1.9  THE UNIVERSAL SHELL

As it is commonly known in Christianity there is not much authentic to be found. The idea of God originates in Judaism, i.e. the Old Testament. Jesus as a Redeemer was taken from the Hellenistic Mysteries while Mary is an effigy of the original Great Mother. Mysticism wouldnt be possible without Neo-Platonism. Smaller peculiarities are a plagiarism as well, i.e. were taken from already existing religions, such as Eucharist, baptism, Christmas, Easter, the Community of the Saints and so on and so forth. After having taken over all this they erased or even destroyed their sources of inspiration in order to prove the singularity of Christianity. Since then it is THE fear of the church to get unmasked. For this reason its history is one of a permanent crusade or the destruction of everything which doesnt avow to the glad tidings.

That the above known even concerns the core symbol the cross will be shocking for some, the more so since it often still is considered an anchor. LINK: Marktkirche Hannover . First of all, the cross is only mentioned in one gospel. The other three state that Jesus died on a stake (stauros). On the contrary, the cross is pre-Christian. It was used as a Christian symbol by Emperor Constantine for opportunistic reasons when he was faced with a battle. In order to win it he had his soldiers paint a cross on their bucklers in order to frighten their enemies. Only once state and religion found each other the cross was made the official sign. Afterwards the Pagan past was erased everywhere. Conclusion: even the cross is originally non-Christian. What should be said about the stake the gospels mention? It is the symbol of sacrifice of the old (Canaanite) Mother(Goddess)Religion. It was called Asherah.

That Jesus died on a stake and not on the cross must be the most risky secret of the Templars. They discovered so in the Holy Land . This is the main reason why they were destroyed by state and church. However, they were not afraid to show this fact in certain places. This becomes particularly obvious in the Templars church of LINK : Torres del Rio ( Castilla y León , Spain ). Since the church officially talks about a mysterious (sic) idea, the Templars show how it really had been. One picture shows people turning the cross around so that it becomes a stake, while in a sculpture opposite to it three Maries - symbols of the original threefold Goddess - are watching in order to attest their (profound) agreement.
 
Asherah is the Canaanite MotherGoddess. She is above the pantheon of the dying and resurrecting Gods (of vegetation). Even Yahweh in the beginning of his career as the one God (Father) belonged to it. Texts were found which prove that originally he had been the husband of Asherah (later on Astarte). A statue of the latter was located in the sanctum of the temple of Salomon . (For this reason it was venerated by the Templars LINK: Tomar). Joshua (624 B.C.), who wanted a strong state, introduced strict monotheism. So it was the state both in case of the Jews as of the Roman Empire which created religion as we still know it. Before that, religion had been multifaceted. So "death on a Asherah" - the fact that Jesus died on a stake - indicates that he like all his predecessors (Tammuz, Osiris, Attis, Baal, Dionysos) was part of the (above mentioned) old tradition, a tradition from before the rising of Christianity, i.e. the tradition of the MotherGoddess. Death and resurrection can only happen in the Void i.e. the Cosmic Womb. This is deeply rooted in our collective knowledge. It is the true reason why he Jesus was so friendly towards women. If this is the case and many aspects suggest so, there must also have been a corresponding archaic or original symbol
 
In order to discover it we wont have to look hard. For this symbol exists almost everywhere! Unbelievably we have been ignoring it for 2000 years. For, whether you take a look around the streets, public and/or private buildings, museums, parks or churches the shell really is universal. LINK: Gallery of pictures. For countless times it has been the symbol on the one hand of the magical, on the other of the Ultimate Truth. As a bowl it both represents the (sacral) vulva of real women and of the Cosmic Womb. So it is no surprise that you can take a look at a shell from Sumer (3000 B.C.) in Berlin''s Pergamon Museum . Aphrodite is the next one with a shell, the Goddess whose origin dates back to Inanna and Asherah. It could only spread throughout Western Europe thanks to the Roman Empire . The astounding aspect is that despite the Christian reinterpretation of all values the shell could stand its ground after all. It can even be found in churches everywhere. LINK: Coimbra . It is always depicted as a Source of Being, the main figures - St. Mary, Jesus and the Saints of the Church - are always emerging from it. So silently the true meaning of the shell - the origin of life through a Mother - has been always acknowledged.
 
