and leaves, and the branches, and the fruits it produces all the time it is worshipped, are forbidden to be used: though the word here used sometimes seems to signify, not a grove of trees, but some image itself, since we read of it in the temple, 2Ki_21:7,

and burn their graven images with fire; distinguished from their molten images, which may be meant in a preceding clause, and which are particularly mentioned as to be destroyed as well as these, Num_33:52.

(e) Hilchot Obede Cochabim, c. 8. sect. 3, 4. Vid. Misn. Avodah Zarah, c. 3. sect. 7.

Deu 12:3 And you shall break down their altars, and shatter their standing pillars. And you shall burn their Asherahs with fire. And you shall cut down the carved images of their gods, and shall destroy their names out of that place.
Deu 12:4 You shall not do so to YHWH your God.

Kundalini connection

Kundalini is the belief that there is a serpent encoiled at the base of the spine which can be meditation and ’spiritual’ acts, causing it to climb the spine where it reaches your pineal gland and opens your ‘3rd eye.’ Interestingly, the word for spine and tree are the same.

The serpent rises up the spine to the pineal gland which was represented in ancient cultures as the pine cone….the fruit of the pine tree.

The pine cone is associated with the Sumerian Annunaki who are said to have ‘created’ men from clay jars. This is referring to manipulation of DNA which will need to be discussed in greater detail in another study but needless to say it is associated with the Kundalini spirit, the ‘awakening’ of the serpent and the result of man being ‘enlightened’ or evolving into a higher spiritual being.

Stairway to heaven

A Masonic tracing board, with three columns (Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian) representing the three sacred trees of the ancient Arya. Notice the design of the pilasters on top of each column. The column on the left has no floral motif or scroll. This column denotes the initiated beginner whose mind is rude and spiritually unawakened. The central column’s pilaster bears a scroll, signifying the first stages of the awakening process. The column on the right bears floral motifs, denoting the “flowering” or “blossoming” of the mind. It is also taller than the other two columns. The ladder is a simulacra for the Kabalistic Tree of Life and the journey toward enlightenment.

Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital pg 101
‘Prior to its adoption by Masonry, the ladder was a standard symbol of that form of alchemy which was concerned with rising, by way of self perfection, to God.’
 

Initiated artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli, and Nicholas Poussin incorporated Kabalistic and Hermetic leitmotifs in their canvases. In Poussin’s painting entitled Grapes from the Promised Land, we see the ladder and tree.

Gerald Massey in his book Ancient Egypt: Light of the World, speaks of the ‘mother of life’ being represented as a tree in Egyptian mythology.

The ladder, the tree of knowledge, kundalini/the serpent coiling up the tree, bethel are all related.

the tree-trunk or cone of stone which symbolized Asherah was regarded as a Beth-el or “house of the deity*,” wherein the goddess was immanent, the word Asirtu, Asherah, came to denote the symbol of the goddess. The trunk of the tree was often provided with branches, and assumed the form of the tree of life*. It was as a trunk, however, that it was forbidden to be erected by the side of “the altar of Yahweh” (Deu_16:21; see Jdg_6:25, Jdg_6:28, Jdg_6:30; 2Ki_23:6). Accordingly the symbol made for Asherah by his mother was “cut down” by Asa (1Ki_15:13). So, too, we hear of Asherim or symbols of the goddess being set up on the high places under the shade of a green tree (Jer_17:2; see 2Ki_17:10). Manasseh introduced one into the temple at Jerusalem (2Ki_21:3, 2Ki_21:7).

Tree – Egg connection

The Scandinavian world-tree, Yggdrasil, supports on its branches nine spheres or worlds – which the Egyptians symbolized by the nine stamens of the persea or avocado. All of these are enclosed within the mysterious tenth sphere or cosmic egg – the definitionless Cipher of the Mysteries. The Qabbalistic tree of the Jews also consists of nine branches, or worlds, emanating from the First Cause or Crown, which surrounds its emanations as the shell surrounds the egg – Manly Palmer Hall

http://www.willparfitt.com/tes.html
The Psychosynthesis egg, like the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, on which it was modelled, is an excellent synthetic container for understanding and working with the psyche from an experiential perspective.

http://www.willparfitt.com/assag.html

Sheldon Kramer , the American author and psychologist, researching Assagioli’s library in Florence, found papers written by Assagioli on Judaism and Jewish mysticism. Most striking are writings which mention a psychospiritual description of the psyche that exactly matches that in the Kabbalah: ‘…the traditional Jewish teaching of the human psychological condition consisting of three elements: nefesh, ruach, and neshamah … my main endeavor has been to give scientific proof of the existence and activity of the spiritual soul (neshamah) with the psyche (ruach) as an inspiring and unifying factor.’

