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Mithra, Light of the World

Excerpted from the forthcoming book

/Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled/ <sunsofgod.htm>

by Acharya S

"Mithra or Mitra is even worshipped as /Itu/ (/Mitra-Mitu-Itu/)
in every house of the Hindus in India. Itu (derivative of Mitu
or Mitra) is considered as the Vegetation-deity.  This Mithra or
Mitra (Sun-God) is believed to be a Mediator between God and
man, between the Sky and the Earth. It is said that Mithra or
Sun took birth in the Cave on December 25th. It is also the
belief of the Christian world that Mithra or the Sun-God was
born of Virgin. He travelled far and wide. He has twelve
satellites, which are taken as the Sun's disciples.... [The
Sun's] great festivals are observed in the Winter Solstice and
the Vernal Equinox--Christmas and Easter.  His symbol is the
Lamb...."

Swami Prajnanananda, /Christ the Saviour and Christ Myth/, 1961

Because of its evident relationship to Christianity, special attention
needs to be paid to the Persian/Roman religion of Mithraism. The worship
of the Indo-Persian god Mithras or Mithra dates back centuries or
millennia prior to the common era. The god is found as "Mitra" in the
Indian Vedic religion, which is over 3,500 years old, by conservative
estimates. When the Iranians separated from their Indian brethren, Mitra
became known as "Mithra" or "Mihr," as he is called in Persian.
Concerning the ancient unity of the Indian and Iranian peoples, Dr. Haug
states, according to Prasad:

"The relationship of the Avesta language to the most ancient
Sanskrit, the so-called Vedic dialect, is as close as that of the
different dialects of the Greek language (Aeolic, Ionic, Doric, or
Attic) to each other. The languages of the sacred hymns of the
Brahmans and of those of the Parsis are only the two dialects of the
separate tribes of one and the same nation?."

By around 1500 BCE, Mithra worship had made it to the Near East, in the
Indian kingdom of the Mitanni, who at that time occupied Assyria. Mithra
worship, however, was known also by that time as far west as the Hittite
kingdom, only a few hundred miles east of the Mediterranean, as is
evidenced by the Hittite-Mitanni tablets found at Bogaz-Köy in what is
now Turkey. As Halliday relates:

The history of Mithraism reaches back into the earliest records of
the Indo-European language. Documents which belong to the fourteenth
century before Christ have been found in the Hittite capital of
Boghaz Keui, in which the names of Mitra, Varuna, Indra, and the
Heavenly Twins, the Nasatyas, are recorded. Further, the forms, in
which the names are given, are not Iranian; and it almost certainly
follows that, at the time when they were written, the Iranian and
Indian stocks were not yet differentiated.

The Indian god Mitra, as we have seen, was essentially a sun god,
representing the "friendly" aspect of the sun. So too was the Persian
derivative Mithra, who was a "benevolent god" and the bestower of
health, wealth and food. Mithra also seems to have been looked upon as a
sort of Prometheus, for the gift of fire. His worship purified and freed
the devotee from sin and disease. Eventually, Mithra became more
militant, and is best known as a warrior. As the Indian scholar
Srivastava says:

The militant side of Mithra's personality casually indicated in the
/Avesta/ and the /Rigveda/ was fully developed in the later Mithraism?.

He is the creator of the world and the sovereign over all. He is the
officiating priest.

Like so many gods, Mithra was the light and power behind the sun. In
Babylon, Mithra was identified with Shamash, the sun god. Christian
authority and biblical commentator Matthew Henry (18^th century) stated
that "Mithra, the sun," was the god of King Shalmaneser V of Assyria,
who in the 8^th century BCE conquered Samaria and "carried away the
Israelites." Mithra was also the god of Darius, conqueror of Babylon,
who was considered the Messiah or /Christos/ by Jews during the
"Captivity." In fact, Mithra is Bel, the Mesopotamian and
Canaanite/Phoenician sun god, who is likewise Marduk, the Babylonian god
who represented both Jupiter and the sun. According to Clement of
Alexandria and Appion, Mithra is also Apollo.

Mithra's popularity and importance is evident from the prevalence of the
name "Mithradates" ("justice of Mithra") among Near Easterners by the
seventh century BCE. As Halliday relates:

It is not surprising?to find that Artaxerxes adopted Mithraism as a
royal cult. After the downfall of Persia, it remained an important
religion in Asia Minor, and the continuous use of the name of the
god in the formation of names, like Mithradates, bears testimony to
his popularity. The Seleucid successors of Alexander paid worship to
the god of light, truth and royalty, whose effulgence was equivalent
to the Tuch basilewV, which is but inadequately translated "the
Fortune of the King."

This aspect of Mithraism as a royal cult is illustrated by the
reliefs from the tomb of King Antiochus I Epiphanes of Commagene
(69-34 B.C.), which stood upon a spur of the Taurus overlooking the
valley of the Euphrates. Here the king is represented with tiara and
sceptre in the act of shaking the right hand of Mithras, whose
Persian cap is surrounded by a rayed solar nimbus.

In the 5^th century BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus mentioned the
"Persian Mitra" (Bk. 1, c. 131):

The following are certain Persian customs which I can describe from
personal knowledge. The erection of statues, temples, and altars is
not an accepted practice amongst them, and anyone who does such a
thing is considered a fool, because, presumably, the Persian
religion is not anthropomorphic like the Greek. Zeus, in their
system, is the whole circle of the heavens, and they sacrifice to
him from the tops of mountains. They also worship the sun, moon, and
earth, fire, water, and winds, which are their only original
deities: it was later that they learned from the Assyrians and
Arabians the cult of Uranian Aphrodite. The Assyrian name for
Aphrodite is Mylitta, the Arabian Alilat, the Persian Mitra.

Marincola notes that Herodotus is wrong about the Aphrodite-Mithra
connection, because Mithra is male, and Halliday thinks Herodotus
confused Mithras with his consort. However, others have asserted that
Mithra is bi-gendered. As Bell says, "Mithras, the Persian deity, was
both god and goddess?" "Mitra" may be a hyphenation of Maat, or Mut
("mother"), the Egyptian goddess of Truth and Justice, and Ra, the sun
god. Ancient authorities in addition to Herodotus who discuss Mithra
include Xenophon (Cyrop. viii. 5, 53 and ?c. iv. 24); and Plutarch
(Artax. 4 and Alexand. 30).

In time, the Persian Mithraism became infused with the more detailed
astrotheology of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, and was notable for its
astrology and magic; indeed, its priests or /magi/ lent their name to
the word magic. Included in the Mithraic development was the emphasis on
his early Indian role as a sun god. As Legge says:

?The Vedic Mitra was?originally the material sun itself, and the
many hundreds of votive inscriptions left by the worshippers of
Mithras to "the unconquered Sun Mithras," to the unconquered solar
divinity (/numen/) Mithras, to the unconquered Sun-God (/deus/)
Mithra, and allusions in them to priests (/sacerdotes/), worshippers
(/cultores/), and temples (/templum/) of the same deity leave no
doubt open that he was in Roman times a sun-god.

By the Roman legionnaires, Mithra was called "the divine Sun, the
Unconquered Sun." He was said to be "Mighty in strength, mighty ruler,
greatest king of gods! O Sun, lord of heaven and earth, God of Gods!"
Mithra was also deemed "the mediator" between heaven and earth, a role
often ascribed to the god of the sun.

Regarding Mithra, Bryant states:

Some make a distinction between Mithras, Mithres, and Mithra: but
they were all the same Deity, the Sun, esteemed the chief God of the
Persians.

In his proof of this assertion, Bryant cites Hesychius (6^th century
CE): "MiqraV o hlioV para PersaiV" ("Mithras, the sun of Persia") and
"MiqrhV o protoV en PersaiV QeoV" ("Mithres, the first god in Persia.").
Hesychius thus confirms not only the solar nature but also the /Persian/
origin of Mithra, still known in his day.

As stated, the priests of Mithra, and of Iranian sun and fire worship in
general, were the Magi, or Magas. According to Srivastava's detailed
analysis, the Magas entered India on a number of occasions over a period
of centuries, prior to and during the common era. At this point, Indian
sun worship became increasingly formalized, with elaborate rituals,
temples and images sprouting up, and, from the 6^th century CE onward,
royal names began to have "Mihira" (Mithra) in them, after a millennium
of integration (or reintegration) into Indian culture. Regarding the
Magi of Medea, west of Mesopotamia, Srivastava states:

Originally there had been fundamental differences between their way
of life and that of Persians, but later on there was a compromise,
out of which Mithraism was born not later than the 5^th -4^th cent.
B.C. Before the Persian impact, this cult was already influenced by
the religions of Babylonia and Chaldea.

Subsequent to the campaign of Alexander the Great, Mithra became the
"favorite deity" of Asia Minor. Christian writer George W. Gilmore, an
associate editor of the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious
Knowledge, says:

It was probably at this period, 250-100 B.C., that /the Mithraic
system of ritual and doctrine took the form which it afterward
retained./ Here it came into contact with the mysteries, of which
there were many varieties, among which the most notable were those
of Cybele.

Mithraism took hold with the upsurge of the notorious mysteries, which
flowed from Asia Minor to Greece and Rome, although Mithraism itself did
not penetrate Greece, likely due to the Greeks' aversion to all things
Persian, following the Persian Wars.

According to Plutarch, Mithraism began to be absorbed by the Romans
during Pompey's campaign against Cilician pirates around 70 BCE . The
religion eventually migrated from Asia Minor through the soldiers, many
of whom had been citizens of Asia Minor, into Rome and the far reaches
of the Empire. In fact, Mithraism can be found from India to Scotland,
with abundant monuments in numerous countries. As Robertson says:

In the early centuries of the Christian era Mithraism was the most
nearly universal religion in the Western world. The monumental
remains of the Roman period show its extraordinary extension in
almost all parts of the empire?.

