The Sacred Feminine and Goddess Worship

Sue Bohlin www.probe.org

Claims Made in The DaVinci 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 thus valid religious expression. Powerful men in the early church lied to the world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and goddess worship.

Claims Made in The DaVinci 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.

Claims Made in The DaVinci 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.

"The pentacle . . . is a pre-Christian symbol 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.

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)

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

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

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

The Goodmans work with the Goddess in conscious ways to enhance their relationship. They start each day with a ritual, kneeling at their bedroom altar and verbally acknowledging the Feminine in the form of Gaia and the Masculine in the form of the Christ Consciousness. (Men and the
Goddess)

"Early religion was based on the divine order of Nature. The goddess Venus and the planet Venus were one and the same. The goddess had a place in the nighttime sky and was known by many namesVenus, the Eastern Star, Ishtar, Astarteall of them powerful female concepts with ties to Nature and Mother Earth." (p. 36)

The Nature of the Sacred Feminine

Love and Beauty (Venus, Aphrodite, Astarte) Motherhood (Gaia, Mother Earth) Wisdom Emotions Homemaking Nurturing Creativity Imagination Life forces of birth and nurture, growth and fertility

The Nature of the Sacred Feminine

Personal (Goddess Venus, Mary Magdalene) Impersonal (planet Venus, spirit of the goddess)

"Gazing out at the rustling trees of College Garden, Langdon sensed her playful presence. 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, all glistening 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 to remind Langdon that the fruit of knowledge was growing just beyond his reach." (p. 420)

The Nature of the Sacred Feminine

Both personal and impersonal: "For a moment, he thought he heard a woman's voice. . . the wisdom of the ages. . . whispering up from the chasms of the earth." (p. 484)

Goddess Worship
"The Priory's tradition of perpetuating goddess worship is based on a belief that powerful men in the early Christian church 'conned' the world by propagating lies that devalued the female and tipped the scales in favor of the masculine."

"The Priory believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever." (p. 124)

Goddess Worship in the Bible

Jeremiah 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 fell apart. 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 . . .

Revisionist History in The DaVinci Code

"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 demonized and 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.

"This concept of woman as life-bringer was the foundation of ancient religion. Childbirth was mystical and powerful. Sadly, Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female's creative power by ignoring biological truth and making man the Creator.

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)

"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.

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 sacred feminine." (p. 238-239)

Sex and Worship

"It's important to remember that the ancients' view of sex was entirely opposite 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)

"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 powerful female 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.

 The Jewish tetragrammaton YHWHthe sacred name of God in fact derived from Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between the masculine Jah and the preHebraic name for Eve, Havah." (p. 309) Heiros Gamos (sacred marriage)

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 cult prostitute. 1 Kin 14:24 There were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

CLAIM: Nature worship is a natural and desirable religion TRUTH: 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.

CLAIM: Goddess worship is an ancient and thus valid religious expression TRUTH: There is a myth of the evolution of religion: animism-->polytheism->monotheism. Religion started with the God of the Bible; other forms are a devolution CLAIM: Powerful men in the early church lied to the world about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and goddess worship TRUTH: The suppressed story of Jesus and Mary Magdalenes marriage never happened. Goddess worship was never a part of Christianity.

CLAIM: Mary Magdalene was divine "The Priory of Sion, to this day, still worships Mary Magdalene 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 Purist Documentsthousands of pages of unaltered, pre-Constantine documents, written by the early followers of Jesus, revering Him 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

CLAIM: Constantine and his male successors converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal 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 Christianity TRUTH: Constantine was never a church leader. Church leaders stood for biblical truth and against false beliefs such as animism and goddess worship.

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 the females creative power and made man the Creator. Genesis was written to recast the woman as inferior. TRUTH: Man has never been creator, God is. The role 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.

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

 Jesus first appeared to women after His resurrection and gave them the privilege and responsibility 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 coworkers in the home churches and co-laborers in the gospel Women were allowed to pray and prophesy in public worship services The marital status of women was elevated to a position of respect and love previously unseen in any culture.

What God Thinks about Goddess Worship and the Sacred Feminine

I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.