In the early nineteenth Century American flags were seldom seen in public buildings such as schools. Daniel Ford and James Upham, his nephew, owned Youth's Companion>, a national family magazine for youth published in Boston. In 1888, the magazine began a campaign to sell American flags to the public schools. In 1891, Upham had the idea of using the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' discovery of America to promote the use of the flag in the public schools.

In 1892, Ford’s friend Baptist minister, Nationalist, and Christian Socialist leader Francis Bellamy was hired by Youth's Companion and created the Pledge of Allegiance. Bellamy’s first cousin was Edward Bellamy who in 1888 published Looking Backwards a futuristic novel describing utopian Boston in the year 2000. The book spawned an elitist socialist movement in Boston known as "Nationalism," whose members wanted the federal government to nationalize most of the American economy. Both Bellamys wanted the government to take over all schools and create an “industrial army” of totalitarian socialism as described in the book. Francis Bellamy was a member of this movement and a vice president of its auxiliary group, the Society of Christian Socialists. By 1892, Youth's Companion had sold American flags to about 26 thousands schools.

Edward Bellamy’s best-selling book was translated into 20 different languages, including Russian, German, Italian, and Chinese. It was popular among the elite in pre-revolutionary Russia, and Lenin’s wife was known to have read the book, because she wrote a review of it. John Dewey and the historian Charles Beard intended to praise the book when they stated that it was equaled in influence only by Das Kapital (1867).

By February 1892, Francis Bellamy and Upham had convinced the National Education Association to support the Youth's Companion as a sponsor of the national public schools' observance of Columbus Day along with the use of the American flag. By June 29, Bellamy and Upham had arranged for Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a national proclamation making the public school flag ceremony the center of the national Columbus Day celebrations for 1892. Bellamy, under the supervision of Upham, wrote the program for thiscelebration, including its flag salute, the Pledge of Allegiance. The original Pledge was recited while giving a stiff, uplifted right hand salute, the old Roman "ad locutio" gesture, a symbol for swearing an oath by Jupiter.

It was with this function that the so-called Bellamy salute was adopted in the United States in 1892 as part of the Pledge of Allegiance. This required that participants should initially bend their right arm with the hand held against the forehead, as in a conventional military salute. The arm should then be "extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the flag." This was based on the American military hand salute. During the Middle Ages knights in armor raised visors with the right hand when meeting a comrade. This practice gradually became a way of showing respect and, in early American history, sometimes involved removing the hat. By 1820, the motion was modified to touching the hat, and since then it has become the Hand Salute used today. Francis Bellamy liked the military salute because Bellamy's cousin Edward Bellamy was the originator of "military socialism" as a political philosophy, and Francis was Edward's biggest fan and cohort. The Bellamy salute combined the military salute as a symbol of respect with the Roman "ad locutio" gesture, a symbol for swearing an oath by Jupiter.

Soon the gesture became synonymies with nationalists and socialists movements. Similar gestures were adopted elsewhere in the late-19th century among both nationalist and socialist movements. These movements adopted the gesture because of its alleged association with the Roman Empire and the implied oath of loyalty that accompanied the history of the gesture.

By the end of the 19th century, the gesture was recognized as a symbol of communal acclamation, appropriate as a sign of allegiance to be used in several mass movements. A version was adopted as the Olympic salute. The Olympic salute is a variant of the Roman salute: the right arm and hand are stretched and pointing upward, the palm is outward/downward and the arm is aiming high. The greeting is visible on the official posters of the games at Paris 1924 and Berlin 1936.

Germans saw the straight-armed nationalist salute being used in Americas racist and segregated government schools as an example to be followed throughout the First World War and for the thirty years before Nazism and World War II. Bellamy’s flag salute inspired a number of films about ancient Rome, such as Ben Hur (1907), Nerone (1908), Spartaco (1914) and Cabiria (1914) to portray the gesture as a Roman salute. These films, the pledge of allegiance, and well established national socialist movements in America featured exactly for what German socialists were searching. The National Socialist German Workers' Party was also inspired by German-Americans who were already national socialists in America. and who joined the German-American Bund movement to support national socialists in Germany before World War II. One of the first groups to adopt the salute outside the United States of America was the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party).

