Any actual history drawn from the Iliad and even the existence of an actual Homer himself, is speculative at best, and almost certainly wrong.

Homer comes from the Greek word for “the thigh” – hemeiros – and we have the famous myth of Dionysus being born from Zeus’s thigh after his mother Semele (Cybele-Zemlaya-Earth) was killed by Hera.

The Iliad, like the Torah and the Gospels, is an allegory for astrological movements of the stars and constellations and attempts to weave an anthropomorphized story where the gods and man meet in a war of heaven and earth, on the ancient hermetic principle of “as above, so below.”

These were people trying their best to make sense of the world in which they knew so little.

Even the idea that the Trojan war as an actual war has not been validated. Schliemann’s so called discovery of Troy, the subsequent acceptance of the war as actual history is something like finding Noah on Mount Ararat.  With DNA studies, historical linguistics and comparative religion, many of these stories are turning out to be mythology, from Jesus to Moses (Ra-Messes) to his brother Aaron (Sharron = Sargon), to Noah=Gilgamesh and Job=the Poem of the Righteous Sufferer and even our Father Abraham=A-Brahmin.

On the Indo-European side, the Iliad is a story of various peoples from the Pontic Steppes in Central Asia and their settlement of disparate lands beyond the “Ebros=Evros=Europe” river and the lands around the Black Sea in ancient Iberian Albania, the region of today’s Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine. Another region they settled somewhat earlier is Anatolia – today Turkey, a land where the Indo Europeans and the Semitic people met, warred, and influenced one another, then much later is conquered by the Turkic people from Eastern Steppes who were etunically Mongol.

The fundamental premise of the story is, in my view, a war between two groups of people who drifted culturally in their identity – Hellen, representing ‘Ellenoi, or the Greeks, as in Hellas, is kidnapped by Paris/Parthian/Persian and what follows is the Argive war to revenge the dishonour this brought. You can see how this is a foundational myth meant to unify the Greek people into a common identity. Thus, much is made about how different or “Oriental” the Trojans are, but they appear to be communicating in the same language and don’t have difficulty understanding one another. Then again, they speak with Gods also, so anything is possible in fantasy.

We know that historically, war was commonplace between the Ancient Indo Europeans and the Mongols/Turkmen but also among one another. One branch goes East and rules India creating the Sanskrit Vedas, and the others settle around the black Sea. The Indian group is kicked out and moves to Persia. Their upper castes of Brahmin/Magi like Zarathustra create Zoroastrianism. DNA studies show that Iranians are mostly however not Caucasian but the language is.

In the Iliad, Helen launches “a thousand ships,” and Troy is described as a bit of a Hodge Podge of people and customs – so this is very possibly indeed Anatolia, where the Hittites and other Indo-European people migrated to and mixed with the Semitic cultures of Ashur, Phoenicia, and others.

These are all speculative impetuses for the creation of the story, which probably picks up on motifs and tales of many different wars, and reflects periods of migration in a culture of honor while weaving in a narrative of supernatural intervention and astrology.

Names, however, are useful, because to have any connection, they would have been real names. But what the story is doing here is socio-political: the author is mentioning different names for the different people in order to assert a unifying ideology against tribalism – “remember back when we were a single people and fought the Trojans.”

This is one of the most fundamental themes in all human cultures. To unite cross tribally, humans invent or make up or simply blame a third party. If aliens attacked the Earth, humans wouldn’t care what race or ethnic origin one human was vs another, we would feel a bond with all humans as another creature from another planet was attacking us.

This is called scapegoat mechanism. We unite individually or tribally by creating fear of someone else: such as for example, when Trump put the blame for all sorts of social problems on the Mexican illegals.

So the use of Danaan, or Danoi, or Achaeans, Argives, Panhellenes (they are Pan-Helenoi because they came together to rescue Hellen, see how this is a unifying myth), is the mention of different people with different identities who are united into a common identity through this, their foundational myth.

It is through stories and mythology that we create a narrative of who we are that allows us to have meaning in our lives. The importance of the Iliad is that in addition to the Jewish stories, they form the foundation of all of Western Culture. The synthesis of the two traditions is what we call Christianity – the Hellenic attempt to synthesize Neoplatonism and Greek culture with Judaism.

The fact that many of these stories aren’t objectively true doesn’t matter. They have an important part in teaching us what Yaakov Malkin has called “eternal truths” – that is, the characters may be made up and the context may be false, but there are eternal truths that are always a part of human life – love, hate, death, injustice and yearning for justice, war, pain, and joy too. From these we hopefully glean virtue, and become better and more enlightened people.

But the objective truth of a Troy or any of this as actual history is definitely not been validated and should not be understood as such.

