What is Wicca?
But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven, and pouring out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. (Jer. 44:17-18).
And so it has happened in the Western world. Europe and the Americas used to be solid Christian societies, prosperous and having "plenty of victuals". Now, we want everything.
The foundation of the New Age Movement was laid by a certain Helena Platovna Blavatsky (See; The Plan) and her Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, as a continuation of a century of Freemasonry. Her vision was to unite all religions and crush all "monotheists" into subordinance. Madame Blavatsky's source of information regarding this "new truth" was derived from the "Ascended Masters", spirits from the realm of the underworld. She revealed some parts of her philosophy in her various books, where a profound hatred of Christianity was expressed and "New Age Mentality" exalted.
Madame Blavatsky became the founder of the 20th century Neo-paganism through her various teachings (that is, lessons from the "Masters"), including her book Isis Unveiled, where she re-introduced the ancient worship of female goddesses. Indeed, there is but one worshipped goddess, revealed through various faces and names, dating her worship from time immemorial. Today, one of the most apparent manifestation of her worship is through witchcraft (Image: the pentagram, the sign of witchcraft), both male (wicca) and female (wicce). A Witch is a person, male or female, who holds Pagan beliefs, and who also, through various performances, participates in the Divinity of the world by working magic.
Witchcraft teaches that man is a microcosm, the ruler of nature, and the potential master of all thing. The Pentagram (image) with one of its points projecting upwards is imagined in Witchcraft as a man's body with arms and legs extended, and is a symbol of the dominance of the divine spirit. It is used as a magical weapon for invoking good influences and keeps the evil spirits away, say those who practice white magic (Wicca).
Witches were not a medieval phenomena, hidden in obscurity since the witch hunts and the burning stakes. No! Witches are alive and well today. There exists, for example, the Covenant of the Goddess: "an international organization of co-operating, autonomous Wiccan congregations and solo practitioners." But what is its background? The COG tells us its story:
In the 1970's there was a marked rise of interest in Witchcraft not only in the United States, but throughout the world, reflecting a growing feminist awareness and global concern for the environment. In the Spring of 1975, a number of Wiccan elders from diverse traditions, all sharing he idea of forming a religious organization for all practitioners of Witchcraft, gathered to draft a "covenant" among themselves. These representatives also drafted bylaws to administer this new organization now known as the Covenant of the Goddess. At the 1975 Summer Solstice, the bylaws were ratified by thirteen member congregations (or covens). The Covenant of the Goddess was incorporated as a nonprofit religious organization on October 31st, 1975.
Feminism, secular and even political, was one of the major factors in the rise of (image: the COG logo) witchcraft. Of course we cannot either forget feminist theology, which replaces male God with a feminine counterpart, just as does Goddess worship and Neo-paganism.
The COG, which is a legal religion and fully registered in the US, categorizes itself within the Neo-paganist movement and the Wiccan, which is an important part of its rituals and practices. The basic philosophy of Wiccan (Witchcraft) is the following:
Wicca, or Witchcraft, is an earth religion -- a re-linking (re-ligio) with the life-force of nature, both on this planet and in the stars and space beyond. In city apartments, in suburban backyards, in country glades, groups of women and men meet on the new and full moons and at festival times to raise energy and put themselves in tune with these natural forces. They honor the old Goddesses and Gods, including the Triple Goddess of the waxing, full, and waning moon, and the Horned God of the sun and animal life, as visualizations of immanent nature.
The European counterpart of the COS is The Pagan Federation, founded in 1971, which "works to make Paganism accessible to people genuinely seeking a nature-based spiritual path." It continues:
Paganism is a spiritual way of life which has its roots in the ancient nature religions of the world. It is principally rooted in the old religions of Europe, though many adherents also find great worth in the indigenous beliefs of other countries. We celebrate the sanctity of Nature, recognising the Divine in all things; the vast, unknowable spirit that runs through the universe, both seen and unseen.
The PF has published its official organ Pagan Dawn (formerly The Wiccan) since 1968. Stationed in London, it has connection with various other New Age movements in Britain, spreading rapidly. Similar organizations have also appeared all over Western Europe and Canada since the dawn of the '68 generation's occult activities. Finally we quote from one of the wiccas and pagans homepages:
Pagans often say to one another, "Thou art Goddess" or "Thou art God," acknowledging the divinity within each other, the respect it deserves, and the responsibility that it entails.
Does this sound familiar? The same story as the general New Agers are trying to impose upon the world. The same lie as the Serpent told Eve in the Garden of Eden. The same philosophy as will usher in the New Age and the terror reign of Antichrist.
And just as the Serpent made Eve think she could become God, so the modern feminists, feminist theologists, female witches and other goddess worshippers try to invoke "The Goddess" within mankind today, so now they can worship themselves, instead of God, worship the creation, not the Creator.
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Goddess worship
The modern practise of goddess worship is very common among people of all backgrounds, ethnic groups, denominations and nations. In India and elsewhere, goddesses are worshipped directly by Hindus and their sub cults, Tibetians worship goddesses under various formations, even in America and Western Europe is goddess worship growing rapidly.
The worship of goddesses has been visible since time immemorial. Many believe that the Cro-Magnon man worshipped female deities and that this custom soon re-emerged in ancient Babylon. Through ancient times goddess worship was prevalent in the Middle East, India and the Orient (such as in Tibet). Later, goddesses were worshipped all around Europe, adored in ancient and medieval mythologies. The Goddess has been called by many names by different cultures and ages: Anat, Aphrodite, Artemis, Astarte, Brighid, Ceres, Demeter, Diana, Eostre, Freyja, Gaia, Hera, Ishtar, Isis, Juno, Kali, Minerva, Persephone, Venus, Vesta, etc. Yet, we are talking about one goddess here, revealed by many names.
The renaissance of the worship of goddesses occurred in the middle of this century with the re-emergence of Wicca (male witches) and Wicce (female witches). With the rise of feminism and feminist theology, new traditions within Wicca were created in which the Goddess grew in importance, and the role of the male God shrank into obscurity. In fact, Goddess worshippers are basically creating an alternative to the Judeo-Christian religious tradition, rejecting its male Deity and replacing him with their female counterfit or even themselves.
Goddess worshippers are not ashamed in revealing what stands behind their worship. Their sign (image), copied from a goddess-worship site, displays the Goddess in front of the Satanic star, the pentagram. They often explain that by stating that the pentagram is the sign of the earth and sign of man. Well, 666 is also the number of man, so what is the difference? The pentagram has been used by Satanist worshippers for agers, long before anything like Neo-paganism occurred. That is, Neo-pagans and goddess worshippers could have chosen another symbol if it would have suited their purpose, however, their nature was revealed through their choice.
