Today we will talk about the statue that has become a symbol of the new Atlantis, as some of the United States of America are called. The Statue of Liberty was officially unveiled in New York on October 28, 1886. What is it dedicated to and who does it represent?
This is what our article is about.
Official history
The sculpture is a gift from France for the 1876 World's Fair and the centenary of American independence. The statue holds a torch in its right hand and a tablet in its left. The inscription on the tablet reads “Eng. JULY IV MDCCLXXVI "(written in Roman numerals the date" July 4, 1776 "), this date is the day of the adoption of the US Declaration of Independence. With one foot "freedom" stands on broken chains.
Visitors walk 356 steps to the crown of the Statue of Liberty, or 192 steps to the top of the pedestal. There are 25 windows in the crown, which symbolize earthly gems and heavenly rays that illuminate the world. The seven rays on the crown of the statue symbolize the seven seas and seven continents (the western geographic tradition has exactly seven continents: Africa, Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Antarctica, Australia).
Statue of Liberty in numbers:
- Height from the top of the base to the flare 46.05 m
- Height from the ground to the top of the pedestal is 46.94 m
- Height from ground to torch tip 92.99 m
- The height of the statue is 33.86 m
- Hand length 5.00 m
- Index finger length 2.44 m
- Head from crown to chin 5.26 m
- Face width 3.05 m
- Eye length 0.76 m
- Nose length 1.37 m
- Right arm length 12.80 m
- Right arm thickness 3.66 m
- Waist thickness 10.67 m
- Mouth width 0.91 m
- Plate height 7.19 m
- Plate width 4.14 m
- Plate thickness 0.61 m
- The thickness of the copper coating of the statue is 2.57 mm.
- Total weight of copper used to cast the statue 31 tons
- The total weight of its steel structure is 125 tons.
- The total weight of the concrete base is 27,000 tons.
The statue was built from thin sheets of copper, minted in wooden molds. The formed sheets were then mounted on a steel frame.
Promotional video:
Usually the statue is open to visitors, usually arriving by ferry. The crown, which can be accessed by stairs, offers expansive views of New York Harbor. The museum, housed in a pedestal, houses an exhibition of the history of the statue. The museum can be reached by elevator.
The territory of Liberty Island (Liberty) originally belonged to the state of New Jersey, was later administered by New York, and is currently under federal administration. Until 1956, the island was called "Bedloe's Island", although it was also called "Freedom Island" since the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1883, American poet Emma Lazarus wrote the sonnet The New Colossus, dedicated to the statue of liberty. 20 years later, in 1903, it was engraved on a bronze plate and attached to the wall in the museum, housed in the statue's pedestal. The famous last lines of Svoboda:
In Russian translation by V. Lazaris:
In a translation closer to the text:
What the statue of liberty actually symbolizes
The Statue of Liberty (yes, with a small letter), if you look at it without propaganda tinsel - this giant woman in a crown with seven rays, with a book and a torch in her hand … who is she? Another tale about the American dream and the ideals of democracy, the national pride of a nonexistent American nation? It is not customary to talk about the true origin and ordeal of sculpture, about its origins, originating in incompatible cultures, or about the financial side of the existence of a "lady". The fable about the gift in honor of the friendship between France and the United States travels the world as traditionally as the rosy Santa Claus - another brainchild of commerce. But we still turn a few pages of history back and see how everything really happened.
The idea of creating a statue belongs to Frederic Auguste Bartholdi - if you can call the idea of creating an unoriginal monument, which can boast only fragments of classical art and gigantic dimensions. Bartholdi was born in 1834 into a wealthy Jewish family and studied with the famous masters of Paris - without much zeal, but overflowing with ambitious plans. To break out into the people, Bartholdi resorted to the help of influential relatives who were directly related to the Freemasons.
Quite a lot is known about the influence of Freemasonry on the creation of the United States, from the founding fathers to the symbolism of the dollar. Pyramids, steles, all-seeing eye, etc. also decorate various government buildings in the United States. Recall that representatives of their brotherhood signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, which opened the way for the creation of an independent state.
However, about the most important symbol of the United States - the statue of liberty - as a rule, no connections with Freemasonry are made.
