In Ezekiel 8 the men were holding the first "sun rise service" and the women were in the temple lamenting or singing to Tammuz. Because Israel replaced wine, women and musical instruments for the Word of God the common people would hunger and thirst for knowledge and would wander from sea to sea but the "lakes" have all dried up.
The only hint to the Ekklesia (synagogue) of Christ not defeated by the GATES OF HELL comes from the Babylonian religionism. Inanna as a type of Eve or Zoe or Inanna or Ishtar (Easter) got the father God--EA the patron god of lmusic--drunk and STOLE the ME: these were magican incantations (songs) which gave her supernatural power. By reading this text you can see how the DOVE identified the SON of the FATHER to repudiate matriarchal religion of Babylon. The Mother Goddess were "holy whores" and delighted in getting the men to build her a grand temple and then in a fit of rage she sowed discord among brothers and broke it down. Sound like a mega church?
"Ezekiel was particularly aghast at the sun worship there and a Canaanite fertility cult, which he calls 'weeping for Tammuz.
The Tammuz cult in the temple was being practiced by women, and it appears that they must bear their full share of responsibility for introducing heathen practices into Israel...
to the bad record of women may be added the activities of Solomon's wives who imported worship of the gods of Moab and Ammon, and of Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, who brought with her from Phoenicia the cult of the Tyrian Baal." (Heaton, E. W., Everyday Life in the Old Testament, p. 231-232, Scribners)
And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many? 2 Kings 9:22
Kesheph (h3785) keh'-shef; from 3784; magic: - sorcery, witchcraft.
Kashaph (h3784) kaw-shaf'; a prim. root; prop. to whisper a spell, i. e. to inchant or practise magic: - sorcerer, (use) witch (-craft).Thus, Baal-aph, "lord of wrath," signifies "an angry man"; Baal-lashon, "lord of tongue," "an eloquent man"; Baal-hatsim, "lord of arrows," "an archer"; and in like manner, Baal-aberin, "lord of wings," signifies "winged one."
Moses warned about the Babylonian and Canaaniite influences when Israel fell into musical idolatry at Mount Sinai:
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, De.18:10
Anath: This Canaanite Goddess' name means 'to answer' and may be related to the Akkadian word ettu meaning 'active will.160' She was a major deity all over the western parts of the Near East, including Egypt where she was later considered to be the same Goddess as Libyan Neith. Titles for her include Belet'net 'virgin Anath,' 'Nethebely161 'the destroyer,' and Yebemet-limm 'widow of the nation(?)'162. Her worship extended from the 2nd millenium BCE deep into the Hellenistic Age, when it began to be forced underground. Like the original Athena, she ruled battle, the hunt, and the passage of souls from one world to the next. She was also a Death Goddess who wore the goatskin aegis -- or at least, the Egyptians attributed Neith's aegis to her. This sacred garment has been described as a cloak, apron, breastplate, or shield. In Anath's case, it shifted in function as religious ceremony changed. Originally it was probably a garment worn by each Libyan woman when she came of age, made of cloth and marked with snakes and Moon symbols, or made of many braids of string.
Later it was remade, parts of its feminine symbolism removed and turned into a garment worn during animal sacrifices. Then it was decorated with severed penises, representing both types of death men experience, loss of erection and the ending of their lives.
As Anath's image was melded into that of the Minoan Bird Goddess, the penises became snakes again, and the aegis a cloak. The result helped to effectively concealed Athena's ancient Libyan origins while unwittingly reintroducing some of the older symbols. The sacred rite in which Anath's consort, represented by the last of the grain harvest, died during the ritual of the last sheaf's reaping and division into food and seed was cut out altogether. Such drastic action was required to further match her to Libyan Athena, who consorted with no man unless she wished to conceive a child by other than parthenogenetic means. Conversely, Anath was never associated with giving birth unless she had taken an animal form.
Anath was a famous warrior and powerful protector, a sort of 'ultimate woman' in a way somewhat analogous to Athena's early Greek role163. She was worshipped by many Israelites, who considered their god her consort, and was frequently mentioned in Ugaritic texts. The Phoenicians also adored her, naming settlements for her. One of them was called Panorma by the Greeks, connecting her to their 'universal mountain mother' Gaea or Rhea. [ZOE]
Anath (h6067) an-awth'; from 6030; answer; Anath, an Isr.: - Anath.
