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AFTER ATLANTIS
The Surviving Wisdom
The Age of Pisces
The following under this subheading is not my discovery. I found it so long ago in a book that
I don't remember
the book's title. When I checked out the theory, I found that it was absolutely correct -
which is why the early followers of Yeshua used the sign of the fish as their symbol.
It would be helpful for you, the reader, to first read Some Truths About
Astrology. Some of the following comes from a small book with the title Dimensions in
Astrology.
About 2,000 years ago (in the Spring of 6 BC), the vernal equinox passed from Aries into Pisces, signaling the beginning of the Piscean Age. This event was heralded by three conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Pisces the year before (7 BC). Jupiter moves faster than Saturn when viewed from the earth. Consequently, it caught up with Saturn in May of 7 BC, as translated to our calendar today, temporarily creating a conjunction of the two planets before pulling ahead. Then, as the earth moved to the same side of the sun as that of Jupiter and Saturn, Jupiter appeared to move backward (retrograde), allowing Saturn to appear to pull ahead and creating a second conjunction in October. As winter approached, Jupiter caught up with Saturn again, creating a third conjunction in December. All three of these conjuctions appeared as a bright double star in the night sky which alternately spread apart and closed with each other. Astrologically speaking, the orbs of influence of the two planets held one big conjunction throughout the whole year that varied somewhat in intensity.
As spring approached, Jupiter pulled ahead of Saturn until they bracketed the sun between the constellations of Aries and Pisces. The sun was catching up all this time and Mars had passed Jupiter, Saturn, and the sun, and moved ahead of them into Aries. At the time that Jupiter and Saturn were bracketing the sun, the sun was directly between them. Bear in mind that the sun was too bright for Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars to be seen. However, the ancient astrologers had computed all the planetary movements long ago, and could calculate precisely where they were.
The sun, when closely conjunct a planet, lends its tremendous magnitude of energy to that of the planet. We call it "combust the sun" when a planet is so honored. The sun between Jupiter and Saturn at a time when the two big planets are very close is an astrological event of great significance. When it occurs as the sun is passing the cusp between the constellations of Aries and Pisces, it is a Time of times, and during this Time of times, there was a short time that an optimum situation occurred to produce the birth of a person whose ninth house was probably in Aries and whose first house was probably in Leo.
This event occurred at the time of the vernal equinox (usually what we call March 21st, but can vary slightly due to the difference of a day in a leap year), and was accepted as the beginning of the new age of Pisces.
For the astrologers of that day, it was possible to calculate in advance when all of this would occur and where such a person would be born, assuming that such a person would be born at that time and place. It was also possible that more than one person or that several similar persons would be born at that time and near that place. If so, as they matured they would create a movement that would greatly upset the existing status of the local area and ultimately that of the world.
Imagine that you are an astrologer during the year 6 BC. This would have been your story.
You are watching the night sky. Two planets in particular are of interest to you. Your ephemeris tells you that they are there, but the confirmation of their precomputed motions never ceases to amaze you. And they shine, in partile conjunction, one with a slight bluish tinge and very bright, and the other less spectacular but brilliant in the indigo sky. The brightest one is known to the Greeks and the Romans as the wielder of the thunderbolt. The other is the one they call the god of time. Both are now in the constellation of the fish.
Your friend and fellow astrologer touches you on the arm to gain your attention.
"They are so beautiful," he says, "Have you decided yet?"
There is a silence as you consider again the time, expense, hardships, and dangers of the long journey. But you must know and you must see this person if he does indeed exist.
"Yes," you answer with finality, "I will go."
"Good!" he exclaims exultantly, "We can begin to make the arrangements."
For over a year, a group of the finest astrologers in the area have been discussing the possibility of the journey. The pros and cons were weighed, the dangers assessed, and the expenses calculated. Always, it came to the same thing. They had to know regardless of any expense or risk.
They had carefully computed the time when a most unusual event would take place in the heavens. Next, they had calculated the most ideal of house placements that should accompany a birth at such a time of great significance. From the ideal house placements, they were able to determine the area upon the surface of the known world where such a birth could occur. If a child were born within that area and at the anticipated time, a great leader would have been given to the world to begin the new age of the fish.
