Ancient World Review

Mount Nemrud: The Throne Of The Gods

Notes: "The Sanctuary of Nemrud Dagi is one of the most remarkable, best preserved, but least known monuments of Asia Minor.  The site, called by its builder a hierothesion, or 'common dwelling place of all the gods next to the heavenly thrones,' is situated 2150m above sea level atop one of the highest peaks in the Anti-Taurus Mountains of southeastern Turkey near the banks of the Euphrates River.  The monument is one of the premier sites of the Late Hellenistic period.  It was constructed by King Antiochus I of Commagene in the mid-1st century BCE to command a 360o view of the ranges, plains, and towns that comprised his ancient kingdom.  It became the main sanctuary of his ruler cult to which worshippers from all over this kingdom were expected to go on the monthly and yearly anniversary of the king's birth and his accession to the throne." Source: Learning Sites - The Virtual World of Nemrud Dagi.

Exorcism Goes Mainstream

EWTN Global Catholic Television (2016).

"Exorcism is going multi-denominational. Where once those competing for the souls of followers would burn each other as heretics and engage in bloody wars, the world’s mainstream Christian denominations are now rallying together to battle a resurrected threat." Source: Perth Now.

"And that’s no less than Satan himself.

"The Roman Catholic Church has for the first time opened up its annual exorcism class in Rome to representatives of all major Christian faiths. The Pontifical University of Regina Apostolorum is a Vatican-affiliated university in Rome that has been conducting the increasingly popular annual exorcism conventions for Catholic priests for the past 14 years."

Video from 2010.

Note: Exorcism or similar beliefs and practices go way back:

"The use of protective means against the real, or supposed, molestations of evil spirits naturally follows from the belief in their existence, and is, and has been always, a feature of ethnic religions, savage and civilized. In this connection only two of the religions of antiquity, the Egyptian and Babylonian, call for notice; but it is no easy task, even in the case of these two, to isolate what bears strictly on our subject, from the mass of mere magic in which it is embedded. The Egyptians ascribed certain diseases and various other evils to demons, and believed in the efficacy of magical charms and incantations for banishing or dispelling them. The dead more particularly needed to be well fortified with magic in order to be able to accomplish in safely their perilous journey to the underworld (see Budge, Egyptian Magic, London, 1899). But of exorcism, in the strict sense, there is hardly any trace in the Egyptian records." Source: New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.

Exorcism is usually associated with the Catholic Church and backwoods fundamentalist denominations, but  rituals for casting out demons and other types of spirits have also been used by Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and Taoists over the millennia. (Wikipedia) And the practice is still relatively common around the world. For instance, the next video shows a Buddhist Ghost Exorcising Festival which took place in Bejing in 2015.

Despite the fact that magic and religion are supposed to be different things [1], exorcism is undoubtedly a magical ritual since it relies on sacred ceremonies and the recitation of adjurations, etc., to ward off or drive a supernatural entity out of a place or a human body. How is this different in practice from, say, a pagan magic ritual designed to calm a storm or appease the gods and guarantee a safe passage?

"For the storm lasted for three days; and at last the Magians, by using victims [cut up in pieces and offered to the manes] and wizards' spells on the wind, and by sacrificing also to Thetis and the Nereids, did make it to cease on the fourth day." (Herodotus)

[1] "Magic is a category into which have been placed various beliefs and practices considered separate from both religion and science." (Wikipedia)

The fact that exorcism is still practiced by the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations provides more evidence, I think, that Christianity is a polytheistic religion.

Exorcism, by definition, is "the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or an area..." (Wikipedia) Polytheism is, by definition, "the worship of or belief in multiple deities," so the question of whether a belief in demons makes you a polytheist boils down to whether you think demons or "spiritual entities" qualify as deities.