The Danoi are mentioned together with Ehrani, or the Aryans, in a number of places, and in the Vedic scriptures. We find many ethnic names in the ancient myths that reflect the exciting history some of these tribes would have had before they finally settled the regions we are more familiar with. One of the most interesting is in the Vedic scriptures where it talks about a great war between those who served Ram, or Brahma, their chief deity, and those who served the devil, his enemy, called Serbinda. When Serbinda was defeated, his people fled the mighty Ram, and went elsewhere. Wonder where.

Achaeans sounds awful similar to the Royal Family of Persia, the Achmaeonidae.

DAN- probably comes from a variation in the ancient Proto Indo European meaning the same thing that Aryan meant, with various spelling Ehrian, Iranian, D-arya-vush (Darius), and even Slav-an: “Wealthy, noble, rich, famous, legendary” and influences various linguistic concepts such as “us” or “our people.” In the Gaelic you thus find dan or don to mean “us,” in the Spanish “don” retains an honorific titulary purpose as in “Don Juan”, and dan or don becomes in the Germanic and English “than” as in something is “higher” or “lower” *than* something else – again connoting a kind of comparing someone to a noble person and their rank.

However, remember than the Trojans worship the same gods. Chryses, which has a Greek name, or a PIE name at least, is a priestess of Apollo. Apollo is the sun god, and this isn’t often repeated, but the root word of Chryses is the same root as Christos – which does not mean “the Messiah” but comes from the Greek word for “yellow, bright yellow” as in “crystal” or “crystalline” or “golden” since Christos is of course an anthropomorphized Sun or Helios. Χρύσης Khrúsēs.

Given that they speak the same language and have the same religion, by most standards we would conclude they are the same people. Ethnicity isn’t exactly a science of purity. No single human population has only very related genes, even families have many different genes due to the way chromosomes combine.

Also, Homeric Greek is a form of Ionian Greek. From what we know of migrations today, the early people into Europe went from the Caucuses into Anatolia, thus we have the Cappadocian myth of St George and the Dragon (Georgia is in the PIE homeland) and so it is entirely possible that the earliest Greeks come from Anatolia into Europe, and that Argives sail from Anatolia to Troy where Troy was on the Greek homeland, rather than the other way around. Some theories say that Troy was actually on the Adriatic, in the Herzegovinian town of Gabele. Like Cybele. Semele.

We find other proof that this is astrotheology – Glaukos, famous Trojan fighter, means “shiny” in Greek. So, these are probably stars and planets in their celestial movements, and a fight between dark and light, constellations and gods. Glaukos is the son of Bellerophon, the hero who rides the winged horse Pegasus, you know, like Mohammed.

So the Danaans are an early tribe of the Caucasus and Homer is weaving a unifying underlay mythology here to suggest a common identity to the different Greeks. Keep in mind that Greek is from the Latin, Graecia, and we don’t really find it until Aristotle.

He writes that the Graikoi (Γραικοί), came from the area where Dodona and Achelous was inhabited by the Selli (Σελλοὶ) and a people formerly called Graeci and now Hellenes (Έλληνες). The word literally means “Grey-haired” which could stem from the encounter of the Semitic peoples with the Indo-European. Tacitus for example tells us that the German children looked horrifying, “their hair so fair, they look like old men, though they are children.”

Cue in the “Waves of the Dan-ube.”

The first error in religious thinking for a modern audience is to accept the religious chronology.  Generally speaking, Judaism claims for itself a history of some 5700 years, placing its origins somewhere around 3700 BCE.

So as a result, the Greek mythology and other Mediterranean myths that influenced the development of Judaism around the 5th century BCE when the Torah is assembled seem anachronistic.  If you accept that Judaism is so old, then you naturally conclude that any similarities in the myths go the other way – Judaism and the “truth” of Jehovah and his heavenly mafia influenced the Greeks, not the other way around.

If the believer understands and recognizes that Judaism develops in the period after the Babylonian exile, some 5th century BCE-2nd c BCE, then they are more likely to recognize the religious fraud.  Concepts such as the “soul”, psyche, are largely crafted by Plato and those who came after him, and influence Judaism, with Plato’s notions about “one source of all,” “the light of origins,” the divine, and so on.

Given that Christianity is an amalgam of “the greatest hits” of mythology and religion before it, and a conscious or unconscious merger of Judaism with Hellenistic culture and traditions, with Neoplatonism, Dionysus has been correctly correlated with many of the aspects of the Jesus story.

The following is a translation by Prof. Nagy of Harvard University of the “Homeric Myth to Dionysus.”

