Thieves in High Places

The sacred tree, or tree of life, so universally recognized in eastern systems of theology, is called to mind; and we are naturally led to refer the traditions connected with it to a common origin – Austen Henry Layard (Nineveh and its Remains, 1849)

One of most common symbols to be found throughout our world is that of the tree. Tree imagery is frequently encountered in the myths and legends of world races, and the vast majority of religious scriptures feature floral motifs in one context or another. Consider Jesus in the “garden” of Gethsemane, Moses at the burning bush, Noah's dove with olive branch, Odin hanging from Yggdrasil, and Buddha beneath the Bodhi Tree.

Trees are repeatedly mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, and in the scriptures of various pagan nations. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil mentioned in Genesis, the burning bush in which the angel appeared to Moses, the famous vine and fig tree of the New Testament, the grove of olives in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray, and the miraculous tree of Revelation, which bore twelve manners of fruit and whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, all bear witness to the esteem in which trees were held by the scribes of Holy Writ. Buddha received his illumination while under the bodhi tree, near Madras in India, and several of the Eastern gods are pictured sitting in meditation beneath the spreading branches of mighty trees. Many of the great sages and saviors carried wands, rods, or staves cut from the wood of sacred trees, as the rods of Moses and Aaron; Gungnir – the spear of Odin – cut from the Tree of Life; and the consecrated rod of Hermes, around which the fighting serpents entwined themselves – Manly Palmer Hall (Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928)

In ancient Egypt, mystery schools were known as palmyriums, after the sacred date palm. Above the entrances to these colleges it was common to see the image of two palm fronds splayed in a similar fashion as the wings of the sun god Ra. To this day we refer to the pages of a book as "leaves;" and when we glance at the pages of history we find everything from fig leaves covering the genitalia of Adam and Eve to laurel-sprig coronets on the heads of Roman Caesars. According to the New Testament, Jesus was given myrrh at this birth, spikenard at his last Passover, and a crown of thorns before his execution. 

The very word bible comes from the ancient city of Byblos, where some of the world's first paper was made and transported. (The word paper comes from "papyrus," a Greek word referring to the sedge plant that grew along the banks of sacred rivers such as the Nile and Euphrates.) Byblos was a Phoenician capital, and the Phoenicians (or Arcadians), because of their expertise with wood and architecture, were commissioned to erect the Temple of Solomon:

I know how skillful your woodmen are, so send me cedar, cypress, and juniper logs from Lebanon. I am ready to send my men to assist yours in preparing large quantities of timber, because this temple I intend to build will be large and magnificent - (2 Chronicles 2:8-10)

The Book of Kings details the fine workmanship involved in the Temple's construction:

The inside walls were covered with cedar panels from the floor to the ceiling, and the floor was made of pine. An inner room, called the Holy of Holies, was built in the rear of the temple. It was 9 meters long and was partitioned off by cedar boards reaching from the floor to the ceiling - (1 Kings 6:15-16)

The cedar panels were decorated with carvings of gourds and flowers; the whole interior was covered with cedar, so that the stones of the walls could not be seen - (1 Kings 6:18)

The altar was covered with cedar panels - (1 Kings 6:20)

The word book comes from Old English "bōc" which comes from Germanic root "*bōk," cognate to beech. Similarly, in Slavic languages...it is cognate to "beech". It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood. Similarly, the Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves) originally meant "block of wood" - (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. Entry on Books)

Men with knowledge of architecture must certainly possess expertise in other fields. The Phoenicians excelled in the high sciences of astronomy, mathematics, and geography. Not only are they recognized as the originators of the alphabet, but they were also history's preeminent traders, mariners, and scholars. As we said, they were the first makers of paper. No surprise then that they established most of the ancient world's libraries. No wonder that their supreme god Adon presided over the city of Alexandria. Under the name of Canaanites, the Phoenicians were well and truly demonized in the Bible. Their Western origins - finally brought to light by the great revisionists L. A. Waddell and Comyns Beaumont - had been suppressed for millennia.

Another feature to be observed of the Giants is that nearly always they are described as red-haired, as were the Adamites and Edomites, names derived from the Hebrew adom or edom, red or ruddy...The same applies to the Phoenicians of like stock, whose name is but a derivation of the word meaning red or carroty, relating to a ruddy-faced people – Comyns Beaumont (The Riddle of Prehistoric Britain)

The Druids taught the existence of one god, to whom they gave a name "Be' al," which Celtic antiquaries tell us means "the life of everything," or "the source of all beings," and which seems to have affinity with the Phoenician Baal. What renders this affinity more striking is that the Druids as well as the Phoenicians identified this, their supreme deity, with the Sun - Thomas Bulfinch (Bulfinch's Mythology, Chapter XLI)

The names of the ancient people and rivers of Spain…undoubtedly conferred by the Phoenicians, when collated with the Gaelic, exhibit equally satisfactory evidence of the identity of that language with the Phoenician, without an exception – Sir Walter Bentham (The Gael and the Cymbri, 1834)

The Phoenician connection to the ruins is striking. The monuments, stone carvings and statutes found in Zimbabwe are identical in style to those which are predominant in Sardinia and other ancient Near Eastern cultures, including the worship of the god Baal…there is a “marvelous similarity” between these later Zimbabwes and many of the three thousand nauraghes, or terraced fortresses, which cover the island of Sardinia – Michael Tellinger (Slave Species of God)

I had recognized that the various ancient scripts found at or near the old settlements of the Phoenicians...were all really local variations of the standard Aryan Hitto-Sumerian writing of the Aryan Phoenician mariners, those ancient pioneer spreaders of the Hittite Civilization along the shores of the Mediterranean and out beyond the Pillars of Hercules to the British Isles - L. A. Waddell (The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots and Anglo-Saxons)

A Phoenician priest. Note his Caucasian features.

A coin featuring Phoenician queen Dido.
On the reverse of the coin we see the palm tree.

Church Father Clement of Alexandria marvelled at the beauty of Egyptian temples. He described them as follows:

Among the Egyptians the temples are surrounded with groves and consecrated pastures; they are furnished with propylae, and their courts are encircled with an infinite number of columns; their walls glitter with foreign marbles and paintings of the highest art; the naos is resplendent with gold and silver, and electrum, and variegated stones from India and Ethiopia; the adytum is veiled by a curtain wrought with gold

In his book entitled Symbols, Sex and the Stars, Ernest Busenbark explains the association of the palm tree with schools of mystical learning:

Early Spartans laid the dead upon olive leaves and palm branches. The male palm was a necessary accompaniment of all phallic and solar festivals and was used prominently in temple decoration. It is found repeatedly on ancient coins and tablets, always with seven branches. In Egypt a palm branch was an emblem of Thoth, the scribe of the gods. The branches were carried in religious processions as symbols of self-creation, time, and perpetually because they were said to add one new frond with each change of the moon. In the Book of Revelation palms seem to possess the same significance

The Hebrews named the date palm tamar, a word
also attributed to women of grace, beauty and virtue.

Sumerian goddess Inanna with the King of Nippur.
Note the date palm in the center and cedar tree on the left. Inanna
was the lady of grace, beauty and virtue. She was identical with Akkadian
goddess Ishtar, Phoenician Astarte, Ashtaroth or Asherah, Norse Freja, Irish Danu,
Grecian Aphrodite, and Roman Venus. The story of Persephone was largely based on her exploits.
Observe how the goddess stands erect like a column or pillar. In ancient Middle-Eastern religion,
a pillar or column was actually referred to as an asherah. Therefore, the many columns incorporated
into secular, religious, and Masonic architecture take on a new and important meaning.

A Babylonian omphalus. In the center we see the sacred tree.
Similar stones have been discovered featuring encircling serpents.

Heavy with sweet succulent fruits

The Great Mosque of Cordoba, Spain. The columns of most temples,
cathedrals, and state buildings represent the trunks of trees. The mosque's
columns were designed to represent the date palm, sacred to followers of Islam.

Baptism, by Leonardo Verrocchio. Note the palm to the left of the canvas. Symbolically,
sacred rivers such as the Nile, Euphrates and Jordan, etc, are terrestrial simulacras for heavenly
"rivers," that is, for the Milky Way or giant constellations such as Eridanus and Draco. 

Jesus with palm frond

Saint John under the palms receiving the apocalyptic visions he
would incorporate into the Book of Revelations. The artist is aware
that the disciples were, like Christ himself, characters styled on earlier sages.
Many of the Bible's characters (such as Moses, Melchizedek, Joseph of Arimathea
and Lazarus) are based on Druidic antetypes. The eagle seen beside John represents
Alchemy and also the astrological sign of Scorpio.

Speaking of temples, look at our cities today. What do we find? Numerous city streets have been named "Oak," "Pine," Redwood," and Cedar," and a plethora of state buildings feature columns representing the trunks of sacred trees. Ironically, while Earth is denuded of its exquisite forests and woods, we find acorns, berries, and oak leaves as decorations on bank notes, flags, medals, corporate logos, and government edifices the world over.

Not much more than one per cent of Ireland's surface now contains broad-leaved trees - Bob Quinn (The Atlantean Irish)

Despite the all-pervasiveness of ancient tree symbolism, few people ask why it exists and where it all came from. The intelligent observer who does ask these questions, and who begins to put two and two together, is eventually made privy to an alternative history of the world very different to that which he has been taught, and is commonly accepted by his fellows. He discovers that the creation and explanation of symbols was once the province of very special men and women. He comes to realize that visiting a modern city is to enter a temple of sorts, and be surrounded by important and suggestive symbols that once deciphered lead to insights and revelations of great profundity. Let us prove our point.

Sorcery in Plain Sight

There exists in our world today a powerful and dangerous secret cult. This cult is patronized and protected by the highest level government officials in the world. Its membership is composed of those in the power centers of government, industry, commerce, finance, and labor. It manipulates individuals in areas of important public influence - including the academic world and the mass media. The Secret Cult is a global fraternity of a political aristocracy whose purpose is to further the political policies of persons or agencies unknown. It acts covertly and illegally - Victor Marchetti (The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence)

The symbolic archive of the megalithic Arya was snatched from them by a powerful but sinister cult of deceivers bent on maintaining a corrupt hegemony. It is the existence and criminal history of this Atonist cabal that our work exposes. Our case for their existence and malignancy depends upon demonstrating their persistent misuse of a symbolic archive that once served a very different purpose. The unholy art of deception permits the elite Atonists and their lieutenants to manipulate the emotions and subconscious processes of human beings. This subtle manipulation constitutes a form of sorcery. In order to preserve our sanity and develop immunity against continued psychic attack, we must know our enemy and, more importantly, what weapons they use against us. One of the most valuable and deadly weapons in their arsenal is, as we have said, symbolism. So let's begin our study there.

Here we see a photograph of the circular rug inside the White House. It displays olive leaves and berries. During the latter part of the first dynasty, the second most important state building in Egypt was the treasury. It was known as Per Hetch or "White House." As we showed in The Irish Origins of Civilization, the White and Red Houses were departments that officiated for the ruling Pharaoh:

...the office rendered as ‘Chamberlain’ was responsible for all public functions undertaken by the king and for the management of his affairs. The ‘Chancellor’ attested from the early First Dynasty directed all the concerns of government with Egypt’s wealth, the collection of taxes and the control of the Treasuries of the Two Lands. Theoretically, and sometimes in fact, there were two treasuries, one for each of the kingdoms, known as ‘The White House’ and ‘The Red House’, for Upper and Lower Egypt respectively; each had its dependent bureaucracy under officials who reported to the Chancellor, who in turn reported to the Vizier - Michael Rice (Who’s Who in Ancient Egypt)

The beloved symbols of the Druids - oak leaves, acorns, and
olive sprigs, etc - are found on military regalia the world over.
Something certainly does not smell right here, because the Druids
were - unlike the Atonists - among the world's most peace-loving men.