Syrian merchants brought Mithraism to the major cities, such as
Alexandria, Rome and Carthage, while captives carried it to the
countryside. In short, Mithraism and its mysteries permeated the Roman
Empire. Among its secret society members were emperors, politicians and
businessmen:

In the first Christian century there were in Rome associations of
the followers of Mithra, probably organized as burial associations,
in accordance with a common device of that period employed to
acquire a legal status. The growth and importance of the cult in the
second century are marked by the literary notices; Celsus opposed it
to Christianity, Lucian made it the object of his wit. Nero desired
to be initiated; Commodus (180-192) was received into the
brotherhood; in the third century the emperors had a Mithraic
Chaplain; Aurelian (270-275) made the cult official; Diocletian,
with Galerius and Licinius, in 307 dedicated a temple to Mithra; and
Julian was a devotee.

As has been remarked upon by a number of writers, Mithraism was a
brotherhood with an all-male lodge-like structure much like the Masonry
of the past several centuries. As Legge states:

?there is no doubt women were strictly excluded from all the
ceremonies of the cult, thereby justifying in some sort the remark
of Renan that Mithraism was a "Pagan Freemasonry."

Robertson also says:

Mithraism was always a sort of freemasonry, never a public organization.

And Halliday comments:

?the general character of the initiatory rites was that which the
world at large associates with Freemasonry, and which, indeed, is
common to all similar kinds of religious ceremony in all stages of
culture down to the puberty ceremonies of savages.

In its entry under "Mithras," the Catholic/ /Encyclopedia states:

The small Mithraic congregations were like masonic lodges for a few
and for men only and even those mostly of one class, the military; a
religion that excludes the half of the human race bears no
comparison to the religion of Christ. Mithraism was all
comprehensive and tolerant of every other cult, the Pater Patrum
himself was an adept in a number of other religions; Christianity
was essential exclusive, condemning every other religion in the
world, alone and unique in its majesty.

In its attempts at distinguishing Catholicism from Mithraism and other
Pagan religions, the Catholic Encyclopedia boasts that, unlike those
ideologies, Christianity is intolerant and exclusive. One of the reasons
Mithraism did not last, in fact, is because /it/ excluded women. As
Legge says:

What they, and even more urgently their womenfolk, needed was a God,
not towering above them like the Eternal Sun, the eye of Mithras and
his earthly representative, shedding his radiance impartially upon
the just and the unjust; but a God who had walked upon the earth in
human form, who had known like themselves pain and affliction, and
to whom they could look for sympathy and help. Such a god was not to
be found in the Mithraic Cave.

Drews also discusses this development:

It has been said that Mithraism failed, in contrast with
Christianity, precisely because it did not spring from a strong
personality such as Jesus. There is this much truth in the
statement, that the Persian Mithra was a very shadowy form beside
Jesus, who came nearer to the heart, especially of women, invalids,
and the weak, in his human features and on account of the touching
description of his death.

In this scenario, of course, is a major reason for making Jesus Christ
into a "real person."

In any case, before its usurpation by Christianity Mithraism enjoyed the
patronage of some of the most important individuals in the Roman Empire.
In the fifth century, the emperor Julian, having rejected his
birth-religion of Christianity, adopted Mithraism and "introduced the
practise of the worship at Constantinople." An assassination attempt
allegedly was made on Julian by some of his Christian soldiers, whom he
supposedly forgave. Yet, Christians claimed that his death was
"predicted" in a "dream," ordered by Christ and executed by "St.
Mercurius," by which is probably meant that he was assassinated by
Christians, the pretext of the Persian battle used to cover up the
crime. In the sixth century, Christian writer John Malalas (Chronicle
13.25) related the Mercurius tale:

That same night Basil, the most holy bishop of Caesarea in
Cappadocia, saw in a dream the heavens opened and the Saviour Christ
seated on a throne and saying loudly, "Mercurius, go and kill the
emperor Julian, who is against the Christians."

St. Mercurius, standing before the Lord, wore a gleaming iron
breast-plate. Hearing the command he disappeared, and then he
re-appeared, standing before the Lord, and cried out, "The emperor
Julian has been fatally wounded and has died, as you commanded,
Lord." Frightened by the cry, bishop Basil woke up in confusion; for
the emperor Julian held him in honour both as an eloquent man and as
his fellow-student, and wrote to him frequently. St. Basil went to
church for the morning service, summoned all his clergy and told
them of his mysterious dream, and that the emperor Julian had been
fatally wounded and had died that same night. They all entreated him
to be silent and to tell nobody of such news.

The Chronicon Paschale repeats the same tale. "St. Mercurius," of
course, is none other than the god Mercury. In discussing the emperor's
death, the University of South Dakota's /On-line Encyclopedia of the
Roman Provinces/ ("Palestine") refers to "the /assassination/ of
Julian." Another writer, Daniel Foss, says:

The assassination of the Emperor Julian has not been solved to this
day; not even the direction of the fatal arrow is agreed upon:
whether from the Persian enemy or his own soldiers.

For Mithraism and Paganism in general, Julian's demise was the straw
that broke the camel's back. In fact, after Julian's death "the attack
of Christianity was definite and furious." After this point, Mithraism
began to decline and disappeared almost entirely until the end of the
15^th century, when it reappears sparsely in European literature and
imagery. Yet Mithraism had existed for several centuries and had made a
significant impact on the Roman world. Indeed, factoring in his
pre-Roman roots, Mithra could be considered the oldest "Roman" god:

If length of ancestry went for anything in such matters, [Mithras]
might indeed claim a greater antiquity than any deity of the later
Roman Pantheon, with the single exception of the Alexandrian gods.
Mithras was certainly worshipped in Vedic India, where his name of
Mitra constantly occurs in sacred texts as the "shining one,"
meaning apparently the material sun.

And, as Gilmore states, Mithraism's general shape was reached between
250-100 BCE, when its "system of ritual and doctrine took the form which
it afterward retained," centuries before the advent of Christianity.

/Mithra and the Bull/

In the past couple of decades Mithraism as a Persian religion of
antiquity prior to the common era has come under assault, with its main
scholar, Franz Cumont, likewise assailed. The argument is based chiefly
on the bull-slaying iconography, in which Mithra is depicted as standing
on the bull, in the process of slitting its throat, imagery found within
the Roman Mithraism and seemingly absent from the Persian version. As
Srivastava relates:

There is one significant difference between Indian Mitra and
Mithraic Mithra. Mithra is credited with the slaying of the bull,
but we do not find any reference to this legend in the Puranas or
other literature. No representation of this episode is found in the
Indian art, though it was frequently represented in the arts of Asia
Minor and Rome. There are many rites of initiation which are not
traceable in the Puranas.

Based on this apparent absence, it has been argued that Roman Mithraism
is a "new religion" similar only in name to Persian Mithraism. The
argument is in the main unconvincing and seems to be motivated by
Christian backlash attempting to debunk the well-founded contention that
Christianity copied Mithraism in many germane details. In reality, the
bull-slaying motif and ritual existed in numerous cultures prior to the
Christian era, regardless of whether or not it is depicted in literature
or iconography in Persia. In fact, the bull motif is a reflection of the
Age of Taurus, around 4500-2300 BCE, one of the 2,150-year ages created
by the precession of the equinoxes.

The presumption by scholars is that the precession of the equinoxes was
only "discovered" during the second century BCE by the Greek scientist
Hipparchus; nevertheless, it is quite evident that the precession was
well known, by the ruling elite and priestly faction, for millennia
prior to its purported "discovery." It is apparent that the precession
was known, by the ruling elite and priestly faction, for millennia prior
to its purported "discovery." In /Hamlet's Mill/, Santillana and Dechend
demonstrate knowledge of the precession at much earlier times, stating:

There is good reason to assume that he [Hipparchus] actually
rediscovered this, that it had been known some thousand years
previously, and that on it the Archaic Age based its long-range
computation of time.

Astronomer Dr. Krupp concurs:

The earliest known direct reference to precession is that of the
Greek astronomer Hipparchus (second century b.c.), who is credited
with discovering it. Adjustments of the Egyptian temple alignments,
pointed out by Sir Norman Lockyer, may well indicate a much earlier
sensitivity to this phenomenon, however.

Again, Krupp says:

Circumstantial evidence implies that the awareness of the shifting
equinoxes may be of considerable antiquity, for we find, in Egypt at
least, a succession of cults who iconography and interest focus on
duality, the bull, and the ram at appropriate periods for Gemini,
Taurus, and Aries in the precessional cycle of the equinoxes.

That the ancients followed precessional ages is revealed abundantly in
the archaeological record. For example, the sacred bull motif is found
in numerous places around the "known world" precisely during the Age of
Taurus. The change between the ages of Taurus and Aries is recorded even
in the Bible, at Exodus 12, where Moses institutes the sacrifice of the
lamb or ram instead of the bull. Clearly, something is amiss with our
historical chronology; keeping in mind the massive destruction of
culture and the pervasive tendency towards secrets and mysteries, it is
wise not to take sudden "discoveries" of this sort on face value.

The discernment of the Mithraic bull as representing the sign and age of
Taurus is likewise not new; indeed, in the 18^th century Dupuis insisted
upon the identification, as did Volney. By the end of the 19^th century
Christian writer Bunsen also wrote about the Taurean bull, first
speaking of Buddha as represented by the Lamb, but not the Bull, unlike
Mithra:

Buddha is never represented as a bull, like Mithras and the more
ancient solar heroes of the time when Taurus was the spring
equinoctial sign.

Bunsen further says:

Like Ormuzd, Mithras is represented riding on the bull, and Jehovah
is described as riding on the Cherub, Kirub or bull. This bull is
almost certainly the constellation of Taurus; and the same Mithraic
representation connects with the bull a scorpion, evidently the
opposite constellation. Also the Hebrews knew traditions according
to which the Memra or Word of God, the Messiah, was symbolised first
by fire, that is, by the fiery or brazen serpent, which probably
pointed to lightning, and later the Hebrews symbolised the Word by
the sun.

In addition to the bull motif are the degrees of initiation within
Mithraism, which Volney names as the "raven, griffin, soldier, lion,
Persian, courier of the sun, and father." He further states:

The real initiation was called sacramentum, possibly from the oath
not to divulge the doctrine and rites of which the initiate gained
knowledge. The various steps were accompanied by ablutions and
aspersions, signifying the purging away of sins. It would seem that
on attaining the rank of soldier, the candidate was branded with a
hot iron.

