28

Jesus the Egyptian magician and secret initiation

From the age of twelve, when Jesus visited the temple in Jerusalem according to the Gospel of Luke, to the age of thirty, when he reappears to preach his message; there is no indication of how he spent his life. Conventional thinking maintains he spent this time as a carpenter, working with his father, in Galilee. I find this hard to believe, solely on the grounds of his erudition, he constantly confounded his opponents with his wide-ranging knowledge of scripture, and the authority with which he pronounced his arguments.

Because of the Essene influence upon his teaching, it would be justified to say, part of it was spent within the Essene monastic community. But this does not account for the strongly held belief in early Christianity, that he practiced magic, which is often called Egyptian.

In the Jewish Talmud it is said his magical skills have an Egyptian origin, originating in scratches on his flesh (Shab.1046). The Talmud is a compilation of rabbinical discussions, over a period of two hundred years, upon the Mishnah. The Mishnah is an earlier record of similar discussions, covering a period of two hundred years. The discussions are concerned with how to live out the commands of the Torah in everyday life. The Talmud covers the period from 200 AD to 500 AD.

 The view of Jesus as an Egyptian magician, appeared in the writings of the fourth century Christian apologist Arnobius, in which Jesus is accused of stealing from Egyptian temples, the knowledge of powerful magical incantations (a series of words said as a spell), involving angelic names.

In the Talmud Jesus is said to have been hung for the crimes of sorcery and enticing Israel; enticing means to lead astray into idolatry. Sorcery and enticing are the terms used by Celsus 2^nd century AD, a Greek philosopher and opponent of Christianity in debate with Origen. Justin Martyr 100-165 AD, an early Church apologist, used the same terms, which he said was the result of the miracles performed by Jesus. In the New Testament, there is also evidence of the belief his miraculous feats of healing, involved some form of magic. ‘But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.’ Luke 11:15. It is also recorded in the Apocrypha, those works I referred to earlier, that were thrown out of, or denounced by the early Roman Church.

In the medieval Toledoth Yeshu (the earliest text dated to the eleventh century), Jesus possesses the mystic name of God, and with this power does all manner of miracles, raising the dead, healing a leper. In this account he is also hung from a tree for his crimes but uses the mystic word of God to break the tree. He is only successfully hanged when he is rendered unable to speak.

In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is portrayed as having magical powers from infancy. He cures his brother James of a snake bite, extends a piece of wood his father is working on to the size required; resurrects the dead, and turns clay models of sparrows into living birds. But there is an evil aura around this Jesus, his powers are out of control, he kills or blinds those who are unkind to him.  In the Acts of Pilate, the Jewish people accuse him of sorcery, including sending the wife of Pilate a dream.

Amulets and incantation bowls dating from the second and third century, have been found inscribed with the name of Jesus alongside, in some cases, names of angels from the Book of Enoch. In 2008 during underwater excavation, led by the renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio, of the Egyptian city of Alexandria’s sunken ancient harbour, a thin-walled ceramic bowl was discovered. It dated from between the second BC and early first century AD, scratched into its surface were the words: DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS meaning ‘by Christ the magician’. It is thought by experts that the bowl was used for fortune-telling, oil was poured onto water, and the movement and shapes arising, were then interrelated as certain portents of the shape of things to come. Whatever the guidance being sought, the practitioner was clearly evoking the magical powers of Christ, to bring forth revelations upon the matter.

From the preceding accounts, there is clearly two strands of thought, one in which he acquired foreign or home-grown magical learning, the other he possessed natural miraculous abilities; which is the reason given by Justin Martyr for the Jewish charges of sorcery and enticement, brought against him.

The belief he had acquired a wider range of learning, outside Judea, is reflected in traditions attached to his lost years, that he studied in Egypt, India, Britain and Japan becoming a disciple of a Buddhist master near Mount Fuji.