The Biblical Jesus was a fictional character based on earlier pagan deities and heroes. We have listed the antetypes in The Irish Origins of Civilization. The findings of high level academics, such as R. A. Gabriel, confirm those of previous scholars whose work was suppressed; work which proves beyond doubt that Jesus was largely crafted on Osiris and other god-men. The elements of Jesus' story were rescripted from those of Osiris, Horus, Dionysus, Orpheus, Apollo, Serapis, and Mithras. They were also rescripted from the lives of various old world sages such as Apollonius of Tyana, as well as from the lives of Caesars such as Augustus, who was known as "savior."

The Grecian Apollo was a basis for the New Testament Jesus. Here we see his image found at Delphi. Note the sprig of laurel that was one of his main symbols. It can be seen on Masonic aprons, sashes and caps. Apollo was patron of Delphi where the famous serpent or "Pythonic" oracle once existed. Apollo is the origin of the Biblical name Paul. The name apparently meant "redeemer." It also connotes "apple" and "pole." (Here for more.)

At the famous oracle of Delphi the tree played as intrinsic, if not so predominant, a part as at Dodona, its function being shared by the fissure in the earth and the sacred spring, which testify to the chthonic origin of the oracle, whilst the use of the sacred tripod has been thought to connect it with the class of fire oracles. There is evidence that a laurel tree grew beside the oracular fissure in Gaia's time, and, according to tradition, the earliest temple of Apollo was a hut of laurel boughs erected by the god's own hands - J. H. Philpot (Trees in Religion and Myth, 1897)

Orpheus was one of the main prototypes for the Biblical Jesus.
Here he is with his "crown of thorns." Like Apollo, Sir Tristan, Krishna,
King David, and many other heroes and deities, Orpheus was a lover of
music. This again connotes a Bardic (or Druidic) connection.

This image is one of the most important ever found. It confirms that Egyptian iconography was liberally plagiarized by early Alexandrian Christians. The image of Horus standing upon the crocodile or serpent of the abyss was a common motif in Egypt. There are many examples of it. However, in this rendering, the sun god has a fish above his head. The symbol of the fish represents the name "Jesus." (Here for more)

The Old and New Testaments

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God – (Revelation 2:7)

The tropes and iconography of Judaism and Christianity are largely based on earlier pagan traditions. The scriptures themselves provide us with ample evidence of this fact. The Old and New Testaments are chock full of pagan references. Specifically, there are many passages that refer to sabean phenomena. In other words, there are many references, both cryptic and obvious, to the stars and luminaries. As revealed in our book Astro-Theology and Sidereal Mythology, solar symbolism frequently appears in the majority of Biblical chapters.

The Romans ridiculed the Gods of Egypt whom they themselves adored but under different names. They burnt Serapis, Anubis, and Isis; they revered Pluto, Mercury and Ceres. So the Roman Catholics while pretending to abjure the Gods of heathenism have actually adopted many of them - W. Winwood Reade (The Veil of Isis)

The Crucifixion, by Raphael. Note the sun and moon on either side of the
crucifix. There is no mention of this phenomenon in the Gospels.

Tree imagery is also conspicuous. Indeed, in the Book of Genesis we hear of three trees. There is the Tree of Life, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and the oak under which the prophet Jacob buried the pagan idols previously worshiped by the Israelites.

Here we see a striking image entitled Ecclesia or "Church." On the crown worn by the figure representing the Church of God we see the fleur-de-lis, a seminal goddess symbol often seen on the Pope's own garb. We also see many starry motifs. Streams of living water flow from the body of the "Church" to nourish the needy and the believers, which include a soldier with a drawn sword. Of course, the symbolism is explained when we realize that the word Church comes from Circe, Grecian goddess of sorcery and magic. She was the original life-giver, and was associated with the flower known as snowdrop. Circe's name is a variant of Taurt, Egypt's most ancient goddess of heaven.

"Madonna of the Sheaves."

Note the female garb and his hands making the sign of the womb

Transfiguration of Christ, by Fra Angelico.
Note the oval or egg-like background of light.
Goddess symbolism in plain sight.

A Christian image showing the tree and cross as one. Note the
bunch of grapes over the genital area of the female figure on the left.
We will see this again below on the attire of the Pope.

Christian crosses with floral shape and designs. In ancient times
the cross and tree symbolized the same metaphysical ideas.

Pope Pius X

The Papal tiara. Note the floral motifs.

Papal miters take their name from the solar deity Mithras. Mithraism
(to which Christian emperor Constantine belonged) was an offshoot of Atonism.

A Christian artists rendition entitled Allegory of the Eucharist.
The triple cross held by the pope is a stylized tree (perhaps a date palm, cedar or yew).
One meaning of Nazarene - as in Jesus the Nazarene - is shoot or branch (from netser).

Dionysus holding a grape vine

Bacchus (Dionysus) as the grapevine. Let's remember the New Testament passages in which Jesus
describes himself as a vine: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener." (John 15:1)
and: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,
you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." (John 5:5)

Dionysus with thyrsus wand

The thyrsus wand of giant fennel wood, with pine cone head, was the standard of Dionysus, the antetype of the Roman Bacchus, god of wine, merriment, art, ecstasy, imagination, passion, sexual debauch, wildness, and frenzy. One of his pseudonyms was Adoneus, which means "ruler." He was originally a Western deity worshipped by the ancient Arya as Adon and Donar. Dionysus is unquestionably the antetype for Adonai, that is, for Jehovah, not to mention Aton. Robert Graves went so far as to say that Don was a masculanized version of Danu, the ancient Irish goddess. In other words, the adventures and symbols associated with the male god may have been originally associated with the goddess.

The monogram often used for Jesus - IHS - originally
stood for Iacchus, a pseudonym for Dionysus.

Since the pine cone is a symbol of Dionysus, we would do well to ask what it is doing in Vatican City. Dionysus, as we said, was worshiped by the Phoenicians and their racial cousins under the names Don, Adon, Adonis, and Atunis. The Irish referred to him as Autun; the Nordics as Odin; the Egyptians as Aton. Later he appears as the Adonai of the Israelites. However, Adonai was a pseudonym for Jehovah. So again the connections between the Judeo-Christian god and the natural forms is revealed. Below the statue of the pine cone we see the face of Dionysus/Adon/Adonai/Aton/Jehovah.

In Greek mythology, a thyrsus (thyrsos) was a staff of giant fennel (Ferula communis) covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone...The thyrsus associated with Dionysus (or Bacchus) and his followers - (Wikipedia Online Encyclopedia. On the Thyrsus)

The thyrsus as an Hermetic Caduceus

An Assyrian god-king holds the pine cone symbolizing that his
lineage reaches back to the age of the gods.

Image of an old Hindu cross with floral design
 

Vatican City contains numerous examples of tree symbolism. The design of St. Peter's Square bears a striking figurative resemblance to images of Yggdrasil, the Nordic Tree of Life. The Square has also been correctly likened to a "womb."

According to Norse and German legend, Yggdrasil was the world ash tree that encircled the earth with branches all over the world and with roots in heaven where knowledge and wisdom were concealed by the well of Mimir and the sacred fountain of Urd where the gods had their doomstead (place of justice) – Henry Binkley Stein (Thirty Thousand Gods Before Jehovah)

A Canon of the Mass, as used by Bishops. Note the yew tree.

A mosaic in the Vatican depicting the yew tree. A comet-like star is also shown, along with the fleur-de-lis, another symbol of the Merovingian secret societies such as the Knights Templar and Knights of Malta. The trefoil fleur-de-lis apparently represents the Virgin Mary. Esoterically, it represents Isis who was herself based on a Western goddess. As we shall see, the fleur-de-lis is also a figurative representation of the sacred mushroom. Mushrooms grow in the shade of trees such as the yew, pine, and fir. Importantly, the yew was one of the most venerated trees in Druidism. The letter representing this tree can be rendered "I" and as such denotes the first Hebrew letter of Jehovah (IHVH) - the blood-soaked god of Masons, Jews, and Christians.

The design of the Vatican is that of a Latin cross. However, the dome in the center of the cross has been deliberately designed to represent a sun wheel. This design, of the cross and sun wheel, is curiously similar to the emblem of the Rosicrucian Order, namely, a cross with a sun-like rose in the center. The dome also bears a certain resemblance to the underside of an Amanita-type mushroom.

It is no coincidence that the Vatican was designed according to the rose cross, or that the headquarters of the Knights of Malta (identical to the Order of the Knights Templar) should be in Vatican City. The cross signifies the Church and the rose signifies the occult orders who operate behind official religious organizations. Numerologically, the letters of the word ROSE are 9615, same as the first letters of the Egyptian royal family

I for Isis = 9
O for Osiris = 6
N for Nephthys = 5
S for Set = 1

Interestingly, these letters also spell SION. This cryptically denotes the infamous Order of Sion and town of Sion in Switzerland, the country under Templar (Atonist) control. (The Vatican is policed by the so-called "Swiss Guard.") The word Sion is a direct reference to the Egyptian city of Zaon (Avaris) which was a capital of the Hyksos, or so-called "Shepherd Kings," who devastated the land of Egypt until they were banished by Pharaoh Ahmose during the early eighteenth dynasty. This cruel dynasty were part of the ancient Dragon Court or Brotherhood of the Snake. They gave rise to the Atonists and were, according to the superlative research of Ralph Ellis, identical with the Old Testament's Israelites and Judites.

The Vatican resides on the former temple site of the Roman sun god Mithras. The ancient obelisk phallic symbol in St. Peter's Square was brought to Rome from Heliopolis...by a Roman Emperor, many centuries before Jesus Christ lived, and before Christianity - Zenith Harris Merrill (Roman Catholicism)

To understand who or what is symbolized by the rose, we need only turn to the Old Testament' "Song of Solomon." In that book, the "...rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys" is clearly a female lover. Therefore, the rose cross of the secret fraternity is really the cross of the female and not a rose, per se.

In the form of prayer called Litaniæ Lauritanæ, there are more than forty addresses to the Virgin, invoking her as the star of the sea, as the mystical rose, and by a variety of other heathen epithets - W. Winwood Reade (The Veil of Isis)

This image depicts a female stellar goddess below a rose. The rose itself is surrounded by a halo of stars. Note also the symbol of the uroboric serpent which represents not only the female's sacerdotal status, but the circumpolar zone. As we will discover, in predynastic times Draco was not symbolized by a serpent, but by a woman. Indeed, the Egyptian hieroglyphic for a woman is a serpent. Even more mysteriously, the four letters (or Tetragrammaton) of the name Jehovah (IHVH or Yod, He, Vau, He) are inscribed in a Masonic triangle above the Christian cross. As we have already mentioned elsewhere, this name of the supposedly male god ends with a feminine vowel, making the entire word feminine. The same applies to the term Elohim. (Here for more on the Tetragrammaton.)

