For most, Christmas conjures up images of a baby in a manger, the three wise men, Joseph and Mary with glowing halos, shepherds, and of course, Santa Claus, reindeer, mistletoe, and most importantly, the Christmas tree with its bright decorations and gifts. If asked, most people will rattle off that Christmas celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ, although few can tell you from whence originated all the different customs and imagery. The paradox is that every year many of the same people voice the same criticism—that we need to "put Christ back into Christmas!"
Now, I'm accustomed to living in a "Christian" society. I don't mind using terms like "AD" ("Anno Domini," Latin for "in the Year of Our Lord") or "BC" ("Before Christ") when I write. I don't mind seeing someone sporting a cross on their lapel, or dangling one around their neck. Heck, I don't even mind it when I hear "merry Christmas" a couple hundred times throughout most of December. But what does stick in my gizzard is that stuff about "putting Christ back into Christmas!" That's why I've decided to remedy the situation by answering once and for all the question of whether or not Jesus Christ was ever in Christmas. To do that I'll start by asking another question:
Well, it's not important to me, since I don't profess to believe in the divinity of Jesus or any other advertised god. But for those who acknowledge Jesus as Lord and who claim to follow their bibles, then I ask you to seriously consider a few scriptures, such as the warning of Jesus in Mark 7:6:
He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." You might want to also consider Matthew 7, which supposedly contain the words of Jesus: 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
The reason I start my examination of Christmas with bible verse is to gently suggest to all believing Christians that before celebrating anything in the name of your Lord and Savior, you should know what it is you do lest ye find yourself like the unfortunate fruitless fruit tree above!
In my article How Christianity Got Its New Testament, I briefly covered the history of the powerful fourth century Roman Emperor Constantine, who is remembered as the first Christian emperor of Rome. From the history of the Christian Church itself I showed how the sun god Mithra, who was identical to the sun gods Apollo and Adonis, was mingled with Jesus Christ by the former pagan Constantine after his conversion. We also learned how the early Christian Church Fathers prostituted both themselves and the Church in order to win the emperor's favor, for which they and the Church were richly rewarded with gleaming new churches, gold, silver and huge numbers of converts. It was these Christian Church Fathers, acting on the orders of the emperor, who replaced the Passover with the pagan Easter celebration—a celebration whose roots go back into the very heart of the ancient Babylonian mystery religion.
With the half pagan, half Christian Constantine at the helm of the Christian Church, and Church Fathers who were for sale, it should be no surprise to find the date December 25th becoming an important date on the Christian Church calendar, since that day was important to the worship of Mithra—Constantine's favorite sun god.
Now Mithra was not the original Roman sun god. He was but one in a succession whose sacred births were celebrated on December 25th. Called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "the birthday of the unconquered sun," the reasoning behind the date was that December 25th was considered to be the date of the winter solstice, which the Romans called "Bruma;" and, despite the shortened daylight hours, the sun still proved itself "unconquered." On the Julian Calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BC, December 25th was the approximate time of the solstice. This date was changed by the present Gregorian Calendar (sponsored by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 as a corrected version of the Julian Calendar), causing the solstice to fall on December 21st or the 22nd.
Dies Natalis Invicti was celebrated as a Roman Imperial holiday by order of the Emperor Aurelian (270-275 AD), who was, as Clement Miles notes: "an ardent worshipper of the Syrian sun-god Baal. With the Sol Invictus was identified the figure of Mithra, that strange eastern god whose cult resembled in so many ways the worship of Jesus ..."1 The famous mythologist, Sir James Frazer, records that not only did the Romans celebrate Mithra's birth on December 25th, but the evening before a midnight mass was celebrated to announce his birth, which certainly puts one in mind of the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass held every year to mark the birth of Jesus. At that time, Mithra's priest cried out "the Virgin has brought forth!"2
In the early Roman empire several solar deities were honored with the title of Unconquered Sun, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the favorite god of Emperor Aurelian (AD 270-274); and the Persian Mithra, who was enormously popular with the Roman legions, and hence Constantine's loyalty to the god.3 Such history is why the editors of the Catholic Encyclopedia candidly admit that " ... the feast of Natalis Invicti or the Nativity of the Unconquered Sun, celebrated on 25th December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date [of Christmas]."4 In fact, it holds more than "a strong claim" since Christians, for centuries after Constantine's time, continued to call "Christmas" the "Nativity of the Sun."5 Eventually the "Nativity of the Sun" was forgotten in favor of the "Mass of Christ" (or Christmas), but a remnant of the old name remained: "Natalis" or "Nativity," which literally means "the birthday"—a designation that is still used in reference to the birth of Jesus.
In all fairness to Constantine's memory, we should add that long before his time Christian leaders were trying many avenues to gain acceptance in the Roman Empire—meaning that we can't dump every pagan-to-Christian transformation at Constantine's feet. Working with the New Testament scriptures equating Jesus with the sun, some notable early Christian writers went out of their way to make the point that their god was one with the sun. "O, how wonderfully acted Providence that on that day on which that Sun was born ... Christ should be born" wrote the early Christian writer, Saint Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, died 258), Bishop of Carthage!6 Old Cyprian had a point, as a careful reading of the New Testament makes clear. The most useful scriptures were these:
Matthew 13:43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Matthew 17:2 And was transfigured before them and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.
1 Cor 15:41 [There is] one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for [one] star differeth from [another] star in glory.
Rev 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks [one] like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. 14 His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were] as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength.
Add to these scriptures the tales of Jesus being born of a virgin, and the springtime shedding of his blood on a tree to cover the sins of humanity—all tenets of the ancient pre-Christian pagan mystery religions so near and dear to the hearts of pagan Rome—and we can see why winning Roman sun worshipers over to Jesus wasn't as difficult as some Christian historians would have us believe. In fact, Christian artists borrowed the sun-halo of pre-Christian sun gods and gave it to Jesus, which is why we seldom see a painting of "the Lord" without his famous halo!
The reassignment of the ancient sun god's birth date to the Christian Jesus is a fact of history. Why it happened is also a fact of history—the big payoff from the empire in the form of government recognition, well-paid political offices for Christian clergy, masses of converts via cash incentives for pagans converting to the new religion, and the endowment of richly-adorned church buildings. (See my article How Christianity Got Its New Testament for a complete history of this subject.) But once the former sun worshipers were ensconced inside the Christian faith, it became prudent to stamp out the custom of openly venerating the sun. This early Christian hymn is but one example of Church Fathers trying to neutralize open sun worship: "The sun revealed in silence his worshippers to his Lord; it was grievous to him, a servant, to be worshipped instead of the Lord ... But now when all knew he is a servant, in his course his Lord is worshipped ... The day of the All-Lightening exults in his birth; a pillar of radiance which drives away, by its beams, the work of darkness. After the type of that day, ... the radiance of our Saviour's birth, came in to sunder the darkness that was on the heart."7
Within a few generations of Constantine's time, Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople (349-ca. 407 AD) tried to put distance between his Jesus and the sun with a false argument: "But our Lord, too, is born in the month of December ... the eighth before the calends of January (25 December) ... But they call it the 'Birthday of the Unconquered'. Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord? ... Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice."8 By the fifth century Pope Leo I was still battling the problem of open sun worship—in particular Christians who, on the very doorsteps of St. Peter's, would turn to adore the rising sun before entering!9
By 529 AD the adoration of the sun was but a distant memory in an empire that had made Christianity its state religion. By then Christmas, December 25th was beyond question, and became a civic holiday by order of the Emperor Justinian I (483-565). In 567, the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days of Christmas (December 25-January 6) as a sacred time for all Christians. Those who openly disputed the date might well find themselves standing before ecclesiastical and civil courts. At last, by imperial command, the old sun gods were reborn as Jesus Christ, and the road was paved for future generations to worship that which they knew not.
To underscore the importance of sacred caves to early Christian worship, let's note one particular sacred cave located right on Vatican Hill in Rome. In pre-Christian Rome the cave was the center of Mithraic worship until the Christian Church confiscated it in AD 376 and rededicated it to the worship of Jesus—on Jesus' alleged birthday, December 25th, no less!12
Getting back to the virgin birth, many gods in pre-Christian history were given a little extra divine boost when they were proclaimed "immaculately conceived." This all goes back to the Babylonian savior god Tammuz, who was supposedly conceived immaculately, earning his mother the title of "Eternal Virgin."13 In other words, being born of a virgin was the "in" thing in the pre-Christian religion business, so those who invented the legend of Jesus Christ decided to go with a proven formula: Like so many before her, Jesus' mother would be an impregnated virgin who birthed a savior god to die for the sins of humanity. Heck, those who made up the story even gave Jesus' virgin mother the name of a pre-Christian Semitic goddess, Mariamne, who anciently bore the title Queen of Heaven!14
Sir Gardner Wilkinson, the famous Egyptologist, gives us more insight into the pre-Christian legends of the Virgin Mary when he writes: "Thus, too, the relationship of deities in many mythologies may be recognized: representing as they do the same original idea ... 'the child bearing' goddess of the Arabs and Assyrians, the Anaitis of Persia, the Syrian Astarte, and Venus-Urania, Cybele, and 'the Queen of Heaven' the 'Mother of the Child' found in Western Asia, Egypt, India, ancient Italy, and even in Mexico, and the prolific Diana of Ephesus ... " Comparing the Virgin Mary to very popular mother goddesses (such as Isis), Sir Gardner concludes that "modern custom has made a variety of madonnas from one virgin."15 How right Sir Gardner was!
The Hittites had Wurusemu, Queen of Heaven; the Irish had Dechtere, the mother goddess who conceived the soul of the sun god Lug, reborn from her mouth, thus causing her to remain a perpetual virgin queen.16 In Ephesus she was Diana, the same virgin mother goddess mentioned by St. Paul in Acts. She, like the modern Virgin Mary was a queen of heaven and associated with the moon. Her feast day was on August 15th, the same day as the Christian feast of the Assumption of Mary. All of this is important to the present day Christmas celebration since the Virgin Mary, like the multitude of pre-Christian madonnas before her, is a vital ingredient in the “Nativity” legend!
Since her story is vital, I’ll ask that the reader forgive me if I go into some involved background on pre-Christian virgin mother goddesses here. (If you feel you’ve had enough, then skip down a few pages and pickup the story there!)
To understand Mary’s true place in the Christian Nativity, let's first see how Christian writer Greg Dues explains her importance in his Catholic Customs and Traditions: "Little children built Mary altars [where they] crowned a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary ... Women, men, and children carried rosaries and many prayed the rosary daily with meditation on mysteries that were thoroughly familiar. A grotto with flickering vigil lights was a familiar feature on parish grounds. An altar dedicated to Mary was an obvious fixture in every church. When the congregation sang in the vernacular, chances were that the song told of the praises of Mary. Public prayer services featured communal recitation of the rosary and litanies. Devotees followed exciting news of apparitions. They obeyed and promoted the messages of the Lady in blue. Legion of Mary members became important lay ministers in parishes."17
The above is rather mild when compared to some of the quotes we’re going to be reading in the coming pages. But the long and short of it is that the Blessed Virgin Mary is THE dominant deity of Christianity! Now this wasn’t always so. In fact, the cult of the Blessed Virgin did not originate until about the fourth century AD, or about the time that hoards of former virgin goddess-worshiping pagans flooded the ranks of Christianity. In other words Mary made her stage debut about the time the pagan-turned-Christian Constantine the Great introduced his pagan concepts to Christianity. In fact, within a hundred years of Constantine's time the veneration of Mary became an official doctrine by proclamation of the Council of Ephesus in AD 431.18 Actually, such a radical departure from the teachings of the primitive Christian Church puts one in mind of St. Paul's warning to the Galatians: "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other htan the one we preached to you let him be eternally condemned ... now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted let him be eternally condemned. Am I now trying to win the approval of men or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ." (Galatians 1:6-10)
Okay. I want to be fair to Constantine here, even if he was one of history's premiere murderous bastards. When they sought to introduce their new religion to Rome, the Christian Church Fathers would have been dead in the water had not their Gospel stories featured a carbon copy of the ancient pagan tales of a spirit-impregnated virgin giving birth to a savior god who was sacrificed for the sins of humanity. The fact is that whoever composed the prototype "gospel" story of Jesus—and there is evidence that at least some portions were either composed or heavily edited during the third century—he "borrowed" the ancient tales of Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, etc., to enhance the new Christian religion. It was a brilliant move since the immaculate conception doctrine paved the way for the birth of a universal church. Since this is something I've covered in my New Testament study, we’ll move past this point to the consequences of the pagan-inspired Gospel virgin birth narrative, by which I mean we’ll more closely examine the cult of the Blessed Virgin.
