The Grail Quest and The Destiny of Man
Part V: The Chalice and the Blade

(See also: Has Nibiru/Planet X Been Sighted?)

Riane Eisler writes in her revelatory work, The Chalice and The Blade:

"Why do we hunt and persecute each other? Why is our world so full of man's infamous inhumanity to man - and to woman? How can human beings be so brutal to their own kind? What is it that chronically tilts us toward cruelty rather than kindness, toward war rather than peace, toward destruction rather than actualization?

"Of all life-forms on this planet, only we can plant and harvest fields, compose poetry and music, seek truth and justice, teach a child to read and write - or even laugh and cry. Because of our unique ability to imagine new realities and realize these through ever more advanced technologies, we are quite literally partners in our own evolution. And yet, this same wondrous species of ours now seems bent on putting an end not only to its own evolution, but to that of most life on our globe, threatening our planet with ecological catastrophe or nuclear annihilation.

"...Socialists and communists assert that the root of our problems is capitalism; capitalists insist socialism and communism are leading us to ruin. Some argue our troubles are due to our 'industrial paradigm,' that our 'scientific worldview' is to blame. Still others blame humanism, feminism, and even secularism, pressing for a return to the 'good old days' of a smaller, simpler, more religious age.

"Yet, if we look at ourselves - as we are forced to by television or the grim daily ritual of the newspaper at breakfast- we see how capitalist, socialist, and communist nations alike are enmeshed in the arms race and all the other irrationalities that threaten both us and our environment. And if we look at our past - at the routine massacres by Huns, Romans, Vikings, and Assyrians or the cruel slaughters of the Christian Crusades and Inquisition - we see there was even more violence and injustice in the smaller, prescientific, preindustrial societies that came before us.

"Since going backward is not the answer, how do we move forward?"

"...We are all familiar with legends about an earlier, more harmonious and peaceful age. The Bible tells of a garden where woman and man lived in harmony with each other and nature - before a male god decreed that woman henceforth be subservient to man. The Chinese Tao Te Ching describes a time when the yin, or feminine principle, was not yet ruled by the male principle, or yang, a time when the wisdom of the mother was still honored and followed above all. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod wrote of a 'golden race' who tilled the soil in 'peaceful ease' before a 'lesser race' brought in their god of war. But though scholars agree that in many respects these works are based on prehistoric events, references to a time when women and men lived in partnership have traditionally been viewed as no more than fantasy.

"When archaeology was still in its infancy, the excavations of Heinrich and Sophia Schliemann helped establish the reality of Homer's Troy. Today new archaeological excavations, coupled with reinterpretations of older digs using more scientific methods, reveal that stories such as our expulsion from the Garden of Eden also derive from earlier realities...

"Further verifying that there were ancient societies organized very differently from ours are the many otherwise inexplicable images of the Deity as female in ancient art, myth, and even historical writings. Indeed, the idea of the universe as an all-giving Mother has survived (albeit in modified form) into our time. In China, the female deities Ma Tsu and Kuan Yin are still widely worshipped as beneficent and compassionate goddesses. ...Similarly, the veneration of Mary, the Mother of God, is widespread. Although in Catholic theology, she is demoted to non-divine status, her divinity is implicitly recognized by her appellation Mother of God as well as by the prayers of millions who daily seek her compassionate protection and solace. Moreover, the story of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection bears a striking resemblance to those of earlier 'mystery cults' revolving around a Divine Mother and her son or, as in the worship of Demeter and Kore, her daughter.

"Of course it makes eminent sense that the earliest depiction of divine power in human form should have been female rather than male. When our ancestors began to ask the eternal qauestions, they must have noted that life emerges from the body of a woman. It would have been natural for them to image the universe as an all-giving Mother from whose womb all life emerges and to which, like the cycles of vegetation, it returns after death to be again reborn. It also makes sense that societies with this image of the powers that govern the universe would have a very different social structure from societies that worship a divine Father who wields a thunderbolt and/or sword. It further seems logical that women would not be seen as subservient in societies that conceptualized the powers governing the universe in female form - and the 'effeminate' qualities such as caring, compassion, and nonviolence would be highly valued in these societies. What does NOT make sense is to conclude that societies in which men did not dominate women were societies in which women dominated men.

"Nonetheless, when the first evidence of such societies was unearthed in the nineteenth century, it was concluded that they must have been 'matriarchal.' Then, when the evidence did not seem to support this conclusion, it again became customary to argue that human society always was - and always will be - dominated by men. But if we free ourselves from the prevailing models of reality, it is evident that there is another logical alternative: that there can be societies in which difference is not necessarily equated with inferiority or superiority." [Eisler, 1987] (emphasis, mine)

Ms. Eisler, an acclaimed scholar, has developed what she calls "Cultural Transformation Theory," which proposes that there are two basic models of society underlying the great diversity of human culture. The first is the "Dominator Model," that can be termed a patriarchy OR matriarchy. It consists of ranking one half of humanity over another, in the broadest terms, but essentially can be any situation where any group dominates and any other group is considered inferior.

The second model is what Ms. Eisler calls the "Partnership Model," which is based on the principle of "linking rather than ranking."

Thus, it seems that the work of Ms. Eisler is describing precisely what the Cassiopaeans call Service to Self versus Service to Others; Networking versus judgment!

Ms. Eisler proposes that the "original direction in the mainstream of our cultural evolution was toward partnership, but that, following a period of chaos and almost total cultural disruption, there occurred a fundamental social shift, and that this "cataclysmic turning point during the prehistory of Western civilization, when the direction of our cultural evolution was quite literally turned around" was brought about by invaders who "ushered in a very different form of social organization." These were people who "worshipped the lethal power of the blade - the power to take rather than give life" and that this became the ultimate power to establish and enforce domination

As Ms. Eisler acutely points out:

"If we stop and think about it, there are only two basic ways of structuring the relations between the female and male halves of humanity. All societies are patterened on either a dominator model - in which human hierarchies are ultimately backed up by force or the threat of force - or a partnership model, with variations in between.

"If we look at the whole span of our cultural evolution from the perspective of cultural transformation theory, we see that the roots of our present global crises go back to the fundamental shift in our prehistory that brought enormous changes not only in social structure but also in technology. This was the shift in emphasis from technologies that sustain and enhance life to the technologies symbolized by the Blade: technologies designed to destroy and dominate. This has been the technological emphasis through most of recorded history. And it is this technological emphasis, rather than technology per se, that today threatens all life on our globe." [Eisler, 1987] (emphasis, mine)

Gathering a vast array of scholarly evidence, Ms. Eisler provides the missing data that tells a story that began many thousands of years ago; a story of how the original "Partnership" direction of Western Culture, the "Chalice," was transformed into a "bloody five-thousand year dominator detour" of the "Blade."

And here we see again this figure: 5000 years ago. And it will come up again and again.

"Venus" figurines have been found by the thousands all over Eurasia, from the Balkans to Lake Baikal in Siberia, across to Willendorf in Austria, and the Grotte du Pappe in France. Some scholars (clearly with their minds where they ought not to be) have described them as "erotic art" of the stone age and propose that they were used in obscene fertility rites!

But is that really the case?

Can these ubiquitous female images found from Britain to Malta even be described accurately as "Venus" figures? Most of them are broad-hipped, sometimes pregnant, stylized and frequently faceless. They are clearly a symbol, just as the cross with the crucified man is a symbol. Future archaeologists who might dig in the remains of our civilization would find equally ubiquitous and symbolic crosses!

In an amazing book that should be read by everyone, When God Was a Woman, Merlin Stone reveals the sexual and religious bias of many of the scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which have been responsible for the general lack of knowledge about these most ancient times. Most of these male scholars were raised in societies that embrace the male-oriented religions of Judaism or Christianity, and this obviously heavily influenced their opinions. One of them, Professor R.K. Harrison wrote of the Goddess religion: "One of its most prominent features was the lewd, depraved, orgiastic character of its cultic procedures."

"Despite the discovery of temples of the Goddess in nearly every Neolithic and historic excavation, Werner Keller writes that the female deity was worshipped primarily on 'hills and knolls,' simply echoing the words of the Old Testament. Professor W. F. Albright, one of the leading authorities on the archaeology of Palestine, wrote of the female religions 'orgiastic nature worship, sensuous nudity and gross mythology.' He continued by saying that 'It was replaced by Israel with its pastoral simplicity and purity of life, its lofty monotheism and its severe code of ethics.' It is difficult to understand how these words can be academically justified after reading of the massacres perpetrated by the Hebrews on the original inhabitants of Canaan as portrayed in the Book of Joshua, especially chapters nine to eleven. Professor S. H. Hooke, in his collection of essays Myth, Ritual and Kingship, openly admits, 'I firmly believe that God chose Israel to be the vehicle of revelation.'

