Farnese Military Bloodline

By Poul Larsen

The House of Farnese established the Jesuits as a military order through the papal bull; Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae under Pope Paul III or Alessandro Farnese. The Farnese family lived in a pentagonal fortress called the Farnese Villa Caprarola in Italy and this is the basis for the US Pentagon. The leader of the Jesuits is called the Superior General of the Society of Jesus because the Jesuits are a military order. The Jesuits first general Ignatius Loyola was connected with the Alumbrados of Spain. The Spanish word Alumbrados means Illuminati and they existed more than two hundred years before the Bavarian Illuminati. Jesuit alumni dominate leadership positions in US military and intelligence as well as politics and law. The Farnese family ruled Parma and Castro of Italy and today the Princes of Bourbon-Parma covertly have authority in the US Pentagon and US military through their Jesuit intelligence.

The Farnese bloodline are intermarried with the House of Bourbon of Spain and also established the Bourbon-Parma branch in Italy which are intermarried with Dutch royalty, Belgian nobility, and the royal family of Luxembourg. Prince Edouard de Lobkowicz of Belgium married Princess Marie-Francoise of Bourbon-Parma. Prince Edouard was a banker for Chase Manhattan Bank, worked for several investment firms and was also an ambassador for the Sovereign Military Order of Malta which is stationed in Rome. The Nassau-Weilburg family of Luxembourg have Farnese blood and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg is a titled as Prince of Bourbon-Parma as the grandson of Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma. The Farnese family were the Dukes of Castro and Parma and they branched into Spain. The Castro family of Cuba originated from Spain and are ancestors of the Farnese family.

 Elizabeth Farnese II was the Queen of Spain and she married into the Bourbon family. Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Parma who is the nephew of Queen Beatrix has worked for the Dutch bank ABN AMRO which has a merger with the Saudi Hollandi Bank of Saudi Arabia and Prince Carlos' work was involved in implementing the Euro. Prince Carlos also worked for the European Public Policy Advisors in Belgium. Today the Bourbon King of Spain holds the title of King of Jerusalem as well as most of the monarchical titles of Italy and has Parma blood however without any Parma princely title. The House of Bourbon govern Spain and ceremonially rule over Vaticano Hill. They are one of the most powerful royal bloodlines on the Earth. The House of Bourbon control a lot of Mexico and South America and control many of the politicians and much of the organized crime in Latin America. Members of the Farnese bloodline today are Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Parma, Prince Jamie of Bourbon-Parma, Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg, Juan Carlos of Spain, and at the head of this bloodline is Prince Carlo of Bourbon Two-Sicilia's.

Prince Carlo of Bourbon Two-Sicilies the Duke of Castro is the highest level member of the Farnese bloodline and he is one of the highest authorities in Rome's global crime syndicate. Prince Carlos is the sovereign head of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Royal Order of St. Francis I.

 

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

The Library at Alexandria

And how far have we come as a humanity? The information that was contained within the walls of the Alexandrian Library will never be recovered.

The founding of this library has been called the beginning of modern history.  It was the most important centre of learning in the ancient world.

Alexandria is 130 miles north west of Cairo, it is Egypt's second largest city and the main port. 

In the 4th century BC the Greek, Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in 332 BC.  It was a natural harbour and it was suited to be the centre of the worlds greatest things.   Socrates taught Plato who taught Aristotle and he taught Alexander the Great.   His father was Macedonian King Phillip.

Alexander loved learning. 

Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead, the fate of empires depends on the education of youth. ~ Aristotle 4th Century BC

Alexander was crowned a Pharoah in Egypt.  He was not Egyptian but he sort immortality.  It is said mysteriously he could be the son of Armen and not Phillip.  This comes from a dream that Alexander had.   In his dream Armen told him to found the city of Alexandria and he saw his mother embrace Armen.

In 323 BC Alexander the Great suddenly died.  He never got to see his library.  This heralded a new period of leadership by Ptolemy I, Alexanders most trusted General.

The Ptolemy's dynasty ruled for over 300 years.   Ptolemy still carried Alexander's dream.   Influential scholars came from all over the world.  He mixed with the best scholars.  Ptolemy collected books as Greeks do.  People would brings books from all over the world.  Aristotle's library was there also.   It is said that there were in excess of 4 to 5 hundred thousand books.   

Scribes copied priceless books that we still have some access to today because of those scribes in Alexandria.

Euclid the mathematician worked out of the Library and published a textbook and opened his own school.  Euclid's rules are still worked today in Geometry.

Human anatomy and Physiology began with Herophilos who was a Greek physician deemed to be the first anatomist. Born in Chalcedon, he spent the majority of his life in Alexandria.

Ptolemy I died in 283 BC and Ptolemy II took over and the Ptolmaic dynasty continued until the death of Cleopatra.

Ptolemy II ruled with his sister ArsinoeII.  Pictured coin : Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and his sister/wife Arsinoe II

During Ptolemy II's rule he had the Hebrew scrolls on papyrus. It is known to today as the Septuagint because Ptolemy II had 70 scribes translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek (Septuagint = 70).  There were many Jews in Alexandria and they were fast forgetting their native tongue of Hebrew so their Book of Law was transcribed in order for them to keep their law.

Ptolemy II built the the lighthouse on the Island of Pharos.  One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, for many centuries it was one of the tallest man-made structures in the world.

 Badly damaged by three earthquakes between AD 956 and 1323, it then became an abandoned ruin. It was the third longest surviving ancient wonder (after the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the extant Great Pyramid of Giza) until 1480, when the last of its remnant stones were used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay on the site.

246 BC Ptolemy the 3rd was crowned and became "Benefactor".   Eratosthenes was his teacher and he figured the circumference of the Earth.  They knew the Earth was round thousands of years before Columbus did.  (false history).  In socrates dialogues he said...   Eratosthenes said the Earth was  24,650 miles around which is only 200 miles out. He figured this out through the shadows cast and the distances of these.

Archimedes visited his friend Erastosthenes .. he is credited with the cry Eureka..  I have found it!  He was the first Physicist

In Alexandria they first figured out our planet rotates around the sun.  What an amazing place it must have been to solve the problems of life the universe and Everything.

During the period of Ptolemy IV's reign the library was losing is shine.

Rome was looking to invade in 48 BC  When Cleopatra was the Pharoah and co ruler of Egypt with her brother whom she married.  She was however a Greek.  She was a great scholar who was well versed in many languages. She spoke Egyptian and Latin as well as her Greek tongue.  Cleopatra claimed Julius Caesars heart. He sided with Cleopatra in a civil war with her brother whom she struggled with for leadership.
Julius Caesar died in 44BC and Cleopatra aligned herself with Mark Antony.  Mark Antony and Cleopatra were defeated and he committed suicide as did Cleopatra 30BC and that was the end of the Ptolemaic rule.
Plutarch said the Library was destroyed in the Great fire of Alexandria. But Mark Antony donated books from Pergamon. 

