Was christianity created by roman aristocracy?
- Thread starter muir
- Start date
Interesting.
I watched the documentary in the OP. I can't watch everything you post, especially when they're more than an hour, but that looked good.
This I have no real objection to. The gospels have been suspect in my mind once I consciously realised the Church was made official by the Romans. However, I don't get the militaristic part. I am sure many who believed in a messiah would expect a military might but I am not sure that is the way. The old 'he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword' still rings true. It was never an instruction to be a pushover, from what I could tell...but rather about creating an imperturbable state of mind. So, the idea that the Jesus story was bastardised is nothing new to me. The idea that the whole notion of this person being a fiction...is. In my mind there was a literal example of the allegory they say the gnostics belive in. There was someone who 'did it', so to speak. They say very little in that documentary about what exactly the 'higher' is that is awakened when the 'lower' dies and that is what I took the real Jesus/Jeshua to be. Yes, Christ is an energy...but it did reside in a man for a period of time roughly 2000 years ago. Otherwise, where did the gnostics get their ideas from? But the notion that only Jesus can do it and you cannot because you are not special like he was...that 'salvation through belief alone' is the way. Yes, I agree that is the kind of disempowerment you would expect from the hi-jacking of the truth by a brutal, authoritarian empire.
I watched the documentary in the OP. I can't watch everything you post, especially when they're more than an hour, but that looked good.
This I have no real objection to. The gospels have been suspect in my mind once I consciously realised the Church was made official by the Romans. However, I don't get the militaristic part. I am sure many who believed in a messiah would expect a military might but I am not sure that is the way. The old 'he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword' still rings true. It was never an instruction to be a pushover, from what I could tell...but rather about creating an imperturbable state of mind. So, the idea that the Jesus story was bastardised is nothing new to me. The idea that the whole notion of this person being a fiction...is. In my mind there was a literal example of the allegory they say the gnostics belive in. There was someone who 'did it', so to speak. They say very little in that documentary about what exactly the 'higher' is that is awakened when the 'lower' dies and that is what I took the real Jesus/Jeshua to be. Yes, Christ is an energy...but it did reside in a man for a period of time roughly 2000 years ago. Otherwise, where did the gnostics get their ideas from? But the notion that only Jesus can do it and you cannot because you are not special like he was...that 'salvation through belief alone' is the way. Yes, I agree that is the kind of disempowerment you would expect from the hi-jacking of the truth by a brutal, authoritarian empire.
I'd recommend reading "The Jewish Gospels" or "Jews and Antiquity" if you want reputable scholarly work on the beginnings of Christianity and the nature of Classical Jewish Messianism. These videos are entertaining conspiracy theories that are tempting, but ignore a lot of historical context - or misplace it.
It does not make sense that Jesus would be invented by Romans, Christians were a major thorn in the Empire's side. Jews throughout the empire in diaspora (especially before the Jewish wars) were tolerated, they were exempted from public duties on Sabbath days, and not required to worship the Emperor's cult. Their monotheism was tolerated as long as they kept it to themselves because of its age and cultural identity. Greek philosophers admired the Jews as a nation of Philosophers, for their belief in deistic simplicity (one God), and for their emphasis on reading and learning. There were pagan advocates for Jews in the Empire. Christians were new, their faith not well understood even by them, and the subject of a lot of unrest in Jewish communities in the empire, thus their sporadic but significant persecution for ~300 years. Christians spent more time converting Pagans than Jews, and severely disrupted long held Roman cults and traditions because of it. Things got worse for Christians after the Jewish Wars, so much so, the early Church debated dropping the Hebrew scriptures to avoid association with Judaism. The Romans didn't need Christianity to control the Jewish population, they were doing that well enough through blood shed and exile. The Flavians made sure of that.
As for Zeitgeist - here's an important question no one's asking - if Christianity "plagiarized" other myths of antiquity to the point of inventing Christ, why would the people of antiquity follow His cult if they could get the same story, and same theology from other, safer cults that the Empire wasn't busy persecuting? If anyone would notice the similarities and disparities, it'd be them. Seeing as they didn't, on that alone I'd be suspicious of the interpretations offered here. Also, the entire Dec. 25th argument is silly - Christians had been celebrating Christ's birth on various days for centuries before Catholicism formalized it at Dec. 25th, in accordance to Julius Africanus's argument that it is 9 months after the spring Equinox. It symbolically made the conception of Christ coincide with the rebirth of the world. In Eastern Christianity, the date is Jan. 7th. These facts alone render their reading false in this instance. It is well known amongst Christians that the specifics of Christ's birth are unknown, but Christians still seek to honor it.
It does not make sense that Jesus would be invented by Romans, Christians were a major thorn in the Empire's side. Jews throughout the empire in diaspora (especially before the Jewish wars) were tolerated, they were exempted from public duties on Sabbath days, and not required to worship the Emperor's cult. Their monotheism was tolerated as long as they kept it to themselves because of its age and cultural identity. Greek philosophers admired the Jews as a nation of Philosophers, for their belief in deistic simplicity (one God), and for their emphasis on reading and learning. There were pagan advocates for Jews in the Empire. Christians were new, their faith not well understood even by them, and the subject of a lot of unrest in Jewish communities in the empire, thus their sporadic but significant persecution for ~300 years. Christians spent more time converting Pagans than Jews, and severely disrupted long held Roman cults and traditions because of it. Things got worse for Christians after the Jewish Wars, so much so, the early Church debated dropping the Hebrew scriptures to avoid association with Judaism. The Romans didn't need Christianity to control the Jewish population, they were doing that well enough through blood shed and exile. The Flavians made sure of that.
As for Zeitgeist - here's an important question no one's asking - if Christianity "plagiarized" other myths of antiquity to the point of inventing Christ, why would the people of antiquity follow His cult if they could get the same story, and same theology from other, safer cults that the Empire wasn't busy persecuting? If anyone would notice the similarities and disparities, it'd be them. Seeing as they didn't, on that alone I'd be suspicious of the interpretations offered here. Also, the entire Dec. 25th argument is silly - Christians had been celebrating Christ's birth on various days for centuries before Catholicism formalized it at Dec. 25th, in accordance to Julius Africanus's argument that it is 9 months after the spring Equinox. It symbolically made the conception of Christ coincide with the rebirth of the world. In Eastern Christianity, the date is Jan. 7th. These facts alone render their reading false in this instance. It is well known amongst Christians that the specifics of Christ's birth are unknown, but Christians still seek to honor it.
''The Jewish Gospels'' was written by a harvard professor who defines himself as an orthodox jew. He has taught a lot in Israel
If you trace the roman system and the families involved in it you will find that they created modern day Israel (see the rothschilds, the zionist federation and the 'balfour declaration'). So this guy who wrote that book works for the same people who are part of the control structure that created the christian myth
These people are people who want to preserve the status quo....they do not want people overturning their myths as then they lose their power over people
Do you know how a coercive system is upheld?
what they do is create an education system that reflects their values and views and they hire people who will impose those views onto the young. If you say things they don't like then you lose your job (see Prof. Finkelstein)
They also control the publishing houses so that only the articles that put across sympathetic views will get published in the mainstream
That is how you artificially create a scholerly arena in which you control what is presented as 'reputable' or respectable
They covered this in the film. The people who were a thorn in the side of the empire were the zealous militant christians and the gnostics (who interpreted the christian myth in an allegorical way)
The literal christians were not a threat to rome as they had to operate through the roman church whcih was the whole point to the creation of the literal christian religion as the roman 'elite' could then control the people through the church which they controlled.
The roman elites and their hierophants of the old mystery schools wanted to control religion
This is how the global oligarchy have always operated. Any movement that grows and gains traction amongst the population is perceived by the oligarchs as a threat to their rule. So they always seek to hijack and then subvert every movement.
You can be sure that just as the roman oligarchs sought to control religion, the modern oligarchs will seek to hijack, infiltrate and subvert: the trade unions, activists (eg the occupy movement), the alternative media movement and what you might call the 'conspiracy theory' movement
They ALWAYS DO THIS. This is 'how to build a coercive hierarchy 101'.
When you can see the underlying patterns it becomes clear that they employ the same tricks against the people over and over again down through the centuries and the public have never been able to learn fast enough for one generation to make a difference (especially back in the day when the life expectancy was much shorter)...but now we have the internet and you can learn all their tricks pretty quick and then get involved from a young age in trying to subvert their activities as many are.....lets face it the baby boomer generation aren't going to do jack....they've been comforted into a coma....change is really going to have to come from the young who are going to inherit the world
Also the romans may have invented the myth but the motif was already ancient....the sun god, dying and being reborn...this goes way back before jesus
Militant and gnostic christianity was a threat to the roman empire but literal christianity represented a golden opportunity to hoard knowledge and then control the flow of information to the minds of those who were hung up on literal interpretations.......its easy to control people when you are the only person with the keys to the cookie jar......heck its like shooting rats in a barrel
The oligarchs never believed any of it! They just use these cultural memes to control people. If one cultural meme proves better than a another they will switch
Imagine a psychopath. This person lacks any morality whatsoever. This person is purely driven by a desire to gain wealth and power over people. This psychopath has no spiritual sense whatsoever but he's walking along one day and he sees some people kneeling in front of an alter. The people are staring intently at the alter wiuth tears in their eyes; their hands are clasped and they are whispering prayers to the hidden deity pleading with it for mercy.
The psycopath does not think ''wow there is a powerful god out there, i'd better be a good boy and pray to it every day''. The psychopath rubs his hands together and thinks ''wow these people really buy into this hocum....it has real power....i can use this to control them.....i know what i'm going to do.....i'm going to become a teleevangelist''
No shit....thats what's going on...sorry if that bursts anyones bubble...but its time to wise up
These religions and cults are nothing more to the ruling class than a tool for manipulative psychopaths to use to control the gullible
Who says they were using it to control the jews? Constantine made it the religion of the entire EMPIRE
Because after it was made the official religion of the roman empire anyone who did not follow it was deemed a 'heretic' and was persecuted
lets say i make a government and i start ruling over you. Lets say i start giving tax breaks to all my rich buddies leaving you with nothing even though its you and your buddies who actually do the work that makes the real economy go. Lets say you start complaining about my government. I can then declare that you are a 'terrorist' and an enemy of the state under such and such law i brought in last year after the last conflict (which i actually got my agents to create anyway as a pretext for creating my new terror law....clever huh?)
'terrorist''....''heretic'' whats the difference.....your ass is going to get persecuted either way for daring to have an opinion under their oligarchic system
Next rule in the ''how to control the masses'' guidebook is ALWAYS CENTRALISE YOUR POWER. You don't want lots of different cults where people develop their own ideas....thats difficult to control....no what you want is ONE RELIGION which you can centrally control through your sheriff/pope/baron whatever you want to call your bagman
That goes for everything. Religion must be centralised ('ecumenicism' anyone?), government must be centralised (United Nations anyone?), banking must be centralised (world bank and bank for international settlements), money must be centralised (stay tuned to see what they replace the dollar with after its demise)
They want to standardise everything. So when Constantine called the council of nicea it was to standardise christianity.
When Arius the leader of the aryan faction stood upto speak an agent of Constantine punched him in the mouth. There was going to be one system and that was the one constantine and the oligarchs wanted. Arius was later poisoned and his movement declared 'heretical'
Jesus is a solar god packaged for the masses. Constantine was not pious. Behind the scenes he was himself a member of the sol invictus cult (the cult of the invincible sun)....which was probably involved in sex magick and mind control like all occult orders are. Christianity itself has those elements too (ever heard of any catholic priests involved in sexual activities? of course you have)
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I think you're giving people too much credit. Not everyone is as ingenious as an INFJ to come up and follow through with such complex plans. 
There seems to be a bit of misunderstanding. Imperial involvement in the development of Christianity (aside from trying to squash it) did not happen until Constantine legalized it through the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. This is a little less than 300 years after Christianity began. What those first councils discussed and debated over were theology already well established in Christianity - we can affirm this because the entire Biblical canon can be pieced together from letter fragments dating from 100 - 200 A.D, and apologetic texts from many Christian thinkers in those centuries give us insight into early Christian beliefs - of which, the various tenants of the modern Christian orthodoxy we know today were very much present (at least 100 years before the first Imperial councils, and St. Paul's letters from 60 A.D.). So what we do know is that these Imperially ordered councils did not invent anything new when it comes to ideas on Christ and His life, and we can prove that. They were an attempt to resolve conflicts in the Christian community, but only with ideas already present in it. Now to give you a bone, yes, having a standardized Christianity really helps keep down rebellions and the like, but was also something very much desired by Christians. No doubt Constantine wanted to have a more unified Empire, and he certainly saw the persecutions of faith as an obstacle to that. Theodosius saw the divisions of faith as an obstacle to that. Yes the Christian religion has been used for power, but it's a stretch to say it was invented for such reasons. Every true and noble thing can and will be perverted by people seeking power.
