Each year the Sun reestablishes its apparent northward movement on the 25th of December, marking the position at which light begins to increase in the northern hemisphere.  This phenomenon is much grander in scope and more awesome in infinite power than is any imagined virgin birth of a demigod or some oil lamp in a temple allegedly burning on limited oil for eight days.  The interaction of planet Earth and the Sun is in every way a much truer covenant extended to all life by the creative universal power than are the ego-gratifying stories of special favor extended by god only to some select assemblage of people. 

For our ancient ancestors—those much maligned Pagans—who felt a more intimate connection with nature and the observable heavens than is acknowledged today, there was no egotistical need to disguise the natural occurrences such as the solstice and equinox periods as being some mythic miracle performed only for a favored few. 

For seven days following the end of the Winter Solstice (Dec. 25), which was honored by the Pagans as “Mother Night,” the beginning of increasing light was reason for celebration and the exchange of gifts among family and friends to acknowledge the approach of production and abundance.  And in this period, in recognition of the true miracle of the Sun’s support of life, the customary salutation upon parting with loved ones or friends was the blessing, “May your light increase.” 

After seven days of celebration from Earth’s apparent emergence from the long nights, the routine chores of life were taken up anew, and a new cycle was calculated from the end of that seven-day celebration period.  Thus the time of the New Year observance that is today recognized across much of the world has its foundation in Pagan recognition of the scientific principles that are active throughout the universe and demonstrated in the Earth/Sun relationship. 

The awe-inspiring universe was perceived by Pagan cultures to be aliving thing–a vast unified consciousness.  When the Pagans looked out into the universe they identified something at work that was much grander in scope than do the constraining faith systems of today which choose to imagine some humanlike personification presiding over and directing that all-embracing power.  The Pagans felt an intimacy with that enfolding universal power which the practice of ecclesiasticism can never experience.  The spiritual attunement of the ancient Pagans with the surrounding universe confirmed for them the interrelatedness of all things.  They would judge as weirdly unrealistic the religious interpretations postulated by self-serving faith systems today that Creation’s power is separate, distant and aloof from everything that is made manifest. 

Humankind’s invented hierarchical faith systems always have an unfortunate tendency to leave their followers with vague, uneasy feelings of being unfulfilled, which inevitably erodes their spirit with unrecognized resentment.  By ignoring Nature and the universe, and focusing exclusively upon itself, these faith systems have become systems in which one must will themselves to believe rather than feel one’s unity with it all.  Intricately structured faith systems such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam are not faiths that can be assessed as arising from natural expressions of consciousness.  They are, unfortunately, faith systems that encourage a denial of compassion for all things and beings that coexist with them in spite of their faith system’s self-set boundaries.  The reason behind their negative approach to Creation’s wealth of diversity is that allowing oneself to be open to feel compassion for all life is curtly dismissed by male-dominated faith systems as a feminine aspect and is therefore unworthy to be cultivated.  In other words, such faith systems are formulated to gratify their egos through carefully crafted hypocrisy. 

It is unlikely that each individual’s higher potential was fashioned by a Creator to simply act as some separate organ of some religious social structure.  Dedicating oneself to what is only a man-conceived faith system reduces followers to little more than hive workers and breeders who, through indoctrination processing and mental conditioning, would find emotional survival virtually impossible if separated from the body of their faith system.  Followers of such systems are made blind to the beautiful transcendent unity that is made possible in the acceptance of all diverse people.  The binding element in that acceptance is the yearning of human spirit for enlightenment, and that is not achieved through some self-imposed alienation from everything else. 

Despite mankind’s struggles with such bouts of self-inflicted delusions, the heavens still bear witness to the flow of Creation.  We need only to remove the blinders that have been placed over our eyes by those who make a habit of taking advantage of our blindness.  Lured away from adoring the unity of all things, which is openly expressed and demonstrated in the universe, we have been “guided” to seek spiritual enlightenment by huddling together in echoing “sanctified” enclosures.  There, the devout are given role models of heroes and saints and saviors and kings who would never have accepted being herded into such self-demeaning behavior as self-dedicated faith systems teach. 

