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Intra-Cultural Transference Within Religion

Before closing out this chapter, there is one more category of mythological symbolism that I think we should explore, that being

myths and legends born out of the fantasizing and or spiritualizing of a tribes engrained cultural traditions, customs, and standards - I

call this category Intra-Cultural Transference. Many of the biblical myths, which seem grossly absurd on the face of it, actually have

sprung forth from rather practical and sometimes rational elements of early Semitic culture. It is important to remember that Semitic

culture predates the religion of Judaism. Judaism was spawned out of Semitic culture, not the other way around. When the Hebrews invented
their religions, that is to say, both Judaism and Early Christianity, they used the traditions, systems, and standards of their

Semitic culture as source material - which is only practical when you think of it. They also, perhaps with near equal importance, desired

to persuade the masses that their social systems were divinely ordained hence not subject to challenge by their subjects - this linking

of god to the government was common in the ancient world. I have covered this subject of Intra-Cultural Transference, somewhat

extensively, in my book The Secret Origins of Judaism - I will offer a  couple of examples of this category of mythology here so as to

acquaint my readers with the basics of how Intra-Cultural Transference into religious dogma usually evolves from within a

given culture - in this case Semitic culture.

All religions are man-made, we can be rationally certain that god has never communicated a religious preference to anyone, regardless
of what the religionists claim. All religions are the results of cultural evolution, hence the sources of a religion’s tenets are always
discoverable within the underlying culture - this includes the language, traditions, legends, social systems, ecology, economy, and also
 regional influences and societal proclivities of neighboring nations that effect the collective psyche of the community or culture.
Judaism is the child of Semitic culture, which is essentially nomadic in many respects. Much of Semitic religious culture has been  
derived  from the migration and merging of Semitic societal customs  into  the rituals, traditions, and doctrine of their religion;  this,
of course, applies also to Christianity and Islam which are offshoots of Semitic Judaism..

Let us now exemplify Intra-Cultural Transference  with reference to a few biblical verses:

God personally guides the Exodus of the Israelites

We have been taught that god, himself,intervened so as to emancipate the Hebrew people from their alleged bondage to the Egyptians, that

god persecuted the Egyptians till they agreed to free the Israelites. After the Israelites were freed, it is alleged that god himself, shielded

in the Pillar of a Cloud, by day;and shielded in a Pillar of Fire by night guided the Israelites through the desert wilderness in search

for a new Promised Land in which they would establish their nationhood, under the aegis of their god, Yahweh, conveniently

resident in the local Temple. This is a very bizarre story, and I doubt that you can form a rational picture of such an event having ever

literally occurred in history. This, on the face of it, is an absurd myth, but nevertheless, in truth, this puzzling tale contains a germ of truth

which is reflective of its cultural underpinnings. Our task is to expose that germ of truth from which this fanciful tale was germinated, and

utilized by the Jewish Priesthood as they composed this particular fictional episode of the alleged Hebrew exodus from Egypt.

Exodus 13:18 But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out

of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 13:21-22  And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them

light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

The above verses are unambiguous; according to the bible the Israelites were lost in a desert that, of course, had no roads or travel
signs to mark the way to wherever they were going - so god himself took charge to guide them through the desert wilderness. Since it is

profane to look upon the the divine deity or even to mention his sacred name, god clothed himself in a Pillar formed of a cloud during

the day, and he, Yahweh, clothed himself in a Fire Pillar during darkness. This is truly a whale of a tale, however the key to

discovering the germ of secular truth within this yarn lay in the Semitic nomadic culture. The Hebrews were nomadic people, and

nomads never, or hardly ever, stay in one place more than a season. Nomads are constantly on the move so as to provide pasture for their

animals, so these travelers and wanderers were very adapt at using the dynamics of the natural environment to map their courses through

uncharted lands..

According to the bible, god was their guide and god wrote or allegedly Moses wrote how he, god, managed to guide the Israelites

through the wilderness. Of course we know that god did not write this fiction - it was written by a nomadic Hebrew! And I would add,

the tale was written by a nomad that was intimately familiar with systems of mapping a course through uncharted territory by reading

nature’s signs of direction as indicated by the natural environment. The content of this fable clearly indicates the mindset of a desert nomad,
so the question that we should ask so as to ascertain the real germ of truth, is how did the nomads actually navigate the deserts and is
there a possible relationship to clouds and pillars of fire that can explain this navigation. As I have noted above, our path to
understanding religious fantasies can often be extrapolated from the underlying culture from which the theological fantasy has evolved,
 thus indicating Intra-Cultural Transference.