Finally it is important to talk about St. Jamess shell, too. Of course it is no secret that the Way of St. James had already been existing for a long time before the Christian era. The shells which were collected back then served a spiritual purpose. They were expression of a deep insight of the people into the essence of life. For the shell as Cosmic Womb both represents birth and death. Everything is born from it and goes back to it. So on the one hand it is a symbol of fertility, on the other a sign of death. Therefore shells are found time and again in tombs, from the Neolithic to the Phoenicians, Romans and Goths. On the Way of St. James the aspect of death was represented by the ocean. It was seen as the shore of death, end of the world and sea of darkness. So with regard to fertility or the desire for resurrection it is not surprising that on the Way of St. James symbols of Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus were found. As in so many instances Christianity replaced this profound existential wisdom by a spiritless legend in order to erase the memory of the ancient times. It has also turned the shell around (twice). Instead of showing its open side, the inside, where the mystery is, i.e. the feminine side which is giving birth, the side of power, they emphasize the infertile back of it
 
By the way, todays Pope also has a shell in his crest (a St. James shell) together with two other pre-Christian symbols? How might HE have discovered this? LINK: Fritzlar, Bingen.
 
So it is no surprise that in the Green Men and Wise Women Pilgrims Network the shell was given back its original meaning as symbol of the Ultimate. Or as someone recently proudly put it: I am a pilgrim who is wearing the open shell!
 
In 2004, for five monthd we were treating pilgrims on the Camino (for free) for their aches LINK: Camino, i.e. with a unique Chinese therapy: Guasha. LINK: www.meihan-guasha.nl. During this time we had helped and talked to thousands of people. It turned out that the majority of the pilgrims are non- or only marginally Christians. According to our estimates 20 % of them had a religious (Christian) background. The rest was open to all other traditions. This versatility represents our society. For this reason the Camino cannot be seen exclusively from a Catholic point of view. Many pilgrims dont find this fair, even are (strongly) bothered by it. They want openness and diversity to prevail on the Camino and that they can get information from various sides. This is not a disadvantage but an enrichment for the Camino. The more people who encounter resonance in their (non-Christian) quest for meaning precisely so from the non-denominational side the more their motivation will increase to actually take part in the Camino. With regard to this we have absolutely no desire to interfere in the process of the Camino. Our contribution is limited to our own PilgrimsNetwork. On our website we published only recommendations which are able to enrich the experiences of the pilgrims on the Camino.

 

2.0 JESUS GREEN MAN
 
We know that it was Hildegard of Bingen who talked about God as the Greening One and Jesus as the Green Man. So we would like to include a small chapter on this topic. The above mentioned statement sounds really nice, but is it actually? The best approach is to remember once again what the Essence of a Green Man is, in particular those aspects we can also recognize in Jesus. In the centre is the "dying and resurrecting" Deity. In contrast to what many people think this archetype had been existing for thousands of years before Jesus. This is part of a very long tradition. So Jesus Green Man can be explained in two different ways. On the one hand, just like many Christians try to do today, Jesus as THE Green Man i.e. in turn claiming everything for themselves, just like the Church has always been doing or on the other hand as A Green Man.
 
In this case the second characteristic of the Green Man may help. Without exception Green Men had a close relationship with the feminine aspect. Often they were Sons/Lovers of the Mother/Goddess. Son means born from Her, lover constantly returning to Her. This has nothing to do with the relationship between mother and son as we know it but symbolizes the central cosmic process in which the Eternal Light is incessantly born from Darkness, the Original Void in order to return to it at the same time. Where is the connection to Jesus? Well, in some Gnostic texts they talk about the fact that Jesus was born from the Cosmic Mother. They also talk about God as Mother. Was this a cause for the Church to give Mary such a high status? As a substitute for the True Mother? Later on a true cult of Mary has developed. However, in some countries ( Spain ) the (intuitive) memory of the Cosmic Mother has survived. There the Virgin Mother is central. So Jesus as dying and resurrecting God indeed had a close relationship with the Great Mother, which finally proves this status as Green Man. Of course, Jesus didnt have a choice back then. He was one with the Father. Of course he had an extraordinary relationship with women, in particular with LINK: Mary Magdalene. She could even have been a priestess of the old MotherReligion and he one of her disciples, all this necessarily secretly?
 
