Other Adepts, Paganism
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
African
Paganism, Assyrian Paganism, Roman and Teutonic Paganism and Pantheism mixed
with travelers, mystics, European and Islamic merchants from Arabia and
Africa, and later Christian Crusaders, upon the all important trading routes
in the center of the Earth. The esoteric and yogic disciplines from all
these varied places were forever affected by the popular views comprising
paganism. In the Cairo museum there is a wonderful stele of an Egyptian,
Ethiopian, and Teutonic Pagan standing side by side with each other. Seeing
it, one gets the impression that the image was the inspiration for the Biblical
story of the Three Wise Men. Here we see a basic worship of nature and mankind's
highest ideals as deified beings. There are two systems referred to here
under the heading “paganism.” One is that of the Pantheistic
old world religions with elaborate systems of initiation and revelation,
and the other is basic everyday nature worship. All the cultures just mentioned
have both these aspects in common.
As with Egyptian lore, there is an air of historical roots in many of the
mythic adventures of the Sumerian and Babylonian pantheons. The cosmology
is one of a heaven, earth (sometimes expressed as having many planes of
existence), and a subterranean underworld in which the dead reside. The
Sumerian and Babylonian Pantheon reflect the Egyptian system to a high degree.
The pantheon of Sumeria, or Mesapotamia, was from a system of religion later
adopted by the Akkadians, Babylonians and other later civilizations in the
region. Sumerian deities were organized into a set pantheon by priests who
inscribed their myths on clay tablets. Likewise, the Babylonian pantheon
was a set hierarchy of Astrologer Priests.
It was said the great gods born to Anshar and Kishar disturbed the repose
of their ancient ancestors Apsu and Tiamat, who determined to destroy them.
Marduk undertook to conquer Tiamat on the condition that the other gods
made him pre-eminent. From Tiamat’s corpse he created the heavens,
earth, and humanity.
In the Zoastrian pantheon of Iran, there is a movement toward monotheism
from a tradition of paganism. Many elements of Zoastrianism appear in Christianity
and Islam, such as a single wise lord with angelic servants, which are His
good qualities. Zoaster, like Christ, was seen to have transcended normal
limitations of humanity to be gifted with prophecy and the teachings of
Ahura Mazda, the Wise Lord. The many spirits in service to the Wise Lord
were always being attacked and battling the forces of darkness from Ahriman,
the embodiment of Darkness and Evil in the Universe. The Gnostic Christians
and Manicaens used this Zorastrian idea to explain their beliefs, exchanging
the Father and Saboath, the Demi-Urge, as the alternate warring principles.
In all these cultures, the planets are seen to be spirits or archangels
that protect and serve the primary deities. The Babylonians and Sabeans
referred to the planets as Kabiri, the wandering creator gods of the universe.
Interestingly, the Egyptians called the Hebrews and all Assyrian star worshippers
Kabiri as well, because, like the planets, they wandered as nomads at the
outskirts of the Amrna Dynastic Kingdom. The Babylonian names for the planets
later became the Hebrew Archangels of YHVH, Michael, Gabriel, Uzziel, Raphael,
Uriel, and Samael, the last who later became synonymous with the devil.