There was always the possibility that the birth would occur at the right time and place. There was also the possibility that the babe, if born, might be endangered and fail to survive to adulthood or be misused because of his unusual nature. So a long journey was necessary to accomplish two purposes: (1) to discover whether or not a birth had occurred and (2) to inform the parents of the nature of their child so that appropriate precautions and proper schooling would be his from the beginning.
Now your mind is made up. The journey will be undertaken and you will be one of those who accept the responsibility of the task at hand. You look once more at the two key planets in the sky and then turn away to go to your bed. But you take the beauty of the night sky and a great feeling of anticipation with you. You dream of a baby whose face contains the glow of the sun and whose eyes twinkle like the stars.
As the last conjunction began to occur in Pisces, the astrologers were already near their destination. As they traveled, Jupiter and Saturn moved closer and closer to one another, and to the cusp of Aries and Pisces. They knew that Mars had passed the sun and moved into Aries. And they lost sight of the planets as their lights were eclipsed by the sun. It was the date we call March 21, the vernal equinox. However, the precise time varies from one year to the next which is why we have a leap year. Yeshua's time of birth would have been about 2:20 PM on what we call March 23, 5 BC, just as the sun crossed the cusp between Pisces and Aries. Saturn was at about 25 degrees of Pisces and Jupiter was at about 8 degrees of Aries. In astrological terms, the sun's large orb of influence extended into those of both of the large planets. Bethlehem was Yeshua's place of birth.
Jerusalem was the major city in the general area where the birth should have occurred. The astrologers' inquiries were overheard by Herod's spies. Herod sent for the astrologers and questioned them in detail.
Herod was a pitiful despot who suffered from a form of paranoia. He was one of the most insane of all monarchs, killing his closest friends and relations because of his groundless suspicions, and decimating his empire by executing the most capable of his subjects. Although his bloodiest acts were yet to come, he was suspicious of the story of a babe who might someday rival Herod himself.
The number of astrologers who journeyed to Jerusalem is not known. In about 1500 AD, the number three was adopted, but this was strictly conjecture.
When Herod had finished his questioning of the astrologers, he let them go with the instructions for them to return and tell him who this new king was and where he might be found. The astrologes apparently left for Bethlehem in the morning and arrived at around noon because the Christ's star (the sun combust Jupiter and Saturn) was said to go before them and stand overhead when they arrived.
The sun was, of course, the star of the Christ. Christ comes from the Greek word "christos", meanng "anointed" and signifying "illumination". This is why December 25, the ancient birthday (resurrection) of the sun is celebrated as the birthday of the Christ. The sun has been the source of life, heat, health, energy, and knowledge (illumination) for much longer than mankind can remember.
Apparently, the child sought by the astrologers did, in actuallity exist. His birth had occurred on the day of the vernal equinox when the sun was combust Jupiter and Saturn and when Mars was in its own sign. His first house was in Leo, ruled by the sun and making him "of the tribe of Judah" (see Numbers in the Bible) in the deepest sense. His ninth house, the house of religion, philosophy, and teaching, was in Aries. The force of the sun (exalted in Aries), Jupiter, and Saturn fell in both the eighth (house of death and transformation) and the ninth. The force of Mars fell in the ninth (in its own sign). The natal chart that resulted was one of a great spiritual leader and teacher.
The astrologers, warned of Herod's paranoia, left secretly by a different route after
accomplishing their mission. Joseph's small family also left very shortly thereafter
to avoid Herod's wrath. The age of Pisces had begun.
Yeshua
There are several descriptions of Yeshua as a man. There is nothing to my knowledge that tells what he was like between birth and maturity except some things that were considered ridiculous enough to fail to be chosen as authentic, and I agree that they were fraudulent.
The following comes from internet information supposedly furnished by scholars, several books, and from encyclopediae.
Yeshua came from Nazareth which was a foothill village about twelve miles from the Sea of Galilee. It was built of white rock on fertile land. Water for the village was from a single underground cistern fed by an ancient spring. There were vats for oil, and silos for grain. The Nazarenes were said to be conservative Jews at a time when traditions were being affected by the Greeks. The population in Yeshua's time was probably between 200 and 400, consisting of physically robust strong-minded, practical people, respectful of tradition and family.