Egyptian outline
In the 70s of the XIX century, under the control of Freemasons in Egypt, the construction of the Suez Canal took place. A young ambitious Bartholdi came here, and his imagination was struck by the majestic monuments of this region, which have survived for millennia. So the idea was born in his head to create something equally colossal and impressive that would forever immortalize his name. After meeting with the head of construction, Ferdinand Lesseps, Frederic convinced him to intercede about his plan. The proposal looked like this: to install a giant statue at the entrance to the future canal - it was supposed to be twice the height of the Great Sphinx and serve as a lighthouse.
Bartholdi decided not to wait for the muse, but to whip up some kind of model for consideration by the local government (it was he who was credited with the alleged funding of the project). And there was no need to invent anything - this was already done by the ancient Greeks, who created about 280 BC the Colossus of Rhodes - one of the seven wonders of the world. This huge statue of an athletic youth, staring out to sea, was erected at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes and subsequently partially destroyed by an earthquake.
Bartholdi “dressed up” the model in Egyptian clothes, placed an amphora in his hand, and crowned his head with a wreath. But Lesseps advised him to use the attributes of the ancient Iranian god Mithra - the god of peace, harmony, and later the sun.
Marginal notes
Mithra is the Indo-Iranian god of light and sun, close to the ancient Greek Helios.
His usual attributes were a chariot and a golden throne. Over time, the cult of Mithra penetrated into Asia Minor and changed significantly. Mithra became the god of friendship, who united, reconciled, protected, and enriched people. They portrayed him as young men in short, fluttering clothes and a Phrygian cap. The cult of Mithras at the beginning of our era spread in the Roman Empire, enjoyed the patronage of the emperors, and was later supplanted by Christianity.
A special photo of the head of the Statue of Liberty at the World's Fair in Paris in 1878.
When the cult of the god Mithra spread in ancient Rome, the following legends began to be told about the sun god. He was born of a rock at sunrise. In one hand he held a sword, in the other hand a torch. Mithras fought with the Sun, conquered it and thus became its ally. After that, he subdued the bull (a symbol of ancient civilization), dragged him into his cave and killed him there. The blood of a bull fertilized the soil, and plants, fruits and small animals thrived everywhere.
The Sun God was revered throughout the Roman Empire. Four hundred sacrificial sites that have survived from those times testify to this even today. The god Mithra was especially revered by ordinary people who performed cult rites in his honor. Thanks to the soldiers, Mithraism became famous throughout the then world. The places of this cult known today exist mainly as altars in the rocks.
Miter with rays and with an eagle, which later became the symbol of the United States.
Along with numerous symbols, the signs of the zodiac are engraved in them. The god Mithra himself always takes the place of the Sun - the central constellation of the ancient Romans.
Thus, the statue received a torch and a seven-rayed crown from the god Mithra, although there is another deity that looks similar. Have you started thinking about the name: "Progress Bringing Light to Asia"? Or replace “progress” with “Egypt”? And then they remembered the painting Liberty on the Barricades, popular in France, by the romantic painter Eugene Delacroix. The word "freedom" was already temptingly "glued" to the project of the statue, but the government refused to spend money on the gigantic idol - so Bartholdi returned to France, unhappy.
French incarnation
The time of the creation of the statue coincides with the entry of Bartholdi into the Masonic lodge (Alsatian-Lorraine branch) - it was 1875.
Eugene Delacroix "Liberty on the Barricades".
And the year 1876 was approaching - the centenary of American independence. Having heard in the political circle complaints about the lack of genuine masterpieces of art dedicated to Freedom in America, the French senator and member of the same Order of Freemasons Edouard de Laboulaye decided to revive the project that had failed in Egypt. All this, of course, had to be properly presented to the masses: it was decided to "present" the statue to the States "as a sign of friendship between the peoples of the two countries."
