HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 p.2 sec.9: Difference between revisions

They are both right, for the immaculate ''goddess ''of the Latin Church is a faithful copy of the older pagan goddesses ; the number (twelve) of the apostles is that of the twelve tribes, and the latter are a personification of the twelve great gods, and of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Every detail almost in the Christian dogma is borrowed from the heathens. Semele, the ''wife ''of Jupiter and mother of Bacchus, the ''Sun'', is, according to Nonnus, also “ carried,” or made to ascend to heaven after her death, where she presides between Mars and Venus, under the name of the ''Queen of the World'', or the universe, πανβασιλεία ; “ at the names of which, as at the names of Hathor, Hecate, and other infernal goddesses,” “ tremble all the demons.” †

Did space permit we might show the inconceivable coolness and unconcern exhibited by certain followers of the Roman Catholic Church, when made to face the revelations of the Past. To Maury’s remark that “ the Virgin took possession of all the Sanctuaries of Ceres and

“ The ''Sun-Christ ''lives in thee and thou livest in him.” (Sermon on the Holy Virgin.) . . . .

This settles the question. The more similarity, according to such writers as De Mirville, there exists between the pagan conceptions and the Christian dogmas, the more divine appears the Christian religion, and the more is it seen to be the only truly inspired one, especially in its Roman Catholic form. The unbelieving scientists and the academicians who think they see in the Latin Church quite the opposite of divine inspiration, and who will not believe in the satanic tricks of plagiarism by anticipation, are severely taken to ask. But then “ they believe in nothing and reject even the ‘ ''Nabathean Agriculture ’'' as a romance and a pack of superstitious nonsense,” complains the memorialist. “ In their perverted opinion Qû-tâ-my’s ‘ idol of the moon ’ and the statue of the Madonna are one ! ” A noble Marquis wrote twenty years ago six huge volumes, or, as he calls them “ ''Mémoires ''to the French Academy,” with the sole object of showing Roman Catholicism an inspired and revealed faith. As a proof thereof, he furnishes numberless facts, all tending to show that the entire ancient world, ever since

{{Style P-No indent|the deluge, had been, with the help of the devil, systematically plagiarizing the rites, ceremonies, and dogmas of the future Holy Church to be born ages later. What would that faithful son of Rome have said had he heard his co-religionist — M. Renouf, the distinguished Egyptologist of the British Museum — declaring, in one of his learned lectures, that “ neither Hebrews nor Greeks borrowed any of their ideas from Egypt ? ” *}}

The reason of early Christian and later Roman Catholic astrolatry, or the symbolical worship of Sun and Moon — identical with that of the Gnostics, though less philosophical and pure than the “ Sun worship ” of the Zoroastrians — is a natural consequence of its birth and origin. The adoption by the Latin Church of such symbols as the water, fire, sun, moon and stars, and a good many other things, is simply a continuation by the early Christians of the old worship of Pagan nations. Thus Odin got his wisdom, power, and knowledge, by sitting at the feet of Mimir, the thrice-wise ''Jotun'', who passed his life by the fountain of primeval Wisdom, the crystalline waters of which increased his knowledge daily. Mimir “ drew the highest knowledge from the fountain, because the world was born of water ; hence primeval wisdom was to be found in that mysterious element ” (“ Asgard and the Gods,” 86). The eye which Odin had to pledge to acquire that knowledge may be “ the Sun, which enlightens and penetrates all things ; his other eye being the moon, whose reflection gazes out of the deep, and which at last, when setting, sinks into the Ocean.” (''Ibid.'') But it is something more, besides this. Loki, the fire-god, is said to have hidden in the water, as well as in the moon, the light-giver, whose reflection he found therein ; and this belief that the fire finds refuge in the water was not limited to the old Scandinavians. It was shared by all nations and was finally taken up by the early Christians, who symbolized the Holy Ghost under the shape of Fire, “ cloven tongues like as fire ” — the breath of the Father-Sun. This “ Fire ” descends also into the Water or the Sea : ''Mar'', Mary. The dove was the symbol of the Soul with several nations, it was sacred to Venus, the goddess born from the