Of course it is impossible to speak of roses without thinking of the British royals. Since the coming of the Atonists, the British Isles has been under the control of one criminal dynasty after another, none of whom have any legitimate right to rule. They are the descendants of powerful Merovingian and Carolingian (Templar) dynasties from Germany and France. Their arrival and criminal activities is detailed in our book The Irish Origins of Civilization.

The so-called Tudor Rose is actually two roses, one inside the other. There is the white rose and the red rose. Ostensibly, the emblem connotes the famous "War of the Roses" fought between 1455 and 1487. However, the rose and its occult significance predates this period of history, representing the powerful secret societies and the occult knowledge they manipulate.

Interestingly, the design of the US Pentagon (however geometrically stylized) is not unlike a Tudor rose. Since the word Tudor (meaning tutor or teacher) is a corruption of Juda or Judah, the Atonist reference is again apparent. When we examine the design of the Pentagon, we see five concentric pentagons, and in the center five pentagrams within a sixth. If a line is drawn around the five inner pentagrams another pentagon is formed, the seventh. Then in the center of the five pentagrams we see the shape of an eighth pentagon. Esoterically, eight is the number associated with the sun.

The exquisite rose window of St. Michael's Church, Montreal

Rosettes are based on the shape taken by leaves and flowers.  Rosette shapes
are seen on civic and religious architecture, on doorways, windows, statues, fountains, etc.
Consider, for example, the window above 10 Downing St.

As we explained in The Irish Origins of Civilization, the Atonists of Britain spent the best part of 1500 years appropriating the gnosis and lore of the Arya they cruelly conquered. They positioned their own churches over Druidic groves and sacred sites, and erected their stately homes and other edifices near to mineral rich mines. Their ownership of mines generated the incredible wealth that gave rise to the so-called British Empire, on which the sun (Aton) would never set. To commemorate their coup, the royals have repeatedly commissioned their architects to incorporate the symbolism of the Druids into their own structures, be they palaces, stately homes, churches, or universities.

It is, therefore, not merely a coincidence that Prince Charles' estate is called Highgrove, that is - High Grove. The very term for the royal elite - aristocracy - contains the root ari, connoting the Aryans or Noble Ones. (Here for more.)

It is possible that St. Peter's Square was designed to represent the head of a Scottish thistle. After all, there are close ties between the Knights Templar, who own and control Britain, and the bishops and cardinals of Vatican City. Suggestively, the eight paths radiating out of the center of the Square resemble the design of the Union Jack, the British flag.  (The number eight represents the sun.) As shown in The Irish Origins of Civilization, Christianity was conceived in Britain.

The obelisk in the center of the Square is one of thirteen that stand in Rome, all of which were transported there from Egypt. Obelisks such as that in St. Peter's are phallic pointers to the circumpolar zone in the heavens. This is why, as in the case of Washington DC, we find an "Oval Office" near to the obelisk. (We will be examining the obelisk symbolism in a later chapter.)

Another symbol connecting the Vatican with powerful secret societies is the famous fleur-de-lis. We see it here on the flag of Scotland. It can also be found on royal crowns and coronets, as well as on a great deal of British heraldry. Historically it signifies the Knights Templar who were and are closely associated with the Vatican. The symbol can frequently be seen on the Pope's attire. The creature on the flag also appears on many crests and coats of arms. It is the Dragon-Lion representing the Dragon Court, that is, the Cult of Aton and Merovingian dynasty whose members established the Vatican, Cistercian Order, and Knights Templar. Before the rise of Judeo-Christianity the Dragon Court or Brotherhood of the Snake had its headquarters in Egypt although its origins go back to prediluvian ages.

During the fourteenth century the Vatican authorities persecuted some members of the Templar nobility who had stepped out of line. Their legendary obstinacy and wealth brought the wrath of "God" down upon them, However, as time past, most Templar individuals and dynasties fell back into lockstep with the Vatican hierarchy. We see no reason to believe that severe or prolonged rivalries continued to plague relations between the Latin or Roman Church and the Knights Templar. On the contrary, the evidence indicates that the "bad boy" Templars came back to the cross, so to speak.

• For a detailed account of the important rivalry that existed between the Templars and their kindred brotherhood, the Knights Hospitallers, we refer the reader to the excellent book Born in Blood, by John J. Robinson)

That Judeo-Christianity is a branch of Solar Cultism is made evident from their own symbolism.

The Chair of St. Peter, designed by Renaissance master Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Solar Cult symbolism in plain sight. Note the columns representing trees.

The solar Christ

Saint Thomas Aquinas. Note the symbol of the sun on his robe.

Emperor Constantine and the sun. The Merovingian
psychopathic king Clovis was entitled “the light of the sun, already high in its path.”

Eye and pyramid motif above doorway in the Monastery
of the Cross in Jerusalem. (Here for more information.)

All-Seeing Eye of Aton with solar rays, in the Vatican

Christ at the Last Supper, with eye of God in a triangle.

Book of Common Prayer. Note the triangle and letters
of the name of Jehovah within it.

Head of Christ with Crown of Thorns, by Lucas Cranach the Elder

The crown of thorns on the brow of Jesus is another plagiarized pagan floral motif. The original crown of thorns, so to speak, was the antlers (or horns) of the stag-god Herne. Herne, also known as Nikor and Cernunnos, was lord of the forests and the Earth. He was known by many names throughout the world. In India he was Pashupati, lord of the animals and prototype of Shiva. Expert on ancient Vedic traditions, Albert Pike, explained:

Shiva Pashupati - Lord of the Animals.
This is among the first images of god found among ancient races.
In almost every case, early images of God feature him with horns.
The similarity between the images of Herne and Shiva confirm that the
Arya had indeed frequented Eastern climes. As we showed in
The Irish Origins of Civilization, the very word god derives from goat.

Prajnaparamita, the supreme mother goddess of Tibet.
Note her crown of "thorns."

One of the key pagan leitmotifs plagiarized by Christian mythmongers is that of the Madonna and Child. The image long predates the advent of Christianity. Often when we see images of the divine mother and child, we also see a protecting serpent. Indeed, sometimes the mother is herself depicted as a protecting and nurturing serpent.

An ancient Etruscan monument was discovered at Rome, the precise model of those pictures of the Madonna and her child so common in Italy and throughout the world - W. Winwood Reade

Although the serpent is a symbol for god and spiritual wisdom, and although it symbolizes the spermatozoon (which is snake-like), it is primarily a feminine insignia. The hierarchs within the Church have done their best to conceal the positive connections between the female and the serpent (as in their mutilated Genesis story). However, this only goes to prove that they and their counterparts within Masonry know just what the symbols pertain to. Note how the artist has framed the goddess and serpent in an ovum-like circle. We shall be exploring the meaning of this shape later.

That Egyptian motifs were transmogrified is evident from a perusal of the canvases of great pre-Renaissance and Renaissance masters who habitually communicated the facts by way of their own symbolic language. The list of greats is too lengthy to present here; however among the cleverest artists to develop a "secret palette" were Paolo Uccello, Fra Angelico, Zanobi Strozzi, Carlo Crivelli, Andrea Mantegna, Filippino Lippi, Piero Della Francesca, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lucas Cranach (the Elder and the Younger), Luca Signorelli, Sandro Botticelli, and Albrecht Durer.

Deposition from the Cross, by Fra Angelico. Note the figure on the
extreme right of the canvas. The artist has depicted this character
with his arms crossed to symbolize death, and also to indicate
the Egyptian origins of the Biblical tale illustrated. Note the halo
with red cross behind the head of Christ.

St. Bridget and the Vision of the Nativity, by Niccolo di Tommaso. In this, and other illustrations
of the Nativity, we do not see an inn but a grotto or cave. This makes sense as long as we realize
that Jesus is symbolically identical with Osiris, Zeus, Dionysus, and other pagan deities.

Annunciation, by Fra Angelico

Virgin of the Annunciation, by Gerard David

Annunciation, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti.
The angel of the Lord wears a garland and carries a frond.

The Annunciation, by Fra Angelico. Note the starry canopy above
the Virgin's head. It is a reference to the Astro-Theological subtext of this Biblical episode.

The Baptism of Christ, by Paolo Veronese. Note Christ's
pose. The figure of the angel is added to tell the informed
viewer of the painting's Astro-Theological subtext.

The blond Jesus as Pharaoh. The syllable raoh in Pharaoh is the origin of roy and roi,
meaning king. (In Gaelic ri means king, in Latin it is rex.) Ro or roe means "shepherd."
This implies that kings and pharaohs are shepherds or keepers and controllers of
sheep - that is, of ignorant human beings. The Church certainly adopts this
role toward its "flock."

Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, by Bartolo di Fredi. Note the Virgin's pose and
the swaddling around the infant, suggestive of mummification and the legend of Osiris.

Mary Magdalene, by Giovanni Bellini. One of Mary's epithets is "Apostola Apostolorum,"
or Disciple of Disciples. In this case she can be regarded as the thirteenth disciple.
Thirteen is a number associated with the moon. (It takes approximately thirteen 
months for the moon to pass through every sign of the zodiac during a single year.)
It is also half of twenty six, the number of God.

The Ark of the Covenant was originally Egyptian. Images exist showing Theban priests carrying an ark through the streets during a religious festival. Other images show the ark protected by winged guardians. During state festivals an open ark was carried through the town. Coins and jewelry were thrown into it as it passed by.

Image of the Egyptian ark, found in Thebes

We see that the Jewish and Christian mythmongers simply adopted the customs, rites, and traditions of their betters. They set to work to incorporate pagan leitmotifs into their own muddled iconography. The point is directly addressed by Mrs. Valentia Straiton, who, quoting from S. A. Mackey's Mythological Astronomy, wrote:

Jewish history covers nothing that is new, but the early Jews had great ingenuity in "turning singular into plurals, and plurals into singulars, and what was feminine with their masters, they made masculine...in some places things inanimate have been turned into men by adding the sign of the masculine gender, this was frequently done by the Greeks"

Today, we take this mishmash as theology when it is in fact nothing more than priestly propaganda. As Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky perceptively wrote:

Judaism earlier, and later Gnosticism, Christianity, and even Christian Masonry, have all been erected upon identical cosmical myths, symbols, and allegories, whose full comprehension is possible only to those who have inherited the key from their inventors

The Bible of the Christian Church is the latest receptacle of their scheme of disfigured allegories which have been erected into an edifice of superstition, such as never entered into the conceptions of those from whom the Church obtained her knowledge

In her fine book on Christian atrocities, author Helen Ellerbe writes about the Church's vile acts of appropriation and obliteration:

Older temples and sacred sites, once dedicated to pre-Christian goddesses, were re-dedicated or replaced with churches for Mary. In Rome on the Esquitine hill the Santa Maria Maggiore replaced Cybele’s temple. Near the Pantheon a church dedicated to Mary adjoined Isis’ sanctuary, while another was built on the site which had been dedicated to Minerva. On the Capitoline in Aracoeli the Santa Maria supplanted a temple of the Phoenician goddess Tanit. In Cyprus, shrines that were Aphrodite’s hallowed ground easily became those of Mary, who to this day is still called Panaghia Aphroditessa – (The Dark Side of Christian History)

Amid the priestly jumble we still discern key Druidic motifs. For instance, in chapter eighteen of the Book of Genesis, we read that Jehovah visited aged prophet Abraham and his wife Sarah. A few minutes after God is seated and fed in the "tent" of Abraham, three other visitors arrive. They are clearly extraordinary beings and Abraham promptly bows before them. They ask for water and sit near a tree. Reading the strange account, we are alerted by the references to three travelers and to the tree beneath which they rest. We also note the similarity of these anecdotes to those in the Gospel of Matthew which tell of the three wise men or Magi who allegedly follow the "Star in the East" to the stable where Jesus was born. After accurate decipherment, we see that in both cases, the imagery involved is both Druidic and Astro-Theological.