But the "gift" had to be paid for - both French and overseas ordinary citizens. An entire Franco-American Union, headed by Laboulaye, was urgently established, and committees for organizing fundraising were organized in both states. And at the head of the French headquarters was none other than our old friend - Ferdinand Lesseps! The fundraising campaign in the States was led by Joseph Pulitzer, later known as the creator of the most prestigious journalism award, and then also the publisher of the newspaper "New York World". With an understanding of all the subtleties of influencing the masses, he criticized goons and moneybags, referring to ordinary Americans (the merchant was not a miss - this significantly increased the circulation of his newspaper). No one will tell us exactly how much money the friendly gentlemen laundered on this good deed,but only in the USA 100,000 dollars were withdrawn from circulation in this way.
The main work on the creation of the statue was done by the famous French engineer Alexander Gustave Eiffel (Bonikhausen), then known for his gamble of embezzling huge funds for fictitious work during the construction of the Panama Canal, but became famous for its construction in the center of Paris.
Eiffel was also a member of the Masonic lodge, and another brother in the lodge, who at that time was the Prime Minister of France, helped him to extricate himself from the Panamanian scam.
French engineer Gustave Alexander Eiffel (left) and Auguste Bartholdi (right).
Eiffel did all the calculations, and also designed the iron support of the monument and the supporting frame, which was then sheathed with metal sheets. Then Bartholdi got down to business again, and added a few modern details: at the feet of the statue, he placed "broken chains of tyranny", more like the chains that bind the statue itself.
He put the Book of Laws (Declaration of Independence) in his left hand, and now he put on the "lady" in Roman clothes.
Some believe that Bartholdi gave her the features of his mother, Charlotte Beiser, although the model was the recently widowed Isabella Boyer, wife of Isaac Singer, a canal and sewing machine entrepreneur who sponsored Jewish socialists with Rothschild.
Isabella Boyer.
The process of making a statue in pictures
American statue life
After making the statue, hopelessly late for the event to which it was dedicated, it was brought to the United States and installed on Bedlow Island (it was renamed Liberty Island only in 1956). Later, it was here that business districts, dizzying skyscrapers appeared and, in general, the largest financial center in the world was formed.
The official unveiling of the statue on October 28, 1886 was attended by representatives of the Freemasons, including US President Grover Cleveland. The pretentious speech was pronounced, apparently, to pay tribute to the refined sarcasm:
At first, the masculine "freedom" did not arouse any delight or patriotic feelings in people. And Bartholdi had to somehow explain the suspicious symbolism of his brainchild: the torch is supposedly an attribute of the Enlightenment, and the crown is a symbol of the seven oceans and seven continents.
And now the time has come for the First World War - the right moment to cash in on the patriotism of gullible ordinary people.
Hello! This says FREEDOM - needs millions of dollars and needs NOW.
Mass circulation and advertising campaign of posters depicting the statue began. This is how some of the oldest motivational posters were born (from which, in turn, the beloved demotivators derive their kind).
YOU buy liberty bonds so I don't die. On the seals: “Get behind the government. Liberty Loan of 1917 . - “Stand behind the government. The 1917 Freedom Loan”.
The proceeds from the sale of these multi-colored pieces of paper (under the guise of a genuine symbol of American Freedom) covered almost half of the military budget.
The inscriptions on the poster of the First World War: STAND BACK guys in the trenches. Victory. Buy the bonds of freedom.
Statue of Liberty - Goddess of Darkness
It's time to move on to the fun part. We have previously indicated that symbolically the attributes of the statue of liberty can be attributed to the ancient Iranian god Mithra, whose cult spread throughout Ancient Rome, the heir of Egypt (where all Western civilization originates), but we indicated that there is another deity that looks similar.
Some believe that since the statue depicts the goddess of freedom, it means that it is Libera (Greek Cora or Persephone), who was the deity of fertility, but also of the underworld in ancient Roman mythology and religion. She was often identified with the goddesses Proserpine (among the Greeks Persephone) or Ariadne and was the wife of Dionysus-Libera.
Dionysus, in turn, is a late interpretation of the ancient Egyptian god Osiris, in connection with which many authors saw in Libera the widow (the widow again emerges) Osiris Isis and the mother Horus.
However, here you can find some oddities - why is the goddess of freedom holding a torch in her hands, and not a cornucopia? And the aforementioned fertility goddesses, for all their similarity, were traditionally depicted differently.
