The above drawing is called “Weep” and is a popular symbolic picture. At first glance this pictures can look very sinister. We have a weeping woman with the Angel of death behind her playing with her hair. Does it suggest that the Grim Reaper, as he is also known, wants to have some sport with her before he kills her? One explanation I have read from a Mason is that the Virgin as she is called is weeping over the death of Hiram Abif. The open book represents the memory of his death. The plant in her hand represents the sprig of cassia grew from the place he was buried and this was how his body was discovered. The urn represents his ashes. While the figure of the Angel of death or Saturn represents Time because with patience and perseverance everything we be accomplished.If we accept there is a hidden Goddess in Freemasonry we come up with a different interpretation. The pillar is a phallic symbol; the fact that it is broken suggests that masculine power has been destroyed. And although the woman in the picture is crying it does suggest that it was she who pushed over and broke this pillar, because it is broken at the height of her hands. So it seems to be about women destroying the power of men. She has in her hand a book, an olive branch and an urn. The book suggests knowledge; the olive branch suggests peace and reconciliation while the urn suggests death, as it is were the ashes of dead people are put. But the urn, cup or grail are also Feminine symbols. Death is also represented in the figure standing behind the women who is the Grim Reaper or the Angel of Death. This is symbolised by his scythe and hourglass. Yet again the hourglass is a Feminine symbol as it is women who have hourglass figures. He seems to consoling the crying woman and doing her hair. Which is a strange thing for a Grim Reaper to do.
This book is probably is a symbol of modern times. In the past education was denied to women but in the 20th century women have been given the same rights as women for education. In our society knowledge is power so because women are better educated they have obtained greater power in society. Women are different then men in that they are less competitive and aggressive. So this is shown in the symbol of the olive branch. Because women are less aggressive it is easier for them to work together for the good of the whole. So these are the two great powers of women that can destroy the power of men. The urn is a symbol of death and this is how men have ruled society. Where rulers rule through violence or threats of violence. So the power to kill others has been the method of governments to keep the people in order and to protect themselves from other governments who wish to invade them. So the fact she now has death in her hands suggest that power has been passed to her.
Though the urn can represent other things like the death of patriarchy or the death of men’s egos. Which is needed for a new Golden Age to come into being.
The Grim Reaper would also be a good representative of the power of men. Because men are so aggressive towards others they fight each other in wars with better and better weapons. Today these weapons have become so destructive that they are able to destroy the whole of civilisation. So to have the Grim Reaper doing the hair of the woman suggests he is in some way serving her. So the whole image is about women destroying the power of men to the degree he is under her total control.
So why is she weeping? Probably she is weeping because of the destruction and suffering man has inflicted on this planet. Though it could have another explanation, women can weep for happiness as well as sadness. Having destroyed the masculine power she is now in the position to create a more feminine and harmonious world.
So how is she to do this? The answer could be in the New Testament as the teachings of Jesus Christ are full of Goddess teachings.
The submissive male who will allow Women to rule his life seems to be a increasing modern phenomenon in the West. Up until recently any man who showed any submissive qualities to women have been despised and treated with contempt. Which is strange because if we look at the teachings of Jesus Christ whom supposed to be the founder of Christianity, he teaches men to be submissive and even masochist. To quote the King James Bible.
Matthew chapter 5 verse 38
Ye have heard that it hath been said. And eye for a eye a tooth for a tooth:
But I say unto you. That ye resist not evil: but whosoever the smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee and not turn not thou away.
Ye have heard that it hath been said. Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.
But I say unto you. Love your enemies, bless them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you:
That ye many be the children of your Father which is in heaven: 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.
In Luke chapter 6 verse 27
But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.
Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully use you.
And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take away thy coat also.
Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again
And as ye would that man should do to you, do also to them likewise
For if ye love them which love you, what thanks have ye for sinners also, love those that love them.
And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? For sinners also do even the same.
And if ye lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what thank ye? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive much gain.
But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the highest: For he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father is merciful.
Judge not and ye shall not be judged: condemn not and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.