Rome took over under Augustus Caesar who was the first Roman Emperor who was the nephew of Julius Caesar.
200AD

400AD  Emperor Theodosius outlawed paganism in favor of Christianity.  (From Wiki)

Between 389 and 391 he issued the "Theodosian decrees," which established a practical ban on paganism; visits to the temples were forbidden, remaining pagan holidays abolished, the sacred fire in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum extinguished, the Vestal Virgins disbanded, auspices and witchcraft punished. Theodosius refused to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, as requested by pagan Senators.
In 392 he became emperor of the whole empire (the last one to be so). From this moment until the end of his reign in 395, while pagans remained outspoken in their demands for toleration, he authorized or participated in the destruction of many temples, holy sites, images and objects of piety throughout the empire in actions by Christians against major pagan sites. He issued a comprehensive law that prohibited any public pagan ritual, and was particularly oppressive of Manicheans. He is likely to have suppressed the Ancient Olympic Games, whose last record of celebration is from 393.

The real destruction of what was left of the Library came when in 616 AD the Islamic faith rode in and the Roman Alexandrian's in Egypt surrendered to the Muslims. 

Legend then says they ordered all of the books that remained to be burned.  And the stones from the Alexandrian Library and the Great Alexandrian Lighthouse  were used to build the Citadel of Qaitbay in 1499 by the Sultan Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Qa'it Bay on top of the Lighthouse site.  It still stands in Alexandria today after a few refurbishments and uses and today is a museum.

Image Source: Flickr Adam Groffman

Cardinal Pell appears in Rome!

Archbishop Statue at Gympie Qld.

The Royal Commission into Child Sexual Assault in Church Based Care is now hearing the Institutional Responses to the evidence before the Royal Commission.

Cardinal George Pell who now resides in Rome at the Vatican was asked to attend the Commission here in Australia but he sited medical issues as a reason to not return from Rome.   The Royal Commission wished to question him about what he knew about the worst child pedophilia so far reported in Australia in his Ballarat Diocese in Victoria. 

Between 1953 and 1983 a number of students who attended St Patrick's College and St Alipius Boys' School, administered by St Patrick's College, made allegations that they were sexually assaulted. Some of these cases were litigated and the offenders found guilty. In 2002, Gerald Ridsdale, who served as the school chaplain at St Alipius' during this period, was convicted of a number of child sexual offences. In addition, three Christian Brothers who taught at St Alipius Boys' School and at St Patrick's College in the early 1970s were subsequently convicted of child sexual offences related to activities at the two schools. Victoria Police reported in July 2011 that close to 30 of the students who were abused at St Alipius have subsequently committed suicide.

One draws a deep breath thinking this is the Church we are discussing here. The Church was such a trusted institution and a powerful institution in the community and this is how this sickness of abuse flourished.  It is because of archaic roman ways of doing things.  One could safely call it the dark ages in Ballarat Australia. George Pell is being questioned because there is overwhelming evidence against him that he ignored any pleas for help.

George Pell testifying in Rome on my Television.
*Note the Christ Scandal on the shelf below.

The Cardinal read from the evidence and the questioning began.  Counsel for the Commission, Gail Furness SC questioned him at great length about particular instances beginning around 1972 when he entered the priesthood as an ordained priest in the Ballarat Diocese.  

A few hours of grueling questioning and the Cardinal was looking like a narcissistic mongrel who had no problems in deflecting all blame onto either Bishop O'Collins, Bishop Mulkearns and Monsignor Fiskalini.  If he wasn't deflecting, he was not recalling and continually resorted to saying I have no recollection.

The media flashed these erroneous statements the Cardinal made during his response to the evidence because it was gob smacking to hear him speak so heartlessly for a so called Cardinal.  He said, "It was of little interest to him".   He ignored complaints by a student who petitioned him personally to intervene because his brother had been beaten and sexually abused by Father Dowlan.

In another startling fact that has come to light to the rest of the world is that this diocese had several pedophile priests working together and that these priests regularly assaulted the same groups of boys so their names were obviously passed around.  Fear is a terrible weapon to use on any child - those priests were not men, they were very sick individuals.

The Royal Commission will be questioning the Cardinal continually over the next three days totaling four grueling days of questioning when this is finished.

The Survivors who traveled to Rome to sit in front of the Cardinal as he gave his evidence assembled outside of the Hotel after today's evidence was given for a media interview.  Everything they said brought me to absolute tears.  I was almost feeling like I was standing next to them there in Rome. 

This is a chance for all of the survivors of abuse that have come forward to the Commission to have a voice and to at least be able to tell someone what happened and once again the survivors urged anyone who was yet to come forward to please make that contact with the Commissioner and give their evidence.  More tomorrow on Cardinal Pell.

From the ABC

Key points from Cardinal Pell's evidence today

• Cardinal Pell denied knowing about paedophile priests in the Ballarat diocese when he was a priest and then as an adviser to Bishop Mulkearns in the 1970s and early 80s
• He criticised Bishop Mulkearns for the way paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was moved from parish to parish, saying it was a "catastrophe" for the victims and for the church
• Cardinal Pell told the royal commission he had no knowledge of Ridsdale's offences at the time
• He also told the hearing the Catholic Church had made enormous mistakes in the past and he was "not here to defend the indefensible"
• Cardinal Pell denied knowing anything about the circumstances surrounding the resignation of Mildura priest Monsignor John Day, who was accused of widespread misconduct with children over 13 years
• He admitted "in light of what we know now", the fact that Monsignor Day was appointed a parish priest in Timboon a year after his resignation was "quite unacceptable"
• In relation to allegations made against a number of Christian Brothers, Cardinal Pell said he knew about "eccentricities" relating to Brother Fitzgerald and about "fleeting references" to Brother Dowlan, but he did not know about the graphic sexual nature of many of the allegations
• With regards to evidence presented to the Cardinal during the session, he conceded there appeared to be a "significant number" of people around Ballarat East who knew about the sexual offending of a number of Brothers during the 1970s
• Cardinal Pell will continue his evidence at 8am AEDT on Tuesday

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

Emporer Hadrian's Roman Wall of fortification

Photo Source - Flickr Saffy H

"Hadrian's Wall map" by Nilfanion - Ordnance Survey OpenData. Administrative borders and coastline data from Boundary-Line product. Rivers, lakes and urban area data from Meridian 2 product. Hadrian's Wall from Strategi product..

Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons.

 Standing on Stones ... by Mary-Ellen Peters 2015

She stood on the rocks of Hadrian
This Caladonii grasped the pelagoniium
and she was beholden to such a sweet perfume
It clung like lovers to the air
Transcendent of casual mortal care
The sweetest scent evident Everywhere

Every creatures Freedom dreams become realized
As the winds of change blow up their coast
Such an Attar of uniqueness is the sweetest
and the most...
The ultimate and the glorious immortal post
She stood fast .. hardened and duly bound
From way up high on Hadrians wall
She balanced her nature to her tiny stature
Born each time for such a time
Always the same reason and the same Rhyme..
Each and every soul time.

Dazed over the Day's

Sunday

So where do we get all the names of the days from that we have today, and why do we consider Sunday the first day of the week?  Why is church held for Christians on a Sunday and other religions celebrate on other days.   Rome had an awful lot to do with all of this as you will see if you read on.

The names of the days of the week have been taken from Teutonic and Roman deities. During the first Century CE after Jesus was crucified and martyred some 500 years later,  Rome decided that Saturday would be dedicated as the first day.  This experienced changes over time.  Sunday venerated the Sun, so this day became the allotted first day of the week due to its contemporary importance.  Sun worship was rife at that same time which is still evidenced today  in many church cathedrals in with the etching and statues and windows clearly depicting an astrological flavour.

Sunday
 dies solis (Latin)  meaning "sun's day":  A well venerated "Pagan Roman" church holiday.  It is also known as Dominica (Latin) which means the Day of God.  The three languages of French, Spanish, and Italian which all came about because of  Latin.  Noticeably the Latin root meanings can be seen in those languages.  English is derived from both Old Germanic and Latin and a smattering of others.
French: dimanche; Italian: domenica; Spanish: domingo
German: Sonntag; Dutch: zondag.

Monday
 Anglo-Saxon monandaeg, "the moon's day".  Day two was sacred to the goddess of the moon.
French: lundi; Italian: lunedi. Spanish: lunes. from Luna, "Moon"
German: Montag; Dutch: maandag.

Tuesday
The Norse god Tyr.   Rome  venerated their War-God Mars  (dies Martis)
French: mardi; Italian: martedi; Spanish: martes.
The Germans call Dienstag (meaning "Assembly Day"), in The Netherlands it is known as dinsdag, in Danmark as tirsdag and in Sweden tisdag.

Wednesday
To honor Wodan (Odin).
Rome venerated the God Mercury dies Mercurii,
French: mercredi; Italian: mercoledi; Spanish: miércoles.
German: Mittwoch; Dutch: woensdag.

Thursday
The Norse God Thor is responsible for Thursday like Thorsday. The Norse language refers to this day as Torsdag.  Rome named this day after Jupiter their most venerated god who was also known as Jove. dies Jovis ("Jove's Day")
French: jeudi; Italian: giovedi; Spanish: jueves.
German: Donnerstag; Dutch: donderdag.

Friday
The day in honor of the Norse goddess Frigg.
Old High German - frigedag.
Rome committed Friday to the most sacred goddess Venus. (dies veneris).
French: vendredi; Italian: venerdi; Spanish: viernes.
German: Freitag ; Dutch: vrijdag.

Saturday
This day was "Saturn's Day" - (dies Saturni, Saturnalia) This is the day Rome honored Saturn.
Anglo-Saxon: sater daeg.
French: samedi; Italian: sabato; Spanish: sábádo.
German: Samstag; Dutch: zaterdag.
Swedish: Lördag; and in Danish and Norse: Lørdag ("washing day").

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

CATHARS over a million killed and their scriptures stolen.

“In his estate shall he honour the God of forces…” Daniel 11:38

THE FORCES are fairly simple to work out, in my mind they are. 

These are Magnetism and Gravity which is stylized by light because the light effects the magnetism and therefore effecting everything around it if this is the case.  There is much to be understood with this for our own benefit to come out from under the afflictions people are suffering now in 2015.

37,000 children stolen from one tiny area in Northern Australia in the Northern Territory since the corrupt intervention order was shot on the agenda as law.  Falsely covered up as helping children when what the Federal Government really want is the full collapse of the Aboriginal Culture of that area by further displacement and genocidal tactics.  Considering our PM is a Jesuit Priest - I think we are in trouble Houston.

refer to Green Language aka Languedoc where Cathars were executed by Fire in 1244

I  have been researching the Catharic and the Catholic connections for sometime now and find what was written here the most informative so far.  All the links are there if you want to go to the original website .  HERE

Giordano Bruno - Philosopher and Astrologer and Mathematician.

Giordano Bruno enthusiastically accepted Copernicus' theory that the sun is the center of the solar system.  He declared the sun to be a star and all the stars to be suns.

Giordano Bruno, born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer. Wikipedia

Born: 1548, Nola, Italy

Died: February 17, 1600, Rome, Italy

Full name: Filippo Bruno

Education: University of Toulouse

Parents: Giovanni Bruno, Fraulissa Savolino

Books: The cabala of Pegasus, On the composition of images, signs & ideas, Candlebearer

In Bruno's time the earth was regarded as the center of all of the creation.  When Bruno suggested this was the case and thus relegated the world and man to an obscure corner in space the effect was cataclysmic.

For the heresy of affirming a multiplicity of universes and conceiving Cosmos to be so vast that no single creed could fill it, Bruno paid the forfeit of his life. (Secret Teachings of All Ages - Manly Hall)  Giordano Bruno was burnt alive at the stake by the evil roman Catholic Church.

How this happened was he received an invitation to Venice from the patrician Giovanni Mocenigo, who wished to be instructed in the art of memory, and also heard of a vacant chair in mathematics at the University of Padua. At the time the Inquisition seemed to be losing some of its impetus, and Venice seemed especially safe as it was the most liberal state in Italy; therefore Bruno was lulled into making the fatal mistake of returning to Italy.

Bruno arrested on May 22, 1592. Among the numerous charges of blasphemy and heresy brought against him in Venice, based on Mocenigo's denunciation, was his belief in the plurality of worlds, as well as accusations of personal misconduct. Bruno defended himself skillfully, stressing the philosophical character of some of his positions, denying others and admitting that he had had doubts on some matters of dogma. The Roman Inquisition, however, asked for his transfer to Rome.

In Rome, Bruno's trial lasted seven years during which time he was imprisoned, lastly in the Tower of Nona. Some important documents about the trial are lost, but others have been preserved, among them a summary of the proceedings that was rediscovered in 1940.