But the universe continues to fuse it all together by patiently extending allowance for wide-ranging diversity.  If mankind wishes to pretend that it is the sum-total of universal wisdom, the universe can afford to be patient.  Meanwhile the interaction of Earth and the Sun annually extends and reaffirms the covenant to all life, and that power is not restricted by time or mankind’s self-imposed limited beliefs.  As another New Year unfolds, that covenant is renewed. 

The last character in holy scriptural accounts to whom god allegedly appeared visibly was to Solomon.  There is a reason for this, and it is traceable to earlier Pagan scientific knowledge.  In the development of energy into the stage of visible matter, the first visible phenomenon of that activity is a focused point of light.  And that concentrated light shines as a transformation marker in the development of dense matter, and ancient Pagan teachings referred to that in-between stage as etheric matter, which they symbolized with the Sun. 

So significant is the energy change out of the etheric matter stage that a whole book is dedicated to it in the Hebrew Bible.  It is the Old Testament book known as the Song of Solomon, which tends to embarrass the “experts” on religious meanings.  What these “songs” were drawn upon were in regard to creation activity where what they referred to as etheric matter figuratively becomes enamored with the potentiality of dense matter.  The “songs” attributed to Solomon were fashioned on lyrics that came down in oral tradition long before priests in Jerusalem gathered them into canonical form.  Despite all their vivid imagery, however, the lyrics really have nothing to do with physical sexual excitement, so the “experts” can breathe a sigh of relief. 

The mythic character of Solomon personifies that etheric nature of the Sun which radiates and rules over the life force active in the dimension of energy-as-matter.  Allegorically, Solomon therefore is depicted as lord or king over the dense matter dimension of energy.  The Sun, being visible but not developed as a dense matter object, is a logical marker of energy poised between prototype matter and defined matter.  Once the scientific basis of Pagan symbolism is understood—that Solomon represents the solar power—all the claims presented for the character become clarified. 

In regard to Solomon being the last character in holy scripture to allegedly see the Creator visibly, the ancient Pagan teachings should be consulted.  When the development of energy into dense matter form is achieved, the primal stages of development of that energy cease to be seen from that advanced form.  Figuratively, the Sun, as first stage of visible matter therefore may “see” that primal creative energy which is personified as the creator-god.  For this reason the scriptures record no more personal appearances of the deity to be seen by any of the subsequent scriptural characters.  All the succeeding characters that merit storytelling gain their “divine” insight only through visions and dreams, not from any direct encounter with the deity. 

It must be remembered that the books 1 and 2 Kings, in which Solomon is featured, were written centuries after the purported events.  The author was most likely Baruch ben Nerian, the scribe of the”prophet” Jeremiah.  The name Solomon was derived from the Roman word Sol, i.e.the Sun; and Om (or Aum) from the Hindu mantra characterizing supreme power; and On, the Chaldean/Egyptian address to the Sun. ( Yes, the priests of Yahweh in Jerusalem were aware of Hindu belief.)  As the representative of the Sun which rules over the solar family, it becomes obvious why Solomon was characterized as having unparalleled wisdom, for light has alway symbolized wisdom.  And knowing that Solomon is representative of the Sun, the enormous wealth that he allegedly possessed has rationality.  The legendary “mines” from which he is alleged to have drawn his wealth is the Sun itself. 

Past generations have been more cognizant of the fact that biblical tales often hold great importance on numbers.  Indeed, numbers served as symbols that, in themselves, tell the initiates a far different story than they do to those who take each tale at face value.  Authors of scriptural tales often played with these numbers, disguising them within myths.  The Hebrew word yod, for example, is the number six, and it signified god at the sixth dimension (“day”) of Creation.  When yod was repeated three times it was a (magical) devotional address to god.  That numerical code is found in the myth of Solomon in the allegation that his gold mines yielded “…six hundred threescore and six talents of gold” per year (1 Kings 10:14).  Thus the gold value disguised 6+6+6, or yod repeated three times.  The Hebrew-Judaic regard for the devotional three-time recitation of yod was therefore inverted by the Christian authors and cast into Beast 666 in the jumbled book of Revelation.  Such is the spiritual value of “revealed word.” 