During early medieval times, Celtic priests used the pentagram in their rituals, calling it the witch's foot. It later became known in Europe as the goblin's cross, devil's sign and the wizard's star. Used by Druids and all kinds of occultists and pagans, the pentagram was the most effictive symbol in various devil worship rituals, including what took place at Stonehenge. The origins of the pentragram comes from magical rituals in Babylon, astrology and worship of celestial constellations. (Discussed in; Texe Marrs, Mystery Mark of the New Age, Crossway Books Illinois, 1988, 94-97.) Originally, the pentagram was called "The Babylonian Star" - the symbol of the rebellious paganworship conducted in Babylon.
But what does the pentagram have directly to do with goddess worship? Well, occultists say the pentagram is the sign of man, and also say, that the number six, or triple six, is also the number of man. Thus the pentagram and the number 6 or 666, are really telling the same story, one in numerological terms, the other in symbolic terms. Thus, after knowing that 6 or 666 is harmonic with the pentagram, we can directly connect it with the Goddess worship. That number was the magic number of the Egyptian goddess Ishtar, the "Triple Aphrodite" and "Great Goddess", the mystical goddess of the unity of Mother-Father-Son. Thus 666 is the number of the Great Goddess, the object of worship all over the modern world, and also the number of the Beast, the ID-card of the coming Antichrist.
Texe Marrs also quotes the feminist New Age researcher Barbara Walker who stated that 666 was very holy among the Goddess worshippers in ancient Egypt (p. 65). Ms. Walker added:
Babylonian "Star", the Great Goddess who appears in the Bible as Ashtoreth, Anath, Asherah ... the Queen of Heaven. She was also the Great Whore, described in Revelation as Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots.... Men communed with her through the sexual rites of her harlot priestesses.
The Goddess worship was very much involved in sexual rites by employing temple prostitutes, and it added a new flavour to it through astrology, which originated in Babylon, just as every other occult we know about. Alice Bailey (see; The Plan), the chief New Age prophetess, confirmed the 666 orientation of the goddess worship and discussed goddess worship in the context of astrology, the zodiac and the Virgo sign. Amazingly enough, Virgo's number, according to New Age writers and thinkers, is 666, the three sided triangle, each symbolizing the number six. (Marrs, pp. 66, 67.)
The Goddess is usually revealed in three forms: Maiden or Virgin, Mother and Crone, reflected in the phases of the waxing, full and waning moon. The maiden represents youth and sexuality, the mother feminine power, fertility, and nurturing, and the crone wisdom, compassion and guidance. In fact, each facet of the Goddess symbolizes the number six. The three faced Goddess thus unites in forming the full number of the Beast, as according to the Book of Revelation.
Modern direct worship of goddesses is indeed very widespread. The general readers would be amazed as how many "next-door-neighbours" are involved with this type of paganism. One could also mention a growing number of witches, feminist theologists and even some types of secular-feminism.
The force behind the whole "feminist" scheme is very much revealed by the signs such movements chose for themselves and their "rings", both physical and cyber. The witches ring has chosen the symbol of Satan (image), the goddess ring/circle (image) as well. Also can we find the pagan parents ring with the same images and symbols. Recently there has even been established The Church of the Hemp Goddess. In its manifesto we read:
The CHURCH OF THE HEMP GODDESS acknowledges all worship activities that tend to alter consciousness for a higher purpose. All ritualistic activities are welcome, including, but not limited to fasting, prayer, song, dance, fatigue, pain, sex, meditation, exercise, hypnosis, chanting, sleep deprivation, peyote, drum circles, holy buildings, holy places, holy writings, holy persons, alcohol, opium, hashish, coca, barbiturates, LSD, mushrooms, psychic readings, gambling, tobacco, caffeine, chocolate, ice cream and inspiring thoughts.
Private worship activities of the CHURCH OF THE HEMP GODDESS include:
1) growing Cannabis Hemp, also known as "Marijuana,"
2) Possessing Hemp in any quantity,
3) Buying and/or selling hemp,
4) Smoking or ingesting Hemp in any form, and
5) Preaching the spiritual and personal virtues of Cannabis Hemp.
We also perform group worship activities including:
1) The Circle of Unity,
2) The Equinox Marriage Festival,
3) The Solstice Tree Festival,
4) The Ordination of High Priestesses and High Priests, and
5) The Dance of The Living.
Also, nudity is an important part of the CHG, as well as in most other goddess-cults, since only when a complete nakedness is achieved, the "Goddess within" can most easily emerge from her hidden dwelling-place, and especially during the Isis "erotic dance."
For those who remember Biblical stories, the dance that caused the death of John the Baptist, was an Isis dance: Erotic, stimulating, touching feelings of men who are watching, urging them to commit to whatever cause the dancers are promoting. Isis, the Goddess Madame Blavatsky tried to unveil and bring to people, was known by many names as the other facets of The Goddess. She was the goddess of erotic dance, still worshipped in strip joints and clubs all over the world. In mythological terms, she was the wife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus, the mistress of words of power, the Goddess of nature. Among the Egyptians, Isis was often represented with a headdress consisting of the empty throne chair of her murdered husband. Isis is revered as the mother of the king, and she appears as such throughout the iconography of Egypt. She ruled from the throne of stone which pagans often compare with the "mercy seat" of the Old Testament tabernacle and Kaaba's Black stone in Mecca. Her form and characteristics were adapted to suit Greek requirements and Greek imagination. The cult of Isis was widespread in the Egypt of the dynastic period. From Egypt it spread northwards to Phoenicia, Syria, Israel and all around the Greco-Roman Empire, all the way to Britain. Isis was a magician, possibly the archetype for the high priestess of the tarot. She allegedly referred to herself as "I AM", as the Lord revealed himself in the Book of Exodus. Also, her modern followers compare her to the Virgin Mary.
In her honour, there has been founded the Fellowship of Isis. Pagans also have founded societies and even webrings for most of the other goddessess, such as:
Venus
Demeter
Persephone
Athena
Iris
Hecate
Hestia
Diana
Juno
Moirai
The Muses
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The origin of goddess' worship
The origin of goddess worship (above: the image of Isis and Horus), just as any other pagan occultic worship, is derived from ancient Babylon. This name is used for the "mother of harlots", that is, idolatry.