As the Christian cult of the virgin grew, so did the Virgin Mary's many titles; and it was no coincidence that her titles accumulated as former pagans from different parts of the Roman empire swelled the ranks of Christianity. Not surprisingly, these titles correspond more or less to the titles enjoyed by the numerous pre-Christian virgin mother goddesses! For instance, the Babylonian title for their goddess was Baalti (or Belti) which in English is translated "My Lady." The Greek mother goddess Hera, as well as the Egyptian virgin goddess Isis, were known as "Our Lady."19 In Egypt the virgin goddess Isis was also called "Our Lady." These all correspond to the same Latin title applied to the Virgin Mary—"Mea Domina" or "Madonna," meaning either "My Lady" or "Our Lady."20
Actually, a Christian queen of heaven really isn’t surprising given that the ancient Israelites also worshiped such a deity. Back in the book Jeremiah 17:17 we read of a time when the Israelites were worshiping the same deity, although under a different name: "Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the queen of heaven."21 (One may wonder if it was just coincidence that the an old Christian European custom once included making cakes to honor their queen of heaven on her sacred feast day? The answer is “no—it goes back to the mother goddess of ancient Babylon!” In fact, despite Jeremiah’s warning, the Jewish people retained a form of mother goddess worship that has remained right down to the present day, especially in the teachings of the Kabbalah. For more information on this topic, see footnote 22.)22
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All of the ancient world's mother goddesses had their symbols of divinity; so too does their Christian counterpart. Our Lady Isis, the Egyptian Queen of Heaven, spoke these words: "I am that which is, has been, and shall be. My veil no one has lifted. The fruit I bore was the sun, hence to lift the veil of Isis is to pierce the heart of a great mystery."24 There is little difference between this and the description of one of the Virgin Mary's symbols—a heart with a dagger through it!25
The Phoenician mother goddess was known as the "Lady of the Sea" or "Star of the Sea" ("Stella Maris"), and was pictured as standing inside an open shell, which itself was the Babylonian symbol of the female sex organ.26 Although the Mary of the Gospels has no known relation to any sea, she is nevertheless pictured in Christian art as standing on an open sea shell. In fact, the Christian Church mingled the symbolism with this exhortation for straying Christians: "Have you strayed from the path leading to heaven? Then call on Mary, for her name means 'Star of the Sea,' ..."27
Moving from the sea to the heavens, the Blessed Virgin Mary is pictured in Christian art as standing on the crescent moon—bringing to mind the pre-Christian Egyptian virgin goddess Isis, who is depicted as nursing her infant savior sun wearing a moon crown. The fact that the Gospels make no connection with Mary and the moon speaks volumes about this symbolism and how it came into the Christian Church!28
The Christian Church dedicated the month of May to their virgin goddess. Although the Church freely admits it was a month that was once dedicated to the pagan Roman virgin goddess Maia,29 the Church claims this fact had no influence on the final decision to adopt the month for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since the Church’s entire calendar of holy days reflect a pure pagan influence, and since many early Christians openly equated the Virgin Mary with the goddess of Maia, there is no doubt why the month of May was consecrated to the Christian Queen of Heaven.30 Maia, by the way, was the virgin goddess of spring throughout Europe, whose worship included the May-pole, a representation of the sun god's phallus—exactly mirroring the customs of ancient Mesopotamia! 31
Another symbol of the ancient virgin goddesses was the lily, which is a word derived from the Sumero-Babylonian word "lilu." Representing the goddess's virginity, the lily was most notably associated with Ishtar, or Astarte. Being called the Ishtar Lilu in Babylon certainly calls into question today's Easter lily and its association with the Virgin Mary. But there is no mystery here since the Christian Virgin's lily comes directly from the worship of the Blessed Virgin Juno, who conceived her son Mars with her magic lily. Indeed, the tenth Catholic Council of Toledo in AD 656 made the holy day of Juno's conception of Mars official in the Church, although they renamed it the "Festival of the Mother of God" and rededicated it to their Virgin Mary.33 It is therefore entirely appropriate that Christian art depicts Mary with a lily in her hand, and it is appropriate that the Church says that whenever the lily is seen, it “... has but one meaning—chastity."34 I say it’s “appropriate” because that is what the lily meant in the ancient pre-Christian mystery religions!
Speaking of flowers, "Mystical Rose" is another title by which ancient pagan mother goddesses were known—the red rose being a symbol of her sexuality and maternity while the white rose indicated her purity.35 With no explanation as to why the rose should symbolize Mary, the Church nevertheless promotes it as a holy symbol " ... of the Blessed Virgin under her title of 'Mystical Rose.'"36 That title, “Mystical Rose” is revealing since Mary herself supposedly endorsed the rose’s veneration as her sacred symbol. During one of her reported visits to earth, the Blessed Virgin supposedly said Here in Montichiari I wish the devotion of the Rosa Mystica together with the veneration of my immaculate heart ..."37 In fact, during all of Mary’s supposed visitations, she was seen either with a crown of roses, or a single rose on her forehead. At other times witnesses claim that when she appeared roses actually fell from the sky. The crowning bit of rose lore is this bizarre tale from The Secret of the Rosary: "The well known Jesuit, Brother Alphonsus Rodriquez, used to say his Rosary with such fervor that he often saw a red rose come out of his mouth at each Our Father, and a white rose at each hail Mary!"38 Although the Church offers no reason why the rose should symbolize their Blessed Virgin, it’s not hard to figure out when history reveals that the rose was symbolic of many of the ancient world’s numerous mother goddesses.
The white dove is yet another of the Blessed Virgin Mary's symbols and is often pictured in the Church as rising above, or sitting on her head. Of all the Christian symbols, this is perhaps the most infamous, since all pre-Christian mother goddesses were associated with a white dove. These goddess idols either has a dove sitting on the goddess's head, or, in the case of Venus, depicts the goddess herself rising to heaven in the form of a dove.39 In the case of Venus we have a direct connection, not only to Mary herself, but to the ancient Semitic mother goddess Ishtar, who is identified with the legendary goddess Semiramis.
Of all the ancient goddesses, Semiramis is most closely associated with the dove, as noted by the editors of the 9th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica: " ... [after her] disappearance from earth Semiramis clearly appears not as a mere woman, but as a great goddess ... she is finally transformed into a dove, and therefore the Assyrians pay divine honors to this bird. Semiramis, therefore, is the dove-goddess associated with Derceto the fish goddess. The same association of the fish and dove goddesses appears at Hierapolis, the great temple which according to one legend was founded by Semiramis."40 So closely was Semiramis associated with the dove, that her name itself meant dove. Semiramis was in fact a dove goddess!41 TheEncyclopedia Britannica continues to document Semiramis' many other identities: "But the Semitic dove-goddess is Ishtar or Astarte, the great goddess of Assyria and Babylon ... Semiramis is primarily a form of Astarte, and so fittingly conceived as the great queen of Assyria."42
The most interesting part of this ancient pre-Christian tale is that the Christian Church would come to claim that the Virgin Mary, like the goddess Semiramis, did not die a physical death, but was transferred directly to heaven in the form of a dove. This is the famous "Assumption of Mary" doctrine, once celebrated as The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by all good Christians, and still celebrated today inside the Roman Catholic Church. Legends of the Madonna tells us more:
"And on the third day, Jesus said to the angels, 'What honour shall I confer on her who was my mother on earth, and brought me forth?' And they answered, 'Lord, suffer not that body which was thy temple and thy dwelling to see corruption; but place her beside thee on thy throne in heaven.' And Jesus consented; and the Archangel Michael brought unto the Lord, the glorious soul of our Lady. And the Lord said, 'Rise up, my dove, my undefiled, for thou shalt not remain in the darkness of the grave, nor shall thou see corruption;' and immediately the soul of Mary rejoined her body, and she arose up glorious from the tomb, and ascended into heaven surrounded and welcomed by troops of angels, blowing their silver trumpets, touching their golden lutes, singing, and rejoicing as they sung, 'Who is she that riseth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?'"43
St. Alphonsus de Liguori elaborates on this doctrine in his "The Assumption of Mary":
"And now death came; not indeed clothed in mourning and grief, as it does to others, but adorned with light and gladness. But what do we say? Why speak of death? Let us rather say that divine love came, and cut the thread of that noble life. And as a light, before going out, gives a last and brighter flash than ever, so did this beautiful creature, on hearing her Son's invitation to follow him, wrapped in the flames of love, and in the midst of her loving sighs, give a last sigh of still more ardent love, and breathing forth her soul, expired. Thus was that great soul, that beautiful dove of the Lord, loosened from the bands of this life; thus did she enter into the glory of the blessed, where she is now seated, and will be seated, Queen of Paradise, for all eternity. (Glories, p. 420)
"Let us now consider how our Savior went forth from heaven to meet his Mother. On first meeting her, and to console her, he said: Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come, for winter is now past and gone. [Liguori uses the imagery from the Song of Songs 2:10] Come, my own dear Mother, my pure and beautiful dove; leave that valley of tears, in which, for my love, you have suffered so much. Come from Lebanon, my spouse, come from Lebanon, come: You shall be crowned. [Song of Songs 4:8] Come in, soul and body, to enjoy the reward of your holy life. If your sufferings have been great on earth, far greater is the glory which I have prepared for you in heaven. Enter, then, that kingdom, and take your seat near me; come to receive that crown which I will bestow on you as Queen of the Universe."(Glories, p. 427)
The virgin goddess Ishtar/Semiramis was also a goddess of war and was called upon to deliver her faithful whenever they went into battle.44 So too were other variations of this goddess. Morris Jastrow relates that the Romans brought the idol of the mother goddess Cybele to Rome in hopes she would save the empire from disaster from a war with Carthage. But he says "It was the Semitic goddess Ishtar, merely in a different garb ... Ishtar of Babylonia with an admixture of Hittite influence, transformed to meet changed conditions, but showing all the essential traits of the original Semitic Ishtar ... the loving mother of mankind and the gods!"45 Not surprisingly, the Christian Church teaches that their warriors may be "United under Mary's standard, this great Christian 'army' will call upon Mary as their leader, for it is she 'who has conquered all heresies.' It is she who is the 'Victress in all God's battles,' as [pope] Pius XII proclaimed her."46
The virgin goddess Ishtar is remembered for all the towers built in her honor throughout ancient Mesopotamia. She was in fact known as the "Lady of Towers," which accounts for the fact that the idol of her as the Ephesian Diana and/or Artemis depicts her with a tower for a crown.47 The most famous tower was the Ishtar Gate, through which the goddess's faithful would proceed into the temple. It was symbolic of the Gate to Heaven, or the Pearly Gate, through which all the saved of the mysteries would pass at death.48 Accordingly, the Christian Church also addresses the Virgin Mary as the "Gate of hallowed mystery, mirror of angelic life, Key of Christ's kingdom."49 Moreover, she is known by the Latin "Turris eburnea," or "Our Lady of the Tower of Ivory," and even celebrated as thus in a song: "thy neck rising proudly like a tower, but all of ivory." Christian theologians explain that the Blessed Virgin Mary is "fitly imaged as a Tower."50 Needless to say, Ishtar's "Pearly Gate" still lingers in Christian lore.
When the early pagan converts came into the Church they retained their mother goddess idols, which they renamed "Mary." These pagan idols, depicting a mother holding an infant son on her lap, became the origin of the popular Mary and baby Jesus idols that are so symbolic of today's Christianity. Indeed, some of the ancient mother goddesses were even depicted as holding their dead savior son sprawled on their laps—the same as Michelangelo's famous Pieta idol now residing in the Vatican."51 Arthur Wigall states that "When Christianity triumphed, these paintings and figures became those of the Madonna and child without any break in continuity: no archaeologist, in fact, can now tell whether some of these objects represent the one or the other.""52
With so much adopted paganism, it was to be expected that the pre-Christian rosary would find a home in Christianity—and that it should be applied to the Virgin Mary. Long before the world had been introduced to Jesus, the rosary (from the Latin "rosarium" or "rose garden") was an instrument used in conjunction with prayers to the virgin mother goddess. Given the history of the Church it is anything but coincidence that the Christian Rosary, or "Hail Mary" prayer, was adopted by the Christian Church and is recited nine times more often than the Lord's Prayer. Indeed the importance of the Rosary in Christian life is driven home by this somewhat frightening claim: "The well known Jesuit, Brother Alphonsus Rodriquez, used to say his Rosary with such fervor that he often saw a red rose come out of his mouth at each Our Father, and a white rose at each hail."53
Despite the fact that the bible strictly forbids the creation and veneration of graven images (Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 4:23, 5:8, 7:25, 12:3; 2 Chronicles 34:7; Psalms 97:7; Jeremiah 51:17, 10:14; Isaiah 45:20, 44:9-10, 30:22; Habakkuk 2:18), the Christian Church abounds with images of their Trinitarian image of the Father, Son and Mother-Goddess Mary, who, in the form of a dove, has defacto replaced the Holy Spirit. (See Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, John 1:31-33 for insight here). The shameless elevation of their mother goddess to the position of Holy Spirit is why the Christian Church doctor St. Alphonsus DeLiguori wrote: "St. Peter Damian has gone so far as to say, that when Mary goes to Jesus to ask a favor for any of her clients, 'she approaches the alter of human reconciliation: not asking, but commanding, not as a servant, but as a mistress for the Son honors her by not refusing her anything."54 St. Louis De Montfort goes on to explain about salvation through and by the Christian Queen of Heaven, and declares that if one serves Mary faithfully during their lifetime, that "... she shall have them placed in heaven by her divine Son."55
The Church's Mary doctrine can be directly traced to the virgin goddess Ishtar, who also commanded in heaven: "How long, O Lady, shall mine enemy triumph over me? Command and at thy command the angry god will turn back. Ishtar is great! Ishtar is Queen! My Lady is Queen."56
All the "immaculate conception" hoopla does have a slight snag, which is there because the Church has no information about their Blessed Virgin outside the Gospels. Outside that source, as E. Boyd Barrett writes, "All that is known with certainty is that the Blessed Virgin must have had a mother—and the name Anne has been given to the unknown mother of Mary."57 Now let me ask an embarrassing question here: How could the Church teach that Mary was immaculately conceived if no one knew anything about her parents? I’ll answer that by stating they did so by forging a history of the “Blessed St. Anne!” This shameless forgery, which is shunned by all conscientious scholars, was supposedly written in circa 150 AD, and fills in the omission of the Gospel tales.
Okay. Forgery notwithstanding, the Church claims that Mary's parents were one St. Joachim and (as we've already read) St. Anne, although they weren't man and wife in the physical sense because little Virgin Mary was conceived immaculately! Yep! Another "immaculate" birth here folks! But the BS doesn't stop with this; we are to believe that after her miracle birth, another "miracle," occurred when Mary walked at the age of six months, taking seven steps ("seven" being a sacred number) after which her mother took her to the temple, where her little footsies never again touched the ground. Apparently the inventor of this crap thought this last touch gave his story an extra measure of godliness, but he was by no means through dishing it out. Once in the temple, our little Virgin was nourished by angels until she was twelve, when Joseph, who was a widower, was chosen as her future husband by yet another miracle. Now old Joe wasn't overjoyed with his lot, but, we are told, he finally agreed when threatened by the priest with the wrath of God.
According to the tale, when Jesus was born he did not go through the birth canal, but miraculously appeared outside Mary's womb—just like those many other pagan baby savior gods whose virgin mothers gave birth in other than the usual way! Whatever: The object of these tall tales, no matter from whence they were borrowed, preserved Mary's total virginity—although what it does in reality is to more closely identify her with the pre-Christian queens of heaven! It is this forged "history" that tells us that Joseph's sons and daughters were from a previous marriage, although such a fact is never mentioned in the Gospels. The ancient Christian writer St. Jerome (ca. 347–September 30, 420) disagreed even with this, as the thought of his day was that Joseph was also a virgin, and the brothers and sisters of Jesus, mentioned in the Gospels, were actually cousins. It's a wonder, before the Christian Church Fathers were through inventing, that all the ancestors of Joseph and Mary back to David weren't declared to be virgins and immaculately conceived! (Well, not David, since one would have a hell of time convincing us that David and Solomon were virgins!)