Clues to the occult meaning of the character of the scriptural Solomon are hidden in hints such as the name given for Solomon’s mother: Bathsheba.  And there is the story feature that the Queen of Sheba is said to have come to Solomon for his blessing.  The word sheba means “seven,” and in ancient Pagan teachings the seventh plane of energy development is the achievement of visible matter (symbolized with the Sun), which heralds energy involvement as dense matter. 

When the more ancient (and scientifically based) Pagan symbolism is consulted, it becomes clear why—in spite of all the claims made of Solomon’s wealth and world recognition—he was never mentioned in any records of any of the nations that supposedly interacted with him.  All the deeds and eccentricities of Solomon are to be found only in Hebrew scriptural myth. 

There is a curious feature in scriptural storytelling lineup, which is that in the timeframes after the unverifiable Solomon no one, not even the “prophets,” ever encountered so much as an angel, let alone receive “revelations’ directly from a visible deity.  The closest that any “prophet” ever came to seeing even an angel was the minor “prophet” Zechariah, and he saw that angel only in a vision. 

The belief in angels is also traceable to Pagan wisdom also.  The ancient lesson on Creation taught of available units of creative energy which are drawn upon by all matter-forms from the non-manifest conditions of Source.  Creative energies necessarily accompany and sustain every faction of matter-life; thus everyone and every thing can figuratively be said to have their “guardian angels.”  They do, however, have the annoying habit of remaining invisible. 

For those who choose to believe that every word in the Bible is inviolable, the only thing that they prove by that stance is that they ignore how it was compiled by a cut-and-paste method.  Most of the writings that are known as the New Testament were established by canon sometime after 200 CE.  In this process the “fathers” of Christianity were highly selective in the choices of their scriptural literature, often rejecting some parts within a literary work of even rejecting complete works of the same general tone.  This gathering of materials took place to set up the politics to be structured into their faith system and it required careful pruning and rejection of many literary works that were in use among the outlying cults of the movement that were springing up throughout the Roman Empire.  The “fathers,” in their zeal to impose a management system upon as many seekers as possible, indulged themselves in a pick-and-choose orgy of various literary works that often proved to be overly contradictory. 

With politics of the struggling faith system always in the back of their minds the “fathers” therefore found the Gospel of John to be tolerable but cast aside similar works such as The Dialogue of Thomas.  They favored the Gospel of John because it happened to be written in such a manner that it could be utilized (read altered) to promote certain policies for an authoritarian structure that the “fathers” favored.  Gnostic-like works such as the Dialogue of Thomas and similar works encompassed a much broader or freer acceptance of religious practice than the power-seeking “fathers” preferred.  The “fathers” wanted the people to become totally reliant upon the dictates of the church representatives.  If seekers believed that one could approach the power that was personified as God only through his son-agent, and the church was the son’s representative, then the church had to be obeyed. 

Thus the literary works that were not rejected survived the selection process simply because the chosen works served the political need of the newly emerging authority-seeking priest class.  The shapers of the rudimentary Christian cult followed the example of the priest authors that had been devoted to Yahweh in the 7th century BCE in Jerusalem and who understood that the basic institutional structure of their religion had to have the apparent support of “authorized” scriptures. 

The political platform upon which episcopal authroity (church government) campaigned and overran the more natural and honest relgions at that time was the insistence that each person had to have a means beyond their own personal power to approach the creative primacy that was/is personified as “God.”  In this way the concept of personal integrity being the means of achieving “salvation” shifted into a totally churchy matter and no longer a personal affair between a seeker and their Creator.  This irrational intrusion of having the church thrust between a seeker and the Absolute had to carry the appearance of being divinely ordained if it was to become an influencing factor over the masses.  And this is what accounts for the selection of Gospels that have been held out to Christians for nearly 2000 years as being God’s singularly approved pathway to heaven.  It was not simply coincidence that those painstakingly selected literary works allowed for the souls of the seekers to held hostage as a means of financial resources and political muscle for the church wheeler-dealers. 