Persephone-Cora-Libera with a cornucopia and a plow painting by J. Collier "Priestess of Bacchus"
But the goddess Hecate, who was the ruler of hell, darkness, night visions and witchcraft, was depicted with a torch and horns-rays on her head (according to legend, there were also snakes in her hair, like the Gorgon Medusa). By the way, it was believed that she was close to various goddesses of fertility in her chthonic functions and in many respects close to Persephone, who was the wife of Hades, the god of the underworld.
She was identified with the goddess of the moon Selena, the ruler of the underworld Persephone, the patroness of wild animals Artemis. Endowed with ambivalent functions. She acts as the leader of the "wild hunt", connects the world of the dead and the world of the living. Statues of Hecate with torches and swords in ancient times were placed at the forks of roads and in front of houses to "keep evil spirits at bay." The most vividly her image is characterized by a connection with the moon, which was considered to send madness or obsession and generally personify the dark side of the feminine principle.
Hecate is associated with magical traditions and rituals. In ancient times, people tried to appease her by leaving the hearts of chickens and honey cakes in front of their doors. On the last day of the month, gifts were brought to the crossroads - honey, onions, fish and eggs, with sacrifices in the form of dolls, baby girls and female lambs. The Sorcerers gathered at the crossroads to "pay homage" to her and such characters as "Empusa" - the brownie; "Cecropsis" - poltergeist; and "Mormo" is a vampire.
One occult appeal of the polytheists to Hecate was recorded in the 3rd century by St. Hippolytus of Rome in Philosophumena (the full title is Philosophical Opinions or Exposure to All Heresies, which consists of 10 books; in the first four books the author examines the opinions of Greek philosophers and the traditions of ancient magic and astrology, which, in his opinion, were the sources of heresies in the Christian world; five books deal with heretical teachings, starting with the most ancient and ending with the sects of the 2nd century - Callistians and Elkazaites; the tenth book is an abbreviation of the previous ones):
It is characteristic that the very composition of Hippolytus of Rome became known only since 1841, when the Greek philologist Constantine Minoida Mina allegedly acquired in the Athos monastery for the French government a part of the 14th century manuscript "Rebuke", which at the place of its further stay was named "Paris": Parisinus suppl … gr. 464 saec. XIV, bombicinus, truncus, foll. 1-132, 137, 133-136; 215 × 145 mm (textus: 160 × 105-115 mm, 23-28 versus), it was a partial list from "Philosophumena", which was previously associated with Origen, but later attributed to Hippolytus.
According to the Philosophumena, the power of Hecate extended over a three-part temporal sphere - past, present and future. The goddess drew her witchcraft power from the moon, which has three phases - new, full and old. Like Artemis, she was accompanied everywhere by a pack of dogs, but Hecate's hunt is a night hunt among the dead, graves and ghosts of the underworld. Food and dogs were sacrificed to Hecate, her attributes were a torch, whip and snakes.
Occultists found a correspondence to Hecate in Indian mythology - Kali - the goddess of time, destruction and transformation. The period of time to which modernity is attributed is called Kali Yuga in Hinduism, i.e. it is Kali (Hecate) who "protects" him.
Caves were considered cult places of Hecate. Its ancient altars were circular, with different inscriptions on them. For divination, the Greeks used the so-called. "Hecate's Circle" is a golden ball with a sapphire inside. How it worked is not very clear.
Most closely associated with Hecate were other chthonic deities (Hermes, Hades, Persephone and Gaia), as well as Zeus, Rhea, Demeter, Mithra, Cybele and the solar gods Helios and Apollo. The names of the chthonic gods - Hermes, Hades, Persephone and Gaia - are also more often found on defixions (tablets with curses), and Zeus and Rhea appear in the "Chaldean oracles" (with Zeus as the central deity).
Over time, some other goddesses were partially or completely identified with Hecate, such as Brimaud, Desponia, Enodia, Genetyllis, Cotida, Crateida and Kurotrof. In addition, they began to draw her closer, and often identify with such goddesses as Artemis, Selena, Mena, Persephone, Fizis, Bendida, Bona Dea, Diana, Ereshkigal and Isis.
Often Hecate was associated with Hermes, since of all the representatives of the male part of the Greek pantheon, he was most closely associated with the ideas of the line and the threshold. On defixions, Hermes Chthony is often mentioned together with Hecate Chthonia.
