Considering that the bible has been written by mystics--hidden messages in the stories etcetera...most of the stories are not meant to be taken literally. I want to see how you respond to this below: We see Jesus as being the example representing the old man. The old man died on the cross to bring about the new man (The word man comes from the sanscrit word Manas, meaning Mind) or the new Mind. Dying for the sins of humanity represents the Great Work that we all must do--sacrificing the ego to raise the frequency of LOVE, Real LOVE. The ego is: Anger, Envy, Lust, Jealousy, Pride, Greed & Sloth...us as Mystics Christians have to silence the ego in order to annihilate it to bring about the superior emotions that the new man has, and from there we will personally know GOD, or whatever name on may want to call it.
Speaking of church; I haven't been in so long because that is not the route for me, because I have different beliefs as well as knowing's. Much of the bible is taught literally, and from being taught it literally entertains the ego instead of energizing the spirit. The word spirit comes from the Latin word "Spirare" meaning "Breath." This is why when we meditate, we practice conscious breathing in order to get in tuned.
The bible has been re-written so many times, that it may become harder to get the real translation. The original bible was written in Greek and Hebrew, and in that bible there are no J's, so this is where we get the name Yashua, or Yeshua from, which is the real name of Jesus...I absolutely don't know where they got the name Jesus from, perhaps JA being a God of the Jews, and Zeus, which is a God of the Greeks. JAZEUS, or Jesus.
I hope none of this upsets you, but this research has taken many years for me to obtain, and to give you another extention of myself. Back in Egyptian mythology we have found the cross to mean Spirit over Matter. Spirit, up and down, and matter from right to left. Right to left is shorter as you know. As we speak, humanity is on the cross...spirit sacrificed to bring about the desire of matter, and due to that we sacrifice our time to material objects.Ancient Egyptian God Osiris, and Isis represented GOD--Masculine and Feminine, and together they created Horus, which was known as the Son God. In the Catholic Religion, Mary is praised more, sacredly representing the Feminine God. In Christianity we praise Jesus more, representing the son God.
Emporer Constantine existed in the 3rd Century--had a vision of Jesus, However, as he was traveling to battle his most powerful rival in Italy, Maxentius, at the Tiber River in A.D. 312, he had a vision. In that vision, he reported seeing the cross of Christ superimposed on the sun with the words, in hoc signo vinces - "in this sign you shall conquer." After winning the battle, he became a strong champion of Christianity. Although he didn't completely leave his pagan roots and wasn't baptized until A.D. 337 on this deathbed, he did much to further the growth of the church. Either as a means to unify his empire, or to make converting to Christianity easier, Constantine sought to blend Christian and pagan traditions.
At that time, two prominent pagan winter festivals were celebrated. The first, starting on December 17 and lasting seven days, honored Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture. The second, starting on December 25 and lasting through January 1, commemorated the birth of Mithras, the Persian god of light. Constantine merged many of the traditions from these festivals with the Nativity story in the Bible and Christmas was born. From its beginning, Christmas was a holiday (or holy day), gifts were exchanged, families and friends gathered to feast, and a birth was celebrated; just like in the Roman and Persian festivities. The first mention of December 25 as the date of Jesus' birth is found in an early Roman calendar from A.D. 336.
Although the accounts of Jesus' birth (Matthew 1:18-2:23, Luke 1:26-38, 2:1-20) give us no hints about the date, they do provide a wealth of information about its significance. The Baby born in Bethlehem is the Son of God (Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:32, 35), the Savior (Matthew 1:21; Luke 2:11), God with us (Matthew 1:23), and the King who is worthy of worship (Matthew 2:2; Luke 1:33). We speak of the Pagans having many Gods, and most call them Devilized or what not, but what we did not know is that our religions are mixed with paganism...why do you think different religions worship different Gods? Most have never heard of Emporer Constantine, but the fact of the matter is that he ordered books to be taken out of the original bible, words changed etc only to match his own personnel beliefs, and if you fought against the new order you pagans and christians...YOU WILL BE KILLED!!! So, guess what...we have Emporer Constantine's Belief still till this day if we take everything literal in our text books.
Now we come to Mary Magdalene, the one that the founding fathers of Christianity said was a whore, or prostitute as you will. Finding out later that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute, but the fact of the matter is that there were alot of Mary's that existed in that time, but I do not believe that story--I believe it was intentional, due to the woman being inferior to man at that time, and still looked at like that in some areas still till this day. Notice in the painting by leonardo Da Vinci of the last supper...the V shape in the middle of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The shape represents the Chalice which is a feminine shape, and a cup (glass perhaps.) and if you flipped it--it would be masculine, the shape of pyramids. As we seen in the movie: The Da Vinci Code, You move Jesus over to the middle of the V, and do the same with Mary Magdalene and you will notice all of a sudden that Mary Magdalene is laying on Jesus's shoulder. Amazing huh? Haha
As our eyes move across the painting, shifting from one apostle's reaction to the next, one thing which may become evident is how human the depiction of each figure is. There are no halos or any other marker of holiness - not even any symbols of divinity around Jesus himself. Every person is a human being, reacting in a human way. It is thus the human aspect of the moment which Leonardo Da Vinci was trying to capture and express, not the sacred or divine aspects usually focused on in Christian liturgy. The Gospel of Philip has caused quite a stir for several reasons. It says Jesus' companion (also translated as "consort") was Mary Magdalen, and that he "loved Mary more than the rest of us because he used to kiss her on the ____ [hole in the text]." Philip also speaks of a "stainless physical union" which has great power.
Early scholars translated the 'union' phrase as "undefiled intercourse," which would mean that the text advises, "Understand/seek the undefiled intercourse, for it has great power." However, in recent years orthodox scholars have tended to translate the phrase as "pure embrace" or "marriage." Attridge claims that it is a reference to an early Christian practice of offering one's fellow worshipers a kiss, known in some circles as "passing the peace." I wonder.
Like French scholar Jean-Yves Leloup, I believe there is strong evidence that the Gospel of Philip is speaking of actual intercourse, and not the ritual kiss that "passes the peace." In one age after another her image was reinvented, from prostitute to sibyl to mystic to celibate nun to passive helpmeet to feminist icon to the matriarch of divinity’s secret dynasty. how revolutions are co-opted; how fallibility is reckoned with, and how sweet devotion can be made to serve violent domination—all these cultural questions helped shape the story of the woman who befriended Jesus of Nazareth. Who was she? Who was she? From the New Testament, one can conclude that Mary of Magdala (her hometown, a village on the shore of the Sea of Galilee) was a leading figure among those attracted to Jesus.
When the men in that company abandoned him at the hour of mortal danger, Mary of Magdala was one of the women who stayed with him, even to the Crucifixion. She was present at the tomb, the first person to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection and the first to preach the “Good News” of that miracle. These are among the few specific assertions made about Mary Magdalene in the Gospels. From other texts of the early Christian era, it seems that her status as an “apostle,” in the years after Jesus’ death, rivaledeven that of Peter.
This prominence derived from the intimacy of her relationship with Jesus, which, according to some accounts, had a physical aspect that included kissing. Beginning with the threads of these few statements in the earliest Christian records, datingto the first through third centuries, an elaborate tapestry was woven, leading to a portrait of St. Mary Magdalene in which the most consequential note—that she was a repentantprostitute—is almost certainly untrue. On that false note hangs the dual use to which her legend has been put ever since: discrediting sexuality in general and disempowering women in particular.
I have so much more to bring to you, but I will stop here, because I don't want to overload you with more reading.
