Nostra Aetate; DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS

"  NOSTRA AETATE
PROCLAIMED BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI
ON OCTOBER 28, 1965

1. In our time, when day by day mankind is being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are becoming stronger, the Church examines more closely her relationship to non-Christian religions. In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among nations, she considers above all in this declaration what men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.

One is the community of all peoples, one their origin, for God made the whole human race to live over the face of the earth.(1) One also is their final goal, God. His providence, His manifestations of goodness, His saving design extend to all men,(2) until that time when the elect will be united in the Holy City, the city ablaze with the glory of God, where the nations will walk in His light.(3)

Men expect from the various religions answers to the unsolved riddles of the human condition, which today, even as in former times, deeply stir the hearts of men: What is man? What is the meaning, the aim of our life? What is moral good, what is sin? Whence suffering and what purpose does it serve? Which is the road to true happiness? What are death, judgment and retribution after death? What, finally, is that ultimate inexpressible mystery which encompasses our existence: whence do we come, and where are we going?

2. From ancient times down to the present, there is found among various peoples a certain perception of that hidden power which hovers over the course of things and over the events of human history; at times some indeed have come to the recognition of a Supreme Being, or even of a Father. This perception and recognition penetrates their lives with a profound religious sense.

Religions, however, that are bound up with an advanced culture have struggled to answer the same questions by means of more refined concepts and a more developed language. Thus in Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry.

They seek freedom from the anguish of our human condition either through ascetical practices or profound meditation or a flight to God with love and trust. Again, Buddhism, in its various forms, realizes the radical insufficiency of this changeable world; it teaches a way by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, may be able either to acquire the state of perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination.

Likewise, other religions found everywhere try to counter the restlessness of the human heart, each in its own manner, by proposing "ways," comprising teachings, rules of life, and sacred rites.

The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. Indeed, she proclaims, and ever must proclaim Christ "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6), in whom men may find the fullness of religious life, in whom God has reconciled all things to Himself.(4)

The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons, that through dialogue and collaboration with the followers of other religions, carried out with prudence and love and in witness to the Christian faith and life, they recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found among these men.

3. The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth,(5) who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet.

They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

Since in the course of centuries not a few quarrels and hostilities have arisen between Christians and Moslems, this sacred synod urges all to forget the past and to work sincerely for mutual understanding and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit of all mankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and freedom.

4. As the sacred synod searches into the mystery of the Church, it remembers the bond that spiritually ties the people of the New Covenant to Abraham's stock.

Thus the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith (6)-are included in the same Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage.

The Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded the Ancient Covenant. Nor can she forget that she draws sustenance from the root of that well-cultivated olive tree onto which have been grafted the wild shoots, the Gentiles.(7) Indeed, the Church believes that by His cross Christ, Our Peace, reconciled Jews and Gentiles. making both one in Himself.(8)

The Church keeps ever in mind the words of the Apostle about his kinsmen: "theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary. She also recalls that the Apostles, the Church's main-stay and pillars, as well as most of the early disciples who proclaimed Christ's Gospel to the world, sprang from the Jewish people.

As Holy Scripture testifies, Jerusalem did not recognize the time of her visitation,(9) nor did the Jews in large number, accept the Gospel; indeed not a few opposed its spreading.(10) Nevertheless, God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their Fathers; He does not repent of the gifts He makes or of the calls He issues-such is the witness of the Apostle.(11) In company with the Prophets and the same Apostle, the Church awaits that day, known to God alone, on which all peoples will address the Lord in a single voice and "serve him shoulder to shoulder" (Soph. 3:9).(12)

Since the spiritual patrimony common to Christians and Jews is thus so great, this sacred synod wants to foster and recommend that mutual understanding and respect which is the fruit, above all, of biblical and theological studies as well as of fraternal dialogues.

True, the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death of Christ;(13) still, what happened in His passion cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today. Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures. All should see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in the preaching of the word of God they do not teach anything that does not conform to the truth of the Gospel and the spirit of Christ.

Furthermore, in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.

Besides, as the Church has always held and holds now, Christ underwent His passion and death freely, because of the sins of men and out of infinite love, in order that all may reach salvation. It is, therefore, the burden of the Church's preaching to proclaim the cross of Christ as the sign of God's all-embracing love and as the fountain from which every grace flows.

5. We cannot truly call on God, the Father of all, if we refuse to treat in a brotherly way any man, created as he is in the image of God. Man's relation to God the Father and his relation to men his brothers are so linked together that Scripture says: "He who does not love does not know God" (1 John 4:8).

No foundation therefore remains for any theory or practice that leads to discrimination between man and man or people and people, so far as their human dignity and the rights flowing from it are concerned.

The Church reproves, as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against men or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion. On the contrary, following in the footsteps of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, this sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to "maintain good fellowship among the nations" (1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men,(14) so that they may truly be sons of the Father who is in heaven."

Source of Post
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html

Interview with shaman Mira Michelle Jones; Bringing Back Goddess Church

Bringing Back Goddess Church
All Faith Spiritual Sanctuary
Port Townsend Washington

Pastor; Priestess; Reverend Crystal Cox
ReverendCrystalCox@Gmail.com

Searching for the Divine Feminine: Looking for Aspects of "Her" Between the Lines; Bringing Back Goddess Church, Reverend Crystal Cox.

"May The Blessing of God Go Before You

May Her peace and grace abound.

May her spirit live within you.

May her love wrap you ‘round.

May her blessing remain with you always.

May you walk on holy ground.

~Miriam Therese Winter, Life Prayers

I always had a sense that if there was a God, there had to be a Goddess.

Host-Hostess. Steward-Stewardess. Actor-Actress. In my heart I knew there had to be a yin to the yang I grew up knowing as the Divine source of all that is. I just did not have a clue as to how to find Her.

It wasn’t until I was in seminary school that I began to truly see the many feminine faces of God, known as Goddess, as she exists in so many of the world's religions and traditions.

My path included many bumps, questions and doubts along the way. I share my insights with you because I suspect that many people raised in our traditional religious culture may find it hard to believe--and perhaps even sacrilegious to consider--that the male God of the Bible is one of many interpretations of divine presence that exist in the world’s religions.

Fortunately, I was trained by a seminary that encourages free thinking and exploration. Its motto is "Never instead of, always in addition to." In order to embrace all faiths we were taught that God is one source and yet that source manifests in many ways, through many paths, religions and spiritual practices. And that God is represented by a wide-range of deities with different names.

Nevertheless, the fear of acknowledging a feminine face of God grabbed hold of me in the middle of seminary school. I was doing what seminarians are supposed to do... grappling with God. As I studied comparative religion, I was trying to reconcile the belief system I was raised with--God is a man, no two ways about it--with the new belief systems I was learning--The Divine is neither male or female and/or The Divine is indeed both male and female.

One day I was praying to a feminine deity...and I became panic stricken: What if the Male God gets mad at me and cuts me off? What if he’s saying, Oh, switching teams, eh? We’ll see about that...

Many people are even afraid to consider the Divine as feminine in form or nature. Yet I learned on my personal journey that in order to be truly whole, whether we are women or men, we must embrace both the male and feminine aspects of the divine--and we must embrace those aspects of ourselves and of one another.

I discovered that I am among so many women--and men--searching for spirituality that brings both The Father and The Mother to the table. As we desperately seek balance and peace on our planet, and in these times of deeply disturbing and frightening world events, many of us are searching for what’s been missing in modern life.

And I believe one of the most important missing pieces of our lives has been The Sacred Feminine--not instead of, but in addition to, The Sacred Male. In the tradition of all-inclusive spirituality, we refer to the Divine as God, Goddess, All there is.

She is there, in between the lines

When I first began to search for signs of the Mother in the world’s religions, I found a few beautiful examples, including the "she aspect". One was in the gentle spiritual practice known as Taoism, founded by Loa Tzu in the 6th Century B.C.E..

The Taoists explain the origin of all that is as feminine, yet is manifested as both male and female, in what is known as the Yin and the Yang. It is this energy that the Taoist religious text Tao Te Ching attributes to the creation of the cosmos. "Conceived of as having no name, it is the originator of heaven and earth...it is the Mother of all things."

In Kabbalah, the mystical aspect of Judaism, the indwelling aspect of God, also known as Shekinah, is considered to be the feminine aspect of God. Kabbalists also know the soul as "She." Consider this petition to the divine from the tradition of mystical Judaism:

"My soul aches to receive your love. Only by the tenderness of your light can she be healed. Engage my soul that she may taste your ecstasy."

The Judaic scriptures and the Gnostic Christian doctrines also include wisdom as a feminine aspect. She is called, Sophia and considered the personification of wisdom.

The Buddhists confer that Praj-na-para-mita (which means the perfection of wisdom) is feminine. An important Buddhist text, Sariputra, puts it this way: "The perfection of wisdom gives light, O Lord. I pay homage to the perfection of wisdom. She is worthy of homage. She is unstained and the world cannot stain her."

Then of course, there is Grace. In Christian Theology it is the expression of Gods love in his free and unmerited assistance. And, as the New Testament puts it, Grace can only be conferred through Faith. Isn’t it interesting that those are names assigned to women?

That Grace and Faith evoke perhaps the greatest sense of connection to the Divine, yet do so in the name and essence of the feminine. I was excited to see that when you dig around a bit you will find the feminine between the lines of well-established religions. Still, I was searching for a God who looked like me--feminine in nature and in her manifestations...The spiritual mother I longed for.

Hail Mary

Conventional religious belief is obviously dominated by references to and images of a male Divine, whispering ever so softly of feminine energies between the lines. Yet Catholicism has given us our most tangible mainstream connection.

Mary, mother of God’s only begotten son, along with a handful of popular female saints, have been the most highly visible aspect of the feminine in the traditional religion for 2,000 years.

Because of that, The Blessed Virgin cuts across religious boundaries. She is, in many ways, the adopted spiritual mother of all women, and people of many faiths embrace her. She has been solely responsible for keeping the sacred feminine alive for a couple of millennium.

Yet there are many cultures that are rich with mythology, spiritual practices, religious experiences and sacred texts that show us many ways in which The Goddess has been and can be worshipped, remembered and evoked.

It is extraordinary to realize that just over 2000 years ago, less than 40 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, queen Cleopatra of Egypt prayed to the mother Goddess, Isis, who was the favored deity of the Queen’s temples. Cleopatra’s beloved, Julius Caesar, bowed to Isis’ Roman counterpart, the Goddess Venus.

What was considered sacrilegious in their day was not the worship of Goddesses… but Caesar’s worship of Cleopatra, which was so intense that he erected a statue of Cleopatra as Venus, but looking like Isis, in a holy temple to the Roman Goddess. The Romans did not appreciate that interfaith approach to Goddess worship back then.

When the Romans conquered Egypt, they ultimately replaced the antiquities and images of Isis and her infant Horus with images and icons of Mary and the baby Jesus.

Although Mary and Jesus are the most famous mother and child, the image of the mother and the child (or the pregnant, fertile mother) abound as a motif of cultures that worshiped The Great Mother. Joseph Campbell often said that the same essence of the Divine Feminine could be found in the religious mythology and folklore of every culture. Many of the stories are the same, yet the names and specific circumstances change according to cultural tradition.


History of the Goddess

The earliest signs of Goddess worship date as far back as 33,000 years ago. One of the most famous artifacts of the Divine Feminine is The Venus of Willendorf, which is believed to have been carved in stone 20,000 to 30,000 thousand years ago.