Yet his masochist teaching didn’t stop here. In the Bible it states that Jesus knew that Judas was about to betray him, yet he didn’t do anything about this and seem to encourage Judas to carry out this act. He made no attempt to hide from or resist the soldiers that came to apprehend him, and when arrested he then made no defence against his accusers. Even when the Roman Governor Pilate made attempt to get him off he still wouldn’t co-operate. So it means he voluntarily allowed himself to be betrayed, condemned, tortured, whipped and crucified. Which has to be seen as extreme masochist behaviour
Yet the story of Jesus is not original or unique because many other pagan gods like Osiris, Orpheus, Dionysus, Bacchus, Mithras, and Pan also had similar histories.
The story of a god-man who was capable of miracles and able to heal the sick, who then was condemned to death and crucified, and then returned again from the dead. Was commonplace in pagan times. These gods died on trees or stakes but some like Dionysus and Jesus died on crosses. Most of these stories come from Mystery Plays but unfortunately most knowledge of these religions were destroyed by Christians and Moslems so a lot of this knowledge has been lost. Except in the New Testament.
Christians claimed that Jesus in the Bible sacrificed himself to the Father God for the sin of mankind. Christians interpret this that God was angry with mankind and Jesus sacrificed himself to appease the anger of his father. In other sacrificial gods stories, the saviour god accepts all the sins of mankind and he is then abused, punished and put to death. So he becomes the scapegoat for the sins of the world.
Now in all Mystery religions there is an outer and inner mystery. What we read about in religions are the outer mysteries, which many people seem to be satisfied with. Though there are people to whom the outer mysteries do not make sense, and search for the inner mysteries.
In the earlier Mystery plays the saviour god sacrifices himself to The Great Mother. For instance in the Nordic myths the gods Loki, Odin, and Bader, they all sacrifice themselves to the Goddess Fredia. In the original version of the Isis Osiris story Isis swallows Osris whole and then later he is re-born from her. While even in the Jesus story, his crucifixion is witnessed by the three Marys. Who probably represented in earlier time the Triple Goddesses. We even find the concept of sacrifice in Buddhism. Siddhartha Gautama was born a prince and lived a life of luxury and privilege up until the age of 30. Then he gave all this up to live a life of a beggar and live among the people.
The theme in all these stories that the God-man has to sacrifice himself to save the whole of humankind. So from this we have to ask the question, how can the voluntary sacrifice of the god-man to God or the Great Mother save us all?
The oldest story of a sacrificing deity is the ancient Sumerian story of Inanna, which is about five thousand years old at the beginning of the patriarchal age, and this story seems to predict what will happen when patriarchy takes over, and its later downfall.
In this story, Inanna is the Queen of Heaven, who wishes to visit her sister Ereshkigal the Goddess of the underworld or Netherworld. It is a long story and there are many different versions of it that seem to have changed over time, probably to fit in with the changing social attitudes. So in this retelling this story I will try to go back to the original version.
Inanna arrives at the gates to the underworld 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 underworld Goddess one must pass through seven gates, surrendering one article at each gate. So in effect it becomes the original dance of the seven veils. In some versions Inanna questions and protests at 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".
The ME probably relates to what is called today, the ego. As Inanna is the Queen of Heaven she would of course have a very large ego, so in one sense the removing of each article is the surrendering of her ego.
At the first gate, Inanna is stripped of her crown. The patriarchal Hittites invaded and conquered Sumer. So the Queens and High Priestesses who ruled before were stripped of their positions. Inanna was renamed Inaras and became the virgin bride of the sacred king, so she was no longer the supreme ruler but was the consort of a King. This means the taking away of Inanna's crown symbolised overthrowing of the matriarchal rulers.
At the second gate, the lapis necklace is taken from Inanna. The necklace goes around the neck and within the neck is the voice box. This symbolises the ability of Inanna to express herself, although the Hittite patriarchal rulers, had political power the people they ruled were still matriarchal in their attitudes and ways of living. In more recent times when a despotic dictator takes power in a country the first thing he does is to curb free speech. So likewise the women who previously held power in the matriarchal societies, were probably silenced under the threat of death, from criticising the new patriarchal rulers.
At the third gate, Inanna is stripped of her double strands of blue beads that hung between her breasts. The breast for a woman represents her ability to nourish others, with her milk, so it symbolises a women's ability to love others. When the patriarchal rulers first took control, the women at first must have felt very angry about losing their status and power. Then slowly they must have had "a change of heart", and they began to co-operate and even love these patriarchal men from the North.