A third point to bear in mind is Jesus status as Son of God. This was not his own invention but a strategy of the Church in order to achieve absolute dominance. Jesus himself, just like his predecessors, considered themselves as coming and going characters. This corresponds with spiritual reality. In the Void there are many forms. The Void (Cosmic Mother) stays the same, the manifestations of the Light (Gods) on earth are constantly transforming. Finally, we all are sons and daughters of the Cosmic Mother. In addition, there is a constant epiphany i.e. the Divine constantly manifests in new hopefuls, men and women. Everyone has a Divine Spark in the depths of his/her soul (Meister Eckhart). For this reason Jesus is not THE but A Green Man, one of many. Since God is Unity in Diversity! Green Men and Wise Women represent the Divine manifestations in the world. The claims to power of the Church always stood in the way of acknowledging this. They resented being part of an existing tradition. They wanted to be exclusive. Even God-Himself was the "God of the Bible" and the Christians as successors of the Jews the "chosen people". This has nothing to do with the true experience of God. Since the Essence of God is that He (It) embraces everything without exception. God is universal, this is the Essence of God, no one can claim Him (It) for himself. To do so is the worst form of ignorance or blasphemy. For this reason there can only be ONE universal faith, i.e. with local, cultural differences, but united with regard to the essential.
 
In conclusion: Just like the Old Testament Jesus was also annexed by the Church. It adapted him to its own image, in a way that not much was left from the real Jesus. On the contrary, Jesus has neither founded a church nor wanted to do so, but only wanted to restore the Old Tradition. What he meant by that, well, officially the Jewish tradition, since he couldnt be open under the Levite oppression. However, in reality he had little to do with the Jewish tradition, f.i. in Judaism the teaching of love doesnt exist, nor do the resurrecting Gods. So he neither belonged to Judaism nor Christianity (nor certainly to Buddhism as a Bodhisattva as the Dalai Lama claims) but he could well have been a Canaanite* (Marriage at Cana.....), just as LINK: Mary Magdalene. Though it is true that the Canaanites had mostly mingled with their conquerors (Jews) there had always been groups which wanted to restore the Old Tradition of the MotherGoddess. "Old Tradition", this can only be the tradition which had been existing for centuries alongside the Jewish monotheism and turned out to be extraordinarily strong. F.i. Elijah could destroy the priests of Baal, but not the priestesses. Solomon, the famous Jewish king, publicly venerated Astarte, the MotherGoddess (Cosmic Womb) of the Canaanites and so on and so forth**. Jesus as a non-Jew, this is an outrageous idea of which the (positive!) consequences cannot yet be predicted. In any case he is part of a thousands-of-years-old tradition of "dying and resurrecting Gods" just as Yahweh had once been (as Son/Lover of Asherah, the Canaanite! MotherGoddess) what I called The Original Tradition. With its first representatives Osiris, Tammuz, Baal, Attis, Adonis, Dionysos and....Jesus. This is the true tradition of the Occident.
 
Revealing Discovery
Note 10
 
** The words you say in the name of the Lord we do not want to obey, but we want to stick to all those words which came out of our own mouths and want to sacrifice and offer libations to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, as we and out fathers, our kings and superiors did in the cities of Judas and the alleys of Jerusalem. Then we had enough bread and were well and we saw no calamities. Since the times however in which we stopped sacrificing and offering libations to the QUEEN OF HEAVEN, we have suffered lack and died from swords and hunger.