And while she looks like a rotund female--pregnant and voluptuous--when you place a replica of her famous statue flat on her back, she takes on the form of the earth--the hills and valleys, mountains and ravines, are all in her body.

And that is how the ancients worshiped The Great Mother--as Mother of the Earth, Mother Earth and Mom Nature. They followed an earth-based religion. The Great Goddess Mother was the earth--alive, growing, pulsating with life.

She was fertility, death and regeneration, as witnessed in the flowers and trees, the moon and the ocean, the cycles of life and nature. She was seen in so many diverse forms--fluid, capable of assuming any role. Much like our own mothers.

She was revered as the great power because women were seen as the great power. It was human women who could conceive, birth, and nurture children from their own bodies. A Miracle. But a miracle akin to the magic of mother earth--who could nurture flowers in the summer, protect them in her womb in the winter, and magically let them grow again in spring.

It is believed by many scholars that it was the eruption of violence as perpetrated by the newer, male dominated cultures that obliterated the peaceful, earth honoring ways of Goddess worship and paved the way for the strong hold of Christianity and eventually the obliteration of the Goddess from religion, religious texts and teachings.

Native American and indigenous shamanic cultures

The shamanic religion--50,000 years old and still going strong, and considered the oldest of all religions--also reveres the mother, along with the father. She is the earth, the Great Mother. Some cultures call her Patchamama or Corn Woman.

She is the nurturer who feeds us from her own body and sustains all of life. In Native American cultures she is represented by the turtle--a hard shell with a soft inside. A popular Lakota chant sums it up well: "The earth is our mother... we must take care of her."

Who is the Goddess?

Like most people who are unfamiliar with the concept and rich spirituality of including The Goddess, the first time I began to explore the aspect of Feminine Divine called Goddess I was afraid that it meant I had to worship only a SHE and practice a spirituality that excluded men. Wrong.

Almost three decades ago, Merlin Stone wrote a groundbreaking book called When God Was A Woman, tracing cultures that worshipped "The Goddess" or "Goddesses".

She described Goddess this way: She is the "divine feminine principle" or the "sacred feminine principle in the universe."

In this millennium we are seeing a resurgence of the Divine Feminine and an observance of the feminine as sacred. We are seeing her in history, art, folklore, religion, spirituality, archeology, media, and mythology.

Many scholars and clergy agree that we need Her help to midwife this new point in history... Because she brings to our world--and our lives--those qualities that, as discussed, even some traditional religions and most mystical religions assign as feminine qualities: Wisdom and the expression of the Soul. When we tap into wisdom and follow the call of our souls we can then forgive, be tolerant, appreciate everyone’s individual evolution, and love without conditions. The energy of the Divine Feminine also balances the energy of the male; without it, the qualities traditionally associated with male energy--which include warring and aggression--will get completely out of hand.

Rich spiritual traditions and religious mythology can help in everyday life

The natural progression of my search for the Divine Feminine is to write a book that puts together all that I have learned about the Goddess and how she can help us in our daily lives.

In researching my book, A Goddess Is A Girl’s Best Friend (Perigee, Fall 2002), I found thousands of ways the Divine Feminine is personified in different cultures.

The rich mythology of the Feminine Divine has reemerged to offer role models--and guidance--to modern men and women. She comes to us as The Mother, and also the Maiden and The Wise Woman. She is also Sister, Daughter, Best Friend. For example:

The Greek Goddess Aphrodite, also known as the Roman Goddess, Venus, is Goddess of Love and Infatuation. She has completely insinuated herself in our culture, helping us to evoke the love within us all and encouraging us to experience high romance.

The Egyptian Goddess Isis is one of the most revered Goddesses, worshipped as Queen of Heaven in the ancient Egyptian religions. A healing and resurrection Goddess who was also considered a physician, she brought her beloved Osiris back to life from the dead and bore his child Horus, who went on to be the chosen son to represent the father, on earth.

She lives on through her image and energy in reliefs on ancient temples and tomb walls. She shows us we can heal, survive our grief, and live fruitful lives.
Goddess Isis

The Chinese Goddess Kuan Yin is a beautiful Bodhisattva who has captured the heart of Buddhist worshipers and beyond, just as Mary has captured the heart of so many in her religion of origin and around the world. She comes to tell us to be merciful and compassionate--especially to be our own merciful mothers.

Lakshmi is the Hindu Goddess of Good Fortune who brings abundance and beauty into our lives, pouring her gifts upon us. She, like Aphrodite, was born of the milky waters of the sea. She is symbolized as beautiful woman with four arms, one pouring coins into the ocean from whence she came. She is still worshipped daily in Hindu temples and homes, as are all Goddesses in that tradition. Read More About Lakshmi in Rev. Laurie Sue's Monthly Column at SoulfulLiving.com.

All that is Divine is both Female and Male

The Hindus teach us that the Divine essence of all that is is the creative summary of both male and female principle. And so do the Taoists, who show us the feminine and the masculine principle that feed one another and make up the whole in the symbol of Yin/Yang.

The circle of black and white halves show two opposite energies, from whose interactions and fluctuation, the universe and its diverse forms emerge. Tibetan Buddhist do the same with their most sacred objects, dorje and bell. The bell represents the feminine and the dorje is the male principal. No worship service is ever conducted without use of each, together, one held in each hand.

In these systems of belief.... You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have day without the night. You can’t have man without woman, or masculine without feminine. In very, very simple form, you can forget about toast for the rest of your life... you can’t plug in a toaster without both the male plug and the female outlet.

When we really understand that the Divine nature of all that is contains both the masculine and the feminine principles, it begins to make sense that men and women each contain those Divine principle; that the energy of the Goddess exists within all of us; and that one energy might at some times be more prominent than the other.

For example, any man or woman in a traffic jam may choose to evoke their male energy by vocalizing dissatisfaction with the traffic or even trying by driving aggressively. On the other end of the spectrum, both the man and the woman who share a moment of gentle nurturing and loving are operating from a more receptive and gentle feminine energy.

We are all children of God, Goddess, All There Is. When we acknowledge that we are all Divine, as well as complex beings that are both feminine and masculine in nature, we can begin to access true balance in our lives. It is in acknowledging that these qualities exist in all of us that we begin to find balance in our relationship to ourselves, our relationships to one another, and in our relationship to the world we live in.

I Believe The Goddess Is Re-emerging Just In Time…

The Goddess is re-emerging to show us another side of ourselves. Or at least to help us consider God is both masculine and feminine in nature, and therefore, that we all possess The Divine Within. She’s come just in time. Here’s why:

Women feel left out of traditional religion. 

It’s not just about becoming a clergy person or having power, it’s about being able to recognize our own divinity. Men have been able to recognize their divinity through worship of a male divine. It’s time that women access The Goddess Within but first… we need role models.

Men are shut off from their feminine energy and, quite frankly, their softness in many cases, and there is so little in religious environments in our culture--and most of the world’s cultures--that nurtures that side of males. Because of this, men are suffering, and our world is suffering, because we still do not completely support the idea of men being sensitive, loving, gentle, forgiving, healing, even mushy. This is so odd, because that was exactly what the ministry of Jesus Christ was about. Jesus was, in so many ways, the embodiment of both the male and female principle.

Of Mary Magdalene, it has been said, "he could not see her in tears without himself weeping." He spent every waking moment of his ministry embracing people in his love and continues to do so. I mean, who would dare call Christ a wimp? Yet, we often label men who are in touch with that part of themselves by that name.

Because of the ingrained idea of a male divinity, our relationship lives are utterly confusing. Love means war when instead of accessing all the qualities of the male and feminine in ourselves, we seek partners to make us whole. We have to learn to come into relationships whole and we can only do that when we embrace all aspects of the Divine.

We’ve got kids to raise and it’s time we teach them that all of who they are is okay; that their sex doesn’t have to assign them to specific gender roles; that we are all made up of the male and female principle, the yin-yang. If we raise our boys to know the divine only in male terms than we deny them access to a part of themselves, and if we teach our girls that the Feminine Divine only exists in fairy tales, they will grow up as Barbie Dolls instead of as Goddesses.

We live in a world that is spinning out of control. This became so painfully evident in the September 11, 2001 attack on our nation, which brought forth a darkness that shocked and pained us all. But even before that, we were at war with one another and within ourselves, and our world reeled with imbalances: violence in our schools, people starving to death on a planet that has plenty of food to feed everyone, one natural catastrophe after another. Mom Nature has been trying to get our attention. God, Goddess, All There Is has been whispering in our ear… We must take stock of our world and ourselves. We must change, now.

New York author Rick Carrier told me that his book, The Mother of God, is about a female deity who walks the earth to come and tell us: CLEAN UP YOUR ROOM. It is time to clean up our planet, our personal lives, our pain, our wounding of one another and our earth, our relationships, our bad habits, our unconsciousness.

The Feminine Divine lives to love and protect all her children. She’s there for us, always. But she’s screaming out for our attention: "Listen to your mother," she calls, "I know what’s best for you!"

Source
http://www.soulfulliving.com/divinefeminine.htm


Bringing Back Goddess Church
Pastor; Priestess; Reverend Crystal Cox
Port Townsend Washington

ReverendCrystalCox@Gmail.com

Reclaiming the Divine Feminine; Bringing Back Goddess Church; Reverend Crystal Cox

"I was confused about the vision I received to begin my pilgrimage to reclaim the Divine Feminine in Rome because when I close my eyes and think of this ancient city, my first image is of the Vatican. And my first association with the Vatican is it as one of the main propagators of a patriarchal paradigm. Flashes of Scripture that oppress women's voices and instill ideas of male superiority flood my consciousness, like

1 Corinthians 14: 34-35.
34 Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home;
for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

Perhaps my vision was leading me back to the old adage All Roads Lead to Rome. My intention to reclaim the Divine Feminine on an individual and collective level is not about diminishing the masculine perspective, but elevating the feminine voice so that they can become integrated and equal while remaining unique in their own strengths.

Think of the yin/yang principle. But how can we even begin to find balance, when the stories that lay the foundation of our major world religions and mythology are undeniably patriarchal?

On a deep psychological level, I have often wondered what the impact is on women who are taught that God is male and that the only access to God is through a male priest, pastor, bishop or rabbi. 

One of the questions most human beings come across in navigating their life is about their individual relationship to God. And if God and access to God is perceived as having a male gender preference, and God is seen as the power of all things and the ideal within which we desire to emulate, where can a woman find her own map to the divine?

It becomes difficult, if not impossible, for a woman to access one of her deepest powers of intuition -- receiving guidance from the Divine and the courage to follow it -- if she inherently believes that she does not have the capability of doing so. If she has not seen images of women as divine or heard stories of women who have also had a direct connection to spirit, the possibility lives outside of her.

With the lack of the Divine Feminine in our history, coupled with the scriptures above instructing women must be kept quiet, a woman is faced with a frightening question in her own heart: Does she acquiesce to the written word that oppresses her in many ways, while bringing comfort in others, or does she venture out of the structure that was created so many years ago to find her own truth?

In the book "The Alphabet and the Goddess," the idea is introduced about the power of language and how the alphabet was used as one of the main ways in which the feminine was oppressed and patriarchy could take and retain power, not only over women, but men over other men.

The author Leonard Shlain explains that the Old Testament was one of the first alphabetic written works to influence future ages and the words on its pages anchor the three powerful religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. He proposes the impact of these scriptures depended as much on their being written as the moral lessons they contained.

