FEW honest and sincere believers have the faintest conception of the history surrounding the early beginnings of the Church.

Almost everyone is familiar with what is recorded in the New Testament concerning the differences of opinion that arose between Peter and Paul. But how many are aware of the fact that this split continued to grow?

For several centuries after the time of Jesus the best and most prominent of the Church Fathers were irreconcilably divided among themselves on issues of basic doctrine.

In order to retain power and authority, the dominant sectarians inaugurated a custom never before known in the recorded annals of religious history — the custom of anathema.

These Churchmen were too narrow and dogmatic in belief to allow room for natural divergences of opinion, which alone could have made of Christianity a vital and healthy organism. The result was a course of action diametrically opposed to the principle of tolerance reflected in the life of their declared inspiration, Jesus of Nazareth.

Having no faith in their capacity to win the adherence of thinking minds, the Church Fathers used anathema for the purpose of “persuading” those who could not be converted — and of silencing those not to be persuaded.

For the millennium “beginning with Buddha and Pythagoras at one end and the Neo-Platonists and Gnostics at the other, is the only focus left in History,” says Mme. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine — (see Holy Heretics) —

“… wherein converge for the last time the bright rays of light streaming from the æons of time gone by, unobscured by the hand of bigotry and fanaticism.”

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Hypatia Daughter of Theon

“Hypatia, the daughter of Theon the mathematician, was initiated in her father’s studies — her learned comments have elucidated the geometry of Apollonius and Diophantus — and she publicly taught, both at Athens and Alexandria, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle.

“In the bloom of beauty, and in the maturity of wisdom, the modest maid refused her lovers and instructed her disciples.

“The persons most illustrious for their rank or merit were impatient to visit the female philosopher, and Cyril beheld, with a jealous eye, the gorgeous train of horses and slaves who crowded the door of her academy.”

– Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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Christ In Egypt – The Horus-Jesus Connection

Acharya compares Jesus’ history to other “Saviour gods” such as Mithra, Horus, Adonis, Krishna, Quetzalcoatl, and Odin, claiming the similarities result from a common source: the myth of the sun-god or solar deity.

In her various books, Acharya describes the New Testament as a work of mythic fiction within a historical setting. She claims that the story of Jesus Christ is a retelling of various pagan myths, representing “astrotheology,” or the story of the Sun, and also incorporates the science of archaeoastronomy.

Hypatia: Last of the Neoplatonists

The Church had borrowed too much from the pagans for her own safety. Every event in the life of Jesus, from his virgin birth to his final crucifixion and resurrection, had been copied from the stories of the pagan gods. Every dogma and ritual in the Christian Church had its pagan counterpart.

These facts were known to the entire pagan world, and as the Church continued to borrow from the pagans in an ever-increasing measure, it became more and more difficult for her to maintain her claim of uniqueness.

So long as pagan schools existed, the Church could not without contradiction represent herself as the sole repository of knowledge.

So long as pagan books existed, the Bible would not be accepted as the only revelation of God. So long as pagan philosophers lived and taught, the dogmatic assertions of the Church Fathers would be questioned.

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There was but one course for the Church — to destroy all the evidences of her plagiarisms by wiping out the pagan schools, the pagan records, even the pagan philosophers themselves.

Emperor Theodosius

When Christian Emperor Theodosius ascended the throne, an ardent Catholic and a man of great power, he immediately turned his attention to the destruction of everything that stood in the way of the triumph of the orthodox Church.

He instituted the Inquisitors of the Faith and exiled all Christians who declined to accept the doctrine of the Trinity as it was outlined in the Council of Nicea.

He issued fifteen edicts prohibiting the meeting of “heretical” or unorthodox Christians and confiscated their property.

Ξ

Capital punishment was inflicted upon those who adhered to the Manichean “heresy” as well as upon those Christians who continued to observe Easter upon the same day as the Jews. Finally, in his bloody massacre of Thessalonica, he caused the death of 15,000 persons whom he had treacherously invited to witness the games of the circus.