So what is the relevance of these terms nefesh, ruach and neshamah? They describe quite complex ideas that have whole Kabbalistic books written about them. Put simply, nefesh corresponds to the lower unconscious (including the basic activity of subpersonalities); ruach corresponds to the middle unconscious (including the personal ‘I’); and neshamah to the higher unconscious (including all the Soul Qualities familiar to psychosynthesis practitioners, and the ‘Self’). These three parts (or perhaps more correctly, activities) of the human being have been compared to a candle flame. The blue/black part of the flame, at the bottom nearest the candle, constantly changing, ‘invisible’ to regular sight, is the nefesh or animal soul. It corresponds to the id and ego, being reactive, and based on inner and outer desires. The middle, more usually visible portion of a candle flame, the yellowish glow in the centre, is equivalent to the ruach. It burns with a steady light, and conveys a sense of continuity and certainty. The light at the top of the candle, the white flickering edge of the flame, corresponds to neshamah, the higher Self.

These three aspects, nefesh, ruach and neshamah, correspond exactly to the three divisions Assagioli assigned to his diagram of the human psyche, the well-known ‘egg diagram’. It is interesting to note that the shape of the egg is suggestive of a candle flame in itself. By being egg shaped, it also brings the psychosynthesis model into alignment with Western esoteric teachings that describe the energy bodies of a human being as being egg shaped. The Kabbalistic diagram known as the Tree of Life, which is also divided into these same three divisions, is often drawn as enclosed in a vesica or egg shaped container.

There are three columns or pillars on the Kabalistic Tree of Life. The left-hand pillar is “Severity,” the right-hand pillar is “Mercy,” and the central pillar is that known as “Equilibrium.” There are three sephiroth on each pillar. The presence of the number three denotes the Druids and Arya. These three pillars or paths of ascent correspond with the Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna pathways in the Vedic (Aryan) system of yoga

Alexander Hislop

Then the application of the word egg
to the ark comes thus: The Hebrew name for an egg is Baitz, or in the feminine (for there are
both genders), Baitza. This, in Chaldee and Phoenician, becomes Baith or Baitha, which in these
languages is also the usual way in which the name of a house is pronounced. *
* The common word “Beth,” “house,” in the Bible without the points, is “Baith,”
as may be seen in the name of Bethel, as given in Genesis 35:1, of the Greek
Septuagint, where it is “Baith-el.”
The egg floating on the waters that contained the world, was the house floating on the waters of
the deluge, with the elements of the new world in its bosom. The coming of the egg from heaven
evidently refers to the preparation of the ark by express appointment of God; and the same thing
seems clearly implied in the Egyptian story of the mundane egg which was said to have come out
of the mouth of the great god.

Ark of the Covenant – DNA – Jacob’s Pillar

On a deeper level, there are connections between the ark of the covenant and Jacob’s pillar & DNAclick here .

The ladder

Gen 28:11 And he came on a place and stayed the night there, for the sun had gone. And he took stones of the place and placed them at his head; and he lay down in that place.
Gen 28:12 And he dreamed. And, behold, a ladder was placed on the earth, its top reaching to the heavens. And, behold, the angels of God were going up and going down on it!
Gen 28:17 And he was afraid, and said, How fearful is this place! This is nothing except the house of God, and this is the door to Heaven.
Gen 28:18 And Jacob started up early in the morning and took the stone which he had placed at his head, and he placed it as a pillar; and he poured oil on the top of it.
Gen 28:19 And he called the name of that place, The House of God {Bethel}. And yet the name of the city was at first Luz.

The ladder = Messiah

Joh 1:51 And He says to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, From now on you will see Heaven opened, and “the angels of God ascending and descending” on the Son of Man.