The word "deity" has various associations. It can mean a god or goddess, a "supernatural being considered divine or sacred," but it has also been defined as "a being with powers greater than those of ordinary humans ... who interacts with humans, positively or negatively, in ways that carry humans to new levels of consciousness, beyond the grounded preoccupations of ordinary life..." (Wikipedia)

Demons may not be as powerful as God, but they are still supernatural entities with powers greater than those of ordinary humans. They are part of a hierarchy of spiritual beings. It might be more accurate to call them demigods, a term that was originally "used to render the Greek and Roman concepts of semideus and daemon." (Wikipedia) "Demon" comes from "daemon" which was the original meaning of "demigod," and demigods are minor deities.

In some cases, demons are or were actual pagan gods. The demon in the Exorcist, for instance, was Pazuzu, a "character from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology ... considered the king of the demons of the wind, and the son of the god Hanbi..." (Wikipedia) If Jesus, the son of Yahweh, is a deity, then so is the demon Pazuzu, the son of Hanbi.

Modern exorcists believe that there are other supernatural entities active in the world besides God. Some of these entities are demons who were once fallen angels. Others are pagan gods transformed into demons by the church.  This belief in a hierarchy of spiritual beings is fundamentally pagan and polytheistic.

Modern Architects Submit More Idiotic Redesign Suggestions For Notre Dame Cathedral

"An architecture firm has proposed replacing the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral with a swimming pool, as France prepares to launch an international competition to restore the fire-damaged gothic edifice to its former glory." Source: The Guardian.

"After the roof and spire of Notre Dame were damaged in a fire watched worldwide in April, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he was open to a 'contemporary gesture' in rebuilding it 'more beautiful than before', and the prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, called for a new spire 'adapted to the techniques and the challenges of our era'".

Translation: Architecture firms trying to land a lucrative contract have submitted various proposals for ways to destroy what's left of Notre Dame Cathedral. The idiotic and hugely unpopular French president has said that he's open to turning this historical landmark into a postmodern monstrosity.

I have to admit that the trollish suggestion about turning the cathedral into a car park made me laugh out loud. Meanwhile, let's hope that the Yellow Vests can drive Macron and his flunkies out of power before they can do to France what these architecture firms want to do to the cathedral. Unfortunately, it looks like the protests are running out of steam:

Men Were The Original Witches?

Open Yale Courses, 2011.

"The now all-too-familiar figure of the ‘witch’ – that frightening old hag with warts on her nose and curses at her fingertips – didn’t appear until the 15th century. Despite being dubbed ‘The Renaissance’ and ‘The Age of Discovery’, the centuries that followed [the Renaissance lasted from the 14th to the 17th century] were witness not only to ruthless witch-hunts, but also to a new belief in the reality of magic." Source: The Conversation.

"In the Middle Ages [1], the practice of magic was not yet imagined to be essentially ‘female’. In fact, according to court records from the first half of the 14th century, the majority of those tried for maleficium (meaning sorcery, or dark magic) were men. [Emphasis added] That was because the most troubling form of magic – necromancy – required not only skill, learning and preparation, but above all education, which was less readily available to women. Necromancy involved conjuring the dead and making them perform feats of transportation or illusion, or asking them to reveal the secrets of the universe. Because many books describing necromancy were Latin translations, anyone wanting to practise the craft would need a good working knowledge of Latin.

"It wasn’t until the publication of Heinrich Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum (or, Hammer of Witches) in 1487 that the specific connection between women and satanic magic became widespread. Kramer warned that 'women’s spiritual weakness' and 'natural proclivity for evil' made them particularly susceptible to the temptations of the devil. He believed that 'all witchcraft comes from carnal lust', and that women’s 'uncontrolled' sexuality made them the likely culprits of any sinister occurrence."

Comment: Heinrich Kramer (1430 - 1505 AD) was a German churchman and inquisitor. If he was alive today, the Catholic Church would defrock him for slut-shaming and general misogyny and he would be attacked by every paper and liberal group in the western world. Ironically, the medieval inquisitor would fall victim to modern inquisitors who would probably try to burn him at the stake.

