Category Archives: Religion

The Paradox of Christianity and Occultism

An intriguing use of the chequered pavement!

It’s getting to that time of year again when certain types of Christian pastor pop out of the wood-work and alternatively rail against the supposed pagan and / or satanic origins of Halloween, or more creatively try to put on their own alternate events. Mind you I did find it ironic that one town in Pennsylvania was putting on a series of events apparently without realising there is already a Christian holiday associated with the day (All Saints’ Day) – “Fall Family Fun,” anyone?

I would like to give away one of the “greatest secrets” of occultism at this point. It’s not actually a great secret as far as occultists are concerned, but it is to many Fundamentalist preachers judging from their ravings, and even to some of the fluffier types of pagans. It is this: many occultists are in fact Christians themselves. Not Christopagans, nor even Gnostic Christians, but actual Christians. They tend not to draw attention to themselves, but they are there. These are the sort of people who join organisations like the Martinists, the Elus Cohens, the Fellowship of the Rosy Cross and other Qabalistic organisations which are sympathetic to Jesus Christ.

Reading the Hebrew letters from Fire going anti-clockwise spells “Yeheshuah.”

These are the sort of people who point out that the Pentagram is the symbol of the Pentagrammaton (“Yeheshuah”), the Qabalistic-spelling of Jesus: hence each time one performs the LBRP, one is actually invoking Jesus in the four quarters without realising it!

In fact, given that Neo-Paganism is predominantly a movement dating from the latter half of the twentieth century, the vast majority of the members of the original Golden Dawn and its offshoots were themselves Christian, and sought to incorporate Christian symbology into their Qabalistic practices.

I appreciate this will probably sound like the most outrageous heresy to Fundamentalist Christians. I believe the common attitude amongst such people is typified by the following:

The extent of occult involvement is universal.  Spiritual warfare is all around us, and if Satan cannot keep us from knowing Christ he will try containing us by drawing us into deception.  The Enemy is a deceiver, liar, tempter, and devourer of human souls…..

[…]

Actually, occultists’ practices are a counterfeit of God’s power, and as such they do reveal some amazing things — but these things are not the ultimate truth.  … [A]n increase in demonic activity is to be expected as a sign of the end times.

What is the Occult?

Pity the poor occultist! He or she is trapped in a real dilemma! If one invokes Satan, one is obviously Satanists, and if one invokes God, His Angels, or Jesus, etc – even in all apparent sincerity – one is still invoking Satan because the Father of Lies is pulling the wool over their eyes. One cannot win!

What these Fundamentalist Christians don’t realise – or they conveniently forget – is that Jesus Himself was accused of dabbling in the occult when He was alive! To wit:

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebub,” and, “By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons.”

So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.

“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”— because they said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Mark 3:22 – 30

Replace “Scribes” in this passage with “Fundamentalist preachers” and you basically have the entire plight of the modern occultist who nevertheless professes to be a Christian. Logic would suggest – and Jesus Himself explicitly states here – that one cannot perform something which is objectively good and still be in thrall to the powers of Evil. So to address the quote from “What is the occult?” I would say it is seriously unwise to accuse an occultist of being deceived by Satan, because one might just be blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, i.e. committing the unforgiveable sin.

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The Halloween Conspiracy – An exposé!

Merry Samhain!

There is a sinister Halloween conspiracy afoot. It is a truly insidious attempt to subvert this traditional holiday and turn it into something evil. As far as I am aware, this has never been talked about publicly before, so powerful is the wall of silence surrounding this dastardly scheme. This conspiracy is so disturbing it makes the members of the Warren Commission look like pillars of rectitude, and the extraordinary renditions of British citizens to Libya during Tony Blair’s time in office as UK Prime Minister nothing more than an attempt to send these people on holiday.

However, that is all about to change as I, Alex Sumner, the World’s Greatest Conspiracy Theorist, now blow the gaffe on the great Halloween Conspiracy. What is fundamental to understand is that this particular conspiracy is being perpetrated by an unholy partnership of Christians and secular groups on Wiccan, Pagans, Occultists  – and indeed other Christians.

I shit ye not! This all occurred to me when I was pondering why there has been a move away from traditional Halloween costumes in recent years towards costumes which are not particularly scary at all. Heidi Klum’s effort to look like a dead-body is probably the worthiest Halloween costume that your humble blogmaster has seen this year: it is not only a highly artistic effort, but splendidly enters into the macabre spirit of things. Other costumes however seem to be missing the point of Halloween, with a lot of people under the impression that all that is required is “fancy dress.”