Messiah Yahshua = the Word

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

DNA – Ladder
 

 

DNA & Languageclick here

Nucleotide Character (Letter)
Codon Letter
Gene Word
Operon Sentence
Regulon Paragraph
DNA Book

Simplified it could be said
Nucleotide bases Letters
Codons Words
Genes Sentences
Book DNA

DNA is a message from Elohim. The DNA molecule is just the carrier. Similar to the Torah. The Torah is YHWH…the scrolls and books on which it is written is the carrier.
As George Williams puts it: “The gene is a package of information, not an object. The pattern of base pairs in a DNA molecule specifies the gene. But the DNA molecule is the medium, it’s not the message”

The DNA molecule is the instruction manual for the forming of amino acids which are made are the structural elements of proteins that turn into the biochemical units that drive all biological processes. There are only 22 amino acids found in proteins. Certain proteins are called enzymes. They are catalysts (agents that are necessary for a reaction to occur but are not themselves changed in the process); others are called structural proteins which help to build cells and tissues.

If DNA can be thought of as the language of life, then the four bases can be seen as letters and the codons as arrangements of letters, or words. But like English, DNA’s language is more than words. Some codons function as punctuation marks, containing instructions to stop or start manufacturing a protein. This chemically simple yet stunningly complex DNA molecule dictates not only what proteins the organism will be made of, but how these proteins are to be arranged.

We have seen that one codon contains the instructions for one amino acid, and that sequences of codons specify the production of proteins. Groups of codons that have been arranged in “grammatically” correct sentences to form specific proteins are called “genes”.

DNA contains all the information needed to perpetuate life. This information builds in complexity from nucleotides to codons to genes, ultimately giving the complete text to form the body.

His body = the Temple

Joh 2:19 Jesus said to them, Destroy this sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up.
Joh 2:20 Then the Jews said, This sanctuary was forty six years being built, and do You raise it up in three days?
Joh 2:21 But He spoke about the sanctuary of His body.

The Temple/Tabernacle = the Body

Exo 25:8 And let them make a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell in their midst.
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

The Holy of Holies contained the ark of the covenant which had the Word within. Our cells contain our DNA which is a physical picture of that Word.

The Olive tree = His Body = the Pillar/Bethel

Romans 11:16 the Root of the Olive Tree = Messiah

Rom 11:16 Now if the firstfruit is holy, so also the lump. And if the root is holy, so also the branches.

Isa 6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance{H4678matstsebeth a monumental stone; also the stock of a tree: – pillar, substance.} is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed(Gal 3:16) shall be the substance(H4678 ROOT) thereof.

ROOT=MATSTSEBETH = PILLAR
Gen 28:10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
Gen 28:11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
Gen 28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Gen 28:16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
Gen 28:17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
Gen 28:18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar{H4678 matstsebeth}, and poured oil upon the top of it.
Gen 28:19 And he called the name of that place Bethel {H1008 house of God}:: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Gen 28:20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
Gen 28:21 So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
Gen 28:22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth {Isaiah 6:13} unto thee.

Gen 35:14 And Jacob set up a pillar(H4678 matstsebeth) in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
Gen 35:15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel{H1008 בּית־אלbeytḣ’el house of God}

Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
1Ti 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Eph 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

This is interesting to note. Jacob’s pillar is connected with the ladder to Heaven. Messiah applies this to Himself. The ladder also points to DNA within our bodies which is the ‘word’ that creates our bodies. Messiah is the Word made flesh who is the olive tree/tree of life which we can be grafted into through faith. He is the body, we are members of that body through faith. He is the Temple, we are the stones of the building by faith. Satan seeks to be like the Most High {Isaiah 14} and is the great counterfeiter. Hence, he wants a false Olive tree/tree of knowledge of good and evil. He wants a false temple. A ‘false’ body. A corrupted body. A false Israel. A corruption of DNA/the word.

Fertility Rites & Drugs

In ancient Egypt, the heliacal rising of Sirius was central to the yearly calendar. Sirius and Orion are personified respectively by the deities Sopdet and Sah, who are in turn manifestations of Isis and Osiris. Sopdet and Sah beget Sopdu, who is the manifestation of Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, and the patron deity of Egyptian royalty. Sopdet is sometimes portrayed as a large dog, or as riding side-saddle on a dog (during the Roman period).