And the woman (the great whore) was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full og abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTES AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration... And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. (Rev. 17:4-6,18).
Which city was the angel referring to? Many believe that city is Rome, where the alleged Antichrist sits in the papal chair, a sheep in wolves clothing, reigning where the martyrs were thrown to the lions and other, including the apostles Peter and Paul, crucified. Many Christians believe the Pope to be the Antichrist since the number 666 can be read from his Latin title, the Catholic church has adopted the lot of Babylonian mythology and worship, etc. I do not agree with that. The Pope might be AN antichrist, but he is not THE Antichrist. The Catholic church might very well be backslidden as hell, but she is not the Great Harlot. That title has been reserved for a city.
The city of the martyrs of Jesus is not Rome. When the angel spoke to John, who was then in the spirit on the Isle of Patmos, Rome was only a novice in the persecution of Christians. We must remember that the first martyr, Stephen, was stoned in Jerusalem, who is called the daughter of an Amorite and a Hittite (Ezekiel 16). Jerusalem, not Rome, reigns over the kings of the earth, the place where Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders pledge the allegiance to through their beliefs.
We can improve our understanding of this "mystery" by reading further in this chapter.
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carried her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns... And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. (Rev. 17:7,18).
The woman is the great city. We have established that, haven't we? Then, what city is called the Great city? In story of the two witnesses we read:
And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also out Lord was crucified. (Rev. 11:8).
Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, not in Rome or Paris, as some think! Jerusalem is the great city, and thus, also the Great Harlot, Mystery Babylon. This has nothing to do with Rome. I am sorry!
How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murders. (Isaiah 1:21).
God called Jerusalem an harlot, because she had broken her wedlock and taken unto herself numbers of spouses, with whom she committed adultery. She was called to be God's earthly bride, adorned with beauty above other cities in the world. Rejecting Jesus was the final stroke of idolatry and adultery. She was not only an harlot, but the Mother of Harlots. She had rejected her own husband for her idols and magic, and taught the world how to do the same. We can see her family tree:
Her roots were Ham, Cush and Nimrod from the ancient. Her father was an Amorite (Ezk. 16:3), her mother was an Hittite (Ezk. 16:3), her elder sister-harlot was Sodom (Ezk. 16:46), and her younger was Samaria (Ezk. 16:46). And Jerusalem herself was the Mother of harlots, the Mystery Babylon.
But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and ppouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was (Ezk. 16:15).
Thus, we are talking about Jerusalem as the Great Harlot. Why? Is not Jerusalem also the city of David? Yes, but that city also rejected the Lord, both by killing His prophets and faithful followers and later Jesus himself and the early Christians. That city was chosen by God, its inhabitans chose willingly to reject Him, again and again, endlessly through the ages. Just remember, the enemies of God are not those who have not known him, but those who have and rejected. And Jerusalem will be destroyed.
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward here even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works; in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. (Rev. 18:5,6).
The Lord will, however, let the New Jerusalem descend from the Heavenly North, dressed as a Bride who had not broken her wedlock. She is pure and holy, undefiled, and will rest on Mount Zion, the Mountain of the Lord.
That is why the evil forces of the fallen Lucifer, including Islam and various other backslidden and evil organizations and churches, want this city taken away from the children of Abraham, the Jews, who were called from the four corners of the earth to inhabit her until the end. The Jews had rejected Jesus Christ and they will pay the price. However, the Lord will show some of them mercy and seal many of them off from the Great Tribulation. Jacob will have his remnant during his time of trouble.
We also see that Jerusalem is the major stumblingblock, on which the New Agers fall. World Peace 2000 can hardly be accomplished during a war in the Middle East, and thus Jerusalem has to be won over to their cause. And so will happen, and then the city fills her cup of sin. She not only rejected the true Messiah, but also will accept the false one when he appears. And then the city of Jerusalem will be the crown on the head of the Beast, the major attraction to the One World Government and the New World Order. The World United is the New Agers' agenda, just as previous pagan rulers, such as the rulers of Assyria, Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, Rome and later Charlamagne, Gengis Khan, the Papacy, Napoleon, Stalin and Hitler tried unsuccessfully. And this time Mystery Babylon, the great city of Jerusalem, will be reign over the kings of the earth.
This apostacy all started back in the period of time right after the Deluge. Noah's descendants were dispersing around the world, just as God had originally instructed. That instruction was still valid, furthermore, it was still "God's policy."
But the evil Ham and his descendants rebelled against God and His plan. Thus Nimrod (prob. meaning: he will rebel), the son of Cush, the grandson of Ham, tried to unite mankind under his, not God's, rule. The historian Josephus said:
Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which produced that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his own power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he would have a mind to drown the world again, for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers!
Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work. And by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was." (The Complete Works of Flovius Josephus.)
Following is the Bible's description of Nimrod.
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah. And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city. (Gen. 10:8-11).
Nimrod became a mighty hunter before the LORD. He did not become a mighty hunter for the LORD, but before Him. The Hebrew word for "mighty" actually means "chief or leader". He became the leader of the rebellious mankind in the post-Deluge time. God saw him when he was testing his strength, attracking people to him through various displays of force and cruelty. And then this group of people desired to build a tower. Why? In order to take a refuge there, in case the LORD would punish disobedience to Him by sending another flood. God has promised not to send another flood, yet they took all precautions.
Nimrod united the mankind into a One World Government, anti-God and rebellious in nature. God had wanted the sons of Noah to eventually replenish the earth, be diverse in their habitation, just a few people (family, clan, etc) living at the same place. The cities of Babel and Nineveh were bold signs of the rebellious intention of Nimrod, namely, to unite the mankind under his own wicked rule, instead of God's government of mercy and grace. And the Tower of Babel was to be the uniting factor, a sign of man's own wisdom and power. By building cities, Nimrod tried to prevent the people from scattering around the earth, as the Lord intended. By building a tower, that is a name, Nimrod's followers intended to build Nimrod a name. Genesis 11:3-9 reads:
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them
throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have one language; and this they began to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it Babel (confusion); because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Ever since God scattered the post-Deluge population around the world, their descendants have tried to return to One World Government, and a One World Religion under strong leaders, who all were involved in pagan worship and meditation: Assyrians, Babylonians, Medo-Persians, Greeks, Romans, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler, etc.
And the request of these people in Babylon was to erect a name for themselves. Thus they build a tower. We know from Proverbs 18:10, that the Name of the Lord is a strong tower. A tower represents a name. This time they wanted their own name, instead of the Name of the Lord.