But I'm still not making sense of the idea that Christianity had to be used to pacify the Empire, let alone that it was an invention plagarized from other pagan myths. The only reason Constantine would have to choose (according to the conspiracy theory) Christianity over the thousands of other *legal* cults is if it was already highly popular in the face of persecution (or the story of his conversion is true) - but he wouldn't have to legalize it if it wasn't illegal, and why would it be gaining adherents to be popular if it's just a rip off of every other legal (and illegal) cult out there? Could you clarify?
There seems to be a bit of misunderstanding. Imperial involvement in the development of Christianity (aside from trying to squash it) did not happen until Constantine legalized it through the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. This is a little less than 300 years after Christianity began. What those first councils discussed and debated over were theology already well established in Christianity - we can affirm this because the entire Biblical canon can be pieced together from letter fragments dating from 100 - 200 A.D, and apologetic texts from many Christian thinkers in those centuries give us insight into early Christian beliefs - of which, the various tenants of the modern Christian orthodoxy we know today were very much present (at least 100 years before the first Imperial councils, and St. Paul's letters from 60 A.D.). So what we do know is that these Imperially ordered councils did not invent anything new when it comes to ideas on Christ and His life, and we can prove that. They were an attempt to resolve conflicts in the Christian community, but only with ideas already present in it. Now to give you a bone, yes, having a standardized Christianity really helps keep down rebellions and the like, but was also something very much desired by Christians. No doubt Constantine wanted to have a more unified Empire, and he certainly saw the persecutions of faith as an obstacle to that. Theodosius saw the divisions of faith as an obstacle to that. Yes the Christian religion has been used for power, but it's a stretch to say it was invented for such reasons. Every true and noble thing can and will be perverted by people seeking power.
But I'm still not making sense of the idea that Christianity had to be used to pacify the Empire, let alone that it was an invention plagarized from other pagan myths. The only reason Constantine would have to choose (according to the conspiracy theory) Christianity over the thousands of other *legal* cults is if it was already highly popular in the face of persecution (or the story of his conversion is true) - but he wouldn't have to legalize it if it wasn't illegal, and why would it be gaining adherents to be popular if it's just a rip off of every other legal (and illegal) cult out there? Could you clarify?
I think you're giving people too much credit. Not everyone is as ingenious as an INFJ to come up and follow through with such complex plans.
LOl
I've got bad news for you pal....INFJ's are not the only genius's out there rofl Ha ha!
No seriously....its a mistake to underestimate what these people are capable of
Have you never been in a situation where something odd happens and you think wtf is going on here? Then as you get more info and mull the situation over in your mind a picture begins to form and you realise that someone has been incredibly manipulative
I always find this really disturbing because it means someone has put that much thought and effort into to trying to mess with someone else....but those people ARE out there playing their ego games
We all put our energies into different things....well some people put their energies into manipulating others
When people bemoan the state of the economy and they say things like: 'these politicians are so stupid, what are they doing?' they are not realising that there is a design behind whats happening and that even if the politicians are not the smartest guys in the room there are people behind them in the shadows who are incredibly cunning
They are there...make no mistake about it. The politicians are just front men...cardboard cut outs.....middle managers designed to take the flak from the public while the real controllers carry on with their designs. Politicians come and go and are then given cushy jobs in the corporations as rewards for being good little boys and girls, but they are not the master minds behind big events...they just act as public spokesmen for those in the shadows
''The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes'' Prime Minister benjamin Disraeli
I didn't say they were creating anything new. I said they were 'standardising' christianity
The point is that the religion by this point has been utterly hijacked by the romans. The centre of the religion was in Rome
The film is making the point that even before this standardising the romans were already hijacking jewish religious ideas
Not by the aryans or the other countless sects of christians. Not to mention the many stylites preaching all sorts of ideas
His empire was straining at the seams and he sought a cultural meme that would bind it together
Who says these ideas were invented 2000 years ago? Not only was the death and rebirth god a very old one even 2000 years ago but christs teachings are non dualist in nature suggesting eastern influences
I did like the way he lashed out at the moneychangers, but as the film says this was all part of the roman attempt to push negative feelings onto the jews and away from themselves. I'm sure there were corrupt elements amongst the jews but the romans were an occupying force
If you visit that part of the world you will find gods evolving, merging and even overlapping and becomeing composite gods
if you are creating a new cutlural meme it helps to give people something they are already familiar with or to give them a little ground for example the weird syntheses of religions we have seen where christianity slammed into other religions such as in south america. Thi is what is said about the art of lying....give the person as much truth as possible to give credibility to the overall lie. Its the same principle
In egypt the ankh already forms a cross symbol. The people of that region already had an isis cult and mary was a perfect replacement
Except mary is a corrutpion of the old pagan goddesses. The pagan goddesses were represented in their triune nature marking the 3 stages of a womans life namely: virgin, mother, crone
mary on the other hand was said to be all rolled into one! This is of course a physical impossibility and not something a woman venerating mary can ever live upto. You cannot be a virgin and a mother.
But because they were familiar with the motif it was easier for them to accept. In fact there are cases were christian missionaries visited peoples in other lands and told them of their god only to be told that the people there already had that myth!
Its old man...it goes back to the proto-indo-european common root culture
The flood story in the bible is taken from the epic of gilgamesh....its all just retellings and each culture puts its own slant on it
As for your claim that we have perfect evidence of the evolution of the bible i don't agree. i think it has ben cherry picked (many books were left out) and i think its been edited as well. Gnostic texts discovered in the last century are rewriting our understanding of christianity
I think christianity gained traction because it appealed to the common man and woman. Its characters were lowly fishermen and tax collecters
Personally i don't think jesus was intended to be a carpenter...he was a 'tecton' a temple builder...a builder of human spiritual temples the same way the fishermen were not really fishermen but rather fishing for the souls of people
Jesus didn't really turn water into wine...he was initiating people into his spiritual system...its all symbolic
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Hi Just me
I hope you're well
I'd like to make the same point that the poeple in the video make that i am not attacking peoples personal relationship with the ineffable...what i am questioning is the origins of literal christianity
Its almost like a battle between the left and right hemispheres of the brain.....the literalists are the left side and the symbolic gnostics are the right side of the brain
I'm definately in the camp of the gnostics
How is the existence of the "St Thomas Christians" in Southern India accounted for by this hypothesis?
You make many interesting points, and I'm glad you disagree with the movies' assertions that the Romans made up all of Jesus. It still boils down to the question of why would people follow a persecuted cult if it were a rip off of so many others? You're right to assert that gods evolved and melded into one another all the time, but that took generations to happen. Christianity came up with many assertions that we are asked to believe are exactly like a hundred other contemporary cults in just a few years. Since these gods changed, how do we know their "similarities" didn't come after Christianity? I didn't see any dated sources. I think that's highly problematic for these modern theories, they do not consider that people back then probably knew these myths far better than us, and many still converted to Christianity at the pain of death. I think people would have noticed. Furthermore, if so much of the Christian faith is being warped by Imperial decree, how did that not create more problems for the Empire? It makes much more sense that they worked with things that were commonly accepted by Christians, rather than trying to make the majority of the faith something it wasn't already. And that only makes sense if a significant population in the Empire was already Christian.
Or Christians in Ethiopia or the ancient Christian communities in China?Flavus Aquila said:
I have not watched the videos from this thread yet, as I'm in the middle of other videos.
The idea that Christianity was developed by Roman Aristocrats is pretty ridiculous though. In the early years Christianity was mostly a religion of the very poor. The upper classes were generally quite hostile to ideas like bodily resurrection.
Gnostic Christianity was far more amenable to the mores of the upper classes. These sects were basically synthetic religions which drew on Christianity to a degree but at their heart basically mystical cults based on Platonism. They abhorred the idea of a bodily resurrection. Their form of salvation was escaping the bounds of the physical world, and the evil deity who created it, to go to the higher realm of the many other gods of a same status as the goddess who gave birth to the insane Demiurge.
Most experts believe that Gnostic texts really do not tell us much. Their doctrines were described pretty accurately by their more orthodox detractors in the Patristic era, in texts which were well known before Gnostic writings themselves were rediscovered. They are certainly much younger than any canonical gospel, and mostly copy from them. It does not seem that they contain anything from another genuine christian tradition. What they do add seems extremely unlikely to have been spoken by any 1st century Jewish Rabbi. They are full of complicated jargon borrowed from Greek Pagan Philosophy and taken to such ridiculous extremes in order to sound deep that they are really pretty meaningless. The Jesus i these gospels is not a pleasant character. He frequently laughs at other people for being so stupid, and even finds it funny that he managed to convince some poor mortal to be crucified in his place.
I watched Zeitgeist years ago, and found nothing of real value in it. The religion section is particularly poor.
Most of the similarity between Christianity and other religions come from Christian authors recording those religions inaccurately. Sometimes they interpreted things in manners closer to christainity in order to provide a starting point for changing the subject to the gospel and prosteletizing. Sometimes they were trying to tell stories in ways that would appeal to a christian audience. Sometimes they were just so ignorant and biased that they assumed everyone held beliefs paralle to their own.
Those other gods were not claimed to have been born of virgins. They were mostly just basic demigod, produced through sexual intercourse between a woman and a god.
Horus was not born of a virgin or a mortal. He was born from the goddess Isis after she had sex with her husband Osiris and his artificial penis. Osiris has been murdered by his brother, and had his body parts spread accross the world. Isis reunited most of the pieces but could not find his penis, so she made a fake one before ressurecting him. She certainly wasn't a virgin before this though. It is worth noting that the Isis-Osiris cult was an artificial one made up by the Greek rulers of the Ptolemaic dynast in Egypt, based only loosely on older Ehyptian myths.
Mithras was certainly not born of a virgin; he was not born at all, but rather emerged fully formed out of a rock. It is not really clear how much the Persian cult of Mithras has in common with the Roman version though.
Sol Invictus emerged as a synchronization of Mithras, Bacchus, Apollo, Helios, and a few more minor gods. None of them was born of a virgin. The closest was Bacchus. He was the product of sex between Zeus and a mortal woman. Zeus's jealous wife Hera had his mother killed before he could be born. He survived because Zeus cut him from his dying mother's womb and implanted him in his own thigh so he could come to term. He was then born from a male god rather than a virgin mortal woman. His ritual worship was not particularly related to this though. His birth story was understood in a more symbolic event, which reoccurred every year with the changing of the seasons. His re-birth day was the winter solstice, around the 21st day of December.
No one in the early church really believed that Jesus was born on December 25. The closest claims from that time said that this was when Mary miraculously conceived, leading to him being born 9 months later.
I believe that the January 7th date from the Eastern Church is not actually Christmas, but a different holiday celebrating the Magoi meeting the young Christ. Jesus is described in the bible as being old enough to accept their gifts himself, so this was probably a year or two after the nativity. At one point Christians tended to celebrate "The Twelve Days of Christmas," starting on what we call Christmas and culminating with the feast of to Magoi. It was on the last day that the gifts were given.
(There is a non-canonical gospel that presents Jesus as being the messiah prophecized by Zoroaster, rather than the Jewish prophets. It claims that Zoroaster predicted 3 messiah figures: a king, a priest, and a healer. Gold was considered the proper gift for a king, frankincense for a priest, and myrrh for a healer. The gifts were described as a test to determine which promised figure he was. By accepting all of them, he said he was all of them in one.)
It is pretty widely known that the church set a date for Christmas in large part to make the faith more acceptable to pagans who did not want to give up their celebration of Saturnalia. Saturnalia was the most important holiday in the Roman world, and its celebration was not entirely opposed to Christian principles. It was the one time of year when the social hierarchy was reverse, where the first would be last and the last would be first, when masters served their slaves. It was also the only time of year when it was socially acceptable for Romans of different social status to eat together like equals, just like Christians practiced at every Mass.
Christian doctrine had been well established for over a century before the cult of Sol Invictus came into existence.
