Memro, and not the Lord Himself; and that he whom the Hebrews of the Old Testament mistook for Iahoh was but His messenger, one of His sons, or emanations. All this establishes but one logical conclusion — namely, that the Gnostics were by far the superiors of the disciples, in point of education and general information; even in a knowledge of the religious tenets of the Jews themselves. While they were perfectly well-versed in the Chaldean wisdom, the well-meaning, pious, but fanatical as well as ignorant disciples, unable to fully understand or grasp the religious spirit of their own system, were driven in their disputations to such convincing logic as the use of “brute beasts,” “sows,” “dogs,” and other epithets so freely bestowed by Peter.
Since then, the epidemic has reached the apex of the sacerdotal hierarchy. From the day when the founder of Christianity uttered the warning, that he who shall say to his brother, “Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire,” all who have passed as its leaders, beginning with the ragged fishermen of Galilee, and ending with the jewelled pontiffs, have seemed to vie with each other in the invention of opprobrious epithets for their opponents. So we find Luther passing a final sentence on the Catholics, and exclaiming that “The Papists are all asses, put them in whatever form you like; whether they are boiled, roasted, baked, fried, skinned, hashed, they will be always the same asses.” Calvin called the victims he persecuted, and occasionally burned, “malicious barking dogs, full of bestiality and insolence, base corrupters of the sacred writings,” etc. Dr. Warburton terms the Popish religion “an impious farce,” and Monseigneur Dupanloup asserts that the Protestant Sabbath service is the “Devil’s mass,” and all clergymen are “thieves and ministers of the Devil.”
The same spirit of incomplete inquiry and ignorance has led the Christian Church to bestow on its most holy apostles, titles assumed by their most desperate opponents, the “Haeretics” and Gnostics. So we find, for instance, Paul termed the vase of election “Vas Electionis,” a title chosen by Manes, the greatest heretic of his day in the eyes of the Church, Manes meaning, in the Babylonian language, the chosen vessel or receptacle.
So with the Virgin Mary. They were so little gifted with originality, that they copied from the Egyptian and Hindu religions their several
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apostrophes to their respective Virgin-mothers. The juxtaposition of a few examples will make this clear.
HINDU. Litany of our Lady Nari: Virgin (Also Devanaki.)
1. Holy Nari — Mariama, Mother of perpetual fecundity.
2. Mother of an incarnated God — Vishnu (Devanaki).
3. Mother of Christna.
4. Eternal Virginity — Kanyabava.
5. Mother — Pure Essence, Akasa.
6. Virgin most chaste — Kanya.
7. Mother Taumatra, of the five virtues or elements.
8. Virgin Trigana (of the three elements, power or richness, love, and mercy.)
9. Mirror of Supreme Conscience — Ahancara.
10. Wise Mother — Saraswati.
11. Virgin of the white Lotos, Pedma or Kamala.
12. Womb of Gold — Hyrania.
13. Celestial Light — Lakshmi.
14. Ditto.
15. Queen of Heaven, and of the universe — Sakti.
16. Mother soul of all beings — Paramatma.
17. Devanaki is conceived without sin, and immaculate herself. (According to the Brahmanic fancy.)
EGYPTIAN. Litany of our Lady Isis: Virgin.
1. Holy Isis, universal mother — Muth.
2. Mother of Gods — Athyr.
3. Mother of Horus.
4. Virgo generatrix — Neith.
5. Mother-soul of the universe — Anouke.
6. Virgin sacred earth — Isis.
7. Mother of all the virtues — Thmei, with the same qualities.
8. Illustrious Isis, most powerful, merciful, just. (Book of the Dead.)
9. Mirror of Justice and Truth — Thmei.
10. Mysterious mother of the world — Buto (secret wisdom).
11. Sacred Lotus.
12. Sistrum of Gold.
13. Astarte (Syrian), Astaroth (Jewish).
14. Argua of the Moon.
15. Queen of Heaven, and of the universe — Sati.
16. Model of all mothers — Athor.
17. Isis is a Virgin Mother.
ROMAN CATHOLIC. Litany of our Lady of Loretto: Virgin.
Moe is the founder of GnosticWarrior.com. He is a father, husband, author, martial arts black belt, and an expert in Gnosticism, the occult, and esotericism.