As Inanna passed the fourth gate, she is stripped of her jewelled belt around her waist. As it is a jewelled belt it would represent wealth. In matriarchal societies all possessions came down the female line, so in this way all the wealth of society would be in the hand of women, giving them great power. The patriarchs wanted all inheritance to come down the male line but as in ancient societies a woman was free to have sex with any man she chooses so there was no way for a man to know who his children were. To overcome this the male rulers and priests introduced the concept of marriage where a woman had to be faithful to one man. So a husband would know that the children his wife produces were his, and allowing inheritance to come down the male line, and putting the wealth of the society into the hands of men. This is why marriage was originally only imposed on the upper classes. It took a long time before the custom of marriage filtered down the common people because inheritance wasn’t such a big issue, as they had very little to pass on to their children.
At the fifth gate Inanna's gold wrist/arm band is removed. The hands and arms symbolise our ability to act and make things happen. So for a long time women were still farmers, builders, traders and even warriors, and were still capable of creating wealth and power for themselves. Slowly these jobs were taken away from women and put into the hands of men. Women also did learn how to hit back at patriarchy by becoming Amazons and so used weapons, but in the end even these women were defeated and the only role left for women in society was that of wife, servant or prostitute.
At the sixth gate, the lapis-measuring rod is removed from Inanna's hand. A person using a measuring rod has to be educated to know how to use it. In patriarchal times, women were discouraged from being educated because education can give a person power and status in a society. All knowledge and wisdom was removed from women, so they would have to depend on men for this.
At the seventh and last gate, Inanna is stripped of her royal robe and is left completely naked. Even though power and status was taken away from women, traditional customs and beliefs probably still gave women respect and status in society. Even as late as the Middles-ages women still were held in high regard as healers and seers. To counter this, patriarchal religions began to put out propaganda like that women had no souls, or they were evil and the cause of all men's suffering. When this didn't work they went further and started to condemn women healers and seers as Witches whom were in league with the Devil. They then started the infamous Witch-hunt where millions of women were tortured and murdered. So through fear they undermined the respect men had for women, and the respect women had for themselves as they began to believe what the patriarchal priests told them. So now women had nothing left, all respect, power, status and wealth had been taken away she was left naked and defenceless.
After descending the seven gates, Inanna is judged by Ereshkigal and found to be ignorant, a mortal and not a supreme being, and with a mind full of her own self.
In the patriarchal age women were considered to be stupid, and not having access to any form of education, were also ignorant. A supreme male God and male priests replaced all Goddesses and priestesses. Also women were expected to devote her whole life to looking after her children and husband, and were condemned for being selfish if they in any way thought about their own needs. Even today this is still true, as many still women fear being thought selfish.
Inanna is then condemned to die hung from a meat hook, but in other versions she is place in a coffin. While on the surface, without the presence of Inanna the Earth is turned into a wasteland.
Now there are many different versions of the Inanna story and many different interpretations of it, like the Damazi/Inanna story or the Tammuz/Ishter story. In later versions, it is a God who rules the Underworld, and still later it is the Goddess who comes to collect her daughter who was abducted by the Underworld God, as in the story of Demeter and Persephone. In these later versions the story is seen as the reason why in Northern climates everything dies in winter and comes back to life in summer. Because in this story Persephone is married to Hades the God of the Underworld and has to return to him once every year during the wintertime, so like Inanna when Persephone has to returns to the underworld everything above ground dies.
In the original Inanna story, she simply dies and is reborn. The period of the wasteland is repeated in many ancient myths including the original stories of King Arthur. The wasteland is about the patriarchal society.
The matriarchal religions respected all life and nature and were referred to as "nature cults" by the later patriarchal scholars because they worshipped trees and animals. When the patriarchal religions took control the patriarchs no longer respected life and nature. Trees were cut down, causing soil erosion in places like Ancient Greece and throughout the Middle East where fertile land was turned into desert. Archaeologists have found that in Biblical times Israel was a fertile country with extensive forests, but now many of the trees that grew there are extinct in that part of the world. Patriarchy never quite understood that by destroying nature, man was causing his own downfall. The hard lessons learnt about soil erosion in Europe and the middle east were lost when Europeans went to America and Australia, and millions of acres of land were depleted before this lesson was learnt again. On Easter Island the natives cut down all the trees on the island. Destroying for themselves an important food source as with coconut trees, and their ability to build wooden houses and boats for fishing. Even today men still over-fish and pollute the oceans and use intensive farming methods that deplete the soil and destroy wildlife.