In his letter to Laeta, Jerome relates the levels of Mithraic initiation
as "Raven, Bridegroom, Soldier, Lion, Perseus, Sun, Crab, and Father."
Like the bull, these initiation degrees have been determined to
represent constellations, as part of the Mithraic "star map," as
demonstrated most recently by David Ulansey. In an article excerpted
from his book, /The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries: Cosmology and
Salvation in the Ancient World/, Ulansey says:

For the constellations pictured in the standard tauroctony have one
thing in common: namely, they all lay on the celestial equator as it
was positioned during the epoch immediately preceding the
Greco-Roman "Age of Aries." During that earlier age, which we may
call the "Age of Taurus," lasting from around 4,000 to 2,000 B.C.,
the celestial equator passed through Taurus the Bull (the spring
equinox of that epoch), Canis Minor the Dog, Hydra the Snake, Corvus
the Raven, and Scorpio the Scorpion (the autumn equinox): that is,
precisely the constellations represented in the Mithraic tauroctony?.

?In this "Age of Taurus" the celestial equator passed through
Taurus, Canis Minor, Hydra, Corvus, and Scorpio: precisely the
constellations pictured in the Mithraic bull-slaying icon?.

?Thus all of the figures found in the tauroctony represent
constellations that had a special position in the sky during the Age
of Taurus. The Mithraic tauroctony, then, was apparently designed as
a symbolic representation of the astronomical situation that
obtained during the Age of Taurus.

Mithra's slaying of the Bull was an act that became as central to
Mithraism as was the crucifixion to Christianity. The bull represented
rebirth, fertility and fecundity, with his blood corresponding to the
wine of the mysteries. The sacrifice of the bull was reenacted in the
Mithraic baptism, a mystery rite in which the initiates were splattered
with the blood. The initiate was then said to have been "born again."
Concerning the Mithraic ritual, Halliday says:

Naturally enough, the baptism of bull's blood came to be interpreted
in a more spiritual sense than that of its originally magical
purpose. The bath of bull's blood cleansed the initiate from sin;
its performance was regarded as the day of his spiritual birth?; he
was reborn into eternity?

The Mithra-Bull motif, in which the god seeks out, grabs the bull by the
horns and then mounts it, resembles the Zen Buddhist story regarding the
sage in search of his "bull," which represents himself. Indeed, in
slaying the Heavenly Bull, Mithra is essentially sacrificing himself, in
order to save the world:

The bull appears to signify the earth or mankind, and the
implication is that Mithra, like Christ, overcame the world; but in
the early Persian writings Mithra himself is the bull, the god thus
sacrificing himself, which is a close approximation to the Christian
idea.

As noted, because Mithraic art of the Persians and Indians does not
depict Mithra with the Bull, it is claimed that Indo-Persian Mithraism
is not the same as that of Rome. In reality, the bull was sacred to the
sun god and was an early solar symbol because of its connection to
agriculture, in drawing the plough, which is why the time of planting is
called "Taurus" and is represented by the bull. In actuality, the
solar-bull motif is found in very ancient cultures, including the
Sumerian, upon whose seals is depicted the flaming "Bull of Heaven,"
representing the sun's "fierce aspect." Such a depiction obviously
represents the sun in the Age of Taurus, demonstrating again that the
ancients at least 4,000 years ago knew about the precession of the
equinoxes. Indeed, long before the Christian/Roman Mithraic era,
numerous gods were worshipped in the form of the bull, including Zeus
and his Indian counterpart, Shiva, as well as the Egyptian gods Min, Ra
and Amen, the latter of whom was called "the young bull with sharp
pointed horns." The very ancient Osiris and the later Egyptian god Apis
likewise were depicted as bulls. A number of goddesses also were
represented as cows, such as Neith and Hathor.

Regarding the bull motif in India, Srivastava relates:

In the Rig Veda, Surya is called a bull. In the Atharveda, Rohita --
the Sungod -- is addressed as the bull arranging the day and night,
and in many rites the bull is a symbol of the Sun?.

It is suggested that the unicorn or urus bull so profusely
represented on the Indus seals may have been a symbol of the Sungod.
There is a curious object with rays in association with the
Urus-bull, which may be taken as the Sun-disc.

In the Atharvaveda, the Indian sun god Rohita is called "a bull or the
bull of prayers." Rohita is identified with the sacrifice, offering
himself and a "primaeval sacrifice," from which all are born and the
universe is created. Hence, in the millennium prior to the common era,
and in the culture that spawned the Persian, appears the motif of the
sun god as the bull, performing a sacrifice or sacrificing himself for
the welfare of the universe.

As Srivastava relates, the bull motif is "profusely presented" in the
imagery of, and as an object of worship in, the Harappan culture of the
Indus Valley, which is /conservatively/ dated to 2500-1700 BCE. In fact,
the taurine solar symbol is found repeatedly on ancient pottery in the
Indus Valley.

In the Indian text /Taiit. Brahmana/ (ii. 7, 11, 1), the sun and storm
god Indra is described as a bull, and bulls were sacrificed to him. Muir
translates:

"Indra invited them to the ceremony when pacified, for the
/kayasubhiya/ is used for pacification. Hence these bulls are to be
offered both to Indra and the Maruts. Three are sacrificed on the
first day, as many on the second and third; on the last day five are
immolated."

In India, the bull was thus a symbol of, and was sacrificed to, the sun
god. Concerning the Mithra myth and its connection to both India and
Persia, the pious Rev. Lundy provides interesting assertions:

?inasmuch as the Persian Fire-worship and the main part of the
Persian religion were derived from India, the sacrifice, death, and
Resurrection of Mithra become but counterparts of Vishnu's
incarnation, sacrifice, etc., in Krishna.

Here Lundy is maintaining that the Persian Mithra was sacrificed and
resurrected, and that the motif corresponds to the "life" of Krishna,
another Indian sun god. As we have seen, Mithra is himself the bull, who
is sacrificed for the welfare of the world, a common theme concerning
the sun god. Furthermore, Higgins quotes his "learned friend" Colonel
Tod as saying (/Trans. Asiat. Soc./, II, 279):

The Bull was offered to Mithras by the Persians, and opposed as it
now appears to the Hindu faith, he formerly bled on the altars of
the sun God (Bal-iswara), on which the Buld-dan (/offering of the
bull/) was made.

From this quote as well we can conclude that ancient Indians likewise
sacrificed bulls, in this case to /Bal/iswara, the Indian version of
Baal (+ Osiris), who is also the /Bull/. As Bel/Baal, Mithra was
associated with the Bull long anterior to the Christian era. Writing
decades before the era of Cumont, Col. Tod also asserts that the bull
/was/ sacrificed to Mithra by the Persians.

In reality, bulls were sacrificed in many cultures millennia prior to
the common era, including on the Greek island of Crete, some 4,000 years
ago. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, composed more than 4,000 years ago, and
on Akkadian cylinder seals of the same age, the Sumero-Babylonian
demigod/hero Gilgamesh is represented as wrestling and killing the "Bull
of Heaven," which is the sign of Taurus and essentially the same motif
as Mithra slaying the bull. Regarding this ancient bull-slaying motif in
the Near East, Robertson remarks:

The origin of the symbolism [of the Bull] goes back to an ancient
Assyrian cult which produced monuments of a divine or kingly
personage slaying a lion or a bull by thrusting a sword through him.

The sacrifice to, or reverence of, the bull in can also be found in an
image (c. 1400 BCE) from the palace of Alaça Hüyük in Turkey, near
Bogaz-Köy, where the Hittite-Mitanni tablets were found. In this relief,
a man and priestess approach a bull on a pedestal in front of an altar.
Each figure has its arm raised, as if to sacrifice the bull. In the
Hurrian mythology, the god Teshub has attached to his chariot two bulls
representing Night and Day. Teshub, James relates, was "frequently
depicted standing on a bull." Thus, in the area where the "Roman" Mithra
arose we find images of a deity riding in a chariot and standing on a
bull, as well as the bull-slaying ritual, more than one to two millennia
before the Christian era.

This bloody sacrifice, also a baptism, occurred in many non-Mithraic
cultures, with both human and animal victims. During this ceremony,
participants would cry, to the effect, "Let his blood be upon us and our
children!" -- a ritual response designed to provide expiation and
fertility. Bulls were particularly favored in this ritual because of the
copious amounts of blood. Although it may not be found in Persian
iconography or literature, the bull sacrifice was "frequently
represented" and abundantly practiced in Asia Minor. As is the case with
the bull-standing imagery, this rite with the bull as sacrificial victim
doubtlessly came into the Roman world from the Near East, "like the rest
of the Attis-Kybele cult" of Phrygia. Guignebert elaborates upon the
Asian bull sacrifice and baptism:

In the Phrygian cult of Cybele and Attis, but not in that alone, for
we find it in various other Asiatic cults and in that of Mithra, a
singular ceremony, called the /taurobolium/, took place. It formed
part of the mysterious initiatory rites exclusively reserved for
believers. A deep pit was sunk in the precincts of the temple into
which the initiated descended and it was then covered over with a
grating upon which a bull was solemnly sacrificed; its blood flowed
like red rain into the pit and fell on the naked person of the
novitiate, endeavoring to bathe all parts of his body in it. This
baptism accomplished, the genital organs of the animal sacrificed
were deposited in a sacred vessel to be presented as an offering to
the goddess, after which they were buried beneath a memorial altar.

Concerning this Phrygian rite, Robertson states:

The great vogue of the Phrygian institutions of the Taurobolium and
Criobolium, or purification by the blood of bulls and rams, must
have reacted on Mithraism even if it were not strictly of Mithraic
origin. Mithra, like Osiris and Dionysus, was the bull as well as
the God to whom the bull was sacrificed?