"Albright himself wrote, 'It is frequently said that the scientific quality of Palestinian archaeology has been seriously impaired by the religious preconceptions of scholars who have excavated in the Holy Land. It is true that some archaeologists have been drawn to Palestine by their interest in the Bible, and that some of them had received their previous training mainly as biblical scholars.' But he then proceeded to reject this possibility of impairment, basing his conclusion primarily upon the fact that the dates assigned to the sites and artifacts of ancient Palestine, by the scholars who took part in the earlier excavations, were subsequently proven to be too recent, rather than too old, as might perhaps be expected. The question of whether or not the attitudes and beliefs inherent in those suggested 'religious preconceptions' had perhaps subtly influenced analysis and descriptions of the symbolism, rituals and general nature of the ancient religion was not even raised for discussion." [Stone, 1976]

In most textbooks of archaeology, the Goddess religion is referred to rather deprecatingly as a "fertility cult!" And, as Ms. Stone notes, the word "cult" always has the connotation of something less civilized than "religion," and is nearly always applied when referring to the Goddess worship, while the rituals associated with that clever ET, Jehovah/Yahweh are always reverently referred to as "Religion," with a capital!

There are numerous, interesting examples of this academic sexual bias described in Merlin Stone's When God Was a Woman, and it is certainly, along with Ms. Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade, a book that will do more for the reader in terms of enlightenment and revelation than the Bible, so I encourage everyone to obtain a copy and dig into some of the most interesting reading available.

But, without an open-minded attitude, neither of them should be read. As Cyrus Gordon, Professor of Near Eastern Studies and formerly Chairman of the Department at Brandeis University in Massachusetts wrote:

"We absorb attitudes as well as subject matter in the learning process. Moreover, the attitudes tend to determine what we see, and what we fail to see, in the subject matter. This is why attitude is just as important as subject matter in the educational process." [quoted by Stone, 1976]

Considering the extreme monotheistic, Judeo-Christian bias of the scholars who have written the words, directed the schools, published the books, and overseen our educations for the past 1500 years or so, how else can we think but that males have always played the dominant role, and that males have always been the "doers" and "creators" and "movers and shakers" of our cultural, social and technological development?

In our culture, we think of the Sun as male and the moon as female, yet there are accounts of Sun Goddesses in the lands of Canaan, Anatolia, Arabia and Australia, and Sun Goddesses of the Eskimos, the Japanese and the Khasis of India were accompanied by little brothers who were symbolized by the Moon!

Nearly all the female deities of the near and Middle East were titled "Queen of Heaven," and in Egypt not only was the ancient Goddess Nut known as the heavens, but her brother-husband Geb was symbolized as the Earth.

Numerous accounts of the female Creators of existence credit Her with bringing forth not only the first people, but the entire earth and the heavens above. Such Creator Goddesses were recorded in Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Africa, Australia and China.

In India the Goddess Sarasvati was honored as the inventor of the original alphabet, while in Celtic Ireland the Goddess Brigit was esteemed as the patron deity of language. It has been revealed that the Sumerian texts say that the Goddess Nidaba was paid honor as the one who initially invented clay tablets and the art of writing. She was honored for this far earlier than any of the male deities who later replaced her. In fact, the official scribe of the Sumerian heaven was a woman. The earliest examples of language so far discovered were in Sumer, in the temple of the Queen of Heaven in Erech, though writing is most often attributed to a man in the more modern versions!

The worship of a female creator goddess appears, literally, in every area of the world.

As children, most little girls of the Western world are told the story of Adam and Eve. Eve is made from Adam's rib to be his companion and helper because he was lonely. Next they are taught that Eve was foolishly gullible and was pathetically "easy" to the wiles of the serpent. She disobeyed God Almighty, and led Adam down the primrose path, and forever after, all women bore the blame for this perfidy!

Not only that, but forever after, because of Eve's foolishness, all women must accept men as their masters, the representatives of the omnipotent male deity, whose wisdom and righteousness they must admire and respect with reverence and awe!

Over and over again, the legend of the loss of paradise has been utilized to impress upon us the natural inferiority of women. Only Man was created in God's image... woman came later and was a poor semblance of a human being! Everywhere in our culture this story pops up over and over again! It is the foundation of poetry, art, advertising and jokes. Everywhere you look, Eve is tempting Adam to do wrong over and over again. Women are portrayed as inherently conniving, contriving, (yet somehow also gullible and simple-minded) and most of all SEXY! They clearly need a divinely appointed overseer to keep them out of trouble and there is a man around every corner just ready to do the job!

Joseph Campbell wrote about the Adam and Eve myth:

"This curious mythological idea, and the still more curious fact that for two thousand years it was accepted throughout the Western World as the absolutely dependable account of an event that was supposed to have taken place about a fortnight after the creation of the universe, poses forcefully the highly interesting question of the influence of conspicuously contrived, counterfeit mythologies and the inflictions of mythology upon the structure of human belief and the consequent course of civilization." [quoted by Stone, 1976] (emphasis, mine)

The religion of the Great Mother Goddess existed and flourished for many thousands of years in the Near and Middle East before the arrival of the patriarch Abraham, the first prophet of the dominator male deity, Yahweh. Archaeologists have traced the worship of the Goddess back to the neolithic communities of about 7000 B.C., some to the Upper Paleolithic cultures of about 25,000 B.C. From Neolithic times, at least, its existence has been repeatedly attested to well into Roman Times. Yet, Bible scholars agree that Abraham lived in Canaan as late as between 1800 and 1550 B.C., a veritable Johnny-come-lately!

The Upper Paleolithic period, though most of its sites have been found in Europe, is the conjectural foundation of the religion of the Goddess as it emerged later in the Neolithic Age of the Near East. It predates written records, and we have no way of precisely interpreting or understanding it in its most ancient form.

The most tangible line of evidence is drawn from the numerous sculptures of women found in the Gravettian-Aurignacian cultures of the Upper Paleolithic Age. Some of these date back to 25,000 B.C., as noted above, and are frequently made of bone or clay. They were often found lying close to the remains of the sunken walls of what are probably the earliest known human-made dwellings on earth. Researchers say that niches or depressions were made in the walls to hold the figures. Such finds have been noted in Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Russia. These sites span a period of at least ten thousand years!

"It appears highly probable, then,' says Maringer, 'that the female figurines were idols of a 'great mother' cult, practised by the non-nomadic Aurignacian mammoth hunters who inhabited the immense Eurasian territories that extended from southern France to Lake Baikal in Siberia." [quoted by Stone, 1976]

"One of the most sophisticated prehistoric cultures of the ancient Near and Middle East was situated along the banks of the northern Tigris and westward as far as the Habur River. It is known as the Halaf culture and appeared in various places by 5000 B.C. At these Halaf sites, small towns with cobbled streets have been discovered. Metal was in use, which would place the Halaf cultures into a period labeled by archaeologists as Chalcolithic. 'It is probably from the Halaf period that the invention of wheeled vehicles date.' [Saggs, quoted by Stone, 1976]

Goddess figurines have been found at all Halaf sites, but at the Halafian town of Arpachiyah these figures were associated with serpents, double axes and doves, all symbols connected with Goddess worship as it was known in historical periods." [Stone, 1976] (emphasis, mine)

And, here again, we have an interesting "track." Suddenly, at a certain point, 5000 years ago, serpents are associated with the goddess, where before, they were apparently not! What happened to bring about this association? We will be getting to that soon, so patience!

By 4000 B.C., Goddess figures appeared at Ur and Uruk, both on the southern end of the Euphrates river, not far from the Persian Gulf. At about this same period, the Neolithic Badarian and Amaratian cultures of Egypt first appeared. It is at these sites that agriculture first emerged in Egypt; and once again, goddess figurines were discovered.

From that point on, with the invention of writing, history as we know it, emerged in both Sumer and Egypt - about 3000 B.C. (5000 years ago!) In every area of the Near and Middle East, the Goddess was known in historic times. It is pretty clear that many changes must have taken place in both the forms and modes of worship, but, in various ways, the worship of the Female Goddess survived into classical Greece and Rome. It was not totally suppressed until the time of the Christian emperors of Rome and Byzantium, who closed the last Goddess Temples about 500 A.D.

It appears that the Goddess ruled alone in the beginning. At some point she acquired a son or brother who was also her lover and consort. He is generally assumed to have been part of the female religion in much earlier times.

