When did celebrating the rise of Christ turn into an Easter egg hunt and Easter bunnies etc.. ?

The celebration of the resurrection of Christ was a Protestant event, and yet the pagan and secular societies, wanted to celebrate the arrival of spring, so they symbolized it with bunnies, brightly colored clothes, and freshly hatched eggs. The combination came when those in the secular societies joined the Protestant movement, and brought their customs and traditions with them.

I don't agree with it, so I devised my own plan... My husband does things over and over again that annoy me to no end, which have been discussed already. He says he'll work on it, but I see no changes. I want to plan an "Easter egg scavenger hunt" for him - I will start off with his favorite candies ... then I will lead him to the annoying things he does, such as stinky socks lying around the house, crumbs on the couch, leaving garbage in the sink, empty beer cans all over the house, hideous stinky slippers and old clothes that he HOARDS ... do you think this will get my point across?

some folks dont know exactly what they are doing or why. many have been decieved into practicing rituals that actually were designed to honor false gods. it is important for anyone who believes anything to really know what they are doing and why, not just have blind faith that what they are told is correct. The One whom Jesus worships and calls "the only true God" (John 17:3) inspired the entire Bible and celebrating pagan rooted holidays under the deception of christianity is like spray-painting a dog turd and trying to sell it to God as a gold nugget! here are some facts about Easter that I found on the internet from 'non-denominational' sources; Easter is not a Christian name. It is Chaldean (Babylonian) in origin - the name Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven. The name Astarte, as found on the Assyrian monuments by the noted archeologist Layard, was the name Ishtar. The worship of Bel and Astarte was introduced very early into Britain, along with the Druids, "the priests of the groves," the high places where the pagans worshipped the idols of Baal. In the Almanac of the 1800's, May 1st is called Beltane, from the pagan god, Bel. The titles Bel and Molech both belong to the same god. We must remember that Semiramis (also known as Ishtar) of Babylon, the wife of Nimrod and mother of Tammuz, was the same goddess worshiped throughout the world under various names, such as the Egyptian fertility god, Artemis, the Roman goddess of licentiousness, Venus, the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, and the Ephesian, many-breasted fertility god, Diana, as well as many others. The (Easter) bunny, the oldest pagan symbol of fertility - Semiramis - has absolutely NOTHING to do with the birth of Christ. Nor does the Sunrise service. Jesus was resurrected while it was still DARK! "And early came Mary Magdalene, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre." John 20:1 Sunrise services are for the worship of the Pagan Sun god - ONLY! In addition, Jesus was NOT resurrected on Sunday, the first day of the week. Please see the study entitled "Was Jesus Really Resurrected on Sunday?" at www.goodnewsaboutgod.com One mythological legend says that sometime after Semiramis died, a huge egg dropped from heaven. Out of the egg came a re-incarnated Semiramis, now a goddess. The Babylonian Talmud refers to her as Ishtar, or Easter. The forty days of Lent symbolize one day for each year of Tammuz' life. This period of time is celebrated in the "Christian" church by giving up something to mourn the death - of Tammuz, the son of the pagan goddess Semiramis! Ezekiel 8:13,14 tells us what God thinks about any festival that recognizes Tammuz: "The Lord said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they (the Israelites) do. Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz." As late as the 19th century, in Great Britain, at Beltan (or the 1st of May) a number of men and women assembled at an ancient Druidical circle of stones near Crieff, to participate in an ancient worship feast to Baal. The festival of Pasch, or the Passover, was very early observed by many professing Christians, in commemoration of the death and resurrection of Christ, although it cannot be traced back as far as the Apostles. But Pasch was observed by Christians a full month before the festival of Ishtar was celebrated by the Pagans. In addition, the festival of Ishtar (Easter) now observed in churches is far different from the original festival of Pasch. The amalgamation of the Christian Pasch, as observed in Britain by the Christians, and the Pagan Easter enforced by Rome, occurred by violence and bloodshed. But at last, the Festival of the Anglo-Saxon or Chaldean goddess, Ishtar, came to supersede that which had been held in honor of Christ. "The hot cross buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of Easter Sunday figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do today. The Œbuns,' known by the identical name, were used in the worship of the queen of heaven, the goddess Ishtar, as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, that is, 1500 years BEFORE the Christian era. One species of sacred bread which used to be offered to the gods was called ŒBoun.'" Hislop, Two Babylons, pg 107. "The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven. Jeremiah 7:18 The hot cross buns are not now offered, but eaten instead, on the festival of Easter (Astarte - Ishtar). "The origin of the Pasch (Passover) eggs is just as clear. The ancient Druids bore an egg as the sacred emblem of their order. In the mysteries of Bacchus, as celebrated in Athens, one part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg. The hindu fables celebrate their mundane egg as of a golden color. In China, even as late as the 19th century, dyed or painted eggs were used during sacred festivals. "In ancient times, eggs were used in the religious rites of the Egyptians and the Greeks, and were hung up for mystic purposes in their temples. . . The classic poets are full of the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians. "The occult meaning of the mystic egg of Astarte had reference to the ark during the time of the flood, in which the whole human race was shut up, as the chick is enclosed in the egg before it is hatched. And of course, the egg also refers to birth, or creation. "Though the deified queen, whom Astarte represented, had no actual existence till some centuries after the flood, yet through the doctrine of metampsychosis, which was firmly established in Babylon, it was easy for her worshippers to be made to believe that, in a previous incarnation, she had lived in the Antediluvian world and passed safely through the waters of the flood. The Roman Catholic Church then adopted this mystic egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ's resurrection." Ibid pg 109,110. The Bible clearly tells us what God considers the memorial of Christ's death and resurrection. It is NOT the pagan celebration of Easter, in honor of the pagan god, Ishtar. It is BAPTISM: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (rendered inoperative), that henceforth we should not be slaves of sin." Romans 6:3-6 The memorial for Christ's death and resurrection is BAPTISM - - - NOT Easter! There is NO doubt that Easter is a totally Pagan holiday. