African Religion and Christmas

by Rev. Wayne K. Purcell

“What is now called the Christian religion was existing among the Ancients and was not absent from the beginning of the human race until Christ came to the flesh from which time the true religion which was already in existence began to be called Christian.”

This quote comes from that African named St. Augustine, who as one of the early church fathers of the orthodox Christian church was an important theologian and philosopher whose influence help shape orthodox Christianity.

If our children grew up knowing information such as this about our ancestors, they might have a better appreciation for the church and a thirst for religious knowledge. However, we were taught to tell ‘HIS’ story. Instead, we continue to regurgitate the mythical story of Jesus, on the promise of salvation in the hereafter.

For Christians, the story and/or beginning of Christianity is
Christmas. My childhood memories of Christmas were about white snow, a
white baby, a white Santa Clause, and a white God. Yet the story has
its roots in the continent of Africa, which told the story of an
African baby, African Goddess, and a black God (Lord of the Perfect
Black). Their names are Asar-Aset-Heru, the first recorded trinity. The
story had nothing to do with a black Santa Claus or the birth of a baby
in a manager; rather, its significance was that it embellished the
reality of a spiritual birth of the human personality.

How did the story become so twisted and corrupted into a “pagan”
religious celebration called Christmas? It began with the early
writings of men such as St. Augustine, St. Jerome, Peter Abelard, St.
Thomas Aquinas, and others. Learned men and women went to great lengths
to establish this new religion called Christianity. In its early
stages, they relied mostly on the teachings that closely followed the
ancient Egyptian mystery system. But that changed around 325 A.C.E. at
the Nicean Council of Bishops, when a minority of bishops, under the
auspices of the Roman emperor Anastasias, declared that the doctrine of
self-salvation was no longer valid. The new doctrine of salvation,
which was politically motivated, convinced masses of people (the
emperor included) that they needed a savior as a go-between to reach
God. This doctrine led to a new religious sect, Orthodox Catholic
Christianity, directed and protected by the Roman government, and to
the destruction of all non-Catholic philosophies, religions, and
doctrines.

It was at this time when our story, became “HIS” story, a corrupt version of Christianity.

Early Christianity spoke to the reincarnation of the human personality.
An Egyptian proverb says, “Men and women are to become God-like through
a life of virtue, and the cultivation of the spirit through scientific
knowledge, practice and bodily discipline.” But with the advent of
Catholicism, the ability of each individual to become Christ-like is
neither deleted nor misrepresented in the biblical scriptures. Verses
like St. John 10:34 – where Jesus says to the Jews, “Is it not written
in your law, I said, Ye are gods?” – are usually glossed over as
“figures of speech.”

(For those who suffer from religious sensitivity, continue with
caution. We are taught as Christians to operate with a closed mind,
because as long as people adhere to this philosophy, there will never
be a threat to the status quo.)

Egyptians taught theology and philosophy through mythology as a means
of addressing the cognitive processes of the mind. Under the “higher”
and “lower” forms of learning, mythology was used to reach the masses.
Paul calls this a “milk diet” for those not yet ready for the meat, and
it proved to be an effective way of conveying spiritual truths to the
masses.
But Catholicism condemned Egyptian religion as heresy. This is what St.
Anthony, the founder of Christian monasticism, said to his followers:

“Which is better, to confess the cross or to attribute adulteries and
pederastys to the so- called gods, beasts, reptiles and the images of
men The Christians, by their faith in God prove that the demons whom
the Egyptians consider gods are no gods! The Christians trample them
underfoot and drive them out for what they are, deceivers and
corruptors of men.

Through Jesus-Christ our lord, Amen.”

This same attitude spawned the bloody crusades in the name of Jesus, as
well as enslavement and trafficking of human beings. Ironically,
Christianity has co-opted much of what it talked against and now
suggests that every theology and philosophy as taught by the church was
to be believed by the people.

The Christmas story that was co-opted into the Christian church is a
good example. The lamb, which stood as a symbol of Jesus, came from the
Egyptian symbol that used the lamb to admonish the god Heru, whose
worship pre-dates Christianity by seven thousand years. The story of
Christ as the good shepherd reflects the ancient Egyptian god Asar, who
also was depicted as the good shepherd. The god Asar ultimately became
the oldest and most popular religious system during and after the
dynastic period. It continued to influence the Roman Empire and was
co-opted into the Greek mythology as the god Osiris.

In the mythology of Asar-Aset-Heru, the god Asar is symbolically eaten
and assimilated by the aspirant (the aspiring student). Jesus of the
New Testament exhorted his followers to “eat of my body and drinketh my
blood.” Today we call it the Eucharist. But when Africans practiced
such rituals they were considered cannibals.

The god Heru’s birthday was celebrated on the twenty-fifth of December,
three days after the winter solstice. During the early Christian era
the birthday of Jesus was January 6, but it was later changed to
December 25 by church fathers who recognized the popularity and
influence of Egyptian religion and thought it would make it easier to
convert followers of Egyptian religion.

The story of the three wise men or kings was also taken out of the
mythology of the Egyptian cosmological philosophy. The birth of Jesus
was said to influence three African kings to bring gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh; they followed a bright star that illuminated
the sky and directed the seekers to where the babe was born. (Note:
this statement comes out of the cosmological system of ancient Egyptian
religion that used the stars as a narrative to spiritual resurrection.)

The three stars in what we know as “Orion’s belt” were depicted as
pointing directly to the star Sirius, which is associated with the
goddess Aset, the mother of Heru. This later became the prototype for
the Madonna and child in African iconography and later in the Christian
story of Mary and Jesus. Moreover, in the mythological story the three
stars were associated with three gods bringing gifts to the goddess
Aset or, in the Greek vernacular, Isis.

Finally, it should be noted that the rising of the star Sirius also
held significance in the Egyptian culture as it signaled the beginning
of the flood season. The vital floods brought with it the fertile
“black silt” that became the lifeblood of ancient Egyptian agriculture.
To this day the delta has the most fertile land in that region.
Consequently many celebrations evolved around that “bright morning
star.”

So what does all this mean? That what we call the Christmas story was
originally an African myth, born in a cosmological concept that related
to the relationship of the three aspects of human personality. The
movement of the three towards the one symbolizes the rising light of
salvation, which is being born in the winter solstice of life.

The Egyptians intuitively understood God as “mysteries” that speak to
eternal life. The moving of the stars held a deeper meaning as it
relates to the birth, death, and rebirth as depicted in their myths.
What the early church fathers sought to do was to keep these spiritual
truths, and in a more literal sense, present the masses with stories
that were more pragmatic, easily understood, and believed (and
believable) as taught by the church.

Now you know the rest of the story.