They spoke Aramaic using poetic tradition, and were very proud of their skill with language. Young Jewish men were expected to be literate. A Jewish queen, Salome Alexandra, had made reading and writing compulsory for Jewish boys, primarily so that they could study the Torah. (The Torah comprises the first five books of the Old Testament which covers natural law in coded form, science being the study of the works of the Eternal One.) See Coding and Decoding.
Nazareth was right in the middle of northern Israel, only about 2,000 feet of east/west length and 650 feet of north/south width. In the first century AD it covered about 10 acres. Much of it was steep ravines and ancient terraces on the northern slope. It was essentially a confined, oval-shaped settlement.
Its people were, for the most part, farmers who needed space between houses for livestock and their enclosures as well as land for planting and orchards. Their tombs were extended outside the town. Typically, Jewish bodies were first buried in body-length shafts cut at right angles into the walls of the tomb chambers and sealed with large stones rolled into place. When the flesh had decayed, the bones were gathered and placed in ossuaries (bone boxes).
All this was careful use of space available in a community so smsll, that they were
probably all part of one or two extended families. However, they were not isolated. Nazareth
was in walking distance of Seppharis, located about 3.7 miles to the north. In Nazareth, the
Nazarenes eked out a living, paid their taxes, and tried to live in peace.
There are about thirty years if Yeshua's life that are not known today. Very possibly, Joseph was a carpenter and Yeshua, as a boy, helped his father do his work. Some of the descriptions of Yeshua as a man tend to make one believe that he was schooled in much more than carpentry.
In Yeshua's time, Judea had a Roman governor, Publius Lentullus. The following description comes from a copy of a letter supposedly written by this governor. Some have called it a forgery. However, Yeshua had so many enemies that one description called him an ugly dwarf. So calling this description a forgery is but a mild rebuke, and there appears to be no proof either way. Supposedly, Publius Lentullus describes adult Yeshua as: "Somewhat tall and comely, with chestnut colored hair, full ripe, plain to his ears, whence downwards more orient and curling, parted in the midst of his head after the manner of the Nazarenes. Forehead plain and delicate. Face without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with lovely red beard thickish in color like his hair, long but forked. Look of innocence and maturity. Eyes gray, clear, and quick. Hands and arms delicate. Body well-proportioned."
Another letter from Pontius Pilate to Tiberius Caesar states: "[Yeshua] was leaning against a tree addressing the multitudes. Golden colored hair and beard in stark contrast with his bearers with their long black beards and tawny complexions."
From "The Archka Volume" (an official court document): "Golden hair from sunburn, tall, shoulders drooped a little, thin visage, swarthy complexion from sun, large eyes soft blue and rather dull and heavy."
According to various schools today who teach their students to evolve more fully,
Yeshua taught the disciples, and perhaps some others, the esoteric secrets from the ancients.
He also taught the multitudes in words that they could understand and were ready to learn.
Paul was not a disciple, and his enthusiastic beginning for what has become Christianity
was something that the disciples opposed. Nevertheless, the emperors of the time and the
multitudes were ready to accept Paul's version of Yeshua's words.
The Gnostics
The Gnostics were the original followers of Yeshua who were students of his esoteric teachings. Every time a new way of thinking is introduced or an old one is re-introduced, it undergoes a period in which the message is distorted by people with either their own agendas or who have a limited understanding of the message. Gnosticism has undergone such a period in which there have become variations in the message. Several variations of the mystery schools' gnosis (knowledge) exist today, and the fundamental message is available on line even though the esoteric teachings require that students take an oath of secrecy. Some of the message is listed below.
1. Beingness is eternal. Like the circle it has no beginning and no end. If you postulate a beginning caused by a creator, then who created the creator, and who created the creator of the creator? This thought process can continue infinitely, and it is wrong. Yod Heh Vav Heh, is a series of Hebrew letters that constitute three conjugations of the verb "to be" (that which was, is, and ever will be). It was never meant to be pronounced, and designates what we would call "the Eternal", the True God.
2. The student must look for the truth and believe only what he has found to be true. True faith is knowing because of one's own efforts. There should be three mental files: one for what has been proven to be true, one for what has proven to be false, and one that is a "hold" file of things that are not yet been ready for one of the first two files. The mystery schools teach in a manner that is somewhat like a chemistry class in which one can use his own experiments to discover the answers.
3. The Eternal brought all things forth from himself. All there is, is the substance of the Eternal. There is only one substance in the universe or universes. We are all viewpoints within a perfect, loving, mental Being which is the All.