With the help of Enki, a water and wisdom God and a son of the Goddess, Inanna gains her release from the Great Below and is allowed to ascend through the seven gates. In other versions it is Inanna's lover Tammuz who helps her, and he voluntarily, takes her place in the Netherworld.
To have a God that brings about Inanna's release is very interesting. Men themselves have undermined patriarchy in the last four hundred years. Patriarchal religions not only suppressed women but also other men. The peasants, like women were kept ignorant and denied education, as it makes it easier for the rulers to control them. At the same time patriarchal religions, suppressed science, and prevented the increase of knowledge as much as possible.
When the Protestant sects broke away from the main Roman Catholic religion in Europe, they couldn't see any good reason why science should continue to be suppressed. Though they were to find out hundreds of years later when science took over from religion as the major font of wisdom in the Western world. As scientific thought took control, the men of science couldn't see why the common people should be denied education, and ideas that all men should be equal began to flower. As the common people became better educated they began to demand more rights, women too began to be better educated and complain about the shackles that patriarchal religion and customs imposed on them. With many men now in power that were no longer influenced by patriarchal religions, the demands by Feminists were seen to be reasonable and over time these demands were granted to them. So if Enki the wisdom God is science it was scientific thought that released Inanna from her bondage to patriarchal religion. While to have her lover Tammuz take her place symbolises the fact that many men will voluntary submit themselves to women when the matriarchal age comes into being. Some scholars have claimed that Tammaz was the original Jesus Christ.
At the seventh gate, Inanna is given back her royal robe. Although for a time science continued the patriarchal religion's denigration of women as in the last century claiming that women had smaller brains than men or were too emotional to make sensible decisions. Yet science didn't go as far as patriarchal religions and claim women were evil because to scientific men it was clear women were not in any way evil. So women gained more and more respect in society and the royal robe is a symbol of this respect.
At the sixth gate, Inanna is given back her measuring rod. The men of science couldn't see any good reason why women should not be denied education and even in the nineteenth century women began to take on professional jobs like doctors, journalists and scientists. Jobs up until then only men were allowed to do, so the measuring rod was a symbol of women's growing educational qualifications in society.
At the fifth gate, Inanna is given back her golden wrist/arm band. At the beginning of this century higher education was given only to a small majority of women, but other women began to follow their lead. During the first and second world wars, women began to work in factories and on farms doing jobs men normally done and showing they were more than capable of doing them. Although Feminists have complained that after both these wars the returning male troops took over these jobs once again and women went back to being housewives again. But it showed what is possible for women and since then more women have depended upon themselves to earn a living and not on men. To the degree there are men today who stay a home to look after the house and children while the women go to work. So the wrist/arm band symbolises women's ability now to take charge of her own life to earn her own money and not to have to rely on a man.
At the Fourth gate, her jewelled belt is returned. Women are not only now able to earn their own living but some are becoming wealthy. At one time the only way a woman could become rich was to inherit money, to be a widow of a rich man or become a successful actress or courtesan. Now successful businesswomen are becoming millionaires, while other women are taking the top-jobs in many professions. Feminists complain about the "glass-ceiling" that prevent women from getting the top-jobs in society, but slowly the glass ceiling is collapsing. So the Jewelled belt symbolises the wealth women are gaining in society.
At the Third gate, the double strands of deep blue beads are returned to Inanna. In the patriarchal age it wasn't only patriarchal religion that kept women in bondage, it was also the fact that she loved patriarchal men more than she loved herself. Now as we are moving towards a new matriarchal age women are learning more and more how to love themselves. So the beads that hung between her breasts and over her heart, symbolise women changing the way they love. This is seen clearly in the breakdown of marriage in recent times. Women are now demanding more from men and will rather break up the relationship than accept any abuse from men.
At the Second gate, Inanna's lapis necklace is returned to her. Since the 1960s Feminists have become very vocal about demanding their rights. Although Feminism has received setbacks along the way like the back-lash during the 1980s, Feminists haven’t given up and are still criticising the patriarchal society.
