Chapter Six - The Sacrificial/Saviour Gods

So if the idea was that women came to this planet to teach men how to love, then why did the Great Mother allow men to take over and rule the world? The answer might be that men wanted to rule the world and the Great Mother allowed them to do that. To see if that would help them to learn how to love in their own way. So women let go of the reins of power and let men take over. But this has been a disaster for both men and women, because clearly men were not ready. As five thousand years of recorded history shows us that men do a terrible job in ruling our world. To quote Samuel Johnson: What are all the records of history, but narratives of successive villainies, of treasons and usurpations, massacres and wars?

It all went wrong from the very start, as we see with the Yamnaya invasion of Europe. But the Great Mother is tolerant and forgiving. It is expected when an apprentice starts off on his own, he will make mistakes but hopefully he will learn from them. The irony is that the majority of men do not benefit from patriarchal rule. In all patriarchal societies there is a huge gap between rich and poor and so for the majority of men they end up living in poverty or become cannon fodder in wars.

So to help things along, so men get an idea of what they need to learn, the Great Mother introduced the Sacrificial/Saviour Gods to set a good example. So instead of having a Goddess of love, like Aphrodite or Venus, these are loving male gods like: Enki, Krishna, Shiva, Osiris, Orpheus, Dionysus, Bacchus, Mithras, Attis, Odin, Bader, Loki, Jesus and many more. These gods died on trees or stakes or were simply murdered. Jesus is the last of the sacrificial/savour gods. And along with Shiva and Krishna in Hinduism, they are the only ones to survive into modern times. So what did these God’s teach? It seems they taught humility, love and sacrifice as we see from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount. This time I’ll use the Luke version of this teachings:

27 But I say unto you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you,

28 bless them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you.

29 To him that smiteth thee on the [one] cheek offer also the other; and from him that taketh away thy cloak withhold not thy coat also.

30 Give to every one that asketh thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.

31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

32 And if ye love them that love you, what thank have ye? for even sinners love those that love them.

33 And if ye do good to them that do good to you, what thank have ye? for even sinners do the same.

34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? even sinners lend to sinners, to receive again as much.

35 But love your enemies, and do [them] good, and lend, never despairing; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be sons of the Most High: for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

36 Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

37 And judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released:

38 give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.

Luke 6: 27 - 38 American Standard Version.

This version is slightly different from Matthew 5. Luke 6 says; And judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released: Luke 6: 37 American Standard Version. Instead of: For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? Matthew 5: 45 -46 World English Bible.

Both versions make good points. The Luke version clearly says; Judge not. Which is different from what many Christians believe, that God will judges us when we die. But saying; And judge not, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: release, and ye shall be released: Luke 6: 37 American Standard Version. It sounds more like a bargain and is not unconditional. Also this is not true in our world; just because we don’t judge or condemn others it doesn’t guarantee others will not judge and condemn us. That’s why I prefer Matthew’s version: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth the rain on the just and on the unjust. Matthew 5: 45 American Standard Version. Because it makes it clear that God gives us all unconditional love, no matter who we are and what we did.

As mentioned before, these are probably some of the most controversial chapters in the New Testament and many Christians prefer to ignore them, because they seem too extreme. Most men would not want to turn the other cheek if someone hits them, or allow anyone to steal their property without trying to prevent them doing it. But this is not the only controversial thing Jesus taught when he said: But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Luke 6: 24 American Standard Version. He also says in Matthew.

20 The young man said to him, “All these things I have observed from my youth. What do I still lack?”

21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

22 But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he was one who had great possessions.

23 Jesus said to his disciples, “Most certainly I say to you, a rich man will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven with difficulty.

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into God’s Kingdom.”

25 When the disciples heard it, they were exceedingly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?”

26 Looking at them, Jesus said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Matthew 19: 20-26. World English Bible.

Very similar things are said in the Mark gospel. (Mark 10: 20-27). Obviously, people think that Jesus is far too extreme in saying that rich men cannot enter the kingdom of God. But he does have a point, the worst types of men are criminals. Unsuccessful criminals, we find in prisons but the successful criminals we find either ruling the country or are billionaires. The point is that we live in a world where there is a huge gap between rich and poor. But only a small minority of the rich care about the common people, as the majority of the rich prefer to hoard their wealth in off-shore accounts, to dodge paying taxes. So clearly these are selfish, unloving people who would never be able to become one with the Great Mother after they die and could end up drowning in the sea of chaos.