4. There are intermediate deiffic beings between the Eternal and us. They are called by varius names, and they and the Eternal comprise the "fullness". With our limited knowledge, we are empty by comparison.
5. There are four levels of consciousness. The highest is the idea plane. If we were speaking of sitting as an idea, then "sitting" belongs in this level. The second level examines the idea of sitting and proposes several ways to sit (like with a chair, a couch, a bench, or on the ground). The third level down is the level where we choose among those ways. The fourth level down is the plane in which we seem to be living and in which the idea with which we started is fulfilled. This is the material world.
6. We have become imprisoned in the material world because our limited senses deny access to the fullness and we have a false knowledge of all that is. See Myths, Fables, Stories, and Reality. When we attempt to escape, we are thwarted by the images we see and the other trappings of materiality.
7. The "physical" plane is convenient because it appears to be solid and we can leave it as it is most of the time or exert ourselves to change it. Actually, we change it subconsciously all the time but are not aware of our efforts.
8. We are "sparks" of the Eternal that are existing within our bodies. We do not realize our true nature, and will remain here in the physical plane until we are helped by the higher beings and exert effort to learn sufficiently. If we die without having the realization of our true beingness, we reincarnate. If we learn sufficiently we move on.
9. The ancients were quite familiar with evolution. In poetic form, they explained it as first the stone, then the plant, then the animal, then man, and then the "son of man" (sometimes merely shown as "Man"). Note that Yeshua in the New Testament referred to all of us as "children of God", and of himself as the "son of man". A son of man has attained cosmic consciousness.
10. There are several interpretations of our supposed predicament. One is that we are here to entertain the Eternal and that this universe of ours is like a computer game. We can awaken to the fullness (cosmic consciousness) through becoming a "son of man" through effort or we can keep incarnating until we ask for help and exert some effort. We also choose whether or not to enjoy the experience here in this lower plane. Some the secret schools (usually some of the eastern ones today) want the student to the deny pleasures of senses in order to attain fulfillment. Most of the others tell us to enjoy ourselves because we are here in part for the entertainment of the Eternal, and the Eternal does not want to be entertained by horror stories or sadness. These schools think that life should be enjoyed as a privilege rather than a punishment.
11. Yeshua was teaching his students to become sons of man. This was done through conscious evolution, the conscious learning of the truths. The mystery schools today are teaching the same things in an effort to have their students attain conscious evolution. Salvation was never meant to be use of Yeshua as a sacrificial goat to atone from our sins. He was here to provide us with salvation from ignorance and allow us to journey into the light that gives us freedom. Yeshua and others like him are "messengers of light".
12. Sin is not original or anything else. It is ignorance. We all sin as we learn because we discover the right path by straying off it until we learn that we have strayed. Then we come back. It was the Catholic Church that invented original sin at first so that it could have power over us and attain wealth for itself. The other so-called Christian denominations were derived from the dogma of Catholicism. Evil, on the other hand, exists. It might be defined as "enemyship". Those who are evil deliberately separate themselves from the Eternal for their own supposed gain. We are all part of the Eternal, and hurting another for one's own supposed gain is evil. It is the separation that causes the evil one to prevent his own salvation from bondage within the material plane.
13. Real morality consists of inner integrity arising from the illumination of the individual "spark" that is sometimes called the "soul". This is not the same as obedience to rules of conduct. Different historical periods require variant attitudes regarding human conduct. Thus, both the Manichean and Cathar movements, which functioned in the times where purity of conduct was regarded as important, responded in kind.
The Gnostics split into three basic groups. To escape persecution by Rome, two groups went north by land to begin in central Europe and eastern Europe. The third group traveled by sea to what today is southern France to become what was later called the "Cathars". These were the groups that began to pass on the esoteric version of Yeshua's teachings.
The Emperors who followed enjoyed the blessings of what had become Christianity because
Christians did not
give them much trouble. They manipulated the religion according to their preferences and
became the founders of Catholicism. Thus, the Catholic Church was created by emperors rather
than theologians. The three emperors which follow were probably the most influential in
creating a religion which was ruled from the top down by using force to obtain its ends.
The later Christian denominations were essentially based upon Catholicism. So that today
Yeshua's message is distorted almost beyond recognition.
