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Thursday, July 25, 2013

Merlin Stone's book is rubbish


Alice C. Linsley


Recently a friend emailed me to say that she just bought a book at the Goodwill for $1.00 because it had a provocative title. She wanted to know if I had read When God Was a Woman. The original title, which appeared on the earlier UK publication, was The Paradise Papers: The Suppression of Women's Rites. The author, Merlin Stone (1931-2011), was an American sculptor who taught art history.

I read the book when I was in seminary. It was circulating among the women who were preparing for ordination and I am certain it influenced some of the less discerning. Then I had doubts about the book's value. Today I would say Stone's book is rubbish.

There is neither historical nor anthropological support for her thesis that the Hebrews suppressed goddess worship. She tries to prove that the Canaanites had a matriarchial and matrilineal structure. She is wrong on both counts. In the ancient world only Kushite queens exercised political power (matriarchy), and it was the Nilo-Saharan Horites who traced some lines through mothers (matrilineal). The Horites are hardly distinguishable in history from the Hebrews or Ha-biru.

It is this kind of shallow research and neo-pagan feminism that leads to bad things in the Church, like women priests. A lesbian Episcopal priest once argued with me on the question of women priests. Here is how she argued: God called Esther and Ruth and Judith to leadership in community. They weren't ordained because of ancient, cultural misogyny. 

This "priestess" asserts that the Episcopal Church was guided by the Holy Spirit in unilaterally deciding to ordain women to the priesthood. If this is true, why attempt to establish precedent by listing women in the Bible, none of whom were priests. Not a single female can be found in the Bible or in the history of the Church who was a priest, despite desperate theories about "Junia" and "Presbytera."


Goddesses in the ancient world

Goddesses existed in ancient cultures as representations of aspects of nature: skies (Nut), seas, wind, fire, water, etc, or as representatives of the Feminine Principle which is complementary to the Masculine Principle, but never portrayed as superior. The goddesses to which Stone refers are late comers compared to Hathor-Meri, the most important female venerated in the ancient world.

Hathor-Meri, the mother of Horus, was said to conceive by the overshadowing of the sun, the emblem of the Creator. She is the archetype of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose people were Horites. Christ fulfills the Horus myth and the Horite expectation of the Seed of Ra born of their ruler-priest lines. Mary is the virgin daughter of the ruler-priest Joachim. Mary is a variant of the ancient Egyptian name Meri.

In conceiving the Seed of God, Hathor-Meri became the tabernacle of the Deity or sh ntjr, meaning God's tent. A biblical female who stands as a sign of the blessed Theotokos is Oholibamah. Her name means most high tent and she is a Horite bride of Esau the Younger.

Mary's full name was "Miriam Daughter of Joachim Son of Pntjr Priests of Nathan of Beth Lehem." From the earliest predynastic times among the Egyptian Horites, ntjr designated the king. The name Panther or p-ntjr meant "God is King." It is certain that Mary was of the ruler-priest class because even those who hated her admit this. Sanhedrin 106a says: “She who was the descendant of princes and governors played the harlot with carpenters.”

The Horites are the most ancient caste of temple and shrine attendants known to have existed. Their religious practices were evident as early as 3600 BC at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) in Sudan. Votive offerings at the temple of Horus were up to ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine.

Remember what the angel Gabriel said to Mary? "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Therefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35, cf. Gen. 3:15)


11 comments:

DDeden said...

cow-headed Hathor -> Horus (hawk symbol) in cradle/manger/dome hut/sukha/cave

snake-hair headed Hecate-> Quetzalcoatl

halo-headed Mary -> Jesus (symbol?) in cradle/manger/dome hut/sukha/cave

"cattle(E)=Ecatl/Ehecatl(N/2 Tonalamatl)=Hecate, Goddess of all young things, the Wind/Breath Weaver, and proto-Maria, cf., the San Apollinari Mosaic by Theodric, Ravenna, Italy, covered up by previous Popes but now uncovered, has strict Tonalamatl relationship between Hecate and her son Quetzalcoatl, who hand over their powers as Aryan Sky Deities to Mary and Jesus." Carlos @ Tletl

Egypt: "Heket, consort of Heh(the immeasurable), responsible for raising the Sun/Ra. Heket(Egypt)=Ehecatl(N/2 Tonalamatl)=frog-headed goddess associated with life as midwife. Wiki has Heh/Huh/Hah/Huauh/Huah/Hahuh, and the female form, Hauhet. the male form being a frog, but the female, a snake, which fits with Hecate, mother of Feather Snake Quetzalcoatl, and the snake (weaving) shuttle/xiotl(N)." Carlos @ Tletl blog

In Malay/Indonesian, the Cockatoo parrot has a bright yellow crest (Jambul), I think it links to Royal crests & Yamluk.