In 1942, Cardinal Giovanni Mercati, who discovered a number of lost documents relating to Bruno's trial, stated that the Church was perfectly justified in condemning him.  Wikipedia

I was born 18 years after Cardinal Mercati said this statement.  I would like an apology from the Roman Catholic Church for this.  Later today I will call the local church and ask for a Public Apology that will be recorded on my device with their concent.

Images @ Eminpee Fotography

"THAT WHICH ORBITS ROME" ... URBI ET ORBI OF SOL INVICTUS

25TH DEC...

33 DEGREES ABOVE ORION ON THE HORIZON... TO LOCATE SOL STAR

A Seal of the Knights Templar, who founded the Temple on the banks of the River Thames. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Communion of the body and blood chalice ritual used to be included in history holding the holy grail up to the horizon... the day of the year long before the time of Christ and up to today where Orion's belt of the three kings follows from the east on the horizon . .. aligns vertical with the obelisk... to measure vertical 33 degrees of arc to find the place of the tiny star of Bethlehem. King Solomon did it too... as the Templars followed... and now masons today still have faint record of the length of sky of 33 degrees to honour their mysterious blazing star...

English: This is the upside down view of Orion where you can see the 'pot'. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Read more at the following website.

 http://www.thehiddenrecords.com/vatican_secret.htm

Tommaso Campenella -

Italiano: Ritratto di Tommaso Campanella, Collezione Camillo Caetani, Sermoneta, Italia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tommaso Campenella  was born 5 September 1568 and he died on  21 May 1639,  he was baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella.   Campenella was an Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.

Born in Stignano (in the county of Stilo) in the province of Reggio di Calabria in Calabria, southern Italy, Campanella was a child prodigy. Son of a poor and illiterate cobbler, he entered the Dominican Order before the age of fifteen, taking the name of fra' Tommaso in honour of Thomas Aquinas.  He studied theology and philosophy with several masters.

Deutsch: Kupferstich mit dem Portrait Tommaso Campanellas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In Naples he was also initiated in astrology; astrological speculations would become a constant feature in his writings. Campanella's heterodox views, especially his opposition to the authority of Aristotle, brought him into conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities. Denounced to the Inquisition and cited before the Holy Office in Rome, he was confined in a convent until 1597.

Campanella spent twenty-seven years imprisoned in Naples, often in the worst conditions. During his detention, he wrote his most important works:

The Monarchy of Spain (1600),
Political Aphorisms (1601),
Atheismus triumphatus (Atheism Conquered, 1605–1607),
Quod reminiscetur (1606?), 
Metaphysica (1609–1623), 
Theologia (1613–1624),
The City of the Sun
(originally written in Italian in 1602; published in Latin in Frankfurt (1623) and later in Paris (1638).  His most famous work.

Pope Urban VIII (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Campanella was finally released from his prison in 1626, through Pope Urban VIII, who personally interceded on his behalf with Philip IV of Spain.

Taken to Rome and held for a time by the Holy Office, Campanella was restored to full liberty in 1629. He lived for five years in Rome, where he was Urban's advisor in astrological matters.

In 1634, however, a new conspiracy in Calabria, led by one of his followers, threatened fresh troubles. With the aid of Cardinal Barberini and the French Ambassador de Noailles, he fled to France, where he was received at the court of Louis XIII with marked favour.

Protected by Cardinal Richelieu and granted a liberal pension by the king, he spent the rest of his days in the convent of Saint-Honoré in Paris. His last work was a poem celebrating the birth of the future Louis XIV
(Ecloga in portentosam Delphini nativitatem).

Biography from Wikipedia

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Women had a difficult time

 

Some 2000 years ago...

GREEKS gave woman the PUNCH / a woman was regarded as a second class citizen.
 MEN KNOCKED TEETH out of woman with rocks to shut them up.
 But GREEK PRIESTESSES had power and control and were listened too. 

 ROME / aphrodite became VENUS... Zeuss became Jupiter 6 PRIESTESSES known as the VESTULE VIRGINS / prime specimens of woman ... Key CONDITION was to remain VIRGINS .... every day of their service they were to wear a wedding dress and became the BRIDES of ROME... 

No one owned them ... 

 DEITY = VESTA ... deity of the HEARTH and the FIRE../ keeping the sacred fire alive.. VIRGINITY represented perfection ... purity = purity of the flame etc.... 

No DISTRACTIONS... No SEX because SEX was a distraction. 

 The capacity to create life but hold it back showed POWER... they lived on a knife edge... if the fire went out the Ponitifix Maximus would strip and beat them.

>>> 114BC in 3 vestules were accused of losing their virginity which is the crime of INCESTUM .. they were Markia / Amelia and Lukinia.. 

2010 to ordain a woman was a crime in the VATICAN CHRISTIANITY was a splinter group of JUDAISM 

PAUL says the WORLD is going to END / end of days! 

Acts of Paul and THEKLA 2nd century .. not suitable for the bible 1st century 

MOD TURKEY .... eavesdropping 13 years old THECKLA 

Phamoris was to marry her.. She was going to leave home and follow PAUL 

Catholic PRIESTS believed that woman were not created in GODS IMAGE and in fact they destroyed GODS IMAGE 

 Augustine developed the concept of ORIGINAL SIN / thanks to the act of SEX we are already creatures infused with SIN to the very core of our being... 

WOMAN come out badly ... 

 EVE encouraged ADAM to sin... she is the ARCHETYPE of woman who lead men astray! 

Sex was the WORK of the DEVIL and woman his AGENTS History was re written... 

Augustine is so influential .... 

 The CHURCH is called a SHE 

Council of NICEA woman were in trouble then 

The new church made decisions that WOMAN should be considered LEITY and not to be ordained .. Women pushed to the wilderness 

394 Theodocius the FIRST / no more PAGAN WORSHIP ... 

Flames of the VESTA were put out 

Woman had walked hand in hand with the divine.. 

But now no more and the priestess was over 

The divine woman story was not over 

WOMAN FIGHT BACK 

 Queen of Heaven

Kaneh Bosom

In ancient times this plant was known as this.  The oil was used to polish the wood in Solomon's Temple.   The plant was widely used because it was so beneficial and adaptable and versatile.  Preferring no chemicals or fertilizers to grow.

This was a problem for those Greed mongers who wanted to sell their pharmaceutical wares to the uninformed and trusting public via a government who was supposed to care not demonize the only thing that could really help.   This is a story that start way before I was born and before any of us were born.  It started around 325AD in Rome.  The rest is up to you to find out.

