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THE XMASS STORY
Alexander
Hislop disclosed the true meaning of the festival |
"This
festival has been commonly believed to have had only an astronomical character,
referring simply to the completion of the sun’s yearly course, and the commencement
of a new cycle. But there is indubitable evidence that the festival in question
had a much higher influence than this--that it commemorated not merely the figurative
birthday of the sun in the renewal of its course, but the birth-day of the grand
Deliverer...the Sun-God and great mediatorial divinity." (1) | Nation | Mother | Son |
| Babylon I | Semiramis | Tammuz |
| Babylon II | Ishtar | Marduk |
| China | Shingmoo | - |
| Germany | Hertha | Child |
| Scandinavia | Disa | - |
| Etruscans | Nutria | - |
| Greece | Aphrodite en Ceres | Aeneas |
| Rome | Venus | Jupiter |
| India | Devaki | Krishna |
| Asia | Cybele | Deoius |
| Canaan | Ashtaroth | Baal |
| Ephesus | Diana | - |
| Egypt | Isis | Horus |
| Phonecians | Kabaa Rheia | Dushara Muth |
In The
Two Babylons, Alexander Hislop noted the purity
of the early church as regards
the adoption of pagan traditions
prior to the Roman Catholic apostasy:
"...within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and...not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance. How, then, did the Romish Church fix on December 25th as Christmas-day? Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it the name of Christ." (2)
In pagan Rome, the celebration of the Winter Solstice began on December 17 with the feast of Saturn -- also called the Saturnalia. Through December 23rd, the Roman world engaged in merrymaking and the exchanging of gifts in honor of Saturn, the god of sowing and husbandry and, according to a Rosicrucian source, to commemorate a future Golden Age of Saturn:
"Here is the general reformation of the world announced in the Rosicrucian manifestos described as a world reformation... Whilst involving definite reforms in education, church, and law, this general reformation has millenarian overtones; it will bring the world back to the state in which Adam found it, which was also Saturn's golden age. So, in the Confessio, the second Rosicrucian manifesto, the general reformation is said to presage ‘a great influx of truth and light’ such as surrounded Adam in Paradise, and which God will allow before the end of the world...this millennium, this return to the golden age of Adam and Saturn, is said to be assisted by ‘the high society of the Rosicrucians.’" (3)
Following the Roman commemoration of the Golden Age of Saturn began the celebration of the birthday of the Grand Deliverer, who was known as Mithra in Rome, Horus in Egypt, Tammuz in Babylon and various appellations in other ancient mythologies:
"In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, ‘about the time of the winter solstice.’ The very name by which Christmas is popularly known among ourselves - Yule day - proves at once its Pagan and Babylonian origin. ‘Yule’ is the Chaldee name for an ‘infant’ or ‘little child’ and as the 25th of December was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, ‘Yule-day,’ or the ‘Child’s day,’ and the night which preceded it, ‘Mother-night,’ long before they came into contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character. Far and wide in the realms of paganism was this birth-day observed." (4)
Not only were the Sun-God and his mother universally worshipped at this time,
but common customs symbolizing his reincarnation were derived from the very prophecies
that applied to Jesus Christ: "The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was
equally common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt. In Egypt it was the palm tree; in
Rome it was the fir; the palm-tree denoting the Pagan Messiah, as Baal-Tamar,
the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the Sun-God and
great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree,
and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was
a tree, the son must have been recognized as ‘Man the Branch.’ And this
entirely accounts for putting the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas Eve and
the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning. As Zero-Ashta, ‘The
seed of the woman,’ ...he has to enter the fire on ‘Mother night,’
that he may be born the next day out of it, as the ‘Branch of God,’
or the Tree that brings divine gifts to men." (5)
The
tradition of the Christmas tree symbolically
portrayed the death and reincarnation
of Osiris in his son, Horus:
"...the divine child born at the winter solstice was born as a new incarnation of the great god (after that god had been cut in pieces...on purpose to revenge his death upon his murderers.) Now the great god, cut off in the midst of his power and glory, was symbolised as a huge tree, stripped of all his branches, and cut down almost to the ground. But the great Serpent, the symbol of the life restoring Aesculapius, twists itself around the dead stock...and lo, at its side sprouts a young tree - a tree of an entirely different kind, that is never to be cut down by a hostile power -...and thus shadowed forth the perpetuity and everlasting nature of his power, how that after having fallen before his enemies, he has risen triumphant over them all. Therefore, the 25th of December, the day that was observed in Rome as the day when the victorious god reappeared on earth was held at the Natalis invicti solis, 'The birthday of the unconquered Sun." (6)
