Chapter Two - The Goddess And The Bible

The square and compass in these images are laid in the centre of the spine of the book and this implies another feminine symbol. Where the two pages meet in the spine is a valley suggesting a closed vagina within the compass and square space.

The above image could be seen as a form of blaspheme because if the square and compass image is a Goddess symbol then what is it doing on the Holy Bible? The entire Bible is all about a male God and ignores Goddesses completely. What is not so well known is that the Ancient people of Israel used to worship Goddesses and what seem to be the names of pagan Gods in the Bible are in fact Goddesses. Scholars have found that the Goddess Asherah appears 40 times in nine books of the Hebrew Bible - Exodus, Deueronomy,. Judges, 1-2 Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah and 2 Chronicles.

Asherah is a very ancient Goddess, in the ancient Ugaritic Texts she is called, “She Who Gives Birth to the Gods.” Which is similar to what Roman Catholics say about the Virgin Mary in calling her, “The Mother of God”. Asherah is also called “she who treads on the sea”, which is exactly what Jesus Christ did, in the New Testament. In fact scholars have revealed that much of the Old Testament is about a religious war between the followers of the Goddess Asherah and the followers of the God Yahweh. In the end it was the followers of Yahweh who won, and it was they wrote the Bible, as we know today.

Even in the New Testament there are Goddess overtones. We today only know about four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Yet before Christianity became a state religion it seems there were about 150 different Gospels. Some of them were about the Goddess Sophia whom it seems searched for her brother/lover Jesus in much the same way as the Egyptian Goddess Isis searched for her murdered lover Osiris. Other Gospels gave a more prominent role to Mary Magdalene and claimed there were female disciples. One Gospel was written by Mary Magdalene and called the Gospel of Mary and some scholars claimed that this Gospel had its name changed to the Gospel of John. Which is very interesting as Freemasons hold St John in high regard. There is even a form of Johannis Freemasonry, which claims John as more important than Jesus. Is this a smoke screen? And it is Mary Magdalene they regard as more important? To have Mary as John also makes sense of controversy within John’s Gospel, as it suggests John had a very close and loving relationship with Jesus. Though the idea the John was Mary Magdalene, would be rejected by homosexual Christians who believe that John and Jesus were homosexual lovers.

Although it is not mentioned in the official Bible, there is a well-known story that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Although there is no written proof of this in the Bible or in the Gnostic Gospels, so it would be easy to dismiss this story. Yet it also has to be remembered that when Christianity became a State religion there was at the time a vast amount of Christian text that the State officials had access to, most of which was destroyed and only what we know today as the New Testament was saved. Though in more recent time, parts of the Gnostic Gospels have also been found. So it could be possible that references of Mary Magdalene being a prostitute might be in these destroyed Christian writings.

If we take this story seriously what does this mean? We know that Jesus did mix with prostitutes, tax collectors and the general outcasts of society. So is this then could just another example of his tolerance and compassion? This might be one explanation but prostitute had another meaning back in Biblical times.

It is clear in the Old Testament that the priests of the god Jehovah hated the Priestesses of Goddess temples. We know this from the story of Jezebel. She was Queen of Israel but she worshipped the Goddess Astarte. For this, the followers of Yahweh murdered her and her followers. Later on her daughter Athaliah also became Queen and she also worshipped Astarte and again she was murdered. In an attempt to slander Priestesses of Goddess the priests of Yahweh referred to them as Temple prostitutes because it was known that in many Goddess Temples they used sexual rituals. Although they didn’t say that this was because in Goddess religions, sex was seen as a sacred act of creation. So in calling Mary Madgelene a prostitute, it strongly suggests that she was in fact a priestess of a Goddess religion.

The Gnostic Gospel called Pistis Sophia (Sophia was the Goddess of wisdom) is about a dialogue between Jesus and Mary Magdalene whom he calls, "dearly beloved”. In one dialogue Peter complained to Jesus that Mary Magdalene dominated the conversation with Jesus but Jesus rebukes him. In another Gnostics text called "Dialogue of the Saviour" she is portrayed as a very wise Woman who understood Jesus completely unlike the rest of Jesus' disciples. So it seems that Mary Magdalene was a very important member of early Christianity, to the degree that some modern scholars have suggested that she and Jesus were married.

We know from the Bible that Jesus spent most of his childhood in Egypt. A very important Egyptian religion of the time was the religion Isis and Osiris. Like Jesus, Osiris was a god who was murdered and then returned from the dead. Many scholars have commented on the similarities between Jesus and Osiris, as both gods were known by there followers as the Good Shepherd. One of the symbols of Osiris is the Shepherd's crook and it is also symbol of rank for Christian Bishops. The image of Jesus's mother Mary holding him as a baby is also the same image of Isis holding her baby Horus. Both Jesus and Horus traditionally have the same birthday of 25 December. Also in Christianity prayers are finished by the words Amen, which comes from the Egyptian God Amom. So was Jesus trying to introduce an Egyptian religion into Israel?

