The Woman Clothed With The Sun

The Woman Clothed With The Sun
A Look at the Goddess in Christianity

Introduction
There is a gaping hole in the myth cycle of modern Christianity. The Maternal heart of the faith has been ripped apart and replaced with patriarchal and misogynist doctrine. Many women have left the faith and turned to the "Old Religions" because of this lack of femininity and female power. In this article I will be investigating "the woman clothed with the sun"1 and her possible guise as the hidden Goddess in Christianity.

"The Woman and the Dragon"

2

The image above is the classic portrayal of "the woman clothed with the sun". It was created by William Blake in the early 19th century as part of a collection of paintings done to illustrate the biblical chapter, Revelations. The original passage goes as follows:

"Revelations, Chapter 12 1-18

The Woman and the Dragon

1: A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feat, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2: She was with child child and wailed aloud in pain as she laboured to give birth. 3: Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. 4: Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth. 5: She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was caught up to God and his throne. 6: the woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days. 7: Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and it's angels fought back, 8: but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9: The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it. 10: Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:

"Now have salvation and power come,
and the kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed.
For the accuser of our brothers is cast out,
who accusses them before our God day
and night.
11: They conquered him by the blood of the
Lamb
and by word of their testimony;
love for life did not deter them from
death.
12: Therefore, rejoice, you heavens,
and you who dwell in them.
But woe to you, earth and sea,
for the Devil has come down to you in
great fury,
for he knows he has but a short time."

13: When the dragon saw that it had been thrown down to the earth, it pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14: But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly to her place in the desert, where, far from the serpent, she was taken care of for a year, two years, and a half-year. 15: The serpent, however, spewed a torrent of water out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with the current. 16: But the earth helped the woman and opened its mouth and swallowed the flood that the dragon spewed out of its mouth. 17: Then the dragon became angry with the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus. 18: It took its position on the sand of the sea."3

This is the modern Catholic passage, it varies little from various Christ based faiths. The most popular interpretations of this image elude the the woman being the Church or the Israel4. She had also been interpreted as the Virgin Mary5 according to some sources. Could this be a surviving remnant of the Goddess in Christian faith? Or possibly the attempt by the Church to assimilate the Goddess into the faith besides the Blessed Virgin? Since the birth of Christianity it seems there has been strife amongst it's followers as to the power and place of women in the Church. This is exemplified in the Gospel of Mary6, one of the Gnostic Gospels, left out of the Bible at the Council of Nicaea7:

"When Mary had said this, she was silent, since the Savior had spoken thus far with her.
But Andrew answered and said to the brethren, 'Say what you think concerning what she said. For I do not believe that the Savior said this. For certainly these teachings are of other ideas."
Peter also opposed her in regard to these matters and asked them about the Savior. "Did he then speak secretly with a woman [cf. John 4:27], in preference to us, and not openly? Are we to turn back and all listen to her? Did he prefer her to us?"
Then Mary grieved and said to Peter, "My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I thought this up myself in my heart or that I am lying concerning the Savior?"
Levi answered and said to Peter, "Peter, you are always irate. Now I see that you are contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the Savior knew her very well [cf. Luke 10:38- 42]. For this reason he loved her more than us [cf. John 11:5]. And we should rather be ashamed and put on the Perfect Man, to form us [?] as he commanded us, and proclaim the gospel, without publishing a further commandment or a further law than the one which the Savior spoke." When Levi had said this, they began to go out in order to proclaim him and preach him."

It is known that into the first century after Christ women played a very prominent role in the Church and it's teachings. It is unclear when the full persecution of women within the Church began, but as we know from modern times, it has continued and still continues to this 8. Could it be that the Goddess was fully recognized and supported, if not in name than in gender, by the early Church? And was it the anger of one man, Peter, that caused a cascade effect? From the persecution of Mary Magdalene, to the removal of woman from power within the Church, to the Burning Times, all the way to modern times? There are very few references left in the modern Bible of strong female figures or anything pertaining to a female aspect of the Divine. Women in modern times are reclaiming this history, this power as the "woman clothed with the sun", as the male God is described in Psalm 104:2 as “wrapped in light.”. If you read through various texts, including the bible, God never appears in such glory. He appears in the stars, as a burning bush, etc. But never a great presence in the sky for all to see. This could be a survival of Christian Goddess worship, buried within the texts to survive the hate of men governing the Church over the centuries. In Revelations 12:14, it is stated that this woman "was given the two wings of the great eagle". This passage immediately conjures of images of Isis, Ancient Egyptian Goddess of Magic and Life, or of Nike, Greek Goddess of Victory. This could just be another attempt of the Church to assimilate the Goddess or it could be a blatant reference to her original nature.