As noted, this gory rite was common, taking place perhaps annually or
more in some areas, depending on the need. Moreover, expiatory
sacrifices were practiced every 20 years as part of the Pagan mysteries,
as Taylor relates:

Prudentius informs us that in these religious ceremonies the Pagan
priests, or whoever was ambitious of obtaining a mystical
regeneration, excavated a pit, into which he descended. The pit was
then covered over with planks, which were bored full of holes, so
that the blood and /what not/ of the goat, bull, or ram that was
sacrificed upon them, might trickle through the holes upon the body
of the person beneath; who, having been thus sanctified, and /born
again/, was obliged ever to walk /in newness of life/?

This ritual can also be found abundantly in the culture from which
Christianity purportedly sprang. The Jewish sacrifice and blood baptism
are reflected at Exodus 24:6-8:

And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins, and half of
the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the
covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said,
"All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.
And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said,
"Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you
in accordance with all these words."

The purpose of this rite is not only to perform ritual magic that
provides future abundance or the cleansing of sins, but also to
intimidate the people through gore into obeying the priesthood. In the
Epistle to the Hebrews, this sanguine sacrifice is addressed, as the
author usurps it with the sacrifice of Christ (9:22). Concerning
Hebrews, Weigall says:

?in the Epistle to the Hebrews?Christ is described as the High
Priest who, to put away sin, sacrificed Himself. Similarly, Mithra
sacrificed a bull, but this bull, again, was himself?

The sprinkling of blood finds its way into the New Testament at Hebrews
12:24, and 1 Peter 1:2, the latter of which refers to the sprinkling of
the blood of /Jesus Christ/. This bloody practice is clearly
pre-Christian and thus not copied by Paganism from Christianity; indeed,
the opposite is the case, with a substitution of the "Lamb of God" for
the Bull and Jesus Christ for Mithra.

As demonstrated, the sacrifice of the bull is ancient, found in the very
areas in which Mithraism thrived, from Indian to Phrygia. Furthermore,
in the Assyro-Babylonian area are non-Mithraic images of kings or gods
standing on the bull, showing that the motif existed centuries or
millennia BCE. Obviously, from the Phrygian cap and cloak he wears, as
well as the Mesopotamian bull-standing motif and this blood-splattering
ritual, among other doctrines, the Mithra inherited by the Romans was
originally Eastern, and not created by the Romans during the Christian era.

/Mithraism and Christianity/

There is no question that Mithra's cult preceded Christianity, nor is it
likely that the Roman Mithra is not essentially the same as the Indian
sun god Mitra and Persian-Phrygian Mithra in his major attributes, as
well as some of his most pertinent rites. It is erroneously asserted
that because Mithraism was a "mystery cult" it did not leave any written
record. In reality, much evidence of Mithra worship has been destroyed,
including not only monuments, iconography and other artifacts, but also
/numerous books by ancient authors/, such as Eubulus, who, according to
Jerome in /Against Jovianus/, "wrote the history of Mithras in many
volumes?" As Robertson states:

There were in antiquity, we know from Porphyry, several elaborate
treatises setting forth the religion of Mithra; and every one of
these has been destroyed by the care of the Church.

These many volumes doubtlessly contained much interesting information
that was damaging to Christianity, such as the important correspondences
between the "lives" of Mithra and Jesus, as well as identical symbols
such as the cross, and rites such as baptism and the eucharist. In fact,
Mithraism was so similar to Christianity that it gave fits to the early
Church fathers, as it does to this day to apologists, who attempt both
to deny the similarities and yet to claim that these (non-existent)
correspondences were plagiarized /by/ Mithraism /from/ Christianity.
There are several problems with this argument, the first of which is
that the god Mithra was revered for centuries prior to the Christian era.

Furthermore, by the time the Christian hierarchy prevailed in Rome,
Mithra had already been the official cult, with pope, bishops, etc., and
its doctrines were well established and widespread, reflecting
antiquity. Mithraic remains on Vatican Hill are found /underneath/ the
later Christian edifices, which /proves/ the Mithra cult was there
first. In fact, while Mithraic ruins from the first and second centuries
are abundant throughout the Roman Empire, "The earliest church remains,
four in Dura-Europos, date only from around 230 CE."

The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, vol. XII, states that Mithra is an
"Indo-Iranian deity" who appears in the Vedas as "one of the Adityas, a
lightdeity commonly invoked with Varuna, but later giving way to
Savitar." Savitar, it will be recalled, is one of the names or
personifications of Surya, the Indian sun god. While acknowledging
Mithra's pre-Christian origin, Schaff-Herzog nevertheless insists that
Mithraism copied Christianity in its many similar myths and rites:

In theory, ritual and practise Mithraism parodied or duplicated,
after a fashion, the central ideas of Christianity. The birth of
Mithra and of Christ were celebrated on the same day; tradition
placed the birth of both in a cave; both regarded Sunday as sacred;
in both the central figure was a mediator (/mesim/) who was one of a
triad or trinity; in both there was a sacrifice for the benefit of
the race, and the purifying power of blood from the sacrifice was,
though in different ways, a prime motive; regeneration or the second
birth was a fundamental tenet in both; the conception of the
relationship of the worshipers to each other was the same -- they
were all brothers; both had sacraments, which baptism and a common
meal of bread and the cup were included; both had mysteries from
which the lower orders of initiates were excluded; ascetic ideals
were common to both; the ideas of man, the soul and its immortality,
heaven and hell, the resurrection of the dead, judgment after death,
the final conflagration by which the world is to be consumed, the
final conquest of evil, were quite similar. Of course the rationale
behind these conceptions and the ways in which they were carried out
were very different, but the general effect is almost startling. The
Church Fathers were themselves astounded at the resemblances, and
could explain them only by the theory which has so often been
applied in the history of the contact of Christianity in its
missions to the pagan world -- observances of Mithraism were the
cunning parodies devised by Satan? There were, however, two very
important differences between the two faiths: Christianity had as
its nucleating point a historic personage; Mithra came out of a
distant past with all its accretion of myth and fancy. In the second
place, Mithraism, like Buddhism and Brahmanism, was syncretistic,
was tolerant of the practises of other cults.

That Christianity had "as its nucleating point a historic personage"
cannot be supported by the evidence, and the intolerance of Christianity
reflected above and boasted about in the Catholic Encyclopedia is hardly
something to be proud of.

Christian apologist Sir Weigall likewise outlines some of the
correspondences with Christianity; yet, he maintains that Christianity
copied Mithraism, rather than the other way around:

[Mithra] appears to have lived an incarnate life on earth, and in
some unknown manner to have suffered death for the good of mankind,
an image symbolising his resurrection being employed in his
ceremonies. Tarsus, home of St. Paul, was one of the great centres
of his worship, being the chief city of the Cilicians; and?there is
a decided tinge of Mithraism in the Epistles and Gospels. Thus the
designations of our Lord as the Dayspring from on High, the Light,
the Sun of Righteousness, and similar expressions, are borrowed from
or related to Mithraic phraseology?. The words of St. Paul, "They
drank of that spiritual rock?and that rock was Christ" are borrowed
from the Mithraic sculptures?

Weigall's assertion that Mithra appeared "to have lived an incarnate
life on earth" would certainly negate the Schaff-Herzog claim of the
superiority of Christianity by virtue of having a "historical personage"
as its "nucleating point." However, it is also contended that a fatal
flaw was Mithraism's inability to point to a "historic founder." Unable
to withstand the assault of the "historical godman" Jesus Christ, it is
claimed, Mithraism eventually dissolved into Manichaeism and Christianity.

Like the vast majority of the ancient gods, Mithra was never a "real
person." In actuality he was originally represented by non-human forms,
following the Persian abhorrence of "idols," as related by Herodotus,
until being personified or anthropomorphized after his migration to Asia
Minor. As Srivastava relates:

It is?very significant to note that ancient Iranians themselves did
not represent the Sun-god in human form in the earliest times, and
they used to represent him by means of symbols. In one of the
sepulchres of Darius near Naqshi Rustam, Mithra is represented as a
round disc. Next stage was that of human busts of Sun in later
Mithraism?. The fully anthropomorphic representation of Mithra was
due to Hellenic influence, as is evident by a monument set up by
Antiochus I of 1^st cent. B.C.

In one of these earlier images, Mithra is depicted as a sun disc in a
chariot drawn by white horses, another solar motif that made it into the
Jesus myth, in which Christ is to return on a white horse. Concerning
Mithra's solar journey, the Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology states:

In the pre-Zoroastrian period Mithra, often associated with the
supreme Ahura, was a god of the first magnitude. His military valour
was without rival. He possessed not only strength but at the same
time knowledge; for in essence he was Light. As such he led the
solar chariot across the sky. From him victory could be expected as
well as wisdom, though his anger with cheating or felony was
merciless. Beasts were sacrificed to him and he was offered
libations of haoma which humans could partake of only provided that
scrupulous ritual and penitence were observed.

Larousse clearly states that "beasts were sacrificed" to Mithra,
ostensibly in the "pre-Christian Zoroastrian period," which would be at
least 600 years before the common era. The libations of haoma, of
course, are purely Persian or Iranian.

In reality, imagery and iconography were used in Persia for thousands of
years, beginning at least during the seventh millennium BCE and
continuing into the second millennium. Such imagery was resumed in the
eighth century BCE. Of the numerous Persian pottery images and figurines
of both humans and animals, it is probable that many of them represents
gods and goddesses.

In his famous work, Cumont evinced that Mithraic art also was utilized
within Christianity: One example is Mithra "shooting at the rock," from
which flowed water, a scene that became "Moses smiting the rock" in
Christian iconography. Mithra as Helios rising with the sun became
Elijah in his chariot of fire, and Mithra slaying the bull was figured
as Samson killing the lion. Cumont also argued that the images of
"heaven, earth, ocean, sun, moon, planets, the zodiacal signs, the
winds, the seasons, and the like, found on Christian sarcophagi and in
mosaics and miniatures are?adaptations of Mithraic models." The
Moses-Mithra parallel has been commented upon by a number of scholars,
including Robertson in /Pagan Christs/, who suggests a common origin of
the motif in both mythologies. As another example of this mythical
motif, the Greek sea god Poseidon, in a contest with Athena to win over
the inhabitants of Athens, is depicted as striking a rock, from which a
spring appears.

