Quotron
The Da Vinci Code
Myth
Making for the Second Coming
presented
by Kenneth Warren
May 2, 2004 at 2:00 p.m.
Lakewood Public Library
15425 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood Ohio
"The Magdalene Society had its own agenda, clearly, and there was no reason to assume that its agenda was peculiarly American - or liberal" (203). Jim Hougan, from Kingdom Come
Program Premise
Stripped of seven patriarchal demons, Mary Magdalene becomes the novel twenty first century hypothesis for the regulation of hysteria through self-assertion by Aquarian Grrrl power, which having digested Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is now duly possessed in daytime by the historicity of the first witness to the resurrection and in nighttime by the fantasy of the hieros gamos.
Plot
Line
"A curator is found dead and a cryptologist is brought in to assist in the
case. As it turns out he is also a suspect. The story involves an homage to
Leonardo di Vinci who is known to be a prankster who left messages in some
of his most famous paintings. An analysis of The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper
and Madonna on the Rocks illustrates that Leonardo was suspected to be a member
of the Priory of Sion, a secret society which descended from the bloodline
of the marriage union of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. A Bishop in Opus Dei, a
conservative Catholic organization actually arranged the events leading to
the murder of the museum curator following an ultimatum from the Vatican.
The motivation for the murders was to gain information about the possessors
of the Holy Grail which by legend involved the cup Jesus used at the Last
Supper. Additionally the Grail is believed to contain information regarding
the descendants of offspring of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Moreover, the book
asserts that the early Church, dating back to Constantine was involved in
a conspiracy to suppress notions of feminine goddess-worship. It also implies
that today's Church maintains efforts to prevent any revelation about this
manipulation of knowledge." Sister Joan, from "Sister Joan Discusses The
Da Vinci Code"
"The battle over control of the Holy Grail in which the two protagonists (a
Harvard professor and a French police cryptologist) are caught up is between
the “Priory of Sion” and Opus Dei. The former has been given charge of the
Holy Grail, which might reveal secrets that will severely damage Christianity.
The latter has been charged by the Vatican with destroying the priory and
the secrets of the Grail." Andrew Greeley, from "DaVinci
Code is more fantasy than fact"
"The priory struggles to keep alive a religion of balance between male and
female (celebrated in ritual intercourse) which Constantine crushed out of
Christianity to strengthen male power. The Holy Grail is not a chalice but
the memory of Mary Magdalene who was the consort of Jesus and the mother of
his daughter, Sarah, whose descendents are still alive." Andrew Greeley, from
"DaVinci
Code is more fantasy than fact"
Sources
Dan Brown's reliance on Holy Blood, Holy Grail is readily apparent..." Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, from "Cracking the Anti-Catholic Code (Part II)"
At
the official website Dan Brown provides the following "Partial Bibliography
for THE DA VINCI CODE"
The History of the Knights Templars
--Charles G. Addison
Rosslyn: Guardians of the Secret of the Holy Grail
--Tim Wallace - Murphy
The Woman With The Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail
--Margaret Starbird
The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ
--Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince
The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine
--Margaret Starbird
Holy Blood, Holy Grail.
--Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
The Search for the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood
--Deike Begg
The Messianic Legacy
--Michael Baigent
The Knights Templar and their Myth
--Peter Partner
The Dead Sea Bible. The Oldest Known Bible
--Martin G. Abegg
The Dead Sea Deception
--Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, Henry Lincoln
The Nag Hammadi Library in English
--James M. Robinson
Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians
--Timothy Freke, Peter Gandy
When God was a Woman
--Merlin Stone
The Chalice and the Blade. Our History, our Future
--Riane Eisler
Born in Blood
--John J. Robinson
The Malleus Maleficarum
--Heinrich Kramer & James Sprenger
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci
--Leonardo da Vinci
Prophecies
--Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci: Scientist, Inventor, Artist
--Otto Letze
Leonardo: The Artist and the Man
--Serge Bramly, Sian Reynolds
Their Kingdom Come: Inside the secret world of Opus Dei
--Robert A. Hutchison
Beyond the Threshold: A Life in Opus Dei
--Maria Del Carmen Tapia
The Pope's Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New Sects
in the Church
--Gordon Urguhart
Opus Dei: An Investigation into the Secret Society Struggling for Power Within
the Roman Catholic Church
--Michael Walsh
I. M. Pei: A Profile in American Architecture
--Carter Wiseman
Conversations With I. M. Pei: Light Is the Key
--Gero Von Boehm
from "The Official
Website of Bestselling Author Dan Brown"
"Brown’s selected bibliography for The Da Vinci Code... lists few scholarly works (Peter Partner’s The Knights Templar and their Myth being one exception, although Brown ignores all of Partner’s conclusions and research) and a number of sensational books marked by conspiracy theories (Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Messianic Legacy), shoddy scholarship (The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ), feminist agendas (Margaret Starbird’s The Woman With The Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail and The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine), and antagonism towards the Catholic Church (Their Kingdom Come: Inside the secret world of Opus Dei and The Pope's Armada: Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious and Powerful New Sects in the Church). Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel, from "Cracking the Anti-Catholic Code (Part II)"
Issues and Trends
"He thought someone was reprogramming the collective unconscious - introducing new archetypes, revitalizing old ones" (127). Jim Hougan, from Kingdom Come (2000)
“…one can distill a consensus list of the most prominent elements in the Protestant ethos of nineteenth-century America. The five elements that observers emphasized at the time, and that stand out in retrospect, are Biblicism, individualism, moralism, activism, and millennial optimism” (63-4). William R. Hutchison, from Religious Pluralism in America (2003)
"Catholics tend to be vertical, hierarchical and centralised...in other words, they tend to be corrupt, autocratic, with more susceptibility to the Mafia and maximum bureaucracy." Marc Luyckx, quoted in the Sunday Telegraph and presented on page 75 in The Principality and Power of Europe by Adrian Hilton
“In the closing years of the twentieth century, something dramatic happened to women: they were allowed ordination in some denominations…At roughly the same time, something dramatic happened to church-going gays and lesbians. Here and there, we would find Baptists, Methodists or Presbyterians marrying same-sex couples…What a religion had to say about God mattered less than what it had to say about sex” (xii). John Portmann, from Sex and Heaven: Catholics in Bed and at Prayer (2003)
"The role of Mary Magdalene continues her meteoric rise in our culture. Yet the exaltation of Mary Magdalene and the morphing of her into a politically correct symbol have no solid root in early church history" (91). Darrell L. Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
"When the feminization of the new world order religion is established, the religious icon of Diana will long have been engraved in the human brain...If allowed, she will have achieved a status equal to God." Celestial, from "DIANA,THE AL QAEDA THE TRUTH BEHIND THE IRAQI WAR, #1"
"In the last two decades, many best-selling books (such as The DaVinci Code, The Templar Revelation and Holy Blood, Holy Grail) have pointed to... a phenomenon related to... a global movement which is revising our understanding of Christianity and also of femininity. Cover articles in Newsweek, Time and the like, have brought awareness of the subject to a wider audience." from The Basye Vortex
"Some say the book's popularity is part of a current trend in society that spirituality is good, while institutional religion, with its secrets, its power, its misogyny, is bad." Leslie Scrivener, from "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" in Toronto Star Apr. 10, 2004
"One generally accepted observation about new religions is that periods of renewed spiritual activity emerge in the wake of disruptive social and economic changes: The established vision of "how things work" no longer seems to apply, and people begin searching for new visions" (219). James R. Lewis, from Legitimating New Religions (2003)
"The
explosion of a single coherent worldview into multiple fragments, none of
which carries any necessity and all of which must be chosen from a situation
of plurality is a defining attribute of radical modernity" (348). Paul C.