When the Sun and Moon conjoined at the start of the Egyptian New Year a festival known as the “sacred marriage” was celebrated. This may relate to the Pyramid Texts which state that Pharaoh unites with Isis in a form of hieros gamos bringing forth Horus-Sopdu. In another passage, the royal-divine union is said to beget the Morning Star, and thus may connect Venus with Horus.

Among the Sumerians, the sacred marriage took place between the priest-king and Inanna, the latter probably represented by the Lukur priestess, who was in turn linked with the daughters of dog-headed Bau. Inanna again has as her planet Venus and Sirius as one of her fixed stars. The king during this ritual stands for Dumuzi, the husband of Inanna, and every year near the rising of Sirius in the summer, the Kelabim {Exo 22:31} or dog priests of Dumuzi (Tammuz) held rites for the god.

In the Old Testament, the priests of Inanna (Asherah) and Dumuzi (Tammuz) are known as kelabim “dogs.”

Deu 23:17 There shall be no prostitute among the daughters of Israel, nor shall there be a homosexual among the sons of Israel.
Deu 23:18 You shall not bring the hire of a prostitute, or the price of a dog, into the house of YHWH your God for any vow; for even both of these are an abomination to YHWH your God.

Sodom connection
 

KJV

Deu 23:17 There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

Here the connection between the ‘kelabim’ and the ‘sodomites’ is seen. On the surface level it appears as though those in Sodom were looking for homosexual sex, but in reality they were seeking that ancient connection of Genesis 6.

Gen 19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;

Gen 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
Gen 19:5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.

Jude connects these two themes

Jud 1:6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
Jud 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
 

The sex rites of Lupercalia trace back to this mystery Babylon worship.

Adonis had similar rites, and Carl Kerenyi believes that the orgia festivals celebrated in honor of Dionysos were also linked with the Sirius cycle.

Further to the east we find numerous myths of the marriage of a dog to a goddess or queen in the totemic histories of numerous peoples. Especially in Central Asia, South China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific the concept of part-dog or wolf ancestry is prevalent. From Assam in the West to Mongolia in the North and Java in the South, eastward to New Guinea and other Pacific isles in Oceania and northward again to the Ryukus and Bering Sea, the sacred dog-human marriage motif is found.

Over and over the association with the dog/wolf and sexual rites and marriage is seen in ancient cultures. Why? Many ancient cultures believed that ‘gods’ came from heaven and mated with human women. This is spoken of in Genesis 6 during the days of Noahclick here . Many of these cultures have myths and legends which point back to the dog star Sirius being the place where these ‘gods’ came from. After the Flood, Nimrod reintroduces the mystery religion to mankind. The holidays that the majority of mankind celebrates today, especially the holidays that come out of Roman Catholicism, trace back to these times. When studying the origins of these holidays, all of them will point back to Nimrod. Nimrod did not invent his ‘religion’, he was trying to reform the ‘golden age’ that came before the Flood so the rituals will ultimately trace back to the days of Noah.

Dogon tribe

In Mali, West Africa, lives a tribe of people called the Dogon. The Dogon are believed to be of Egyptian decent and their astronomical lore goes back thousands of years to 3200 BC. According to their traditions, the star Sirius has a companion star which is invisible to the human eye. This companion star has a 50 year elliptical orbit around the visible Sirius and is extremely heavy. It also rotates on its axis. How did a people who lacked any kind of astronomical devices know so much about an invisible star? The star, which scientists call Sirius B, wasn’t even photographed until it was done by a large telescope in 1970.

The Dogon stories explain that also. According to their oral traditions, a race people from the Sirius system called the Nommos visited Earth thousands of years ago. The Nommos were ugly, amphibious beings that resembled mermen and mermaids. They also appear in Babylonian, Accadian, and Sumerian myths. The Egyptian Goddess Isis, who is sometimes depicted as a mermaid, is also linked with the star Sirius.