 I believe there is substance in this belief of influences outside Judea, for instance, the biblical account of the raising from the dead of Lazarus, when its details are considered, they are strongly reminiscent of the ancient mysteries, already chronicled in the narrative, of a mock death and rebirth into a new state of being. Jesus himself, in the New Testament, spoke about a spiritual rebirth being necessary, before all that he said could be revealed: ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. . . Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? . . . Jesus answered. . . Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Ye must be born again.’ John 3:3-8.  This, is echoed in the words of Paul ‘And as we bore the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.’ 1Corinthians 15:49.

Lazarus has been identified as the Beloved Disciple, by a number of religious historians, including the eminent Professor Richard Bauckham. The Beloved Disciple, which refers to the favoured position he held in the estimation of Jesus, has in turn been identified as the disciple John, also called John of Patmos, the author of the Gospel of John and Revelations.

In St John’s Gospel Lazarus is said to be sick, and his sisters send a messenger to Jesus, who was not in Judea where they resided; saying the one you love is sick. Jesus answers, saying this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. To show his lack of concern about Lazarus, it was two days later, when he explains to the disciples with him that Lazarus ‘sleeps’ and he must go to him to ‘wake’ him up. His disciples are confused by what he is saying (which he was very good at), for he had previously spoken of the death of Lazarus (his actual words are not related) and at their confusion, he again states Lazarus is dead.

When they arrive in Judea, and visit the cave where Lazarus lays, he is said to have been dead for four days. Martha, the sister of Lazarus, asks Jesus why he didn’t come sooner, if he had been there her brother wouldn’t have died. Jesus said to her, that her brother would rise again.

There is a great stone over the entrance of the cave, where Lazarus lies, and it is rolled away. Then Jesus commands Lazarus to come forth, and he does, emerging from the cave alive, shrugging off his funereal garb.

What can be understood from this account, is that Jesus knew what was happening with Lazarus, he assures them he isn’t sick, and that his condition was for the glory of God. This implies, that Lazarus was involved in a religious ritual. Jesus isn’t concerned about his welfare, he stays where he is; until he reveals (surely as part of a prearranged agenda) he has a role in what’s happening with Lazarus, he must ‘wake’ him up. His afterwards confusing his disciples with this ‘sleep’ is a ‘death’, is because they understood the ‘death’ to mean a physical state, whereas Jesus was referring to a spiritual death and rebirth, for the glory of God. Lazarus undergoing the ritual in a cave, is a prime site, for such a transfiguration of consciousness. The narrative is once again united with that ancient death conquering journey of the initiate, such as experienced in the Eleusinian Mysteries; it also evokes the death and rebirth of Osiris – all expressions of the mysteries of the First Religion. The Beloved Disciple under the instruction of his master, is walking the path of spiritual perfection.  

There is evidence that the disciple Mark, may also have undergone a similar initiation. In the gospel of Mark, he describes a young man, clad only in a white linen cloth, being in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested. His presence is only recorded in Mark’s Gospel 14:51-52.

In the Gospel account, the young man had been following Jesus and his disciples in the garden, when a troop of soldiers descend upon them, seeking to arrest Jesus. They grabbed hold of the young man, but he manages to escape, leaving his linen cloth behind him. There is a tradition that this young man is Mark himself, and biblical scholars speculate he wrote about himself in this manner, to establish his presence at such a crucial event.

Mark’s Gospel was written in a Latinized form of Greek, similar to the written language of Rome. The word he uses for the linen cloth the young man is wearing is sidon and this means, a linen cloth used for clothing or a burial shroud, it is employed four times in the New Testament to describe Christ’s burial sheet. This predominant association with a burial shroud, presents the possibility, that Mark also was engaging in a death and rebirth ritual, in the garden. In a letter written by the early Church father Clement bishop of Alexandria 150 – 215 AD (which I will consider in greater detail shortly), Clement refers to material in a secret version of Mark’s Gospel. In this secret version, replacing the Gospel account of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane recounting a prophecy of his future trial and death, Jesus is instead involved in a ritual raising of a young man from the dead, and thereby giving him the secrets of the kingdom of God. So, was Mark in his secret version of the Gospel, writing of his own experience on that terrible night?

