The Mysteries and 'Son of God'

[Guest guest]

Diabolical Mimicry

 

(P.34) 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.

 

 

Son of God

 

(P.35) Despite Christianity's claim that Jesus is the 'only begotten

Son of God',[6] Osiris-Dionysus, in all his many forms, is also hailed

as the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God, yet equal with the Father.

Dionysus is the 'Son of Zeus', in his full nature God, most terrible,

although most gentle to mankind'.[7] Jesus is 'Very God of Very God'.[8]

Dionysus is 'Lord God of God born!'[9]

 

Jesus is God in human form. St. John writes of Jesus as 'the Word made

flesh'.[10] St. Paul explains that 'God sent his own Son in the likeness of

sinful flesh.'[11] Dionysus was also known as Bacchus, hence the title of

Euripides' play 'The Bacchae', in which Dionysus is the central character. In

this play, Dionysus explains that he has veiled his 'Godhead in a mortal shape'

in order to make it 'manifest to mortal men'.[12] He tells his disciples, 'That

is why I have changed my immortal form and taken the likeness of man.'[13]

 

Like Jesus, in many of his myths the Pagan godman is born of a mortal virgin

mother. In Asia Minor, Attis' mother is the virgin Cybele.[14] In Syria, Adonis'

virgin mother is called Myrrh. In Alexandria, Aion is born of the virgin

Kore.[15] In Greece, Dionysus is born of a mortal virgin Semele who wishes to

see Zeus in all his glory and is mysteriously impregnated by one of his bolts of

lightning.[16]

 

It was a popular tradition, recorded in the most quoted non-canonical text of

early Christianity, that Jesus spent only seven months in Mary's womb.[17] The

Pagan historian Diodorus relates that Dionysus' mother Semele likewise was said

to have also had only a seven-month pregnancy.[18]

 

Justin Martyr acknowledges the similarities between Jesus' virgin birth and

Pagan mythology, writing:

 

(P.36) 'In saying that the Word was born for us without sexual union as Jesus

Christ our teacher, we introduce nothing beyond what is said of those called the

Sons of Zeus.'[19]

 

Nowhere was the myth of the 'Son of God' more developed than in Egypt, the

ancient home of the Mysteries. Even the Christian Lactantius acknowledged that

the legendary Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus had 'arrived in some way at the

truth, for on God the Father he had said everything, and on the Son'.[20] In

Egypt, the Pharaoh had for thousands of years been regarded as an embodiment of

the godman Osiris and praised in hymns as the Son of God.[21] As an eminent

Egyptologist writes,

 

'Every Pharaoh had to be the Son of God and a human mother in order that he

should be the Incarnate God, the Giver of Fertility to his country and

people.'[22]

 

In many legends the great prophets of Osiris-Dionysus are also portrayed as

saviours and sons of God. Pythagoras was said to be the son of Apollo and a

mortal woman called Parthenis, whose name derives from the word 'parthenos',

meaning 'virgin'.[23] Plato was also posthumously believed to be the son of

Apollo.[24] Philostratus relates in his biography of Apollonius that the great

Pagan sage was regarded as the 'Son of Zeus'. Empedocles was thought to be a

godman and saviour who had come down to this world to help confused souls,

becoming 'like a madman, calling out to people at the top of his voice and

urging them to reject this realm and what is in it and go back to their own

original, sublime, and noble world'.[25]

 

Mythic motifs from the Mysteries even became associated with Roman Emperors who,

for political reasons, cultivated legends about their divine nature which would

link them to Osiris-Dionysus. Julius Caesar, who did not himself even believe in

personal immortality,[26] was hailed as 'God made manifest, the common saviour

of human life'. [27] (P.37) His successor, Augustus, was likewise the 'saviour

of the universal human race'[28] and even the tyrannical Nero is addressed on an

altar piece as 'God the deliverer for ever'.[29]

 