Photo via The C.A.S.H Card Project

 

CANNABIS CURES CANCERS!

http://phoenixtears.ca/

http://www.cureyourowncancer.org/make-the-oil.html

The most important other thing that you need to know about making The Cure oil is

 DON'T BLOW YOURSELF UP!

Alcohol fumes are both TOXIC AND EXPLOSIVE!

Use an extension cord on your rice cooker and boil off the solvent OUTSIDE, and even then have a fan blowing over the top of the pot.

This is not a how to either.   This blog post  is meant to let you know that it is how the resin is obtained for the medicine that has been used for thousands of years.  I do not condone or deny or take responsibility for what some one does with this.

 To all the anti-cannabis "Christians" out there.

"The Lord hath created medicines out of the Earth and he that is wise shall not reject them"
Ecclesiastes  38:4

PHOTO from Cannibus Cures Cancer

Images @ Eminpee Fotography - Bellingen March against Monsanto 2013

Go away Big Pharma,  Nature knows Best!

The Lunacy of Papacy made Easy!

While the PAPACY is in the spotlight because Benedict is the first Pope in 600 years to not die in office It is a good time to look at the greatest Masquerade ever of lies and deception from the beginnings of the holy Roman church.

The mystery of understanding the Holy Roman Church has been with me since I was a tiny child listening to stories of great pain and punishment that had to be endured whilst learning music at the Convent. I never got to learn music there in this convent and in some ways I am glad.  I carried a great fear of their very presence as a child. I was so petrified of the nuns and I would go to great lengths to ensure they didn't see me and I would hide.

This is the reason I still research to this day regarding this cult religion known as Catholicism. Its fake and should be shut down. The money they have stolen in the name of God should be re divided among the people of the world, as it is their legacy, not this lying group called Holy Roman Church.

 Two different Peter's is the issue,  and this is how its done. We have a game these days we affectionately call Switch-er-oo well that is exactly what Simon the Sorcerer did who came from Samaria, he played switcheroo! He was told to go jump by the real Peter and by others, he tried to buy apostleship it is said.. anyways this is the story :

He convinced them that he Simon believed and he was baptized.

Outwardly he was a Christian but his belief was only superficial and he was still a pagan at heart. He coveted the apostolic office and saw the opportunity of using Christianity to make money — a business corporation masquerading as the church of Christ!!

From Simon Magus we get the word simony which means to buy a religious office with money. After his encounter with St. Peter, this magician went to Rome and by tricks and false miracles established a "Christian church" in that city. This man can truly be considered as the first of the age long dynasty of Popes.

emblem of the Papacy: Triple tiara and keys Français : emblème pontifical Italiano: emblema del Papato Português: Emblema papal. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

IMG 5969, a photo by Images @ Melonpopzdropz on Flickr.

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Roman Curia

English: Rome, Roman Forum, Curia, interior, "Plutei di Traiano", back side, with suovetaurilia Italiano: Roma, Foro Romano, Curia, interno, "Plutei di Traiano", retro con suovetaurilia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Emblem of the Papacy: Triple tiara and keys (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Roman Curia is the administrative apparatus of the Holy See and the central governing body of the entire Catholic Church, together with the Pope.  It coordinates and provides the necessary central organization for the correct functioning of the Church and the achievement of its goals

"In exercising supreme, full, and immediate power in the universal Church, the Roman pontiff makes use of the departments of the Roman Curia which, therefore, perform their duties in his name and with his authority for the good of the churches and in the service of the sacred pastors"
— Decree concerning the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, Christus Dominus

 Curia in medieval and later Latin usage means "court" in the sense of "royal court" rather than "court of law". The Roman Curia, then, sometimes anglicized as the Court of Rome, as in the 1534 Act of Parliament that forbade appeals to it from England, is the Papal Court, and assists the Pope in carrying out his functions. The Roman Curia can be loosely compared to cabinets in governments of countries with a Western form of governance, but only the Second Section of the Secretariat of State, known also as the Section for Relations with States, the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and the Congregation for Catholic Education, can be directly compared with specific ministries of a civil government.
It is normal for every Latin Catholic diocese to have its own curia for its administration. For the Diocese of Rome, these functions are not handled by the Roman Curia, but by the Vicariate General of His Holiness for the City of Rome, as provided by the Apostolic Constitution Ecclesia in Urbe. The Vicar General of Rome, traditionally a Cardinal, and his deputy the Vicegerent, who holds the personal title of Archbishop, supervise the governance of the diocese by reference to the Pope himself, but with no more dependence on the Roman Curia, as such, than other Catholic dioceses throughout the world.
Until recently, there still existed hereditary officers of the Roman Curia, holding titles denominating functions that had ceased to be a reality when the Papal States were lost to the papacy. A reorganization, ordered by Pope Pius X, was incorporated into the Code of Canon Law (promulgated 1917). Further steps toward reorganization were begun by Pope Paul VI in the 1960s. Among the goals of this curial reform were the modernization of procedures and the internationalization of the curial staff. These reforms are reflected in the second Code of Canon Law (1983).

Icon depicting the First Council of Nicaea. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Secretariat of State is the oldest dicastery in the Roman Curia, the government of the Roman Catholic Church. It is headed by the Cardinal Secretary of State, currently Tarcisio Bertone, and performs all the political and diplomatic functions of Vatican City and the Holy See. The Secretariat is divided into two sections, the Section for General Affairs and the Section for Relations with States, known as the First Section and Second Section, respectively. The Secretariat of State was created in the 15th century and is now the dicastery most involved in coordination of the Holy See's activities.

English: Layout of the Curia Hostilia, Comitium and Rostra with Lapis Niger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

IMG 5980 (Photo credit: Images @ Melonpopzdropz)

MITHRAISM

From the area of S. Stefano Rotondo, Rome. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The ancient Roman religion known as the Mithraic mysteries has captivated the imaginations of scholars for generations. There are two reasons for this fascination. First, like the other ancient "mystery religions," such as the Eleusinian mysteries and the mysteries of Isis, Mithraism maintained strict secrecy about its teachings and practices, revealing them only to initiates. As a result, reconstructing the beliefs of the Mithraic devotees has posed an enormously intriguing challenge to scholarly ingenuity. Second, Mithraism arose in the Mediterranean world at exactly the same time as did Christianity, and thus the study of the cult holds the promise of shedding vital light on the cultural dynamics that led to the rise of Christianity.

