Alien Space Gods Of Ancient Greece and Rome (34 page)

Religion initially had no connection with morality, the very word meant the bonds attaching human action to the realm of the Gods; from a strictly purist point of view Students of UFOs are 'religious' in the sense that they are seeking contact with the Celestials. To the average Roman religion did not mean moral subservience to an inspirational God, salvation through a divine Saviour, his piety expressed an awareness of Man's solemn relation to the Higher Powers in the sky ('Our Father which art in heaven') controlling the universe; such dutiful submission to the Gods evoked their benign intervention visibly demonstrated by their promotion of Rome from rustic village to world-state. Even today in our own cynical century during times of war and crises not concerned with morality, we instinctively look aloft to the skies and pray to God hoping some radiant Superman will wing down and put things right. Philosophers later confused ethics with religion making Jupiter a symbol of divine justice, laws governing the citizens of Rome generally favoured the patricians, Emperors being 'divine' like the Gods were above the law, the slaves having no legal right suffered punitive repressions; basically Roman law controlled the family, property and the State, the law existed to strengthen Rome. Though the Romans realised that all religions were merely different aspects of the one cosmic wisdom and allowed generous tolerance, for patriotic and security purposes they insisted that every citizen gave formal oath to the Gods acknowledging allegiance to the Guardian Genius of Rome; failure to accept the Gods signified treachery, particularly dangerous since for centuries the Romans were waging virtually continuous world-war. The Romans persecuted the Christians not for believing in Christ but primarily because their rejection of
Rome
's Gods implied rejection of
Rome
itself, which no patriotic citizen could tolerate.

The Indo-European Sky-Father, Dyaus-Pitar or Zeus-Pater Latinized to Jupiter, symbolised the Spacemen; he dominated the Roman heavens, the stars, the sun, thunder and lightning, Ruler of Gods and Men. Sky-worship was the fundamental religion of the Etruscans, Britons, Babylonians and all contemporary peoples, who for many centuries scanned the heavens from lofty towers, ziggurats, Stonehenge and mountains all over the world; lesser divinities, Minerva, Juno, Ceres, Venus and Neptune were assimilated from the Greeks, Saturn, Apollo, Vesta and many others from local cults, towering above them all presided Jupiter aided by Mars, God of War, Patron of Rome, and Quirinus, identified with Romulus, specially associated with corn. Celestial prodigies were interpreted by augurs revealing the Will of the Gods. Worship of the Sky-Father was complemented by the cult of the Earth-Mother, whose licentious rites symbolised fecundity, fruitfulness, prosperity for the Roman race.

Man was beset by hostile forces from the cradle to beyond the grave, only proper ritual by the priests secured peace from the Gods, so essential to the well-being of individual and State, There was no absolute gulf between the living and the dead; like ancient peoples world-wide the Romans believed the soul survived death, sometimes departing to bliss in distant realms or hovering earth-bound around familiar haunts influencing their family if not duly appeased. Ancestor- worship and belief in resurrection of the souls imply a very high theology, refinements of thought beyond most Romans and their contemporaries in other countries, suggesting that they were really degenerate descendants from some great world-civilisation many millennia before, that Golden Age sung by the poets. Many of the Ancients like Chroniclers in the Middle Ages called the Celestials 'Spirits' imagining them to be the resurrected dead returning to Earth from a heaven on some wondrous star, such superstition evoked dread of the Spacemen but promoted ancestor-worship.
Graves
and tombs were protected by invisible Powers propitiated with gifts and flowers, a custom in our own cemeteries today.

Certain mountains, woods and streams were haunted by satyrs, gnomes and nymphs. Immortals from etherean realms, who manifested to men. Today like the Romans we are sadly confused, no longer do we ridicule tales of the 'little people', mindful of those humanoids plaguing
South America
we wonder whether they were Spacemen and speculate now that those fairy-rings in the forests were evidence of Spaceships. The nymphs recall that well-attested Lady of Fatima who may have materialised from Space. The researches of Meade Layne and his Borderland Scientists allied with discoveries in sub-atomic Physics seem to prove the co-existence of etherean realms from which materialise those Sylphs so vividly described by Montfaucon de Villars in ‘
Le Comte de Gabalis'
three hundred years ago. We are astounded to find that our new awareness of Spacemen is expanding our souls to cosmic wisdom, to the religion of early
Rome
.