In 40 BCE, drawing on Mystery myths, the Roman poet and initiate Virgil wrote a

mystical 'prophesy' that a virgin would give birth to a divine child.[30] In the

fourth century CE Literalist Christians would claim that it foretold the coming

of Jesus, but at the time this myth was interpreted as referring to Augustus,

said to be the 'Son of Apollo', preordained to rule the Earth and bring peace

and prosperity.[31] In this biography of Augustus, Suetonius offers a cluster of

'signs' that indicated the Emperor's divine nature. One modern authority writes:

 

'They include some striking points of similarity to the gospel narratives of the

birth of Christ. The senate is supposed, with ludicrous implausibility, to have

decreed a ban on rearing male Roman babes in the year of Augustus' birth because

of a portent indicating that a king of Rome had been born. On top of this

slaughter of the innocents, we are offered an Annunciation: his mother Atia

dreamed during a visit to the temple of Apollo that the god had visited his

favour on her in the form of a snake; Augustus was born nine months later.'[32]

[break Quote]

 

Note: i have to differ slightly with the authors here, in that i feel that the

Universal Theme of a Saviour spans 'All-Time'. It is an eternal theme.

Therefore, why could it not ultimately have referred to Christ?

 

[Resume Quote]:

 

An inscription written around the time that Jesus is supposed to have lived

reads:

 

'This day has given the earth an entirely new aspect. The world would have gone

to destruction had there not streamed forth from him who is now born a common

blessing. Rightly does he judge who recognises in this birthday the beginning of

life; now is that time ended when men pitied themselves for being born. (P.38)

From no other day does the individual or the community receive such benefit as

from this natal day, full of blessing to all. The Providence which rules over

all has filled this man with such gifts for the salvation of the world as

designate him as saviour for us and for the coming generations; of wars he will

make an end, and establish all things worthily. By his appearing are the hopes

of our forefathers fulfilled; not only has he surpassed the good deeds of

earlier times, but it is impossible that one greater than he can ever appear.

The birthday of God has brought to the world glad tidings that are bound up in

him. From his birthday a new era begins.'[33]

 

But this is not a Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus. It is not even a

eulogy to the Mystery godman. It is in honour of Augustus. These mythic motifs

were clearly so common by the first century BCE that they were used to fabricate

legends politically helpful to a living Emperor.

 

Celsus catalogues numbers of figures to whom legend similarly attributes divine

parentage and a miraculous birth, and accuses Christianity of clearly using

Pagan myths 'in fabricating the story of Jesus' virgin birth'[34]. He is

disparaging of Christians who interpret this myth as historical fact and regards

the notion that God could literally father a child on a mortal woman as plainly

absurd.[35]

 

[in regards to the 'Virgin Birth' Shri Mataji confirms that it happened, saying:

" So there are lots of things which look mythical which are not. " It is a

poignant point and very close to the 'Mysteries' subject we are exploring that

Shri Mataji would say that a lot of things 'look mythical', but are not! That

gives a lot of respect to myths and maybe that is also the reason why they are

so 'universal' in the hearts, minds, and souls of people!]:

 

" Today, we are going to celebrate the birth of Christ. At a very crucial time we

are doing that because there are some anti-Christs who have become in charge of

the Christian religion and are talking against the birth of Christ. They have no

authority. They are not realized souls. They have no idea of the Divine,

nothing. And they are saying that it is all falsehood, that She was not a

virgin, and that Christ was not born that way. Who told them? Did Gabriel come

and told them? What right they have got to talk these things? So because they

are anti-Christ, now they have become in charge of Christianity. Even Pope is

like that. So in Satya Yuga they'll be all exposed. Have to be exposed. But some

people who are here can write to this man to say what is your authority to say.