Johnson from "Shamanism From Ecuador to Chicago" in Shamanism: a reader
edited by Graham Harvey (2003)
"Our modern world seems particularly prone to social and economic disruptions.....we
are suffering from a broad-ranging "legitimation crisis" that calls into question
our very foundations" (219). James R. Lewis, from Legitimating New Religions
(2003)
"Jung made many contributions to modern culture. While the depth of their dynamics and their implications are still not fully grasped, his identification of "complex," "persona," "shadow," "archetype," "collective unconscious," "personality," "typology" and "individuation" are part of the modern mainstream now. But his greatest contribution may be found in his insistence on remembering and valuing the role of "psyche" (the Greek word for soul) in our cultural and personal lives at a time when most psychology and psychiatry fractionates humanity into behaviors, cognitions and psychopharmacological functions. Respect for soul affirms that we are, in our core, meaning-seeking creatures and that deflections of purpose or eroded connection to transcendent values will manifest in the world as personal or social pathology." James Hollis, from "Seeking meaning: Jung's biography thoroughly researched"
"Jung used active imagination and mandalas to reach the "unconscious". Modern technology uses electromagnetic and acoustical stimulation. The fields of "subliminal psychology" and "psychology of the unconscious" postulated by Carl Gustav Jung are the keys to understanding this synergy of brain and psyche. To summarise the brain phenomenology behind these novel technologies of light and sound, brain entrainment occurred by (because of) the auricular and occular pieces of the machine, and the effect was the alteration of the (levels of the ) neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine and beta endorphins by Alpha and Theta induced states." Leading Edge Research Group, from "Neurological Magnetic Fields and Altered States"
“The Nag Hammadi sources, discovered at the time of contemporary social crises concerning sexual roles, challenge us to reinterpret history – and to re-evaluate the present situation” (69). Elaine Pagels, from The Gnostic Gospels (1979)
“…many fine scholars are suggesting that the Christian story, loved by millions…has been imposed upon the Christian church by imperial and ecclesiastical authority. In other words, for almost two thousand years, Christians have been subjected to the mushroom treatment. If you want mushrooms to grow, you keep them in the dark and feed them rubbish” (xvii). Francis J. Moloney, from “Foreword” to Darrell L. Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
"Richard Hofstadter already observed in the 1960’s that "Anti-Catholicism has always been the pornography of the Puritan," a topic further commented on by Daniel Pipes in "Conspiracy" (1997). In time, these motifs came to be linked to themes of American nationalism. By the 1870s, with American nationalism in the ascendant, Catholics were suspect as the pawns of a foreign power whose interests were thought to diverge from those of the United States. Through the efforts of such nativist organizations as the American Protective Association, these fears peaked in the 1890s, a time of both rampant nationalism and (at least in the early part of the decade) severe economic dislocations." Eric P. Wijnants, from: "Conspiracy Theories in the 21th Century P.4"“Esoteric philosophy, which is also referred to as the perennial philosophy, identifies a number of different planes of existence – usually seven worlds or spheres – extending from the world of matter to the world of Spirit “(14). Fran Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)
“We have seen how the mystical universe has been variously interpreted by the Gnostics, Neoplatonists and Hermeticists as emanationist – successive levels of being, each emanation in turn from a Divine and transcendent source. Also, that the medieval alchemists and their later counterparts, the Freemasons and Rosicrucians, shared a common interest in spiritual rebirth and the idea of the archetypal perfected human. These elements all seem to be central to the ever-mutating but nevertheless essentially Gnostic idea that has evolved into the magical consciousness of the twentieth-century – becoming in our own time the individual transpersonal quest to incarnate the God and Goddess. High magic, or gnosis, is essentially about embodying deity – about becoming as gods and goddesses on the path of transcendence” (124-5). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
Questioning
the Text
"1) Is the narrative literally true based on history, archaeology, and science?
2) Are there internal inconsistencies, anachronisms, or other internal clues
which invalidate the narrative if it is to be considered historical or to
be taken literally? 3) Is the reasoning behind the narrative and the ethical
beliefs derived from it based on a world view that is foreign to our own sense
of ethics? 4) Is there a mythic meaning to the narrative that is quite different
from what a literal interpretation of the narrative might imply? 5) What social
or political stance do believers derive from the biblical narrative, and how
valid is their use of the Bible to back up their personal and political positions?"
(4-5) Tim Callahan, from Secret Origins of the Bible (2002)
"In short, the Bible is yet a sealed book. The cloak of esoteric concealment thrown over the writing by ancient sagacity has proven too hard a nut for both medieval and modern acumen to crack in eighteen centuries of mulling over the sage literary relics." Alvin Boyd Kuhn , from MARY MAGDALENE and Her Seven Devils
In
Transformation J.G. Bennett outlines the following steps toward “right
learning:”
1. Ask yourself whether what you are told or read can be verified. If so
how? Verify before you accept.
2. If you have no means of verification, do not reject what you are told
without first asking yourself whether it really matters to you if it is true
or false.
3. If it really does matter, examine the source from which the knowledge comes and ask yourself if you are prepared to trust it until some means of verification turns up.
4. Never take anything you learn as final. Be prepared to look at it again.
5. Cross-checking is useful. It can give us confidence if we find that two bits of knowledge supplement and tend to confirm one another.
6. But remember that it is only possible to cross-check items expressed in the same language. We get terribly confused if we try to compare one teaching with another unless we are sure that we know what both of them are trying to tell us.
7. Practice impartiality. Do not let “like and dislike” influence your judgment.
8.
Nevertheless, you must give full weight to your “instinctive” reactions. They
are often more penetrating than your thoughts.
9. Learning “what” and learning “how” are not the same and yet they can
never be separated. We do not really know something if we do not know how
to make use of the knowledge. Knowing how – leaning to go through the motions
– will not take us far unless we know what we are doing. In other words, the
distinction between theoretical and practical knowledge is only a matter of
convenience. The two must always be blended if they are to give positive results.
10. Remember that all partial knowledge is precarious. Always try to see the whole to which an item of knowledge belongs. Even if you cannot succeed in seeing the whole, it is better to make the attempt than to remain with an isolated fragment.
11. Open your mind more and more.
12.
Knowledge that is shared is better understood than knowledge which is hoarded
“(22-3).
J.G. Bennett, from Transformation (2003)
“The Da Vinci Code is not a mere work of fiction dressed in the clothes of quasi nonfiction. It reflects an effort to represent and, in some cases, rewrite history with a selective use of ancient evidence that it ironically claims was the failing of the old story. It reflects an effort to redefine one of the key cultural forces standing as the base of Western Civilization, the Christian faith” (149). Darrell L. Bock Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
Thought Contagion and Concepts of the Divine"Thought contagions are beliefs or ideas that "programme" for their own spreading--ultimately affecting whole societies. Because they strongly affect how people live, such ideas achieve self-propagation by inducing evangelism, manipulated receptivity, abundant child raising, dropout prevention, and competing belief suppression. Ideas harnessing these human functions most effectively win out over weaker variants. Evolving like life forms, through evolution by natural selection, thought contagions vie for ever stronger influence in human lives. The process influences the population dynamics of health, financial markets, sexuality, family, politics, religion, and mass conflict." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"Though thought contagions affect so many important phenomena, the evolutionary epidemiology of self-spreading ideas does not replace existing social sciences. Rather, thought contagions should be considered as part of the overall picture in mass conflict and other social phenomena." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"The term “thought contagion” is neutral with respect to truth or falsity, as well as good or bad. False beliefs can spread as thought contagions, but so too can true beliefs. Similarly, harmful ideas can spread as a thought contagions, but so too can beneficial ideas." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"... a 1976 book by Richard Dawkins called The Selfish Gene...was so popular that it became by far the main source from which scientists and lay readers learned about evolutionary cultural replicator theory. Unfortunately, it also led many to believe incorrectly that evolutionary cultural replicator theory was an outgrowth of sociobiology. This obscured important aspects of evolutionary cultural replicator theory. Evolutionary psychology does offer important insights into the psychology of violence and warfare. But evolutionary cultural replicator theory cannot be expressed entirely in terms of the actions and evolution of biological genes. An early lack of definition has also caused confusion over the word “meme” coined in analogy to the word “gene.” That led to profusion of widely conflicting definitions for the word “meme.” The situation has given some utility to using more self-explanatory terms such as “cultural replicator,” “idea,” “belief,” “behaviour,” “artifact,” “thought contagion,” and so forth in evolutionary cultural replicator theory." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
"The process of self-propagation of ideas – the process of thought contagion – generally involves some form of imitation. Yet it frequently also involves inculcation behaviours. Ideas that often lead present adherents to engage in more inculcation behaviours can thereby out-propagate ideas that seldom cause inculcation behaviours." Aaron Lynch, from "Thought Contagion in the Dynamics of Mass Conflict"
According to philosopher Ken Wilber evolution reveals "a spectrum of concepts of the divine".