It was this youth who was symbolized by the male role in the annual sexual union with the Goddess. He was known in various languages as Damuzi, Tammuz, Attis, Adonis, Osiris or Baal. This consort died in his youth causing an annual period of grief and lamentation among those who paid homage to the Goddess. Wherever we find symbolism and rituals of the young god, we can recognize the presence of the religion of the Goddess.

The people of the early Neolithic cultures of the Near and Middle East may have come down from Europe, possibly the descendants of the Gravettian-Aurignacian cultures. Later, waves of more Northern people descended on both Europe and the Near East. There has been some conjecture that these were the descendants of the Mesolithic (15000 - 8000 B.C.) Maglemosian and Kunda cultures of Northern Europe. But, their arrival was NOT a gradual assimilation - it was wave after wave of aggressive invasion.

These northern invaders, generally known as Indo-Europeans, brought their own religion with them: the worship of a young warrior god and a supreme father god. Their arrival in the Near East is attested to by 2400 B.C., but there may have been several earlier invasions.

After these invasions, the worship of the Mother Goddess fluctuated from city to city. As the invaders gained more and more territory over the next two thousand years, the male began to appear as the dominant husband or even the murderer of the Goddess!

Up to this point in time, writing seems to have been primarily used for the business accounts of the temples. The arriving Northern groups adopted this writing and used it for their own purposes.

"Professor Chiera comments: 'It is strange to notice that practically all the existing literature was put down in written form a century or two after 2000 B.C.' Whether this suggests that written language was never considered as a medium for myths and legends before that ime or that existing tablets were destroyed and rewritten at that time remains an open question." [Stone, 1976] (emphasis, mine)

Over and over again in the studies of the ancient religions it is noted that, in place after place, the goddess was debased and replaced by a male deity after the coming of the Northern Peoples. The transition was accomplished by brutally violent massacres and territorial acquisition throughout the Near and Middle East.

The Northern Invaders left neither tablets nor temples to explain why or how they came to choose a male deity. These "Sons of the North Wind, Aeolus" - these Nordics - are referred to variously as Indo-Europeans, Indo-Iranians, Indo-Aryans, or simply Aryans. There seems to be a complete lack of evidence of their culture in the Northern areas of Russia and the Caucasus. It is thought that maybe they were just illiterate nomads - hunting and fishing groups or just shepherds. But, in the opinion of the present writer, this idea is not supported by their culture, which they imposed on so many conquered peoples, as we will see further on

Nevertheless, their existence, once they burst upon the historical scene, is described as aggressive warriors riding two abreast in horse-drawn war chariots; or as big sailors who navigated the rivers and coastlines of Europe and the Near East. Jaquetta Hawkes writes:

"On no subject have authorities differed so completely or with greater lack of objectivity than on the origins of these cultures. The reason for this partisanship lies in the one thing the authorities are agreed upon - that the BATTLE AXE cultures represent the roots of the Indo-European speaking peoples. ...What can be said with some certainty is that the battle axe people had a large ethnic, social and cultural inheritance from the hunter-fishers of the forest cultures such as the Maglemosian and Kunda. ...Though it may not always or everywhere have been so, this character came in time to be dominantly pastoral, patriarchal, warlike and expansive." [quoted by Stone, 1976]

These Maglemosian and Kunda people of Mesolithic times (15000 - 8000 B.C.) were generally located in the forest and coastal areas of northern Europe, especially in Denmark. Their sites were generally much further north than those of the earlier Gravettian-Aurignacian groups.

The invasions of the Aryans took place in waves over a period of up to three thousand years according to standard archaeology. The invasions of the historical period are attested to by literature and artifacts, and are agreed upon by scholars. Those of prehistoric times are suggested by speculative etymological connections.

What is most significant in the historic records is that these Northern invaders viewed themselves as a very superior people. They were aggressive and continually in conflict with not only the peoples they conquered, but among themselves as well. Their coming revolutionized the art of war. They introduced the horse-drawn chariot, and the charioteer became a new aristocracy.

Historical, mythological and archaeological evidence suggests that it was these northern people who brought with them the concepts of light as good and dark as evil and of a supreme male deity. The arrival of the Aryans, the presentation of their male deities as superior to female deities, and the subsequent interweaving of the two theologies are recorded mythologically in each culture. It is in these myths that we can discover the attitude that led to the destruction of the Goddess.

The Aryan male god, unlike the son-lover of the Goddess, was frequently depicted as a storm god, high on a mountain, blazing with the light of fire or lightning. (Haven't we heard this before?!) In many of these myths, the goddess is depicted as a serpent or dragon, associated with darkness and evil. Sometimes the dragon is neuter or even male, but in such cases, is closely associated with the goddess, usually as her son.

The Goddess religion seems to have assimilated the male deities into the older forms of worship, and survived as the popular religion of the people for thousands of years after the initial Aryan invasions. But her position had been greately lowered and continued to decline. It was the assaults of the Hebrews and eventually the Christians that finally suppressed the religion.

Strangely, it is in the accounts of the Aryans that we find the original religious ideas of the Hebrews. There is the mountain-top god who blazes with light; there is the duality between light and darkness symbolized as good and evil; there is the myth of the male deity defeating the serpent; and there is the supreme leadership of a ruling class: the priestly Levites. All of these are to be found in both the Indo-European and Hebrew religious concepts and politics! The Indo-European patterns were either adopted by the Hebrews, or the Hebrews were Indo-Europeans from the start. But, the end result was that the same ideas and attitudes were later adopted by Christianity.

In India there is clear evidence of the Aryan invasions and the conquest of the Goddess worshippers. The books known as the Vedas were a record of the Aryans in India. They were written between 1500 and 1200 B.C. in Sanskrit using scripts possibly borrowed from the Akkadians. Professor E.O. James writes:

"It appears that the sky gods in the ancient Vedic pantheon were already established among the Aryan tribes when they began their migrations in the second millenium B.C. On their arrival in India they found ...not a primitive aboriginal population but a highly developed urban civilization superior to their own relatively simple way of life as depicted in the Rg Veda." [Stone, 1976]

The Indo-Aryan Rg Veda says that "in the very beginning there was only 'asura,' or 'living power.' The asura broke down into two cosmic groups. One was the enemies of the Aryans, known as the Danavas, or Dityas, whose mother was the Goddess Danu or Diti; the other group, clearly the heroes of the Aryans, were known to them as the A-Dityas. This title betrays the fact that this mythical structure was created in reaction to the presence of the worshippers of Diti, since A-Ditya literally means 'not Dityas,' or 'not people of Diti.' This strongly suggests that these mythical hymns were not only written down after the Aryans came into contact with the goddess people, but were conceived and composed after that time as well.

One of the major Indo-Aryan gods was known as Indra, Lord of the Mountains, 'he who overthrows cities.' Upon obtaining the promise of supremacy if he succeeded in killing Danu and Her son Vrtra, he does accomplish the act, thus achieving kingship among the A-Dityas. In a hymn to Indra in the Rg Veda which describes the event, Danu and Her son are first described as serpent demons; later, as they lie dead, they are symbooized as cow and calf. After the murders, 'the cosmic waters flowed and were pregnant.' They in turn gave birth to the sun. This concept of the sun god emerging from the primeval waters appears in other Indo-European myths and also occurs in connection with two of the prehistoric invasions.

The Indo-Aryan attitude toward women is made clear in two sentences attributed to Indra in the Rg Veda: 'The mind of woman brooks not discipline. Her intellect has little weight.'

The Rg Veda also refers to an ancestral father god known both as Prajapati and Dyaus Pitar. Dyaus Pitar is known as the 'supreme father of all.' The spread of the Indo-Aryan culture brought with it the origins of the Hindu religion and the concept of light-colored skin being perceived as better or more "pure" than darker skins. (The Sanskrit word for caste, 'varna' means color.)

Before the Aryan invasion, the indigenous population of India worshipped the Goddess. There seems to have been contact between this early culture and the societies of Sumer and Elam around 3000 B.C. As late as 600 A.D. the worship of the Goddess surfaced again. She appears in the Puranas and Tantras under many names, but the name Devi, meaning Goddess, combines them all. Her name Danu or Diti had been forgotten. The Goddess was incorporated late in Brahmanic literature and has a dubious position among Brahmanic groups.

The Indo-Aryan beliefs are found in Iran, though the records are very late - dating back only as far as 600 B.C. The Indians and Iranians were derived from the same ethnic group and had been established on the Iranian plateau from about 4000 B.C. They spoke a Vedic Sanskrit dialect.