Having assumed his position of dictator among the Christians themselves, he then turned his attention to the “enemies of Christianity” outside the Church.

He refused to allow his pagan subjects to worship in their own way and confiscated their temples for the use of the Christians.

Acharya asserts the pagans understood the stories to be myths, but Christians obliterated evidence to the contrary by destroying and controlling literature when they attained control of the Roman Empire, which led to widespread illiteracy in the ancient world, ensuring the mythical nature of Christ’s story was hidden.

Religions as being god-given stories is questioned, arguing that the Christian religion specifically is mainly derived from other religions, astronomical facts, astrological myths and traditions, which in turn were derived from or shared elements with others.

The Jesus myth hypothesis argues that the historical Jesus is a literary and astrological hybrid, nurtured politically in the interest of control.

The Truth About Religion – 1

Mystery Schools and the Serapeum

Theodosius’ next move was directed against the Mystery Schools, and he soon accomplished their destruction. But there was one great School which was still strong enough to resist his ruthless hand. That was the School of the Eleusinian Mysteries, located in the little hamlet of Eleusis, near Athens.

Anthony van Dyck, "Ambrose and Theodosius"

But even it was doomed to destruction, and in the year 396 Alaric and his barbarians were led through the famous Pass of Thermopylae by the Christian monks — the “black shirts,” or the “men in black,” as they were called.

The vast Temple of Eleusis, one of the most famous buildings in the world, the outer court of which alone could hold 300,000 worshippers, was reduced to a mass of ruins.

So perished the Mysteries of Greece.

Alexandria

Theodosius then turned his eyes toward Alexandria, which for centuries had been the cultural center of the world. The great Museum had already been put under the control of Catholic priests during the reign of Constantine, but the vast group of buildings known as the Serapeum was still in the hands of the pagans.

At that time the magnificent Temple of Serapis was being used as a University where the old religions and sciences were taught.

The Library of the Serapeum still housed a vast collection of books which had been brought from the four corners of the earth, and which represented the intellectual labor of many centuries.

Both of these repositories of pagan knowledge were serious obstacles in the path of the Church, and Theodosius determined that his reign would witness their destruction.

During the process of demolition of an ancient Temple of Osiris which the Christians had confiscated to remodel into a Christian Church, certain pagan symbols were found, which Theophilus exhibited in the market-place as objects of derision.

The pagans naturally objected to this public desecration of their sacred symbols, and a riot ensued.

With the assistance of the Imperial Governor and a large crowd of soldiers, Theophilus made an attack upon the pagans who, under the leadership of Olympius, had taken refuge in the Temple of Serapis. Unheard-of cruelties were perpetrated against the besieged.

Theophilus is regarded by the Coptic Orthodox Church as a saint.

The Truth About Religion – 2

The astronomical allegories of various Pagan myths coincided with the dates adopted by Christianity for the nativity, crucifixion, and resurrection.

With such an identity of rites and ceremonies, what would have been the fate of the new religion, had not the Church, under the pretext of serving Christ, got rid of the too-well-informed philosophers like Hypatia?

The Neoplatonic School

With the destruction of the Mystery Schools and the Serapeum two of the most serious obstacles in the path of the Christian Church were removed. But there still remained the third, and by far the most important obstacle — the Neoplatonic School.

The “honor” of destroying this School belongs to Cyril, the nephew of Theophilus, who in 412 had succeeded him in his high position of Bishop of Alexandria.

Cyril is remembered in Christian history for having promoted the Virgin Mary from the Mother of Jesus to the Mother of God! He also introduced the image of Isis into the Christian Church under the name of Mary.

These “Black Virgins” may still be seen in the Cathedral of Moulins, in the Chapel of the Virgin at Loretto, in the Church of St. Stephen at Genoa and in the Church of St. Francis at Pisa.