From the Bible, Jeremiah Chapt. 44, 16-18
 
There is strong evidence for the thesis that Jesus was a Canaanite, i.e. devoted to the Mother religion. Of course, his death and resurrection is central. Whether physical or spiritual is irrelevant. Important is the principle which originally stems from the (Canaanite) Mother religion (and was later on continued by the Hellenistic Mysteries). But also from the very beginning many things suggest this fact. He was born in the north of Judea , i.e. in the Canaanite land. "Born from the Virgin Mary without a man being involved". "Virgin" means "independent from a man" - it reminds of the parthenogenesis of the Great Mother, who - as is known is self(pro)creating.  Joseph is the son/lover without father claim. The Church claims she is concieved through the "Holy Ghost".....the dove which, however, originally was a symbol of the Great Mother.....so Jesus was begotten by the Cosmic Mother.....The fact, that Joseph plays a subordinate role, corresponds with the old matricentric Canaanite culture, as well. The same wouldn't have been possible in Jewish (strictly patriarchal) circles. Later on Jesus is baptized by John, only to show the outside world that he belongs to Judaism. He receives his God-experience (Enlightenment) on the Tabor mountain, a holy mountain of the Canaanites. His wrath is aiming at the Jewish tradition of doing business in the temple. Later on Jesus is always surrounded by a group of women, the same group supporting him in many ways. The marriage at Cana.....as a hieros gamos is a central event in the Old Religion and is managed by his mother, proving the maternal line. That he denied it later on is no proof against this theory as from time to time he had to deny his descent in order to not be too suspicious. He supports or heals mainly non-Jewish women. He is indifferent towards the Jewish laws or is insensitive to them, while at the same time "wanting to restore the tradition"......So supposedly not the Jewish tradition.......
 
He is anointed by Mary Magdalene which is an initiation rite of the GodKings of the MotherGoddess. The former herself is called Apostle of the Apostles, the woman who knows the All, a strong indication towards her status as high priestess of the Canaanite religion. That this is a fact is proved by her (in the Bible) being called whore (an indication to the Canaanite sacred temple prostitution) and that seven demons were excorcised (this points to her seven initiations of the Canaanite religion). Now it is possible to give an answer to the biggest mystery, i.e. where Jesus had been from the age of 12 to 32. There is not even a hint anywhere. Logically, because it could not be made public since....he was a disciple of the forbidden, even fanatically persecuted Canaanite religion.....Later on he acts as the lover of Mary Magdalene (her representing the Goddess, whether they were married or not thus being irrelevant!) and kissed her on the mouth in the presence of his disciples.....something which was only acceptable to Canaanites. She discovered his empty tomb, she was the first to recognize him. He knew from the beginning about his role or fate - becoming a "dying and resurrecting God/King" - since Mary Magdalene had initiated him into the old Mother Religion. However, this was meant purely symbolically, the physical death as a punishment for stirring up a riot was an accident i.e. unexpected, a tragic misfortune... Nothing suggested that a man called Paulus would later ruthlessly use this event for building his Christianity.....
 
Revealing Discovery
Note 10
 
Jesus as Canaanite or Green man, part of a tradition of dying and resurrecting Gods has a message for us. First of all, he is no longer the "Only Begotten Son of the Father" but is one of many. And this not only with regard to the past. The experience of God is part of our heritage, every man and every woman can experience it. As Jesus himself taught: "The Kingdom of God is in you". Instead of being believers i.e. to let Jesus die for us so that we can go on with business as usual we should become part of the tradition of dying and resurrecting Gods. For the essence of todays global crisis is: either our ego will die or the world will go down... The ego is supposed to become a servant of the Whole instead of being its centre. So it is precisely about becoming true successors of Jesus i.e. Osiris, Tammuz, Baal, Attis and Dionysos*, respectively. With the Eternal-Feminine as the Ultimate Reality. Just like they were practising in the Hellenistic Mysteries, for instance. So leading a spiritual life in which we let our ego die in order to be constantly reborn. Grace was bestowed upon me by becoming part of this Tradition i.e. I was indeed granted the Great Realization of "death and resurrection". LINK: Threefold Realization It is the deepest possible spiritual Experience. If we open up to IT we are not alone. The Original Tradition has risen like a phoenix from the ashes. The spiritual Realization of "death and resurrection" is real and alive. It is possible for anybody. I personally proved so through my LINK: Vision of the Grail and LINK: Threefold Realization. And, as I stated above: I am only Enlightened because you are, too..... because the whole Cosmos is......
 
* Since this chapter is dedicated to Jesus we didnt talk about female models. However, it should be obvious that Isis, Inanna, Ishtar, Kybele, Astarte, Aphrodite, the Black Madonna and Mary Magdalene are just as important as her male partners....LINK: Wise Women, The Universal Shell, The Lady and the (Her) beasts