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sir James George Frazer, in his classic study of magic and religion (The Golden Bough, McMillan, 1976) notes, and correctly, that if it was the case concerning Christmas that the pagans had adopted and syncretised the entire system giving it Christian names then there is no reason to suppose that the same sort of motives: may have led the ecclesiastical authorities to assimilate the Easter festival of the death and resurrection of their Lord to the death and resurrection of another Asiatic god which fell at the same season (v, p. 306). Frazer goes on to state that: Now the Easter rites still observed in Greece, Sicily and Southern Italy bear in some respects a striking resemblance to the rites of Adonis and I have suggested that the Church may have consciously adapted the new festival to its heathen predecessor for the sake of winning souls to Christ (ibid.). Adonis is the Syrian counterpart for Adonai or Lord. Frazer considers that this adaptation probably occurred only in the Greek-speaking world rather than the Latin, as the worship of Adonis seems to have made little impression in the West and certainly never formed part of the official Roman religion. He says: the place which it might have taken in the affections of the vulgar was already occupied by the similar but more barbarous worship of Attis and the Great Mother (ibid.). The death and resurrection of the god Attis was officially celebrated at Rome on 24 and 25 March, the latter being regarded as the spring equinox and, therefore, the most appropriate day for the revival of a god of vegetation who had been dead or sleeping throughout the winter. According to an ancient and widespread tradition, 25 March was celebrated as the death of Christ without regard to the state of the Moon. This tradition was followed in Phrygia, Cappadocia, Gaul and, seemingly, also in Rome itself (cf. Frazer, v, p. 306). Tertullian affirms that Christ was crucified on 25 March 29 CE (Adv. Jud., 8, Vol. ii, p. 719, and also by Hippolytus and Augustine; cf. Frazer, v, fn. 5 to p. 306). This is an absolute historical and astronomical impossibility and, yet, the notion appears to have become deeply rooted early in the traditions (cf. Frazer, v, p. 307 and the paper Timing of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (No. 159)). It thus appears that this earliest of traditions had some connection with the cult of Attis. Similarly the pine was sacred to the god Attis and it is no accident that all relics of the cross are composed of pine (cf. the paper The Cross: Its Origin and Significance (No. 39)). It is the view of Frazer and also of Duchesne that the date of the death and resurrection of Christ was arbitrarily referred to the fictitious date of 25 March to harmonise with an older festival of the spring equinox. This appears to have equated with an older belief that it was on the very day that the world was created (Frazer, ibid., p. 307). The resurrection of Attis who combined in himself the characters of the divine Father and the divine Son was officially celebrated at Rome on the same day. Thus, it is not only the syncretism of the resurrection doctrine with which we are concerned but we see also the origin of the doctrines of Modalism, where one god has attributes of or different aspects as forms of the one but in distinction, and from which idea the Trinity was formed. There is also the more recent heresy of the "Jesus is the one true God" concept entering Protestant quasi-Gnostic theology. This replacement phenomenon, where a heathen festival is replaced by one with Christian names is seen in a number of pagan or heathen festivals. In line with the Mother goddess and Heavenly Virgin theology, the Festival of Diana was ousted by the Festival of the Assumption of the Virgin in August. Like changes were the pagan Parilia in April, which was replaced by the feast of St George. The midsummer water festival in June, was replaced by the festival of St John the Baptist. Each has connection with the typology it replaced. The Feast of All Souls in November is the ancient heathen Feast of the Dead. The Nativity of Christ replaced that of the Sun. The Festival of Easter is simply the feast of the Phrygian god Attis at the vernal equinox. It should also be remembered that the Phrygians were the source of the Mithras system and the Mystery cults generally (see also the paper The Nicolaitans (No. 202)). Mithras was introduced to Rome by pirates captured by Pompey, circa 63 BCE. The very places which celebrated the death of Christ at the equinox were the very places that the worship of the god Attis originated or had taken deepest root, namely Phrygia, Gaul and apparently Rome itself. Frazer says it is difficult to regard the coincidence as accidental (v, p. 309). Another characteristic that is coincidental to the resurrection is that the date is also ascribed to 27 March, two days later and this is where the shortened period of the Friday crucifixion and Sunday resurrection occurs. Frazer notes that similar displacements of Christian to heathen celebrations, occurs in the Festivals of St George and the Assumption of the Virgin (v, p. 309). It is perhaps the telling item in the syncretism when we see that the traditions of Lactantius and seemingly the Christian church in Gaul placed the death of Christ on the 23rd and the resurrection on the 25th exactly in accordance with the festival of Attis. This is impossible for any year of the Hebrew calendar that Christ could have possibly been crucified and is directly related to the worship of Attis (cf. Frazer, ibid.). By the fourth century, the worshippers of the god Attis were complaining bitterly that Christians had made a spurious imitation of their theology or the resurrection of Attis, and the Christians asserted that the resurrection of Attis was a diabolical counterfeit of the resurrection of Christ. However, we know from history and linguistics that the original dates of the resurrection were based on the Passover which was based on the Lunar calendar and occurred on 14 and 15 Nisan and proceeded to the Wave-sheaf offering on the Sunday. Thus, the Passover could fall on any two days in the week with a variable gap to the Sunday Wave-sheaf, which marked the ascension of Messiah and not his resurrection, which occurred the previous evening. Easter, on the other, hand was confined to a Friday crucifixion and Sunday resurrection in direct contradiction of Scripture. Originally, it was on fixed dates in the cult of Attis. The word Easter was even inserted in the English KJV translation of the Bible to replace the word for Passover to further disguise the issue. Candles at the changes of the seasons and Easter We saw above that candles entered the system of worship from the ancient Aryan religion. It stemmed from a common ancestor central and seemingly associated with the Assyro-Babylonian system prior to the entry of the Aryans to India circa 1000 BCE. This could have been as early as the earliest times of the Assyrians in the second or even during the third millennium BCE. The ancient Aryan practice continued among the Germans of lighting new fire by means of a bonfire at Easter and sending the sticks to each home to start the fires to ward off the gods of thunder, storm and tempest. The practice was still found all over Germany according to Frazer when he wrote. The differences in Protestant and Catholic communities were that the Protestant youth tended the fires and the grown men of the Catholics tended them. The festivals were directly associated with the ancient fertility rites. The church was brought in later as a locus of the procession around which they went according to the revolution of the Sun. The fires are lit on the Easter Mountains. The practice was introduced to Catholicism as the Easter candle. This single giant candle was lit at Easter on Saturday night before Easter Sunday and then all the candles of the church were lit from it. This continued for the year until next Easter when the single Easter candle was again lit. The bonfires continued to be burnt in Catholic countries and the bonfires burnt on Easter eve often have a wooden figure called Judas burnt with them and often mixed with the ashes of the consecrated palm branches, which are mixed with the seeds at sowing. Even where this sacrificial effigy is omitted, the fires themselves are still called the burning of Judas (Frazer, x, p. 121). Frazer records that in Bavaria the newly kindled Easter candle was used to light the lanterns and the young men ran to the bonfire