The Mysteries and 'Baptism'

[Guest guest]

Baptism (Quoting from Chapter 3, p.42 - 'Diabolical Mimicry')

 

(P.42)Jesus' mission begins with his baptism by John the Baptist. Mythologists

such as Joseph Campbell have seen ancient mythological motifs behind this story.

Campbell writes:

 

'The rite of baptism was an ancient rite coming down from the old Sumerian

temple city Eridu, of the water god Ea, " God of the House of Water " . In the

Hellenistic period, Ea was called Oannes, which is in Greek Ioannes, Latin

Johannes, Hebrew Yohanan, English John. Several scholars have suggested,

therefore, that there was never either John or Jesus, but only a water-god and a

sun-god.'[59] [break Quote]

 

What scholars maybe don't realise, is that the Divine can fulfill the prophesies

and 'mythologies' made about them. Shri Mataji has fulfilled all the prophecies

made in all the scriptures regarding the Divine Mother/Holy Spirit/Comforter.

The Incarnation of the Adi Shakti is an aspect of the Great Mother/Devi/Great

Spirit Mother, and as such, She has also reminded us that She was the 'White

Buffalo Calf Woman' to the Native Indians in America:

 

http://adishakti.org/forum/i_heard_with_my_own_ears_shri_mataji_tell_us_i_was_th\

\

e_buffalo_calf_woman_9-07-2007.htm

 

Some scholars might also be suggesting that this 'White Buffalo Calf Woman' was

a mythology that did not really happen:

 

http://www.great-spirit-mother.org/

 

What scholars don't always take into account, is the ability of the Divine to

create 'Divine' synchronicities, that is, to make things happen in a certain

way. That ability is of course, not in the ability of scholars to do, so they

might not always recognize or realise that the Divine is able to do what they

can't do!

 

We have a current example of the Divine ensuring 'Divine' synchronicity, by

having two of the independent witnesses that Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi said

" would give evidence to confirm Her Incarnation " being born on Holy Days. Kash

was born on the Muslim Holy Day of " Eid " and Lalita was born on the Christian

Holy Day of " Easter " :

 

" Kash was born at the Sentosa Clinic, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on October 19,

1980, the day the new moon was sighted to confirm Eid al-Ahda for all Muslims.

This day is known as Hari Raya Haji (Malaysian Muslim term for Eid Al-Adha.)

 

This day is specially remembered because of a Muslim colleague Ahmad bin

Seliddin at Tengku Abdul Rahman College, Setapak. He informed Kash's father over

the walkie-talkie that he had received a call from the Sentosa Clinic confirming

that his wife had delivered a baby boy. This co-worker then added these words,

" You are a blessed soul. Your son has been born on a very auspicious day. "

 

Kash's father thanked him repeatedly because it was his first-born, and a son.

Little did he realize that the simple words of a humble Muslim congratulating

him for a birth on the holiest day of the Muslim calendar had set in motion one

of the earliest Sure Signs of Allah. "

 

http://www.adishakti.org/meeting_his_messengers/belief_in_his_angels.htm

 

" Few understand the sheer immensity of Her powers in not only enabling Kash and

Lalita to witness Her, but also ensure their births took place on the holiest

days in Christianity and Islam. This is an essential fact to authenticate the

identity and divinity of Shri Mataji sent to deliver the Good News of the Last

Judgment and Resurrection. Only the Shakti entrenched in the scriptures can

harmoniously synthesize the three great religions of Hinduism, Christianity and

Islam and bringing their followers together. "

 

http://www.adishakti.org/forum/sm_angels_they_are_there_sometimes_working_throug\

\

h_a_human_form_8-22-2006.htm

 

[End Note]

 

 

[Resuming Quote]:

 

(P.42) Examining the stories of John the Baptist and Jesus, we do seem to be

clearly in mythological territory. Their two stories reflect each other

perfectly. They both have miraculous births. John is born to an old woman.

(P.43) Jesus is born to a young woman. John's mother is infertile. Jesus' mother

is unfertilized. John is born at the summer solstice when the sun begins to

wane. Jesus is born six months later at the winter solstice when the sun begins

to wax again - hence the Baptist's declaration about Jesus: 'He must grow

greater, I must become less.'[60] John is born in the astrological sign of

Cancer, which for the ancients represented the gate of souls into incarnation.