At the first gate Inanna receives back her crown. This is the symbol that women have now taken back control of society. The Earth now begins to flower again, as women once again respect life on earth in all its forms. Already now we see in the Green party, Greenpeace and other environment organisations the concern about what damage patriarchy is doing to our world. As women become more in control this concern will grow until genuine practical steps will be taken to correct these problems. In the Inanna story it was claimed that the Earth was turned into a wasteland while Inanna was stayed underground with her sister Ereshkigal. So women's first job when that take back control will be to heal the earth of the damage that was done during the patriarchal age.
Some scholars have made the controversial claim that the story of Inanna's decent into the underworld is the prototype story for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This causes a problem, as many Christians believe the stories in the Bible to be historical facts. The problem with that belief is that scholars are very aware that all the Bible stories over hundreds of years have been changed, embellished and censored. These stories might have originally come from real events, but were soon changed and merged with other stories and myths, so it is hard to know how much of the original event is left in the story.
All religions from an early time have been contaminated by politics, and it is unfortunate that it is the politically minded priests who have gained most power and have ruled religions. While priests with genuine beliefs in their religion have always played the subordinate role. So it would be the politically motivated priests who would order changes in the texts and doctrine of a religion for political reasons, but it would probably be the more genuine believers who carried out this task. It is known that the patriarchal religions carried out a wholesale destruction of ancient knowledge for political reasons. But the priests given the task of censoring this knowledge from religious text probably didn't agree with the task they were given. The result of this has been in recent years that many people have realised that there are hidden messages within many religious writings. But the priests given the task of rewriting scriptures, tried to pass on the truth of the situation in coded form, to inform people in the future of the teachings of the Ancient Goddess religions.
In many ancient myths there are stories of matriarchal times where the Queen or High Priestess would marry a young man who would jointly rule with her for one year as King. Then when this year was up he would be sacrificed and the Queen or High Priestess would marry another young man and the cycle would continue. Whether these stories are about real events and customs, or is a "mystery" story that is about the cycle of matriarchal and patriarchal ages, is a matter of opinion. But again some scholars to claim or hint that from these stories that the story of the crucifixion of Jesus originates. Which suggests that Jesus and his life story was a work of fiction.
So if the story of Inanna is about the downfall of women at the beginning of the matriarchal age and her rise at the end of the patriarchal age. Could then the story of Jesus's crucifixion be the story of man's downfall at the end of the patriarchal age?
The story starts off in triumph, with Jesus mounted on a colt or ass riding through the streets of Jerusalem, where crowds welcome him and proclaim him King. So we can take this to mean he is a fully patriarchal man at the height of his power and ego growth.
Yet his triumph doesn't last long, he prophesies that Jerusalem will be completely destroyed, perhaps symbolising the collapse of patriarchy. Then he goes to the Temple and condemns the priests there for turning a house of prayer into a den of thieves. Which would be a good description of patriarchal religion, which became extremely wealthy and powerful during the patriarchal age. Jesus then begins to give more prophesies to quote, - "Countries will fight each other; kingdoms will attack one another. There will be terrible earthquakes, famines, and plagues every-where; there will be strange and terrifying things coming from the sky." Which sounds like a very good description of the patriarchal age, the mention of "strange and terrifying things coming from the sky" sounds interesting it could be about bomber aircraft that destroyed whole cities in the Second World War, and the nuclear attack on Japan.
Then Jesus and his disciples sat down for the Passover meal, during this meal Jesus washed the feet of all his disciples, a job normally done by servants, slaves or women. He also made the point that he was the one who serves his disciples. Why he did and say these things is not made very clear, but again it could be a practical prophesy of man's downfall, demonstrating that all men need to learn humility. Jesus then goes through a ritual, with the bread and wine saying that, this is his body and blood, which again symbolises a form of sacrifice. Echoing the ancient stories of the King that is sacrificed at the end of each year to the Goddess. In some of these tales the King is not only sacrificed but eaten in a cannibal feast. This was the fate of Dionysus who was torn apart by women and then eaten before he came back to life again. It also similar to the story of Isis swallowing Osiris or the male Set whole, before he is born again from her.
So this would be symbolised by breaking and eating of the bread which Jesus calls "my body". The drinking of wine, which symbolises the blood of Jesus Christ, is more interesting. In ancient Goddess religions menstrual blood was held to be sacred. While in many later patriarchal religion menstrual blood was held to be taboo and unclean. So the blood coming from Jesus would suggest that Jesus was a woman and there are some authors who have claimed this. Though more likely it means that Jesus was going through an ancient Goddess ritual. To symbolise a cup with wine in it and call it blood is a clear Goddess symbol with the cup being the vagina and the wine being menstrual blood. Later on this symbol was turn into the Holy Grail.