Nimrod had conquered all nations from Shinear to Lybia, as the people living there, his kinsfolk through his father Cush and grandfather Ham, had not gathered themselves into cities for protection and knew little or nothing of the arts of war. He built cities in Egypt as well as at home and constructed a memorial token of his power. And what did he built? A Tower. A Name. The Hebrew word for "tower" could also mean "pyramid". At least we do know at this point, what those pyramids are doing in Egyptian deserts or wastelands. And Nimrod build himself a name, a pyramid. His Egyptian name was Osiris, well known in ancient times. To the Romans, he was also worshipped as Mars (which means "The Rebel"), Zernebogus to the Anglo-Saxon, which means: "The Seed of the Prophet Cush". But, Nimrod's ancient Babel name was Merodach, which means "To Be Bold or Rebel", known from the Bible. Tammuz, his son, the incarnation of the Sun-god and Nimrod, had died when he tried to promote the worship of Astrology to this certain king, a rival ruler. Legends and myth state that this king was Shem the son of Noah. and that might very well have been, since he still promoted the religion of Noah.
Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord, symbolised by a bull and a lion? When he died, his wife, Ishtar or Semiramis, who had taken over his kingdom was pregnant with their son, Tammuz, who she believed was Nimrod's incarnation, the promised seed of the Woman (Genesis 3:15). Tammuz was later killed and then Ishtar-Semiramis said that he had become part of the sun three days later, as arising from the death and becoming a god. Tammuz, in the Babylonian religion, is the son of god. Tammuz rose into the sky in the clouds, and thus the pagan priests of Babylonian commenced his worship through astrology. Thus Tammuz reigned over the earth through the movements of stars and the Zodiac, the path of the sun. In the daytime the sun god was a good god, and at night a bad god, and thus moon-worship somewhat substituted the sun-worship, as time went by. In the Zodiac there are 6 houses that the sun passes through during the day and 6 during thenight. Each house is divided up into 3 rooms. So there are 36 rooms in the Zodiac, as the Babylonians believed there were 36 magnifications of the sun and thus 36 separate gods, all different revelations of the Sun-god.
But why 36? What is so sacred about that name. As many have pointed out, we will reach an interesting conclusion if we add the numbers from 1-36 adn get 666. Another triple sixes, and thus Tammuz', the sun-god of mystery and magic, number was determined. They gave the name 666 to the sun and also to their king, who served as the High-Preast and the "Vicar of the Sun".
It is interesting enough, however, that these modern witches exalt the horn gods and the pagan goddesses such as the Egyptian pagan trinity Osiris, Isis, Horus, which originated in the worship of Nimrod (the Sun), his wife Semiramis (the moon), and Tammuz (the Morning Star). In life the husband-father had been honoured as a hero and in death she had him worshipped as a god, and the woman's baby as the promised seed who was destined to bruise the serpent's head, and who, in doing so, was to have his own heel bruised (Genesis 3:15.) This theme was well known and celebrated in ancient Babylon and symbolically represented in its temples.
When God "confused" the language of the post-Deluge nations, they scattered all around the world, bringing with them the mother-son worship conducted in the Babylonian temples of worship. The Babylonians worshipped a Goddess Mother and a Son, who was represented in pictures and images as an infant or child in his mother's arms. From Babylonthis worship of the Mother and the Child spread to the four corners of the earth. In Egypt under the names Isis and Osiris or Horus, in Pagan Rome as Fortuna and Jupiter, in Greece as Ceres the Great Mother, with the babe at her breast. The Chinese called the mother Singmoo and she is pictured witha child in her arms, in Germany she was called Hertha, Disa in Scandinavia, Nutria in Etrusca (Italy), Indrani or Devaki in India (Krishna the child), Nana in Sumeria, Cybele in Asia Minor (deoius the child), Diana in Ephesus,(image: Diana with the Tower of Babel on her head), Astarte in Ancient Israel (Tammuz the child - Ezk. 8.14.)), Mary in the Roman Catholic Church (see images below) and even in Tibet, China, and Japan, the counterparts of Madonna and her child where as devoutly worshipped as in Papal Rome itself.
Above we look at pictures of the "Great Goddess" and the "Madonna", that is the Roman Catholic adoption of the Mother Goddess, Semiramis the ancient. Which one is the Roman Catholic Virgin Mary? Well, the image with the snake, on the right, is supposed to be Virgin Mary. Nevertheless, that is merely an adoption of the Great Goddess, still worshipped in the Roman Catholic Church.
But why is the RC Mary involved with this snake? Well, in in Merlin Stone's book "When God Was a Woman," about early goddesses, she describes the importance of snakes in the early Middle East goddess worship, associated with prophecy and wisdom. Many books have been written on the Roman Catholic adoption of pagan rituals and symbols. One could mention Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons or the Papal Worship Proved by the Worship of Nimrod and his wife (reprint 1990) and Ralph Woodrow's classical Babylon Mystery Religon. Ancient and Modern (1966). The Internet is full of pages on that subject, probably hundreds of them. (Use passwords: Babylon, Nimrod, Pope, Antichrist, Babel, Goddesses, Virgin Mary, etc.) Thus I will not, at this point, discuss this subject much more. I will then finish my discussion by this: If Mary's worship is really Christian, which indeed has no Biblical basis, how come the RC Church has adopted unto her all the major characteristics of the Great Goddess and the ancient Babylonian pagan culture?
However, less known in Islam's affiliation with the Goddess worship.
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Islam and Goddess Worship
Image: a) the sign of Islam; b) the sign of the Great Goddess
Islam is the largest and fastest growing cult or religion in the world. The most holy site of Islam is the black meteorite in Kaaba, Mecca. This stone is worshipped by veneration, as was practised before the advent of Islam. (See; Islamism).
The sign of Islam is the Crescent, sometimes along with a star (see; image above), just as was the Babylonian Goddess worship (image: the Great Goddess). The most holy object in the Kaaba is the black meteorite stone, once the throne of Isis, now connected with Allah. Another goddess objects in the Kaaba are the Crescents (image: the Kaaba in Mecca) and the towers. Towers have been one of the main symbols of Babylonian paganism since the time of Nimrod. His followers decided to build their own tower, their own name. Later, Nimrod's wife, Semiramis, erected a 130 feet tower in Babylon. Babylonian pagans prostrated themselves before this icon, even mentioned in the third chapter of the Book of Daniel. Moses Maimonides, the mediveal Jewish philosopher, had read deeply into the learning of the Babylonians. He described the myth of Tammuz' death, quoted by Hislop in The Two Babylons, p. 62, as follows:
When the false prophet named Thammuz preached to a certain king that he should worship the seven stars and the twelve signs of the Zodiac, that king ordered him to be put to a terrible death. On the night of his death all the images assembled from the ends of the earth into the temple of Babylon, to the great golden image of the Sun, which was suspended between heaven and earth. That image prostrated itself in the midst of the temple, and so did all the images around it, while it related to them all that had happened to Thammuz. The images wept and lamented all the night long, and then in the morning they flew away, each to his own temple again, to the ends of the earth.