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Constantine
After Paul had given the world his distortions of Yeshua's esoteric message, those in power began their distortions. The first of great significance was Constantine I, an emperor whose major accomplishment was uniting the east and west
Using the Council of Nicaea at Incirlik, Yurkey, in 324 AD, he attempted to make the followers of Arius and Athanasius agree upon a common creed. By this time, Chistianity had deviated more severely from Yeshua's message to mankind, and the intent of the orginal teachings were being eclipsed by non-essential and divisive foolishness.
Arius created Arianism, asserting that Yeshua was the son of God, begotten by God the Father at a point in time, that Yeshus was distinct from the Father, and therefore subordinate to the Father. This was based upon the concept that Yeshua, the son of God, did NOT always exist but was begotten by God.
Athanasius of Alexandria (also called "Athanasius the Great", Athanasius the "Confessor", or Athanasius the Apostolic) was the 20th Bishop of Alexandria. His episcopate lasted 45 years, and he died in 373 AD, long after the Council of Nicaea. So his views were still alive and well at the time of the Council. Seventeen of his 45 year career were spent in five differnet exiles ordered by Roman emperors. He was the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and noted Egyptian leader of the 4th century. Trinitarian understanding (one in heing) decribes Yeshua as "one in being" or of "single essence" with God the Father.
Emperors attempt to compel subjects to think a certain way. If their subjects do do not think
that way they are considered "thought criminals" and punished. However, it is impossible to
force someone to think a certain way, and this is what Constantine discovered. His methods
did not work, and the two major schools of thought remained.
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Theodosius
Also known as Theodosius the Great, he was a Roman emperor born in Spain in 346 AD. When administering western provinces, he used the name "Valentinian II".
He was a mass murderer and liar, outlawing pagan (anything that was not Christian) worship,
and establishing Catholicism as the state religion. In 392 AD he was murdered.
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Justinian
Justinian was also known as Flavius Petrus, Sabbatius Augustus, or more traditionally as Justinian the Great. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, he was a Byzantine (East Roman) emperor from 523 AD to 565 AD.
He changed the law to allow him to marry his mistress, Theodora, who was an actress, dancer, and courtesan of great talent about 20 years younger than he. She directly influenced his politics.
Justinian wanted everything to be orderly, including the Trinity and the Incarnation of God. He believed he could force his views upon others. Other views in his eyes were heresy. Like Constantine before him, Justinian wanted to fix the problem of divergent beliefs found in Christianity. Also, like Constantine, he found that his heavy handed methods did not work. The Monophysites maintained that Yeshua had one divine nature or a synthesis of divine and human nature, which was condemned as heresy by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.
He convened the 2nd Council of Constantinople in 553 AD. In those days, the church officials were widely dispersed, and messengers on horseback were required to notify those who were expected to attend. The primary object of the meeting was to adjust the Biblical content to suit Justinian and his mistress. They did not want church officials at that meeting who might oppose their views. Consequently, only the bishops whom Justinian might be able to manipulate were invited, and the others were left in the dark. Justinian wished to "purify" the church by eliminating the heratics.
Pope Vigilius was needed to give credibility to the proceedings, so Justinian had him kidnapped and held him incognito until he agreed with Justinian. Theodora did not want any references to reincarnation to remain in the Bible, and she wanted the Christ to be divine in nature. So Justinian attempted to please her - or perhaps he agreed with her.
The bishops who attended realized that their opinions were not wanted, and that the only way to proceed was to agree with the emperor. Some of them objected at first, and these met with fatal accidents on their way home. Pope Vigilius consented to the changes Justinian wanted and was allowed to leave.
Afterward, the Manicheans, Gnostics, Jews, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and other "heretics" were either exiled or executed by burning or drowning. Even so, religious unity failed to he established, and there are still parts of the Bible that Justinian failed to discover and remove.
"Astrology" is a term which came from a Greek word meaning study of the stars. This old science is not a study of the stars so much as a study of the planets and their influence upon us.
"Planet" came from an old word meaning "wanderer" and was meant to apply to all the heavenly objects that "wander". Therefore, in the original system, before we changed the language, "planet" referred to the sun and moon as well as what we have mistakenly called the "planets". Thus, astrologers today still correctly refer to the sun and moon as planets.