Research by Augustin Thierry into the rituals of Gallic and Germanic tribes led to the claim that gestures such as the "ad locutio" were associated with ancient Aryan peoples for whom monarchy was said to be defined more by charismatic prowess than simple inheritance. Nordic ideology, which was later embraced by the Nazis, claimed that the leading classes of ancient Greek and Roman culture had originated among Germanic peoples, who had migrated south. In consequence it was argued that the gesture was Nordic in origin, expressive of the free acclamation of a leader. This gave a justification for the Nazis to uses the salute. In the German version of the salute the arm was raised smartly to the front, at right angles to the chest with the palm turned downwards.

The Italian nationalist writer and adventurer Gabriele D'Annunzio, who had scripted Cabiria, appropriated the salute with a neo-Imperial meaning when he occupied Rijeka in 1919. The Italian fascist party later adopted the gesture to symbolize their claim to have revitalized Italy on the model of ancient Rome. In the Italian version the arm was typically raised quite high above the shoulder with the palm bent outwards, in a rhetorical manner similar to Roman imperial statuary. The Italians copied use of the gesture from the German Socialists, who in turn had borrowed it from Bellamy’s flag salute of 1892. Under Fascist rule, these salutes were also in use by the general population in Germany and Italy. Achille Starace, the Italian Fascist Party secretary, pushed for measures to make the use of the Roman salute generally compulsory, denouncing hand shaking as effete and foreign.

In late 1937, Mussolini visited Germany and pledged himself to support the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. In 1938, he introduced his ‘reform of customs.’” Hand-shaking was suddenly banned as unhygienic: a salute was to be used instead - the right forearm raised vertically. He imposed a new march on the Italian Army which was simply the goose-step of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. According to the book “A Concise History of Italy” by Christopher Duggan, these reforms were introduced mainly to underline ideological kinship with the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and to impress it’s leader. Clearly Mussolini and the Italian Socialists were imitating the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, who had copied American ideas. Claims that the Germans imitated the Italians are historically unfounded.

Similarities between the Bellamy Salute and those used by oppressive fascists governments during World War II cased caused President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem in the United States, instead of the Bellamy salute. This was done when Congress officially adopted the Flag Code on 22 June 1942. After World War II, the Olympics banned the salute because of Nazi-reference, although no official statement on this is known.

Fasces Symbol of the Mother Goddess:

The word "fasces" originates from the Latin word fascis, meaning "bundle." The traditional Roman fasces consisted of a bundle of white birch rods, tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder, and including a bronze axe amongst the rods, with the blade on the side. First one should note the use of birch wood in the fasces. Northern Europeans ascribed magical properties to the birch tree and used it in making brooms to sweep evil away. The Maypole of pagan rites was always a birch tree. In Celtic traditions red ribbon was used as protection from harmful magic. The binding action of the ribbon symbolizes solidarity. The fasces symbolize summary power and jurisdiction, and/or "strength through unity." In the counterfeit satanic government systems such as fascism unity is achieved by force. Alternately the rods represent the authority to punish citizens, the axe represents the authority to execute them and the ribbons represent the restraint of that authority. In contrast Romans 13:1 states, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. "

A special class of Roman Civil servants became known as the lictor, derived from the Latin "ligare" (to bind). The lector attended to and guarded magistrates of the Roman Republic and Empire who held imperium. They essentially functioned as a bodyguard. The origin of the tradition of lictors goes back to the time when Rome was a kingdom, perhaps acquired from their Etruscan neighbours. The fasces lictoriae ("bundles of the lictors") symbolized power and authority (imperium) in ancient Rome. The lictors each carried fasces as a sort of staff of office before a magistrate, in a number corresponding to his rank, in public ceremonies and inspections. Bearers of fasces preceded praetors, propraetors, consuls, proconsuls, Masters of the Horse, dictators, and Caesars. During triumphs (public celebrations held in Rome after a military conquest) heroic soldiers—those who had suffered injury in battle—carried fasces in procession. Roman historians recalled that twelve lictors had ceremoniously accompanied the Etruscan kings of Rome in the distant past. The twelve lectors plus the Etruscan king formed a party of thirteen. It is common knowledge in the occult that a coven of witches has thirteen members. Thus we see that the fasces stand for unity of the coven and their work.

The bundle of rods bound together symbolizes the strength which a single rod lacks. The axe symbolized the state's power and authority. The ribbons binding the rods together symbolized the state's obligation to exercise restraint in the exercising of that power. The highest magistrates would have their lictors unbind the fasces they carried as a warning if approaching the limits of restraint. Unfortunately all too often man is fast to loose restraint and unleash judgment. "And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?" Luke 18:7.

