Do We Worship The Holy Ghost?

[altersteve]

It is often said that we worship the Godhead (Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost), but it seems that the Father and the Son are emphasized more than the Holy Ghost is. This is understandable, since we definitely worship Heavenly Father and we definitely worship Jesus Christ, but what about the Holy Ghost? Do we worship Him as well? Or, in other words, are we taught to worship Him? Someone asked me this question the other day and I hadn't really thought of it before, so I wasn't quite sure how to answer it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[David T]

This is understandable, since we definitely worship Heavenly Father and we definitely worship Jesus Christ, but what about the Holy Ghost? Do we worship Him as well?

I can't speak for 'We', or 'You', but it depends on what your definition of Worship is.

Generally, LDS prayers tend to involve all members of the Godhead, including the Holy Ghost:

1. Father is addressed

2. Spirit is almost always invoked or requested

3. The action is performed in the authority/place of the Son.

Baptism and Sealing ordinances are performed 'in the name of...the Holy Ghost'. The religious companinship is promised in the sacrament of confirmation, and pleaded for in the Lord's Supper.

Talks/Homilies often teach one how to come close to the Spirit, and how to maintain companionship as a sacred blessing/obligation.

While songs of direct praise are generally reserved for the Father and Son (and even to Joseph Smith and the Pioneers!), there aren't too many that I can think of directly praising the Spirit, although there are some requesting and speaking of the Spirit.

If Worship is defined solely as 'praying to' or 'singing praise to', then the answer would be, 'Probably not'. However, if Worship is defined more broadly as reverence, participation and invocation in prayers and sacraments/ordinances, and religious teachings as how to increase one's companionship/relationship, then the answer could definitely be yes.

Find out what the person asking means before you respond so you're not talking past each other.

Edited April 16, 2012 by David T

[altersteve]

Thanks, David.

[abdullah786]

It is often said that we worship the Godhead (Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost), but it seems that the Father and the Son are emphasized more than the Holy Ghost is. This is understandable, since we definitely worship Heavenly Father and we definitely worship Jesus Christ, but what about the Holy Ghost? Do we worship Him as well? Or, in other words, are we taught to worship Him? Someone asked me this question the other day and I hadn't really thought of it before, so I wasn't quite sure how to answer it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I can personally say that if you do lots of studying of the Bible you will find the the term "Holy Ghost" is referring to the angel Gabriel. He's not God nor a part of him he's nothing but a servant.

[Pahoran]

I can personally say that if you do lots of studying of the Bible you will find the the term "Holy Ghost" is referring to the angel Gabriel. He's not God nor a part of him he's nothing but a servant.

Call for references, please.

Luke Chapter 1 does not support that interpretation AFAICT. Are you telling us what the Bible says, or are you preaching Muslim doctrine?

Regards,

Pahoran

Edited April 18, 2012 by Pahoran

[thesometimesaint]

I don't know about anyone else but I worship God the Father, through his Son Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

[David T]

I don't know about anyone else but I worship God the Father, through his Son Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

What does direction of "Worship" mean to you then? The Son and Holy Ghost are involved in your worship, but you do not worship then. In this context, what does Worship practically mean for you?

Edited April 18, 2012 by David T

[thesometimesaint]

One element of worship is prayer. Another is belief. Another is action.

I have already answered as to prayer. I believe that each member of the Godhead is a God in their own right. Hopefully my actions testify to and comfirm my beliefs.

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

I don't know how heretical I am, but personally, yes, I worship the Holy Spirit of Wisdom just as much as the Father and the Anointed One. The reason I give worth to them is because they are unified in taking part in the Plan of Salvation, which mission is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of all humanity.

As a Christian (one who takes upon themselves the name of "Anointed One" by at least trying to follow Christ's example of sacrificing for others), I personally think that part of the mission of the Gods who have gone before us is to empower all the Uncreated Intelligences they locate by linking and fusing them to bodies and teaching them to evolve into beings like them: One-In-Heart, acting in concert to effect the eternal salvation of all others within tabernacles.

In consequence, I take it pretty literally when the Anointed One states in Revelation 3:21 that "to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne," in that I believe all who take upon themselves the name of Christ by becoming Anointed themselves with the oil of the Olive Tree of Life by the laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom are also worthy of worship. They too -- everyone who chooses to be, in the end! -- are Good.

As D&C 137:7 says: "All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom; for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts." [Emphasis added]

For this reason, I also "give worth" (worship = worth-ship) to all who are currently part of the Church of the Lamb in their hearts, or who would be if they were able. I give worth (worship) to all Peacemakers, who earnestly desire to do good works that contribute to the immortality and eternal life of humanity, since they too are included in the At-One-Ment. The At-One-Ment is, in my view, the ultimate Humanism, in which we esteem as worthy all men, women, and children who uphold the works of Justice.

The only people -- the only potential Gods -- unworthy of my personal worship are those with a spirit of bloodshed, who desire to be written into the Book of the Dragon; the Sons and Daughters of Darkness opposed to the Sons and Daughters of Light who seek only to destroy others and cause disorganization and entropy. Even then, forgiveness -- and eventual exaltation and worship -- is not closed off to them; if they are misguided by the false traditions of their fathers, then they can eventually learn from their mistakes, and if they are willfully rebelling against granting eternal life to all people, they can always repent and change because they too are Free Agents who are as eternal as every other God.

The function of the Father, Son, and Spirit of Wisdom, then, is to act as Speakers/Spokespersons, as the Messenger-Prophets we remember testifying of the world above, so that we may believe on their words (their gospel, the "good story" they bring to us) and come to an understanding of the At-one-ment, the Re-Conciliation of all Uncreated Intelligences. They act on behalf of the Divine Council, presiding representatives of our entire adopted Family, who we have appointed by Common Consent because of their Wisdom.