Have you felt the all-pervading power of God's love? Have you any Divinity in

you to challenge Christ like that? There must be some incarnations of Paul

perhaps. They cannot understand Divine. They don't know what Divine can be. They

have no idea at all how miraculous it is. You all have felt the blessings of the

Divine. You all know that it is a miracle. Every time there is a miracle

produced. I will narrate one simple example. In the Navaratri Puja we had some

photographs, and behind the photograph some kind of a scene came which I was

wondering what it was supposed to be. The scene was that the Surya was moving a

curtain. There were eyes for the Surya, mouth, nose, and he was smiling and

moving a curtain like that. I said what is this? What is this indicating in the

Navaratri puja. But when I went to Moscow, I was surprised that they had painted

the background just like this, exactly like this, there was the background. So

Navaratri puja which took at least one and a half months before, the

Paramchaitanya built it there. It's very remarkable, how things work out

miraculously. And there are thousand and one miracles you can talk about. When

we were in the aeroplane going to Moscow, they said the temperature is minus

twenty. We got down they said it is minus fifty. Next morning they said it is

coming down very fast, is touching about minus twelve. And afternoon, they said

it is minus four. But next day it was plus ten. I mean, as the time passes, it

has to be cooler and cooler. This time my husband was going to Moscow, he says

very cold there, now minus twenty. He sent word that... I said, don't worry,

that we'll put it right. He said when he arrived it was only minus two. So all

these things show that all the elements are helping us. All the other problems,

minor, big, anything get solved. In no time. You are sometimes amazed how things

get done. So, then they question then why Christ had to be crucified. Why could

you not save Him from crucifixion. He was crucified because that was to be done

in His case, that He had to pass through agnya. He had to establish Himself in

agnya, and the cross, He had to pass through that. So the message of His life is

never the cross, but the message is His resurrection. He resurrected, that was

one of the things He did very great, so that now you can be resurrected also. In

every incarnation in the evolution, every incarnation did something very very

unique. At the end of it Christ did the resurrection part, and He did it because

He had to die. Otherwise how can you resurrect yourself? So there are lots of

things which look mythical which are not. Tomorrow they'll say that Christ never

resurrected Himself. And actually, he died later on in Kashmir. There's a proof

of it. But still the people don't want to believe. And they just wanted to

spread Christianity. Because they know that if you have majority of people then

they can rule. The same trick now is tried by politicians. But this kind of a

majority is not going to bring any solace or any benevolence for people. "

 

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

Christmas Puja

Ganapatipule, India

25 December, 1993

 

The Jesus Mysteries

Was the Original Jesus A Pagan God?

Chapter 3, P.34-38

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:

 

[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.

 

[6] 'We believe ... in one Lord Jesus Christ his son, the only-begotten God.'

The 'Dedication Creed' of 341 CE, see Doran, R. (1995), 102.

 

[7] Euripides, 'The Bacchae', 222, line 836

 

[8] The King James version of Holy Communion, based on the 'Dedication Creed'.

 

[9] Harrison, J. (1922), 444, quoting 'The Bacchae', line 723

 

[10] John 1:14

 

[11] Romans 8:3

 

[12] Euripides, op.cit., 191, line 5

 

[13] Ibid., 192, line 22

 

[14] Lane, E.N. (1996), 40. Cybele the virgin goddess was known as Mater Deum,

the Mother of God. In the fourth century Mary took over this title.

 

[15] See 'The Hermetica' (Stobaeus fr. 23), where Isis is hailed as Kore Kosmu,

the Virgin of the World.

 

[16] Campbell, J. (1964), 26. The mythologist Joseph Campbell writes of

similarities between the birth of Jesus and the Orphic myth of the miraculous

birth of Dionysus, 'While the maiden goddess sat there, peacefully weaving a

mantle on which there was to be a representation of the universe, her mother

contrived that Zeus should learn of her presence; he approached in the form of

an immense snake. And the virgin conceived the ever-dying, every-living god of

bread and wine, Dionysus, who was born and nurtured in that cave, torn to death

as a babe and resurrected... In Christian legend, derived from the same archaic

background, God the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove approached the Virgin Mary

and she - through the ear - conceived God the Son, who was born in a cave, died

and resurrected, and is present hypostatically in the bread and wine of the

Mass.'

