COMING SOON! Open access
Vol. 5 in the series Secret History of the Witches
Magna Mater, Paulianity, and the Imperial Church ©2024 Max Dashu
CONTENTS:
I. THE GREAT GODDESS
Magna Mater; the Matres, Matronae.Isis of 10,000 Names: an international religion. Her aretalogies
Kybele, Mater Deum, the Mountain Mother, and her Black Stone
Atargatis, Dea Syria, Tanit, Caelestis, and syncretic goddesses.Slander of the Women’s Mysteries. Sexual slurs on priestesses and female preachers.
II. RAV YESHUA IN OCCUPIED JUDAEA
Rav Yeshua lived and died a Jew
Roman-Occupied Judea.
The Judaic Wisdom Tradition. Yeshua as Healer.
Witchcraft in the Tanakh and Talmud
The goddesses of Beit Nattif
III. PAULIANITY
A break from Judaism. Paul clashes with disciples of Yeshua
Gentiles and Jewish Scriptures.
Obey your masters and rulers, whose authority is God-given
Male supremacy in Pauline and Pseudo-Pauline Letters.Evolution of Christian Priesthood and Ritual
Christian scriptural roots of anti-Semitism
IV. EARLY CHRISTIAN WOMENFemale leadership in the house churches
The Phrygian Prophetesses
The Cult of Virginity.
Thekla, marriage-resister, and Paul as “sorcerer”
Rape, Virgin Martyrs, and the Sorcery Charge
V. PAGANS, CHRISTIANS, AND JEWSPagan infusions into Christianity
The Kollyridians: women revere Mary with little loaves
Roman persecutions. Atrocity propaganda
Sexual slurs on female prophecy and priestesses
VI. THE GNOSTICS
Female creators and leaders.
Isis. Khochmah. Sophia. Arche. The divine Barbelo:
"an infinite power... the root of the universe." The OphitesThe “Fallen” Sophia. Simonian Gnostics.
Doctrines of the flawed female. Mandaeans and Ruha d’Qudsha.
Anti-Semitism again.
Magdalene of the Gnostics. The Sexual Politics of Women’s Speech.
VII. THE IMPERIAL CHURCH
Constantine converts the Roman empire.
Christian schisms: the Arian heresy
Attacks on Women: from leadership to the veil and seclusion
Attacks on Jews: loss of rights, extra taxation
Attacks on Heretics: the Donatists in Algeria
Book burnings and vitriol. Augustine Brings Original Sin
Manichaeans. Atrocity propaganda. The Pelagians
The Spanish Mystics. Diatribes against musical instruments.
VIII. THE WAR ON PAGANS
Persecutory laws, expropriation, burning diviners.
Julian's pagan restoration; decree of religious freedom
The first mass persecution of pagans, 364-74
Theodosian Laws: destruction of the temples. Faith criminalized
Pagan persistence. End of the Western Roman Empire.
The Sorcery Charge. Hypatia of Alexandria
IX. CULTURAL REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE
Continued Attacks on Pagan Shrines.
The Goddess Veiled: into Christian guisesTemples into Churches, Shrines into Chapels
Sacred Dance denounced as "whoredom"
Persistance of Diana
Byzantine Hunts for Pagans
More Temple Destructions
AFTERWORD
Dangers of state religion: patriarchal authoritarianism,
persecution, ethnic purging, expulsions, genocideBIBLIOGRAPHY