Homeric Hymn to Dionysus

Translated by Gregory Nagy

₁ About Dionysus son of most glorious Semele ₂ my mind will connect, how it was that he made an appearance [phainesthai] by the shore of the barren sea ₃ on a prominent headland, looking like a young man ₄ at the beginning of adolescence. Beautiful were the locks of hair as they waved in the breeze surrounding him. [5] They were the color of deep blue.

And a cloak he wore over his strong shoulders, ₆ color of purple.Then, all of a sudden, men seen from a ship with fine benches ₇ —men who were pirates—came into view, as they were sailing over the wine-colored [oinops] sea [pontos]. ₈ They were Etruscans. And they were being driven along by a destiny that was bad for them. The moment they saw him [= Dionysus], ₉ they gave each other a knowing nod, and the very next thing, they were ashore, jumping out of the ship. Quickly they seized him and [10] sat him down inside their ship, happy in their hearts ₁₁ because they thought that he was the son of a line of kings nurtured by the sky god. ₁₂ That is what they thought he was. And they wanted to tie him up in harsh bondage, ₁₃ but the ties of the bonds could not hold him, and the cords made of willow fell off him, all over the place, ₁₄ falling right off his hands and feet.

And he just sat there, smiling, [15] looking on with his deep blue eyes.Meanwhile the steersman [kubernētēs] took note [noeîn], ₁₆ right away, and he called out to his comrades [hetairoi] and said to them: ₁₇ “What kind of superhuman force [daimōn] has possessed you all! What kind of god [theos] is this that you have seized and tried to tie up, ₁₈ powerful as he is? Why, he is too much for the well-built ship to make room for. ₁₉ You see, he must be either Zeus or Apollo, the one with the silver quiver, [20] or Poseidon. I tell you, he is not like mortal humans, ₂₁ he is not like [eikelos] them at all. Rather, he is like the gods who have their dwellings in Olympus. ₂₂ So come on, we should let him go, leaving him on the dark earth of the mainland. ₂₃ Let us do it right away. Do not manhandle him. What if he gets angry ₂₄ and stirs up winds that will make hardship, and a huge whirlwind?” [25]

That is how he [= the steersman] spoke.But the leader of the men reviled him [= the steersman], speaking with hateful words [mūthos]: ₂₆ “No, [not we but] you are the one who is possessed by some kind of superhuman force [daimōn]. Just [do your work and] watch for the wind [to start blowing from behind, and, once it starts blowing], you start hoisting the sail of the ship ₂₇ and hold on to all the ropes. As for this one [= the unrecognized Dionysus], he will be the concern [melein] of my men. ₂₈ I expect he will arrive [with us] in Egypt or maybe in Cyprus ₂₉ or maybe even in the land of the Hyperboreans or beyond. Wherever. In the end, [30] he will tell all: he will come around to saying who are his near and dear ones [philoi] and what are all the possessions he has ₃₁ and he will tell about his siblings. And that is because a superhuman force [daimōn] has put him in our pathway.”₃₂ Having said this, he [= the leader himself] started hoisting the sail of the ship. ₃₃

Now a wind came and blew right into the middle of the sail, and the ropes that held it at both ends ₃₄ got all stretched to the limit. Then, right away, there appeared [phainesthai] to them things that would make anyone marvel.[35] Wine. That is what happened first of all. It was all alongside the swift black ship. ₃₆ Sweet to drink, it was splashing around [the ship as if it were inside a cup], smelling good, and the fragrance that rose up ₃₇ was something immortalizing [ambrosiā]. The sailors were seized with amazement, all of them, at the sight. ₃₈ And then, all of a sudden, next to the top of the sail on both sides, there reached out ₃₉ a vine—here, and here too—and hanging from it were many [40] clusters of grapes. Around the mast, dark ivy was winding around, ₄₁ teeming with blossoms. And—a thing of beauty and pleasure [kharieis]—the berry sprang forth [from the ivy]. ₄₂

The benches for rowing now had garlands [stephanoi] all over them.Once they [= the sailors] saw all this, ₄₃ they started shouting at the steersman [kubernētēs], urging him ₄₄ to sail the ship back to land.Meanwhile, he [= Dionysus] turned into a lion for them, right there in the ship, [45] looking horrific [deinos], at the prow. It roared a mighty roar. Then, in the middle of the ship, ₄₆ he [= Dionysus] made a bear, with a shaggy neck. Thus he [= Dionysus] made his signals [sēmata] appear [phainein]. ₄₇ It [= the bear] reared up, raging, while the lion, at the top of the deck, ₄₈ glared at them with its horrific looks. The men, terrified, were fleeing toward the stern of the ship, ₄₉ crowding around the steersman [kubernētēs], the one who had a heart [thūmos] that is moderate [sōphrōn]. [50] They just stood there, astounded [ek-plag-entes].Then it [= the lion] all of a sudden leapt up ₅₁ and took hold of the leader of the men, while they were trying to get out, rushing away from the bad destiny that was theirs. ₅₂

