Continuations of Pagan Origins of Christmas Traditions—Some More Gruesome Than You May Suspect

By Tantra Bensko


Do you celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th? Or is it Mithras? Horus? Osiris? Hermes? Bacchus, Prometheus maybe?

This article is not biased toward any religion, but simply relaying some factual information about some ancient practices that still continue, many behind the scenes. The similarities between Jesus and other Messiahs born of virgins on December 25th, with wise men following a star and bringing gifts, etc. can be enlightening to look into at least briefly.

Many of the gods were representations of the sun, and Mithras, and Christ, for example, became emblems of Solar Monotheism. (Heck, see Encyclopedia Britannica vol 11 page 390 if you like.)

While many Christians aren’t familiar with the long list of deities with similar traits to Christ, those who are familiar at all have most often heard of his relationship to Mithra, the pagan sun god popular in the Roman Empire of the first centuries AD. He was also worshipped in Asia, and Europe, his name there being Deus Sol Invictus Mithras (open, unconquered sun).

Saturn and the sun were often linked together in pagan rituals. Rome worshipped the God Saturn during Saturnalia with wreathes and giving presents, singing, and drinking, fornicating in lawless orgies that bypassed love and decency, and sacrifice. (Sexuality was used in the rituals of Saturnalia, and its echoes throughout history and cultures, because the demonic entities are claimed to be able to feed off of that energy given off at orgasm as they can off of the energy given from the body at death.) The week leading up to the 25th was rife with crazed chaos as the sun’s light began returning after the solstice. In 336 AD, Constantine, who had identified himself with Mithras, made the pagan holiday into Christmas. http://www.origin-of-christmas.com/

In 350 AD Pope Julius I made December 25 the official date for Christmas, and in 529 AD Emperor Justinian stated that Christmas was newly a civic holiday, though people still connected it with Mithraism. http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/xmas-not-first-choice.htm

Mithraism was a Roman mystery religion for men, supported officially by emperors, from Turkey to the British Empire, in which the initiates worshipped in caves, their rituals, including baptism, progressing through 7 stages related to astrology. Mithraism was especially tied to the sacrifice of the bull, and cattle-herding, appropriate for the astrology of the time. The blood of the sacrifice Mithra/Mithris saves the world. Though sacrificing the bull was the epitome of Mithras, sacrificing humans was also a part of the religion. http://www.religionfacts.com/greco-roman/sects/mithraism.htm

Messiah Mithra, the Good Shepherd, The Lion, and The Lamb, was born 600 BC, of a virgin, in a cave, as shepherds brought gifts. He had 12 disciples, performed miracles, was buried and resurrected after 3 days to redeem the world, because he was the “Way, the Truth and the Light,” the Word of God, Savior. Sunday was set aside to worship him, with communion, based on the Lord’s Supper when he claimed “He who shall not eat of my body nor drink of my blood so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved.” http://www.atheists.org/Pre-Christian_Christmas_Stories_with_Other_Gods

But what about other deities with that birthday, of which there are a gigantic number? We won’t even get into Jupiter in Rome,
Semitic solar deity, Shamash, Hermes, or, Prometheus or a huge number of others.

Nimrod, Savior of Babylon, may have started it all, when he was born on December 25th. Nimrod married his mother, Semiramis, and then he died, was made into the sun god, Baal. His mother/wife, then gave birth to Tammuz, who was his son, and his reincarnated self. http://christmasxmas.xanga.com/633488954/item/

In his book THE TWO BABYLONS, page 98, Hislop tells us
the Yule Log represents the sun god Nimrod, cut down by his enemies on the shortest day of the year; the Christmas tree is Nimrod reincarnated, born again, decorated as a king. Traditionally, when the (Christmas) Baalmas Nimrod tree’s needles fell off, the townspeople would damp all their fires, and set the tree itself on fire, cooking a holy dinner over it’s heat. They would then take some fire from that to relight their hearths, and the remaining charred wood would be used for carving an idol. http://www.jesus-messiah.com/html/christmas2.html

During 5 days before Dec. 25th, people became unusually drunk, committed adultery and incest rampantly, which created a kind of loveless sexual energy, which were for the purpose of resonating with the demonic plane, calling in the entities, and feeding them, sacrificing the orgasmic energy to them to bring back the sun’s light. Slaves became masters for a day. (Persia and Babylonia had Sacaea, an event in which slaves and their owners engaged in a role reversal.) Baal is the name of Nimrod, in his deified form, and this period of days was called Baalmas.