Kramer's views seem to have been considered extreme, or at least doctrinally incorrect, even during his time. According to Wikipedia, "Kramer failed in his attempt to obtain endorsement for [the Malleus Maleficarum] from the top theologians of the Inquisition at the Faculty of Cologne, and they condemned the book as recommending unethical and illegal procedures, as well as being inconsistent with Catholic doctrines of demonology."

[1] Despite popular misconceptions, the church didn't conduct witch hunts during most of the medieval period. According to Wikipedia, "[t]hroughout the medieval era mainstream Christian teaching had denied the existence of witches and witchcraft, condemning it as pagan superstition." The persecution of witches didn't really start until the Reformation and Renaissance periods:

"The prosecution of witchcraft generally became more prominent throughout the late medieval and Renaissance era, perhaps driven partly by the upheavals of the era – the Black Death, Hundred Years' War, and a gradual cooling of the climate that modern scientists call the Little Ice Age (between about the 15th and 19th centuries). Witches were sometimes blamed. Since the years of most intense witch-hunting largely coincide with the age of the Reformation [emphasis added], some historians point to the influence of the Reformation on the European witch-hunt." (Wikipedia)

Viking Witch's "Magic Wand" Discovered In Ninth Century Grave (2013)

"A Viking metal rod which left experts baffled for more than a century has finally been identified as a 'magic wand' used by a witch to cast spells." Source: Daily Mail (2013).

"The staff, which was found in a ninth-century grave, is curved at the end - causing it to be misidentified as a fishing hook or a spit for roasting food.

"However, archaeologists have now concluded that it was in fact a magical item belonging to a sorceress who was 'on the margins of society'."

Note: Archaeologists believe that the wand (if that's what it really is) was buried in order to "remove its magical properties-possibly to prevent the witch coming back from the dead," but this is just speculation as far as I can tell. Likewise for the idea that this woman was some kind of outsider. Maybe she came from a village that hadn't been thoroughly Christianized. Who knows? If so, she could have been an important member of a group that still followed the old ways.

Sweden's "Witchcraft" Island Reveals Evidence Of Stone Age Rituals

"A Stone Age site where cave rituals may have been performed some 9,000 years ago has been discovered on Blå Jungfrun, an island off the east coast of Sweden. The island has long been associated with tales of witchcraft, curses and supernatural powers." Source: Live Science (2015).

Notes: "According to a centuries-old legend, witches gather every Easter on the island to worship the devil himself. Curses have also been associated with the island. For instance, those who remove a rock from the site are said to endure a lifetime of bad luck." No one knows how old these stories are.

As it turns out, the theory that the cave was used for Stone Age rituals is mostly hypothetical and based on the cave's layout, which apparently features a "very narrow" passage leading into an open area that could have served as kind of "theater or stage" where participants watched the rituals. A hammerstone and "an area that was used for grinding up material" was also discovered. "This area 'could have been used to place something in, perhaps as part of some form of offering, like an altar,'" according to one archaeologist involved with the excavation.

"In Swedish folklore Blå Jungfrun, or 'The Blue Virgin' Island was seen as a magical or supernatural place where evil spirits dwelled, and it was best avoided by sailors,"according to Ancient Origins (2015),  "It was thought that witches met on the island, especially at Easter, to cavort and worship the devil. Large cavities in the rock along the shore, called 'jättegrytor' were attributed to giants."

Ancient Pre-Columbian Psychedelic Kit Discovered

"A small pouch, made from three fox snouts neatly sewn together, may contain the world’s earliest archaeological evidence for the consumption of ayahuasca, a psychoactive plant preparation indigenous to peoples of the Amazon basin that produces potent hallucinations." Source: National Geographic.

"The pouch likely belonged to a shaman in what is now southwestern Bolivia around a thousand years ago, according to José Capriles, an anthropologist at Penn State University and an author of a paper published on the discovery today in the journal PNAS."