A mystical ritual performed in the garden, is also found in the Gnostic text ‘The Acts of John’. Christ in Gethsemane instructed his disciples to hold hands and circle around him, while he uttered a mystical chant, to which they responded, at his direction, ‘Amen’.

Dance, theatre and sound has always been a potent part of ritual. Anyone who has experienced normal theatre knows of the impact it can have, even in mundane things. It was the ancient way of altering the consciousness of the acolyte, tapping into and manipulating what was perceived as greater realities, intersecting this earthly one. If one considers Jesus using such ancient tools, it doesn’t pollute his message in any adverse way. Because of the breadth of his learning and understanding, he probably had encountered such rites, and thereby recognized their efficacy as a means of opening the understanding of his disciples and used them accordingly.

Jesus possessing a far broader, including non-Jewish understanding of the awaited Messiah, than those did who were around him, is evident from incidents in the New Testament; when his disciples and the people following him, didn’t comprehend what he was talking about. In Mark, after journeying with his disciples to an unidentified high place (a world navel?), he underwent a transfiguration into a shining being ‘And his raiment shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can whiten them.’ Mark 9:3-4.  Elias and Moses then appeared before Jesus and they conversed. When coming back down, Jesus said to the men: ‘. . .they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.’ Mark 9:9-10.

Jesus called himself a ‘door’ ‘a door of the sheep’ in relationship to his role as Shepherd, which as John reports of the audience listening ‘. . . but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them.’ 10:6. A lack of knowledge shared by the temple priesthood, revealed in an account by the second century AD Christian theologian Hegesippus. They tried to prise information about this ‘door’ from James (who was so pious he was said to have calluses on his knees from constant prayer), the brother of Jesus, but he didn’t answer their questioning and in retaliation he was pushed off a high porch. When they discovered he had not died from the fall, they then clubbed him to death.

This coalescing of foreign esoteric elements with Hebraic ones in his messiahship, highlights his amazing intellect and his incredible bravery. The foreign elements are possibly the foundation for the grades and rituals of initiation he instigated. The fact that the real model of Christianity he introduced, involved secret teachings and grades of initiation, is revealed in the correspondence of early Church figures. In 1958, in Mar Saba monastery, in south-east Jerusalem, Professor Morton Smith discovered a letter written in 190 AD by Clement Bishop of Alexandria, which I alluded to earlier. ‘. . . when Peter died as a martyr, Mark came over to Alexandria, bringing both his own notes and those of Peter, from which he transferred to his former book the things suitable to whatever makes for progress towards knowledge(gnosis). (Thus) he composed a more spiritual Gospel for the use of those who were being perfected. Nevertheless, he yet did not divulge the things not to be uttered, nor did he write down the hierophantic teaching of the Lord. . .’ 60. Hierophantic from ‘hierophant’ is from the Greek hieros ‘sacred’ and phaino ‘I show’ meaning ‘a priest who teaches the duties and mysteries of a religion’. The allusion to those ‘being perfected’, must refer to those undergoing initiation, upon whom would be conferred a perfected way of being.

Elizabeth MacDonald Burrows in ‘The Lost Scroll of Jesus’, presents other evidence for the existence of secret initiation, within the early Church. St Dionysius, the first bishop of Athens wrote ‘the tradition of the sacrament is said to be divided into three degrees, or grades, purification, initiation and accomplishment of perfection.’ The early Christian author Tertullian c160-c220, in 216 AD wrote that those admitted to these mysteries, took an oath to keep them secret, mirroring the practices of ancient mystery cults.  Archelaus third century bishop of Cascara in Mesopotamia writes that the Gentiles are not taught these mysteries, nor are they openly imparted to novices in the church.  St Cyril appointed bishop of Alexandria in 412 AD in his seventh book of Julian wrote: ‘These mysteries are so profound and exalted, that they can be comprehended only by those who are enlightenedt. I shall not, therefore, attempt to speak of what is so admirable in them, lest by revealing them to the uninitiated I shall offend against the injunction not to give what is holy to the impure.’ 61

It was rumoured that after the raising of Lazarus, the temple priesthood decided that Jesus must die. Perhaps the transformative effect of his teachings was adding to his popularity, perhaps they were finally realizing that his was no lone voice of a deranged mentality, but a powerful new religious force.  