They all together at the same time leapt out, once they saw what they saw, into the gleaming salt sea. ₅₃ They became dolphins.As for the steersman [kubernētēs] —he [= Dionysus] took pity on him, ₅₄ holding him back [from leaping overboard]. He [= Dionysus] caused it to happen that he [= the steersman] became the most blessed [olbios] of all men, and he [= Dionysus] spoke for the record this set of words [mūthos]: [55] “Have courage, you radiant man, reached by a force that works from far away. You have achieved beauty and pleasure [kharizesthai] for my heart [thūmos]. ₅₆ I am Dionysus, the one with the great thundering sound. The mother who bore me ₅₇ was Semele, daughter of Kadmos, and Zeus made love to her.”₅₈ Hail and take pleasure [khaire], [O Dionysus,] child of Semele with the beautiful looks. There is no way ₅₉ I could have my mind disconnect from you as I put together the beautiful cosmic order [kosmeîn] of my song.

A Tale of Two heavens

You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe. – Carl Sagan

The power of suggestion is strong. Modern Christians believe there are two heavens: the one seen by naked eyes, and the unseen supernatural heaven of the Bible. As a matter of record, heaven is mentioned 470 times in the Bible, including 123 times in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, the Bible refers to one heaven, the same heaven seen by naked eyes. The first part of this article will bring to focus for glazed eyes the natural heaven seen by the Bible’s writers.

So then where and when did the idea of a supernatural heaven come from? Prior to the 17th century, the world view held that man was surrounded by invisible spiritual powers which influenced his life and work. As explained in Elements of Creation, those spirits were believed to be embodied in the wind. It was the source of life.

7then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Gen. 2:7)

The great shift in meaning was motivated by Galileo’s publication of his evidence for a heliocentric planetary system. It had the effect if displacing God from the natural universe and forcing Christian thinkers to reinvent their conceptions of God as a being operating outside of nature.

Just so we are clear on our definitions, “supernatural” means not natural. It does not mean better than natural. That idea may have come from the Superman comic series. Belief in the supernatural shares a family relationship with magic, myth, fiction and even psychosis.

The biblical case for a visible heaven

The idea of an unseen supernatural heaven was far too abstract for ancients. There was the great sky above them peering down with it’s multitude of lights day and night. How could they ignore it? It makes no sense that they could overlook something so vast and mysterious! To make sense out of it, they looked to the sky for omens. Astrology permeated the kingdoms of Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, Arabia, Greece, Rome and even China. Hebrews and early Christians could not have ignored it. To make that point, here are some examples from Genesis and Revelation.

Belief in a firmament implied a sky surrounded by a shell. That shell was believed to be formed by the arc by which heavenly bodies traveled from east to west.

6And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”
7And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so.
8And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. (Gen. 1:6-8)

The greater light-the sun- ruled the day and the lesser light-the moon-ruled the night.

16And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also.
17And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth,
18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. (Gen. 1:16-17)

Abraham believed that the number of stars foretold the number of his descendents.

3And Abram said, “Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.”
4And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.”
5And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”
6And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. (Gen. 15:3-6)

17I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, (Gen. 22:17)

Joseph in a dream, believed that the sun, the moon and the eleven (later twelve) stars were bowing down to him.

9Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” (Gen. 37:9)

“Clouds” defines the Milky Way.

7Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, every one who pierced him; and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. (Rev. 1:5)

A star falls from heaven? In modern parlance, we say stars descend.

10The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. (Rev. 8:10)

These verses describe the twelve constellations of the zodiac, and Virgo with the small constellation Coma Berenices next to it. Translation: the portent appears when the full moon is in Virgo.

1And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars;
2she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. (Rev. 12:1)

New Testament astrology

The most significant evidence of New Testament astrology is the story of the wise men and the star of Bethlehem. The implication is that the birth of Jesus was foretold by the stars. The wise men of the east were astrologers. Chaldean oracles were highly regarded in the first century.

1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying,
2″Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.” (Matt. 2:1-2)

Luke tells it different, but the implication is the same as Matthew. Angels implies angels, explained in further detail below.

15When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
16And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. (Luke 2:16-16)

High in heaven

The Christian Bible infers belief in astrology in allegorical form. This is what is meant by Christianity being a revealed religion; the stars visually reveal their messages. As we shall see, Jesus believed in astrology.

A voice from heaven

16And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him;
17and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:16-17)

Jesus warns that heaven and earth will pass away. He could not have been more wrong.

18For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. (Matt. 5:18)

Heaven was up in the sky and Hades was below earth.

