Archive for December, 2011

Source of Savior Birth Myths

Posted in Atheist, belief, Bible, faith, prehistory, random, religion with tags , , , on December 24, 2011 by chouck017894

Throughout the ancient world the advent of the winter solstice marked the first point of Capricorn and signaled mounting luminary blessings to come.  There was also a noteworthy occurrence that always accompanied the winter solstice, for at midnight of the solstice the great star Spica in constellation Virgo (virgin) began to rise above the eastern horizon.  The so-called “Pagan” cultures referred to the night of the winter solstice—the longest night of the year—as “Mother Night,” and this is why myths have always tied the Virgin to the birth of a divine son—in actuality, the Sun.

The first magnitude star Spica on the meridian at midnight during the winter solstice was therefore seen to illustrate the bearing forth of the Life Principle out of void conditions so that the Sun might continue to safeguard (save) the world (all matter-life).  To paraphrase a traditional Christmas carol, it was thought of as the night divine, the night when light was born.  Consequently, all savior figures of various cultures were said to have been born on December 25th, when the Sun again took up its northerly course.  This movement began only after a suspenseful three days during the solstice period when the Sun seemed to hang low and unmoving in the southern sky.

In ancient Egypt, for example, the birth of the son, Horus, god of day, to the fertility goddess Isis, was celebrated on this date.  Persians celebrated on December 25th the birth of the “prophet” of ancient Iran, Zoroaster.  In pre-Christian Rome the twenty-fifth of December was known as Natalis Solis Invict, meaning “birthday of the Sun.”  All such celebrations of various “Pagan” cultures were in recognition that an increase of light would follow the longest night of the year.

In many pre-Christian observances during the period of longest darkness, a midnight rite was observed which was known as the “Vigil of Light.”  The culmination of the rite often involved the lighting of a great bonfire on the highest ground in the area from which they conducted the colorfully symbolic ceremony of the “Yule” wheel.  In readiness for the celebration was a great wheel made of dried twigs, leaf stalks, small tree limbs and coarse grasses.  As darkness seemingly engulfed the whole world, the wheel was set ablaze and sent rolling down the hillside into a lake or other body of water.  This ceremony commemorated the Sun’s descent into its period of apparent rest, which was regarded as occurring within the waters (energies) of Creation.  The bonfires were generally kept burning on the hilltop throughout the rest of the night.

Today’s rigorously structured faith systems, of course, deride this ceremony as nothing more than “heathen ignorance.”  The truth is that such ceremonies demonstrated a closer understanding of cosmic processes than pretending that the longest night of the year marks the incarnation of some demigod or is associated with some supernatural “miracle” of oil lamps providing light for eight days for the devotees of some man-conceived faith system.  Of course the wholesome understanding of Creation’s patriarchal principles and universal order that was honored by the Pagans does not contribute to the ego-pampering ideas of godly favoritism that is the bedrock of every organized faith system.

A celebration of increasing light is also part of Hindu observance, and is similar in some respects to Christmas and Hanukkah.  This celebration occurs in November of the Julian calendar, however.  Since the observance is spoken of as being the darkest night of the year, it suggests that it is really a displaced observance of the winter solstice (as with Islamic observance of Ramadan).

The noticeable movement of celestial objects that occur in the heavens is the true substructure of every organized faith system, although that relationship is always heavily disguised.  The early representatives of contrived religious doctrines were so fearful that the uneducated followers would discover the true association that the promoters of those contrived religious movements condemned Pagan astronomical observation and study as “star worship.”

Stories of the birth of savior-like beings also invariably included three wise men or kings or magi who “came from the east” bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the newborn.  Older pre-Christian tales relate that three magi bearing identical gifts attended the birth of Krishna, Osiris, Mithras, Zoroaster, Confucius, Socrates, and a list of others.  The three “gifts” of gold, frankincense and myrrh are indeed precious to the Life Principle, for they represent the three energy planes that integrate for the development of physical-matter manifestation.

