A book by which its collected material itself in the process of reading can guide the reader deeper and deeper into other dimensions and worlds - with new recognitions in consequence - will, simultaneously, be a collection of knowledge which would be natural to wish to share with many. Because the exceptional material contained in the book, delivered along the line on manifold levels, leaves to the reader new, rewarding knowledge, it deserves to be widely-spread.

The book in question has been written through many years of research in cultic mysticism knowledge behind the ancient world religions and especially in connection with historical Moses? foundation of a new religion on a much older Egyptian basis. So I have given the book the title ?The Secret Religion?.

The following text is presenting the reactions which the book has generated by an experienced reader, Jurij Moskvitin, being an author and philosopher himself and, indeed, making us acquainted with his special insight into the items.

Jurij Moskvitin?s thoughts about these results are expanding engaged reflection - by this, there are more knowledge to share. The reader is given an eventful travel of reading
- and best wishes from     Ove von Spaeth  - 
www.moses-egypt.net

 


 

New Life and Meaning into the Study
of History of Religion

By  Jurij Moskvitin, philosopher, author
 

Can we get more close to understand history from inside? Jurij Moskvitin has dealt with this question by his reading of a new and controversial book about tracing our present basis into historical Egypt?s impact on the religion of Moses. The book observes a principle adopted by Max Weber, the sociologist and anthropologist, who calls it ?Verstehen?, - that it is not possible to describe a distant culture?s habits and rituals without understanding the meaning and purpose itself.
 


What is truth? Nietzsche defines truth as ?the pack of lies which is most free of contradiction?. That of course is a sceptical way of defining a scientific truth, however, the fact is that we have no better definitions.

And definition of truth is - directly and indirectly - what Ove von Spaeth?s great work about Moses is dealing with. Of the five volumes, we are strongly exploring volume four, titled ?The Secret Religion?, in which together with the reader the author reaps what was sowed in the preceding and equally interesting volumes. Ove von Spaeth may be met with pros et cons, however, one fact is imperative, i.e. this author offers us interesting and rewarding reading.

Which truths can we bring to light from the texts reaching back to events, which took place 3,500 years ago? In the case of Moses - the central figure in the Old Testament - we have a confusion of information of different value and credibility, often even contradicting. How to make choice or refuse, so that the set of the least self-contradicting lies we come up with, can not only be characterized as a result of the ?chop off a heel and cut a toe? method?
 


Initiated knowledge brought forward
Ove von Spaeth?s method is classical scientific. He puts forward a hypothesis which he by good reasoning may consider to be probable. Subsequently he draws the conclusion of his hypothesis - the theory. And finally he conducts an experiment - explores if the theory may cause more pieces to fit in compared to other and previous hypotheses or assumptions. If this is the case, the experiment can be said to have proved the sustainability of the hypothesis.

The leading principle of the hypothesis in von Spaeth?s work about Moses is that the generally accepted dating of Moses is wrong. Ove von Spaeth has fixed the date of the death of Pharaoh Tuthmosis (III) to be 1455 B.C. - identical to the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, a central point in the life of Moses. Further now, the subsequent theory requires that Moses is made the son of Queen Hatshepsut and Egyptian heir to the thrown, but is tricked out by plots, an event becoming the incentive for Moses to a kind of uprising; he leads the Jewish people, carries out the Exodus simultaneously with letting them become bearers of a religion new to them, which, however, in reality is the old Egyptian religion in the core of which Moses as heir to the thrown has been initiated, and he is thus passing it on to the world in a new and fruitful way.

Now - is this sustainable - do the pieces fit? Is the experiment successful? To a reasonably likely degree the answer is positive. No one can certainly ask for more. With his work von Spaeth has brought back one of the great personalities of history from the misty world of myths - to which he has been relegated - now to sheer reality. But during this endeavour the author has also been able to prove a very close connection between the ancient Egyptian perception of the world and a modern perceived realistic initiation psychology, this breathing new life and meaning into the gradually sectarian, petrified Christianity. In fact, via von Spaeth the 3,500 year ago Moses becomes a life-giving source for modern people.

 


Theologians' hostility
Lead by von Spaeth we are not tackling trifles. Indeed, the author has employed all means in order to demonstrate his vision: again to focus on the life-giving source. He blasts rocks or drills passes through them all; at von Spaeth?s disposal seems to be all weapons in the shape of a comprehensive knowledge of many otherwise isolated subjects.

Of course it is the conventional conceptions of Moses and the contents of the Old Testament, that von Spaeth has to depart from. And this immediately brings us face to face with something very interesting: the opposition against Ove von Spaeth?s work, of which seems to have been quite a lot, stems mainly from theological quarters, and although strongly reduced, these quarters have mainly been mobilised among German-protestant orientated theologians and their local followers. A man like Adolf Harnack, the great, influential German theologian, who hated any idea about a close relation between Christianity, Gnosticism, and Neo-Platonism, would undoubtedly have insisted on von Spaeth being burnt at the stake.