Though there is a considerable change from the Rg Veda to the Iranian Avesta, we still find the great father who represents light, with a new name: Ahura Mazda. He is the Lord of Light and his abode is on a mountain top glowing with golden light. The duality of light and dark is inherent in Iranian religious thought. Ahura Mazda is on high in goodness, and the devil figure, Ahriman is "deep down in darkness."

In the Iranian texts of 200 A.D. known as Manichean, we again find good and evil equated with light and dark. We are told in these writings that the problems of humanity are caused by a mixture of the two. And here, Mithra appears as the one who defeats the "demons of darkness."

Then, there is Gayo Mareta who is, in the Iranian texts, the "first man." He seems to relate to Indra in the Indian versions. Gauee or gavee in Sanskrit means cow. Mrityu in Sanskrit means death or murder, surviving in the Indo-European German language as mord, meaning murder, and in the Indo-European English language as the word murder itself. Thus Gavo Mareta appears to be named 'Cow Murderer.' Just as Danu was symbolized as the cow Goddess, whose worhip is best known from Egypt, and Indra Her murderer, so Gayo Mareta may once have held this position in Iran. In the Pahlavi books of about 400 B.C. it was written, 'From Gayo Mareta, Ahura fashioned the family of the Aryan lands, the seed of the Aryan lands.'

"A later addition to Iranian mythology as we know it again appears to be a revival of the Goddess religion. According to Iranian texts of the fourth century A.D., the goddess Anahita was in charge of the universe. Curiously enough they tell us that 'Ahura Mazda has given her the task of watching over all creation.'" [Stone, 1976]

In trying to find the identity and culture of the "Sons of the North Wind," we come across the Hurrians. These people may not have been wholly Indo-European as they did not use an Indo-European language. Nevertheless, they were from an area either north of Anatolia or northern Iran and they were what is called brachycephalic (Alpine) in cranial structure, which is one of the identifiers of the Indo-Europeans.

"These people," says Professor Saggs, "long known in the Old Testament as the Horites or Horims spoke a language having no recognized affinities except in the later Urartian. They must have reached the mountains north of Assyria, presumabley from the Caucasus region, in the second half of the third millenium B.C." [quoted by Stone, 1976]

"Archaeologist O.R. Gurney wrote The Hittites in 1952. In this book he suggested that the original homeland of the Hurrian was in northern Iran. He records that 'The Hurrian people are known to have spread gradually southward and westward from their home in the mountainous region south of the Caspian Sea from about 2300 B.C. onwards, and to have become organised during the second millenium into several powerful kingdoms ...situated near the upper waters of the Euphrates and the Habur." [quoted by Stone, 1976]

"Although most of the Hurrian people were not Indo-European, our interest in the Hurrians or Horites is based on the evidence that their kings and leaders were. Saggs explains that '...the kings of Mitanni bore not Hurrian but Indo-European names, whilst the old Indian gods, Mitra, Varuna and Indra were worshipped... All this points to the presence of an Aryan warrior caste ruling over a largely non-Aryan population.' Gurney agrees, stating that Mitanni '...was ruled by a dynasty of kings whose names have an Aryan etymology, and Indian deities such as Indra and Varuna, figure prominently in its pantheon. It is thus clear in Mitanni a population of Hurrians was dominated by a ruling caste of Indo-Aryans." [Stone, 1976]

The origins of the words "Hurrian, Horite or Horim," may be connected to the Iranian word "hara" which means mountain. This word survives in the German "hohe" which means hill. It is also thought possible that the word relates to the Sanskrit "hari," which means "golden yellow." Also it should be noted that in Sanskrit, the word for gold is "hiran," which later became "oro" in Latin.

To take this idea further, we may find that both of these words may derive from an earlier word: Orion, a place of "golden mountains" or "eternal light" where the origins of the Aryans are to be found. And, we should note the similarity of the word "Orion" to "Iran," and then "Persia" to "Perseus" and "Perceval."

As early as the fourth millenium B.C, a group known as the people of the Ubaid culture entered the Tigris-Euphrates area. It is thought that they came from the highlands of Iran or the north of Iraq. Some scholars suggest that the Ubaid people brought the Sumerian language which is neither Semitic nor Indo-European. In fact, it is similar to some of the Ural Altaic languages. Aratta is a place name often mentioned in Sumerian texts, and it may have been the area of northwestern Iran along the Caspian sea.

The Ubaid people established a major settlement in the place later known as Eridu. They broke up the Halaf culture mentioned above, and wreaked devastation upon them. These Ubaids spread as far north as Lake Urmia and Lake Van, close to the Iranian-Russian border which may be where they came from. This section was later known as Ararat or Urartu which could be corruptions of Aratta. The name "Eridu" could also be a corruption of Aratta, suggesting the original homeland.

In about 4000 B.C. the Ubaid people built a temple at Eridu which appears to be the first built on a high platform. At this temple, not a single goddess figurine was found.

The Maglemosian and Kunda people who seem to have been the cultural ancestors of the Indo-European Ubaid people, have been found in Denmark and Europe in earlier periods. They seemed to have been exceptionally interested in mobility and transportation and also developed skis and sleds in addition to canoes, fish nets and fish traps. Evidence of these people has also been found in Estonia suggesting they may have used the Volga river as a travel route to the areas of the Caspian, the Caucasus, Lake Urmia and Lake Van and Urartu.

The deity worshipped at Eridu in historic times was the god Enki. Before this, the god of the shrine seems to have been a fish or water god. Enki was thought of later as the god of the waters and was described as riding around in his boat. He was also described as "he who rides." This concept of the fish or water god is similar to one found in a fragment of an Indo-European Hittite tablet which tells of a sun god who rose from the water with fish on his head. It is also similar to the idea of the sun god who was born from the cosmic waters released by Indra by the deaths of Danu and Vrtra. Though Enki is not generally designated as a sun god, in the myth of Marduk he is named as Marduk's father and so, Marduk is called the "son of the sun."

The Ubaid people are credited with developing irrigation canals in Eridu which could hint at their origin in places that were along rivers and streams and where fish were common. Another clue to the identity of these people is the institution of kingshp and the mention of the name Alalu as the very first king of Sumer in the king lists of the earliest part of the second millenium. According to these tablets which refer to a prehistoric period, it was in Eridu that "kingship was first lowered from heaven."

Now, let's think about this for a moment. We have a god with fish on his head, thereby associated with scales, and who is described as "he who rides." This scaly god not only rides, he rose from the water like the sun! Also, he was born from the deaths of the Mother goddess and her son. Mountains of fire are involved, gold, and kingship being "lowered from heaven."

It rather sounds like UFOs coming up out of the water as they have so often been reported to do in more modern times, or descending on mountain tops piloted by Nordics, Reptoids, or Grays.

In Manley Palmer Hall's book, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, (first published in 1928, when Hall was in his twenties), facing page LXXXV he has a painting of the fish-man-god Oannes. The caption under the picture reads:

Oannes, The Fish-Man: Berosus describes Oannes as follows: "At Babylon there was (in these times) a great resort of people of various nations, who inhabited Chaldaea, and lived in a lawless manner like the beasts of the field. In the first year there appeared, from that part of the Erythrean sea, which borders upon Babylonia, an animal destitute of reason [sic], by name Oannes, whose whole body (according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish; that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His voice too, and language, was articulate and human; and a representation of him is preserved even unto this day. This Being was accustomed to pass the day among men; but took no food at that season; and he gave them an insight into letters and sciences, and arts of every kind. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and shewed them how to collect the fruits; in short he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanize their lives. From that time, nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun had set, this Being Oannes, retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep; for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes...." [Quoted by M.P. Hall from Ancient Fragments, by Isaac Preston Cory.]

The Encylopaedia Britannica (Micropaedia) says: Berosus, also spelled Berossus, Berossos, or Berosos, Babylonian Bel-Usur (fl. c. 290 B.C.), Chaldean priest of Bel in Babylon who wrote a work in three books (in Greek) on the history and culture of Babylonia; it was widely used by later Greek compilers, whose versions in turn were quoted by such religious historians as Eusebius and Josephus. Thus Berosus is remembered for his passing on knowledge of the origins of Babylon to the ancient Greeks. Berosus is said to have migrated late in life to the island of Cos, where he founded a school of astronomy; there is no evidence, however, that Berosus of Cos and Berosus of Babylon were the same individual.