Under normal political circumstances, the imperium-bearing magistrates did not have the judicial power of life and death; within the city, that power rested with the people through the assemblies, so fasces carried within the limits of the sacred inner city of Rome had their axe blades removed. However, during times of emergencies when the Roman Republic declared a dictatorship, lictors attending to the dictator kept the axe-blades. This signified that the dictator had the ultimate power in his own hands.

It has been suggested that since the rods in a bundle are harder to break, or harder for the axe to cut, the fasces symbolizes the message "united we stand." This unified strength reminds us of the unification achieved by Nimrod when he built the rebellious Tower of Babel. Notice the collective pronouns used in Genesis 11:1-4:

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

From this time onward Satan has attempted to unite mankind in rebellion against God. Numerous governments and other authorities have used the image of the fasces as a symbol of power since the end of the Roman Empire. Italian fascism, which derives its name from the fasces, arguably used this symbolism the most in the 20th century. The British Union of Fascists also used it in the 1930s.

The fasces are a common decoration in and on government buildings, especially those built during the Art Deco period when Fascism was popular, even in America. At the Lincoln Memorial the fronts of the chair's arms are shaped to resemble fasces. The U.S. House of Representatives displays the fasces on either side of the American flag and uses fasces as their Mace. Even a statue of George Washington features him resting on the fasces. The U.S Senate uses the fasces on their seal. The Knights of Columbus and the National Guard both use the fasces in their crests. In America the reverse side of the Mercury dime featured the fasces.

The Arch:

The architectural arch has a wide range of public uses, so the arch also has a wide range of symbolic meanings. As well as their use by the state in military ceremonials, arches have also long been incorporated into the symbolic repertoire of a range of brotherhoods and Occult fraternal organizations such as the Freemasons, trade unions and friendly societies. Masonic and trade union banners and regalia often had an arch as one of the central or dominant symbols. The Holy Royal Arch commonly referred to as a Chapter is an additional degree of Freemasonry. A candidate for Exaltation into a Holy Royal Arch Chapter is required to have been a Master Mason for four weeks or more. In Scotland the candidate must also be a Mark Master Mason, a degree which can be conferred within Chapter if required. Once exalted a candidate becomes a companion. The Royal Arch meetings are described as a convocation. The exact origins of the Holy Royal Arch are unknown except that it dates back to the mid 1700s.

In fraternal organizations, the arch served as a symbol of strength and unity or symbolized the protection of a pagan deity and the fellowship of the brotherhood rather than an expression of martial virtues. Within this frame of meaning of fraternal solidarity and strength through unity, rather than military conquest are being represented. Friendly societies erected floral arches for their parades in the nineteenth century. One can suggest, therefore, that there are two clear but distinct categories of meaning that can be applied to the arch symbol. The triumphal arch is used to honor the victorious military leader, and the arch of brotherhood is used to symbolize unity, equality and protection. Both meanings, of course, can exist simultaneously, and may well do so; an object or symbol, therefore, may convey very differing sentiments to different people. Members of one community may see an arch as a sign of welcome and fraternal solidarity, while those of another may see it as a threat or as a sign of intimidation. In many ways the arch is similar in its meaning to the Roman Fasces.

Throughout history arches have plaid an important part in architecture that can be traced back to the Ishtar gate in ancient Babylon, the classical Roman Arch, and the pointed Gothic Arch. One of the most famous modern day architectural arches is the St. Louis Gateway Arch, which was built to symbolize the Royal Arch Degree of Freemasonry.

The Arch is also sometimes represented as a rainbow. For example, the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of the York Rite depicts the arch as rainbow. In Genesis 9:13 God established the rainbow as a sign of His covenant never to destroy the world with a flood again. The New Age Movement has taken the rainbow and adopted it as their own symbol. The rainbow symbolizes the bridge between man and the Great Universal Mind, in the final analysis, Lucifer. Indeed, it is remarkable how frequent the sign of the rainbow has become lately. New Agers will occasionally reverse the colors in a rainbow from their natural order. Reversing images and objects is a common occult practice. Aleister Crowley and Anton La Vey taught their followers what is knows as the "Law of Reversal", which encourages talking, walking, and thinking backwards, as a form of divination. The rainbow appears on promotional gifts, stationeries, clothing and toys. Mcintosh Computers uses a rainbow within the Apple Computer logo as their logo. The Apple Computer logo is itself an Occultic representation of the forbidden fruit (traditionally depicted as an apple) from which Adam and Eve have taken a bite.