Those familiar with the Biblical story of Daniel's friends should recognize this. The whole world bowed down in worship for the king's pagan gold image. The astonishing issue is, however, that Muslims still do. The prostrate themselves in the direction (qibla) of the former Goddess symbols in Mecca, now Allah's sanctuary.
From the beginning, towers or obelisks were symbols of pagan worship as conducted in Babylon and Egypt, and later all around the world. The obelisk was originally a symbol of Baal (Nimrod) and sexual rituals in the context of sun-worship. We also see these matzebah images in various places in the Bible, such as I Kings 14:23, 2 Kings 18:4, 23:14; Isaiah 17:8, 27:9; Jer. 43:13; Ezk. 8:5; Micah 5:13).
The name of Artemis, a version of Semiramis, probably meant "women who built towers", Cybele and Diana, another versions of Semiramis, were pictured carrying a tower, and we can trace this all the way Japan and China in the east, to Indians in America, the Vikings of the North and Africans in the South. We always see this tower connected with pagan worship, and, unfortunately, later adopted by the Roman Catholic church. And, of course, Islam has not only adopted the tower (minaret) but also the worship of meteorites, the Crescent and the Babylonian Star. And to conclude this discussion, Allah himself was originally a pagan deity, related to astrological fertility worship and various other aspects of Babylonian paganism.
Allah and His Family
Muslims usually argue that their ‘Allah’ is the same deity as the Judeo-Christian God. For sincere Jews or Christians, that statement ought to be considered as a profound blasphemy, since it destroys their concept of God. By accepting such a thesis one is admitting Islam as the true religion, above Judaism and Christianity. One has not come across any arguments that can prove that ‘Allah’ is just another name for the Judeo-Christian God. The Islamic scholar Caesar Farah states: "There is no reason, therefore, accept the idea that Allah passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews." (Ceasar Farah, Islam: Beliefs and Observations (New York, 1987), 28.) And as their characters are examined, they seem to be of a completely different nature and reveal contradicting scriptures.
‘Allah’, in fact, has a genealogy that can be traced through Yemen to Babylon, the mother of all idolatry. In Babylon, paganism began at the time of Nimrod, the alleged builder of the Tower of Babel. After the confusion of languages, Babylonian idolatry spread all over the world. Nimrod had been dei-fied and was known as Baal, Molech,.... and finally, as Allah. The Baal worship was conducted by sacrifices, prostrations and kissing the idol, (See I. Kings 19:18) which was the same type of service conducted at the Kaaba and other places in Arabia. There are also traces of a direct Baal worship among the Arabs: "And God helped him [King Uzziah of Juda] against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gur-baal, and the Mehunims [probably Mineanites from Yemen]." (II Chron. 26:7) It was common to add Baal’s name to the city where he was worshipped and thus it was obviously so in Gur. Inscriptions with Baal’s name have been found in Central Arabia at some oasis where Arabian inhabitants had settled. The great scholar William Robertson Smith argues that the
most developed cults of Arabia belong not to the pure nomads, but to these agricultural and trading settlements, which the Bedouin visited only as pilgrims, not to pay stated homage to the lord of the land from which they drew their life, but in fulfilment of vows. (William Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites. The Fundamental Institutions (London, 1902), 109.)
Concerning the Kaaba, Muslims' holiest place, Ibn Ishaq gives us an example of such fulfilment of vows, when he reports the story of a Jurhum woman who "had been barren and vowed to Allah that if she bore a son she would give him to the Kaaba as a slave to serve it and to look after it." (quoted in; Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 49.) In Mesopotamia, and consequently in all the known world, the firstfruits of the crops or cattle were sacrificed to the fertility god. A sacred plot of land was offered to the deity, where he could abide and accept their offerings. In Mecca, the earlier fertility god named Baal was replaced with desert gods, the Aramaic Allah and the Yemenite Hubal.
The ancient world usually worshipped a pantheon of gods, where higher and lesser gods battled for supremacy. All these pantheons had many similarities, for example, always including a relationship between a high male-god and a mothergoddess. Religious beliefs were often a spiritual form or the exaltation of the society the worshippers happened to be a part of. In primitive tribal societies, the family was the integral part which formed the basis of solidarity, wealth, protection and daily support. Thus, a family of deities was the normal state of worship.
In Arabian archaeology a large number of inscriptions on rocks, tablets and walls, have pointed to the worship of a family of four; one male and his three ‘daughters’ or goddesses. Those three goddesses are sometimes engraved together with Allah, represented by a crescent moon above them. But Allah was the ‘Lord of the Kaaba... Lord of Manat, al-Lat, and al-Uzza...and even as ‘Lord of Sirius’.’(Peters, Muhammad, 98.) His ‘daughters’ were his associates, helpers and were themselves worshipped, after the manner of ancient Babylonian customs and symbolised by astronomical symbols.
The Three Goddesses
Mediterranean mythology included the worship of the Mother goddess who appeared under three natures, names and faces. Adam McLean, a leading authority on goddesses, states:
The triplicity of the Goddess is very important. This is not merely a multiplying by three, but rather a threefold manifestation; the Goddess reveals herself on three levels, in the three realms of the world and of humankind.
Those three faces correspond to heaven, earth and the underworld; or past, present and future. McLean continues:
The most important triple aspect of the Goddess is her manifestation as Virgin/Mother/Crone. This is perhaps the easiest representation with whom people can identify, as this triplicity corresponds to the three phases of woman’s life... the Young Woman/Mother/Old woman. (Adam McLean, The Triple Goddess. An Exploration of the Archetypal Feminine (Grand Rapids, 1989), 14-15.)