And how did the Church come to identify Mary's mother? Just who was St. Anne? Mythologist Barbara Walker documents her origins: "[She was the] Mythical mother of Mary, from the Middle Eastern goddess Anna, or Hannah, or Di-Anna, mother of Mari ..." (Mari was another name by which the goddess Ishtar was known to the Israelites). She was Anna or Nanna in pre-Christian Rome, the Grandmother goddess: "Anatha in Syria, Anat in Canaan ..." A Sumerian prayer declared: "Hear O ye regions, the praise of Queen Nana [Ann]; magnify the Creatress, exalt the dignified, exalt Glorious One, draw nigh unto the Mighty Lady." She was "... Diana Lucifera the Morning-Star Goddess [who] was assimilated to the Christian myth as Mary's 'mother.'"58 And so, "St. Anne" was simply the renamed Atargatis, the mother of Ishtar, Semiramis and/or the host of other previously worshiped pagan virgin goddesses!59 In other words, the supposed mother of the Christian Queen of Heaven is the same goddess she has always been: The Semitic grandmother goddess, combined in the worship of her daughter, just as she was originally in ancient Mesopotamia. Is it any wonder that St. Anne is known in the Christian Church as "God's grandmother"?60
As we’ve already seen, the goddess Venus, called the "Morning Star," is depicted in ancient mythology as ascending into Heaven (an event called the Triumph of Venus) in radiant sunlight surrounded by angels. In Heaven she there reigns as Queen. Venus/Ishtar’s “assumption” as the Morning Star, is in reality a part of the account of her death—she disappearing from earth by ascending to heaven as a dove.61 It is thus no mystery why Mary is portrayed like Venus—an ascending dove as Queen of Heaven—and no mystery why even the day of Venus' Assumption, August 15th, was transferred to the Christian Mary's Assumption feast.62 We’ve also seen that like Venus/Ishtar, the Christian Church taught that when the Virgin Mary died, her body saw no corruption (did not decay in the grave), but was carried into heaven where she was crowned Queen of Heaven by God the Father and given a throne on the right hand of Jesus, where she is "praying for us, obtaining graces, preserving us from danger, and keeping us from temptation."63
I would like to point out that the bible teach that even Jesus could not give to his Apostles the honor of sitting on his right hand, (Matthew 20:21) yet the Christian Church fathers gave it to the Virgin Mary without hesitation!64 Indeed, the Church Fathers went even beyond this, as the editors of the New International Dictionary of the Bible note: "Roman Catholic theologians now openly refer to Mary as the 'Co-creator' and the 'Co-redemptrix' of the human race."65 The Church teaches "Through faith in her motherhood of God, [Mary] is to be honored and venerated above all other creatures: through hope, she is to be relied on with complete trustfulness; through charity, she is to be loved with all one's heart."66 All this ballyhoo is simply reflective of the goddess Isis, who promised her faithful worshipers similar things: "You shall live in blessing, you shall live glorious in my protection."67 In fact, while comparing Mary to pagan mother goddesses, let's note that Mary's attributes, i.e. faith, hope, and charity, were the same as the virgin mother goddess Sophia, who was touted as the mother of "faith, hope, and charity." When Sophia's worshipers were converted to Christianity the attributes of "faith, hope and charity" were simply transferred to the Virgin Mary. To cover their dishonesty, the Church Fathers even went so far as to make saints out these attributes: "St. Faith, St. Hope, and St. Charity!"68 Indeed, the Catholic Encyclopedia's article "Sts. Faith, Hope & Charity" offer a "St. Sophia" as the mother of "Sts. Faith, Hope and Charity": "The Roman martyrology names on 1 Aug., 'the holy virgins, Faith, Hope and Charity, who won the crown of martyrdom under the Emperor Hadrian' and, on 30 Sept., 'St. Sophia, widow, mother of the holy virgins, Faith, Hope and Charity'".
I know that some may be saying to themselves that most of what we've seen so far is "Catholic history" and has no importance to Protestants. No so! Always remember that the history of Protestantism is one and the same as Roman Catholicism before the time of the Catholic priest Martin Luther and the Catholic Defender of the Faith King Henry VIII, the sixteenth century fathers of Protestantism. Even though Protestantism eventually downplayed the veneration of the Virgin Mary in their religious customs, what you've been reading is a common history—and it's a history that is pagan to the core! With that thought in mind, let's keep going for a bit more so that we may drive home the importance of the "Mother of God" in Christian theology.
Once the Mesopotamian mother goddess entered Christianity in the disguise of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her open veneration was quite shameless. Mary, says the author of the Christian booklet The Mother of Jesus, "would have inherited sin and the penalties of sin, if God had not preserved her from them." The author equates Mary with Christ by saying "She freely associated herself with Him and therefore freely submitted to suffering and death, not as punishments of sin .... she freely relinquished privileges befitting one who was preserved from original sin ... "69 He goes on to demand that Christians must never forget "... Mary's place in the divine plan of our redemption and the privileges that were hers." After quoting Pope Pius XII, the author sums up with this thought:
"Thus, with good reason, Catholics consider Mary's assumption into heaven a fact which cannot be denied without impugning the authority of God Himself. Note well that we speak of Mary's assumption as a fact—a fact revealed by God and, therefore, a doctrinal fact, the certainty of which rests on God's authority. It is not a mere historical fact which stands or falls according to the weight of historical evidence for or against it .... So the fact does not stand solely on the credibility of human witnesses or their recorded documentary evidence. It stands or falls on the authority of Christ's Church which was commissioned by Him to teach men revealed truth ... It is Christ's Church which assured us that Mary's assumption is a fact revealed by God."70 (In other words, faithful Christians have no proof of Mary's place of Heaven, but they do have the word of one of the most corrupt religious systems in all human history!)Despite the denials, Mary's deification is an accomplished fact, as the following clarification demonstrates: "Mary, more than all the angels and saints, with such an abundance of heavenly gifts that she was always wholly free from sin; so that, perfect and all beautiful, she shone in such complete innocence and holiness that no greater holiness can be imagined except that of God himself, no mind but God's can measure it."71 For those well read in ancient history, they'll recognize Mary's lavish praise in a Babylonian hymn to Ishtar:
"In the brilliant heavens, to give omens in abundance, I appear, I appear in perfection. With exultation in my supremacy, with exultation do I, a goddess, walk supreme ... I beseech thee, Lady of ladies ... queen of all cities, leader of all men. Thou art the light of the world, thou art the light of heaven ... Supreme is thy might O Lady, exalted art thou above all gods. Thou renderest judgment and thy decision is righteous; unto thee are subject the laws of the earth and the laws of heaven, the laws of the temple and of the shrine ... Where is the place where thy name is not, and where is the spot where thy commandments are not known? At thy name the earth and the heavens shake ... the spirits of heaven tremble at thy name and the men hold it in awe. Thou art great, thou art exalted ... all mankind glorify thy name. With righteousness dost thou judge the deeds of men, thou lookest upon the oppressed and to the downtrodden thou bringest justice every day. How long, Queen of Heaven ... whom all the spirits of heaven fear, who subduest all angry gods ... Where thou glancest the dead come to life, and the sick rise and walk; and the mind that is distressed is healed when it looks upon thy face ... Command, and at thy command the angry god will turn back. Ishtar is great! Ishtar is Queen! My Lady is exalted, my Lady is Queen."72
Indeed, the real truth behind the Christian virgin mother is summed up by this ancient, pre-Christian hymn:
"The apparition of a woman began to rise from the middle of the sea with so lovely a face that the gods themselves would have fallen down in adoration of it. First the head, then the whole shining body gradually emerged and stood before me poised on the surface of the waves ... her long hair fell in tapering ringlets on her lovely neck and was crowned with an intricate chaplet in which was woven every kind of flower. Just above her brow shone a round disc, [halo] like a mirror, or like the bright face of the moon, which told me who she was. Vipers 73 rising from the left hand ... Her many colored robe was of the finest linen, part glistening white, part yellow, part glowing red .... as the goddess designed to address me: 'you see her, Lucius, in answer to your prayer. I am nature, the universal [catholic] mother, mistress of the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, Queen of the dead, Queen also of the immortals ... the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses ... though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names, and propitiated [appeased] with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round world venerates me."74
Historian Thomas Taylor, who records the complete version of this dedication, goes on to add:
"I, who am Nature, the parent of things, mistress of all the elements, initial progeny of the ages, the highest of the divinities, queen of departed spirits, the first of the celestials, of gods and goddesses the sole likeness of all: who rule by my nod the luminous heights of the heavens, the salubrious breezes of the sea, and the woeful silences of the infernal regions, and whose divinity, in itself but one, is venerated by all the earth, in many characters, various rites and different appellations. Hence, the primitive Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, the mother of the gods: the Attic Autochthons, Cecropian Minerva; the wave-surrounded Cyprians, Paphian Venus; the arrow-bearing Cretans, Dictynnian Diana; the three-tongued Sicilians, Stygian Proserpina; and the inhabitants of Eleusis, the ancient goddess Ceres. Some again have invoked me as Juno, others as Bellona, others as Hecate, and others as Rhamnusia: and those who are enlightened by the emerging rays of the rising sun, the Aethiopians, and Aryans, and likewise the Egyptians powerful in ancient learning, who reverence my divinity with ceremonies perfectly proper, call me by my true appellation, Queen Isis."75
The above was written by Apuleius, an ancient Roman writer, in adoration of his pagan goddess. That it could have been written by a later Christian writer about his Christian Queen of Heaven is obvious from the quotes we have used, and from more yet to come. Actually, in a round about way, this pre-Christian praise was written about the Christian Mary since her visage is a composite of the ancient pagan world's virgin mother goddesses! "... if Mary had not come along," remarks Andrew Greeley "the pagans [coming into the Christian Church] might have had to invent her."76
The editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica note that to understand the Babylonian Queen of Heaven, that a study of "the deeper aspects of this religion ... [and] the mother goddess under her various titles is necessary. She consistently represents divine mercy and compassion as opposed to the severe and wrathful characters of the male deities. When men sin the gods punish with terrible vengeance, but the mother goddess ever intercedes for them. The religious scenes on seals in all periods represent her standing in prayer beside humans, and interceding with a god on their behalf. To the very end of Babylonian religion ... Ishtar may be correctly described as the mater dolorosa, the 'Weeping Mother."77
Like her predecessor, the Church's borrowed mother goddess also intercedes and pleads mercy of behalf of the sinner: "Therefore, those Christians who will not confess [Mary] to be ... [the mother of God] do not know of what treasure they are depriving themselves, for her name is more necessary for our protection than our breath is to our life ... Mary's intercession and her importance for our salvation had become well established truths ... when God is angry with a sinner, and Mary takes him under protection, she withholds the avenging arm of her Son and saves him."78
And so, as with the ancient mother goddesses, Christians are taught to go to Jesus through Mary so that their prayers will stand a better chance of being answered: "Every grace that comes to us from God comes through the mediation of Mary!"79 St. Alphonsus Liguori describes an imaginary scene "in which a sinful man saw two ladders hanging from heaven. Mary was at the top of one: Jesus at the top of the other. When a sinner tried to climb the one ladder, he saw the angry face of Christ and fell defeated. But when he climbed Mary's ladder, he ascended easily and was openly welcomed by Mary who brought him into heaven and presented him to Christ!" Liguori explains "that the sinner who ventures to come directly to Christ may come with dread of his wrath. But if he will pray to the Virgin, she will only have to 'show' that son 'the breasts that gave him suck' and his wrath will be immediately appeased."
In his book True Devotion, St. Louis Grignion De Montfort confirms the Virgin Mary's divinity when he exhorts Christians to pray thus: "As your slave, I give up and consecrate to you my body and my soul, all my goods, interior and exterior, and the worth of my good deeds, past, present and to come. I give you the full and complete right to dispose of me and of everything whatever that belongs to me according to your good pleasure, ... now and forever." He goes on to teach that "... all things should be done through Mary, with Mary, in Mary, and for Mary."80 With Mary as the most important deity in the Roman Catholic Church, it was only natural that Pope John Paul II, after recovering from his wounds following an attempted assassination, did not give thanks to God, but made a special journey to Portugal to the Fatima shrine to give thanks to the Blessed Virgin for saving his life!
These teachings, of course, fly directly in the face of the Gospels, which instruct Christians to go to God directly through prayer. But then in both Protestantism and Catholicism today's Christianity has little to do with the bible! In fact, the Church Fathers bluntly state that the bible is secondary to their traditions: "Tradition is the unwritten word of God ... [these traditions were not committed to] writing, but handed down by word of mouth ... [therefore] Roman Catholics do not find the chief means of salvation in reading the Bible as such, but rather the Sacraments of the Church ... based upon the Scriptures and tradition."81
The dirty little secret of the ancient mystery religions is that the savior son married his own mother! As disgusting as the concept is, one almost always find this incestuous relationship when they untangle the mire of goddesses and savior sun gods in pre-Christian times. Christian writer Hilda Graef gives us this insight into the relationship of the Virgin Mary and Jesus: "For if Mary is identified with the Church, who is both bride and mother of Christ, she too, would have to be his bride as well as his mother.""83 Although not so bluntly stated, the editors of The Catholic Biblical Quarterly back up Graef's insight when they explain: "Perhaps in as far as Mary gave birth to Christ, the Church can be considered having given birth to Him, because Mary and the Church are, after a fashion, one.""84 To make sure there is no mistaking the implications, God the Father is represented as "... her [Mary's] faithful husband who has given her perfect possession of his Person and all his glory and acted according to her intentions even before she was born ... she reigns on the very throne of God who does whatever she wills and whose wrath can be appeased only by her .... God ... made himself one and the same thing with her [and] both have offered one and the same sacrifice.""85
Just as the ancient Babylonian mysteries considered the virgin mother goddess as the consort of both the supreme deity and their own son, so too has the Christian Church given this relationship to the Blessed Virgin Mary—whose very name, remember, is derived from an ancient Mesopotamian virgin mother goddess!
Amadeus of Lausanne (AD 1159) was a student of St. Bernard, and is revered as a Church doctor. In his works he explains that Christ himself coveted Mary's beauty and became his own mother's lover. Christ exhorts Mary to meet him: "Your Creator has become your Spouse, he has loved your beauty ... He has coveted your loveliness and desires to be united to you ... Hurry to meet him, that you may be kissed with the kiss of the mouth of God and be drawn into his most blessed embraces ... Go out, for the nuptial chamber is already prepared, and your Spouse is coming ... at his touch your womb may tremble and swell ... you, who will be worthy of such a kiss, who will be united to such a Spouse, who will be made fruitful by such a husband [by having sexual intercourse] ... for you, most beautiful Virgin, have been joined in close embraces to the Creator ...""86
Such a clearly defined incestuous relationship prompted the famous Christian writer, Dr. Philip Schaff, to write of the Virgin Mary: "We can agree with nearly all unbiased historians in regarding the worship of Mary as an echo of ancient heathenism. It plainly brings to mind the worship of Ceres, of Isis, and of other ancient mothers of the gods."87 But the final evidence, at least for this part, can be seen in Christianity's doctrine explaining that Mary and Jesus were actually brother and sister, which is the same relationship between numerous ancient mother goddesses and their savior sons!