The state of Georgia uses an arch inscribed with the word "CONSTITUTION" in its official state seal. This symbolism represents that the people of Georgia are under the protection of the brotherhood created by the state’s Constitution. Tipton Sports Academy and the 2005 Symposium on Architectures for Networking and Communications Systems use the arch as a part of their logos. Some groups like the Children of Alcoholics Foundation and the Homestead Ministries will take their organizations name and display it as an arch on their corporate logo. Arby’s restaurants has taken the arch and stylized it as an arch. Of course, the most famous arch logo is the one used by McDonald’s restaurants. Originally McDonald’s had just a single golden arch, but soon this was replaced by the M stylized into the famous Golden Arches. For McDonalds the arches signify a shelter under which you can get a refuge. A safe place to have your break and eat. Over the years, the golden arches have become a symbol of capitalism and Americanism. It is interesting to note that when rotated 90 degrees, the logos for Arby’s and McDonalds form the number 13, a number with great significance within the Occult.

The Dove, companion of the Mother Goddess:

A white dove is generally considered a sign for peace. Genesis describes the story Noah released a dove after the Great Flood in order to find land. The dove came back carrying an olive branch in its beak, telling Noah that the Great Flood had receded and there was land once again for Man. (Genesis 8:11). Among some Christiana, the dove is used as a symbol of the Holy Ghost, who appears in that form to Jesus at his baptism (Luke 3:22). Biologically doves and pigeons constitute the same family. The terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the term "dove" and "pigeon." The dove can also represent "hope for peace" and even a peace offering from one man to another, as in the phrase "extend an olive branch". Often, the dove is represented as still in flight to remind the viewer of its role as messenger.

The Egyptians considered the dove extremely pure. In the ancient Syrian temple of Hierapolis, Semiramis is shown with a dove on her head, the prototype of the dove on the head. The Assyrians portrayed Semiramis in the form of a dove, and it was the doves who brought up Semiramis and later changed her into a dove.

According to the Theosophy Dictionary, in the Chaldean version of the Biblical deluge, the dove is a symbol of Venus. Greek mythology also uses the dove as a symbol for Venus. Venus was helped by the nymph Peristera in a flower picking contest with Cupid. When Cupid looses, he retaliates by turning Peristera into a dove, hence the Greek word for a dove or pigeon is peristera. In Rome a dove or pigeon was a legendary spirit, the accompaniment of Venus, the emblem of female procreative energy. The connection of doves and Venus probably originated on Cyprus. According to myth Venus's chariot is drawn by snow-white doves, called the birds of Venus. Venus is said to be followed by a throng of doves. Another legend tells of a girl named Phytia whom the enamored Jove transformed into a dove. In several other nations the dove also symbolizes the soul.

"And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." Luke 3:22 Those who would like to use this verse as a justification to symbolize the Holy Ghost as a dove miss the obvious point of this passage, for the enfaces is not upon the specific form taken by the Holy Ghost, but rather on the actions of the Holy Ghost. In commenting on Luke 3:22 Matthew Henry explains that at this point Jesus receives a greater measure of the Holy Ghost than before to qualify him for the prophetic office of Isaiah 61:1 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound...." When Jesus preaches, it is with the Spirit of the Lord upon him. It has been suggested that the Holy Ghost descends in a bodily form that He might be reviled to be a personal function, and not just a function or moving force of the Godhead. This action makes a proclamation of the trinity at the beginning of the gospel of John. John deals specifically with emphasizing the deity of Jesus. We see the Son being baptized. The Holy Ghost descends upon the Son, and the father declares, "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased." God had a purpose for the Holy Ghost to appear "in a bodily shape like a dove."

In all, the Bible makes about fifty references to doves. Many of these deal with the dove as sacrificial animal. The practice of using doves for sacrifices dates at least to the time of Abraham. "And he said unto him, 'Take me a heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon'" (Genesis 15:9). No doubt many of the Hebrews who observed the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus in the bodily shape like a dove would have recalled what they had learned about doves as burnt offerings dating back to the time of Abraham. The burnt offering, as its name implies, was completely burnt before the Lord. It was a total sacrifice. The burnt offering was a general offering of propitiation and consecration to God. This makes it very fitting that Jesus’ ministry would begin with the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove, for this represented the total sacrifice He would make. It also showed that He would be a propitiation for mankind to God and his consecration to God.