Judas decides to betray Jesus to his enemies, and in this meal Jesus seems to be fully aware of this betrayal, and seems to encourage Judas do it. As pointed out previously men themselves started the beginning of the downfall of patriarchy. As they turned their backs on patriarchal religions, allowing greater freedom and education not only to the common people but to women as well. So we seem to see Judas and Jesus colluding together to bring about their own downfall. This is underlined by Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss, symbolising a companionship between them.
Judas then goes on to hang himself, so like Jesus he sacrifices himself. So both Jesus and Judas symbolises men who not only betray patriarchy by quietly helping women to gain power and status in society, but who also willingly sacrifice themselves to women.
When taken capture, Jesus makes no resistance, and when condemned and judged by his enemies he makes no attempt to defend himself, in much the same way Inanna makes not attempt to defend herself against the judgement made by Ereshkigal. In recent years Feminists have attacked both patriarchy and men in general and although some men have resented this, on the whole men have made little attempt to in any way defend themselves and have preferred to remain quiet.
Jesus' enemies took him before Pilate and condemned him, but Pilate wasn't interested. They continued to insist on having him executed and Pilate decided to pass the buck and sent Jesus to King Herod to be tried. It seems that Herod was also sympathetic to Jesus but again Jesus made no attempt to help himself and refused to answer Herod's questions. In the end Herod mocked Jesus and treated him with contempt, put a fine robe on him and sent him back to Pilate.
Now in many ways this reflects the attitude of men today. Religious fundamentalists and extreme right-wing politicians have tried to put the clock back to the "good old days", of extreme patriarchy. Their anger is not only directed at women but other men who seem to be letting the side down. As patriarchal religions and very right-wing politics no longer hold the power in the land they once had, they have to appeal to those who do have the power, symbolised by Pilate and Herod. As a result politicians today will get up and talk about going back to "strong family values". But being politicians they only say this because they think it might gain them votes or get people who are pressurising them off their backs. Knowing full well that there is nothing they can really do to reverse the continuous decline in patriarchy.
So Jesus seems to be representing the passive man of today who is allowing women to gain more and more power and status within society. The media of today like Herod mock and treat the "new man" with contempt, but even here there is a division of opinion. Feminism is now very strong within the media as well so the "new-man" also does get some support, probably symbolised by the fine robe Herod gives Jesus.
When Jesus is sent back to Pilate, and he still insists that Jesus has done nothing wrong, but bowing to pressure decides to have Jesus whipped to satisfy an angry crowd that Jesus' enemies brought together to condemn him.
The whipping fails to satisfy the blood lust of the crowd and Pilate tries to get Jesus free on a Passover pardon for criminals. But the crowd demand that a prisoner who had been put into jail for riot and murder be set free instead. This very much symbolises the attitude of many people who have far greater regard for patriarchal criminals than the "new man". We can see this on TV and films where violent men and even serial killers are glamorised and made into heroes in films. Probably the producers of these violent films hope that it will make young men more macho, who will in turn put women "in their place".
Pilate in the end caves into pressure to have Jesus crucified, and "washes his hands of him". Like Inanna, Jesus is stripped of all his clothing, and then the Roman soldiers mock him by putting a crown of thorns on his head. Already men in this century have began to condemn themselves, talking about "man's inhumanity to man". In the past men would put the blame of the problems for the world onto other men. Like Hitler who blamed the Jews, or the rich who blame the poor or the poor who blame the rich etc. But blaming just one group is now becoming more and more unacceptable and it is being realised that all men are the cause of the world's problems. So the crown of thorns is the realisation by men that when they ruled the world they caused great suffering not only to themselves but to all of life. The crown represents the power men had to rule the world and the thorns are the suffering it caused, to whole of humankind as well as the planet.
The cross is put on Jesus' back for him to carry it to the place where he will be crucified. There is no problem with interpretation here because Christians themselves see the image of "carrying your cross" to mean carrying all the sins of the world on your back. Unfortunately Jesus proved to be too weak to carry the cross, and the soldiers forced another stronger man called Simon to carry it for him. The "new man" today is considered by society to be "weak and wimpish" while a normal patriarchal man is seen to be "strong and tough". So to have a strong and therefore patriarchal man carry the cross as well is an interesting development. There are many men today who act like a fully patriarchal macho man but inside they are not like this.
