| As little as 300 years ago I would have been | | | | person.On the other hand Jesus may indeed be |
| burned at the stake or tortured to death by | | | | based upon Apollonius, which sheds an |
| some bigoted inquisition for asking such a | | | | entirely new light on the matter. By accepted |
| question - is Jesus Christ an impostor? Today | | | | tradition, Apollonius was born in the reign |
| in the 21st century I could still be | | | | of Augustus, the great literary age of the |
| victimised and abused and in some | | | | nation of which he was a subject and the same |
| fundamentalist States be ostracised. But the | | | | age as the literary Jesus. In the Augustan |
| stark truth remains that we have very little | | | | age historians flourished; poets, orators, |
| evidence for the man that millions of | | | | critics and travellers abounded. Yet not one |
| Christian's around the globe worship. Surely, | | | | of them mentions the name of Jesus Christ, |
| if, like Robin Hood and King Arthur, the | | | | much less any incident of his life. The |
| character of Jesus was built upon that of a | | | | Emperor Marcus Aurelius admitted that it was |
| real man, then we would be able to find him | | | | to Apollonius that he owed his own |
| in history? Well, we may very well have had | | | | philosophy, and erected Temples and statues |
| him before our eyes the whole time!Apollonius | | | | in his honour. No statues or Temples were |
| of Tyana was born in the 3rd or 4th Year BC | | | | erected to Jesus.Faust said, "Everyone knows |
| in Tyana in Cappadocia, at 16 became a | | | | that the Evangeliums were written neither by |
| disciple of Pythagoras, renouncing flesh, | | | | Jesus nor by his apostle, but long after |
| wine and women. He wore no shoes and let his | | | | their time by some unknown persons, who, |
| hair and beard grow long.He soon became a | | | | judging well that they would hardly be |
| reformer and stayed in the Temple of | | | | believed when telling of things they had not |
| Aesculapius. As we were to discover in The | | | | seen themselves, headed their narratives with |
| Serpent Grail, this great Greek deity of | | | | the names of the apostles or disciples |
| healing was himself closely linked to what we | | | | contemporaneous with the latter."On the other |
| would come to know as the serpent | | | | hand, the written record of the life of |
| cult.Apollonius was thought to have been one | | | | Apollonius is very sound and Philostratos who |
| of the wisest of all men. This in itself gave | | | | wrote the Life of Apollonius was the close |
| us a clue, for Sophia or wisdom derived from | | | | friend of Damus who had related the whole |
| the root Ophia or serpent and S'Ophia meant | | | | thing in person.Philostratos said, "Some |
| simply, shining serpent. You see, we | | | | consider him as one of the Magi, because he |
| discovered that Apollonius in all likelihood | | | | conversed with the Magi of Babylon and the |
| gained his immense wisdom whilst at the feet | | | | Brahmans of India and the Gymnosophists of |
| of the wise serpentine Naga sages of the | | | | Egypt. But even his wisdom is reviled, as |
| Indian sub-continent.We can see evidence of | | | | being acquired by the magic art, so erroneous |
| this from Philostratos [1], the biographer of | | | | are the opinions formed of him. Whereas |
| Apollonius, who tells us of the journey to | | | | Empedocles and Pythagoras and Democritus, |
| Kashmir to meet the Naga sage Larchus and of | | | | though they conversed with the same Magi, and |
| the "emerald valley set in a rim of pearls" | | | | advanced many paradoxical sentiments, have |
| and of the tales that Apollonius told his | | | | not fallen under the like imputation. Even |
| travelling companion, Damus, of dragons which | | | | Plato, who travelled in Egypt, and blended |
| lived in the hills. Both emerald and pearls | | | | with his doctrines many opinions collected |
| have symbolic resonance with wisdom and | | | | there from the priests and prophets, incurred |
| knowledge and the dragons, which lived in the | | | | not such a suspicion, though above all men on |
| hills, were nothing more than the Naga, or | | | | account of his superior wisdom."The very fact |
| serpent followers of the region.Let's just | | | | that Apollonius was in danger of usurping the |