The Angels, too -- more Messengers! -- bring the Gospel back to our world, blessing us with knowledge from time to time inasmuch as we seek Wisdom. They too take part in the At-One-Ment; as D&C 1:38 says: "What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." It is the great Plan of Salvation to bring to pass the immortality of humanity in accordance with the works of Justice which is important, not the particular member of our adopted family who carries it to us. We are commissioned to act as Messengers ourselves in every world we are born into.

(This also renders the utterly silly "classification" controversies fundamentally uninteresting to me -- if you look at it one way, sure, I'm a polytheist, and religions which have been bent by Aristotle into thinking of the First Cause as the only God worth worshipping throw tomatoes at me for being a pagan. But really, who cares about mere terminology? The more pertinent question, to me, is whether or not any given Gods are unified in doing Good and upholding the works of Justice.)

The Teacher of Righteousness is such because He teaches all Uncreated Intelligences to become exalted just as He and the rest of the Divine Council have already done. When all peoples have received and understood the truth of the Gospel in their own season, then without compulsory means we will be united in confessing of our own free will that He is our Lord (our "Loaf-Ward", the Keeper of the Bread of Life), because He is the Firstfruits of Theosis of this world -- raised by the power of the Father and born again of the Spirit of Wisdom, without whom we cannot be made complete, just as they without us cannot be made complete. Our branch of the family therefore honors and worships Him for blazing the trail ahead of us and teaching us how to worship others and become the Servant of All. We love Him because He loved us first; and having known love, we are free to expand and radiate that love outwards to all others as well, giving Worth to our lovers, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our worlds.

As Joseph Smith said: “Friendship is one of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism’; [it is designed] to revolutionize and civilize the world, and cause wars and contentions to cease and men to become friends and brothers.”

(How well I personally succeed at any of this is a whole 'nuther question, of course. *grin*)

Edited April 18, 2012 by JeremyOrbe-Smith

[Cobalt-70]

I think part of the problem is that the Holy Spirit was not very well defined by Joseph Smith before its death. During most of Smith's life, Lectures on Faith was part of the canon, and they said that the Holy Spirit was not even a "personage," but was rather the shared mind of the Father and the Son. Smith amended his views in 1843, apparently (if his informal discussions with Orson Hyde that made it into D&C 130 were accurately represented, a proposition that is dubious in light of the original record of his statements that are now made available in the Joseph Smith Papers, see http://www.lds.org/s...130.18?lang=eng). In the statement attributed to him in D&C 130:22, he said that the Holy Spirit was a "personage", but there is no elaboration, except to say that if he weren't a spirit, he couldn't "dwell in us."

So today, half the time that Mormons reference the Holy Spirit, s/he is referred to as an "it." It is the Mormon version of "the Force" from the Star Wars universe. You can't really "worship" something like that, though you can experience it. I've heard modern Mormons explain that the Holy Spirit resides in one place, but his "influence" is felt everywhere. But if that were true, then Smith's statement in D&C 130:22 that the Holy Spirit had to be a spirit so that he could "dwell in us" doesn't make any sense. If s/he is in one place and only makes his influence felt everywhere, it doesn't matter whether s/he is a tangible being or a spirit.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Cobalt-70

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

Also good to remember that D&C 130 has a rather strained textual history; David T had a good post some time ago comparing the different versions:

Original:

the Father has a body of flesh & bones as tangible as mans the Son also, but the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit. —and a person cannot have the personage of the H G in his heart he may receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. it may descend upon him but not to tarry with him,

Edited (and canonized in D&C):

The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us. A man may receive the Holy Ghost, and it may descend upon him and not tarry with him.

--

The original (citing Joseph) states that the personage of the HG cannot dwell in someone's heart. The edited version, revised and canonized following Joseph's death, says he can, because he's a spirit. They are opposites. The original makes much more sense in the context of full LDS theology.

Edited April 19, 2012 by JeremyOrbe-Smith

[Cobalt-70]

This article (http://signaturebookslibrary.org/?p=9436) by Vern G. Swanson gives a good overview of why the LDS church seems to worship only the Father and the Son. It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that it was fully established that the Holy Spirit was even a distinct person. By then, however, old habits and ways of referring to the Holy Spirit as a mystical "force" had taken hold.

[Maidservant]

Except for 1 Nephi chapter 11, of course.

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

Yep. That's a pretty decent article, even if it perpetuates the usual "Book of Mormon teaches a conventional Trinitarianism" meme which I find so very unfortunate.

And of course, that article only barely touched on the whole Holy Spirit of Wisdom = Lady Wisdom = Sophia = Tree of Life = Asherah thing I've been crusading for. *grin*

Hugh Nibley also has a ton of stuff on the token of the Dove of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom in his last book, One Eternal Round, which I think is absolutely required reading for anyone hoping to understand the meaning of the hypocephalus:

Cultural Note [pg 312]

Cooing in the eaves of the temple, the dove was the bird of the love-goddess. All around the archaic world of the Mediterranean, the dove was [also] a symbol [...] It was the dove who informed Noah that the earth was available for his stewardship (se Genesis 8:8-12). According to the Book of Abraham, Pharaoh and his early successors claimed his right to run things through none other than Noah (see Abraham 1:27). [...]

As we have seen, the name by which the mother-goddess is known in Egypt is Hathor [...] but the connections go much farther. [...] It was highly characteristic of Egyptian to have one symbol represent many things; thus figure 7 [of the hypocephalus], according to the explanation, represents God on his throne, revealing to Abraham "the grand Key-words of the Priesthood." It is "also, the sign of the Holy Ghost unto Abraham in the form of a dove" (Fac. 2, fig. 5, explanation), since it was his heavenly guide who explained the mysteries to him.