Because theses stories and words were written down, they were seen as the ultimate authority of truth. And this written word was used as a way to bring people together in a shared belief system that explains where we came from, why we are here and where we are going after this world.

It also helped strengthen the power of the word when anyone who disagreed with this written story was killed, like in the Crusades, Inquisition and other religious wars, many of them which began with the Romans.

All of this was on my mind that first morning, when I stumbled upon one of largest feminine sites in Rome. I had just missed the bus and the next one wasn't coming for 30-40 minutes. It was then I looked up and saw a huge church across the street and decided to explore it. The church was called Santa Maria Maggiore. It's the largest church in Rome dedicated to Mary as the "Mother of God." 

To my astonishment, I experienced a profound sense of peace in this church and was so moved by the images, each of which portrayed Mary above or next to Jesus, showing and honoring a feminine expression of the Divine that my eyes were so thirsty for.

The synchronicity of finding this large church devoted to Mary on that first day affirmed the vision I had to begin my pilgrimage in Rome.

The coincidence of setting out to reclaim the Divine Feminine and finding her the first place I looked, in all her glory, drew me into a deeper place of being able to trust myself.

This experience illuminated the first insight from this pilgrimage: one of the core practices in reclaiming the Divine Feminine is the ability to trust one's intuition, vision and gut instincts. One has to be willing to go beyond what has been written about the past to explore and interact with life in present time following your instincts vs. your expectations.

Put any cynicism aside for a moment and imagine the power that you as an individual would feel and could hold if you truly trusted yourself. If you believed that you had a direct connection to God/Goddess/Spirit and that the visions of your highest destiny and next steps you could trust and follow.

And then imagine how it would feel if you didn't believe that was true, if that power was outside of you or not available. And lastly, imagine you could choose.

Imagine you as an individual could believe that you had a divine spark within you, access to infinite inner wisdom and the capability to decipher it from your ego. Do you already believe that? If not, would your life be different if you chose to believe such a thing?

The best part was coming home from my first day of the pilgrimage with this experience and remembering the importance of trusting myself and honoring my vision and then doing some research about this church, the Santa Maria Maggiore, and learning how it came to be built -- from a vision.

According to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared to Pope Liberius and instructed him to build a church precisely where he saw a patch of snow on the next day.

Since Rome was currently experiencing one of their typical hot summers, it was out of the ordinary that he found snow at the summit of the Esquiline Hill the next morning (on Aug. 5) and was thought of as a miracle. In commemoration of this event, every year thousands of white petals are released from the ceiling church to "snow" on the congregation.

Beyond the words written that define our connection to the Divine, our visions, intuition and instincts are a vital way that each of us can connect with the Divine Feminine.

As we each learn to trust our own visions -- and one another's visions -- we can begin to dream a bigger dream. I think of John Lennon's quote, "A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality." May this vision of a Feminine Renaissance expand in our own consciousness, so that it can also expand in our world."

Source and Full Bringing Back the Feminine Divine Article
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rochelle-schieck/reclaiming-the-divine-feminine_b_1766494.html

Bringing Back Goddess Church
Pastor; Priestess; Reverend Crystal Cox
Port Townsend Washington

ReverendCrystalCox@Gmail.com 

A GLOBAL EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION; Crimes on Humanity in the Name of GOD, are Here By ABOLISHED. ~ "the spiritual disestablishment of the church of Rome" Amen, God - Goddess Bless YOU All. May Compassion, Peace, Love they Neighbor and HOPE.. REIGN.

The New Covenant Has Begun; in Love, in Light, in Truth, in Honor and Dignity 

"Today, at sunrise on Easter, April 20, 2014, ceremonies in Rome, London, Maastricht and at the key energy centers of the earth proclaimed and invoked the spiritual disestablishment of the church of Rome and the entity governing it.

The Maastricht Proclamation was made by Rev. Kevin Annett at the oldest catholic church outside of Italy.

The Proclamation was preceded by sunrise exorcism ceremonies at the Vatican and dozens of other locations under the authority of spiritual elders.

To quote their statement, "This third and final exorcism of the dark entity of Rome is accomplished. The power of that false church is forever broken, and replaced by a new spiritual gathering of free men and women under a new Covenant with the Creator.

"The new Covenant stands solely on the authority, judgement and laws of God, and nullifies the de facto rule of church and state that wrongfully posed as lawful and legitimate authorities over mankind. The new Covenant replaces those de facto, criminal powers with the de jure, lawful government of God that overturns and replaces all unjust, man made authority of church and state."

The new Covenant issued today's Proclamation, which follows.The Proclamation has supreme spiritual and lawful authority and binding power under the laws of heaven and earth, and all free men and women are empowered to actively enforce it.

I, Kevin Daniel of the House Annett, give witness and judgement today to this Act and accomplishment of God on behalf of the Court and the Covenant."

Issued by ITCCS Central, Brussels and the Covenanted Congregational Charter, New York - 20 April, 2014
..................

A GLOBAL EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

MADE UNDER THE LAW OF GOD AND MAN

(This Proclamation is issued and available in thirteen languages)
Invoking the Legal and Spiritual Disestablishment of the Church of Rome and its adjunct bodies, the Vatican and the “Holy See”

AND

Issued as a Binding De Jure Annulment and Emancipation Order by The International Common Law Court of Justice and The Covenant of Free Congregational Christians on Easter Sunday the 20th Day of April in the year 2014

Let it Be Known and made effect by all men and women, persons and authorities that under the Supreme Law of God as embodied in the Common Law of Nature and Natural Right, as of this day, the institution and entity of the Church of Rome, its officers, clergy, adjunct and derivative bodies and corporate entirety, is now and forever abolished and disestablished as a corporate and a spiritual body.

All people and powers formerly under its authority and influence and owing it allegiance are now and forever emancipated and freed from such obligatory servitude.

Having violated and waged unrelenting war on God and humanity through its history of crime, murder, apostasy, child sacrifice and idolatry, and thereby repudiated its covenanted requirement of duty to uphold the honor of Heaven and Earth, and the life and dignity of mankind, the Church of Rome has nullified its basis for existence and brought upon itself the status of a renegade transnational criminal organization in the eyes of God and man, and under the laws of both heaven and earth.

The ultimate authority of God as expressed in De Jure common law courts of judgment and in congregations of just, truthful men and women does therefore nullify the existence of the Church of Rome, the alleged “Apostolic Succession”, and its so-called “Canon Law”.

Therefore, as of this day, all such law, statutes, and all church offices and officials are declared to be forever abolished and possessing no effect or binding authority in heaven or on earth.

All Church of Rome officials and agents, commencing with Jorge Bergoglio, so-called Pontiff of the Church of Rome, every Cardinal of the Roman Curia, the heads of the Vatican Bank and Adolfo Pachon, chief “Superior” of the Jesuit Order, are hereby ordered to immediately stand down from and relinquish their offices.

The wealth, property and movable assets of the Church of Rome are hereby forfeited and declared to be under the common ownership of the People of the world, and may be peacefully seized and occupied by them.

Every member, employee and adherent of the Roman Catholic Church is hereby released from all of their vows, allegiance and obligations to the Church of Rome, and are freed to gather and worship in whatever congregational form that God and their conscience compels, separate from the disestablished Roman church.

The sheriffs and peace officers of lawful common law courts, assisted by the free people of the world, are henceforth authorized and encouraged to enact and enforce this Annulment and Emancipation Proclamation wherever possible, under the supreme and sovereign authority of God and the Law of Nations.

The people of God who have been lost and held in bondage within the spiritual captivity of the false church of Rome are now free to assemble in covenanted congregations which stand solely under the law of God and recognizing no other legitimate authority, for the establishment of God's kingdom on earth.

The long night of spiritual tyranny and Vatican crime is over. 

Let the free people of the Earth and all true servants of God and Christ cleanse their lands of the Lie and the Murder formerly enthroned in Rome.

Proclaimed and enacted as on this Resurrection Sunday by The International Common Law Court of Justice with the collaboration of the The Covenant of Free Congregational Christians (The Covenanters)

This Proclamation is accompanied by a third and final exorcism and spiritual reclamation ceremony in Rome and throughout the world, on this Easter Sunday, April 20, 2014

In Coram Deo: Invoked in God's presence - As God wills it, it is accomplished
A Lawful and Binding Act made under the Divine and Common Law. The power to bind and free now resides in God alone and through God's free, covenanted people."

You are NOW Free From the Crimes of the VATICAN

Bringing Back Goddess Church, All Faith Spiritual Sanctuary, Port Townsend Washington. Reverend Crystal Cox.

Love * Light * One Tribe * Healing * Helping * Hope

Nicolas Notovitch ~ Uncovering the Real Life of Jesus Christ

"Nicolas Notovitch was a Russian aristocrat, Cossack officer, spy, and journalist known for his contention that during the years of Jesus Christ's life missing from the Bible, he followed traveling merchants abroad into India and the Hemis Monastery in Ladakh, Nepal, where he studied Buddhism.

While recovering from a broken leg at the at the monastery of Himis, Notovich discovered the text to The Life of Issa and realized that it recounted the lost years of Jesus.

This controversial book shows where many of Jesus' beliefs comes from, while at the same time showing that Jesus was already well on his way to his fundamental beliefs at a very young age."

Eloah: Goddess Of The Bible – “You Will Pray And She Will Hear." ~ on the Goddess and the Bible; Bringing Back Goddess Church

"By David B. Clark

Among the many pearls of truth that have purposely been concealed from churches and synagogues is the awareness that Elohim is simultaneously God and Goddess.

In the original Hebrew of the Bible, Eloah [el-LO-ah], is the feminine form of ‘God.’ This one specific word, Eloah, literally means “Goddess.”

Theologians, motivated by various agendas, deliberately masked profound truths about Elohim [pronounced el-lo-HEEM], the God of the Bible. They intentionally obscured the presence of the Divine Feminine. Even though some of the Hebrew words for God have a distinctly feminine gender, translators have almost universally suppressed this, being unwilling to use the feminine word “Goddess.” They have consistently used only masculine pronouns when referring to God – even when feminine pronouns would have been correct.

Present-day Bible dictionaries and concordances are still biased, and ignore basic Hebrew grammatical rules in translating the various words for Deity. The result is that most Christians and Jews have been mistaught that God is exclusively male.

Elohim is a majestic, awesome Being that is beyond comprehension. Elohim is translated into English as ‘God.’ It is actually a gender-combined word, simultaneously representing both unity and majestic plurality. It is a compound of the feminine singular Eloah with the masculine plural suffix -im. Eloah is the feminine singular counterpart of El, which means God. Eloah is correctly translated as “Goddess.” In Hebrew, the -oah, -oh or -ah suffix makes a word feminine [comparable to the English suffix -ess, used in such words as waitress and stewardess.]

In Aramaic, the original language of New Testament times, the word Abwoon is similarly gender-combined, meaning “Father-Mother.” In the original Aramaic, ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ begins with the word Abwoon, but in English translations of the Bible, it has been translated as Father, only.
El Shaddai is another name of God used in the Bible. The word ‘shad’ means ‘woman’s breast,’ and ‘shaddai’ means ‘breasts,’ or ‘many breasts.’ Though El Shaddai is translated as ‘God Almighty,’ or ‘the Almighty’ in the English Bible, it literally means ‘God with breasts’ or ‘[many] breasted [God].’ The name El Shaddai refers to the Goddess of Israel.