7. Emptiness/Godhead Ultimate
6. God the Father Causal
5. The Great Goddess Subtle
4. The Hero Mental
3. The Great Mother Mythical
2. The Devil Magical
1. Uroboros Archaic
"In our era, however, God the Father is on the decline. In New Age circles many insist that the return of the Goddess is necessary to redress the balance following centuries of patriarchy...Rather than returning to God the Mother, or clinging to God the Father, we need to progress to God as Emptiness - a concept of the divine that mystics also refer to as the 'Godhead'. If the Goddess corresponds to the sphere of the body, and God the father to the sphere of the mind, the Godhead relates to the sphere of the Spirit, which can only be known in the silence of one's own internal world. As far as Wilbur is concerned, God the Mother and God the Father have both served their purpose for the modern individual. They are concepts that belong the childhood and adolescence of humanity" (103). Frank Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)
"According to Wilber's hypothesis each of these structures of consciousness generates its own distinct form of culture or religion. By the same token, all forms of cultural or religious expression can be traced back to the underlying frame of mind that led to the expression, given that the expression itself will show unmistakable signs of this particular frame of mind. And since the principle of development by means of transcendence and inclusion automatically implies that all of the earlier stages of development are still present within our modern Western consciousness, in the same way that the modern individual occasionally shows signs of magical behavior and mythical imagination in addition to rational thought and intuitive consciousness, we can also trace contemporary forms of culture and religion back to more fundamental phases of thinking" (109). Frank Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)
“For example, in the field of religion we can make a distinction between magical religion (ritualistic religion motivated by primitive impulses), mythical religion (with its focus on nature and a cyclic concept of time), mental religion (with its focus on the individual and a historical concept of time) and mystical religion (which is geared towards interiority with an emphasis on the present.) (109). Fran Visser, from Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (2003)“The origins of Gnostic mysticism remain a matter of debate, but there is a broad consensus that Gnosticism as a historical movement parallels the rise of early Persian dualism, while others believe that it developed in response to the failure of Jewish apocalyptic expectations, and have dated its origins to around 70 CE – coinciding with the fall of the Jerusalem Temple. Others regard Gnosticism as the result of early Christian devotees forsaking religious faith for spiritual inner knowledge when the Messiah failed to return” (46). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"The whole struggle between Catholic and Gnostic Christians was thus about a realistic Jesus of the Catholics versus a metaphysical-idealistic Christ of the Gnostics, not a dispute about "historicity" in the modern sense. The Gnostic says that the Christ's essence is a perennial, spiritual one, whereas this world is woven of phantasm and error. The Catholic says that this world is divinely created; consequently, the Gnostic Christ is wholly separated from the world, the Catholic Christ is interwoven with it and participates with it in the flesh, and Catholic doctrine identifies the creator with the father of the Christ." Klaus Schilling on van den Bergh van Eysinga's "Does Jesus Live, or Has He Only Lived? A Study of the Doctrine of Historicity"
“In
Christian Gnosticism Christ emerged as a heavenly spiritual redeemer sent
by the unknown, supreme God to mediate the gnosis to men (or else to the Pneumatics)
and the Demiurge vainly endeavored to thwart his mission” (72). Yuri Stoyanov,
from The Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
“Christian Gnostic traditions elaborated different versions of Christ’s mission
but according to most of them Christ assumed only an appearance (dokesis)
of humanity and accordingly his Passion and Crucifixion were also apparent.
This Docetic Christology distinguished the heavenly Christ from the earthly
Jesus, while sometimes substitute figures like Symon of Cyrene were introduced
to replace Christ at the Crucifixion” (72). Yuri Stoyanov, from The Hidden
Tradition of Europe (1994)
"The study of Christian origins is a very large and controversial question ... but it is quite evident that the literalisation of these narratives (Gospels etc.) was due to the fact that those who ultimately obtained the ascendancy in the Church Councils, and were the framers of the Creeds which have been current for so many centuries, were not those who were instructed in the Gnosis. They were in fact miserably ignorant, not merely of that Gnosis, which lies at the heart of all the allegories, myths and fables in the Christian, as in other ancient and pre-Christian Scriptures, but also of geographical, astronomical and anthropological facts well known to other peoples for thousands of years prior to the Christian Era, and which – when known as they were to the initiated Church Fathers, who were, however, declared to be heretics by these same creed-makers – entirely alter the whole structure of the traditional Creeds" (84). William Kingsland, from The Gnosis in the Christian Scriptures (1993)
"Yet
all the sources cited so far--secret gospels, revelations, mystical teachings--are
among those not included in the select list that constitutes the New Testament
collection. Every one of the secret texts which gnostic groups revered was
omitted from the canonical collection, and branded as heretical by those who
called themselves orthodox Christians. By the time the process of sorting
the various writings ended--probably as late as the year 200--virtually all
the feminine imagery for God had disappeared
from orthodox Christian tradition." Elaine Pagels, from The Gnostic Gospels
(1979)
"What is the reason for this total rejection? The gnostics themselves asked
this question of their orthodox opponents and pondered it among themselves.
Some concluded that the God of Israel himself initiated the polemics which
his followers carried out in his name. For, they argued, this creator was
a derivative, merely instrumental power whom the Mother had created to administer
the universe, but his own self-conception was far more grandiose. They say
that he believed that he had made everything by himself, but that, in reality,
he had created the world because Wisdom, his Mother, "infused him with energy"
and
implanted into him her own ideas. But he was foolish, and acted unconsciously,
unaware that the ideas he used came from her;
"he was even ignorant of his own Mother." Elaine Pagels, from The Gnostic
Gospels (1979)
"It's a revival of the old gnosticism," says Rev. David Reed, professor of theology at U of T's Wycliffe College. "We've turned inward to ourselves to find the god within. It's preferring individual spiritual truth to any kind of commitment to a God who speaks to us through texts, such as the Bible or the Qu'ran." In gnosticism, seekers yearn for a special truth that comes through secret knowledge that few have access to — in contrast with truths revealed through the Christian gospels, which are available to everyone." Leslie Scrivener, from "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" in Toronto Star Apr. 10, 2004
“…another
teaching that these Albigensian circles regarded as esoteric and again was
taught in their ‘secret meetings’ claimed that Mary Magdalene was in reality
the wife of Christ and she was also recognized as the Samaritan woman to whom
he said, ‘Call thy husband’” (222) Yuri Stoyanov, from The Hidden Tradition
of Europe (1994)
“This Albigensian belief in Mary Magdalene as Christ’s wife is confirmed by
two additional Catholic tracts on the Cathar heresy, although in their versions
the Cathar attitudes to the ‘terrestrial’ Christ and Mary Magdalene were modified
by dualism applied to the gospel story itself“ (222). Yuri Stoyanov, from
The Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
“In these two exposés the precepts of absolute dualism were transposed on
the nature of Christ and there appeared two Christ figures – the celestial
and the terrestrial, the latter being an evil or pseudo-Christ” (222). Yuri
Stoyanov, from The Hidden Tradition of Europe (1994)
"The
Christ of the Gnostics was a true ideal, possible to all men. But an Historic
Christ is a false ideal! Where is the sense of supposing a God sliding down
to earth on a ladder with no steps to it, and then asking us to walk up minus
the foothold? Also, it is in vain we set up an objective ideal for outer worship
of that which can only be a reality within the soul." Gerald Massey, from
THE COMING RELIGION
"The god-man of the Gnostics was not a man-god, but the god or divine nature
in man, which represented the spiritual image of the Invisible God, the formless
in our human form; not in our human form of individual personality as an historical
Christ, or Horus, or Buddha. That was but the symbolical presentment of the
matter. The historical realisation was meant for all men and women, not for
one man Jesus, or one female Sophia. We do not want to be beguiled, or to
have our children deceived any longer with the most beautiful biography of
the man in the moon, who came down too soon, and whose second coming has been
looked for so vainly during 1800 years. We are in search and in need of some
truer illumination than moonshine. Gerald Massey, from THE
COMING RELIGION
“That among those who gave the Christian faith its present form – and we are speaking not just of those active during Christ’s life, but of those who contributed in the several generations thereafter and who edited the sacred texts – there were powerful men who were, secretly, wholly devoted to the Old Religion, and its ways. They were what we today would call double agents. While outwardly helping to formulate a new religion which would break decisively with the past, they secretly ensured that the most potent symbols, rituals and concepts of the old tradition were firmly enshrined at the very heart of the new order” (192). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
“That those – all of them this time – who founded the Christian faith were not double agents at all. They were single agents, collectively devoted to the Virgin Moon (to the female principle), to the Goddess of Wisdom and her causes. But they saw the times were changing, had indeed already changed. The new moods, variously, of sun worship, the male principle, rationalism, scientific enquiry even, had gained considerable ground on all sides. The Old Ways were under considerable threat as never before. But those we are speaking of were determined to hand on the core of the old tradition (of the magical path) to future generations, in a form in which those who looked hard enough, who were knowing or Gnostic enough, would always still recognize for what it was. Accordingly, the founders of Christianity re-fashioned the Old Faith in a new format, shone upon it something of a more modern light. In this attempt they were very like marketing managers today – they looked for a new image, a new package, that would sell a product fast going out of fashion. The product itself was not basically changed – only the packaging, the inessentials” (192-3). Stan Gooch, from City of Dreams: When Women Ruled the Earth (1995)
"There is an agenda here. It is the rejection of Christian faith as a historically unified set of core beliefs held over the centuries starting from the earliest period" (88). Darrell L. Bock, from Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