Here the dove is holding the wedjat-eye. It is the eye that sees, knows, comprehends, teaches, and in fact creates. In the Apocalypse of Abraham, the angel who is Abraham's guide places him on the right wing of a pigeon and sits himself on the left wing of a turtledove and so ascends to the throne of God. The "Grand Key-words" and "the sign of the Holy Ghost" go together, for the wedjat-eye has an almost inexhaustible number of meanings. It holds "the key" to everything, and that calls for a fuller explanation.

A Note on the Wedjat-Eye

The wedjat-eye appears as a property in many mythological situations. Others such as the ankh-sign are more common but have a limited range of meaning, while the wedjat-eye seems to have numerous identities. In particular it stands for the one thing that concerns the Egyptian most - the restoration of that which has passed away. The Worterbuch defines it as, "strictly speaking, the undamaged Eye of Horus, i.e., the Full Moon; also from the earliest times the Eye of Re and the Divine Eye in general." It stands for the miracle of restoration. [...]

Such fantastic ideas as opening the face with the wedjat are plainly before us in the standing lady in figure 6 [of the hypocephalus]. The antiquity of the play is confirmed in the Pyramid Texts where the theologians of Heliopolis, according to J. Gwynn Griffiths, already gave an astral emphasis to the object [...] The main function of the hypocephalus is that of the eye. [...]

Drioton sees in the eye, as he does in the hypocephalus itself, a sort of hologram. Within the pupil is the complete personage: "the ensemble shows the embryo of the sun in the process of taking form in the interior of an egg, ... the egg of Hermopolis," which is "a representative of the embryo of the sun" surrounded by "the divinities of the Ogdoad, each male with its female counterpart". The presentation of the wedjat-eye depicted so graphically both in figures 3 and 7 of many hypocephali is, according to Erich Ebeling, the ultimate endowment and is given along with "the procreating seed which ... is received along with the solemn Opening of the Eye; ... the Divine Child can now see. The final act of the new creation is consummated." One remembers the All-Seeing Eye - which illuminates the endowment - on the east and west towers and in the Garden Room of the Salt Lake Temple. It was used on archways and adorned church buildings throughout Deseret.

The eye with its feminine ending can represent Maat, "the daughter of Re, ... related to the 'divine pupil' - that is, with Horus, and without a doubt, in a larger sense to the king himself." She is "Ma'at the Great, who rules ... at the throat of the Divine Pupil of the Eye" - that is, as a royal wedjat-pectoral, the equivalent of our hypocephalus. The connectedness between seeing things as they are and the truth of things is obvious. Thus as the goddess of truth, Maat can be likened to the All-Seeing Eye of Justice, in the same way as the King's Eye of Persia of the Vizier of the Great Khan with his scrying-crystals and mirrors, which go back to the shamans of the steppes, the mirror being the pupil that reflects all things. The book reporting the dialogue between Isis and Horus at the beginning of the world is called "The Sacred Book of the Pupil of the Cosmos."

In the Hermetic writings, the Eye of the Cosmos is the [kore kosmou] - that is, the little girl whom we still call the pupil of the eye, from the Latin puppila, doll; it is the image which the primal mother sees when she looks into the eyes of her child - a tiny image much like herself. In Egypt it is "the child in the eye of every god."

In the Greek mysteries the yearning (pathos) for what is distant, like Eros, was "associated with the eye, which was popularly regarded as the channel through which the image or phantom of the desired object entered to inspire love in the soul." [...]

By now it should be clear to any Latter-day Saint reader that the elusive wedjat-eye, intimately familiar yet strangely elusive, is a symbol of that equally common but all-but-indefinable power called the priesthood.

The Lady in the Middle

Back to the woman in the middle [figure 5 of the hypocephalus] whose head is a wedjat-eye. She has obviously accepted the [good] serpent's gift of the eye wholeheartedly. She stands between the man on the throne and the [Hathor] cow, holding what is in almost all hypocephali a stylized lotus with three petals over the womb of Hathor. In some exemplars it appears to be a maat-feather that she is holding. [...] In a number of cases it is a small tree or plant. [...]

Most instructive is a hypocephalus from which both figure 7 and the standing lady are entirely missing, the whole process being performed by an enormous lotus that bends over the womb of the cow. In another, the bird-man on the throne is missing and the standing [good] serpent alone holds the wedjat up directly over the head of the wedjat-lady, who in turn holds the large lotus resembling the giant one just mentioned over the cow.

All of this shows that the company of figures is busy passing along one and the same object. [...] It is quite obvious what is going on, expressed in the modesty of symbolism. Book of the Dead chapter 17 makes this clear: "I have seen Re who was born yesterday from the buttocks of the Celestial [Hathor] Cow. I am complete (whole) if he is complete (whole), and vice versa." An ancient gloss adds, "It is the image of the Eye of Re in the morning, when he is reborn every day." [...]

The joy of the event [of resurrection] is clearly conveyed from the Papyrus of Ani. How is this achieved after the final quietus? Again the cow comes to the rescue. [...]

As we have seen, the upside-down part of Facsimile 2 represents very plainly the dark underworld, the womb to which all return to be reborn. The final disposition of the dead was not to wander bemused in Hades, the gloomy regions of the lower world forever but, after a brief taste of such unpleasantness, to pass to a much happier existence.