I have said this before, but for the avoidance of doubt I will say it again: a costume is only an authentic Halloween costume if it amounts to a disguise – i.e. so that if an evil spirit came along, it would not recognise you. This is how the tradition of wearing costumes Halloween derives from the pagan celebration of Samhain.

That’s when it hit me: the move from traditional scary costumes to non-traditional fancy dress is a deliberate ploy to take the “Samhain” out of “Halloween” ! Now a lot of Christian Fundamentalists simply come out and say: “Don’t celebrate Halloween, because it’s Satanic,” and all they achieve is they manage to publicise the pagan festival which is its origin. However: the Halloween Conspiracy seeks to spread the idea that Halloween is not about scary costumes but about fancy dress – and hence subtly sever the associations to Samhain. It is in fact the Pagan equivalent of All Souls’ Day, the day of honouring ones deceased relatives. I believe the ancient Church recognised this and deliberately chose to mark All Souls’ Day as close to Samhain as possible (November 2nd) for this very reason.

By severing the connection between Halloween and Samhain, it plays partly into Christian hands who find a secular fancy dress holiday more palatable than one associated with wrongly-so-called Satanic imagery. However, far more pernicious is the fact that it also plays into the hands of secular-politically-correct-atheistic-liberal-consensus that is uncomfortable with any mention of spirituality whatsoever.

Hence: what Christians and Pagans should be doing is, instead of fighting each other, join forces to combat the growing rise of secularism. This can only be done by Christians embracing the scary imagery, and by pagans realising that Christians are not necessarily the enemy but potential allies in the cause of Keeping Samhain Spiritual.

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Alex explains The Rapture

The Rapture. You're Doing It Wrong.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord for ever.

1 Thessalonians 4:17

Meet me Jesus, meet me,
Meet me in the middle of the air,
If my wings should fail me Lord
Please meet me with another pair.

Led Zeppelin, In My Time Of Dying.

Following on from my post about the coming Apocalypse, I thought I would share my thoughts on the Initiated view of the so-called Rapture. The popular notion is that on a certain day, the Lord will call His Own to Himself, which will result in them ascending physically into the sky. This will entail great joy for the Virtuous; great lamentation for the not-quite-so-Virtuous; great consternation for those of the Virtuous who were stuck indoors on the day it happens; and widespread looting and partying for everyone else.

Let’s ignore for one moment the fact that the idea of the Rapture is (a) preposterous and (b) inconsistent with other eschatological passages in the New Testament in both the Gospels and  the Book of Revelation. The whole idea about the Rapture is based on the passage from 1 Thessalonians quoted above: the operative word in the verse is “air.” In Greek this would have been Aera i.e. the air of the atmosphere or sky, as opposed to Pneuma or breath. In Hebrew however, this is Shamayim.

Shamayim, spelled with final (top) and medial versions of Mem.

Correctly spelled, this enumerates in Gematria to 1090 – which reduces by Theosophic Reduction (aka Aiq Beker) to 10, the number of Malkuth. Furthermore, the technically-incorrect spelling using the medial Mem instead of the final, which enumerates to 430 – the same as Nephesh.

This casts the situation in a far different light altogether. “Nephesh” is the vital or animal-soul of a person: the word is used in the Old Testament as a synonym for a “living being.” It may also be thought of as bearing the same relation to the Ruach as the Sub-conscious mind does to the Conscious mind. In the Qabalah the Nephesh is associated with Malkuth.

Thus by analysing it Qabalistically, it starts to look pretty much that far from meeting the Lord somewhere above the troposphere, He will manifest down here in the midst of our life in Malkuth within our very own being. After all, Jesus did say (He was quoting Psalm 37 when he did so) that it would be the Meek who inherit the Earth, not the unvirtuous.

NB: This interpretation may sound far-fetched but it is far more reasonable than some of the explanations put about by those who believe in a literal Rapture.

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Site Update: March 31st 2011

A preview of the artwork for my forthcoming book, Licence To Depart, can now be glimpsed at my website.

Also, as it appears to be Satanism week over at the Daily Telegraph, I thought that Journalists might be after a pundit to talk knowledgeably about the dangers of Exorcism *cough* I mean Demonic Possession. With this in mind I have re-vamped the Press page.

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Prostitutes are welcome in the Catholic Church

 

Darth Sidious aka the Pope

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI has said that condoms are permissible in a certain number of cases, e.g. if one is a Prostitute. And just to clarify the point, he means male, female AND transgendered ones.

