The winter solstice which today falls on December 21st, originally
fell on December 25th.. The date has changed as a result of
inaccuracies in the Julian calendar and the time of the Gregorian
calendrical reform, which pushed the dates back by 4 days thus
shifting the solstice to December 21st. Midwinter's Day has been
honoured as a religious day since the first calendars were made.

Amongst the Druidic Celts, mistletoe was collected for an evening
celebration on Midwinter's Day. According to Hislop, "the mistletoe
was regarded as a divine branch - a branch that came from heaven, and
grew upon a tree that sprang out of the earth. Thus by the engrafting
of the celestial branch into the earthly tree, heaven and earth, that
sin had severed, were joined together, and thus the mistletoe bough
became the token of Divine reconciliation to man, the kiss being the
well-known token of pardon and reconciliation."

This symbolism is easily appropriated and redefined in a Christian
context in Christian Gaul. To Christianise the use of mistletoe,
monks explained that since the Christian story is one of a divine
Branch, a root of Jesse of the House of David, who died to reconcile
heaven and earth, God and man. Since the early Church it was
explained, believers had greeted one another with "a holy kiss."

Amongst pagan Anglo-Saxons, Yule was celebrated at Midwinter. The
world Yule, derives from the Old English *geol, from the ancient
Germanic *guele, from the Indo-European root *qwelo- "go round"
(cycle and wheel come from the same source). meaning the turning of
the wheel, with strong solar symbolism for the turning of the year.
Amongst the Viking Old Norse *jol meaning "winter festival" (also a
pre-Christian festival, it lasted 12 days, and gave rise to the "12
days of Christmas), and it is thought that our word "jolly" might come
from jol. A trunk of a Yuletide tree was burned for 24 hours, at
which time every family took embers from the fire to kindle their own
hearths. This gave rise in Western Europe to the bringing of lighted
candles home from Midnight mass. The Log was then extinguished and
kept for a year to be lit first, before a new Yuletide log was added
to the fire the following year. Down to the 8th century Anglo-Saxons
referred to December/January as giuli or "the Yule month". Robert
Graves speaks of medieval survivals of these pagan customs. "Robin
'Hood' (or Hod or Hud) meant 'log'--the log put at the back of the
fire--and it was in this log, cut from the sacred oak, that Robin had
once been believed to reside. Hence 'Robin Hood's steed', the
wood-louse which ran out when the Yule log was burned. In the popular
superstition Robin himself escaped up the chimney in the form of a
Robin and, when Yule ended, went out as Belin against his rival Bran,
or Saturn--who had been 'Lord of Misrule' at the Yule-tide revels
(see below about the Saturnalia). Bran hid from pursuit in the ivy-
bush disguised as a Gold Crest Wren; but Robin always caught and
hanged him. Hence the song:

'Who'll hunt the Wren?' cries Robin the Bobbin."

The felling of a sacred oak for the Yuletide log is also tied up with
the myth about the origins of the Christmas tree. Christmas trees
were introduced into England by Prince Albert, the consort and husband
of Queen Victoria. The custom of a Christmas tree, undecorated, is
believed to have begun in Germany, in the first half of the 700s. The
earliest story relates how British monk and missionary St. Boniface
(born Winfrid in A.D. 680) was preaching a sermon on the Nativity to
a tribe of Germanic pagans outside the town of Geismar. To convince
the idolaters that the sacred oak tree was not sacred and inviolable,
the "Apostle of Germany" felled one on the spot. Toppling, it crushed
every shrub in its path except for a small fir sapling. A chance
event can lend itself to numerous interpretations, and legend has it
that Boniface, attempting to win converts, interpreted the fir's
survival as a miracle, concluding, "Let this be called the tree of
the Christ Child." Subsequent Christmases in Germany were celebrated
by planting fir saplings. This story, however, conceals more than it
reveals. Decorating trees at Yuletide was an old pagan custom,
outlawed in England by the Puritan Oliver Cromwell.

