The Sacred Feminine and Goddess Worship

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The Sacred Feminine andGoddess Worship

• Sue Bohlin
• www.probe.org

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Claims Made in The DaVinci Code

• Nature worship is a natural and desirable
  religion.
• Female half of all things is the sacred
  feminine or divine goddess.
• Goddess worship is an ancient and thus valid
  religious expression.
• Powerful men in the early church lied to the
  world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and goddess
  worship.

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Claims Made in The DaVinci Code

• Jesus was mortal and Mary Magdalene was divine.
• Constantine and his male successors converted the
  world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal
  Christianity.
• Constantine and his successors waged a propaganda
  campaign that demonized the sacred feminine and
  obliterated the goddess from Christianity.

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Claims Made in The DaVinci Code

• The concept of woman as life-bringer was the
  foundation of ancient religion.
• The early Christian church dethroned the females
  creative power and made man the Creator. Genesis
  was written to recast the woman as inferior.
• The early church devalued the feminine and
  elevated the masculine, subjugating women.

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• "The pentacle . . . is a pre-Christian symbol
  that relates to Nature worship. The ancients
  envisioned their world in two halvesmasculine
  and feminine. Their gods and goddesses worked to
  keep a balance of power. Yin and yang.

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• When male and female were balanced, there was
  harmony in the world. When they were unbalanced,
  there was chaos. . . . This pentacle is
  representative of the female half of all thingsa
  concept religious historians call the 'sacred
  feminine' or the 'divine goddess. (p. 36)

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Animism (Paganism)

• From Latin anima, meaning spirit
• Default setting for religion without a claim to
  revelation from God
• Reality is made up of physical world and spirit
  world
• Each world affects each other
• Nature is alive, sacred, and imbued with power

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Animism (Paganism)

• Spirits can dwell in places, animals, plants.
• Belief in ghosts and spirits, gods and goddesses
• Practice of magic, divination and worship of
  false gods
• Hope is to gain control over the spirit world

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Animism in Goddess Worship

• God made man in His image
• Ever since, fallen man has been making gods and
  goddesses in HIS image
• Male and female

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• The Goodmans work with the Goddess in conscious
  ways to enhance their relationship. They start
  each day with a ritual, kneeling at their bedroom
  altar and verbally acknowledging the Feminine in
  the form of Gaia and the Masculine in the form of
  the Christ Consciousness. (Men and the Goddess)

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• "Early religion was based on the divine order of
  Nature. The goddess Venus and the planet Venus
  were one and the same. The goddess had a place in
  the nighttime sky and was known by many
  namesVenus, the Eastern Star, Ishtar,
  Astarteall of them powerful female concepts with
  ties to Nature and Mother Earth." (p. 36)

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The Nature of the Sacred Feminine

• Love and Beauty (Venus, Aphrodite, Astarte)
• Motherhood (Gaia, Mother Earth)
• Wisdom
• Emotions

• Homemaking
• Nurturing
• Creativity
• Imagination
• Life forces of birth and nurture, growth and
  fertility

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The Nature of the Sacred Feminine

• Personal (Goddess Venus, Mary Magdalene)
• Impersonal (planet Venus, spirit of the goddess)

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• "Gazing out at the rustling trees of College
  Garden, Langdon sensed her playful presence. The
  signs were everywhere. Like a taunting silhouette
  emerging from the fog, the branches of Britain's
  oldest apple tree burgeoned with five-petaled
  blossoms, all glistening like Venus. The goddess
  was in the garden now. She was dancing in the
  rain, singing songs of the ages, peeking out from
  behind the bud-filled branches as if to remind
  Langdon that the fruit of knowledge was growing
  just beyond his reach." (p. 420)

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The Nature of the Sacred Feminine

• Both personal and impersonal
• "For a moment, he thought he heard a woman's
  voice. . . the wisdom of the ages. . . whispering
  up from the chasms of the earth." (p. 484)

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Goddess Worship

• "The Priory's tradition of perpetuating goddess
  worship is based on a belief that powerful men in
  the early Christian church 'conned' the world by
  propagating lies that devalued the female and
  tipped the scales in favor of the masculine."

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• "The Priory believes that Constantine and his
  male successors successfully converted the world
  from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal
  Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda
  that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating
  the goddess from modern religion forever." (p.
  124)

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Goddess Worship in the Bible

• Jeremiah 4417-18We're going to go right on
  offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and
  pouring out drink offerings to her, keeping up
  the traditions set by our ancestors, our kings
  and government leaders in the cities of Judah and
  the streets of Jerusalem in the good old days. We
  had a good life then--lots of food, rising
  standard of living, and no bad luck. But the
  moment we quit sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven
  and pouring out offerings to her, everything fell
  apart. We've had nothing but massacres and
  starvation ever since. (The Message)
• 1 Kings 1133. . .because they have forsaken
  Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of
  the Sidonians . . .

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Revisionist History in The DaVinci Code
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• "The power of the female and her ability to
  produce life was once very sacred, but it posed a
  threat to the rise of the predominantly male
  Church, and so the sacred feminine was demonized
  and called unclean. It was man, not God, who
  created the concept of 'original sin,' whereby
  Eve tasted of the apple and caused the downfall
  of the human race. Woman, once the sacred giver
  of life, was now the enemy.

