First we need to understand that Jesus was crucified on a stake or a pole that had no cross beam. Archeological evidence from that period finds no such "crosses" but instead stone "coffins" often are opened, unearthed by archeologists, to find bodies still nailed to the poles as was the common way of Roman crucifixion of that period. There simply was no cross beams, but if your remember many of these Sun-gods when crucified had arms extended to the whole of the world. A good example is Isis as seen in these images. Thus the need for a like representation of Jesus and his death; thus the like need for a cross bar on such a pole. It simply never happened that way.
When the Sun reached his extreme Southern limit in the sky, then his career was ended and it was assumed by primitive man that the Sun had been overcome by his enemies. The Sun was dead. If you remember in our study on the Winter Solstice that the Sun, for 3 days a year, remains motionless in the sky. It does not move lower on the horizon in its track across the sky nor does it begin its upward journey either. The Sun remains "dead" for 3 days. Again if you remember this was the origin of the "descent into hell" stories as the Sun was submitted to the the "Dark-Evil" or the "D-Evil" (Devil). The powers of darkness, and of winter, which had sought in vain to wound him, have at length won the victory: The bright Sun of summer is finally slain, crucified in the heavens, and pierced by the arrow, spear or thorn of winter. If need be refresh yourself with our articles on the "Son or Sun of God" as you see for yourself how the Sun was submitted to the "cross" of the equinoxes and later personified into the "Son" who was submitted to the same "cross of the equinoxes."
The intersection of the 4 equinoxes is represented as a "cross" by primitive man. As the Sun was placed on this cross it was easily seen and understood by primitive man that the Sun is divided up into 4 parts, or should I say that the Sun divides the year into 4 parts (spring, summer, autumn, winter). Pictured this way the Sun as on the cross was understood to be "crucified." When you then remember how the Sun became the Son then you have the Son on the Cross.
The crucifixion of the Sun-gods is simply the power of Darkness triumphing over the "Lord of Light," and Winter overpowering the Summer. It was at the winter solstice that the ancients wept for Tammuz, the fair Adonis, and other Sun-gods, who were put to death by the boar, slain by the thorn of winter (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 13).
Other versions of the same myth tell us of Eurydike stung to death by the hidden serpent, or Sifrit smitten by Hagene (the Thorn), of Isfendiyar slain by the thorn or arrow of Rustem, or Achilleus vulnerable only in the heel, of Brynhild enfolded within the dragon's coils, of Meleagros dying as the torch of doom is burnt out, of Baldur, the brave and pure, smitten by the fatal mistletoe, and of Chrishna and others being crucified.
In Egyptian mythology, Set, the destroyer, triumphs in the West. He is the personification of Darkness and Winter, and the Sun-god whom he puts to death, is Horus the Savior (Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 112-115).
Throughout this tale, the Sun-god was but fulfilling his doom as seen in the heavens. This natural laws of the universe were interpreted by primitive man and later personified as we have seen into mythos of his culture. Everyone on the planet saw the same things and this explains the uncanny similarities of the Sun-Myths around the globe from thousands of years ago. The suffering of a violent death was a necessary part of the mythos; and, when his hour had come, he must meet his doom, as surely as the Sun, once risen, must go across the sky, and then sink down into his bread beneath the earth or sea. It was a fate from which there was no escaping.
Chrishna, the crucified Savior of the Hindus, is a personification of the Sun crucified in the heavens. One of the names of the Sun in the Vedic hymns is "Vishnu" and it is very important to know that in the Rig-Veda the god Vishnu is often named a a manifestation of Solar Energy, or rather as a form of the Sun (Indian Wisdom, p. 322).
Chrishna is Vishnu is human form. Chrishna says: "I am Vishnu, Brahma, Indra, and the source as well as the destruction of things, the creator and the annihilator of the whole aggregate of existences (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 131).
In the hymns of the Rig-Veda the Sun is spoken of as "stretching out his arms," in the heavens, "to bless the world, and to rescue it from the terror of darkness." This reminds me of many of the examples of Isis with the Sun-disk on her head as she "stretches out her arms."