Hermes with the baby Dionysus. Sculpture of Praxiteles. Mid IV century BC.
The statue of Hermes Propylaea, who, according to Pausanias, stood at the entrance to the Athenian acropolis, performed the same protective function as the images of Hecate Propylaea. And in the linking spell from the Greek magic papyrus 22, the names of these two deities are even combined into a single name:
In ancient times, there was a kind of practice. Lead tablets were compiled (lead is the metal of Saturn), buried in the ground or lowered into the burial, in which the petitioner turned to Hermes the Underground and Hecate Underground with the intention of causing harm and damage to his enemy. For example:
For the curses, in addition to Hermes and Hecate, Gaia, Persephone and Hades were called. Often there is a formula like:
Older roots
More broadly, Isis, Persephone, Hecate, Ceres, Aphrodite, Athena, Artemis and many, many other female goddesses, in one way or another, are reflections of the antediluvian ancient single cult of the mother goddess.
Often the mother goddess is related to the earth, she is the fullest embodiment of the feminine creative principle. Like the goddesses of later religions, whose image goes back to the prehistoric image of the mother goddess, she is also associated in different cultures with caves (which are perceived as the bosom of the goddess), water elements, vegetation, astral objects, which indicates the universal nature of the cult of this deity. The mother gives life, therefore her most important attribute is fertility. But in ancient mythology, the mother goddess not only bestowed life, but also took away. Hence, she is often the goddess of the underworld.
Oldest known cults
In ancient times, the cult of the Mother was almost universal. Archeology provides evidence of a widespread cult of the Mother in the Stone Age. In a vast area from the Pyrenees to Siberia: in pre-Aryan India, in pre-Israel Palestine, in Phenicia, in Sumer, women figures carved from stone or bone are still found today. Such figurines are called Paleolithic "Venus". They have common features: large breasts, hips, belly. The head and arms are not pronounced or absent.
In the Neolithic era, the idea of the feminine principle as the source of all that exists under the influence of the changed living conditions transformed, but did not lose their original essence.
It should be noted that different cultures entered the so-called Neolithic period at different times: in the Middle East, the Neolithic began around 9500 BC. e., that is, about 11,500 years ago, just after the global catastrophe, which entered the myths of many peoples, like the Flood. Therefore, some transformations of the ancient cult are not surprising.
In Neolithic art, the mother goddess was sometimes depicted with a child in her arms or in the form of a woman in labor (in Catal-Huyuk, she is depicted giving birth to the heads of bulls and rams - symbols of antiquity, by the way). The image of the mother goddess is a "projection" of the mature stage of a woman's life, in contrast to the other two - the images of the young Virgin and the old Ancestor. This cult survived to historical times in the collective image of the Great Mother of the Middle East and the Greco-Roman world. His religious continuity is clearly seen in the images of such famous goddesses as Isis, Nut and Maat in Egypt; Ishtar, Astarte and Lilith of the Fertile Crescent Region; Demeter, Cora and Hera in Greece; Atargatis, Ceres and Cybele in Rome.
In Celtic mythology, this was the goddess Danu.
The cult of the mother goddess is most clearly manifested in Celtic mythology and, first of all, in the best-preserved Irish and Welsh sagas. In Irish mythology, the goddess Danu was considered to be the Great Mother of the Divine Creator or the Great Mother of the Planet Earth. Danu was recognized as the mother-progenitor of the gods who were part of the pre-human divine race of the inhabitants of Ireland (and Wales). This race was called so - the Tribe or Family of the goddess Danu or Tuatha de Danann, which again refers us to antediluvian times when the past global civilization was divided into two races: long-livers, therefore almost gods, - the race of masters, and short-lived slaves, from which, after a global catastrophe, the present humanity has gone.
The main gods and goddesses of the Tribe of the goddess Danu were Dagda, Manannan, Oghma, Lug, Morrigan, Bridget and others. They were tall, superbly built fair-skinned men and women with light blond, golden (according to some sources, reddish) hair and blue eyes. The male gods wore beards and had an athletic figure, the female goddesses a slender female figure with long legs, slender waists, and an irresistible appearance. The Gods and Goddesses of the Danu Goddess Tribe belonged to the sun gods and goddesses, as evidenced by the widespread belief that Danu was the wife of the sun of Belenus.