Romans celebrated the midwinter Saturnalia, sacred to Saturn, which
was held to be the most joyous and happy of Roman festivals. Running
originally for five days (at the end of a period of 12 months each of
30 days, giving 365 days for the year) it was extended to 6 days with
leap-years and eventually to seven days by the third century CE. By
the time of the Empire, the solstice had shifted from the end of the
10th month (DECEMber = 10, NOVEMber = 9), OCTOber = 8, SEPTEMber = 7)
to the 25th December, and the Saturnalia was considered to have
started on the 17th December. As time "outside" of the Calends, it
was considered a time during which normal business and many
prohibitions were suspended. Debts and enemies were forgiven. The
Saturnalia was preceded by the Festival for Tellus (Earth) and the
Consualia and is followed by the Opalia, Angeronalia (Dec. 21),
Larentalia and Festival for Sol Invictus, resulting in a holiday
season lasting from Dec. 13 to Dec. 25 (the ancient Winter Solstice).
Consualis was a festival for Consus (God of the Storage-bin) followed
in four days by a festival for Ops (Goddess of Plenty). The
Larentalia festival honors Acca Larentia. Acca is an obscure Latin
word: in Greek akko means a "ridiculous woman" or "bogey"; in
Sanskrit akka means "mother." Therefore Acca Larentia seems to be the
Mater Larum (Mother of the Lares), who is also called Lara, Larunda,
Larentina and Mania. Indeed Larentia was said to be the wife of the
shepherd Faustulus (perhaps = Faunus), who found Romulus and Remus
(who became the Lares of Rome) when they were being suckled by the
she-wolf, and that Larentia became their foster-mother. Others say
that Larentia herself was the she-wolf (lupa), and that's why she is
celebrated as a prostitute (lupa). In any case, in this festival She
is given parental rites (Parentalia) as the mother of the divine
ancestors.

The Saturnalia festival began at the temple of Saturn with a formal
sacrifice, which was conducted with uncovered head in a temple
decorated with fresh holly leaves and berries collected from the
previous year. Holly was a symbol of Saturn, whose name was derived
from satus = sowing. The woollen bonds are untied from the statue of
Saturn, symbolising the return and resurrection of the sun from the
tomb of winter. Next there is a festive banquet at which people dress
informally, wearing the "synthesis" (perhaps a light dressing-gown)
and pilei (soft paper caps or crowns). At the end of the banquet
everyone shouts, "Io Saturnalia!"

Returning home from the temple, Saturnalia was a period of general
relaxation, and in ancient times, the master waited on the servants
at meal times (like the last Supper). The household chooses the
Saturnalicius Princeps (Master of the Saturnalia), or the "Lord of
Misrule," who is free to order others to do his bidding for the full
5 to 7 day period. It was considered a period in which servants could
revenge themselves for the misdeeds of their masters. The "dog
collar" worn by today's clergy harks back to the ring or halo
associated with the collar worn by the Lord of Misrule in honour of
Saturn, whose final feast also was celebrated on the Dies Natalis
Invictus finishing on December 25th. Dies Natalis was the name given
by Christians for the birth of Jesus. On the last day of Saturnalia
it was common to exchange small gifts, such as sigillaria (small
pottery dolls) for the children and cerei (candles) for adults.

Of the Saturnalia, Statius said, "Time shall not destroy that Holy
Day, so long as the hills of Latium endure and Father Tiber, while
your city of Roma and the Capitol remain" - and indeed it has not
been destroyed, only disguised today as Chistmas.

The Festival of Sol Invictus or the unconquered sun, came to Rome
during the reign of the last of the Antonine Emperors, Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus also called Elagabalus (218-222 CE) Elagabal was
the name of the sun god of the Syrian city of Emesa (El-aga-baal),
and the new Emperor was the hereditary high priest of the deity, a
title which was added to the ancient one reserved for Roman Emperors
of Pontifex Maximus. On arriving at Rome, this emperor organised and
presided over a Syrian hieros gamos between himself as the embodiment
of Elagabal, brought to Rome as a sacred stone, and the Goddess
Tanit. Tanit's saced statue brought from Carthage for the purpose,
was personified by a bride, Aquilia Severa, who was a Vestal virgin.
In this case, however, the virgin failed to conceive. Perhaps the
symbolism of a priest marrying a priestess seemed irresistable, but
the marriage struck many Romans as sacrilege, and Elagabalus was
disposed of shortly afterwards.