Note: An analysis of the pouch's contents "revealed traces of bufotenine [found in toad skins and mushrooms, among other things], benzoylecgonine [a cocaine metabolite] and cocaine (likely from coca leaf), dimethyltryptamine (DMT), harmine [an alkaloid found in ayahuasca], and possibly psilocin, a chemical component of psychedelic mushrooms."

Drugs In Early Americas Included Magic Mushrooms And Toad Skins

"From hallucinogenic mushrooms and cacti to alcohol-infused enemas and psychoactive dried toad skins, the array of consciousness-altering substances that people in the early Americas used was wider than thought, a new report suggests." Source: Live Science.(2014)

Note: "At least 54 hallucinogenic mushrooms in the genus Psilocybe were used by pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, and those mushroom species can still be found today in Mexico, according to the report. Psilocybin is the hallucinogenic compound in these mushrooms that produces mind-altering effects."

The Battle Of Tours & The Modern Islamification Of Europe

Charles Martel's victory over the Moors/Saracens at the Battle of Tours, one of the most critical battles in the history of the West, "rescued our ancestors of Britain and our neighbors of Gaul from the civil and religious yoke of the Koran," according to Gibbon. The importance of this battle can't be overestimated.

"Few battles are remembered over 1000 years after they are fought, but an exception is the battle of Poitiers [another name for the battle of Tours] in 732, where Charles Martel turned back a Muslim raid that, had it been allowed to continue, might have led to the conquest of Gaul." -- Fighting Techniques of the Medieval World, p. 19. Note: this battle of Poitiers shouldn't be confused with the battle of Poitiers that took place during the Hundred Years' War.

The battle of Tours checked the Muslims' advances into western Europe after they had carried out a long series of destructive incursions into north Africa, Spain, the Near East, and eastern Europe. In 719 AD, the forces of al-Hurr al-Thaqafi captured the southern French city of Narbonne, but were subsequently defeated by Duke Eudo of Aquitaine:

"The Muslims withdrew only to return in two years with a far larger army, which defeated Eudo and pursued him as far as Tours, the major religious center. In 732, between the towns of Tours and Poitiers, the two armies [the western forces now under the command of Charles Martel] faced one another for seven days without fighting," according to A History of the Middle Ages, by John M. Riddle (p. 147). The Muslims ran out of patience and attacked first, but "could not penetrate the Franks' lines." By nightfall, the Muslims withdrew.

If Martel hadn't defeated the Moors, western Europe would probably be Muslim today, but everything that goes around comes around and it's starting to look like the sacrifices those Frankish soldiers made were all in vain. Europe has degenerated to the point where its corrupt leaders are now welcoming the Muslims with open arms and European liberals are cheering them as they pour into their countries.

Video from 2015.

I wonder what Martel would have said if he'd known that huge crowds of Muslims would be praying in the streets of modern Paris, blocking traffic in a passive statement of political power with the full cooperation of the authorities? Would he have bothered to fight the Saracens if he'd known that modern Europeans would simply invite the Muslims into their countries, all in the name of "diversity" and "multiculturalism?"

Video from 2010.

1,283 years after the battle of Tours, the Muslims are achieving through immigration what they couldn't achieve through warfare in the Middle Ages. The Islamification of Europe is happening at an incredible rate. It was already well advanced before the latest "refugee crisis," which may turn out to be the modern equivalent of the Germanic tribes pouring into the Roman Empire.

Video from 2015.

The "barbarians" who overran Rome had a lot in common with the Romans, however. Islam is a foreign and hostile religion, totally incompatible with western civilization. If something doesn't happen soon, Europe is finished, assuming that it isn't too late already. Betrayed by their own leaders, demoralized by the poison of Cultural Marxism, the decaying welfare states of western Europe seem to be committing cultural suicide. Are we witnessing the birth of the future state of Eurabia? Don't think it can't happen, because it is happening.