23And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You shall be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. (Matt. 11:23)

“Wise” referred to pagan astrologers. The signs were revealed to Christian “babes.”

25At that time Jesus declared, “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; (Matt. 11:25)

The loaves refer to Virgo, the house of bread, and the two fish refer to Pisces.

19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. (Matt. 14:19)

Jesus is asked to show them signs from heaven. No sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. The sign refers to coming Age of Aquarius. (See Armageddon)

1And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
2He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather; for the sky is red.’
3And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
4An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” (Matt. 16:1-4)

Jesus expects events in heaven to parallel events on earth.

18Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
19Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (Matt. 18:18-19)

Son of man in heaven

More heavenly signs according to Jesus (See Son of Man, Orion and clouds of heaven)

29″Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
30then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory;
31and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. (Matt. 24:29-31)

The angles (stars) come with stars of Orion.

31″When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. (Matt. 25:31)

Angels in heaven

Angels were God’s messengers. The word is both a pun and a personification for angles, as in the angles of the stars. We see here the roots for modern horoscope astrology.

Angels are in heaven

30For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Matt. 22:30)

The Son of man will send his angels, meaning when the stars have certain angles.

39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels.
40Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.
41The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, (Matt. 13:39-41)

Again, the position of Orion foretells of an omen.

27For the Son of man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay every man for what he has done. (Matt. 16:27)

The angels behold the face of my Father in heaven, which is an indirect way of referring to signs.

10″See that you do not despise one of these little ones; for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 18:10)

Angels in heaven

30For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (Matt. 22:30)

There will be no signs from heaven.

36″But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. (Matt. 24:36)

My Father will send twelve legions of angels. Twelve refers to the twelve zodiac constellations.

53Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? (Matt. 26:53)

Jesus believed heaven had ends. That perception came from the trajectory of the stars above the horizon.

27And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. (Mark 13:27)

You will see heaven open and angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. The verse refers to the motion of Orion and the stars.

51And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.” (John 1:51)

Kingdom of heaven

This collection refers to God’s kingdom of heaven See Jesus’ Second Coming.

The sun is at its highest above the horizon during the summer solstice.

17From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 4:17)

10Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:10)

Heaven moves from east to west.

11I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, (Matt. 8:11)

The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence. How could that happen if it was a supernatural heaven?

11Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has risen no one greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
12From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and men of violence take it by force. (Matt. 11:11-12)

11And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. (Matt. 13:11)

What is revealed is from heaven.

17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon BarJona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.
19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt. 16:17-19)

Unless you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. The belief is that one’s spirit rises like the wind to heaven.

1At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them,
3and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
4Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:1-4)

Father in heaven

“Father in heaven” was the unseen wind force that controlled the movement of the stars.

1″Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 6:1)

11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matt. 7:11)

21″Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 7:21)

32So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven;
33but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 10:32-33)

50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother. (Matt. 12:50)

Paul
Paul too was a believer in omens from heaven. In this passage, he was waiting for his spirit to be swept up into the highway of heaven, the Milky Way. He imagines that the spirits of the dead are still floating around in the air somewhere.

14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
15For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first;
17then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4:14-17)

Supernatural

According to the Revised Standard Version, the only time “supernatural” is used is by Paul in 1 Corinthians. Yet according to Strong’s Dictionary, the word translates to pneumatikos in Greek, meaning “spiritual.” “Pneumatics” comes from the same Greek root.

1I want you to know, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
2and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
3and all ate the same supernatural food
4and all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. (1 Cor. 10:1-4)

The NIV as well as the King James use “spiritual.”

1For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
2They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
3They all ate the same spiritual food
4and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. (1 Cor. 10:1-4 NIV)

As explained in more detail in The Elements of Creation, air was the spiritual force. Ancients believed everything was composed of water, fire, air and earth.

The Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution forced God and his angels out of the natural universe.

Up to the time of Galileo (1564-1642), the worldview of the heavens was based on the Bible, Ptolemy and Aristotle. Inherent in all three was the view that:

Earth was the unmoved center of the universe.
The moon, sun, planets and stars orbited in perfect circles, because the sphere was the most perfect shape.
The outermost sphere was inhabited by God himself.
The closer one got to God’s realm, the more perfect the sphere.
These verses represent a sampling of biblical cosmology.

1.Yea, the world is established; it shall never be moved; (Psalms 93:1)

13And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. (Josh 10:13)

22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; (Isa. 40:22)

It was Copernicus (1473-1543) who is credited for first making the suggestion in 1543 that the sun was at the center of the solar system. Galileo was the first major astronomer to use the newly invented telescope to view the heavens. From his observations, he questioned the old Aristotelian assumptions about the motion of heavenly and earthly bodies. The Protestant Kepler refined the Copernican system of planetary circular obit to elliptical orbit. By the time Newton published (1687) the mathematical laws of motion, the Scientific Revolution had been born. None of these men were atheists. Rather, instead of starting out by assuming God as a first principle, they followed the path of their studies by applying inductive methods without preconceived assumptions.