There is an unfathomable amount of creative activity swirling everywhere around us that we cannot personally perceive but which science opens to us a somewhat broader understanding.  Even so, the unknown remains vast.  We scrawny human beings still have to work around the fact that we are limited physical beings and, as an example, even those persons privileged with perfect eyesight see only vibrations between 450 trillions of red light and 750 trillions of violet light.  And those with “perfect” hearing actually hear only vibrations within the 32,000-33,000 range.  That is like hearing only one small tonal chord in the vast symphony of Creation.  Dogs, cats, and other animals—even insects—often have certain better physical senses than we embody.  So we should stop pretending that we are the undisputed masters over nature or that we are the darlings of a humanlike Creator, and face up to the reality that the how and where we fit into the universal diversity of “existence” is extremely limited. 

With only our personal aware consciousness to appraise universal consciousness from this dense matter perspective, the bulk of Creation’s dynamism cannot be perceived.  There are whole dimensions of creative action that exist beyond our limited awareness.  It was noted in The Celestial Scriptures that it is with our physical senses that each of us stays constantly in touch with the truth of the universe, although the illusion of our matter-being tends to cause us to respond to it inappropriately (selfishly) rather than respond with responsible coexistence. 

Through science research we know that transitional levels of energy exist.  Atoms were once thought to be the ultimate building blocks of all energy forms.  But after exhaustive research there was found to be even more minuscule energy levels that are apparently activated from the quantum level—a level, it was found, that is influenced by how it is observed.  What this seems to suggest is that an awareness we term consciousness is present even in quantum causation.  But that all-encompassing creative consciousness should never be thought of as a humanlike being complete with humanlike feelings, prejudices and weaknesses as the practice of religious escapism commonly chooses to picture it. 

Electric force is one of the fundamental forces of Nature, but only recently have researchers identified a physical phenomenon of electric force that they refer to as electromagnetic rotation.  With this new awareness of this phenomenon there is presented to mankind a means of better understanding how the smallest building blocks in nature interact to form gases, liquids and solids that make up the material world we know.  An interesting feature of electrostatic rotation is that when it is induced without the occurrence of friction the result is the initiation of spin.  And it is spin that is used in quantum mechanics to explain phenomena at the nuclear, atomic, and molecular domains.  This could lead to a deeper understanding of the fundamental properties of matter, which, unfortunately, holy “revealed” writings have never been able to explain. 

So man’s scientific inquiry into the unseen workings of the universe is not exactly an irreverent indulgence as fundamental religionists often claim.  It is really more of a determined attempt at expanding man’s awareness which confirms humanity’s close relationship to all that is created.  Delving into Creation’s wonder-workings therefore expresses man’s willto expand spirit as opposed to religious indulgence which appeals only to each person’s ego.  Ego, we should remember, always identifies itself as centrally positioned in every situation. 

Human disposition must learn that it is only when ego can look upon its intimate relationship with all things without a commitment to the temporary physical senses that one’s potential “divine” nature begins to open up.  Yes, this sounds like religious rhetoric: but the subtle difference is that the religious message is always bound up with sectarian centralism.  This awareness of our close interreltatednesswith all things that are seen and unseen is the key held out by all the wise spiritual leaders and classic philosophers when they have counseled man, “Know thyself.” 

Secrets of DNA were actually known to academic men in ancient cultures such as Sumer, Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, the Indus Valley, etc.  This may seem to be an exaggerated claim, but the proof of that scientific knowledge happens to be recorded in many art representations of those ancient cultures.  That knowledge is even presented, although in a less persuasive version, in the Old Testament. 