Presumably then, this also means that Prostitutes’ Clients are also allowed to use them as well, otherwise it would be an empty gesture! Perhaps this means that Catholics are now allowed to employ sex-workers???

I can see where this is going. The Church is probably now going to say that a Priest is not guilty of Paedophilia if it can be proved he took money off the victim!

Seriously though, I do not particularly fancy having to become a Gigolo just so that I can be in communion with the Catholic Church and use a condom at the same time. The fact of the matter is that Pope Benedict XVI has made a major blunder by not allowing the use of condoms to a category of people who are far and away more deserving of them than prostitutes – with all due respect.

I refer, of course, to ordinary married people – or even just ordinary people who were hoping to get married one day – who have become infected with HIV through no fault of their own. When you consider that in parts of Africa this amounts to 30% of the local population, this is actually a very large number indeed.

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The Fool hath said in his heart, “There is no God.”

News today that Stephen Hawking has said God was not necessary for the Universe to be created. Actually it’s not news at all, he’s been saying this for a long time, it’s just that he’s got a book to promote. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

People like Hawking, Dawkins etc always fall into the same trap, no matter which side of the debate they are on, i.e. they assume that if God exists at all, then (a) He created the Universe; and (b) it must be the Judaeo-Christian-Islam model of God. Hence if there is no evidence that the Universe was created by anyone, they assume that God does not exist.

However,if one rejects the Judaeo-Christian-Islam model of God and substitute that of most Pagan religions, one finds that Hawking et al have nothing to say, because one realises that the existence of God does not depend upon Him / Her having created the Universe.

Most forms of Paganism, no matter how disparate, tend to follow the line that the current patron God(dess) of mankind is not the creator of the Universe at all, which was instead created by a more ancient or primordial force. For example: Zeus is the ruler of the Olympus not because he created the Universe but because he took over the role. Odin is the All-Father, not because He created the worlds, but because he is the mightiest of the Aesir.

Thus if Hawking etc were to say to a pagan, there is no evidence that God created the universe – therefore God does not exist – the pagan would send him away with laughter ringing in his ears.

In any case, we should remember that the “Supreme Creator” is only one aspect of Divinity. Another aspect, and one which is probably far more important to most people in their daily lives, is “Supreme Moral Authority,” given that most people are concerned with God’s existence to give meaning to their lives. Prove that there is a Supreme Moral Authority in the Universe and you have proved the existence of God in a far more meaningful and relevant way than any argument based on creationism. In fact – prove that Morality exists in objective terms, and Creationism can go hang altogether!

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Women Priests Mentioned In The New Testament

The Ordination of Women is mentioned in the New Testament! The actual canonical New Testament, I mean – not some obscure gnostic gospel of dubious provenance. I present here a slightly more sober follow-up to my post XX Priests.

Basically my theory is this: Ordination is a Sacrament, and involves an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If therefore one can find references in Holy Writ that God sent the Holy Spirit upon a woman, and that woman then took on a Priest-like role, then theologically that is evidence that that woman was effectively Ordained.

Such references do exist in the New Testament, to wit:

Mary, the Mother of Jesus

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,” the angel answered “and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow.”

Luke 1:35

Mary was the original tabernacle – because she bore Jesus. Mary was also the original altar, because she offered her son to the world. This was a well known theme Christian art, e.g. the Pieta:

La Pieta di Michaelangelo

Elizabeth, Mother of John the Baptist

Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:41

Miscellaneous

A number of other women may be presumed, including Mary Magdalene and others both named and unnamed: e.g.

With Him [i.e. Jesus] went the Twelve, as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna the wife of Herod’s steward Chuz, Susanna, and several others who provided for them out of their own resources.

Luke 8: 1-3

All of these [i.e. the Apostles] joined in continuous prayer, together with several women, including Mary the mother of Jesus …

Acts 1:14

When Pentecost day came round, they had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the enite house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…

Acts 2:1-4

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XX Priests

So the Catholic Church refuses to ordain women, eh? The reason they give being that Jesus only chose men disciples? Well Mr Benedict XVI, let me drop some science for you! The Apostles were consecrated by the Holy Spirit – which came down at Pentecost. On that fateful day in the Upper Room, the occupants did not just number the Apostles, but the women-folk as well. Hence – the women received the Holy Spirit along with the Apostles! This makes them just as much entitled to be priests – nay, bishops even – as men.

