Symbol Dictionary: Gods
God: Recognized later than the Goddess, the God in misogynistic traditions has tended to usurp the Goddess’ original qualities, such as Creator. Paired with the Goddess, the God provides the cosmic masculine component of creation-preservation-destruction (the aspects of the Triple Goddess). In His fertility/creator aspect, the God dies to provide the fertility for his partner, Gaia (Earth). This has been reenacted in many traditions, with the coupling of a symbolic Fertility God and a symbolic Maiden Goddess often a priest and priestess or king and queen, and then sometimes literally killing the Fertility God, other times only symbolically killing him. The fertility of the priestess/queen insured the fertility of the land. In His father/preservation aspect, the God is often represented as heaven or the sun. He is usually created by the Great Goddess and then couples with her to create the universe. They often appear as consorts of the Triple Goddess, such as Shiva, Hades, Pluto, Neptune/Poseidon, the Devil, etc. The trident is their symbol, most often associated with Poseidon/Neptune, and represents the triple lingam consorting with the triple yoni of the triple goddess. In His death/destroyer aspect, he appears as the Underworld Guardian. Ideally, this was a place of regeneration, where departed souls rested before rebirth, but later turned into the never-ending hell of punishment.
Fertility/Savior Gods
Fertility/Savior Gods: From the Greek Soter, savior literally means “one who sows the seed” and metaphorically referring to a phallic fertility god, consort of the Mother Earth, such as Rome’s Semo Sancus, Soter is often incorporated into the name of gods or divine kings such as Dionysus Soter and Antiochus Soter. Savior gods all had similar life patterns of being born of a virgin mother and god, and coming to earth to save the virtuous, whose death insures that salvation. It is a common myth for Goddesses and fertility “savior”-gods to copulate in newly tilled fields to insure fertility, often reenacted with priestesses and divine kings. The Persian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Middle Eastern and Christian beliefs all had saviors among their myths.
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Ares (Greek)/Mars (Roman): God of War, Mars also has roots as a fertility savior god. Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), explains, “Mars was ‘red’ because his basic Indo-European prototype was the pre-Vedic flayed god Rudra, father of the Maruts or sacrificial victims, red with their own blood.” According to Rowena and Rupert Shepherd in their book 1000 Symbols: What Shapes Mean In Art And Myth (2002), “Its glyph… represents direction and desire over the circle of spirit.” Venus (Aphrodite) is Mars’ (Ares’) counterpart. See Gods/Savior Gods. See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course. |
Cernunnos: Cernunnos is the Celtic Horned God depicted in sacred art with a headdress of antlers, sitting in a meditative lotus position. He is the fertility consort of the Goddess, and particularly this symbol represents union between male and female. According toBarbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), “Medieval romances spoke of pagan heroes who acquired godlike powers by falling into a trance of ‘contemplation’ of the Goddess as lady–love.” See Horns. See UMS Gods, Goddesses and Mythology course.
Christos: Meaning “Anointed One,” Christos was the “title of many Middle-Eastern sacrificial gods- Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, Osiris- derived from Oriental cults of the sacred marriage,” according to Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983).
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Kokopelli: Flute playing Kokopelli is a deity of magic, traveler, and bringer of babies for the south-west indigenous American tribes. According to Rowena and Rupert Shepherd in their book 1000 Symbols: What Shapes Mean In Art And Myth (2002), “Kokopelli symbolizes fertility, sexuality, procreation and a passion for life. He is associated with the strong, bright colors of the macaw, symbolizing the vividness of life lived to the full.” |
Messiah: A Persian word for the Anointed One, a savior-god who is supposed to come to earth at doomsday to save the virtuous. In her book The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), Barbara Walker asserts that Messiah is a “Persian title of the Anointed One (Greek Christos) supposed to come to earth just before doomsday; based on the Kalki Avatar, final incarnation of Buddha, due to appear in time to save the virtuous, before destruction of this universe.” Often born of a virgin mother and god, the Messiah has been associated with Zoroaster (Persia), Elijah (Jewish), David and Joseph (from the Talmud, carried on in Christianity), and Jesus (Christian).