But Why the Stars? [pg 293]

[...] Hathor is something very different, for her name is written with a picture of a house or temple with Horus inside it. Thus she appears here as a cosmic place of some sort, and the return to the womb is really a return to the Heavenly Mother and home. Some interpret Hathor's name as meaning "My house is in heaven," but most scholars read it "House of Horus"; Plutarch calls it "the Cosmic House of Horus." Interpreted either way, Hathor was a house, dwelling place, or womb, the place where Horus held forth before his earthly birth.

But Joseph Smith also tells us that figure 5 is the Sun. No problem. From being the mother of the Sun with the new-born disk rising between her horns - a design in evidence in prehistoric times - it was an easy step to becoming the Sun itself. As early as the Old Kingdom, the cow appears "as the female equivalent of Re." At Opet in Luxor, where the Mother-Cow was worshipped as Hathor of Coptus, she was called the Sun of the Two Worlds - that is, both of Horus the son of Osiris and Amun-Re the Sun of Thebes. Her horns, flanked by the same two feathers that our figure 2 wears as the Sun at the zenith, show that the cow resurrects the Sun as well as the human race. [...]

It is notable with what care all the draftsmen of the various hypocephali place the fertilizing object in the same position, exactly over the cow's posterior. The four figures facing the cow carry on the theme. If you are going to have either a birth or a rebirth, it will require the bringing together of the elements [...] these elements are represented by the four canopic figures or "sons of Horu," designated as figure 6. They "represent," says Joseph Smith in his explanation to Facsimile 2, "the earth in its four quarters." [...] It has often been noted that these figures are the four creatures of Ezekiel and Revelation as well as the symbols of the four evangelists.

The Jewish tradition held that Adam was composed of earth taken from the four corners of the world representing the four basic elements (earth, water, air, and fire), the four humors of man in medical alchemy. [...] The name Adam in Hebrew is related to red earth, the pure undefiled earth of the Egyptian red rock country, called by them [...] Desheret, "the red land, the desert."

The canopic figures, then, represent the basic elements of which all earthly things are composed and which must be brought together in correct shape and proportion to achieve the birth or rebirth of an earthly creature. This takes us back to Genesis. The Egyptian names of the four cynocephalic apes surrounding the throne of the central figure of the hypocephalus [...] suggest so strongly the [tohu, bohu, hosek, and ruah elohim] of the Hebrew creation story in Genesis that Jequier can declare that "it is difficult to believe that ... the Elohist author [of the Genesis creation account] did not borrow from a Heliopolitan source."

As Nibley noted in the Message of the Joseph Smith Papyri:

"[Lefebvre] suggests that "the editors of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Wisdom" could have learned from the Egyptians at Hermopolis." (83)

"Thausing suggests that the Two Maats represent "esoteric and exoteric truth," or the inner and outer truth of things ... the Two Maats have been held to represent Upper and Lower Egypt in the manner of the Two Ladies Edjo and Nkhbet, later identified with Isis and Nephthys. ... Maat, in the role of Isis, Hathor, Nephthys, etc., can also represent the female element in things "analogous to the male universal God," with whom she is associated and even identified. Her peculiar power to identify with others while remaining uniquely herself is in itself a special claim to duality. ... In Israel [according to the Zohar], "the voice of Jacob ... is attached to two females, ... the Wisdom which is ... Thought" and the Wisdom which is uttered." (187 - 188)

"She represents things as they should be, the "perfect status quo," which, unfortunately, does not prevail in this world. She is Wisdom (hokhmah, sophia), who plays a dominant role as the most vivid personification in early Jewish and Christian literature. She is the female component of everything, without which nothing can exist and without which nothing is complete." (252)

"The Lady is often identified with a tree, and in the vignettes to the Book of the Dead, she appears in different degrees of incorporation with the tree, the concept varying to suit the fancy of the individual tomb owner. As Ludwig Keimer explains it, "the dead in his voyage in the other world was received by a good goddess who gave him food and drink. She usually bears the names of Nut, Hathor, and Isis but is often simply called 'Lady of the Sycamore,'" the sycamore being a type of fig tree.

Though she is first depicted as being actually incorporated in the tree in the Eighteenth Dynasty, her identification with it goes back to prehistoric times. The life-giving sycamore recalled the biblical tree of life to Eugene Lefebure, who identified it with the mfk3.t (turquoise)-tree, the tree of the Lady of the Land of Mafek that grew in the Field of Reeds. The tree that receives the travel-weary Osiris into its arms performs the function of the Lady, who is so often identified with that tree. W. M. Flinders Petrie noted that in Palestine holy trees are still called "Our Lady." It has often been suggested that the sycamore was the original form of Hathor herself, whose proper function as Lady of the Tree, whatever name she may go by, is to receive the newcomer to a strange land with refreshment after an arduous and dangerous journey." (287)

"The tree-goddess gives birth or rebirth, the archaic Hathor of the southern sycamore being herself the "birth house of the king." Let us recall that our Breathings texts were found in "fourteen coffins, on each of which was placed a bunch of sycamore branches." (288)

It seems to me, then, that the Book of Mormon, consisting of "the learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" was meant as a repository of preexilic First Temple Wisdom literature, sealed up in order to come forth in a later day and allow the testimonies of different nations to run together in order to graft all the different branches of the human family back into their Mothertree (cf. Jacob 5) in order to know of the Anointed One whom She bore. The Lehites journey out of Jerusalem to preserve the knowledge of the Gift of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom, which is why there is such emphasis on the Holy Spirit of Wisdom and the Tree of Life in the Book of Mormon being part of the One God made of the Great Spirit [our Father in Heaven], the Spirit of Wisdom, and the Holy Child. The "trinity" is the family unit in which life is passed on to each generation on every world, a fitting representation of eternal life and rebirth.