On the one hand, Danu was considered the goddess of fertility and abundance, that is, of everything that grows and develops, on the other hand, she was the goddess of the underworld - the world of death. Danu was also the goddess of light and water. In rare images of the goddess that have survived to our time, she was depicted sitting in the sky, in the underworld and turning into a heron.
Some researchers believe that the Celts and Gauls had statues, bas-reliefs and drawings of three matron deities feeding babies, holding a cornucopia or baskets of fruit (symbols of abundance, fertility and satiety) as a symbolic depiction of Danu among the Celts and Gauls, associated with the cult of Mother Earth …
Sumerians
Sumerians - tribes of unknown origin, at the end. 4th millennium BC e. mastered the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates and formed the first city-states in Mesopotamia. The Sumerian period of the history of Mesopotamia covers about one and a half thousand years, it ends at the end. 3 - early. 2nd millennium BC e. t. n. The III dynasty of the city of Ur and the dynasties of Isin and Larsa, of which the latter was already only partially Sumerian.
One of the most typical images used by the Sumerians is the image of the mother goddess (in iconography, images of a woman with a child in her arms are sometimes associated with her), who was revered under various names: Damgalnuna, Ninhursag, Ninmah (Mach), Ninthu. Mom, Mami. Akkadian versions of the image of the mother goddess - Beletili ("mistress of the gods"), the same Mami (who has the epithet "helping in childbirth" in Akkadian texts) and Aruru - the creator of people in Assyrian and New Babylonian myths, and in the epic about Gilgamesh - "wild" man (symbol of the first man) Enkidu. It is possible that the patron goddess of cities is also associated with the image of the mother goddess: for example, the Sumerian goddesses Bay and Gatumdug also bear the epithets "mother", "mother of all cities."
In the myths about the gods of fertility, there is a close connection between myth and cult. The cult songs from Ur (late 3rd millennium BC) speak of the love of the priestess “lukur” (one of the significant priestly categories) for the king Shu-Suen and emphasize the sacred and official nature of their union. The hymns to the deified kings of the 3rd dynasty of Ur and the 1st dynasty of Isin also show that between the king (at the same time the high priest "enom") and the high priestess, a sacred marriage ceremony was performed annually, in which the king represented the incarnation of the shepherd god Dumuzi, and the priestess - the goddess Inanna, which the Akkadians later began to call Ishtar.
Pay attention to the symbols of owls, lions, snakes (Ishtar's hair) taken later by the Masons.
Sometimes she was depicted with a star on her head:
The content of the works about Innan-Ishtar (constituting a single cycle "Inanna-Dumuzi") includes the motives of courtship and wedding of heroes-gods, the descent of the goddess into the underworld ("country of no return") and her replacement by a hero, death of the hero and crying over him and the return of the hero to earth. All the works of the cycle turn out to be the threshold of the action-drama, which formed the basis of the ritual and figuratively embodied the metaphor "life - death - life". The many variants of the myth, as well as the images of departing (perishing) and returning deities (as in this case Dumuzi stands), is connected, as in the case of the mother goddess, with the disunity of the Sumerian communities and with the very metaphor "life - death - life", constantly changing its appearance, but constant and unchanging in its renewal.
In the 2nd millennium BC. e. the cult of Ishtar spread widely among the Hurrians, Hittites, Mitannians, Phoenicians (corresponds to the Phoenician Astarte). Three main functions of Ishtar are distinguished: the goddess of fertility and carnal love; goddess of war and strife; the astral deity, the personification of the planet Venus, is associated with the day of the week - Friday (now the day of general drunkenness after the working week).
Ishtar is a female deity in Akkadian mythology, corresponding to the Sumerian Inanna. Ishtar is the goddess of war and love. She offers her love and patronage to the famous hero Gilgamesh. But he refuses, knowing the evil fate of her former lovers. Ishtar takes revenge on Gilgamesh by sending a terrible heavenly Bull to his city (again this symbol of ancient civilization). However, Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill him. Ishtar also descends into the underworld after his beloved Tammuz, threatening the goddess of the underworld, Ereshkigal, to release all the dead to earth. But Ereshkigal kills the goddess of fertility and only having agreed to the persuasion of his advisers, sprinkles her with living water. After that, Ishtar returns to earth with the rescued Tammuz.