There is a radically important declaration in Exodus 6:3: “I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob by the name of El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I was not known to them.” The Patriarchs were aware of the Father [Yahweh], but Elohim related to them primarily as the Goddess, El Shaddai.

The word Eloah appears fifty-seven times in the Old Testament, and Shaddai or El Shaddai appears forty-eight times; two-thirds of these are found in the book of Job. Job lived during the days of Abraham, and Job is the second most ancient book of the Bible. There are two specific declarations of the femininity of Eloah, in Job.

The Father announced,  “the sea ‘leapt tumultuous from the womb’.” [Job 38:8] Then, He rhetorically asked, “Out of whose womb came the ice?” [Job 38:29] Obviously there is a Biblical Goddess, Eloah, from whose Divine Womb sprang the sea and ice.

Ruach ha Kodesh is the Hebrew phrase that means ‘Holy Spirit.’ 

Ruach is feminine, and the Aramaic equivalent ruah is also a feminine noun. These words are always paired with feminine verbs and pronouns.

The Holy Spirit is feminine, and is another designation of Eloah. In the original Aramaic texts, Messiah promised: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that She may dwell with you forever.” [John 14:16]

Wisdom is another name for the Goddess. ‘Wisdom’ is the feminine Hebrew word Hochmah; the equivalent name in Greek is Sophia. Although the word ‘wisdom’ definitely is equated with good judgment and astuteness, Wisdom unmistakably refers to Goddess in several scripture passages, The Messiah said: “Wisdom is proven by Her children.” [Luke 7:35]

Wisdom announces that She was brought forth before the physical creation, and She also assisted in the generative process, alongside Yahweh. “Yahweh created Me, first-fruits of His fashioning, before the oldest of His works. From everlasting I was firmly set – from the beginning, before the earth came into being. The deep was not when I was born, nor were the springs with their abounding waters. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I came to birth; before He had made the earth, the countryside, and the first elements of the world.

When He fixed the heavens firm, I was there; when He drew a circle on the surfaces of the deep, when He thickened the clouds above, when the sources of the deep began to swell, when He assigned the sea its boundaries (and the waters will not encroach on the shore), when He traced the foundations of the earth. I was beside the Master Craftsman, delighting Him day after day, ever at play in His presence, to play everywhere on His earth, delighting to be with the children of men.” [Proverbs 8:22-31]

The Bible makes numerous references to the Goddess. It instructs us to praise and worship Her; to offer prayer to Her. “I am one who calls on Goddess and expects an answer.” [Job 12:4]
“Then Shaddai will be all your delight, and you shall lift your face to Eloah. You will pray and She will hear.” [Job 22:26-27]

Source of Post
http://sahajapower.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/eloah-goddess-of-the-bible-you-will-pray-and-she-will-hear-%E2%80%9D/

Other Research Links on the Goddess and the Bible

http://www.nobeliefs.com/DarkBible/darkbible2.htm

http://forward.com/articles/1211/the-goddess-matriarchy/

http://www.gotquestions.org/sophia-goddess-wisdom.html

http://masongoddess.blogspot.com/2008/01/chapter-two-goddess-and-bible.html

http://telshemesh.org/fire/the_jewish_goddesses_justin_lewis.html


The Christian Goddess

http://www.northernway.org/goddess.html

Jesus and the Lost Goddess

http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Lost-Goddess-Teachings-Christians/dp/1400045940

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElDJ9dyHcU0

Bringing Back Goddess Church ~ an ALL Denominatino Spiritual Sanctuary. House of Hope. Sanctuary of Healing. Temple of Love.

Bringing Back the Goddess ~ Prince Hirindra Singh. Coming Back to the Divine Feminine.

"Bringing Back the Goddess

with Prince Hirindra Singh, PhD

by Julia Griffin

 
The man must worship the Goddess to get what he wants. But men never say this. I'm the only guy I know who is running around saying this.

Prince Hirindra Singh is a well-known vedic astrologer and teacher who has very definite ideas about the Goddess — how she was lost to Western civilization, and what we can do to help bring her back into our lives.

While profound, the solutions he offers are simple. "Truth," he says, "is not complex."

Julia: I understand that your studies have led you to believe that European domination separated us from the Goddess principle. Can you tell me more about this?

Prince Hirindra: Europe initially worshipped the Goddess — the feminine principle of heat, warmth, compassion, and love.

The people of India, Tibet, and China still worship the Goddess, as did the aboriginal peoples. There are thousands of statues of goddesses, carbon dated to be as much as 40,000 years old, that support the evidence of a worldwide Goddess culture.

Man was the protector, but spirituality, healing, and compassion were associated with the woman. Essentially, the woman was the flame, and the man protected his flame because she gave him warmth, understanding, and compassion.

She was the symbol of "we" because she provided for the family, and he was the symbol of "I" because he protected the family.

There are no real values in the people of government and nations today — it is all about "me." Capitalism has been exported to every country in the world, and it has transported this selfish concept of "me" or an attitude of "my money." It supports competition and not cooperation.

Western Loss of the Goddess

Catholicism is still alive, not because of Jesus Christ, but because of Our Lady. ... The only mantra in Catholicism is, "Hail Mary, full of Grace."

The destruction of the Goddess concept began with the Greeks, who depicted Zeus in their mythology as the violator who rapes his sister Hera.

Hera becomes his wife, a demon-like woman who rages with jealousy at the exploits of her husband. Pettiness, manipulation, and cunning were the focus of the Goddess myths of the Greek culture.

Women began to be looked upon as weak, cunning, manipulative, and demonic. Women's power was reduced through these myths.

The Greeks very intelligently imposed this belief system, and the Romans adopted it. Interestingly, the Greeks and Romans never destroyed any religion in their conquering.

The Greeks conquered for knowledge, and the Romans conquered for monetary gain to support their armies. But nevertheless, the Goddess went into the background, and the patriarchs took the power.

Following the Greek and Roman cultures, the ancient Muslims and Mongolians of the Middle East, together with the Europeans, imposed their beliefs upon the world. The Europeans achieved this infliction of beliefs through food, education, and violence. The Muslims imposed their beliefs through violence and art.

Five countries — France, Holland, Portugal, England, and Spain — destroyed the world. Holland took the Indonesian peninsula. Then Spain and Portugal took South America, and France and England took North America, Canada, India, and Africa.

The Europeans and Muslims were demons that destroyed the Goddess and, in turn, the family.

They destroyed the beliefs of the indigenous nations who believed in the Goddess, and thus destroyed the culture.

Even after the patriarchs took over Europe, people still continued to worship the Mother, particularly in the south of France, where they worshipped Mary Magdalene, or the Black Madonna. Catholicism is still alive, not because of Jesus Christ, but because of Our Lady.

Europe did not want to accept Christianity, so the Catholics agreed that the Mother was the mother of Christ. Mary was the first principle, and then Jesus. The only mantra in Catholicism is, "Hail Mary, full of Grace."

Henry VIII broke away from the Catholic Church in order to divorce Catherine of Aragon. He wrote a letter to the Pope protesting Catholicism, and he created the Episcopal religion. He became the head of the Church of England, and his entire patriarchal belief was imposed with violence.

Catholic history is the history of popes; Christian history is the history of kings.

Women then went into the background and began to focus on their children. Their qualities of leadership and inspiration went into the background.

The change came as these beliefs were imposed through the five countries, and, through violence, creating a world where there was no real respect for women. Europe imposed this belief on most of the world in only 500 years.

Coming Back to the Divine Feminine

Woman was once seen as the symbol of love. Now, woman has become the symbol of sex.
Julia: What can we do to change the value system? How do we change from this to a system that is compassionate and loving?

Prince Hirindra: How will women today create a rightful position and an edifice for healing, spiritualism, and compassion?

We have to look at how we see the world. Woman was once seen as the symbol of love. Now, woman has become the symbol of sex.

Woman is not the symbol of sex. She is the Cosmic Mother. 

When sex is given all of the importance, the woman is diminished. Without respect, there is no love. What people consider to be love today is attachment and passion. It is not love.

We must come back to what is simple — values like love and innocence. The woman must be worshipped as a goddess, and she, in turn, worships her husband as a god. This is a natural state of respect.

Abundance comes from the woman, not the man. In the matriarchal countries, such as Tibet, India, and China, we ask the Goddess for abundance, not the God. In these countries, a man asks the Goddess for all that he needs — there is not a single prayer that does not begin with the Goddess. All Hindu prayers call first upon the Goddess and only then upon the God.

The protector is the male, and the nourisher is the female. You always worship the female, not the male.

The man must worship the Goddess to get what he wants. But men never say this. I'm the only guy I know who is running around saying this.

The Goddess gives our daily needs. When we go to the Goddess, there is immediately compassion. With the God, there is the sword or the gun.

Earth as the Center of Worship

The problem is not God; God is Light. The problem is the mind. So we must enLighten the mind.
Julia: How can we bring back the respect for the Goddess that the matriarchal societies once had?

Prince Hirindra: The only way to bring back respect for women is to bring about the Mother Earth principle. Earth must become the center of worship. We should worship the extension of God.

In Western thinking, God and his Creation are separate. In India, God and his Creation are connected.

Everything in Creation is an extension of the Mother. For instance, if the Sun is God, then its rays represent Creation. We are the rays of its creation. Your ray or my ray may be 100 watts. The rays of someone else may be 22 watts. A prophet may be a million watts. The wattage of the rays of the Sun is what this entire Cosmos is about.

The Sun is the extension of God's eternal Light. This is what we believe in India, and so we worship the Sun. But God is beyond human comprehension. So if God is incomprehensible, then why do we waste time trying to understand this?

Let us move into what is comprehensible — Creation, or the Feminine.

The problem is not God; God is Light. The problem is the mind. So we must enLighten the mind. Therefore let's bring back the belief that everything in Creation is the extension of the Cosmic Mother. In India, we call this Shakti.

We must begin to worship Mother Earth again. When the Pope gets off the plane, he kisses the Earth. In India, we leave the house, we touch the Earth, and then we touch our Third Eye. All men in India used to do that.

So we start by looking upon Mother Earth, because she is the feminine.

Cleansing Through Fire and Water

It is not the exhaust from SUVs that's polluting the world — it is the energy from living in fear that is polluting the world.

Julia: How will the return to the Goddess take place on a planet-wide basis?

Prince Hirindra: How can this whole planet return to the Goddess? The only way is through a kind of violence. Man has gone crazy.

Only an act of God or the Goddess can make this right — Mother Earth cannot handle six billion egos — and she will use two elements of nature for this cleansing of the six billion ticks that are crawling into her body.

Fire and water will be used for purification. There will be disasters in the world between 2004 and 2012. There will be tidal waves, hurricanes, and fires.

Shouldn't we stop talking about the environment the way they do in California? If we are living in anger, fear, and revenge, then it is not the exhaust from SUVs that's polluting the world — it is the energy from living in fear that is polluting the world.

When we touch the flowers, they smile and bloom for us. Instead of blaming everyone for pollution, we should understand that it is our thoughts that are creating it.

Everyone is afraid of these changes, so the fear is growing. Unless we have a connection with Mother Earth, we cannot be safe.

With the fear, we can either get to the indweller, which teaches us about love, or we can dwell on the outside, with fear.

Let us get to the premise of this thoughtform: There is either love or fear. Where there is love, there is no hatred, revenge, or fear — these reactive emotions that have taken over the world.