The story of Galileo’s conflict with the Church is well documented. In 1632, Galileo published his findings in Dialogues on the Two Chief Systems of the World. Within a year, Church authorities threatened Galileo. But as with Luther a century earlier, the printing press spread his ideas among university scholars, especially in the Protestant Countries. From here, I’ll touch on some points in A History of God by Karen Armstrong.

The Catholic Church did not condemn the heliocentric theory because it endangered belief in God the Creator, but because it contradicted scripture. The problem that lay before them is how to reconcile with the Bible. If earth was just another planet revolving around the sun, where does that put Heaven and Hell? Hell, for example, was widely believed to be located at the center of earth where Dante put it.

What Armstrong describes of the changes in 17th century theological thinking with regards to Galileo, I’ve noticed the same process taking place with regards to Darwin. The first stage is fierce resistance. Once it sinks in that resistance is futile, the next stage is to fold the new paradigm into the God spectrum. No matter what becomes scientifically tenable, they can always say it was designed by God. Even the science of reason was seen as an improved way of understanding God.

To continue, she says that instead of seeing God as a symbol of reality, it was increasingly assumed that God was simply a fact of life like any other. Christian apologists gravitated to the rationalistic approach of Leonard Lessius (1551-1623). He argued that the existence of God can be demonstrated scientifically like any of the other facts of life-the design of the universe could not have happened by chance. Even some of the great scientific minds like Pascal, Descartes and Newton went to great lengths to reconcile God with science.

Christianity was never at risk. Despite the profound contradictions and non-conformities with current knowledge, when the will to believe is strong, people will find a way to reconcile and compartmentalize those incompatibilities. Astrology and the belief in a visible heaven are deeply embedded in biblical scripture for those with the will to see what is so apparently evident.

Appendix
Papal Condemnation of Galileo June 22, 1633

Whereas you, Galileo, son of the late Vaincenzo Galilei, Florentine, aged seventy years, were in the year 1615 denounced to this Holy Office for holding as true the false doctrine taught by some that the Sun is the center of the world and immovable and that the Earth moves, and also with a diurnal motion; for having disciples to whom you taught the same doctrine; for holding correspondence with certain mathematicians of Germany concerning the same; for having printed certain letters, entitled “On the Sunspots,” wherein you developed the same doctrine as true; and for replying to the objections from the Holy Scriptures, which from time to time were urged against it, by glossing the said Scriptures according to your own meaning: and whereas there was thereupon produced the copy of a document in the form of a letter, purporting to be written by you to one formerly your disciple, and in this divers propositions are set forth, following the position of Copernicus, which are contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture:

This Holy Tribunal being therefore of intention to proceed against the disorder and mischief thence resulting, which went on increasing to the prejudice of the Holy Faith, by command of His Holiness and of the Most Eminent Lords Cardinals of this supreme and universal Inquisition, the two propositions of the stability of the Sun and the motion of the Earth were by the theological Qualifiers qualified as follows:

The proposition that the Sun is the center of the world and does not move from its place is absurd and false philosophically and formally heretical, because it is expressly contrary to Holy Scripture.

The proposition that the Earth is not the center of the world and immovable but that it moves, and also with a diurnal motion, is equally absurd and false philosophically and theologically considered at least erroneous in faith.

Aristotle defines heaven

First, however, we must explain what we mean by ‘heaven’ and in how many senses we use the word, in order to make clearer the object of our inquiry. (a) In one sense, then, we call ‘heaven’ the substance of the extreme circumference of the whole, or that natural body whose place is at the extreme circumference. We recognize habitually a special right to the name ‘heaven’ in the extremity or upper region, which we take to be the seat of all that is divine. (b) In another sense, we use this name for the body continuous with the extreme circumference which contains the moon, the sun, and some of the stars; these we say are ‘in the heaven’. (c) In yet another sense we give the name to all body included within extreme circumference, since we habitually call the whole or totality ‘the heaven’. The word, then, is used in three senses…

It is therefore evident that there is also no place or void or time outside the heaven.

End

One of the arguments frequently advanced for the existence of god, or at least for a positive cause influencing human affairs, is the belief that to be moral, we had to inherit or learn from God the morality that separates us from the cruelties of nature, observed by many as being different than man’s morality. Whereas the law of nature has the strongest and cruelest ruling over all others, and all other things eat one another, only man seems to be the exception to this rule as he has the capacity to ponder the morality of decisions and ask whether it is justifiable that the strong and the cruel should dominate the weak and the powerless. to teach himself and others of his kind to not be cruel and to cause suffering.