Period of ancient civilizations
The Egyptian, Greek and Roman periods of the life of the mother goddess can be found through the myths and legends of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome. Above we wrote about Isis, Hecate, Persephone and other hypostases of the mother goddess, so we will not go deeper. But the medieval period of the life of the mother goddess is characterized not only by the cult of the Mother of God Jesus, but also by the cult that gave rise to it.
Early middle ages
In the history of the West, the myth is widespread that the Middle Ages on the territory of present-day Europe were a time of constant wars and the Inquisition. The Belgian financial scientist Bernard A. Lietard has a different opinion on this matter, which he outlined in the book "The Soul of Money" (Bernard A. Lietard. The Soul of Money. - M.: Olymp: AST: Astrel. 2007. - 365 p.). In his opinion, from the 10th to the 13th centuries, Europe was economically prosperous, it was at this time that a huge number of temples were being built, people consume good food and are taller and healthier in stature than Europeans of the dark ages.
As far as religion is concerned, the unambiguous opinion prevails on this issue that practically all of Europe was Catholic, especially after the division of the churches in 1054. However, Lietar has a different opinion. He discovered the connection between the economic prosperity of European society and the religious system, which he called: "The Cult of the Black Madonna."
The author gives some facts about the time of the cult of the Black Madonna:
- Contrary to modern Christian traditions, all official documents … always put the name of the Black Madonna before the name of Christ.
- A number of famous religious leaders who later became saints of the Latin Church worshiped the Black Madonna. Joan of Arc prayed to the Black Madonna, known as Notre Dame Miraculeuse (miraculous). Legend claims that Jesus Christ himself, surrounded by four evangelists, worshiped the statue of the Black Madonna.
- The first unusual feature of the legend attributed to most Black Madonnas - and only to these types of statues - is the statement that the statue was not made, but must be found nearby or even in the most ancient pagan symbolic place, for example, in dolmens.
Moreover, these statues turn out to be important markings on the road to Santiago de Compostela.
This road is one of the oldest pre-Christian paths in Europe, as proven by markings dating back to the Stone Age. All this means that the cult of the Black Madonna belongs to the most ancient religious cults known to man. French author Jacques Bonvin concludes:
- “Only the Black Madonna was able to crystallize all the beliefs of pagan traditions with the Christian faith, without falsifying at least one of all countless beliefs. This is where the Black Madonna is unique."
- No original Black Madonna is dated after the 13th century.
- The sculpture is always represented by "The Virgin in Greatness", where the seated Mother and Child look at the same point in a distant perspective.
- She is always invariably located in the place of the pre-Christian worship of the Celtic or other pagan Mother Goddess. Even when the whole cathedral was being built for Her, it was always kept in a crypt under the cathedral.
- The sanctuaries were often located near holy springs or wells, or near the stones of prehistoric cults.
- The legend associated with the statue usually has a clear oriental element: the crusader who brought the statue from the east, the pilgrims to the holy land, the saved, awakened by Her, etc.
- The official title attached to this statue is Alma Mater - "Noble Mother".
- The Virgin's face is always and Her hands are almost always black, thus, Her name is justified - "Black Madonna".
The blackness was systematically diminished by the Roman church. Until today, the church has tried to explain blackness as accidental, as the result of candle smoke. But if the face and hands of the Virgin and Child were originally black, why weren't their multicolored clothes also discolored, and why didn't a similar process happen with other statues from the same period? In a number of historically proven cases, priests under the rule of Rome repainted the face and hands of the shrine white.
In the temple of Diana at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, a completely black statue of the goddess was revered. It is in this city that Mary is supposed to have lived after the death of Christ, and Her Ascension took place in a place called karatchalti (literally "black stone").
Monastery Mega Spileon. Greece. It is believed that the evangelist Luke created this icon.
Mother Earth
The question of deciphering the image is multifaceted and probably depends on the morality of the applicant for the secret meaning.