Jesus is born in the astrological sign of Capricorn, which for the ancients

represented the gate of souls out of incarnation into immortality.[61] John

baptizes with water and Jesus with fire and spirit. The birthday of Jesus is

celebrated on the Pagan festival of the returning sun on 25 December. The

birthday of John the Baptist is celebrated in June, replacing a Pagan midsummer

festival of water.[62]

 

Baptism was a central rite in the Mysteries. As long ago as the Homeric hymns we

hear that ritual purity was the condition of salvation and that people were

baptized to wash away all their previous sins.[63] The Pyramid Texts show that

there was a ceremonial baptism of the Egyptian Pharaoh before the ceremony of

his ritual birth as the embodiment of Osiris.[64] In some Mystery rites baptism

was simply symbolized by the sprinkling of holy water. In others it involved

complete immersion.[65] Baptism tanks have been found at initiation halls and

shrines.[66] At Eleusis initiates ritually cleansed themselves in the sea. In

his initiation ceremony, after a confessional prayer, Lucius Apuleius underwent

a bath of purification, and later a baptism of sprinkling.[67] In the Mysteries

of Mithras initiates underwent repeated baptisms to wash away their sins. Such

initiations took place in March or April, at exactly the same time that in later

centuries Christians also baptized their new converts, called 'catechumens'.[68]

 

The similarities between Christian and Pagan rites were obvious to early

Christians.[69] The Church father Tertullian tells us:

 

'In certain Mysteries it is by baptism that members are initiated and they

imagine that the result of this baptism is regeneration and the remission of the

penalties of their sins.'[70]

 

(P.44) According to St. Paul, there are three symbolic actions in a baptism of

total immersion. Entering the water signifies death, immersion beneath it means

burial, and emergence from it resurrection.[71] This allegorical interpretation

of baptism is completely in sympathy with the Mystery rites, which also

represented a mystical death and resurrection.[72] In the early Church, the

newly baptized were clothed in white robes, given a new name and offered honey

to eat.[73] Likewise, in the Mysteries of Mithras, initiates who were

spiritually 'reborn' had honey poured on their hands and applied to their

tongues, as it was customary to do with newborn children.[74]

 

Descriptions by Christian authors of Christian baptism are indistinguishable

from Pagan descriptions of Mystery baptism. Christian initiates went to baptism

naked, then after they came out of the water they put on white garments and

walked in a procession to a basilica carrying a candle and wearing a crown. This

is identical to the procession celebrating the Mysteries of Dionysus at Eleusis,

where initiates dressed in white, wearing a crown on their heads and carrying a

torch in their hands, walked to the sanctuary singing hymns.[75] Justin Martyr

found the similarities between Christian and Pagan rites of baptism deeply

disturbing. He resorted once again to the 'diabolical mimicry' argument. Evil

demons, he claimed, had instigated a parody of Christian baptism in Pagan rites.

[breaking Quote]:

 

[Note]:

 

Although the Pagan rites historically came before the Christians used them,

Justin Martyr and others accused Pagans of plagiarizing the Christian rites,

which is why the authors Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy call it 'diabolical

mimicry'. The thing is, these rites were not just any rites, but they played out

the deepest of spiritual truths that we know about today, with regard to the

'Kundalini Energy', 'Sahasrara' and 'Gnosis'. Thanks to the teachings of Shri

Mataji, today we know that the 'Kundalini Energy' is responsible for

purification, which was symbolized and enacted by Pagans and Christians alike as

'an initiate being dressed in white'. Likewise, we know that the 'Awakened

Sahasrara' was symbolized and enacted by Pagans and Christians as the 'wearing

of the crown on the head' and that 'Gnosis' (the Knowledge within) was

symbolized and enacted by Pagans and Christians by 'carrying the torch in the

hand'. Many of these symbols and enactments are still used today in Christendom.

These rites, symbols and allegories are Universal and belong to the 'Ancients'

as well as to the 'Moderns', but the early Christian church fathers claimed them

as 'exclusively their own', with Justin Martyr referring to the Pagans as

" wicked spirits " :

 

[Quoting from the same chapter, p.33]:

 

(P.33) 'Having heard it proclaimed through the prophets that the Christ was to

come and that the ungodly among men were to be punished by fire, the wicked

spirits put forward many to be called Sons of God, under the impression that

they would be able to produce in men the idea that the things that were said

with regard to Christ were merely marvellous tales, like the things that were

said by the poets.'[1]

 

- Justin Martyr

 

 