Edited April 20, 2012 by JeremyOrbe-Smith

[changed]

As a convert to the church, it takes awhile for the pre-LDS misconceptions to wear off, and I think within the rest of Christianity the Spirit is often overlooked/misunderstood... but once you get the mainstream ideologies out of your mind, I think Mormons do a good job at emphasizing the importance of the Spirit.

just a quick check, if you go to LDS.org and do a search for "Sprit" you get

About 20,871 results

if you do a search for Jesus you get

About 26,075 results

if you do a search for "God" you get:

About 29,023 results

so that might represent a rough percentage of how much they are each talked about? (of coarse each goes by different names, Jesus, Lord, Savior, etc. etc. so that would just be a rough estimate)

Edited April 20, 2012 by changed

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

Hah! Seek and ye shall find. I was digging around the 'net this fine morn and uncovered this old book by Andrew Michael Ramsay (a Freemason!) written in friggin' 1748, and it certainly shows that the association of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom with the Goddess ain't some modern 'feminist' fairytale.

(Of course, he sometimes falls into the trap of condemning those awful, awful 'Pagans', but we can just ignore the excesses of his superficial rhetoric and concentrate on the underlying facts of his genealogies, since we know that there is nothing wrong with physical anthropomorphic feminine deities such as our Heavenly Mother.)

(Oh, and you should probably mentally replace many an 'f' with an 's', as this book is so old the spelling has shifted. Or rather, the fpelling haf fhifted.)

(pg 48) Thus the infpired Hebrews themfelves exprefs very oft intellectual qualities by fenfible images. Jacob in his laft fpeech to his children calls the Meffiah the Lyon of the tribe of Judah; thus, the evangelifts call him the Lamb who taketh away the fins of the world; thus, in fine, the fame evangelifts fay, that the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of a Dove. Now to compare the Divine Nature to a lyon, a lamb, or a dove, is as impertinent as to compare God to a hawk, unlefs thefe fimilitudes be underftood in a figurative, fymbolical and metaphorical fenfe.

(pg 53) The Egyptians had much the fame ideas of the fupream God, as the Chinefe, the Indians, the Chaldeans and the Perfians. [...] All hiftorians, as well facred as profane, agree in fpeaking of this people as the wifeft of all nations. One of the encomiums that the Holy Spirit makes of Mofes, is that he was learned in all the wifdom of the Egyptians. Moreover, to exprefs the tranfcendency of Solomon's wifdom, the writer of the book of Kings fays, 'that it excelled not only the wifdom of all the children of the Eaft, that is, of the Perfian magi and Chaldeans, but alfo all the wifdom of Egypt.' Would the Holy Spirit have fpoken in fuch a manner of a nation fo fenfelefs as to worfhip onions, crocodiles and the moft defpicable reptiles?

(pg 198) All the fulfom raillerys therefore of the literal mythologifts againft the allegorical fenfe of the Egyptian religion and hieroglyphics are groundlefs and infipid. To maintain that the firft Egyptians were adorers of ferpents, crocodiles, cats, reptiles, and infects, becaufe thefe fymbols abounded in their temples, is as ridiculous, as to maintain that the Hebrews were idolaters, becaufe they bowed down before the brazen ferpent in the defert, or that the Chriftians adore a pigeon, becaufe the holy Spirit is reprefented in Scripture by this fymbol. It is true, that in fucceeding ages, when the true fenfe of the hieroglyphical fymbols was forgot, the vulgar Egyptians looked upon the animals made ufe of in their fymbols, as facred, and having forgot the fpirit, adhered to the outward fign; and fo fell into the groffeft idolatry and wildeft fuperftition. This however cannot be true of the firft Egyptians, fince, as we have already faid, the holy Spirit commends them for their fuperior wifdom, which would have been ridiculous and impertinent, if this nation from the beginning had interpreted their fymbols in the low, mean, abfurd, idolatrous fenfe of the literal mythologifts.

(pg 148) We come now to the fix female Gods or Goddeffes, which feem to be only different names to exprefs the different attributes, and perfonal characters of the third hypoftafis of the Deity. This third hypoftafis was called by the Hebrews 'The Mother of all things,' and this idea is fo ancient, that according to St. Jerome, it was the name which the Nazarens gave to the holy Spirit. This third hypoftafis was reprefented by the Pagans, as the wife or fifter of Jupiter the God-guide, of Mars, Apollo, Mercury, and all the others gods of the fecond clafs, and therefore, as the grand-daughter of Uranus, Saturn, or the fupream Monad. This reprefentation of the Deity as of two fexes feems, as we have already faid, to come from the figures of women that, with their different fymbols, were employed originally in the hieroglyphical language, to exprefs fome attribute or hypoftafis of the divine Nature, and fo it is no wonder, when the thing fignified was forgot, if the fign was erected into a divine power, or perfonified as a female Goddefs, by the Greek poets, and later Pagans that were become very ignorant of the original primitive traditions.

Apuleius fays exprefly, that (a) 'Vefta was called by the Phrygians Cybele or mother of the Gods; by the Attics, the Cecropian Minerva; by the Cypriols, the Paphian Venus; by the Cretenfes, Diana; by the Sicilians, Proferpina; by the Eleufinians, Ceres; by the Egyptians and Ethiopians, the Queen Ifis; by other nations, Juno, Bellona, Hecate.' Thus, according to Apuleius, all the names of the Goddeffes exprefs one and the fame Deity. Let us now fee if the original etymologys, fymbols given to, and fables made of thefe Goddeffes have any relation to the third hypoftafis of the facred Triad.

