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The SacredFeminine and
GoddessWorship
Sue Bohlin
www.probe.org
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Claims Made in TheDaVinci Code
Nature worship is a natural and desirable
religion. Female half of all things is the sacred
feminine or divine goddess.
Goddess worship is an ancient and thusvalid religious expression.
Powerful men in the early church lied to the
world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and
goddess worship.
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Claims Made in TheDaVinci Code
Jesus was mortal and Mary Magdalene was
divine. Constantine and his male successors
converted the world from matriarchal
paganism to patriarchal Christianity.
Constantine and his successors waged a
propaganda campaign that demonized the
sacred feminine and obliterated the goddess
from Christianity.
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Claims Made in TheDaVinci Code
The concept of woman as life-bringer was
the foundation of ancient religion. The early Christian church dethroned the
females creative power and made man the
Creator. Genesis was written to recast the
woman as inferior.
The early church devalued the feminine and
elevated the masculine, subjugating women.
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"The pentacle . . . is a pre-Christiansymbol that relates to Nature worship.
The ancients envisioned their world in
two halvesmasculine and feminine.
Their gods and goddesses worked to
keep a balance of power. Yin and
yang.
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When male and female were balanced,there was harmony in the world. When
they were unbalanced, there was
chaos. . . . This pentacle is
representative of the female half of all
thingsa concept religious historians
call the 'sacred feminine' or the 'divine
goddess. (p. 36)
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Animism (Paganism) From Latin anima, meaning spirit
Default setting for religion without
a claim to revelation from God
Reality is made up of physical world
and spirit world
Each world affects each other
Nature is alive, sacred, and imbued
with power
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Animism (Paganism) Spirits can dwell in places, animals,
plants.
Belief in ghosts and spirits, gods and
goddesses
Practice of magic, divination and
worship of false gods
Hope is to gain control over the spirit
world
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Animism in
Goddess Worship
God made man in His image
Ever since, fallen man has been
making gods and goddesses in
HIS image Male and female
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The Goodmans work with theGoddess in conscious ways to
enhance their relationship. They
start each day with a ritual, kneelingat their bedroom altar and verbally
acknowledging the Feminine in the
form of Gaia and the Masculine inthe form of the Christ
Consciousness. (Men and theGoddess)
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"Early religion was based on the
divine order ofNature. The goddess
Venus and the planet Venus were
one and the same. The goddess had
a place in the nighttime sky and wasknown by many namesVenus, the
Eastern Star, Ishtar, Astarteall of
them powerful female concepts withties to Nature and Mother Earth."
(p. 36)
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The Nature of the SacredFeminine
Love and Beauty
(Venus,Aphrodite,
Astarte)
Motherhood
(Gaia, Mother
Earth)
Wisdom
Emotions
Homemaking
Nurturing
Creativity
Imagination
Life forces of birthand nurture,
growth and fertility
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The Nature of the SacredFeminine
Personal (Goddess Venus,
Mary Magdalene)
Impersonal (planet Venus,
spirit of the goddess)
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"Gazing out at the rustling trees of College
Garden, Langdon sensed her playfulpresence. The signs were everywhere. Like
a taunting silhouette emerging from the fog,
the branches of Britain's oldest apple tree
burgeoned with five-petaled blossoms, allglistening like Venus.The goddess was in
the garden now. She was dancing in the
rain, singing songs of the ages, peeking out
from behind the bud-filled branches as if toremind Langdon that the fruit of knowledge
was growing just beyond his reach." (p.
420)
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The Nature of the Sacred Feminine
Both personal and impersonal:
"For a moment, he thought heheard a woman's voice. . . the
wisdom of the ages. . .
whispering up from the chasmsof the earth." (p. 484)
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Goddess Worship"The Priory's tradition of perpetuating
goddess worship is based on a
belief that powerful men in the earlyChristian church 'conned' the world
by propagating lies that devalued
the female and tipped the scales infavor of the masculine."
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"The Priory believes that Constantineand his male successors successfully
converted the world from matriarchal
paganism to patriarchal Christianity bywaging a campaign of propaganda
that demonized the sacred feminine,
obliterating the goddess from modernreligion forever." (p. 124)
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Goddess Worship in the BibleJeremiah 44:17-18
We're going to go right on offering sacrifices to the Queen
of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, keeping
up the traditions set by our ancestors, our kings and
government leaders in the cities of Judah and the streets
of Jerusalem in the good old days. We had a good life
then--lots of food, rising standard of living, and no bad
luck. But the moment we quit sacrificing to the Queen of
Heaven and pouring out offerings to her, everything fellapart. We've had nothing but massacres and starvation
ever since. (The Message)
1 Kings 11:33
. . .because they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped
Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians . . .
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Revisionist Historyin The DaVinciCode
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"The power of the female and her ability
to produce life was once very sacred,but it posed a threat to the rise of the
predominantly male Church, and so
the sacred feminine was demonizedand called unclean. It was man, not
God, who created the concept of
'original sin,' whereby Eve tasted of the
apple and caused the downfall of the
human race. Woman, once the sacred
giver of life, was now the enemy.
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"This concept of woman as life-bringerwas the foundation of ancient
religion. Childbirth was mystical and
powerful. Sadly, Christianphilosophy decided to embezzle the
female's creative power by ignoring
biological truth and making man the
Creator.