Indra, the crucified Savior worshipped in Nepal and Tibet, is identical with Chrishna, the Sun. Indra, who was represented as a crucified god, is also the Sun. No sooner is he born than he speaks to his mother. Like Apollo and all other Sun-gods he has "golden locks (reminiscent of the Sun rays of golden light," and like them he is possessed of an inscrutable wisdom. He is also born of a virgin...the Dawn. Chrishna and Indra are one (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. i. pp. 88, 341; vol. ii. p. 131).
The principal Phenician deity, El, which says Parkhurst, in his Hebrew Lexicon, "was the very name the heathens gave to their god Sol, their Lord or Ruler of the Hosts of Heaven," was called "The Preserver (Savior) of the World," for the benefit of which he offered a mystical sacrifice (Wake, Phallism, p. 55). Notice again the connection between the Sun's (Sol's) sacrifice on behalf of mankind!
The crucified Iao (Divine Love personified) is the crucified Adonis, the Sun. The Lord and Savior was called Iao (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 113).
Osiris, the Egyptian Savior, was crucified in the heavens. To the Egyptian the cross was a symbol of immortality, an emblem of the Sun, and the god himself was crucified to the tree, which denoted his fructifying power (Ibid. pp. 115, 125).
Horus was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented, like Chrishna and Christ Jesus, with outstretched arms in the vault of heaven (Bonwick, Egyptian Belief, p. 157).
The story of the crucifixion of Prometheus was allegorical, for Prometheus was only a title of the Sun, expressing providence or foresight, wherefore being crucified in the extremities of the earth, signified originally no more than the restriction of the power of the Sun during the winter months (Knight, Ancient Art and Mythology, p. 88).
Ixion, who was bound to the wheel (Sun wheel), was none other than the god Sol, crucified in the heavens. The Sun, as climbing the heights of heaven, was sometime interpreted by men as the Sun being "arrogant" since for himself he made exorbitant claims. He was punished by being bound to a "fiery cross." Stories were invented of the Sun revolving daily on a four-spoked cross (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 27). Whatever be the origin of the name, Ixion is the "Sun of noonday," crucified in the heavens, whose four-spoked wheel is seen whirling in the highest heaven. So was Ixion bound on the fiery wheel, and the sons of men see the flaming spokes day by day as it whirls in the big heaven. The "wheel" upon which Ixion and criminals were said to have been executed was a cross, the name of the thing was dissembled among Christians; it was a St. Andrew's cross, of which two spokes confined the arms, and two the legs.
Hercules is torn limb from limb; and in this catastrophe we see the "blood-red sunset" which closes the career of Hercules (Cox, Tales of Ancient Greece, p. xxxii). The Sun-god Hercules cannot rise to life of the blessed gods until he has been slain. The morning cannot come until Eos who closed the previous day has faded away and died in the black abyss of night.
Achilleus and Meleagros represent alike the "short-lived Sun," whose course is one of toil for others, ending in an early death, after a series of wonderful victories alternating with periods of darkness and gloom (Ibid., p. xxxiii). In the tales of the Trojan war, it is related of Archilleus that he expires at the Skaian, or western gates of the eveningg. He is slain by Paris, who here appears as the Pani, or dark power, who blots out the light of the Sun from the heaven
We have the story of Adonis, born of a virgin, and known in the countries where he was worshipped as "The Savior of Mankind," killed by the wild boar, afterwards "rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven." This Adonis, Adonai in Hebrew or "My Lord," is simply the Sun. He is crucified in the heavens put to death by the wild boar (personified Winter). "Babylon called Typhon or Winter 'the boar;' they said he killed Adonis or the fertile Sun" (Muller, Science of Religion, p. 186).
The Crucified Dove worshipped by the ancients, was none other than the crucified Sun. Adonis was called the "Dove." At the ceremonies in honor of his resurrection from the dead, the devotees said, "Hail to the Dove! the Restorer of Light" (Calemt, Fragments, vol. ii. pp. 21-22). This Crucified Dove" is described by Pindar, the great lyric poet of Greece, born about 522 B.C.E.
This "Divine Love," of whom Nimrod speaks, was "The First-begotten Son" of the Platonists. The crucifixion of "Divine Love" is often found among the Greeks. Ionah or Juno, according to the Iliad, was bound with fetters, and suspended in space, between heaven and earth. Ixion, Prometheus, Apollo of Miletus were all crucified. At Miletus was the crucified Apollo who overcomes the Serpent of evil and the evil principle in the world.