Further correspondences between Mithraism and Christianity can be found
in the Christian catacombs -- another similarity to Mithra worship,
which was practiced in caves -- where there are numerous images of
Christ as the Good Shepherd:

?although it is generally ageed that the figure of Jesus carrying a
lamb is taken from the statues of Hermes Kriophorus, the
kid-carrying god, Mithra is sometimes shown carrying a bull across
his shoulders, and Apollo, who in his solar aspect and as the patron
of the rocks is to be identified with Mithra, is often called "the
Good Shepherd." At the birth of Mithra the child was adored by
shepherds, who brought gifts to him.

Indeed, like Christ, Mithra was considered the remover of sin and
disease, the creator of the world, God of gods, the mediator, mighty
ruler, king of gods, lord of heaven and earth, Good Shepherd, Sun of
Righteousness, etc.

Mithra as the Mediator is unquestionably a concept that predated
Christianity by centuries, and the deliberate reference to Christ as the
Mediator at Hebrews 9:15 is an evident move to usurp Mithra's position.
Concerning the Mediator, CMU relates:

The next dogma we shall notice is that of the Saviour, or Mediator.
This is evidently derived from the Christna of the Hindoo trinity,
who, as the /Redeemer/ of the human race, was the most important of
the three. This personification of the sun seems to have been
adopted by the Persian lawgiver, Zoroaster, under the name of Mithra
(which still meant Mediator), when he founded the religion of the
Mithraics, or worshippers of the sun. According to Plutarch,
Zoroaster taught that there existed two principles, one good, and
the other evil; the first was called Oromazes, "/the ancient of
days/," being the principle of good or light; the other, Ahrimanes,
was the principle of evil, or cold and darkness. Between these two
personified principles, he placed his Mithra, who, as the source of
genial heat and life, annually redeems the human race from the power
of evil, or cold and darkness. From this beautiful allegory of the
sun is derived the Christian dogma of the Saviour, of which proof
may be found even amongst the fathers. (See Tertullian, Adv. gentes.)?

The similarities between Mithraism and Christianity included their
chapels, the term "father" for priest, celibacy and, most notoriously,
the December 25^th birthdate. Apologists claiming that Mithraism copied
Christianity nevertheless admit that the December 25^th birthdate was
taken /from/ Mithraism. As Weigall says:

?December 25^th was really the date, not of the birth of Jesus, but
of the sun-god Mithra. Horus, son of Isis, however, was in very
early times identified with Ra, the Egyptian sun-god, and hence with
Mithra?

Another correspondence is that the Mithraic "Lord's Day," like that of
other solar cults, was celebrated on /Sun/day, adopted by Christianity
from Paganism. Robertson elucidates various other Mithraic-Christian
correspondences:

From Mithraism Christ takes the symbolic keys of heaven and hell and
assumes the function of the virgin-born Saoshyant, the destroyer of
the Evil One. Like Mithra, Merodach and the Egyptian Khousu
[Khonsu], he is the Mediator; like Horus he is grouped with a divine
Mother; like Khousu he is joined with the Logos; and like Merodach
he is associated with a Holy Spirit, one of whose symbols is fire.

Robertson thus compares Mithra with the virgin-born "Saoshyant," the
Savior of the Persian religion. Roberston further asserts that the
Mithraic mysteries included the "burial and resurrection of the Lord,
the Mediator, and Savior (buried in a rock tomb and resurrected from
that tomb)," as well as the bread-and-water communion and the "mystic
mark" upon the forehead. Like the death and resurrection of Osiris,
these mystical Mithraic rites were practiced and represented anterior to
Christianity.

Lundy describes Mithra's death and resurrection:

Dupuis tells us that Mithra was put to death by crucifixion, and
rose again on the 25^th of March. In the Persian Mysteries the body
of a young man, apparently dead, was exhibited, which feigned to be
restored to life. By his sufferings he was believed to have worked
their salvation, and on this account he was called their Saviour.
His priests watched the tomb to the midnight of the vigil of the
25^th of March, with loud cries, and in darkness; when all at once
the light burst forth from all parts, the priest cried, O sacred
initiated, your God has risen. His death, his pains, and sufferings
have worked your salvation.

Lundy cites the original French writings of Dupuis, which were
multi-volume and condensed in the English translation, in which this
Mithra information was expurgated. Dupuis wrote a century before Cumont,
so he obviously did not use the latter's work; nor did Lundy rely on
Cumont, who wrote in the decades following Lundy. In fact, Lundy takes
much of his information from an unpublished book on Mithra by Layard,
the English archaeologist and excavator of Assyrian antiquities.

Other elements found within Mithraism that are paralleled in (and copied
by) Christianity include the miter or mitre, the bishops' headdress; the
/mizd/, or "hot cross bun," which was shaped like the sun with a cross
in the middle; and the mass. Another remnant of Mithraism within
Christianity can be found in the phrases "soldiers of Christ" and
"putting on the armor of Christ."

Moreover, the initiate into the Mithraic mysteries was considered the
"son of Mithra," who became one with Mithra; he was also the "son of the
Pater Patrum" ("Father of Fathers"). During the Mithraic mysteries, the
initiate was often blindfolded, to be suddenly blinded by a great light,
which represented the "moment of revelation," when the initiate became
one with God. Obviously, Paul's conversion experience with the blinding
light is a wink and a nod towards other initiates in the mysteries, who
would certainly recognize it. It also served to validate that Paul was
qualified to preach on the "good news" and the "kingdom of heaven."

/Mithra's Birth/

Mithra's genesis out of a rock, analogous to the birth in caves of a
number of gods, including Jesus, was followed by his adoration by
shepherds, another motif that found its way into the later Christianity.
In /The Christ Myth/, Evans says:

?early writers, including several of the [Church] Fathers, decided
upon a cave as the true place [of Christ's birth], a decision
exactly in accordance with the legend of a virgin, in a cave, on the
25^th of December, symbolizing the renewed birth of the sun after
the winter solstice.

Regarding the birth in caves likewise common to pre-Christian gods, and
present in the early legends of Jesus, Weigall relates:

?the cave shown at Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus was actually
a rock shrine in which the god Tammuz or Adonis was worshipped, as
the early Christian father Jerome tells us; and its adoption as the
scene of the birth of our Lord was one of those frequent instances
of the taking over by Christians of a pagan sacred site. The
propriety of this appropriation was increased by the fact that the
worship of a god in a cave was commonplace in paganism: Apollo,
Cybele, Demeter, Herakles, Hermes, Mithra and Poseidon were all
adored in caves; Hermes, the Greek /Logos/, being actually born of
Maia in a cave, and Mithra being "rock-born."

Weigall further states that the "swaddling clothes" motif in the gospel
story is taken from the story of Hermes, who was likewise wrapped and
placed in a "manger," which in the original Greek referred to a basket.
Furthermore, Dionysus and Ion, the father of the Ionians, were each born
in a cave and placed in a basket/manger.

Unlike various other rock- or cave-born gods, Mithra is not depicted as
having been given birth by a mortal woman or a goddess; hence, it is
claimed that he was not "born of a virgin." However, a number of writers
over the centuries have asserted otherwise, including Roberston and
Evans. In /Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth /Jackson states:

Mithra, a Persian sun-god, was virgin-born, in a cave, on December
25. His earliest worshippers were shepherds, and he was accompanied
by twelve companions.

In /Pagan and Christian Creeds/, Carpenter relates:

The saviour Mithra, too, was born of a Virgin, as we have had
occasion to notice before; and on Mithraist monuments the mother
suckling her child is not an uncommon figure.

Carpenter's assertion is backed up by John Remsburg in /The Christ Myth/
(ch. 7), in which he relates that an image found in the Roman catacombs
depicts the babe Mithra "seat in the lap of his virgin mother," with the
gift-bearing Magi genuflecting in front of them. Such iconography was
common in Rome as representative of Isis and Horus, so it would not be
unexpected to find it within Mithraism.

One recent writer portrays the Mithra myth thus:

According to Persian mythology, Mithras was born of a virgin given
the title "Mother of God"?.

?The Parthian princes of Armenia were all priests of Mithras, and an
entire district of this land was dedicated to the Virgin Mother
Anahita. Many Mithraeums, or Mithraic temples, were built in
Armenia, which remained one of the last strongholds of Mithraism.
The largest near-eastern Mithraeum was built in western Persia at
Kangavar, dedicated to "Anahita, the Immaculate Virgin Mother of the
Lord Mithras."

If this last, quoted part is truly from an inscription, it would seem to
lay the matter to rest. Anahita is certainly an Indo-Iranian goddess of
some antiquity, dating back at least four or five centuries prior to the
common era.

As noted, Robertson maintained that Mithra was a virgin-born god:

?It seems highly probable that the birth-legend of the Persian Cyrus
was akin to or connected with the myth of Mithra, Cyrus (Koresh)
being a name of the sun, and the legend being obviously solar?.

It was further practically a matter of course that his mother should
be styled a virgin, the precedents being uniform. In Phrygia the God
Acdestis or Agdistis, a variant of Attis, associated with Attis and
Mithra in the worship of the Great Mother, is rock-born. Like
Mithra, he is two-sexed, figuring in some versions as female?
Further, the Goddess Anahita or Anaitis, with whom Mithra was
anciently paired, was pre-eminently a Goddess of fruitfulness, and
as such would necessarily figure in her cultus as a Mother.

Moreover, Mithra's prototype, the Indian Mitra, /was/ born of a female,
Aditi, the "mother of the gods," the inviolable or /virgin/ dawn. The
pervasive virgin birth motif of other gods and men, especially the sun
gods, could certainly not have been unknown to Mithraic initiates. It is
possible that the macho, warrior cult rejected the inclusion of a female
progenitor and struck upon the rock-born status, as the epitome of
masculinity. Getting rid of all things female would represent a
"Gnostic" concept of female/matter being "evil." One possible example of
such demonization may be found in the alteration of the good Indian god
Aryaman into the evil Persian god Ahriman:

M. Maury, regarding the name Ahriman as identical with the Vedic
Aryaman, sees in the Iranian demon a degradation of the Hindu sun-god?