We begin with Juno. Juno called by the poets Amor or delicium Jovis, the love and delight of Jupiter, anfwers very well, as Voffius has remarked, to the divine fpirit who is called Love in the facred text. Cicero derives the word Juno from Juvando to help, to fuccour; but fome others derive it rather from JUNAH, which in the Chaldaic and Hebrew language fignifys a dove [like Jonah in the Bible - is his story an allegory of being swallowed by the Fish-Mother-Goddess of the Arabs?], and all know that this is the fymbol made ufe of in the facred oracles, to reprefent the holy Spirit. When the evangelift makes ufe of this fymbol, he does it, without any preamble or explication, as an ancient hieroglyphic which the Hebrews were accuftomed to.

Vefta was another name of the third hypoftafis of the Pagan trinity. It comes from the Chaldaic word Efta, to which the Latins added V. It fignifys originally fire, flame, another fymbol of the Holy Spirit. She was called the mother of the Gods, Cybele, which comes from the Hebrew word CEPHEL which fignifys conjunction, love, which is ftill the perfonal character of the holy Spirit, according to the facred oracles. She was alfo called Rhea, from Ruach wind or fpirit, or from Rahah the nourifher, and fo is the fame with the Jehovah Ruach. She is reprefented as in love with Atys, which fignifies the moft high, and he is called fo in an ancient monument mentioned by Gruter (a).

Minerva from Min, Donum the gift and Ervah Cataracta, emanation; now the holy Spirit was called by the Hebrews the gift of the moft high, and his emanation. The fame Goddefs was called PALLAS by the Greeks, and by the Sabins PALES, both derived from the Hebrew word PALAL juicavit, to fignify, that fhe is the fovereign judge of the world. She is alfo called Athena, from Athenah conjunction, adhefion, poffeffion, the three degrees of love. Proclus fays, that fhe is thus defined by all the divines, (b) 'She was brought forth from the head of her father, and continues in him. Therefore, Socrates, in the Cratylys hath celebrated her under the name of Theonoe or God knowing. As fhe comprehends and loves the Father's wifdom, fhe is called a Philofopher, and the Goddefs of wifdom. As fhe deftroys and fubdues all oppofition to the divine Nature, fhe may be called the Goddefs of war, and therefore, Homer fays, that putting on a coat of mail, fhe was dreffed for the battle in the armour of the cloud-compelling Jove. She is an invincible Goddefs, and fights againft the giants with her father, fhe alone brandifhes his fpear, by which fhe vanguifhes the files of the rebellious Genii, with whom fhe is angry. She produces all virtues, and darts into fecond beings intelligence and untainted life, and is therefore called the virgin Tritogenes. She makes us partake of undefiled wifdom, fills us with intellectual power, grants us celeftial gifts, extirpates our grofs imaginations, exites in us pure and unpolluted thoughts, reftores every particular foul to the univerfal reafon of the father.' How ridiculous were it then, to look upon Minerva as derived from the Hebrew word Manor which fignifies a fhuttle, and upon this Goddefs as a fymbol of the art of weaving. This ludicrous idea of a modern French author came from his credulous attachment to the fables of the poets, who from a fimilitude of names and falfe etymology of the word Minerva, fancied it was derived from Manor, and fo made Pallas the Goddefs of Weavers, and the rival of Arachne; but this author had no true principles of mythology.

CERES is another name for Pfyche, or the third hypoftafis of the Orphic trinity. It comes from the Hebrew Keretz, deftruction, or the exterminating fpirit, fo the holy Spirit is called; or from Cercfh Solium, throne, the manifeftation of the divine glory. This common mother of all things is faid to go about mourning, feeking her daughter Proferpina ravished by the infernal powers, a fit emblem of the grief of the holy Spirit for the depravation of human nature by the forbidden fruit. [see the Hymn of the Pearl?] Hence the word Perfephone, which the Latins called Proferpina may be derived from the two Hebrew words PERI fruit, and Saphan loft, wandered, ruined, thus PERSEPHONEH fignifies loft by the fruit, a compound name that expreffes very well the ancient tradition concerning the fall of man and its caufe. We muft however remakr here, to prevent all cavils; that as Pfyche was very oft taken for the human foul in general, as well as for the third hypoftafis of the Orphic trinity; fo Proferpina was alfo taken for the third hypoftafis of the facred Triad, as well as for human nature degraded by the fruit.

Thus Venus was alfo taken for the celeftial Urania, and the terreftrial Aphrodite, as we fhall fee below. The daughter was calle a Goddefs, as well as the mother. As in the Hebrew language, Elohim was given to kings and princes, as well as to the facred Ternary. To return to Ceres, this Goddefs is called by Balbus in Cicero 'A mind with underftanding that paffes thorough the earth, fructifies all things, and produces abundance.' The myfteries of ceremonies of Ceres at Eleufis were famous in antiquity. They all fignify or indicate the means of purification, initiation, or regeneration, to a new life by faftings, chaftity, confeffion, abnegation, and a total detachment from all terreftrial objects, as we fhall fee hereafter; when we treat of the three means of re-uniting the foul to God. Whence I conclude, that the feafts and myfteries of Ceres were in their origin inftituted to fignify the pure operations and defcent of the holy Spirit in fouls to purify and regenerate them, and much the fame as the Chriftian Pentcoft.