Semi-Ramis was both a queen of unrivaled celebrity, and also a goddess, worshipped under the form of a Dove. Her name signifies the "Supreme Dove." She is said to have been slain by the last survivor of her sons, while others say, she flew away as a dove. In both Grecian and Hindu histories this mystical queen Semiramis is said to have fought a battle on the banks of the Indus, with a king called Staurobates, in which she was defeated, and from which she flew away in the form of a Dove.
Of this Nimrod says:
Make no mistake about it. This Oriental story has had unbelievable impact and influence in almost every nation of the world. These words apply to Christ Jesus , as well as Semiramis, according to Christian Father Ignatius.
Here we have the crucified Dove, the Sun, for it is well known that the ancients personified the Sun female as well as male.
We also have the fable of the Crucified Rose, illustrated in the jewel of the Rosicrucians. The jewel of the Rosicrucians is formed of a transparent red stone, with cross on one side and a red rose on the other thus forming a crucified rose. This idea stems from the fable of Adonis who was the Sun whom we have seen often crucified whereupon he was then changed into a red rose by Venus (The Rosicrucians, p. 260).
The emblem of the Templars is a red rose on a cross. This is usually surrounded with a glory, and placed on a calvary. This is the Naurutz, Natsir, or Rose of Isuren, of Tamul, or Sharon, or the Water Rose, the Lily Padma, Pena, Lotus, crucified in the heavens for the salvation of man (Ibid.).
Answer for yourself: Is it just coincidence that Jesus Christ was called the Rose, the Rose of Sharon?
Jesus was believed by his followers to be the incarnation of Divine Wisdom. He was the son of Mair or Maria. He was the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, which bloweth in the month of his mother Maia. Thus, when the angel Gabriel gives the salutations to the Virgin, he presents her with the lotus or lily; as may be seen in hundreds of old pictures in Italy. We see therefore that Adonis, "the Lord," "the Virgin-born," "the Crucified," "the Resurrected Dove," "the Restorer of Light," is one and the same with the "Rose of Sharon," the crucified Christ Jesus.
Plato (429 B.C.E.) in his Pimaeus, philosophizing about the Son of God says:
"The next power to the Supreme God was decussated or figured in the shape of a cross on the universe."
The Chrestos was the Logos, the Sun was the manifestation of the Logos or Wisdom to men; or, as it was held by some, it was his peculiar habitation. The Sun being crucified at the time of the winter solstice was represented by the young man playing the Bull (emblem of the Sun) in the Mithraic ceremonies. The Chrest was the Logos, or Divine Wisdom, or a portion of divine wisdom incarnate; in this sense he is really the Sun or the solar power incarnate, and to him everything applicable to the Sun will apply.
Lund, in his Monumental Christianity, provides a great picture of the Christian Savior crucified in the heavens. The pattern of the illustrations can be traced to Chrishna who is also represented crucified in "space." This is exactly displayed in the form of a Romish crucifix, but not fixed to a piece of wood, though the legs and feet are put together in the usual way. There is a glory over the top of it, coming from above, not shining from the figure, as is generally seen in a Roman crucifix. It has a pointed Parthian coronet instead of a crown of thorns. All the avatars, or incarnations of Vishnu, are painted with Ethiopian or Parthian coronets. For these reasons the Christian author will not own that it is a representation of the "True Son of Justice," for he was not crucified in space; but whether it was intended to represent Chrishna, Wittoba, or Jesus, it tells a secret: it shows that someone was represented crucified in the heavens, and undoubtedly has something to do with "The next power to the Supreme God," who, according to Plato, "was decussated or figured in the shape of a cross on the universe." The Sun-gods Apollo, Indra, Wittoba, or Chrishna, and Christ Jesus, are represented as having their feet pierced with nails (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 28).
Answer for yourself: Who was the crucified god whom the ancient Romans worshipped, and whom they, according to Justin Martyr, represented as a man on a cross?
Answer for yourself: Can we doubt, after what we have seen, that he was this same crucified Sol, whose birthday they annually celebrated on 25th of December?