Christianity appealed to a very different demographic than did the cults of Mithras, Sol Invictus, etc, and so likely had very little interaction with them. Christianity was most popular among poor urban women. Many early christian documents address the fact that women in the church usually outnumbered men by more than two to one. (Many church leaders had to address questions from women who really wanted to marry but could not find an unwed christian man, and so wished to know whether it would be better to marry a heathen or to form a polygamous relationship.) The Cult of Mithras and Sol Invictus were exclusively masculine faiths. They were far more popular in rural areas, and particularly among active duty soldiers.
This was at a time when Christians typically opposed military service. This was in part because joining the military involved making an oath to false gods, but there were other reasons too. Tertullian considered killing in war to be as bad as any other murder, and he personally believed that God would never forgive murderers or adulterers. He considered any christian who served any role in any military to be an apostate. Most other Christians were less extreme and would gladly forgive common foot soldiers who were conscripted; however, many still considered it completely unacceptable to be a military commander, executioner, or judge. It was seen as very wrong to seek any position that would requiring ordering others to kill or require personally killing in situations where it was not needed to protect the lives of yourself or others.
There are only minor superficial similarities between the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, with bread and wine, and a Mithras/Sol Invictus ritual meal of bread and water. Ritual meals, particularly such simple ones, are extremely common and likely to emerge independently. A big part of the Christian practice was having people of both genders and all social satus come together to eat as equals, while providing the poor with free food without shaming them by singling them out. The pagan ritual involved only men of high status. The main ritual of Mithracism was not this meal anyway, but one which involved slaightering a ram.
The idea that Mary has anything to do with Pagan goddesses is silly. Mary was really not such a big part of early Christianity, far less than she became during the Counter-Reformation. It is true that at least one early sect taught that she was an incarnation of the archangel Michael, but such ideas were not at all mainstream. Most thought that she was a fairly normal woman. Praying to saints was not yet a common practice in the early church, so she was not even an intercessor as she is today. Veneration did not emerge until centuries after the relevant time frame.
It is not until English translations were made that Joseph was said to be a carpenter. That job title was much looser then than it is now, but still more narrow that the Greek Tekton. That can refer to absolutely any laborer whose work depends on his Techne, or practical know-how. This is not the same word used for knowledge in a spiritual or intellectual sense. Some say that it might be translated from an Aramaic term that could more broadly apply to knowledge in general and make it possible that Joseph was a scribe or Rabbi, but it has been most common to assume he was a mason or contractor involved in the many construction projects commissioned by Herod.
Constantine did not have a whole lot to do with establishing Christian doctrine. His role is often over stated. He did call a council to help formalize it, but did not get involved in the debates. There wasn't really that much controversy at the Council of Nicea, which just reaffirmed that which had long been believed. Constantine did not make Christianity the state religion (Theodosius did that, after the Neo-Platonist Julian the Apostate tried to purge christians from the government and return to traditional religions), but merely legized it and donated some cathedrals (showing some favortism for bishops who were more friendly to his interests, but mostly just making sure that there were impressive looking christian bascilicas in the most important cities). He was not baptized as a christian until he was on his death bed. It is not clear whether he was yet a Christian or still a follower of Sol Invictus when he declared that "the day of the venerable sun" would be a day of rest. As the name Sunday implies, the day was important to the cult of the sun god. It also happened to be the day of the Resurrection. Since the beginning of the Church Christians had been gathering together early in the morning on Sundays to praise God and to organize their charitable efforts. This had mostly meant meeting before sunrise and then leaving in time to go about work as usual. It was certainly not christian doctrine that Sunday should be a day of rest. It was not a replacement Sabbath. Many early Christians, particularly those of Jewish ancestry, continued to keep the Sabbath regulations on the seventh day of the week as well.
The only times Constantine was seriously involved in internal church affairs related to the Dontanists and the Traditores. The Traditores were Christians who had repudiated their faith for fear of prosecution, and then collaberated with the church's persecutors by handing over sacred texts for destruction and leading the authorities to find other Christians to persecute. Some of the Traditores had been priests. The church stripped most them of their authority, but many of them had politically connected families that convinced Constantine to reinstate them. A majority of the church was willing to forgive them and welcome them back. The Dontanists were not so forgiving. They insisted that these en had proven themselves untrustworthy, and so should never be allowed to serve as priests (even if they were to be accepted back as lay members of the church). A big issue was the fact that the Dontanists believed that Traditor priests must have never truly had authority from Christ, and so they could not have performed valid baptisms. They believed that anyone who had been baptized by a Traditor would need to be baptized again by a more ethical priests in order to be truly members of the church. Most people did not know detailed histories of those who had baptized them, and those who had baptized them, etc. Perhaps a third of all Christians would have been invalidly baptized, and no one knew which part that was, so they would basically have to re baptize everyone. Most Churchmen considered this wildly impractical, and so they sided against the Dontanists at a couple Synods. They appealed to the Emperor, but he upheld the church's decision. When they continued to protest, he began to use force to suppress them. Eventually the Dontanists came to see such persecution as proof that they were the true church. Some ancient accounts (which were almost certainly exaggerated for humorous effect) claimed that militant Dontanists brigands would raid passing caravans, hand over their swords to their victims, and demand that they be killed for their faith.
The idea that Christianity was developed by Roman Aristocrats is pretty ridiculous though. In the early years Christianity was mostly a religion of the very poor. The upper classes were generally quite hostile to ideas like bodily resurrection.
Gnostic Christianity was far more amenable to the mores of the upper classes. These sects were basically synthetic religions which drew on Christianity to a degree but at their heart basically mystical cults based on Platonism. They abhorred the idea of a bodily resurrection. Their form of salvation was escaping the bounds of the physical world, and the evil deity who created it, to go to the higher realm of the many other gods of a same status as the goddess who gave birth to the insane Demiurge.
Most experts believe that Gnostic texts really do not tell us much. Their doctrines were described pretty accurately by their more orthodox detractors in the Patristic era, in texts which were well known before Gnostic writings themselves were rediscovered. They are certainly much younger than any canonical gospel, and mostly copy from them. It does not seem that they contain anything from another genuine christian tradition. What they do add seems extremely unlikely to have been spoken by any 1st century Jewish Rabbi. They are full of complicated jargon borrowed from Greek Pagan Philosophy and taken to such ridiculous extremes in order to sound deep that they are really pretty meaningless. The Jesus i these gospels is not a pleasant character. He frequently laughs at other people for being so stupid, and even finds it funny that he managed to convince some poor mortal to be crucified in his place.
I watched Zeitgeist years ago, and found nothing of real value in it. The religion section is particularly poor.
Most of the similarity between Christianity and other religions come from Christian authors recording those religions inaccurately. Sometimes they interpreted things in manners closer to christainity in order to provide a starting point for changing the subject to the gospel and prosteletizing. Sometimes they were trying to tell stories in ways that would appeal to a christian audience. Sometimes they were just so ignorant and biased that they assumed everyone held beliefs paralle to their own.
Those other gods were not claimed to have been born of virgins. They were mostly just basic demigod, produced through sexual intercourse between a woman and a god.
Horus was not born of a virgin or a mortal. He was born from the goddess Isis after she had sex with her husband Osiris and his artificial penis. Osiris has been murdered by his brother, and had his body parts spread accross the world. Isis reunited most of the pieces but could not find his penis, so she made a fake one before ressurecting him. She certainly wasn't a virgin before this though. It is worth noting that the Isis-Osiris cult was an artificial one made up by the Greek rulers of the Ptolemaic dynast in Egypt, based only loosely on older Ehyptian myths.
Mithras was certainly not born of a virgin; he was not born at all, but rather emerged fully formed out of a rock. It is not really clear how much the Persian cult of Mithras has in common with the Roman version though.
Sol Invictus emerged as a synchronization of Mithras, Bacchus, Apollo, Helios, and a few more minor gods. None of them was born of a virgin. The closest was Bacchus. He was the product of sex between Zeus and a mortal woman. Zeus's jealous wife Hera had his mother killed before he could be born. He survived because Zeus cut him from his dying mother's womb and implanted him in his own thigh so he could come to term. He was then born from a male god rather than a virgin mortal woman. His ritual worship was not particularly related to this though. His birth story was understood in a more symbolic event, which reoccurred every year with the changing of the seasons. His re-birth day was the winter solstice, around the 21st day of December.
No one in the early church really believed that Jesus was born on December 25. The closest claims from that time said that this was when Mary miraculously conceived, leading to him being born 9 months later.
I believe that the January 7th date from the Eastern Church is not actually Christmas, but a different holiday celebrating the Magoi meeting the young Christ. Jesus is described in the bible as being old enough to accept their gifts himself, so this was probably a year or two after the nativity. At one point Christians tended to celebrate "The Twelve Days of Christmas," starting on what we call Christmas and culminating with the feast of to Magoi. It was on the last day that the gifts were given.
(There is a non-canonical gospel that presents Jesus as being the messiah prophecized by Zoroaster, rather than the Jewish prophets. It claims that Zoroaster predicted 3 messiah figures: a king, a priest, and a healer. Gold was considered the proper gift for a king, frankincense for a priest, and myrrh for a healer. The gifts were described as a test to determine which promised figure he was. By accepting all of them, he said he was all of them in one.)
It is pretty widely known that the church set a date for Christmas in large part to make the faith more acceptable to pagans who did not want to give up their celebration of Saturnalia. Saturnalia was the most important holiday in the Roman world, and its celebration was not entirely opposed to Christian principles. It was the one time of year when the social hierarchy was reverse, where the first would be last and the last would be first, when masters served their slaves. It was also the only time of year when it was socially acceptable for Romans of different social status to eat together like equals, just like Christians practiced at every Mass.
Christian doctrine had been well established for over a century before the cult of Sol Invictus came into existence.
Christianity appealed to a very different demographic than did the cults of Mithras, Sol Invictus, etc, and so likely had very little interaction with them. Christianity was most popular among poor urban women. Many early christian documents address the fact that women in the church usually outnumbered men by more than two to one. (Many church leaders had to address questions from women who really wanted to marry but could not find an unwed christian man, and so wished to know whether it would be better to marry a heathen or to form a polygamous relationship.) The Cult of Mithras and Sol Invictus were exclusively masculine faiths. They were far more popular in rural areas, and particularly among active duty soldiers.
This was at a time when Christians typically opposed military service. This was in part because joining the military involved making an oath to false gods, but there were other reasons too. Tertullian considered killing in war to be as bad as any other murder, and he personally believed that God would never forgive murderers or adulterers. He considered any christian who served any role in any military to be an apostate. Most other Christians were less extreme and would gladly forgive common foot soldiers who were conscripted; however, many still considered it completely unacceptable to be a military commander, executioner, or judge. It was seen as very wrong to seek any position that would requiring ordering others to kill or require personally killing in situations where it was not needed to protect the lives of yourself or others.
There are only minor superficial similarities between the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, with bread and wine, and a Mithras/Sol Invictus ritual meal of bread and water. Ritual meals, particularly such simple ones, are extremely common and likely to emerge independently. A big part of the Christian practice was having people of both genders and all social satus come together to eat as equals, while providing the poor with free food without shaming them by singling them out. The pagan ritual involved only men of high status. The main ritual of Mithracism was not this meal anyway, but one which involved slaightering a ram.
The idea that Mary has anything to do with Pagan goddesses is silly. Mary was really not such a big part of early Christianity, far less than she became during the Counter-Reformation. It is true that at least one early sect taught that she was an incarnation of the archangel Michael, but such ideas were not at all mainstream. Most thought that she was a fairly normal woman. Praying to saints was not yet a common practice in the early church, so she was not even an intercessor as she is today. Veneration did not emerge until centuries after the relevant time frame.
It is not until English translations were made that Joseph was said to be a carpenter. That job title was much looser then than it is now, but still more narrow that the Greek Tekton. That can refer to absolutely any laborer whose work depends on his Techne, or practical know-how. This is not the same word used for knowledge in a spiritual or intellectual sense. Some say that it might be translated from an Aramaic term that could more broadly apply to knowledge in general and make it possible that Joseph was a scribe or Rabbi, but it has been most common to assume he was a mason or contractor involved in the many construction projects commissioned by Herod.