Painting from the Monastery of the Cross, Jerusalem

One of the most important and well known allusions to a tree is found in the Book of Exodus. In chapter three we read about the famous burning bush where God addressed Moses:

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground - (Exodus 3:2-5)

Let us now continue on our road of discovery and decipherment and discover where this striking image of the burning bush comes from and what it alludes to.

The Mushroom Cults

The ancient Israelite religion of Jehovah worship was based largely on the mushroom cult - John Marco Allegro

In chapter three of the Book of Exodus, we read that Moses encountered Jehovah at a "burning bush." Many interpretations have been proffered forth concerning this event. No commenter, however, has linked the phenomenon to Druidism. One man's research, however, comes close to the truth of the matter. That man is scholar John Marco Allegro. The retaliation from academia toward his revolutionary discoveries confirms that he had indeed grasped the essential facts concerning the theft and egregious misuse of secret ancient gnosis.

John Marco Allegro (1923-1988). His exposure of the "mushroom" cults within Christianity caused consternation and reprisal. His controversial discoveries were incorporated into his books, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, The Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Revealed, and The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth. For more on Allegro's findings, refer to Astrotheology and Shamanism, by Jan Irvin and Andrew Rutajit, and The Holy Mushroom Evidence of Mushrooms in Judeo-Christianity, by Jan Irvin

Allegro, along with a few other perceptive commenters, believed that the mysterious term "burning bush" refers either to mushrooms or some other hallucinogenic plant once cultivated by priests and holy men. Drinking potions made from the juices, resins, and saps of potent plants allow human consciousness to expand. Higher senses and centers of awareness open and the imbiber enters into mental contact with preternatural intelligences often taken for gods. Scholars such as Allegro explored the manner in which various early Judaic and Christian sects and priesthoods made use of psychotropic, vision-inducing substances. Allegro's controversial books on psychotropic rituals in early Judeo-Christianity were ridiculed and suppressed. Apparently, his revelations set off the alarm bells. During an interview, Allegro said:

Thousands of years before Christianity, secret cults arose which worshipped the sacred mushroom — the Amanita Muscaria — which, for various reasons (including its shape and power as a drug) came to be regarded as a symbol of God on earth. When the secrets of the cult had to be written down, it was done in the form of codes hidden in folktales. This is the basic origin of the stories in the New Testament. They are a literary device to spread the rites and rules of mushroom worship to the faithful

Making use of natural substances to achieve mental clarity and psychological elevation long predates Christianity. The practice goes back to the ancient Arya. As historian William F. Warren explains:

The Aryans of India, as early as in the far-off Vedic age, had also their World-Tree, which yielded the gods their soma, the drink which maintains immortality. As we should anticipate, its roots are in the Underworld of Yama at the hidden pole, its top in the north polar heaven of the gods, its body is the sustaining axis of the universe - (Paradise Found)

Apparently ancient priesthoods were particularly interested in the genus Amanita. As we can see from the following photographs, there are uncanny similarities between the costumes and regalia of the Catholic clergy and the appearance of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom. Allegro's radical theories are not without credence after all.

Note the red cross on his tunic representing the sacred mushroom. Some researchers
are convinced that the cross or crucifix, as used by the Christian Church,
is itself a subliminal reference to the mushroom.

Here we see a bishop wearing garb that is certainly designed to resemble the form and color of the Amanita Muscaria mushroom. It must also be emphasized that the attire is conspicuously feminine. As Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky explained:

The pallium, or the ancient stole of the bishop, is the feminine sign when worn by a priest in worship - (The Christian Scheme)

The theft of the hierarchs of Judeo-Christianity extended to terms and words. On the Sumerian origin of the word priest, Allegro writes:

The most common Hebrew word for “priest” – kohen —familiar as well-known Jewish surname, comes from a Sumerian title meaning literally, "guardian of semen” - John Marco Allegro

The "skirt"

The "skirt"

Human mushrooms

The toadstool cap

For Jehovah is the synthesis of the Seven Elohim, the eternal center of all those attributes and forces, the Alei of the Aleim, and the Adonai of the Adonim – Madame Helena Blavatsky (The Secret Doctrine)

The elm was chosen as the tree of the gods, that is, of the Els or Als.

Elm leaves

"Old Treaty Elm," in Chicago. It marked the boundary of Fort Dearborn Indian
Reservation. The Indian Treaty of 1935 was signed beneath its canopy.

The Liberty Elm of Boston became a focal point for rebels during the
first uprisings of American patriots against British imperial domination.
Erecting liberty trees and poles was a common practice during the French Revolution.
French liberty poles were usually a tall shaved pole with a red Phrygian cap on top,
appearing not unlike the stalk and cap of an Amanita mushroom.

In European folklore, the elm is closely associated with Orpheus. The first elm is said to have appeared after the god played his lyre. Since Orpheus is connected with the Underworld, the elm has become the symbol for spiritual trials and initiations. Like the yew, it is a symbol of death and internment, and can often be found near barrows, sidhes, tombs and passage graves. Coffins have long been made of elm wood.

The President was assassinated on a street named Elm. (Just a coincidence, of course.)

The Levites and the Rowan

Just as the word Jew derives from the Irish word for yew tree, so does the ancient name Levi (or Levite) come from the Gaelic letter ”L,” known as Lewi or Luis. It can also be rendered Lewis or Louis. The letter "L" (or Luis) alluded to the Rowan tree that was the most sacred of all trees in Irish Druidism. The rowan in Danish is rönne, and in Swedish it is rönn. The name Ron (or Ronald) may derive from the name of this tree.

The Rowan (Sorbus Aucuparia) is also known as the Mountain Ash.

A Mountain Ash (Rowan) in winter

Rowan berries

The worshippers or keepers of the rowan were known as the Lewi, and this is where the word Levite originates. The original Western Levites - the Men of the Yew - were astrologers, priests, healers, and teachers. The Biblical ”Levites” adopted the old Druidic title as their own, either because they had descended from Western Druids, or because they were initiates and adepts from Druidic colleges. The Isle of Lewis in Scotland was once a major Druidic center. Place names Lewisham and Lewes derive from the root. Additionally, the supreme solar deity of the ancient Irish was known as Lugh. He appears globally as the English Llud, Sumerian Lughal, Welsh Llew, Gaulish Lugos, Italian Logos. He appears in the Christian scriptures as Saint Luke, patron saint of surgeons and healers. The word London comes from Lludunum (or Lugh’s Hill). Lugh’s temple is now the site of the Christian St. Paul’s Cathedral. The rowan may have been given its name Luis because it was sacred to Lugh. His title was Samildanach, or ”Master of all Arts.” In Masonic tradition, the term “Lewis” refers to the son of a Mason. It also refers to a particular tool employed by stonemasons.

"The chief and most holy seat of the gods," say the Eddas, "is by the ash Yggdrasil. There the gods meet in council every day. It is the greatest and best of all trees, its branches spread over all the world and reach above heaven. Three roots sustain the tree and stand wide apart" - J. H. Philpot (Trees in Religion and Myth, 1897)

Asgard, the mountain of the gods, was pierced by a mighty tree trunk, the branches of which overshadowed the world and supported the sky, the stars, and the clouds, whilst its roots stretched downwards into the primordial abyss. The apples stored in Valhal, by eating which the gods preserved their youth, closely correspond to the amrita or soma which, as we shall see, was a peculiar feature of the Eastern conception of the world-tree - J. H. Philpot (Trees in Religion and Myth, 1897)

In Norse myths the tree Yggdrasil is intimately connected to the primal parents and sacerdotal female:

There stands a beautiful hall near the fountain beneath the ash. Out of it come three maids. These maids shape the lives of men and we call them the Norns. On the boughs of the ash sits an eagle, who knows many things - (The Prose or Younger Edda. Translated by G. W. Dasent)

...we read in the Eddas that when heaven and earth had been made, Odin and his brothers walking by the sea -shore came upon two trees. These they changed into human beings, male and female. The first brother gave them soul and life ; the second endowed them with wit and will to move ; the third added face, speech, sight, and hearing. They clothed them also and chose their names, Ask for the man's and Embla for the woman's. And then they sent them forth to be the parents of the human race - J. H. Philpot (Trees in Religion and Myth, 1897)

Here we see Asari or Osiris holding the flail and sickle, two symbols associated with cultivation and harvest. As Osiris was god of the Earth and of agriculture it makes sense to see him with these two emblems. However, the flail for winnowing and the sickle for harvesting are also associated with the Western Druids. There can be little doubt that Osiris or Wesir (who was referred to as the god of the West) was originally brought to Egypt in predynastic times by the Arya or Shemsu Hor. Note also the twin trees.

To the west, to the mansions of Osiris, To the west thou are going. Thou who were best among men, Who did hate the untrue – (Egyptian Hymn to Osiris)

Osiris came from the west according to myth. He was born from the sea. He appeared as a local god in the city of Ded in the Nile Delta. Isis was sometimes called the goddess of the west – Henry Brinkley Stein (Thirty Thousand Gods Before Jehovah)

Enough exists to show that the Nordic Gods were the same as the gods of the Levant. The gardens, halls, warfare, altars, sacrifices, marriage and family life were the same - (Priesthood of the Illes)

Ancient Egypt...was essentially a penetration of Caucasoid racial elements into Africa – Robert Gayre (Miscellaneous Racial Studies)

One of the oldest cities in Southern Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) was Lagash. This name also contains the syllable of the ash tree. Lagash (from Lagas) was constructed over three thousand years BC and it served as a capital of the Sumerian (Sum Arya), Akkadian, and Guti (or Gutean) empires. Lagash and the surrounding lands were frequented (from 2150 BC) by a race known to historians as the Guti.

The name Gudea not only derives from the root gut, meaning “goat,” but it is decidedly and suggestively similar to the word Judea. This is not so remarkable when the true meaning of the terms Judea and Jew is contemplated. They did not refer to race but were titles. They referred to the yew tree or, more specifically, to “Men of the Yew,” that is to the Western Arya. A secondary connotation of Judah and Jew was “Judge.”

King Gudea of Sumeria. Sumeria is similar to a Gaelic
word meaning "serpent." The names and words Judah,
Jude, George, Tudor, Tutor, and Judge derive from the
same root as Gudea.

The name of the ash tree can be discerned in the place name Assyria (Ash Arya). The Assyrian King Ashur may have been given this title because he was considered a “god,” that is a highborn king and priest. Again, we emphasize that the trunks of trees were regarded by patristic cultures as phallic symbols, and worthy emblems of kingship and godhead.

Yggdrasil, by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine.
This is the so-called "World Ash " from which the Norse god Odin hung himself
in order to learn the secret of the Runes. Vikings referred to themselves
as the Aescling or "Men of Ash."