It is not in nature, they say, that man should have emerged with this reasoning. It cannot be from nature that we have learned a moral code that does not exist in nature, except in us, and if we are only products of nature, we could have not learned something that we inherently today believe is proper moral conduct – to treat others as one would wish to be treated, and therefore, that such orientation toward the world must be somehow supernatural.

I used to subscribe to this view beyond simply the outlines of the argument that I highlight above. Anyone reading Homer can quickly recognize the moral code that emerges from the text: the heroes are all brave, wise, beautiful, place honour before all other qualities, and are ready to die for that honour code; there is no proscription against an inherent immorality of looting cities, taking slaves, or stealing that which belongs to someone else.

No, Homer’s is very much the moral code of the Bronze Age, where a Greek hero who sacked cities and collected the most booty reveled in his material wealth stolen through theft and pillage, and the more “enemies” he had killed, the greater the hero he was.

The cowards and the immoral were the men who questioned the heroic pursuits. Famously, Thersites, in the Iliad, a man who by today’s moral code, advocated for the prudent course of action, is characterized as ugly and deformed, his outer features a window on his inner character, cursed by the gods to broadcast to all what a wicked creature he was inside by his outer appearance:

The rest now took their seats and kept to their own several places, but Thersites still went on wagging his unbridled tongue – a man of many words, and those unseemly; a monger of sedition, a railer against all who were in authority [kosmos], who cared not what he said, so that he might set the Achaeans in a laugh.

He was the ugliest man of all those that came before Troy – bandy-legged, lame of one foot, with his two shoulders rounded and hunched over his chest. His head ran up to a point, but there was little hair on the top of it.
Achilles and Odysseus hated him worst of all, for it was with them that he was most wont to wrangle; now, however, with a shrill squeaky voice he began heaping his abuse on Agamemnon. The Achaeans were angry and disgusted, yet none the less he kept on brawling and bawling at the son of Atreus. “Agamemnon,” he cried, “what ails you now, and what more do you want? Your tents are filled with bronze and with fair women, for whenever we take a town we give you the pick of them. Would you have yet more gold, which some Trojan is to give you as a ransom for his son, when I or another Achaean has taken him prisoner? Or is it some young girl to hide and lie with? It is not well that you, the ruler of the Achaeans, should bring them into such misery.

Weakling cowards, women rather than men, let us sail home, and leave this man here at Troy to stew in his own prizes of honor, and discover whether we were of any service to him or no. Achilles is a much better man than he is, and see how he has treated him – robbing him of his prize and keeping it himself. Achilles takes it meekly and shows no fight; if he did, son of Atreus, you would never again insult him.”

Thus railed Thersites, but Odysseus at once went up to him and rebuked him sternly. “Check your glib tongue, Thersites,” said be, “and babble not a word further. Chide not with princes when you have none to back you. There is no viler creature come before Troy with the sons of Atreus.
Drop this chatter about kings, and neither revile them nor keep harping about homecoming [nostos]. We do not yet know how things are going to be, nor whether the Achaeans are to return with good success or evil. How dare you gibe at Agamemnon because the Danaans have awarded him so many prizes?

I tell you, therefore – and it shall surely be – that if I again catch you talking such nonsense, I will either forfeit my own head and be no more called father of Telemakhos, or I will take you, strip away from you all respect [aidôs], and whip you out of the assembly till you go blubbering back to the ships.”

On this he beat him with his staff about the back and shoulders till Thersites dropped and fell weeping. The golden scepter raised a bloody weal on his back, so he sat down frightened and in pain, looking foolish as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

The people were sorry for him, yet they laughed heartily, and one would turn to his neighbor saying, “Odysseus has done many a good thing ere now in fight and council, but he never did the Argives a better turn than when he stopped this man’s mouth from prating further. He will give the kings no more of his insolence.” Thus said the multitude.

Homer. The Iliad of Homer. Rendered into English prose for the use of those who cannot read the original. Samuel Butler. Longmans, Green and Co. 39 Paternoster Row, London. New York and Bombay. 1898, ch. II: 240-280.

It is not difficult, then, in the context of Christianity, to believe that “turn the other cheek” is an incredible moral departure from social norms that viewed selflessness as selfishness, theft as earned reward, and murder as heroic necessity. Make no mistake, theft of Hellen is a pretext for the war – the real reason is quest for riches through robbery.

So, to emerge from a culture of cruelty and pillaging, into a culture that adopts Christian values is, seemingly, somewhat odd, and one can see how – given the above characterization – a person would see their Judeo-Christian morality as somehow inspired by god.