See, you don’t have to appeal to modern revisionist feminist thinking to show that the refusal to ordain women priests is wrong: Scripture itself says so!

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Have Yourselves an Esoteric Christmas

Christ’s birthday is celebrated by Christians on December 25th, but is widely believed by theologians that this is a purely nominal date – Jesus was probably born at some other time in the year (assuming He existed in the first place). Why then has December 25th been picked for the date of Christmas?

One rather superficial answer which has been bandied about so much it has become a cliché is that it is apparently the same day as when the Persian god Mithras was born. This a lot of neo-pagans trot out, smugly thinking that Christianity is just an agglomeration of other religions’ feast days.

Guys! There is just as much proof that Mithras was born on December 25th as Jesus was! I.e. none whatsoever. The priests of the Mithraic religion chose December 25th for much the same reasons as Christians later did for Jesus – not because it was his actual birthday, but because the date itself has symbolic significance.

We are getting closer to the truth when we note that Yule – the Winter Solstice – occurs two to three days before Christmas. So why is not Christmas celebrated actually on the Solstice itself? In ancient times people did not have calculators, or telescopes, or accurate time-pieces. They were not able to work out the precise moment the Sun turns north again, and they had to rely on the evidence of their five senses. The reason December 25th was chosen arbitrarily is that it is the first day after the Winter Solstice when the increase in the amount of daylight can be noticed. Thus it was quite natural for ancient people of all religions to hold Solstitial celebrations on the 25th rather than the technical Solstice a few days beforehand.

The question then arises: why did Christians choose the feast of the Winter Solstice as Christ’s birthday, as opposed to, say, one of the other Pagan feast-days? The answer is that it can be explained astrologically. When the date for Christmas was set, it was well known that human gestation lasted 9 months. Therefore, the question asked was not “When would Christ have been born?” but “When would He have been conceived?”

Counting back from Christmas Day, we get to March 25th or thereabouts – which is known in the Christian Church as “Lady Day” or the Feast of the Annunciation. Obviously it is the approximate date of the Vernal Equinox (March 23rd), and, dare I say it, would actually have been the date that ancient peoples would have celebrated the Equinox, for much the same reasons that the Winter Solstice would have been celebrated on December 25th – i.e. “Lady Day” would be the first day on which the length of the day was noticeably longer than the night-time.

“Lady Day” (or the Vernal Equinox) being the day when Christ was conceived is significant because it is when the Sun enters Aries – a very appropriate zodiacal sign, as it brings to mind Jesus’ associations with “the Lamb of God”.

But more than this, Aries is the sign of Cardinal Fire. Now as Qabalists know, Fire is represented in the Hebrew alphabet by Shin, which shares the same gematria as “Ruach Elohim”, the “spirit of God” – or Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that the letter Shin is commonly used to represent the idea of Spirit in certain qabalistic words and phrases: e.g. YHVH (God) + Sh (Holy Spirit) = YHShVH (Yeheshuah i.e.
Jesus).

Now again, some commentators mistakenly confuse the Vernal Equinox with Easter, thinking that because they occur so close to one another they must be the same. However, this is not the case. Easter is specifically not the feast of the Equinox – it marks the first Full Moon after the Equinox. There is a bloody good reason why the Luna influence is important. Easter would have been the symbolic date that Mary first realised she really was pregnant. So once again, we have people celebrating events not on the technical day on which they are calculated to have occurred, but on the first occasion thereafter when it was possible to ascertain by non-technical means.

Therefore, the date of Christ’s conception was determined fit in with the Equinox (or Easter) because:
• Easter is the Christian celebration of the Dying God being reborn (like the Sun), and is thus a celebration of new life being brought to the Earth;
• The Sun entering Aries signifies the rousing to action of the Holy Spirit / Ruach Elohim, through its associations with Fire. Moreover, because this happens contemporaneously with Easter, the implication is that it is the Holy Spirit which is responsible for the new life in spring time;
• Hence it is appropriate that Mary the Mother of God, via the Holy Spirit, should conceive at the time of the Vernal Equinox, which itself is associated therewith: the idea of the ecclesiast being that the Holy Spirit creates new life in the Earth, and in Mary herself.

Or to put it another way, Jesus’ conception was figured as taking place around the same time of year as, many years later, He would die and be reborn. So not only is it inevitable that Jesus should be thought of as being born on December 25th, but also that the time of His death and resurrection is thought of occurring roundabout Easter time.

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