You can use either fear or love to go to God. Love has not worked for two thousand years, so Mother Earth will have to use devastation for her cleansing. It will be fear — the thought that my neighbors lost their home in an earthquake, for example — that brings us back to Mother Earth. Then we will connect with the Goddess.

When we worship the Goddess in India, everyone laughs at us, but we don't care. We're not ashamed of the Goddess. Women are speaking about the Goddess, but men don't listen. Men have to talk about the Goddess, or about the greatness of women. Women and Goddess have to come into one breath.

3 Steps to Bring the Goddess Into our Lives

The Goddess will not come back unless we start on a simple level in the home. The Goddess will never come back through books and workshops. The Goddess resides in the home, and the family must come back.

Julia: If we are looking for the feminine principle in our lives, how can we bring back the Goddess? Many of us don't know how to do this.

Prince Hirindra: The first step is that every woman has to encourage her family to eat together and say prayers to the Goddess before eating food. This is practical. The mother makes the food with the husband if she is married. And if she is single, she must keep one seat empty for the Goddess. She should decorate the seat, put a cloth over it, and put flowers on the plate.

When you pray before eating, you say, "Thank you Goddess for the abundance on the table, made with love. Purify this food of any impure thoughts, that it may nurture us in thy highest presence. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to feed you through Julia" (or whoever). The food is now pure.

Think about lettuce. From the time the lettuce is plucked from the field, it is exposed to the thoughts of all those who are in its presence. If someone serves you a beautiful salad, the lettuce in that salad has been exposed to the thoughts of the cook. He may be cursing the people in the kitchen, and those thoughts are in your salad.

Food is contaminated by thought, and we should pray for it to be purified from the thoughts that have entered into it.

When we make food with love, we purify the food. And prayers change the vibratory rate of food. This is quantum physics. When we have offered prayers before eating, we are now ingesting food that vibrates at a higher level with the Goddess energy. When we say our prayer, we bring back the matriarchal energy.

The second step involves intimacy between the husband and wife. The husband must learn to look upon his wife as a goddess, so that she will see the husband as a god. Before they make love at night, they will pray to the Goddess, "Tonight we dedicate our love and joy to you. We thank the Goddess and the Lord for bringing us this opportunity to experience intimacy." This will bring the man and woman together. Sex can then become a divine experience.

The third step is that, once or twice each month, we must have picnics and games and fun. We should talk to the trees, birds, and flowers. Ask the children if they can hear the trees talking. Identifying with nature brings the Goddess back. Let the children take the food and learn about the family concept of "we."

We should have prayers and thank the Goddess for bringing us together here in nature and for our time together here. The children can play hide-and-seek. Or presents can be hidden in the forest for the children so that they begin to experience the Goddess. The moment we connect back into the family or a "we" concept, the Goddess comes back.

The Goddess will not come back unless we start on a simple level in the home. The Goddess will never come back through books and workshops. The Goddess resides in the home, and the family must come back.

We have to bring prayer back, because prayer develops our character.

The three actions I have described above, involving food, prayerful intimacy between husband and wife, and playful celebration of nature and the Goddess with our family, will bring out our innocence. God and the Goddess serve those who are innocent.

Today our prayers are so "intelligent." God does not allow himself to become the prisoner of our intelligence. Faith, love, and trust are innocent.

Everyone asks me if this is all that is needed to bring the Goddess back. They say my answers are too simple. And I respond that these answers are simple because truth is not complex.

It is the simple tasks in our everyday life that will change the world."

Source
http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/oct4/hirindra.htm

Great Mother, Goddess Artemis, The Triple Goddess, Goddess Maat, Goddess Asherah, Goddess Brigit, Goddess Sophia and the Holy Spirit.

"A few years ago I came across a illustrated Freemasonry book in my local library and glanced through it, out of idle curiosity, I was surprised to find I was able to pick out Goddess symbolism within Mason images. Which was a surprise, because Freemasonry is suppose to be a male dominated secret society.

So why would a organization that has steadfastly refused to allow female members within its ranks for hundreds of years, use Goddess symbolism? It didn't make sense. I began to read more about Freemasonry and found enough information about the connection between Freemasonry and Goddess worship to fill a book. This article is a taste of what I have discovered so far.

I am myself am not a Freemason so any knowledge and understanding from this article, only comes only from my interpretation of Mason symbols. I have had a deep interest in Goddess religions for nearly 30 years, so I am looking at Freemasonry from this point of view.

Yet if my interpretation of the symbols are correct, they tell a very different story about Freemasonry, than what the general public is led to believe. They even had the audacity to erect a giant statue of a Sun Goddess in New York harbour. Which they called the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue of Liberty was conceived, financed and built by Freemasons. They even had a Freemasonry ceremony when the statue was dedicated on October 28, 1886, by the then President of USA, Grover Cleveland. This colossus was initiated by French Freemason Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi. Whom he claim, "he caught a vision of a magnificent goddess holding aloft a torch in one hand and welcoming all visitors to the land of freedom and opportunity". So clearly in his mind the statue was a Goddess. He also wanted to build a giant statue of the Goddess Isis in Egypt, but as Egypt was then, and now, a Moslem country, this wasn't a good idea, and it fell through.

The cost of making and installing this Statue Of Liberty was enormous. The French Freemasons had to raise 3,500,000 French francs, while New York newspaper owner Joseph Pulitzer donated $100,000 which in the1870's was a lot of money.


The symbolism of the Statue shows she is a Sun Goddess. We can see this by the ray of the sun coming out of her head dress and the flaming torch she is holding. The significance of this is in pagan times there used to be sun-gods and moon-goddesses. With the sun-god being the dominant deity because the sun has the greater light. But in more ancient times there used to be sun-goddesses and moon-gods. So she would be a dominant Goddess taking us back to the Creatrix Great Mother.

Since then I have discovered I am not alone in realizing there is a hidden Goddess within Freemasonry. I have since gone on the Internet and by simply typing - Goddess, Freemasonry - in a search engine I have found web-sites saying very much the same thing. Many it seems from ex-Freemasons.

Though I have to say these people seem to have a different perspective to what I have. Mostly they seem to be fundamentalist Christians who believe strongly that the Bible is the word of God. Then they become Freemasons and were shocked to discover its Goddess origins. Some of these men have gone as far as accusing Freemasons of being Satanist.

The above drawing is called Faith, Hope and Charity. As in other Mason drawings Faith, Hope and Charity are represented by angels or Goddesses. In this drawing we only see two Goddesses or angels so where is the third? The secret meaning within this drawing is that the third Goddess is Compass and Square imagine in the middle of the drawing. So why is does this image represent a Goddess?

The Compass and Square image is probably the most popular symbol in Freemasonry. The fundamentalist Pastor Ron Carlson, who has spoken about Freemasonry in evangelical churches in many parts of America, claims that the square represents the earth, the compasses represent the sky, and the square and compasses when united, represent the sky impregnating the earth with its showers.

He goes on to state that this is a symbol of sexual intercourse. The official Freemason line is they are just tools of the Masonry Trade.

Within the space made by the square and compass sometimes a letter is put there. Mostly it is a G though sometimes it is a M. So what do these letters mean? Masons claim that G is the secret name of God. Which is a mystery in itself because clearly G would stand for God, so it is not a mystery at all. To make it a mystery suggests it must be another name.

Masons themselves claimed that G stands for geometry. This is because Freemasons refer to God as the Great Architect and you need geometry to create a complex building like a Church.

It has been claimed that the word "Great Architect" was introduced into Freemasonry in 1723 by the Presbyterian minister, James Anderson, and that he got it from the works of John Calvin, one of the founders of Presbyterianism.

Also the idea of geometry comes from the physics of Isaac Newton who showed that the movement of planets was caused by scientific laws and not by the hand of God as previously thought. Newton used geometry to calculate the movement of planets so if we replace geometry with God we would then assume that Freemasonry is a atheistic organization.

As the physics of Isaac Newton along with the later Darwin's theory of evolution was used by atheists to prove that God didn't exist and the world was created by blind chance. Though the irony of this, is that Isaac Newton was a very religious man and would completely reject this claim.


Freemasonry is certainly not a atheist society and they even banned people from joining it who are atheists. In my opinion both the Great Architect and Geometry are really very poor names for the Creator.

After all there is a vast difference in planning a building and creating life. They are names that wouldn't satisfy a person who has the imagination to wonder at the diversity and complexity of life and the universe. A better explanation comes from Gerald Gardner who was not only a Freemason but the originator of modern Witchcraft. At the end of a article about Witchcraft he was to write.-

"The Myth of Witchcraft seems to be the story of the goddess here quoted. I am forbidden to give her name, so I will call her G."

If that is true, then it gives us a clue to the meaning of the Compass and Square image. The letter G is framed by a Diamond shape. This shape must be important because Masons use the same shape using other tools. As we can see above where knives and forks are used to make the same shape. Which is strange because knives and forks and certainly not Mason tools.

This then suggests that the shape that the objects makes, is more important the than objects that make the shape. So what is this shape trying to tell us? The V or triangle shape seems to be used a lot in Freemason symbolism.

A example of this is another important Mason symbol of the Trowel which off coarse is another triangle shape. Back in the Stone-Age archaeologists and palaeontologists have discovered many V and triangle shaped symbols and it seems they represent the triangle of a women's pubic hairs. While the diamond shape is similar to a open woman's vagina. We can find examples of this is images of the Sheela-Na-Gig.

The image called Sheela-Na-Gig, and is found, believe it or not, on ancient Christian Churches in Britain and Ireland. It is claimed by Christian Priests that this image was used to frighten away demons.

Which might make sense to a Christian minded person who believe sex and everything to do with it, is "dirty" and evil. Yet to the ancients this was once a holy and sacred image. Many of these images are found on Churches dedicated to St Bridget. Who was once the pagan Goddess Brigit.

It has also been claimed that when the Christian Church first built the first stone Churches the workforce still followed pagan beliefs. So the workers were able to incorporate many of the pagan gods and goddesses within the decoration of the churches. As well as coded messages of pre-Christian teachings. So it seem the Church at the time didn't then have to power to prevent this. It has also been claimed that these pagan stone masons were the first Freemasons.

Freemasons today don't mind admitting that the Compass and Square symbol is also a disguise version of the Hexagram shape, if you put two horizontal line across the points of the compass and square. So why did the Freemasons in the past, need to disguise its shape? Although in the last 200 years the Hexagram has gained reasonable respectability as the Star Of David in Judaism, in pre-Christian times it was used by Pagan religions.

So back in medieval times it would have been seen as a pagan symbol which would warranted a visit by the Inquisition, for anyone who dared to displayed it.

The Hexagram consists of 6 sides, 6 points and 6 smaller triangles, thus 666. Before Revelations in the Bible was written, 666 stood for the Triple Goddesses as 6 was a sacred number, and still is today in Hinduism and Buddhism. So the story of the Beast 666 in Book of Revelations was a attack on Goddess worship as 666 was also used to represent the Triple Babylonian Goddess Ishtar whom Revelations called, "The Great Whore Of Babylon". Hex is also associated with Witchcraft as it is another name for a Witch's spell and in German a Hexen is a Witch.

The Hexagram is very ancient is was used to represent sexual love. As we can see two triangles of the female pubic hairs joined together. This may be a ancient symbol of sisterhood or lesbian love. If you take away the two horizontal bars like the Freemasons have done. you once again have the diamond shape similar to a open vagina.