The trunk of an old ash

The branches of a great ash

Ash leaves

Amongst the Canaanites every altar to the god had its sacred tree beside it, and when the Israelites established local sanctuaries under their influence, they set up their altar under a green tree, and planted aside it as its indispensable accompaniment an "ashera," which was either a living tree or a tree-like post, and not a "grove," as rendered in the Authorized Version. This ashera was undoubtedly worshipped as a sacred symbol of the deity. Originally it appears to have been associated with Ashtoreth or Astarte, the Syrian Istar...But the ashera was also erected by the altars of other gods, and in pre-prophetic days even beside that of Jehovah Himself, whence it may be concluded that "in early times tree-worship had such a vogue in Canaan, that the sacred tree or the pole, its surrogate, had come to be viewed as a general symbol of deity

...Baal and Astarte generally being represented by a pillar, known as the Asherah in the Bible, a Hebrew word, also common noun, meaning a sacred tree or pole used in the goddess cult - David Livingstone (The Dying God)

The very term ashera, derives from ash, meaning "holy" or "god" and era, meaning "earth" or "place." Era was also the name of the primordial goddess of the Irish or Arish. Indeed, the very names Irish and Arya derive from her name, as to words and names such as terra, Tara, Taara, Tyre, Taurt, and so on. The origin of the name Osiris or, more correctly, Asar or Asura, comes from the ancient Irish god Aesar (or Iesa), no different than the Celtic Esus. The name Asar means "sacred tree." Similar terms such as asa, aesir, or asha, mean "gods."

In the Bible the Christian mythmongers inverted the story of the female and her connection to the life-giving tree. The proto-Christians were Atonists, or members of the Solar Cult. They were paternalistic and so was their god. Even though Jehovah's name meant "yew tree," his servants were determined to downplay the pagan elements of their theology, presenting their solar heroes (Solomon, David, Joseph, Samson, Moses, Aaron, Jesus, and others) as stand alone characters. In the New Testament the main women around Jesus are portrayed as being of low character, and Paul makes several scathing remonstrations against women in his writings. Apparently, this extremist attitude was a phenomenon that crept in after the second century AD. In early Judaism women were revered and there are hints throughout the scriptures indicating that women played a significant role in Christianity before its official codification at Nicea. Nevertheless, the Old Testament mythmongers made a complete travesty of the story concerning the goddess and her relationship to the sacred tree and serpent of wisdom. Despite the fact that the mythmongers radically skewed and adulterated the story of the primal parents in the garden, and despite the textual contradictions and improbable elements of their concoction - and despite it being proven that the main allusions predate both Judaism and Christianity - millions of adherents stubbornly believe that what they read in the Book of Genesis actually happened. They believe that Eve was responsible for man's sorry predicament, by tempting him to disobey Yahweh and eat the forbidden fruit.

From the Old Testament onward we read many diatribes against womankind. We also have remonstrations against the veneration of nature and other gods and goddesses:

And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat...Behold! the man has become one of us, to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live evermore – Genesis (3:13 & 22)

Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger – (Jeremiah 7:17–18)

In pre-monotheistic ages the Sophic female was the guide and instructor. She is the portal to the mysteries. As Arcanum II of the Tarot shows, she sits at the portal of the temple, in front of the sacred tree. She is the first ambassador of god, not the male hero or saint. She is also the first sacrificed or crucified one, meaning that she gives up her "life," as the Earth does, that humankind can live and grow. Men begin as seeds in her  "garden" or womb, and at his death a man returns to her arms - his breath returns to the sky and his flesh to the Earth.

In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations - (Revelations 22:2)

As we have stated elsewhere, Biblical concoctions such as the Genesis story are terribly mutilated renditions of Irish and Amenist (Aryan) creation sagas and initiation rites. When re-rendered in a pristine form, without the propagandist elements introduced by the Christian or Atonist priesthood, the mythographs take on a very different complexion. Our point is confirmed by Masonic author Albert Churchward, who wrote:

Caesar and other Roman writers, as well as the Greeks, knew nothing of the esoteric wisdom of Ancient Egypt, and therefore of the Druids. They perverted all that had been told them – (The Origins and Evolution of Religion)

Biblicists cannot provide us with a good reason as to why God was angry at Eve for eating of the Tree of Life. Apparently, once consumed, the fruit of the tree could have made Adam and Eve into gods. It could have opened their eyes and shown them the nature of good and evil. It was a unique and curious fruit to be sure. But if it was so important to God that man did not partake of the forbidden fruit, why did he draw Adam’s attention to the fruit’s existence? Why did he plant the tree if its fruit was so dangerous? Surely he could not have been testing Adam? Well, not surprisingly, answers to our questions are scarce. They are answered, however, by unbiased investigators in no doubt about the Vatican's insidious lie-machinery:

In the Persian myth of the creation, the first human pair that emerged from the mythical world-tree and were born upon this earth were named respectively Meshia and Meshiane. These are two unmistakable Irish named characters...That the Persians got their chief gods from the ancient Irish is indubitable – Conor MacDari

The Pope, though he permits our typifying Jesus as a fish, as the sun, as bread, as the vine, as a shepherd, as a rock, as a conquering hero, even as a winged serpent, yet, threatens us with hell fire if we ever dare to celebrate him in terms of the venerable gods whom he has superseded and from whose ritual every one of these symbols has been derived - Robert Graves

Note the twin sprigs at the top of the tree, similar
 in design to the wings of the hermetic caduceus.

Above we see a Grecian depiction of the tree ostensibly representing god, beside which stand the primal couple Dionysus and Minerva (re-scripted by the mythmongers as Adam and Eve.) The tree has a serpent coiling round its trunk. This symbol of the tree and serpent was the hierogram for the goddess Ishtar or Astarte. Some legends hold that the god of the tree created woman not as a companion for man but as consort for himself. He wished to mate with her, and from their union came man. Ergo, woman is not man’s equal or wife but his superior.

The reproduction of the species is feminine: it runs steadily and quietly through all species, animal or human, through all short-lived cultures. It is primary, unchanging, everlasting, maternal, plantlike, and cultureless. If we look back we find that it is synonymous with life itself – Oswald Spengler

Woman exists everlasting, self-subsistent, immutable; man, evolving, is subject to continual decay. In the realm of the physical, therefore, the masculine principle is of second rank, subordinate, to the feminine - J. J. Bacofen (Das Mutterrecht, Vol. II)

The prime datum is the earth, the basic maternal substance. Visible creation proceeds from her womb, and it is only then that the sexes become divided into two, only then does the masculine come into being. Thus the male and female do not appear simultaneously; they are not of the same order...The female is primary, the male is only what comes out of her - ibid

The Judeo-Christian priesthood drastically altered the role and significance of the Sophic female. She was no longer the consort and equal of God, but a disobedient miscreant who led man (God's first creation) into sin and perdition.

In no land or literature has the mythical mode of representation been perverted and reduced to driveling foolishness more fatally than in some of the Hebrew legends – Gerald Massey

We still have the motif of the divine woman and the tree, but in mutilated form. Nevertheless, it is there in the New Testament’s account of Mary the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene standing near to the cross (tree) on Golgotha. As we said, the very name Mary denotes the myrrh tree. (Jesus was allegedly offered wine and myrrh during his ordeal on Mount Calvary.) Sadly, in the adulterated Christian version the women are demure and woeful and the tree reduced in aspect to an loathsome instrument of torture. It is neither a god nor a lover. It is not a goddess symbol. It is still a sacrificial object, but that is its only resemblance to the pagan antetype.

In the unadulterated version of the mythos, to be in the presence of the sacred tree and/or serpent meant to be near God. Originally, the woman shown in close proximity to either one, is in the company of God, her creator, consort, and lover. Clearly, given the imagery used by the Christian mythmongers, Jesus stands in the place of the serpent of wisdom. The paternalistic priests supplanted the goddess and replaced her with their masculine god and hero.

The Real Burning Bush

Madonna of the Pomegranate, by Sandro Botticelli.
Note how the body of Mary and the halo of emanating light
make the form of a mushroom. Clearly, images of apples,
and pomegranates are stand-ins for the Amanita Muscaria.

As the Tarot shows, the High Priestess sits in front of the sacred tree as its guardian and caretaker. In many ancient legends, such as that pertaining to Ishtar, the tree was a symbol for god, her lover. In other versions, Ishtar was, like Isis and Nuith, herself the living tree.

Our Lady of Dry Tree, Petrus Christus

The Burning Bush, by Nicolas Froment. This artist leaves us in
no doubt as to the true identity of the burning bush. He does not
depict a male god in its center, but the female Mary. Observe also
that the tree is is on a mound. Furthermore, the Virgin appears
to be seated on a grove rather than a single tree. Suggestively, the
term paradise means "enclosed garden."

Mary Magdalene, by Lucas Cranach the Elder. Mary is evidently
the living tree and mushroom. Note the golden cap she stands upon,
and her richly colored and embroidered garment.

Madonna and Child, by Carlo Crivelli.
Note the halo styled to subliminally represent the cap of a Amanita mushroom.
Observe also the striking colors of her garment.

The wrinkled and speckled "skirt" of a dried mushroom.
Its white flecks are often referred to as "warts."

A wart encrusted cap

The Madonna of Humility, by Zanobi Strozzi. Note the large cushion
subtly styled to resemble the red cap of the Amanita Muscaria.

The Madonna, by Giovanni di Pietro.
Note the extraordinary red cape with monogram of Bacchus/Dionysus,
her floral tunic and golden mushroom-cap background.

Venus and Cupid, by Lucas Cranach the Elder.
Note the goddesses red hair and mushroom-like headgear. She stands beside
the fruit-laden tree behind which stands a stag connoting Herne, the Aryan god of forests.
She is the living mushroom that appears (grows) in the shade of a tree. Cupid offers her a
honeycomb which (like grapes, figs and berries, etc) serves as a simulacra for the sweet
dish of the forbidden fruit. The artist wants us to regard Venus herself as the forbidden fruit.
He cleverly blurs the metaphors of the woman, tree, and mushroom.

The angry god Vajrapani. Note his tree of flame. (It's an old story.)

Vajrapani was the protector of Buddha. He is a very old god.
One of his symbols is the thunderbolt. Some scholars associate
Vajrapani with Aryan god Indra and Grecian hero Hercules.

When all is said and done, these legendary accounts make a great deal more sense than the Book of Genesis which tells us that God eternally condemned and punished Adam and Eve for disobediently eating of a tree's fruit. We are never told why the act was so forbidden and fatal or why a supposedly loving and good God would be so angry and vengeful. We have few answers until we realize that the Bible does not contain God's words, but man's words.

We are told that the prohibition to eat the fruit was issued to Adam before Eve was released from her imprisonment in Adam’s rib...before she became a woman and a wife; and it is not even implied that it was intended to extend to her. Why, then, in the name of God, should such curses be heaped upon her devoted head for eating the fruit when she had not been forbidden to do so? – Joseph Wheless (Bible of Bibles)

And so, given what we now know about the relationship between the female goddess and sacred tree, we might return to the relevant Biblical passages and question whether the term "burning bush" refers obliquely to the female goddess rather than to the male god.

Diana Lucifera, or Hecate, the Greek version of the illumined or "burning" goddess.
She represented resurrection and spiritual understanding.

The Lady of Columbia Pictures Company

The Lady of Columbia and Lady Liberty suggestively resemble
Diana Lucifera, the goddess of light and secret knowledge.

Pope as Diana Lucifera

The Pythonic Oracle of Delphi

The goddess Hecate was known as "the Savior"

Syrian goddess Atargatis, the "Lady Goddess of the Sea,"
is often depicted as a mermaid. She is associated with Canaanite
goddesses Anat, Asherah, and Astarte. Here she is
seen with her symbol, the serpent.