to light it. The first one there was rewarded by the housewives with red eggs the next day, i.e. Easter Sunday, at the door of the church. The burning of Judas was accompanied by great jubilation (ibid., x, p. 122). On this same day in the Abruzzi, the holy water is collected from the church as protection against witches and their maladies. The wax from the candles is placed on the hat and is then a protection against thunder and lightning in storms. In Calabria, and elsewhere in Italy, the customs relating to new water are similar. Similar beliefs are found among the Germans of Bohemia (see also the section Epiphany). R Chambers (The Book of Days, London and Edinburgh, 1886, I, p. 421) records that all the fires in Rome were lit afresh from the holy fire kindled in Rome in St Peter’s on Easter Saturday (cf. Frazer, x, p. 125). The practice of lighting the candle appears to take place on the night before the day of the Sun as part of the ancient Sun-worshipping system. Candles form part of ancient magical rites and were common to the occult systems and among the animist systems stemming from the Assyro-Babylonians. The practice of lighting candles is of mixed symbolism. The lights in the Temple were specific and limited for special purposes related to the seven lights as the seven spirits of God in the single Menorah and the seventy lights of the Host in the Temple of Solomon. This was later interpreted by occultists as referring to the seven heavens, and the seven planets. The ascent through the seven levels of animistic Shamanism entered Judaism through Merkabah Mysticism. The candle, itself, is held to be a symbol of individuated light, and consequently of the life of an individual as opposed to the cosmic and universal life (see Cirlot Dictionary of Symbols, Dorset, 1991, p. 38). This is a distinction among the occult and is not Christian. The practice of lighting multiple candles before heathen altars and later in Christianity is based on the premises inherent in the godless and blasphemous doctrine of the Immortal Soul and the attempts at isolating holiness to the individual though the action of the spiritual forces involved by the placation of the entity adored. The more entities, the more candles are required. These candles stand as symbols of the pantheistic thinking of the Soul doctrine. The practice in Judaism is based on a thinking, which operates at a lower physical level stemming from the Babylonian captivity and the Mysticism that entered Judaism from that phase. In Kabbalistic Judaism, one enters the Gate of Kavanah (or concentration) through meditation based on light. The symbols are thus that one elevates the mind by meditation from one light to a higher one. Two of the lights are called Bahir (brilliant) and Zohar (radiant) alluding to the two most important Kabbalistic classics (Kaplan Meditation and Kabbalah, Weiser, 1982, p. 118). These lights correspond to the Sefirot. These systems were understood by Rabbi Moshe de Leon (1238-1305) in his Shekel ha Kodesh of 1292. This system of ascent is Shamanism to the seventh great light Ain Sof. These are: Tov (Good) Nogah (Glow) Kavod (Glory) Bahir (Brilliance) Zohar (Radiance) Chaim (Life) and the infinite and seventh is Ain Sof (the crown). Their Sefirot equivalents are Chesed (Love) Geveruah (Strength) Tiferet (Beauty) Netzach (Victory) Hod (Splendour) Yesod (Foundation) (Kaplan, ibid., p. 119). The ancient Zohar speaks of different colours with regard to fire and this may be derived from Mazdean systems. The colours of the seven levels to the worship of Sin as Moon god were identified with the Ziggurat at Babylon (see the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)). This entire system is straight Mysticism and the use of candles in its various forms are tied directly to magic and mystical practice except where lit in the Temple of God as the Menorah. Their use at Hanukkah and Purim is examined below. Passover or Easter The method of calculating the day of the Sun at the vernal equinox was similar to the calculation of the Wave-sheaf offering of Leviticus 23 but it was not quite the same. That is why there is a slight difference between the Passover and the Easter system. The Universal Oxford Dictionary gives the method for determining Easter Sunday or Easter day which is the true Day of the Sun as Easter. It is observed on the first Sunday after the calendar full moon, i.e. the 14th day of the calendar moon - which happens on or next after 21 March. Applied colloq. to the week commencing Easter Sunday (1964 print, p. 579). This is the rule for determining the Easter or Ishtar festival and not the rule for the biblical Passover. The arguments are clearly demonstrated in the history of the Quarto-deciman dispute, which occurred from the reign of Anicetus to that of Victor (or Victorinus), bishops of Rome from the middle to the end of the second century (c. 154-190). Thus, from the Quarto-deciman dispute we know that this false dating system emanated from Rome in the second century and was opposed by those in the church who were taught by the apostles, namely Polycarp who opposed Anicetus and his pupil Polycrates opposing Victor (or Victorinus). The later writings of Socrates Scholasticus (c. 439 CE) introduce error into the history and are incorrect on a number of grounds, many of which are outlined by the compilers of the Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers (cf. NPNF 2nd series, Vol. 2, introduction to the text). Socrates records that the Quarto-decimans kept the 14th day of the Moon disregarding the Sabbath (ibid., Ch. XXII, p. 130). He records that it was Victor bishop of Rome that excommunicated them and was censured for this by Irenaeus (ibid.). He tries to introduce, at this later stage, an appeal to Peter and Paul for the support of the Roman practice of Easter and the Quarto-deciman’s practice with John (ibid., p. 131). He alleges that neither party can produce written testimony to their views. However, we know correctly that the Quarto-decimans appealed to John from the writings of Polycarp and Polycrates who were taught directly by John. No appeal is made to Peter and Paul for support of Easter in any serious way. Moreover, it is absurd to suggest that the twelve apostles would be divided as to how to calculate the Passover. Socrates is clear on one thing and that is that the church and the Quarto-decimans did not keep the dates for the Passover in accordance with the modern Jewish calculations (i.e. as at the time he wrote c. 437 being after the introduction of the Hillel calendar in 358). He holds them to be wrong in almost everything (ibid., p. 131). In this practice they averred, they conformed not to the modern Jews, who are mistaken in almost everything, but to the ancients and according to Josephus in what he has written in the third book of his Jewish Antiquities. i.e. Antiquities of the Jews, III, 10 which is quoted here in full: In the month of Xanthicus, which is called Nisan by us, and is the beginning of the year, on the fourteenth day of the moon, while the sun is in the sign of Aries (the Ram), for during this month we were freed from bondage under the Egyptians, he has also appointed that we should sacrifice each year the sacrifice which, as we went out of Egypt, they commanded us to offer, it being called the Passover. The sign of Aries finished on 19-20 April and thus the Passover could not fall after this period. The 14th could not fall prior to the equinox and thus we have the ancient parameters for the Passover. Here we see that the early church did not follow the later Jewish traditions under Hillel. Most quotations of Socrates ignore this most important piece of evidence. The Preparation Day of 14 Nisan was thus seen anciently as the commencement of the Passover and that date could fall on the equinox but 15 Nisan, which was the first Holy Day and the night on which Passover was eaten could not fall on the equinox. The ancient practice is the basis for the