"Here we begin to discover the real secret and code behind The Da Vinci Code. It is nothing less than a conscious effort to obscure the uniqueness and vitality of the Christian faith and message" (95). Darrell L. Bock, from Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
“According to Jung, we are responsible for our own spiritual destinies. This is a profoundly Gnostic attitude – quite different from the spiritual message of most forms of Western institutional religion” (209). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"Conspiracy theorists are not kooks, they are a front line in the latest eruption of populism. In some ways, they invoke the carnivalesque, a festival which turns the political order upside-down." Brian Redman, from "Paranoia: It's So Much Fun"
"In breaking The Da Vinci Code we have discovered there is much more going on here than the creation of an entertaining novel - there is a revision of what Christianity was and is. It is virtual reality at work" (150). Darrell L. Bock, from Breaking the Da Vinci Code (2004)
Myth and Practice
"Myth operates by bringing a sacred ... past to bear preemptively on the present and inferentially on the future ..." Jaan Puhvel, from Comparative Mythology (1987)
"Myth...is a serious object of study, because true myth is by definition deadly serious to its originating environment. In myth are expressed the thought patterns by which a group formulates self-cognition and self-realization, attains self-knowledge and self-confidence, explains its own source and being and that of its surroundings, and sometimes tries to chart its destinies. By myth man has lived, died and – all too often – killed" (2). Jaan Puhvel, from Comparative Mythology (1987)
"Mythology is a projection of a community's collective beliefs onto the scrim of the cosmos" (254). Leonard Shlain, from Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution (2003)
"Mythology begins with this vague and merely elemental phase of external phenomena, alternating in night and day. In a secondary stage, it was observed that the battle field of this never ending warfare of day and dark was focused and brought to a definite point in the orb of the moon, where the struggle betwixt the two personified powers of light and darkness went on and on for ever, each power having its triumph over the other in its turn,--these being depicted in one representation as the solar light and the serpent of darkness, in another by the lion and the unicorn. These phenomena of light and darkness were at first set forth by means of animals, reptiles, birds, and other primitive types of the elemental powers; and lastly the human type was adopted, and the cunning of the crocodile, or the jackal of darkness, is represented by the Egyptian Sut, the Norse Loki, the Greek Hermes, or the Jewish Jacob, the dark deceiver; and to-day, we find the Christian Evidence Society engaged in defending such characters as that of Jacob, in the full and perfect belief that Jacob was a human being, and one of God's chosen race. Whereas, he was no more a person than was Sut-Anup in Egypt, or Reynard the fox in Europe! The human form, like that of the earlier animal type, was only representative of some power manifested in natural phenomena. This mode of representation was known when these sacred stories were first told of mythical characters; it was afterwards continued and taught in the so-called "mysteries" by means of the Gnosis. When the art or Gnosis was lost to the world outside, the ancient histories were ignorantly supposed to be human in their origin; mythology was euhemerized (that is, the ideal was mistaken for the real), and Egyptian mythology was converted into Hebrew miracles and Christian history." Gerald Massey, from LUNIOLATRY: ANCIENT AND MODERN
"...mythology
is especially useful for looking at the way a culture's myths create a specific
'world view' (or 'cosmology'). In this respect the modern Western world view
is every bit as mythological as, say, the medieval one... One way of thinking
about myths is to regard them as ideology fleshed out in 'seductive' story
form." Bob Trubshaw, from "foamy custard's ingredients"
'Cosmology' is,
confusingly, used by modern day astronomers and physicists to describe their
cosmogonic myths of the origins of the universe. Mythologists use the words
'cosmogonies' and 'cosmogenesis' to refer to the great diversity of myths
about the origins of the cosmos (although beware of 'mythogenesis' as this
is refers to the origins of myths rather than myths about origins). For mythologists,
cosmology is the study of the organisation of the cosmos, not necessarily
its origins. Cosmological myths can be thought of as not so much the contents
of consciousness as deep structures that shape the contents of consciousness
(Bennett 1980); although this has absolutely nothing to do with Freudian or
Jungian models of human thinking." Bob Trubshaw, from "cosmologies
as 'deep structures'"
"...mythical thinking is a specific form of consciousness that relates not to the objective world or even to society but to the organizing principles of the human mind - that is, myth is an early stage of the self's experience of its own consciousness. Its substratum is feeling" (127). Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
"Myths
operate at many different levels. They can be explanatory and account for,
for instance, the origins of the world, of the tribe, or of some particular
natural phenomenon. Sometimes they contain authentic historical accounts.
Often they serve to define humanity in relation to the natural order and to
the divine. At their best they provide a profound insight into the human condition.
They also express unconscious fantasies in such a way as to render them acceptable
to the ego as, famously, in Freud's reading of the Oedipus myth. Myth differs
from dream in that it exists both within and as an expression of a particular
cultural setting." Brendan
McMahon, from "psychotherapy, myth
and meaning"
"All mythologies are more or less echoes of these early metaphysical speculations,
and whatever form they take - epic or plastic - they translate the basic assumptions
of a tradition into easily perceived images, that is to say into a system
of beliefs, memories, observations, and social structures. It is certainly
quite hard to disentangle what is ancient from what is more recent in the
mythological narratives that have come down to us most often in literary form,
which means they have been manufactured, learned, codified, and possibly altered"
(111). Jean Markale, from Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars (2003)
"Mythologists tend to be dominated by an interest in religious myths, even though political myths are at least as prevalent as religious ones. Mythology can mean the study of specific mythic motifs (such as hero-figures, or the creation of the universe) and their distribution in the cultures of different times and places." Bob Trubshaw, from "foamy custard's ingredients"
"Repeated exposure to myths – or merely mythic motifs – rather than conscious learning is responsible for embedding myths into the structure of our consciousnesses. Such 'deep structures' manifest in the modern world not so much as fully-formed mythical narratives but rather as 'fragmentary references, indirect allusions, watchwords, slogans, visual symbols, echoes in literature, film, songs, public ceremonies, and other forms of everyday situations, often highly condensed and emotionally charged"(84). Christopher G Flood, from Political myth: A theoretical introduction (1996)
"Myths which face hostility...tend to sclerose and lose their analogic quality... The search for a one-dimensional, objectively verifiable truth necessarily both limits and falsifies experience. The more a belief system is based upon the notion of objective reality the more exclusive and distorted it tends to become, since any attempt to challenge it seems like a denial of reality; a blasphemy against the world as it really is." Brendan McMahon, from "psychotherapy, myth and meaning"
"...it
is through myth that society makes and remakes itself…Yet at the same time...mythology
masks this truth, veiling its references to nature, humanity, and society
under a cloak of mystery" (126). Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
"The work of sociologists...clearly illustrates that thought is a kind of
practice, that the formulation of social ideology has a practical link to
social relations, economics, and politics. The evocation of a symbol, or telling
an old story a new way, can in and of itself produce a practical social effect.
In trying to interpret ancient texts, we do well not to essentialize their
contents but to ask what they are doing in practice, and for whom" (13). Karen
L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
"...Freud held that myth is the key to an underlying reality; it belongs to
the earliest stages of psychic development, childhood. Myth is an expression
of the human subconscious, whether a veiled expression of repressed desires
or infantile wish-fulfillment.(127) Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
"Jung... gave myths a positive function in the communication of the unconscious
to the conscious, but for him, myths are not mystifications of some other
reality but archetypes of the collective unconscious necessary for maintaining
a healthy psychological balance" (127). Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism
(2003)
"The Jungian archetypes are psychic propensities...Unlike the archetypes of Platonism or of Christianity, they belong to the temporal order and have come into their present state by some historical or evolutionary process. Now if the cosmos is essentially a theophany, as Christian doctrine maintains, then the Jungian archetypes, too, must in a way reflect the eternal "ideas" which are said to reside in the Logos or Wisdom of God. Only we must not forget that the nature or quality of this reflection depends upon the factor of mental purity: and that is just where the problem lies. None but the "pure in heart" shall see God. But there is little reason to suppose that the unconscious in its present state, whether private or collective, conforms to exceptionally high standards of purity" (131). Wolfgang Smith, from Cosmos & Transcendence: Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
"... myths are difficult to analyse because they are intimately linked with our basic cognitive processes... Simon Danser, from "The Matrix as metamyth"
"...myths 'are like the lenses of a pair of glasses in the sense that they are not the things people see when they look at the world, they are the things they see with. Myths are the truths about society that are taken for granted.' (Bennett 1980: 167) Simon Danser, from "The Matrix as metamyth"
"...myth is an expression of some fundamental reality (society or human consciousness), and therefore worthy of interpretation. But...interpretation is understood as demystification, as the reduction of illusion" (127). Karen L. King, What is Gnosticism (2003)
Religion: Feeling and/or Thinking about Prophet Motive, Bloodline, Purity
and Sexuality
"Religion, mysticism and magic all spring from the same basic 'feeling;' about
the universe: a sudden 'pick up' accidentally, as your radio might pick up
some unknown station" (xxxvi). Colin Wilson, from The Occult (2003)
"Almost all religions with a historically specifiable point of origin are
initially founded by a single person. In this regard, new religions are much
like new businesses: new businesses are almost always the manifestation of
the vision and work of a single entrepreneur" (29). James R. Lewis, from Legitimating
New Religions (2003)
"Seems to me that religion---something so deeply touching the human mind,
often sentimentally imprinted on it at a very early age, its inculcation never
the fault of the child inheriting it---has to be treated very carefully."