[Another version of Weep, this seems to be a very popular image in Mason symbolism as there are very many versions of this symbolic drawing.]
In most cases it is an act because it is how men are expected to behave. This means that seemingly macho men will also begin to carry the cross of shame for the patriarchal past.
Jesus was then crucified between two criminals, who in our society are also considered to be very "macho" so therefore also patriarchal. It means all types of men will be crucified when the matriarchal age comes into being.
One of the criminals mocks Jesus but the other criminal is more sympathetic and Jesus says to him "I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me". The patriarchal age was not only hell for women but for men themselves, because the aggressive behaviour created wars, conflict, inequality, persecution and poverty, for men as well as for women. So to live in a society where women control this aggressive behaviour would compared with the patriarchal society, become a paradise. The paradise Jesus talked about to the criminal is the matriarchal society that will come into being when men completely sacrifice themselves to women.
The three Marys witness the crucifixion, which would be the ancient Triple Goddess of Crone, Mother and Maid. Jesus's birth was also witnessed by three wise men from the east. When Jesus died he shouted out in a loud voice "Father! in to your hands I place my spirit". If we are to change the word father to mother what he said is the final complete surrender of men into the hands of women.
Jesus on the cross was also wounded by a Roman spear on this thigh. Some writers make a claim of the obvious sexual overtones of this act. Of the spear being a penis and the wound on Jesus’s thigh his vagina giving out menstrual blood. Which again suggests that Jesus was the women and probably Inanna. This is confirmed in the Holy Grail stories of the Grail being the cup that catches Jesus’ blood.
Like Inanna, Jesus dies and later "rises from the dead", and it is three women (the Triple Goddess) whom he first sees after his resurrection, so in this way a new patriarchal age begins, and like the story of Inanna it is about the continuous cycle of patriarchal and matriarchal ages.
What is interesting in both the Inanna story of her journey to the Netherworld and the story of Jesus is that both sacrifice themselves voluntary. It is men who bring about the end of the patriarchal age and it is women who bring about the end of the matriarchal age. As we see in the story of Pandora.
The story of Pandora’s box or jar and Adam and Eve suggest that once women were the dominant sex and people then lived in a non violent Golden age and later Silver age. Then women decided that making men the inferior sex was unfair. This is represented by Pandora opening the box or Eve tempting Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge. The very act of doing this suggests that Eve was in charge. Unfortunately in giving men equality resulted in him eventually becoming competitive with women and dominating society through violence. This has resulted in our present world of violence, injustice and poverty. As the Bible points out this was a tragedy for both men and women as Adam found that outside the Garden of Eden he had to, “work by the sweat of this brow”. In other words in a masculine world of winners and losers there are few winners and many losers. So the losers in a patriarchal society which includes both men and women found themselves having to work, not only to support themselves, but the ruling and warrior classes and the patriarchal priesthood.
Clearly if we look at the history of the last four or five thousand years we can see that men have made a terrible job at ruling the world. Men's answer to all problems has been aggression and violence, which has created a world of wars, genocide, poverty, fear, hatred and suffering. At the time of the saviour gods when there was still knowledge of the Ancient Matriarchal age, there must of been a large number of people who wanted the entire world to return to the religion of Great Mother. But what was preventing this was violent men who were conquering other nations and turning conquered people into slaves.
This means that violent men who were only interested in slaves and loot would quickly conquer any people who attempted to set up a matriarchal society of love and harmony. So it would be seen very clearly that the cause of all the wars, violence, poverty and suffering of the world was caused by these selfish and violent men. We know from history that the Amazons did for a while attempt to fight fire with fire and armed themselves. But this clearly wasn't the answer because by becoming violent yourself you become exactly like the people you are fighting against. In other words the only way Amazons could be free was to become as aggressive, ruthless and violence as the men they fought against. Which is the problem that many career women have today. In that they are forced to be as competitive as men to gain any power in status in our society.