The burnt offerings in the Old Testament were of picture of Jesus. The burnt offering was a male, because male animals were thought to be stronger and therefore more valuable. The animal for a burnt offering must not have any obvious defect. God would not accept a defective sacrifice. We have a tendency to always want to give God “second best” - if not our third or fourth best. Yet this principle shows that God would not receive sacrifice marked by defect. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. The use of doves for Burnt offerings was codified in Leviticus 1:14, "And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons."

For the purification of a woman after the birth of a child, pigeons and doves were prescribed as a sin offering. "And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering" (Leviticus 12:6). A examination of the specifics of the Sin Offering form Leviticus 4 reviles some important observations about the Sin Offering in general (specifics are listed for the Sin Offering for the High Priest, the whole congregation, a leader, or a common citizen. The Sin Offering is an offering for a specific sin. The Sin Offering was an offering for a known sin. The Sin Offering was a sacrifice for those sins which were unintentional. The Sin Offering made a different use of the blood and the body of the animal which was offered. When the dove is considered as the Sin Offering, it makes perfect sense that at this point in Jesus’ ministry the Holy Spirit would appear in the bodily form as a dove.

We also find in the law of the Nazarite, in his separation, that pigeons were delineated for sin and burnt offerings.

10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:
11 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day." Numbers 6:10-11:

The importance of Luke 3:22 is that Jesus had the Holy Spirit descend upon him and that God the father was well pleased with Jesus. While God selected for the Holy Ghost to appear in a bodily form like a dove, this is not the emphasis of this passage. Indeed in Acts 2, the Holy Ghost takes an entirely different form:

2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:2-4).

 

Nowhere in the Bible can one find a command to use the dove as a symbol or picture of the Holy Ghost. Nor can one find any command to use anything else as an image or symbol of God. As a matter of fact, such acts are outright prohibited.

2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me (Exodus 20:2-5).

 

As so often is the case, mankind ignores the commands of God and simply begins to take the course of action they think is right in their own minds. Even before the church had reached its first century of existence, this problem had already began to manifest itself in the church:

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

 

The dove has appeared as a symbol in Christian art work throughout the history. Some denominations show the dove in normal flight or with wings spread as if hovering. Others show an upside down or descending dove, like Trinity Broadcasting Network, the United Church in Canada, Brunswick church of the Nazarene, The New Zealand Methodist Conference, and the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

The Ordo Templi Orientis uses the descending dove in its logo. The O.T.O uses the dove as a symbol form kabbalah. The dove in kabbalah is a symbol for Bat Kol (god’s voice). Bat Kol is calling to consciousness from outside the divine world itself. In this sense the O.T.O refers to the dove as a symbol of a "holy spirit." This however is not the Holy Spirit of the Bible. The Bible commands us, "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1)

Many in the O.T.O. were fans of Theosophy. Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, identified the Holy Spirit as Lucifer in her writings. Freemason Albert Pike wrote, "the body of the Holy Spirit, the universal Agent, [is] the Serpent..." A large number of other occultists echo the same message.

Since the 1960’s the dove was also associated with the peace-hippie movement, as is evident in the logo for the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. Haight Ashbury still serves as a center of the Bohemian lifestyle promoted by hippies during the 1960’s. Later the Occultic activities of areas such as Haight Ashbury mingled with the Jesus Movement. The Jesus People Movement began in 1967 with the opening of a small storefront evangelical mission called the Living Room in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district.

New Agers promote the heretical teachings of the Bogomils and Cathars that Michael came to earth when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, the Holy Ghost, which was Michael appeared as a dove, and Jesus became the Christ. The Cathars revered the dove and became known as the "Faithful of the Dove." The spirit symbolized by the dove assumes the role of an advocate or comforter, much the genuine Holy Spirit of the Bible. Among other heresies the Cathars preached the Gnostic doctrine of self-fulfillment that had so alarmed the fathers of the early church. While the Cathars, or Albigneses used the New Testament as a basis for their ideas, the heretical ideas that they formulated resembled the dualistic and ascetic ideas of the Gnostic and Manichaean movements. The Albigenses believed that there was an absolute dualism between Christ, the good son of God who made the souls of men, and Satan the bad son, who was given a material body after he was cast out of heaven. Following his expulsion, Satan made the visible world. Historically the teachings of the Cathars can be traced to the Manacheans, an ancient Persian Gnostic religion.