Since in most doctrine, this woman is accepted as the Virgin Mary, could this also be a revelation that the Virgin is not just the human mother of God, but the female manifestation of the Divine? Many modern Christian Intellectuals interpret the "Holy Spirit" as a female entity. This is even supported within the bible as the original Hebrew words for "spirit" from The Old Testament are feminine nouns 9. What might be a example of the growing misogyny of the Church is that in the New Testament, the word for Spirit is neutral 10. Here's an interesting thought as well, if The Virgin Mary was impregnated immaculately by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit being female, would this not point to her as the Mother of God and Christ? Not unlike the creation Goddess of most Pagan faith's, such as the Egyptian Nut or the Vedic Aditi? The fact that some branches faiths believe that Mary herself was conceived immaculately also points to her having origins in divinity 11. We see this attribute is the Wiccan Creation Myth and others 12. And seeming as how she is present at almost every major event in the life of Jesus can she not be also considered the Christian equivalent to a consort Goddess? Albeit a virginal and celebrate one, but a companion nonetheless. I hope that in the future we can see a resurgence of this feminine grace and power in these faiths. A return to a balanced and complete world where all are considered important and whole.

1 Revelations, 12:1

2 The Great Red Dragon and The Woman Clothed With the Sun by William Blake, 1805-1810, water colour
3 The Catholic Family Bible, The New American Bible, DeVore and Sons Inc, Wichita, Kansas, USA
4 The sources are extremely numerous, including the bible noted in footnote 3
5 www.DeoOmnisGloria.co , www.evangelicaloutreach.org , and numerous others.
6 The Gospel of Mary
7 The Council of Nicaea
8 Women in Ancient Christianity
9 Shekhinah ,Ruah
10 Parakleitos
11Mary, Mother of Jesus
12Goddess Creation Myths

My orignal article on Lucifer. I plan to rewrite it one of these days!



Lucifer - The Morning Star

I have found no myth's that pertain strictly to Lucifer. He has some mention of being a bringer of knowledge and wisdom to mankind, a protector of humans and manifestation of divine ecstasy. He is mentioned as being a Roman God, Lucifer meaning Son of the Dawn, The "bearer of light" and God of the Morning and Evening Star. He was know as Phospheros to the Greeks, with his most common areas of worship being Italy and Western Europe. Lucifer's main reference is as the Brother of Diana and the Father of Aradia. He was the Light to Diana's Darkness, her other half and soul mate. She is his Mother, Sister, and Lover.

"Diana was the first created before all creation; in her were all things; out of herself, the first darkness, she divided herself; into darkness and light she was divided. Lucifer, her brother and son, herself and her other half, was the light.
And when Diana saw that the light was so beautiful, the light which was her other half, her brother Lucifer, she yearned for it with exceeding great desire. Wishing to receive the light again into her darkness, to swallow it up in rapture, in delight, she trembled with desire. This desire was the Dawn.
But Lucifer, the light, fled from her, and would not yield to her wishes; he was the light which files into the most distant parts of heaven, the mouse which flies before the cat.
Then Diana went to the fathers of the Beginning, to the mothers, the spirits who were before the first spirit, and lamented unto them that she could not prevail with Lucifer. And they praised her for her courage, they told her that to rise she must fall; to become the chief of goddesses she must become a mortal.
And in the ages, in the course of time, when the world was made, Diana went on earth, as did Lucifer, who had fallen, and Diana taught magic and sorcery, whence came witches and fairies and goblins--all that is like man, yet not mortal.
And it came thus that Diana took the form of a cat. Her brother had a cat whom he loved beyond all creatures, and it slept every night on his bed, a cat beautiful beyond all other creatures, a fairy: he did not know it.
Diana prevailed with the cat to change forms with her, so she lay with her brother, and in the darkness assumed her own form, and so by Lucifer became the mother of Aradia. But when in the morning he found that he lay by his sister, and that light had been conquered by darkness, Lucifer was extremely angry; but Diana sang to him a spell, a song of power, and he was silent, the song of the night which soothes to sleep; he could say nothing. So Diana with her wiles of witchcraft so charmed him that he yielded to her love. This was the first fascination, she hummed the song, it was as the buzzing of bees (or a top spinning round), a spinning-wheel spinning life. She spun the lives of all men; all things were spun from the wheel of Diana. Lucifer turned the wheel."
- Aradia or The Gospel of the Witches by Charles G. Leland

I also found this piece written by Eliphas Levi. I was quite intrigued by it. It does in a roundabout sort of way connect Lucifer with his Christian incarnation but I believe his words embody the sense of this God very well. It may not fit in exactly with the common perception of Lucifer as the Brother of Diana or of him as the Devil of The Bible, but I think it incorporates the theme and idea of both those archetypes very well.