Constantine did not have a whole lot to do with establishing Christian doctrine. His role is often over stated. He did call a council to help formalize it, but did not get involved in the debates. There wasn't really that much controversy at the Council of Nicea, which just reaffirmed that which had long been believed. Constantine did not make Christianity the state religion (Theodosius did that, after the Neo-Platonist Julian the Apostate tried to purge christians from the government and return to traditional religions), but merely legized it and donated some cathedrals (showing some favortism for bishops who were more friendly to his interests, but mostly just making sure that there were impressive looking christian bascilicas in the most important cities). He was not baptized as a christian until he was on his death bed. It is not clear whether he was yet a Christian or still a follower of Sol Invictus when he declared that "the day of the venerable sun" would be a day of rest. As the name Sunday implies, the day was important to the cult of the sun god. It also happened to be the day of the Resurrection. Since the beginning of the Church Christians had been gathering together early in the morning on Sundays to praise God and to organize their charitable efforts. This had mostly meant meeting before sunrise and then leaving in time to go about work as usual. It was certainly not christian doctrine that Sunday should be a day of rest. It was not a replacement Sabbath. Many early Christians, particularly those of Jewish ancestry, continued to keep the Sabbath regulations on the seventh day of the week as well.
The only times Constantine was seriously involved in internal church affairs related to the Dontanists and the Traditores. The Traditores were Christians who had repudiated their faith for fear of prosecution, and then collaberated with the church's persecutors by handing over sacred texts for destruction and leading the authorities to find other Christians to persecute. Some of the Traditores had been priests. The church stripped most them of their authority, but many of them had politically connected families that convinced Constantine to reinstate them. A majority of the church was willing to forgive them and welcome them back. The Dontanists were not so forgiving. They insisted that these en had proven themselves untrustworthy, and so should never be allowed to serve as priests (even if they were to be accepted back as lay members of the church). A big issue was the fact that the Dontanists believed that Traditor priests must have never truly had authority from Christ, and so they could not have performed valid baptisms. They believed that anyone who had been baptized by a Traditor would need to be baptized again by a more ethical priests in order to be truly members of the church. Most people did not know detailed histories of those who had baptized them, and those who had baptized them, etc. Perhaps a third of all Christians would have been invalidly baptized, and no one knew which part that was, so they would basically have to re baptize everyone. Most Churchmen considered this wildly impractical, and so they sided against the Dontanists at a couple Synods. They appealed to the Emperor, but he upheld the church's decision. When they continued to protest, he began to use force to suppress them. Eventually the Dontanists came to see such persecution as proof that they were the true church. Some ancient accounts (which were almost certainly exaggerated for humorous effect) claimed that militant Dontanists brigands would raid passing caravans, hand over their swords to their victims, and demand that they be killed for their faith.
The movie does not assert that the romans made up all of the myth...they say it is a blend of allegory (of the roman military campaign in palestine), of pre-existing mythologies and of pre-existing jewsish ideas for example taken from the old testament
Its an upgrade
Answer me this: does christianity in modern day US perfectly match the christianity of 2000 years ago? Or has it undergone a series of schisms, reformations and other assorted changes?
This stuff is not written in stone....it is written in the minds of man and therefore is entirely plastic
Its exactly because it dovetailed so neatly into those old cults that it was accepted so willingly.
Also you have to understand the effect that an influential backer can have for your cause whether it is hiring people to aggressivley publicise something (Saul did a pretty god job of that in the bible didn't he?) or whether it is using the law to persecute opponents
A modern day example of this oligarchic power can be seen in the work of George Soros. He has amasaed vast wealth through insider trading. He funnels this wealth through a foundation he set up called 'the open society' into a range of different causes which he knows will help promote his globalist ideology
To give you a flavour of the kind of covert (covert to the public who rely on mainstream media for info anyway) influence that big money can weild to influence (ie manipulate) the way that the public thinks and feels about issues have a look at this list of groups soros has funded through his open society:
- Advancement Project: This organization works to organize "communities of color" into politically cohesive units while disseminating its leftist worldviews and values as broadly as possible by way of a sophisticated communications department.
- Air America Radio: Now defunct, this was a self-identified "liberal" radio network.
- All of Us or None: This organization seeks to change voting laws -- which vary from state to state -- so as to allow ex-inmates, parolees, and even current inmates to cast their ballots in political elections.
- Alliance for Justice: Best known for its activism vis a vis the appointment of federal judges, this group consistently depicts Republican judicial nominees as "extremists."
- America Coming Together: Soros played a major role in creating this group, whose purpose was to coordinate and organize pro-Democrat voter-mobilization programs.
- America Votes: Soros also played a major role in creating this group, whose get-out-the-vote campaigns targeted likely Democratic voters.
- America's Voice: This open-borders group seeks to promote “comprehensive” immigration reform that includes a robust agenda in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens.
- American Bar Association Commission on Immigration Policy: This organization "opposes laws that require employers and persons providing education, health care, or other social services to verify citizenship or immigration status."
- American Bridge 21st Century: This Super PAC conducts opposition research designed to help Democratic political candidates defeat their Republican foes.
- American Civil Liberties Union: This group opposes virtually all post-9/11 national security measures enacted by the U.S. government. It supports open borders, has rushed to the defense of suspected terrorists and their abettors, and appointed former New Left terrorist Bernardine Dohrn to its Advisory Board.
- American Constitution Society for Law and Policy: This Washington, DC-based think tank seeks to move American jurisprudence to the left by recruiting, indoctrinating, and mobilizing young law students, helping them acquire positions of power. It also provides leftist Democrats with a bully pulpit from which to denounce their political adversaries.
- American Family Voices: This group creates and coordinates media campaigns charging Republicans with wrongdoing.
- American Federation of Teachers: After longtime AFT President Albert Shanker died in in 1997, he was succeeded by Sandra Feldman, who slowly “re-branded” the union, allying it with some of the most powerful left-wing elements of the New Labor Movement. When Feldman died in 2004, Edward McElroy took her place, followed by Randi Weingarten in 2008. All of them kept the union on the leftward course it had adopted in its post-Shanker period.
- American Friends Service Committee: This group views the United States as the principal cause of human suffering around the world. As such, it favors America's unilateral disarmament, the dissolution of American borders, amnesty for illegal aliens, the abolition of the death penalty, and the repeal of the Patriot Act.
- American Immigration Council: This non-profit organization is a prominent member of the open-borders lobby. It advocates expanded rights and amnesty for illegal aliens residing in the U.S.
- American Immigration Law Foundation: This group supports amnesty for illegal aliens, on whose behalf it litigates against the U.S. government.
- American Institute for Social Justice: AISJ's goal is to produce skilled community organizers who can “transform poor communities” by agitating for increased government spending on city services, drug interdiction, crime prevention, housing, public-sector jobs, access to healthcare, and public schools.
- American Library Association: This group has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's War on Terror -- most particularly, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, which it calls "a present danger to the constitutional rights and privacy rights of library users."
- The American Prospect, Inc.: This corporation trains and mentors young leftwing journalists, and organizes strategy meetings for leftist leaders.
- Amnesty International: This organization directs a grossly disproportionate share of its criticism for human rights violations at the United States and Israel.
- Applied Research Center: Viewing the United States as a nation where “structural racism” is deeply “embedded in the fabric of society,” ARC seeks to "build a fair and equal society" by demanding “concrete change from our most powerful institutions."
- Arab American Institute Foundation: The Arab American Institute denounces the purportedly widespread civil liberties violations directed against Arab Americans in the post-9/11 period, and characterizes Israel as a brutal oppressor of the Palestinian people.
- Aspen Institute: This organization promotes radical environmentalism and views America as a nation plagued by deep-seated “structural racism.”
- Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now: This group conducts voter mobilization drives on behalf of leftist Democrats. These initiatives have been notoriously marred by fraud and corruption.
- Ballot Initiative Strategy Center: This organization seeks to advance “a national progressive strategy” by means of ballot measures—state-level legislative proposals that pass successfully through a petition (“initiative”) process and are then voted upon by the public.
- Bill of Rights Defense Committee: This group provides a detailed blueprint for activists interested in getting their local towns, cities, and even college campuses to publicly declare their opposition to the Patriot Act, and to designate themselves "Civil Liberties Safe Zones." The organization also came to the defense of self-described radical attorney Lynne Stewart, who was convicted in 2005 of providing material support for terrorism.
- Black Alliance for Just Immigration: This organization seeks to create a unified movement for “social and economic justice” centered on black racial identity.
- Blueprint North Carolina: This group seeks to “influence state policy in North Carolina so that residents of the state benefit from more progressive policies such as better access to health care, higher wages, more affordable housing, a safer, cleaner environment, and access to reproductive health services.”
- Brennan Center for Justice: This think tank/legal activist group generates scholarly studies, mounts media campaigns, files amicus briefs, gives pro bono support to activists, and litigates test cases in pursuit of radical "change."
- Brookings Institution: This organization has been involved with a variety of internationalist and state-sponsored programs, including one that aspires to facilitate the establishment of a U.N.-dominated world government. Brookings Fellows have also called for additional global collaboration on trade and banking; the expansion of the Kyoto Protocol; and nationalized health insurance for children. Nine Brookings economists signed a petitionopposing President Bush's tax cuts in 2003.
- Campaign for America's Future: This group supports tax hikes, socialized medicine, and a dramatic expansion of social welfare programs.
- Campaign for Better Health Care: This organization favors a single-payer, government-run, universal health care system.
- Campaign for Youth Justice: This organization contends that “transferring juveniles to the adult criminal-justice system leads to higher rates of recidivism, puts incarcerated and detained youth at unnecessary risk, has little deterrence value, and does not increase public safety.”
- Campus Progress: A project of the Soros-bankrolled Center for American Progress, this group seeks to "strengthen progressive voices on college and university campuses, counter the growing influence of right-wing groups on campus, and empower new generations of progressive leaders."
- Casa de Maryland: This organization aggressively lobbies legislators to vote in favor of policies that promote expanded rights, including amnesty, for illegal aliens currently residing in the United States.
- Catalist: This is a for-profit political consultancy that seeks "to help progressive organizations realize measurable increases in civic participation and electoral success by building and operating a robust national voter database of every voting-age American."
- Catholics for Choice: This nominally Catholic organization supports women's right to abortion-on-demand.
- Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good: This political nonprofit group is dedicated to generating support from the Catholic community for leftwing candidates, causes, and legislation.
- Center for American Progress: This leftist think tank is headed by former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta, works closely with Hillary Clinton, and employs numerous former Clinton administration staffers. It is committed to "developing a long-term vision of a progressive America" and "providing a forum to generate new progressive ideas and policy proposals."
- Center for Community Change: This group recruits and trains activists to spearhead leftist "political issue campaigns." Promoting increased funding for social welfare programs by bringing "attention to major national issues related to poverty," the Center bases its training programs on the techniques taught by the famed radical organizer Saul Alinsky.
- Center for Constitutional Rights: This pro-Castro organization is a core member of the open borders lobby, has opposed virtually all post-9/11 anti-terrorism measures by the U.S. government, and alleges that American injustice provokes acts of international terrorism.
- Center for Economic and Policy Research: This group opposed welfare reform, supports "living wage" laws, rejects tax cuts, and consistently lauds the professed achievements of socialist regimes, most notably Venezuela.
- Center for Reproductive Rights: CRR's mission is to guarantee safe, affordable contraception and abortion-on-demand for all women, including adolescents. The organization has filed state and federal lawsuits demanding access to taxpayer-funded abortions (through Medicaid) for low-income women.
- Center for Responsible Lending: This organization was a major player in the subprime mortgage crisis. According to Phil Kerpen (vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity), CRL “sh[ook] down and harass[ed] banks into making bad loans to unqualified borrowers.” Moreover, CRL negotiated a contract enabling it to operate as a conduit of high-risk loans to Fannie Mae.
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Reasoning from the premise that tax cuts generally help only the wealthy, this organization advocates greater tax expenditures on social welfare programs for low earners.
- Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS): Aiming to redistribute wealth by way of higher taxes imposed on those whose incomes are above average, COWS contends that "it is important that state government be able to harness fair contribution from all parts of society – including corporations and the wealthy."
- Change America Now: Formed in December 2006, Change America Now describes itself as "an independent political organization created to educate citizens on the failed policies of the Republican Congress and to contrast that record of failure with the promise offered by a Democratic agenda."
- Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington: This group litigates and brings ethics charges against "government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests" and "betray the public trust." Almost all of its targets are Republicans.
- Coalition for an International Criminal Court: This group seeks to subordinate American criminal-justice procedures to those of an international court.
- Common Cause: This organization aims to bring about campaign-finance reform, pursue media reform resembling the Fairness Doctrine, and cut military budgets in favor of increased social-welfare and environmental spending.