rule now but after the dispersion the Jews observed only 15 Nisan and not both days as they did previously in accordance with Deuteronomy 16:5-7. We also see from Socrates here that the Council of Nicaea did not fix the timing of Easter as the Audiani claimed (see NPNF, ibid., p. 131 and fn. 14 to p. 131). It was determined according to ancient tradition and this we know, as it was determined according to the worship of the god Adonis and the god Attis in conjunction with Ishtar or Venus and the worship of the Sun system. It resolved the conflict in the heathen systems of Attis and Adonis. Nicaea simply adopted Easter as the official festival using existing pagan practice but harmonised it. It did not fix or determine the festival. The Jews had established an entirely false calendar by 358 not long after Nicaea as we see here from Socrates. This event is much closer to his time and, hence, more accurately noted. Thus, the Christian Passover was all but eliminated by paganism, establishing Easter, or a false calendar of rabbinical Judaism moving the Passover dates in Nisan in relation to the Moon. The Council of Nicaea decreed that the determination of Easter Sunday as the Sunday following the full moon in effect made it virtually impossible (but not quite) for Easter Sunday to fall on the same Sunday as the Wave-sheaf offering of the Sunday of the Passover should it fall on 15 Nisan. Thus, it is almost impossible to have Easter and the Passover coincide correctly on some occasions. This was allegedly out of a desire to distance Christianity from the Jews but it is in reality the determination of the system of a false god to dislocate the true festival and bring it into conformity with pantheistic worship. The meaning of Easter The sheer language involved in the English is itself most telling. The Passover was termed Pash in the early church writings. The term Easter is from the ancient Anglo-Saxon form. The Universal Oxford Dictionary gives the meaning of Easter as coming from the Old English éastre or the feminine plural éastron. It says: Baeda derives the word from Eostre (Northumb. sp. of Éastre), a goddess whose festival was celebrated at the vernal equinox (ibid.). The dictionary then proceeds to ignore this lead in and then goes on to associate it with a Christian festival after identifying its earliest use with the cult of the goddess. The vernal or spring equinox is the time that the days are beginning to lengthen beyond the length of the night (hence, equinox) and the growth is beginning to quicken. Thus, the symbolism is of fertility. From this we associate such symbols as rabbits, eggs etc. The rabbit was a symbol of fertility in the ancient Babylonian system and it is found in the archaeological record. Rabbits were used in ancient homoeopathic magic from Africa to America (Frazer, i, pp. 154-155). They were also used in ceremonies to stop rain (i, p. 295). Not only Christianity adopted the egg symbol in its ritual. Rabbinical Judaism also adopted the practice of including an egg in the Seder table at Passover, thus profaning the Passover meal on a yearly and ritual basis. Coupled with their adoption of the Hillel calendar they virtually never keep the Passover themselves and prevent any who try to follow their system from doing so by virtue of the false calendar system they have adopted. Ishtar or Astarte Easter (fem. pl. Eastron) is actually the name of Ishtar which is another name of Astarte. As Ashtaroth, which is the Hebrew plural form denoting various local manifestations of Astarte (Deut. 1:4; Greek Ashtoreth), she was the Canaanite fertility goddess Athtarath, pronounced seemingly Ashtarath or Ashtereth. From this, the Greeks derived Astarte and the Hebrews in writing the heathen god’s name in the biblical text seemingly kept the consonants but replaced the vowels with the vowels for the word bosheth or shame. Ashtarath or Ishtar became Easter in the Anglo-Saxon prior to their arrival in Britain. At Ras Shamra, in the form of Anat, she plays the leading role during the eclipse of the Sun god Baal in the role of vegetation deity (Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 1, p. 254). She is less conspicuous in Palestine as Ashtaroth than as Astarte who assumes the role of Anat there. What we are seeing is the same role played by this goddess under different names, seemingly depicting some local or other aspect of significance. This is seemingly the same as the Artemis-Diana distinction. The seasonal rituals of the fertility cult of Baal and Astarte are noted in early Israel (Judges 2:13; 10:6; cf. Interp. Dict., ibid.). Samuel at Mizpah at the election of Saul ordered Israel to put away the Baalim and Ashtaroth, thus indicating they were associate and plural (1Sam. 7:4). Israel did not do so and confessed its apostasy after the defeat by the Philistines (1Sam. 12:10). From 1Samuel 31:10, we see her cult at Beth-shan which was not occupied by Israel, being destroyed at the time of David. Hence, her cult was general to the area. She is called Ashtaroth of the Horns (Ashteroth-karnaim). This city was a city of the Rephaim and within the territory of Og king of Bashan (Deut. 1:4; 3:10; Josh. 12:4). Cherdorlaomer raided the Rephaim there (Gen. 14:5). It later was settled by Machir (Josh. 13:12,31) and became an Israelite city of refuge (1Chron. 6:71; cf. Josh. 21:27). This is representative of the goddess Astarte depicted as the horned goddess and represented in the same way as Hathor the cow goddess of Egypt. This is the representation of Ishtar with the Moon god Sin whose upturned horns are identified in the crescent moon on the horizon with Venus as the evening star (cf. the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)). The system was thus ancient and was central to the Rephaim and the religious systems of Egypt and Asia Minor generally but centred on the Assyro-Babylonian system. The form of the word Ashteroth (a. soneka) is also a common noun meaning young of the flock or breeding stock referring to productivity of sheep (cf. Deut. 7:13; 28:4,18,51). The ancient etymology of the terms suggests the connection with the breeding or fertility system and may even be why the sun sign of the month of the equinox was named as Aries or the Ram by the ancients. Astarte, or Easter in her various forms, is the Mother goddess mentioned above and was associated with the son-lover as Lord which is the meaning of Baal, Adonis etc. As the Heavenly Virgin or Mother goddess figure, she was involved, as we see, in the symbolism of the golden calf that led Israel astray at Sinai under Moses (cf. ibid.). In this Trinity of the Star, the Sun and the Moon we see her as goddess of sensual love as evening star (hence, also Venus) and goddess of war as morning star. This war role was attributed to Aphrodite. This title is directly related to Satan from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. She is related to the Moon god Sin from where we derived our concept of the word and is in association with the Sun as the third member of the Trinity. The festivals are tied to this symbolism. The cult of Ashtoreth was patronised by Solomon (1Kings 11:5). Her cultic place established on the Mount of Corruption on the Mount of Olives across from Zion was abolished during Josiah’s reformation. In both cases, this cult is tied to the Phoenicians and, particularly, the Sidonians. Thus, the Bull system of Sin and the sacrifices of the Minotaur in Crete are also associated here through the early maritime system of the Sea Lords. Her worship is directly linked with the worship of Milcom god of the Ammonites and Chemosh of the Moabites. They appear to be associated with her in the form Athtar, the astral Venus, of which Ashtoreth is the female form. She is the consort and ally of Baal in the conflict with the Sea-and-River in the Ras Shamra texts and, in the text from the nineteenth dynasty in Egypt, she was the bride claimed by the tyrant Sea. She was associated with Baal as the