| take the time to look a little deeper into | | | | "idea" of Christ with his own "factual" life |
| these Naga or Naaga:-Naga is a Sanskrit term | | | | caused much consternation amongst the early |
| meaning literally Serpent (especially cobra), | | | | Christians. Justin Martyr, one of the Church |
| but interestingly it also holds the meanings | | | | Fathers of the 2nd century said, "How is it |
| - a tree; a mountain; the sun; the number | | | | that the talismans by Apollonius have power |
| seven; wisdom and initiate - all symbols and | | | | over certain members of creation, for they |
| emblems we became familiar with in our search | | | | prevent, as we have seen, the fury of the |
| for those who worshipped of the serpent. The | | | | waves, the violence of the winds, and the |
| Naga were and indeed are said to reside in | | | | attacks of wild beasts. And whilst Our Lord's |
| Patala, an underwater kingdom much like | | | | miracles are preserved by tradition alone, |
| Atlantis, however this has a meaning similar | | | | those of Apollonius are most numerous, and |
| to antipodes, the same name given by the | | | | actually manifested in present facts, so as |
| ancients to the America's.Naga is a similar | | | | to lead astray all beholders?"The book by |
| term to the Mexican Nagals, the medicine | | | | Philostratos was therefore, and not |
| (healers) and sorcerers who always kept a god | | | | surprisingly, kept back from translation and |
| in the shape of a serpent. In Burma they are | | | | distribution. In fact, the books of the New |
| Nats or serpent gods. Esoterically Naga is a | | | | Testament did not appear until at least one |
| term for wise men. There is a folk tradition | | | | hundred years after the Life of |
| that Nagas washed Gautama (Buddha) at his | | | | Apollonius.Even the birth of Apollonius bears |
| birth - the wise men visiting the deity on | | | | some remarkable similarities to the fictional |
| Earth. They are also said to have guarded him | | | | life of Christ. Whilst his mother was |
| and the relics of his body after his | | | | pregnant with Apollonius, Proteus, the |
| death.According to H. P. Blavatsky in | | | | Egyptian God, appeared to her and said, "Thou |
| Theosophical Glossary, the Naga were | | | | shalt bring forth me!" The mother of |
| descended from Rishi Kasyapa who had twelve | | | | Apollonius was to bring forth |
| wives (therefore he is the sun), by whom he | | | | God.Incidentally, Proteus was known to take |
| had numerous Nagas (serpents) and was the | | | | the form of a snake.According to Phillimore, |
| father of all animals. Rishi Kasyapa can | | | | Apollonius actually founded a church and a |
| therefore be none other than a progenitor of | | | | community, made up of his disciples. It is |
| the Green Man, and this partly explains the | | | | highly likely that these were connected to a |
| reasons for the appearance of the snake in | | | | branch of the Essene, known as the Therapeuts |
| images of the Green Man and Horned God, such | | | | and Nazarenes and who we also know were |
| as upon the Gundestrup Cauldron.The Naga of | | | | closely linked to the Indian Brahmins and the |
| Kashmir instructed Apollonius of Tyana. This | | | | Nagas.Indeed there was a group known as the |
| is the same Kashmir where the serpent tribes | | | | Apolloniei - the adherents of Apollonius - |
| became famous for their healing skills. There | | | | who actually survived some centuries after |
| is a theory that the Nagas descended from the | | | | his death. These constituted what became the |
| Scythic race (who brought many of the | | | | Christian Church, after the Council of Nicaea |
| Arthurian legends to the British Isles) and | | | | - so Apollonius did indeed begin |
| when the Brahmins invaded India they found a | | | | Christianity, based upon serpentine myths and |
| race of wise men, half gods, half demons | | | | traditions of the oldest order.In fact |
| (snakes). These men were said to be teachers | | | | Eunapius stated that Philostratos should have |
| of other nations and themselves instructed | | | | called his book "The Sojourning of a God |
| the Hindu's and Brahmans - no wonder that | | | | Among Men." However once the decision had |
| Apollonius visited them.'Then come the Naaga, | | | | been made to plump for the newly created |
| the Siren serpents, whose worship has been so | | | | Christ, cobbled together from various |