In his first book Berosus described the land of Babylonia, to which the half man-half fish Oannes and other divinities coming out of the sea brought civilization, and the story of creation according to the native legend, which led to an account of Chaldean astrology. The second and third books contained the chronology and history of Babylonia and of later Assyria, beginning with the "ten kings before the flood," then the story of the flood itself, followed by a restoration of kingship with a long lines of kings "after the flood," then "five dynasties." and finally the late age of history under the Assyrians, the last Babylonian kingdom, and the Persians. Cuneiform texts written in Akkadian (Assyro-Babylonian) language have corroborated much of Berosus' account. The original names of seven of Berosus' bringers of civilization (Oannes and his brethren) are included in a late-Babylonian tablet found at Uruk (modern Warka). His scheme of chronology and history, although imperfectly preserved in quotations, has been elaborately investigated and compared with the cuneiform literature by modern scholars. [end quote from Britannica]

I do not want to wander too far from our subject, but at this point I would like to make note of some other connections to these "Fish Deities," and we will discuss it in greater depth further on.

A very detailed discussion of Berosus and the Oannes story can be found in The Sirius Mystery, by Robert K.G. Temple (1976). This book describes the mythology of the Dogon tribe in Mali. Temple associates Oannes with the Philistine fish-god Dagon (See also: the accounts in the Bible books of Judges amd 1st Samuel).

In The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop (1943), the author makes an association between Oannes and Dagon and goes even further: he makes an amazing connection between Oannes and John the Baptist, since they have the same feast day June 24, i.e. Midsummer day. This day is full of other-worldy lore (See also: Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream).

According to Hislop's account of Oannes (p. 113), clearly Protestant and anti-Catholic:

The Feast Day of the Nativity of St. John is set down in the Papal calendar for the 24th of June, or Midsummer-day. The very same period was equally memorable in the Babylonian calendar as that of one of its most celebrated festivals. It was at Midsummer, or the summer solstice, that the month called in Chaldea, Syria, and Phenicia by the name of "Tammuz" began; and on the first day--that is, on or about the 24th of June--one of the grand original festivals for Tammuz was celebrated. [Footnote: Stanley's Saboean Philosophy, p. 1065. In Egypt the month corresponding to Tammuz--vis., Epep--began June 25.]

For different reasons, in different countries, other periods had been devoted to commemorate the death and reviving of the Babylonian god; but this, as may be inferred from the name of the month aappears to have been the real time when his festival was primitively observed in the land where idolatry had its birth. And so strong was the hold that this festival, with its peculiar rites, had taken of the minds of men, that even when other days were devoted to the great events connected with the Babylonian Messiah, as was the case in some parts of our own land, this sacred season could not be allowed to pass without the due observance of some, at least, of its peculiar rites.

When the Papacy sent its emissaries over Europe, towards the end of the sixth century, to gather in the Pagans into its fold, this festival was found in high favour in many countries. What was to be done with it? Were they to wage war with it? No. This would have been contrary to the famous advice of Pope Gregory I., that by all means they should meet the Pagans half-way, and so bring them into the Roman Church. The Gregorian policy was carefully observed; and so Midsummer-day, that had been hallowed by Paganism to the worship of Tammuz was incorporated as a sacred Christian festival in the Roman calendar.

But still a question was to be determined. What was to be the name of this Pagan festival, when it was baptised, and admitted into the ritual of Roman Christianity? To call it by its old name of Bel or Tammuz, at the early period when it seems to have been adopted, would have been too bold. To call it be the name of Christ was difficult, inasmuch as there was nothing special in His history at that period to commemorate.

But the subtlety of the agents of the Mystery of Iniquity was not to be baffled. If the name of Christ could not be conveniently tacked to it, what should hinder its being called by the name of His forerunner, John the Baptist? John the Baptist was born six months before our Lord. When, therefore, the Pagan festival of the winter solstice had once been consecrated as the birthday of the Saviour, it followed as a matter of course, that if His forerunner was to have a festival at all, his festival must be at this very season; for between the 24th of June and the 25th of December - that is between the summer and the winter solstice - there are just six months.

Now for the purposes of the Papacy, nothing could be more opportune than this. One of the many sacred names by which Tammuz or Nimrod was called, when he reappeared in the Mysteries, after being slain was Oannes. The name of John the Baptist, on the other hand, in the sacred language adopted by the Roman Church, was Joannes. To make the festival of the 24th of June, then, suit Christians and Pagans alike, all that was needful was just to call it the festival of Joannes; and thus the Christians would suppose that they were honouring John the Baptist, while the Pagans were still worshipping their old god Oannes, or Tammus. [end quote from Hislop]

C.W. Leadbeater writes in: Ancient Mystic Rites (1926, 1986) ...our traditional history is based on the death and resurrection of Tammuz, and is in reality an account of the ritual murder of one of the Priest-Kings of that religion. The 24th of June (St. John the Baptist) festival as a special Masonic celebration seems to be derived from the Templars. As Charles William Heckethorn wrote in The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries (1897, 1965) Vol. I, p. 159: We have seen that the Templars, during and in consequence of their sojourn in the East, attached themselves to the doctrines of the Gnostics and Manichaeans - as is sufficiently attested, where other proofs wanting, by the Gnostic and Cabalistic symbols discovered in and on the tombs of Knights Templar, which appeared to them less perverted than those of the priests of Rome. They also knew the bad success the proclamation of Christ's death on the cross had had at Athens, in consequence of Aeschylus' tragedy, Prometheus Vinctus, wherein Oceanus denied his friend, when God made him the sacrifice for the sins of mankind, just as Peter, who lived by the ocean, did with regard to Christ.

The Templars, therefore, came to the conclusion that all these gods, descended from the same origin, were only religious and poetic figures of the sun; and seeing the bad use made of the doctrines connected therewith by the clergy, they renounced St. Peter, and became Johannites, or followers of St. John. [Heckethorn, quoted by Leadbeater]

In The Temple and the Lodge, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh (1989). It is argued that Freemasonry derives from the Templar traditions. They point out in describing Robert the Bruce's decisive battle of Bannockburn, p. 35: There is still dispute over the precise site of the Battle of Bannockburn, but it is known to be some two and a half miles from Stirling Castle. The main engagement occurred on 24 June 1314. The date is interesting, for 24 June is St John's Day, a day of particular significance for the Templars.

Ivan T. Sanderson was an early researcher who suggested that there is intelligent life (possibly extraterrestrial in origin) in the oceans. This is presented in his book, Invisible Residents. On pages 226-229, he lists 51 water-related, unexplained cases during the period 1948-1968. [Sanderson wrote an earlier book, Uninvited Visitors: A Biologist looks at UFO's (1967)]

This brings us to the most interesting question: is it a coincidence that the "flying saucer" craze began on June 24, 1947, when the pilot, Kenneth Arnold, sighted near Mt. Ranier nine objects flying "like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water,"? [The UFO Penomenon, Time-Life Books, 1988.]

Was in on a date equivalent to our June 24th, that the "death" of the Mother Goddess was symbolically enacted? Was it on this date that the "Fish God" appeared in most ancient times, bringing to an end the peaceful worship of the Mother Goddess, the Queen of Heaven? Who were these "scaly gods?"

That they are connected with the death of the Mother and Son also tells us a lot. We can relate this in a general way to the serpent in the garden of Eden "tempting" Eve and Adam, only in this older version, they are not tempted, they are murdered! Perhaps that aspect of the story has been preserved in the story of Cain and Abel.

Somewhere between 3400 and 3200 B.C. another tribe arrived on the Sumerian scene. This is known as "Uruk Level Five Period" in archaeological parlance. These people were familiar with stone working. At the same time, Nippur and Kish started to grow into cities. The Sumerian king lists tell of a great flood and after this, kingship was "lowered from heaven" a second time in Kish!

At this point, a god called Enlil appears on the stage and steals the limelight from Enki. But, he seems to have been of the same ilk: the "bright eyed great mountain" and his temple was the "House of the Mountain." His arrival in Nippur is told in the myth of the rape of the daughter of the Goddess Nunbarshebunu. The daughter's name is Ninlil and later she is Enlil's wife.

The Goddess Ninhursag, also known as Ninmah, is identified with Enki as his wife and sister though in the earlier periods she has the dominant role and her name often precedes that of Enlil and Enki. One legend explained that, with the help of Nammu, she created the first people. The Goddess known as Ereshkigal, whom we later hear of as the Mistress of the underworld, in one early Sumerian legend is carried off to the Underworld as a prize - at the very time that Enlil took possession of the earth. But, in the Underworld she was given no peace and was forced to accept a consort to rule beside her, to whom she was made to give the Tablets of Destiny.