One slave would be adorned in red (think Santa?) and called the "lord-of-misrule," Zoganes. The Baalmas revelers would give presents, and drink wassail, spiced liquor. Supposedly because Tammuz was killed by a wild boar, a pig was sacrificed and eaten. This is the reason for eating ham now, on Christmas, still.

Worshippers held hands in a circle around an idol, danced naked while singing about sex, death, and reincarnation. A child would be sacrificed above a woman’s body, and the pagans paired off to have ritual sex amongst the trees, especially one representing the tree of life.

Thousands of children were sacrificed in these rituals, which are echoed today in secret rites in many cults and secret societies. A large number of books, videos, and articles are available with well documented evidence, and testimony, not relying on hypnosis. MKZine, which I was on staff with, is one print magazine that dealt with those mind control trauma inducing groups often related to the government and can still be ordered, something I’d recommend if anyone wants to know more on the subject. http://www.madhattersreview.com/issue6/gallery_interview_lynn.shtml is a link to an interview I did for Mad Hatters Review when I was on staff with them. In it, I discuss with Lynn Schirmer her childhood in some depth, including: “ I am a survivor of private and tax-funded torture that began in childhood. I was born into a cult whose belief system supported the ritualized and sadistic abuse of children. The group also profited from child trafficking, pornography, and prostitution. At the age of 3, I was tested for and inducted into a government behavioral control and medical experimentation program. Children of cult families were especially sought after because the programs utilized dissociative reactions common to traumatized children. Parents in the cult were easily persuaded or coerced, and some, as in my case, received status for having their children accepted.” http://www.lynnsart.net/info.htm
Is a page on her site that gives a few of the many books on the subject.

Our Webmistress, Shirley Harshenin, also grew up in a mind controlled cult that was trauma based with ritual torture of children, and she extended the interview with Lynn herself: “I was abused and there was some early manipulation of alters within cult settings, but all the formal splitting and setting up of my internal system took place in the labs. My family had a connection to someone working within the government programs, that was how I was recruited. Many of the doctors, though not all, were active in cults at times. They were at least aware of the activity and would call up alters storing memories of ritual torture and use them for various purposes.”

Christmas is a time in which in modern day cult families, Santa becomes a frightening costumed member of the group, and this is based on the old pagan tradition. The red robed Nick was said to visit children during that 5 day period and give them presents. Presents were often body parts. The children were often raped, and their sexual organs removed during Baal sacrifices, and eaten, the best being the still beating heart. Even now, child molestation and abuse is incredibly rampant during Christmas, with many others gone unreported as well because many children are raised secretly in secret societies for the purpose of sacrifice in Satanic rituals.

In England, and Scotland, the Feast of Fools was reminiscent of the Saturnalia. The Normans in 1066 introduced the Lord of Misrule, who made sure Christmas went by the pagan tradition.

Dressed in a red robe like a king, he moved the townspeople to singing, and dancing, sexual indecency and impropriety, and drinking heavily, and Nick gave them gifts. The male heads of families would sometimes dress up like the saint as well.
http://www.jesus-messiah.com/html/christmas2.html

Semiramis told the people her son, Nimrod/ Baal, was in his death, shining on them in resurrected form. She claimed the earth was flat, and on the bottom side lived demons who lived to destroy those on the upper surface. But her beloved Nimrod, every dusk, as the setting sun, saved people from them, only to reappear the next day as the rising sun to keep them the folks warm and cosy.

Just as the Romans celebrated the day of the equinox, the Babylonians celebrated it as the day of Ishtire, son of the Babylonian queen Estarte. They called that day "Yule Day," meaning "child day." This sounds sweet until we remember that children were killed most often on that day in the rituals. Babylon was established by Nimrod, ruled by himself and his wife/mother, the queen, Semiramus. Since the sun was life force, people lit fires in December to remind it to get strong again, and on the 25th, they had incestuous orgies to do so. They celebrated holly, mistletoe, and evergreens, as they still kept their color. http://usa-the-republic.com/religion/christmas.html

Worshippers of Baal/Nimrod in Canaan, Babylon and Phoenicia did so through human sacrifice, especially of children, whom they often ate, dedicated to Moloch, who is an aspect of Nimrod. (The Curse Of Canaan, p 67.) The Baal aspect gave life, while Moloch destroyed it, just as the firey sun can do both. Both got by through human sacrifice, and both were represented by Saturn, thus Saturnalia. You may remember Moloch from the California tradition at Bohemian Grove of sacrificing “something” to the owl god, Moloch, to release care.