Mary as Diana Lucifera

While we ask this question, we should note what various "informed" artists of the Renaissance and other periods have secretly revealed to us in their canvases. We should also remind ourselves that the name Jehovah is made up of two masculine letters and two feminine letters. Both it, and the term Elohim, are plural words. In fact, the word Jehovah (like Havvah, meaning "Eve") ends with a feminine vowel.

The figure of Eve is based upon much older mythology and may be traced back to the ancient Mother Goddess or World Mother and the serpent cults of the pre-Biblical period. Closer examination of the name ‘Eve’ revealed her serpent origins, for the Hebrew for Eve is havvah, meaning ‘mother of all things,’ but also ‘serpent.’ Likewise, the Arabic words for ‘snake,’ ‘life,’ and ‘teaching,’ are closely related to the word or name “Eve’ – Philip Gardiner and Gary Osborn (The Serpent Grail)

...in the Near East the primordial serpent is described as feminine, and we may suspect that in this region the myth did indeed become a metaphor for the conquest of matriarchy. But its universality suggests that there is yet a deeper, psycho-spiritual meaning behind it - Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson (Mythic Astrology)

The serpent energy is definitely one of the most primeval archetypes and in all ancient cultures was intimately connected with the mysteries of the divine female - Crompton

Then the Female Spiritual Principle came in the Snake Instructor, and it taught them saying..."with death you shall not die" - (The Hypostasis of the Archon)

The Madonna and Child. Note the tree and encircling
human-headed serpent on the right of the canvas.

As we said earlier, the Bible is full of sabean references, as well as vegetal leitmotifs plagiarized from the pagans. One of the best examples of priestly plagiarization and adaption is found in the Gospel of Mark. It is the beautiful account of the anointing of Jesus with priceless spikenard. The anointing, however, was not done by a priest or disciple, but by a woman, and a fallen one at that:

And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me - (Mark 14:3-6)

Frederick Sandys' exquisite painting of Mary Magdalene, the anointer of Jesus

In Aramaic, Magdala means "Tower." In this context the surname is an oblique reference to Isis and Nephthys, the goddesses of Egypt. (The headdress of Nephthys was a tower.) However, in Sumerian Magdal means "Shepherd." This is a reference to astrology and Egyptian royalty. The implication is that Mary was a high-born adept. The term Meri was a pseudonym for many Egyptian queens and princesses, such as Meritaten. It meant "beloved," and is a variant of the word myrrh. The jar or alabastron is a symbol of the goddess Ma'at. It is the hieroglyphic for the word "heart." The English variant would be "love."

In some traditions Mary brings myrrh to Jesus, not spikenard. Here we see a mosaic entitled The Myrrh-Bearing Women, from the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother in Sicily. Note the strange mushroom shape of the tomb from which Jesus has resurrected.

One of the Magdalene's titles is "Great and Holy Myrrh-Bearer." Jesus was not only presented with myrrh on his day or birth, but was also given myrrh wine to drink minutes before expiring on the cross.

Extracting aromatic resin from myrrh trees.

  

Mary (myrtle or myrrh) anoints Jesus with spikenard (or nard) and sanctifies him. In other words, he becomes the spikenard and becomes one with the natural order represented by the sacerdotal female and/or goddess - the same goddess who appears in Egyptian iconography as the tree.

Mary of Bethany ‘Christ-ened’ Jesus with the Spikenard, an unguent that had very likely, been kept for that occasion, and was an ointment associated with burial rites. Jesus himself remarked of the anointing (Mark 14:8); ‘…she has come a forehand to anoint my body to the burying’. In his mind, at least, it was intended to be a ritual...the ceremony is hardly typical of Judaic practice - Picknett and Prince (Templar Revelation)

Spikenard is a potent plant from which an extremely aromatic resin is extracted. In ancient times it was very rare and expensive and was used ritually. It was frequently employed by women during pregnancy, but had many other properties. The term "nard" (spikenard's original name) comes from an ancient city of that name in Syria and is a variation of narthex, the name for a church lobby where holy water and other sacred objects are often kept. The vegetal symbolism should not surprise us because simple observation shows us that the portals, doorways, spires, domes, and interiors of countless churches, cathedrals, mosques, and synagogues, bear floral motifs, not less the chapel of Rosslyn, Scotland. (Here for more on spikenard.)

Again, we see that the mythmongers simply plagiarized the pagan canon to borrow a well known image that relates not only to marriage, pregnancy, and birth, but spiritual awakening. This kind of appropriation is in evidence from Genesis to Revelation. The beautiful account in Mark lets the educated reader know that the Jesus story predates the advent of Christianity. Despite the Christian context, the story of Mary anointing Jesus with sacred oil harkens back to the age when priest-kings were ritually consecrated by women. Mark's account brings the sacred female and sacred plant together in one setting. Whether it is accounts of Mary Magdalene with her costly spikenard or mourning beneath the cross on Calvary, or whether it is Mary the Madonna with lilies, roses, and fleur-de-lis - in each mythograph there is a subtextual reference to trees and plants. As we said, the myths make more sense when we understand that, symbolically speaking, the sacerdotal woman is the tree or plant. To the pagan mind she (Eve, Mary, Isis, Nuith, or Taurt, etc) was literally the living tree or burning bush.

The Hebrew folkloric collection known as the Haggadah specifically identifies the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge as the fig. The woman’s name became Anglicized as Eve, Hava in Latin, which means “the mother of all”...from the Hebrew Havvah, or "Life," the "Living One...” - Carl A. P. Ruck (Sacred Mushrooms of the Goddess)

The Christians, from the time of the Catacombs, placed two figures on the sides of their principal emblems — not only of the Cross, which is also called "a Tree of Life," but also of the Chrism, the labarum, the rouelle, the Crown, the bunch of Grapes, the Eucharistic Cup, and so forth - Goblet d'Alviella (The Migration of Symbols, 1894)

Luca Signorelli's red-haired Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene. Officially the skull indicates Golgotha,
the "Hill of Skulls" where the crucifixion occurred. Esoterically, it is
added either to indicate hidden messages in the painting or to convey
that the artist was himself a initiate of the secret school.

Mary Magdalene mourning

Mary mourning

Mary at the tomb (in a garden or grove)

The Annunciation, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

A red-haired Mary Magdalene disguised as a male disciple sits at the Last Supper beside Jesus in the seat of honor. Her clothes match those worn by Jesus, and the negative space between the two figures makes the V-like "chalice" that indicates feminine mysteries. It is the symbol of the Grail that exoterically denotes the blood of Christ, but esoterically the bloodline or biological descendants of Jesus. (According to legend the female child of Jesus and Mary Magdalene was named Sarah, from Sarai, meaning "princess." Thus, a royal lineage is suggested.)

In recent times these facts have come to public attention because of popular books such as Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The da Vinci Code, etc. However, some researchers believe it was John the Baptist who was the true messiah, not Jesus. They believe there was factional rivalry between the sects who followed Jesus and John, and they believe that much of the symbolism surrounding Jesus actually belongs to John, the true "Teacher of Righteousness." In any case, we believe the entire Judaic and Christian corpus to be founded on feminine goddess imagery and Irish and Egyptian deities (such as Esus, Horus, Osiris, Isis, and so on). The feminine imagery that crops up in Christianity (as in Leonardo's painting above and in references to the various Marys), obliquely references goddesses of antiquity such as Isis, Ishtar, Sophia, Taurt, Nuith, Danu, Brigit, and the other female deities associated with the moon and night sky. In other words, the iconography of religion is ultimately astrological as well as natural and spiritual. (For more on the controversy between Jesus and John, refer to the books Templar Revelation and Masks of Christ, by Picknett and Prince.)

So there were four categories of missionary proselytizing the Empire: the Jewish version, Paul and those following his “revealed” form, others who also added a Hellenistic twist, and John the Baptist’s followers. It was a busy, chaotic, and heady mix, all inspired by those events that had taken place a few in a short few years in a far-flung corner of the Empire – Picknett and Prince (Masks of Christ)

We find it most appropriate that in the book and film The da Vinci Code, Professor Langdon tells Sophie, in the basement of Rosslyn Chapel, that she "is the secret." Perhaps that is the most pertinent line in the entire book.

Achilles, the archetypal hero.
Described as red-headed, his name allegedly means "sorrowful nation"
or "sorrowful world." However, the word Illes connotes "rulers,"
"eternals," or "gods." In Sanskrit Illa means "serpent," as in "eel."

Boudica, the Celtic Queen of the Iceni.
Greek historian Dio Cassius described her as "tall and terrifying
in appearance...a great mass of red hair...over her shoulders." Homer
described the hero Menelaus as being red-haired.

The archetypal red-haired female turns up today in the media
frequently styled as a temptress, succubus, or witch.

When is an ad just an ad?

Johann Godron's red-haired Madonna. Regardless of whether it is the Magdalene or the Virgin Mary, the symbolism is usually consistent. In every case and scenario she is the living "Tree of Life" or "Burning Bush."

The Bardi Altarpiece, by Sandro Botticelli

Annunciation, by Sandro Botticelli

In Christian iconography the lily is closely associated with the Madonna. However, this flower has been the insignia of Upper Egypt for millennia. The papyrus reed symbolized the lands of Lower Egypt. When Horus was born, Isis had to raise him in the swamps in order to hide him from Set who desired his death. This is why we see the lily in close proximity to Mary and Jesus. It symbolizes protection from evil and the care of the mother for her child. The Amenists who respected the goddesses of Earth and sky had their most important temples at Thebes in Upper Egypt. The Atonist Cult were situated primarily in Heliopolis, Avaris, Memphis, Giza, Amarna, and other cities and locales of Lower Egypt and Delta region.

Madonna and Child, by Sandro Botticelli.
We see the apple in the hands of Jesus and his mother. This identifies
Mary with Eve of the Genesis story or, more correctly, the sidereal story.

A red-haired Madonna. Note the berries, the tree and apple.

The Annunciation to Joachim and Anna, by Gaudenzio Ferrari

In Ferrari's rather bizarre painting we see the moment when the Holy Spirit comes onto Mary to conceive Jesus. However, Mary's heart appears to be pierced by a tree trunk that bends toward her. Or alternatively, the artist may be suggesting that the tree grows out of her body. Again, as in so many paintings of Mary, we see her in an enclosed garden or grove.

A red-haired Madonna with garland

Officially it is Jesus who was impaled on the cross. However, as we have emphasized above, this grotesque image is a priestly travesty. It is a mutilated version of a profound sidereal mythograph. Before the rise of Christianity it was the female goddess who personified the tree or cross which in turn represented the astronomical pole and circumpolar zone. The male figure was deliberately interpolated by paternalistic mythmongers. Through their egregious contrivance the male hero assumed the place traditionally reserved for the Sophic female. He sacrificed and bled as she did, and ascended to heaven as she had ascended to the stars millennia before the first stone of the first Christian church was set in place.

