Sacred Feminine

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    The SacredFeminine and

    GoddessWorship

    Sue Bohlin

    www.probe.org

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    Claims Made in TheDaVinci Code

    Nature worship is a natural and desirable

    religion. Female half of all things is the sacred

    feminine or divine goddess.

    Goddess worship is an ancient and thusvalid religious expression.

    Powerful men in the early church lied to the

    world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and

    goddess worship.

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    Claims Made in TheDaVinci Code

    Jesus was mortal and Mary Magdalene was

    divine. Constantine and his male successors

    converted the world from matriarchal

    paganism to patriarchal Christianity.

    Constantine and his successors waged a

    propaganda campaign that demonized the

    sacred feminine and obliterated the goddess

    from Christianity.

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    Claims Made in TheDaVinci Code

    The concept of woman as life-bringer was

    the foundation of ancient religion. The early Christian church dethroned the

    females creative power and made man the

    Creator. Genesis was written to recast the

    woman as inferior.

    The early church devalued the feminine and

    elevated the masculine, subjugating women.

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    "The pentacle . . . is a pre-Christiansymbol that relates to Nature worship.

    The ancients envisioned their world in

    two halvesmasculine and feminine.

    Their gods and goddesses worked to

    keep a balance of power. Yin and

    yang.

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    When male and female were balanced,there was harmony in the world. When

    they were unbalanced, there was

    chaos. . . . This pentacle is

    representative of the female half of all

    thingsa concept religious historians

    call the 'sacred feminine' or the 'divine

    goddess. (p. 36)

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    Animism (Paganism) From Latin anima, meaning spirit

    Default setting for religion without

    a claim to revelation from God

    Reality is made up of physical world

    and spirit world

    Each world affects each other

    Nature is alive, sacred, and imbued

    with power

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    Animism (Paganism) Spirits can dwell in places, animals,

    plants.

    Belief in ghosts and spirits, gods and

    goddesses

    Practice of magic, divination and

    worship of false gods

    Hope is to gain control over the spirit

    world

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    Animism in

    Goddess Worship

    God made man in His image

    Ever since, fallen man has been

    making gods and goddesses in

    HIS image Male and female

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    The Goodmans work with theGoddess in conscious ways to

    enhance their relationship. They

    start each day with a ritual, kneelingat their bedroom altar and verbally

    acknowledging the Feminine in the

    form of Gaia and the Masculine inthe form of the Christ

    Consciousness. (Men and theGoddess)

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    "Early religion was based on the

    divine order ofNature. The goddess

    Venus and the planet Venus were

    one and the same. The goddess had

    a place in the nighttime sky and wasknown by many namesVenus, the

    Eastern Star, Ishtar, Astarteall of

    them powerful female concepts withties to Nature and Mother Earth."

    (p. 36)

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    The Nature of the SacredFeminine

    Love and Beauty

    (Venus,Aphrodite,

    Astarte)

    Motherhood

    (Gaia, Mother

    Earth)

    Wisdom

    Emotions

    Homemaking

    Nurturing

    Creativity

    Imagination

    Life forces of birthand nurture,

    growth and fertility

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    The Nature of the SacredFeminine

    Personal (Goddess Venus,

    Mary Magdalene)

    Impersonal (planet Venus,

    spirit of the goddess)

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    "Gazing out at the rustling trees of College

    Garden, Langdon sensed her playfulpresence. The signs were everywhere. Like

    a taunting silhouette emerging from the fog,

    the branches of Britain's oldest apple tree

    burgeoned with five-petaled blossoms, allglistening like Venus.The goddess was in

    the garden now. She was dancing in the

    rain, singing songs of the ages, peeking out

    from behind the bud-filled branches as if toremind Langdon that the fruit of knowledge

    was growing just beyond his reach." (p.

    420)

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    The Nature of the Sacred Feminine

    Both personal and impersonal:

    "For a moment, he thought heheard a woman's voice. . . the

    wisdom of the ages. . .

    whispering up from the chasmsof the earth." (p. 484)

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    Goddess Worship"The Priory's tradition of perpetuating

    goddess worship is based on a

    belief that powerful men in the earlyChristian church 'conned' the world

    by propagating lies that devalued

    the female and tipped the scales infavor of the masculine."

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    "The Priory believes that Constantineand his male successors successfully

    converted the world from matriarchal

    paganism to patriarchal Christianity bywaging a campaign of propaganda

    that demonized the sacred feminine,

    obliterating the goddess from modernreligion forever." (p. 124)

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    Goddess Worship in the BibleJeremiah 44:17-18

    We're going to go right on offering sacrifices to the Queen

    of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, keeping

    up the traditions set by our ancestors, our kings and

    government leaders in the cities of Judah and the streets

    of Jerusalem in the good old days. We had a good life

    then--lots of food, rising standard of living, and no bad

    luck. But the moment we quit sacrificing to the Queen of

    Heaven and pouring out offerings to her, everything fellapart. We've had nothing but massacres and starvation

    ever since. (The Message)

    1 Kings 11:33

    . . .because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped

    Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians . . .

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    Revisionist Historyin The DaVinciCode

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    "The power of the female and her ability

    to produce life was once very sacred,but it posed a threat to the rise of the

    predominantly male Church, and so

    the sacred feminine was demonizedand called unclean. It was man, not

    God, who created the concept of

    'original sin,' whereby Eve tasted of the

    apple and caused the downfall of the

    human race. Woman, once the sacred

    giver of life, was now the enemy.