Gary Leupp, from "The Passion, Rabbi Lerner
and the Gospels"
"Religio means a 'binding back' to the sacred...(76)" David Tacey,
from Jung and the New Age (2001)
Below is the Great Chain of Being:
"God
Spirit Beings
World
Humans
Beasts
Zoophytes (half plant, half animal
Plants
Metals
Stones
Suffice it to say, the Great Chain of Being links humans to nature, and nature
to the hand of God. When this idea is represented pictorially, humankind is
often placed in the center of the universe, and nature is portrayed as a young
woman wearing sun, moon, and stars. People are thus connected to God and the
heavens just as they are to the earth and its creatures” (48). Dan Burton
and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization
(2004)
"What are religions? Religions are psychotherapeutic systems. What are we doing, we psychotherapists? We are trying to heal the suffering of the human mind, of the psyche or the human soul, and religions deal with the same problem. Therefore our Lord himself is a healer; he is a doctor; he heals the sick and deals with the troubles of the soul; and this is exactly what we call psychotherapy. It is not a play on words when I call religion a psychotherapeutic system. It is the most elaborate system, and there is great practical truth behind it. I have a clientel which is pretty large and extends over a number of continents, and where I live we are practically surrounded by Catholics; but during the last thirty years I have not had more than about six practising Catholics among my patients. The vast majority are Protestants and Jews" (181-182) C.G. Jung, from Analytical Psychology
"Sexual purity and virginity matter to Catholics a lot. In their churches, Roman Catholics tend to use candles made of beeswax. The traditional reason might have been that bees produce offspring without having sex" (22). John Portmann, from Sex and Heaven: Catholics in Bed and at Prayer (2003)
"There is a culture of sexual permissiveness in the priesthood. For a long time, pedophilia was accepted as another sexual preference. Church leaders thought it wasn't an abuse of power; they saw it as a psychological problem a few men had, which they would handle internally. They never looked. And they didn't think that that was harmful to children. In my research, it didn't surprise me how that kind of criminal thinking developed from the very beginning. Last week, someone forwarded me an article in which the archbishop of Mobile, Alabama, says that he did not know sexual activity with adolescents was illegal. This is just last week!" Karol Jackowski , from "Divine Intervention: A Nun Speaks Out on Sex Abuse in the Church"
"First of all, the Cathars and Parzival hold in common an obsession with purity" (135). Jean Markale, from The Grail: The Celtic Origins of the Sacred Icon (1999)
“According to Koranic commentator Al-Ash’ari (d. 935), “Each time we sleep with a houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the Elected never softens. The erection is eternal; the sensation that you feel each time you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each chosen will marry seventy houris besides the women he married on earth, and all will have appestising vaginas” Al-Ash’ari, as quoted on page 18 by John Portmann, in Sex and Heaven: Catholics in Bed and at Prayer (2003)
"In order to approach consciousness from an overtly physical perspective, let us travel back to the early twentieth century laboratory of Wilhelm Reich, psychoanalyst and natural scientist who introduced the term "body armor." Reich separated from Sigmund Freud and the stodgy analytic establishment when he saw how existing therapeutic methods, which allowed patients to intellectualize their emotions without feeling them, were not eliminating people's dysfunctions. Utilizing his knowledge of biology, botany, chemistry, anthropology, history, politics, and quantum physics, Reich gave us insights and techniques for reuniting the mind with the body that preceded the numerous bodyoriented therapies popular today. He discerned the life force (which he called "orgone") in a healthy person as free-flowing vertical streamings, confirming both the existence and direction of what the Hindus had perceived as kundalini." Nina Silver, from "The Cosmic Pulse of Wilhelm Reich Where Science, Sex and Spirit Meet"
“The common principle of sexuality and religion is the sensation of nature in one’s organism. When natural sexual expressions were repressed in the human animal during the development of patriarchy, this produced a severe, unbridgeable contradiction between sexuality as a sin and religion as a liberation from sin. In primitive religion, religion and sexuality were ONE: orgonotic plasma excitation. In patriarchy, orgonity becomes “sin” on the one hand and “God” on the other. The functionalist understands the identity of emotions in sexuality and religion, the origin of the estrangement and the dichotomy it created, the fear of sexuality among religious people, and the pornographic degeneracy among the excommunicated. The mechanist and the mystic are a product of this contradiction, remain trapped in it, and perpetuate it. The functionalist breaks through the barriers of this rigid contradiction by finding the common features in emotion, origin, and nature” (107). Wilhelm Reich, from Ether, God and Devil and Cosmic Superimposition (2000)
"In terms of socialization theory, the plausibility of any given symbolic universe is maintained by the ongoing process of conversation with co-inhabitants of a particular belief system" (179). James R. Lewis, from Legitimating New Religions (2003)
"According
to Jung, religion serves a paradoxical role in the psychic economy. Religion
performs the double function of relating us to the divine, yet also of protecting
us from annihilation in the divine. Religion teaches relationship without
fusion or identification, and when the ego is tempted to identify itself with
the divine, religion warns that such grandiosity is sinful and evil" (76).
David Tacey, from Jung and the New Age (2001)
"Religion consists of an offering up of prayers, gifts and honour to divine
beings who operate quite independently of the human race and are infinitely
more powerful than it" (289). Ronald Hutton, The Pagan Religions of the
Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy (1993)
"Religion can tell the difference between a God and a demon, a spirit and
a complex., because it understands this deeper reality in the same way that
science, for instance, understands the material world (76)." David Tacey,
from Jung and the New Age (2001)
"All real religion produces physical results. But the question of how to be
toward these results is the most easily lost element in a teaching. It is
the very first thing to go when a tradition begins to disperse. Both magic
and religion are necessary components of every complete teaching" (92). Jacob
Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"Liberalism
has meant the reduction of religion to the private sphere, or at most to the
realm of civil society" (94). Gianni Vattimo, from After Christianity (2002)
"The rebirth of religion in our common culture must pose a problem for a philosophy
that is accustomed to considering the question of God irrelevant" (87). Gianni
Vattimo, from After Christianity (2002).
"One of the most deplorable aspects of the postmodern era and its so-called
'thought' is the return of the religious dimension in all its different guises..."
(1). Slavvoj Zizek, from The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian
legacy worth fighting for (2000)
"...the sacred response of faith, which emanates from a higher level
than the ego in man, became confused with the ordinary reaction of belief,
only one of the numerous egoistic mechanisms within the mind that seem designed
solely for the purpose of making people feel they are in the right and that
everything is going to be all right" (35). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity:
A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"The doctrine that only pure Israelites would share in the redemption brought about by the Messiah resulted in the belief that salvation itself depended on purity of blood" (121). Kevin MacDonald, from A People That Shall Dwell Alone: Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy, with Diaspora Peoples (2002)
"The
distinctive marks of early Christian thinking can be set down in a few sentences.
Christians reasoned from the history of Israel and of Jesus Christ, from the
experience of Christian worship, and from the Holy Scriptures (and earlier
interpretations of the Scriptures), that is to say, from history, from ritual,
and from text" (xvii). Robert Louis Wilken from The Spirit of Early Christian
Thought (2003)
"...Christianity perceives the cosmos as a theophany...For it affirms not
only that there is indeed a transcendent paradigmatic reality, but that God
himself is the supreme Archetype, of which the cosmos - and all that it contains
- is but a partial and imperfect likeness. All of Nature is "but a glass"
reflecting the Face of God" (58). Wolfgang Smith, from Cosmos & Transcendence:
Breaking Through the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
"With the disappearance of the Ptolemaic world-view Western man lost his sense
of verticality, his sense of transcendence. Or rather these finer perceptions
had now become confined to the purely religious sphere, which thus became
isolated and estranged from the rest of culture. So far as cosmology - Weltanschauung
in the literal sense - was concerned, European civilization became de-Christianized"
(142). Wolfgang Smith, from Cosmos & Transcendence: Breaking Through
the Barrier of Scientistic Belief (1984)
"The emotional nature of Christian faith, indeed, shows how intimately it
was related to the older faiths which had a phallic basis. In Christianity,
we see the final expression of the primitive worship of the father as the
head of the family, the generator, as the result of an instinctive reasoning
process leading up from the particular to the universal, with which, however,
the dogma of the "fall" and its consequences--deduced so strangely from a
phallic legend--have been incorporated. The "phallic" is, indeed, the only
foundation on which an emotional religion can be based." C. Staniland Wake,
from Influence
of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity
"As
a religion of the emotions, therefore, the position of Christianity is perfectly
unassailable. As a system of rational faith, however, it is far different;
and the tendency of the present age is just the reverse of that which took
place among the Hebrews--the substitution of a Heavenly King for a Divine
Father. In fact, modern science is doing its best to effect for primitive
fetishism, or demon-worship, what Christianity has done for phallic worship--generalize
the powers of nature and make of God a Great Unknowable Being, who, like the
Elohim of the Mosaic cosmogony, in some mysterious manner, causes all things
to appear at a word. This cannot be, however, the real religion of the future.
If God is to be worshipped at all, the Heavenly King and Divine Father must
be combined in a single term; and he must be viewed, not as the unknowable
cause of being, but as the Great Source of all being, who may be known in
nature--the expression of his life and energy." C. Staniland Wake, from Influence
of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity
"While over 60% of the Americans claim to believe in the fundamental truths
of Christianity; the Virgin Birth, Physical Resurrection, and Divinity of
Jesus (Washington Times, Dec. 21, 2003), Dan Brown's blasphemous novel, The
Da Vinci Code with 4 million copies in print, is a runaway best seller. It
has been #1 on the New York Times list for months. The theme is simple. It
is about an alleged sexual relationship between Jesus of Nazarteth and Mary
Magdalen, the perfidy of the Catholic Church in covering up this relationship,
Sacred Sex and the Eternal Feminine. For the educated Christian reader this
sort of writing is simply ludicrous, but the book has obviously struck a chord
in the collective imagination of a large segment of the population. Its appeal,
in fact, does not, however, stop at our shores. The Da Vinci Code has, to
date, been translated into 35 languages. What is the appeal of this book?"