Maury's reasoning is that Aryaman, once benevolent, later becomes the
"l'Aditya de la mort, le soleil destructeur," which is to say, the
Aditya of Death, the destructive sun. Aryaman presided over unmarried
girls, and the bride was to be released by him to the bridegroom; it may
be that, in making the ostensible protector of unmarried girls into an
evil being, the chauvinistic Persians were attempting to suppress and
dominate the female.

It could be suggested that Mithra was born of "Prima Materia," or
"Primordial Matter," which could also be considered "First Mother,"
"Virgin Matter," "Virgin Mother," etc. In Roman Catholicism, the Mother
of God is called "Mater Creatoris," which could also be translated
"Creative Matter." Also, the "cave" motif represents in the original
astrotheological myth the /womb/ of Mother Earth, giving birth to the
sun god, daily and annually. In any case, while Mithra may not precisely
have been perceived as "born of a virgin," certainly he was considered
the product of a "miraculous birth."

As the "rock-born," Mithras was called "Theos ek Petras," or the "God
from the Rock." As Weigall says:

Indeed, it may be that the reason of the Vatican hill at Rome being
regarded as sacred to Peter, the Christian "Rock," was that it was
already sacred to Mithra, for Mithraic remains have been found there.

Mithra /was/ "the rock," or /Peter/, and was also "double-faced," like
Janus the keyholder, likewise a prototype for the "apostle" Peter.
Hence, when Jesus is made to say that the keys of the kingdom of heaven
are given to "Peter" and that the Church is to be built upon "Peter," as
a representative of Rome, he is usurping the authority of Mithraism,
which was the official Roman cult at the time, precisely headquartered
on what became Vatican Hill.

/Mithra and the Twelve/

The theme of the teaching god and "the Twelve" is found within
Mithraism, as Mithra is depicted surrounded by the 12 zodiac signs on a
number of monuments and in the writings of Porphyry, for one. Regarding
the Twelve, Robertson says:

On Mithraic monuments we find representations of twelve episodes,
probably corresponding to the twelve labors in the stories of
Heracles, Samson and other Sun-heroes, and probably also connected
with initiation.

As they have been in the case of numerous sun gods, these signs could be
called Mithra's 12 "companions" or "disciples." Furthermore, the motif
of the 12 disciples or followers in a "last supper" is recurrent in the
Pagan world, including within Mithraism:

[Mark] gave Jesus a last supper with twelve followers, identical in
every way with the last supper of the Persian god Mithra, down to
the cannibalisation of the god's body in the form of bread and wine
(14:22-26).

The Spartan King Kleomenes had held a similar last supper with
twelve followers four hundreds years before Jesus.

This last assertion is made by Plutarch in /Parallel Lives/, "Agis and
Kleomenes" 37:2-3.

Obviously, the Last Supper with the Twelve predates Christianity by
centuries. It would therefore be a mistake to contend that Mithraism
copied Christianity, rather than inheriting this motif from earlier
Pagan religions.

/The Baptism/

The sprinkling or splashing of the bull's blood is considered a baptism,
especially since it is designed to convey immortality. Like this bloody
rite, baptism with water, whether by immersion or sprinkling, is found
in numerous pre-Christian religions/cults, dating back to ancient times.
Baptism or lustration for the removal of evil or sins is also found in
the Sumerian culture, 2,000 or more years before the Christian era. In
Sumero-Babylonian religion, baptism was used as a rite of exorcism,
likewise a concept long pre-dating the Christian era. The
Sumero-Babylonian Trinity included Anu, Enlil and Ea, the last of whom
was the "personification of divine healing power." This Triad, along
with Marduk, was invoked to dispel sickness. Individually, Ea was the
god of healing waters, while his temple was "the house of the depth of
the ocean" or "the house of wisdom." Ea's city was Eridu, which
possessed potent waters:

Originally it was the life-giving waters that neutralized, expelled
or absorbed the malevolent influences and so freed those who had
come into contact with evil from its contagion because being the
substance out of which the universe was created it was endowed with
all its creative potentialities. The location of the ancient city
made it the natural cult centre of the god of the waters whose
function was that of "washing away," purging, or in some way
removing evil as a miasma. So in the texts Ea is represented as the
god who above all delivered men from sin, disease, pollution, and
demoniacal assaults, as well as being the source of supernatural
knowledge.

As concerns the Babylonian exorcism, not much different from the
Catholic, James further states:

In addition to pronouncing the name of the divinity in which the
magic virtue resides, the exorcist had to mention that of the demon
to be driven forth. This involved the recitation of long lists of
devils and ghosts?in order to include the one that might be the
cause of the malady. The patient was then sprinkled with water,
censed, surrounded with flour or some other magically protective
substance such as black and white yam fastened to his couch, while
the exorcist held in his hand a branch of the sacred tamarisk, "the
powerful weapon of Anu," during the incantation.

Moreover, the Baptism by water to remove sins is also an ancient
Egyptian motif:

Osiris takes upon himself "all that is hateful" in the dead: that
is, he adopts the burden of his sins; and the dead is purified by
the typical sprinkling of water.

This baptism for the remission of sins was "in vogue" in the 5^th and
6^th Dynasties, 2400 or so years before the Christian era. Such baptism
doubtlessly existed in the neighboring Canaanite culture as well; it
certainly was practiced in Palestine prior to Christ's purported advent,
as Lundy relates:

The sacred annual bathing of Palestine pilgrims in the river Jordan
is the same now as it was in John the Baptist's time; and precisely
the same as it is and always has been in the sacred rivers of
Hindustan. It is a custom far older than Christianity, and
universally prevalent. John the Baptist simply adopted and practised
the universal custom of sacred bathing for the remission of sins.

Lundy then elaborates upon the universal baptism:

Now as Baptism of some kind has been the universal custom of all
religious nations and peoples for purification and regeneration, it
is not to be wondered at that it had found its way from high Asia,
the centre of the old world's religion and civilization, into the
American continent. So great was the resemblance between the two
sacraments of the Christian Church and those of the ancient
Mexicans; so many other points of similarity, also, in doctrine
existed, as to the unity of God, the Triad, the Creation, the
Incarnation and Sacrifice, the Resurrection, etc., that Herman
Witsius, no mean scholar and thinker, was induced to believe that
Christianity had been preached on this continent by some one of the
Apostles, perhaps St. Thomas, from the fact that he is reported to
have carried the Gospel to India and Tartary, whence he came to
America. Whether this be so or not, and making all due allowance for
Spanish enthusiasm at detecting resemblance where none might exist,
but such resemblances, too, as the poor Lazarite Huc and his
companion noticed between some of the religious ceremonies of the
Tartars and those of the Roman Church, for publishing which he was
expelled from the order, and died of a broken heart; yet the fact
remains, as acknowledged by such men as Humboldt, and our own
Prescott, who were certainly no religious enthusiasts, of a very
close similarity between some of the doctrines and practices of the
ancient Mexican religion and Christianity.

Included in these similarities was the Mexican practice of baptism,
wherein the "American priests were found in Mexico beyond Darien,
baptizing boys and girls a year old in the temple at the cross, pouring
water upon them from a small pitcher." The Mexicans also celebrated a
"holy supper," communion or eucharist as well. According to a Spanish
source, a Mexican priest told him these rituals and concepts were
brought by a man, "clad after the Spanish fashion, and bearded," who
entered their country and attempted to "lead them to the obedience of
God"; however, when their chiefs would not accept the faith, another man
came with a sword, which led to warfare and strife. This account is
muddled and incomplete, and there is no evidence of Christian influence
on the culture, no remnants of language or writing, no foreign elements
at all. While there may have been -- and certainly were, based on
archaeological evidence -- bearded "Semitic" men in Central America
(long anterior to the Christian era), it is likely that this account was
embellished with the part about this teacher being "clad after the
Spanish fashion." Concerning these correspondences and the European
theory of their origin, Lundy comments:

Here, then, are nudity, washing, sprinkling, exorcism, renunciation
of Satan, and confirmation, in one and the same baptism, just as in
the Primitive and Greek Churches. And yet it cannot be Christian
Baptism, unless the ancient Mexicans had relapsed into Asiatic
paganism between the advent of some Apostle and that of the
Spaniards. For their great water goddess is only the counterpart of
Aphrodite, all the Asiatic world over.

The formidable bearded man who came across the sea and taught the
Mexicans their religion and their civilization, and then retired
with the promise of return, was doubtless the incarnate deity
Quetzalcoatl, god of the air, who, while on earth, taught them the
use of metals, agriculture, an the arts of government, and made the
golden age of Anahuc. He it was that some of the Spanish antiquaries
and Witsius thought to be St. Thomas; while others more truly
discerned in him a type of the Messiah, such as we have already
found in Agni, Krishna, Mithra, Horus, and Apollo.

In other words, the "bearded man," Quetzalcoatl, is not only an "air
god" but also a sun god, and these Mexican rites are not "Christian" but
proto-Christian. In fact, as abundantly demonstrated, these various
important religious motifs and rites existed long before the Christian
era, and were not copied by Paganism from Christianity but the other way
around.

/The Mithraic Eucharist/

Another of these pre-Christian doctrines found in Paganism in general
and Mithraism in specific is the Eucharist, Last Supper or Holy
Communion. From early ages, the Mithraic eucharist, which was said
bestow immortality upon the participants, has been recognized to
parallel that of the Christians. In reality, the rite is likewise very
old and certainly did not find its way into Paganism from Christianity.
The Catholic Encyclopedia concedes that the eucharist is pre-Christian:

Mithraism had a Eucharist, but the idea of a sacred banquet is as
old as the human race and existed at all ages and amongst all peoples.

The eucharist includes the "doctrine of transubstantiation," which
claims that the wine or water and bread of the sacred meal are
mystically and magically transmuted into the blood and body of the god,
which, it is believed, creates union with the god. At the Mithraic
ceremony, the following was said:

He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood so that he may
be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved. (Mithraic
Communion M J Vermaseren, /Mithras, The Secret God/)

Obviously, as is the case with the eucharist itself, this ritual line is
not original to Christianity. It was, in fact, part of the pre-Christian
mysteries.