- Constitution Project: This organization seeks to challenge the legality of military commissions; end the detainment of "enemy combatants”; condemn government surveillance of terrorists; and limit the President's executive privileges.
- Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund: Defenders of Wildlife opposes oil exploration in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It condemns logging, ranching, mining, and even the use of recreational motorized vehicles as activities that are destructive to the environment.
- Democracy Alliance: This self-described "liberal organization" aims to raise $200 million to develop a funding clearinghouse for leftist groups. Soros is a major donor to this group.
- Democracy 21: This group is a staunch supporter of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act.
- Democracy Now!: Democracy Now! was created in 1996 by WBAI radio news director Amy Goodman and four partners to provide "perspectives rarely heard in the U.S. corporate-sponsored media," i.e., the views of radical and foreign journalists, left and labor activists, and ideological foes of capitalism.
- Democratic Justice Fund: DJF opposes the Patriot Act and most efforts to restrict or regulate immigration into the United States -- particularly from countries designated by the State Department as "terrorist nations."
- Democratic Party: Soros' funding activities are devoted largely to helping the Democratic Party solidify its power base. In a November 2003 interview, Soros stated that defeating President Bush in 2004 "is the central focus of my life" ... "a matter of life and death." He pledged to raise $75 million to defeat Bush, and personally donated nearly a third of that amount to anti-Bush organizations. "America under Bush," he said, "is a danger to the world, and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is."
- Demos: This organization lobbies federal and state policymakers to “addres
the economic insecurity and inequality that characterize American society today”; promotes “ideas for reducing gaps in wealth, income and political influence”; and favors tax hikes for the wealthy.
[*]Drum Major Institute: This group describes itself as “a non-partisan, non-profit think tank generating the ideas that fuel the progressive movement,” with the ultimate aim of persuading “policymakers and opinion-leaders” to take steps that advance its vision of “social and economic justice.”
[*]Earthjustice: This group seeks to place severe restrictions on how U.S. land and waterways may be used. It opposes most mining and logging initiatives, commercial fishing businesses, and the use of motorized vehicles in undeveloped areas.
[*]Economic Policy Institute: This organization believes that “government must play an active role in protecting the economically vulnerable, ensuring equal opportunity, and improving the well-being of all Americans.”
[*]Electronic Privacy Information Center: This organization has been a harsh critic of the USA PATRIOT Act and has joined the American Civil Liberties Union in litigating two cases calling for the FBI "to publicly release or account for thousands of pages of information about the government's use of PATRIOT Act powers."
[*]Ella Baker Center for Human Rights: Co-founded by the revolutionary communist Van Jones, this anti-poverty organization claims that “decades of disinvestment in our cities” -- compounded by “excessive, racist policing and over-incarceration” -- have “led to despair and homelessness.”
[*]EMILY's List: This political network raises money for Democratic female political candidates who support unrestricted access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand.
[*]Energy Action Coalition: Founded in 2004, this group describes itself as “a coalition of 50 youth-led environmental and social justice groups working together to build the youth clean energy and climate movement.” For EAC, this means “dismantling oppression” according to its principles of environmental justice.
[*]Fair Immigration Reform Movement: This is the open-borders arm of the Center for Community Change.
[*]Faithful America: This organization promotes the redistribution of wealth, an end to enhanced interrogation procedures vis a vis prisoners-of-war, the enactment of policies to combat global warming, and the creation of a government-run heath care system.
[*]Feminist Majority: Characterizing the United States as an inherently sexist nation, this group focuses on "advancing the legal, social and political equality of women with men, countering the backlash to women's advancement, and recruiting and training young feminists to encourage future leadership for the feminist movement in the United States."
[*]Four Freedoms Fund: This organization was designed to serve as a conduit through which large foundations could fund state-based open-borders organizations more flexibly and quickly.
[*]Free Exchange on Campus: This organization was created solely to oppose the efforts of one individual, David Horowitz, and his campaign to have universities adopt an "Academic Bill of Rights," as well as todenounce Horowitz's 2006 book The Professors. Member organizations of FEC include Campus Progress (a project of the Center for American Progress); the American Association of University Professors; theAmerican Civil Liberties Union; People For the American Way; the United States Student Association; theCenter for Campus Free Speech; the American Library Association; Free Press; and the National Association of State Public Interest Research Groups.
[*]Free Press: This "media reform" organization has worked closely with many notable leftists and such organizations as Media Matters for America, Air America Radio, Global Exchange, Code Pink, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Mother Jones magazine, and Pacifica Radio.
[*]Funding Exchange: Dedicated to the concept of philanthropy as a vehicle for social change, this organization pairs leftist donors and foundations with likeminded groups and activists who are dedicated to bringing about their own version of "progressive" change and social justice. Many of these grantees assume that American society is rife with racism, discrimination, exploitation, and inequity and needs to be overhauled via sustained education, activism, and social agitation.
[*]Gamaliel Foundation: Modeling its tactics on those of the radical Sixties activist Saul Alinsky, this group takes a strong stand against current homeland security measures and immigration restrictions.
[*]Gisha: Center for the Legal Protection of Freedom of Movement: This anti-Israel organization seeks to help Palestinians "exercise their right to freedom of movement."
[*]Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect: This group contends that when a state proves either unable or unwilling to protect civilians from mass atrocities occurring within its borders, it is the responsibility of the international community to intervene -- peacefully if possible, but with military force if necessary.
[*]Global Exchange: Established in 1988 by pro-Castro radical Medea Benjamin, this group consistently condemns America's foreign policy, business practices, and domestic life. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Global Exchange advised Americans to examine "the root causes of resentment against the United States in the Arab world -- from our dependence on Middle Eastern oil to our biased policy towards Israel."
[*]Grantmakers Without Borders: GWB tends to be very supportive of leftist environmental, anti-war, and civil rights groups. It is also generally hostile to capitalism, which it deems one of the chief "political, economic, and social systems" that give rise to a host of "social ills."
[*]Green For All: This group was created by Van Jones to lobby for federal climate, energy, and economic policy initiatives.
[*]Health Care for America Now: This group supports a “single payer” model where the federal government would be in charge of financing and administering the entire U.S. healthcare system.
[*]Human Rights Campaign: The largest "lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender" lobbying group in the United States, HRC supports political candidates and legislation that will advance the LGBT agenda. Historically, HRC has most vigorously championed HIV/AIDS-related legislation, “hate crime” laws, the abrogation of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and the legalization of gay marriage.
[*]Human Rights First: This group supports open borders and the rights of illegal aliens; charges that the Patriot Act severely erodes Americans' civil liberties; has filed amicus curiae briefs on behalf of terror suspect Jose Padilla; and deplores the Guantanamo Bay detention facilities.
[*]Human Rights Watch: This group directs a disproportionate share of its criticism at the United States and Israel. It opposes the death penalty in all cases, and supports open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens.
[*]I'lam: This anti-Israel NGO seeks "to develop and empower the Arab media and to give voice to Palestinian issues."
[*]Immigrant Defense Project: To advance the cause of illegal immigrants, the IDP provides immigration law backup support and counseling to New York defense attorneys and others who represent or assist immigrants in criminal justice and immigration systems, as well as to immigrants themselves.
[*]Immigrant Legal Resource Center: This group claims to have helped gain amnesty for some three million illegal aliens in the U.S., and in the 1980s was part of the sanctuary movement which sought to grant asylum to refugees from the failed Communist states of Central America.
[*]Immigrant Workers Citizenship Project: This open-borders organization advocates mass immigration to the U.S.
[*]Immigration Advocates Network: This alliance of immigrant-rights groups seeks to “increase access to justice for low-income immigrants and strengthen the capacity of organizations serving them.”
[*]Immigration Policy Center: IPC is an advocate of open borders and contends that the massive influx of illegal immigrants into America is due to U.S. government policy, since “the broken immigration system […] spurs unauthorized immigration in the first place.”
[*]Independent Media Center: This Internet-based, news and events bulletin board represents an invariably leftist, anti-capitalist perspective and serves as a mouthpiece for anti-globalization/anti-America themes.
[*]Independent Media Institute: IMI administers the SPIN Project (Strategic Press Information Network), which provides leftist organizations with "accessible and affordable strategic communications consulting, training, coaching, networking opportunities and concrete tools" to help them "achieve their social justice goals."
[*]Institute for America's Future: IAF supports socialized medicine, increased government funding for education, and the creation of an infrastructure "to ensure that the voice of the progressive majority is heard."
[*]Institute for New Economic Thinking: Seeking to create a new worldwide "economic paradigm," this organization is staffed by numerous individuals who favor government intervention in national economies, and who view capitalism as a flawed system.
[*]Institute for Policy Studies: This think tank has long supported Communist and anti-American causes around the world. Viewing capitalism as a breeding ground for "unrestrained greed," IPS seeks to provide a corrective to "unrestrained markets and individualism." Professing an unquestioning faith in the righteousness of the United Nations, it aims to bring American foreign policy under UN control.
[*]Institute for Public Accuracy: This anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-Israel organization sponsored actor Sean Penn’s celebrated visit to Baghdad in 2002. It also sponsored visits to Iraq by Democratic Congressmen Nick Rahall and former Democrat Senator James Abourezk
[*]Institute for Women's Policy Research: This group views the U.S. as a nation rife with discrimination against women, and publishes research to draw attention to this alleged state of affairs. It also advocates unrestricted access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand, stating that "access to abortion is essential to the economic well-being of women and girls."
[*]International Crisis Group: One of this organization's leading figures is its Mideast Director, Robert Malley, who was President Bill Clinton's Special Assistant for Arab-Israeli Affairs. His analysis of the Mideast conflict is markedly pro-Palestinian.
[*]J Street: This anti-Israel group warns that Israel’s choice to take military action to stop Hamas' terrorist attacks “will prove counter-productive and only deepen the cycle of violence in the region”
[*]Jewish Funds for Justice: This organization views government intervention and taxpayer funding as crucial components of enlightened social policy. It seeks to redistribute wealth from Jewish donors to low-income communities “to combat the root causes of domestic economic and social injustice.” By JFJ's reckoning, chief among those root causes are the inherently negative by-products of capitalism – most notably racism and “gross economic inequality.”
[*]Joint Victory Campaign 2004: Founded by George Soros and Harold Ickes, this group was a major fundraising entity for Democrats during the 2004 election cycle. It collected contributions (including large amounts from Soros personally) and disbursed them to two other groups, America Coming Together and the Media Fund, which also worked on behalf of Democrats.
[*]Justice at Stake: This coalition calls for judges to be appointed by nonpartisan, independent commissions in a process known as “merit selection,” rather than elected by the voting public.
[*]LatinoJustice PRLDF: This organization supports bilingual education, the racial gerrymandering of voting districts, and expanded rights for illegal aliens.
[*]Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law: This group views America as an unremittingly racist nation; uses the courts to mandate race-based affirmative action preferences in business and academia; has filed briefs against the Department of Homeland Security's efforts to limit the wholesale granting of green cards and to identify potential terrorists; condemns the Patriot Act; and calls on Americans to "recognize the contribution" of illegal aliens.
[*]League of United Latin American Citizens: This group views America as a nation plagued by "an alarming increase in xenophobia and anti-Hispanic sentiment"; favors racial preferences; supports the legalization of illegal Hispanic aliens; opposes military surveillance of U.S. borders; opposes making English America's official language; favors open borders; and rejects anti-terrorism legislation like the Patriot Act.
[*]League of Women Voters Education Fund: The League supports taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand; supports "motor-voter" registration, which allows anyone with a driver's license to become a voter, regardless of citizenship status; and supports tax hikes and socialized medicine.
[*]League of Young Voters: This organization seeks to “empowe[r] young people nationwide” to “participate in the democratic process and create progressive political change on the local, state and national level.”
[*]Lynne Stewart Defense Committee: IRS records indicate that Soros's Open Society Institute made a September 2002 grant of $20,000 to this organization. Stewart was the criminal-defense attorney who was later convicted for abetting her client, the "blind sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman, in terrorist activities connected with his Islamic Group.
[*]Machsom Watch: This organization describes itself as "a movement of Israeli women, peace activists from all sectors of Israeli society, who oppose the Israeli occupation and the denial of Palestinians' rights to move freely in their land."
[*]MADRE: This international women's organization deems Americathe world's foremost violator of human rights. As such, it seeks to "communicat[e] the real-life impact of U.S. policies on women and families confronting violence, poverty and repression around the world," and to "demand alternatives to destructive U.S. policies." It also advocates unrestricted access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand.