In the poetical tales of the ancient Scandinavians, the same legend is found. Frey, the Deity of the Sun, was fabled to have been killed, at the time of the winter solstice, by the same boar who put the god Adonis to death, therefore a boar was annually offered to him at the great feast of Yule (Knight, Anct. Art and Myth, pp. 87-88). "Baldur the Good," son of the supreme god Odin, and the virgin-goddess Frigga, was also put to death by the sharp thorn of winter.
The ancient Mexicans crucified Savior, Quetzalcoatle, another personification of the Sun, was sometimes represented as crucified in space, in the heavens, in a circle of nineteen figures, the number of the metonic cycle. A serpent (emblem of evil, darkness, and winter) is depriving him of the organ of generation (Higgins, Anacalypsis, vol. ii. p. 32).
It is a well known fact that Christ Jesus, and many of the heathen saviors, healers, and preserving gods, were represented in the form of a Serpent. This is owing to the fact that, in one of its attributes, the Serpent was an emblem of the Sun (think of Moses and the serpent on the cross...the Sun crucified). It may, at first, appear strange that the Serpent should be an emblem of evil, and yet also an emblem of the beneficent divinity; but, as Prof. Renouf remarks, in his Hibbert Lectures, "The moment we understand the nature of a myth, all impossibilities, contradictions, and immoralities disappear."
The serpent is an emblem of evil when represented with his deadly sting; he is the emblem of eternity when represented casting off his skin; and an emblem of the Sun when represented with his tail in his mouth, thus forming a circle. This idea is quite consistent with the ideas entertained by the Phenicians as to the Serpent, which they supposed to have the quality of putting off its old age, and assuming a second youth (Sanchoniation: quoted by Wake: Phallism, p. 43). This idea even existed in the Americas. The great century of the Aztecs was encircled by a serpent grasping its own tail, and the great calendar stone is entwined by serpents bearing human heads in their distended jaws. The annual passage of the Sun, through the signs of the zodiac, being in an oblique path, resembles, or at least the ancients thought so, the tortuous movements of the Serpent, and the facility possessed by this reptile of casting off his skin and producing out of itself a new covering every year, bore some analogy to the termination of the old year and the commencement of the new year. Accordingly, all the ancient spheres: Persians, Indian, Egyptian, Barbaric, Mexican, etc., were surrounded by the figure of a serpent holding its tail in its mouth (Squire: Serpent Symbol, p. 249).
Thus there came to be, not only good, but also bad, serpents, both of which are referred to in the narrative of the Hebrew exodus, but still more clearly in the struggle between good and the bad serpents of Persian mythology, which symbolized Ormuzd, or Mithra, and the evil spirit Ahriman (Wake, Phallism, p. 42).
As the Dove and the Rose, emblems of the Sun, were represented on the cross, so was the Serpent (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. p. 128). The famous "Brazen Serpent," said to have been "set up: by Moses in the wilderness, is called in the Targum (the Aramaic versions of the Old Testament) the Savior! It was probably a serpentine crucifix, as is called a "cross" by Justin Martyr. The crucified serpent denoted the dormant Phallos, or the Sun after it had lost is power. It is the Sun in winter, crucified on a tree, which denoted its fructifying power. Being the most intimately connected with the reproduction of life on earth, the Linga became the symbol under which the Sun, invoked with a thousand names, has been worshipped throughout the world as the restorer of the powers of nature after the long sleep or death of Winter. In the brazen Serpent of the Pentateuch, the two emblems of the Cross and the Serpent, the quiescent and energizing Phallos, are united (Cox, Aryan Mythology, vol. ii. pp. 113-118). As Mr. Wake remarks, "There can be no doubt that both the Pillar (Phallus) and the Serpent were associated with many of the Sun-gods of antiquity (Wake, Phallism, p. 60).
This is seen often when the serpent is represented with rays of glory surrounding its head.
The Ophrites, who venerated the serpent as an emblem of Christ Jesus, are said to have maintained that the serpent of Genesis, who brought wisdom into the world, was Christ Jesus. The brazen serpent was called the Word by the Chaldee paraphrast. The Word, or Logos, was Divine Wisdom, which was crucified; thus we have the cross, or Phallus, with the serpent upon it. Besides considering the serpent as the emblem of Christ Jesus, or of the Logos, the Ophites are said to have revered it as the cause of all the arts of civilized life. Several females have been believed to have been selected and impregnated by the Holy Ghost, and is was, in some cases, the form of a serpent which was the form the Holy Ghost chose to impregnate them. This was the incarnation of the Logos.