But there is a mystery, of why is this in the Bible, after Christianity become the state religion of Rome? Because we have here Jesus preaching against wealthy people. So logic would tell us; that the Roman ruling elite would make sure any scripture attacking them and their excessive wealth. Would be removed from the gospels. This suggests that either none of them bothered to read the gospels, or something else is going on. The gospels seem to be for everyone. We read that Jesus was a carpenter, so he was a working-class hero. But at the same time we are told he was the rightful, “King of the Jews”. So the ruling class could also see him as one of their own, as well. It suggests the Romans wanted a god who would appeal to all types of people. They even managed to make him appeal to homosexual men. We see this in John’s gospel where there is a suggestion that John and Jesus were lovers. This would be important, because the Roman Catholics had a celibate priesthood. So an all-boys club, would appeal more to homosexual men rather than heterosexual men. Probably the Roman elite wanted celibate priests because married priests will be more likely influenced by their wives, who might teach them how to love.

The Romans liked Christianity because it was popular with slaves and poor people. So even though the Emperor Constantine and the Roman ruling elite preferred Mithraism to Christianity. They decided to choose Christianity, because of its popularity with the underclass. They obviously knew why the slaves and poor liked Christianity, because Jesus was praising the poor and attacking the rich. So clearly the Romans must of feared a slave uprising of some kind and they had good reason to do so. Roman did have three Servile Wars, (Servile means slave in Latin). The first Servile War, 135−132 BC, in Sicily, led by two men Eunus and Cleon. The Second Servile War, 104−100 BC, also in Sicily and also led by two men Athenion and Tryphon. And the Third Servile War, 73−71 BC, on mainland Italy, which is much more well known, because it was led by the gladiator Spartacus. Many people today know about this war, because a major film was made about it.

Although these uprisings were unsuccessful, they were a warning to the Roman ruling elite that the slaves were capable of organising themselves, to take on the Roman establishment. So the Roman elite knew they had to try appease the slaves and the poor. One way of doing this, was leaving in passages in the Bible of Jesus attacking the rich and saying they could never enter the kingdom of heaven. This was to give the slaves and poor a consolation prize like we see in Luke: And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed [are] ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.. Luke 6: 20. American Standard Version

This suggests that the poor will have their reward in heaven and the rich went along with these teaching, because it wasn’t going to cost them any money. A similar thing happened with African slaves in the Americas. When the African slaves were introduced to Christianity by missionaries, it became popular with them, when they realized that Jesus seemed to be on their side.

Karl Marx wrote about this in an essay called: Introduction to A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right.

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusion.

The tragedy is that later communist revolutionaries looked at what Marx wrote about religion, as being a tool of the ruling class to oppress the people. Decided to ban all religions in the countries they ruled. But religion should be about our relationship with God and just because the ruling elite uses religion to placate the people. It doesn’t mean we should ban religion for this, but blame the ruling elite, for using religion in this way.

But what is the drama of a God that sacrifices himself is really all about? Some Christians claim that Jesus, fulfilled the role of the Passover Lamb. Where all the sins of the community are put on the lamb and then it is killed. So it’s claimed he died; for the sins of mankind. Though would a loving god do that to his son? Others claim Jesus laid down his life in obedience to God’s will, But this saying that that it’s God’s will that his son should be ridiculed, tortured and crucified? A third claim is that he was resurrected, after his crucifixion, so it’s seen as a victory over death. But then why die in such a gory way? If it was only a demonstration he could cheat death. The final claim Jesus died to appease an angry God, but Jesus preached that God is a God of love which is at odds with the angry, vengeful god of the Old Testament.

The whole drama of Jesus’s crucifixion was made into a film by Mel Gibson called The Passion of the Christ, and the whole crucifixion drama was shown as realistic as possible and its graphic violence was horrific. So much so, that one critic called it a snuff movie. The film has divided the Christian community and was even controversial in Muslim countries. Where some Muslim countries banned it, while the film was popular in other Muslim countries. But I think what Mel Gibson was trying to achieve, was to give Jesus a more macho image. By showing the all the horror of Jesus being tortured and crucified as realistic as possible. He showed Jesus as a “tough guy” who could endure all this humiliation, pain and suffering without complaint.