It is noteworthy that those three goddesses were, in certain places, represented by meteorites or aeroliths, stones that had fallen from heaven, just as the Kaaba stone in Mecca. (Ibid, 52.) Merlin Stone noted that in Aphrodite’s temple in Cyprus a certain stone was anointed by oil each year at the feast of the goddess. The same stone worship was conducted at Baalat’s temple at Byblos. (As Allat was the feminine version of Allah, so was Baalat the feminine version of Baal.) The Romans venerated the captured Carthagian stone-goddess Cybele and also the Greeks in Asia Minor. (Merlin Stone, ‘Goddess Worship in the Ancient Near East’ in Religions of Antiquity, 65-66.) Concerning our subject, we find the same character-istics. All over Arabia, these same symbols have been found as representing the worship of a triple Arabian goddesses. McLean states:
Long before the coming of the austere patriarchal system of Islam, the Arabic people worshipped this trinity of desert Goddesses who were the three facets of the one Goddess. Al-Uzza (‘the mighty’) represented the Virgin warrior facet; she was a desert Goddess of the morning star who had a sanctuary in a grove of acacia trees to the south of Mecca, where she was worshipped in the form of a sacred stone. Al-Lat, whose name means simply ‘Goddess’, was the Mother facet connected with the Earth and its fruits and the ruler of fecundity. She was worshipped at At-Ta’if near Mecca in the form of a great uncut block of white granite. Manat, the crone facet of the Goddess, ruled fate and death. Her principal sanctuary was located on the road between Mecca and Medina, where she was worshipped in the form of a black uncut stone. (McLean, The Triple Goddess, 80.)
This goddess appearing under many names throughout the world of antiquity is the same as was represented as Baal’s wife. She was called Astarte, Semiramis, Ashtaroth, Isis, Venus, Fortuna, Diana, Asherah, Elat, etc.. Indeed, Isis was known as the mother of one thousand names. However, regardless of her various titles, she was Baal’s wife and worshipped as such. (Judges 2:13). Baal is said to have had three daughters, who were apparently called by different names around the ancient world. (Cooper, Canaanite Religion, 86.) They were also considered his brides, with whom he swore to build a house. The ‘Building Saga’ is discussed in (Julian Obermann, Ugaritic Mythology. A Study of Its Leading Motifs (New Haven, 1948)). The Quraysh adopted Allah as Baal, and added the goddesses to his cult the same way as Baal had three daughters in the Fertile Crescent. They venerated him and his three female companions in his new House, the Kaaba at Mecca.
One of the aspects of goddess worship that has survived in Islam, as well as, for example, in Roman Catholicism, is the rosary. Through the ages the worshippers of goddesses had used the rosary for prayers and it is still in use in the worship of female deities all over the world, for example by Hindus in India. The rosary is connected with fertility worship when the deity’s name is repeated over and over again. (Compare to Matthew 6:7-13 and Acts 19:34.) It is called tasbih or subha in Arabic, and simply means ‘an object which one praises.’ The Muslim rosary is supposed to contain 99 beads, representing the titles of ‘Allah’, but usually it only has 33 beads, slipped through one’s fingers three times. (Compare to the Koran 7:180.) This pagan custom, which is dated to Astarte worship from about 800 BCE, still survives in Islam as well as in many other cults around the world.
Ancient Middle Eastern mythology often pictured the Mother goddess with a son, such as Isis-Horus in Egypt and Astarte-Tammuz in the Fertile Crescent. This mother-son worship was established throughout the world. In China there was the Mother Shingmoo, Hertha in ancient Germany, Nutria in ancient Italy (Etrusca), Indrani in India, Aphrodite in Greece, Venus in Rome, Cybele in Asia Minor and Carthage, Diana in Ephesus, Isis in Egypt etc.. In Hijaz, on the other hand, there was no harvest and thus no worship of fertility gods as such. Its patriarchal society soon changed the ancient mother-son worship to father-daughter worship. Allah was the father, and his daughters were Al-Lat, Manat and al-Uzza.
Al-Lat (Allat)
Al-Lat, the female version of the Aramaic Allah, was the ‘Lady of the Temple’ at the Semitic Pantheon of Palmyra, frequently mentioned in sources from ancient periods. Her cult was shared by the tribes of Bene Maazin and Bene Nurbel in that city. The former tribe probably provided the guardians or priests for her sanctuary, which was probably established after the Nabatean occupation of Syria, including Damascus, in 85 BCE. (Javier Teixidor, The Pantheon at Palmyra, 55-58.)
Al-Lat was the mother goddess (al-Ilahah), representing the sun. She was the mother figure among the gods and goddesses, the Great Earth Mother of ancient mythology, and the Astarte of the Arabs. Javier Teixidor states:
It is not surprising to find at Palmyra different names for the same deity. Allat ... Astarte ... all conceal one sole goddess, the female deity of heaven in whose cult Arab Palmyrenes as well as members of the western tribes were united. (Ibid, 61.)
She was brought to the Hijaz from Palmyra, probably through Teima. Alfred Guillaume states:
Al-Lat... is mentioned by Herodotus; in old Arabian inscriptions; and in the pre-Islamic poets; and was the great mother goddess who, under various names, was worshipped all over the ancient world. Ta’if, a town near Mecca, was the centre of her worship [in Arabia proper]. (Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 24, 38.)
In Ta’if there was a temple dedicated to al-Lat, (Guillaume, Islam, 7.) the city’s deity, according to Ibn Ishaq, and she was represented by a square-stone. (Hitti, History of the Arabs, 98 ). The Mother goddess was often repres-ent-ed by a stone, mountain, cave, pillar or rock. Stones are among the oldest symb-ols of Mother worship, as Erich Neumann discussed in detail. (Erich Neumann, The Great Mother (Princeton, 1953/1991), 260.) The Meccans had been on friendly terms with the Ta’ifians, especially since most of their food was bought or grown in Ta’if, and that city was also the main commercial centre in the Hijaz, since it lay on the Yemen-Mesopotamia overland trading route. According to Ibn al-Khalbi:
Al-Lat stood in al-Ta’if and was more recent than Manat. She was a cubic rock beside which a certain Jew used to prepare his barley porridge. Her custody was in the hands of Banu Attab ibn Malik of the Thaqif, who had built an edifice over her.... The Quraysh, as well as all the Arabs, were wont to venerate al-Lat. They used to name their children after her, calling them Zayd al-Lat and Taym al-Lat. (Quoted in Peters, Muhammad, 110).
The Nabateans also venerated Allat as the ‘mother of the gods’, the same as the Urania of Hellenism. According to Tor Andrae:
Thus we have a right to assume that in Arabic circles Allat correspond-ed with the great Semitic goddess of motherhood, fertility and heaven, and especially with the form which she assumed in Western Semitic reg-ions. In Taif, where her most important sancturay was located, she was called simply Al Rabba, ‘sovereign’, a title which belonged also to Ishtar (Belit) and Astarte (Baalat). (Tor Andrae, Mohammad. The Man and His Faith (London, 1936), 17.)