[*]Malcolm X Grassroots Movement: This group views the U.S. as a nation replete with racism and discrimination against blacks; seeks to establish an independent black nation in the southeastern United States; and demands reparations for slavery.
[*]Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition: This group calls for the expansion of civil rights and liberties for illegal aliens; laments that illegal aliens in America are commonly subjected to "worker exploitation"; supports tuition-assistance programs for illegal aliens attending college; and characterizes the Patriot Act as a "very troubling" assault on civil liberties.
[*]Media Fund: Soros played a major role in creating this group, whose purpose was to conceptualize, produce, and place political ads on television, radio, print, and the Internet.
[*]Media Matters for America: This organization is a "web-based, not-for-profit … progressive research and information center" seeking to "systematically monitor a cross-section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation." The group works closely with the Soros-backed Center for American Progress, and is heavily funded by Democracy Alliance, of which Soros is a major financier.
[*]Mercy Corps: Vis a vis the Arab-Israeli conflict, Mercy Corps places all blame for Palestinian poverty and suffering directly on Israel.
[*]Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund: This group advocates open borders, free college tuition for illegal aliens, lowered educational standards to accommodate Hispanics, and voting rights for criminals. In MALDEF's view, supporters of making English the official language of the United States are "motivated by racism and anti-immigrant sentiments," while advocates of sanctions against employers reliant on illegal labor seek to discriminate against "brown-skinned people."
[*]Meyer, Suozzi, English and Klein, PC: This influential defender of Big Labor is headed by Democrat operativeHarold Ickes.
[*]Midwest Academy: This entity trains radical activists in the tactics of direct action, targeting, confrontation, and intimidation.
[*]Migration Policy Institute: This group seeks to create "a North America with gradually disappearing border controls ... with permanent migration remaining at moderate levels."
[*]Military Families Speak Out: This group ascribes the U.S. invasion of Iraq to American imperialism and lust for oil.
[*]MoveOn.org: This Web-based organization supports Democratic political candidates through fundraising, advertising, and get-out-the-vote drives.
[*]Ms. Foundation for Women: This group laments what it views as the widespread and enduring flaws of American society: racism, sexism, homophobia, and the violation of civil rights and liberties. It focuses its philanthropy on groups that promote affirmative action for women, unfettered access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand, amnesty for illegal aliens, and big government generally.
[*]NARAL Pro-Choice America: This group supports taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand, and works to elect pro-abortion Democrats.
[*]NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund: The NAACP supports racial preferences in employment and education, as well as the racial gerrymandering of voting districts. Underpinning its support for race preferences is the fervent belief that white racism in the United States remains an intractable, largely undiminished, phenomenon.
[*]The Nation Institute: This nonprofit entity sponsors leftist conferences, fellowships, awards for radical activists, and journalism internships.
[*]National Abortion Federation: This group opposes any restrictions on abortion at either the state or federal levels, and champions the introduction of unrestricted abortion into developing regions of the world.
[*]National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty: This group was established in 1976 as the first "fully staffed national organization exclusively devoted to abolishing capital punishment."
[*]National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy: This group depicts the United States as a nation in need of dramatic structural change financed by philanthropic organizations. It overwhelmingly promotes grant-makers and grantees with leftist agendas, while criticizing their conservative counterparts.
[*]National Committee for Voting Integrity: This group opposes "the implementation of proof of citizenship and photo identification requirements for eligible electors in American elections as the means of assuring election integrity."
[*]National Council for Research on Women: This group supports big government, high taxes, military spending cuts, increased social welfare spending, and the unrestricted right to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand.
[*]National Council of La Raza: This group lobbies for racial preferences, bilingual education, stricter hate-crime laws, mass immigration, and amnesty for illegal aliens.
[*]National Council of Women's Organizations: This group views the United States as a nation rife with injustice against girls and women. It advocates high levels of spending for social welfare programs, and supports race and gender preferences for minorities and women in business and academia.
[*]National Immigration Forum: Opposing the enforcement of present immigration laws, this organization urges the American government to "legalize" en masse all illegal aliens currently in the United States who have no criminal records, and to dramatically increase the number of visas available for those wishing to migrate to the U.S. The Forum is particularly committed to opening the borders to unskilled, low-income workers, and immediately making them eligible for welfare and social service programs.
[*]National Immigration Law Center: This group seeks to win unrestricted access to government-funded social welfare programs for illegal aliens.
[*]National Lawyers Guild: This group promotes open borders; seeks to weaken America's intelligence-gathering agencies; condemns the Patriot Act as an assault on civil liberties; rejects capitalism as an unviable economic system; has rushed to the defense of convicted terrorists and their abettors; and generally opposes all U.S. foreign policy positions, just as it did during the Cold War when it sided with the Soviets.
[*]National Organization for Women: This group advocates the unfettered right to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand; seeks to "eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia" from American society; attacks Christianity and traditional religious values; and supports gender-based preferences for women.
[*]National Partnership for Women and Families: This organization supports race- and sex-based preferences in employment and education. It also advocates for the universal "right" of women to undergo taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand at any stage of pregnancy and for any reason.
[*]National Priorities Project: This group supports government-mandated redistribution of wealth -- through higher taxes and greater expenditures on social welfare programs. NPP exhorts the government to redirect a significant portion of its military funding toward public education, universal health insurance, environmentalist projects, and welfare programs.
[*]National Public Radio: Founded in 1970 with 90 public radio stations as charter members, NPR is today a loose network of more than 750 U.S. radio stations across the country, many of which are based on college and university campuses. (source)
[*]National Security Archive Fund: This group collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to a degree that compromises American national security and the safety of intelligence agents.
[*]National Women's Law Center: This group supports taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand; lobbies against conservative judicial appointees; advocates increased welfare spending to help low-income mothers; and favors higher taxes for the purpose of generating more funds for such government programs as Medicaid, food stamps, welfare, foster care, health care, child-support enforcement, and student loans.
[*]Natural Resources Defense Council: One of the most influential environmentalist lobbying groups in the United States, the Council claims a membership of one million people.
[*]New America Foundation: This organization uses policy papers, media articles, books, and educational events to influence public opinion on such topics as healthcare, environmentalism, energy policy, the Mideast conflict, global governance, and much more.
[*]New Israel Fund: This organization gives support to NGOs that regularly produce reports accusing Israel of human-rights violations and religious persecution.
[*]NewsCorpWatch: A project of Media Matters For America, NewsCorpWatch was established with the help of a $1 million George Soros grant to Media Matters.
[*]Pacifica Foundation: This entity owns and operates Pacifica Radio, awash from its birth with the socialist-Marxist rhetoric of class warfare and hatred for capitalism.
[*]Peace and Security Funders Group: This is an association of more than 60 foundations that give money to leftist anti-war and environmentalist causes. Its members tend to depict America as the world's chief source of international conflict, environmental destruction, and economic inequalities.
[*]Peace Development Fund: In PDF's calculus, the United States needs a massive overhaul of its social and economic institutions. "Recently," explains PDF, "we have witnessed the negative effects of neo-liberalism and the globalization of capitalism, the de-industrialization of the U.S. and the growing gap between the rich and poor ..."
[*]People for the American Way: This group opposes the Patriot Act, anti-terrorism measures generally, and the allegedly growing influence of the "religious right."
[*]Physicians for Human Rights: This group is selectively and disproportionately critical of the United States and Israel in its condemnations of human rights violations.
[*]Physicians for Social Responsibility: This is an anti-U.S.-military organization that also embraces the tenets of radical environmentalism.
[*]Planned Parenthood: This group is the largest abortion provider in the United States and advocates taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand.
[*]Ploughshares Fund: This public grantmaking foundation opposes America's development of a missile defense system, and contributes to many organizations that are highly critical of U.S. foreign policies and military ventures.
[*]Prepare New York: This group supported the proposed construction of a Muslim Community Center near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan – a project known as the Cordoba Initiative, headed by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.
[*]Presidential Climate Action Project: PCAP's mission is to create a new 21st-century economy, completely carbon-free and based largely on renewable energy. A key advisor to the organization is the revolutionary communist Van Jones.
[*]Prison Moratorium Project: This initiative was created in 1995 for the express purpose of working for the elimination of all prisons in the United States and the release of all inmates. Reasoning from the premise that incarceration is never an appropriate means of dealing with crime, it deems American society's inherent inequities the root of all criminal behavior.
[*]Progressive Change Campaign Committee: This organization works “to elect bold progressive candidates to federal office and to help [them] and their campaigns save money, work smarter, and win more often.”
[*]Progressive States Network: PSN's mission is to "pass progressive legislation in all fifty states by providing coordinated research and strategic advocacy tools to forward-thinking state legislators."
[*]Project Vote: This is the voter-mobilization arm of the Soros-funded ACORN. A persistent pattern of lawlessness and corruption has followed ACORN/Project Vote activities over the years.
[*]Pro Publica: Claiming that “investigative journalism is at risk,” this group aims to remedy this lacuna in news publishing by “expos[ing] abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust by government, business, and other institutions, using the moral force of investigative journalism to spur reform through the sustained spotlighting of wrongdoing.”
[*]Proteus Fund: This foundation directs its philanthropy toward a number of radical leftwing organizations.
[*]Public Citizen Foundation: Public Citizen seeks increased government intervention and litigation against corporations -- a practice founded on the notion that American corporations, like the capitalist system of which they are a part, are inherently inclined toward corruption.
[*]Public Justice Center: Viewing America as a nation rife with injustice and discrimination, this organization engages in legislative and policy advocacy to promote "systemic change for the disenfranchised."
[*]Rebuild and Renew America Now (a.k.a. Unity '09): Spearheaded by MoveOn.org and overseen by longtime activist Heather Booth, this coalition was formed to facilitate the passage of President Obama’s "historic" $3.5 trillion budget for fiscal year 2010.
[*]Res Publica: Seeking to advance far-left agendas in places all around the world, RP specializes in “E-advocacy,” or web-based movement-building.
[*]Secretary of State Project: This project was launched in July 2006 as an independent "527" organization devoted to helping Democrats get elected to the office of Secretary of State in selected swing, or battleground, states.
[*]Sentencing Project: Asserting that prison-sentencing patterns are racially discriminatory, this initiative advocates voting rights for felons.
[*]Social Justice Leadership: This organization seeks to transform an allegedly inequitable America into a "just society" by means of "a renewed social-justice movement."
[*]Shadow Democratic Party: This is an elaborate network of non-profit activist groups organized by George Soros and others to mobilize resources -- money, get-out-the-vote drives, campaign advertising, and policy iniatives -- to elect Democratic candidates and guide the Democratic Party towards the left.
[*]Sojourners: This evangelical Christian ministry preaches radical leftwing politics. During the 1980s it championed Communist revolution in Central America and chastised U.S. policy-makers for their tendency "to assume the very worst about their Soviet counterparts." More recently, Sojourners has taken up the cause of environmental activism, opposed welfare reform as a "mean-spirited Republican agenda," and mounted a defense of affirmative action.
[*]Southern Poverty Law Center: This organization monitors the activities of what it calls “hate groups” in the United States. It exaggerates the prevalence of white racism directed against American minorities.
[*]State Voices: This coalition helps independent local activist groups in 22 states work collaboratively on a year-round basis, so as to maximize the impact of their efforts.
[*]Think Progress: This Internet blog "pushes back, daily," by its own account, against its conservative targets, and seeks to transform "progressive ideas into policy through rapid response communications, legislative action, grassroots organizing and advocacy, and partnerships with other progressive leaders throughout the country and the world."
[*]Thunder Road Group: This political consultancy, in whose creation Soros had a hand, coordinates strategy for the Media Fund, America Coming Together, and America Votes.
[*]Tides Foundation and Tides Center: Tides is a major funder of the radical Left.
[*]U.S. Public Interest Research Group: This is an umbrella organization of student groups that support leftist agendas.
[*]Universal Healthcare Action Network: This organization supports a single-payer health care system controlled by the federal government.
[*]Urban Institute: This research organization favors socialized medicine, expansion of the federal welfare bureaucracy, and tax hikes for higher income-earners.
[*]USAction Education Fund: USAction lists its priorities as: "fighting the right wing agenda"; "building grassroots political power"; winning "social, racial and economic justice for all"; supporting a system of taxpayer-funded socialized medicine; reversing "reckless tax cuts for millionaires and corporations" which shield the "wealthy" from paying their "fair share"; advocating for "pro-consumer and environmental regulation of corporate abuse"; "strengthening progressive voices on local, state and national issues"; and working to "register, educate and get out the vote ... [to] help progressives get elected at all levels of government."