Diana was another name for the Pfyche or third hypoftafis of the Pagan triad. She was called by the Syrians and Ionians Dei, which fignifys God's felf-fufficiency. As alfo DEIO, DEIONE and by the Greeks and Romans DIANA. She was called alfo by the Latins DEIMETER and DEMETER, the mother of the Gods. She was alfo named Artom, divina and EISHA MULIER, the divine woman, the Goddefs by excellence, or as others, from Ifhah Effe, Effentia, Virtus, the divine Virtue. Diana, Phoebe, Luna, or the moon, were as Pfyche taken not only for the third hypoftafis, but alfo for intellectual nature in a purifying expiatory ftate. Hence in the facred oracles, the church militant is reprefented as a woman that has the moon under her feet. In fine Diana was called HECATE from the Phenician word ACHATA; wife to Achad, the unity, the monad, the only; Phoebe the fifter of Phoebus or Apollon. For the holy Spirit, or the third hypoftafis is very oft looked upon, as the wife of the fecond principle, becaufe it is the object of his love and complacency, or as his fifter because it flows from the fame fource or fountain of the Deity, or in fine as the grand-daughter of the fitft God, becaufe it proceeds from the Father by the Son. All this Theogony was known to the fifrt patriarchs; tho' by fucceffion of time, it was fpoiled, adulterated and mixed with fable by the later Pagans, and efpecially by the Greeks thefe great corrupters of all the divine philofophy.

PART 2.

Venus was another name of Pfyche. She is called Venos in a medal of Julia Augufta. (a) It comes from Venoth or Benoth, which in the Phenician language, fignifys a virgin, and therefore, fhe was called the immortal virgin. She was named alfo Urania, the heavenly. Euripides, in a fragment preferved by Stobaeus, fpeaks thus of her, 'Do you not fee how great a God this Venus is; but we can never declare her greatnefs, nor meafure the vaft extent of her goodnefs. This is fhe which nourifheth both thee and me, and all mortals. This is fhe which makes heaven and earth friendly to confpire together.' Orpheus calls her 'the eldeft of all beings and the firft begetter of all.' Hence fhe was called by the orientals Mylitta, Genitrix, or the fruitful mother of all things. Herodotus fays, that fhe is the fame with the Perfian Mythra, or third hypoftafis of the Zoroaftrian triad. Plato calls her 'the firft fair, the caufe of all pulchritude, order and harmony of the world.' Paufanias diftinguifhes her form the vulgar terreftrial Venus, and fays 'That fhe was called the heavenly, becaufe the love fhe infpires is pure and free from all corporeal affection.'

The Greek philofophers called her Venus Apoftrophia; and the Latins, 'Venus Verticordia, a pure and chaft love expulfive of all unclean lufts and defires.' Valerius Maximus tells us, that (b) 'The Romans confecrated a ftatue to her, to the end, that the minds of the female fex, by adoring her, might be converted from luft and wantonnefs to chaftity. The Cypriols called her Venus Aphrodite, which came originally from the word Pherudoth, or by adding the article, A, Apherudoth, Grana, fructus, the fruits. The facred oracles reprefent the third hypoftafis under the fymbol of a tree, the tree of life, and his productions, operations, gifts, and graces, as the fruits of the holy Spirit. The Greek poets imagining that the etymology of the word was Aphros, which in their tongue fignifys Froth, trumped up the wild fable of a fecond Venus that fprung from the froth of the fea. Thus, as we have feen, their mythology is very oft founded upon puns, a fenfelefs miftake of etymologies, and a meer refemblance of words.

The fame Pfyche, or third hypoftafis of the Pagan triad, was called by the Egyptians Ifis, from Ifhah the divine virtue that nourifheth and animateth all things. The Syrians, Phenicians and other orientals defigned the fame hypoftafis by different names BAALTIS, BELTA, BAALETH, the wife of Baal, the Lord; and fo fhe was the fovereign Lady, miftrafs and emprefs of the univerfe. BAALSEMIN the Queen of heaven. MALCHETA the queen by excellence. AMMONIA, the wife of Ammon, ASTEROTH or ASTARTE the wife of ASTER the fhepherd. The queen of the flocks, or the fhepherdefs, becaufe the celeftial quires are reprefented as a flock fed by the Logos, who is called by the Hebrews the great fhepherd, the paftor of fouls, and by the Pagans, the great Pan.

From this identity of the Pagan Goddeffes comes that refemblance which we remark in their mythologys. Hence we fee the fource of the fimilitude there is in the fable of the Egyptian Ifis, who weeps over the murther of Ofiris, of the Phrygian Cybele that laments the death of Atys; of the Phenician Venus that deplore the flaughter of Thamnuz or Adonis.

All thefe Goddeffes had much the fame attributes and ornaments, fo that the etymologys of the primitive names, and the fimilitude of the fables and fymbols feem to indicate, that this female figure in the hieroglyphical language was defigned originally to reprefent the fame univerfal numen, or divine hypoftafis, tho' all afterwards was degraded, adulterated, disfigued, difmembred, and turned into wild fables, that difhonour the divine Nature. I do not therefore pretend, that in later times, and efpecially after the fabulous ages, that the poets had any ideas of a triad, when they talked of the fupream God Jupiter, of the Deities his fons, and the Goddeffes his grand-daughters: all I pretend is, that in the original inftitution of the fymbolical characters, this threefold diftinction might have been invented to exprefs the ancient traditions of a triplicity in the divine Nature. This conjecture is fo much the more probable, that we find fo many palpable and clear vestiges of this truth among the fages and philofophers of all nations. I do not however give thefe conjectures as demonftrations. I propofe them only as fubjects of refearch and reflection to the learned that underftand the true principles of facred and profane antiquity laid down in the introduction.