In 1988 Pope John Paul II proclaimed that the entire year was the Marian Year, devoted to the proclamation of the Virgin. Accordingly, a book was published titled Mary, Ship of Treasure, which received the Imprimatur of the Church. Here one finds that Mary is not only the wife and mother of Christ, as was the ancient Babylonian mother goddess and her son, but also his sister! The following are quotes from that book: "She alone is Your [Christ's] mother, but she is your sister ... She was Your Mother, she was Your sister, she was Your bride too ... You, who are Your mother's beauty Yourself adorned her with everything."88 "Should I call You Son? Should I call You Brother? Husband should I call You? Lord should I call You, O Child that did give Your Mother a second birth from the waters? ... For I am Your sister ... I am Your Mother because of Your Conception, and Your Bride am I because of Your sanctification ... "89
Let's be clear as to the teachings of the Church by quoting the respected work, The Mythology of all Races, which records the Assyrian/Babylonian relationship of Tammuz and Ishtar: "In the midsummer lamentations his sister, who is also described as his mother, his wife, and his lover, implores Tammuz to rise again ..."90 In a later lamenting hymn for the dead Tammuz, Ishtar calls him not only her husband and son but cries "how long my brother, thy mother repeats how long."91
The true identity of the Virgin Mary is now without doubt, and, with all her dirty little family secrets exposed, her true place in the Christmas Nativity scene is crystal clear. Just as was Ishtar, Isis, Semiramis, and all the others, the Blessed Virgin Mary was the mother, sister and wife of her son, Jesus Christ! Lloyd Graham sums up Mary's place when he writes: "In Babylon she was Ishtar; in Libya, Neith; in Cilesia, Ate; in Armenia, Anaites, and in Assyria, Atargatis. In Crete she was Ariadne; in Phrygia, Cybele; in Phoenicia, Astarte, and in Ephesia, Artemis or Diana ... in Sumeria, Mama ... Ida in India; Kwanyin in China, and Kwannon in Japan. In Greece she was ... Aphrodite ... In Egypt this cosmic mother was first Mut, then Nut, and finally ... Isis, mother of the divine Horus, the Savior ... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis' is an inscription on an engraving of the goddess."92
Giving us a hint about some of our modern customs, the noted Christian monk Alsso of Brevnov, writing about the year 1400, voiced several complaints about the customs of Christmas in Bohemia. Among his objections was the fact that people would leave food out at Christmas so the gods could eat thereof. Obviously Alsso's complaint went unheeded since the old Bohemian custom still survives today when children put out milk and cookies for Santa! But that little aside is mild when compared to Alsso's denouncement of calendisationes, or processions with an idol of Bel (i.e., Baal), which he charged "had been changed into processions of clergy and choir-boys with the crucifix [of Christ]." This pagan-turned-Christian procession made its way around a village during the nights of Christmas week when choirboys "would chant joyful anthems of the Nativity ..." They were, in fact, as Clement Miles notes, "carol-singers."94
The book Catholic Customs and Traditions reveals the origin of the solemn holy day of Epiphany, which is celebrated by Christians on January 6th. First noting that the word itself is from the Greek epiphanein, which was a term used to "... describe the appearance of a [pagan] god among the people ... The Greek-speaking [Christian] church of the East found it natural to use the word to describe the appearance of the true God in flesh."95 As to why January 6th was chosen for the appearance of "a god among the people," the same book notes: "... the winter solstice occurred on January 6, according to the calendar used in that part of the world. On that day pagans celebrated with nuances of wine, water, and light, the appearance ('epiphany') of Aion, god of time and eternity, among the people. Christians ... adopted this day as their feast of the Incarnation, incorporating into the liturgy the gospel stories of Jesus' 'epiphanies' at his birth ..."96
That's quite a blunt, honest admission from the church that traces its origins to St. Peter, and which is the Mother Church of all Christian denominations worldwide. Apparently the Church feels that the evidence is so overwhelming, that they are left with no choice but to tell the truth!
The close connection between the myths of Jesus' life and the ancient world's savior gods may be seen in the legends of the god Attis. That they were among the many that were borrowed by the Christian Church Fathers for conversion purposes, is abundantly clear since the legends of Attis predate Christianity: "Attis's passion [suffering and death] was celebrated on the 25th of March, exactly nine months before the solstitial festival of his birth, the 25th of December. The time of his death was also the time of his conception, or re-conception."97 As outlined in my Easter study, the passion (or sacrificial death) of the world’s savior gods correspond more or less to the passion of Jesus, as do the dates. In other words, we see that the date of these god’s deaths was tied to his conception and birth.
How many "savior" gods born of a "virgin mother goddess" on or about December 25th are found in history? For a start, how about Apollo, Attis, Adonis, Dionysus, almost all the different Celtic gods, Horus, Jupiter, Tammuz, Bacchus, Mithra, most of those found in India, Greece and Italy—the list is seemingly endless! How these similar legends came to be found in so many different places, in so many different forms, is no mystery.
Although ancient Babylonia was the birthplace of our modern Christmas celebrations, what the peoples of Mesopotamia celebrated wouldn't be recognizable today as "Christmas." What we celebrate today is a eclectic mixture of ancient and not-so-ancient collected and refined from many different places and from many different times. What the Babylonian priests contributed to our modern celebrations was the concept of a virgin-born baby god-savior who came into the world to offer salvation by his blood and sacrifice by being hung on a tree stripped of its branches, which Christians now venerate as a cross. When the Babylonian savior was reborn, the tree returned to life, hence, one of the prime symbols of the Babylonian worship was the evergreen tree, which (because it remained green during the winter months), was revered as a symbol of life. As such, the green tree was also revered as a phallic image throughout much of the ancient world. We'll take a closer look at this symbolism in a moment, but first let's take a look at the symbolism of a burning log, which ancient Europeans knew as the yule log.
What exactly does "yule tide" mean? Well, here's the 10¢ explanation: The ancient Germanic peoples considered the sun a wheel (a symbol and meaning that was held by the ancient Babylonians), and that it alternately threw its light upon the earth, then away from it. The sun wheel, representative of the sun god, was known in the old Germanic language as "hweol" which was pronounce "yule."100 "Tide" means season, or in this case the Winter Solstice—December 25th. In other words, the burning yule log was a representative of a Teutonic savior sun god who was born of his virgin mother on December 25th.101 And so, the meaning of the old Welsh carol was literally to have faith in the representative burning sun log of December 25th and to celebrate that faith with song and dance!
The famous mythologist Sir James Frazer writes "Nowhere ... in Europe is the old heathen ritual of the yule log preserved to the present day more perfectly than in Servia. At early dawn on Christmas Eve ... every peasant ... cuts down a young oak tree and brings it home." They greet it with the words "happy birthday to you." They take care when cutting it down "that it fall towards the east [the direction of the rising sun]." They cut a yule log from the tree, offering prayers and gifts while it is burning, and finally, they kiss its charred remains on Christmas morning.102
Not so long ago, the old European custom of Christmas was that the tree was set up and decorated on Christmas day, while on the eve of the birthday of the sun god, or on the 24th, the yule log was burned. Today this custom has all but disappeared, as now (for commercial reasons) the Christmas tree is set up several weeks before the 25th, and, at least in America, we don't see the yule log playing a part at all.103
As documented in my article Bible Legends, Sticks and Stones, the symbolic evergreen tree has an obscene meaning in the ancient mystery religions. To be blunt (but delicate) the evergreen tree is a phallic representation of the giver of life. Although innocent appearing in today's Christmas customs, its hidden meaning is still there for those who care to scratch just below the surface of Christmas's quaint customs. We'll to that right now by poking our noses into a few of mythology's cracks and crevices.
The ancients Babylonians believed that by burning the dead yule log on the eve of December 24th, the power of fire restored the dead god to his faithful. This rebirth took place on the morn of December 25th, which was symbolized by an evergreen tree standing in the ashes of the burned yule log.105 The evergreen was used because it stays green in the dead of winter, and these original "Christmas" trees would be decorated with little hanging effigies of the sun god.106 This is why the ancient Romans would hang effigies of Bacchus on their trees,107 while the Phrygian temples of Attis would see his sacred tree decorated on December 25th with his likeness.108 That's one of the reasons we decorate our Christmas trees today, and why little "ginger-bread men" are so popular as decorations.109
The ancient Egyptians celebrated their “Christmas” by venerating their mother goddess, Isis, and her baby savior son, Horus.110 This fact is why historian Alfred Hottes writes: "Even the early Egyptians celebrated this Midwinter festival. They claimed that Horus, son of Isis, was born at the close of December."111 One of the few differences between the Babylonian and Egyptian versions of this celebration is that the Egyptians used a palm tree in their celebration, which is logical since it was indigenous to their land, and it remained green in the dead of winter. Moreover, as in Babylon, the Egyptian palm tree had the same phallic meaning. (Again, see this author's Things You've Never Heard In Church: Bible Legends, Sticks & Stones
In fact, some religious historians maintain that the Egyptian "Christmas" custom was the version that filtered into ancient Israel and point out that Jeremiah 10:3-4 is directly addressing this celebration: "The customs of the people are vain, for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. They deck it with silver and gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree ..."112
To make the point that what the ancient Israelites were doing was comparable to the Babylonian/Egyptian veneration of their savior sun god, we will compare Jeremiah 10:3-4 to a description of German Christmas trees, nailed to their wooden bases, in St. Boniface's Whitechapel: "two Christmas trees strangely gay with coloured glistening balls and long strands of gold and silver 'engelshaar' [a sort of woven 'angel hair'] ... between the shining trees the solemn ritual [worship] is performed by the priest and a crowd of serving boys in scarlet and white with tapers [fire] and incense."113
If the Christmas tree is of pagan origin, then we can be sure that the customs surrounding it are not far behind, such as the tree decorations. Ginger bread men were just discussed, but what of the modern custom of hanging orbs, or balls, on the tree? Placing an orb on a phallic symbol represented the mother goddess's union with the sun god. This is because a golden orb represented not only the light of the sun, but also the female sex organ."114 (An example of the orb in union with a phallus is the ancient obelisk, which was often found with an orb mounted on top. It is also represented in the royal regalia of many ancient and contemporary monarchies, such as the golden orb mounted by a cross held by England’s kings and queens during their coronation.)"115
Another major influence on our modern Christmas celebration was the Roman Baccanalia, which was later known as Saturnalia—a very popular riotous festival celebrated to honor the birth of the Roman savior god Saturn. In Alfred Carl Hottes's book, 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, we read that Saturnalia was older than Roman recorded history and continued to be celebrated until "purified" by the Christians.116 What Mr. Hottes means by "purified" is the old pagan Roman celebration was retained by the Church Fathers except that they replaced the name of Saturn with the name of Jesus.
The reason that historians say that the Saturnalia is older than recorded history is because the Romans borrowed the celebration from ancient Babylon, where it was known as Cronia. When Cronia spread from the confines of Babylon it did so with the names Sacaea and Baccanalia, the latter being the name by which it first filtered into ancient Rome.117 Despite the various names, many of the original Babylonian customs remained intact, such as the twelve day duration of the season.118
In his work historian Earl Count shows that our present twelve days of Christmas came via ancient Rome and thus from ancient Babylon, which is significant for the many reasons we've already seen.119 The reason for "twelve days" was because the ancient Babylonians were governed in most aspects of their lives by astrological signs, and thus the twelve days of the Babylonian "Christmas" represented the twelve months of the year. What happened on each of the twelve days foretold each of the coming months after the Winter Solstice. The fortune of those twelve months could be influenced by the person themselves, or anyone around them, during the twelve days of the Babylonian "Christmas." Hence, the giving of gifts or doing good deeds as omens on each of the twelve days would govern a celebrant's future.120 That's why today we sing the words: "... on the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me ..."!
Alfred Hottes writes: "Saturnalia was in honor of the Italian deity Saturn .... In early Roman days a Pontiff [a pagan Roman priest bearing a title later assumed by the Christian pope] stood in front of Saturn's temple and exclaimed 'Saturnalia! lo Saturnalia!'" The celebrations lasted from December 17 to December 24th, or what is now called Christmas Eve, at which time "The people gave themselves up to wild joy. During this period the people and the senate were expected to present New Year's gifts to the emperors .... The period was characterized by processions, singing, lighting candles, [the forerunner to electric Christmas lights] adorning the house with laurel and green trees, giving presents ..."122 An accompanying wild celebration, known as the revel, was an important part of Rome’s “Christmas” celebration. During this celebration a Lord of Misrule was appointed to command the festivities, which often turned quite perverse. Slaves traded places with their masters and many types of perversions were practiced in drunken sex orgies. Dressed in royal garb and given all the homage due to a real monarch, this Lord of Misrule was a mock king who represented the sun god. The downside of this came at the end of the festivities when the mock king was put to death.123 Although toned down, it was these festivities that found their way into the Christian Christmas celebration.
The tamer side of Saturnalia and the Kalends celebration is described by the Greek teacher Libanius, writing in the fourth century, or about the time the custom was adapted to the Christian Jesus: "... everywhere may be seen carousals and well-laden tables, luxurious abundance is found in the houses of the rich, but also in the houses of the poor, better food than usual is put upon the table. The impulse to spend seizes everyone. He who the whole year through has taken pleasure in saving and piling up his pence, becomes suddenly extravagant ... people are not only generous towards themselves, but also towards their fellow-men. A stream of presents pours itself out on all sides ..."124 Here we have Saturnalia being described by a man who witnessed it first hand; that he could have been writing about the modern day Christmas season is obvious!
The Christian version of Saturnalia was only slightly sanitized, which is to say that the often dangerous foolishness moved right into the churches—and even into the Vatican itself! Replacing the mock king of Saturnalia, the Christian version substituted a mock pope, or mock bishop, who celebrated Mass at the High Altar of St. Peter's, inserting all sorts of vile ceremonies. The choir was made up of men in tattered clothes, "holding their music sheets upside down and singing gibberish in response to the 'bishop' who read the service, they then hop-skip-jumped through the church singing Lo Saturnalia, Ho, Golden Age of [the sun god] Kronos! Hail [the Babylonian] Sacaea!"127
Another more descriptive account reads thus: "They were most attired in the ridiculous dresses of pantomime players and buffoons, and so habited entered the church, and performed the ceremony accompanied by crowds of followers representing monsters or so disguised as to excite fear or laughter. During this mockery of a divine service they sang indecent songs in the choir, ate rich puddings on the corner of the altar, played at dice upon it during the celebration of a mass, incensed it with smoke from old burnt shoes, and ran leaping all over the church. The Bishop or Pope of Fools performed the service and gave benediction, dressed in pontifical robes. When it was concluded he was seated in an open carriage and drawn about the town followed by his train, who in place of carnival confetti threw filth from a cart upon the people who crowded to see the procession. These 'December liberties,' as they were called, were always held at Christmas time ..."128 This was the Babylonian Cronia/Sacaea-turned-Saturnalia only slightly changed and now calling itself "Christmas" within the confines of the Christian Church.