The Nommos, according to the Dogon legend, lived on a planet that orbits another star in the Sirius system. They landed on Earth in an “ark” that made a spinning decent to the ground with great noise and wind. It was the Nommos that gave the Dogon the knowledge about Sirius B.

According to Credo Mutwaclick here, the Zulu people call the star Sirius the ‘Star of the Wolf’ and their ancient accounts say that a ’sea-dwelling fish people’ from Sirius came to earth.

http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/namesofmen/chap5.html, Chapter Five …Something Fishy… (5-3-02):

IHS is a mystic surname of Bacchus: I(ota) = Iacchus; H(eta) = Helios, the sun; S(sigma) = son or incarnation of the sun.”[25] … All major dictionaries and reference works recognize that “IHS” is shortened from of the name “IHSOUS”–the name commonly attributed to the Messiah. However, it has been learned that “IHS” was a hidden or mysterious surname for the mythical god Bacchus. Bacchus was known as a sun-deity who also had the symbol of the “Tau cross” as well as the Fish symbol and was also recognized by many of the classical writers as Tammuz, the youthful returning sun-deity. … Now that brings us again to the fish story. Bacchus was also called the ICHTHUS, or the Fish.

Dagon mark of the beast connection

1Sa 5:4 And they rose early in the morning on the next day; and, behold! Dagon had fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of YHWH, and the head of Dagon, and the two palms of its hands, were cut off at the threshold. Only the flat (fishy) part had been left to him.

“Out of (the) deluge emerged DAGON, the fish-god, or GOD OF THE SEA… In the secret mysteries… they sought to regain their influence and power by scenic representation… of the flood, in which NOAH was introduced under the name DAGON.” (Hislop, p. 243-44)

In the mystery religions, both the forehead and hands were tattooed during the initiation rites. (Reason for Dagon’s hands and head cut off)

Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Egypt

“Horus I represents the soul of life, which came by water to a dried up world… Here the FISH…was a sign of his incorporation in matter… Horus came by water as Ichtus the FISH before there was a boat or Ark… The inundation (of the Nile) was the source of the life of Egypt. It was her annual salvation, and Horus…the Fish-man, was her Saviour.” (Churchward, p. 420-21)

Babylon

“In Babylon, Capricorn symbolized the dual life of Ea, a god often shown walking in a great FISH-SHAPED cloak with the head of a FISH over his own head… It was said to have come from the OCEAN to teach men how to live.”

Assyria

“In the great Assyrian temple of Assur…stood a large stone ritual basin dedicated to the god OANNES… Flanking him are 4 FISH-CLAD priests.” (Johnson, p. 243) In an etching of “Assyria, 7th century BCE: FISH-CLAD priests.” (Johnson, p. 245)

Notice the top of the hat on this fish/man being. It is half of the star of David.

Medo-Persia

“DAGON…under the name ‘MITHRA’, was worshipped.” (Hislop, p. 264)

“In Mythraic mysteries, SATURN was the Sun God.” (Springmeier, p. 160, quoting Manly P. Hall)

Greece

“Jerome calls DAGON…fish of sorrow which goes far to identify that Fish-god with Bacchus.” (Hislop, p. 114)

One is – Imperial Rome

“SATURN wandered to Italy, where he ruled as king in the Golden Age and gave the name SATURNIA to the country.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, “Saturn,” p. 231)

One is yet to come – Papal Rome

“About the very time when the Bishop of Rome was invested with the pagan title of Pontifex, the Saviour began to be called ICHTHUS, of ‘THE FISH’, thereby identifying him with DAGON.” (Hislop, p. 215)

“The two-horned mitre, which the Pope wears…is the very mitre worn by DAGON.” (Hislop, p. 215) One is – Imperial Rome

“About the very time when the Bishop of Rome was invested with the pagan title of Pontifex, the Saviour began to be called ICHTHUS, of ‘THE FISH’, thereby identifying him with DAGON.” (Hislop, p. 215)

“The two-horned mitre, which the Pope wears…is the very mitre worn by DAGON.” (Hislop, p. 215)

Eighth Beast – World Kingdom

“The religion of SATURN…teaches…the RETURN OF THE LOST SON SATURN.” (Springmeier, p. 160-61)

“The Merovingian dynasty – male line (are) descendants of the FISHER KINGS.” (Gardner, p. 163)