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    "This concept of woman as life-bringerwas the foundation of ancient

    religion. Childbirth was mystical and

    powerful. Sadly, Christianphilosophy decided to embezzle the

    female's creative power by ignoring

    biological truth and making man the

    Creator.

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    Genesis tells us that Eve was created

    from Adam's rib. Woman became an

    offshoot of man. And a sinful one at

    that. Genesis was the beginning of

    the end for the goddess. (p. 238)

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    "The Grail is symbolic of the lost

    goddess. When Christianity came

    along, the old pagan religions did not

    die easily. Legends of chivalric

    quests for the lost Grail were in fact

    stories of forbidden quests to find the

    lost sacred feminine.

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    Knights who claimed to be 'searching

    for the chalice were speaking in

    code as a way to protect themselves

    from a Church that had subjugated

    women, banished the Goddess,

    burned nonbelievers, and forbidden

    the pagan reverence for the sacredfeminine." (p. 238-239)

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    Sex and Worship

    "It's important to remember that the

    ancients' view of sex was entirelyopposite from ours today. Sex begot

    new lifethe ultimate miracleand

    miracles could be performed only by

    a god. The ability of the woman to

    produce life from her womb made

    her sacred. A god. (p. 309)

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    "The early Jewish tradition involved

    ritualistic sex. In the Temple, no less.Early Jews believed that the Holy of

    Holies in Solomon's Temple housed

    not only God but also His powerfulfemale equal, Shekinah. Men

    seeking spiritual wholeness came to

    the Temple to visit priestesses . . .with whom they made love and

    experienced the divine through

    physical union.

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    The Jewish tetragrammaton

    YHWHthe sacred name of God

    in fact derived from Jehovah, an

    androgynous physical union betweenthe masculine Jah and the pre-

    Hebraic name for Eve, Havah." (p.

    309) Heiros Gamos (sacred marriage)

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    What the Bible tells us about

    this ritualistic sex Deut 23:17 None of the daughters of

    Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall

    any of the sons of Israel be a cultprostitute.

    1 Kin 14:24 There were also male cult

    prostitutes in the land. They didaccording to all the abominations of the

    nations which the LORD dispossessed

    before the sons of Israel.

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    CLAIM:Nature worship is a natural and

    desirable religionTRUTH: Nature worship (animism) occurs

    when people have lost the truth of the

    biblical God as Creator

    CLAIM:Female half of all things is the sacred

    feminine or divine goddess

    TRUTH: God made one creation which is not

    divided into two male/female parts(dualism). The beauty and power of the

    feminine is a reflection of Gods attributes;

    we are made in His image.

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    CLAIM:Goddess worship is an ancient and

    thus valid religious expressionTRUTH: There is a myth of the evolution of

    religion: animism-->polytheism--

    >monotheism. Religion started with the God

    of the Bible; other forms are a devolutionCLAIM:Powerful men in the early church lied to

    the world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and

    goddess worship

    TRUTH:The suppressed story of Jesus andMary Magdalenes marriage never happened.

    Goddess worship was never a part of

    Christianity.

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    CLAIM: Mary Magdalene was divine

    "The Priory of Sion, to this day, still worships MaryMagdalene as the Goddess, the Holy Grail, the

    Rose, and the Divine Mother." (p. 255)

    CLAIM: Jesus was only mortal

    "In those trunks are reputed to be the PuristDocumentsthousands of pages of unaltered,

    pre-Constantine documents, written by the early

    followers of Jesus, reveringHim as a wholly

    human teacher and prophet." (p. 256)TRUTH: Jesus was the divine, eternally-existing Son

    of God, and Mary Magdalene was only a human

    follower of Jesus

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    CLAIM: Constantine and his male successors

    converted the world from matriarchal paganism topatriarchal Christianity

    TRUTH: Matriarchal (women in charge) societies

    were almost non-existent, and the world was

    never converted to Christianity.CLAIM: Constantine and his successors waged a

    propaganda campaign that demonized the sacred

    feminine and obliterated the goddess from

    ChristianityTRUTH: Constantine was never a church leader.

    Church leaders stood for biblical truth and against

    false beliefs such as animism and goddess

    worship.

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    CLAIM:The concept of woman as life-bringer was

    the foundation of ancient religion.

    TRUTH: No religion ever elevated woman (as

    goddess) to that degree. The feminine was

    always part of the larger whole.

    CLAIM: The early Christian church dethroned thefemales creative power and made man the

    Creator. Genesis was written to recast the

    woman as inferior.

    TRUTH: Man has never been creator, God is. Therole of the man as leader in society and in the

    family began with the creation of Adam and

    Eve. Genesis was written long before the

    church came into existence.

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    CLAIM: The early church devalued the

    feminine and elevated the masculine,subjugating women

    TRUTH: No religion has ever elevated women

    like Christianity.

    Jesus treated the Samaritan woman at the well in a

    kind and respectful way, speaking to her in public

    and making her the first evangelist to her town

    Jesus freely taught Mary of Bethany along with His

    disciples, unheard of in that day

    He taught her sister Martha and invited her to

    respond publicly to Him

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    Jesus first appeared to women after His

    resurrection and gave them the privilege andresponsibility of telling His disciples

    Honorable women traveled with Jesus and

    supported Him financially

    Women had equal value to men The early church embraced womens role as co-

    workers in the home churches and co-laborers in

    the gospel

    Women were allowed to pray and prophesy inpublic worship services

    The marital status of women was elevated to a

    position of respect and love previously unseen in

    any culture.

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    What God Thinks about

    Goddess Worship and theSacred Feminine

    I am the Lord thy God.

    Thou shalt have no other

    gods before Me.