The Pontifex Maximus was originally the head of the board of the
'pontifices' of priests. The pontifices were originally an advisory
board (collegium) whose business it was to assist the chief
magistrate, the Pontifex Maximus, in his sacral functions in his role
of "bridge-builder" (Pontis) between the divine world and the mundane
life of the community (Hence the word "pontificate"). Their normal
meeting-place was the Regia, the official residence of the Pontifex
Maximus. He appears to have ousted the Rex Sacrorum (Sacred King)
from his control of the State religion. Originally the king or the
other pontifices elected the Pontifex Maximus.

In historical times (before 212 BC) he was elected by vote of
seventeen of the thirty-five tribes similar to the election of the
pope by the Curia of Cardinals. Curiously enough he was never chosen
by a majority of the people, like secular magistrates were. He was
head of the whole State clergy. He had disciplinary power
over the clergy as well as over the Vestal Virgins. Potifex Maximus,
and the triple crown that went with the office, is a title that has
been kept by the popes. Through the forgery of the Donation of
Constantine, medieval Popes claimed that the Emperor Constantine had
given the Western Empire into their safekeeping.

From the time of Elagabalus, and particularly after the reforms of
Diocletian in which the empire was firmly centred upon the monarch
and his Imperial court, dispensing with old Republican forms, the
Emperors were seeking to create a syncretic monotheistic system that
matched their secular monopolisation of power. Unity was their chief
concern.

The Roman Army had embraced the ancient Iranian religion of Mithraism
from the time Pompey the Great went to Syria to ransom the captives
taken at the disasterous battle with the Parthians at Carrhae, just
before the birth of Jesus. The Persian Magi seem to have exchanged
their Babylonian Mithratic Astrology with the Platonism of the
Greco-Romans. Mithras was said to have been born of a Virgin, on
December 25th, in a Cave. The Magi seeing Venus the morning star in
the East, found Mithras laying in the Cave of the Manger, in the
swaddling clothes and surrounded by animals who were bowed down in
veneration. Mithras was thus the son of the true creator, Sol
Invictus, born of a Virgin, the earth mother, who ascended from the
Cave, and emerged into the light of his father, the unconquered Sun,
Plato's light of truth, that cast the shadows in the back of the
cave. This throne of the most high God is what the Greeks believed
they found tenaciously worshipped by the Jews. Even Paul worshipped
at the altar of this, the "unknown God" of the Platonists.

For Constantine the cult of Sol Invictus was, quite simply,
expedient. His primary, indeed obsessive, objective was unity-unity
in politics, in religion, and in territory. A cult or state religion
that included all other cults within it obviously helped to achieve
this objective. And it was under the auspices of the Sol Invictus
cult that Christianity consolidated its position.

Christian orthodoxy had much in common with the cult of Mithraised
Sol Invictus cult, and thus the former was able to flourish
unmolested under the latter's umbrella of tolerance. The cult of Sol
Invictus, being essentially monotheistic, paved the way for the
monotheism of Christianity. And the cult of Sol Invictus was
convenient in other respects as well-which both modified and
facilitated the spread of Christianity. By an edict promulgated in
AD. 321, for example, Constantine ordered the law courts closed
on "the venerable day of the sun" and decreed that this day be a day
of rest. Christianity had hitherto held the Jewish Sabbath-Saturday-
as sacred. Now, in accordance with Constantine's edict, it
transferred its sacred day to Sunday. This not only brought it into
harmony with the existing regime but also permitted it to further
dissociate itself from its Judaic origins.

Until the fourth century, moreover, Jesus' birthday had been
celebrated on January 6th. For the cult of Sol Invictus, however, the
crucial day of the year was December 25-the festival of Natalis
Invictus, the birth (or rebirth) of the sun, when the days began to
grow longer. In this respect, too, Christianity brought itself into
alignment with the regime and the established state religion.

