The cross is one of the most common structures in Western cultures. In the same way that often represents the Muslim-Oriental culture, the cross is the most universal symbol for the Christian-Western world.
The diagonal cross with arms of equal length is an extremely old sign. It has been found engraved on the walls of prehistorical caves of Europe. As an Egyptian hieroglyph it meant divide, count, and break into parts
The Latin cross is chiefly associated with the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. Before the time of Jesus, the cross represented, among other things, the staff of Apollo, and appeared on ancient coins.
The Latin cross turned upside down is known as St. Peter`s cross after Peter, the disciple of Jesus who is belived to have been executed by crucifixion on an upside down cross.
This sign has a wide spectrum of meanings from confrontation, annulment, cancellation, devoid of sense or meaning, opposition, obstruction, and mistake to unknown, unfamilar, undecided, and unsettled.
When diagonal cross appears as a closed or filled sign, , it stands for the cross of St. Andrew.
This cross is often called the cross of Christ. It is made up by Greek letters X and P, which correspond to the letters K (or C) and R in the Latian alphabet. If one discounts letter monograms in cross forms there exist over 50 different variations.The Christian Church has often adopted cross-like ideograms from earlier ideologies that have had a positive meaning.
The Egyptian cross, is an adaptation of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph ankh, a symbol for life and rebirth.
The sun wheel, the inaugural cross, is identical to the ancient ideogram found in the Bronze Age. It is used by most cultures.
The celestial equator consists of the projection of the earth's equator onto the celestial sphere. This produces an imaginary circle in the sky which is inclined at an angle of twenty-three degrees to the other major celestial circle, namely, the ecliptic or zodiac, which is the circle in which the sun, moon, and planets appear to move against the background of the fixed stars. The celestial equator and the ecliptic intersect at two points, [forming a cross], and these two crosses or points are the equinoxes: the places where the sun, in its movement through the zodiac as seen from the earth, and is understood as the first days of spring and autumn. But understand this was understood to happen not on earth; the sun was submitted to these "crosses" in the heavens. The sun was crucified in the heavens. The ancients understood that the seasons were changed and determined by the travel of the sun; either above or below the equator. When the sun, which was though to be dead in winter with the longer days of darkness, rose above the equator, then the sun was subjected to this "cross" in its movement above the celestial equator in its elliptical orbit; the sun was though to be subjected to this "cross" or "crucified" and after 3 days, when the sun remained at the lowest point in the horizon and thought to be dead, it miraculously began it upward trajectory and with it the promise of spring and new life was on its way. The ancients understood this as the "sun being crucified on the cross."
The celestial equator is not as obscure a concept as might first appear, and certainly was not obscure in antiquity. For in the ancient geocentric (earth-centered) vision of the cosmos, the universe was built upon a framework whose basic structure was provided by the two celestial circles of the ecliptic and the celestial equator. The picture shows a Renaissance diagram of the cosmic framework, the "skeleton of the universe," in which the celestial equator is the horizontal circle around the middle of the cosmic sphere, while the ecliptic or zodiac is the tilted circle. The other circles in the diagram, such as the tropics (the horizontal circles immediately above and below the celestial equator), provided a more detailed division of the cosmic sphere, but were always of secondary importance to the primary division of the sky according to the two circles of the ecliptic and the celestial equator. Thus, we often find in antiquity images of the cosmic sphere on which are placed just these two circles.
In fact, one of the earliest surviving examples of such representations is a Mithraic monument portraying the lion-headed god standing on a cosmic sphere on which are shown the two intersecting circles of the ecliptic and the celestial equator. Looking at the Renaissance picture and the Lion-headed god on the globe we can also see why these two circles were often seen as constituting a cross, with their intersection representing the equinoctial point where the circles meet. One of the most famous and important references to this cross formed by the ecliptic and the celestial equator is found in Plato's dialogue Timaeus, where Plato tells us how the Demiurge (the creator of the universe) constructed the universe out of two circles which he joined "in the form of the letter X (the X as understood as the symbol for the cross in the heavens). The sun was later personified in the various nations and became the heroes of mythology who were "crucified before the foundation of the world" (sound familiar)?
As a result, the celestial equator was often described in ancient popular literature about the stars. Plato, for example, in his dialogue Timaeus said that when the Creator of the universe first formed the cosmos, He shaped its substance in the form of the letter X (a cross), representing the intersection of the two celestial circles of the zodiac and the celestial equator. This cross-shaped symbol was often depicted in ancient art to indicate the cosmic sphere. In fact, one of the most famous examples of this motif is a Mithraic stone carving showing the so-called "lion-headed god," whose image is often found in Mithraic temples, standing on a globe that is marked with the cross representing the two circles of the zodiac and the celestial equator and their intersection forming a "cross." Notice if you will this "Lion-headed god standing on globe with crossed circles" pictured above.