Outstanding survey
At all times von Spaeth will find his supporters among psychological and philosophical orientated historians. Nietzsche would have nodded approvingly at von Spaeth?s - by the way - outstanding interpretation of Christianity?s evolution from primary Christianity, its fall, and its ability to stay alive by means of secretly returning to its Egyptian roots and draw nourishment from that, and how this hidden side of Christianity all of a sudden came into flower as the humanistic movement of the Renaissance. Ove von Spaeth says in photo-negative the same as Nietzsche in Antichrist. And so far also Kierkegaard, where he claims that modern ecclesiastical Christianity is diluted rubbish and being almost the opposite of the original meaning.

Sigmund Freud would have accepted - as a matter of course - von Spaeth?s hypothetical basis, which makes Moses an Egyptian. ?The Egyptian factor? as von Spaeth calls it - as being also a fundamental element in living Christianity - would have been acceptable to different history author as Oswald Spengler and Egon Friedell. And the close relation between Christianity and Buddhism - it is this relation Wagner deals with in ?Parcifal". Obviously, Carl G. Jung would have taken von Spaeth?s side. (In Denmark von Spaeth is on wavelengths with Johannes Hohlenberg of the old generation, and to some extent in its own way with Aage Henriksen of a later generation). In today?s England a man like Colin Wilson would not feel alienated to von Spaeth?s ideas.
 

Traces and evidences
And lies and truth - now being the subject. Is it not common sense to believe that the correct description of the source is most likely be the one chronologically closest to the source? And conversely - that you can get so far away from the source that it may be mistaken for a broken drain pipe? When von Spaeth points out the ancient perception of the relation between Judaism, Christianity, and Egyptian ideology, even the most hardcore sceptic must find it obvious that von Spaeth have something important to say.

Augustine, Philo, Josephus - only to mention a few of the most famous names - are among the many persons that von Spaeth offers the opportunity to tell about Moses and Egypt, about the influence of Moses on Egyptian religious thinking of his time, about the many parallels to Egyptian thinking we find in the Old Testament, as well as corresponding traces in the New Testament. These evidences are simply essential.

Fathers of the Church, mentioned besides Augustine - and further Plotin?s secretary, Porphyrius, and in addition Iamblichus, an entire host, can not all have been people of dreams and wishful thinking. Incidentally, von Spaeth points out that the ancient church understood the Christian faith more as a climax and a synthesis of a number of the other religio-philosophical movements, and that it was only in the following centuries it was tried to present Jesus as a completely new and isolated figure. Prior to that, the inclination was to see great spiritual figures preceding Christ as a kind of forerunners for him - Plato was considered as some kind of a Christian..

 

Documentation you can?t escape
The documentation presented here by von Spaeth is hard to escape. Reading von Spaeth - and with just an inferior knowledge of the New Testament, one can not escape listen to the sympathetic resonance of this work. Just think of ?Our Lord? - ?Thy will be done! In Heaven as on Earth?. That is close to Plato?s doctrine of ideas in existential form and, thus, absolutely also an idea we see by the ancient Egyptians. And when Jesus is said to say that ?the Kingdom of God is within yourself" - can that be reasonably understood in any other way than the mystic-psychological way? And von Spaeth makes the interested reader ask himself from where in heaven?s name stems the later fear of concrete nearness of heaven?

Already in the Old Testament there is a permanent inclination to flinch from the Egyptian-Gnostic Christian core - which incidentally von Spaeth believes is the core of all society-creating religions - he presents a number of examples. Such an example is the Cathar version of the line in ?Our Lord?, ?Give us this day our daily bread?. With this Christian direction we find the version ?give us this day our spiritual bread?. But should not this version be closer to the idea that it is the interior, ?the spirit?, within ourselves and in Cosmos that we

We have the same problem with the Sermon on the Mount, the verse ?blessed are the poor in spirit?, (Luke). As the other gospels do not contain ?in spirit? the inclination has been to claim that ?in spirit? with Luke has been added by some contemporary anti-Marxist. In support of von Spaeth?s observation that there is a general inclination also to repel Moses and the core of his ideology, I want to point out that St. Hieronymus, the first translator of the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New Testament from Greek, indeed translated ?our daily bread? to ?panis nostrum supersubstantialis? i.e. ?our spiritual bread?. For did not Hieronymus know what he was talking about? This man - praised and worshipped by August for his firm knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin..

 

The essential understanding
A central basis of the analysis of his texts is von Spaeth?s use of a principle adopted by Max Weber, the sociologist and anthropologist, who calls it ?Verstehen?, i.e. - the obvious, but rarely observed - that it is not possible to describe a distant culture?s habits and rituals without understanding the meaning and the purpose itself. An explorer who wants to describe the rituals of a exotic tribe in connection with calling forth of rain will never be able to describe it correctly unless he understands the purpose of the ritual - the calling forth of rain.

And by this von Spaeth proceeds into serious minefields - the ancient mystery cults and astrology. Ove von Spaeth simply means that without a knowledge of ancient history?s astrological imaginations and the profound idea of many and often strange, cultic rituals, we only understand a fraction of the contents of the Bible, and in any case not at all enough to be aware of the existing relations between the Egyptian, the Jewish, and the Christian worlds. Further, as a red rag in front of modern religio-sociologists, von Spaeth emphasizes that the great religions were not originally a social product, but that civilization, and in general societies capable of surviving, origin from a kind of mysterious, individual experiences provoked by the purpose of the cults.