"The name of the Goddess as Inanna appears to have been derived from Innin, Innini or Nina. she may have become the daughter of Ningal at the same time that Utu became the sun. By the time we meet her in the period of written legend, (shortyl after 2000 B.C.), though she still receives great reverence, she has clearly lost what was previously hers. Though Nammu had created heaven and earth and Ninhursag, Nintu or Ninmah the first people, one myth tells us that Enki established world order. In this myth we read that he created the irrigation canals, 'making the Tigris and Euphrates eat together.' We next learn that he had appointed various deities to certain positions and that Enki himself or the personage appointed in charge of the canals' has carried off like fat, the princely knee from the palace." [Stone, 1976]

Ms. Stone refers to this last passage as "rather obscure," it is most interesting in another direction. In Tales of the Constellations, Marianne McDonald writes:

"Cassiopeia can also be seen as ...an older Goddess... the queen and leader of the triad that includes Andromeda, or Persephone, the maiden; and Demeter, the mother. ...one parallel is the Indian goddess Parvati, identified with the fertile womb... Cassiopeia is often represented carrying a palm frond, a symbol of fertility. Schiller sees Cassiopeia as Mary Magdalene... The main stars in Cassiopeia have Arabic names, the meanings of which are "breast," "hand," "hump of the camel," "knee" and "elbow." They call the entire constellation the "seder tree."

"Some saw this constellation in the shape of a key. The Arabs called it Al Dhat al Kursiyy, or the "Lady in the Chair," but the earlier Arabs thought this was the" large hand stained with henna," the brightest stars glowing on the fingertips. The Celts called this constellation Llys Don, "the home of Don." The Chinese called it Ko Taou, relating it to a door; The Egyptians saw the constellation as a leg." [McDonald, 1996]

Could that "leg" of the Egyptians be a "princely knee?" Was there, in fact, a tradition of the Cassiopaeans as hte Sky Goddess that far back in the past? All of the references above, the "red hand," the elbow and knee, the tree, Llys Don, the palm frond, relate to Grail Issues, to an original Divine order that was disrupted, displaced, and almost totally eradicated by violence and rapacious movements of people under the rule of the "Sun God" with Scaly Reptoid connotations who clearly has been the force behind the Monotheistic take-over of the world! Have we found here one of our "tracks," a small and seemingly insignificant trace that was missed in the destruction of our past? A princely knee indeed! And later, we will go into this subject of knees more deeply.

In any event, in the same tablet from which the passage about the "princely knee" being carried off by Enki was drawn, we then read twice that Inanna has "given up Her royal scepter, upon which she twice asks Enki, 'where are my royal powers?' As if to console her, he tells her that she is still in charge of 'the words spoken by the yound lad, ' words which she had established, and that the crook, the staff and the 'wand of shepherdship' were still hers." [Stone, 1976]

Then Enki says: "Inanna, you who do not know the distant wells, the fastening ropes, the inundation has come, the land is restored, the inundation of Enlil has come."

Indeed, the "inundation of Enlil" had come!

Nevertheless, it seems that Inanna continued to be regarded as the one who bestowed the rights of shepherdship or kingship, suggesting that matrilineal rights to the royal throne continued to exist.

What this suggests to me is that there was a "bloodline of power" that was being used or tapped by these conquerors and invaders!

This idea is presented in Le Conte del Graal which tells of a former paradise on earth. In this land, maidens lived by sacred grottoes, wells and springs. The Maidens of the Sacred Wells would feed wanderers and travelers from golden bowls and cups. These wells and springs represented the nourishing aspect of the Mother Goddess. The maidens served all wayfarers and the land was at peace and fertile until one day an evil king Amangons ravished one of the maidens and stole her sacred bowl. (Stole the Princely knee?)

Amangon's male retainers followed their king's example and a disaster resulted. Soon there were no more maidens serving at the wells. From that time onward, the realm was changed into a wasteland. The wells and the waters dried up, animals became infertile, trees no longer bore fruit or leaf, flowers withered and the people left.

We are told that the land "lost the voices of the Wells," or lost contact with the Otherworld. The Barren Wasteland, the Wound of the King, was loss of contact with the spiritual source, the guidance of the Mother Goddess, the understanding of the parallel worlds of flesh and spirit and the necessity for balance.

But, back to our history discussion. A third male deity - An or Anu - comes onto the Sumerian stage sometime after the beginning of the second millenium - the same period that the Hurrians discussed above are known to have entered the area, so they must have brought this Anu with them.

"In the early Sumerian period the name Anu is relatively obscure, and his name does not appear on any of the eighteen lists belonging to this period." [Professor Hooke quoted by Stone, 1976]

"Anu appears as the successor to Alalu in the Hurrian and Hittite Kumarbi myth previously discussed. But most interesting is his appearance in the later myth of Marduk, 'the son of the sun.' Here we learn that Enki was first asked to subdue the Creatress-Goddess, whom they call Tiamat, and was not able, though he did manage to kill her husband Apsu, thus becoming Lord of the Abzu (primeval waters) himself. then Anu was asked, but according to the legend when he confronted Her, he cringed in fear and refused to complete his mission. Finally Marduk, son of Enki, was willing, though only upon the promise of the supreme position among all other deities if he succeeded. This previoulsy secured promise brings to mind the one Indra requested before murdering Danu and Her son Vrtra; both of these myths were probably written about the same period (1600-1400 B.C)

"This legend, known as the Enuma Elish, which explains the supremacy of Marduk, has long been designated as Babylonian and therefore Akkadian and Semitic. But latest research suggests that, though Marduk was known in the Hammurabi period, the myth claiming his supremacy did not actually appear until after the Kassites had conquered Babylon. professor Saggs points out that 'none of the extant texts belonging to it is earlier than the first millenium' and that 'it has been suggested that in fact this work arose only in the Kassite period, a time now known to have been one of intense literary activity.' The Kassits were also ruled by the Indo-Europeans. Gurney tells us that 'The names of Indian deities are found to form an element in the names of the Kassite rulers of Babylonia, ' though once again the greater part of the Kassite people were not Indo-European.

"In about 2100 B.C. a Sumerian king named Ur Nammu declared that he would establish justice in the land. ...he did away with the heavy duties and taxes that were burdening the people at that time and 'rid the land of the big sailors who seized oxen, sheep and donkeys.'' [Stone, 1976]

Big Sailors? Hmmmm! This will certainly bear remembering!

Now, while all this invading and conquering and demolishing of the Goddess Worship is going on over in the Tigris-Euphrates area, a similar thing was going on in Egypt! Just before 3000 B.C., there is evidence of an invasion in Egypt. Upper and lower Egypt were then united for the first time - under one king! Up to that time, the Cobra Goddess and the Vulture Goddess seem to have been the supreme deities. After the invasion, the goddesses were demoted even though they continued to symbolize the royal crowns!

There is considerable evidence for contact between Egypt and Sumer. "Abundant evidence of Mesopotamian clutural influence is found at this time in Egypt." [Saggs] Significant is the fact that cylinder seals (a specifically Mesopotamian invention) occur there, together with methods of building in brick foreign to Egypt but typical of the Jemdet Nasr culture of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamian motifs and objects also begin to be represented in Egyptian art, such as boats of Mesopotamian type. And, the idea of writing, though it was expressed quite differently in Egypt, seems to have come from Mesopotamia. Paintings in early dynastic tombs portray a conical basket type of fish trap, nearly identical to those of the Ertebolle people of northern Europe who were descended from the Maglemosians! The male deity of Egypt arrived with the invaders, and was portrayed as the sun riding in a boat!

"Professor Vincent Emery spent some forty-five years excavating the ancient tombs and pyramids of Egypt. Discussing the arrival of these people, he writes:

'Whether this incursion took the form of gradual infiltration or horde invasion is uncertain but the balance of evidence... strongly suggests the latter. ...we see a style of art which some think may be Mesopotamian, or even Syrian in origin, and a scene which may represent a battle at sea against invaders... [in these] representations we have typical native ships of Egypt and strange vessels with high prow and stem of unmistakable Mesopotamian origin...

'At any rate, towards the close of the fourth millenium B.C. we find the people known traditionally as the "Followers of Horus" apparently forming an aristocracy or master race ruling over the whole of Egypt. The theory of the existence of this master race is supported by the discovery that graves of the late predynastic period in the northern part of Upper Egypt were found to contain the anatomical remains of a people whose skulls are of greater size and whose bodies were larger than those of the natives, the difference being so marked that any suggestiosn that these people derived from the earlier stock is impossible.'" [quoted by Stone, 1976]

These invaders were known to the Egyptians as the "Shemsu Hor" or people of Hor. And, of course, they brought with them their male god, Hor-Wer or Great Hor. By 2900 B.C. pictures of this sun god show him riding in his "boat of heaven."