The serpent was held in great veneration by the ancients, who, considered it as the symbol of the beneficent Deity, and an emblem of eternity. As such it has been variously expressed on ancient sculptures and medals in various parts of the globe.
Although generally, it did not always, symbolize the god Sun, or the power of which the Sun is an emblem; but, invested with various meanings, it entered widely into the primitive mythologies. As Mr.. Squire observes:
"It typified wisdom, power, duration, the good and evil principles, life, reproduction; in short, in Egypt, Syria, Greece, India, China, Scandinavia, America, everywhere on the globe, it has been a prominent emblem" (Squire, Serpent Symbols, p. 155).
The serpent was the symbol of Vishnu, the preserving god, the Savior, the Sun ( Wake, Phallism in Acnt. Religs., p. 72). It was an emblem of the Sun-god Buddha, the Angel-Messiah (Ibid. p. 73; Squire, Serpent Symbol, p. 195). The Egyptian Sun-god Osiris, the Savior, is associated with the snake (Faber, Orig. Pagan Idol., in Squire, p. 158). The Persian Mithra, the Mediator, Redeemer, and Savior, was symbolized by the serpent (Ibid.). The Phenicians represented their beneficent Sun-god, Agathodemon, by a serpent (Kendrick, Egypt, vol. i. p. 375). The serpent was, among the Greeks and Romans, the emblem of a beneficent genius. Antipator of Sidon, calls the god of Ammon, the "Renowned Serpent" (Ibid.). The Grecian Hercules, the Sun-god, was symbolized as a serpent; and so was AEsculapius and Apollo. The Hebrews, at one time in their antiquity, worshipped the Sun-god Sol, and represented him in he form of a serpent. This the the "seraph" spoken of above as set up by Moses (Num. 21:3) and worshipped by the children of Israel. Seraph is the singular of seraphim, meaning Semilice (splendor, fire, light); emblematic of the fiery disk of the Sun, and which, under the name of Nehush-tan, "Serpent-dragon," was broken up by the reforming Hezekiah.
The principal god of the Aztecs was Tonac-actcoatl, which means the Serpent Sun (Squire, p. 161).
The Mexican virgin-born Lord and Savior, Quetzalcoatle, was represented in the form of a serpent. In fact, his names signifies "Feathered Serpent." Quetzaloatle was a personification of the Sun (Ibid. p. 185).
So we see it is relatively easy to connect the Serpent and the Sun, as corresponding symbols of the reproductive or creative powers.
The mysteries of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, in Egypt; Attis and Cybele, in Phrygia; Ceres and Proserpine, at Eleusis; of Venus and Adonis, in Phenicia; of Bona Dea and Priapus, in Rome, and all susceptible of one explanation. They all set forth and illustrated, by solemn and impressive rites, and mystical symbols, the grad phenomenon of nature, especially as connected with the creation of things and the perpetuation of life. In all, it is worthy of remark, the Serpent was more or less conspicuously introduced, and always as symbolical of the invigorating or active energy of nature, the Sun.
In early Christian art Christ Jesus was represented as a crucified lamb. The crucified lamb is "the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world, and slain from the foundation of the world" (Lundy, Monumental Christianity, p. 185). In other words, the crucified lamb typifies the crucified Sun, for the lamb was another symbol of the Sun and one of the signs of the Zodiac. This concept had been applied since the beginning to the crucified Sun-heroes of myth as seen in the example of Chrisha being connected with the constellation Aires and being called the "Lamb of God."
With Justin Martyr, then, we can say:
"There exists not a people, whether Greek or barbarian, or any other race of men, by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture, whether they dwell under the tents, or wander about in crowed wagons, among whom prayers are not offered up in the name of a CRUCIFIED SAVIOR to the Father and creator of all things" (Justin Martyr, Dialog. With Typho, quoted in Gibbons' Rome, vol. i. p. 582).
THE ROLE OF ST. PAUL AND FURTHER EXAMPLES OF CRUCIFIED SAVIORS DOWN THROUGH HISTORY