The earth is where we are and was considered the center for the purposes of the old science. This had nothing to do with fact that the bodies we call "planets" actually orbit the sun. The ancient scientists knew this - although truthfully, the smaller celestial bodies do not orbit the sun - they orbit a common center of gravity for the entire solar system as does the sun - and this fact has a strong influence upon the body of fiery plasma that is our sun.
The solstices are the times when the sun appears to stay at the same height from one noon to the next. In the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice occurs when the sun is lowest, and the summer solstice occurs when the sun is highest. Between each solstice are times when the sun is moving straight overhead for people who live at the equator. The vernal equinox occurs at about March 21st and the autumnal equinox occurs at about September 21st each year. The solstices and equinoxes are consequences of earth tilt.
The earth tilts about 23.5 degrees relative to the plane of the solar system. This tilt is responsible for our seasons. The earth also wobbles like a top when the top is beginning to slow down. The earth wobble is called the precession of the equinoxes and one wobble requires about 25,900 years to complete. As the wobble progresses, earth's poles point in different directions and the north star is not always the one we use now (called Polaris). During one wobble, the vernal equinox moves through the twelve constellations that were once the signs of the zodiac. It is in each constellation for approximately 2,150 years. When it is in a particular constellation, that period of time is called the age of that constellation. We have been in the age of Pisces. We are moving toward the age of Aquarius because the wobble causes the vernal equinox to move backward through the zodiac.
Some people today believe that the ancients created their observatories with stone because they had no other materials available. The truth is they knew that stone would outlast any other material. Since astrological observations must occur over millenia, the materials of the observatories must endure. Otherwise, the observations would not be precise. Unfortunately, the ignorant have no conception of the old science and its significance, so the ancient observatories have not been used in this age of darkness except as sources of stone for fences and buildings.
The study of the planets and their influences upon us has led to misunderstandings about gods. The pagans (non-Christians) of old considered the planets as representatives of forces or the forces themselves. To remember the role of the forces, myths were created, stories to illustrate what the forces were called and what they did. As the dark age began, many civilizations equated these forces to gods to be worshipped and given sacrifices. However, the old scientists knew that the forces were merely part of the universe that the One held within itself. Therefore, the older people thought of a great Eternal Being which had many forces as aspects of Itself. In this sense, the old pagans were monotheistic with a heirarchy of forces to be studied.
The Creation of Christianity
When the Catholic Church was created, it was not a church of individual choice. It was a church which ruled from the top (the Pope). The word "heretic" meant "freedom to choose". So heretics were feared by the Catholic Church lest the movement upset the status quo. Knowledge (gnosis) was something that the Catholic Church could not tolerate. So any sources of knowledge were taken into the Church vaults and denied the populace. Popular holidays like the birthday of the sun (December 25, the day in the northern hemisphere when the sun begins to climb) became the birthday of the Christ. Since most pagan holidays were celebrations of annual astrological events, other pagan holidays were stolen by the Catholic Church, and the calendars were changed to prevent the discovering of the theft. This was the dumbing down of humanity by the Church. Those who did not accept this and who might expose the Church methods were killed, sometimes in large masses including women and children.
One of the major projects of Catholicism, either by the Popes or the rulers, was the deification of Yeshua. Examples follow.
Jesus became Yeshua's popular name.
He was born from the womb of a virgin.
His nature was divine, the only son of God, while the rest of us are sinners.
Sin was applied to sex because making sex a sin would make those who fornicated or engaged in marriage feel guilty all the time and be easily controlled.
Mother Nature or the Earth Goddess became the virgin Mary.
Mary Magdalene became a prostitute rather than Yeshua's wife because Yeshua was divine and could not indulge in original sin.
Yeshua became a cult figure rather than a teacher of conscious evolution because the Catholic Church feared those who concsiously evolved.
Yeshua became a scape goat to give us a ticket to heaven without requiring any real effort on our part.
Reincarnation became an invalid concept because in upset the Catholic Church hold on the population.
The very idea of conscious evolution was suppressed, let alone the knowledge of how it was aided by the messengers of light.
Science, the study of the universe that God made, was divorced from religion, and was suppressed as a tool of heretics.
As time went by the only books that were allowed to be published had to be written in the "Holy Language" of Latin which only church scholars were taught. These books had to be read, edited, and approved by the Church authorities.