[*]Voto Latino: This group seeks to mobilize Latin-Americans to become registered voters and political activists.
[*]Working Families Party: An outgrowth of the socialist New Party, WFP seeks to help push the Democratic Party toward the left.
[*]World Organization Against Torture: This coalition works closely with groups that condemn Israeli security measures against Palestinian terrorism.
[*]YWCA World Office, Switzerland: The YWCA opposes abstinence education; supports universal access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand; and opposes school vouchers.
"Secondary" or "Indirect" Affiliates of the George Soros NetworkBy Discover The Networks
In addition to those organizations that are funded directly by George Soros and his Open Society Institute (OSI), there are also numerous "secondary" or "indirect" affiliates of the Soros network. These include organizations which do not receive direct funding from Soros and OSI, but which are funded by one or more organizations that do.
- Center for Progressive Leadership: Funded by the Soros-bankrolled Democracy Alliance, this anti-capitalist organization is dedicated to training future leftist political leaders.
- John Adams Project:This project of the American Civil Liberties Union was accused of: (a) having hired investigators to photograph CIA officers thought to have been involved in enhanced interrogations of terror suspects detained in Guantanamo, and then (b) showing the photos to the attorneys of those suspects, some of whom were senior al-Qaeda operatives.
- Moving Ideas Network (MIN): This coalition of more than 250 leftwing activist groups is a partner organization of the Soros-backed Center for American Progress. MIN was originally a project of the Soros-backed American Prospect and, as such, received indirect funding from the Open Society Institute. In early 2006, The American Prospect relinquished control of the Moving Ideas Network.
- New Organizing Institute: Created by the Soros-funded MoveOn.org, this group "trains young, technology-enabled political organizers to work for progressive campaigns and organizations."
- Think Progress: This "project" of the American Progress Action Fund, which is a "sister advocacy organization"of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress and Campus Progress, seeks to transform "progressive ideas into policy through rapid response communications, legislative action, grassroots organizing and advocacy, and partnerships with other progressive leaders throughout the country and the world."
- Vote for Change: Coordinated by the political action committee of the Soros-funded MoveOn.org, Vote for Change was a group of 41 musicians and bands that performed concerts in several key election "battleground"states during October 2004, to raise money in support of Democrat John Kerry's presidential bid.
- Working Families Party: Created in 1998 to help push the Democratic Party toward the left, this front group for the Soros-funded ACORN functions as a political party that promotes ACORN-friendly candidates.
Do you get the picture?
This incredibly wealthy guy has had a massive influence just in his lifetime because of his vast wealth and cunning. He was behind the 'colour revolutions' in europe. he even runs work shops for wannabe revolutionaries
Well the flavians were the george soros of their day seeking to manipulate the public. There are a number of ways you can get people to do what you want. There is the old 'carrot and stick' approach where you can either threaten or force someone to do something but this approach usually leads to a backlash eventually or there is the incentivise people with rewards approach, but that won't stop people from pulling away from things if they don't like them, then there is another approach which is to affect how people think and feel about things....this approach requires having control over the flow of information into peoples minds (a la Platos cave)
If you control how people think and feel about things then you control how they perceive the world. And how people perceive the world will affect how they behave
This approach is particularly effective because the victim of the manipulation won't suspect you...in fact they might even be living under an illusion that they are thinking for themself! (when they aren't even aware of a range of other options or opinions!)
I don't follow what you are saying here
What happens when a religion is forced on a people is some hard cases will resist unto death. For example in south america the roman catholic church spread their religion by fire and sword. The ruling class and those who were the cultural guardians were murdered often by being burned at the stake. essentially the head was cut off the society which is why there is mystery over the writing system there that was done using knots on ropes...because the european invaders killed the literate class.
Then you have the people who are left cowering and defeated. They on the surface agree to accept the new religion but i secret they continue their own religons and sometimes they merge the two hence shrines to older gods
the tables were turned on the catholics in the UK where the state religion became protestantism and the catholics developed hiding places in their homes to hide priests in for when the government troops did house to house raids. a 'preist hole' can be seen in the latest james bond film 'skyfall' showing his families catholic roots (this is significant because he is a fictional hero who is fighting to uphold capitalism, protect the banks and stop the spread of communism), much like batman is a wealthy hero who doesn't use his fortune to stop crime by alleviating poverty but rather in spedning it on weaponry which he can use to beat up criminals with....thats why these films are so heavily invested in....they are out there to manipulate how you think and feel about things on an unconscious level
In europe many germanic peoples accepted christianity from the top down because it offered certain advantages ie centres of learning, trade links and a certain respectability....like modern countries wanting to be a member of the EU
What they don't want is people thinking for themselves. The gnostics thought for themselves so that group were outlawed by the romans. In fact the gnostircs were still being perecuted a thousand years later for example in the albegensian crusades when the pope offered land and spoils to knights who would wage war against the gnostics
But there is more to this...much more
The left hand side of the brain is concerned with logic and with repitition. The right side of the brain is concerned with creativity. The global oligarchy are deeply threatened by human creativity because creativity comes up with solution and it also provides people with a sense of their own worth and identity
What the oligarchs want is a society of repeaters who will just repeat what they are conditioned/trained to do. They do not want creativity. Our current educational system is very much set up to encourage left brained thinking
So the romans killed any people expressing the ability to think symbolically and they allowed those that think in literal terms to live because anyone who follows a the literal words of a text can be easily manipulated...all you need to do is control the text.
Its the same with MBTI. Some types are more likely to follow the rules even if the rules are morally reprehensible. Other types are perhaps more likely to question.
Confuscius said: ''Symbols rule the world, not words or laws''
We are symbol creating animals....this is how we manufacture our reality. Jungs work is all about the importance of symbols on the psyche. Just look at religions and the importance of symbols for example the cross in christianity. That symbol is what todays oligarchic corporations would call a 'logo' around which thy construct a 'brand'
In fact the logos of modern corporations are full of occult symbology. See here for some examples:
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/occult-symbols-in-corporate-logos-pt-1/
Control the symbols and you control reality
So any people wehther it is shamanistic cultures (which were stamped out by christian colonialism around the world) or gnosticism who showed a strong ability to think symbolically becane a threat to the left brained roman empire
The romans and their descendents whether actual or ideological are what the bible refers to as ''the kings of edom''...that is to say they represent unbalanced force in our world. This can clearly be seen by loooking around at our unbalanced society and economy.
What about them?
They are just more offshoots of the manufactured religion
There's also the copts in egypt which are said to be one of the purer forms of christianity
Not really. there was already a messianic fervour amongst the jews who had rebelled against the romans. This cultural belief in a messianic movement was seen by the romans to be a threat to their control so they hijacked it
They created a passive messiah who said to the people to give to the romans whats theirs and who attacked jewish society NOT roman society (which was occupying the lands of the jews and brutally suppressing any attempts by the jews to assert their own rights and freedoms). Sure the romans were reasonably tolerant of other faiths because they knew that to force new ideas on people would be met with strong resistance so new ideas needed to be snuck in through the back door
Like in the godfather films where the assassin always comes as a friend...the new cultural meme was going to come from their own people, using their own myths and ideas
The poor are exactly the people the romans wanted to control. Who do you think was manning the ramparts of jerusalem as the roman army advanced...do you think it was the small number of jewish elite who were totally bought and in bed with the romans or do you think it was the common folk?
Not true!
The mystery schools were all about rebirth (initiation). Like the film says there are churches in rome which have subterranean rooms dedicated to mithras
Yes
If you look into the covert religion (freemasonry) of the christian aristocracy of europe (descendents of the holy roman empire) then it becomes clear there are strong gnostic influences
A large insight into this world was provided in the 1900's by the work of black magician Aleister Crowley who began publishing many books providing common folk with an insight into the kind of toys the rich have been playing with for centuries. Crowley described his particular brand of mind control as 'spermo-gnostic'
he saw the bread and wine of christ (the body of christ) as being symbolic of the sperm of christ. He saw the catholic mass as symbolic of a sex magick ritual.
If this sounds crazy, then think about it this way. The sun gives forth its light which helps life on earth to grow...yes? The egyptians worshipped the sun as symbolic of the active male energy also symbolised by the male penis which gives forth its own emissions which bring life to the land that is the female womb
This is why they built obelisks and pyramids...these are solar penis symbols. Stay with me here.....
In the old mystery schools that were around the mediterranean sea the hierophants who conducted the ceremonies would take the initiates through a symbolic death and rebirth inititiation ritual (like modern day freemasonry does, where the initiate is led blindfolded into the temple and laid into a grave before being resurrected into light with the blindfold ('hoodwink') being removed. This is called being 'given the 3rd degree'...which is where that saying comes from
When jesus raised lazerus he wasn't literally jump starting the body of a dead person he was bringing a lapsed member of their spiritual community back into the fold. They saw their community as being spiritually alive and people outwith as being spiritually dead. John the baptists baptising was the ritual they used to symbolically bring someone into the community or to inititate them.
So anyway jesus is the sun....the sun (a cosmic penis) gives its rays (sperm) to the land (the female womb) from which the grapes (used to make the wine) and the wheat (grown by the suns rays and used to make the bread) are grown. The catholic mass is a symbolic reminder of the life giving properties of the sun....how it nourishes us and our land and brings light and life
if you look into the middle of St peters square in the vatican...right in the centre of that architectural symbol of our cosmos you will see an obelisk. This was built there even as the church itself was denying that the sun was at the centre of our solar system! lol one rule for the church and a different one for eevryone else! Or rather the initaited hold power by knowing secrets that the common people don't know. The secrets bind the elite together into a an exclusive club which can identify its own members through secret passwords and hand grips and which can constantly affirm its sense of its own superirority over the common people who live in spiritual blindness (ignorance)
The vatican has a sun symbol in its domed roof and the pope uses a sun staff:
The spermagnositics even use sperm in their rituals
There are people out there right now doing magickal rituals involving their own sperm which they use to 'consecrate' various objects. Bodily fluids are said to draw discarnate entities towards them (which is the point of blood sacrifice)
Well whats more realistic...a flawed spiritual guru or a perfected godman?
Have you seen any perfected godmen about recently? No? I can point you out plenty of flawed gurus though. in fact an indian one is in the papers at the moment under an allegation of rape
The reality is that the jesus myth is a symbolic outer (exoteric) package of an esoteric occult undercurrent that runs beneath the surface of our society. The elite are the main guardians of this undercurrent
Just as there are priest holes in some aristocratic homes there are also freemasonic shrines hidden away in some homes as well.
Just recently the professional stenographer in the US senate walked upto the podium and in a career destroying speech she said that the US was created by freemasons and that they can't be acting in the name of god becuase freemasons go against god. As she says: ''you can't serve two masters''
Here's a clip. The recording is not of what she said at the podium even though the media portrayed it that way....the recording of her speaking is from outside the room when she was being pulled into a lift in front of reporters:
[video=youtube;3yfOhwF0DV8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yfOhwF0DV8#t=217[/video]
There is the public face of what people say they are to maintain respectibility whether it is the mayor of toronto or pope ratzinger or the chairman of the recently sold out cooperative bank in the UK and then there is the other hidden side where they are taking crack cocaine and are involved in ritualistic sex abuse (this is why the last pope really stepped down...who was another member of hitler youth...the nazis being another occult order, with ties to the catholic church)
So the elites lead dual lives but they don't want commoners working with their secret qabalistic technology which is why when you join the freemasons you swear an oath that your brethren may slit your throat if you give away any of their secrets
They are working with drugs and symbols but if you as a commoner work with drugs or symbols they will persecute you. They can be gnostics but you cannot (according to them)
Its designed for mass consumption and did its job well
Christianity was a new cutlural meme which grew out of and was overlaid over older memes
If you come to the UK and visit old churches you will often find they are built on old pagan sites. There are often standing stones, ancient yew trees or mounds in their grounds. the oligarchs laid their control system over the power symbols of the old order
If you read my post above you will see how i explain that the christian mary was a corruption of the older pagan goddesses
In ancient babylon the ruling elite brainwashed women into being what they called 'sacred whores'. All women once they reached a certain age had to go to a public place and wait there. They then had to have sexual intercourse with the first man who approached them.