Cyril celebrated his rise to power by a series of oppressions, directed first against the Novitians and then against the Jews. Although the Jews had been welcomed in Alexandria since the very founding of the city, Cyril led a seditious multitude in an attack against their synagogues.

Unarmed and unprepared, the Jews were incapable of resistance. Their houses of prayer were leveled to the ground, all their goods plundered, and themselves driven from the city.

Cyril has come down in Christian history as one of the “Saints” of the Church, despite the well known fact that he was tried for stealing the gold and silver Church vessels and spending the money gained from their sale. But petty thievery has not earned for the name of Cyril of Alexandria its dark immortality in the annals of religious history.

His real crime was much more serious — the crime of murder, deliberately perpetrated against one of the noblest characters in history: Hypatia, the last of the Neoplatonists.

The Truth About Religion – 3

Hypatia was the daughter of Theon, a celebrated philosopher and mathematician, the author of a commentary on Euclid, in which his daughter is said to have assisted him. An only child, she showed deep interest in philosophy and mathematics from her early youth.

Her father instructed her in these subjects with care and diligence, and she soon became one of his most brilliant pupils. Her writings, according to Suidas, included commentaries on the Arithmetica Conics of Apollonius of Perga, and on the Arithmetical Canon of Ptolemy, all of which are now lost.

Hypatia’s Greatest Legacy

While Hypatia was living in Athens she came in contact with the Neoplatonic Schools which had been founded by Plotinus, Porphyry and Iamblichus, and identified herself with the Neoplatonic Movement.

Later, when she took up her residence in Alexandria, she began to hold lectures and classes in the famous Museum, where her eloquence and profound wisdom, her youth and extraordinary beauty soon attracted great crowds of students and admirers.

She was admitted into the intimate circles of the great Alexandrian families, and numbered among her friends two of the most powerful men of the day: Orestes, the Prefect of Alexandria, and Synesius, the Bishop of Cyrene.

The Neoplatonic School reached its greatest heights in the days that immediately preceded its destruction. Hypatia brought Egypt nearer to an understanding of its ancient Mysteries than it had been for thousands of years.

Her knowledge of Theurgy restored the practical value of the Mysteries and completed the work commenced by Iamblichus over a hundred years before.

Following in the footsteps of Plotinus and Porphyry, Hypatia demonstrated the possibility of the union of the individual Self with the SELF of all. Continuing the work of Ammonius Saccas, she showed the similarity between all religions and the identity of their source.

The Murder of Hypatia

When Hypatia explored the metaphysical allegories from which Christianity had borrowed its dogmas, and openly analyzed them in public meetings, she used a weapon which the Christians could meet only with violence. If her School had been allowed to continue the whole fraud perpetrated by the Church would have been laid bare.

The light of Neoplatonism was shining much too brightly upon the patchwork of Christianity.

So, on an afternoon during Lent in the year 414, a crowd of Cyril’s monks led by Peter the Reader collected in front of the Museum, where Hypatia was just finishing one of her classes. Her chariot drew up to the door, and Hypatia appeared. A dark wave of monks, murder in their hearts, rushed out from their ambuscade, surged around Hypatia’s chariot and forced her to descend.

AGORA – Movie Trailer

They stripped her naked and dragged her into a nearby Church of God, pulling her body through the cool, dim shadows, lit by flickering candles and perfumed with incense, up the chancel steps to the very altar itself.

Shaking herself free from her tormentors, she rose for one moment to her full height, snow-white against the dark horde of monks surrounding her.

Her lips opened to speak, but no word came from them. For in that moment Peter the Reader struck her down, and the dark mass closed over her quivering flesh.

Then they dragged her dead body into the streets, scraped the flesh from the bones with oyster shells, making a bonfire of what remained.

Thus Hypatia perished, and with her death the great Neoplatonic School came to an end. Some of the philosophers removed to Athens, but their School was closed by order of the Emperor Justinian.

