Are there Old Testament roots of the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Margaret Barker traces the roots of the devotion to Mary as Mother of the Lord back to the Old Testament and the first temple in Jerusalem. The evidence is consistent over more than a millennium: there had been a female deity in Israel, the Mother figure in the Royal cult, who had been abandoned about 600BCE. She was almost written out of the Hebrew text, almost excluded from the canon.
This first of two volumes traces the history of the Lady in the Temple, and looks forward to the second volume in which Barker will show how the Lady of the Temple is reclaimed in the advent of Christianity, and becomes the Lady in the Church. The result is breathtaking, and like all Barker's work, is impossible to put down.
A Great Mystery: The Secret of the Jerusalem Temple by
Eugene Seaich
In this thoroughly provocative book, the late Eugene Seaich made a detailed study of the intractable mystery of the Jerusalem temple. Using historical sources and ingenious detective work, Seaich suggested that the cherubim in Solomon's temple were portrayed in a copulatory embrace. Aware that this thesis was not entirely novel, the author built a substantial case in its favor and traced the influence of the atonement (at-one-ment) theology behind the concept through the periods of Israel's wisdom school, into the New Testament and Gnostic sources, up through the Middle Ages.
Seaich was a close associate of Patai and took this line of research even farther. He also was a Mormon who authored an amazing book on entheogens and religion:
"In The Far Off Land Eugene Seaich discusses the perennially fascinating topic of such mind-altering drugs as mescaline, psilocybin, and LSD, both how they appear in Nature and in the laboratory. This road has been traveled before, but Eugene takes a fascinating detour. He goes back millennia, glimpses the future, and goes deeply within his own psyche leading to a better understanding of the mind and our consciousness. These chemicals can be used as tools to help better lives, cure mental illness, transcend our conciousness and ultimitly to improve humanity . The reader might start reading about this "far off land," thinking that is an exotic destination. But after a few chapters, the engrossing prose will be reminiscent of one's home turf."
-Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.
THIS IS AN AMAZING PODCAST (MP3) ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. SEAICH:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120125033949/http://www.backyardprofessor.com/the_backyard_professor/files/eugene_seaich01.mp3
MORE ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. SEAICH:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Eugene-Seaich/226146687467770