Anan (h6049) aw-nan'; a prim. root; to cover; used only as denom. from 6051, to cloud over; fig. to act covertly, i. e. practise magic: - * bring, enchanter, Meonemin, observe (-r of) times, soothsayer, sorcerer.
Anan (h6051) aw-nawn'; from 6049; a cloud (as covering the sky), i. e. the nimbus or thunder-cloud: - cloud (-y). Anammelek (h6048) an-am-meh'-lek; of for. or.; Anammelek, an Assyrian deity: - Anammelech.
See Why Miriam was NOT a prophetess speaking for God.
Again, Moses warns:
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, De.18:10
Observer of times: Anan (h6049) aw-nan'; a prim. root; to cover; used only as denom. from 6051, to cloud over; fig. to act covertly, i. e. practise magic: - * bring, enchanter, Meonemin, observe (-r of) times, soothsayer, sorcerer.
Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times. Le.19:26
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter (h5172) , or a witch, De.18:10
Anaqiy (h6062) an-aw-kee'; patron. from 6060; an Anakite or desc. of Anak: - Anakim.
Nachash (h5172) naw-khash'; a prim. root; prop. to hiss, i. e. whisper a magic spell; gen. to prognosticate: - * certainly, divine, enchanter, (use) * enchantment, learn by experience, * indeed, diligently observe.
Nachash (h5175) naw-khawsh'; from 5172; a snake (from its hiss): - serpent.
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. Gal 4:8
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Gal 4:9
Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. Gal 4:10
From all this, the inference is unavoidable that Satan, in his own proper name, must have been the great god of their secret and mysterious worship, and this accounts for the extraordinary mystery observed on the subject. **
* See CLAVIS STOCKII, "Zebub," where it is stated that the word zebub, as applied to the fly, comes from an Arabic root, which signifies to move from place to place, as flies do,
without settling anywhere. Baal-zebub, therefore, in its secret meaning, signifies, "Lord of restless and unsettled motion."
** I find Lactantius was led to the conclusion that the Aesculapian servant was the express symbol of Satan, for, giving an account of the bringing of the Epidaurian snake to Rome, he says: "Thither [i.e., to Rome] the Demoniarches [or Prince of the Devils] in his own proper shape, without disguise, was brought; for those who were sent on that business brought back with them a dragon of amazing size." Hislop The Beast
When, therefore, Gratian abolished the legal provision for the support of the fire-worship and serpent-worship of Rome, we see how exactly the Divine prediction was fulfilled (Rev 12:9)
"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the DEVIL, and SATAN, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." *
* The facts stated above cast a very singular light on a well known superstition among ourselves. Everybody has heard of St. Swithin's day, on which, if it rain, the current belief is, that it will rain in uninterrupted succession for six weeks. And who or what was St. Swithin that his day should be connected with forty days' uninterrupted rain? for six weeks is just the round number of weeks equivalent to forty days. It is evident, in the first place, that he was no Christian saint, though an Archbishop of Canterbury in the tenth century is said to have been called by his name. The patron saint of the forty days' rain was just Tammuz or Odin, who was worshipped among our ancestors as the incarnation of Noah, in whose time it rained forty days and forty nights without intermission. Hislop The Beast
"Candles from the Catholic Encyclopedia: "The word candle (candela, from candeo, to burn) was introduced into the English language as an ecclesiastical term, probably as early as the eighth century. It was known in classical times and dennoted any kind of taper in which a wick, not uncommonly made of a strip of papyrus, was encased in wax or animal fat.
"We need not shrink from admitting that candles, like incense and lustral water, were commonly employed in pagan worship and in the rites paid to the dead.
"But the Church from a very early period took them into her service, just as she adopted many other things indifferent in themselves, which seemed proper to enhance the splendour of religious ceremonial.
"We must not forget that most of these adjuncts to worship, like music, lights, perfumes, ablutions, floral decorations, canopies, fans, screens, bells, vestments, etc. were not identified with any idolatrous cult in particular; they were common to almost all cults. They are, in fact, part of the natural language of mystical expression, and such things belong quite as much to secular ceremonial as they do to religion.