With the departure of the last seven philosophers of the great Neoplatonic Movement — Hermias, Priscianus, Diogenes, Eulalius, Damaskias, Simplicius and Isidorus, who fled to the Far East to escape the persecution of Justinian — the reign of wisdom closed.

The death of Hypatia occurred in the year 414. Exactly fifteen hundred years later, in 1914, the World War of the Christian nations began. Is there a connection between these two events? *

The death of Hypatia marked the beginning of the Dark Ages, in which the world was encompassed by the clouds of ignorance and superstition for a thousand years.

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* Ocean of Theosophy, Ch. 14:

“Affecting man especially are the spiritual, psychic, and moral cycles, and out of these grow the national, racial, and individual cycles. Race and national cycles are both historical. The individual cycles are of reincarnation, of sensation, and of impression. The length of the individual reincarnation cycle for the general mass of men is fifteen hundred years, and this in its turn gives us a large historical cycle related closely to the progress of civilization. For as the masses of persons return from devachan, it must follow that the Roman, the Greek, the old Aryan, and other Ages will be seen again and can to a very great extent be plainly traced.” – (W. Q. Judge)

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The Bright Millennium of History

“AS real Occultism had been prevalent among the Mystics during the centuries that preceded our era, so Magic, or rather Sorcery, with its Occult Arts, followed the beginning of Christianity.

“However great and zealous the fanatical efforts, during those early centuries, to obliterate every trace of the mental and intellectual labour of the Pagans, it was a failure.

“But the same spirit of the dark demon of bigotry and intolerance has perverted systematically and ever since, every bright page written in the pre-Christian periods. Even in her uncertain records, history has preserved enough of that which has survived to throw an impartial light upon the whole.

“Fragments have survived geological and political cataclysms to tell the story. Every survival shows evidence that the now Secret Wisdom was once the one fountain head, the ever-flowing perennial source, at which were fed all its streamlets — the later religions of all nations — from the first down to the last.

“This period, beginning with Buddha and Pythagoras at the one end and the Neo-Platonists and Gnostics at the other, is the only focus left in History wherein converge for the last time the bright rays of light streaming from the æons of time gone by — unobscured by the hand of bigotry and fanaticism.”

–The Secret Doctrine, Introductory 1:xliv

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The Truth about the Sun

“The Seven Beings in the Sun are the Seven Holy Ones, Self-born from the inherent power in the matrix of Mother substance.” (The Secret Doctrine 1:290)

“The knee-jerk assumption that all those who subscribed to the ‘myth of Sun worship’ were somehow deluded. It is, after all, the source of our light of life and there is nothing whatsoever in science that shows the Sun to be a dead ball of gas, the common opinion held.

“Our local star is a highly complex seven-leveled energetic being, something once intuitively obvious wherever you went on the globe. The Christian taboo is still in place and it is high time to bring the Sun out of the cold, as I do in my recent book. The science supports it, discovering seven distinct levels to this complex energetic being.”

“Is there any bigger elephant in the room?”

– Gregory Sams, Author: “Sun of gOd”

“Sun of gOd”

“In his taboo-busting new book, Gregory Sams explores the cosmic web of existence in the light of a conscious Sun. The ancients perceived heavenly bodies to be sentient and divine, until such perceptions were banned. Sun of gOd brings our local star back in from the cold, to reveal a Universe filled with intelligence and design that needs no Intelligent Designer.

“Song ‘Sun is Shining’, from Fireman album, courtesy of Paul McCartney & Youth.”

Editor’s Note

Parts 1 & 2 of “Murder for God” contain information and edited excerpts from the following articles in the Great Theosophists Series of Theosophy Magazine:

Hypatia: The Last of the Neoplatonists

Alexandria and Her Schools

Jesus, The Christ

Great Theosophists: Plotinus

Great Theosophists: Ammonius Saccus

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Holy Heretics

The Liberated