So why did Jesus teach sacrifice and acted it out in reality? The reason is he also taught love and the nature of love is sacrificial. When a woman gives birth to a child, most mothers fall in love with her baby. It has to be like this, because a human baby is totally helpless and so the mother has to devote a big part of her whole life, caring for it. So it is not unusual for mothers to put the needs of her children before her own. But this maternal love can extend to other people apart from her children. Women will also care for other people’s children. They will care for their boyfriends or husbands. Some will work in care homes or become nurses caring for the sick and elderly. As well as caring for animals, it’s not unusual for a women without a baby to have a dog or cat and care for the animal like a baby. So yes, for women’s love is all about sacrifice. Although many women will dispute this and say; it’s not a sacrifice, to care for others, because it’s what they want to do. But it’s more of a sacrifice for men, who feel they have to put the needs of others, before their own needs.

So it’s tough if men attempts to follow the teachings of Jesus and give others unconditional love. Because in a patriarchal society he can be used, abused, exploited and condemn by other men for being a wimp and not a ‘real man’. So all Jesus was able to say, as an incentive for men to learn to love was: your reward will be in heaven. Which is perfectly true because a man who learns how to love, will be able to enter the realm of the Great Mother and be protected by her, when he dies. But not all religions teach men to love, and even in Christianity many Christians ignore Jesus’s teachings and prefer the teachings of the Old Testament.

Many women have no choice but to love, they come from the Great Mother who is pure love and they also have the maternal instinct. Unfortunately, in the patriarchal system the reward for loving others, is to be used and abused. An example of this is the care system. In Britain in the 1980s, care homes were privatised which means they were run as a business to make maximum profits for the care home owners. Care home owners know that loving women had a strong need to care for others, so they are east exploited. As the result women worked in care homes caring for the sick and elderly are paid minimum wages. But even that wasn’t enough for the employers, so to maximize profits they also cut staff to the minimum so the care workers end up trying to do the work of two people. But they do it because they care about the people they are caring for. But being overworked they cannot care for the sick and elderly properly. But the care home owners, care nothing for the care workers and the people they care for. So unfortunately, some women when faced with this exploitation, end up learning how to suppress their loving feelings.

The person who privatised care homes was a female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. She was a woman who learned that to be a success in the patriarchal political system. A woman has to learn to suppress their loving feelings and be as ruthless, devious and corrupt as a normal male politician. Which is the exact opposite to what the Great Mother wants for this planet. The idea was that male souls come to this world to learn how to love. But men have subverted this plan so that instead of men learning to love, they have instead ended up teaching women how not to love and even how to hate.

So because patriarchy religions had taken over, the Great Mother wanted a patriarchy religions that taught love and we see this in the many Sacrificial/Saviour God religions. The two of the oldest Sacrificial/Saviour God stories is of the Sumerian God Enki in the story of; The Goddess Inanna’s descent into the netherworld. And the Hindu story of Shiva in the story of the Goddess Kali. The Sumerian story is over 5.000 years old and one of the most ancient text archaeologists have ever discovered. Briefly in this story; Inanna is the Queen of Heaven and She wishes to visit Her sister Ereshkigal the Goddess of Death and ruler of the netherworld. (The Sumerian name for underworld.)

At the beginning of the story; the Goddess Inanna arrives at the gates to the netherworld displaying all the symbols of Her rank and position: A Golden crown, lapis necklace, a double strand of deep blue beads, a jewelled belt around Her waist, gold wrists/arm bands, She was holding a lapis measuring rod and wearing a royal robe. To begin the descent to the netherworld Inanna has to pass through seven gates, surrendering one article, at each gate in a sort of dance of the seven veils. Inanna questions the removal of each article and is told, “Be satisfied Inanna! The ME of the netherworld is being fulfilled. Inanna you must not open your mouth against the sacred customs of the netherworld.”