For this reason some Women decided on a different method and attempted to reform these violent men. To do this they gave them a vision of what a caring and loving world would be like and explaining to them this is only possible if they were willing to sacrifice yourself to the Great Mother. So a story was created to put forward a drama of heroic sacrifice. To some degree this seems to have been successful because all over Europe and the Middle East there were saviour God religions. So it seems many men were willing to sacrifice themselves to the Goddess in these Mystery religions. Unfortunately they became victims of their own success because the violent men who had no interested in sacrificing themselves, saw these religions as a threat and set about destroying them.
It is of interest that early Christianity was very popular among the slaves of the Roman Empire. This would make sense if many matriarchal societies where victims of the conquering Romans, so there would be a tradition of the worship of the Mother Goddess among the slaves. So they would be very sympathetic to a saviour god religion like early Christianity.
Attempts by the Roman ruling elite it seems to stamp out these saviour God religions at that time was unsuccessful. It seems that both Christianity and the Egyptian religion of the Goddess Isis and her saviour god Osiris was very popular among the common people and the troops of the Roman Empire. Far too popular it seems to mount a holy war against these religions. The ruling elite instead attempted to promote a very patriarchal religion based on the sun god, but this didn't receive enough support from the people. So in the end they decided that if you can't beat them, join them.
The Roman rulers simply hijacked the Christian Religion and changed it to make it acceptable to them. They then set about destroying the Isisian religion and any Christian sect like the Egyptian Gnostics that didn't follow the type of Christianity put forward by the Roman elite. The actual teachings of Jesus like, "loving your neighbour", "turning the other cheek" was quickly ignored as the Roman rulers became more interested in the religion of Judaism and promoted this, rather than what was taught by the early Christian Church.
Then Christianity as a state religion and later the Moslems, (another Jewish sect) set about destroying all knowledge of the ancient religion of the Great Mother. While at the same time they distorted the teachings of the saviour God claiming that Jesus sacrificed himself to an angry father God to appease him. Rather then the idea that all men need to sacrifice themselves to the Great Mother before we can have a peaceful matriarchal world once again. This forced Goddess religions to go underground, where they created secret societies to preserve their teachings. These secret Goddess religions called themselves Alchemists, Witches, Rosicrucians and Freemasons.
Perhaps the mystery religions of the past were a few thousand years before their time. They were trying to promote a vision of a peaceful and loving world in a very violent age. Today in the 21st century we see in the West at least a different attitude to violent men. It is no longer acceptable for Western rulers to go out and conquer other countries, just for the hell of it. Nor is it acceptable for them to rule through fear and intimation. Western rulers today are forced to listen to the needs and desires of the common people and even respect the views and opinions of minorities and women.
So perhaps the sacrificial/saviour God image within Christianity has acted as a Trojan Horse for the patriarchal age. On the collective unconscious level it created an archetype that has influenced all men in Christian countries for the last two thousand years. So that the idea of voluntary sacrifice has become acceptable to men on the unconscious level, which is starting to bear fruit in the last few hundred years. It has become commonplace for men today in the West to sacrifice themselves for their families and wives. Talking to young men today I find they their girlfriends or wives expect them to do housework and look after the children. It also seems more and more it is the wife not the husband is the dominant partner in relationships. In fact the whole status of women has dramatically increased during the 20th century.
So are these men very much in tune with the archetypal sacrificial/saviour God? Clearly if all men are effected by this powerful archetypal it will save the world from violence, wars and suffering.
Although Christianity has mostly ignored the teachings of Jesus and have concentrated more on the Old Testament god of judgement and fear, the symbols of a sacrificial Jesus has been in all Churches. While the Great Mother is seen in Roman Catholic Churches in the disguise of the Virgin Mary. And even though most Christian priests have only paid lip service to the teachings of Jesus and the drama of his betrayal and crucifixion, this was still taught. So these symbols, drama and teachings has probably been unconsciously influencing men in Christian counties ever since Christianity became a state religion.
So although in the short term the attempt by matriarchal women to create a submissive saviour god in the past seems like a failure. The popularity of the sacrificial drama of Jesus Christ has brought about an archetypal change in men, which will allow men to surrender themselves to Women and bring about a new matriarchal age. After all, it is in Christian countries we see the rise in feminism during the 20th century.
[Statue on above is of the Egyptian Lion Goddess Sekhmet. She is an Avenging Goddess who not only destroys Demons but also once attempted to destroy the whole of mankind. Her story is very similar to that of the Goddess Kali whom we will discuss in the next chapter.]