For many who were awaiting a Jewish messiah, he wasn’t fulfilling their expectations, or how it was perceived such a figure would act. This is probably why the Jews did not accept him as their messiah, which is quite understandable.

It’s now time to consider the true import of his message and actions, by using the key of his role as World Pillar. Once that context is injected into his actions, it all becomes understandable, for instance it explains why he called himself both Son of man and Son of God. The real meaning of his calling himself Son of man is still being debated by scholars today

29

Christ the World Pillar

Second Adam

Son of man – Son of God

The Naaseni was one of the earliest Christian sects, the name derives from the Hebrew nachash meaning ‘serpent’, and because of this snake connection, they were also known as Ophites. The Naas, the serpent they venerated, they equated with Christ in the context of remarks made by him, in John’s Gospel, regarding the serpent of Moses; which I will consider later. It was reputed they allowed a live serpent to move over the consecrated bread of their Eucharist supper.

They also called themselves Gnostics, originating from the Greek word gnosis meaning knowledge, in their case spiritual knowledge, the direct experience and revelation of, they said would lead them to redemption.

They regarded themselves as the only true Christians, and possessed a certain teaching regarding Christ, which was recorded in the‘Philisophumena’ ‘The Refutation of all Heresies’ by the early Church father Hippolytus c170-c236 AD. This teaching gives Christ a cosmic role, amongst the northern star constellations, the same model of kingship attached to the First Religion.

‘These (constellations) ‘The Bears’. . . are composed of seven stars, images of two creations. . . the first creation. . . is that according to Adam in his labours, this is he who is seen ‘on his knees’ (Engonasis). The second creation . . . is that according to Christ, by which we are regenerated. . . who struggles against the Beast, and hinders him from reaching Corona, which is reserved for man. But ’The Great Bear’ is. . . Helice. . . symbol of the mighty world towards which the Greeks steer their course. . .’62

In picturing what this teaching implies, the narrative climbing the pole of the pole star once more, can view again, the starry expanse of those most important northern constellations. There is Hercules toiling on his knees, the earthly twin, which this early Christian teaching identifies as Adam. This profile suits Adam well, because the lying God who threw him out of paradise, condemned him to a life of toil ‘Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; . . . in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.’ Genesis 3:17-20.

Christ is said to guard Corona or Corona Borealis the gateway to immortality, which must mean he is Boötes – the divine half of the twin – who stands as a sentinel below the portal, beside the Adam/Hercules figure – guarding Ariadne’s spiral castle. Perhaps as we look that way, a poet bearing swan might fly past, and words with a Welsh accent might be heard on the solar winds:

‘Primary chief bard am I to Elphin,

And my original country is the region of the summer stars;

Idno and Heinin called me Merdinn,

At length every king will call me Taliesin. . .

I know the names of stars from north to south;

I have been on the Galaxy at the throne of the Distributor. . .

I am able to instruct the whole universe. . .’ 63

The Beast, Christ is guarding this precious stargate from, in light of the term used in the book of Revelations by John, is commonly interpreted as the Devil; so, one can assume the Beast in this case, represents the forces of evil operating within the divine plan.

Christ similar to Arthur is also Ursa Major the wagon, fulfilling the role of Callisto, he embodies Helice, a fount of everlasting life – so he not only guards the portal to immorality, he is also the vehicle for its manifestation.

 In this cosmic drama, the first creation of Adam, an earthy humanity, has now been superseded by a new, spiritually transformed second one, aware of their own divinity; inaugurated by the cosmic Christ in his role as Boötes.  His embodiment of a second creation of humanity, lies behind his constantly referring to himself as the Son of man ben-adam, he is the spiritually aware offspring of the first humanity represented by Adam.

