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The veneration of this god began around 3000 BCE in Persia. It was after 2800 BCE when Mithra was first transformed to the Supreme Being. He was known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher.
When the Persian Empire expanded, the worship of Mithras spread eastward through northern India into the western provinces of China. In Chinese statues, Mithras is still represented as a military General, and considered to be the friend of man in this life and his protector against evil in the next. In India, Mithras was recognized as “
God of Heavenly Light” and an ally of Indra, King of Heaven.
For more than 300 years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped Mithras as a god.
Purification through a ritualistic baptism was required of the faithful, who also took part in a ceremony in which they drank wine and ate bread to symbolise the body and blood of the god. Sundays were held sacred, and the birth of the god was celebrated annually on 25 December.
Many nobles took names associated with Mithras. The title “Mithras” was used in the dynasties of Pontus, Parthia, Cappadocia, Armenia and Commagene by emperors with the name
Mithradates.
Emperor Nero adopted the radiating crown as the symbol of his sovereignty to show that he was an incarnation of Mithras.
When Emperor Commodus (Emperor 180-192 AD) was initiated into the Mithraic religion, there began an era of strong support of Mithraism that included emperors such as Aurelian, Diocletian, and Julian the Apostate, who called Mithras "
the guide of the souls".
Mithras later was referred to by Roman worshippers as “
Sol invictus” (invincible sun). The sun itself was considered to be "
the eye of Mithras". The title
Sol invictus was later transferred to Mithras.
The Roman erected several
Mithraeums, where Mithras was worshipped. Emperor Diocletian, who ruled 284-305 AD, gave Mithras the title "
The Protector of the Empire".
The neophyte could proceed through 7 levels of initiation. The 7 grades of Mithraism, were: Corax (Raven), Nymphus (Male Bride), Miles (Soldier), Leo (Lion), Peres (Persian), Heliodromus (Sun-Runner), and Pater (Father); the grades were protected by respectively Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, the Moon, the Sun, and Saturn.
The initiate first drank wine from the cymbal to recognise it as the source of ritual ecstasy, and then ate a small morsel of bread placed on a drum, to signify his acceptance of Mithras as the source of his food.
Worshippers of Mithras prayed:
Abide with me in my soul. Leave me not [so] that I may be initiated and that the Holy Spirit may breathe within me.
Mithras was almost exclusively worshipped by men. Instead the wives and daughters of the Mithraists worshipped Magna Mater, Ma-Bellona, Anahita, Cybele, and/or Artemis.
The Priestesses of Cybele were known as “Mother” (instead of “Father” for Mithra priests).
The official story is that Emperor Constantine (Emperor 306-337 AD) converted from Mithraism to Christianity on the eve of a battle in 312 AD. Constantine made Christianity the state religion. All subsequent emperors were openly hostile towards Mithraism:
http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Religions ... ianity.htm
(archived here:
http://archive.is/YnS6B)
After Emperor Constantine supposedly converted to Christianity in 312 AD, he maintained the title “
Pontifex Maximus” - the high priest of paganism.
The first Roman Emperor to omit “
Pontifex Maximus” from his title was Gratian (Emperor 375-383 AD).
Some of Constantine’s coins have been found. At least until 323 AD, they were inscribed with: “
SOL INVICTO COMITI” (TO MY COMPANION THE INVINCIBLE SUN) and showed
Sol.
The following third century mosaic of the Vatican grottoes under St. Peter's Basilica, allegedly represents Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol Invictus riding in his chariot.
It becomes even more bizarre when we learn that according to the notorious British Satanist Aleister Crowley, who adopted the name Baphomet for himself:
Baphomet was Father Mithras, the cubical stone which was the corner of the Temple.
Baphomet can be found in documents dating as early as the 11th century. Knights Templar of the Middle-Ages and Freemasons of the 19th century were reportedly in a pact with Baphomet. Today the symbol is associated with anything relating to occultism, witchcraft, Satanism and esoterica.
The French Satanist Eliphas Levi made the most famous drawing of Baphomet in 1861: a winged humanoid goat with a pair of breasts and a torch on its head between its horns.
Baphomet’s phallus is actually Hermes’ Caduceus.
Each of Baphomet’s hands points towards opposing moons, which Levi calls the
Chesed and the
Geburah. In the
Kabbalistic Tree of Life, the Sefirot, Chesed is associated with “
kindness given to others” while Geburah refers to the “
restraint of one’s urge to bestow goodness upon others when the recipient of that good is judged to be unworthy and liable to misuse it”.
Levi explained:
The goat on the frontispiece carries the sign of the pentagram on the forehead, with one point at the top, a symbol of light, his two hands forming the sign of Hermeticism, the one pointing up to the white moon of Chesed, the other pointing down to the black one of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect harmony of mercy with justice. His one arm is female, the other male like the ones of the androgyn of Khunrath, the attributes of which we had to unite with those of our goat because he is one and the same symbol.
The flame of intelligence shining between his horns is the magic light of the universal balance, the image of the soul elevated above matter, as the flame, whilst being tied to matter, shines above it. The ugly beast’s head expresses the horror of the sinner, whose materially acting, solely responsible part has to bear the punishment exclusively; because the soul is insensitive according to its nature and can only suffer when it materializes.
The rod standing instead of genitals symbolizes eternal life, the body covered with scales the water, the semi-circle above it the atmosphere, the feathers following above the volatile. Humanity is represented by the two breasts and the androgyn arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences.
Several mythological figures have similarities to the Baphomet as drawn by Levi.
Pan, for example, was a prominent deity in Greece; often depicted with horns on its head and the lower body of a goat.
According to Eliphas Levi, the name Baphomet was derived from Kabbalistic coding:
The name of the Templar Baphomet, which should be spelt kabbalistically backwards, is composed of three abbreviations: Tem. ohp. AB., Templi omnium hominum pacts abbas, “the father of the temple of peace of all men.
According to Hugh Schonfield, Baphomet stands for the Greek word “
Sophia”, which means ”knowledge” and is also synonymous with “goddess”:
https://vigilantcitizen.com/hidden-know ... sbaphomet/
(archived here:
http://archive.is/pxB17)