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Genesis tells us that Eve was created
from Adam's rib. Woman became an
offshoot of man. And a sinful one at
that. Genesis was the beginning of
the end for the goddess. (p. 238)
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"The Grail is symbolic of the lost
goddess. When Christianity came
along, the old pagan religions did not
die easily. Legends of chivalric
quests for the lost Grail were in fact
stories of forbidden quests to find the
lost sacred feminine.
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Knights who claimed to be 'searching
for the chalice were speaking in
code as a way to protect themselves
from a Church that had subjugated
women, banished the Goddess,
burned nonbelievers, and forbidden
the pagan reverence for the sacredfeminine." (p. 238-239)
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Sex and Worship
"It's important to remember that the
ancients' view of sex was entirelyopposite from ours today. Sex begot
new lifethe ultimate miracleand
miracles could be performed only by
a god. The ability of the woman to
produce life from her womb made
her sacred. A god. (p. 309)
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"The early Jewish tradition involved
ritualistic sex. In the Temple, no less.Early Jews believed that the Holy of
Holies in Solomon's Temple housed
not only God but also His powerfulfemale equal, Shekinah. Men
seeking spiritual wholeness came to
the Temple to visit priestesses . . .with whom they made love and
experienced the divine through
physical union.
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The Jewish tetragrammaton
YHWHthe sacred name of God
in fact derived from Jehovah, an
androgynous physical union betweenthe masculine Jah and the pre-
Hebraic name for Eve, Havah." (p.
309) Heiros Gamos (sacred marriage)
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What the Bible tells us about
this ritualistic sex Deut 23:17 None of the daughters of
Israel shall be a cult prostitute, nor shall
any of the sons of Israel be a cultprostitute.
1 Kin 14:24 There were also male cult
prostitutes in the land. They didaccording to all the abominations of the
nations which the LORD dispossessed
before the sons of Israel.
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CLAIM:Nature worship is a natural and
desirable religionTRUTH: Nature worship (animism) occurs
when people have lost the truth of the
biblical God as Creator
CLAIM:Female half of all things is the sacred
feminine or divine goddess
TRUTH: God made one creation which is not
divided into two male/female parts(dualism). The beauty and power of the
feminine is a reflection of Gods attributes;
we are made in His image.
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CLAIM:Goddess worship is an ancient and
thus valid religious expressionTRUTH: There is a myth of the evolution of
religion: animism-->polytheism--
>monotheism. Religion started with the God
of the Bible; other forms are a devolutionCLAIM:Powerful men in the early church lied to
the world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and
goddess worship
TRUTH:The suppressed story of Jesus andMary Magdalenes marriage never happened.
Goddess worship was never a part of
Christianity.
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CLAIM: Mary Magdalene was divine
"The Priory of Sion, to this day, still worships MaryMagdalene as the Goddess, the Holy Grail, the
Rose, and the Divine Mother." (p. 255)
CLAIM: Jesus was only mortal
"In those trunks are reputed to be the PuristDocumentsthousands of pages of unaltered,
pre-Constantine documents, written by the early
followers of Jesus, reveringHim as a wholly
human teacher and prophet." (p. 256)TRUTH: Jesus was the divine, eternally-existing Son
of God, and Mary Magdalene was only a human
follower of Jesus
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CLAIM: Constantine and his male successors
converted the world from matriarchal paganism topatriarchal Christianity
TRUTH: Matriarchal (women in charge) societies
were almost non-existent, and the world was
never converted to Christianity.CLAIM: Constantine and his successors waged a
propaganda campaign that demonized the sacred
feminine and obliterated the goddess from
ChristianityTRUTH: Constantine was never a church leader.
Church leaders stood for biblical truth and against
false beliefs such as animism and goddess
worship.
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CLAIM:The concept of woman as life-bringer was
the foundation of ancient religion.
TRUTH: No religion ever elevated woman (as
goddess) to that degree. The feminine was
always part of the larger whole.
CLAIM: The early Christian church dethroned thefemales creative power and made man the
Creator. Genesis was written to recast the
woman as inferior.
TRUTH: Man has never been creator, God is. Therole of the man as leader in society and in the
family began with the creation of Adam and
Eve. Genesis was written long before the
church came into existence.
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CLAIM: The early church devalued the
feminine and elevated the masculine,subjugating women
TRUTH: No religion has ever elevated women
like Christianity.
Jesus treated the Samaritan woman at the well in a
kind and respectful way, speaking to her in public
and making her the first evangelist to her town
Jesus freely taught Mary of Bethany along with His
disciples, unheard of in that day
He taught her sister Martha and invited her to
respond publicly to Him
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Jesus first appeared to women after His
resurrection and gave them the privilege andresponsibility of telling His disciples
Honorable women traveled with Jesus and
supported Him financially
Women had equal value to men The early church embraced womens role as co-
workers in the home churches and co-laborers in
the gospel
Women were allowed to pray and prophesy inpublic worship services
The marital status of women was elevated to a
position of respect and love previously unseen in
any culture.
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What God Thinks about
Goddess Worship and theSacred Feminine
I am the Lord thy God.
Thou shalt have no other
gods before Me.
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