The greatest asset for navigating the desert wilderness as well as the open seas are the guiding cosmic lights - this has been true since time

immemorial. Navigators have always used the celestial North Pole as their guide for determining their position and course of direction

on the open seas and the sprawling deserts. It is not just the Pole Star alone that serves as the guide but the whole region of circumpolar

constellations that circuit the Celestial Pole - these circling circumpolar constellations are indicators of time and direction to the

trained observer. Chief among all of the polar constellations are the Bear Constellations, commonly called Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.

It is easy to conceive the North Star itself i.e. Polaris as a Pillar of Light, but actually I suggest, and navigational history confirms, that

it is the entire circumpolar region that serves as a navigational guide for those who traverse uncharted geographical regions, whether at

land or sea. Take note of this quote from the book, Star Names and Their Meaning by Richard Allen, under the heading for the

constellation Ursa Major wherein various historical references to this star-group are explained, the underlining is my own:

“Its well-known use by the early Greeks in navigation was paralleled in the

deserts of Arabia, through which, according to Diodorus the Sicilian,

Travelers direct their course by the Bears, in the same manner as is done at

sea. They serve this same purpose to the Badawiyy [Bedouin] of today, as

Mrs. Sigourney describes in The Stars,  writing of Polaris:
       “The weary caravan with chiming bells,
         Making strange music against the desert sand,
        Guides by the pillar d fires its nightly march”

The biblical pillar of fires a clear reference to the constellations of the circumpolar region which the ancients have used for

ascertaining their compass directions since time immemorial. Actually the seven lights (fires) of the Big Dipper were commonly

referred to as Pillars of Fire as it is the most notable of the circumpolar groupings, and two of its stars , Dubhe and Merak, point

directly to the North Star.

Now as regards the use of a pillar of a cloud to guide the way during the daytime - the germ of truth for this assertion is found also

within pre-Judaic Semitic or Bedouin culture. Clouds do not flow helter skelter, but rather flow in specific directions depending on the
type clouds, their elevation, upper atmospheric air flows and other factors. The flow of the various clouds are consistent to conditions

prevalent at their elevation, except in cases of weather disturbances. The effect of all this is that the nomads, when starting out on their

desert treks could relate their compass directions to the flow of the clouds, and thereby map and maintain their course direction by

simply referencing the flow of the clouds as they proceeded.  

In the above, I think that the link to Intra-Cultural Transference is clear and vivid. It is claimed by the religionists that this absurd tale

of god guiding the Israelites through the desert wilderness by means of pillars of fire and clouds was done by god in person, and written

into the scriptures by the prophet Moses, but the real truth is too obvious to ignore - the actual composer of this fairytale was clearly a
nomadic shepherd that wrote a story that clearly reflects his own experiences and culture as a Semitic nomad. The Semitic

nomads customarily used the circumpolar constellations and the flow of the clouds to navigate the deserts, and lo and behold, when

composing this myth about the Israelite exodus they superimposed their own experiences onto their tribal god with the ludicrous claim

that Yahweh led the Hebrews through the wilderness by the same methods that the nomads have used from time immemorial.

The Sacred Blood of Passover

According to the Jews, the celebration of Passover was initiated in commemoration of god’s liberation of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. Actually Passover, by whatever name, is an old Semitic tradition  that predates the advent of Judaism. The celebration could not have started to celebrate Jewish liberation from Egypt because the Jews/Hebrews were never in bondage to the Egyptians - this so-called bondage cannot be found in secular history - only the Bible and Quran tout this myth as historical fact rather than cultural mythology or literature. Read the following biblical verses concerning the religious meaning  of Passover according to Judaic theology.  

Exodus 12:21-23  Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.  
Exodus 12:24-27  And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
Exodus 12:29-30  And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.  

So the biblical verses above give recitation to the Jewish basis for commemorating the Passover festival. The gist of this fairytale as given in Exodus of the bible, is that Yahweh, the tribal god of the Hebrews, had to pressure Pharaoh into releasing the Hebrews from slavery; hence the Hebrew  god sent ten plagues, in succession, upon the Egyptians. The final plague or punishment that caused Pharaoh to relent and allow the enslaved Israelites (Hebrews) to leave Egypt was the death decree to all the firstborn of Egypt; whereas the god, at the stroke of midnight, passed-over i.e. through the land, in misty form we assume, and struck to death the firstborn in every habitat that did not have the Blood of the Lamb smeared at the entrance to the place.

Of course, being that we are rational human beings, we realize that this is  clearly a fictional tale; but what actually concerns us, or should concern us, is the mindset of the individual (or group) that had the gall to pen this blatantly farcical story as a true and historical event.