Owing to the cult's secrecy, we possess almost no literary evidence about the beliefs of Mithraism. The few texts that do refer to the cult come not from Mithraic devotees themselves, but rather from outsiders such as early Church fathers, who mentioned Mithraism in order to attack it, and Platonic philosophers, who attempted to find support in Mithraic symbolism for their own philosophical ideas. However, although our literary sources for Mithraism are extremely sparse, an abundance of material evidence for the cult exists in the many Mithraic temples and artifacts that archaeologists have found scattered throughout the Roman empire, from England in the north and west to Palestine in the south and east. The temples, called mithraea by scholars, were usually built underground in imitation of caves. These subterranean temples were filled with an extremely elaborate iconography: carved reliefs, statues, and paintings, depicting a variety of enigmatic figures and scenes. This iconography is our primary source of knowledge about Mithraic beliefs, but because we do not have any written accounts of its meaning the ideas that it expresses have proven extraordinarily difficult to decipher.

Underground Mithraic temple in Rome

The typical mithraeum was a small rectangular subterranean chamber, on the order of 75 feet by 30 feet with a vaulted ceiling. An aisle usually ran lengthwise down the center of the temple, with a stone bench on either side two or three feet high on which the cult's members would recline during their meetings. On average a mithraeum could hold perhaps twenty to thirty people at a time. At the back of the mithraeum at the end of the aisle was always found a representation-- usually a carved relief but sometimes a statue or painting-- of the central icon of Mithraism: the so-called tauroctony or "bull-slaying scene" in which the god of the cult, Mithras, accompanied by a dog, a snake, a raven, and a scorpion, is shown in the act of killing a bull. Other parts of the temple were decorated with various scenes and figures. There were many hundreds-- perhaps thousands-- of Mithraic temples in the Roman empire. The greatest concentrations have been found in the city of Rome itself, and in those places in the empire (often in the most distant frontiers) where Roman soldiers-- who made up a major segment of the cult's membership-- were stationed.

Mithraeum in Capua, Italy

Our earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the first century B.C.: the historian Plutarch says that in 67 B.C. a large band of pirates based in Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras. The earliest physical remains of the cult date from around the end of the first century A.D., and Mithraism reached its height of popularity in the third century. In addition to soldiers, the cult's membership included significant numbers of bureaucrats and merchants. Women were excluded. Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism.

For most of the twentieth century it has been assumed that Mithraism was imported from Iran, and that Mithraic iconography must therefore represent ideas drawn from ancient Iranian mythology. The reason for this is that the name of the god worshipped in the cult, Mithras, is a Greek and Latin form of the name of an ancient Iranian god, Mithra; in addition, Roman authors themselves expressed a belief that the cult was Iranian in origin. At the end of the nineteenth century Franz Cumont, the great Belgian historian of ancient religion, published a magisterial two- volume work on the Mithraic mysteries based on the assumption of the Iranian origins of the cult. Cumont's work immediately became accepted as the definitive study of the cult, and remained virtually unchallenged for over seventy years.

There were, however, a number of serious problems with Cumont's assumption that the Mithraic mysteries derived from ancient Iranian religion. Most significant among these is that there is no parallel in ancient Iran to the iconography which is the primary fact of the Roman Mithraic cult. For example, as already mentioned, by far the most important icon in the Roman cult was the tauroctony. This scene shows Mithras in the act of killing a bull, accompanied by a dog, a snake, a raven, and a scorpion; the scene is depicted as taking place inside a cave like the mithraeum itself. This icon was located in the most important place in every mithraeum, and therefore must have been an expression of the central myth of the Roman cult. Thus, if the god Mithras of the Roman religion was actually the Iranian god Mithra, we should expect to find in Iranian mythology a story in which Mithra kills a bull. However, the fact is that no such Iranian myth exists: in no known Iranian text does Mithra have anything to do with killing a bull.

Mithras killing bull

Franz Cumont had responded to this problem by focusing on an ancient Iranian text in which a bull is indeed killed, but in which the bull-slayer is not Mithra but rather Ahriman, the force of cosmic evil in Iranian religion. Cumont argued that there must have existed a variant of this myth-- a variant for which there was, however, no actual evidence-- in which the bull-slayer had been transformed from Ahriman to Mithra. It was this purely hypothetical variant on the myth of Ahriman's killing of a bull that according to Cumont lay behind the tauroctony icon of the Roman cult of Mithras.

In the absence of any convincing alternative, Cumont's explanation satisfied scholars for more than seventy years. However, in 1971 the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies was held in Manchester England, and in the course of this Congress Cumont's theories came under concerted attack. Was it not possible, scholars at the Congress asked, that the Roman cult of Mithras was actually a new religion, and had simply borrowed the name of an Iranian god in order to give itself an exotic oriental flavor? If such a scenario seemed plausible, these scholars argued, one could no longer assume without question that the proper way to interpret Mithraism was to find parallels to its elements in ancient Iranian religion. In particular, Franz Cumont's interpretation of the tauroctony as representing an Iranian myth was now no longer unquestionable. Thus from 1971 on, the meaning of the Mithraic tauroctony suddenly became a mystery: if this bull-slaying icon did not represent an ancient Iranian myth, what did it represent?

Within a few years after the 1971 Congress, a radically different approach to explaining the tauroctony began to be pursued by a number of scholars. It is not an exaggeration to say that this approach has in just the past few years succeeded in completely revolutionizing the study of the Mithraic mysteries. According to the proponents of this interpretation, the tauroctony is not, as Cumont and his followers claimed, a pictorial representation of an Iranian myth, but is rather something utterly different: namely, an astronomical star map!

This remarkable explanation of the tauroctony is based on two facts. First, every figure found in the standard tauroctony has a parallel among a group of constellations located along a continuous band in the sky: the bull is paralleled by Taurus, the dog by Canis Minor, the snake by Hydra, the raven by Corvus, and the scorpion by Scorpio. Second, Mithraic iconography in general is pervaded by explicit astronomical imagery: the zodiac, planets, sun, moon, and stars are often portrayed in Mithraic art (note for example the stars around the head of Mithras in the carving of the tauroctony illustrated above); in addition, numerous ancient authors speak about astronomical subjects in connection with Mithraism. In the writings of the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry, for example, we find recorded a tradition that the cave which is depicted in the tauroctony and which the underground Mithraic temples were designed to imitate was intended to be "an image of the cosmos." Given the general presence of astronomical motifs in Mithraic art and ideology, the parallel noted above between the tauroctony-figures and constellations is unlikely to be coincidence.

Tauroctony encircled by zodiac

My own research over the past decade has been devoted to discovering why these particular constellations might have been seen as especially important, and how an icon representing them could have come to form the core of a powerful religious movement in the Roman Empire.