It certainly makes one wonder if a brilliant UFO rising up out of the water would cause the ancient peoples to connect a boat (that goes on water) with flying through the air while looking like the sun! And, over and over again we are finding this image or juxtaposition of images.

According to Professor Emery, the name of the first king of the First Dynasty, known as Narmer or Menes in Manetho's history of 270 B.C, was actually Hor-Aha. Later, the name of Hor appears to have been incorporated into the more ancient goddess religion as the "son who dies." This has led to a lot of confusion between the two "Hors," Horus the Elder, god of light of the invaders, and Horus the Younger, the son of the goddess Isis.

Hor later was transmogrified into Horus by the Greeks, and is depicted as fighting a ritual combat with another male deity known as Set. Set is supposed to be his uncle, the brother of his mother Isis and father Osiris. The combat was supposed to symbolize the overcoming of darkness or Set, by light, symbolized by Hor.

In Sanskrit the word 'sat' means to destroy by hewing into pieces. In the myth of Osiris, it was Set who killed Osiris and cut his body into fourteen pieces. But, the word "set" is also defined as "queen" or "princess" in Egyptian! "Au Set," known as Isis by the Greeks, means "exceeding queen!"

In the myth of this ritual combat, Set tries to mate sexually with Horus; this is usually interpreted to have been an extreme insult. But the most primitive identity of the figure Set, may be the goddess religion and this combat, just as the combat of Marduk with Tiamat, may have represented the suppression and destruction of the Goddess religion presented by the invaders as a triumph of light over darkness!

There are, of course, other equally interesting interpretations of this combat, as we will discuss later, but for now we are following a specific line, and the other interpretations seem to me to be only additional layers of this earth shaking event in our history.

Nevertheless, the followers of Hor established the institution of kingship in Egypt. And, again, marrying the representative of the goddess in order to "steal her power" was an important part of the assumption of kingship. And, we may justifiably compare the name of "Hor" to the Hurrians or Horites who came from Iran to Sumer.

"Around the time of the Second Dynasty the town of Heliopolis (known to the Egyptians as Annu!), ...became the home of a school of scribal priests who also worshipped a sun god who rode in a boat. In this town they used the name Ra. In Sanskrit, Ra means royal or exalted on high. This prefix is found in the Sanskrit word for king, raja and queen, rani. It survives in the German word ragen, to reach up, in French as roi, meaning king, as well as in the English words royal, reign and regal.

"In the pyramid texts of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 B.C.) Horus was equated with Ra. Both Horus and Ra were closely connected, at times competitively, with the right to kingship. As Ra-Harakhty, Ra is identical with Horus of the Horizon, both meaning the sun at rising. Ra too is portrayed as the sun who rides across the heavens sitting in his sacred boat. Why a boat in the heavens? ...Ra's boat was said to emerge out of the primeval waters, much as Enki was ssid to ride his boat in the deep waters of the Abzu of Eridu, or as the Indo-Aryan sun god was said to have emerged from the cosmic waters. As in the Indo-European Hittite myth of the sun god in the water who rises from the sea with fish on his head, so too Ra rose from the waters each morning. (emphasis, mine)

"As sun god, Ra was known as the 'shining one,' the 'forefather of light,' 'the lord of light.' And once again we find the dragon myth, so suggestive of the Aryan religion.

"As the name of Horus was assimilated into the Goddess religion, as the son of Isis, the priests of Memphis proposed another concept of the great father god. This time his name was Ptah, curiously like the Sanskrit Pitar. The texts concerning him describe the creation of all existence, suggesting that Ptah was there first. This time we are told that it was through an act of masturbation that Ptah caused all the other gods to come into being, thus totally eliminating the need for a divine Mother!" [Stone, 1976]

Well, again, we have all of these shining boats rising out of the water. And, this idea of the masturbating god is not new. One of the Sumerian gods, Enki, was supposed to have masturbated and thereby caused the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to flow!

Yet, even though these conquering Sons of the North Wind came in wave after wave, bringing their gods who ride in shining boats in the sky, the goddess religion still survived. This very fact may indicate the presence of another group who worked quietly to preserve the ancient truths in the face of almost overwhelming opposition. The new male gods were assimilated and synthesized creating an almost impossible to sort mish-mash of gods and goddesses.

One of the most interesting goddesses is the Egyptian Maat. Maat symbolized the "order of the universe" and all that was righteous and good. She came to be known as the "Eye of Horus", the "Eye of Ra" or the "Eye of Ptah." In Egyptian, eye is "uzait," which is similar to the name of the cobra goddess, Ua Zit. In Indo-European, eye is "mati," thus "Maat." Professor Anthes writes:

"As long as the king lived, the Uraeus was, as the Pyramid texts express it, magically guarded by the king. When the king died, however, the venomous viper would escape unless it was taken into custody."

"This suggests that law and order, as perceived by the followers of Hor, Ra or Ptah, was possible only as long as the Cobra Goddess was controlled by the king." [Stone, 1976]

What this also suggests is that the imposition of linear time was possible only as long as the "cycle," represented by the Cobra Goddess, was "stopped," and that the Machiavellian tactic of projecting the nature of the true enemy onto the one who has been vanquished was being employed.

One of the more curious references in the Pyramid Texts of the Fifth Dynasty is that men with red hair were sacrificed at the grave of Osiris!

Of course, as Ms. Stone writes, the connection between the Shemsu Hor, the Ubaid people of Eridu, the Jemdet Nasr of Nippur and the Indo-Europeans of the Caucasus and Urartu areas is hypothetical speculation. The only thing that is certain is that these groups brought the worship of the male deity with them and the worship of the Goddes was systematically suppressed and eventually almost totally obliterated by monotheism starting with the Hebrews, and continuing into the present time as Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

What IS historically attested is that examinations of the skulls in several Anatolian sites shows that in the third millenium B.C., most of the residents were predominately doliocephalic, or long headed Mediterranean types, with only a minority of brachycephalic, or round headed Alpine types. After the beginning of the second millenium, the proportion of brachycephalic skulls increases to about 50 percent. It is the brachycephalic types that came to be know as the ruling class of the Hittite empire.

The original people of Hatti became the subservient or conquered class, just as the "black headed" people of Sumeria became "slaves" of their conquerors. The invading Indo-Europeans assumed roles of royalty everywhere they went, subjugating the indigenous populations one after one. The Indo-Europeans were bigger, and possessed military supremacy never before seen due to their horse-drawn war chariots and iron weapons. They increased their height by wearing conical hats that appear to be about 18 to 24 inches high in depictions. (These conical hats are interesting as a certain type of conical hat is representative of the alchemical initiate!)

The word "iron" may be related to the word "Aryan," and the mining and smelting of iron which was associated with these peoples, was a closely guarded secret for many centuries.

The original Hattians may have been related to the goddess worshipping people of Catal Huyuk which is about 125 miles from the Hittite capital of Hattusas. The goddesses of the Hatti appear to have survived from an even earlier Hattian religion. In several texts the Goddess was simply called "The Throne," a title associated with Isis in Egypt and may be related to Cassiopeia, the "Enthroned Queen," and the "hump of the camel," a throne of sorts.

There is a peculiar Hattian myth of a young man named Hupisayas who, upon sleeping with the goddess known as Inara, gained enough strength to help the storm god defeat the dragon. This story of Hupisayas gaining strength by making love with the goddess may give us a clue to the secrets of the ancient sacred sexual union - the Hieros Gamos. It seems that the ancient rite of the son-lover of the high priestess of the goddess was not only to obtain the rights of kingship, but had a practical effect as well. And we must remember this key point for future reference!

The name of the Hittite god Taru can be related to the Hittite word tarh, "to conquer." In Sanskrit "tura" means "mighty." In India, Tura Shah was another name for Indra. This word may survive in taurus, toros, meaning bull; and may also be connected to Hor, Hur or Hara, meaning mountain, because there is the major mountain range of Anatolia called the Toros Mountains. In Indo-European Celtic, tor means rocky hill top; in German turm means tower and in English we have the word tower. The Etruscan storm god Tarchon may also be connected with the Viking storm god Thor. And, lest we forget: Tau, or the "Cross."

The Hittites sent princesses to the Egyptians during several conflicts, particularly during the Eighteenth Dynasty (1570 -1300 B.C). Both queens Tiy and Nefertete, mother and wife of Akhenaten, are thought by some authorities to have been Hittite princesses.

And, we might compare this idea with Gardner's suggestion that Tiy was the daughter of the Hebrew Joseph... another connection between the marauding monotheists and the Indo-Aryans!