Giver of Life or Death in the saga of king Keret from the Ras Shamra texts. Here, the king invokes a curse in the name of Athtarath-the-name-of-Baal. Thus the name is associated with Baal and has both male and female aspects as consort and giver of fertility. At Ras Shamra, her place was usurped by Anath sister of Baal but, from the biblical and Phoenician inscriptions, she was the most prominent deity anciently (Interp. Dict., ibid., art. Ashtoreth, pp. 255-256; cf. the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)). The Egyptians under the Ptolemies at Edfu depicted Ashtoreth as a lion-headed goddess. This is again an association with the lion-headed Aeon and the Mysteries. As Quodshu or holiness, holding a papyrus plant and a serpent, she stands, on a lion, between the Egyptian fertility god Min and Resheph the Semitic god of destruction and death. Her hair is worn in the stylised fashion of the horns of the cow goddess Hathor. Bronze figurines from Gezer depict a nude figure with horns, which are considered to be that of Ashteroth. Her cultic systems flourished at Beth-shan from the fifteenth to the thirteenth centuries BCE and, in the second century BCE, there was a cult centre at Delos to Astarte of Palestine (ibid., p. 256). The fertility symbols found are of the goddess with the horned headdress and the breasts pronounced often holding a lotus flower and a serpent. Where the Mother goddess is depicted, it is Ashera and has a dove clutched to the breast. She is also associated with the Phoenician god of healing Eshmun from an undated inscription from Carthage. This role is endemic to the cult throughout and is found among the Celts and Druids who were exposed to the Sea Lords very anciently. A name associated with her in the Assyrian form Ishtar is Ishtar-miti-uballit or Ishtar make the dead to live (ibid.). Thus, the resurrection theme is associated with her at Easter as Easter. The Queen of Heaven The prophet Ezekiel condemns the women in Israel for weeping for Tammuz (Ezek. 8:14). This Syrian deity was mourned as the dying god in idolatrous Israel. Tammuz was associated with the Queen of Heaven who was also the Heavenly Virgin as we have seen. Cakes were baked to her and the prophet Jeremiah condemns this practice outright (Jer. 7:18; 44:19). The Queen of Heaven was, as we see, an ancient Oriental goddess. She was associated with the harvest also and the last sheaf and corn of the harvest were often dedicated to her and was called the Queen (Frazer, ii, p. 146; vii, p. 153). The Queen at Athens was married to the god Dionysius (ii, pp. 136 ff; vii, pp. 30 ff). It appears that the consummation of the divine union, as well as the espousals, were enacted at the ceremony. It is not known whether the part of the god was played by a man or an image. Attic law required that the Queen be a burgess and have known no man but her husband (Frazer, ii, p. 136). She was assisted by fourteen sacred women, one for each of the altars of Dionysius. This Dionysian ceremony of the Mystery cults was enacted on the 12th of Anasterion (or around February). The fourteen were sworn to purity and chastity by the Queen at the ancient shrine of Dionysius on the Marshes, which was opened on that day of the year only. Her marriage seemingly took place later and according to Aristotle (Constitution of Athens, iii, p. 5) at the old residence of the king on the north-eastern side of the Acropolis and known as the Cattle stall. It was nevertheless part of this ancient fertility festival of the vines and fruit trees of whom Dionysius was the god (Bacchus to the Romans) (cf. Frazer, ii, pp. 136-137 and n. 1). The Queen became consort of the gods but remained the fertility goddess and Mother goddess. In this role, the Queen of the corn-ears was drawn in procession at the end of the harvest. The Queen of Egypt was also the wife of Ammon (ii, pp. 131 ff; v, p. 72) and, thus, personified the goddess in her person. This degenerated in later years where the divine consort was a young and beautiful girl of good family who led the loosest of sexual relations until she reached puberty and was then mourned and given in marriage (Strabo, xvii, I, 46, p. 816). The Greeks called these Pallades after their virgin goddess Pallas. This prostitution appears to have anciently been associated with the worship of Ishtar and indeed most of the devotees of Easter or Ishtar spent some time at least enrolled as a temple prostitute as a young girl in the cult centres of Asia Minor. At Corinth, prostitution was general and virtually everyone in the city was at one time or another involved with it. The prophetess of Apollo also had this role of consort. So long as the god tarried at Patara his winter oracle and home, his prophetess was shut up with him every night. As Artemis, the many breasted goddess of fertility at Ephesus, the goddess had consorts who were termed Essenes or King Bees and seemed to have been entirely celibate for a fixed period of time being dedicated to the goddess. The records or inscriptions at Ephesus indicate some were married. She had a grove of fruit trees around her temple (Frazer, i, p. 7). She was thus associated with Demeter who was termed the fruit bearer (vii, p. 63). In this way she was also identified with Diana who was patroness of fruit trees as was she herself (i, pp. 15 ff). This Mother goddess is identified by Frazer with the King of the Wood and his woodland goddess Diana at Nemi. This appears to make perfect sense and would explain why the crowd at Ephesus, in Acts, referred to the goddess as Diana of Ephesus. This aspect has been transferred to the cult of the Virgin and fruit trees are blessed on the day of the Assumption of the Virgin (Frazer, i, pp. 14 ff). The cult of the Virgin in Christianity is nothing but the cult of Ishtar, Astarte, Diana or Artemis in ancient paganism in new guise and sometimes in the same clothes. The relationship with the mysteries in Egypt carries on to the cult of Osirus whose worshippers were forbidden to injure fruit trees (Frazer, vi, p. 111). Dionysius was also a god of fruit trees (vii, pp. 3 ff). We see an intertwined relationship here, which shows that these are not really different gods but different aspects of the same system of worship with variations on a theme. These Essene at Ephesus were expected to have no intercourse with mortal women as the wives of Bel and Ammon, from early times, were expected to have no intercourse with mortal men. There seems to be a logic in the celibate dedication to the Queen of Heaven as Mother goddess. That is why the priests dedicated to her were celibate or eunuchs. This practice entered Christianity from the pagan cults and Gnosticism in its adaptation of the Mystery cults (see the paper Vegetarianism and the Bible (No. 183)). The females in the Ishtar cult in Asia Minor were not celibate but promiscuous. It is probable that Pliny called the Sons of Zadok at Qumran as Essene from the fact that some of their orders were celibate ascetics. They themselves used no such title and the application as priests of a pagan god would have been offensive in the extreme. As Queen of May, the goddess was representative of the spirit of vegetation (ii, pp. 79,84) both in France (ii, p. 87) and in England (ii, pp. 87 ff). It seems to be a common view that the Mother was also goddess of the Corn and the last of the harvest is often dedicated to her in symbolism and a special cake is made of this last of the harvest and dedicated to her. The symbolism runs throughout Europe in varying forms and has the same symbolism being identified with this Queen of the harvest (cf. Frazer, vii, pp. 149-151). A sacrificial cake is baked of new barley or rice (Frazer, viii, p. 120). The barley harvest is at Easter or Passover. Among the Hindus, sacrifice was made at the beginning of the harvest either at the new or full moon. The barley was reaped in spring and the rice in autumn. From the new grain, a sacrificial cake was set forth on twelve