The cult of Sol Invictus meshed happily with that of Mithras-so much
so, indeed, that the two are often confused. Both emphasised the
status of the sun. Both held Sunday as sacred. Both celebrated a
major birth festival on December 25. As a result Christianity could
also find points of convergence with Mithraism as well-the more so as
Mithraism stressed the immortality of the soul, a future judgment,
and the resurrection of the dead.

In the interests of unity Constantine deliberately chose to blur the
distinctions among Christianity, Mithraism and Sol
Invictus-deliberately chose not to see any contradictions among them.
Thus, he tolerated the deified Jesus as the earthly manifestation of
Sol Invictus. Thus he would build a Christian church and, at the same
time, statues of the mother goddess Cybele and of Sol Invictus, the
sun god would be shown as the Madonna and Child, Isis and Horus.

According to later Church tradition Constantine had inherited from
his father Constantius a sympathetic predisposition toward
Christianity. In fact, this predisposition seems to have been
primarily a matter of political expediency, for Christians by then
were numerous and Constantine needed all the help he could get
against Maxentius, his rival for the imperial throne. In AD. 312
Maxentius was routed at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, thus leaving
Constantine's claim unchallenged. Immediately before this crucial
battle Constantine is said to have had a vision-later reinforced by a
prophetic dream-of a luminescent cross hanging in the sky. A sentence
was supposedly inscribed across it-"In Hoc Signo Vinces" ("By this
sign you will conquer).

Conventional wisdom recalls that Constantine ordered the shields of
his troops to be emblazoned with the Christian monogram-the Greek
letters Chi Rho, the first two letters of the word "Christos." As a
result Constantine's victory over Maxentius at Milvian Bridge came to
represent a miraculous triumph of Christianity over paganism. This,
then, is the popular Church tradition on the basis of which
Constantine is often thought to have 'converted' the Roman empire to
Christianity.

In actual fact, however, Constantine did no such thing. But in order
to decide precisely what he did do, we must examine the evidence more
closely. In the first place Constantine's "conversion" does not seem
to have been Christian at all but absolutely pagan. He appears to
have had some sort of vision in the precincts of a pagan temple to
mithratic Apollo, either in the Vosges or near Autun. According to a
witness accompanying Constantine's army at the time, the vision was
of the sun god-the deity worshiped by certain cults under the name of
"Sol Invictus," "the Invincible Sun." There is evidence that
Constantine, just before his vision, had been initiated into a Sol
Invictus cult.

In any case the Roman Senate, after the Battle of Milvian Bridge,
erected a triumphal arch in the Coliseum. According to the
inscription on this arch Constantine's victory was won "through the
prompting of the Deity." But the deity in question was not Jesus. It
was Sol Invictus, the pagan sun god.

Contrary to tradition, Constantine did not make Christianity the
official state religion of Rome. The state religion of Rome under
Constantine was, in fact, pagan sun worship; and Constantine, all his
life, acted as its chief priest. Indeed, his reign was called a "sun
emperor-ship," and rayed arms of Sol Invictus appeared everywhere-
including on the imperial banners and the coinage of the realm.

Jesus in tradition chose twelve disciples, just as there are twelve
constellations in the Zodiac personified as the twelve helpers of Sol
Invictus, and also of Mithras. His assimilation was with the Sun, as
was Mithras. But most importantly Jesus died on the cross, and was
reborn in the cave of the Holy Sepulchre. The Cross, is similar in
shape to the "X" of the conjunction of the equinoxes and the center
of the Earth, was also the sign of Sol Invictus, amrking the
solstices and the equinoxes. As though Jesus through Constantine's
association with Sol Invictus, was also nailed to the stars.

This syncretism between Sol Invictus and Jesus was organised by
Constantine in 325 CE at the two months meeting of the Council of
Nicea. To bring about the unity of the church and prevent it
splitting into competing sects he commanded all three hundred bishops
to attend, convened the council personally and sat in on many of the
sessions. The resulting Nicean Crede, the basis of Christianity ever
since, clearly reflects this pagan Sol Invictus influence.