To prevent many objections that may be made againft this great principle, it is fit to remark, that it is no wonder, if by fucceffion of time, the Pagans, having no written revelation, and no vifible church authorized by heaven t be the depofitary, guardian and interpreter of religious tradition, confounded fometimes the different functions, perfonal characters, and fpecific operations of the three hypoftafes, attributed to the fupream Father what belongs to the middle God, to the fecond hypoftafis what belongs to the third, and to the two laft, what is peculiar to the firft. It is thus, that Ifis and Minerva are oft taken for the Logos, or fecond hypoftafis of the divine triad, Jupiter Conductor, for Jupiter Olympian, and Chronus, for Saturn, or Uranus. This is not all. As created fpirits are oft called the fons of God, both by the Hebrews and Pagans, the names of the fecond hypoftafis are oft given to inferior intelligences, even after their fall. Thus, the evil principle is oft called Moloch, Baal, Lucifer, Vulcan, Pluto, tho' all thefe names belonged originally to the middle God.

Thus alfo, the names of the third hypoftafis or female God are oft given to intellectual nature in general, as offfprings and images of the divine archetype, and even to human fouls degraded. Thus the created is oft confounded with the uncreated, what is made with what was generated, and the daughter with the mother; the emanation with the fource. Hence Pfyche, Diana, Proferpina, Venus, Ceres are given to inferior fpirits, and they are erected into Goddeffes. Thefe are the two fources of great confufion in the mythology of the Pagans, and of a great perplexity in their ideas, images and expreffionsL but ftill the great diftinctions of a God the Father, a God the fon, and a Goddefs the grand-daughter remain untouched. [Why grand-daughter and not wife? That makes no sense, dude.]

We hope that the combination of thefe undoubted facts, probable conjectures, and clear reafonings, will one day excite fome learned men to demonftrate more evidently, than we have done, the principles laid down; and draw from thence a new mythology as yet unknown.

Okeedoke! How 'bout this: the Trinity is the Heavenly Family of Father, Mother, and Child?

Edited April 20, 2012 by JeremyOrbe-Smith

[shalamabobbi]

Hah! Seek and ye shall find. I was digging around the 'net this fine morn and uncovered this old book by Andrew Michael Ramsay (a Freemason!) written in friggin' 1748, and it certainly shows that the association of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom with the Goddess ain't some modern 'feminist' fairytale.

(Of course, he sometimes falls into the trap of condemning those awful, awful 'Pagans', but we can just ignore the excesses of his superficial rhetoric and concentrate on the underlying facts of his genealogies, since we know that there is nothing wrong with physical anthropomorphic feminine deities such as our Heavenly Mother.)

(Oh, and you should probably mentally replace many an 'f' with an 's', as this book is so old the spelling has shifted. Or rather, the fpelling haf fhifted.)

Okeedoke! How 'bout this: the Trinity is the Heavenly Family of Father, Mother, and Child?

fignifys: this word especially, conjures up the image in my mind of Elmer Fudd speaking..

Edited April 20, 2012 by shalamabobbi

[JeremyOrbe-Smith]

He has spiwit! Stwike him, Centuwion!

/sophisticated humor

[SargentYork]

Yep. That's a pretty decent article, even if it perpetuates the usual "Book of Mormon teaches a conventional Trinitarianism" meme which I find so very unfortunate.

And of course, that article only barely touched on the whole Holy Spirit of Wisdom = Lady Wisdom = Sophia = Tree of Life = Asherah thing I've been crusading for. *grin*

 

Are you speaking of Heavenly Mother?

[Calm]

In case Jeremy doesn't see this as it is quite an old thread (thought they were locked at least after a year), yes that is who he is talking about. Jeremy has a number of posts on the theme, very interesting ones, you can find if you click in his profile for content.

[SargentYork]

I've often wondered if it's wrong to pray to Heavenly Mother, or even Jesus?

 

Should we only pray to Heavenly Father?

 

And did Joseph say that there's only one God for us?

Edited January 27, 2014 by SargentYork

[Coreyb]

I have heard from a couple Mormons the theory that Adam is the Holy Ghost, anybody heard this? could be a way to somehow try to reconcile Adam-God theory

[thesometimesaint]

I can't speak for anyone, but my understanding is that we pray to The Father, through his Son, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

[JLHPROF]

I have heard from a couple Mormons the theory that Adam is the Holy Ghost, anybody heard this? could be a way to somehow try to reconcile Adam-God theory

 

I think that this has to do with the fact that the "Godhead" changes.  Adam is known in Mormonism to be part of the Godhead at creation, along with Eloheim and Jehovah.  Joseph Smith teaches that the three personages are "The Creator" "The Redeemer" and "The Witness/Testator".  Traditionally we have the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (with the Holy Ghost having only a body of spirit).

 

Mormon tradition holds that the Holy Ghost is a spirit child of Heavenly Father (like Christ) and has yet to take a mortal body.  I can see though if one rejected that idea how Adam could be slotted in, although I don't know how he specifically fits as "witness or testator".  Fundamentalists believe that Joseph Smith filled that position since he was the head of the final dispensation and bore witness of the Father and the Son - a position the Church vehemently rejects.

[Coreyb]

I think that this has to do with the fact that the "Godhead" changes.  Adam is known in Mormonism to be part of the Godhead at creation, along with Eloheim and Jehovah.  Joseph Smith teaches that the three personages are "The Creator" "The Redeemer" and "The Witness/Testator".  Traditionally we have the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost (with the Holy Ghost having only a body of spirit).

 

Mormon tradition holds that the Holy Ghost is a spirit child of Heavenly Father (like Christ) and has yet to take a mortal body.  I can see though if one rejected that idea how Adam could be slotted in, although I don't know how he specifically fits as "witness or testator".  Fundamentalists believe that Joseph Smith filled that position since he was the head of the final dispensation and bore witness of the Father and the Son - a position the Church vehemently rejects.

Adam as the archangel could be seen as the highest witness/messenger. Interesting, so to some fundamentalists all three Gods (Adam, Jesus, and Joseph) have condescended to become men on earth?

Edited January 28, 2014 by Coreyb