At the seventh and last gate, Inanna is stripped of her royal robe and is left completely naked. She meets Ereshkigal and she is harshly judged by her sister and found to be ignorant, a mortal and not a supreme being. Inanna is then condemned to die and hung from a meat hook. But the result of this is that on the surface, without the presence of Inanna the Earth is turned into a wasteland. To save the upper world the God Enki goes down to the netherworld and pleas for Inanna’s life. But Ereshkigal drives a hard bargain with him and tells him she is willing to release Inanna, providing Enki takes her place in the netherworld. Enki agrees to this and Inanna is allowed to return to the upper world which is saved when Inanna returns. But Enki is condemned to stay in the netherworld. This then is a story where a god does clearly sacrifices himself to save the world. So he can be seen as a true Sacrificial/Saviour god.

In later versions of this story the status of Inanna is downgraded and she becomes a minor deity while the status of Enki is upgraded. Also, in the retelling of this story, his sacrifice is obscured. This happens to many of these sacrificial gods, the original story is later changed to mean something else. Later on in Babylonian times Inanna is renamed Ishter and she is rescued from the underworld by her lover Tammuz or Dumuzi, So it becomes more of a love story. In one version of the story Ishter finds her own way back to the upper world, only to find Tammuz living a life of luxury and not caring about her death. So she banishes him to live in the underworld. The story kept changing over centuries so that in Roman times it was the Pluto what was the god of the underworld instead of the Goddess Ereshkigal and Inanna was replaced by the Goddess Proserpina.

Enki and Tammuz are also associated with the Greek God Adonis who is another sacrificial/savour God. But by this time the story had changed so much, it becomes similar to Jesus’s story. Adonis was born in a cave in Bethlehem. (Though this Bethlehem probably wasn’t in Israel). His mother was the virgin Myrrha. Although what is different is that Adonis was castrated after mating with the Goddess Aphrodite. Which suggests he was a castrated priest. He died and rose again many times in periodic cycles and was buried and reborn in a cave.

The Ancient Greeks have other version of this story and we have the story of the Goddesses Persephone and Demeter. While the role of Erechlagal is taken over by the God Hades. In this story Hades kidnaps the Goddesses Persephone and takes her back to his underworld home. When her mother the Goddess Demeter finds out about this, in her grief and anger she withhold her blessing from the Earth, causing a famine. To save the Earth, Zeus orders Hades to return Persephone but because she has eaten food while in the underworld, she was bound to spend part of the year with Hades in the underworld. Apparently, this explains the yearly seasons of winter and summer. We can see the similarity with the Goddess Inanna and the Goddess Demeter but the part where the savour god sacrifices himself, is left out of these stories.

We also see a story of sacrifice in the story of Kali. There are different versions of this story and in the later stories the God Shiva is not mentioned at all but he is in an older version of it. In this story the demons (Asuras) take over and rule the Earth. Kali comes to Earth and defeats the demon armies and kills the Demon king. But after this, she get drunk on drinking the blood of the demons and starts killing ordinary men, who are not demons. The Gods fear Kali will destroy the world but are helpless to stop her. So in an attempt to save mankind, the God Shiva come to the Earth and lays on the ground in front of Kali. She walks all over him, and her anger evaporates, when she see him under her feet. By doing this Shiva in effect was totally surrendering himself to Kali, who could have easily killed him. So like the original story of Enki, Shiva is a true Sacrificial/Saviour god. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save the world.

The Egyptian Goddess Sekhmet who is a lioness Goddess, has a similar story to Kali, she also goes on a rampage to destroy the whole of mankind, but the gods stop her by getting her drunk by turning the river Nile into beer. Which she drinks, because she was thirsty killing so many men. So after she gets drunk she goes to sleep and mankind is saved. There is no mention in the Egyptian story of a god sacrificing himself to Sekhmet, but that might have happened in a unknown earlier version of the story.

There are Hindu images of Kali dancing on top Shiva laying on the ground. In other images she is having sex with Shiva with her on top. In some pictures Kali has cut off her own head and holding it in one hand. I haven’t seen an explanation for this; but it might be suggesting that Kali is immortal and can never die. Kali is a terrifying Goddess she wears a necklace of severed head of men as well as a skirt of severed arms. Because of this some Western commentators, refer to Kali as a Hindu Devil. But she wasn’t always seen like that: Barbara G. Walker in the book: The Woman’s Encyclopaedia of Myths and Secrets, gives us another version of her from her devotees who call her: The Mother of the Universe.