I mentioned in the previous explanation above, concerning the farcical Jewish rendition of Yahweh clothing himself in a Cloud by day and Fire by night so as to lead the Israelites through the desert wilderness,  that the key to the real truth is found by focusing on the mindset of the writer of these ludicrous tales. And we have shown and proven, definitively I believe, that the writer was a Semitic Nomad who pulled upon his own culture and experiences in the formulation of these mythical stories. These stories were not just pulled out of nowhere or from baseless imagination; these stories are a modified reflection of the underlying culture, even though significantly altered and extremely fantasized. These myths are the offshoot of Intra-Cultural Transference,without doubt.

According to the biblical verses that we just cited, god instructed the Hebrews to smear sacrificial blood at the entrances to their houses so as to render the home miraculously protected by the sacrificial blood of the lamb. This is the gist of it - god said that he would glide through the land bringing death to all of the firstborn, but that those dwellings that were smeared with the blood of the sacrificial lamb, they would be spared or saved from the death sentence.

But when we peruse the history of the Semitic people, which includes, among others, the Phoenicians and Canaanites, as well as the Judaeans - that is to say, a history that predates the advent of the Biblical Passover observances; we find, intact, the germ from which this vacuous  fairytale was generated. The smearing of sacrificial Blood upon things and people as a means of transferring gods protection to those things and people touched by the Lamb,s blood was a commonplace superstition among the Pre-Jewish Semitic communities of the Near East. Also, a type of Passover festival, under whatever name, was observed amongst the Semitic peoples of the Near East regions long before the evolution of the Semitic Hebrews into a viable national group within Judaea. History shows the Habiru (Hebrews) as roving bandits that terrorized the Canaanite region long  before finally attempting to establish a permanent homeland. The New Year festival of the Semites predates the biblical rendition by a significant but unknown period of years, as far as I can tell.

It was the custom of the pre-Judaic Semites to celebrate their New Year ( Passover) in ways very similar to those described in  the bible. The festival was observed during the period of the sun’s transiting the vernal equinox.  It was the custom of the Semites to slaughter a lamb as a Sacrifice, this was done by the head of the household. The head of the house (Tent) would daub the blood of the slaughtered animal and smear it on the main tent post at the entrance to the tent, thereby conferring protection to the  household, so graced by the sacrificial blood of the lamb.  This ritual was done throughout the Near East Semitic world long before the bible was produced,and the Hebrews spuriously claimed that the practice was initiated by godly decree. So in this we see the germ from which the Jewish myth of Passover was germinated, that is, from within the folds of the underlying Semitic culture, through a system of Intra-Cultural Transference of the pre-Judaic Semitic traditions into the new and unfolding made-up religion of Judaism.

The Semitic superstition about the sacredness and saving-power of the blood of the Sacrificial Lamb was also carried over into the theology of the Early Christians - see the following bible verses:

Revelation 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 12:11  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.  

The key factor of the alleged Passover miracle was the belief of the acolytes in the divine healing and protective power of the Sacrificial Blood of the Lamb. It was the blood of the lamb smeared at the house entrances that protected the inhabitants from the wrath of god - this goes back to an old pagan belief in the protective powers of sacrificial blood that prevailed in the Near East region and in other lands. The adherents practiced certain ritualistic rites whereas they drenched themselves in Sacrificial Blood with the belief that the blood would purify their souls, and also as a symbol of rebirth, that is to say being Born again by virtue of being anointed (drenched) with the sacrificial blood of the lamb. These pagan rites are documented in history.

There is a wealth of information to be gained on this subject of the protective and healing powers of blood, as believed by the Semites and others by researching the terms Taurobolium and Criobolium - these were two forms of ancient blood sacrifice with the use of bulls and/or lambs.

The Passover festival, under whatever name, goes back to times preceding the advent of the Hebrew religious observation which they have named Passover (Pesach). Among the nomadic Semites there was an observance every Spring that had all the trappings of the Jewish Passover. During the springtime Lambing Season of the Semites which coincided with their New Year as indicated by the crossing of the sun over the Vernal Equinox, it was the Semitic custom to daub the blood of the sacrificed lambs on their tent-post as a propitiation to ward off evil for the coming year; and concomitant with this practice, the agricultural Semites would celebrated the Spring Harvest with the consumption of unleavened bread. The Jews have incorporated both of these ancient customs into their invented religion under the false guise of an absurdly fictional tale that asserts that these traditions are observed in remembrance of god’s special deliverance of the Hebrew people from bondage. …….