The high preistess (the modern equivalent would be the pop singer madonna) would sleep with a male preist at certain times of the calender as part of a hieros gamos sex ritual
The ancients knew that you can created alter egos in some people who are able to 'dissasociate'. This is done through traumatising a person until their mind creates a new compartment to escape their horrific reality. This process is still done today with young starlets in the music and film industry
People wonder why the music industry is so sexualised and awash with occult symbolism and why sex videos keep cropping up (these are made by the victims 'handlers') and why some celebs keep having break downs (usually around the age of 30 as their core personality tries to reassert itself) see for example Britney Spears, Aguilera, Rhianna, Carey etc
The assassins in crusader times used mind control to create suicidal assassins. Nowadays that is called creating a 'manchurian candidate' and hollywood has even made films about that
So the religions have always been about an elite trying to control the public and about exploiting people often sexually
This story is really about sex magick. If you trace the ptolemaics back you come to alexander the 'great' and the macedonians and if you trace the macedonians back you get sea peoples who came from the middle east
There is an interesting chapter in jewish history where the jewish elite are kidnapped and carried off to babylon where they come into contact with babylonian magick. Eventually they are released and come back and form the talmud. They were so altered that they were at odds with the jews that had been left behind. Judaism underwent a significant change at that point.
Jesus emerged fully formed out of a cave as well
You are quite hung up on the condition of Mary. Are you sure mary was a virgin? Some gnostic sects say she wasn't
isn't it possible that in this creation of the new religion the idea of a pagan goddess was corrupted into the christian one where mary became this impossible ideal that women could never live upto?
Why would this happen? it would happen because the roman culture was imbalanced like i said before. It was a war like, paternal, masculine culture. The word 'fascism' comes from the roman fascis. The romans were the original fascists. Fascism is a very male orientated ideology....an ideology of strength, dominance and control. It is unbalanced force.
The pillars to solomans temple represented the male and female elements. The initiate entering the temple became the third pillar which united these two forces. Have a look at a picture of the qabalistic tree of life. You will see a bunch of circles (sephiroth). These are split into three vertical columns. Christ is the sun sephiroth in the middle column, uniting the male and female principles. Jung would call these the anima and the animus
If you look at Roman or nazi architecture of their respective 'fatherlands' it is incredibly muscular, square and masculine. It is no coincidence that the british architect Norman Foster built a round roof on the german reichstag to give it a feminine curve
The romans wanted to suppress the female energies. The roman catholic church went on to suppress women in the witch hunts. Long before this the female priests of the minoan culture were suppressed by the masculine macedonians
Thye 3 orders of pillars in greek architecture are an expression of this. The plain, muscular doric is male, the curly, curvy ionic is feminine. The cultured atheneans warred with the overly masculine spartans (a very strong expression of male energies mirrored today in modern day Israel....Isis-ra-el)
The roman church is male dominated and like all these unbalanced forces has lead to exploitation and abuse. Freemasonry is male dominated..women are not allowed to join, because it is a male, solar phallic cult, which is why they wear aprons over their penis's because they see that as the holy of holies. These aprons will often have a sun on them.
These people did not want to empower women and they did not want to give women an empowering goddess. They gave them a corrupted, passive goddess that doesn't even make sense
I'll answer the second part of your post in a fresh post...this one is getting kind of unweildy!
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Thats still a very unconventional birth!
Zeus is a storm god, like yaweh. he battles against Typhon which is the jewish leviathon. George also battles the dragon; marduk who was a storm god who fired lightening bolts like zeus and a solar calf (mithras has links to the bull) also battles a serpent called Tiamat. Jesus of course battles satan in the desert
Jung might say this recurring battle represents symbolically the individuals battle aagainst the libidinal forces of their subconscious
All these serpent gods are CHAOS gods and they battle against the gods of ORDER. the egyptians had MAAT and ISFET
So where does chaos reside? It resides in our inner world...the world of the subconscious but it also manifests in our outer world as well. Its no coincidence that on the back of the dollar bill is an egyptian pyramid with the words in latin: Novus Ordo Seclorum which means a New Order Of the Ages, because the dollar is a tool of the oligarchic elite who were bringing their order to our society
You could go a step further and say no one at the top of the roman church believed in jesus at all! lol
12 is related to the zodiac isn't it....this is all about the procession of the equinox. Each stage in the heavens represents the beginning of a new age down here on earth or as the hermeticism of hermes/thoth says: ''as above so below''
Jesus is the age of pieces, the age of fish and he tells us to look out for the water carrier which is the next age the age of aquarius
The 'New Age' movement is about bringing in the age of aquarius. The roman catholic church has brought in a new pope to transition the church into the new age and it is reaching out to other faiths ('ecumenecism') to create a new evolved world religion
Watch as the new pope softens the churchs stance on certain things and tries to distance it from other things the public now deems negative. The church is desperately fighting to retain relevance in the modern era and that will require the ability to keep people on board with its message and also a massive charm offensive from the pope....cue a round of what politicians call 'baby hugging' as he goes around hugging members of the public to make them believe that he deson't see them as little more than dog do on his princely shoes
Well there you have the three castes: king, priest, warrior/artisan/farmer
You also have the three pillars with jesus claiming he has united them all in one ie become a fully actualised and individuated human being
John the baptist may have represented the preist pillar until his death at which point jesus then takes on that mantle. He was already said to be of a royal line and therefore kingly. he takes his message out to the people advising his body guards to go out and gather weapons. They bring back a couple of swords....so that is the warrior side or you could say he was the artisan caste as well because after all he was said to be a craftsman...a carpenter by some accounts a stonemason by others and he talks about sowing seeds, so even farmers are represented as well symbolically
Yeah there is a strong saturn theme running through the occult. We have of course saturday...the day of saturn. Saturn is represented as a black cube. This can be seen in islam in mecca and it can also be seen in judaism with the black cube they wear on their foreheads. It can also be found in christianity hidden in the cross as a cross can be folded up into a cube
Is it 'satanism' or should it be called 'saturnism'?
They are both creations based around the sun....the chronology is not important in this instance
if you want to control society you have to appeal to all sections of it. You give the uneducated masses a crude exoteric religion and you give the educated elites a more sophisticated esoteric religion to make them feel special. This can be seen today where the middle class is given broadsheet newspapers whilst the working class are given tabloid newspapers
Yeah its quite possible the new meme was softened to be able to control women better as well by reaching out to them more than the more overtly masculine religions/cults. jesus is a more passive deity than many. Turning the other cheek is a more feminine approach where the female energy absorbs the male energy, thereby neutralising it
Where would our society be without the softer nurturing energies of women? We'd have probably killed and eaten each other by now much like saturn eating its offspring!
So it was acting as a calming pacifying force on the population....like an early form of prozac. Also gave a ready supply of victims for the circus games to make a nice demonstration to everyone what happens if you disobey the oligarchs
Absolutely!
This is because the christian mass was taken direct from the mystery schools
A simplistic religion created to appeal to simplistic folk which still concealed within it more complex ideas veiled by allegory and symbolism which only the initiates or those with the eyes to see could understand
Mary is Isis
She's much older than that even. In europe we had in ancient times ('ancient' is relative!) the 'May queen' also known as 'maid marion'. We have 'robin goodfellow' also known as 'robin hood' or 'robin of the greenwood' to represent male and female forces of spring and winter and the earth. May day celebrations involved people dancing around a maypole which is a phallic symbol. After the celebrations young couples would run off into the forest and have sex. A satirical figure of a monk would walk around the forest annointing couples with water as they were shagging. This figure was created to mock the christian church...he was called 'friar tuck' and was seen as a figure of fun
Mary is isis and she is the may queen
Some gnostic sects talk about Jesus having a partner called mary magdelene....who perhaps represents the virgin aspect of the same goddess as mary the mother.
In Europe we had celebrations around the turning points of the year which involved the god of winter killing the god of growth and renewal. But the earth goddess would give birth again to the god of growth and renewal who would then incestually impregante her so that the cycle could continue.
I put it to you that the two marys are that same cycle going on and that jesus is the god of renewal
Literalists talk of mary escaping the holy land with jesus's child and going to the south of france where there was a jewish trading colony. Interestingly that part of the world did then give birth to the cathar gnostics and the knights templar
It means he was a builder of temples. An 'archi-tecton' is the overseer of such projects or what we would call today and architect
Jesus was a symbolic builder of temples. he was helping the initiates build the temple of solomon not on temple mount, but within themselves....''the kingdom of heaven is within''
Solomon was the master of freemasonry which uses the symbology of stonemasonry to outline its spiritual system. The intitiate is a rough block of ashlar, which when worked upon by the inititate as they labour through the spiritual initiatory process will become a perfected stone to be placed in the temple...a pyramid perhaps....as a pyramid perfectly represents the ideal society of the oligarchic elites where they form the top of the pyramid, controlling the rest of society and watching over it with the all seeing eye of the secret intelligence gathering societies or in modern times with the NSA
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The movie isn't about constantine....he just came up in the chat i was having with blax. The movie is about the flavians of which constantine was a descendent
There was massive controversy at nicea...there was a massive rift running down the middle of christianity and the empire! As well as a doctrinal struggle over the nature of jesus ie was he divine in nature or a man with a divine message, there was also a tug and pull over where geographically the patriarchies should be
Due to the cult of the emperor the roman emperor was seen as a living god. For him to convert to christianity is a state sanctioning of the new religion
Lol it didn't just happen to be the same day! Its the same day because both strands are SOLAR
people still worship the solar aspect of jesus in europe. ''He is risen''....yay the sun is back again! (also has sexual connotations of the erect male member as highlighted by the writer D H Lawrence in his piece ''the man who died'')
The day of the sun for a solar deity
No he stage managed and dominated the nicean council
So it became public knowledge that members of the elite were dabbling with other stuff outside of the public gaze and constantine helped cover this up and saved those elite members from persecution....yup that all makes sense
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The Man Who Died-D H Lawrence
A passage from that work:
She entered slowly, passing through to the dark inner chamber, lighted by a perfumed oil-flame. And once more she pushed shut the door, and once more she threw a few grains of incense on a brazier before the goddess, and once more she sat down before her goddess, in the almost-darkness, to muse, to go away into the dreams of the goddess.
It was Isis; but not Isis, Mother of Horus. It was Isis Bereaved, Isis in Search. The goddess, in painted marble, lifted her face and strode, one thigh forward, through the frail fluting of her robe, in the anguish of bereavement and of search. She was looking for the fragments of the dead Osiris, dead and scattered asunder, dead, torn apart, and thrown in fragments over the wide world. And she must find his hands and his feet, his heart, his thighs, his head, his belly, she must gather him together and fold her arms round the re-assembled body till it became warm again, and roused to life, and could embrace her, and could fecundate her womb. And the strange rapture and anguish of search went on through the years, as she lifted her throat and her hollowed eyes looked inward, in the tormented ecstasy of seeking, and the delicate navel of her bud-like belly showed through the frail, girdled robe with the eternal asking, asking, of her search. And through the years she found him bit by bit, heart and head and limbs and body. And yet she had not found the last reality, the final clue to him, that alone could bring him really back to her. For she was Isis of the subtle lotus, the womb which waits submerged and in bud, waits for the touch of that other inward sun that streams its rays from the loins of the male Osiris.
A passage from that work:
She entered slowly, passing through to the dark inner chamber, lighted by a perfumed oil-flame. And once more she pushed shut the door, and once more she threw a few grains of incense on a brazier before the goddess, and once more she sat down before her goddess, in the almost-darkness, to muse, to go away into the dreams of the goddess.
It was Isis; but not Isis, Mother of Horus. It was Isis Bereaved, Isis in Search. The goddess, in painted marble, lifted her face and strode, one thigh forward, through the frail fluting of her robe, in the anguish of bereavement and of search. She was looking for the fragments of the dead Osiris, dead and scattered asunder, dead, torn apart, and thrown in fragments over the wide world. And she must find his hands and his feet, his heart, his thighs, his head, his belly, she must gather him together and fold her arms round the re-assembled body till it became warm again, and roused to life, and could embrace her, and could fecundate her womb. And the strange rapture and anguish of search went on through the years, as she lifted her throat and her hollowed eyes looked inward, in the tormented ecstasy of seeking, and the delicate navel of her bud-like belly showed through the frail, girdled robe with the eternal asking, asking, of her search. And through the years she found him bit by bit, heart and head and limbs and body. And yet she had not found the last reality, the final clue to him, that alone could bring him really back to her. For she was Isis of the subtle lotus, the womb which waits submerged and in bud, waits for the touch of that other inward sun that streams its rays from the loins of the male Osiris.