"Lucifer, the Astral Light . . . . is an intermediate force existing in all creation, it serves to create and to destroy, and the Fall of Adam was an erotic intoxication which has rendered his generation a slave to this fatal light . . . every sexual passion that overpowers our senses is a whirlwind of that light which seeks to drag us towards the abyss of death, Folly. Hallucinations, visions, ecstasies are all forms of a very dangerous excitation due to this interior phosphorus (?). Thus light, finally, is of the nature of fire, the intelligent use of which warms and vivifies, and the excess of which, on the contrary, dissolves and annihilates. Thus man is called upon to assume a sovereign empire over that (astral) light and conquer thereby his immortality, and is threatened at the same time with being intoxicated, absorbed, and eternally destroyed by it. This light, therefore, inasmuch as it is devouring, revengeful, and fatal, would thus really be hell-fire, the serpent of the legend; the tormented errors of which it is full, the tears and the gnashing of teeth of the abortive beings it devours, the phantom of life that escapes them, and seems to mock and insult their agony, all this would be the devil or Satan indeed." (Histoire de la Magie, p. 197).......But in antiquity and reality, Lucifer, or Luciferus, is the name of the angelic Entity presiding over the light of truth as over the light of the day. In the great Valentinian gospel Pistis Sophia (§ 361) it is taught that of the three Powers emanating from the Holy names of the Three [[Tridunameis]], that of Sophia (the Holy Ghost according to these gnostics -- the most cultured of all), resides in the planet Venus or Lucifer.....There is no devil or the utterly depraved, as there are no Angels absolutely perfect, though there may be spirits of Light and of Darkness; thus LUCIFER -- the spirit of Intellectual Enlightenment and Freedom of Thought -- is metaphorically the guiding beacon, which helps man to find his way through the rocks and sandbanks of Life, for Lucifer is the LOGOS in his highest, and the "Adversary" in his lowest aspect -- both of which are reflected in our Ego. Lactantius, speaking of the Nature of Christ, makes the LOGOS, the Word, the first-born brother of Satan, the "first of all creatures." (Inst. div. Book II., c. viii., "Qabbalah," 116.)"
- Eliphas Levi( 1.)

Through recent studies I have found many links and insinuations that point at Lucifer being a demonized Goddess not a Fallen Angel, Angel, God, or otherwise. Quite a fascinating trail of facts and myths. There seems to be a lot of associations with the Goddess Diana Lucifera, which in turn leads to Hekate, Artemis, Luna, Selene, and Heket, as well as a few strictly magical associations.

I believe the following excerpt is more a selling tool for the book than anything else it still presents some fascinating ideas about Lucifer. Please read the COPYRIGHT! Everything from here down to the end belongs to this lovely lady!