Tammuz and St. Swithin, then, must have been one and the same.
In The Great Red Dragon:
But, as in Egypt, and Rome, and Greece, and almost everywhere else, long before the Christian era,Tammuz had come to be recognised as an incarnation of the Devil,
we need not be surprised to find that St. Swithin is no other than St. Satan. One of the current forms of the grand adversary's name among the Pagans was just Sytan or Sythan.
This name, as applied to the Evil Being, is found as far to the east as the kingdom of Siam. It had evidently been known to the Druids, and that in connection with the flood; for they say that it was the son of Seithin that,
under the influence of drink, let in the sea over the country so as to overwhelm a large and populous district. (DAVIES, Druids)
As Zoroaster was head of the fire-worshippers, so Tammuz was evidently the same. We have seen evidence already that sufficiently proves the identity of Tammuz and Nimrod; but a few words may still more decisively prove it, and cast further light on the primitive fire-worship.
1. In the first place, Tammuz and Adonis are proved to be the same divinity. Jerome, who lived in Palestine when the rites of Tammuz were observed, up to the very time when he wrote, expressly identifies Tammuz and Adonis, in his Commentary on Ezekiel, where the Jewish women are represented as weeping for Tammuz; and the testimony of Jerome on this subject is universally admitted.
Then the mode in which the rites of Tammuz or Adonis were celebrated in Syria
was essentially the same as the rites of Osiris.The statement of Lucian (De Dea Syria) strikingly shows this, and Bunsen distinctly admits it. The identity of Osiris and Nimrod has been largely proved in the body of this work.
"But, as in Egypt, and Rome, and Greece, and almost everywhere else, long before the Christian era, Tammuz had come to be recognised as an incarnation of the Devil,
The Tammuz or Dumuzi cult is alive and well. His death was symbolic of the grain being turned into wine or beer for the new wineskins. The wine was put into jars and stored undergraound or in the netherworld. When the tanks ran dry the gods of wine and beer failed and you had to arouse or resurrect them with wine and music to restore the harvest. This religion began in Babylonia, was adopted throughout the world and even by the Jews and will be the end-time Babylonian-Prostitute religion when Christ comes again:
"The temple was staffed by priests, priestesses, musicians, singers, castrates and hierodules (amd Temple Prostitutes). Various public rituals, food sacrifices, and libations took place there on a daily basis. There were monthly feasts and annual, New Year celebrations. During the later, the king would be married to Inanna as the resurrected fertility god Dumuzi..." -
Asherah: Queen of Heaven, Ashtoreth, Athirat, Astarte, and Ishtar. Her "male" priestesses were known as kelabim, the faithful "dogs" of the Goddess, who practiced divinatory arts, danced in processions, and served as hierodules, qedeshim, in the company of other priestesses. Goddess worship were largely erased in a cultural purge c. 630 BCE by King Josiah.
"When it came to more private matters, a Sumerian remained devout. Although the gods preferred justice and mercy, they had also created evil and misfortune. A Sumerian had little that he could do about it. Judging from Lamentation records, the best one could do in times of duress would be to "plead, lament and wail, tearfully confessing his sins and failings." Their family god or city god might intervene on their behalf, but that would not necessarily happen.
After all, man was created as a broken, labor saving, tool for the use of the gods and at the end of everyone's life, lay the underworld, a generally dreary place. (Wolkstein & Kramer 1983: pp.123-124) From Click Here.
This cult is directly related to the ancient wineskins and beer religion. It is reinacted throughout history when the high priests of a given religion starve the people of the Word of God and the "harvest" ceases because the water is no longer applied:
"Dumuzi's death occurs "when the grain is cut at harvest and then brewed into beer which goes into storage underground: that is to say, into the netherworld....When Dumuzi of the beer disappears underground in the spring or early summer, his sister, the wine goddess [Geshtinanna] seeks him disconsolately until, by autumn, she herself descends into the earth and finds him there in the netherworld. The myth further explains how this difference in the time of living and growing above ground became permanent through divine fiat: Inanna determined as their fate that they were to alternate substituting for her in the netherworld."
A cult ritual "began with laments sung as a sacred cedar tree growing in the compound of the temple Eanna in Uruk. This sacred cedar not only marked the god's birthplace but was itself considered his mother, and probably the bend in the river where the god was met was nearby.
