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“The Spirit and the Bride say: COME!”

Revelation 22:17

With the advent of Christ, devotion to the Goddess, or the Eternal Feminine, became more subtle and more mystical. What was adored was a spiritual principle which was internal, and whose awakening was awaited. The Goddess was associated with the concept of inner grace and spiritual joy. The early Christians identified the Holy Spirit with the Mother Goddess.

The Acts of Thomas and other Apocryphal Writings The Acts of Thomas retrace the life of the apostle Thomas, particularly his departure for India. Thomas is described in it as administering baptism and invoking the Holy Spirit, which he calls the “Mother of the seven houses” - an allegory for the seven chakras. After annointing his disciple, Thomas says:

“Come, holy name of the Messiah, Come power of grace,

Come perfect mercy, Come exalted gift,

Come revealer of hidden mysteries, Come Mother of the seven houses Whose rest is in the eighth house, Come Messenger of reconciliation....

Come Spirit of holiness And purify their reins and hearts.”⁴

This prayer invokes an essentially maternal power, with terms like “Mother”, “mercy” and “power of grace”. It is a purifying power, which confers reconciliation, reminding us of John's Gospel, where Christ tells his apostles: “I shall send you the Comforter.”⁵ The translation of the corresponding passage in the Acts of Thomas into Greek, is even more enlightening. Here the Mother is invoked in her cosmic and universal dimension through the use of the expression “Power of the Most High”, which corresponds exactly to the description of Adi Shakti, the primordial, cosmic power of the Indian tradition:

“Come thou Power of the Most High And the compassion that is perfect,

Come gift of the Most High, Come compassionate Mother,

Come, you who revealeth the hidden mysteries, Come, Mother of the seven houses.”⁶

At another point in the text, the Holy Spirit is clearly identified as the hidden power of the Father, which is the Mother:

“Come Holy Spirit, Come thou that giveth joy.

Power of the Father, Come hidden Mother.”⁷

For Aphrahat,⁸ the Persian sage of the fourth century A.D., these two aspects of God, the Father and the Holy Spirit as Mother, are venerated on equal terms: “Before a man takes a woman for his wife, he loves his Father and the Holy Spirit his Mother, and has no other love.”⁹ Baptism is described as the Mother opening the heavens and pouring water over the chosen. It is added that: “She (the Mother) places herself above those who are baptised,”¹⁰ an image which perfectly expresses the experience which is called the “awakening of Kundalini” when she settles above the head, i.e. above the last chakra known as the Sahasrara.

In his homilies, Macarius the Egyptian also recognises the maternal aspect of the Divine: “After the Fall, men will not turn any more towards the truth, the heavenly Father and the Mother of goodness, the grace of the Spirit...” He calls the Christians,

“those who are children of the Holy Spirit” and adds that for them, “the Grace of the Spirit, the Mother of the saints, rejoices.”¹¹

In the Odes of Solomon - writings discovered at the beginning of the century which, like the Acts of Thomas, are written in Syriac - the Holy Spirit is also identified with the Mother. She reigns over the Pantheon, since it is she who gives the divine nourishing milk to the Father and to all generations. The milk symbolises the purifying energy, for it is said: “Those who have received it are in the perfection of the right hand.”¹² Another Ode in the collection also refers to the feminine power of God, the Holy Spirit, who raises the soul to the Most High, God the Father:

“I rested in the Spirit of the Lord And She lifted me up to heaven And caused me to stand on my feet

In the Lord's high place Before His perfection and His Glory.”¹³

The dove of baptism, symbolising the Holy Spirit, is a metaphorical image for the Mother, and, as we have seen, it goes back to the earliest symbols used in the worship of the Goddess, thirty thousand years ago. The following passage from the Odes shows the unity between Christ and the Holy Spirit:

“The dove fluttered over the head Of the Lord Messiah, Because he was her head -

And she sang over Him And her voice was heard.”¹⁴

The dove is the Kundalini raised to the pinnacle of the last chakra, the Sahasrara. This ode depicts Christ as the instrument through which the Mother makes her voice heard.

The Gospel of the Hebrews

The Gospel of the Hebrews has now been lost, except for fragments transcribed by Origen and St. Jerome. St. Jerome discovered this Aramaic manuscript at Antioch and he considered it to be the primitive version of Matthew's Gospel. The fragments of this earlier gospel are very interesting since they identify the Holy Spirit with the Mother of Christ:

“It came to pass, when the Lord arose from the water,

That the entire source of the Holy Spirit descended and, resting herself on him,

She said to him: “My son after all the prophets, I have waited for your coming, you are my son,

My first-born, who reigns for eternity.”¹⁵

“My Mother, who is the Holy Spirit, Lifted me by one of my hairs

And she carried me onto the high mountain of Thabor.”¹⁶

The second passage is quoted twice by Origen and three times by St. Jerome, which eliminates any possibility of an erroneous interpretation of the text, or a transcription error.

These apocryphal manuscripts, which experts do not consider to be of Gnostic inspiration, reveal that early Christians recognised the maternal power of God the Mother, alongside the Father, and that they associated this power with the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel of the Essenes

This Aramaic manuscript was discovered by Edward Bordeaux-Szekely in the Vatican archives at the beginning of the century.

The preface to the French edition tells us that another version, written in Slavonic, is held in the Royal library of the Habsburgs.

There is no proof of the authenticity of this document. But then there is no proof for any documents contemporary with Christ, including the canonical writings (which, as we shall see, are most inauthentic, having been reshaped according to the Pauline doctrine). Only the Vatican can either confirm or disprove authenticity by allowing specialists access to its archives.

Continual refusal to do so merely confirms the suspicions of many that the Church has a lot to hide.

The Mother is present in the Essene Gospel under the mysterious name “Earthly Mother”, which could suggest that this writing is dedicated to Mother Earth. The truth, however, is quite different, for Mother Earth is mentioned elsewhere in the text¹⁷ in another context. A more careful interpretation of the gospel shows that the “Earthly Mother” is within, having an “earthly” dwelling on an inner earth.

“I will place you in the Kingdom of Angels of your Earthly Mother, Where the power of Satan cannot penetrate.”

Very surprised, they asked,

“Where is our Mother and where are her angels?

Where can we find her Kingdom?”

“Your Mother is within you, and you are within her.

It is She who has given you birth and given you life.”¹⁸

What then is this Mother and this earth which dwell within us?

The spiritual traditions of India reveal that the chakra of mooladhara, (literally support, dhara, of the root, moola) is the base on which the sacrum rests, and is the guardian of the sacrum.

It corresponds to the earth element. The Earthly Mother in the gospel, therefore, corresponds to the Kundalini of the Indian scriptures. This becomes clearer when the gospel goes on to specify the purifying power of the Earthly Mother, describing her

as the sole way to the Father (that is the Spirit) and the sole way to achieving Union, Yoga:

“I tell you this in truth

That he who lives in harmony with Her Will never know sickness, For the power of your Mother is infinite,

It reigns over your body Like that of all living beings,

And by it Satan and his kingdom are laid waste.”¹⁹

“Nobody can reach the Heavenly Father If he has not crossed by the Earthly Mother.” ²⁰

The gospel reveals other aspects of the Mother, notably her creative powers, which are similar to those of Adi Shakti in India:

“Mother Earth, your love has filled us, Your beauty delighted us, We cannot live far from you

Nor search the endlessly renewed mysteries Of your creation.”²¹

And Christ places the Mother at the summit of veneration.

“Observe also Her laws, For nobody can live long Or happily without honouring Her.”²²