As a Mother, Kali was called Treasure-House of Compassion (karuna). Giver of life to the world, live of all lives. Contrary to West’s idea of her as a purely destructive Goddess , was was the font of every kind of love, which only flowed to the world only through her agents on earth, women. Thus is was said a male worshipper of Kali “bows down at the feet of women,” regarding them as his rightful teacher.

It is said in ancient Hindu text that - The worship of Kali is characterized by a fervent self-surrender to the Mother.

The image of Kali is that she is all powerful. But to patriarchal priests the idea that a Goddess can be all powerful and loving, at the same time, is something they didn’t understand. So to express her power they turned her into a extremely fearsome Goddess. Not realising that love unites and this is what makes love so powerful. The Great Mother is all powerful, because she unites the cosmos in unconditional love. So probably in the original story of Shiva sacrificing himself to Kali. He probably didn’t surrender to Kali because she was destroying mankind. But because she is the loving Great Mother.

There are many more Sacrificial/Saviour Gods. All of whom have similar stories. Even Buddha has been label a Sacrificial/Saviour God in some versions of this story. It is claimed like Jesus, he was also born on the 25 of December. He was also baptized in water. He also healed the sick and fed 500 men from a small basket of cakes. While his followers were expected to take vows of poverty. It also has been claimed that Buddhism influenced early Christianity. Buddha didn’t sacrifice himself like Jesus; but he was born a prince then gave it up, to live a life of poverty, so in that way, he was sacrificial.

It is interesting that Gods who sacrifice themselves and taught love were popular, as we see with Christianity which is the largest religion on Earth. But a true Sacrificial/Saviour God that teaches love is the totally opposite to the machismo of patriarchal society. So it is surprising that Christianity was made the state religion of Rome which is an empire created by warfare and violence. So you would expect a empire like Roman to adopt a religion based on a war-god. This suggests that the Great Mother is somehow influencing and guiding men to keep on learning about love.

When the Emperor Constantine wanted a state religion for Rome he has three main contenders; Mithraism; the Egyptian Isis/Osiris religion and Christianity. The strange thing about this, is they were all Sacrificial/Saviour God religions. The Isis/Osiris religion was the most popular religion in Rome with both the people and the military. While the ruling elite preferred Mithraism. The ruling elite didn’t want Isis/Osiris religion because it had a Goddess in it. Mithraism wasn’t popular with the people and so Christianity got in, as the compromise candidate. Because it didn’t have a Goddess in it and was popular with the slaves and the poor.

Another point about Christianity; is that although it’s main god was the meek and mild Jesus who wasn’t a real macho man. But it also did have the Old Testament which had macho heroes like David, Samson and Moses in it, as well as a very macho God. Unfortunately, early Christianity, before Rome took it over, wasn’t like this, because in some Christian sects at that time, rejected the teaching of the Hebrew bible. They claimed the Jewish Jehovah or Yahweh was an evil god whom they called the Demiurge. While Jesus came to Earth to save mankind from this evil god and this is why his teachings is called the New Testament. But off course, the Roman elite far preferred the teachings of the Old Testament, which they promoted more than the New Testament. Unfortunately, the Christian sects who didn’t go along with this, were persecuted and wiped out. It has been claimed, the Emperor Constantine killed more Christians than any other Roman Emperor. As he was extremely ruthless with any Christians, who didn’t agree with his version of Christianity.

It also seems getting rid of the Goddess Isis was also a problem. We know this because many Roman Catholic Churches which are dedicated to the Virgin Mary, have what is called Black Madonnas. The Church tries to explain this away by saying that the faces of the Virgin Mary became black because of candle soot. But in reality, they are painted black. It turns out, the churches that have Black Madonnas, sits on the foundations of the pre-Christian temples of the Goddess Isis. This suggests the early Church had to compromise with people and allow Isis worshippers to worship the Virgin Mary with a black face. Probably because being a Egyptian and a African Goddess, the Goddess Isis was once worshipped in the Roman Empire with a dark complexion.