Discussing the typical reason behind initiation into a mystery religion,
Guignebert also explains the meaning of the eucharist:

The initiate is assured, at any rate for a considerable period of
time, that his fate will be the same as that of Attis at his
inevitable death and a happy resurrection and survival among the
gods his portion. In many of the cults of these savior and
interceding gods, such as those of Cybele, Mithra, the Syrian Baals,
and still others, the beneficial union obtained by means of
initiation is renewed, or at any rate revived, by sacred repasts
which the members, assembled at the table of the god, ate.

Concerning the last supper and transubstantiation, Weigall elucidates:

The ceremony of eating an incarnate god's body and drinking his
blood is, of course, of very ancient, and originally cannibalistic,
inception, and there are several sources from which the Christian
rite may be derived if, as most critics think, it was not instituted
as an actual ceremony by Jesus; but its connection with the Mithraic
rite is the most apparent.

Regarding the transubstantiation doctrine, Frazer says:

The doctrine of transubstantiation, or the magical conversion of the
bread into flesh, was also familiar to the Aryans of ancient India
long before the spread and even the rise of Christianity.

Since the Persians who worshipped Mithra were originally of the same
ethnicity as the Indians who revered Mitra, it would be logical to
assert that this rite within Mithraism is likewise ancient, possibly
dating to early or pre-Vedic times, 1500 years or more before the
Christian era. Indeed, this eucharist or communion was part of the
ancient Persian religion, apart from Mithraism:

The Greeks celebrated the mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus as
bestowers and protectors of grain and grapes; the Aztecs partook
with solemnity of a sacred perforated cake, and, most similar of all
to the "Holy Communion" of the Christians, was the Haoma sacrifice
of the Persians, a resemblance so striking as to draw from the early
fathers of the church the complaint that the Devil had played a
trick upon Christ in teaching the Parsis to caricature the Eucharist
in their Soma sacrifice.

/Haoma/ was originally the extracted juice of the Soma plant
(Asclepias acida), an intoxicating liquid with the ancient Aryans
poured upon the sacrificial fire, and also drank themselves, as a
symbol of divine life and immortality.

The sacrifice was originally Brahmanic.

The soma or haoma drink was a psychedelic, hallucinogenic or entheogenic
plant potion that imbued godly feelings and seeming capacities of
omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. In the Rig Veda, Soma is
lauded as a deity, and Indra's divine strength and immortality are
attributed to the plant god. The Vedic and Persian religions, of course,
were not the only faiths to have as part of their mysteries such
psychedelic plant-drugs; intimations are to be found in Judaism and
Christianity as well.

The "last supper" can be found within the Egyptian religion, again, as
part of the mysteries. Furthermore, the Eleusinian Mysteries included
the sharing of the Goddess Ceres's "body" (bread) and the God Dionysus's
"blood" (wine), centuries before the Christian era. The eucharist is
found also in Syria, an area in which Mithraism flourished. Indeed, the
pre-Christian Essenes, some of whom became Christians, participated in
not only baptism but also a "sacred meal":

The holy daily meal of the Essenes was preceded by the solemnity of
a water baptism. The members of the secret society, who had sworn
not to communicate a certain knowledge to the uninitiated, appeared
in their "white garments as if they were sacred," they went into the
refectory "purified as into a holy temple," and prayer was offered
up before and after the sacred meal. It can only be compared with
the Paschal meal of the other Jews. The bread figured in both,
whilst among the Essenes water took the place of the wine at their
meal on common days.

As reflected in the "Rule of the Community" (1QS 6:4-5), the Zadokites
of the Dead Sea scrolls also celebrated the "sacred meal," apparently at
least 100 years before the common era:

And when the table has been prepared for eating, and the new wine
for drinking, the Priest shall be the first to stretch out his hand
to bless the first-fruits of the bread and new wine.

The Zadokites were in part Melchizedekians and had likely practiced this
rite for centuries. In fact, the bread-and-wine sacrament is also proved
to be pre-Christian by its presence in the Bible, in which Melchizedek,
the "priest of the Most High God" and "best type of Monotheist of the
non-Jewish race," uses the sacrament to initiate Abraham (Gen. 14:18).
Harwood argues that the Melchizedek rite was a true communion, with the
doctrine of transubstantiation:

It was in the form of bread and wine that the god Ilion (Allah) was
eaten by the priest-king Molokhiy-Tsedek [Melchizedek] in /c./ 1800
BCE (GEN. 14:18). It was in the form of bread and barley wine that
the Egyptian /Book of the Dead/ at about the same time instructed
worshippers of the resurrected-savior-god Osiris to eat his flesh
and drink his blood.

Indeed, the sacrament would have little significance if it did not
represent God (El); in actuality, much is made of this particular
transaction, as it served to establish Abraham as "a priest for ever,
after the order of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110:4), in essence transferring the
power from the Gentile priesthood to the Jewish.

The ritual of theophagy, or the eating of gods/goddesses, Harwood
further asserts, has been practiced by humans for some 30,000 years.
Obviously, this practice is novel neither to Mithraism nor Christianity,
and there was certainly no need for the former to take it from the latter.

/The Devil Did It/

Mithraism was so popular in the Roman Empire and so similar in important
aspects to Christianity that several Church fathers were compelled to
address it, disparagingly of course. For example, in his /Dialogue with
Trypho/, Justin Martyr acknowledged the mysteries of Mithra and claimed
in chapter LXX that they were "distorted from the prophecies of Daniel
and Isaiah":

And when those who record the mysteries of Mithras say that he was
begotten of a rock, and call the place where those who believe in
him are initiated a cave, do I not perceive here that the utterance
of Daniel, that a stone without hands was cut out of a great
mountain, has been imitated by them, and that they have attempted
likewise to imitate the whole of Isaiah's words??

Martyr does not maintain that the Mithraic mysteries were copied /from/
Christianity; his appeal to "prophecies" purportedly written centuries
before is a tacit admission that Roman Mithraism, with rites already
developed and known by his time, preceded Christianity. Martyr's
suggestion also implies that the Mithraists knew the Jewish scriptures,
which is improbable, unless those who created Mithraic rituals were
Jews. Even in the time of the emperor Vespasian, it was difficult, if
not impossible, for a non-Jew (/goy/) to get his hands on the
scriptures. In fact, it is alleged that one of the reasons for the
befriending of Josephus and for the destruction of Jerusalem was the
emperor's desire to procure copies of the Jewish holy books or Torah. In
the Talmud (/Sanhedrin 59a/), it is debated whether or not a goy who
reads the Torah should be put to death. In any case, Martyr is clearly
indicating that Mithraic ritual preceded Christianity, in his attempted
explanation that their existence was the result of "prophecies."

As regards the Eucharist in specific, Martyr says in his /First Apology/
(LXVI):

And this food is called among us Eucharistia, of which no one is
allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we
teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for
the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living
as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do
we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour,
having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood
for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food
which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood
and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of
that Jesus who was made flesh. For the apostles, in the memoirs
composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto
us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He
had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me, this is My
body"; and that, after the same manner, having taken the cup and
given thanks, He said, "This is My blood"; and gave it to them
alone. /Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of
Mithras, commanding the same thing to be done./ For, that bread and
a cup of water are placed with certain incantations in the mystic
rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.

As noted, the phrase "which are called Gospels" is evidently an
interpolation, as it not only is extraneous and gratuitous to the
subject matter of the rest of the paragraph but is also the only time
the term "Gospels" is found in Justin's works. Furthermore, the quotes
Justin cites from these memoirs, which are ostensibly the text called
the "Memoirs of the Apostles" discussed earlier, differ from any found
in the canonical gospels, such as at Luke 22:19. (It would seem that
both Luke and Martyr used the same source, possibly the Gospel of the
Hebrews, for this scripture. In-depth analysis is provided by Cassels
<http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/freethought/>.)

In any case, Martyr implies here that this Mithraic sacrament /preceded/
Christianity and was not copied from the latter, since the "devil did
it" argument is generally, if not always, used to explain away the
similarities between Christianity and /pre-Christian/ Paganism. If human
beings had merely copied Christian rites and myths, why would Martyr not
say so but instead irrationally ascribe the deed to a supernatural
agency, thus putting himself at risk for incredulity and ridicule for
what is now nearly two thousand years? According to Graves, the pious
Faber interpreted Justin as admitting that the Mithraic Eucharist
predated Christianity, saying:

/The devil led the heathen to anticipate Christ/ with respect to
several things, as the mysteries of the Eucharist, etc. "And this
very solemnity (says St. Justin) the evil spirit introduced into the
mysteries of Mithra." (Reeves, Justin, p. 86)

In /The Prescription Against Heretics/, Tertullian acknowledges the
similarities between Mithraism and Christianity, in their use of
baptism, a mark upon the forehead, the resurrection, the crown, etc.
Like Martyr, of course, he blames these similarities on the devil,
rather than admitting that Christianity took them from Mithraism:

Chapter XL.-No Difference in the Spirit of Idolatry and of Heresy.
In the Rites of Idolatry, Satan Imitated and Distorted the Divine
Institutions of the Older Scriptures. The Christian Scriptures
Corrupted by Him in the Perversions of the Various Heretics.

The question will arise, By whom is to be interpreted the sense of
the passages which make for heresies? By the devil, of course, to
whom pertain those wiles which pervert the truth, and who, by the
mystic rites of his idols, vies even with the essential portions of
the sacraments of God. He, too, baptizes some¾ that is, his own
believers and faithful followers; he promises the putting away of
sins by a layer (of his own); and if my memory still serves me,
Mithra there, (in the kingdom of Satan) sets his marks on the
foreheads of his soldiers; celebrates also the oblation of bread,
and introduces an image of a resurrection, and before a sword
wreathes a crown. What also must we say to (Satan's) limiting his
chief priest to a single marriage? He, too, has his virgins; he,
too, has his proficients in continence. Suppose now we revolve in
our minds the superstitions of Numa Pompilius [legendary king of
Rome, 8^th -7^th century BCE], and consider his priestly offices and
badges and privileges, his sacrificial services, too, and the
instruments and vessels of the sacrifices themselves, and the
curious rites of his expiations and vows: is it not clear to us that
the devil imitated the well-known moroseness of the Jewish law?
Since, therefore he has sown such emulation in his great aim of
expressing, in the concerns of his idolatry, those very things of
which consists the administration of Christ's sacraments, it
follows, of course, that the same being, possessing still the same
genius, both set his heart upon, and succeeded in, adapting to his
profane and rival creed the very documents of divine things and of
the Christian saints?

