The Fruit of the Poison Tree

I was listening to a BBC programme in which a presenter spoke about being on the Haj and then gushing about being in the same place where Abraham did something or other, I cannot remember what. And then I realised that I just did not give a shit about Abraham - nor the various religions of his putative descendants

I am sick and tired of the assumption that these things are important. So many times, I have seen and heard Goddess followers trying to be inclusive - to find a way that they can accommodate those who have a residual attachment to the religions in which they were brought up. I do not see it. Whatever Abraham was or was not, he is the idol of an ideology which has exulted in its triumphs over the religion it superseded - the religion in which Goddess was honoured. He is the embodiment of monotheistic, patriarchal triumphalism and is seen as the ancestor of the pernicious creeds that have brought the inhabitants of this planet to the brink of destruction. He represents the fulcrum of history where the balance shifted and the power/over paradigm took the high ground.

For what is the story of Abraham and Isaac about but the whole concept of father- right. As father abraham defers to the superdaddy, Yahweh, who, vampire-like thirsts for the blood of younger men in order for him to feel fulfilled. The religions and ideologies which have metaphorically sprang from the loins of this arrogant psychopath are the very same ones that have their fingers on various nuclear triggers. They are the ones that claim the moral authority to destroy all life on this planet.

And I am expected to kowtow to this sick conception of divinity! I reject such expectation. For this religion is fundamentally and irrevocably flawed. Far from being the blessing that we have been led to believe, it is a pernicious lie whose effect is to rob human beings of their integrity. Thus, having been told for millennnia that their desire was the gateway to the Fall of humanity, women are then told that they can see themselves honoured in the figure of the Virgin - forever inviolate - even after giving birth

It is, pure and simply, a lie.

I cannot think of any other way to describe this. Dress it up in whatever theology we like it is nothing other than a lie. Even within most protestantism this lie is repeated. For at its base is the recognition that the Abrahamic covenant depends upon the denial of women's true agency. And at the base of this is the true and certain knowledge that paternity is always ultimately doubtful. Thus, Mary has to be a perpetual virgin, for otherwise Jesus may be a bastard - and that would give the lie to the father right which underpins the Abrahamic covernant.

And yet, according to the myth, Jesus was nothing more nor less than a bastard. He was conceived out of wedlock and was not the son of the putative father. A patsy, Joseph, had to be found in order for the child to be "legitimate". A convenient legal fiction, really - however it may be dressed up. If Jesus was not the product, under Judaic law, of the congress of man and wife he was a bastard. He was outwith the rights of inheritance and acceptance. He was outwith the Abrahamic covenant - remember what happened to the son of Abraham's concubine, Hagar. He could not, therefore be the Messiah. Unless he was somehow freed from the normal route of conception. A miracle must therefore be proclaimed

For this is what happens when you tell a lie. You must spin ever more lies in order for the first lie not to be caught out. And the lies get ever more ornate and complicated as they have to account for more and more anomalies. Thus dogma is born as ordinances are given that it is a sin to question these lies. Lie builds on lie.

And yet many within the Goddess movement strive to accommodate such lies. We are told of the Magdalen who blessed the Messiah and ordained him as priest before crucifixion. She was, we are told by many, a priestess of the Goddess and had undergone the sacred marriage with him - even perhaps bearing his child. A male child, lest it be forgot.

Thus the Abrahamists strive to include the new awareness of Goddess and incorporate Her into the Abrahamic lie. There is little evidence that Jesus ever existed and even less that he was an initiate in the mysteries of the Goddess and there is even less than that little that he fathered a child whose descendants would come to reign in France. Perhaps he did. But it can only ever be perhaps. And what the hell does it matter?

Because the Abrahamic lie is based upon the patently false notion that any man can be certain of paternity. A large section of the bible is devoted to trying to prove descent from one man to another. All it needs is one woman - just one among many- to have managed to hide her "indiscretion" for all such lineages to fall to pieces - they mean, literally, nothing. They are a lie. Or, at best, a pious and futile hope. For it is inevitable, thank Goddess, that somewhere along the line, the assumptions of the patriarchs will not have been fulfilled and a new and unknown DNA sequence be introduced into the line of descent.

For the only possible certainty is of motherhood. None of us can be certain of paternity - short of scientific testing that is only now available. The whole logic of the Bible is in defiance of this certain fact. And this defiance of reality is enough to invalidate whatever nebulous claim it may have to allegiance.

US jurisprudence has,unlike its ancestor in the UK, the delightful concept of "the fruit of the poison tree". Under this doctrine, evidence which is obtained illegally or from dubious sources cannot be offered in court. The Bible is a poison tree. Instead of trying, from very creditable motives, to find a way in which Goddess awareness can conform to christian or other expectations and find a home in the bible, I feel it would be better to leave the bible - and, more importantly, messianic expectations, completely behind. Yes, there is much wisdom to be found within its pages - but such wisdom can also be found elsewhere. And, most importantly, when it is found elsewhere, it will be free of the taint of the poison tree.