A symbol is a thing or a picture that represents something else almost always a ideal or a group binding image for the cohesion of individuals for a common goal. IE: rally around the symbol, A political party, a religious organization,etc...Symbols are used extensively in the corporate consumer commercial culture of the United States media based communication to raise sales in the selective commodity branded economy. (Advertising) The ancient and modern uses of symbols have not really changed. The repetition of images and propaganda to promote a product IE: politicians Actions, consumer goods, service industry labor, impress the abstract right brain of observant individuals for recognition (to recall and identify with the promotion, purchase, vote for, begin to elicit said product or services. In the ancient historical past Symbols were used primarily to subdue superstitious peoples to a group program of control and conformity.Symbols are thus used to identify.To pick out or set apart from.The use of symbols through out history is mostly a religious, racial, or nationalistic division of peoples into community groups of uniform cohesion.I would feel safe to say that the pre-industrial use of symbols is not for the integration of peaceful peoples into a harmonious society.Even in the 21st Century the use of symbols in advertising culture is used to distinguish individuals in a wealth based Hierarchical Structure of stupidity where people do not value personalities or actions above the visual show of material based wealth.
This Web page or posting dealing with the evolution of religious symbols in pictorial from is not to be taken hatefully. If the average human individual who is not aware of symbolic connections of past civilizations and is exposed to images and then feels a adverse reaction you must be aware that your program of education has been guided by those people who control the Hierarchical Structure of political and religious organizations. The history and "mainstream media morals" that you are accustomed to being aware of is the product of intensive institutional integration of different ethic people into a mass consumer population. The loss or assimilation of cultural identities into the United States melting pot is the unsung tragedy of the 20th & 21st Centuries!
The Cruifix in the Picture above was a well thought out way to subliminallly include the symbols of The anicent Egyptian sun worshiping monotheism into the context of modern day life.The slant of the roof is triangular like a pyramid.the wooden beams behind the cross are arranged like rays of light being emitted from the Sun.and finalily artifical light is focused on Jesus to make him appear as the Son or Sun of God !
The appearence of these images is stricking! Serapis has a basket of grain on his head where as Jesus is usually shown with a "halo" around his head. With Jesus being the (son " Sun" of god) The Rays of light seem appropriate for the modern Sun god in human form At first the early Christians in Alexandria were not much noticed and the authorities did little to discover what it was that they believed, in fact they were often mistaken for Jews or for other religious cults,
"Those who worship Serapis are Christians, and those who call themselves bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis". So said the Emperor Hadrian(117-138), he goes on, "Their one God is nothing peculiar; Christians, Jews and all nations worship him. I wish this body of men was better behaved."
This bad behaviour, apparently, was the Christians refusal to worship the emperors. According to E.M. Forster, the Egyptian church dates its chronology from the "Era of Martyrs" ( the Decian persecution) of AD 240.(1)
United States naval captian John Paul Jones rasied a American Flag Aboard the British frigate Serapis after winning the ship in a North Sea battle in 1779. http://www.usflag.org/the.serapis.flag.html
(2)Agricultural civilization is at least 10,000 years old.The primitive religion of many early cultures was centered around a fetility goddess. the women would bear children like the land gave people food.Ceres the Roman goddess of grain gave us the name of cereal.The stories of Adam and Eve "do not eat from the tree" Cain and Able "Livestock good Agriculture bad sacrifices"seem to encourage a meat eating lifestyle.history shows state sponsored religion is a tool ofConsolidation of differnt ethinic civilizations. "To bring under the yoke" tool used to control cattle. The ethnic folk who practiced this "goddess"domestic Religion Use of herbs folklore etc..where murdered by the West European nations dictated by Rome(3).Often labeled as witches andsatan worshipers these people died because of religious(political) hatered.Satan(4) means adversary in Hebrew (ie."enemy") So this word is use of "demonizing" or "labeling with a unrighteous evil context" to motivate ones population for a political purpose enlarging ones national borders and the assimilation of the conquered into a national belief system.