In which ever way we turn this over in our minds we can not escape von Spaeth?s emphasis on the conditions of practice ruling in ancient times and for a long time ahead. From ancient Egypt via Greece and Rome, with a medieval break, but with a revival during the Renaissance, the entire period was pervaded with cultic and astrological ideas.

Cultic rituals
The actual ?The Secret Religion? with the subtitle ?Moses and the Egyptian heritage in past and present? (C.A. Reitzel Publishers), the fourth volume of von Spaeth?s series about Moses, is a tour de force in trying to make us read the Old Testament and the New Testament through cultic and astrological glasses. For those who turn sick by the word ?astrology? I should like - on my own behalf - to present an explanatory note: constellations of stars should not be - as often done - interpreted as an immediate explanation of events on the individual and general level on our planet. Constellations of stars appear with a cyclic and thus calculated periodicity. For instance such as solar eclipses.

At different times and in different positions compared to the sun the Earth is influenced by different kinds of more or less important cosmic radiation, that is not any news or incomprehensible. Neither that cosmic radiation may be the reason for many explicable and also more inexplicable phenomena on this planet. Of course different kinds of cosmic radiation also can appear with regular periodicity - like for instance the result of sunspots, which can both be measured and often be calculated.

Therefore, nothing prevent a certain kind of cosmic radiance from appearing simultaneously with a certain constellation of stars. If only the result and not the source of this cosmic radiance is known, and this result appears apparently connected to a certain constellation of stars, there will be a natural inclination to point to this in itself innocent constellation of stars as the reason. The signs of the Zodiac should just be understood as signs or signals. Like the Pavlovian dogs - we make the mistake to believe that the ringing bell is the source of the delicious food. The bell is only signalising that dinner is served.
 

    

Orphic or Osiric interpretation
The result of cultic rituals need not be explained or ?defended?. It is a thoroughly studied fact. It is beyond doubt that from ancient times to places on Earth where they still are maintained, the purpose of rituals is ecstasy and some kind of a "higher state". That hallucinatory states may be reached through what we today call sensory deprivation - deprivation of all senses - is no news - on the contrary. If someone is lowered into a tank with lukewarm water for 72 hours or is forced to stay in a closed coffin for 72 hours is in this connection one and the same thing. The cultic rituals have a purpose - they are not absurd tomfoolery.

When we read in the so-called Augsburg Confession about God?s only begotten Son, who was executed by Pontius Pilate, spent three days in the kingdom of the dead, only to finally resurrect and ascend into Heaven, that is pure rubbish to a person of today of sound mind. If, however, the text is interpreted Orphic or perhaps Osiric, i.e. cultic-ritual, it is about achieving a higher or different state of mind through complete isolation from external influences.

A fascinating world opens up
In this the fourth volume of his great work von Spaeth makes us read through astrological-cultic symbolizing glasses, and it is both very exciting and often very amusing.

We know that the concealed is always interesting, but it is not for entertaining reasons that mystery cults are being surrounded by a huge and at times impenetrable wall of secrecy. One the explanations is, of course, the danger of vulgarisation, causing evaporation of the psychical excitement necessary to achieve the concrete results, i.e. some kind of ecstasy. In the same way von Spaeth explains Moses? ban against images of God. What is supposed to be an introvert and spiritual matter is made reified by images and will draw the mind off its focus.

Another reason for keeping secret the mystery cults is probably that preparations of the mystic initiation were often rituals directed against liberation from conventional strings attached to society. Also rites using sex and bloodshed cannot be public. That rites have often very drastic forms is beyond doubt. In some cases they have had such a form that nobody felt inclined to describe them. In ?A Poet?s Bazaar? Hans Christian Andersen mentions an initiating ritual ceremony with the ?Turkish dervishes?; having described the beginning of the performance he discontinue by saying, ?the following was of a kind not suitable for the paper?..


 

But now, read the volume (four) concerned, of ?The Assassination of Moses?, - ?The Secret Religion?. Reading this volume makes you at once want to read the three preceding volumes again. This summary of volume four is only referring to a fraction of the subjects that von Spaeth is dealing with - if not to say scrutinises. A fascinating world opens up under his magnifying glass.

Jurij Moskvitin,    Rio de Janeiro, 24 November 2004,
copyright ? 2004


The essayist/reviewer, Jurij Moskvitin, is a philosopher, film music compositor, mathematician, and author (Jurij Moskvitin's "Essay on the Origin of Thought?, Ohio University Press, 191, was soon established as a true classic); he has formerly been a reviewer for the Copenhagen newspaper "Politiken" and occasionally for the Danish national television.


Ove von Spaeth: "The Secret Religion", - Assassinating Moses, vol. 4. -
368 pages, illstr., DKK: 298,- ;  p.t. in Danish only (: "Den Hemmelige Religion"),
C.A. Reitzel Publisher, Norregade 20, DK-1165 Copenhagen K,  Denmark - info@careitzel.com


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