with children, whereas the Essenes frowned on connubiality. Jesus' own lifestyle would have shocked the Essenes, for even the non-Essenes in his time and place were horrified by his tendency to consort with sinners, publicans and tax gatherers - all considered `impure' and contaminating by the sect.
67. Russell, p. 86.
68. This quaint, not to say desperate, explanation was actually put to me by an Anglican minister in Bristol in the early 1990s. He said he had learned about the life cycles of the other gods at theological college, but dismissed them as ,unimportant'.
69. Ignatius, Epistle to the Trallians, 4.2.
70. Russell, p. 37.
71. Jean Danielou, The Origins of Latin Christianity, London, 1977, p. 69.
72. Quoted in Russell, p. 42.
73. Robert M. Grant, Gnosticism: A Source Book of Heretical Writings from the Early Christian Period, New York, 1962, p. 15.
74. Robert McL. Wilson, The Gnostic Problem, London, 1958, p. 191.
75. Milton, 1:145-8.
76. Ibid.
77. Russell, p. 122.
78. See the Catholic Encyclopedia's entry for `Baptism' .
79. Walker,p.818.
80. Ibid.
81. Ibid.
82. Edith Hamilton, Mythology, Boston, 1940, p. 70. Quoted in Walker, p.818.
83. Leviticus 4:31.
84. Walker, p. 818.
85. Jean Markale, Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars, p. 137.
86. Milton, 1:258-9.
87. Ibid., 1:263.
88. Tertullian, Adversus Marcionem, 2.10.
89. Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, New York, 1984, p. 54.
90. For example, see Tobias Churton, The Gnostic Philosophy, Lichfield, 2003, p.331.
91. R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, Spell 149, p. 144.
92. Walker, p. 910.
93. Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London, 1936, p. 34.
94. Plutarch, Isis and Osiris, xxi-xxvi.
95. Genesis 3:8.
96. Luckert, p. 130.
97. Book of the Dead, 307: 544-5.
98. Luke 10:18.
99. There is no better introduction to these Gospels than Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels, London 1982. See also Picknett, Chapter Four.
100. Werner Foerster, Gnosis: A Selection of Gnostic Texts, Oxford, 2 volumes, 1972-4. The Gospel of Philip, 2:79.
101. Russell, p. 58.
102. Revelation 12:7-9.
103. Ibid.
1. Jean Markale, Montsegur and the Mystery of the Cathars, p. 196.
2. Jeffrey Burton Russell, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition, New York, 1981, p. 96.
3. Jeffrey Burton Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages, New York, 1984, p. 76.
4. Barbara G. Walker, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, New York, 1983, p. 542.
5. Rossell Hope Robbins, Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, New York, 1959, p. 127.
6. Walker, p. 960.
7. A. T. Mann and Jane Lyle, Sacred Sexuality, Shaftesbury, 1995, p. 137.
8. Robbins, p. 127.
9. Jeffrey Burton Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages, New York, 1972, p. 75.
10. Robbins, p. 127.
11. Walker, p. 433.
12. William G Denver, `Asherah, Consort of Yahweh? New Evidence from Kuntillar 'Arjund', Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (BASOR), Vol. 255 (1984), pp. 21-27.
13. See Lynn Picknett, Mary Magdalene: Christianity's Hidden Goddess, London, 2003, pp. 152-3.
14. Salonon Reinach, Orpheus, New York, 1930, p. 42.
15. Ibid. Walker is quoting from Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, New York, 2 vols, 1969.
16. William Powell Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, New York, 1968, pp. 121 and 210.
17. Walker, p. 66.
18. Andre Lemaire, `Who or What was Yahweh's Asherah?', The Biblical Archaeology Review, Vol. 10, No. 6 (Nov/Dec 1984), p. 42. He quotes the discovery of an inscription that reads: `Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and his Asherath'.
19. Walker is quoting from Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, London, 1968, p. 74.
20. Walker, p. 66.
21. Exodus 23:19 - `Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk'.
22. Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, Detroit, 1990, p. 38.
23. Walker, p. 66.
24. Kings 14:23.
25. Raphael Patai, The Hebrew Goddess, Detroit, 1990, p. 50.
26. 2 Kings 21:3.
27. 1 Kings 11:4-6.
28. Milton, 1:435-45.
29. Picknett, pp 134-40.
30. Walker, p. 552.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid., p. 416.
33. Ibid.
34. Geraldine Thorsten, God Herself: The Feminine Roots of Astrology, New York, 1981, p. 336.
35. Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London, 1936, p. 44.
36. Patai, p. 68.
37. Ibid., p. 96.
38. Robert Briffault, The Mothers, New York, 1927, Vol. 2, p. 605.
39. Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, London, 1940, p. 776.
40. Henrich Kramer and James Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum [Hammer of the Witches], London, 1971, p. 66. Originally published in 1485.
41. Ahmed, p. 118.
42. Proverbs, 8:1-11.
43. Ibid., 14:33.
44. Patai, p. 98.
45. Tinkerbell was Peter Pan's fairy companion in J.M. Barrie's classic play Peter Pan (1904). Whether consciously or unknowingly, Barrie included a great many occult ideas. Magic - such as the ability to fly - ceases when children grow up; intense belief makes anything happen, such as bringing Tinkerbell back to life; and Peter muses `Dying must be an awfully big adventure'.
46. Ibid., p. 111.