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• "This concept of woman as life-bringer was the
  foundation of ancient religion. Childbirth was
  mystical and powerful. Sadly, Christian
  philosophy decided to embezzle the female's
  creative power by ignoring biological truth and
  making man the Creator.

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• Genesis tells us that Eve was created from
  Adam's rib. Woman became an offshoot of man. And
  a sinful one at that. Genesis was the beginning
  of the end for the goddess. (p. 238)

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• "The Grail is symbolic of the lost goddess. When
  Christianity came along, the old pagan religions
  did not die easily. Legends of chivalric quests
  for the lost Grail were in fact stories of
  forbidden quests to find the lost sacred
  feminine.

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• Knights who claimed to be 'searching for the
  chalice were speaking in code as a way to
  protect themselves from a Church that had
  subjugated women, banished the Goddess, burned
  nonbelievers, and forbidden the pagan reverence
  for the sacred feminine." (p. 238-239)

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Sex and Worship

• "It's important to remember that the ancients'
  view of sex was entirely opposite from ours
  today. Sex begot new lifethe ultimate
  miracleand miracles could be performed only by a
  god. The ability of the woman to produce life
  from her womb made her sacred. A god. (p. 309)

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• "The early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic
  sex. In the Temple, no less. Early Jews believed
  that the Holy of Holies in Solomon's Temple
  housed not only God but also His powerful female
  equal, Shekinah. Men seeking spiritual wholeness
  came to the Temple to visit priestesses . . .
  with whom they made love and experienced the
  divine through physical union.

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• The Jewish tetragrammaton YHWHthe sacred name
  of Godin fact derived from Jehovah, an
  androgynous physical union between the masculine
  Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for Eve, Havah." (p.
  309)
• Heiros Gamos (sacred marriage)

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What the Bible tells us about this ritualistic
sex

• Deut 2317 None of the daughters of Israel shall
  be a cult prostitute, nor shall any of the sons
  of Israel be a cult prostitute.
• 1 Kin 1424 There were also male cult prostitutes
  in the land. They did according to all the
  abominations of the nations which the LORD
  dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

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• CLAIM Nature worship is a natural and desirable
  religion
• TRUTH Nature worship (animism) occurs when
  people have lost the truth of the biblical God as
  Creator
• CLAIM Female half of all things is the sacred
  feminine or divine goddess
• TRUTH God made one creation which is not divided
  into two male/female parts (dualism). The beauty
  and power of the feminine is a reflection of
  Gods attributes we are made in His image.

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• CLAIM Goddess worship is an ancient and thus
  valid religious expression
• TRUTH There is a myth of the evolution of
  religion animism--polytheism--monotheism.
  Religion started with the God of the Bible other
  forms are a devolution
• CLAIM Powerful men in the early church lied to
  the world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and goddess
  worship
• TRUTH The suppressed story of Jesus and Mary
  Magdalenes marriage never happened. Goddess
  worship was never a part of Christianity.

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• CLAIM Mary Magdalene was divine
• "The Priory of Sion, to this day, still worships
  Mary Magdalene as the Goddess, the Holy Grail,
  the Rose, and the Divine Mother." (p. 255)
• CLAIM Jesus was only mortal
• "In those trunks are reputed to be the Purist
  Documentsthousands of pages of unaltered,
  pre-Constantine documents, written by the early
  followers of Jesus, revering Him as a wholly
  human teacher and prophet." (p. 256)
• TRUTH Jesus was the divine, eternally-existing
  Son of God, and Mary Magdalene was only a human
  follower of Jesus

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• CLAIM Constantine and his male successors
  converted the world from matriarchal paganism to
  patriarchal Christianity
• TRUTH Matriarchal (women in charge) societies
  were almost non-existent, and the world was never
  converted to Christianity.
• CLAIM Constantine and his successors waged a
  propaganda campaign that demonized the sacred
  feminine and obliterated the goddess from
  Christianity
• TRUTH Constantine was never a church leader.
  Church leaders stood for biblical truth and
  against false beliefs such as animism and goddess
  worship.

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• CLAIM The concept of woman as life-bringer was
  the foundation of ancient religion.
• TRUTH No religion ever elevated woman (as
  goddess) to that degree. The feminine was always
  part of the larger whole.
• CLAIM The early Christian church dethroned the
  females creative power and made man the Creator.
  Genesis was written to recast the woman as
  inferior.
• TRUTH Man has never been creator, God is. The
  role of the man as leader in society and in the
  family began with the creation of Adam and Eve.
  Genesis was written long before the church came
  into existence.

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• CLAIM The early church devalued the feminine and
  elevated the masculine, subjugating women
• TRUTH No religion has ever elevated women like
  Christianity.
• Jesus treated the Samaritan woman at the well in
  a kind and respectful way, speaking to her in
  public and making her the first evangelist to her
  town
• Jesus freely taught Mary of Bethany along with
  His disciples, unheard of in that day
• He taught her sister Martha and invited her to
  respond publicly to Him

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• Jesus first appeared to women after His
  resurrection and gave them the privilege and
  responsibility of telling His disciples
• Honorable women traveled with Jesus and supported
  Him financially
• Women had equal value to men
• The early church embraced womens role as
  co-workers in the home churches and co-laborers
  in the gospel
• Women were allowed to pray and prophesy in public
  worship services
• The marital status of women was elevated to a
  position of respect and love previously unseen in
  any culture.

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What God Thinks about Goddess Worship and the
Sacred Feminine

• I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no
  other gods before Me.