It was Rudolf Bultmann, the German Biblical scholar, who cited certain passages in the Gospels...as interpolations of Sophia herself, put into the mouth of Christ - Caitlin Matthews (Sophia: Goddess of Wisdom)

The incarnate god was probably representative of a god or spirit of earth, growth, or vegetation, represented also by a tree – J. A. MacCulloch (The Religion of the Ancient Celts)

The primal Stellar Cult paradise was the place of one tree. The paradise or garden in Amenta (Solar Cult) is the place of two trees...These two trees appear in the Ritual as the tree of Hathor and the tree of Nut; the tree of the Earth and the tree of Heaven; the tree of the North and the tree of the East. The tree of Hathor was the tree of life - Albert Churchward (The Origins and Evolution of Religion)

...certain cuneiform texts seem to prove that the Assyro-Chaldeans were acquainted with a “Tree of Life.” Whether it was thus styled because it served as a simulacrum of the Goddess of Life, or whether it represented this divinity by reason of its own mythical function, the fact is none the less certain, according to Mr. Sayce, that the “divine Lady of Eden” or Edin, was termed in Northern Babylon, before receiving from the Semites the name Bab Ilu, the “Gate of God”…in the old language of the country, Tintirkel, or Dintir-ra, which most Assyriologists translate as “the place of the Tree (or Grove) of Life” – Count Goblet D’Alviella (The Migration of Symbols, 1894)

Ezekiel complained that Jewish women spent much of their time "making hangings for the groves" (Ezek 16:16) - Ernest Busenbark (Symbols, Sex and the Stars)

In short, the Biblical "Jesus" who was born of a woman named Miriam (Mary), given myrrh at this birth and death, anointed with spikenard by another female named Mary, and hung on a cross, is - as a multiplicity of informed artists have figuratively implied - a compromise between the male god and female goddess. After all, Jesus is depicted as distinctly androgynous by most Christian artists. This makes him the equivalent of many gods of antiquity, such as the Babylonian Bel and Canaanite Baal:

Baal was one of two separate deities, at times represented the dual gender of a single androgynous deity. As twins, Baal and Astarte were two aspects of one god, who personified the reproductive energies of nature. Baal, came to represent the sky god, the god of thunder, who fertilizes the goddess, mother earth, to bring forth life...Baal and Astarte generally being represented by a pillar, known as the Asherah in the Bible, a Hebrew word, also common noun, meaning a sacred tree or pole used in the goddess cult - David Livingstone (The Dying God)

It was not until the sixth century that images of Jesus showed him as an adult bearded male. Before that century Jesus was always depicted as an androgynous youth. What is more, the crucifixion of Jesus took place on a hill sacred to the goddess Aphrodite (or Venus) who was often referred to as the fiery-haired goddess.

 

Descent From the Cross, by Hans Memling. The blood is
symbol of the goddess and of the sap of the sacred mushroom.

 Christ on the Cross, by Jan Van Eyck. Note the
 mushroom-shaped tree on the hill to the right of the crucifix.

Christ resurrected from the tomb, by Hans Memling.
The mushroom-shape is unmistakable. The raised arms made
by Mary and Jesus in art, derives from the pose of Egyptian god Shu.

At the Last Supper, Jesus may have broken and distributed the bread and offered his disciples the red wine, but as we saw above, the wine and bread are symbols that represent the sacerdotal female who in turn represents nature. It is mother nature who brings the vines to fruition and distributes the bread made from and containing flour, seeds, yeast, salt, and water. Again, we see the duplicity and cunning of the Judeo-Christian mythmongers. They interpolated their male hero and skewed the mythic motifs to suit their propagandist schemes.

He that reads ecclesiastical history, reads nothing but roguery and folly of bishops and churchmen - Hugo Grotius (1583-1645. Philosopher)

Had the keys to the hieratic writings and the secret Egyptian and Hindu symbolism been known to the Christian Fathers, they would not have allowed a single monument of old to stand unmutilated - Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Isis Unveiled)

It has already been stated in “Isis Unveiled” that so far back as in the days of Aristotle, the great Mysteries had already lost their primitive grandeur and solemnity. Their rites had fallen…and they had to a great degree degenerated into mere priestly speculation and had become religious shams - Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Occultism)

The Vatican is the storehouse of an immense number of ancient manuscripts. During the long interval of nearly 1,500 years they have been accumulating, from trial after trial, books and manuscripts confiscated from their sentenced victims, to their own profit. The Catholics may plead that the books were generally committed to the flames; that the treatises of famous sorcerers and enchanters perished with their accursed authors. But the Vatican, if it could speak, could tell a different story. It knows too well of the existence of certain closets and rooms, access to which is had but by the very few. It knows that the entrances to these secret hiding-places are so cleverly concealed from sight in the carved frame-work and under the profuse ornamentation of the library-walls, that there have even been Popes who lived and died within the precincts of the palace without ever suspecting their existence. When one has such treasures at hand - original manuscripts, papyri, and books pillaged from the richest libraries; old treatises an magic and alchemy; and records of all the trials for witchcraft, and sentences for the same to rack, stake, and torture, it is mighty easy to write volumes of accusations against the Devil. We affirm on good grounds that there are hundreds of the most valuable works on the occult sciences, which are sentenced to eternal concealment from the public, but are attentively read and studied by the privileged who have access to the Vatican Library - Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Magic in the Church)

The Chemycal Wedding

A great mind must be androgynous - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The unification of opposites is known in alchemical parlance as Coniunctionis, Hieros Gamos or Chemycal Wedding. The state has been symbolized by the cross, the cross or square within a circle, the hexagram, the marriage of a king and queen or prince and princess, the vesica pisces or mandorla, the nucleation of four stars, colors, animals, people, or other units, and by the eclipse of the sun and moon. It has also been symbolized by a single open eye. As we mentioned above, the very names Jehovah and Elohim connote androgyny and contain feminine suffixes. However, when it comes to gods and religion, androgyny is a very old story. From the Pyramid Texts, we read:

I am Atum, the creator of the Eldest Gods,
I am he who gave birth to Shu,
I am that great he-she.
I am he who did what seemed good to him,
I took my space in the place of my will.
Mine is the space of those who move along
like those two serpentine circles

Above we see a painting by the Renaissance master Rafael (1483-1520 AD). On either side of the crucifix (astrological pole) we the sun and moon occupying the sky during the day. We also see the four mysterious letters above the head of Jesus - INRI. This cryptic term does not mean "King of the Jews." It is a reference to the four elements. In Hebrew, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth are named: Iammim, Nour, Ruach, and Ibeshah. The initial letters of which are I, N, R, I. (In Latin the initial letters of the names of the elements are also INRI.) The unification of the luminaries represents androgyny, that is, the harmonization of masculine and feminine energies. The actualization of this numinous state was once the supreme goal of yoga, magic, alchemy, and religion.

...if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light - (Matthew 6:22)

When you make the two one, and when you make the inside as the outside, and the outside as the inside, and the upper as the lower, and when you make the male and the female into a single one, so that the male is not male and the female not female, and when you make eyes in place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then shall you enter the kingdom – (Gospel of Thomas)

If two make peace with each other in this one house, they will say to the mountain, 'Move Away,' and it will move away – ibid

Make a circle of the Man and Woman, In the circle make a square, Within the square, Make a triangle, And you will have the Philosopher’s Stone – Alchemical Adage

The Tree of Iesa

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his root - (Isaiah 11:1)

In Mantegna's Adoration of the Shepherds we see Joseph leaning against the trunk of an apple tree "sleeping." This is simply a artistic device indicating to the initiated that Joseph is (to express it diplomatically) under the influence of a psychotropic substance. The image of a sleeping prophet reoccurs in an Old Testament prophesy concerning the birth of Jesus. The passage, from chapter eleven in the Book of Isaiah, is remarkably Druidic in its imagery, particularly when we acknowledge that the so-called Jesse was based on the ancient Irish god Esa, Esus or Iesa, antetype for Jesus, Horus, Bacchus, Orpheus, and many other deities.

In the Latin Vulgate the Druidic imagery is more pronounced. Instead of "shoot" the Vulgate has "green twig." In Latin this is virga, a pun on the word "virgin." Again we see that the mythmongers were completely aware of the relationship between the goddess and sacred tree.

 

Tree of Jesse with "salamanders" (serpents) representing fire
and mystical transport. A burning tree indeed. The customary imagery employed to
depict this Biblical passage is consistently floral and serpentine. (When mapping a
family's lineage we still commonly depict the line of generations in the form of a tree.)

The female Virgin as the Tree of Jesse

Mushroom-shaped Tree of Jesse

A mushroom-shaped Tree of Jesse inside the vesica or womb symbol

Mary as the living mushroom with Christ as the cap

The Serpent Priests

Jesus said, "The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge (gnosis) and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however, be as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves" - (Gospel of Thomas)

The Druids spread their traditions and knowledge throughout the world. We find relics of their presence in the Middle and Far East, in Egypt, India, and China. The hallmark of their theology was reverence for nature. To the Arya and Druids, the earth was alive, intelligent, and sacred. One meaning of the word Druid is "Keeper or Servant of Truth." Another is "Door of Gate Keeper." The Gaelic word Doire, refers to the Druids and is the origin of the modern word "door." Of course, we recall the many Megalithic sites and stone monuments, erected at the behest of the Druidic Order, that often resemble portals or doorways.

The Druids referred to themselves as the Naddreds or Adders. These terms, like the Hindu Naga, mean "Serpents." The Druids were, therefore, a Serpent Priesthood. This does not mean anything sinister. It merely means that they were astrologers and members of the Stellar Cult. It also means that they were geomancers, familiar with the subtle energy pathways of the Earth. We saw above how the Caduceus of Hermes represented the healing arts. The term for serpent in Hebrew, nahash, also means "those who know." This symbol of the staff and serpent was erected in the wilderness by Moses after the exodus. This act not only confirms that Moses was of Pharaonic bloodline, but that he was familiar with Druidic ways. In other words, he and his Israelites were Arya. The staff and snake appeared earlier in the Old Testament. In the Book of Exodus Aaron and Moses turn their royal staffs into serpents in front of the Pharaoh to negotiate the release of the Israelites:

And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent – (Exodus 7:5-7)

The so-called ”Brazen Serpent” was the standard of a sect known as Naassians. In ancient Hebrew, Nasi referred to a spiritual or religious leader. Moses was an Atonist who understood that the sun had passed from the house of Taurus into that of Aries. He wanted his people to honor that sidereal change. The stories of the erecting of the standard in the "Wilderness" and the conflict on Mount Sinai cryptically conceal astrological phenomena. (See Jesus: Last of the Pharaohs, by Ralph Ellis for more on this subject.)

Of course, it is interesting to find out how important the serpent symbol was to the Western Arya and Druids. This is particularly so, given that snakes as a species are not found in Ireland. It is also significant because we see that the Egyptian priest-kings also showed inordinate reverence for the symbol. The Pharaohs donned the Uraeus serpent coronet as a sign of mastery and enlightenment. (The word pharaoh comes from "pharos nous," meaning "enlightened or fiery mind.")

The priests of the Mysteries were symbolized as a serpent, sometimes called Hydra...The Serpent Kings reigned over the earth. It was these Serpent Kings who founded the Mystery Schools which later appeared as the Egyptian and Brahmin Mysteries...The serpent was their symbol...They were the true Sons of Light, and from them have descended a long line of adepts and initiates - Manly Palmer Hall (The Secret Teachings of All Ages)

It was, however, not physical snakes or reptiles that interested the adepts and caused them to adopt serpentine iconography. It was the stellar antetype that fascinated these astrologically-minded men. It was the giant constellation of Draco that caught their eyes and imagination. It was the protector of the heavens, of Eden, of paradise. It coiled around the pole and kept watch over the sacred apples or stars. It was the circumpolar dragon, the guardian of the imperishable Khus, or everlasting souls that traversed the many demanding trials of the afterlife to enter Amenta in a morally uncorrupted state.