The Cathars
The books written about the Cathars today are marginally correct insofar as their teachings are concerned, and somewhat correct historically. The errors in the books are due to the inquisitors' records being the only records to be found. The Cathars were not allowed to put their teachings in writing. Usually, the inquisitors were not able to extract the information they wanted through torture. When they were able, they did not understand what they found so they made up what they thought was the answer. It took years to teach a Cathar Parfait the truths. An ignorant inquisitor could not learn them. It was like one who had not learned simple arithmetic attempting to understand calculus.
When Rome became concerned about the new movement known through Paul's teachings, Yeshua and his family took a ship to what is today known as southern France. Yeshua did not stay. He went on to teach in other places, leaving his wife and his daughter where they would be safe.
Mary Magdalene began her ministry in this area and her disciples became what was known as parfaits (perfects or pure ones). Their movement spread through the centuries until it reached northern Italy and the Catholic Church became concerned enough to take steps against them. This eventually led to Pope Innocent III of the Catholic Church (called by Mary's followers "the Church of Satan") sending mercenaries to perform genocide, attempting to eliminate all the Cathars, including women and children. The "crusaders" were given "tickets to heaven" for exterminating the Cathars. The King of France wanted his kingdom extended to become southern France, and he allied with the Catholic Popes in exterminating the Cathars and later the Knights Templar. Since the Catholics in the area could not be distinguished from their Cathar neighbors, the mercenaries were to told to kill everyone and let God sort them out afterward.
There were Cathar warriors who were a minority among the Cathars and were greatly outnumbered by the "crusaders". The Cathars were never strongly influenced by wealth and few had the resources to pay mercenaries of their own, so the Cathars fought and were overwhelmed as one army after another was sent against them.
Soome Cathar differences regarding what is known as Christianity today are:
They were the "Good Christians" who sprang from the first beginnings of Yeshua's and Mary Magdalene's teachings (the Gnostics).
True faith is not blind. One must have faith in something only if one has ascertained is veracity through reason. One cannot be forced to accept truth. Brute force from the top down does not work. The methods of the "Church of Satan" are counter productive.
The female principle is equal to the male principle. Women are equal to men. There were plenty of Cathar Parfaits or higher who were women. The two principles must be understood for what they are and must work together for conscious evolution to be accomplished. The Cathars had their own Pope who was often a woman and nothing like a Catholic Pope.
Services were held anywhere because the Eternal is everywhere. Anyone could speak with the Eternal without a priest or any other person acting as an intermediary between the person and the Eternal. With proper training, one could "hear" what the Eternal had to say. There were no cathedrals or churches to glorify the church heirarchy or to take money from church subjects. There were no tithes or offerings needed.
To love the Eternal, one must love others, including animals and all other life, because all are within the Eternal. All living things have souls, feelings, and rights.
Healing by laying on of the hands was commonplace even though the Catholic Church called it blasphemy, especially because it worked.
Yeshua was the next stage in the evolution of humanity. He was a teacher (a messenger of light), not a sacrifial goat.
We are responsible for our own actions, and will experience justice for them, whether pleasant or unpleasant. The original teachings of reincarnation and karma were correct, even though they have almost been eliminated from the sacred writings.
The Catholic Church is wrong to sell "tickets to heaven" for money, land, and for small items from those who could not afford to pay more.
Sex is not sinful. Nor is it original sin. The idea of original sin was invented to make the populace feel guilty and thus more easily controlled.
The Catholic Church with its inquisitions, homocidal methods, extreme wealth, and stealing from others was called the "Church of Satan". It proved that evil exists in the world.
in about 1250 AD, the Cathars were finally exterminated except for those who escaped into the mountains to the east and west or who took to the sea. Those who were found were either burned alive or walled-in when they were found in caves. The survivors went underground and their teachings still survive in secret schools. The area where they lived is still known as Cathar country, and the Cathars are revered by the locals. Apparently, the efforts of the Catholic Church did much to discredit itself but did not stop the true teachings of Mary Magdalene. There was a prophecy that most of the Cathars would reincarnate about 700 years later to take on the evil that would exist then.
Books on the Cathars
The Cathars by Sean Martin
The Lost Teachings of the Cathars by Andrew Phillip Smith
The Cathar VIew, 25 contributions edited by Dave Patrick
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