The Hexagram is still used today by the Hindu Tantra as a symbol of sexual intercourse. Judaism only adopted the Star Of David as late as the 18th century, so they may not of known its original meaning.

In our Judeo-Christian world we assume that sex and religion don't have nothing to do with each other, because we have been taught, that sex is a sin. But in the ancient past sex was seen as a very sacred act, because it creates life. This is true even in Hinduism today as whole temples are devoted to the sacredness of sex.

As was also the vagina, because pre-historic people believed that the whole world was born from the womb of the Great Mother. For this reason they worshipped the vagina as the source of all life. The later patriarchal religions made sex a sin and claimed that the vagina was, "unclean" as an attack on the earlier Goddess religions.

This carving comes from India and represents the worship of the yoni. Even in modern times in Tantra, the yoni is seen as a sacred and revered object.

To many Christian minded people these carvings from India would be seen as obscene. The second one shows a woman with the muscles of her abdomen flexed in contraction as she is about to give birth. When ancient people believed that the Great Mother created the universe it was easy for them to imagine the Great Mother giving birth to the world. For this reason everything associated with giving birth became very sacred.

When humans first became self aware they began to ask themselves, "what created the world?" It then would be natural for them to assume that the intelligence that created our world would be feminine. This is because if we look at animal and human life we find that life is created within the bodies of females. In fact it must of seem to our ancestors that women had great magical powers to create life like this. So it would be logical for them to assume that the whole of creation was born from the body of what they called, "The Great Mother".

This belief it seems gave women great power and status in human societies. Because if the Creatrix was female then all women were created in the image of the Great Mother. This belief made women very holy because it was only women who could create life in the same way the Great Mother had done. This is seen clearly in the many images found in Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites. Where they show images of the sex-act, the genitalia of women represented as V of a women's pubic hair or slit symbols and the very many naked images of women themselves.

The picture that comes from these ancient times is that people then regarded the sex-act, menstruation, child-birth and breast feeding as all being very sacred. When these images were first discovered in the 19th and 20th centuries they were dismissed by male scientists as just "fertility symbols", and many were thrown away.

We only know about them because some academics saw them as works of arts and preserved them. Since then very large numbers of these symbols and images that have been found in many parts of he world. This has made some people realize that these were the images of a major world wide religion.

Some palaeontologists have speculated that people in the Stone Age were unaware that the sex act produced childbirth. So women suddenly producing children would be seen as a wondrous miracle. They also went on to imagine that when men realized this role in conception, he no longer worshipped women as magical beings and took over the role of Creator himself.

To support this theory we do find in Ancient Egypt that the God Atum created the world in a act of masturbation. The problem is that we do find the sexual act portrayed in Stone-Age art. Also the numbers 13 and 9 are important numbers in cave art.

There are 13 menstrual cycles or moon months in a year and it takes on average 9 months for a baby to conceive and be ready for birth. So the people then, may not be as daft as we assume they might be. Also the input of men in the act of creation can be over in a few seconds, (wham, bam, thank you ma'am).

Which is not anywhere equal to women carrying a foetus for nine months, the pain and drama of childbirth itself and then the ability of the women to feed the new born baby from her breasts. Not to mention all the mysteries of menstruation, which was seen as something very holy and sacred in ancient societies, and something as unclean and taboo in later patriarchal societies.

So we can see from this, that the ancient religion of the Great Mother would be a very feminine religion and empathize the feminine and maternal instincts of compassion, caring, nurturing, loving and creativity. This is supported by the fact that in the first civilizations of the Neolithic age, warfare and violence was completely unknown. Archaeologists only begin to find weapons of war, fortifications and images of violence in the later bronze and iron ages. Where it seems people began to worship male warrior Gods.

It seems that men started to began to dominate our world about five thousand years ago through violence and conquest. They then also created male dominated religions that made the Creator a male and claimed that the sexual act, menstruation, child-birth and breast feeding were all unclean, sinful and taboo. This was to undermined the role of women.

Even today few women dare to breast feed in public, while back in the 1950s and 60s male doctors all but banned breast feeding claiming that cow's milk was better for the child! It was only later, scientific research showed the obvious fact that that human milk was best for human babies. As it had been discovered that mothers pass on their immunity to disease through the breast milk.

Unfortunately there is still resistance because mothers are still not encouraged to keep breast feeding too long, and to switch to cow's milk as soon as possible. In spite of the fact that the research shows that mothers keep on feeding their immunity to the baby right up to time the baby is weaned. Also more modern research shows that feeding babies cows milk contribute to cot baby deaths.

Some Christian women, as late as the 20th century would go to priests for a cleansing ritual, to clean them of the "sin" of childbirth. Children also go through the cleansing ritual of baptism, which originally was to clean them of the sin of being, "born of women".

So we can see through patriarchal attitudes a attack on the importance of women's roles. As Feminists have pointed out so often, child rearing is the most devalued work in our society.

When some Feminist in the 1960s and 70s suggested that women should be paid to bring up children they were laughed at and ridiculed. After all bringing children and caring for them is clearly not as important as the activities of men. Like generals who have trillions of dollars in which to buy exciting toys like machine guns, flame throwers, napalm bombs or nuclear weapons.

So this is the difference between matriarchal and patriarchal religions. The feminine Goddess religions were about the celebration of whole act of creation from the sexual act to giving birth and breast feeding. 

It also empathized the maternal instincts of women of compassion, caring and love. The masculine religions on the other hand have throughout history have been about the glorification of violence.

Where religious wars have been commonplace and still goes on even today. The irony of this is that in Christianity, Jesus preached love and compassion yet Christianity has been one of the world's most violence religions, throughout it's history.

This has been the great tragedy of the last five thousand years. While humans believed that the world was created by the Great Mother, the feminine maternal instincts of compassion, nurturing and love became the ideal for everyone.

Then people began to question this belief and accept that our Creator could be male. This allowed people to accept masculine principles and instincts of competition and aggression. In time this was allowed to grow until it turned into violence, and conquest. Creating the world we know throughout recorded history of war, oppression, poverty and suffering.

Modern scholars claimed that Goddess religions where only fertility cults because of the way ancient peoples used to worship images and carvings of vaginas. Probably with their Christian bias they may of thought that they were all sex-mad in these Goddess Religions.

Now many Freemasons claim that their roots are very ancient, going back to the first civilizations. The first civilizations were created in the Neolithic times where we find people then still worshipped the Great Mother. The V and the diamond shapes we see in the Compass and Square symbol are similar to what has been found in ancient Palaeolithic and Neolithic art.

So it suggests that the Freemasonry secret name of God would be Goddess. This then would be a true secret because Freemasonry is suppose to be a male dominated organization where women were not allowed into it until recent times. Also as Freemasonry originated in Christian countries they wouldn't want to be seen worshipping a Goddess in a sex-mad fertility cult.

The word God comes from the ancient Indo-Europeon languages and originally it meant vagina. So God was originally a female deity and only became a male later on. (The word "man" was also feminine in ancient Indo-European languages, and only came used for the male sex later on.)

Even in North Indian today "Khod," (God) means Vulva; Female Organ of Regeneration, Creation and Eternal Beginning. So the secret name of God would be the Great Mother or Great Architect as the Freemasons call her, in coded form.

It would also make sense of why some Freemasons have put the letter M in the space between the two tools because M would stand for Mother which is the Ancient name for the Goddess. The word Mother is common in all ancient languages like Ma-ma, Mu, Mah, Maa, Mtat and Mana. They all mean both a mortal mother and the Great Mother.

New initiates of Freemasonry are told to search for the, "lost Word" which is apparently the real name of God.

In the third degree initiation they are given a clue and told to look, "to that bright and Morning Star". Now the Morning Star is Venus who was a Roman Goddess.

Though the Morning Star was also once called Lucifer, the god of light which people who claim that Freemasons are Devil worshippers, latch onto.

Yet long before the creation of Lucifer it was the Babylonian Goddess Astarte who was the Morning Star. Further back in time she was known as the "Queen of the Star" and the Ancient Great Mother. (Jesus was also called the Morning Star in Revelations in the New Testament.)

So this is why Faith and Hope are represented by the two angels while Charity is represented by the vagina/Goddess symbol.

There are even more feminine symbols in the compass and the square or the knife and fork symbols. Because the top half clearly shows a the letter W and we have the letter M at the bottom. The first letter of woman is W and first letter of Mother is M. Symbols of the zig-zag goes back to palaeontology art and it seems this sign means water. It is from the zig-zag we get the letters W, M, Z and N. It also represented female vagina moisture and the fluid that surrounds a baby in the womb.

The square and compass in these images are laid in the center of the spine of the book and this implies another feminine symbol. Where the two pages meet in the spine is a valley suggesting a closed vagina within the compass and square space.

The above image could be seen as a form of blaspheme because if the square and compass image is a Goddess symbol then what is it doing on the Holy Bible?

After all the Bible is all about a male God and ignore Goddesses completely.

What is not so well known is that the Ancient people of Israel used to worship Goddesses and what seems to be the names of pagan Gods in the Bible are in fact Goddesses.

Scholars have found that the Goddess Asherah appears 40 times in nine books of the Hebrew Bible - Exodus, Deuteronomy,. Judges, 1-2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah and 2 Chronicles.

Asherah is a very ancient Goddess, in the ancient Ugaritic Texts she is called, "She Who Gives Birth to the Gods." Which is similar to what Roman Catholics say about the Virgin Mary in calling her, "The Mother of God".

Asherah is also called "she who treads on the sea", which is exactly what Jesus Christ did, in the New Testament. In fact scholars have revealed that much of the Old Testament is about a religious war between the followers of the Goddess Asherah and the followers of the God Yahweh. In the end it was the followers of Yahweh who won, and it was they wrote the Bible as we know today.

Even in the New Testament there are Goddess overtones. We today only know about four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Yet before Christianity became a state religion it seem there was about 150 different Gospels. Some of them were about the Goddess Sophia whom it seems searched for her brother/lover Jesus in much the same way as the Egyptian Goddess Isis searched for her murdered lover Osiris. Other Gospels gave a more prominent role to Mary Magdalene and claimed there were female disciples.

Although it is not mentioned in the official Bible, there is a well known story that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Although there is no written proof of this in the Bible or in the Gnostic Gospels, so it would be easy to dismiss this story.

Yet it also has to be remembered that when Christianity became a State religion there was at the time a vast amount of Christian text that the State officials had access to. Most of which was destroyed and only the what we know today as the New Testament was saved. Though in more recent time, parts of the Gnostic Gospels have also been found.

So it could be possible that references of Mary Magdalene being a prostitute might be in these destroyed Christian writings.

If we take this story seriously what does this mean? We know that Jesus did mix with prostitutes, tax-collectors and the general outcasts of society.

So is this then could just another example of his tolerance and compassion? This might be one explanation but prostitute had another meaning back in Biblical times.

It is clear in the Old Testament that the priests of the god Jehovah hated the Priestesses of Goddess temples. We know this from the story of Jezebel.

She was Queen of Israel but she worshipped the Goddess Astarte. For this, she and her followers were murdered by the followers of Yahweh. Later on her daughter Athaliah also became Queen and she also worshipped Astarte and again she was murdered.

In an attempt to slander Priestesses of Goddess the priests of Yahweh referred to them as Temple prostitutes because it was known that in many Goddess Temples they used sexual rituals. Because in Goddess religions sex was seen as a sacred act of creation.

So in calling Mary Magdalene a prostitute, it strongly suggests that she was in fact a priestess of a Goddess religion.