As for the “star” that is said to have led most of these kings, wise men or magi to their destination, it is mythic representation of those involving energies that radiate in the process of matter manifestation.  That just may be the reason that there have never been any genuine history accounts anywhere that verify such a celestial phenomenon of a stationary star hovering over a specific earthly location.

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Creation’s Forgiveness of Necessity

Posted in Atheist, Bible, faith, Hebrew scripture, random, religion with tags , , , on December 20, 2011 by chouck017894

Forgiveness is customarily regarded as an act of moral behavior—the pardoning of having experienced a fault or offense, which requires renouncing anger or resentment against some hurtful situation.  To be capable of doing this while avoiding bitterness or desire for revenge certainly requires a high degree of moral quality.  Oddly, the thick book of holy scriptures is strangely short on episodes in which the true moral worth of forgiveness is presented!

In the Old Testament, for example, the moral factor of forgiveness is never actually addressed as being a particularly advantageous or admirable trait.  In the few OT stories where forgiveness is a feature, it always has to do with some biblical character which represents the Life Principle—the creative power through which life is initiated and maintained.  In the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings (Creation), the most beloved son of Jacob/Israel named Joseph (his name means “builder”) gets sold into Egypt by his own brothers (primal elements).  Joseph, of course, rises to high governing position (once he passes over into the energy realm of matter which is symbolized as Egypt) and his brothers have to come to him seeking sustenance for their own advancement.

The brothers do not recognize the advanced Joseph, and when Joseph makes himself known to his brothers they implore him to forgive the “evil” they had done to him.  This story in Genesis is part of the Creation saga, so the forgiveness extended to his brothers by Joseph, the builder, is not really a lesson of moral spirit; it simply signifies recognition of the necessary sequential processes that must be passed over to achieve the manifestation as matter-life.  Joseph, the builder, personifying the Life Principle, therefore extends forgiveness to his brothers (the primal elements), so the story is not really an example of moral quality, but is simply acknowledgment of the necessary sequential process of Creation.

Another OT character, Daniel (a character borrowed by the priest-authors from a Babylonian poem), represents the same transformation level of creative energy involvement as did Joseph, and the tales share similar story features.  Joseph is depicted as having been carried captive into Egypt; Daniel was carried into Babylon; both were made to change their names (as did Abram-Abraham and Jacob-Israel); both gained favor with highly placed officials of the nation.  Also both resisted polluting themselves with the trappings of the king’s culture (pre-physical conditions); both gained eminence by interpreting a dream (fulfilment of prototype) of the king; and both achieve material-matter status.  The character of Daniel is portrayed as reading the writing on the wall that found the king to be lacking, a variation of Joseph who sat in judgment of his brothers’ lack of primal rations.  The forgiveness attributed to these characters, and which is always held up as exemplary, really had nothing to do with moral quality: what these characters Joseph and Daniel forgave was the primordial conditions that are passed over and which permits advancement into matter manifestation.

Still another example of Bible-style forgiveness is found in the book of Nehemiah (especially chapter nine).  There, after verses that review the Creation of “…heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas,” etc., the Creation-inspire sermon expands to feature the glory of Moses and the Israelites.  God’s forgiveness that is claimed to have been extended to the Israelites (the elemental creative energies) regarding all their alleged trespasses really refers to energies that must assemble and interact for manifestation of matter-life.  In those primary stages of formation any and all necessary creative activity must be forgiven.  Thus in Nehemiah 9:31 the priest-author presumes to flatter the Lord (law of Creation): “Nevertheless for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.”  It adds, “…but thou art a god of acts of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, and you did not leave them.”  No, the creative Source does not leave the involving energies which involve as Creation, and this is passed off as forgiveness of the Israelites’ alleged amoral conduct.  Amoral is a neutral word, neither moral nor immoral, and knowing this as presented in sacred language tales such as this it means there is no “sin” or offence to forgive because it personifies the energy activity of Creation.  The odious deceit in this myth lies in the inference that some supernatural deity allegedly awards a specific man-conceived faith system with chosen status when properly that which is characterized are creative energies that involve and evolve for the manifestation of all life.