Numa Pompilius sought inspiration in a grove of the Gods watered by a perennial spring, where he could meditate in solitude, free from the clamour of
Rome
. The King claimed to have been honoured with a celestial marriage to the Goddess Egeria who loved him and in blessed communion endowed him with wisdom. The Romans stood in awe of Numa's power, they accepted his strange revelations and believed nothing incredible or impossible. By the counsel of Egeria Numa surprised the Gods, Picus and Faunus, in their retreat under the Aventine Hill and kept them prisoners until Jupiter appeared in the form of lightning and promised his favours, later confirmed by the famous 'ancile' dropping from heaven. Is it too fantastic to wonder if Numa had somehow arrested two Spacemen, probably with drugged wine, who were subsequently rescued by a Spaceship?

Dionysius of Halicarnassus writes:

“They relate also many marvellous stories about him, attributing his human wisdom to the suggestions of the Gods. For they fabulously affirm that a certain nymph, Egeria, used to visit him and instruct him on each occasion in the art of reigning, though others say it was not a nymph but one of the Muses. And this they claim became clear to everyone, for when people were incredulous at first, as may well be supposed and regarded the story concerning the Goddess as an invention, he, in order to give the unbelievers a manifest proof of his converse with this Divinity, did as follows pursuant to her instructions. He invited to the house where he lived a great many of the Romans, all men of worth, and having shown them his apartments very meanly provided with furniture and particularly lacking in everything Lhat was necessary to entertain a numerous company, he ordered (hem to depart for the time being but invited them to dinner in the evening. And when they came at the appointed hour he showed them rich couches and tables laden with a multitude of beautiful cups, and when they were at table he set before them a banquet consisting of all sorts of viands, such a banquet indeed as it would not have been easy for anyone in those days to have prepared in a long time. The Romans were astonished at everything they saw and from that time they entertained a firm belief that some Goddess held converse with him.”

This delightful tale recalls the 'Satapatha Brahmana’ telling of the Apsara, Urvasi, who winged down to Earth enamoured of her lover, Pururavas; also the mediaeval chronicle
'De Nugis Curialium
' describing how in AD 1070 the Saxon patriot, Edric, the Wild, fell in love with a beautiful damsel from Space. Such unions between celestial maidens and earthly lovers formed the theme of 'Tann-hauser', the '
Swan
Lake
' ballet, the sylphs and succubi of the Middle Ages and Immortals in mythologies all over the world. In 1952 Truman Bethurum met Aura Rhanes, a Spacewoman from Clarion, who enlightened him on cosmic mysteries. Our awareness of Extraterrestrials today makes Numa's inspiration by Egeria a fascinating possibility, his banquet evokes the 'Arabian Nights'; we wish such a Celestial could keep house for us.

Plutarch rhapsodises on the Golden Age when honour and justice flowed into all hearts from the wisdom of Numa as from a fountain and the calm serenity of his spirit diffused itself abroad. Numa reigned forty-three years during which there were no wars or political strife, he lived in harmony free from vice, perfectly proving the belief of Plato three centuries later that human ills would only disappear when by some divine felicity a philosopher ruled as King. When eighty years old Numa. died tranquilly in 672 BC, his funeral rites evoked public lamentations by all his people, rich and poor, mourned not as King but rather as the passing of a dear friend. Numa wrote twelve books on natural philosophy, knowledge which he had imparted to the priests; convinced that such mysteries should not be made public, he directed that all his writings should be buried in one stone coffin, himself in another.

