The Blackberry Walk

Christian thought and the thought of Aryan pagan cultures slot in together so neatly, it can't be a coincidence. You must decide whether the Jews attempted to subvert the culture of their pagan neighbours, or both Jew and pagan speak of a shared ancestral memory, albeit from different perspectives. We'll begin with idolatry. Angels can literally fall into an idol. A fallen angel is a spiritual being which ceases to worship God and is instead worshipped by men, because that angel turned demon decides to embody the idol through which they are being worshipped. Examples of fallen angels/demons would then be any of Olympian gods like Zeus, or the pantheons of Persia or India: any god (demon) worshipped through an idol, which is the norm across time, is a kind of fallen angel. Bearing this in mind, let's look at the Greek eras of history, which follows the ages of Gold, Silver, Bronze, Iron. The Golden Age was populated by men who were wise and noble, under the watchful eye of Kronos, and they lived solely off the land not having to farm or work. The Silver Age emerged from the Golden Age by Kronos' banishment by Zeus (it's worth noting that all of mythology slots into these ages of man), Prometheus giving the fire of the gods to man, and the opening of Pandora's box. Then, the Bronze Age was the age of heroes, demigods born of god and man alike, brought to an end by a great flood in which Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, survived in an ark with his wife. Then came the current Iron Age when gods ceased to walk the lands. Now let's look at the Christian view of pre-history. Man was created in Eden where he lived without sin and walked with God (Golden Age). Then due to the sin of Eve, man became conscious of good and evil prematurely, leading to the banishment from Eden (Silver Age). Men started breeding with fallen angels, birthing the nephelim (giants), and God was angry at this, summoning a great flood from which Noah and his wife survived in an ark (Bronze Age). The similarities are quite remarkable. Parallels between Kronos being a misrepresented God are present; look at the Roman Saturnalia festival, where slave and master are equal: that is the Saturnine legacy of Kronos. It's very possible Kronos is a misunderstanding on the true creator of man. Also we see the parallel between the giants/nephelim and the demigods/heroes of antiquity. The main difference being, of course, that in the pagan world they were seen as superhumans of great power, whilst in Biblical tradition they were seen as abominations. Another parallel is between Eve and Persephone. The Devil is the fallen angel Lucifer, who in the garden appears as a 'serpent'. Serpent in Hewbrew is 'Saraph' or Seraph - the highest rank of angel - which Lucifer would have been before the fall. The story of the fall isn't a bestiary fable about why snakes have no legs, but rather the story of the Devil, i.e. Lucifer, being banished to the underworld and becoming its lord. So Eve eats the fruit after being tempted by the lord of the underworld, and is now saddled with original sin. Similarly, Persephone eats the fruit of the underworld and becomes property of the underworld (if only for half the year) after coming under the influence of the lord of the underworld (Hades). Different cultures interact with the powers and principalities in different ways. In Vajryana Buddhism, the Eastern most side of the band of Aryan culture, the aim is to make the powers and principalities subservient to the yogi to appear and disappear on his order and command in order to attain Buddha-hood. Compared with Christianity, we see an opposing view of power: where in Christianity, through subservience and love of Christ one attains God-hood and become a son of God, for the Buddhist the breaking of the cycle of rebirth and samsara is by attempting to attain god-hood on your own power and merits, clawing you way up the spiritual hierarchy, forcing your way into the spiritual realm. The swastika is a symbol of spiral energy to pierce the heavens. But the Greek, I suspect, would've disagreed with both, attempting to interact and sacrifice to the gods to get the powers and energies needed to become greater more virtuous and powerful individuals. Apologies for the array of disparate ideas, I can't quite form them into a longer form argument yet. The more I learn about belief systems, the more they seem to cross over and parallel - not in a global ecumenism of belief as the Theosophist would say - but in the sense that they're all dealing with the same spiritual powers and traditions, but with stories and beliefs from different angles and perspectives. Working with same truth, but interpreting it in different ways. I'm sure I'll revisit this topic in the future once I understand more.