Mani was born sometime between 210-276 AD. Mani first encountered religion in his early youth while living with an ascetic group known as the Elkasites, an ancient Jewish-Christian sect. Mani received a revelation in his youth from a spirit whom he later called the Syzygos or Twin, who taught him the divine truths of the religion. Mani was influenced by Mandaeanism. Mandaeism or Mandaeanism is a monotheistic religion with a strongly dualistic worldview. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. They describe Abraham, Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad as false Prophets. Mandaeans consider John the Baptist to be God's most honorable messenger. Like certain other Gnostics, they identify the God of the Bible as evil.

In his mid-twenties, Mani decided that salvation is possible through education, self-denial, vegetarianism, fasting and chastity. Mani later claimed to be the Paraclete promised in the New Testament, the Last Prophet or Seal of the Prophets. Mani presented himself as a saviour and an apostle of Jesus Christ. In the fourth century Manichaean Coptic papyri, Mani was identified with the Paraclete-Holy Ghost and he was regarded as the new Jesus. This false holy ghost is what occultist like the O.T.O. mean when they say that the dove represents the holy ghost.

Mani's "paraclete" is no different than the 'spirit' referred to by many occultists. The history of this heretical teaching traces through various countries including Egypt, Eastern Iran, Palestine, Syria, Northern Arabia, North Africa, Asia Minor, Central Asia, Armenia, Gaul, Spain and Italy. The teachings are also traced into China, there having openly survived at least until the 17th century. In fact, in some areas "...only from the 6th century onward does the religion disappear, though continuing to exert its influence under different guises in other sectarian circles.

The dove is a prominent feature on some renditions of the Ace of Cups Tarot Card. Tarot Cards are used by Occultists, such as the O.T.O and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn for divination purposes. In the Occult the Ace of Cups means: love, peace, patience, harmony, assurance, tranquility, compassion, and acceptance. The dove is a common spiritual icon with symbol meanings indicating hope, purity, aspiration, and ascension. In Greco-Roman mythology, the dove is a sacred creature to Aphrodite/Venus, and therefore is a powerful symbol of love. Featured on the ace of cups, it is a promising symbol. Note the dove (in the Rider-Waite version) is pointing down. This is a second-pass message indicating: "whatever goes up, must come down." In other words, fly high, but ground yourself first.

It should come as no surprise that White Dove International, a New Age group selling materials on human potential, higher self and offering stress reduction seminars uses the dove as their logo. Aphrodite's Dove, a New Age and spiritual store, located in Jenkintown, PA, on the outskirts of Philadelphia also uses the dove in its logo. Historians of the occult know of the well established connection between the O.T.O, through the Thule Gesellschaft to the German Nazi movement. It is no mistake that a Nazi propaganda poster makes a direct Christological comparison of Hitler. Just as a dove descended on Christ when he was baptized by John the Baptist, so what looks to be an eagle hovers against the light of heaven over an idealized Hitler.

Clearly Christians should avoid using the dove as a symbol because of its obvious Occult meaning. No doubt many Christian groups use the dove as a symbol without giving much consideration to its actual meaning. However, any group that uses the dove as a symbol or logo should be closely examined. Historical evidence shows that Occultists deliberately use terms such as "Holy Spirit" or "Holy Ghost" when defining the meaning of the dove, when they actually mean something quite different from the Biblical Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. Indeed many Occultists are wolves masquerading in sheep’s clothing as they peddle their New Age teachings under the guise of Christianity. Historically this trend may be traced to almost the very beginning of the Church.

The pentagram is a very widespread sacred symbol used since ancient times in many areas including Egypt, India, Persia and Greece. It is one of the most powerful and popular symbols used by many occultist, including those involved in Wicca and Ceremonial Magic. The symbol is used to decorate magical tools. It represents feminine energy relating to the Goddess. It is worn symbolically for protection and to signify that the wearer is involved in the world of magic and divine wisdom. When pointed upwards it is supposed to indicate positive energy, and when pointed downward it is to present negative energy.

 

Some uses of the Pentagram

 

Constant used the upright pentagram to represent the race of man created by god, while he used the inverted pentagram to represent the demonic race created by the Angel Samael and Lilith. In The Secret Doctrine Helena Petrovna Blavatsky explains that "Lucifer represents...Life...Thought...Progress...Civilization...Liberty...Independance...Lucifer is the Logos...the Serpent, the Savior" (pages 171, 225, 255 of Volume II). In short, she and other occultist view Lucifer as both a good and bad god. This is the god Constant and Freemasons considered as Grand Architect of the universe or the Supreme Being. On the right is Constant’s inverted Pentagram depicting Lucifer as the Bamphomet