When Muhammed conquered Mecca and some of its neighbouring tribes, he turned to Ta’if and its temple of al-Lat. A Muslim poet said about the attack on Ta’if:
Don’t help al-Lat for Allah is about to destroy her.
How can one who cannot help herself be helped?
She was burned in black smoke and caught fire.
None fighting before her stones, is an outcast.
When the apostle descends on your land
None of her people will be left when he leaves.
(Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 588.)
Allat was the equivalent of Ishtar-Astarte in the mother-father Semitic cult worship. In contrast to the Fertile Crescent region, the Arabs worshipped her as the sun, not the moon which is masculine in Arabia. However, the Semitic cults connected the goddess worship with love, and thus, its absence with the opposite. As Erich Neumann states:
Withdrawal of love can appear as a withdrawal of all the functions constituting the positive side of the elementary character. Thus hunger and thirst may take place of food, cold of warmth, defenselessness of protection, nakedness of shelter and clothing, and distress of contentment.... Consequently, the symbols of exile and desert also belong to the present context. (Neumann, The Great Mother, 67-68.)
Thus, the Arabs were left with the loneliness of the desert and in order to make the best of the situation, the moon-goddess of the fertile lands was transformed into the sun-goddess of the desert. Al-Lat was the Great Mother who fed her children as necessary. But when it came to fortune the Arabs turned to Manat.
Manat
Manat is believed to be the Arabs’ original goddess, appearing some time before al-Uzza and al-Lat. Her name appears in the house of Baal in 32 CE, but she originated much earlier among the Arabs. Manat seems to have arrived in Arabia from Palmyra, where she was worshipped along with Baal. She was venerated beside several other deities in a temple called ‘the house of the gods,’ (Teixidor, The Pantheon of Palmyra 3, 12-18 — The Pagan god, 116.) the Palmyran equivalent of the Kaaba. Manat was the controller of the Arabs’ fortunes and the mystery of life and death. She was the chief deity of al-Aus and al-Khazraj and other pagan inhabitants of Yathrib (Medina). It seems that she was represented by a wooden image, which was covered in blood during her worship. (Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 38-39, 207.) Manat’s sanctuary was in a place near Yathrib where the Aus and Khazraj visited on their way back from their pilgrimages to Mecca. Ibn al-Khalbi states:
The Aus and Khazraj, as well as those Arabs among the people of Yathrib and other places who followed their way of life, were accustomed to go on Hajj and observe the ‘standing’ at all the appointed places, but not shave their heads [as was customary during the pilgrimage]. At the end of Hajj, however, when they were about to return home, they would set out to the place where Manat stood, shave their heads and stay there for a while. (Quoted in Peters, Muhammad, 110.)
This goddess of fate and time in ancient paganism was revered and worshipped with the same zeal as the Mother figure itself. In Greece Moirai, the goddess of fate, was the daughter of the Night, as well as Moros and Erinyes (compare to al-Lat and al-Uzza). Attributed to the goddess of fate was the sharing of booty, land and labour between clans. She was concerned with birth, marriage and death and, in the relation with men, warfare and raids.
Manat was much revered by the Arabs but her worship was dwindling at the time of Muhammed, probably due to Jewish influence in Medina. This shows how easily the al-Aus and al-Khazraj tribes were willing to abandon their religion in favour of Islam.
Al-Uzza
Some sources say that al-Uzza was brought to Mecca by the Quraysh and enjoined to the already established Kaaba worship, but she probably was a local deity in Mecca since the time of ‘Amr ibn Lubayy. In Muhammed’s time, al-Uzza was the most important of the Meccan local deities, perhaps save for ‘the Lord’ Hubal. Her main sanctuary was in a valley called Hurad, just outside Mecca. ‘It was complete with a haram and a sacrificial altar.’ (Ibid, 110.) Alfred Guillaume states that evidence ‘for her worship from the fourth century AD is copious. Tradition states that in his youth Muhammad sacrificed a white sheep to her.’ The Arabs offered human sacrifices to al-Uzza and
the blood of the victims was smeared or poured on them while the tribes-men danced round the stone... The devotees licked the blood, or dipped their hands in it, and thus a reciprocal bond held them to one another and the deity to whom the stone belonged. Nilus, a Christian writer, gives a fairly full account of such a sacrifice to Uzza. Though there is no trace of human sacrifices in the Quran, it is clear from the authority just quoted and from early Arab sources that human beings were sacrificed to these gods in Duma and Hira. (Guillaume, Islam, 8-9.)
Ibn Ishaq states that al-Uzza had a slaughter place (ghabghab), where the blood was poured out. An Arab poet said:
Asma’ was given as a dowry the head of a little red cow
Which a man of the Banu Ghanm had sacrificed
He saw blemish in her eye when he led her away
To al-Uzza’s slaughter-place and divided her into goodly portions.
Muhammed had, according to tradition, sacrificed a sheep to her, and it might very well be that it had been done at Mount Hira, which was now Muhammed’s place of devotion to the moon-god Allah and his daughter al-Uzza. It has been stated that the Arabs sacrificed infant boys and girls to the morning star, al-Uzza. (Andrae, Mohammed, 17-18.) Ibn al-Khalbi states:
The Quraysh as well as other Arabs who inhabited Mecca did not give to any of their idols anything similar to their veneration of al-Uzza. The next in order of veneration was Al-Lat and then Manat. (Peters, Muhammad, 111.)
During the armed confrontation between the Meccans and Muhammed at Badr (AH 2), the former carried al-Uzza’s banner to battle. Tradition says that Muhammed sent Khalid ibn al-Walid, who later conquered Syria for Islam, to destroy al-Uzza’s temple in Nakhla. There, some of the tribes of Quraysh and Kinana, and all the Mudar tribe, used to worship. When the guardian of al-Uzza heard that Khalid was approaching "he hung his sword on her, climbed the mountain on which she stood," and said:
O ‘Uzza, make an annihilating attack on Khalid,
Throw aside your veil and gird up your train
O ‘Uzza, if you do not kill this man Khalid
Then bear a swift punishment or become a Christian.
However, according to tradition, Khalid and his army destroyed the al-Uzza idol and returned to Muhammed. (Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 565-566.) When these idols had all been destroyed, ‘Allah’ reigned supreme in the Hijaz. The threefaced Mother Goddess had vanished from the visible sphere, but still lives in Muslim legends according to the ‘Satanic verses’.