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty (i.e. the Sun, Serapis),
maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus
Christ (i.e. Mithras, Horus), the Son of God, the only-begotten of
his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of
Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one
substance with the Father. By whom all things were made ... Who ...
was incarnate and was made human, born of the virgin (Cybele, Isis)
Mary, crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was
buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into the heavens, and sits on the right hand of the
Father, and comes again with glory to judge living and dead, of whose
kingdom there shall be no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and the Life-giver, that
proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and Son is worshipped
together and glorified together, who spoke through the prophets. We
believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one
baptism unto remission of sins. We look for a resurrection of the
dead, and the life of the age to come."

Any scriptural writing that did not adhere to this scriptural basis
was then declared an "anathema" and heretical, and the keeping of
heretical books was declared a crime against the state. His edict
against "heretics," calling them "haters and enemies of truth and
life, in league with destruction.". Heretical teachers like Arius,
who denied the divinity of Jesus, were forced to flee, and many of
their students were coerced back into the orthodox fold. The emperor
also ordered a search for their books, which were to be confiscated
and destroyed. Hiding the works of Arius or any of the apocrypha
carried a severe penalty - the death sentence. Constantine thus
emerged as "the Vicar of God on Earth". He declared "anyone not with
us is against us and is to be punished likewise".

By then the syncretism between Jesus, the Galilean healer and teacher
and the Mithraitic dieing and resurrecting Lord Adonai was almost
complete. To begin with, Mithra was born of a virgin in a cave on
December 25. Like other dieing and resurrecting Gods like Krishna and
Horus, little is known about Mithras until he reached maturity. At
about age 30 he began his ministry, offering salvation based on
faith, compassion, knowledge and valour. He had 12 companions or
disciples and was considered a great travelling teacher and master.
He was known to his followers as the "Way, the Truth and the Light",
the "Redeemer", the "Saviour" and the "Messiah". He also was called
the "Good Shepherd" and was identified with both the lion and the
lamb. Like Jesus, Mithras performed miracles and, on his death, was
buried in a tomb from which he arose after three days. His
resurrection was celebrated every year and his sacred day was Sunday,
the "Lord's Day". Some scholars believe the Catholic Church itself
was built upon the papacy, hierarchy and ritual of the Mithras
religion. Like today's clergy, Mithrasian priests acknowledged
a "Last Supper" and performed baptisms first with water and
then "with the spirit". According to Cooper, the Mithrasians had
a "Last Supper" which, like the modern Communion or Eucharist,
included wine as a symbol of sacrificial blood. "Bread in wafers, or
small loaves marked with a cross, was used to symbolise flesh," he
said. "The priestly symbols were a staff, a ring, a hat, and a hooked
sword; members were called brothers, and priests were
called 'Father'." Indeed, the "mitre" hats worn by today's orthodox
bishops were first worn by Mithrasian high priests as the hat's name -
mitre (mitra) suggests. The architecture of the Christian Church -
from the cavernous interior to the ceremonial altar - was borrowed
straight from the Mithraeum or Mithraic temples.

From the reign of Theodosius the Great all pagan temples were
shut,"The Christians sacked his temples, burned his books, and
attacked his followers," Cooper said. "They desecrated his temples,
and built their own churches on the same foundations as the old
Mithraic temples." There were over 400 in the empire which were
destroyed, or converted to Christian Churches. By then the Christian
Church, organised on the eccleisia or collegium principles of Roman
civil administration was divided, like the state, into parishes
"ruled" by vicars - titles the church keeps to the present day.

As if that were not enough, the Christians then took Mithras'
principal festival - the festival of the "Resurrection of Mithras" -
held on the first Sunday after the first full moon on the Spring
Equinox and turned it into what later became Easter ...