The most telling art alluding to DNA from those more ancient cultures—older than the priest-authors of “scriptures”—was of the Mesopotamian region—Sumer/Babylonia.  The secrets of genetics and biomedicine are fully depicted in many wall sculpture and bas-reliefs—the images of entwined serpents—an emblem used to this day for the arts of medicine and healing. 

In ancient Egypt, too, entwined serpents symbolized life, and the “god” associated with that symbol was known as PTAH, the developer.  That the scientific principle of DNA was known in ancient Egypt is artfully presented in the myth of the half brothers Seth and Osiris.  Seth was the unscrupulous one, and sought the domain ruled over by his brother Osiris.  Seth made two attempts to dispose of Osiris, the second time by seizing Osiris, murdering him and cutting his body into fourteen parts, which he scattered across the world.  Osiris’ grieving wife, Isis, managed to recover all parts of her husband’s body except for his phallus.  With the help of the god Thoth, the Divine Scribe, they managed to extract “the essence” from Osiris’ body from which Isis impregnated herself and eventually gave birth to the god, Horus.  It is the first known recorded case of artificial insemination! 

In biblical myth the reference to life’s DNA connection is in the presentation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden.  A fertilizing gamete of a male (spermatozoon) is a long nucleated cell with a thin, mobile tail; which is to say it is serpentine in appearance, and is why in the Genesis myth it is the Serpent that awakens life-awareness in Eve. 

Later in the Genesis myth, the rivalry expressed in the Egyptian Seth/Osiris myth is echoed in the myth of Cain murdering Abel.  The later priest-authors dedicated to Yahweh, however, were a little fuzzy on the scientific particulars expressed in the Egyptian tale, and interpreted it as an underlying rivalry between agriculture and animal breeding. 

The sacred Serpent of the pre-Jewish Hebrews was Nehushtan or Ne-esthan from the Hebrew root NHSH, which meant, “to decipher”or to make out the meaning.  Again the serpent was a reference to the life-awakening power symbolized with the squiggling fertilizing gamete.  Thus in the book of Numbers this is the meaning behind the story of Moses making—at God’s command—the Brazen Serpent that was to be placed upon a pole (Numbers 21:9).  The symbolism got lightly brushed with superstition by saying that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he would behold the serpent of brass, he lived. 

The point of mentioning these few examples is to show that the understanding of the Serpent figure as symbolizing the creative impulsion was worldwide in ancient times.  The accusation extended in the Judeo-Christian faith that the Serpent represents evil was therefore far from universal.  It demonstrates that in the competing divisions of religious politics it is common practice to use the competition’s emblems as representing evil.  Thus in Judeo-Christian myth the creative wisdom represented with the serpent became inverted. 

Genuine freedom for everyone, as the US Constitution proclaims, certainly is not being served by persons who seek to bring down the Founding Fathers’ ideals of governing, which wisely stressed separation of church and state.  Nor should the right of free speech be twisted into a perverse interpretation that it is a license to proselytize to captive audiences of school students as the overly vocal bloc of Christian radicals, such as the noble-sounding Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), have chosen to interpret it.  This Christian rightwing legal affiliation has trained more than nine hundred lawyers in the art of sidestepping tolerance and compassion for any who may live or believe differently than they. 

If the idea that religious fanatics can influence the US Supreme Court sounds impossible, think again.  Since 1995 the Supreme Court has been leaning more and more toward passing judgments that threaten to undermine the safeguard of separation of church and state as championed by our nations’ Founding Fathers. 

It all began with the landmark case Rosenberger vs. the Regents of the University of Virginia.  The charge brought forth by the so-called Alliance Defense Fund was that secular clubs were funded through student activity fees, but the fees were not available to fund religious student groups.  This shameless jargon used by the ADF to cause the Supreme Court to deviate from the Establishment Clause* was due to the fact that the university could not by law appear to endorse any particular religion—thus the ADF howled “viewpoint discrimination”! (* Establishment Clause: one of two “religion clauses” of the First Amendment.) 