The Gnostic Gospel called Pistis Sophia (Sophia was the Goddess of wisdom) is about a dialogue between Jesus and Mary Magdalene whom he calls, "dearly beloved". In one dialogue Peter complained to Jesus that Mary Magdalene dominated the conversation with Jesus but Jesus rebukes him. In another Gnostics text called "Dialogue of the Saviour" she is portrayed as a very wise Woman who understood Jesus completely unlike the rest of Jesus' disciples.

So it seems that Mary Magdalene was a very important member of early Christianity. To the degree that some modern scholars have suggested that she and Jesus were married.


We know from the Bible that Jesus spent most of his childhood in Egypt. A very important Egyptian religion of the time was the religion Isis and Osiris.

Like Jesus, Osiris was a god who was murdered and then returned from the dead. Many scholars have commented on the similarities between Jesus and Osiris, in that both gods were known by there followers as the Good Shepherd.

One of the symbols of Osiris is the Shepherd's crook and it is also symbol of rank for Christian Bishops.

The image of Jesus's mother Mary holding him as a baby is also the same image of Isis holding her baby Horus. Both Jesus and Horus traditionally have the same birthday of 25 December.

Also in Christianity prayers are finished by the words Amen, which comes from the Egyptian God Amom. So was Jesus trying to introduce an Egyptian religion into Israel?

It all does indicate that perhaps both Jesus and Mary Magdalene were trained priest and priestess in Egypt. 

Probably in the Goddess religion of Isis. Then they were sent as missionaries to convert the savage Israelites to a more compassionate Goddess religion. They knew that to preach a Goddess religion would mean that they would be quickly killed. So they converted there religious beliefs to fit in with the beliefs of the Jews.

This meant that they turned the Compassionate Mother Goddess into a loving father God. Perhaps Jesus may of fooled the common people in doing this but he clearly didn't fool the priests.

They were probably very aware he was preaching a Goddess religion and when they got the chance, had him crucified. From the way Jesus reacted to his betrayal and execution, he knew he was on borrowed time, and was clearly prepared to die for his beliefs.

What happened to Mary Magdalene afterwards we do not know. It seems she did survive so she probably continued what Jesus started and secretly continued the teachings that both of them created. It is of interest that Christianity came back to Egypt where it grew into a strong religion until Christianity became the Roman state religion. Then the Roman Christians had all the Egyptian Christians slaughtered who didn't follow the Roman version of Christianity.

Destroying also all the Egyptian Christian text which only a small amount has survived today. This result is the Roman version of Christianity becoming more like a Jewish religion.

As they put more empathize on the Old Testament than the teachings of Jesus. So the compassionate Goddess teachings of Jesus became largely ignored by the Christian Church until modern times.

When archaeologists excavated Ancient Palestine and the area around it, the Canadian archaeologist John Holiday claims that, "biblical descriptions does not match what is found in the dirt". What came clear from archaeological evidence is that the Hebrew Bible was a very biased and heavily censored version of Jewish History.

The evidence unearthed shows that Goddess worship was commonplace in Israel right up to early Christian times. With large numbers of Goddess statues discovered in the homes of common people.

Archaeologists have shown that the Hebrews worshipped the Goddesses Asherah and Astarte as much as the countries around Israel. So is this what this Freemason symbol is trying to tell us? That within the Bible is a hidden Goddess?

The beehive is another popular Freemasonry image. I am sure they will tell you that the beehive is a symbol of people working together industrially for the good of the whole. So it would represent hard work and good organization.

Yet again it would be another very good Goddess symbol. The beehive is ruled by the Queen bee and the worker bees are also female. The male bees are the drones, who have no role except to fertilize the Queen bee.

The drones who are not used in this way are surplus to requirements and are killed by the worker bees. So it means that the beehive is in fact a Matriarchal Society. Which seems to be a strange symbol for what is suppose to be a male dominated organization.

Bees in Ancient times was the symbol of the Goddess Artemis.

This was because she was once the Great Mother who created the world without the help of a male God. The ancients believed that bees created themselves through parthenogenesis, so bees became a symbol of the Virgin Creatrix Mother. Who has survived in Christianity in the personage of the Virgin Mary.

She is called by the Roman Catholics, "The Mother of God" which comes from a pre-Christian saying that the Great Mother is the, "Mother of all Gods".

Some people have also claimed that the bee hive represents the pregnant belly of the Great Mother. In much the same way that the artificial Neolithic Silbury Hill in England is claimed to be, "the swollen pregnant belly of the Earth Mother." Images of pregnant Goddesses are found in Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites.

This picture is called "The Three Great Lights in Masonry". This is what Masons themselves say about it:

"The Three Great Lights in Masonry are the Volume of Sacred Law, the Square and Compasses, and the sacred writings are understood to be those revered by the individual Mason. Although there are local variations in Freemasonry's symbolic structure, the Three Great Lights are universal. Taken together they form the most essential, as well as the most widely known, of the Masonic symbols. No Masonic Lodge can meet unless they are present and displayed."

On the top we have the beehive ruled by the Queen bee and the female worker bees representing either a matriarchal society or the ancient Goddess Artemis who was once the Great Mother. Then we have the compass and square on the open book which is a double vaginal symbol. Which is also a pre-historic symbol of the Great Mother. Then at the bottom we have Noah's ark. Noah's ark is a very ancient story that originally comes from Mesopotamia. Though it seems there are many similar stories about this all over the world.

It seems that with the ending of the last Ice-Age the great Glaciers that covered most of Northern Europe, Asia and North America began to melt. Resulting in oceans levels rising, as the ice trapped on the land turned into water and ran into the sea. Scientists have discovered that this rise in sea levels didn't happen slowly but happen suddenly in a series of dramatic floods.

As the melted water would be trapped on land behind mountain ranges and ice barriers creating vast inland seas. Then when the vast ice barriers melted the water would suddenly be released in a great flood. The last time this happened was about 12 thousand years ago and accounts of this flood were probably the origins of stories like Noah's ark.

So the story of Noah's ark takes us back to the Neolithic age which was a age of Goddess worship, when people still worshipped the Great Mother. This suggests that "The Three Great Lights in Masonry" are symbols of the ancient Great Mother. And as there are three pictures they are probably are the triple Goddess.

The Triple Goddess is very Ancient Symbol, known originally as the Maid, Mother and Crone. They were also later known as The Three Grey Ones, The Three Harpies, The Three Fates, The Three Graces and The Three Maries.

As well as Faith, Hope and Charity. This trinity was also adopted by patriarchal religions. In Ancient Egypt they had the trinity of Isis, Osiris and Horus. While in Christianity we have the trinity of Father , Son and Holy Spirit as well as the three Marys who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus.

The name Mary comes from the Egyptian goddess Maat and the Mesopotamian Goddess Mami or Mammitu which means Mother. So Mary was originally a name for the Great Mother. The name Virgin Mary also has a interesting meaning

The ancient meaning of virgin is far different to what it means in Christianity. To the Christians a virgin is a woman who has never been penetrated by a man. Which then creates the problem in that Mary mother of Jesus was supposed to be a virgin when she conceived him.

The Christian explanation is that God was the father of Jesus. This is not unusual in religions of this time, the Greeks had Zeus who would seduce or rape mortal women and from this union would come heroic demigods.

The Pagan meaning of virgin is a woman who is owned by no man. 

So therefore she was at liberty to have sex with any man she chooses. To the degree that when she gives birth she may not know or care whom the father is. The problem for the patriarchy in having women like this, was that property or inheritance could only be passed down the female line.

Which meant that power and wealth was still being inherited by women. Because of this kingship was passed down the female line as we see in Ancient Egypt. So the patriarchal law of marriage was enforced where a women was expected to be faithful to one man. Which allows a husband to know who his children are. This then allowed property and titles to be passed down from father to son, keeping wealth and power in the hands of men.

This then suggests that the Virgin Mary was a women who wasn't restricted to the patriarchal custom of marriage and so probably belonged to a Goddess religion. Also the original meaning of the Virgin Mother was a name of the Ancient Great Mother who could give birth without the aid of a male God.

Which raises a question, what is a the Ancient Great Mother doing in a Bible of a patriarchal religion? It suggests that people were probably still worshipping the ancient Great Mother in early Christian times and the Christians needed the Virgin Mary in their religion to attract these people.

Though there can be another interpretation of this the "Three Great lights of Masonry", if we read the work of Joachim of Fiore. He was a 12th century monk who wrote one of the most important commentaries on Book of the Apocalypse ever written, according to some theologians.

He wrote that the key to Revelations is in the concept of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

He claims that the Father was the age of the Old Testament, The Son is the age of the New Testament after Jesus was born. Then after the return and defeat of the Anti-Christ, there will be a utopian age of the Holy Spirit.


So if we look at the Three Great lights again we see at the bottom the Noah's ark which is in the Old Testament, so this would be the age of the Father. In the middle we see a book with the word John on it, suggesting this was John in the New Testament, so this would be the age of the Son. While at the top would be the age of the Holy Spirit but why is that age represented by a Beehive?

 In some of the Gnostic the Holy Spirit is the Feminine force and as previous mentioned the Bees are associated with the Goddess Artemis who was once a tribal Great Mother. So in other word this image is telling us of the return of the ancient religion of the Mother Goddess.

In the book "The Secret Zodiacs Of Washington DC" by David Ovason, the author writes about all the Freemasonry architecture in Washington city. What is interesting it the very large amount of statues and symbols of the Zodiac sign Virgo. Which the author suggests means that Washington is under the sign of Virgo. The problem is that there is no astrological evidence that this is true. So is there another reason why there is such a empathize on Virgo in Washington?

The author claims that all these Virgo symbols and statues, - "seems to follow a well-established custom of emphasizing the role of Virgo, insisting that Washington DC is under her rule and patronage".


As Virgo was once the ancient Virgin Mother, what is this telling us? Does it mean that the founders of Washington were worshippers of the ancient Great Mother?

The above are images of the "all seeing eye" or the "eye of god". Again frequently used by Freemasons and displayed right at the top of many of their symbolic drawings.

The problem with this image is, why has god got one eye? Some claim it is, "the eye of Horus", but this is not a answer as it doesn't explain why the God Horus in inflicted with just a single eye?

It would be more sensible to show him with two eyes because a one eyed person is seen in popular sayings as a very biased or bigoted person. So is this a comment on bigoted Christianity? Where some Christians assume that God is very judgmental and intolerant?

It might be, but again it can be seen as another vagina symbol. In popular sayings a woman's vagina is also called an eye, because it has the same shape. In other words, it is another symbol of the sacred vagina that from all life is created.

Back in the Neolithic age archaeologists have found what is called "Eye Goddesses" these were Goddesses with very prominent eyes. In Mesopotamia she was known as the Goddess Mari, those eyes searched men's souls.

In Egypt she was the Goddess Maat (Mother) and was the deity of truth and Justice and had a "all seeing eye".

The above picture is of the Dollar note, it is universally accepted that the images on it are Freemason symbols.

The problem with this image is that it has 13 stars above the eagle who also carries 13 arrows in one of this claws, while on the other claw is a olive branch with 13 leaves on it. There are also 13 bars and stripes in the shield and there are 13 letters in "E Plurabus Unum" on the ribbon clenched in the Eagle's jaw. Now people believe that 13 is a very unlucky number.