Hamilton Reed Armstrong, from "The Da Vinci Code Decoded"
"No wonder the idea of dogma, which has become such a negative word for most
modern people, developed in the way it did. Mystery exists, the basic truths
of the teaching exist, but they are hidden from us. But then, how did dogma
become such an oppressive element for so many Christians? How did it change
from being a system of ideas to guide one's search for relationship with the
Higher into a rigid set of assertions that provoke the reaction of belief
or disbelief? (42-3) Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey
of Rediscovery (2003)
"The real division, the real choice, is not between "reason" and "faith."
The important distinction is between consciousness of one's own states and
the unconscious reactions of both thought and emotion" (37-8). Jacob
Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"But the fact remains that this assumes that man is able to reach God by his
own powers. Christianity must categorically deny this, for two reasons. The
first is the reality of original sin. This consists in a separation between
man and God, which man cannot abolish by himself...The second reason is that
the Christian God is absolutely inaccessible. He alone can, therefore, introduce
man to this participation in His nature which is supernatural life is." Jean
Danielou, from "The Transcendence of Christianity," Chapter 9 of Introduction
to the Great Religions (1964) as cited by Jacob Needleman on page 50 of
Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"It is likely that humanity's perception of the dual nature of life and the
world began to be formulated once humans reached a point where they found
some freedom from their biological concerns (food, protection, and procreation)
and thus had time to reflect on their destiny. This inevitably led to a speculation
that could even be classified as metaphysical: The perception of death attested
to a necessary evil principle, from which emerged the idea of struggle against
this principle and an anxious speculation as to what came after" (111). Jean
Markale, from Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars (2003)
"Like all the major religions of the world, Christianity is more than a set
of devotional practices and a moral code: it is also a way of thinking about
God, about human beings, about the world and history" (xiii). Robert Louis
Wilken from The Spirit of Early Christian Thought (2003)
"One becomes a full member of a community not simply by identifying with its
explicit symbolic tradition, but when one also assumes the spectral dimension
that sustains this tradition: the undead ghosts that haunt the living, the
secret history of traumatic fantasies transmitted 'between the lines', through
its lacks and distortions" (64). Slavvoj Zizek, from The Fragile Absolute
or, Why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for (2000)
"If you adhere to a certain religion, for instance, you may be discouraged from questioning certain things - or even forbidden to ask certain questions. Perhaps you cannot inquire into what God is, or you cannot inquire into Christ, or you cannot ask if Buddha's enlightenment had any limitations. This means that there is a boundary around your questioning; certain areas of inquiry are blocked. And that boundedness will limit the creativity and unfoldment that is possible. So true inquiry has to be absolutely iconoclastic. It must be able to inquire into, challenge, and question any belief, any position, any experience, any supposition, any knowledge, anything and anybody" (27). A.H. Almaas, from Spacecruiser Inquiry: True Guidance for the Inner Journey (2002)
“It
is only when religion emphasizes its heart and soul and essence – namely,
direct mystical experience and transcendental consciousness, which is disclosed
not by the eye of flesh (give that to science) nor by the eye of mind (give
that to philosophy) but rather by the eye of contemplation – that religion
can both stand up to modernity and offer something for which modernity has
a desperate need: a genuine, verifiable, repeatable injunction to bring forth
the spiritual domain” (167) Ken Wilber, from Marriage of Soul and Sense
(1998)
"Religion in the modern and postmodern world will rest on its unique strength
– namely contemplation – or it will serve merely to support a premodern, predifferentiated
level of development in its own adherents: not an engine for growth and transformation,
but a regressive, antiliberal, reactionary force of lesser engagements" (167).
Ken Wilber, from Marriage of Soul and Sense (1998)
Fact,
History, Knowledge, Lie and Secret
"All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals
in this novel are accurate." Dan Brown, from The Da Vinci Code (2003)
"It's also driven theologians mad and peeved art historians, because of the air of fact that's implied, though the book, by Dan Brown, is clearly fiction. Not to mention the claim, made by one of The Da Vinci Code's learned characters, "that almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false."The distorted theology, and what some claim is Catholic-bashing, has so alarmed some academic and religious writers that at least four more or less scholarly books refuting this work of fiction will be published in the next few weeks. "His ideas are as wild as you can get in religion these days," says James Beverley, professor at Toronto's Tyndale Seminary." Leslie Scrivener, from "Cracking the Da Vinci Code" in Toronto Star Apr. 10, 2004
"The lie plays a tremendous role in human life. The world is swallowed up in lies...Through the organising of these myths, lie runs the world, a watch-guard over human society. Ancient myths arose out of a collective subconscious creativity, and at their foundation was always some sort of reality. Contemporary myths are characteristically and consciously an organised lie. In them is no naivete. This may sound pessimistic, but it must needs be recognised, that lie is mortared into the foundation of the organisation of society." N. A. Berdyaev, from "The Paradox of the Lie"
"Almost everything people believe in as grown ups consists of lies they were told as children. Culture is nothing more than agreed upon lies." Christopher S. Hyatt, The Tree of Lies
"In practice of course most people are so absorbed within the 'structure' of reality that they acquired as children that they have no awareness that entirely different world views are possible. It is as if they live inside bubbles with 100 percent internal reflection. Others may be able to see into their bubbles but they cannot see out." Bob Trubshaw, from "cosmologies as 'deep structures'"
“In Reich’s implied philosophy of history, all the crimes of the patriarchal period of humankind (c. 4000 B.C.E. to the present) stemmed from the emotional plagues that had coursed through the communal psychic systems that shaped individual lives. Having lived through the human emotional plagues that spawned the two world wars, Reich saw that none of the major events of wartime could be blamed on the will of selected individuals acting rationally. Rather, those travails were products of leaders and followers who could not act rationally because they were trapped in an overwhelming disorder that had its roots in the unconscious and it shaping by the antisexual forces of patriarchy. By the same logic, such plague responses as racism, sexism, and xenophobia were all rooted in ancient patriarchal structures that abjected otherness in the same way that they denied the unconscious, even while in its grip” (174). Robert S. Corrington, from Wilhelm Reich: Psychoanalyst and Radical Naturalist (2003)
“One history passes by in full view and, strictly speaking, is the history of crime, for if there were no crime there would be no history, All the most important turning-points and stages of this history are marked by crimes: murders, acts of violence, robberies, wars, rebellions, massacres, tortures, executions…This is one history, the history which everybody knows, the history which is taught in schools. The other history is the history which is known to very few. For the majority it is not seen at all behind the history of crime. But what is created by this hidden history exists long afterwards, sometimes for many centuries, as does Notre Dame. The visible history, the history proceeding on the surface, the history of crime, attributes to itself what the hidden history has created. But actually the visible history is always deceived by what hidden history has created” (344-5). P.D. Ouspensky, from A New Model of the Universe (1967)
“We
can look back from this world-conception to ancient times when man’s picture
of the universe was very different. All that has remained of it or those
traditions which in the form in which they exist today – in astrology and
the like – are sheer dilettantism. That is what has remained of ancient astronomy,
and it has also remained, ossified and paralyzed, in the symbols of certain
secret societies, Masonic societies and the like. There is usually entire
ignorance of the fact that these things are relics of an ancient astronomy.