 

[17] One of the few remaining fragments of 'The Gospel of the Hebrews' says of

Mary that 'Christ was in her womb for seven months', see Barnstone, W. (1984),

335, and Metzger, B.M. (1987), 170. 'The Gospel of the Hebrews' is believed to

have been written in Egypt, see Stanton, G. (1995), 101. According to Clement it

also quoted from Plato's 'Timaeus', see Barnstone, W. (1984), 335.

 

[18] Kerenyi, C. (1976). Semele's seven-month pregnancy is recorded by Diodorus

of Sicily and Lucian.

 

[19] Justin Martyr, 'Apology', 3

 

[20] Lactantius, 'Divine Institutions', 4.27, 20, quoted in Turcan, R. (1992),

279. The Church father makes clear that this doctrine of the identity of Father

and Son was 'implicit in the divine mysteries'.

 

[21] Murray, M.A. (1949), 45. The kings and queens of the Ptolemaic period had a

birth chamber built in every temple. Here the divine birth of the King, the Son

of God, was celebrated annually.

 

[22] Ibid., 39

 

[23] Guthrie, K.S. (1987), 58, quoting Iamblichus,'Life of Pythagoras'

 

[24] Gruber and Kersten (1985), 223

 

[25] Kingsley, P. (1995), 380, charts the transmission of the hidden

Orphic/Pythagorean tradition from Empedocles through to the Sufi mystics of

Islam, Jewish and Christian Gnostics and the Hermeticists and alchemists of

Alexandria are all stops along this path; all derive from one esoteric classical

tradition.

 

[26] See Sallust, 'Cataline', 51.20

 

[27] Angus, S. (1925), 227

 

[28] Dittenberger, 'Sylloge', 2nd ed., 1.347, 3rd ed., 760, quoted ibid., 109

 

[29] Ibid., 227

 

[30] Virgil, 'The Pastoral Poems', 53. Virgil's fourth 'Eclogue', the so-called

'Messianic' poem, was written in 40 BCE. The poets of the Augustan age were

deeply immersed in Greek philosophy and mysticism, and through them the

doctrines of Orpheus and Pythagoras and astrological teachings on the New Age

were pressed into the service of imperial propaganda. Although Augustus'

birthday was 23 September, he portrayed himself as a Capricorn, like Mithras and

Jesus. On coins he is depicted with the sign of Capricorn. That this was the

'Gate of the Gods' in the zodiac - the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice

- was a commonplace of Graeco-Roman thought.

 

[31] Mayor, Fowler and Conway, (1907), 22. The earliest recorded attempt to

interpret the poem in this sense was that of Emperor Constantine the Great. He

declared that the poet knew that he was writing of Christ, but 'wrapped the

prophecy in an allegory in order to escape persecution'. This belief was

accepted for centuries but see p.12, where a modern scholar writes about 'the

ridiculous, and if it were not sincere, I might have said blasphemous, notion

that the 'Eclogue' contains an inspired Messianic prophecy'.

 

[32] Wallace-Hadrill, A. (1993), 86. Similar tales were told of the birth of

Alexander the Great.

 

[33] Dittenberger, 'Orientis Graeci Inscriptions Selectae', 458. The Augustan

scholar Andrew Wallace-Hadrill writes of the recently discovered inscription set

up in 9 BCE in Asia Minor, 'If we had more of this sort of thing, links with the

thought and language of Paul might seem less strange.' See Wallace-Hadrill, A.

(1993), 93.

 

[34] Quoted in Hoffmann, R.J. (1987), 57

 

[35] For Pagans, the myth of the divine birth was a metaphorical teaching story.

To the initiates of the Mysteries, a human being consisted of a material body

and a spiritual soul. Our divine 'father' is God, who gives us our immortal

soul, our material 'mother' is the Earth (matter), who gives us a mortal body.

Matter can not give birth alone, but is mysteriously impregnated by invisible

Spirit to produce Life, and so is portrayed as a perpetual virgin. To the Pagan

philosophers, we are all sons and daughters of God. The miraculous birth of

Osiris-Dionysus is an allegory which to the initiated expressed this spiritual

truth.