Another important consideration here is that, if true, if Nefertete was a Hittite-Aryan princess, or daughter of one, and if Akhenaten was the son of another, it lends more credibility to the idea of why the rule of Akhenaten was so despised and why he MAY have been Moses, fleeing to the deserts of Sinai to form his own "nation" of "chosen people" in kahoots with the "Sky god in a boat," Yahweh/Jehovah!

There is the curious event of the letter received by a Hittite king shortly after the deaths of Akhenaten and his son or son-in-law, Tutankhamun. There is some dispute as to whether the letter was written by Nefertete or her daughter Anches-en-Amun. Nevertheless, it has survived and in it the writer, identifying herself as the Queen of Egypt, askes the Hittite king to send her one of his sons so that she can make him her husband!

There were other letters found in the archives of Akhenaten at El Amarna. Werner Keller writes:

"Though it may sound extraordinary, a third of these princely correspondents from Canaan have Indo-Aryan ancestry."

The name "Baal," the consort of the Goddess in Ugarit, Canaan in the fourteenth century B.C., and also the consort of Astoreth in the bible (after Moses), is also very likely an Indo-Aryan word. In Sanskrit bala means much the same as tura, that is, bull and mighty or powerful. Just as Hor became the name used for the son of Isis in Egypt, the name Baal replaced the name of Tammuz as consort of the Goddess, though Tammuz was still used as late as 620 B.C. in Jerusalem, and may have been the origin of the Jesus Myth. It is certainly interesting to compare the idea of the relationship between these words: "bala" and "tura" and that the Jesus myth is merely a recreation of the Bull worship, represented by the Tau, or cross of Baal.

Another male deity of Ugarit was know as El. He was the consort of the goddess Asherah and was thought to have been a part of the goddess religion from very ancient times. But the texts of Ugarit continually refer to him as "Thor-El," suggesting ties to the Indo-Aryan storm god!

Now, Ms. Stone has brought up a very interesting find on a group called Luvians, Luvischen or Louvites. They seem to be a group of Indo-Europeans who lived directly south of the Hittites in Cilicia, close to the Toros Mountains which is practically the same area as Catal Huyuk once flourished.

Very little is known of these people except that they were authors of what has become known as the Hittite hieroglyphs. These are picture words that appear most often on royal monuments and in a few texts. These hieroglyphs are still, for the most part, a mystery.

Professor Albright says that the Luvians occupied most of southern Asia Minor not later than the third millenium B.C. Another writer, R.A. Crossland suggests a later date. Professor Lloyd agrees with Crossland saying:

"In about 2300 B.C. a great wave of Indo-European speaking peoples, speaking a dialect known as Luvian, seems to have swept over Anatolia... their progress was marked with widespread destruction..." [quoted by Stone, 1976]

The name Luvian comes from the Hittite texts which refer to the land of these people as Luviya and their language as Luvili. French archaeologists call them Louvites; the Germans call them Luvischen.

The one thing that has come out of the partial translation of their hieroglyphs is that their major deity was the storm god whose name was Tarhund, Tarhunta or Tarhuis. The only material so far found in their texts is what is referred to as the "magic type; spells and incantations inserted into ritual texts." The fact that this totally religious material was written in their own hieroglyphs while other means of writing was available could indicate that they were a priestly caste of the Indo-Europeans. Other indications that seem to confirm this are the fact that scribal schools producing myths in Hurrian, Hittite and Akkadian appear to have been located in the Luvian territory of Kizzuwatna.

A priestly class of Indo-Europeans with scribal schools busily turning out myths for all the local and not so local populations? Magic spells and incantations? Oh, my! What have we found here?! Hold on to this idea as we will be coming back to it.

Now, it is time to get on to our object here: the Hebrews and their monotheistic overthrowing of the worship of the goddess. It is pretty clear from all we have covered thus far that the liklihood that our friendly monotheistic patriarch Abraham was of Indo-Aryan origin is almost a certainty. In fact, the Sanskrit word yahveh means "everflowing." The name Abraham itself, is closely related to the name of the Aryan priestly caste of India, the Brahmins, and it is a certainty that the attitudes and underpinnings of the Hebrew religion were NOT, as is taught, formed in a vacuum!

The one group that stands apart from the Hebrew people as a whole, who, after long stays in Egypt must have been well mixed with the Semitic type, is the priestly Levites. Hmmm... that word is suspiciously similar to Luvites, yes? Indeed!

The oldest extant texts of the Old Testament in Hebrew are those found at Qumran which date only to 2 or 3 centuries before Christ. the oldest version before those were discovered was a Greek translation from about the same period! The earliest Hebrew text dates only from the tenth century A.D.!!!

It is generally believed from textual analysis, that part of this bible was written about 1000 B.C. and the remainder about 600 B.C. And, the Bible as we know it, is the result of many changes throughout centuries and is contradictory in so many ways we don't have space to catalogue them all!

Biblical scholars generally date Abraham to about 1800 - 1700 B.C. The same scholars date Moses to 1300 or 1250 B.C. If we track the generations as listed in the Bible, we find that there are only seven generations between and including these two patriarchal figures! Four hundred years is a bit long for seven generations. Merlin Stone, allowing 35 to 40 years per generation, places Abraham at about 1550 B.C. and Moses at about 1300 B.C. Then, she tracks back to Noah, using the generations listed in the Bible, and arrives at a date of about 2000 to 1900 B.C. - about the time of the arrival of the Indo-Europeans into the Near East.

The Bible first tells us that Abraham is from Ur of the Chaldees. But then, Harran is continually referred to as the home country of Abraham, the land of his kin and where his father's house was. The Bible says they left Ur and settled in Harran and after that, the "Lord said to Abram, leave your own country, your kinsmaen and your father's house..." (Gen. 12:1)

Harran was located in the center of the kingdom of Mitanni and it is known that, at this period of history, many Hurrians had moved there. And, there is another indicator of his relationship to these Indo-Aryans: his grandfather and a brother were both named Na-Hor and another brother named Haran.

The Bible tells us that Abrahm approached a Hittite to purchase a piece of ground to bury his wife, Sarah. Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham with "You are a mighty prince among us, bury your dead in the best grave we have." This same plot of land was used to bury Abraham and when Jacob died in Egypt, he requested that his body be taken and buried on the land Abraham bought from Ehpron the Hittite.

Now, it is generally known that when people want a place to bury their dead, they seek "hallowed ground," consecrated, or familiar. So, the question is: why did Abraham think that the burying ground of Ephron the Hittite was "sacred?"

There is the strange story of Abram and Sarai in Egypt where the pharaoh takes Sarai to be his wife, after having been deceived by Abram into thinking she was only his sister. Yes, she WAS his sister, but she was also his wife. And here we have an example of the strange custom of these tribes of keeping their blood to themselves! In any event, dreadful things happened to this pharoah, and he finally discovered through his wise men that Sarai was Abram's wife. (Seems he was plagued with impotence from the day she came to his house! A little bit of those "spells and incantations," perhaps?)

Nevertheless, when pharaoh sends Sarai back, he loads her down with gifts including Hagar, "The Egyptian." Keep this also in mind, as we will be coming back to it.

There are many word and group connections between Abraham and his family with people and places we know to be connected to the Indo-European kingdoms, at the exact time of their existence, and these factors should certainly be taken into account when seeking the origin of the progenitor of the monotheistic covenant that became Judaism before being transmogrified into Christianity.

The idea of what is called the "Levirate marriage" is present in the law of the Hebrews given to them by Jehovah/Yahweh. This custom is well attested to in ancient India and only appears in the Near East in the wake of the Indo-European invasions. This law states that the widow of a man is assigned (as inherited property!) to her dead husband's brother, or, lacking a brother, to the father-in-law.

All of the close relationships between the Indo-Europeans and the Hebrews are demonstrated in literature, linguistics and customs. Professor Gordon remarks:

"We can now surmise why it was the Hebrews and Greeks who first emerged as the historians of the west. Both of them started their historiographic careers on Hittite substratum."

The Hebrews retained a memory of the battle between Yahweh and the serpent Leviathan, though the major portion of the story may have been removed at the time of the addition of the Adam and Eve story. Yet we find parts of it in Job 26:13 and Psalm 104 where we read that Yahweh destroyed the primeval serpent. In Psalm 74 we also find part of the Sumerian story: "By Thy power Thou didst cleave the sea monster in two and break the sea serpent's head above the waters. Thou didst crush Leviathan's many heads."

This serpent, Leviathan was also known in the texts of Ugarit in norhtern Canaan as the foe of