This ancient astronomy was quite different from that of today, for it was
based, not upon mathematical principles but upon ancient clairvoyant vision”
(40-5). Rudolph Steiner, from The Bridge Between Universal Spirituality
and the Physical Constitution of Man (1958)
"Mystical knowledge refers to the private, ineffable and non-verbal communication
(i.e., the vision quest); it always remains secret." Jerome H. Neyrey, from
"The Sociology of Secrecy
and the Fourth Gospel"
"Theological" knowledge is a kind of "deep knowledge that penetrates below
the surface," thus providing mythical frameworks of interpretation or rationales
for perception and action; novelist Tony Hillerman has gained special access
to this through informers." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The Sociology of Secrecy and
the Fourth Gospel"
"Liturgical" knowledge refers to the correct manner of conducting ceremonies
and rituals, i.e., dances and chants, or simply about "behavior" within the
group." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The Sociology of Secrecy and
the Fourth Gospel"
"Dogma" refers to a superficial form of knowledge about the group; it involves
a rote form of learning and represents the official "received" views of the
group..." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The Sociology of Secrecy and
the Fourth Gospel"
"Participatory" knowledge represents... a miscellaneous category for the various
pieces of information that low level performers and spectators have (e.g.,
liturgical participation in a language foreign to those attending). Certain
people know more than others, because information is controlled so that certain
people know more than others. Those most "in the know" with knowledge of the
core myths and rituals rank highest. Those with specialized knowledge of this
or that item belong in the middle, while others who know little or understand
superficially are ranked lowest. This may be easily verified by inquiring
into the degrees of membership in various secret societies, such as the Masons
or the KKK." Jerome H. Neyrey, from "The Sociology of Secrecy and
the Fourth Gospel"
“Thus, taking Christianity for a model, one might ask: What was the teaching of Jesus? Was it only what he said? Or does it not include what he did and suffered? But does the teaching stop even there? A critic may claim that Jesus failed because Christian life has become what it has become. But is not the distortion, the crucifixion of the teaching, also, in a larger sense, part of the teaching itself? And if man is to become a Christian, perhaps it is absolutely necessary that he witness the same process of distortion within himself. How else will he understand that it is in one’s one own thought and emotion that the “crucifixion,” the distortion of the truth, really takes place?” (13) Jacob Needleman, from A Sense of the Cosmos: Scientific Knowledge and Spiritual Truth (2003)
"Karl Popper’s system of falsificationism requires a theory to have enough of an empirical basis that it can be proven false, and any hypothesis that fails this test is not a valid possibility. This is a serious challenge to the mystical disciplines and one that points to the importance of demonstrated reliability and coherence in a theory for it to be distinguishable from a fantasy or a lie." from "Science, Mysticism, and Revolutions"
"The falsification test is valuable in cases where trickery is suspected, or in cases where it should be suspected. However, it is possible to argue that some beliefs classified as magical can be falsified. For example, it is commonly observed that various magical systems “work” best in the context of the culture from which they are derived, suggesting a psychological mechanism in magic that operates on the common values and fears of a particular culture. Therefore, a voodoo hex using an object representative of the intended victim (i.e., a doll or photo) can be quite harmful to a citizen of Africa who believes in its power and who can probably pick up on subtle suggestions from other people who know about the hex. The target of the hex will begin to experience increased vulnerability and will perhaps become ill. A citizen of Europe, however, is less likely to suffer if he is hexed, because the cultural system that favors the hexing process is not present in European surroundings. In Africa, then, the belief system of voodoo has an empirical basis in the effectiveness of hexes and perhaps therefore can be falsified." from "Science, Mysticism, and Revolutions"
"There
has been...two secret traditions that have gone hand in hand. One is the Bloodline,
which goes back to the Nephilim. The other is the Tradition -- the Authentic
Tradition. The two have complemented one another, and sometimes they have
worked against each other, like when witches and magicians were destroyed
in countries where the Bloodline was alive. This double Tradition is also
implied in the dual fathers of Merovée, and the questions concerning the fatherhood
of Jesus. With the dual fatherhood of Merovée we could say that on the one
hand, a descent from the Houses of Troy / Arcadia / Phoenicia, on the other
the Jewish intermarriage with the Visigoths. This Jewish intermarriage could
have included offspring of the historical personage who has been given to
posterity under the name of Jesus. And it could include persons such as the
Magdalene, a Benjaminite, and a popular Saint in France. This would account
for the Legend of the Two Fathers. And the Yeshu of the Johannite Legend could
have been an Incarnation of Horus, as proclaimed by the Priests of Heliopolis."
from " THE BRETHREN OF
THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE GIFT"
"In those distant and ancient times, covered up with dust and mold, Divine
Rule was the highest rule possible. This was usually facilitated by Divinities
mating with Humans to produce offspring. The Stuarts ruled by Divine Right,
being directly descended from the Celtic Royal House. The Hohenstaufens also,
and, of course, the Merovingians, lest we forget; and the kings of the Ancient
World all ruled by Divine Right. This is carried back to Sumer, when Kingship
was lowered from Heaven." from " THE BRETHREN OF
THE GIFT: LEGACY OF THE NEPHILIM BOOK ONE: THE LEGACY OF THE GIFT"
"In Bloodline of the Holy Grail it was related that the modern style
of Christianity, which evolved from the Roman Church in the 4th century, was
actually a created hybrid - a religion based on themes from numerous others
including, of course, Judaism. Now it transpires that Judaism itself was no
less of a hybrid in the early days, being a composite of Egyptian, Canaanite
and Mesopotamian traditions, with the stories, hymns, prayers and rituals
of the various and sundry gods brought together and related to a newly contrived
One God concept." Laurence Gardner, from "Genesis of the Grail Kings"
"What is particularly interesting is that, historically, this was not fully
contrived in the time of Abraham, nor even in the later time of Moses. It
did not happen until the 6th century BC, when tens of thousands of Israelites
were held captive by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Until that time, the Hebrew
and Israelite records referred to any number of gods and goddesses by individual
names, and under a general plural classification of the Elohim." Laurence
Gardner, from "Genesis
of the Grail Kings"
"When we are told by the Roman Catholic Egyptologist, Renouf, that "Neither Hebrews nor Greeks borrowed any of their ideas from Egypt," we can only think of such a dictum as an intentional blind, or as a result of putting up the glass to an eye that cannot see. It is simply impossible for the non-evolutionist, the bigotted Bibliolator, or the Müllerite, to interpret or to understand the mythology of Egypt. Its roots go deep, and its branches spread too far, for their range of thought." Gerald Massey , from LUNIOLATRY: ANCIENT AND MODERN
Grabbing the Occult
"Brown's approach seems to consist of grabbing large chunks of his stated sources and tossing them together in a salad of a story. From Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Brown lifts the concept of the Grail as a metaphor for a sacred lineage by arbitrarily breaking a medieval French term, Sangraal (Holy Grail), into sang (blood) and raal (royal). This holy blood, according to Brown, descended from Jesus and his wife, Mary Magdalene, to the Merovingian dynasty in Dark Ages France, surviving its fall to persist in several modern French families, including that of Pierre Plantard, a leader of the mysterious Priory of Sion. The Priory — an actual organization officially registered with the French government in 1956 — makes extraordinary claims of antiquity as the "real" power behind the Knights Templar. It most likely originated after World War II and was first brought to public notice in 1962. With the exception of filmmaker Jean Cocteau, its illustrious list of Grand Masters — which include Leonardo da Vinci, Issac Newton, and Victor Hugo — is not credible, although it's presented as true by Brown." Eric P. Wijnants, from "DaVinci Code Revealed: The Movie, P.1"
“For these reasons, we feel the occult is a vitally important subject. Scholars increasingly see it as a “third current,” no less important to the shaping of Western civilization that Greek rationalism and Judeo-Christianity” (2). Dan Burton and David Grandy, Magic, Mystery and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (2004)
"Not all mysterious theories are science disguised as mysticism. True occultists are defined by their primary orientation toward non-falsifiable phenomena outside the realm of physical experience. During the Renaissance, unlike the contemporary period, mystics could also be respected as rational scientists to some degree. There was significant overlap of magic and science in hermetics, a framework for studying the universe which derived from the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus and was first translated in the fourteenth century as a document called the “Hermetica.” The Hermetica encouraged religious skepticism and independent evaluation of scripture, a perspective that is often in agreement with modern science. Although hermeticists tended to reject the scientific perspective in favor of mysticism, there are many themes within hermetics that concurred with the science of the sixteenth century, particularly the belief in harmony and mathematical patterns in the heavens." from "Science, Mysticism, and Revolutions"
"Astrology...was the language of occult philosophy" (73). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
"What is nowadays referred to as the Occult actually derives from Esoteric or Hermetic Philosophy, which in the Western European Tradition is based on the three symbolic languages of Qabalah, Astrology, and Tarot. While there is a great deal of speculation as to where the basic systems of Western Esotericism originated from, let it be suffice to say at this point that what is now known as the Occult also contains significant contributions from Greek, Celtic, Egyptian, Atlantean, Lemurian, and Extra-terrestrial sources." Frater R.S., from "The Occult"Magic and Emotion, Christ and Wisdom
“Magic
is as old as humanity itself. From the earliest animist concepts of a universe
alive with potent spiritual forces to the emergence of Wicca and contemporary
Neopaganism, magic has helped invest the cosmos with sacred meaning. For the
practitioner, the magical arts provide a sense of power and purpose in an
essentially mysterious world” (6). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft
(2003)
“Magic uses sacred and personal symbols to convey spiritual significance.
From a magical perspective, symbols provide a meaningful bridge between the
familiar world and the much less predictable world governed by gods, spirits
and unseen forces” (6). Nevill Drury, from Magic and Witchcraft (2003)
"Magic is simply the way the world looks when you only have images and symbols, not concepts, not rules, not formal operations, not vision" (276). Ken Wiber from Eye to Eye (1997)
"Without
magic, Christianity turns man against nature, the creation of God, and eventually
against God himself" (92). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey
of Rediscovery (2003)
"Without, religion, however, magic by itself draws man fatally under the thrall
of influences which pervade the earth and for which human emotional forces
are nothing more than fuel" (92). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity:
A Journey of Rediscovery (2003)
"Reich indicates "emotion" means "moving out." ... [T]ake the word "emotion" literally in speaking of sensations and movements. Microscopic observation of amebae [sic] subjected to slight electric stimuli renders the naming of the term "emotion" in an unmistakable manner. ' Basically, emotion is an expressive plasmatic motion. Pleasurable stimuli cause an "emotion" of the protoplasm from the center towards the periphery. Conversely, unpleasurable stimuli cause an "emotion" -- or rather, "remotion" -- from the periphery to the center of the organism. These two basic directions of biophysical plasma current correspond to the two basic affects of the psychic apparatus, pleasure and anxiety" (146). Wilhelm Reich, Selected Writings (1961).