Since the religious radicals got their foot through the door, the Catholic dominated Supreme Court has bowed to the mythology of those claiming to be “victimized Christians,” and the court has continued to deviate from earlier and wiser precedence and has leaned toward the “reasoning” that if secular clubs were funded but not religious proselytizing groups, then discrimination was present! 

The irony of the very ones who so actively and loudly promoted discrimination against diverse lifestyles standing up and claiming to be victims of discrimination would be amusing if it wasn’t such a dangerous act of hatred and psychic terrorism.  They hide behind the trumped up claim that they are “biblically compelled” to condemn various groups; homosexuals, for example.  They like to use the Bible as their permission from god to indulge themselves in orgiastic hatred and intolerance.  In regard to same-sex appeal, discrimination is stirred up by using a half sentence verse of Romans (1:27); “…And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.” 

First, let us note that, as it is stated, woman was regarded as nothing more than an outlet to be used for man’s sexual release.  The line in question was not a religious directive and not reallly spiritual condemnation so much as simply reflecting the social etiquette of Rome c.100 CE, the time of the book of Romans‘ composing, the authorship of which has never been satisfactorily determined.  In addition, endless translations of “holy word” have not insured accuracy of what the verse-twisters like to allege. 

Diversity is highly respected in the energy-mechanism of Creation, for it is only through an unlimited spectrum of life expression that the Source is made absolute and omniscient.  To pretend otherwise, as radical religionists do, is true irreverence, for such hostile opposition to the natural diversity expressed in life in the guise of religious superiority is not reflected anywhere else in Nature or the universe.  That odious pretense of favoritism radiates chiefly around the endless parade of self-appointed mouthpieces of god.  They may build their earthly power structures and influence by fanning indulgence in bigotry, but it remains highly unlikely that the ladder to Heaven is outfitted with rungs of hatred. 

The Constitution of the United States of America was drafted in 1787 and became effective in 1789.  It is an extraordinary document, to which all laws of the land must conform.  By its carefully worded provisions, however, the field of its law stipulations is self-limiting, for the powers of sovereignty of the United States are divided between Federal and State governments.  All states have constitutions of their own, but state laws must conform to both the Federal and to the State constitution.  The Preamble of the Federal Constitution is a stirring declaration, which, unfortunately, is little remembered in today’s hustle and bustle.  We should pause now and then to reconsider the ideals that were set forth in the short Preamble. 

“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” 

These wonderful and stirring ideals and intent did not blossom forth out of European models with its long and troubled line of kings, emperors, tyrants and heavy church domination.  The inspiration for such a declaration of noble purpose has been little acknowledged: the democratic principles came from the American Indians—the Iroquois Federation of five native nations which included the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida and Cayuga tribes.  The Iroquois Federation had, at the time of drafting of the U. S. Constitution, been in existence from around 1500—or for some 287 years. 

Each of the five tribes was self-governing, and no king presided over the Federation.  Each tribe was represented in a grand council, and members of the council decided upon a collective policy such as defense and trade agreements, but each tribe followed their own customs and tribal laws. 

The author/consultant/teacher Stan Steiner, whose interest was focused largely on western Indian cultures, wrote that Benjamin Franklin became intrigued with Indian forms of government around 1744.  Franklin attended a meeting of colonial governors in that year which was addressed by Chief Canasatego of the Iroquois Federation.  The Chief explained the Indian confederacy, saying that their means of governing were the same methods established by their wise forefathers.  He also asserted to the assembled governors that by observing the same methods “…you will acquire such strength and power…” as their union had provided. 

In 1754 delegates to the Albany Congress met to discuss matters of governing.  Benjamin Franklin was there and his suggestion was to study the Iroquois Federation system of governing.  His recommendation noted that the Indian system “…had subsisted for ages and appears indissoluble.”  But it would be decades before the Iroquois Federation model would inspire the gathering of statesmen in 1787.  Franklin was in attendance then as well when the democratic principles expressed by the Iroquois Federation became incorporated into the U. S. Constitution.