Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by J H Jensen
(J H, if you're out there, please contact us so we can properly credit you!)
Yeshua fulfilled a
powerful role as Son-
of-God. He seemed to
fit the archetype of
several existing pagan
gods and demi-gods
who were
personifications of the
dying resurrecting god,
or the well known
solar myth, as reflected
by such popular deities
as Mithra,
Heracles/Hercules,
Tammuz, and
Dionysus.
!
c "
#
WHO is ISIS? At the apex of her influence, this
Mother Goddess of Rebirth was worshiped
throughout the Greco-Roman world. Her temples
were finally closed in the 4th century AD, but her
role as Mother of God, as well as many other
Christian borrowings from her mythos, were
assumed by the Virgin Mary.
She and the baby Horus are the icons that were
converted into the Madonna and Child by the early
Christians. It is said that the worship and love for Isis, the
goddess of the home and hearth, was so great she was literally
absorbed into Christian iconography. She was loved and
adored for her compassion, loyalty, and healing ability.
Isis is pictured in ancient art holding the slain body of her
beloved Osiris across her lap, just as Christianity portrayed
Mary holding the slain Jesus across her lap, -- called the Pieta.
Isis is also the first winged female to appear in earth's ancient
artwork. Middle Eastern / Mediterranean goddesses Astarte
and Anat as well as Lilith and Athena Nike were shown as
winged women, too. Christianity is full of winged women
images these days, they call them angels. We have to remind
those artists that most biblical angels were male warrior types
with no mention of wings!
"In the beginning there was Isis, Oldest of the Old, the
Goddess from whom all becoming arose." -- Egyptian
scriptures
"The mother of the stars, the parent of seasons, and the
mistress of all the world."
-- Lucius Apuleius
Isis origins: Originally
Isis was known as Au
Set, a predynastic
Egyptian Goddess dating
from 3000 BCE. She laid
upon the dead body of
her husband-brother,
Osiris (whose annual
death symbolized the fertilizing of fields by Nile floodwaters),
and conceived Horus, the falcon-headed deity who is the
original "son of God(ess)." The name Isis means "throne
woman," and she was venerated as the inventor of agriculture,
law and medicine, and as the Mother who placed the Sun God
Ra in the sky. Isis was called "She of Ten Thousand Names,"
and in Europe one of her names was Zisa, the wife of Zio who
was also the sky god Tiu, Tiw or Tyr -- the god to whom our
Teutonic ancestors dedicated the third day of the
week: "Tuesday."
Book suggestion: The Mysteries of Isis by DeTraci Regula
Top
$ %
&
Marriage is a sin. (St. Augustine)
Matrimony is impure and unholy, a means of sexual passion.
(Origen)
Marriage is a moral crime, more dreadful than any
punishment or any death...spurcitiae, obscenity, filth.
(Tertullian)
Marriage is corruption, a polluted and foul way of life.
(Tatian)
Marriage is a crime against God. Marriage is prostitution of
the members of Christ. Married people ought to blush at the
state in which they are living. (St. Ambrose)
The primary purpose of a man of God is to cut down the wood
of marriage with the axe of virginity. (St. Jerome)
On 4/13/04 chris@goth... responded:
I read that a large part of the reason for celibacy in the church
was due to the fact that far too much land was being lost to
heirs.
On 4/14/2004 deigngerdoll expanded on the thought:
According to the research I've done, that was the pragmatic
reason for celibacy. I've read in several places that another
reason the church priests became celibate after first being
allowed to marry, was due to pagan Roman tradition. There
were many pagan Roman priests/priestesses who venerated
their gods, such a Vesta/Hestia (vestal virgins) by remaining
chaste. They were put to death if they were found to have lost
their virginity. Many widowed women also became Vestal
priestesses, which influenced the tradition of Catholic widows
becoming nuns if widowed. I believe some of the priests/esses
of some male gods were chaste, as well. Rome took what it
liked from pagan practices (and others) and applied them to
their modern church structure.
What a great combo - retain the land and make people wrong
for natural sexual urges, wrong for the desire to marry and
procreate - the paring of the pragmatic with the traditional.