Mithra: A Persian savior God, proclaimed “Protector of the Empire” in 307 C.E. and more popular than Jesus during the first the early “Christian” era. In fact, many of the details of Jesus’ life were copied from Mithra. Mithra’s birth, on December 25th, was also witnessed by shepherds, and Magic brought him gifts. He too had a miraculous birth of the Sun God and the Mother of God (although her mortality is questioned). Mithra performed miracles and healing, finally partaking in a Last Supper with 12 disciples, and returning to Heaven at the spring equinox. The similarities go on. Mithra’s cult, however, was strictly masculine, comprised of celibate men only. The women participated in their own worship to the Great Mother as Isis, Diana, or Juno.
Moses: Like Jesus, Moses is a biblical character whose mythic deeds and life story follow the pattern of sacred-kings. Egypt’s archetypal Moses characters included Thutmose, Ahmoses, and Heracles, who all performed heroic deeds. These characters were born of virgin princess or priestess mothers. The Akkad myth of King Sargon is similar as well. He too was born of a virgin priestess (titled Virgin Bride of God), and was rescued from a basket floating on the river by a divine midwife (as was Heracles, Perseus, Horus, Jason, Trakhan of Gilgit, Oedipus, Joshua Son of Nun, and more). His miracles are also replicated from earlier myths. Isis, on her journey to Byblos, parted the river Phaedrus, as did Bindumati with the river Ganges. Barbara Walker, in her book, The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), states, “The historical basis of Moses myths seems to have been the expulsion of Jews from Egypt during an outbreak ‘pestilence,’ possibly leprosy.” Moses was a character of his time, like all Savior-Kings, and he was the predicted savior and leader of his people, the Jews.
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Jesus: Other names include Jaho, Iao, Ieuw, Jehu, Joshua, Ieu, Ieud, Jeud, Iasion, Jason, Iasus, and Yeshua. His titles included Christ, derived from Christos, meaning Anointed, from the Middle-Eastern tradition of savior-gods like Adonis and Tammuz; and Zeus-Sabazius, signifying him as the nocturnal sun or Lord of Death (Lord of the Underworld); Good Shepherd, which Jesus shared with Osiris and Tammuz; King of Glory, shared with Sarapis; Light of the world and Sun or Righteousness, shared with Mirtha and Heracles; King of Kings, God of Gods, shared with Dionysus; Enlightened One and Logos, shared with Hermes; Son of Man and Messiah, shared with Vishnu and Mirthra; etc. Jesus is the most significant symbol of the Christian Church, as the Lord and Savior who died for the sins of the world. The Bible is a composite of four different alleged accounts of Jesus’ life by Mathew, Mark, John, and Luke. However, there are other accounts by people claiming to have also known Jesus. These are generally titled the Gnostic Gospels, and include the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Jesus, and the Gospel of Thomas, among others, although these are not accepted by the church and are disputed among historians and theologians. Barbara Walker, in The Woman’s Encyclopedia Of Myths And Secrets (1983), points out, “Modern theologians tend to sidestep the question of whether Jesus was in fact a fable or a real person.” |
There is very little officially recorded about Jesus’ physical life and, what is suggested follows a pattern of religious and spiritual procedures. For instance, the Jew’s practiced the sacrifice of Sacred Kings to appease their god, Yahweh, into forgiving the sins of man, and it would seem that Jesus played this role. Walker explains that the Gospels appear to have not been written in the time of Jesus, or even by people who knew him and “The details [of Jesus’ life] were accumulated through later adoption of the myths attached to every savior-god throughout the Roman Empire.” Jesus borrowed from Adonis, that his mother was a consecrated temple maiden, from the “House of Bread” and the tradition of eating bread to represent the body (along with Osiris, Dionysus, and others). Like Attis, Jesus timed his sacrifice at the spring equinox, only to arise three days later. Like Orpheus and Heracles, Jesus held the secret to eternal life. The similarities go on. See Bible. See UMS Mystical Beginnings of Christianity course. Christ’s Monogram (signature), pictured on the previous page, comprised of the first two letters in his name in Greek (Christos) means “auspicious.”
Quetzalcoatl: Born of the goddess Chicomecoatl, this Aztec savior-god follows the same life pattern as other savior gods. His symbolic crop was corn, his death and resurrection being linked to the patterns of planting, growth, and harvest (Walker, 1983).