potsherds sacred to the gods Indra and Agni. A pap of gruel or boiled grain was offered to the pantheon of deities, the Visve Devah, and a cake on one potsherd was presented to heaven and earth (ibid.). This is similar to the record of presenting the cakes to the Queen of Heaven referred to by Jeremiah and appears to have been anciently common to all the Aryans. The sacrifices in the Hindu system were of the firstfruits and the fee of the priests was the firstborn of the cattle and, thus, we are seeing the ancient firstfruits system among the Aryans entering Hinduism. The harvest goddess is Gauri wife of Siva. Rice cakes or pancakes are offered to a plant-formed effigy of Gauri. On the third day, it is thrown into a river or a tank. A handful of dirt or pebbles is brought home from the spot and thrown about the house and gardens and trees to ensure fertility. This is the same effect as the custom of sweeping churches in Italy on the third day of the Easter festival and shows an ancient common tradition much older than Christianity. The cakes have become hot cross buns in Christianity. The same practice is among the Chins of Upper Burma as an offering of firstfruits to the goddess Pok Klai. This Mother goddess figure entered Buddhism and the east as the goddess Kuan-yin who became the Avalokitesvara of the Mahayana system. She entered Christianity as the Heavenly Virgin called Mary. She was made the mother of Jesus Christ and blasphemously termed Mother of God. The Black Madonna We can see now that the Mother goddess figure entered Christianity as the Virgin Mary. She is termed the Madonna. We can see that her aspect as goddess of the spirit of vegetation was emphasised in the application of a black face to the goddess in her role as Demeter or the spring goddess of fertility in her aspects of Artemis or Diana. In Christianity, this aspect seems to be known as the Black Madonna. There was no cult of the Virgin Mariam or Mary in the early centuries of the church. The ERE in dealing with the cult of Mary says: No mention of Mary’s name, nor reference to her, occurs in the notices of Holy Communion in the NT; nor in the liturgical thanksgiving in the 1st epistle of St. Clement of Rome; nor in the Didache; nor in Justin Martyr’s or Tertullian’s account of the Eucharistic services. The only place where an invocation of St. Mary could come in is at the Commemoration of Martyrs and the Commemoration of the Departed; and on this all that St Cyprian has to say is: ‘Ecclesiastical discipline teaches, as the faithful know, that at the point where the martyrs are named at the altar of God, there they are not prayed for but for others who are commemorated prayer is offered (Epp. i, [Opera, Oxford, 1682, p. 81]) There is no direct evidence that among ‘the martyrs’ the Virgin was so much as mentioned (ERE, Vol. 8, pp. 475-476). The introduction of Mariolatry was some time later from the introduction in the Eastern rites. After the church was adopted by the Roman Empire the heathen practice or heresy was adopted and the practice is recorded by Epiphanius: as heresy (Her, lxxix) that ‘certain women in Thrace, Scythia, and Arabia’ were in the habit of adoring the virgin as a goddess and offering to her a certain kind of cake [kollurida tina] whence he calls them ‘Collyridians’. Their practice (cf. Jer. 44:19) and the notion underlying it were undoubtedly relics of heathenism always familiar with female deities. These cakes were made to the Queen of Heaven at her festival, the festival of Ishtar or Easter or Astarte, since long before the Babylonian captivity. Epiphanius was adamant that Mary [or Mariam] was not to be worshipped. In the Liturgy of St Mark (Alexandrian), Mary was originally included in the prayer that God would give rest to the holy dead (ERE, ibid., p. 478). Mary or Mariam was seen as being quite dead and among those awaiting the resurrection. The Trinitarians, particularly the Cappadocians, elevated Mary in response to the arguments of the non-Trinitarians later called Arians (cf. ERE, ibid., p. 476). They elevated Christ to God and then elevated ‘Mary’ as Mother of God and, hence, the Mother goddess and mother of the gods. These ideas were purely heathen and did not originate until the end of the fourth century. W R Ramsey argues that: so early as the 5th. cent. the honour paid to the Virgin Mary at Ephesus was the recrudescence in a baptized form of the old pagan Anatolian worship of the Virgin Mother (Pauline and Other Studies, p. 126; cf. ERE, ibid., p. 477, n. 1). The Virgin Mary was none other than Artemis or Diana of Ephesus that Paul so boldly opposed (Acts 19:24-35). By the medieval period up to the close of the council of Trent in 1563, we see that Mary had been elevated in the liturgy being mentioned by name as: the most holy, stainless, blessed, Our Lady, Mother of God and the sequence of thought, which still shows she is prayed for is interrupted by a salutation ‘Hail thou that art full of grace ... because thou did bring forth the saviour of the world.’ (ERE, ibid., p. 478). There is no doubt Mariam, or Mary, the mother of Christ, was originally thought of as dead and was prayed for and not to and this was eroded by the Mother goddess cult whose place she took. The Mother goddess was given a black face as Demeter goddess of fertility in the December rites and as the Black Madonna she was thus related to the fertility and Mystery cults. Her cult, in any form, is pagan and an affront to Christianity. The Council of Trent tried to reduce the idolatry associated with Mary and make distinction in the concepts of worship accorded to God, Jesus, Mary and the saints. The effects of the council were later eroded by successive popes, down to the present day. Hanukkah and Purim A festival of the Jews that mirrors the influence of the Persians and the Greeks is that of Hanukkah. It has no religious significance and work is not ceased. It is a festival of the 25th of the ninth month called Chislev (or Kislev) which approximates December. We know from Baruch 6:19 ff that the Babylonians lit candles before their idols and this was mentioned somewhat disparagingly in Baruch. The Greeks had also taken over this system as we see from the references above. From the time of the Seleucid kingdom and its influence over Judah, the Hellenisation of Palestine was unavoidable. Its political influence was considered marginal over Jerusalem according to Hayyim Schauss in his work (The Jewish Festivals: History and Observance, Chanukkoh, Schocken Books, p. 211). One only has to look at the fact that the grove of a Greek god was at Bethlehem (see below) to see the naivety of this statement. He admits on page 212 that the Hellenisation process was of political and economic interest. The governing party in Jerusalem under Syrian rule was the Hellenistic Aristocratic party. The conflicts from this system reached its head under Antiochus Epihanes. The high priest was the Hellenised Jew of the aristocratic pro-Syrian party Jason (altered from Joshua). He erected a gymnasium at Jerusalem and introduced Greek games. Jews adopted Greek names and culture (cf. Schauss, p. 213). When the Syrian-Egyptian war broke out the conservative Jason was deposed by the more radically pro-Greco-Syrian Menelaus (Menachem). A rumour that Antiochus had been slain on the battlefield emboldened Jason to enter Jerusalem with 1,000 men and attack Menelaus. Antiochus entered Jerusalem and commenced to slaughter every advocate of the Egyptian party. He plundered the Temple and removed the treasure and all the gold and silver utensils. Menelaus was left in charge. A year later Antiochus again marched against Egypt but was ordered to withdraw by the Roman senate and he was forced to comply (cf. Schauss, p. 214). Antiochus was then forced to consolidate the empire against Roman and Egyptian power. To do this, he forced the worship of Greek gods. The Jews did not comply and he was forced to send an army into Palestine to force compliance. The