DDeden said...

KMT/Kemet = smelt/smoke-melt-metal
Xyambuatl = Shamash/sun-shine + stone/tetl(Aztec)/shtetl(Hebrew)

Misra/Mizraim/KMeTra (Arab-Hebrew)

Halo = snake bites tail, timeclock/cyclo(k) - hour/horo/gulu(Chinese for wheel)/halo/(Pygmy)mongolu(dome hut)/(India) bungalo (dome thut) harigolu(bowlboat/barq/ark)

DDeden said...

stein (Hebrew) stone

DDeden said...

Panther/P-ntjr god is king
Matron-madrona-madonna
not sure if parallel

Xyam-buat-laya
suntime-boat-area
river-ferry-shrine keeper

Tabernacle:
= tabernak!(Quebecois curse) + alter/altai
= taverna + C/Haldi/ea (highgodly)

Pardes (Hebrew) garden
paradise = pala/embellish/umbel
mabul (Hebrew) bloom from center = fertile/pregnant/embarazado(Spanish)



Alice C. Linsley said...

And your point is?

DDeden said...

Pharisee = Horite

Gopherwood = qupha Iraq coracle
(Q)Euph(a)rates

parisal/parical/harigolu = India coracles

qupharis(al)/ferry boat

shib|boleth
ship|port(al)
skif|fort(ify)

TSM dog pulled boats b4 sail/oar
TesHwoM/Tehom = deep
TiHaMa Red Sea Coast
SiNaMa SEAsia house boat people

shallow water waded or punted, deep water pulled by paired dogs
dog (team) (Eskimo & Cree): atim

Advent of paddles, oars & sails reduced need for dog paddle, changed to horsepower & yoked oxen, but before that dogs were pole-yoked and pulled (pulku)

DDeden said...

Q/Euph(a)rates:
Qupha (bowlboat),
Que (line up for ride),
Eu- (Latin: true)
Fare (ride cost)
Freight (cargo)
Pharisee (pries|t/price|d)
Rate
Ride
Pharsi/Persian/Purse
Ari, Pariah (India) dog

Point/Punt pole/pont bridge
Pointer: hunt dog
Poodle: paddle dog

Everything fits.

DDeden said...

"The Matsya Purana claims that the world belonged to Kushite Saka for 7000 years. If this is true, we must extend the range of their influence to about 8000 BC.

While the Saka are identified as "Kushites" that term is perhaps less useful than the term Afro-Asiatics. "Kushite" encompasses many Nilo-Saharan peoples and castes, including Biblical figures such as the kings listed in Genesis 4, 5, 10 and 11. A more accurate historical designation is "Nilo-Saharan." "Bib. Anth.

Does this relate?
http://heritageofjapan.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/kusa-and-kusanagi-a-word-about-grass-and-grass-cutting-swords/

Skt: कुश (kusha) – and kusa grass – OnlineSktDict Pali: kusa m. a blade of grass, sacrificial grass, good — Source: Kusha grass

Kus, kush, kusha grass — Brahmin

I thought it might connect grain farming and grazing cattle in India, Middle East, Africa, and that it might link to Sadducees
Saka Zedek/Sadok (upright)

Alice C. Linsley said...

I still don't see what this has to do with Merlin Stone's book.

The Pharisees and Sadducees would have been of Horite lineage. However, the Sadducees were far from the Horite belief in a ruler-priest who would die and rise on the third day. They rejected the notion of the bodily resurrection.

DDeden said...

"The Pharisees and Sadducees would have been of Horite lineage"

Do you have any evidence that the Sadduccees were indeed Horites? Wikipedia seems to say they were local priests of Jebus-Jerusalem that kept their priestly roles when King David controlled Israel.

If Ijebu = Jebus, then probably they relate to Gebt (Ge'ez) and Egypt, so they could have been Horites or Kushites. Jerusalem had no large river...
Correct me if I err.

Alice C. Linsley said...

The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests and were dispersed among many Kushite peoples. The Ijebu were likley a Kushite people. Jews call their ancestors "Horim" which is Horite in English.

I think you have it right because to be a member of the Sanhedrin a man had to prove his Horite lineage. Joseph of Hari-Mathea (incorrectly rendered Armimathea in Bibles), who buried Jesus' body, was a member of the Sanhedrin. Hari-Mathea means of the Horite lineage of Matthew (Mathea).