All content © Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince 2006" (3.)
"The Secret History of Lucifer
‘Picknett's depth and range of knowledge is impressive... readers will encounter a thick, interesting and alternative view of an intriguing topic.’ Publishers Weekly
The sequel to Mary Magdalene: Christianity's Hidden Goddess, The Secret History of Lucifer (2005) traces the literal demonisation of the Great Goddess, once the consort of none other than Yahweh in one of her manifestations. As the patriarchal religions took hold, the ancient goddesses became hated and feared as demons that sucked the life from men, embodiments of all that is hellish.
Myths about the fall of Lucifer - once so intimately associated with the Morning/Evening Star, or Venus - permeated the thinking of medieval churchmen who were fanatically, even insanely, determined to root out what they perceived as female evil in the witchcraft hysteria.
A misogynist rout, the witch hunts also undermined the whole of society, for the ruthless undermining of the Feminine also impinges on society as a whole. And if there were few genuine witches at the beginning of the massacres, by the end there must have been many more - for even Hell and Satan himself could be no worse than the depredations of the Church.
Yet also underlying the Lucifer myth is the implicit psychopathy of Yahweh, a god so jealous and incapable of self control, so lacking in maturity that he could accept no challenge, and wreaked havoc on those who stood up to him. Is Lucifer the evil one - or Yahweh?
Lucifer, the 'Light-Bearer', the bright Morning Star - and not the hateful embodiment of evil, Satan - represents the eternally questing, challenging and evolving mind of humanity, the spirit of progress and equality. Gradually, as the Church began to lose its grip in the aptly named Age of Enlightenment, came the rise of science and esoteric groups such as the Freemasons (in the 18th century the two were inextricably entwined).
Freedom brings its own challenges, and a darker side emerged with the many quasi-satanic groups who enjoyed the thrills of black masses behind the lace curtains of suburbia. However, the 20th-century founder of the Church of Satan, Anton laVey, viewed the Christian Church in a markedly Luciferan way - although his practices were too strong for many tastes and his showmanship too brash.
Altogether more profound was occultist Aleister Crowley - also an exhibitionist given to outrageous acts - whose philosophy of 'Every man and Woman is a Star' arguably provides would-be Luciferans with the rules.
But as we enter a new millennium, the hard-won freedoms are being eroded in the west, and the bright light of Lucifer is being eclipsed...
LONG LIVE LUCIFER - BUT TO HELL WITH SATAN!
All content © Lynn Picknett & Clive Prince 2006" (3.)



Sources:
1.Sacred Texts
2.God Checker
3.The Secret History of Lucifer Review

Keep Loved Ones Forever, as a Diamond

Source: Reuters

Posted: 09/19/08 3:25PM

Filed Under: Weird News

CHUR, Switzerland (Sept. 18) - Diamonds really are forever.

Algordanza, a small company based in the mountainous southeast of Switzerland, uses the ashes of dead people to make diamonds as a permanent memento for their nearest and dearest.

And with prices starting at less than $7,500, the jewels are not solely the preserve of the jetset.

"Some people find it helpful to go to the cemetery and grieve, and they leave their grief in the cemetery," said Algordanza Chairman Veit Brimer. "There are some people who, for whatever reason, do not want to have this farewell.

"Astonishingly these are mainly Christian people. They say: 'Why should I say goodbye? I'll see my husband in 15 years in heaven anyway,"' Brimer said in his office overlooking the town of Chur and its surrounding steep mountains.

The technology for making artificial diamonds was first pioneered by General Electric in the 1950s, and mirrors nature by subjecting carbon to huge pressure and temperature.

Algordanza -- which means "remembrance" in the local language Romansch, spoken in some parts of the Swiss canton of Grisons -- is one of a handful of companies offering artificial diamonds that have sprung up as the technology has improved.

U.S.-based LifeGem and Britain's Phoenix Diamonds, for example, also offer diamonds made from hair, which contains more carbon than ashes meaning a gem can be created from the hair of a living person, or from someone who has been buried rather than cremated. LifeGem even offers diamonds made from dead pets.

Please read the whole article HERE

Pagans Proudly Explain All

Pagans proudly explain all

This Saturday the group wants to show the community what they are really about

Walter Cordery, Daily News

Published: Thursday, August 21, 2008

Anyone hoping to see animal sacrifices or disemboweling during Pagan Pride Day Saturday, will be greatly disappointed say two spokespeople for the Pagan church which is hosting the Nanaimo event at Kin Hut Park in Departure Bay.

"One of the main reasons we hold Pagan Pride Day each year is to debunk myths like that," said Kam Abbott of Nanaimo's Temple of the Green Leaf Cauldron Church.

Abbott said he believes people have a distorted view of paganism because of the way pagans and Wiccans are depicted in the popular media.

Please read the full article here

Pagans Proud But Not Loud

Pagans proud but not loud

No tax-exempt status yet but Wiccans gain recognition

Ron Csillag, Weekend Post Published: Saturday, September 20, 2008

Avery un-Toronto scene: In a quiet grove in a quiet park in the middle of the city earlier this month, about 50 mostly youngish people in various sorts of attire formed a rough circle on the damp grass. The area they created was a frith, a kind of sacred space. Four participants at equidistant points in the circle faced away from the others and held aloft hammers --not the claw kind from Canadian Tire but those heavy T-shaped implements the Norse god Thor would wield.

Paying tribute to the four sacred directions, each declared loudly, "Hammer in the [north, east, west, south], hallow and hold this holy site."

Please read the full article here.