It was in Alexandria that Mary was first called Theotokos ("God-Bearer", "Mother of God"), sometime in the third century, probably from individual private devotions. (1)The first record of it in writing is on a scrap of very ancient manuscript, possibly third century) The Alexandrian School of Theology was a combination of intellectual thought and deep mystical devotion. Devotion to Mary was on two levels - that of the theologians and monks who discussed and questioned her virginity and whether it was perpetual. They venerated her as an obedient virgin. The ordinary people still saw Mary as earth mother and venerated her in agricultural and natural images - her prayers and help were called on in times of crop failure, childbirth and they saw her as an aspect of the divine that understood their everyday needs.Athanasius 296AD-373AD( Bishop of Alexandria) called her "The Unploughed Earth, ever virgin - Theotokos". This theme of Mary as the "virgin earth," "the rich earth", "the unploughed earth" appears frequently among theologians down the centuries, but is first picked up in the writings of the early Fathers of the Christian Church. It is possible to surmise that this image was picked up from the Cult of Isis ( or the Magna Mater) whether consciously or unconsciously, and used as a way of introducing Mary to uneducated Christian converts.This happened in the Christianising of Britain i.e. May which was the month of the Corn Goddess/Earth Mother became Mary’s month.The Egyptian cult of Isis heavily emphasises Isis mourning the dead Osiris and there are statues of Isis holding the dead Osiris across her knees which are very similar to the later pieta of the Virgin Mary holding the dead Jesus across her lap. Both women are weeping. However, in the Isis legend it is her tears that resurrect Osiris. Isis’ symbol of Life - the ankh can be found on some early Christian tombstones as a looped cross. (1)The Cult of Isis also spread through the Roman world and in some Western churches there are statues of a Black Virgin. Several of these were built on, or near, ruins of the temple of Isis. These Black Virgins were usually portrayed with the Christ child sitting on her lap as she presents Him to the world. Although these statues are mostly 11th and twelfth century the idea is much older and is likely to be based on the legend of Isis (or Attis or Cybele etc.) one theory why these statues are black is because from very early on Mary has been associated with the virgin earth. A statue of Isis was venerated as the Virgin until the 16th century in Paris (5) and there is a theory that Paris is a derivation of Par-Isis = "Grove of Isis" - Paris was once a centre of Isis worship.
The cult of the Black Virgin is shadowy and no-one really knows its roots, but it is possible that they lie in pre-Christian worship of the Earth Goddess. Anderson has a theory that Isis and Horus became the Virgin Mary and Christ, Osiris became the Green Man (seen in much church decoration in stone), and Seth became the Devil. (6) Osiris is often portrayed with a green face in the Underworld to symbolise life.
Egyptian and Roman Symbols In Modern Society
This photo of Isis and Horus Links the cult of sun worship to the mother and infant images protrayed later throuhout history.The sundisk between her bull horns later evolves into the halo of light seen in modern pictures of the holy family.
The Term Sunset Was a belief of Egyptians.The sun dying each night would travel through the underworld. The serpent was a part of the Egyptian crown and this recalls the Brazen Seraph "Ne-esthan" or Nehushtan which Moses used as a standard a bronze shaped staff of Egyptian origin.Osiris another Egyptian god gives us Sunrise.The Pyramid was the vision of a pharaoh long ago.Looking through the clouds you can see the rays of light shine from the sun like a pyramid.The water vapor acts as a visual filter to actually see the rays. The proverbial "stairway to heaven". The symbols of ancient Egypt and sun worship can still be seen today. In the United States one has only to look at the back of dollar bill to see a pyramid. Note the 13 stars that form a Star of David design.The Hebrew Star of David is two overlapping triangles.I recently took A photo of a pyramid between classicaly styled pillars in Pittsburgh PA.The Masonic symbol is also pryamidal in structure.The masonic organization is a economic religious institution that covets acclumation of vast wealth or a Hierarchical Structure.The symbol of the mason's is called a compass and a ruler. Ruler as in a reigning king or monarch? The mason symbol is also six-sided like the Star of David.
The obelisk is a tall Phallic like monumental structure of Egyptian origin.The obelisk on the left is the Washingtion monument In the united States The middle obelisk is surrounded by St.Peter's Square in Rome.Does St.Peter's Square look a little round to you too? And on the right is a Real Egyptian Obelisk brought to France.
After the exiled sun cult left Egypt,they brought other things with them too. Moses carried a Nechushtan a bronze staff shaped like a serpent Symbol of the Egyptian god Set. Moses' brother Aaron made the golden calf idol, which is the Egypt god Apis a bull with a sun disk between the horns.
The Roman cult of Mithras (a sun God) that was popular among the soilders is often depicted as A humanized sun god killing a Bull with a snake below the bull. The Generational Evolution of Symbolism would modernize religious symbols in a changing society. The worship of Mithras would include ritual meals of beef. Look at the symbol of McDonalds golden arches or rays of sunlight.Similar in appearence to a Egyptian Pyramid What is the Main object on the Menu: Beef
The monstrance is a golden sun shaped device used in the Catholic Church to hold and Display the holy host or The Body of Christ. In fact, according to the 1913 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia-The most appropriate form (for the monstrance) is that of the sun emitting its rays to all sides (Instructio Clement., 5). [See Altar Vessels: Ostensorium]. Conspicuously similar in shapes are the red meat ground beef patty and the host of the Catholic Church. the modern Christian religion is a fusion of the pre-Roman Christian and the Mithras sun worshiping religion both have ritual meals involved in thier worship and with the picture of Egyptian Apis and the Hebrew Golden Calf all together you cannot easily dismiss the theory of Generational Evolution in religious and civilized organizations.
The sun creates the grass and grain feed that cattle eat!