The feast of Christmas is, in allegorical form, the pagan celebration of the Serpent’s eventual triumph over the very God who cut down the tower of Babel (symbolized by a tree). By reviving and restoring the mystery religions as they were practiced in ancient cultures, Horus became the Egyptian savior and virtual counterpart of Jesus Christ. In her Theosophical Glossary, H.P. Blavatsky thus describes Horus:
"Horus (Eg.). The last in the line of divine Sovereigns in Egypt, said to be the son of Osiris and Isis. He is the great god ‘loved of Heaven,’ the ‘'beloved of the Sun, the offspring of the gods, the subjugator of the world.’ At the time of the Winter Solstice (our Christmas), his image in the form of a small newly-born infant, was brought out from the sanctuary for the adoration of the worshipping crowds..." (7)
In the fourth century, the Emperor Constantine assigned December 25, the birthday of the Roman Sun-God Mithra, to Jesus Christ, thereby placing the true Savior among the pantheon of Roman gods. Drawing Christians into the pagan celebrations of Rome procured the religious unity needed for the success of the Holy Roman Empire, which dominated the world for 1200 years. In the 16th century, the Protestant Reformers discontinued the celebration of Christmas by reason of its pagan character. The Puritans who controlled the English Parliament in 1644 declared that no observation of Christmas was permitted, calling it "The Profane Man’s Ranting Day." C. H. Spurgeon proclaimed as late as 1871: "We have no superstitious regard for times and seasons. Certainly, we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas."
In 1983, USA Today recalled the Protestant scorn for Christmas:
"A broad element of English Christianity still considered Christmas celebration a pagan blasphemy. The Puritans, Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Calvinists and other denominations brought this opposition to early New England and strong opposition to the holiday lasted in America until the middle of the 18th century." (8)
It was inevitable, however, that the nineteenth century social and spiritual revolutions in England and America would eventuate in a mass departure from Puritanism. The author of Man, Myth And Magic jubilantly records the modern return to pagan tradition:
"In Britain…social conditions were laying the foundations for a glorious revival of the Christmas spirit, as a reaction to the wretchedness and drab poverty that was a byproduct of the Victorian age…As early as 1841, Punch [a British periodical] suggested that the Christmas season should be a time for helping the poor and hungry, a sentiment that was given tremendous impetus by Charles Dickens in his Christmas Carol two years later." (9)
In America, founding members of the New York Historical Society revived the Christmas tradition in the early 1800s and in 1836 the state of Alabama declared it a legal holiday. No doubt many of a Puritan mindset who strove to stem the tide of apostasy recalled the words of Tertullian, who lamented the identical compromise of Christians as early as 230 B.C.
"By us...who are strangers to Sabbaths, and new moons, and festivals, once acceptable to God, the Saturnalia, the feasts of January, the Brumalia, and Matronalia, are now frequented; gifts are carried to and fro, new year’s day presents are made with din, and sports and banquets are celebrated with uproar; oh, how much more faithful are the heathen to their religion who take special care to adopt no solemnity from the Christians." (10)
In his book, Too Long In The Sun, Richard Rives draws an appropriate parallel to the circumstances in Exodus 32, a Biblical precedent which provoked God nearly to the point of destroying the nation of Israel for their sin of blending pagan worship with His own:
"…the golden calf was built and the celebration declared a ‘feast to the Lord.’...The people had declared a celebration to honor God that he did not recognize as being in his honor." (11)
Rives'
assertion is validated by evidence that the golden calf
was an Egyptian idol
of sun-worship, Hat-hor being the womb of Isis,
the mother/wife of Horus:
"Hathor and Aphis, the cow and bull gods of Egypt, were representatives of sun worship. Their worship was just one stage in the long Egyptian history of solar veneration. The golden calf at Mount Sinai is more than sufficient evidence to prove that the feast proclaimed was related to sun worship. The event at Mount Sinai was just one episode in the Satanic apostasy which began at the tower of Babel. The celebration of December 25th, originally proclaimed in honor of the birth of the sun god Mithra, can only be one of the final events in the long continuing saga of Satanic sun worship." (12)
This
identical form of worship is found among God's people
again in I Kings 12,
which records the Israel's apostasy under
the reign of Jeroboam, who devised
a feast "like unto" the true feast in Judah:
26
And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:
If this people go up to sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then
shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam
king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.