Regarding the Birth of the son of God, Greek mythology is filled
with "sons of Gods" - heroic mortal men, who were divinely conceived
upon a mortal mother, and who achieved great things. Some of these,
like Hercules, son of Zeus, was eventually elevated to immortality
himself. Sons of God can be literally what it says, a "Son of God".
People who took this view historically have argued that Enoch was
a "son of God" of this kind, someone who ascended to "walk with God".
Such a meaning would certainly support one of the etymologies
suggested for "nepîlîm" that it may derive from the niphal of the
verb pala, meaning "be extraordinary," i.e., "extraordinary men." The
Sethite lineage, with its extended lifespan certainly
were "extraordinary" in this sense.

However, to understand the nature of structure we need to recognise
the pattern in the Bible, repeated again and again, of women, wives
of important aged men and they are unable to bear children. The
Bible states that women in such circumstances are to be divorced, but
in case after case, from Sarah to Hannah, divorce is avoided and
conception only becomes possible as a result of the intervention of
God. Their children, as "the children of God" would fit such a claim
to be extraordinary. Even Jesus, born of a virgin, is a "son of God"
of this kind. It is conferring a semi-divine lineage down to the
descendents of the House of David. In defence of this interpretation
one could quote Deuteronomy 14:1 which states "You are the children
of Yahweh your God."

It would appear that there is a second possible etymology for the
nephelim. Some have suggested that it comes from from
nepel, "abortion" or miscarriage", and in this case the nephelim
were "unnaturally begotten men" or bastards. Surprisingly this
meaning could be related to the one above by a very circuitous
route. To the ancient Canaanites, like the people of the whole of
the Middle East, from Sumerian times onwards, prostitution was an
honourable calling, and prostitutes were well treated. They were
called "sister" and considered to be in divine service to the Gods,
perpetual virgins, and the act of sex was considered to be spiritual
in nature. The women involved were called Qadishtu - Holy Ones.
They were frequently women divorced because of their sterility, and
thus had difficulty supporting themselves. But they did occasionally
have children. In Anatolia, for instance, at Ephesus, at the temple
of Dianna, a grave found last century proclaimed that a certain
woman, attached as a sacred prostitute to the temple, proclaimed
herself to be a "daughter of God", and her mother and grandmother -
who were engaged in the same profession were also "daughters of
God". The nature of God's intervention in the cases of such women as
Sarah and Hannah is thus explained. It also explains the strange
passages in the book of Genesis where Abraham, and later Isaac, tried
to pass their infertile wives off as "sisters" to various local kings
and potentates.

In Sumeria, it seems "sons of God" produced from such unions, growing
up in the temple establishment, at the heart of political, social and
economic power in their communities had significant advantages for
social and political advancement. Sargon of Akkad, the builder of
the first empire in the history of the world, was such a "Son of
God". His mother seems to have been a Qadishtu - a temple priestess-
prostitute. The Epic of Gilgamesh proclaims Gilgamesh to have
been "three quarters God, one quarter man" for the same reason.
Clearly Sargon and Gilgamesh were "extraordinary men" or
metaphorical "giants" of this kind.

Again we need to look at the nature of the beliefs of the people at
the time of the Old Testament. To the Elamites, Sumerians,
Babylonians, Hurrians, Canaanites, Egyptians, Hittites, Greeks and
Phoenicians, in fact for *all people* of the Ancient Near East,
(except the description of the creation in Genesis), the world was
literally a single divine family of Gods and Goddesses. The world was
not an inanimate "creation" but literally, we were living inside the
body of immortals - or as the Sumerians called their Gods - the
Anunaki (Anu = Sky, na = and, ki = Earth; thus the divine and sacred
body of "Heaven and Earth"). Thus in a Canaanite myth from Boghazköy
there is the mention of El as the creator, literally the father
of "the heaven and the earth" — a title given to none other in the
pantheon. Furthermore, all the other gods are referred to as
his "family" or "his sons". In the Canaanite system, Baal and Yahweh
were literally "Sons of El" (Sons of God). The idea of a "hieros
gamos" a holy marriage, between a God and Goddess, in which humans
took either one or both roles, was part of the Akitu ceremony of
Babylon, the New Year ceremony associated with the New Year Festival,
in Babylonia, and other parts of the Ancient Near East for thousands
of years. At the Babylonian Akitu ceremony, the King was called
before Marduk to answer for his government over the previous twelve
months, and slapped hard across both cheaks, by the High Priest of
Marduk, for any sins inadvertenly committed. At the Borsippa Temple,
outside the Ishtar Gate, he was reinvested in his sacred role, with
part of the ceremony of the re-investiture being to be taken in
marriage by the Goddess Ishtar herself, in a role taken by the high-
priestess, often the kings wife or (biological) sister acting in the
role of the divine marriage between Ishtar (or Aramaean Astarte) and
Tammuz (or Bel). Amongst the Canaanites it was Ba'al and Ashtoreth.
Ezekiel confirms that the hieros gamos was still being performed in
Jerusalem until after the Exile.