The ‘Satanic Verses’
The chapter of Muhammed’s life the Muslims want to forget most of all is the affair of the ‘Satanic verses’, made worldfamous by Salman Rushdie’s novel by the same name. The setting is Mecca, some years before the hijra, most likely in 619 CE, when Muhammed’s protector, Abu Talib, and his wife, Khadija, had both died. The Meccans had become increasingly hostile towards him and ridiculed his mission in every possible way. What was probably worse, they tempted Muhammed by promising him fame and fortune if he would refrain from attacking their deities. Muhammed was unwilling to compromise his mission and declined their offer. Then the next temptation came, as al-Tabari narrates:
‘If you will not do so, we offer you one means which will be to your advantage and to ours.’ ‘What is it?’ he [Muhammed] asked. They said: ‘You will worship our gods, al-Lat and al-’Uzza, for a year, and we shall worship your god for a year.’ ‘Let me see what revelation comes to me from my Lord’ he replied. Then, the following inspiration came from the Preserved Tablet [the Koran which ‘Allah’ preserves in heaven]. (W. M. Watt and M. V. McDonald (transl. & annotators), The History of al-Tabari (volume IV: Muhammad at Mecca. New York, 1988), 107.)
The continuation al-Tabari adopted from Ibn Ishaq’s narrative which stated:
When the apostle saw that his people turned their backs on him and he was pained by their estrangement from what he brought them from Allah, he longed that there should come to him from Allah a message that would reconcile his people to him. Because of his love for his people and his anxiety over them, it would delight him if the obstacle that made his task so difficult could be removed; so that he meditated on the project and longed for it and it was dear for him. Then Allah sent down ‘By the star when it sets your comrades errs not and is not deceived, he speaks not from his own desire.’ (Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 165.)
Then Muhammed’s revelation continued: ‘Have you thought upon Al-Lat and al-Uzza and on Manat, the third other? Are yours the males, and His the females?’ (The Koran 53:19.) In a patriarchal society it was a shame to have only daughters, as Muhammed had only daughters and was embarrassed for this very reason. Thus ‘Allah’ would be imperfect due to his inability to procreate sons. Muhammed thus concluded that it would be better for ‘Allah’ to have no children at all.
Ibn Ishaq stated that Muhammed added: ‘... these are the exalted Gharaniq whose intercession is approved.’ A Gharaniq was thought to be an angelic creature, who could fly at a great height, and thus were exalted above men. Muhammed’s acceptance of the three daughters of Allah as being semi-divine delighted the Quraysh who prostrated themselves in the place of prostration (masjid — mosque) along with the Muslims.
When the Quraysh heard that, they rejoiced and were happy and delighted at the way in which he spoke of their gods, and they listened to him, while the Muslims, having complete trust in their Prophet in respect of the messages which he brought from God, did not suspect him of error, illusion or mistake. When he came to the prostration, having completed the Surah, he prostrated himself, the Muslims did likewise, following their Prophet, trusting in the message which he had brought and following his example. Those polytheists of the Quraysh and others who were in the mosque likewise prostrated themselves because of the reference to their gods which they had heard, so that there was no one in the mosque, believer or unbeliever, who did not prostrate himself. (Watt & McDonald, The History of al-Tabari, 108-109.)
Alfred Guillaume stated that all "of these interpolated words meant that the divine or semi-divine beings were inter-cessors with Allah, an office which in Islam is accorded only to Muhammad himself." The words Muhammed uttered, and were later deleted from the canonised version of the Koran, were a chant the Meccans used when they walked around the Black Stone. (Guillaume, Islam, 36.) Muhammed had now made serious compromises with paganism. And just as Catholicism solved this problem, Muhammad found only one solution, incorporate those competitors and everybody would be happy: the pagans for being able to indirectly worship their deities, and Islam (as Catholicism) by merging with paganism.
According to Muslim tradition, the Quraysh agreed to embrace Islam when those concessions had been made. Also, the Muslims who had earlier fled to Abyssinia, now returned and among them was Uthman, who later became a caliph. However, Muhammed then denied his previous revelation, which he said was nothing but ‘Satanic verses.’ The conversion of the Quraysh was thus withdrawn and this manoeuvre only strengthened the Meccan opposition. If this legend is true, which Muslims generally admit, we cannot be certain the rest of the Koran was not similarly inspired by Satan. It seems reasonable to assume that the ‘whisperer’ was the same in this case as in all others. One of the best established hadiths is the following speech from ‘Allah’ to Muhammed:
My servant [Muhammed] approaches me steadily through voluntary works of piety, until I come to love him; and when I love him I am his eye, his ear, his tongue, his foot, his hand. He sees through me, he hears through me, he speaks through me, he moves and feels through me. (Goldziher, Introduction, 42-43.)
If ‘Allah’ spoke and did everything through Muhammed, and vice versa, it is no wonder these ‘Satanic verses’ embarrass Muslims to this day. However, Muhammed found an escape route through another ‘revelation’. He stated:
Never have we sent a single prophet or apostle before you with whose wishes Satan did not tamper. But Allah abrogates the interjections of Satan and confirms His own revelations. Allah is all-knowing and wise. (The Koran 22:52. (N. J. Dawood - with a replacement of Allah for God)).
Since we know that some verses contradict, or abrogate, others, we must conclude that several koranic passages were Satanic inspirations, which other verses have abrogated. If not, this verse is incorrect. But how could Satan manipulate Muhammed at almost any time, and utter koranic revelation through him at his will? Wherever the occult powers override true worship, the force behind the occult and New Age always marks its territory through images. Even the Islamic Crescent bears the mark of its founder, Mystery Babylon paganism.
The Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Hindus and American Indians, like the Babylonians, all believed that their gods were just representations of the one god. The ancient people, shortly after the flood, had a knowledge of the True God of Noah, Shem, and Abraham. But the worship of the True God of Noah, Shem, and Abraham soon became perverted into idolatry by the larger population when Nimrod tried to unite the whole world into a One World Government. Just as the ancients believed their various gods to be different expressions of the Only god, so did Muhammed, when he united the 360 gods at Mecca into just one god, Allah.
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Appendix: 1
Glossary of pagan terms and festivals.
Occult occluded or hidden/secret; the study of secret or hidden knowledge. Secret societies include the Rosicrucians and certain fraternal orders.
Earth Religion a religion whose main tenet is that the worshipper is in harmony with the Earth and with all life. Such religions oppose the idea that t