I have yet to provide all links for bibliography or rewrite this page in my own words. For the mean time you may read my half assed notes, typos included, taken from 'The Two Babylons' by Alexander Hislop
And now let's review the historical origins of.....
LAMPS AND WAX CANDLES
If the Madonna and child are set up in a niche, they
must have a lamp to burn before them ; if mass is to be celebrated,
though in broad daylight, there must be wax-candles lighted on the
altar ; if a grand procession is to be formed, it cannot be thorough
and complete without lighted tapers to grace the goodly show. The
use of these lamps and tapers comes from the same source as all the
rest of the Papal superstition. That which caused the "Heart,"
when it became an emblem of the incarnate Son, to be represented
as a heart on fire, required also that burning lamps and lighted
candles should form part of the worship of that Son ; for so, according
to the established rites of Zoroaster, was the sun-god worshipped. :£
When every Egyptian on the same night was required to light a
lamp before his house in the open air, this was an act of homage to
the sun, that had veiled its glory by enshrouding itself in a human
form.S When the Yezidis of Koordistan, at this day, once a-year
celebrate their festival of "burning lamps," that, too, is to the
X See third Note.
§ See ante, p. 118.
...honour of Sheikh Shems, or the Sun.* * IdentiHed with Sheik Adi. See Nineveh and Babylon, p. 81, and Nineveh and
its Remains, vol. i. pp. 289, 290.
by the lighting of
lamps and tapers before the favourite divinity. In Babylon, this
practice had been exceedingly prevalent, as we learn from the
Apocryphal writer of the book of Baruch. " They (the Babylonians),"
says he, "light up lamps to their gods, and that in greater
numbers, too, than they do for themselves, although the gods cannot
see one of them, and are senseless as the beams of their houses."t t Babuch, vi. 19, 20. The above is from Diodati's Translation. The common
English version, so far as the point in hand is concerned, is substantially the
same.
Licinius, the Pagan Emperor, before joining battle with Constantine,
his rival, calling a council of his friends in a thick wood, and there
offering sacrifices to his gods, " lighting up wax tapers " before them,
and at the same time, in his speech, giving his gods a hint, that if
they did not give him the victory against Constantine, his enemy
and theirs, he would be under the necessity of abandoning their
worship, and lighting up no more "wax-tapers to their honour."!J Eusebius, Vita Constantini, lib. ii. 5, p. 183.
"At these solemnities," says Dr. Middleton, referring to
Apuleius as his authority, "at these solemnities, the chief magistrate
used frequently to assist, in robes of ceremony, attended by
the priests in surplices, with wax-candles in their hands, carrying
upon a pageant or thensa, the images of their gods, dressed out in
their best clothes ; these were usually followed by the principal
youth of the place, in white linen vestments or surplices, singing
hymns in honour of the gods whose festivals they were celebrating,
accompanied by crowds of all sorts that were initiated in the same
religion, all with flambeaux or wax-candles in their hands. "§§ Middleton's Letter from Rome, p. 189. Apuleius, vol. i., Metam., cap ix
pp. 1014-1016, and cap. x. pp. 1019-1021.
Now,
so thoroughly and exclusively Pagan was this custom of lighting up
lamps and candles in daylight, that we find Christian writers, such
as Lactantius, in the fourth century, exposing the absurdity of the
practice, and deriding the Romans " for lighting up candles to God,
as if he lived in the dark."|| || Lactantius, Institut., Hb. vi. cap. 2, p. 289.
Up to the time of the Council of
Trent, she thus prayed on Easter Eve, at the blessing of the Easter
candles : " Calling upon thee in thy works, this holy Eve of Easter,
we offer most humbly unto thy Majesty this sacrifice ; namely, a fire
not defiled with the fat of flesh, nor polluted with unholy oil or
ointment, nor attainted with any profane fire ; but we offer unto thee
with obedience, proceeding from perfect devotion, afire of wrought
WAX and wick, kindled and made to burn in honour of thy name.
This so great a Mystery therefore, and the marvellous sacrament of
this holy eve,must needs be extolled with due and deserved
praises."** " Office for Easter Eve," in Review of Epistle of Dr. Gentianus Harvbt of
Louvaine, p. 229, B, and 230, A.
there was some occult "Mystery," as is here
declared, couched under the "wax-candles," in the original system of
idolatry, from which Rome derived its ritual, may be well believed,
when it is observed with what unanimity nations the most remoce
have agreed to use wax-candles in their sacred rites. Among the
Tungusians, near the Lake Baikal in Siberia, "wax-tapers are placed
before the Burchans," the gods or idols of that country.!+ Asiatic Journal, vol. xvii. pp. 593, 596.