"Christianity
does not work with either mechanical or psychic energy, but with a different
level of force to which the name of "spirit" or "spiritual energy" is given"
(93). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery
(2003)
"It is when humans can say, "Not I, but Christ in me," that the world can
be touched by sacred magic, and God's will can be united with human will to
bring about healing restoration and redemption." Joan M. Aldrich, on "Sophia's
Astrology of the Soul"
"Pre-Christian religions remain at the level of 'wisdom'; they emphasize the
insufficiency of every temporal finite object, and preach either moderation
in pleasures (one should avoid excessive attachment to finite objects, since
pleasure is transitory) or the withdrawal from temporal reality in favor of
the True Divine Object which alone can provide Infinite Bliss" (96). Slavvoj
Zizek, from The Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian legacy worth
fighting for (2000)
"Christianity, on the contrary, offers Christ as a mortal-temporal individual,
and insists that belief in the temporal Event of Incarnation is the
only path to eternal truth and salvation. In this precise sense, Christianity
is a 'religion of Love': in love, one singles out, focuses on, a finite temporal
object which 'means more than anything else' (96). Slavvoj Zizek, from The
Fragile Absolute or, Why is the Christian legacy worth fighting for (2000)
"There are many gradations of energy within the band of transition between
the mechanical and the psychic. But the main point is that the world of life
is to a great extent created and maintained through the expression of emotional
energy" (93). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey of Rediscovery
(2003)
"The control and manipulation of emotional energy is the secret of all magic,
for good or evil" (93). Jacob Needleman, from Lost Christianity: A Journey
of Rediscovery (2003)
Initiation and Planets; Mysteries and Math
"Initiation leads to the stream that, once entered, sweeps a man onward until it carries him to the feet of the Lord of the World…"(14) Alice A. Bailey, from Initiation, Human and Solar
“This ancient star-wisdom was in no way akin to the arithmetical astrology sometimes considered valuable today, of it was a wisdom voiced by the initiates in such a way that impulses for individual action and conduct went forth from the Mysteries” (7-9). Rudolph Steiner, from The Influence of Lucifer and Ahriman (1954)
"These ancient mysteries were originally given to humanity by the Hierarchy, and were-in their turn-received by the Hierarchy from the Great White Lodge on Sirius. They contain the clue to the evolutionary process, hidden in number and words....They veil the secret of man's origin and destiny"(330). Alice Bailey, from The Rays and the Initiation (1955)
“The movements of the planets were carefully monitored by priests and astrologers throughout the ancient world because it was felt that they controlled human fate” (60). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
"C.F.
Dupuis, pantheist and multitalented scholar of late 18th century, studied
the origin of religion in general from astral mythology... God is seen as
the cosmos itself. Religions vested natural observances, especially astronomical
ones, in allegories and myth, building clergy and superstition on top." Klaus
Schilling on Arthur Drews, The Denial of
the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present"
"The male-female polarity plays a great role in Dupuis' theories. The sky/heaven
took the father role, the earth a mother role. Another polarity is that of
darkness and light, which naturally translated to ethical dimensions. This
is now applied to Christianity. In autumn, when light retires and darkness
starts to prevail, the constellation of the serpent rises with the sun. The
paradisic times of summer ends, and the hard times of winter are approaching.
In spring, the constellation of the sheep rises with the sun. This gives
the paradise fall of Genesis and the resurrection of the lamb as the cornerstones
of Christian religion, fall into sin and redemption. Due to precision, the
above astronomical context is no longer valid. Dupuis also explained many
more Christian aspects from astral mythology. As all the biography of Jesus
from the Gospels is written in the sky, it's obsolete to even think about
a historical man. All ancient testimonies are just secondary hearsay based
on Gospel legend and thus historically pointless." Klaus Schilling on Arthur
Drews, The
Denial of the Historicity of Jesus in Past and Present"
“The individual had derived from each (planetary sphere) a specific temporal-spatial
quality, which on the one hand contributed to his character, but on the other
was a limitation. Hence, the seven stages of initiation were to facilitate
passages of the spirit, one by one, beyond the seven limitations, culminating
in a realization of the unqualified state”(255). Joseph Campbell, from The
Masks of God- Occidental Mythology (1974)
“The seven sacraments can be seen as a sort of ladder and once more correspond with the planetary spheres. Thus we have Baptism (the Moon); Penance, (Mercury); Marriage (Venus); Communion, (Sun); Confirmation, (Mars); Holy Orders, (Jupiter); and Last Rites, (Saturn)” (61). Adrian Gilbert, from Magi: Uncovering the Secret Society that Read the Birth of Jesus in the Stars (2002)
“What is Christianity? It is void of form. It never becomes a fable. It does not give its appearance as a phantom. Christianity is living the Christ principle, the wise man in the manger of consciousness in action and it meets you through every house of the Zodiac and through every experience” (89). Frater Achad, from Melchizedek Truth Principles (1988)
"The mathematical zodiac, or celestial mapping grid, as invented under Nebuchadnezzar (or shortly before his reign), quickly diffused to nearby cultures, and in the process inspired many to amend certain traditions, i.e., the Greeks reworked the myths of Heracles and Jason, and the Hebrews infused their sacred writings with numerical suggestions they too knew the newly-created twelve ‘signs’ of the zodiac. As the zodiacal cult of Mithras grew and spread in Roman times, the zodiacal narrative was combined with the life and teachings of Jesus, empowering the new religion of Christianity to take its place alongside of its competitors, as it too reflected the knowledge (read: mastery) of the Heavens through the understanding of its workings." Richard D. Flavin from, "The Zodiacs: Maps of Heaven and History"
“Moreover God, as Shepherd and King, leads [and rules] with law and justice the nature of the heaven, the periods of sun and moon, and the changes and progressions of the other stars – deputing [for the task] His own right Reason (Logos), His First-born Son, to take charge of the sacred flock, as though he were the Great King’s viceroy.” Philo on “Heavenly Man” as quoted on page 157 by G.R.S. Mead in Thrice Greatest Hermes (1964)
"The
theology of Philo is a blending of Platonism and Judaism. The Jewish doctrine
shows God as intimately concerned with the world; the Platonic, though insisting
upon the divine governance and divine formation of the world, does not hold
that the relation which God has to the world‑is necessary or automatic.
The Middle Platonism recognized a hierarchy of divine beings, insisted upon
the transcendence of God, and regarded the visible world as being governed
and made by lower intermediary divine powers. Philo had to reconcile these
two conceptions. C.A Qadir, from "Alexandrio Syriac Thought"
"Philo believed in one God, eternal, unchanging, passionless, far removed
above the world of phenomena as the First Cause of all that exists. Causation,
however, implies change and so God could not be regarded as directly creating
the universe. Intermediary powers are, therefore, needed to explain the governance
and formation of the world and what it contains. These powers Philo described
very confusedly. Sometimes he talked of powers, sometimes of two powers, sometimes
of one." C.A Qadir, from "Alexandrio Syriac Thought"
"The problem before Philo was that of the development of multiplicity from
absolute unity. The solution was sought in the inability of the contemplating
mind to reproduce the absolute unity in itself. Philo gives an account of
the "multiple" apparition of God to human intellect in the De Migratione Abrahuami.When
the soul is illumined by God, it sees Him triple, one with a double shadow;
but at the highest point, the shadow vanishes and God is seen as One. In the
Quaestiones in Genesim, Philo says that the mind "sees God triple" due to
the weakness of its vision. "Just as the bodily eye sees a double appearance
from one light, so the eye of the soul, since it cannot apprehend the one
as one, makes a triple perception, according to the appearance of the chief
serving powers which stand beside the One." C.A Qadir, from "Alexandrio
Syriac Thought"
"Certain numerological conceptions of the Neo‑Pythagoreans appear grotesque to the modern mind It was held by them that the movements of the heavenly bodies were harmoniously adjusted by number‑an idea of Egyptian origin‑and so certain numbers were regarded as having a sacred character, particularly number 10 which represents the sum of a pyramid of four stages, 4‑3‑2‑1=10. In such conceptions, their imagination ran riot to such an extent that one can gain the impression that Neo‑Pythagoreanism is nothing more than astrology, occultism, and twaddle about the mysterious properties of numbers."
C.A Qadir, from "Alexandrio Syriac Thought"
“The period around Christmas also had a symbolic meaning. At this time of the year the sun is in its most southerly position of the sky. Around this time Orion rises just before sunset to be followed by Sirius after the sun has gone down. In other words, Orion, the constellation associated with John the Baptist, is not seen until the star which is in Egypt symbolized Isis, and in Christian times the Virgin Mary, appears above the