Charles Martel had it easy. He only had to stop a military invasion. The current crisis is something completely different.

The Eucharist & Cannibalism

Comment: The Eucharist or Holy Communion is clearly an act of symbolic cannibalism, so it's not too surprising that the Romans, acting on vague reports of Christian rituals, would have accused the new cult of practicing actual cannibalism.

The negative Roman view of the early Christians was partly based on distorted rumors about their practices. For instance, the Christians were accused of incest because they called each other "brother and sister." And the charges of cannibalism were especially repulsive.

The Romans would have associated the stories of how Christians ate the flesh and drank the blood of their god with sieges, barbaric eastern cults and legends from Greek mythology: the Thyestean Feast, for instance, in which Atreus killed Thyestes' sons, cooked them and served them to their unknowing father. The stories aren't the same, of course, but the difference between the Communion and real cannibalism would have been lost on the practical-minded Romans.

In this case, it's hard to blame the Romans because the new religion did practice cannibalism. Symbolic cannibalism. And it still does.

Christians do what they can to obfuscate this strange practice, but it's hard to explain away the real significance of what they're doing. When Christians take communion, they are participating in an act of ritual magic in which the bread and wine are miraculously transformed into the actual body and blood of Christ. If that isn't symbolic cannibalism, I don't know what is.

Ritual cannibalism, whether it's symbolic or real, is designed to produce a spiritual transformation. For example, warrior societies often believed -- and some still believe -- that they could absorb the power of their enemies by eating them. In the same way, the follower of a god could literally absorb the spirit and power of the god through an act of sacred cannibalism.

The Communion, a ritual with ancient pagan roots, is surrounded by a fog of mystery and mystical jargon designed to obscure its real meaning, and some theologians, in typical fashion, defend it by claiming that it simply can't be understood. According to New Advent, for instance, "the Church honors the Eucharist as one of her most exalted mysteries, since for sublimity and incomprehensibility it yields in nothing to the allied mysteries of the Trinity and incarnation." [Emphasis added]

In other words, Christianity is a mystery religion.

The connection between the Eucharist and cannibalism is so clear that theologians are compelled to try to explain it away using doubletalk, hairsplitting and paradox to deny the obvious:

"If Catholics believe the Eucharist really is the body and blood of Christ, then they believe they are eating human flesh and drinking human blood," according to The Catholic Thing (2011). "But while holy Communion does involve eating human flesh and blood, it is not true that it is cannibalistic." 

In other words, cannibalism is not cannibalism, which, by definition, is the eating of human flesh by another human being.

The article goes on to make several arguments against the idea that the Communion is actually a form of ritual or symbolic cannibalism,  but none of them are very convincing. For instance, cannibals supposedly only eat the dead, but "the Eucharist is life." Therefore, the Communion can't be cannibalistic. Likewise, "the Eucharist is the whole body and blood of Jesus Christ [but] cannibals only take part of their victims." Apparently, you're not a cannibal if you eat the living and clean your plate.

Most of the arguments here are based on mysticism. For example, the Communion isn't cannibalistic because "when a Catholic receives the Eucharist, he is receiving not just flesh but glorified flesh, a resurrected and transfigured 'super body' that foreshadows the new reality of a new Heaven and a new earth." I'm not sure that this is much of an argument, though. It makes it sound like the Eucharist isn't just cannibalism, but the glorified cannibalism of a super-body with transcendental powers.

I could go on with this, but why bother? Eating human flesh and drinking human blood is obviously cannibalistic even if the flesh and blood are purely symbolic. The truth is that the Eucharist is an act of theophagy -- "feeding on a god" -- with roots in very ancient, pre-Christian fertility rituals. Theophagy is "the act of eating one's god, either literally or symbolically," according to the Free Dictionary. And millions of Christians eat their god on a regular basis around the world.

It's not surprising to find a ritual like this at the very heart of a religion which originated as a mystery cult in Hellenized Israel.