| The idea of circumcision of the Egyptian and Hebrew people was undoubtedly an act to appeal to the mushroom goddesses and gods. Cutting the “universal veil” off from the penis glans area reveals the mushroom cap as it becomes erect. This practice was imported from Egypt where it was previously practiced and where the Jews were supposedly held as slaves and fled. This may have led to the idea of the Jewish people being known as “God’s chosen people” now having a sexual mutilation which connected them physically to the mushroom, one which was also prohibited by Rome by anti-self-mutilation laws. Despite Rome’s many attempts to embrace the goddess worshipping people in some restricted form or another, there were always problem sects in the kingdom, usually based around the desire to consume sacraments which Rome prohibited, namely, mushrooms and even likely, cannabis too. The Roman occupation of Judea led to constant conflicts. Following the Judaic revolt against Rome in 66-72 AD, the Hebrew scribes from the various quarreling sects met in the town of Yavneh under the leadership of the Pharisees to work out their differences and unite the Jewish faith under one acceptable umbrella. (39) According to Merkur, the Rabbinacy was launched from this time forward, and the dissention between the Pharisees and Sadducees officially came to an end. (40) The Rabbinacy was born when the teachers came together to codify the Jewish laws and created the Talmud. (41) The Sicarii, a term of Latin origin, and used by Josephus, is the name of a sect of Jewish “bandits” (according to Romans) and “revolutionaries” (according to the Hebrews) who actively opposed Roman occupation during the period of 6 to 73 AD. They carried a dagger, a sica in the shape of a sickle with which they could carry out assassinations in the public gatherings. (42) The causes of Jewish revolt are always given as being due to the overbearing determination of the Romans to prohibit the Jews from their native practices, but if Rome was so tolerant to all the various religions, what practices could these be that so incited the Roman authorities? From the appearance on the coins from Judea during the time of the revolts, it appears cannabis, opium, and mushrooms were the likely culprits (51b, d, e, j). The problem for Rome lay in the simple situation of “society.” The abundance of people; lack of jobs and training; support for the programs of slavery; lack of support for authoritarianism; suppression of cultures, free speech and personal rights, all led to crime, widespread poverty, mental and physical sickness and ultimately distain for and subversion of the state. Suppressing this energy buildup and momentum was the main purpose of Roman authoritarian power development itself, other than the general Imperialistic attitude of conquering every foreign territory not held under Roman dominion. |
Expansion of empire and the suppression of rights at home go hand in hand, as we see in America. As an extension of Rome through the British Empire, we are used militarily to conquer every neighboring nation that is not under Great Britain’s control, and the more and more American citizens speak up about it and protest against the state and federal governments, the more totalitarian they become in order to keep the imperialistic program operating at full speed and on schedule. Supporting authoritarian regimes becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially once half the world desires revenge for those crimes. Aesculapius in Rome and Creation of a Solar Divinity Aesculapius in Rome was the most considerable obstacle to the Roman Christian religious takeover. Such a contrast with previous veneration of the goddesses and gods throughout the Greek and early Roman eras was the attitude of Constantine towards these beneficial rites and practices. Constantine’s attitude can be summed up in the following quote by Eusebius, concerning the destruction of the Temple of Aesculapius: “For since a wide-spread error of these pretenders to wisdom concerned the demon worshipped in Cilicia, whom thousands regarded with reverence as the possessor of saving and healing power, who sometimes appeared to those who passed the night in his temple, sometimes restored the diseased to health, though on the contrary he was a destroyer of souls, who drew his easily deluded worshipers from the true Saviour to involve them in impious error, the emperor, consistently with his practice, and desire to advance the worship of him who is at once a jealous God and the true Saviour, gave directions that this temple also should be razed to the ground. In prompt obedience to this command, a band of soldiers laid this building, the admiration of noble philosophers, prostrate in the dust, together with its unseen inmate, neither demon nor god, but rather a deceiver of souls, who had seduced mankind for so long a time through various ages. And thus, he who had promised to others deliverance from misfortune and distress, could find no means for his own security, any more than when, as is told in myth, he was scorched by the lightning's stroke. Our emperor's pious deeds, however, had in them nothing fabulous or feigned; but by virtue of the manifested power of his Saviour, this temple as well as others was so utterly overthrown, that not a vestige of the former follies was left behind.” (43) (39) Shaye J.D. Cohen, "The Significance of Yahneh: Pharisees, Rabbis, and the End of Jewish Sectarianism," Hebrew Union College Annual 55 (1984):27-53 (40) Mystery of Manna, p. 66 (41) Catherine Hezser, in her book on the Rabbinical movement in Roman Palestine writes, “The first sage for whom the Mishnah uses the title of rabbi was Yohanan ben Zakkai, active in the early-to-mid first century A.D.” (Hezser, Catherine (1997). The Social Structure of the Rabbinic Movement in Roman Palestine. Mohr Siebeck. pp. 64; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbi (42) Apples of Apollo, p. 168; https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sicarii (43) Eusebios, Life of Constantine, Book III, Chapter 56 |