In order to answer these questions, we must first have in mind a few facts about ancient cosmology. Today we know that the earth rotates on its axis once a day, and revolves around the sun once a year. However, Greco-Roman astronomy at the time of the Mithraic mysteries was based on a so-called "geocentric" cosmology, according to which the earth was fixed and immovable at the center of the universe and everything went around it. In this cosmology the universe itself was imagined as being bounded by a great sphere to which the stars, arranged in the various constellations, were attached. So, while we today understand that the earth rotates on its axis once every day, in antiquity it was believed instead that once a day the great sphere of the stars rotated around the earth, spinning on an axis that ran from the sphere's north pole to its south pole. As it spun, the cosmic sphere was believed to carry the sun along with it, resulting in the apparent movment of the sun around the earth once a day.

This diagram shows the daily rotation of the cosmic sphere around the earth according to the "geocentric" cosmology. As shown here, the sun is carried along by the cosmic sphere around the earth once a day. However, as explained below, in the "geocentric" cosmology the sun was also believed to possess a second movement beyond its daily rotation with the cosmic sphere: namely, its yearly revolution along the circle of the "zodiac."

In addition to this daily rotation of the cosmic sphere carrying the sun along with it, the ancients also attributed a second, slower motion to the sun. While today we know that the earth revolves around the sun once a year, in antiquity it was believed instead that once a year the sun-- which was understood as being closer to the earth than the sphere of the stars-- traveled around the earth, tracing a great circle in the sky against the background of the constellations. This circle traced by the sun during the course of the year was known as the "zodiac"-- a word meaning "living figures," which was a reference to the fact that as the sun moved along the circle of the zodiac it passed in front of twelve different constellations which were represented as having various animal and human forms.

Zodiac (circle of 12 figures) with sun in Aries. In the "geocentric" cosmology the sun was believed to move along this circle around the earth once a year. The other cosmic circle shown here, parallel to the earth's equator, is called the "celestial equator."

Because the ancients believed in the real existence of the great sphere of the stars, its various parts-- such as its axis and poles-- played a central role in the cosmology of the time. In particular, one important attribute of the sphere of the stars was much better known in antiquity than it is today: namely, its equator, known as the "celestial equator." Just as the earth's equator is defined as a circle around the earth equidistant from the north and south poles, so the celestial equator was understood as a circle around the sphere of the stars equidistant from the sphere's poles. The circle of the celestial equator was seen as having a particularly special importance because of the two points where it crosses the circle of the zodiac: for these two points are the equinoxes, that is, the places where the sun, in its movement along the zodiac, appears to be on the first day of spring and the first day of autumn. Thus the celestial equator was responsible for defining the seasons, and hence had a very concrete significance in addition to its abstract astronomical meaning.

As a result, the celestial equator was often described in ancient popular literature about the stars. Plato, for example, in his dialogue Timaeus said that when the creator of the universe first formed the cosmos, he shaped its substance in the form of the letter X, representing the intersection of the two celestial circles of the zodiac and the celestial equator. This cross-shaped symbol was often depicted in ancient art to indicate the cosmic sphere. In fact, one of the most famous examples of this motif is a Mithraic stone carving showing the so-called "lion-headed god," whose image is often found in Mithraic temples, standing on a globe that is marked with the cross representing the two circles of the zodiac and the celestial equator.

Lion-headed god standing on globe with crossed circles

One final fact about the celestial equator is crucial: namely, that it does not remain fixed, but rather possesses a slow movement known as the "precession of the equinoxes." This movement, we know today, is caused by a wobble in the earth's rotation on its axis. As a result of this wobble, the celestial equator appears to change its position over the course of thousands of years. This movement is known as the precession of the equinoxes because its most easily observable effect is a change in the positions of the equinoxes, the places where the celestial equator crosses the zodiac. In particular, the precession results in the equinoxes moving slowly backward along the zodiac, passing through one zodiacal constellation every 2,160 years and through the entire zodiac every 25,920 years. Thus, for example, today the spring equinox is in the constellation of Pisces, but in a few hundred years it will be moving into Aquarius (the so-called "dawning of the Age of Aquarius"). More to our point here, in Greco-Roman times the spring equinox was in the constellation Aries, which it had entered around 2,000 B.C.

It is this phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes that provides the key to unlocking the secret of the astronomical symbolism of the Mithraic tauroctony. For the constellations pictured in the standard tauroctony have one thing in common: namely, they all lay on the celestial equator as it was positioned during the epoch immediately preceeding the Greco-Roman "Age of Aries." During that earlier age, which we may call the "Age of Taurus," lasting from around 4,000 to 2,000 B.C., the celestial equator passed through Taurus the Bull (the spring equinox of that epoch), Canis Minor the Dog, Hydra the Snake, Corvus the Raven, and Scorpio the Scorpion (the autumn equinox): that is, precisely the constellations represented in the Mithraic tauroctony.

In the above diagram the celestial equator intersects the zodiac in Aries. This was the situation during the "Age of Aries." The sun is here pictured (in Aries) as it was located on the day of the spring equinox in that age.



Here the cosmic axis has wobbled, so that the celestial equator intersects the zodiac in Taurus-- the situation during the "Age of Taurus." The sun is here pictured (in Taurus) as it was located on the day of the spring equinox in that age. In this "Age of Taurus" the celestial equator passed through Taurus, Canis Minor, Hydra, Corvus, and Scorpio: precisely the constellations pictured in the Mithraic bull-slaying icon.

In fact, we may even go one step further. For during the Age of Taurus, when the equinoxes were in Taurus and Scorpio, the two solstices-- which are also shifted by the precession-- were in Leo the Lion and Aquarius the Waterbearer. (In the above diagram of the "Age of Taurus," Leo and Aquarius are the northernmost and southernmost constellations of the zodiacal circle respectively-- these were the positions of the summer and winter solstices in that age.) It is thus of great interest to note that in certain regions of the Roman empire a pair of symbols was sometimes added to the tauroctony: namely, a lion and a cup. These symbols must represent the constellations Leo and Aquarius, the locations of the solstices during the Age of Taurus. Thus all of the figures found in the tauroctony represent constellations that had a special position in the sky during the Age of Taurus.

The Mithraic tauroctony, then, was apparently designed as a symbolic representation of the astronomical situation that obtained during the Age of Taurus. But what religious significance could this have had, so that the tauroctony could have come to form the central icon of a powerful cult? The answer to this question lies in the fact that the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes was unknown throughout most of antiquity: it was discovered for the first time around 128 B.C. by the great Greek astronomer Hipparchus. Today we know that the precession is caused by a wobble in the earth's rotation on its axis. However, for Hipparchus-- because he held to the ancient geocentric cosmology in which the earth was believed to be immovable-- what we today know to be a movement of the earth could only be understood as a movement of the entire cosmic sphere. In other words, Hipparchus's discovery amounted to the discovery that the entire universe was moving in a way that no one had ever been aware of before!