The Carthaginians, Phoenicians and Canaanites, threw children into a burning hole made creatively in the shape of the god, Baal/Moloch. One site, near Tunis, boasts six thousand urns containing burned children from those rituals. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biggestsecret/biggestsecretbook/biggestsecret15.htm

The tradition of Sacea, in Persia and Babylon, also involved criminals being sacrificed on that day. Meanwhile, everyone else took off work, played, gambled, and scared off darkness with lights. Other cultures encouraged the sun to return at that time, such as in Mesopotamia, wherein a convict was sacrificed to atone for the sins of the multitude.

Nordic and Germanic invaders of the Roman empire taught the conquerors the traditions, but somehow, they already had them! Germanic and Celtic worshippers simply merged their own solstice rituals such as the Julmond festival (Yule) of rebirth, with wheat symbolizing life, as did evergreen trees, and the Yule log, wild boar to eat, wassail accompanying it. Germany itself started celebrating Christmas, as the birth of Jesus, in 813, and Norway did in the middle 900’s.

But what other deities were born on the 25th? Oh, plenty! Is that all they shared with Christ? Not hardly!

There have been many Messiahs, the name which means rubbed with fat, anointed with various types of fat sometimes from crocodiles, other times from intestines of sacrificial victims, whose corpses are hung from trees under which the ritual worshippers stand.

Pre-Christian Christmas Stories with Other Gods by Edwin Kagin (http://www.atheists.org/Pre-Christian_Christmas_Stories_with_Other_Gods) is an excellent recourse for tracking some of the Messiahs born on that special day of the year.

In Egypt, Horus, also called The Good Shepherd, who was of royal descent, was born 3000 BC, but still, somehow, knew the 25th was the day to be born, of a virgin, (Isis) in a cave, or manger, as announced by 3 wise men bringing presents. Thoth had luckily announced to Isis that she would give birth to him, after Kneph the “Holy Ghost,” had put his divine seed in the virgin. Nice precursor of Christmas, don’t you think? Especially as he was also called KRIST.

Not only that, this “Holy Child,” son of Ptah, the Father, started teaching in a temple at age 12, disappeared, and by 30, reappeared, only to baptized by a man who later had his head cut off. Horus, the fisher of men, had 12 followers, who adored him, considering he made miracles, raised the dead (El-Azarus by name), gave the Sermon on the Mount, drove demons from folks, and had a penchant for walking on water. Finally, he died on the cross between two thieves, was buried for three days, but found his way out after that, reborn. He was said to be The Way, the Truth, and the Light, the Messiah, The Lamb of God, The Word Made Flesh, The Word of Truth, who would reign for 1000 years.

The Godhead, Horus’s Father, called Osiris, and Amen, who art in Heaven, the Resurrection and The Life. He led people into green pastures to give them protection in the valley of the shadow of death. He died, was reborn to be Lord of Lords and King of Kings in Heaven, was also announced by 3 wise men, and communion was given with wheat crackers.

Later on, in 1400 BC, Attis of Phrygia was born on Dec. 25th, to a virgin named Nana. He too had communion given to represent his body with bread. He was crucified to save humanity with his blood.
And spent 3 days dead underground. He was reborn as the evergreen.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Krishna, the anointed one, Shepherd of God, in India, as angels and shepherds bearing gifts of spices followed the star announced, was being born of a virgin, Devaki, and a carpenter father, on, December 25. An annoying king ordered all the babies to be killed. Ring a bell? He was a humble spiritual teacher of 12 disciples, and created miracles such as raising the dead, and healing until he redeemed sins by being crucified with nails through his feet, between 2 thieves at around 30, and then was resurrected. He was called Our Lord and Savior, and Jeseus (pure essence).

400 years later, on the 25th, Zoroaster/Zarathustra, The Word Made Flesh, was also born of a virgin, named Dughdhava, conceived by a divine ray. He was baptized with water, fire, and holy ghost, performed miracles, exorcised demons, healed, had 12 disciples, was tempted in the wilderness, started teaching at age 30, was a spiritual teacher who focused on heaven and hell, the apocalypse, and his salvation of his followers who took communion and expected a second coming of the Savior.

Heracles, of all people, in 800 BC, was born on guess which day, to a virgin, and was sacrificed at the usual time, the spring equinox.

