Magdlyn

Well, he did not really go into the symbolism and practice all that much. Just kind of hinted at them. Western religions had become male dominated by the 2nd Temple period. He shows the similarity of the statues of Isis and Horus to statues of Mary (virgin) and Jesus. In the movie, it is briefly mentioned the pentagram is a feminine symbol but does not explained why it is. The "Star of David" is shown to be the intersection of the chalice and the blade.

You can see how it took great effort to vanquish the cult of Asherah by reading the Hebrew scriptures. People were violently forced to give it up by the Yahwists. The KJV even often mistranslates Her Name (when used to mean her images, Asherim) as pole or grove.

A positive depiction of the divine and equal Feminine (and the heiros gamos) survives in the Song of Songs. SofS was associated with Mary Magdalene and read on her feast day, for centuries.

I recommend these books for more.

The Woman With the Alabaster Jar
The Hebrew Goddess
When God Was Woman

Barefoot Bree

The Woman with the Alabaster Jar
The Hebrew Goddess
When God Was Woman

Thanks, Magdlyn! All three are on my Amazon wish list!

igfm_spanky

I would have pissed myself.


As for my own opinion of the Da Vinci Code:

• It was constantly irritating. Things like "When he learned that there is a constant called Phi he came in his pants, and so should you," kind of pissed me off.
• There was no point. Follow the puzzles that some prat invented and you will find lots of totally useless secrets. But instead of recognizing how dull it all is, you will think every stupid thing that happens is more orgasmically fascinating than the last.

Basically, Dan Brown's technique is to make things interesting by actually saying that they're interesting. That's why the book's a load of crap.

I know this isn't really a topic about how crap Dan Brown's books are, but what the hell.

cajela

Agreed. He's a crap writer, but not quite so crap that he can't engage some interest in the story. It's all action and lame puzzles, no character, no suspense. If he didn't have the religious background to the story he'd be just another hack in the thriller section.