Here Tertullian is acknowledging the resemblances between Mithraism,
Paganism in general, and Christianity, using as an example some rites
also similar that date back to the time of Numa Pompilius, eight
centuries before the Christian era. Yet, Tertullian claims that these
similarities were in imitation of the Jewish law, that Satan had
"imitated and distorted the Divine Institutions" of the "Older
Scriptures" or Torah. As stated, non-Jews could not readily know such
things; hence, it /must/ have been the apparently omnipresent,
omniscient and omnipotent devil, who is constantly getting the better of
God!

In /On Baptism/, Tertullian describes baptism in the Roman Empire, but
insists that it too is diabolical:

"Well, but the nations, who are strangers to all understanding of
spiritual powers, ascribe to their idols the imbuing of waters with
the self-same efficacy." (So they do) but they cheat themselves with
waters which are widowed. For washing is the channel through which
they are initiated into some sacred rites -- of some notorious Isis
or Mithras. The gods themselves likewise they honour by washings.
Moreover, by carrying water around, and sprinkling it, they
everywhere expiate country-seats, houses, temples, and whole cities:
at all events, at the Apollinarian and Eleusinian games they are
baptized; and they presume that the effect of their doing that is
their regeneration and the remission of the penalties due to their
perjuries. Among the ancients, again, whoever had defiled himself
with murder, was wont to go in quest of purifying waters. Therefore,
if the mere nature of water, in that it is the appropriate material
for washing away, leads men to flatter themselves with a belief in
omens of purification, how much more truly will waters render that
service through the authority of God, by whom all their nature has
been constituted! If men think that water is endued with a medicinal
virtue by religion, what religion is more effectual than that of the
living God? Which fact being acknowledged, we recognise here also
the zeal of the devil rivalling the things of God, while we find
him, too, practising baptism in his /subjects/.?

Obviously, this baptism, so extensively carried out, was the order of
the day long before Christianity had any influence. As stated, baptism
is a pre-Christian rite, found in India, dating back thousands of years.
How, then, did Mithraism take it from Christianity?

Another one of these devilish nuisances to Christian apologists is the
Mithraic mark upon the forehead, a rite similar to that within
Catholicism. In /The Chaplet/ (/De Corona/), Tertullian comments on the
"mimicry of martyrdom," as well as the crown and the mark of Mithraism,
and says:

Let us take note of the devices of the devil, who is wont to ape
some of God's things with no other design than, by the faithfulness
of his servants, to put us to shame, and to condemn us.

The mark on the forehead as a sign of religious respect is well known to
have been used in India for millennia. Even the Bible records Ezekiel
(9:4) as marking the foreheads of the "righteous":

And the Lord said to him, "Go through the city, through Jerusalem,
and put a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over
all the abominations that are committed in it."

Concerning this Jewish mark, Lundy states:

The cross was marked on the foreheads of the men of Jerusalem that
were to be spared from destruction, in Ezekiel's time, for it was
/tau/ [T]; (9:4-6) it was stamped on valuable documents, coins, and
on the necks of camels and thighs of horses; it was woven into
garments; and in various other ways it was used before the Christian
era as a symbol of ownership, of safety and of solemn compact.

O'Brien says that the Jewish mark was the "/cross/ X," as admitted by
Jerome. Concerning this mark, the Catholic Encyclopedia relates:

Thus the Greek letter (tau or thau) appears in Ezechiel (ix, 4),
according to St. Jerome and other Fathers, as a solemn symbol of the
Cross of Christ--"Mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men that
sigh." The only other symbol of crucifixion indicated in the Old
Testament is the brazen serpent in the Book of Numbers (xxi, 8-9).
Christ Himself thus interpreted the passage: "As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John,
iii, 14). The Psalmist predicts the piercing of the hands and the
feet (Ps. xxi. 17)?.

Nevertheless, despite its presence in Judaism, a Protestant Christian
website protests that/ the sign of the cross itself is Satanic/, a
Mithraic ritual that has erroneously found its way into Christianity:

After baptism into the Mysteries of Mithra, the initiate was marked
on the forehead. The sign of the cross formed by the elliptic and
the celestial equator was one of the signs of Mithra?.

There is no Biblical support for the inclusion of Mithraic ritual,
which is the worship of Satan, in the worship of the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, the Creator of heaven and earth. It is a Satanic
scheme to disguise the transgression of God?s laws under the title
of "Christianity."

While the writer wishes to denigrate all religions other than an
imagined "pure Christianity," he nonetheless clearly contends that
Christianity, Catholicism in specific, took /from/ Mithraism, and not
vice versa. Obviously, the cross would not have been copied by Paganism
from Christianity, as it is an ancient sacred symbol that pre-dated the
Christian era by centuries and millennia. The cross was the "universal
symbol of life and immortality," as well as of the sun god, entirely
appropriate for Mithra.

In /Contra Celsus/ (VI, c. XXII), Origen quotes Celsus as relating the
Mithraic mysteries, which included the soul's movements through the
seven heavenly spheres. This celestial soul-cleansing "ladder" begins
with the leaden Saturn and ends with the golden sun. The Persian
theology, says Origen, also includes "musical realms." From Origen's
condemnation of Celsus, it is evident that Celsus compared Mithraism
with Judaism and Christianity, apparently accusing the latter two of
copying the Persian religion. In book VI, Origen says:

For the mysteries of Mithras do not appear to be more famous among
the Greeks than those of Eleusis, or than those in Aegina, where
individuals are initiated in the rites of Hecate. But if he [Celsus]
must introduce barbarian mysteries with their explanation, why not
rather those of the Egyptians, which are highly regarded by many, or
those of the Cappadocians regarding the Comanian Diana, or those of
the Thracians, or even those of the Romans themselves, who initiate
the noblest members of their senate? But if he deemed it
inappropriate to institute a comparison with any of these, because
they furnished no aid in the way of accusing Jews or Christians, why
did it not also appear to him inappropriate to adduce the instance
of the mysteries of Mithras?

Ironically, the prolific and highly influential Origen -- considered one
of the best educated of the early apologists -- was later himself
condemned as a "heretic"; yet, the church continued to use his writings
to gain converts.

Another early Christian author who writes about the analogous elements
found in both Paganism and Christianity, and attributes these
resemblances to the devil, was Julius Firmicus Maternus (4^th cent.). It
is apparent from Firmicus's contentions that he believed the mysteries
to have been prefigured by the devil. In other words, they anticipated
Christianity.

Regarding the apologists' contentions that the prescient devil
anticipated Christianity, Robertson remarks:

Of course, we are told that the Mithraic rites and mysteries were
borrowed and imitated from Christianity. The refutation of this
notion lies in the language of those Christian fathers who spoke of
Mithraism. Three of them, as we have seen, speak of Mithraic
resemblances to Christian rites as being the work of devils. Now, if
the Mithraists /had/ simply imitated the historic Christians, the
obvious course for the latter would be simply to say so. But Justin
Martyr expressly argues that the demons /anticipated/ the Christian
mysteries and prepared parodies of them beforehand. "When I hear,"
he says, "that Perseus was begotten of a virgin, I understand that
the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this." Nobody now pretends
that the Perseus myth, or the Pagan virgin myth in general, is later
than Christianity.

Guignebert concurs:

Is there any need to draw attention to the striking points of
resemblance between these various rites, even if regarded
superficially, and the baptism and the eucharist of the Christians?
The Fathers of the Church did not fail to note these resemblances.
From the first to the fifth centuries, from St. Paul to St.
Augustine, there is abundant testimony to prove that they were
struck by them. They explained them in their own way, however. They
said the devil had sought to imitate the Christ, and that the
practices of the Church had served as model for the Mysteries. This
cannot now be maintained.

Concerning the "devil did it" excuse, Dupuis comments:

This may be an excellent reason for certain Christians, such as
there are plenty in our days, but an extremely paltry one for men of
common sense. As far as we are concerned, we, who do not believe in
the Devil?we shall simply observe that the religion of Christ,
founded like all the others on the worship of the Sun, has preserved
the same dogmas, the same practices, the same mysteries or very
nearly so; that everything has been in common; because the God was
the same; that there were only the accessories, which could differ,
but that the basis was absolutely the same.

Furthermore, a Pagan could just as easily have retorted that the lying
devil, desiring to destroy the true faith, plagiarized Paganism in order
to create Christianity.

The germane elements of Mithraism are known to have preceded
Christianity by hundreds to thousands of years; thus, even if "Roman"
Mithraism were not earlier than Christianity, these concepts nonetheless
existed in other religions, sects, cults, etc., prior to the Christian
era. In fact, these various elements were clearly developed over a
period of centuries, if not millennia, becoming more detailed and
refined, depending on the era and need. As Doherty says:

Cults do not form overnight, nor do the ideas underlying their rites
and myths spring fully into being at one moment. The basic concepts
and practices of the mysteries were ancient. They undergirded much
of the religious expression of the era.

Regardless of attempts to make Mithraism the plagiarist of Christianity,
the fact will remain that Mithraism was first, well established decades
before Christianity had any significant influence. If Christian
apologists will not yield to the well-attested assertion that
Christianity "borrowed" from Mithraism in specific, they simply cannot
deny that both copied from Paganism in general, from one or more of the
numerous religions, cults and mysteries of the pre-Christian world.
Hence, the effect is the same: Christianity took its godman and tenets
from Paganism.

© 2001 Acharya S.

"Mithra, Light of the World" excerpted from /Suns of God: Krishna,
Buddha and Christ Unveiled/ <../../Truth%20Be%20Known/sunsofgod.htm>

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*Truth Be Known
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