Next in the line born of a virgin, Maya this time, Queen of Heaven, on the 25th was Buddha, in 563 BC, as announced by wise men with gifts, following a star, while the angles sang. He was a spiritual teacher who performed miracles like walking on water and healing, multiplying cakes. He lived humbly, taught in the temple at the tender age of 12, was tempted, and told his followers to turn the other cheek.

Though people may think of the drunken, lascivious reveler, Dionysus as being very different from Christ, the Annointed Savior, Lamb of God, was the Holy Child, born of a virgin on the very same day of the year, 186 BC, and put in a manger. The Only Begotten Son was also a spiritual teacher, traveling like the rest of them, performing his share of miracles as was to be fully expected by that time, such as turning the obligatory water into wine. He was crucified and contributed his sacred King of Kingly flesh to the communion, and resurrected. People may think of Adonis, the more pure one, as being the more Christly one of these two associated yet seemingly opposite gods, different aspects of the sun’s energy, and indeed, he was also born of a virgin on the same day of the year, but in 200 BC, same year as Bacchus, similarly related to wine as Dionysus, and once again, born on the 25th. http://www.atheists.org/Pre-Christian_Christmas_Stories_with_Other_Gods

Many people are becoming more sophisticated in their understanding of how these and many more Messiahs I didn’t even name are based on astrology and astronomy, the way the sun seems to disappear at the solstice, and the years move through astrological periods, etc. Another subset of the population has been aware for a long time of the more sinister reasons these were used to manipulate the population. Certainly, celebrating the return of longer days, for example, is a beautiful thing to share with family and friends. However, looking at the rape, incest, debauchery, adultery, and especially, the child sacrifices common to the period of the solstice period, rather than turning their heads away, many people have become versed in the way various secret societies and Satantic groups, mostly involving people highly placed in society, have continued to use these same dark traditions in the name(s) of the same so called god. including child sacrifice at the solstice/Christmas period. This can be at the very least comforting to those involved, not to be so alone, considered crazy. At at best, more activism can arise, helping stop those who are proven to have perpetrated such crimes.

Satanic rituals harken back to ancient Babylon and the Sumerian, Phoenician, Hittite, Egyptian, Canaanite and Akkadian peoples, among many others across the world. Nimrod, Baal, Moloch or Molech, Set, the Devil, Lucifer, are all the same person, according to many researchers, including David Icke.

Sacrifice of animals, or humans, are done purportedly to affect the lower astral realms, of the dark entities, sometimes called demons, sometimes reptilians, and negative emotions like panic, and extreme pain are said to feed those entities lurking there, and many people highly placed in society feel forging a connection with them, even going so far as to be possessed by them at times, will help them gain power. The sacrifices of people in pain with adrenalin, which the entities are said to be especially hungry for, appease them, as they are not known to be benevolent towards our race. Sometimes children are sacrificed, and sometimes, the kings themselves become the slain saviors, such as in North Africa and the Near East, China, Rome, Africa, Asia, Greece, South America, Incans in Peru, and the Aztec’s Mexico. The Irish, Scythians, and Caananites were heavily into human sacrifices. Ancient Egyptians, those darlings of the gentle New Agers, were major sacrificers. At a time when Carthage warring against Rome, 200 families of nobility sacrificed their sons to the sun god, Baal.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biggestsecret/biggestsecretbook/biggestsecret15.htm

David Icke, in Chapter 15 of one of his excellent books, all of which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to explore some ideas about the history of our planet, The Biggest Secret, gives as an example, the Scandinavians, who buried children underground while still living in order to alleviate breakouts of epidemics by making an offering to Odin, similar to the German Wodan. He also mentions that the Druids would bury a child under a building in progress and strew his or her blood around the construction site. They also soaked their altars in the blood of their victims. These are similar to countless examples all the way into modern society of burial, as Jesus was said to have been buried, to redeem and save a situation.

When Carthage was struggling in the war against Rome, 200 noble families sacrificed their sons to Baal (the Phoenician Sun god, Bel or Bil). Nigel Davies, Human Sacrifice, In History And Today (William Morrow and Company, New York), p 21

Abraham, who came from Sumeria, at Ur, where human sacrifice was extraordinarily common, was one good example of sacrificing a child to god. Cain and Abel showed that god wanted blood sacrifice, with no use for grain.

In the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Israelites were proved to have charred their sons on fires in rituals to Moloch/Baal in the Valley of Gehinnon. (Human Sacrifice, In History And Today, p 64.)
The Old Testament of course is full of not only animal, but human sacrifices, and the Jewish synagogues were always crying with animals being killed for their god.

