Pagan Religions of the Old World

Sun Worship

I have to admit that I’m a “sun worshiper.” I’ll take a nice hot sunny day over a cloudy cold one anytime. (Throw in a beach and I’m even happier!) But the ancients were a little more serious about this sun worshipping business than I am. Being so entirely interconnected with nature and the stars and the sun and all of the wonderment that surrounded them, they paid very close attention to the arrangement of the stars and the cycles of the moon and sun. They intricately knew the patterns of the great orbs as well as we know how to open a car door, get in, put in the key, and start the engine.

It was merely “Sun Patterns 101” for the ancients to recognize that the sun seemed to make an annual descent southward until the time of year we now call December 21 or 22. This is, of course, the winter solstice. It is at this time when, to their earth-centric point of view, the sun stops moving southerly for three days and then starts to move northward again.

Some ancient tribal people celebrated this return (as do I, being the “sun worshipper” that I am) by noting, quite accurately, that the sun began its return around the time of year we call December 25. The Sun was “born again” on December 25th. They imagined that it had died for three days.

Some groups said the sun was “born of a Virgin” because the calendar originally began in the constellation of Virgo. They said the Sun is the “Light of the World.” The sun rising in the morning is the “Savior of Mankind.” There could be no doubt that life depends on the Sun. “God’s Sun” was “Our Savior.” Looking at the Sun, you might even say that the sun wears a corona, “crown of thorns” or halo. Look at the reflection – the sun “walks on water.” The sun is closely associated with the constellations through which it passes. These are the 12 months and the 12 signs of the zodiac, also known as the “helpers” or its “disciples.” One familiar depiction of the sun was a circle divided by a cross, which divides the four seasons and equinoxes, each being a cause for celebration.

The Sun also represented the three stages of life, and this introduced the very first trinity:

1.) The Sun is Born Again at dawn
2.) At noon the Sun is Mature and begins the work of God.
3.) The Sun is Old at dusk and dies only to be reborn again.

All the ancients knew that we mortals are bound to a life on Earth, but the sky was the abode of God’s Sun. He resides “up there” in “Heaven.” Life Everlasting for all Eternity, past and future. Some would imagine that we would be in this Heaven Above in our passing. Even the bible says that God is a “Consuming Fire” in heaven. (Deuteronomy 4:24 or Hebrews 12:29)

This concept had a great influence on many religions. Some ancients imagined that “God’s Sun” was actually the Son of God. And this also brought the idea that, “The Father is glorified in His Son.” In fact, the day of the week we honor for worship and not working is SUNday in honor of the pagan sun god. The halos of Catholic saints are representative of the sun’s halos. Egyptians also had Sun Disks that had quite a similar look.

Horus

There were many other gods that had sun-related mythologies (stories) attached to them. In Egypt one of these was known as Horus, which goes back three thousand years before Jesus Christ. At daybreak, this wonderful, newborn child is, of course, “Born Again.” Horus is risen on the horizon.

But oddly enough, it seems that Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Meri on December 25th in a cave/manger with his birth being announced by a star in the East and attended by three wise men. What? Horus also did some amazing things in his life time. He taught in the temple when he was a child. He was baptized when he was 30 years old by “Anup the Baptizer.” Horus performed miracles and raised a man named El-Azar-us, from the dead. Not only did Horus walk on water, he was also crucified, buried in a tomb, and then resurrected. Curious…

Horus was known as “the Way,” “the Fisher,” “the Truth,” “the Light,” “God's Anointed Son,” “the Son of Man,” “the Good Shepherd,” “the Lamb of God,” and “the Word.” He was also was called “the KRST,” or “Anointed One.”

In fact, in the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis. The image of Isis nursing miraculously conceived son Horus conjures up coincidental ideas of the Virgin Mary with Jesus, but we’ll be covering these strange similarities soon.

As with the Sun Worshippers, there was also a trinity with Horus that had more of a family thing going on. There was Atum the Father and Ra the Holy Spirit. Add Horus and we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In the later years of Horus he is imagined with 12 followers (or disciples) known as Har-Khuttie. Horus did have an enemy, and originally this was also the dark side of Horus, or his other face. This evil enemy was “Set” or “Sata.” Horus struggles with Sata for 40 days in the wilderness. Some claim that this myth represents the triumph of light over dark. This triumph is most noted on December 25.

