From: Shelby Sherman To: Fredric Rice Apr-15-94 19:22:52 Subject: Mithra 13 Apr 94 23:01, Fredric Rice wrote to Shelby Sherman: FR> Greetings, Pagan! Bite thy tongue. FR> Do you have a file containing the list of parallels between the FR> Mithra God and the Jesus God? Drew asked after them and I sure FR> could use the list for reference. I recall that someone posted FR> it several times yet my floppies are not cataloged or in order FR> here in Holland and searching for it would take days.Here is what I have:
o Mithra was born on the 25th of December, called the "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun."
o Some claimed his mother to be a mortal virgin.
o Others said Mithra had no mother, but was miraculously born of a female Rock, the petra genetrix, fertilized by the Heavenly Father's phallic lightning.
o Mithra's birth was witnessed by shepherd and Magi, who brought gifts to his sacred birth-cave of the Rock.
o Mithra performed the usual assortment of miracles - raising the dead, healing the sick, making the blind to see and the lame to walk, casting out devils.
o As a 'Peter', son of petra, he carried the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
o His triumph and ascension to heaven were celebrated at the spring equinox, when the sun rises toward its apogee.
o Before returning to heaven, Mithra celebrated a Last Supper with his 12 disciples, who represented the signs of the zodiac.
o In memory of this, his worshippers partook of a sacramental bread marked with a cross.
o This was one of the seven Mithraic sacraments. It was called mizd, in latin-missa, in english- mass.
o Mithra's image was buried in a rock tomb, the same sacred cave that represented his Mothers' womb.
o His image was later withdrawn from the cave and was said to live again.
o What began in water would end in fire, according to Mithraic beliefs.
o The great battle between the forces of light and darkness in the Last Days would destroy the earth with its upheavals and burnings.
o Virtuous ones who followed the teachings of the Mithraic priesthood would join the spirits of light and be saved.
o Sinful ones who followed other teachings would be cast into hell with Ahriman and the fallen angels.
o Mithra's cave-temple on the Vatican Hill was seized by the Christians in 376 CE.
o Christian Bishops of Rome pre-empted the Mithraic high priest's title of Pater Patrum, which became Papa, or Pope. (Also Pontifex Maximus)
That's just the cult of Mithra. The character of the Virgin Mary was a direct crib from characteristics of the virgin goddesses Artemis/Diana, Hestia/Vesta, and Athena/Minerva. Her worship became extremely popular in the British Isles, where the Great Goddess of the Keltoi had once been practiced, and much of her characteristics were absorbed into the Virgin Mary. The Keltic god Herne or Cernummos, as well as the Greek demigod Pan, were debased into providing the form of the Christian Devil.