With the rise of Protestantism, some Christian customs were slightly tamed—but only so slightly. The outspoken Puritan, William Prynne, who later had his ears cut off by order of King Charles I, wrote: "Our Christmas Lords of Misrule, together with dancing, masques, memmeries [hypocritical ceremonies], stage-players, and such other Christmas disorders, now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalia and Bacchanalian festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them."129 Such criticisms fell on deaf ears, and the more vile portions of Saturnalia/Christmas continued until the recent past. In fact, in 1820 New Yorkers were terrified every year as the "misrule" celebrations unleashed drunken roving gangs to threaten whole neighborhoods with their vile foolishness! Even though this part of Christmas is but a dim memory, other portions are not, such as the ancient Roman Saturnalia greeting—Bona Saturnalia—, which suvives today when cheerful Christians intone Merry Christmas!130
The Christ Child, which in German is "Christ-Kinkle" (a corruption of Christ and Kindlein), accounts for the popular American title for Santa—Kris Kringle.133 William Walsh writes: "Now I must own that at first sight it is difficult to explain how the Christ-child of the past—the Holy One whose birth is remembered and honored in the feast which we call Christmas, should gradually have been changed into the white-haired, white-bearded, merry-hearted and kindly old pagan whom we sometimes call Christ-Kinkle but more frequently Santa Klaus."134 To find his answer Walsh need look no further than ancient Babylon!
The connection of ancient Europe to Babylonia is clearly seen when we find that a form of the ancient Babylonian mystery religion was already flourishing in Europe by the time the first Christian missionaries arrived there via Rome. Amongst the Teutonic peoples these missionaries discovered a god who corresponded in many ways to the savior gods of Mesopotamia, Egypt and Rome. He was the chief god of the Teutons called Odin, or Woden, as his name is variously spelled in different parts of Northern Europe. Not only did Woden mirror the savior gods of ancient Mesopotamia, he commanded a sacred festival or worship that corresponded to the December 25th celebration of the Mesopotamian sun god's birth. The Venerable Bede (c. 672 or 673—May 25, 735), a Benedictine monk considered the father of English history, recorded that the Anglo-Saxons of Britain celebrated the eve of the 25th of December calling it "Modranecht," meaning the "mother's night," which is a clear reference to the virgin birth of their sun god savior.135 Although Bede doesn't make any connection to the Saxon Woden, we will shortly see that the old war god was at the root of the Anglo-Saxon tradition.
Christian missionaries surely must have thought themselves fortunate when they found ancient Europeans pagans worshiping gods and observing traditions that so closely mirrored their own. Imagine the Christians' shock when they found a pagan Teutonic version of Easter and Christmas flourishing in the forests of Northern Europe! But the details and documentation of that history is for another time; our focus here is the end result, which is how Christian priests reshaped the great Nordic-Teutonic god Woden/Odin into Santa Claus.
Some may scoff at such an assertion by claiming that Santa Claus was an actual person, a Christian saint named Nicholas. But who was St. Nicholas? What are his origins—really; and what connection does he have to the birth of Jesus Christ? Let us go in search.
When undertaking the conversion of Teutonic race, Christian missionaries used their tried and true formula of simply adapting pagan customs to the ever-expanding theology of Christ. Transforming Woden into Jesus had its problems, but so too were there some easy points. For instance, Woden was considered chiefly a sun god.137 Since who ever composed the New Testament had inserted numerous comparisons of Jesus to the sun, "the Good Book" was effectively used to convince Woden's faithful that Christ and Woden were indeed one. Another legend concerned the tale that Woden had made himself a sacrifice for the world by hanging on a tree or cross for nine nights (the ancient Germans counted time by nights), and was pierced with a spear. Explaining that Jesus was hung on a "tree" until the ninth hour and was also pierced by a spear, certainly made things easier for Christian missionaries.138
But, as noted, there were some major obstacles—the main one being that Woden was a renowned god of war—that occupation being central to his worship. In fact, in the end it was only through open warfare that the Germanic peoples came to be converted to the "true God." At the edge of a sword they accepted Jesus as lord and savior—who was made more palatable by the already outlined similarities with Woden. (Perhaps showing the stubborn Teutonic peoples that the "gentle" Christ was quite willing to war and kill multitudes overcame the dissimilarity between Woden the god of war, and Christ the "lamb!") This involved story is quite simply summed up by the Church historian E.J. Waggoner's observation: "In the marriage between Christianity and paganism, the former gave up its character, and the latter its name!"139
Important to us is the fact that Woden's customs were not abandoned when his faithful entered the Christian Church—and neither was their god! Woden was said to have had a sacred tree, which when approached at yule tide (December 25th), would bestow a special gift. After being mingled with Saturnalia, this Wodenian tale survives every Christmas morn when hundreds of millions approach their sacred trees and excitedly tear open their special gifts. Woden's great feast in Valhalla still has a faint shadow in modern Christmas. Although Woden's mythical meal featured the god himself seated on a throne crowned with a wreath of holly as "Lord of the Feast," presiding over revelries similar to the Roman Saturnalia, today's traditional and very tame great Christmas feast-meal, drinking, entertainment, etc. owes it's origins to both Woden and Saturn.140 All said and done, it was the marriage of Woden with Christianity that gave today's Christmas customs their unique flavor.
According to the Christian Church there was a real St. Nicholas. However, as the editors of the Catholic Encyclopedianote, almost nothing about him is known.141 Indeed, most serious historians now doubt that such a man ever existed. This is partly because of the Church's notorious habit of simply inventing "evidence" when needed. Since this fact is understood by all, we have the reason why some of the Church's most revered saints have been called into question by both historians and the Christian Church itself. (To appreciate the Church Fathers' skill of turning pagan into saint, the reader is encouraged to read this author's soon to be published history of St. Patrick.) Indeed, the doubts were so persistent, and the evidence so damning, that in 1969 the Roman Catholic Church, with the backing of Pope Paul VI, officially ordered an investigation into the most questionable Christian saints, including the famous St. Christopher and St. Nicholas.142 In short, the findings doubted that Nicholas ever existed, and if he did exist, then he may "have been only a legendary hero." As a result of the findings, since 1969 the Church has made the veneration of St. Nick optional.143 But what led the Church to mildly condemn one of its, and the world's, most beloved saints?
Legend claims little Nicholas was born in what is now Turkey in the third century AD to wealthy Christian parents. Supposedly, following the command of Christ, when Nicholas inherited his father's wealth, he gave it away to the poor. Now, old Nick didn't just stand on the nearest street corner and enrich passers by; he didn't open a soup kitchen to feed the poor. No! Our budding saint was more inventive than that! Legend says that Nick, in the dead of night, silently slipped into homes of worthy people and left money!144 Nicholas went on to become the bishop of Myra (in present-day Turkey), and eventually died on December 6, 326, which became his sacred day of veneration. This obviously fabricated nonsense not only explains the legend of Santa Claus slipping into the homes of worthy people to leave gifts under the Christmas tree, it directly ties St. Nicholas to Woden's sacred tree, which bestowed gifts to the deserving on December 25th. We know this in part because St. Nicholas bears a striking resemblance to ancient Teutonic water spirits, or gods, who are variously known as Nick, Nickel, Nickel and/or Nikke. Even worse (for St. Nicholas's authenticity) is that these gods/spirits' sacred day of veneration was "coincidentally" December 6th—the sacred day of the later Christian St. Nick! Even more damning is that "Nick" was but another of Woden's names, and December 6th was the sacred date when he or one of his companions would inspect the deeds and households of his faithful worshipers!145
To appease and/or to venerate these ancient Teutonic spirit-gods, the custom was to throw different things, usually food, into water as offerings.146 If the god or his spirits were appeased with the offering, then he/they bestowed a blessing on the giver. If not, a curse would be left. Although any logical person knows this as silly superstition, today hundreds of millions of little boys and girls are told that Santa knows if they've been good or bad and will reward them accordingly; and it's why those little children leave milk and cookies for old St. Nick on Christmas Eve!
So wide spread was the belief in the water spirit Nick, that his legends can be found in old Russia, where he was called Nicolo. To the Sicilians he was known as Nicolo-Pesce, and in ancient France he was a god of the sea called Nicholas. In England we find the same type of legends where the water spirit is called "Old Nick."147 The solid connection between the water spirit Nick and Woden is that the latter bore the title of "Nick" and was also venerated as both a god of the sun and the sea, on which he would cast his wisdom in the form of sunshine. But the most revealing fact about Woden is that he is connected via the water spirit Nick directly to ancient Babylon!148
When the Romans discovered the legends of Woden/Odin/Nick, they recognized them as the water gods Poseidon and/or Neptune, the guardians of sailors. This fact explains why, once he became a respectable Christian saint, St. Nick was, like the old god Nick, also a protector of sailors. Although there is no reason to associate the Bishop of Myra with such, offerings were made to St. Nicholas for the safe return of sailors and fishermen, just as the ancient Teutons did with the old god Nick. Alfred Hottes records that there was hardly a seacoast in any Christian country that didn't have a church dedicated to St. Nicholas.149 Not surprisingly we find that many of those churches were originally temples to the sea god Poseidon, which were rededicated to the "new" Christian "saint!"150 Such evidence is why mythologist Barbara Walker writes: "... Old Nick, the Teutonic sea god ... was also equated with Woden [and] the benevolent aspects of Woden became St. Nicholas (Santa Claus) ..."151
By the eight century AD the Germanic peoples as a whole were declared converted to the Christian faith. At that time St. Boniface dedicated a sacred fir tree to the baby Jesus as a counter to the sacred tree of Woden.152 In this act St. Boniface was following the command of the Church Fathers, which was restated by Pope Gregory the Great when he instructed Augustine in AD 596 concerning the conversion of the pagan Saxons in Britain: "... to retain the customs of the heathen, idol temples [are to] simply ... be rededicated as Christian Churches and heathen festivals renamed as those of Christian saints."153 This command is even more significant when we remember that the Germanic Saxons of Britain also worshiped Woden as a god!
To me one of the most revealing aspects about "Saint Nicholas" is that his legends can be only traced back to the eighth-ninth centuries, or about the time St. Boniface was re-dedicating Woden's sacred tree to the baby Jesus Christ.154 These came via Methodius, a ninth century patriarch of Constantinople. This time period at once sounds alarm bells to historians because it was a time in Christian Church history when some of the greatest forgeries of Christianity were composed.155
To glimpse the degree with which the Church of that era manufactured forgeries, we'll note the Church's claim to have Jesus' original birth certificate—dated December 25th no less! Supposedly JC's "birth certificate" was the original census records taken by the Romans back in Bethlehem. The first problem with the "evidence" is that it was "discovered" by the notorious Church Father St. John Chrysostom when he was trying to persuade the Eastern churches to keep the December Christmas custom. I say "notorious" because old Chrysostom knew very well the "evidence" was a blatant forgery!156
Such deceit tells us why in many cases the Church shamelessly canonized pagan gods and goddesses as saints, retaining not only their original names but their dates of veneration as well. For example, when the god Dionysus was canonized as a Christian saint, the Church simply retained his pagan attributes and attached them to his new Christian persona, "St. Dionysus."157
And so we see why from the time of the fourth century legends of a "Saint Nick" surfaced in the Christian Church. It was a time in which serious inroads were made to convert the Teutonic masses, all of which leads us back to St. Methodius, the supposed ninth century biographer of St. Nicholas. Some powerful names in the Eastern Roman Empire had denounced the practice of rededicating pagan idols, gods, shrines and the like for Christian consumption, and Methodius, with the backing of the papacy, strongly defended the practice. For his unyielding (and successful) stand, Methodius was canonized by the Christian Church. Of the many pagan-turned-Christian idols St. Methodius protected, the christianized statues of Poseidon and Neptune were near the top of the list—meaning the gods closely identified with Woden.
All of this sounds like politics as usual, but the chief problem concerning us is that the Christian Church admits that little of St Methodius is known, which raises the question of how one obscure saint could write a biography of another, even more obscure saint, meaning St. Nicholas?158 Facts, or the lack thereof, having never been a problem for the Christian Church, whoever it was that wrote under the moniker "St. Methodius" must have decided that it was best to remove St. Boniface's canonized and renamed Woden as far from Europe as possible. Accordingly, the Nicholas of St. Methodius' writings was born in Asia Minor. Indeed, the obscure St. Methodius tells us that the even more obscure St. Nicholas was not even a converted pagan, as were most of the real personages in early Christian history. St. Nicholas, we are assured, was born into a respectable, pious Christian family. And so pious was the infant Nicholas that we are asked to believe that he frequently fasted: Only once on Wednesdays and Fridays would the little darling take milk from his mother's breast!159 If these two days, Wednesday and Friday, sound familiar, it's because they are both sacred to Woden and the mother-goddess of not only Europe, but of all the ancient world!
As mentioned, whoever forged the biography of St. Nicholas had no choice but to assign his birth to the fourth century. Also having the need to remove the new St. Nicholas as far from the forests of Northern Europe as possible, the new saint was assigned Asia Minor as his home. This assignment was not by chance. Asia Minor in the early fourth century was the home of one of Christendom's greatest events: the Council of Nicaea!
The famous Council of Nicaea was convened in AD 325, and the official history of St. Nicholas not only had him in attendance, but actually gave him a role in putting down the Arian heresy! "Nicholas was deemed to have been the most honored churchman there and to have taken a lead in quashing the heresy of Arius ..."160 Indeed, one account has a furious Nicholas actually leaving his seat and knocking Arius to the floor! The problem with these claims, and this is something that a forger was unlikely to know, was that many historical accounts of that council are still extant, and several contain the names of everyone in attendance. Unfortunately for the forged biography of St. Nick, there was no Bishop Nicholas on any of these lists!161 His attendance at the Council of Nicaea, like all the other details of his life, are crafty lies!
The fictitious life of St. Nicholas has him dying the year after the Council of Nicaea. The Council was, after all, the crowning achievement to his life, and a forger need not get too careless by adding additional details. All this ballyhoo doesn’t in the least disguise the real identity of St. Nick, which ties him to the sea gods Woden, Neptune and Poseidon.162 This is why from the ninth century a patch-work legend of Woden, the sea god-turned-saint, has been venerated by Christians on his holy day of worship, December 6th! In time the old pagan god-turned-Christian saint was firmly at home in Christianity—so much so, that the Emperor Justinian I built a church in his honor at Constantinople where the ignorant faithful could make pilgrimages, leave bundles of gifts and money, and grovel at the saint's feet begging for a miracle!