The Vedic tradition also includes sacrifice, especially of children, unfortunately, I have to say, being named Tantra, to Kali, Shiva’s consort, to gain their life force energy, which is strong at that age.

Icke mentions “I have been told by Satanists, many of their victims, and by therapists working with victims, the same stories of ‘regeneration rituals’. The ageing Satanist, sometimes a high ranking member of the Brotherhood, stands in the centre of a circle of babies or young children. As they are sacrificed the ritual allows the Satanist to absorb their life-essence, their life-force, and regenerate his or her body.”

Satanists don’t usually perform this act sparsely, but many times, and there are a mind boggling number of active Satanists. The most common days for it are equinoxes and solstices, especially winter Solstice, the day the light is farthest away, and then the regeneration from that comes three days later, on the 25th, as the days start to become longer.

Ted Gunderson, 28 years employed by the FBI, claims there are about 3.75 million active Satanists in the United States and maybe 60,000 sacrifices of humans each a year here.

JonBenet Ramsey, whose first name is a Freemasonic term for Satan, was killed on Christmas Eve, 1996. The coroner and investigator, Dr Cyril Wecht, claims says that she was killed while undergoing sexual torture by her parents. http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/biggestsecret/biggestsecretbook/biggestsecret15.htm

Winter solstice, on December 21st or 22nd is the pagan New Year, and so the whole time from the Solstice until the 25th, sometimes with the Children are sometimes tortured by Satanic cult members playing the part of Santa, under a Christmas tree, according to “Christmas in the Cult in Ritual Abuse” by Svali. Presents may be given to them that have secret meanings related to mind control programming. (See Christmas in the Cult: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/ritual_abuse/87619)

According to Earl Shorris “The Cowards of Christmas Eve,” published in Esquire Magazine, Originally published in the December 1973 issue, http://www.esquire.com/features/christmas-crime-1273
“December is the most violent month, the time of murder, robbery, assault, suicide and Christmas. In New York City the number of manslaughter cases on December 24 is almost twice the daily average for the year.” The FBI Uniform Crime Report shows violent crime going up, for whatever reason, in December. While some of this could be tensions rising for seasonal reasons, some of it represents some of the sacrifices.

Yet, this includes only a tiny number of ritual murders in cults because the victims are often not even registered as existing, having been bred for sacrifice, and not officially given a certificate, being assisted by special midwives.

“Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing, Ritual Abuse Hot-Line Training” says: “The abuse is used to gain ultimate control over another human being, control by torture of the mind, body, and spirit. The abuse happens as part of a ritual. It can happen at any time but is especially likely to happen on a child's birthday and on satanic holidays, which include May 1, Halloween, Easter, the solstices, and Christmas. The cult tries to destroy any kind of life-affirming connections based on caring, replacing them with connections based on torture and death…… Authority figures are often perpetrators. The child is in the untenable position of being expected to respect and obey adults who torture her. Doctors are sometimes associated with cults, to give medication, to keep someone alive while bringing her to the brink of death, to perform "magick" (e.g. fake) surgery. People who work for the FBI, lawyers, police, people high up in government, have been said to be satanic cult members.
http://www.ra-info.org/resources/ra_hotl.shtml We can see how it would be fitting for the doctors to bring victims to the brink of death, to fit the sacrifice going to the underworld and returning.

Many of the children sacrificed are bred for the purpose in bloodline families, secret societies, who keep their actions, and even their children, secret, or the children are kidnapped, accounting for many of the missing children each year, a million statistically predicted to go missing in 2010. Satanists feel they are eating the life force, and feeding the life force to their gods as well, and mimicing the sacrifices to their gods of those done throughout history, some of the gods themselves representing the sacrificed victims whose blood is redeeming. Commonly, they tear out the heart and eat it while it is still beating, red, a kind of communion. All this is to manipulate themselves and others with energies, controlling the mind in ways that defy the natural inclinations of human nature. http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/satanic-sacrifices-a-million-in-us-to-go-missing-in-2010/

So, by all means, enjoy Christmas, enjoy whatever your religion is on that day, if you have one, enjoy whatever warmth you find wherever wholesome place you find it. But perhaps you can find some empathy for those who are victims of or who have escaped from, or brushed up against others in mind controlled cults who find that time of year most unsettling. Maybe you might want to notice what kind of subtle mind control is used for manipulation in your life, by you, on you, around you, and take the chance to confront and release it, work to improve it.