About four hundred years later heavy rains washed away the earth disclosing both coffins. The Senate decided that publication of Numa's writings would reveal the most sacred mysteries of the State religion and ordered all the books to be publicly burned. Today we mourn above all the destruction of those twelve books, which must surely have contained the quintessence of Numa's inspired wisdom; written centuries before Pythagoras, Aeschylus and Plato; their compilation proved that in the seventh century BC there existed in
Rome
knowledge which might have revolutionised our conception of history, revealed the secrets of the Gods, the Spacemen. We have seen books burned during our own century. The Senate were rough, unlettered men, for whom books seemed magic, while we deplore their vandalism, we wonder if twelve Dead Sea Scrolls became unearthed proving conclusively that Jesus never lived, that the Gospels are fiction, as some people believe, would the Pope not be tempted to destroy them rather than have such revelations rock the very foundations of the Church?

Numa's own coffin was found to be empty! The cave containing the body of Jesus was found to be empty. Many intriguing questions could be asked. Was Numa resurrected or translated by his 'Space-wife', Egeria? His people, who loved him, believed Numa Pompilius conversed with the Gods. Surely this wisest of Kings was inspired by Spacemen?

Tullus Hostilius scorned Numa's pacifism, seeking martial renown in fierce wars with his neighbours, he completely destroyed
Alba Longa
built by the son of Aeneas and routed the Sabines. At the height of his glory the King's superstitious soul was disturbed by a rain of stones on the Alban Mount. A mighty voice was heard issuing from the grove on the mountaintop, which commanded the Albans to return to the Gods of their fathers, recalling the Voice of the Lord admonishing Abraham and Moses. Wearying of war Tullus made forlorn attempts to propitiate the Gods misusing the electrical techniques of Numa, the Gods grew exceedingly angry and Jupiter destroyed Tullus and all his house with a thunderbolt, as two hundred years earlier the 'Angel of the Lord' destroyed those followers of Baal plaguing Elijah. Though so little is known of this period, it is not unreasonable to conjecture that Numa left disciples probably persecuted by the warlike Tullus, finally - one of them in 640 BC called down fire from heaven, aid from Spacemen, to consume the King just as St. Germanus a thousand years later evoked lightnings to shrivel Vortigern. Mysterious cremations, during our twentieth century are associated with UFOs, if hostile Spacemen incinerate people today, it is logical to assume they probably did so in Ancient Rome. Tullus Hostilius incurring the wrath of the Gods could have been killed by Spacemen.

Ancus Martius, grandson of Numa, continued to aggrandize
Rome
by war with the Latins, his only notable contribution to the City was a prison, which was nearly always full. He was succeeded in 616 BC by an Etruscan, Lucius Tarquinius, remembered mainly for his aristocratic, wealthy wife, Tanaquil, who was most skilled in Etruscan science and augury, thus likely to attract the Spacemen. One day while Tarquinius and Tanaquil were at table, a noble slave-woman, Ocresia, was placing food on burning logs when a phallus sprang to her from the flames; Tanaquil interpreted the prodigy as presaging an extraordinary birth.

The King ordered Ocresia to dress in bridal garments, seated in the heat of the fire she conceived a son, Servius Tullius, noted for his flame-coloured hair. An unlikely tale! This wonder however does recall a story in 'Otis Imperialia* by Gervase of Tilbury about AD 1200 concerning a Mongolian Princess who claimed to have conceivcd from a light which appeared in her tent Both alleged incidents arouse speculations regarding conception by the Holy Ghost, Sylphs and Spacemen, so easily ridiculed yet said to occur in fact as well as fiction. A few years later as Servius Tullius lay sleeping, his bead appeared to burst into flame; Tanaquil read the portent as prophesying kingship. Servius Tullius reigned from 578 BC promoting the grandeur of
Rome
; it may be relevant to note that in 538 BC in
Babylon
the Prophet Daniel was communing with Angels, probably Spacemen. In 534 BC the aged King was stabbed by followers of his son-in-law, Tarquinius Superbus; Tullia, his vicious daughter, ran over her father's body in her chariot, calling down a curse on herself and the new King.