Krishna

Let’s move from Egypt over to India in 1200 BCE. Witness the ancient story of the Virgin Mother Devaki being visited by spirits to announce the impending birth of an immaculately conceived child who is God’s Sun and the “son of God.” Here we find the heathen Savior Krishna. Krishna shares many of Horus’ now seemingly universal god-traits. Aside from the birth from a spotless virgin attended by wise men, as well as shepherds, they were both considered god incarnate as they worked miracles, restored sight, cast out devils, and raised the dead. They were both baptized (Krishna in the River Ganges), crucified (Krishna between two thieves), died, buried, and resurrected in three days and worshipped as the “savior of men.” He is also part of a trinity the “Beginning, the Middle and the End.” He proclaimed himself the “Resurrection” and the “way to the Father.”

Additionally, Krishna was presented at birth with frankincense, myrrh, and gold. He was without sin, of royal descent, and raised by a human father that was a carpenter. He preached of a great and final day of judgment and used parables to teach the people about charity and love. In death he stood transfigured (meaning transformed into a god appearance, superhuman as it were—of course we might collectively imagine that appearance to be bright and shining) in front of his disciples.

Much was written about Krishna. He is called the ”Shepherd God” and “Lord of lords.” More than that, he was “the Redeemer,” “Firstborn,” “Sin Bearer,” “Liberator,” and “Universal Word.” He was considered, “Alpha and Omega” as well as being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. He was prophesized to return to battle evil forces in a second coming.

Most telling, however, is the title his disciples bestowed on him—a word that means “pure essence.” That word is “Jezeus.” We might also take note of the fact that a common earlier English spelling of Krishna was “Christna.”

Mithra

After Krishna came Mithraism, found in both Persia and India around the sixth century BCE. Again we find that Mithra (or Mithras) was born of a virgin, with a few shepherds present on December 25th. Also considered to be a great traveling teacher and master, he had 12 companions or disciples as he performed miracles. Just as Horus and Krishna, Mithra was buried in a tomb, died, and after three days was resurrected and rose again.

Mithras was known as “the way,” “the Truth,” “the Light,” “the Redeemer,” “the Messiah,” “the Savior,” “the word,” “the Son of God,” and ”the Good Shepherd.” Mithra was pictured carrying a lamb on his shoulders. Sunday was sacred and known as “the Lord’s Day” centuries before Jesus.

As yet another Sun God, members of the Mithraic cult had magnificent celebrations on December 25th. They used bells, candles, gifts, hymns, and “communion.” From December 25th until the spring equinox known as Estra were the “40 days” which later became Christian Lent.

The mythology finally places Mithra in rock tomb called “Petra.” After three days, he was removed with giant celebrations, festival, and great joy. (This sounds much like Matthew 16:18: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.”)

Mithraism hit Rome in the first century BCE as the Mithraic cult fled Persia. Here it flourished as the Sun God Natalis Solis Invicti (NSI). The leader of this religion ruled from what is now Vatican hill, which is a place previously sacred to Mithra. This male leader was called Papa (Pope). The Roman sun festival at the solstice celebrated NSI. Books in honor of NSI were called “Helio Biblia,” which translates to us as either “Sun Book” or “Holy Bible.” (I’ll bet they also contained a warning about looking directly at God, the Sun!)

More Gods to Pick From

There was certainly an abundance of gods to choose from in these early formative days. It would seem as if any of them could have become the basis of today’s exoteric religions, judging from the similarity of their mythos. Look at the Greek god Attis, born of the Virgin Nana, (or sometimes Cybelem) on December 25th and was reborn and rose from the dead on the third day. Attis was both the Father and the Divine Son. His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection were celebrated annually, with ritual communions of bread and wine. The wine represented the God's blood; the bread became the body of the savior.

Consider Adonis who was son of the virgin Myrha. There was Hermes, the son of the virgin Maia, as well as a member of a holy trinity Hermes Tris-Megistus. The god Dionysus, turned water into wine. Bacchus was crucified in 200 BCE. Prometheus descended from heaven as God incarnate as man, to save mankind, and was crucified, suffered, and rose from the dead.