The rite seems to have closed with a triumphant procession that followed the god downstream. the god appears to represent the sap lying dormant in the rushes and trees during the dry season but reviving, to the profound relief and joy of the orchardman, with the river's rise." Thorkild Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness
In Ezekiel 31, the Assyrians were the "tallest trees in Eden." And in the Apocalyptic traditions Satan appears as the tallest "elder" at the foot of the holy mountain to use Jubal (Genun) in training the use of mixed-sex choirs, instrumental music, sex and wine to seduce the people.
One song begins:
"The wild bull who has lain down, lives no more,
the wild bull who has lain down, lives no more,
Dumuzi, the wild bull, who has lain down,lives no more,the chief shepherd, lives no more,
the wild bull who has lain down, lives no more...."On his couch you have made the jackals lie down,
in my husband's fold you have made the raven dwell,his reed pipe - the wind will have to play it,
my husband's songs - the north wind will have to sing them" - "The Most Bitter Cry"Of this ancient God, consort of Ishtar (Easter), his mother-wife, an ancient record reads:
- To Tammuz, the beloved of her youth,
- ...........Pour out water, offer good oil,
- With red clothing cloth him,
- ...........let him play the flute of lapis lazuli.
- ...........Let the joyful maidens turn.
- When Belili has established her ritual,
- ...........With precious stones her bosom is filled. (The breastplate)
- ...........The wailing for her brother she heard..... (and she states)
- My only brother, harm me not;
- On the day of Tammuz, play for me the lapis lazuli flute,
- Play the Santu-flute with it
- ...........When the wailing men and women play with it,
- ...........Let the dead return, let them smell incense.
"The end of it alludes to the later belief that the goddes went down every year for her beloved Tammuz who had died, and the wailing alluded to is that spoken of by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 8:14." (Barton, George A., Archaeology and the Bible, American Sunday School Union, p. 450
Jamison-Fausett-Brown notes that:
For the entire hymn Click Here"In the Jewish temple, musical instruments and singing resounded during the whole time of the offering of the sacrifices, which formed the first part of the service.
But at the offering of incense, solemn silence was kept ("My soul waiteth upon God," Ps 62:1; "is silent," Margin; Ps 65:1, Margin),
Duwmiyyah (h1747) doo-me-yaw'; from 1819; stillness; adv. silently; abstr. quiet, trust: - silence, silent, waiteth.
the people praying secretly all the time. The half-hour stillness implies, too, the earnest adoring expectation with which the blessed spirits and the angels await the succeeding unfolding of God's judgments. A short space is implied; for even an hour is so used (Re 17:12 18:10,19).
The IMPORTANT missing mantra is HE IS COMING and He might come when you are musicating over Ishtar.
Satan is very slick: he has imposed the name GOD or GAD: the hostile tribe and the GOD OF FORTUNE. He has imposed CHURCH or Circe the holy whore of Revelation 18. He has replaced Jesus Christ with TAMMUZ and ISHTAR or EASTER.
MOST of what is counterfeit "cristian" such as lights, vestments, choirs, music and candles were adopted because THEY WERE COMMON TO ALL PAGAN CULTS because the Pagan priests flocked in after Constantine to GET PAID for the first time in history. [so saith the Catholic Encyclopedia]
Ezek 8:13 He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.
Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lords house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. Ezek 8:14
Ezek 8:15 Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.
Ezek 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the Lords house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
Ezek 8:17 Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.
Ezek 8:18 Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.
"At what period in Babylonia history Ishtar was mated with the old god Tammuz, and he was turned into a handsome young lover, we do not know; but the Phoenician version of the myth must itself go back to at least 1500 B.C. I need not give the final legend at length. It is much the same as the Phoenician. Tammuz dies and descends into hell (the lower world), and Ishtar braves all its terrors in search of him. In the little volume on Babylon (Little Blue Book No.1976) I quote an ancient hymn to Ishtar, recounting her devoted search in the home of the dead. While Ishtar was below, the streams of fertility on earth dried up. Nature languished, and love was impotent. The great gods heard the petition of mortals, and the queen of the lower world was forced to compromise. Ishtar was sprinkled with holy water (the Water of Life) and allowed to depart with Tammuz. So every year from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean,
maids and matrons laid the pale and handsome Tammuz on a bier and mourned; and then the glad tidings of the resurrection spread and an easter joy succeeded the lamentations.