In a conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus, which wasn’t going very well, Nicodemus was failing to understand the true import of his words. It’s a terrible life when you know more than the people around you, the old adage that a sighted man would be king in the kingdom of the blind is nonsense – he would be ostracized and helpless. But to return to Jesus, he eventually said: ‘If I have told you earthy things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.’ John 3:14. Did it help Nicodemus, or did he go away scratching his head? The man who descended from heaven, and then is able to ascend back to it, must be a reference to the immortal heavenly part of the human soul, that incarnates into an earthly body; which will at some point in death be destined to return to the divine source. The same thinking is behind the celestial Son of man, incarnating into the being of Jesus on earth – it too having descended from heaven will return there – he is saying earth and heaven are intimately bound together, both influencing and shaping the other.

In trying to convey this nature of his messiahship, he preached to the people following him, that the coming messiah would be ‘lifted up’.  But his assertion was greeted with incomprehension. ‘The crowd answered him ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?’ John 9:3-6.

 The cosmic event of the ‘second creation’ being embodied in Jesus Christ was a vehicle for the transformation of all humanity; he did not distinguish between Jews and Gentiles (as he did not distinguish between men and women), which is clear in his saying: ‘And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold.’ John 10:16. But this was also the accepted nature of the coming Jewish Messiah (although when it transpired the Jews weren’t happy about it.) ‘And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek. . .’ Isaiah 11:10. ‘Root of Jesse’ means of the lineage of Jesse – whom the Essenes regarded as sinless and deathless – Jesse was the father of David, the kingly lineage from which Jesus was a descendant.

Jesus also referred to himself as the Son of God. When the Jews heard him calling himself this, they were horrified, and accused him of blasphemy. ‘. . . thou being a man maketh himself a God. Jesus answered them. Is it not written in your law. I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scriptures cannot be broken. . .’ John 10:34-36.

There is only one event he can be referring to, and that is when God in the Garden of Eden clearly states that Adam and Eve are the same as himself, and to whoever he is discussing the matter with, he then said: ‘And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us. . .’ Genesis 3:22 or as the serpent put it ‘ye shall become as gods. . .’ Genesis 3:5 One cannot deny the reasoning of Jesus, the scriptures are saying that human beings, with their understanding are god-like. And it is this awareness of our innate divinity that he came to awaken. At no point was he saying I am the only Son of God – a part of the Godhead – this is forcibly clear in the writings of Paul ‘For as many are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.’ Romans 8:14 ‘. . . we are the children of God. . . and joint heirs with Christ.’ 8:15. Referring to himself as Son of God, meant he had awakened this inherent divinity in his own being, which later as the embodiment of the celestial Son of man ben-Adam, he would then awaken in all humanity.

This pivotal role lies also behind his referring to his kingly role, in Revelations of the New Testament, as the Morning Star. ‘I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.’ 22:16. The Morning Star has already been revealed as a symbol for a perfected humanity in the heavenly pentagram – the shining star of Venus one with the sun, symbolizing the dark death journey of the human soul, towards rebirth and immortality. The heavenly pentagram etched out in the heavens, between the horns of the Taurus bull, an archetypal, perfected humanity; he now wished to see imprinted on every human heart.

In bringing to the fore, Jesus identifying himself as the Morning Star, it should also be highlighted that in his role of opposing cosmic evil, threatening Corona Borealis; he was mirroring the Ancient Egyptian Horus. Horus was also the Morning Star who performed a similar cosmic task, in opposing the evil influence of his uncle; threatening to overwhelm that other fount of immortality Ursa Major. But of course, they are both fulfilling the same model of cosmic kingship. Perhaps he became aware of this, through initiation into the Egyptian mysteries, and this was the prime reason why he was regarded as an Egyptian magician?

What he intended to fulfill in his embodiment as a World Pillar king, as I previously said, broke the mould. The nature of the semi-divine race, born of Heaven and Earth, is now translated as the birthright of all mortals; who can awaken this divinity within themselves.

I’ve already outlined the role of solar regeneration such a cosmic king represents, suffering ritual death and then being resurrected as a sun child, just like the Mesopotamian Tammuz. There is evidence in early Christianity, that Christ was perceived as embodying solar powers.