It all does indicate that perhaps both Jesus and Mary Magdalene were trained priest and priestess in Egypt, probably in the Goddess religion of Isis. Then they were sent as missionaries to convert the savage Israelites to a more compassionate Goddess religion. They knew that to preach a Goddess religion would mean that they would be quickly killed. So they converted their religious beliefs to fit in with the beliefs of the Jews. This meant that they turned the Compassionate Mother Goddess into a loving father God. Perhaps Jesus may have fooled the common people in doing this but he clearly didn't fool the priests. They were probably very aware he was preaching a Goddess religion and when they got the chance, had him crucified. From the way Jesus reacted to his betrayal and execution, he knew he was on borrowed time, and was clearly prepared to die for his beliefs.

What happened to Mary Magdalene afterwards we do not know. It seems she did survive so she probably continued what Jesus started and secretly continued the teachings that both of them created. It is of interest that Christianity came back to Egypt where it grew into a strong religion until Christianity became the Roman state religion. Then the Roman Christians had all the Egyptian Christians slaughtered who didn't follow the Roman version of Christianity. Destroying also all the Egyptian Christian text, which only a small amount has survived today. This result is the Roman version of Christianity becoming more like a Jewish religion. As they put more empathise on the Old Testament than the teachings of Jesus. So the Christian Church largely ignored the compassionate Goddess teachings of Jesus until modern times.

When archaeologists excavated Ancient Palestine and the area around it, the Canadian archaeologist John Holiday claims that, “biblical descriptions does not match what is found in the dirt”. What came clear from archaeological evidence is that the Hebrew Bible was a very biased and heavily censored version of Jewish History.

The evidence unearthed shows that Goddess worship was commonplace in Israel right up to early Christian times, with large numbers of Goddess statues discovered in the homes of common people. Archaeologists have shown that the Hebrews worshipped the Goddesses Asherah and Astarte as much as the countries around Israel. So is this what this Freemason symbol is trying to tell us? That within the Bible is a hidden Goddess?

The beehive is another popular Freemasonry image. I am sure they will tell you that the beehive is a symbol of people working together industrially for the good of the whole. So it would represent hard work and good organisation.

Yet again it would be another very good Goddess symbol. The Queen bee rules the beehive and the worker bees are also female. The male bees are the drones, which have no role except to fertilise the Queen bee. The drones that are not used in this way are surplus to requirements and are killed by the worker bees. So it means that the beehive is in fact a Matriarchal Society. Which seems to be a strange symbol for what is suppose to be a male dominated organisation.

Bees in Ancient times were also the symbol of the Goddess Artemis. This was because she was once the Great Mother who created the world without the help of a male God. The ancients believed that bees created themselves through parthenogenesis, so bees became a symbol of the Virgin Creatrix Mother who has survived in Christianity in the personage of the Virgin Mary. The Roman Catholics call her, “The Mother of God” which comes from a pre-Christian saying that the Great Mother is the, “Mother of all Gods”. Now, calling the Virgin Mary, “The Mother of God” should be blaspheme, because in Christianity, God is the creator of all things and therefore doesn’t have a mother, who created him. Christian priests claim that this saying only means the Virgin Mary is only the mother of Jesus Christ, but this that is the case, why don’t Roman Catholics say this? Why say she is the mother of god, when they mean she is the mother of Jesus?

Some people have also claimed that the beehive represents the pregnant belly of the Great Mother. In much the same way that the artificial Neolithic Silbury Hill in England is claimed to be, “the swollen pregnant belly of the Earth Mother.” Images of pregnant Goddesses are found in Palaeolithic and Neolithic sites.

[From the book Freemasonry by W. Kirk MacNulty.]

The picture above is called “The Three Great Lights in Masonry”. This is what Masons themselves say about it:

The Three Great Lights in Masonry are the Volume of Sacred Law, the Square and Compasses, and the sacred writings are understood to be those revered by the individual Mason. Although there are local variations in Freemasonry’s symbolic structure, the Three Great Lights are universal. Taken together they form the most essential, as well as the most widely known, of the Masonic symbols. No Masonic Lodge can meet unless they are present and displayed.

Though it seems there are other Masons who disagree with the above statement and claim they don’t think “The Three Great Lights in Masonry” are that important.

On the top we have the beehive ruled by the Queen bee and the female worker bees representing either a matriarchal society or the ancient Goddess Artemis who was once the Great Mother. Then we have the compass and square on the open book, which is a double vaginal symbol. Which is also a pre-historic symbol of the Great Mother. Then at the bottom we have Noah’s ark. Noah’s ark is a very ancient story that originally comes from Mesopotamia. Though it seems there are many similar stories about this all over the world.