Although the remarkable similarities between the myths of Osiris-Dionysus and

the supposed 'biography' of Jesus Christ are generally unknown today, in the

first few centuries CE they were obvious to Pagans and Christians alike. The

Pagan philosopher and satirist Celsus criticized Christians for trying to pass

off the Jesus story as a new revelation when it was actually an inferior

imitation of Pagan myths. He asks:

 

'Are these distinctive happenings unique to the Christians - and if so, how are

they unique? Or are ours to be accounted myths and theirs believed? What reasons

do the Christians give for the distinctiveness of their beliefs? In truth there

is nothing at all unusual about what the Christians believe, except that they

believe it to the exclusion of more comprehensive truths about God.'[2]

 

The early Christians were painfully aware of such criticisms.[3] How could Pagan

myths which predated Christianity by hundreds of years have so much in common

with the biography of the one and only saviour Jesus? Desperate to come up with

an explanation, the Church fathers resorted to one of the most absurd theories

ever advanced. From the time of Justin Martyr in the second century onwards,

they declared that the Devil had plagiarized Christianity by anticipation in

order to lead people astray![4] Knowing that the true Son of God was to

literally come and walk the Earth, the Devil had copied the story of his life in

advance of it happening and created the myths of Osiris-Dionysus.

 

The Church father Tertullian writes of the Devil's 'diabolical mimicry' in

creating the Mysteries of Mithras:

 

'The devil, whose business is to pervert the truth, mimics the exact

circumstances of the Divine Sacraments. He baptises his believers and promises

forgiveness of sins from the Sacred Fount, and thereby initiates them into the

religion of Mithras. Thus he celebrates the oblation of bread, and brings in the

symbol of the resurrection. Let us therefore acknowledge the craftiness of the

devil, who copies certain things of those that be Divine.'[5]

 

Studying the myths of the Mysteries it becomes obvious why these early

Christians resorted to such a desperate explanation. (P.35) Although no single

Pagan myth completely parallels the story of Jesus, the mythic motifs which made

up the story of the Jewish godman had already existed for centuries in the

various stories told of Osiris-Dionysus and his greatest prophets. [Ending

Quote, P.33]

 

 

[Recommencing with P.44]:

 

(P.44) In the Mysteries, however, purification through baptism was not just by

water, but also by air and fire. Lucius Apuleius tells us that before he was

deemed worthy to approach the divinity he had to 'travel through all the

elements.' [76] Servius writes:

 

'Every purification is effected either by water or by fire or by air; therefore

in all Mysteries you find these three methods of cleansing. They either

disinfect you with burning sulphur or wash you with water or ventilate you with

wind; the latter is done in the Dionysiac Mysteries.'[77]

 

(P.45) The gospels also talk of a threefold elemental baptism. In the Gospel of

Matthew, John the Baptist predicts the coming of Jesus, saying,

 

'Now I bathe you in water to change hearts, but the one coming after me is

stronger than me. I am not big enough to carry his shoes. He will bathe you in

holy breath and fire. Winnowing-fan in hand, he will clean up his threshing

floor, and collect the grain to be put in the silo and the husks to be burned in

the unquenchable fire.'[78]

 

In this translation the familiar term 'holy spirit' is correctly translated from

the original Greek as 'holy breath', which clearly brings out the idea of

baptism by air. John tells us that Jesus will wield a winnowing fan, used for

sieving corn. In the Mysteries of Eleusis such a fan was used in baptism by air.

In vase paintings and other representations, initiates are pictured veiled and

seated with a winnowing fan being waved above their heads.[79] Dionysus was

known as 'He of the Winnowing Fan'. At his birth he was said to have been

cradled in a winnowing fan, just as, symbolically, the initiate was at his

spiritual rebirth.[80]

 

In the same way that an initiate into the Pagan Mysteries was reborn through

purification by air, so Jesus promises rebirth through breath. In the Gospel of

John, Nicodemus asks him, 'How can a person be born in old age? Can he climb

into his mother's belly a second time and be born?' Jesus answers:

 

'Truly, truly I tell you: anyone who isn't born of water and breath can never

get into the kingdom of God. What's born of the flesh is flesh, and what's born

of the breath is breath. Don't be amazed because I told you you have to be born

again. The wind blows where it will and you hear the sound of it, but you don't

know where it comes from or where it goes; it is the same with everyone born of

the breath.'[81]

 

The Jesus Mysteries

Was the Original Jesus A Pagan God?