Nimrod

Nimrod was represented in a dual role of God the Father and Ninus, the son of Semiramis, and her olive branch was symbolic of this offspring produced through a ‘virgin birth’. Ninus was also known as Tammuz who was said to have been crucified with a lamb at his feet and placed in a cave. When a rock was rolled away from tile cave's entrance three days later, his body had disappeared. Nimrod was symbolized by a fish and the origins of the Popes nutre shaped like a fish head. Nimrod was the son of Cush. Nimrod was a Mason. The Tower of Babel was one of the most ancient traditions of Masonry.

The original Christmas festival originated in the Babylon founded by Nimrod, the grandsom of Ham, the son of Noah. Nimrod originated the Babylonish system of organised competition, man-ruled governments and empires based upon the competitive and profit-making economic system. Nimrod who built the original tower of Babel, the first city of Babylon, Nineveh (the capital of Assyria) and many other commercial and pagan-religious centres.

Nimrod married his own mother, Semiramis. Legend has it, after his untimely death, she claimed that a full-grown evergreen tree sprang overnight from a dead tree stump, which symbolised the springing forth unto new life of the dead Nimrod. On each anniversary of his birth, she claimed, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gifts upon it. 25 December was the birthday of Nimrod. It is from this myth, created by a woman living in an incestual relationship, that we get the original Christmas tree.

Pagan Goddesses

But enough about us guy deities! What about the female half of the equation? If the male gods are “up there,” then are the female goddesses below us? Well, Earth always has been thought of as our “Mother Earth” or “Mother Nature.” The ancients could see that rain falling from heaven impregnated and brought life to Mother Earth. So it seemed logical that the Father was in Heaven, the Earth was our Mother. In the ancient Canaan (which is now the state of Israel) the fertility (and sexual) rites of spring were celebrated each year in what was called “The Marriage Feast of Canaan,” where the intercourse between God the Father and the Mother Earth was acknowledged as the rains of spring would bring forth their crops.

Eastre (a.k.a. Eostre) was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: eastre. Other variations of the name for goddesses of fertility were Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos.

The female powers in animist cultures was much more powerful to them than the male because females had the power to create new life. But, as is described in far more detail in Section I of Cultural Vision, “The ‘Roots’ of Domination,” as tribes became more war-like and the memes of Domination were growing like a virus throughout these newly evolving societies, the female goddesses were more and more discarded in favor of male deities. However, the pagans, who lived away from the cultural centers where these male gods were becoming more powerful, still kept a large repertoire of goddesses for aspects of their mythologies.

As the great exoteric religions were becoming institutionalized, it was difficult to attract the regular folks, who lived simple agricultural lives in the countryside, to become followers of the new systems of belief. (The word “pagan” means “country dwellers.”) There became a concerted effort to demonize their beliefs. In fact, the word “villain” meaning wicked soul, is derived from the word “village.”

The Pentacle once symbolized the perfect balance between male and female, going as far back as 4000 BCE. The church in a vast smear campaign against pagan religions demonized many symbols of the female goddesses, and even male ones that were part of the ancient pagan myths. Poseidon’s trident became the devil’s pitchfork; the Wise Crone’s pointed hat became the symbol of a witch; the horns of a bull became the horns of the devil, which is where the word “horny” comes from.

As I noted above, the ability to produce new life made women sacred –- essentially a goddess. But this divine sex worship took the perceived divine powers away from the church which was seeking to control and dominate at the behest of those who would profit from such control. Sex was portrayed as disgusting and sinful. Many religions did this. Eve was the one with the sin of temptation on her hands. Women needed to be controlled. Even childbirth pain was now viewed as rightful punishment. The church burned 5 million women at the stake. This turn in events in the Domination cultural evolution led to the male hierarchy in new religions that placed men in all positions of power.

Christianity is the story of the ruthless quashing of all things feminine in the spiritual arena, and the continued ascension of the male influence in all things cultural.

NEXT PAGE: INTENTIONAL MYTHOLOGY