Temple was turned into a Grecian temple. The death penalty was introduced for observance of the Jewish faith. A new strictly nationalist party emerged under Judah Maccabee and his brothers of the Hasmonean family. On 25 Kislev they rededicated the altar of the Temple and instituted a yearly eight-day festival commencing on that day. They forced the repeal of the anti-Jewish laws of the Syrians and began to erect an independent Jewish kingdom in Palestine. This kingdom lasted less that 100 years before being swallowed up by the Romans. Schauss makes a telling statement on page 216. He says: For centuries since the Babylonian captivity they were a small and weak community in the little land of Judah ... It was only through the revolt and victory of the Hasmoneans that the latent forces of the people were aroused, and the various trends in Jewish spiritual life attained distinct forms. Jews grew enormously in numbers and power during that period. Hanukkah is allegedly to commemorate the victory of the Hasmoneans. What we see is a period of total religious syncretism with the support of a party of the Jewish people. The practice of lighting tapers or candles over an eight day period commencing in early December and lasting for eight days often coincides with the Saturnalia or the festivals of Demeter and the Mother goddess in Egypt, as we see above. It is indicative of the adaptation of a foreign practice to commemorate the victory of a Jewish aristocratic party and appropriate to itself the legitimacy of the previous aristocracy in the eyes of the people. This practice has no biblical sanction. Haggai 2:10-19 speaks of 24 Kislev as the period of the Temple restoration. The wrong date is involved for the application of this prophecy (see also the paper The Oracles of God (No. 184)). An indication that the same thinking is involved in these Jewish festivals is the note 305 by Schauss (on p. 310) to the text on Purim and the practice of eating beans there where he says: The primitive source of this custom must be sought for in the primitive character of Purim as a season festival. For, exactly like beating and masquerading, legumes were also, in the belief of the peoples, a charm against the spirits. For this same reason beans are also eaten at a wedding. Note the beating and masquerading attendant with the eating of the bean. It is also the practice, however now only among oriental Jews, of the burning Haman at Purim. In the same process, Judas is burnt among the Roman Catholics of Europe. The same aspects of beating and masquerading are common to all. Schauss says (on p. 270), in relation to Purim and the consumption of Kreplech and the Hamantaschen. The word Kreplech obviously comes from the German and like many other forms of Purim observance was taken over from ‘Shrove Tuesday’ of the Christians and made a part of Purim. From Purim, it must be assumed the custom of eating Kreplech was carried over to the day before Yom Kippur and to Hashano Rabboh. He suggests the jesting explanation has been made that they are eaten on the days when beating is done – hence, the day before Yom Kippur when men flog themselves; Hoshano Rabboh when the willow branches are beaten; and Purim when Haman is beaten (p. 270). The practice anciently was to burn lights at Hanukkah. Haman was burnt at Purim on the gallows. This is the origin of the Christians objecting to the practice on the grounds that it was identified with Christ. When this was done, ten candles were lit for the sons of Haman. We see here the concept of candles as the single soul of the individual and the burning of the candles to create light. This practice can only be Assyro-Babylonian in origin and of pagan animist derivation. It has died out with the burning but it was coupled with it. The candles are lit to placate the spirits of the ten demons. Schauss shows that the practices of the theatrical aspects of the festivals began at Chanukkoh (or Hanukkah) but were predominate at Purim in the ghetto. He says of the Purim masquerade: It is ordinarily assumed that the Purim masquerade originated among the Jews of Italy, through the influence of the Christian Carnival, and that from Italy it spread to Jews of other lands. It is more logical to assume, however, that the masquerade belonged to Purim from the very start, together with the noise making. Both the noise-making and the masquerading were originally safeguards against evil spirits, against whom it was necessary to guard oneself at the change of the seasons. It would be truer to say that the Purim Mask and the Christian Carnival have the same heathen origin, with the season of the year and the approach of spring and both later took on new significance (p. 268). He notes the custom among the Talmudic academics until recently of electing a Purim-rabbi (p. 269). This custom developed from the custom of electing the Purim-king, which was akin to the election of the King of the Bean or the King of Fools in Europe (see above). These clearly and admittedly heathen practices associated with festivals not commanded to be observed indicate that we are dealing with the ancient primitive festivals of the fertility cults that entered Judaism from the same sources as they entered the Roman and Orthodox systems, namely from the Assyro-Babylonians and then the Greeks and Egyptians. They lead up to the Passover in the same way as the other systems lead up to Easter. The traditions of Judaism are as perverted as those of mainstream Christian sects. Indeed, they are of a common heathen origin; Babylon the Great rules the entire world. The worship of Adonis at Easter The remnants of the cult of the worship of Adonis are found to this day in Sicily and Calabria. In Sicily, gardens of Adonis are still sown in spring as well as in summer, from which Frazer infers that Sicily as well as Syria celebrated an old vernal festival of a dead and risen god. Frazer says: At the approach of Easter, Sicilian women sow wheat, lentils and canary seed in plates, which they keep in the dark and water every two days. The plants soon shoot up; the stalks are tied together with red ribbons, and the plates containing them are placed on the sepulchres, which with the effigies of the dead Christ, are made up in Catholic and Greek churches on Good Friday, just as the gardens of Adonis were placed on the grave of the dead Adonis. The practice is not confined to Sicily but is observed in Calabria and perhaps in other places (Frazer, ibid., v, pp. 253-254). The gardens are also still sown in Croatia and are often tied with the national colours. Frazer draws attention to the widespread nature of this cult in Christian guise. The Greek church incorporated the festival in the procession of the dead Christ around Greek cities from house to house bewailing his death. Frazer is of the view that the church has skilfully grafted the festival of the dead god Adonis onto the Easter festival of so-called Christianity. The dead and risen Adonis became the dead and risen Christ. The depiction of the Greek artists of the sorrowful goddess with the dying lover Adonis in her arms resembles and seems to have been the model for the Pieta of Christian art of the Virgin with the dead body of her son in her lap (ibid., pp. 256-257). The most celebrated example of this is the one by Michelangelo in St Peter’s. Jerome tells us of the grove to Adonis located at Bethlehem. Where Jesus wept, the Syrian god and lover of Venus was bewailed (ibid., p. 257). Bethlehem means the House of Bread and thus the worship of Adonis, as god of the corn, came to be associated with Bethlehem rather than the bread of life that was Messiah. This was itself probably deliberate to assimilate the belief in the Syrian god Adonis and his lover Ishtar or Astarte, the Venus of the Romans. The first seat of Christianity outside of Palestine was Antioch, and it was occupied by the apostle Peter, as bishop. It was here that the cult of Adonis was entrenched and the death and resurrection of the god was celebrated annually with great solemnity. When the emperor Julian entered into the city, which was at the time of the celebration of the death and resurrection of the god Adonis, he was greeted with great salutations so much so that he marvelled at them as they cried The Star of Salvation has dawned upon them in the East (Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii, 9. 