Freke Timothy - Jesus and the lost goddess: the secret teachings of the original Christians

Copyright 2001 by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Three Rivers Press, New York, New York.
Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
www.randomhouse.com

THREE RIVERS PRESS is a registered trademark and the Three Rivers Press colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Originally published in hardcover by Harmony Books in 2001.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

eISBN: 978-0-307-56586-0

v3.1

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED

TO THOSE WHO KNOW

THEY DO NOT KNOW.

We would like to thank our commissioning editors Carole Tonkinson, Rebecca Strong, Eileen Campbell and Patricia Gift, our agent Susan Mears, our dedicated copy editor Lizzie Hutchins, Tim Byrne for turning our vision of the cover into a reality, Ellen Freke for her positive comments on the manuscript, all at Thorsons and Harmony who have helped and will be helping in publicity and promotion, and last but not least, readers of our previous books, especially The Jesus Mysteries, for supporting and encouraging our work.

I will reveal to you what no eye can see,
what no ear can hear,
what no hand can touch,
what cannot be conceived by the human mind.

Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas

Life is a Mystery. A Mystery so awesome that we insulate ourselves from its intensity. To numb our fear of the unknown we desensitize ourselves to the miracle of living. We perpetuate the nonchalant lie that we know who we are and what life is. Yet behind this preposterous bluff the Mystery remains unchanging, waiting for us to remember to wonder. It is waiting in a shaft of sunlight, in the thought of death, in the intoxication of new love, in the joy of childbirth or the shock of loss. One minute we are going about our business as if life were nothing special and the next we are face to face with profound, unfathomable, breathtaking Mystery. This is both the origin and consummation of the spiritual quest.

Although the conditions of life have changed continually throughout history, the Mystery of life has remained the same. This is a book about a remarkable group of men and women who, some 2,000 years ago, were touched by the Mystery and dared to plumb its depths. Revolutionary free-thinkers who synthesized the available wisdom of the world and articulated perennial truths in dynamic, innovative ways. Creative visionaries who encoded their teachings in extraordinary myths. Explorers of Consciousness whose mystical philosophy promised Gnosis experiential Knowledge of Truth. These forgotten spiritual pioneers could not have conceived of the unparalleled impact they would have on the history of humanity. Who were they? They called themselves Christians.

It was these radical individualists who inadvertently created the most authoritarian religion in history. Their questioning mysticism was distorted, almost beyond recognition, into the dogmatic creed of what they called an imitation church. When this impoverished form of Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the brutal Roman Empire, the original Christians were violently suppressed, their scriptures burned and their memory all but erased. The Roman Church fabricated its own account of the origins of Christianity, still believed today, which dismisses the first Christians as a minor cult of obscure heretics. But it was these brilliant mythographers who authored a story which continues to dominate the spiritual imagination of the Western world. From the archaic allegory of a dying and resurrecting Son of God they fashioned a new and vibrant myth which has captured the hearts and minds of millions: the fable of a Jewish peasant who saved the world: the story of Jesus the Christ.