Any child conceived at this Spring Equinox festival, would be born as
a "Son of God" close to or on the the 25th December - the date on
which "Sons of God" would normally be born. This date of the
birthday of the "Sons of God" was known throughout the ancient near
east, and associated with the Roman Lupercalia - a festival of both
wolves and whores (Lupa = prostititute, Lupus = wolf). This was the
origins of "wishing you a *merry* Christmas". These sons of God, at
the court of the divinely annointed king, had a very important role
in giving praise to the name of the God who had been instrumental in
installing the king in his annointed role. Psalm 29:1-2 says it
all "O give Yahweh you sons of God [beney 'elim], give Yahweh glory
and power; give Yahweh the glory of his name. Adore Yahweh in his
holy court."

It was only with the acceptance of a complete monotheistic order at
the time of the Exile that made this system so muddled, and the
nature of the Sons of God so difficult to understand. With the
Iranians, from the time of Zoroaster onwards, Ahura Mazda was the
only divinity. As a single divinity, the divine court or holy family
of the polytheists was denied, and angels (the Ahuras) were now seen
as disembodied emanations of the divine will. A single omnipotent
god was now split between a being who was considered all good, and
others, by definition, who had to become all evil. In Iranian
belief, the daevas or Azhaz (fallen angels) were originally servants
of Ahura Mazda, who had been deceived by the pride of Ahriman (Anghra
Mainyu) to rebel against the will of God. He was aided in this task
by daevas ("devils") like Azhaz-dahak, a powerful demon of lies and
fornication.

The acceptance of this Iranian system by the post exilic Jews is
shown within the Old Testament Apocrypha. Azhaz-dahak was here
equated with Azazel the old scape-goat of the Jewish Day of
Atonement, held on the 10th day in the 7th month of Tishri. As 1
Enoch 8:1-2 states "And Azazel taught men to make swords, and knives,
and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of
the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments,
and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all
kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures. And there arose
much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led
astray, and became corrupt in all their ways." Here we see one of
the fallen angels, the "watchers of God" or literally 'azhaz'-'el'
meaning 'strong one of God', the one who is involved in teaching the
arts of the Cainite lineage - all the skills of metalwork. These
were the "sons of God" that now fornicated with the daughters of
men. Like Prometheus Azazel was finally brought to Yahweh's command,
bound hand and foot by the archangel Raphael, and chained to a jagged
rock. There he is to abide in utter darkness until the Day of
Judgement, when he will be cast into the fire to be consumed forever.

The Pentateuch records how previously each year on the Day of
Atonement Azazel, a goat would be cast into the wilderness "for
Azazel", carrying on its back the sins of the Jewish people.
Moreover, this new, post exilic Azazel, in post Exilic Judaism, was
in the apocrypha said to be one of the leaders of the fallen angels,
and was said to have fostered a race of demons known as the seirim,
or `he-goats'. They are mentioned several times in the Bible and were
supposedly worshipped and adored by some Jews. The Book of Leviticus
points to the old hieros gamos nature of the system of beleif
here: "And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto the he-
goats (seirim), after whom they go a whoring",

Regards

John