| important a factor in the folklore, | | | | deities, Apollonius was repressed. It is |
| superstition, and poetry of India from the | | | | basically because of books like the one of |
| earliest times down to-day. Cobras in their | | | | Philostratos that the ancient libraries at |
| ordinary shape, they lived, like mermen and | | | | places such as Alexandria were torched. |
| mermaids, more beneath the water, in a great | | | | Destroy the evidence of the opposition and |
| luxury and wealth, more especially of germ, | | | | there appears to be no opposition. But they |
| and sometimes, as we shall see, the name is | | | | missed one vital piece of evidence in their |
| used of the Dryads, the tree-spirits, equally | | | | own book.In 1st Corinthians 3:3-6 it says, |
| wealthy and powerful. They could at will and | | | | "for while one saith, I am of Apollos, are ye |
| often did, adopt the human form and though | | | | not carnal? Who, then, is Paul, and whom |
| terrible if angered, were kindly and mild by | | | | Apollos, but ministers, by whom ye believed, |
| nature. Not mentioned either in the Veda or | | | | even as the Lord gave to every man? I have |
| in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads, the myth | | | | planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the |
| seems to be a strange jumble of beliefs, not | | | | increase."I could so easily have overlooked |
| altogether pleasant, about a strangely gifted | | | | this had it not been for a chance discovery |
| race of actual men; combined with notions | | | | of an ancient version of 1st Corinthians |
| derived from previously existing theories of | | | | found in a French monastery by a Huguenot |
| tree worship, and serpent worship, and river | | | | soldier entitled the Codex Bezae. The name |
| worship. But the history of the idea has | | | | Apollos is spelt Apollonius! In fact in the |
| still to be written. The Naagas are | | | | Encyclopaedia Britannica the name Apollo in |
| represented on the ancient bas-reliefs as men | | | | this context can also mean Apollonius. Indeed |
| or women either with cobra's hoods rising | | | | this Apollos was said to have even visited |
| behind their heads or with serpentine forms | | | | Paul (the apostle who did not suffer from |
| from their waist downwards.' Rhys Davies, | | | | snakebites) and he was called an Alexandrian |
| Buddhist India, p.223.These tree deities were | | | | Jew. It is possible that Apollonius brought |
| Nagas anyway as Rhys Davies continues on page | | | | back a new gospel of Chrishna from the |
| 223 'The tree-deities were called Naagas, and | | | | Kashmir interlude with the serpent sages and |
| were able at will, like the Naagas, to assume | | | | it was this, which gave birth to the Christ |
| the human form and in one story the spirit of | | | | that was in reality based upon serpent |
| a Nunyan tree who reduced the merchants to | | | | worship. Now we know why Christ sloughed off |
| ashes is called a Naaga-raja, the tree itself | | | | his shroud in the tomb, just as the snake |
| is a dwelling place of Naaga. It seems that | | | | sloughs its skin and is resurrected. Now we |
| they also left behind myths of healing as a | | | | know why the early Christians were known as |
| story in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of | | | | Ophites, it simply means serpent worshippers. |
| the Asiatic Society demonstrates. When there | | | | Now we know that the African practice of |
| was an epidemic among the children, it seems | | | | sacrificing snakes upon trees |
| the only answer was to bring them to a snake | | | | |
| skin which was hung on a pole and allow them | | | | eventually found its coils embroiled in one |
| to touch it - reminding us of the idea of the | | | | of the largest religions to ever appear in |
| Brazen Serpent of Moses, which was upon a | | | | the world and gave us the image of the son of |
| pole and for the healing of the "children" of | | | | God. Now we know why Vatican not only means |
| Israel. This may explain why it is that the | | | | hill, it means hill of snakes.Notes1 In De |
| tree-gods are not specially and separately | | | | Vita Apollonii (The Life of Apollonius) |
| mentioned in the Maha Samaya list of deities | | | | Philostratos tells us of the superstitious |
| who are there said by the poet to have come | | | | practices carried out by those of Arabia and |