To the degree that many hotels in USA do not have a number 13 room or floor. So what is a country like the USA doing having this unlucky number so many times on one of its bank notes? The official line is that there were 13 states of the Union when USA became independent from Britain, this is why their are 13 stripes on the USA flag.

The problem is that the 13 stripe flag is older than the USA. It was first used by the East India Company which was started back in 1600 and become the most powerful international company in the world in the 18th century. Though why the USA adopted the East India Company's flag is never explained. So what is so important about the number 13?

One explanation is that the Knights Templar were destroyed on Friday March 13, by the French King, Phillip IV. Suggesting a connection between the Knights Templar, the East India Company and the Freemasons. But the importance of the number 13 is very ancient and goes back to Neolithic times and perhaps ever older when the first calendars were constructed. It is of interest that scientists have found that in Neolithic times and even back in the times of the old Stone-Age people then were obsessed with creating calendars.

The most famous being Stonehenge but there were many stone circles built in Britain, Ireland, and France before Stonehenge. Scientists have even discovered markings on bone that clearly show Stone-Age people keeping track of the phases of the moon 30 thousand years ago.

So why was Stone-Age people so obsessed with time and the phases of the moon? A obvious reason would be that Stone-Age women probably worked out that their menstruation period roughly fitted in with the phases of the moon.


The months of the year originally come from the cycles of the moon and there are 13 lunar months every year. Which worked out well, as every month was 28 days which is exactly 4 weeks, while 28 x 13 = 364, which is only 1¼ days short of 365¼ days in a year. In ancient times women became associated with the moon, because their menstrual period also takes about the same time as a lunar month. So the 13 months of the year was seen in ancient civilizations as a very feminine symbol.

When patriarchy took complete control they adopted the a 12 month calendar instead, to rid itself of any feminine association in our calendar. Unfortunately when 12 goes into 365 we have 5 days left over instead of one. The result is we now have a hotchpotch of a calendar with some months being 30 days and others 31 and only one month was left at 28 days. While the days in a week no longer correspond with the days in a month, as 30 or 31 days do not fit in with the 7 day week.

So the number thirteen is strongly associated with the feminine in a time before patriarchy. It is also of interest that Friday the 13th is unlucky because Friday was named after the Nordic Goddess Freya. So it means that later patriarchal religions in a effort to discredit Goddess religions associated the feminine and Goddesses with bad luck.

Thirteen is also in the New Testament. Jesus had 12 disciples but if we add Jesus to this we have a group of 13 people. Which is interesting, as traditionally a Witch's coven is 13 Witches.

Masons themselves claim that the Eagle on the Great Seal is used to represent the Phoenix. We see in the picture the Eagle flying upwards, which is suppose to be, "the Phoenix rising from the ashes". Now in its original form the Phoenix was feminine. It is also a death and rebirth story we see a lot in Pagan religions and even in Christianity with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

This picture is the image on the other side of the USA one dollar note. And again we find 13 rows of stones in the pyramid below the Masonic "All-seeing Eye" and 13 letters in 'Annuit Caeptis', which means "God has prospered".

In this image we have a steep sided pyramid far steeper that the a tradition type of pyramid of ancient Egypt and South America. So the pyramid is more like that of a steeple of a church, which is a clear phallic symbol. The steeple goes back to pagan times when patriarchal cults would carve large penises to symbolize potent Gods like Pan. Even today in Hinduism the God Siva is still worshipped as a phallic symbol.

This also goes back to Ancient Egypt, as a symbol of the Sky Goddess Nut mating with the earth god Geb. With images of Geb lying of the ground with his penis standing up straight and Nut representing the sky arching over him. It may even be the original reason for the pyramids. I know a pyramid is not much of a phallic symbol but the Egyptians did attempt to build taller steeper side pyramids until they discovered they were unstable.

So the pyramids may be very large phallic symbol worthy of a Great Goddess and may be there attempt to attract her back to earth.

In this image the point of the pyramid or steeple is cut off and we have a cap-stone that is separated from the rest of the pyramid. Suggesting that if the lower section is Freemasonry then the upper section is another organization. Within the cap stone is the single eye which is a vagina symbol. Suggesting that the cap stone represents a Goddess organization. So this whole imagine seems to be saying that above the patriarchal Freemason organization is a Goddess organization.

Another meaning for this, is that the pyramid is unfinished, symbolizing the unfinished work of the Freemasons. We see similar symbolism in the Mason story of Solomon's Temple that plays a major part in their initiation ceremonies.
 
What we see in this drawing is that to get to the Temple itself you have to pass through three separate gates as there are three walls protecting the Temple. Which is similar to Freemasonry itself because Masonry in its original form had three degrees before a candidate became a true Mason.

If Solomon's Temple represents Freemasonry itself. Then it could also have a deeper meaning. Perhaps it might be suggesting that most Masons only go as far as the outer courtyard of the Temple. A lesser number get within the second courtyard and only a few members get inside the Temple itself.

What is interesting about the Solomon's Temple is that it was a Goddess Temple. This is the reason why Solomon was condemned in the Bible in his later years for turning his back on Yahweh. Because he worshipped the Goddess Asherah.

So this is similar to the pyramid image on the USA one dollar. The base of the pyramid is for the ordinary Freemasons which is the outer court yard. Then some become part of another organization that is represented by the capstone, which is the second courtyard. Then within this organizations is a Goddess organization. Represented by the eye and the case of the Temple image represented by Solomon's Goddess Temple.

In Freemason initiations they act out the murder of Hiram Abiff, the builder of Solomon's Temple. Hiram Abiff is referred to as "The son of the Widow", which is curious as in our patriarchal society a person is generally referred to by his father whom he carries on his name. So the reference to his mother suggests matrilinear succession, which was common in old matriarchal societies.

Though Freemasons themselves have another explanation for this. In the Egyptians Legend of the Goddess Isis, her husband the God Osiris was killed by his brother Set and cut up into many pieces. Then Isis found all the pieces and put him back together again and mated with him.

Then from this union was born the God Horus. So this suggests that son of the Widow would be Horus as his mother was a widow when he was born. This then suggests that Hiram Abiff was the God Horus, which doesn't take us anywhere and is probably a red herring.

Hiram Abiff was a King from another land and invited by Solomon to build his temple. So this tells us that Hiram Abiff wasn't a Jew.. He didn't come alone but also with a army of workers. Which is all a bit strange in having another King from another land coming to build a Temple with his own workers. It suggests a very close bond between the two kings.

This wasn't the only ruler that visited Israel, the Queen of Sheba also came to meet Solomon. Though the importance of this visit was never made clear in the Bible. So it does suggests that Solomon was open to influences outside of Israel.

In the Bible it doesn't say Hiram Abiff was murdered and that the Temple was finished, while in Freemasonry tradition it says that because of the murder of Hiram Abiff, it was left unfinished. This discrepancy may be telling us the aim and purpose of Freemasonry.

King Solomon may have tried to promote Goddess worship in Israel, but after his death the followers of Yahweh become increasingly stronger. Perhaps the unfinished Temple means the unfinished attempt by Solomon to re-establish Goddess worship, in Israel. The fact that Hiram Above was murdered, is probably a reference to how patriarchy gained ascendancy over matriarchy, that is by violence.

The murder of Hiram Abiff also has a controversial point to it. When he was murdered the assassins buried the body to conceal what they had done. When it was realized that he was missing a search was made for him and his body was discovered and reburied.

Some people have seen the similarity between this story and the crucifixion of Jesus, claiming that this is a death and rebirth story. Masons deny this, pointing out that Hiram Abiff didn't come back to life and was only reburied. Though if Freemasons claim that Hiram Abiff is the Egyptian God Horus then he is part of a death/rebirth story.

The point about the story is that Hiram Abiff had a secret which he wouldn't reveal to his attackers. If this secret is Goddess worship, then it again reveals Freemasonry history.

If Hiram Abiff represents the mystery teachings of Goddess religions, then in the past it was destroyed by violence, and buried underground. Freemasons have since re-discovered this body of knowledge and have reburied it in a safer place where they know where it is.

Even if the Freemasons started off with an ideal of returning a Goddess religion it doesn't necessarily mean that its leaders share this ideal today. Because if they are all men, then they would have to surrender their power to women.

The only thing that really make sense is that there are people who want to preserve knowledge from very ancient times, so this knowledge can be revealed to the public when the time is right.

There's some justification for believing this; in the time of Renaissances in the 8th, 9th and 12th centuries, when the Church briefly relaxed its repression. A great deal of ancient knowledge was suddenly "discovered". Like the works of Greek philosophizes Aristotle and Plato.

Strangely these work were preserved and translated by Islamic countries. Who at the time were far more enlightened and open-minded than the European Christians. So when the Church relaxed its dogma these works of Pagan authors were allowed into Europe once again.

It is well known that it was Freemasons who engineered the American War of Independence,. When the American constitution was drawn up it was stated within it that. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free practice thereof". Since then nearly all other Western countries have passed laws giving its people the freedom to belong to any religion they want to.

So in theory any knowledge of ancient Goddess religions could have been revealed in recent times with no fear of persecution. The fact that no such knowledge was revealed then, or since, means that this knowledge might of been lost and only the symbols still remain. Or the keepers of this knowledge, still think that Goddess worship is unacceptable to most people in our society.

When Pamela Suffield and I wrote "Gospel of the Goddess" at the end of the 1980s we put forward the idea that we are moving towards a new feminine matercentric age. Even many of our own friends found such a suggestion to be completely unacceptable. So if we are looking for a secret that is even still taboo in today's society then this would be a very strong possibility.

For years I have been interested in not only Goddess worship but the concept of a Matriarchal societies of the past. Unfortunately I have found that among scholars this is very much a taboo subject to the degree that there seems to be a campaign to censor this knowledge. As we can see through the treatment of the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas who was savagely attacked by other academics for daring to write books about what archaeologists have discovered about Neolithic civilizations.

Some Masons today claim that Freemasonry is no longer a secret society, as all its rituals and beliefs have be revealed to the public, in many books. But this may not be true, they might still have knowledge of ancient Goddess religions. And they might not want to reveal it because the leadership of Freemasonry has now become too patriarchal. But this may not stop individual members trying to bring back the Goddess. A case in point would be Gerald Gardner.

Now if some Freemasons do worship a hidden Goddess, this can could make sense of the behaviour of another well known Freemason called Gerald Gardner.

Back in the nineteen fifties, Gerald Gardner started Modern Witchcraft. He had a three degree hierarchy in his form of Witchcraft the same as within Freemasonry. Many of his rituals are apparently similar to Freemasonry and some Witches do know the secret hand signals that Freemasons use.

Also there does seem to be a large number of Witches who are Freemasons. Witches are completely open in the fact that they worship the Goddess and unlike the Masons allow both men and women in their Covens. (Though there is today some Freemason groups who do now allow women in their ranks, and there are exclusive Female Freemasonry organizations).

So Gerald Gardner did successfully bring Goddess worship back to Western Civilizations. Though his version of the Goddess was watered down because his form of Witchcraft also worships a god. So she is not a Creatrix or Great Mother Goddess. But then he was very daring to re-introduce Witchcraft back in the 1950s. So perhaps he thought to bring back the Great Mother would be a step too far.

So even with the religious freedom of today we cannot rely on the leadership of Freemasonry to reveal what they know. We might have to rely in individual Freemasons like Gerald Gardner, who believe in the Goddess, to do this and bring out the ancient knowledge the Freemasons have."

Source
http://www.womanthouartgod.com/wmbondfreemasonry.php