The celestial equator and the ecliptic intersect at two points, [forming a cross], and these two crosses or points are the equinoxes: the places where the sun, in its movement through the zodiac as seen from the earth, and is understood as the first days of spring and autumn. But understand this was understood to happen not on earth; the sun was submitted to these "crosses" in the heavens. The sun was crucified in the heavens. The ancients understood that the seasons were changed and determined by the travel of the sun; either above or below the equator. When the sun, which was though to be dead in winter with the longer days of darkness, rose above the equator, then the sun was subjected to this "cross" in its movement above the celestial equator in its elliptical orbit; the sun was though to be subjected to this "cross" or "crucified" and after 3 days, when the sun remained at the lowest point in the horizon and thought to be dead, it miraculously began it upward trajectory and with it the promise of spring and new life was on its way. The ancients understood this as the "sun being crucified on the cross."
In the Vedic hymns the Sun, the Lord and Savior, the Redeemer and Preserver of mankind, is frequently called the "Son of the Sky" (Muller, Origin of Religions, pp. 261, 290).
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that the Sun is now become the "Son"? [THINK]
Get ready for incarnational theology for here it comes.
According to Egyptian mythology, Seb (the Earth) is overshadowed by Nut (Heaven), the result of this union being the beneficent Lord and Savior, Osiris (Renouf, Hebbert Lectures, pp. 110-111). The same thing is to be found in ancient Grecian mythology. Zeus or Jupiter is the Sky, and Danae, Leto, Iokaste, Io and others, are the Dawn, or the violet light of morning (Cox, Tales of Ancient Greece, pp. xxxi, and 82; and Aryan Mythology, vol. i. p. 229). The sky appeared to men to perform the functions of a Father, as the Earth those of a Mother. The sky was the father, for it cast seed into the bosom of the earth (rain), which in receiving them became fruitful, and brought forth, and was the mother...Plutarch The Phoenician theogony is founded on the same principles. Heaven and Earth (called Ouranos and Ghe) are at the head of a genealogy of aeons, whose adventures are conceived in the mythological style of these physical allegorists (Squire, Serpent Symbol, p. 66). In the Samothracian mysteries, which seem to have been the most anciently established ceremonies of the kind in Europe, the Heaven and the Earth were worshipped as a male and female divinity, and as the parents of all things (Squire, Serpent Symbol, p. 64). The Supreme God (the Al-fader), of the ancient Scandinavians was Odin, a personification of the Heavens. The principal goddess among them was Frigga, a personification of the Earth. It was the opinion among these people that this Supreme Being or Celestial God had united with the Earth (Frigga) to produce "Baldur the Good" (the Sun), who corresponds to the Apollo of the Greeks and Romans, and the Osiris of the Egyptians (Mallet, Northern Antiquitiess, pp. 90, 94, 98. 406, 510, 511). Xiuletl, in the Mexican language, signifies Blue, and hence was a name which the Mexicans gave to Heaven, from which Xiuleti-cutli is derived, an epithet signifying "the God of Heaven," which they bestowed upon Tezcatlipoca, who was the "Lord of All," the "Supreme God." He it was who overshadowed the Virgin of Tule, Chimelman, who began the Savior Quetzalcoatle (the Sun).
Now I could go on but you get the point.
As you have seen, the overshadowing of the Earth by the Sky produced the Sun. It would be a short step from personification to glorification to deification. And as you also saw, as far back as the Vedic hymns the Sun, the Lord and Savior, the Redeemer and Preserver of mankind, is frequently called the "Son of the Sky" (Muller, Origin of Religions, pp. 261, 290). It is this concept later accepted by Nicea that made Jesus "of the same essence as the Father;" therefore the Son is equal with the Father. This is how idolatry and Sun Worship crept into the faith of the early church and remains there today!
But back to the point, the whole concept of the immaculate virgin births of pagan godmen is found in the overshadowing of the Earth by the Sun thus producing the offspring of the Sun and Earth; namely the Son.
By comparison, now instead of the Sun being crucified in the Heavens, by making the "Son" equal with the "Sun," by default the "Son is likewise crucified in the Heavens"!
Answerfor yourself:
Answer for yourself: Is the evidence not overwhelming? Where is a Jewish Rabbi to be found in any of this whose purpose was to bring men to God by preaching repentance and obedience to the Commandments of God?
Answer for yourself: As a Christian, could you have inherited and believed lies instead of the truths about the "historical Jesus" which fly in the face of such pagan traditions?
Well, you have to study to find out. We have provided the information if you truly are hungry for the truth. Shalom.