Chapter 2 - p.33; p.42-46

Timothy Freke & Peter Gandy

Element (imprint of HarperCollins'Publishers')

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

ISBN-13 978-0-7225-3677-3

ISBN-10 0-7225-3677-1

 

Notes: (Chapter 3, 'Diabolical Mimicry')

 

[1] Justin Martyr, 'First Apology', 54, quoted in Hoffmann, R.J. (1987), 24

 

[2] Quoted in Hoffmann, 120

 

[3] D'Alviella, G. (1981), 119 surveys the extensive similarities between

Christianity and the Mysteries and notes that 'All these points of contact with

pagan institutions could not fail to amaze and annoy the Christians who had to

wage war against the last defenders of paganism.'

 

[4] King, C.W. (1887) 122-3. Justin Martyr claimed that the story of Dionysus

was 'invented by demons' to correspond with a certain prophesy in Genesis and

bring the true Christ into doubt, see Guthrie, W.K.C. (1952), 266. Two centuries

later the Christian father Firmicus Maternus was still explaining the story of

the resurrection of Dionysus as an attempt to ridicule the true faith. He states

indignantly, 'The devil too has his Christians,' D'Alviella, G. (1981), 119,

quoting 'The Error of Profane Religion', 23.

 

[5] Quoted in Kingsland, W. (1937), 99. In 'First Apology', Chapter 62, Justin

also accuses the Mithraists of telling 'their worshippers to " put off their

shoes " in imitation of the command given to Moses', see 'Apology', 1.62.

 

[59] Campbell, J. (1964), 349

 

[60] John 3:30

 

[61] Porphyry (1991), 44: 'Cancer is the gate through which souls descend but

Capricorn that through which they ascend.' Porphyry attributes this doctrine to

Plato. In astrology Cancer is ruled by the Moon, the mistress of life, Capricorn

by Saturn, the god of death.

 

[62] Frazer, J. (1922), 360

 

[63] Inge, W.R. (1899), 353, quoting the 'Homeric Hymn to Demeter'

 

[64] Murray, M.A. (1949), 39

 

[65] Cumont, F. (1903), 157

 

[66] Angus, S. (1925), 82: 'In the Hall of Initiation of the temple of Men at

Antioch there was found an oblong depression, of which the most obvious

explanation is that it is for baptisms. In the underground pagan shrine,

discovered a few months ago on the Via Salaria, the most striking feature is a

tank sunk deep in the floor which may well have served as a baptistery.'

 

[67] Ibid., 81

 

[68] Cumont, op.cit., 167

 

[69] Angus, op.cit., 81. Clement of Alexandria says, 'In the Mysteries current

among the Greeks lustrations hold the premier place.'

 

[70] Quoted ibid.

 

[71] Romans 6:1-8; see also 'The Shepherd of Hermas', in which 'the seal of the

Son of god' is water 'into which they descend dead and come up alive'.

 

[72] Wells, G.A. (1975), 184

 

[73] Ibid.

 

[74] Cumont, op.cit., 157

 

[75] D'Alviella, G. (1981), 114, notes that Christianity took over the Pagan

ritual almost in its entirety. The Christian baptism ceremonies recorded by John

Chrysostom, Cyril and Dionysius can be set alongside those of Pagan initiation

written by Claudius, Themistius and Plutarch.

 

[76] Lucius Apuleius, 'The Golden Ass', 286

 

[77] Quoted in Eisler, R. (1920), 208

 

[78] Matthew 3:11-12; see also Harrison, J. (1963), 34, which notes that baptism

by fire was symbolized in the early Church by immersing a blazing torch into the

font, and D'Alviella, G. (1981), 113, which records that in the early Roman

Church the Pope leads the 'Chosen Ones' to the baptistery where he consecrates

the water in the baptismal font by blowing over the surface of the water. The

deacons then dip their candles in the water. In the 'Missale Romanum', which is

still in force today, the priest dips an Easter candle in the baptismal font,

praying 'that it may fully impregnate this water with its power'. Among the

Greeks pieces of firewood or torches lit from the altar flame were added to the

lustral water and purification by air was also used. As D'Alviella notes, 'The

baptismal font of Christianity therefore contains the three principal elements

through which the candidates for the Mysteries formerly had to pass.'

 

[79] Harrison, J. (1922), 547

 

[80] Frazer, J. (1922), 388

 

[81] John 3:3-12