Chapter 18

And Then Along Comes Mary

For centuries, mother goddesses had held a special place of honor and
veneration among those that practiced idolatry and witchcraft. The Great Mother
goddess was viewed as the source of all life.

The Egyptian goddess Rhea was called Mother of the gods, and the Sumerianís
(the people that dwelled in the land of Semiramis) worshipped the goddess
Inanna, which literally translates Queen of Heaven. 1

But whether she was called Isis, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Athena, Rhiannon, or any
one of the other names she is known by, they all had one thing in common ñ she
was worshipped and adored by man as the supreme goddess.

However, since this was a new religion, a new name had to be given to the
ancient goddess. It had to be someone associated with the Christ, that all of the
attributes connected to the Mother goddess could be infused with. Who else other
than Mary, the name of the woman that had given birth to the Lord?

It wasnít until after Constantine established his form of false Christianity, that
Mary began to be seen as something more than she actually was.

ìThe early church knew nothing about the cult of Mary as it

is practiced today ñ and here we use the word ëcultí in the

dictionary sense of ëthe veneration or worship of a person or

thing; extravagant homage.íî 2

Up until that time she was never viewed as the Mother of God or the Queen of
Heaven.

ìPreviously unimportant to the Christian world, [Mary] gained

new significance as ëthe Mother of GodíÖbilling her as ëthe

Queen of Heaven.íî 3

In 432 AD the Roman Catholic Church made the declaration that Mary was
indeed the Mother of God and the Queen of Heaven. For a very specific reason,
Ephesus, Turkey was chosen as the site for this announcement. This was where
the Temple dedicated to Diana, the mother of the gods and Queen of heaven
stood.

The Pagan goddess was going to get an extreme makeover. She was going to
become the queen of false Christianity.