...the Uraeus...is frequently represented as guarding the sacred cypress groves of the Amenti (Sheol) by breathing out fire to destroy any invading or unjustified soul. Hence the origin of the Grecian myth of the Hesperides garden and the fire-breathing dragons which guarded it - William Ricketts Cooper (The Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt)

The great constellation of Draco was seen and revered by most of the civilized cultures and tribes of the Northern hemisphere. The Nordics shaped their great boats in the form of Draco the cosmic dragon. The Native American Indians named their tribes after it, and performed many dances to represent celestial movements. The Irish Druids made good use of the symbol on their monuments.

A symbol of sacred knowledge in antiquity was a tree, ever guarded by a serpent, the serpent or dragon of wisdom. The serpent of Hercules was said to guard the golden apples that hung from the pole, the Tree of Life, in the midst of the garden of Hesperides. The serpent that guarded the golden fruit...and the serpent of the Garden of Eden...are the same – E. Valentia Straiton (The Celestial Ship of the North)

...the nuptial tree, round which coils the serpent, is connected with time and with life as a necessary condition; and with knowledge – the knowledge of a scientific priesthood, inheriting records and traditions hoary, perhaps, with the snows of a glacial epoch – Kennersley Lewis

The term Messiah is not a Jewish term. It is an Egyptian pseudonym for the initiated man. Specifically, it signified an adept and astrologer. This is why the serpent becomes the symbol of the adept. It represents Draco in the sky. He is emblazoned with the emblem of his school, so to speak. He wears the symbol of his college and his level of matriculation. The word itself comes from messe or messeh, which referred to the fat of the crocodile. The modern word Mass (as in a Christian "Mass") comes from the same root. The initiate was anointed in the oil from the Nile crocodile. The crocodile god, Sobek or Sebek, represented the astrological or stellar serpent, Draco. And astrology was what Messiahship was originally all about.

The king was not anointed with oil, but with the fat of the crocodile. This is the original source of the word “Messiah.” Messeh was the word for crocodile, in ancient Egypt. The image of the two crocodiles formed the title of his coronation - Moustafa Gadalla (Historical Deception)

The most common Hebrew word for “priest” – kohen — familiar as well-known Jewish surname, comes from a Sumerian title meaning literally, "guardian of semen” - John Marco Allegro

...you have been anointed by the Holy One and have knowledge of all things...the anointing which you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you; as his chrism teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him - (I John 2:20 and 27)

Sobek, Sebek, or Sobek Ra, the friendly and protecting dragon
or serpent god. He was the prototype for the Holy Spirit. In this
scene he is followed by the goddess Isis. As we have emphasized
throughout our work, the serpent and goddess are closely related
and represent the same sidereal and metaphysical principles.
On the headdresses of both figures, we see the Uraeus serpent.

The anointing of the priest-king or Messiah.

John Allegro leaves us in no doubt of the connections between this "oil" or Chrism and the sacred mushroom. He wrote:

The semen of the fertility god could be seen spurting as rain from heaving during an orgasmic thunderstorm; in concentrated form it appeared in certain powerful plants like the Mandrake, or Holy Plant, identified in many cultures with the sacred fungus, Amanita muscaria, or in the aromatic gums and resins that formed part of the traditional unctions of priests and kings. Such functionaries thus became `holy,' that is separated to the god's service, being smeared, or `anointed' with his divine substance. They were therefore called `the anointed ones,' that is, `messiahs,' or christs, more specifically in the Old Testament, `those anointed with Jehovah/Yahweh' - (The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth)

Another name for the polar region was "Meskhen," meaning "womb" or "birthplace." This celestial garden turns up in the Bible as the Garden of Eden. It is the origin of paradise (from para dios or “park of the gods”), and of Zion, which, like the English word zone, signifies a sacred enclosure. It is the antetype upon which Caer Sidi, Arcadia, Aaru, Avalon, Asgard, Emrys, Camelot, Swarga, Elysium, and the Garden of Hesperides were based. To members of the Stellar Cult, the “apples” of Hesperides are the seven everlasting stars of the northern sky. The “apple tree” being the pole.

It is likely that the main cult of the prehistoric people was that of a Mother Goddess who was also the sky - R. T. Rundle Clark (Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt)

The pole had been the tree first planted in the astronomical mythology. It was the tree of Nut, or heaven, in the stellar phase, and being astronomical it was naturally the tree of knowledge – Gerald Massey

Here we see the circumpolar womb or "Meshken" with Taurt (the hippo goddess) and Draco (the crocodile god) protecting the zone.

Taurt's primordial symbol - the Nile river hippopotamus - can be
seen in the very center of the Dendera zodiac.

The circumpolar region is depicted in the center of the ancient zodiac of Dendera dedicated to Hathor and Isis, goddesses who were later personifications of the primordial Taurt.

Taurt is identical with the Irish Tara or Eri.

Here we see Taurt (pronounced TA URT) suckling Pharaoh Heremheb. He partakes of her body, and becomes awakened to higher life. Note the Uraeus serpent that emanates from her body, and the another coiled around the sacred plant or tree, the "Tree of Life." Note the similarity of the plant's blossoms to the fleur-de-lis, that appears on Vatican iconography and British and French heraldry. As we can see from this image, the fleur-de-lis is hardly connected to the Christian Virgin Mary, as most historians erroneously allege. The symbol of the Vulture above Taurt is one of her main totems, and was later converted to the eagle seen on the American seal. Taurt is identical to the Phoenician-Canaanite goddess Astarte or Ashtaroth, the Akkadian Ishtar.

In Palestine, the Bible tells us, they venerated...the simulacra of Ashtaroth, representing this goddess of the fruitful and nourishing earth under the form of a tree - Goblet d'Alviella (The Migration of Symbols, 1894)

Once we have perfected the art of decipherment, and become aware of the Astro-Theological significance of Christian iconography, we enrich our insight and gain a deeper understanding of the mechanism of deception set into motion by the mythmongers. The idioms and traditions, customs and rites, that churchmen instruct their flock to deride and suspiciously avoid, remain in use, but in a manner not observed by the masses under priestly control. Most importantly, the ancient insignias of truth, wisdom, and sanctity have been corrupted and mutilated by the worst breed of deceivers this world has ever had to endure. The present state of the world can be directly traced to this pestilence. Few there are today who know the truth and who take time to uncover and disclose the lies that keep man from understanding his own divinity. Those few who have labored to bring the truth to light have done immeasurable service to humanity.

In Eve’s scene at the tree…nothing is said to indicate that the serpent who appeared and spoke to her was a deity in his own right, who had been revered in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis – Joseph Campbell (Occidental Mythology)

...Nut, the lady of heaven, who presents the fruit of the tree to the man in the garden of the earthly paradise (Papyrus of Ani)...has been converted into the woman that tempted Adam to eat of the tree as the cause of the fallacious fall. The biblical rendering of this representation is a blasphemy against the Ritual, against womankind, against nature, and against knowledge. The goddess Nut, who offers the fruit of the tree of knowledge to the kneeling man, is in shape a woman, and the meaning could be only too easily misread, as it has been in the legend of the first woman who tempted the first man to eat of the forbidden fruit and to cause the loss of paradise – Gerald Massey

We are told that the prohibition to eat the fruit was issued to Adam before Eve was released from her imprisonment in Adam’s rib...before she became a woman and a wife; and it is not even implied that it was intended to extend to her. Why, then, in the name of God, should such curses be heaped upon her devoted head for eating the fruit when she had not been forbidden to do so? – Joseph Wheless (Bible of Bibles)

We now know what the so-called "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" refers to. Given the preposterousness of the Genesis account, we conclude that the forbidden fruit was certainly not fruit, and that the tree was not a tree. Originally, before the skewing took place, the tree was the celestial polar axis; the “World Tree” of the universal garden that stretched between heaven and hell. Its fruits were the stars of the circumpolar region. The guarding serpent was Draco. It was this mystery school of the heavens that was not meant to be approached by the uninitiated. It was the telestrion of the stars that was off limits. It was astrology that had the power to intellectually and spiritually transform ordinary men and women.

Porphyry holds that the Egyptians know of no other gods "but the Planets and those Stars that fill up the Zodiack" - Jan Assmann (Moses the Egyptian)

From these stories of the stars originated the angels of the Jews, the genii of the Arabs, the heroes of the Greeks, and the saints of the Romish Church - W. Winwood Reade (The Veil of Isis)

We can now read the following Biblical passage and know for certain what it refers to:

To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God – (Revelation 2:7)

The Circle and Serpent

No country in Europe is so associated with the Serpent as Ireland, and none has so many myths and legends connected with the same. As that creature has furnished so many religious stories in the East, and as the ancient faiths of Asia and Egypt abound in references to it, we may reasonably look for some remote similarity in the ideas of worship between Orientals and the sons of Erin – James Bonwick (Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions)

Irish Druids referred to themselves as Naddreds or Adders. Their god Herne holds the serpent and ring, representing Draco and the circumpolar enclosure. Their great monuments (from the Hebrides to Scotland, from Wales to Cornwall) feature the serpent symbol over and over again. The Egyptians anointed priests of the highest level with the oil of the "serpent," and crowned their kings with the Uraeus or "good serpent," representing the celestial protector. Clearly, the unbiased investigator cannot doubt that serpentine symbols and rites link Western adepts to their Eastern counterparts. It links the Druids to the Amenists.

It is singular to find a white race spoken of in the ancient monuments. Dr. Brugsch, the learned German, notices the word Tam-hou or white men. As it occurs on tablets dated 2,500 years before Christ, it is puzzling to indicate the people. Brugsch traces them to Libya. Champollion recognized in the Tamh’ou a type of European ancestry. M. Deveria remarks upon hieroglyphics recording the fact that Horus, the god, leading and guiding a white race. As there are still many Celtic monuments in the north of Africa, over many hundreds of miles, he contends for the existence of an original Celtic people in Egypt, or, in modern language, that the Welsh and Irish were once in Egypt – James Bonwick (Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought, 1878)

Nobody knows just who these blue-eyed, fair-skinned people were, or even where they came from...Anthropologically, they were termed Caucasians…These people, Elliot Smith concluded, were more than intelligent enough to accomplish the amazing building feats that the modern world marvels at on the banks of the Nile – Gerald O’Farrell (The Tutankhamun Deception)

It is stated on a parchment found in a brick wall in the foundations of Denderah at the time of King Pepi: “The Great Pyramid was built by the followers of Horus;” the Stellar Cult people were the followers of Horus in the same sense as the Christians are the followers of Christ...The Architect who drew the plans was Nu-er-nub-ari, “the Keeper of the Secrets” – Albert Churchward (The Origins and Evolution of Religion)

Additional Research Material

Irish Origins of Civilization DVD Series
http://www.originsandoracles.com

Michael Tsarion Interviews on Astro-Theology and Irish Origins
http://www.redicecreations.com/radio/regulars/mtsarion.html

More Interviews and Webstreams
http://www.redicecreations.com/mtsarforum/viewtopic.php?t=19

Chapter Forty One (The Scarlet Thread)
http://www.irishoriginsofcivilization.com/irishoriginsexcerpts/book2_chap41.html

Here - Gnostic Media Interview on the Trees of Life