The impartiality that is present within the process of Creation is, on the other hand, a most exacting and unforgiving procedure, and this is why forgiveness is never recognized in creation plot lines of holy writ as being an especially advantageous, admirable or moral trait.  This is backhanded recognition that Creation is always striving for balance, and to “forgive” creative activity in any dimension of development would halt Creation.  The balance striven for in energy development is not symmetrical, however, and that is because perfect symmetry allows no movement.  The balance that is implied can be likened to a pendulum functioning as a regulator between dual extremes and keeping them in harmony.

As mentioned in these posts dozens of times, the underlying theme in holy scripture stories conveys the various stages of energy development that result in manifestation of energy-matter form.  And this serves as the basic plotline for the bulk of the stories.  Thus God, Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, etc., all part waters during their scenes of preparing elemental equals for spiritual advancement.  Even Jesus’ alleged third “miracle,” walking upon the water, carries the same meaning!  And in the Christian faith system, divine forgiveness is implied with the incident of Jesus saying at the start of his higher transformation, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  Jesus always personifies the Life Principle within Creation activity, so what Jesus forgives from the cross—the cross or X being the most ancient symbol for matter—are the primal circumstances that delivers primary elements and allows them to pass over into their higher potential of aware-consciousness.  Thus the forgiveness expressed in this dramatic scene upon the cross is therefore from the elevated perspective of divine indifference, for it is recognition that there is nothing in the process of energy development into higher form that is to be condemned or that needs forgiveness.

But it is here within this energy dimension of materiality that we, as complex, self-aware energy forms, take responsibility for fine-tuning our remaining primal elements.  Recognition that everything that we can perceive around us is interrelated opens to us the power to transform Creations’ amoral forgiveness into true moral forgiveness.

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A Miserly Miracle in the Wilderness

Posted in Atheist, Bible, Hebrew scripture, random, religion, thoughts with tags , , , , on December 10, 2011 by chouck017894

In the biblical book of Exodus the Israelites that are depicted as fleeing from Egypt were allegedly so needy that they had to be fed with rations provided directly from god—“food” that was no bigger than hoarfrost, which, considering the Lord’s immeasurable abundance, seems a tad stingy (Exodus 16:14).  Nonetheless, these poor creatures were not to lack for all the goods and material necessities to build a tabernacle, an ark, and other wondrous structures while scrounging forty years in the “wilderness.”  What’s more, all these things are claimed to have been of extraordinary beauty and were ornamented with trappings of fabulous wealth.  Were all those treasures stolen from the Egyptians when the Israelites fled their “slavery” there?  If so, why would they lug around tons of such showy embellishments but leave the means of their immediate survival to the grace of god?

Exodus 16:14-16 relates “In time the layer of dew evaporated and here upon the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flaky thing, fine like hoarfrost upon the earth.”  (Italics added.)  “…It is the bread that Jehovah has given for food.” “…Pick up some of it, each one in proportion to his eating.”  The last quoted words, “in proportion to his eating,” hold coded meaning.  In other words, hoarfrost represents the creative energies necessary for each prototype to advance into manifestation with material density.  The means by which these energies were provided is also alluded to in the strange wording upon the surface of the wilderness.  With the alleged diet of “manna” that which is being symbolized is lifeless and non-manifested primal energies from which biological life is made manifest.  The beginning of energy transformation is then allegorized as a state of moisture (dew) from which the elementary particles (symbolized as Israelites) are energized and made mobile and volatile.  The expansion of water components which leaves a “fine flake thing” symbolically allows the escape of spirit from that prototypal condition.

If we are to take the hoarfrost diet literally, it directly taxes rationality.  Only when recognizing that symbolism is the language of “sacred” scriptures can we find rationality, and it is only by understanding those symbols that one can dig out the true meaning that was intentionally hidden there.