14; cf. Frazer, v, n. 2 to p. 258). Rain-making at Easter In order to ensure the growth of the crops, it was necessary to have rainfall by the equinox to get spring under way. In order to do this, various rain-making ceremonies were held anciently by exposing the gods to various forms of hardship. In Italy, Palm Sunday, the Day of the Sun god at the Easter festival, was used to hang the consecrated palm branches on trees. The churches were swept and the dust was sprinkled on the gardens (see also above). Special consecrated candles were also lit to ensure rain. The statue of St Francis of Paola is credited with annually bringing the rain when he is carried every spring through the market gardens. In the great drought of 1893, it is recorded that after some six months of drought the Italians could not induce the saints to bring rain by candles, bells, illuminations, fireworks and special masses and vespers. They banished the saints after they had scourged themselves with iron whips to no avail. At Palermo, they dumped the statue of St Joseph in a garden to see the state of things for himself and with the intention of leaving him there until rain fell. Other statues were turned to the wall like naughty children. Others were stripped of their regalia and banished from their parishes, being dunked in horse ponds and were threatened and grossly insulted. At Caltanisetta, the statue of the Archangel Michael was stripped of his golden wings and robes and given pasteboard wings instead and a clout was wrapped around him. The statue of St Angelo at Licata fared even worse as it was stripped and left naked. The statue was reviled, put in irons and threatened with drowning or hanging. The angry people roared at him shouting Rain or the rope (Frazer, i, p. 300). This story, as farcical as it is, was carried out with deadly seriousness some 100 years ago in a civilised so-called Christian country with the knowledge and consent of the Catholic Church. The activities demonstrate the connection in the minds of the peasantry with the ancient agricultural system and the so-called statues of the saints have simply replaced those of the ancient gods of the harvest Adonis, Attis, Astarte, and Zeus as the god of rain etc. These practices were based on the same ideas and concepts found in ancient China and elsewhere in the East. In 1710 on the island of Tsong-ming in Nanking province the viceroy, after attempting to placate the deity, shut up his temple and placed locks on the doors after banishing the deity. Rain fell soon afterwards and the deity was restored. In April 1888, the mandarins of Canton prayed to the god Lung-wong to stop the incessant downpour of rain. He did not heed them and so they put him in a lock up for five days and the rain duly ceased. He was then restored to liberty (Frazer, i, pp. 298-299). The ideas are thus exactly the same and precede Christianity by millennia. However, they were absorbed into it and were prevalent into this century. In fact, the ideas still exist within the legends and minds of a superstitious peasantry encouraged by ignorance and a manipulative priesthood. The Morning Star The cult of Adonis involved the divine mistress of Adonis whose ancient name was Astarte who was identified with the planet Venus. Thus, the star was the symbol both of the god and his lover. It is also biblically the symbol of Satan and hence the visions of the Virgin are related to the Morning Star and can only be of demonic significance. The adversary poses as an angel of light. Astarte the divine mistress of Adonis was identified with Venus by the Babylonians whose astronomers made careful notation of her transition from Morning to Evening Star, drawing omens from her appearance and disappearance (Frazer, v, p. 258). It is reasonable, then, to assume that the festival of Adonis was timed to commence with the appearance as the Morning or Evening Star. As the star that the people of Antioch saluted was seen in the East and if it was indeed Venus it can only have been as the Morning Star. From this we can deduce that the term Easter relates then also to the word for East and relates to this pagan goddess of the dawn. Frazer holds that the festival of Astarte at the ancient temple at Aphaca in Syria was timed to start with the fall of a meteor from the heavens which on a certain day was timed to fall from the top of Mt Lebanon to the river of Adonis (v, p. 259). This seems a little too convenient and it may be that the morning star he attributes to Antioch and elsewhere is this same meteor that represents the star of the goddess falling from heaven into the arms of her lover (ibid.). The placing of the temple at Aphaca in relation to Mt Lebanon and the River Adonis would give, therefore, a precise location of the temple in relation to the rise of the morning star on the first day of the Sun following the vernal equinox of each year. Fairly accurate triangulation should locate the temple with a fair degree of accuracy on this hypothesis. Frazer’s attempts to locate this star with Bethlehem and the wise men cannot possibly be correct. The link, however, with the god Adonis and Astarte is absolute. The coupling of these festivals with Adonis and also Attis as the dead and risen god to which the pine was sacred as we see with Attis is conclusive (Frazer, v, p. 306). The symbol of the dead man hanged on the tree and absorbed with it and then resurrected is the basis behind the relics of the cross being all of pine. The Easter system with its rekindling of new fires or need-fires are entirely non-biblical and anti-Christian. Christianity compromised with its rivals in order to accommodate a still dangerous enemy. In the words of Frazer, the shrewd clerics saw that: If Christianity was to conquer the world it could only do so by relaxing the too rigid principles of its Founder, by widening a little the narrow gate that leads to salvation. He makes the telling but incorrect argument that Christianity was like Buddhism where both were essentially ethical reforms which could only be carried out by a small number of disciples who were forced to renounce their family and the state. For the faiths to be accepted, they must be substantially reformed to appeal to the prejudices and passions and superstitions of the vulgar. This happened in both Judaism and in Christianity. Epilogue In this way, the faith of Messiah was subverted by worldly secular priests who accommodated the faith to the religions of ancient Rome, and the Sun-worshipping Mystery cults. This perversion of the faith started with the basic festivals, which replaced the festivals of the Bible with those of the Sun-worshippers. They introduced Christmas and Easter and then Sunday worship which replaced the fourth commandment regarding the Sabbath. They invented the myth of the perpetual virginity of a woman they called Mary, rather than Mariam, to disguise the fact that they had murdered her sons and their descendants, the brothers and nephews of the Messiah of the World, the Son of God who came to teach them the truth and save them from themselves (see the paper The Virgin Mariam and the Family of Jesus Christ (No. 232)). The Christmas symbolism involves this Virgin bringing forth an infant from a cave year after year as the eternal Sun comes forth in its infancy at the solstice. The symbolism conveyed by the true feasts of God contained in the Bible is deliberately obscured so that no growth in the faith and in the knowledge of the one true God is possible. The ignorant teach their children lies in the misguided belief that somehow that will make them happy