At the time Hipparchus made his discovery, Mediterranean intellectual and religious life was pervaded by astrological beliefs. It was widely believed that the stars and planets were living gods, and that their movements controlled all aspects of human existence. In addition, at this time most people believed in what scholars call "astral immortality": that is, the idea that after death the human soul ascends up through the heavenly spheres to an afterlife in the pure and eternal world of the stars. In time, the celestial ascent of the soul came to be seen as a difficult voyage, requiring secret passwords to be recited at each level of the journey. In such circumstances, Hipparchus's discovery would have had profound religious implications. A new force had been detected capable of shifting the cosmic sphere: was it not likely that this new force was a sign of the activity of a new god, a god so powerful that he was capable of moving the entire universe?

Hipparchus's discovery of the precession made it clear that before the Greco-Roman period, in which the spring equinox was in the constellation of Aries the Ram, the spring equinox had last been in Taurus the Bull. Thus, an obvious symbol for the phenomenon of the precession would have been the death of a bull, symbolizing the end of the "Age of Taurus" brought about by the precession. And if the precession was believed to be caused by a new god, then that god would naturally become the agent of the death of the bull: hence, the "bull-slayer."

This, I propose, is the origin and nature of Mithras the cosmic bull-slayer. His killing of the bull symbolizes his supreme power: namely, the power to move the entire universe, which he had demonstrated by shifting the cosmic sphere in such a way that the spring equinox had moved out of Taurus the Bull.

Given the pervasive influence in the Greco-Roman period of astrology and "astral immortality," a god possessing such a literally world-shaking power would clearly have been eminently worthy of worship: since he had control over the cosmos, he would automatically have power over the astrological forces determining life on earth, and would also possess the ability to guarantee the soul a safe journey through the celestial spheres after death.

That Mithras was believed to possess precisely such a cosmic power is in fact proven by a number of Mithraic artworks depicting Mithras in various ways as having control over the universe. For example, one scene shows a youthful Mithras holding the cosmic sphere in one hand while with his other hand he rotates the circle of the zodiac.

Mithras holding cosmic sphere and rotating zodiac

Another image shows Mithras in the role of the god Atlas, supporting on his shoulder the great sphere of the universe, as Atlas traditionally does.

Mithras as Atlas

A further example is provided by a number of tauroctonies that symbolize Mithras's cosmic power by showing him with the starry sky contained beneath his flying cape (see illustration at beginning of article).

If Mithras was in fact believed to be capable of moving the entire universe, then he must have been understood as in some sense residing outside of the cosmos. This idea may help us to understand another very common Mithraic iconographical motif: namely, the so-called "rock-birth" of Mithras. This scene shows Mithras emerging from the top of a roughly spherical or egg-shaped rock, which is usually depicted with a snake entwined around it.

Rock-Birth of Mithras

As I mentioned previously, the tauroctony depicts the bull-slaying as taking place inside a cave, and the Mithraic temples were built in imitation of caves. But caves are precisely hollows within the rocky earth, which suggests that the rock from which Mithras is born is meant to represent the Mithraic cave as seen from the outside. Now as we saw earlier, the ancient author Porphyry records the tradition that the Mithraic cave was intended to be "an image of the cosmos." Of course, the hollow cave would have to be an image of the cosmos as seen from the inside, looking out at the enclosing, cave-like sphere of the stars. But if the cave symbolizes the cosmos as seen from the inside, it follows that the rock out of which Mithras is born must ultimately be a symbol for the cosmos as seen from the outside. This idea is not as abstract as might first appear, for artistic representations of the cosmos as seen from the outside were in fact very common in antiquity. A famous example is the "Atlas Farnese" statue, showing Atlas bearing on his shoulder the cosmic globe, on which are depicted the constellations as they would appear from an imaginary vantage point outside of the universe.

Atlas Farnese statue, 2nd century A.D.

That the rock from which Mithras is born does indeed represent the cosmos is proven by the snake that entwines it: for this image evokes unmistakeably the famous Orphic myth of the snake-entwined "cosmic egg" out of which the universe was formed when the creator-god Phanes emerged from it at the beginning of time. Indeed, the Mithraists themselves explicitly identified Mithras with Phanes, as we know from an inscription found in Rome and from the iconography of a Mithraic monument located in England.

The birth of Mithras from the rock, therefore, would appear to represent the idea that he is in some sense greater than the cosmos. Capable of moving the entire universe, he cannot be contained within the cosmic sphere, and is therefore depicted in the rock-birth as bursting out of the enclosing cave of the universe, and establishing his presence in the transcendent space beyond the cosmos.

This imaginary "place beyond the universe" had been described vividly by Plato several centuries before the origins of Mithraism. In his dialogue Phaedrus (247B-C) Plato envisions a journey by a soul to the outermost boundary of the cosmos, and then gives us a glimpse of what the soul would see if for a brief moment it were able to "look upon the regions without." "Of that place beyond the heavens," says Plato,

none of our earthly poets has yet sung, and none shall sing worthily. But this is the manner of it, for assuredly we must be bold to speak what is true, above all when our discourse is upon truth. It is there that true being dwells, without colour or shape, that cannot be touched; reason alone, the soul's pilot, can behold it, and all true knowledge is knowledge thereof.

Beyond the heavens

I would suggest that the awe-inspiring quality of Plato's vision of what is beyond the outermost boundary of the cosmos also lies behind the appeal of Mithras as a divine being whose proper domain is outside of the universe. As the text from Plato shows, the establishment by ancient astronomers of the sphere of the stars as the absolute boundary of the cosmos only encouraged the human imagination to project itself beyond that boundary in an exhilarating leap into an infinite mystery. There beyond the cosmos dwelled the ultimate divine forces, and Mithras's ability to move the entire universe made him one with those forces.

Here in the end we may sense a profound kinship between Mithraism and Christianity. For early Christianity also contained at its core an ideology of cosmic transcendence. Nowhere is this better expressed than in the opening of the earliest gospel, Mark. There, at the beginning of the foundation story of Christianity, we find Jesus, at the moment of his baptism, having a vision of "the heavens torn open." Just as Mithras is revealed as a being from beyond the universe capable of altering the cosmic spheres, so here we find Jesus linked with a rupture of the heavens, an opening into the numinous realms beyond the furthest cosmic boundaries. Perhaps, then, the figures of Jesus and Mithras are to some extent both manifestations of a single deep longing in the human spirit for a sense of contact with the ultimate mystery.

Images @ Luciano Sitta