The pagans of ancient Europed pictured Woden with a long gray beard and wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a wide cloak while riding on his horse to inspect the deeds of mankind. He rewarded the good and punished the bad.164 In old Christian Europe all children were taught that St. Nicholas, with his long white beard and broad-brimmed hat and wide cloak, traveled on his faithful white horse to inspect the deeds of mankind—rewarding those who had done good and punishing those who had done bad."165 Dear ole' St. Nick, as all children are even now taught, sees everything and rewards those who have been good, but leaving lumps of coal or switches for those who have been bad.166
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town
He's making a list,
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out Who's naughty and nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town
He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
For those who may still doubt that the worship of Woden survives in modern customs, we can read in Phillip Snyder's December 25, that in addition to Woden, the god Thor (from whence is derived the name "Thursday"), who drove a chariot pulled across the skies by two goats, was brought into the legend of Christmas. Actually Thor and Woden, said to be brothers in some legends, are essentially one and the same god. It was 
only later, when diverse tribes merged into nations, that Woden and Thor were assigned separate identities. This is why the early depictions of Santa in a sleigh show him being pulled by goats, not reindeer! Snyder writes: "As late as the end of the nineteenth century, vestiges of Woden could still be seen in the garb of some Santa Claus figures .... In 1869 an illustration on the front page of Harper's Weekly, showed a Santa Claus dressed in a short-skirted tunic edged with fur, his bare, muscular legs only partially covered by knee-length boots." An advertisement by Macy's in New York, in 1897, "portrayed him still dressed like the Old Warrior god ... At the same period, American children were playing with a German clockwork toy portraying Santa Claus riding in Thor's chariot pulled by two reindeer. Another tin toy of the time had Santa Claus in his sleigh, but drawn by Thor's two goats."167
When Woden was remade into Santa, or Father Christmas, the strong Teutonic belief in elves came along as helpers. All the good attributes of these legendary creatures were incorporated in the new image of St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus.168 We may add to this another surviving myth, which was that of Hertha, a German mother goddess whose legends can be traced directly to the goddess Isis.169 She was replaced with the consort of Woden, and slowly became a lesser goddess of the hearth. Although Hertha is now all but forgotten, she is the reason that Santa Claus comes down the Chimney!170
Getting back to Thor's chariot, the image is important to our study because it was the prototype of Santa’s sleigh and reindeer. And, like so many other customs associated with Woden and Christmas, the imagery takes us directly to ancient Babylon.
Countless carvings in ancient Mesopotamia depict the sun god driving a chariot across the evening sky—symbolically picturing the setting of the sun—pulled by four winged griffins.171 When the legends of ancient Mesopotamia were imported into Europe, the chariot of the sun god came with them. This is why thirteenth century BC idols of a chariot pulling images of the sun god have been discovered in Northern Europe.172 And, since Woden, Thor and their ancestors were sun gods, it was only natural for them to be conveyed about the heavens in sun chariots—and only natural that the imagery was refined for Santa Claus, although it was softened into cute little reindeer pulling a sleigh filled with gifts. William Walsh sums it up when he writes: "This was no mere accident. It was a necessary measure at a time when the new religion was forcing itself upon a deeply superstitious people. In order to reconcile fresh converts to the new faith, and to make the breaking of old ties as painless as possible, these relics of paganism were retained under modified forms, in the same way that antique columns, transferred from pagan temples, became parts of the new church built by Christians in honor of their God and his saints."173
This, then, is how the "changeable" Woden entered Christmas, which was the new name for Saturnalia. Ironically, the importance of Santa Claus would in time become much greater, in many respects, than that of the Christ child, who is supposedly worshiped within the thoroughly pagan Christmas celebration. However, the worship of the Christ child mingled with the veneration of Woden isn't all that strange when we see just how closely the two personalities really are!
The god Woden's true identity may be somewhat hidden in the garb of Nordic/Teutonic legend, but it's easy to see who and what he was. First of all, we shall not delve into the complicated and somewhat obscure facts of how the religion came from Babylonia to the forests of Northern Europe, since that is a subject for another study. Suffice it to say that the ancient Teutonic gods were imported directly to Europe from Mesopotamia after which they underwent a kind of naturalization process to make them unique to the Nordic race.176 This is why ancient historians such as Tacitus (ca AD 56-ca 117), recognized their Roman gods in the Teutonic deities, which is important to this study since the gods of Rome descended directly from the same Mesopotamian deities!117 In fact, going from ancient Europe back to Mesopotamia, some historians see in the title of "Odin" the Semitic word "adoni," which is translated "lord" in English. They point out that "adoni" is the root word for the god Adonis, a Syrian god who was one of the most popular sun gods in the ancient world, especially in ancient Greece, whence his legends migrated.178 We may add to this the legend that Woden came from a land on the Black Sea, which places him in the region of the ancient Assyrian empire.179 To pinpoint his origins in that part of the world, we need only to take a close look at the story of Woden's wife Freya, or as she was variously known, Frejya or Frigg.
First of all, it is from Freya that our name for Friday is derived, which was not only her sacred day, but also that of many other ancient mother goddesses. Historians admit that the traditions of Freya are so "strikingly like that of Ishtar, Cybele and other Near Eastern earth-goddesses" that some "scholars believe that the entire story migrated north from its original home in the Mediterranean ..."180 In other words, it migrated from Mesopotamia.
The Mesopotamian mother-goddess Anat, which is another name for Ishtar, is so like Freya that Monaghan writes: she "... is virtually her double."181 Further accounts show that Freya is not only the same as Ishtar or Anat, but is easily recognized as Isis, the Egyptian mother-goddess.182 This is given additional support by looking at Freya's consort, Woden/Odin, whose legends are so strikingly similar to the sun god dieties of Mesopotamia and Egypt. What evidence of the ancient Teutonic mother goddess leads historians to identify her with these ancient goddesses of Mesopotamia and Egypt?
Woden's wife, Freya, was originally the consort of the god Tiu, who was the original chief deity of all Teutons.183 It was this god who fathered Woden/Thor, and his legends were later divided among the two sons when they displaced him—although, as we've already seen, both Woden and Thor were themselves thought to be originally the same god.184 This means Woden, the son of Tiu and Freya, married his own mother Freya, just as did his counterpart in ancient Babylon, the sun god Baal Marduk!
Woden had a son named Balder by his consort/mother Freya, and he, like Woden, became deified as a god of light, or as a sun god.185 Balder's identity is not hard to figure out when we find he was married to the goddess Nana, who is identical to the goddess Ishtar, who was the mother/sister/lover of the Babylonian Baal Marduk, or Tammuz, a name that is perhaps better known to bible readers. In other words, Balder and Nana's identity is confirmed as that of Baal Marduk and Ishtar!186
Although the story of Balder is not outwardly like that of Mesopotamia's chief deity marrying his own mother, it is not just coincidence that Balder married someone whose name is one and the same as the mother goddess of ancient Babylonia. Moreover, the deficiency is overcome when we discover that Balder's wife Nana was supposedly a reincarnation of Freya, thereby making her, in reality, the mother/wife of Balder.187
The legend of Balder goes on to relate that he was so beloved by his mother that she forced everything on earth to take an oath not to kill her son, except mistletoe. Accordingly, it came to be that Balder's enemy, Loki, killed him with this very plant. His mother was so grieved that she decided that mistletoe would never again kill anyone, and declared it should be a sign of love, and that all who passed beneath it should kiss—a Christmas custom that is still practiced today. But should anyone think that mistletoe is a Teutonic peculiarity, history records that it was part of the Tammuz myth in Babylon, thereby accounting for its presence in Teutonic mythology.188 In fact, as in the story of Tammuz, Balder could return to earth only if everything would weep for him, again identifying him with his ancient origins.189 Given the information recounted thus far, it is not surprising that Balder was born, according to Teutonic legend, on December 25th—thus connecting him not only to ancient Babylonian myth, but to Jesus Christ!190
Balder is also closely identified with his Egyptian counterpart, Horus, although it is Woden who sports Horus’ legend of having one eye. The "all-seeing" eye of both Horus and Woden are associated with the sun, both being gods of the sun or sun gods.191 Add these legends to that of Woden's crucifixion, already detailed, and our historical and mythological identity of this Teutonic god is complete!
The mythology of Tiu, Freya, Woden, and Balder conclusively show that the old Teutonic legends are those of Baal, Ishtar, Tammuz and their Egyptian counterparts. It is, therefore, Baal Marduk, the ancient god of Babylon, who is to be found in the legends and religious customs of the Teutons, and thus it is he who now lives in the modern festival of Christmas as Santa Claus, or Jolly Old St. Nick. Moreover, it is his son, Tammuz, born of the virgin mother Ishtar, who may be found in the Christmas manger masquerading as the baby Jesus! (See this author's study of Easter for the details linking the Christmas Nativity to its origins in Babylon.) And, in case you think Freya was forgotten in the modern Christmas customs, part of her lives in the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the other part as Mrs. Santa Claus, who faithfully minds the toy shop at the North Pole!
To sum up the connection of our modern-day Christmas characters with the holy trinity of Babylon, we should consider the words of Earl Count who discusses the history of Mesopotamia, its gods, and the alleged birthday of Jesus Christ: "Christmas began there, over four thousand years ago, as the festival which renewed the world ... The 'twelve days' of Christmas; the bright fires and probably the Yule log; the giving of presents; ... the merrymakings and clownings, the mummers who sing and play from house to house, the feastings; the church processions with their lights and song—all these and more began there centuries before Christ was born."192
It is time to wind this study down, although there is a great deal more detail that could be added. In 1822 Clement C. Moore wrote "A Visit from St. Nicholas," which is now better known as "The Night Before Christmas," for his daughter. More than anything else the poem cemented Santa's place in American Christmas lore. In 1931 Coca-Cola hired ad man Haddon Sundblom to create a modern Santa holding a bottle of Coca-Cola. This Santa was first presented to the American public in the 1931 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City and is the Santa that all Americans now imagine when they hear or read the name. Not to be outdone, that same year Robert L. May, an advertising writer for Montgomery Ward, invented Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, a little critter that added an extra touch of cuteness to the legend of Woden and his original sun chariot. But let me close here by offering my comment on the meaning of Christmas as it now stands in Western society.
As one who has no religion nor worships any god, I personally find it rather amusing that an ancient pagan European custom reigns supreme over the supposed birthday of Jesus. But my amusement is slight becasue I recognize the seriousness of the holiday, since it is an excellent propaganda tool for the shameless promotion of Christianity. This I will not tolerate in silence because I have learned first hand the deadly destructiveness of the Jesus Christ myth on the faithful ignorant. Let me give one last brief example.
On Christmas Eve in old England it was customary for mothers to take their sick babies to the door at midnight, when Mary was expected to pass with the Christ Child. If the baby recovered, it was a sign that it had been touched by the Christ; but if it died, the Christ Child had called the baby to be his playmate in heaven! Henry Adams in his book Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres, tells how Mary comforts a mother who has lost her baby because the grieving parent may know her baby is in heaven "playing with the Christ-child at the Virgin's knee ..."193
And so it goes. Sublime ignorance is the hallmark of Christianity, and has cost untold millions of lives, and misery that is immeasurable. That's why the fiction of Christmas is dangerous! However, in face of the evidence, if you are a Christian who still finds the lies of Christmas of no consequence, then remember my selected verses from your holy bible, with which I opened this study.
In Matthew 7:23, your savior Jesus plainly says that in the judgement there would be those that claimed to have taught in his name, and he will tell them "I never knew you!" In Matthew 15:9: he declares "But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." He further states that the way to the kingdom of God is a narrow road and few will find it.194 Your savior also declares that the way to destruction is wide and many will walk down that road! Elsewhere, God plainly tells you not to walk in the ways of the heathen, and the true history of Christmas surely puts it in that category.195
Let's add Paul's warning in Galatians 1:8-9 that "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed." Indeed, the Old Testament/Tanakh is one long treatise denouncing the pagan customs of the ancient Babylonian mysteries, which are alive in the roots of today's Christmas celebrations. Moreover, consider that Revelation 21:8 tells you that idolaters will have their part in the lake of fire, and 22:15 declares that "outside the Kingdom will be sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters and liars." Liars certainly include those who tell little children that there is a Santa Claus!
Of course to sidestep the whole issue of Christmas you need only do your homework and discover the hard evidence that the bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is one long confusing book of plagiarism and deceit. In other words, the true meaning of Christmas is irrelevant to those who know. And, we who know, know that one can never put Jesus Christ back in a holiday that was never his to begin with!
(Recommended book: Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism
Endnotes:
1. Miles, Clement A. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, Christian and Pagan. (T. Fisher Unwin, 1912), p. 23.
2. Frazer, The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion. 10 volumes. (New York: MacMillan Co., 1935), Vol. V, p. 254.
3. The Encyclopedia Americana, 1961, Volume 6, pp. 622-623. Also see Encyclopedia Brittanica, 14th ed. 1973, Volume 5, p. 704; The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3, p. 656. Coffin, The Book of Christmas Folklore, p. 5; The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913, article "Mithraism"; and Encyclopædia Britannica, 2006, article "Sol".
4. Catholic Encyclopedia, The. (New York: Robt. Appleton Co., 1908-1912), Volume III, p. 724.
5. Frazer, James G. The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion. 10 volumes. (New York: MacMillan Co., 1935), Volume V, p. 254.
6. Catholic Encyclopedia, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 727 article "Christmas".
7. Ephraim Syrus, Hymn on the Nativity, chap. 15, pars. 7-10, chap. 19, par. 3, as quoted in Straw, Walter E. Origin of Sunday Observance in the Christian Church. (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1939), p. 96.
8. Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III, p. 727 article "Christmas".
9. Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III, p. 727 article "Christmas".
10. Attwater, Donald. A Dictionary of Mary. (New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1956), p. 176. Also see Walker, Barbara G. The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets. (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1983), pp. 154-156.
11. Doane, T.W. Bible Myths And Their Parallels In Other Religions. Seventh Edition. (New York: The Truth Seeker Co. 1882), p. 220.
12. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 155.
13. Lueker, Erwin L. Lutheran Cyclopedia. (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1954), pp. 170, 25.
14. She was the same as Aphrodite-Mari, the Syrian version of the goddess Ishtar. Walker, Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 602, citing Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of the Gods: Primitive Mythology. (New York, Viking Press), p. 140.