| to pay reverence to the Buddha.'The history | | | | India with some remarkable tales about |
| of the Nagas that we do have, textually | | | | "eating the heart and liver of serpents, for |
| beginning around the 7th century BC is an | | | | the purpose of acquiring knowledge of the |
| amazing history of ups and downs. It | | | | thoughts and languages of animals." |
| parallels the rise and fall of the serpent | | | | Philostratos wrote extensively on Apollonius |
| worshipped by the Semites, with the Brazen | | | | of Tyana, the great sage who is seen by many |
| Serpent being raised in the wilderness and | | | | as being the true Christ.2 Taxila was the |
| then broken up in the temple.The hill where | | | | capital of ancient Punjab (Hindus). In the |
| these wise men lived [2] was defended on all | | | | Sanskrit language it was Takshacila or simply |
| sides by immense piles of rocks. As soon as | | | | "Prince of the serpent tribe." Taxila was a |
| the travellers had dismounted a messenger | | | | famous place, having been mentioned in |
| from one of the Masters appeared, wearing of | | | | several languages and connected with the |
| all things, a serpent Caduceus on his brow - | | | | infamous Silk Road between the Far West |
| an obvious allusion to the enlightenment | | | | (Babylonia) and the Far East (China). Here |
| process via the Indian Kundalini, or coiled | | | | lies the oldest known Hindu shrine in the |
| serpent.Platitudes were given and when in | | | | Pillared Hall, on the site of the western |
| conversation Apollonius learned from one | | | | end, said to have had a ceremonial function. |
| called Larchus, that these Nagas had | | | | The king of Taxila was called Taxiles and in |
| delivered their wisdom to the Egyptians and | | | | 329 BC he invited Alexander the Great to |
| even Ethiopia, which as Hivviah or Cush, | | | | support him against aggressors. In 184 BC the |
| named after the worship of serpents. In truth | | | | Greeks invaded and placed Demetrius on the |
| it seems that the wisdom of the serpent | | | | throne. The town was rebuilt and strangely it |
| brothers spread far and wide.Eventually | | | | was called Sirkap (severed head). It was a |
| Apollonius became a wise sage himself and his | | | | multi-ethnic area now with Greeks, Bactrians, |
| own notoriety grew. Aurelian vowed to erect | | | | western Iranians and Hindus all living |
| Temples and statues to his honour "for was | | | | together. There was a great mix of Hinduism, |
| there ever any thing among men more holy, | | | | serpent worship, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and |
| venerable, noble, and divine than Apollonius? | | | | Greek religious beliefs all mixing together-a |
| He restored life to the dead; he did and | | | | place very much like Alexandria.Apollonius of |
| spoke many things beyond human reach." | | | | Tyana went to Taxila as we find in the Life |
| (Vopiscus in Aurelian, cap. 24)Truly, Temples | | | | of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratos. "I |
| and statues were erected to Apollonius in | | | | have already described the way in which the |
| many places, including his own town of Tyana. | | | | city is walled, but they say that it was |
| Unlike Jesus, there is evidence to prove that | | | | divided up into narrow streets in the same |
| Apollonius actually existed. As Moncure D. | | | | irregular manner as in Athens, and that the |
| Conway said in his book Modern Thought:"The | | | | houses were built in such a way that if you |
| world has been for a long time engaged in | | | | look at them from outside they had only one |
| writing lives of Jesus."The library of such | | | | storey, while if you went unto one of them, |
| writing has grown since then. But when we | | | | you at once found subterranean chambers |
| come to examine them, one startling fact | | | | extending as far below the level of the earth |
| confronts us: all these books relate to a | | | | as did the chambers above." (Section 2.2). It |
| personage concerning whom there does not | | | | was the King of Taxila (Phroates) who wrote a |
| exist a single scrap of contemporary | | | | letter of recommendation for Apollonius to |
| information - not one! Nobody can say with | | | | Iarchus in-order to have him learn the wisdom |
| any conviction that Jesus was a real | | | | of the Nagas of Kashmir. |