The only problem: it’s not god, but Stoicism.

Rather than to respond to the sort of gross gut-feeling I certainly feel when I read about the treatment of Theristes, how they bullied him for doing nothing more than advocating from a place of justice for all those people who are about to suffer, something Socrates would also pay a price for, I leave you with only a few lines from Marcus Aurelius’ “The Meditations,” a masterful work of Stoic philosophy from the mid-2nd c. CE. This is from the first part of the book in which Aurelius goes through a list of many people who inspired him, taught him and cared for him, as a sort of final opus of life thanks to many other people, whom he hoped to memorialize as the forces who shaped his character and personhood, and to whom he was grateful.

From Diognetus, I learned not to waste time on [religious] nonsense. Not to be taken in by conjurors and hoodoo artists with their talk about incantations and exorcism and all the rest of it. Not to be obsessed with quail-fighting, sports or other crazes like that. To hear unwelcome truths. To practice philosophy, and to study with Baccheius, and then with Tandasis and Marcianus. To write dialogues as a student [ie to be brave and do it now, rather than wait.] To choose the Greek lifestyle— the camp-bed and the cloak [to be simple in how I sleep and dress].

From RUSTICUS, I learned, the recognition that I needed to train and discipline my character.

Not to be sidetracked by my interest in rhetoric. Not to write treatises on abstract questions, or deliver moralizing little sermons, or compose imaginary descriptions of The Simple Life or The Man Who Lives Only for Others. To steer clear of oratory, poetry and belles lettres [just to impress others].

Not to dress up just to stroll around the house, or things like that. To write straightforward letters (like the one he sent my mother from Sinuessa). And to behave in a conciliatory way when people who have angered or annoyed us want to make up, forgiving, as I would want to be forgiven.

To read attentively—not to be satisfied with “just getting the gist of it,” but to probe deeper. To see through praise and flattery, and not to fall for every smooth talker.

And for introducing me to Epictetus’s lectures—and loaning me his own copy, and that nothing given should not be passed on, returning the same generosity to others and was shown to us when we needed it.

From Apollonius I learned independence, self sufficiency and unvarying reliability, and to pay attention to nothing, no matter how tempting to wonder off in pursuit of, except the logos [reason], for it is the only path that doesn’t colour perceptions.

And to be the same in all circumstances—intense pain, the loss of a child, chronic illness. And to see clearly, from his example, that a man can show both strength and effection through integrity.

His patience in teaching. And to have seen someone who clearly viewed his expertise and ability as a teacher as the humblest of virtues.

And to have learned how to accept favors from friends without losing your self-respect or appearing ungrateful.

From Sextus I learned kindness.

An example of fatherly authority in the home. What it means to live as nature requires. How to be serious and have gravity, without being immovable.

To show intuitive sympathy for friends, tolerance to amateurs and those who err or offend. His ability to get along with everyone: sharing his company was the highest of compliments, and the opportunity an honor for those around him.

To investigate and analyze, with understanding and logic, the principles we ought to live by. Not to display anger or other emotions. To be free of passion and yet full of love.

To praise without bombast; to display expertise without pretension.

From Alexander the grammarian, I learned not to be constantly correcting people, and in particular not to jump on them whenever they make an error of usage or a grammatical mistake or mispronounce something, but just answer their question or add another example, or debate the issue itself (not their phrasing) [ie engage the issue, not the person], or make some other contribution to the discussion—and insert the right expression, unobtrusively, for caring about people requires correcting them gently.

From Fronto, I learned to recognize the malice, cunning, and hypocrisy that power produces, and the peculiar ruthlessness often shown by people from so-called patrician families, who far too often display everything but fatherly (patrician) love.

From Alexander the Platonist, I learned not to be constantly telling people (or writing them) that I’m too busy, unless I really am. Similarly, not to be always ducking my responsibilities to the people around me because of “pressing business.” People are our pressing business and we must make time for others, even those we would rather not see.

From CATULUS I learned not to shrug off a friend’s resentment—even unjustified resentment—but try to put things right, because friendships are not worth losing, we have so few friends, but we often discover this too late.

To show your teachers ungrudging respect (the Domitius and Athenodotus story), and your children unfeigned and unconditional love.

From my brother Severus, I learned to love my family, truth and justice. It was through him that I encountered Thrasea, Helvidius, Cato, Dion and Brutus, and conceived of a society of equal laws, governed by equality of status and of speech, and of rulers who respect the liberty of their subjects above all else.

And from him as well, to be steady and consistent in valuing philosophy.

And to help others and be eager to share, not to be a pessimist, and never to doubt your friends’ affection for you. We have so few friends in life, and learn this lesson often too late.