15. Wilkinson, Sir J. Gardner. The Ancient Egyptians. (New York: Crescent Books, 1988, reprint of 1853), p. 329: An ancient Roman prayer dedicated to Isis, which is one of Semiramis' many names, says "... for the Phrygians that are the first of all men call me the Mother of the gods of Pessinus; the Athenians ... Cecropian Minerva; the Cyprians ... Venus; the Cretan, ... Diana; the Sicilians ... Ceres; some Juno, others Bellona, others Hecate, others Ramnusie ... the Egyptians ... worship me with proper ceremonies, and call me by my true name, Queen Isis." Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 453. See also Monaghan, Patricia. The Book of Goddesses and Heroines. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1981), p. 169.
16. Wilkinson, Sir J. Gardner. op. cit., p. 92.
17. Dues, Greg. Catholic Customs and Traditions. (Mystic Connecticut: Twenty-Third Publications 1993), p. 122.
18. Murphy, John L. The General Councils of the Church. (Milwaukee, WI: The Bruce Publishing Co., 1960), p. 17. One might recall that it was at Ephesus that the worship of Diana, the mother-goddess, was popular, and denounced by Paul.
19. Monaghan, Patricia. The Book of Goddesses and Heroines. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1981), p. 152. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 392.
20. The Mythology of All Races, The. 13 Volumes. (Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1932), Volume V, p. 341.
21. Hislop, Alexander. The Two Babylons Proved to be The Worship of Nimrod and His Wife. Sixth edition. (London: S.W. Partridge and Co., 1877), pp. 159-164. Dr. Karl Bihlmeyer notes that 350 Christian nuns of the Collyridian order "sacrificed cakes to the Blessed Virgin in a highly pagan manner." Bihlmeyer, Karl. Church History. 3 Volumes. Translated from the German edition Kirchengeschichte. (Westminster: The Newman Press, 1968) Church History, Volume I, p. 349.
22. HOT CROSS BUNS—THE GREEK CONNECTION by James D. Georgiles. "Lent will soon be here and those tasty little buns with a cross on top will be for sale in supermarkets and bakeries. But do these buns really have any Christian significance? The answer is no, but there is a Greek connection. The Hot Cross Bun, which children relish and that in Britain, Canada, U.S.A. and other Western European countries is sold during Lent, although alluded to in the Bible has no direct connection with Christianity at all. In fact it is of pagan origin predating Christianity by almost 3,000 years. The eating of sacramental cakes at religious festivals probably began with the Assyrians and Babylonians in the worship of their moon-goddess Ishtar. It is however, recorded that the Ancient Egyptians offered small round cakes to Hathor their cow-headed moon-goddess. Hathor has been identified with Ishtar and Astarte; and with Ashtoreth who was worshipped by King Solomon, as mentioned in the Old Testament (1 Kings 11, 2), and to whom he erected a temple or shrine in Jerusalem. It was the Egyptian custom to inscribe the surface of each cake with a pair of curved horns, symbolic of the crescent moon and the ox, which was the preferred sacrifice to the goddess. (http://www.helleniccommunity.com/arts/hotcrossbun.shtml.) Also see Hislop's The Two Babylons, pp. 159-164. A note on the Jewish concept of a queen of heaven: In an interesting example of censorship, the Masoretes who added vowel points to the text around 800 C.E. have made the title of the goddess “,em>m’lekhet hashamayim”, which sounds like “the handiwork of heaven”—a way of saying “remember this is just an idol.” But all translators agree that the pronunciation should be “malkat hashamayim”, the Queen of Heaven. The image of a feminine divine is also found in Proverbs, where "Wisdom" is referred to as female. In the 8th and 9th chapters of the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is given a very clearly feminine persona, and is placed on an almost equal level with God. "It says that Wisdom was created by God before anything else was created, that Wisdom was a master worker right alongside God in creation, and that they delighted in each other. In some Jewish theological understandings of God, especially as expanded upon in mystical Kabbalah teaching of the middle ages, God has ten qualities and attributes, ten faces and names some of which are specifically feminine. Shekinah—the presence of God is typically understood as being feminine, and also as representing the mystical community of Israel, or the mystical community of all humanity. Another attribute, of the ten listed in the Kabbalah is Binah—understanding or intelligence, which is also considered to be a feminine aspect of God, as well as being an image of God as divine mother." (http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art20509.asp) "A Divine Feminine Figure: Wisdom": "When abstract qualities are personified, distinctions between allegory and mythology sometimes become unclear. In the Biblical book of Proverbs, which draws on traditions of “wisdom literature” common to the Near Eastern and Mediterranean regions, Wisdom (Chokhmah) is dramatically personified and becomes a kind of divine figure -- rather like the Egyptian goddess Maat (Truth), the daughter of Ra, and like Sophia (Wisdom) in later Hellenistic traditions: YHVH obtained me at the beginning of His course, the first of His works of old. From ages past I was fashioned, from the beginning, from the origins of the earth. There was no deep when I was born, no springs rich in water. Before the mountains were founded, before the hills, I was born. He had not yet made earth and fields, or the world’s first clumps of clay. When He set the sky in place, I was there, when He fixed the horizon upon the deep. When He made the heavens above firm, when the fountains of the deep gushed forth. When He set limits for the sea, whose waters do not transgress His command, when He fixed the foundations of the earth. I was with Him as a foster-child, a source of delight day by day, playing in His presence all the time, playing in His earthly world, finding delight with human beings. And now, children, listen to me! Happy are those who keep my ways ... "{Proverbs 8:22-32, based on the Jewish Publicatoin Society translation} c. 50 CE, Hellenic Egypt: Developing this image of divine wisdom further, the Jewish philosopher/Torah commentator, Philo of Alexandria, wrote (in Greek): Now “father and mother” is a phrase that can bear different meanings. For instance, we should rightly say, and without further question, that the Architect who made this universe was at the same time father of what was thus born, while its mother was the knowledge possessed by its Maker." (http://telshemesh.org/fire/the_jewish_goddesses_justin_lewis.html)
23. Monaghan, Book of Goddesses and Heroines, p. 21. Anahita was another name for the Babylonian Queen of Heaven.
24. Brewer's Myth & Legend. (London: Cassell Publishing, 1992), p. 140.
25. Webber, F.R. Church Symbolism. 2nd edition (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1971), p. 180.
26. Woodrow, Ralph Edward. Babylon Mystery Religion. (Riverside, CA: Ralph Woodrow Evangelistic Association, 1966), p. 12; and Attwater, Donald. A Dictionary of Mary. (New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, 1956), p. 277.
27. DeMontfort, St. Louis. The Secret of the Rosary. (Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1991), p. 50.
28. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 669-773; Attwater, A Dictionary of Mary, p. 74; Woodrow, Babylon Mystery Religion, p. 13. T.W. Doane writes: "Isis was also represented standing on the crescent moon, with twelve stars surrounding her head. In almost every Roman Catholic Church on the continent of Europe may be seen pictures and statues of Mary, the 'Queen of Heaven,' standing on the crescent moon, and her head surrounded with twelve stars. Dr. Inman, in his Pagans and Christian Symbolism, [p. 50] gives a figure of the Virgin Mary, with her infant, standing on the crescent moon. In speaking of this figure, he says: 'In it the Virgin is seen as the 'Queen of Heaven,' nursing her infant, and identified with the crescent moon ... Than this, nothing could more completely identify the Christian mother and child, with Isis and Horus.'" Bible Myths, p. 328.
29. Attwater, A Dictionary of Mary, p. 191.
30. Ibid., p. 609.
31. Ibid..
32. Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. (San Francisco: Harper, 1988), p. 428.
33. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 485, 543.
34. Sullivan, John F. The Fundamentals of Catholic Belief. (New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, Publishers to the Holy Apostolic See, 1925), p. 311.
35. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 866.
36. Sullivan, John F., D.D. 37. Weigl, A. M. Mary-Rosa Mystica Montichiari. (Essen, Germany: J. Burger Publishers, 1975), p. 10.
38. DeMontfort, St. Louis. The Secret of the Rosary, p. 26.
39. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th Edition, (New York: 1929, 1937, 1938), Volume 20, p. 314, and 9th Edition (Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart and Co., 1882), Volume XXI, pp. 639-40.
40. The temple of Semiramis was at Hierapolis, where these idols were worshiped. Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition, Volume XXI, p. 640. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. p. 253.
41. Ingersoll, Ernest. Birds in Legend Fable and Folklore. (New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1923), p. 128.
42. 9th edition, Volume XXI, p. 640.
43. (Cant. vi. 10.) Legends of the Madonna, by Jameson, Mrs., 1794-1860. Although the Assumption was only recently defined as dogma, and in spite of a statement by Epiphanius of Salamis in AD 377 that no one knew of the eventual fate of Mary, stories of the assumption of Mary into heaven have circulated since at least the 5th century.
44. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1910), Volume 14, p. 871.
45. Jastrow, Morris. Aspects of Religious Belief and Practice in Babylon and Assyria. (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1911), pp. 141-142.
46. Knights of Columbus. The Rosary: My Daily Prayer. (New Haven Conn.: Catholic Information Service, n.d.), p. 7.
47. Westropp, Hodder M., Wake Staniland C. Ancient Symbol Worship, Influence of the Phallic Idea in the Religions of Antiquity. (London: 2nd ed. Curzon Press, 1972, first published New York: 1875), p. 64.
48. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 779.
49. Attwater, A Dictionary of Mary, p. 3.
50. Attwater, A Dictionary of Mary, p. 287.
51. Greeley, Andrew M. The Mary Myth. (New York: The Seabury Press, 1977), p. 189.
52. Wigall, Arthur. The Paganism in Our Christianity. (New York: Putnam's Sons, 1928), p. 129.
53. DeMontfort, St. Louis. The Secret of the Rosary. (Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1991), p. 26.
54. DeLiguori, Alphonsus. The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus DeLiguori, Volume XII of Dignity and Duties of the Priest Selva. Translated from the Italian by Eugene Grimn. (Brooklyn: Redemptorist Fathers, 1927), p. 415.
55. DeMontfort, St. Louis. The Secret of the Rosary. (Bay Shore, NY: Montfort Publications, 1991), p. 45.
56. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 452.
57. Barrett, E. Boyd. While Peter Sleeps. (New York: Ives Washburn Publisher, 1929), p. 211. The so-called Infancy Gospel of James, or the Protoevangelium of James, is an apocryphal Gospel thought to have been written in 150 AD. Supposedly, it was written by James the Just, who supposedly was a son of Joseph by a previous marriage, and thus a step-brother to Jesus. The gospel proclaims Mary's perpetual virginity, calling her the new Eve. Scholars have determined that the work was composed by someone other than a first century Jewish man (pseudepigraphical). Moreover, it was likely composed by a Greek. The first mention of the Infancy Gospel of James is by Origen in the early third century, who says the text, like that of a "Gospel of Peter", "was of dubious, recent appearance and shared with that book the claim that the 'brethren of the Lord' were sons of Joseph by a former wife." It is the Infancy Gospel of James that names St. Anne as Mary's mother.
58. Walker. The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 38-39, 603, citing Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. (New York: Dial Press, 1976), p. 219; and Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. (New York: Vintage Books, 1958), p. 411.
59. Walker. op. cit., pp. 73.
60. Barrett. While Peter Sleeps, p. 211.
61. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed. Volume 24, p. 617.
62. Frazer. The Golden Bough, Volume V, p. 258. 63. Woodrow. Babylon Mystery Religion, p. 20, taken from the words of St. Bernard.
64. Matthew 20:23
65. New International Dictionary of the Bible. The. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1987), p. 629.
66. Attwater. A Dictionary of Mary, p. 67.
67. Monaghan. The Book of Goddesses and Heroines, p. 178.
68. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 952, 301, 409.
69. Knights of Columbus. The Mother of Jesus. (New Haven Conn.: Catholic Information Service, n.d), p. 25.
70. Ibid., pp. 27-28.
71. Attwater. A Dictionary of Mary, p. 90.
72. Walker, op. cit., pp. 451-452.
73. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary is the second Eve, and will be the one who overcomes, or crushes the serpents head, who cause the downfall of man. In this, they deny that Christ will be the one to overcome Satan, and give this honor instead to Mary. Knights of Columbus. The Mother of Jesus, pp. 14-17; Hislop. The Two Babylons, p. 60.
74. Greeley. The Mary Myth, p. 74.
75. Taylor, Thomas. The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries. (New York: J.W. Bouton, 1875), pp. 71-72.
76. op. cit., p. 73.
77. 14th edition, 1932, Volume 2, p. 858.
78. Graef, Hilda. The Devotion to Our Lady. (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1963), pp. 37, 76; Danielou, Jean. Myth and Mystery, Volume 8 of the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism. (New York: Hawthorn Books Publishers, 1968), Volume 45.
79. Attwater. A Dictionary of Mary, p. 96.
80. Attwater. A Dictionary of Mary, p. 53.
81. Stuber, Stanley I. Primer on Roman Catholicism for Protestants. (New York, Association Press, 1960, (approved by scholars of the Catholic Church.), pp. 110-111.
82. Although a good deal of pagan custom has been rightly laid at the feet of the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, not all date from his time. Long before the fourth century something called Gnostic Christianity had a very big influence throughout Christendom. Paramount to that system was the worship of the great mother goddess Sophia, who was a virgin mother of light, and (according to Gnostics) the incarnate physical mother of Christ on earth." Walker. The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 951.
83. Graef. The Devotion to Our Lady, p. 86.
84. Volume XII, Number 4, Oct. 1950, p. 406.
85. Graef. ibid., pp. 72, 76.
86. Graef. Mary: A History of Doctrine and Devotion, p. 245.
87. Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1872), Volume 2, sect. 81, quoted in Waggoner, E.J. Sunday: The Origin of its Observance in the Christian Church. (Oakland Ca.: Pacific Press Publishing Company 1891), p. 69.
88. LE-Nativity 11:2.
89. NPNF-Nativity-Hymn XI, pp. 62-63.
90. Volume V, p. 348.
91. "The myth of the mother goddess and her son and husband who died ... and [was] restored to his wife and mother, generally appears in ... Babylonian religion." Ibid., Volume V, p. 113.
92. Graham, Lloyd. Deceptions and Myths of the Bible. (New York: Bell Publishing Company, 1975), p. 302.
93. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume III, p. 724. See also Hislop. The Two Babylons, p. 98; and Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 465.
94. Miles. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, p. 183.
95. Dues. p. 69.
96. Ibid. Aion was a title of any of the "savior" gods who were born of the "Virgin."
97. Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 77. See also The Book of the Goddess, Past and Present, p. 64.