The effigy or statue laid on the bier figured a comely young god clad in a red robe; and
- it was anointed and bathed by the women,
- who chanted their dirges to the shrill music of flutes,
- let their long black hair trail in the wind, beat their white breasts, and burned incense to the god." Joseph McCabe The Myths of Resurrection.
So popular was the annual celebration with women that even after the stern "reform" of the Jewish religion the writer of Ezekiel, to his intense disgust, finds the matrons of Jerusalem, with disheveled hair, beating their breasts over the figure of Tammuz within a stone's throw of the temple.
Consistent with all of the LIES it is NOT churches of Christ who preach against Christmas and Easter. Do a google and repent for slandering. I have only heard one person in my life tell the truth about easter: His name was Piney and he thought he was going to get killed right there by the preacherling. He needed the ONCERS (Easter) or the TWICERS (Easter and Christmass) to BOOST the body count.
DUMUZI See Babylonian Glossary "Son of the Abyss," the ever-dying, ever-reviving Sumerian prototype of the resurrected savior, was a harvest god of ancient Mesopotamia, Sumerian god of vegetation and the under-world. Also called "the shepherd" and "lord of the sheepfolds." Dumuzi known from his horned lunar crown, is the son-husband of the goddess Gula-Bau seen sitting in front of the serpent in a relief "Goddess of the Tree of Life" ca. 2500 B.C. Dumuzi's mother was Ningizzida, an ancestor of Gilgamesh, consort of Ianna (Ishtar). The Great Goddess (symbolized by Demeter) also correlates to Dionysus-Bacchus-Zagreus (or in the older, Sumero-Babylonian myths, Dumuzi-absu, Tammuz, the "child of the abyss," who was originally a tree god and son of Ningishzida, he died because of Ishtar's love. Tammuz also Thammuz is the tenth month of the year in the Jewish calendar [Hebrew Tammuz, from Babylonian Duíuzu, the name of a god]. In Egypt, Tammuz was a god of harvest (late summer month) of Mesopotamia, Akkad and Sumer.
Tammuz (Ezek. 8:14) is equivalent to Osiris (Hay-Tau) in Egypt and Adonis [Greek Adonis, from Phoenician adon, lord]. Osiris is Dionysus in the Greek tongue, and the Roman Bacchus. A cylinder seal from Erech, end of the fourth century B.C., depicts the god Tammuz (a fertility god widely worshipped in Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine) feeding the cattle of the temple. Tammuz was killed by a wild boar while shepherding his flocks. His wife rescued him from the underworld. His death was taken to represent the onset of winter. The Adonis Cult (in Nega, Byblus -Syrian coast) parallels Dumuzi, Tammuz, and Attis.
Zagreus
The legend of Zagreus is one of the strangest stories in Greek mythology. Zagreus was born after Zeus disguised himself as a serpent and ravished Persephone. The god wanted to make Zagreus his heir and eventually confer world royalty upon himself. But the Fates decided otherwise. In order to escape Hera's jealousy, Zeus entrusted the little child to the care of Apollo and the Curetes, who hid him in the forests of the Parnassus. But Hera discovered where the child was concealed and ordered the Titans to abduct him. Zagreus changed into a bull, but failed to escape the Titans, who cut him to pieces and devoured him, half raw and half cooked.
Athena and Apollo rushed to the scene of the disaster, but they were too late; they were able to save only pieces of the divine child. But these included the heart of Zagreus, which was still beating. Zeus absorbed it and regenerated the child within his own body, and then he took the name of Iacchus. Following this he became more or less confused with Dionysus and figured in the mysteries of Eleusis. His previous fate made him able to be the patron of any religion of rebirth and immortality, because in the Titan's banquet he had lost his entire mortal life and in returned obtained divine life. A.G.H. Grimal, Pierre, Larousse World Mythology, Secaucus, New Jersey, Chartwell Books, 1965, p. 121The incest between mother and son (perhaps real) at Corinth helps inform the rest of the practices which were identical to ancient fertility rituals. Women dominated because they had the power to appease or seduce the gods.