It seems that with the ending of the last Ice Age the great Glaciers that covered most of Northern Europe, Asia and North America began to melt. Resulting in oceans levels rising, as the ice trapped on the land turned into water and ran into the sea. Scientists have discovered that this rise in sea levels didn’t happen slowly but happen suddenly in a series of dramatic floods. This is because the melted water would be trapped on land behind mountain ranges and ice barriers creating vast inland seas. Then when the vast ice barriers melted the water would suddenly be released in a great flood. The last time this happened was about 12 thousand years ago and accounts of this flood were probably the origins of stories like Noah’s ark.

So the story of Noah’s ark takes us back to the Neolithic age, which was an age of Goddess worship, when people still worshipped the Great Mother. This suggests that “The Three Great Lights in Masonry” are symbols of the ancient Great Mother. And as there are three pictures they are probably are the triple Goddess.

The Triple Goddess is very Ancient Symbol, known originally as the Maid, Mother and Crone. They were also later known as The Three Grey Ones, The Three Harpies, The Three Fates, The Three Graces and The Three Maries. As well as Faith, Hope and Charity. This trinity was also adopted by patriarchal religions. In Ancient Egypt they had the trinity of Isis, Osiris and Horus. While in Christianity we have the trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit as well as the three Marys who witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus.

The name Mary comes from the Egyptian goddess Maat and the Mesopotamian Goddess Mami or Mammitu, which means Mother. So Mary was originally a name for the Great Mother. The name Virgin Mary also has an interesting meaning

The ancient meaning of virgin is far different to what it means in Christianity. To the Christians a virgin is a woman who has never been penetrated by a man. Which then creates the problem in that Mary mother of Jesus was supposed to be a virgin when she conceived him. The Christian explanation is that God was the father of Jesus. This is not unusual in religions of this time, the Greeks had Zeus who would seduce or rape mortal women and from this union would come heroic demigods.

The Pagan meaning of virgin is a woman who is owned by no man. So therefore she was at liberty to have sex with any man she chooses. To the degree that when she gives birth she may not know or care whom the father is. The problem for the patriarchy in having women like this was that property or inheritance could only be passed down the female line. Which meant that women were still inheriting power and wealth. Because of this kingship was passed down the female line as we see in Ancient Egypt. So the patriarchal law of marriage was enforced where a women was expected to be faithful to one man. Which allows a husband to know who his children are. This then allowed property and titles to be passed down from father to son, keeping wealth and power in the hands of men.

This then suggests that the Virgin Mary was a woman who wasn’t restricted to the patriarchal custom of marriage and so probably belonged to a Goddess religion. Also the original meaning of the Virgin Mother was a name of the Ancient Great Mother who could give birth without the aid of a male God. Which raises a question, what is the Ancient Great Mother doing in a Bible of a patriarchal religion? It suggests that people were probably still worshipping the ancient Great Mother in early Christian times and the Christians needed the Virgin Mary in their religion to attract these people.

Though there can be another interpretation of the “Three Great lights of Masonry”, if we read the work of Joachim of Fiore. He was a 12th century monk who wrote one of the most important commentaries on Book of the Apocalypse ever written, according to some theologians.

He wrote that the key to Revelations is in the concept of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He claims that the Father was the age of the Old Testament; The Son is the age of the New Testament after Jesus was born. Then after the return and defeat of the Anti-Christ, there will be a utopian age of the Holy Spirit.

So if we look at the Three Great lights again we see at the bottom the Noah’s ark, which is in the Old Testament, so this would be the age of the Father. In the middle we see a book with the word John on it, suggesting this was John in the New Testament, so this would be the age of the Son. While at the top would be the age of the Holy Spirit but why does a Beehive represent that age? In some of the Gnostic text the Holy Spirit is the Feminine force and as previous mentioned the Bees are associated with the Goddess Artemis who was once a tribal Great Mother. So in other word this image is telling us of the return of the ancient religion of the Mother Goddess.

In the book “The Secret Zodiacs Of Washington DC” by David Ovason, he writes about all the Freemasonry architecture in Washington city. What is interesting it the very large amount of statues and symbols of the Zodiac sign Virgo. Which the author suggests means that Washington is under the sign of Virgo. The problem is that there is no astrological evidence that this is true. So is there another reason why there is such an emphasis of Virgo in Washington? The author claims that all these Virgo symbols and statues, - “seems to follow a well-established custom of emphasising the role of Virgo, insisting that Washington DC is under her rule and patronage”.

As Virgo was once the ancient Virgin Mother, what is this telling us? Does it mean that the founders of Washington were worshippers of the ancient Great Mother?

[The hourglass is another frequently used symbol of the Freemasonry, but it is also another feminine symbol.(Women have hourglass figures). The wings on the hourglass represent spirit, so it is another Goddess symbol.]