If we are to believe the biblical account of the holy tabernacle erected in the wilderness, the Israelites soon honored the giver of life by turning the tabernacle into a virtual slaughterhouse in which beasts and fowl were slain and burned by the thousands. (Exodus 29:10)  Where did all those creatures come from?  Regardless where all that animal life came from in the midst of the desert “wilderness,” if we take the abundant availability of animals for sacrifice literally it reveals that there was never a rational reason for the Israelites to have once been so starving that they had to eat hoarfrost.

To answer the earlier questions regarding the treasures of the tabernacle, yes, the Israelites—symbols of elementary particles involving as pre-physical conditions—did figuratively take with them all the paraphernalia for the lavishness they would be charged to utilize upon their wilderness “tabernacle” and “temple.”  That lavishness represents the unlimited creative energies that are misleadingly symbolized with the land of Egypt.  The tabernacle said to be raised “in the wilderness,” meaning out of the primordial void, is reference to prototypes from which all planetary and biological life-forms develop and evolve.  The excessive ornamental trappings claimed as desired by god are really priest-authors’ shameless indulgence in spiritual extortion, which kept the priests well fed.

The ancient teachings from which these priest-written sacred tales were borrowed taught a greater truth that was purposely misinterpreted in the sacred language rewrites.  The great truth is that within the primordial energy planes everything has its origin as an energy prototype, and it is only when that primal energy interweaves into self-aware consciousness that the prototypal life form becomes a temple of life.  (For the so-called pro-lifers this clarifies that personhood does not commence until self-awareness—that intellectual awareness of I—becomes active: a fertilized egg is not a person; it is only a potential person.  Any muscle twitches occurring in fetal growth are due to energy expansion, not due to self-awareness.)

In the New Testament book of Hebrews 8:5 the Roman author declares that when Moses was about to make the tabernacle in the wilderness he was said to have been admonished by god to  “…make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount.”  This Roman author of Hebrews knew the real meanings hidden within sacred language: that pattern = prototype.  The suggested ritual of service for use in honoring that creative principle in “…the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Hebrews 8:2), is thus said to be drawn upon the “example and shadow” of heavenly (cosmic) things (Hebrews 8:5).  “…See saith he (god), that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount” (not on the mount).  In other words, the process of involving and evolving of creative energies that manifest into energy-matter forms is explained.  The “tabernacle” symbolizes the enshrining of life within each “pattern” that achieves manifested form.

The whole of the tabernacle allegedly built in the “wilderness” (in the primordial energy planes) by Moses (who represents the Life Principle) and the Israelites (which personify the elementary particles out of which life is made manifest) was said to be fourfold in its design; in other words, like the four energy stages through which creative energies develop toward visible manifested form.  The “covered tent” (Hebrews 9:22) regarded as the “Holy Place,” at this point of energy-matter development, represented the intellectual capacity in man, which is embodied with visible form but remains invisible and creative.  The “Holy of Holies,” i.e. the heart and soul of the Ark of the Covenant and Shekinah (visible manifestation of divine presence) represent the presence of creative power that is always within all mortal life.

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A Priest’s Convenient Discovery

Posted in Atheist, belief, faith, Hebrew scripture, history, politics, random, religion, thoughts with tags , , , , on December 1, 2011 by chouck017894

(Political Purpose of Deuteronomy)

The biblical text known as Deuteronomy, inserted as the fifth book of holy scripture, was composed for political purposes in Jerusalem in the newly established little tribal kingdom of Judah in the seventh century BCE. The little kingdom of Israel to the north had fallen to Assyrian expansion, and the inspiration behind the priest-written text was that the people could be mobilized by giving them an emotional claim to a national identity.

Deuteronomy is the alleged second corpus juris (body of laws) that had purportedly been given to the Israelites through Moses prior to the Israelites entering the land of Canaan.  The delivery of the supplements to the original “laws” had supposedly taken place in the plains of Moab (generally placed in the 1400s BCE).  So the Israelites were not then in the “Promised Land,” and yet the book containing the second corpus of “laws” supposedly had been carried into and inflicted upon those who already inhabited the land of Canaan.  Those undisclosed laws had apparently been lugged around through the Israelite invasion ordeal, even though the Israelites were unaware that what they defended predetermined the framework for a national constitution of Israel that would rise generations later!