“Between the 5th and 7th centuries the MEROVINGIANS ruled large parts of … France and Germany… The ruler from whom the Merovingians derived their name is…Merovee…a semi-supernatural figure worthy of classical MYTH… His name… echoes the French word of…SEA…Merovee’s mother supposedly went swimming in the OCEAN. In the water she is said to have been seduced and/or raped by… a BEAST OF NEPTUNE.” (Biagent, p. 396)

The Return of the Serpents of Wisdom pg 25 states that the symbol of the Sirians (from Sirius) in Atlantis was a triangle, sometimes with an eye in the middle. This all seeing-eye symbol traced through Egypt as the eye of Horus/Osiris/Ra/Isis which is what is seen on the back of the dollar bill.

On a statue to Isis the following was described “I am all that has been, that is, or shall be, and none among the mortal has hiterto taken off my veil.”

Isis=Diana…

*The ‘ark’ that landed in Egypt that the Dogons describe may trace back to the ‘mystic egg’ of Astarte…There is another holiday that incorporates eggs into its traditions, more on Easter in a future study, Yah willing.

Resurrection

Easter is a counterfeit of Passover. Passover teaches of the resurrection. In the first Passover, Yisrael is saved by the blood of a lamb (faith in Messiah’s blood) where they are delivered from Egypt (sin) and cross the Red Sea (baptism 1 Cor 10). Messiah Yahshua is the ultimate fulfillment Passover as can be seen in the Gospels where He is shown to be the Lamb of Elohim who takes away the sin of the world. The counterfeit is Easter which mixes the truth of the Passover and the death and resurrection of Messiah to the ancient mystery religions and the dying and rising pagan Christs.

The Gospel in the Stars explains how so many different religions have similar concepts about Elohim and Salvation
In that same vein, E. Raymond Capt writes in his book The Glory Of The Stars, “Agnostics have long offered virgin–born saviours, messiahs, or sons of God, preceding the Christian era, as criticism of the orthodox Christian position. Such claims are no longer valid in the light of Celestial Revelation. All world religions do show a common origin (by similarities) but it only proves that in the beginning, all mankind was given God’s plan for humanity. In such cases, having foreknowledge of a virgin–born savior, it was no problem for corrupt priests to fabricate one, and, every religion did just that. Nor did such practices cease with the birth of Jesus Christ”.

In every nation and culture on the Earth, there can be found in it’s ancient historical writings, a story of a flood, a story of a “god–man”. This is most apparent in the ancient Chinese symbol languageclick here, where their symbol for creation is made by combining three separate symbols. The symbol for man, the symbol for dust and the symbol for breath. In a nation whose language goes back more than five thousand years, and whose people have been denied the Bible for so long, it is amazing to find the creation account from Genesis incorporated into the Chinese language in their letter–symbol for creation.

For more on this topic
Zeitgeist movement

‘Bible myth’

YHWH our Elohim uses the natural world to teach us spiritual principles. This is why Passover is celebrated in the Spring where the earth comes back to life after the ‘death’ of winter. The heathens perverted this truth, just as they have perverted many truths of Scripture. If one takes a cursory glance of the myths of the heathen it appears as if the ancient pagans believed in fairy tales and were simpletons who modern man can scoff and mock. However, the more one looks into their beliefs the more one sees that their religion was based on the truth that the Holy Scriptures teach but became perverted throughout time and by the carnal mind. The perversions of the truth seen in the mystery religions trace back to the Truth of the Word. Whether you were born in modern times with the celebration of Easter being celebrated throughout the world or in ancient times where spring fertility rites and myths of dying and rising savior figures, all mankind has had the opportunity to see the concept of the Messiah. YHWH our Elohim allowed this so that people would be able to come to the truth no matter what culture they grew up {Deu 4:10} in. It is written in the heavens, it is seen in the cycles of the earth, it is written in the cellular structure of our bodies…all things point to the Messiahclick here.

Daily Tidbits 4/8 – Shadows of Messiah: Easter
click here

Video Links:
Easter videos
click here

Islam – Catholic connection
click here

American History
click here

Catholicism
click here

The Blessed Virgin Mary of the Bible
click here

 

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