In the
Molucca Islands, wax-tapers are used in the worship of the Nito, or
Devil, whom these islanders adore. "Twenty or thirty persons
having assembled," says Hurd, "they summon the Nito, by beating
a small consecrated drum, whilst two or more of the company light
up wax-tapers, and pronounce several mysterious words, which they
consider as able to conjure him up."Jj Sites and Ceremonies, p. 91, col. 1.
The wax-candle was, in fact, »
hieroglyphic, like so many other things which we have already seen,
and was intended to exhibit the Babylonian god in one of the
essential characters of the Great Mediator. The classic reader may
remember that one of the gods of primeval antiquity was called
Ouranos,|| that is, "The Enlightener."|| In this very character was Nimrod worshipped when, he was deified. From Aor or our, "light," and dn, "to act upon" or produce, the same as
our English particle en, " to make." Ouranos, then, is " The Eulightener." This
Ouranos is, by Sanchuniathon, the Phoenician, called the son of Elioun i.e., as he
himself, or Philo-Byblius, interprets the name, "The Most High."—(Sanch., pp.
16-19.) Ouranos, in the physical sense, is "The Shiner;" and by Hesychius
{sub voce "Akmon") it is made equivalent to Kronos, which also has the same
meaning, for Krn, the verb from which it comes, signifies either "to put forth
horns," or "to send forth rays of light;" and, therefore, while the epithet
Kronos, or " The Horned One," had primarily reference to the physical power of
Nimrod as a " mighty " king ; when that king was deified, and made " Lord of
Heaven," that name, Kronos, was still applied to him in his new character as
"The Shiner or Lightgiver." The distinction made by Hesiod between Ouranos and Kronos, ^ is no argument against the real substantial identity of these
divinities originally as Pagan, divinities ; for Herodotus (Hist., lib. ii. cap. 53)
states that Hesiod had a hand in " inventing a theogony " for the Greeks, which
implies that some at least of the details of that theogony must have come from
his own fancy ; and, on examination, it will be found, when the veil of allegory
is removed, that Hesiod's " Ouranos," though introduced as one of the Pagan
gods, was really at bottom the " God of Heaven," the living and true God. See
what is said in regard to Hesiod's " Titan " in Chap. VII. Sect. V.
As the Sun-god he
was regarded not only as the illuminator of the material world, but
as the enlightener of the souls of men, for he was recognised as
the revealer of "goodness and truth."* * Wilktnson, vol. iv. p. 189.
p194
Now, to
identify the Sun-god with the Great Revealer of the Godhead, while
under the name of Mithra, he was exhibited in sculpture as a Lion
that Lion had a Bee represented between his lips.ft Dupdis, DeVarigine des tons les cultes, vol. iv. p. 194. The above figure is
from Hyde, De Yetere Religione Persavum, p. 113.
The
bee between the lips of the Sun-god was intended to point him out
as " the Word ; " for Dabar, the expression which signifies in Chaldee
a " Bee," signifies also a " Word ; " and the position of that bee in
the mouth leaves no doubt as to the idea intended to be conveyed.
It was intended to impress the belief that Mithra (who, says
Plutarch, was worshipped as Mesites, "The Mediator"),!X Pldtakch, De hide, vol. ii. p. 369.
This had evidently been a primitive name by which He
was known ; and therefore it is not wonderful that Plato should
speak of the second person of his Trinity under the name of the
Logos, which is just a translation of "Dabar," or "the Word." t
Now, the light of the wax-candle, as the light from Dabar, " the
Bee," was set up as the substitute of the light of Dabar, " the Word."
Thus the apostates turned away from the " True Light," and set up
a shadow in His stead. That this was really the case is plain ; for,
says Crabb, speaking of Saturn, "on his altars were placed waxtapers
lighted, because by Saturn men were reduced, from the
darkness of error to the light of truth." % In* After the Babylonish captivity, as the Chaldee Targums or Paraphrases of
the Old Testament show, Christ was commonly called by the title "The Word of
the Lord." In these Targums of later Chaldee, the term for "The Word" is
" Mimra ; " but this word, though a synonym for that which is used in the
Hebrew Scriptures, is never used there. Dabar is the word employed. This is
so well recognised that, in the Hebrew translation of John's Gospel in Bagster's
Polyglott, the first verse runs thus : " In the beginning was the Word (Dabar)."
t Platonis Opera, vol. i. p. 85, E.
J Crabb's Mythology, p. 12.
we find Miiller referring to the symbols connected with the
worship of the Ephesian Diana : " Her constant symbol is the bee,
which is not otherwise attributed to Diana The chief priest
himself was called Essen, or the king-bee." %§ Mulleb's Dorians, vol. i. pp. 403, 404. Oxford, 1830.
By learning to decipher the symbolic language of ritual you understand who or what it is you are adoring. The god's don't care what you call them as long as you call them. Names change but rituals stay the same. Discover who is really being worshiped.