30

The sun and the serpent

In early Christianity, Christ was openly recognized as the sun. There is a fresco of Christ, found in the catacombs of Rome, where the early Christians used to worship in secret, in which he is depicted as the sun god Apollo.

In the Gospel of Luke, Christ is referred to as ‘the dayspring’ ‘Whereby the dayspring on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.’1:78 Dayspring is from the Greek anatole meaning ‘sunrise east’. He is then the personification of light illuminating darkness, darkness of a winter shrouded earth, or a death shrouded soul.

The Jesuit priest and theologian Hugo Rahner 1900-1968, in his work ‘Greek Myths and Christian Mythology’, recognizes the strength of this sun worship in early Christianity. The early Church father Archelaus c277 in his ‘Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes’ refers to Christ as the true sun who is our saviour. Tertullian c277 in his ‘On the Resurrection of the Flesh’ compares Christ to the glory of the sun. St Chrysostom c349-407 archbishop of Constantinople, maintained it was appropriate the Christian feast of the Nativity, had been fixed at the winter solstice, as Christ was the Sun of righteousness. This relates to the Old Testament reference to the coming Messiah in Malachi 4:7 ‘. . . the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. . .’. A winged globe was an emblem of Horus the sun god.

St Augustine 354-430, Bishop of Hippo, philosopher and theologian, writing in his ‘Tractate on the Gospel of John’ states that the Church rejects the fiction that Christ is the sun – that he needs to openly condemn it, points to how powerful the ‘fiction’ was – and calls it a ‘devilish doctrine’. A devilish doctrine that no doubt prompted those worshippers, witnessed by an irate Pope Leo the Great c400-461, to bow before the rising sun, before entering St Peter’s Basilica. There is a feeling of déjà vu about this incident, it reminds me of those furious Hebrew prophets railing against the people, for their persistent veneration of the sun, doubtless connected to worship of Tammuz. Considering how tenacious this Christian belief was, still surviving in the fifth century, does indicate its importance and why the ‘thought police’ had a tough time eradicating it.

I have already outlined the solar symbolism of the snake and mentioned the brazen snake of Moses Neshushtan. ‘And the Lord said unto Moses. Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent, he lived.’ Numbers 21:8-9. This is the snake that was said to be housed in the Temple of Solomon.

This snake has powerful regenerative, life-giving properties, as a solar emblem would have. Such a snake twisted around a pole, does evoke the serpent-like Ladon curled around the source of immortality, the Tree of the Hesperides. And it is also the snake, which I mentioned earlier, that Jesus compared himself with in the Gospel of John: ‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life;. . .’ John 23:14-16. This is Christ of the Naas or Naaseni. Christ, a new regenerative source, an animating agent, by his cosmic sacrifice of being lifted up as a World Pillar, through this role becoming a fount of immortality.

The early Christians, may also have seen Jesus as the long awaited Divine Child. This would make understandable, their depicting him as the sun god Apollo, who embodied such a child.  Christ the Divine Child, the bringer of the cleansing fire of perfect love and peace. Of course, in this context, his calling himself Morning Star, could also relate to this aspect of his solar role.

The Gnostics, according to Robert Graves, asserted the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus (whose worship was officially banned by Constantine) meant ‘of the sea’, which does not relate to its Hebrew meanings of ‘wished for child’, ‘rebellion’ or ‘bitter’. But would relate to her, as the virgin mother of the Divine Child. It will be remembered the Naaseni called themselves Gnostics, which promoted the direct experience gnosis of divine realities. Gnosticism flourished in the second century AD, eventually branded heretical by the Roman Church.  Mary’s role, as mother of the Divine Child, most probably lies behind her being called Stella Maris meaning ‘Star of the Sea’; and the ancient star of the sea was Aphrodite the Morning Star.

Jesus the Christ’s embodying a pathway to eternal life, is also expressed in his calling himself the Door – a gateway to eternal life, which is peronified in the rejected stone of the Jewish messiah.