The major feature of the top-secret text was the promise from god—or a covenant between God and Israel—to serve as the basis for the Israelites lifestyle in Canaan.  In the time of Moses, remember, no center  of Israelite government or religion existed in Canaan, the “Promised Land,” and yet that “for your eyes only” text supposedly provided the basic summary of every citizen’s rights and duties.  Strangely, those god-ordained laws were not found until the Temple in Jerusalem was being remodeled in the seventh century BCE, which was after the kingdom of Israel to the north had fallen to the Assyrians—or around 700 years after the traditional timeframe accorded to Moses and the Exodus (c. 1576 BCE).  Unlike the Ten Commandments the additional laws conveyed to Moses apparently had not been written on stone.

Whoever the real author(s) was (most likely it was the High Priest named Hilkiah and his secretary Shapan), he undoubtedly built upon already existing traditions, refashioning the legends according to his own outline and political goals.  There is no doubt of the genius of the creator(s) of the 7th century BCE who updated the oral traditions, for the early folklore and stories were woven together so skillfully that the characters, such as Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., exuded individual distinctiveness.  Equally telling that priestly hands were at work on the text are often detected in the alleged exhortations of Moses, which can only be characterized as preaching the law in a reproachful manner.  The heavy amount of the “laws” are not what can be termed juridical, but primarily concerned religious instructions and regulations for worship, even a festival calendar, and admonitions designed to program the public with a sense of obligation and duty toward God, which—surprise!—cunningly placed the priests in absolute management position.

In 640 BCE, after the assassination of tribal king Amon of Judah, his 8-year old son Josiah became king—and the High Priest Hilkiah became the young king’s tutor.  The convenient “discovery” of the book of Law in this same general timeframe also happened to coincide with the rise of literacy that accompanied the influx of refugees from the fallen kingdom of Israel to the north.  With the arrival in Judah of expatriates from the kingdom of Israel the political atmosphere changed, and until this timeframe there had been little means of producing extensive sacred texts.  With young King Josiah being tutored by the High Priest Hilkiah, the stage was set to institute a unifying code of alleged god-ordained laws within the boundaries that were then being claimed as the kingdom of Judah.

Deuteronomy is the only book of the Pentateuch that asserts that it contains “words of the covenant” which Israelites were instructed to follow faithfully (Exodus 29:9).  Biblical scholars have pointed out that the literary form of the alleged covenant between Yahweh and his people as presented in Deuteronomy has striking similarity to the seventh century BCE Assyrian vassal treaties.  In those Assyrian models the subjected people’s’ rights and obligations were correspondingly detailed.  The major difference from the Assyrian model with the holy “covenant” laws allegedly discovered in the Temple wall at Jerusalem is that Yahweh is acknowledged as Sovereign (with the priests acting as his representatives).  Typical cult ordinances were then stressed such as followers of Yahweh were charged to have no transactions or social interaction, and no intermarriage whatever with the native inhabitants.

The book of Deuteronomy also prohibited numerous Canaanite rites that had been tolerated for generations—rites that included sense-stimulants such as prostitution, ritual sodomy, and use of idols upon which devotees could focus their attention.  After the so-called “second law” was revealed, the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings were compiled in conjunction with Deuteronomy.  The groundwork was then laid down in the plotted reform measures that the High Priest and his scribe sought to impose at that time.  Thus eight years after Josiah had become king in 622 BCE, the suggestible adolescent observed the first-ever Passover sacrifice in the national shrine in Jerusalem.  Holy politics had triumphed.

The imposed cult-like obligations and the emphasis that believers in Yahweh were the only virtuous people—always self-portrayed as surrounded by wickedness and evil and godlessness—insured that Judaism would live at variance not only with neighboring people, but with Nature and universal forces as well.  Over time that spiritual virus would also contaminate the devout affirmations of two later faith systems that would arise to further splinter the western understanding of man’s relationship to the creative forces around him.

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