98. p. 12.
99. p. 58.
100. Hottes. 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, p. 11; Green, Miranda Jane. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992), p. 45.
101. Oxenstierna. The Norsemen, p. 216.
102. Frazer. The Golden Bough, Volume X, p. 259. Hottes. 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, p. 155.
103. Tristram Coffin notes that just in the nineteenth century many rural districts still observed the burning of the yule log, but adds: "... the yule log [has] gone the way of the oxen that drew them home." The Book of Christmas Folklore, p. 18.
104. Hottes, Alfred Carl. 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies. (New York: Delamare Co., Inc., 1937), p. 155.
105. Hislop. The Two Babylons, p. 98.
106. Walker. The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, p. 462.
107. Hottes. op. cit., p. 71.
108. Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 166.
109. Walker. The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects, p. 462. That all of these symbolic customs found their way into many parts of the world, can be seen in the Shinto religion of Japan. They have a January 2-11 celebration which closely corresponds, date wise, to the old Eastern Orthodox Christmas celebration, and is amazingly similar to that of the ancient Eastern mystery religions. The people celebrate the birth of the phallic god, Dosojin, on 2 January by first cutting down a tree. This tree, as with the custom of other Christmas-keeping people, is always sought in an easterly direction. Dosojin is supposedly alive in the tree, which, according to his mysteries, represents his phallus. When the tree is set up, it is decorated with symbols of the sun and moonᡄorbs, or balls—as well as phalluses (used instead of the effigy of a man, but both having the same meaning, as they represent the sun god). At the end of the festival the tree is set ablaze which releases the god—literally causing his re-birth. Czaja, Michael. Gods of Myth and Stone—Phallicism in Japanese Folk Religion. (New York, Weatherhill, Tokyo, 1974), p. 56-57. The use of the phallus as a tree decoration was well known in the ancient world. Some have suggested that the shape of our candles, which were used as Christmas tree decorations, are but reminders of this custom. The candle itself was originated in ancient Rome, and used in dedication ceremonies of their Mysteries.
110. Hottes. op. cit., p. 155, also see Coffin. The Book of Christmas Folklore, p. 20.
111. 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, p. 14.
112. The Egyptian "Christmas" tree had the same meaning as that of Babylon. They had a sacred prayer to Osiris, comparing his penis to a palm: "My palm tree stands upright ..." Walker. The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 752. The worship of the "sacred" tree as a phallus will be discussed fully elsewhere.
113. Miles. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, p. 265.
114. Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 1097, 188.
115. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., 1973, Volume 16, p. 819. The obelisk will be covered in a later chapter.
116. by Alfred Carl Hottes, p. 12.
117. Count. 4000 Years of Christmas, p. 21.
118. Miles. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, p. 337.
119. 4000 Years of Christmas, pp. 18, 20-21.
120. Count. op. cit., pp. 65-67.
121. Grant, Frederick C. Grant (Editor). Ancient Roman Religion (New York: Macmillan General Reference, 1957), p. 54-56.
122. Hottes. 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, p. 14.
123. p. 20. At the end of the "Christmas" festivities on Christmas Eve, the mock king was put to death and the real king would close the celebration. This was done to commemorate the death of the Sun-god and his rebirth on Christmas morning, the latter of whom the ruling king represented.
124. Miles. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition Christian and Pagan, p. 168.
125. Count. 4000 Years of Christmas, p. 12.
126. Miles. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, p. 269.
127. Count. op. cit., p. 45. Clement Miles writes that the pagan Romans included the custom of sigillariorum celebritas during the Saturnalia, which was a type of fair where little clay or paste images of the Sun's power were sold. He notes that even in modern-day Rome in the Piazza Navona that during the Christmas season one can find booths set up selling the same little figures. op. cit., p. 165.
128. William Hone. Ancient Mysteries, as quoted in Coffin. The Book of Christmas Folklore, p. 133.
129. Coffin. The Book of Christmas Folklore, p. 8.
130. Walsh. The Story of Santa Klaus, p. 67.
131. Miles. Christmas in Ritual and Tradition, p. 162.
132. Volume II, p. 45, as quoted in Meredith, Clarence Paul. Satan's Great Deception. (Pasadena California: Ambassador College Press, 1958), p. 170.
133. Walsh. The Story of Santa Klaus, p. 57.
134. Ibid., p. 58.
135.Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., Volume 6, p. 294.
136. Page 54.
137. De La Saussaye. Religions of the Teutons, p. 233.
138. Acts 5:30; John 19:34 Count. op. cit., pp. 52-53, also see Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, 1973, article on Germanic Mythology. The "tree" on which Woden supposedly died, was actually a cross, and is known today as the Cross of St. Anthony. See Walker. Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 733-734.
139. Waggoner. Sunday: The Origin of its Observance in the Christian Church, p. 80.
140. See De La Saussay. Religions of the Teutons, pp. 225-235.
141. Volume XI, p. 64.
142. Dues. Catholic Customs and Traditions, p. 142. St. Christopher, along with many other Catholic saints, was completely renounced and dropped from the church calendar of saints. Nicholas was among those "questionable" ones that barely survived!
143. Coffin. The Book of Christmas Folklore, p. 76.
144. Count. op. cit., p. 57. This date is found in the earliest accounts, however, the later legends give Nicholas' death date anywhere from ten to thirty years from that time. See the Catholic Encyclopedia, article "St. Nicholas." It might be of interest to explain how St. Nicholas became closely associated with children. According to a legend a terrible famine struck the land in which Nicholas resided. Supposedly a local butcher lured three little children into his house, slaughtered them and put their remains in a barrel to cure so that he could later sell their meat as ham. Visiting the region to care for the hungry, St. Nicholas saw through the butcher's crime and resurrected the three children from the barrel. In honor of this deed, in later times fathers would buy gifts for their little children on behalf of St. Nicholas.
145. Count. op. cit., p. 53.
146. McNight. St. Nicholas, pp. 134, 138. When these water spirits were feminine in nature, they were called Nixies. The old custom of throwing a gift into the waters to appease the spirits is still widely, though ignorantly, practiced. Tossing coins into different bodies of waters—especially fountains and wells, is still a popular custom. The connection of Woden as a god of water can be found in the legends of Oannes, or Dagon, the fish-god of Mesopotamian mythology, already discussed in the legends of Baal.
147. McKnight, op. cit., pp. 37, 133-135.
148. De La Saussaye. Religions of the Teutons, p. 232. See also volume two of this work for more information.
149. op. cit., p. 37.
150. Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 725-726.
151.Walker. The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 726.
152. Coffin. The Book of Christmas Folklore, pp. 7, 18. The actual "conversion" of the pagan Saxons, who were the last and most powerful tribe of Germans holding out against the church, was brought about by the power of the Holy Roman Empire and its mighty Emperor Karl deGrosse (742-814) or Charlemagne.
153. Froom, LeRay E. Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Volume 1. (Washington D.C.: Review & Herald, 1950), Volume I, p. 603. The statement by Pope Gregory was just a reaffirmation of a policy made official at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 and later the Council of Laodicea, when the Catholic Church accepted Easter, Sunday, and the Sun-god of Constantine and pagan Rome as a substitute for the Sabbath, Passover and Jesus Christ. See also Legge, Francis. Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity. (New York: University Press, 1964), Volume I, p. 88, 89 & 84-85.
154.Coffin. The Book of Christmas Folklore, p. 76.
155. DeRosa. Vicars of Christ, p. 59. One of the worst was Pope Gregory VII (1020-1085), who had a complete forgery school operating out of the Vatican. Whenever the Church needed "proof" for a decision, it was manufactured.
156. Weiser, Francis X. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), pp. 60-61.
"St. John Chrysostom, the 'Golden Mouthed,' in his work 'On the Priesthood,' has a curious panegyric on the clerical habit of telling lies—'Great is the force of deceit! provided it is not excited by a treacherous intention.'" (Comm. on I Cor. ix, 19; Diegesis, p. 309.) Chrysostom was one of the Greek Fathers of the Church, concerning whom Dr. (later Cardinal) Newman thus apologetically spoke: 'The Greek Fathers thought that, when there was a justa causa, an untruth need not be a lie. ... Now, as to the just cause, ... the Greek Fathers make them such as these self-defense, charity, zeal for God’s honor, and the like.' (Newman, Apology for His Life, Appendix G, p. 345-6.) FORGERY IN CHRISTIANITY: A Documented Record of the Foundations of the Christian Religion, by Joseph Wheless (Moscow, Idaho: PSYCHIANA, 1930)
Recommended book: Is It God's Word? by Joseph Wheless. Posted free at: http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_wheless/is_it_gods_word/
157. McKnight. op. cit. p. 127.
158. See the Catholic Encyclopedia, article on Methodius I.
159. McKnight op. cit., p. 39.
160. Ibid., p. 78.
161. When we discuss the great forgeries of the Catholic Church, we will indeed see that they were almost always composed by men who had little or no knowledge of history. Of course this was unimportant at the time since these forgeries were intended to fool people who usually couldn't even write their own names!
162. op. cit., p. 59.
163. De La Saussaye. Religions of the Teutons, p. 226.
164. Ibid, p. 226.
165. Count. 4000 Years of Christmas, p. 54.
166. Ibid.
167. op. cit., pp. 208-209.
168. See De La Saussaye. Religions of the Teutons, p. 318-321.
169. Ibid, p. 16. "The ancient Germans worshiped a virgin-goddess under the name of Hertha ... [who] was represented in images as a woman with a child in her arms." Doane, Bible Myths, p. 334.
170. Hottes. 1001 Christmas Facts and Fancies, p. 59. The hearth was symbolically the womb of the goddess-mother, and the burning of the yule log which gave birth to the Christmas tree, was symbolism of Nimrod's rebirth in the power of fire. As the essence of the dead log went up through the chimney, so came the "reborn savior" down the same chimney, and, as a reward to his faithful, left gifts under his symbolic tree.
171. The Mythology of All Races, Volume V, p. 61.
172. Green, Miranda Jane. Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1992), pp. 220-203.
173. The Story of Santa Klaus, p. 61.
174. Hoeh, Herman L. The Compendium of World History (Pasadena, CA: Ambassador Press, 1966), Volume II, p. 44, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, preserved in Anderson's Royal Genealogies.
175. Ibid., pp. 205-206. See also Anderson's Royal Genealogies.
176. De La Saussaye, op. cit., pp. 104, 244, 270.
177.See Tacitus' Germania, in particular his "regnator omnium deus" (god, ruler of all) for more information.
178. Hoeh, Herman L. The Compendium of World History, Volume II, p. 43. See also Jones, Stephen E. The Babylonian Connection Between Ancient and Modern Religions. (Phoenix Az: America's Promise, 1978), p. 87; and Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 10. While only a few historians go so far as to recognize "Santa Claus" is Baal in modern garb, many others indirectly make this connection. William Walsh says of Santa Claus: "He is Saturn christianized and dignified with episcopal robes." The Story of Santa Klaus, p. 76.
179. De La Saussaye. Religions of the Teutons, p. 85. Wodin was born in Asgard, which the history of ancient Europe says was in the region of the Black Sea and which borders the ancient kingdom of Assyria. The ancient Germanic peoples have a distinct relationship to ancient Assyria, which may be noted (among other things) in the numerous artifacts uncovered in their land, including the city of Berlin!
180. Monaghan. The Book of Goddesses and Heroines, p. 126.
181. Ibid., p. 125.
182. De La Saussaye. Religions of the Teutons, p. 104.
183. Ibid, p. 32. The name Teutons literally means "people of Tiu." This evidence will be covered in detail in volume two of this book.
184. Hislop. The Two Babylons, p. 25. The details of worship about Woden's father, Tiu or Tu, the god we've named Tuesday after (Tiu's day), can be found in another ancient name by which he was known, Freyr. Not surprisingly, the worship and legends of Freyr are the same as the ancient Babylonian worship of Tammuz. (De La Saussay. Religions of the Teutons, p. 244.) Long before the real Woden was deified as a German version of Baal, the people of the north worshipped this Tiu, (Tu) or Freyr, by sacrificing to him in the sacred groves, which is documented elsewhere in this work as Babylonian Baal worship. And, just as in the Mysteries of Babylon, his mystic symbol was the phallus and the tree. (Ibid, p. 91.) De La Saussaye records that in the center of a sacred grove "A wooden pillar, or phallus, of unusual size in the open air is worshipped in common." (Ibid. pp. 124-125.) The great festival of Tiu, like that of Tammuz, was at the time of modern Easter, and was followed by the same December festival which we now call Christmas. In addition to the sexual rites, the sacrifices made to the sun god Tiu, were human. All these rites were inherited by Woden when he displaced his father. Freyr had as his consort the mother goddess called Nerthus (the same as Hertha, the German mother goddess). The Romans at their coming recognized her as Isis, and gave her that name. The ancient historian Tacitus compared Nerthus to Mater Magna, or the Great Mother or mother-goddess of Rome, confirming once again her identity as Ishtar. (De La Saussaye, Religion of the Teutons, pp. 247-249. Nerthus and Freyr, both shared a festival at the close of Winter, that is, around December 25th.) It would be interesting to note here that Freyr himself did not completely disappear. He survives today in the veneration of St. Stephanus of Sweden, patron of "fruitfulness in woman and soil." De La Saussaye. Religion of the Teutons, p. 253.
185.De La Saussay. Religions of the Teutons, p. 253.
186. Monaghan. Book of Goddesses and Heroines, pp. 249. In Babylon Nana was another name for Ishtar, and appears as the mother/wife of Tammuz. The Mythology of All Races, pp. 20, 156, 382. The name is very likely from the Assyrian/Babylonian title for the mother goddess Mamma, or Mah, which has survived throughout the ages as a pet name for mother. ibid., p. 110. The word "nanna" itself means daughter, and as we've discussed elsewhere, was a title applied to Ishtar.
187. Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, pp. 39, 77.
188. Hislop. The Two Babylons, p. 99; De La Saussaye, Religion of the Teutons, pp. 255-57. Both mistletoe and holly are both sacred plants to the Mysteries. Holly is sacred because it stays green all year, and the pagans thought that it was therefore favored by the Sun.
189. See this author's study on Easter.
190. Doane, op. cit., p. 365.
191. De La Saussaye. Religion of the Teutons, p. 232. This asscociation of the different Sun-gods with one eye can also be explained by the fact that it vulgarly refers to the opening of the penis, itself the symbol of this phallic sun-god. Walker. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, p. 294.
192. 4000 Years of Christmas, p. 18.
193. As quoted in Count, 4000 Years of Christmas, p. 35.
194. Matthew 7:14
195. Jeremiah 10:2
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