The musical prophetess, usually a prostitute, could "get em out on Sunday morning" when the Word of God would not.
Ishtar (Inanna, etc.) was a sacred prostitute and the "mother" of her children.
"In the New Kingdom women singers were found in large numbers in all the temples. Women and girls from the different ranks of society were proud to enter the service of the gods as singers and musicians.
The understanding of this service was singular:
these singers constituted the 'harem of the gods'." (Quasten, Johannes, Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity, p. 77)Note the Amos connection as the ancient inscription continues:
- The day of honoring the gods was the joy of my heart,
- The day of following the goddess was my acquisition of wealth;
- ...........The prayer of the king,--that was my delight
- ...........And his music,--for my pleasure was its sound
- What in one's heart is contemptible, to one's god is good!
- ...........Who can understand the thoughts of the gods in heaven?
- The counsel of god is full of destruction; who can understand?
- ...........Where may human beings learn the ways of god?
- He who lives at evening is dead in the morning;
- ...........Quickly he is troubled; all at once he is oppressed;
- At one moment he sings and plays;
- ...........In the twinkling of an eye he howls like a funeral-mourner.
- Like sunshine and cloud their thoughts change;
- ...........They are hungry and like a corpse;
- They are filled and rival their god!
- ...........In prosperity they speak of climbing to Heaven;
- ...........Trouble overtakes them and they speak of going down to Sheol."
"Tabu-utul-Bel... is said to have gained his relief through a magician. We are apparently told by the fragmentary text that at last he found a conjurer who brought a messenger from the god Marduk, who drove away the evil spirits." (Barton, p. 494)
Lamenting for Tammuz and Ishtar worship in Ezekiel and elsewhere in the Old Testament is a powerful image. In fact, early Christians began to worship Tammuz or Adonis. Some even planted shrubs at the tomb of Jesus to honor him as the second incarnation of Tammuz. This worship moved easily into the early church and continues as Easter and other instrumental musical arousal rituals.
<>"Ezekiel in describing the necromantic ritual of the witches, says they fastened 'magic bands' (kesatot) on their wrists and with them
'trapped souls like birds' (Ezekiel 13:20). Ezekiel specificially warns the women "prophesiers."This rare word is related to the Sumerian KI-ShU, meaning some kind of magical imprisonment, but we have to look to Greek for its precise significance. In the form kiste, Latin cista, it appears as a container used in certain mystery rituals of the Dionysiac cult, supposedly for the carrying of secret implements. In fact, wherever the cista is graphically represented it is shown as a basket from which a snake is emerging.
Thus on sarcophagi inscribed with Bacchic scenes, the cista is shown being kicked open by Pan and the snake raising itself from the half-opened lid.
The snake is an important feature of the Dionysiac cult and imagery. The Maenads of Euripides' Bacchae have serpents entwined in their hair and round their limbs, and the snake was the particular emblem of the Phyrigian Sabazios (Sabadius) with whom Dionysos is identified." - John M. Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (Click for more Background)
"Boeotia was the main center for the propagation of the Dionysiac cult throughout Greece. Herodotus gives us a description of the Festival of Dionysos as practiced in his country. He points out that Melampus, son of Amytheon, introduced the name of Dionysos to Greece and probably got his knowledge of the worship of this god 'through Cadmus of Tyre and the people who came from Phoenicia to the country called Boeotia'. Although Herodotus was ever ready to find an oriental origin for Greek religion, similar cult practices can be seen in the Dionysiac cult and Ugaritic religious literature of the second millennium B.C. An essential rite of the Bacchic orgies was the practice of omophagia, the dismemberment of the sacrificial victim and the eating of raw flesh. A text from Ugarit reveals that the goddess--
Anath (Ishtar-like) came upon her divine brother Baal (Tammuz)
unawares when he was beating his timbrel and perhaps singing.
The goddess ate her brother's flesh 'without a knife and drank his blood without a cup'.The timbrel also was the sacred musical instrument peculiar to the bacchic festivals." M. P. Blavatsky, Isis UnveiledKENNETH SUBLETT
Colonial Witchcraft and Revivalism
Counter added 6.24.05 12:39p 14824 Rev 5.18.07 5332 5.24.07 5409
