Merry Mithras Day
So, you think that this is Christmas Day? Think again.
From Christmas Mythology by William Edelen
Mithraism (6th century B.C. Persia and India).
Mithras was born of a virgin, with only shepherds present. Mithras was known as "the way," "the truth," "the Life," "the Light," "the Word," the "Son of God," and "the Good Shepherd." He was pictured carrying a Lamb on his shoulders. Sunday was sacred and known as "the Lord’s Day" centuries before Jesus was ever born.
On December 25th, there were glorious celebrations with bells, hymns, candles,
gifts, and "communion" was observed by the followers. From December 25 until the Spring Equinox (Estra or Easter) were the "40 days" which later became Christian Lent. Mithras was finally placed in a rock tomb called "Petra." After three days he was removed with great festival, celebrations and joy. The followers of Mithras believed there would be a day of "judgement" when non-believers would perish and "believers" would live forever with Mithras in "paradise," which is a Persian word, not Hebrew.
All of these mythological formulas were later absorbed, by diffusion, into the
Christian cult and their rituals.
From The History of Christmas by Ben Best
The ancient polytheistic religions of Egypt, Persia, Babylonia and eventually
Rome increasingly consolidated their pantheons of deities under a single primary
god, usually a Sun-god. The Egyptians believed in a transubstantiation of their
Sun-god Ra into a disk-shaped wafer that could be eaten in a sacred ritual. The
Persian Mithra (Roman Mithras) held special prominence as god of day (light) and
the only son of the God of Heaven. But some time before the 5th century B.C. the
Persian prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra) taught a dualism based on the conflict
between the God of Heaven and the God of Evil. Humans could choose between good
(light) or evil (darkness) and on judgment day be sent to Heaven or Hell based
on their choices. Mithras was identified as the redeemer prophesied by
Zoroaster: the sun-god who would appear as a human being at the end of time.
Mithras was a divine being borne of a human virgin on December 25th (the Winter
Solstice by the Roman Julian calendar), his birth watched and worshipped by
shepherds. As an adult, Mithras healed the sick, made the lame walk, gave sight
to the blind and raised the dead. Before returning to heaven at the Spring
Equinox Mithras had a last supper with 12 disciples (representing the 12 signs
of the Zodiac). Mithraism included Zoroastrian beliefs in the struggle between
good & evil, symbolized as light & darkness. Mithraism was like an ancient fraternity: a mystery cult open only to men which had seven degrees of initiation -- including the ritual of baptism and a sacred meal of bread & wine representing the body & blood of Mithras. Late in the second century AD Commodus became the first Roman emperor to be initiated into Mithraism. The priests of Mithraism were called Father -- Christians at the time were forbidden to use "Rabbi" or "Father" in reference to church leaders based
on the admonition in Matthew.
All sounds rather familiar don’t you think?
About Me
- CyberKitten
- I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.
8 comments:
I'd read about Mithra before - I think it was particularly villified by the Christian Church because of the similarities if I remember right:-)
But we all know Christmas was niether invented by or unique to Christianity.
Still, it's nice to have a celebration at midwinter, regardless of what people are celebrating.
Mrs A said: I think it was particularly villified by the Christian Church because of the similarities if I remember right:-)
'Similarities'...? They're virtually identical. I actually didn't realise how close they were until I did a little bit of research.. the 12 disciples really got me going..... I find it all very strange....
Guess they didn't have copyright way back when... the authors of the Bible definitely would've ended up in court. It's WAY worse than J K Rowling..!
Wow. I had heard or read bits of this before, but thanks for pulling it all together. What proof do we have of this information? Old papyrus still around, hieroglyphics? What do Christian churches today say about all this? Have you come across any commentaries? Very interesting read. Thanks. Happy Holidays.
Thanks V V - Glad you found it interesting. How was New York?
I'll try & dig up more on this topic. It certainly seems full of possibilities.
I certainly won't forget about it when the holiday season is over. It's a story that could run for a while.
Are any of my visitors ancient history scholars who might shine some light on this?
Mithra was the son of the main god, and it appears from ancient accounts that he was a later addition to the Zoroastrian religion, much like the relation of Judaism and Catholicism. in addition, he was born in a manger and was given gifts by the shepherds.
the heads of the Mithratic church were called Magi, and some translations of the birth of Jesus describe the three wise men as Magi.
the symbol recognized by the followers of Mithra was a cross.
Vatican city is built on the same site where the most holy Mithraic church was.
the disciple Paul was born in tarsus, where mithraic zoroastrian religion was said to originated there before the year 67 bce. he is directly attributed to the writing of 13 books in the bible. the zoroastain religion believed in the eternal life of the soul and that souls would enter either heaven or hell upon being judged at the revelation. it is believed that paul saw jesus as the messiah(rebirth of mithra) descibed in the zoroastrian texts and would bring about the end of days and take all of the good souls to heaven.
emperor Constantine was the first roman emperor to adopt Christianity as a national religion. COnstantine was a follower of Minthra. and before he merged the two religions, Christianity was seen as a threat to roman rule, and Christian texts were frequently sought out and destroyed.
the drinking of wine in Mithraic ceremonies was symbolic of drinking the blood of minthra, transformed into a bull, and a disk shaped wafer represented his flesh. the drinking of the blood and eating of the flesh was said to provide cleansing of the soul.
mithra was the god of the sun, and thus the roman emperor constantine adopted Sun-day as the day of worship and abandoned the jewish day of sabbath.
Where did you get this info from CyberKitty? From thorough academic research? Or from the internet? Let me guess... :-) Most of the things that you claim are false and circle on the internet and get copied by people such as yourself, are taken at face value. I'll give you one example: Mithras didn't have 12 disciples at all. He had 2. This hoax is based on one little gravure on which he's depicted with 12 random people around him.
Mithras surrounded by the 12 signs of the 'Zodiac' is perhaps more accurate ...but all much more accountable than all the fundamentalist-based nonsense surrounding that latest re-hatched, sun god figure, i.e. Jesus eh...:-)
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