The most literal reading is that the Black Madonna symbolizes Mother Earth, and the Child represents humanity, each of us. Moreover, one of the first depictions of the Virgin Mary giving breast to the Christ child was located in a Christian monastery in Jeremiah, Egyptian Sahara, and apparently inspired by Egyptian iconography of Isis feeding Horus.
By the way, the legend says that in Egypt people adored the "Virgin Mary" even before the birth of Christ, because Jeremiah predicted to them that the Savior would be born of a Virgin. Standard encyclopedias on classical mythology contain entire sections devoted to "Isis's identification with the Virgin Mary."
Bernard Lietard found that the fall of the cult of the Black Madonna took place simultaneously with the change in the financial system and "was accompanied by a powerful decline in the standard of living of ordinary people." In the book with the significant title "Before the Black Death", the author brings the research of that period to the modern level and refutes the previous idea that the Black Death was the cause of the decline. On the contrary, the plague is the result of an economic decline that began 50 years before it.
Today
One of the most interesting images of the mother goddess was created by the Jewish artist Leon Bakst in his painting "Ancient Horror" (1908), in which he depicted not only an ancient goddess, but also a flood that destroyed the previous Atlantic civilization.
Interesting details: on the left side of the picture - a dying city with a huge statue of a warrior, and on the right - buildings architecturally close to the Egyptian ones that survived on a hill. In the middle, in classic Masonic colors: white, blue and red, there is “Venus” herself, melancholy looking at the disaster and something mysterious, like Leonardo's Gioconda, smiling, holding a dove in her left hand, which has become a symbol of peace.
It should be noted that since the middle of the 20th century, there has been an active promotion of fenimism, the beginning of which many attribute mainly to the suffrage movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, in which the key issues were property rights for married women and the right to vote for women. This process is accompanied by the emergence of female symbols in culture.
In addition to the total use of the image of women to influence the instinctive programs of men who are not far from baboons in terms of their psyche, images of "strong women" appear more and more often in mass culture: from politicians and public figures of various levels to cinema.
We found an interesting "feigned" statue of the attribute of the "messenger of the gods" of Hermes Trismegistus - the caduceus (the Latin word caduceum comes from the Greek "messenger, harbinger", and in Greek it has a common root with the word rooster, the great harbinger of the morning and the Sun), which the sculptor James N. Muir (James Muir), performed in the form of the figure of a woman entwined with snakes, in a seven-rayed crown (like the statue of liberty) and with wings (like the goddess Ishtar). In this case, the caduceus, as it were, hatches from the planet Earth, split at the feet of the statue.
Does all this mean that someone, losing control, is trying to return the ancient cult of the mother goddess, which for a long time was deeply sealed inside the secret order structures?
It may well be …
Conclusion
Today, the Statue of Liberty has been promoted no worse than the Eiffel Tower and the pyramids in Giza, continuing to bring income to the circle of the "chosen few" And the statue still stands on a pedestal, at the base of which the words are carved:
Just what gate? The gateway to which kingdom? Underground? Darkness, hell and hell? Symbolically - it may very well be … Although the symbolism of female goddesses goes back into the deep past and is associated with the cult of Mother Earth. But, if we talk about the statue of liberty, then it is most similar to Hecate.
The main symbol of the United States is none other than a statue, created by the hands of a French freemason, depicting the ancient deity Hecate, who traces its "ancestry" from the antediluvian cults of the mother goddess, who has always acted as the guardian of the underworld.
By the way, the traditional rivalry between France and England also left its mark on the history of the statue's creation. France supported the efforts of American Masons to gain independence from Britain, with which it was then in conflict. Versailles clearly dreamed that London would stop claiming maritime dominion. Is it not because of this that the seas and continents are symbolically surrendered to the power of the goddess of darkness, who planted her feet behind the pillars of Hercules?
Will Americans be able to get rid of the dark chthonic past of the goddesses of darkness, night, the underworld of the dead in their culture and make the Statue of Liberty a statue of Mother Earth? At this stage - hardly.
This is a brief history and excursion into the background of the main symbol of the United States, which, in fact, has a rather sinister origin.