27
Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and said unto them,
It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
28
And he set one in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
29
And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even
unto Dan...
32
And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month like unto the feast that is
in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto
the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places
which he had made.
33
So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of
the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised in his own heart; and
ordained a feast unto the children of Israel and he offered upon the altar, and
burnt incense."
The
Matthew Henry Commentary notes the good intention of Jeroboam's compromise:
"Thus Jeroboam made Israel to sin, and introduced idolatry, which continued in the kingdom of Israel till the Assyrian captivity. Though it is probable he meant this worship for Jehovah the God of Israel, it was directly contrary to the Divine law, and dishonorable to the Divine majesty, to be thus represented. the people might be less shocked at worshipping the God of Israel under a similitude, than if they had once been invited to worship Baal, but it made way for that idolatry." (13)
History demonstrates that the point of departure for every major apostasy in Israel and Christendom was subtly commingling worship of the true God with worship of the Sun-god. The return of the Israelites to sun-worship in the wilderness was indicative of an inward return to Egypt which led to their eventual judgment. The establishment of sun-worship by King Jeroboam marked the division of the kingdom and the beginning of Israel's apostasy, which culminated in the Assyrian captivity.
Likewise, the 4th century compromise of Christianity with the pagan religions of Rome coincides with the institution of the feast of Christmas. Finally, the 19th century departure from the Puritan faith leading to the present apostasy occurred around the time of the re-establishment of Christmas as a Christian holiday. The clear testimony of history makes it difficult to resist the suspicion that the kick-off for Bimillennial celebrations in 1999 is, for reasons occult and conspiratorial, scheduled for the season of Christmas -- the birth of the Sun-god.
ENDNOTES
1. Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons, Loizeaux Brothers, 1916, pp. 94, 97.
2. The Two Babylons, p 93.
3. Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment,
Routeledge, 1972, p. 57.
4. The Two Babylons, pp. 93, 94.
5. The Two
Babylons, p. 97.
6. The Two Babylons, p. 98.
7. H.P. Blavatsky, The
Theosophical Glossary, London: 1892, p. 145.
8. "The Origins of Christmas,"
Rick Meisel, Dec. 19, 1993, p. 4.
9. Richard Cavendish, Man, Myth and Magic,
"Christmas," Marshall Cavendish, 1983, p. 482
10. The Two Babylons, p. 93.
11. Richard Rives, Too Long in the Sun, Partakers Pub., 1996, pp. 129-30.
12. Two Long in the Sun, pp. 130-31.
13. Matthew Henry Commentary, Thomas
Nelson Pub., 1979, Vol. I, p. 430.
FROM A READER:
While preparing an article on the latest Harry Potter monstrosity, I wanted to check out the alleged claims of theWiccan fraternity that they are nothing to do with the alleged witchcraft found in the books as they do not recognise Satan. I did a search on the Horned God which they certainly do recognize, and found the following:-
"Images of him date back to prehistoric cave drawings in Lascaux, France. He appeared as Pan Pangenitor to the ancient Greeks, and as Cernunnos to the Celts, and as numerous other horned or antlered fertility deities across Europe. On the eve of the Winter's Solstice, he was believed to impregnate the cold, dead Earth Mother, so that she may resurrect and give birth to new, green life in the spring.
The celebration of the Solstice was officially forbidden by the Christian Church, but continued on among peasants and nobles nonetheless. Finally, in the Fourth Century, Pope Julius I acquiesced and created the holiday we now know as Christmas, substituting the birth of Jesus (which most historians have placed in September) for the veneration of the Pangenitor in an attempt to transform the pagan holiday into a Christian one. Still, the figure of the Horned God survived into the character we today know as "Santa Claus," the "Old Man of the North," the ancient, furry, man in red who is borne aloft by a team of horned bucks and "delivers the goods" to the entire planet in one magical night...."
David E_____
LINKS
VIDEO ON PAGAN CHRISTMAS ORIGINS
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