Do Jesus, Dionysius, Krishna, And Mithras Share The Same Life Story?
Whether you’re a Christian, Buddhist, Pagan, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, New-Ager, Atheist, or Zoroastrian you’ve probably been privy to the story of Jesus. While Christians like Catholics and Baptists might not agree on the procedures required to celebrate and worship Christ, they agree on these aspects of the Christian narrative:
When Jesus’ mother conceived him, she was a virgin and an angel announced the birth. Upon his birth, wise men and shepherds visited Jesus and his family. They were guided to a remote manger under the constellations. Then at a young age, Jesus had an unusual thirst for spiritual matters and a powerful command of his birth religion. Throughout his life, Jesus taught about love, faith, hope, devotion, and justice.
He performed many miracles, including healing lepers and casting out demons. Jesus defined himself as the son of God and was assumed to be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He defined the nature of God to be a trinity, comprised of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He often claimed, “I am the Resurrection,” and promised to cleanse the world of sin.
Jesus gave many lectures and had a core group of disciples who spread his teachings. He was known to be loving, meek, and merciful, and he forgave his enemies and was criticized for associating with society’s outcasts and sinners. He withdrew to the desert to confront all aspects of the universe within himself.
Before being betrayed, Jesus held the last supper for his dearest disciples. His teachings threatened old religious doctrine and fearful politicians, which resulted in Jesus being captured and crucified. After Jesus died, he rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples.
“After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.”
— Luke 2:46-47
The Life of Krishna
What’s surprising is that most of these story elements are also found in Krishna's narrative. While some might assume that the early Christians stole from the older Hindu religion, it’s fair to say that when the divine births a master, He or She knows that some aspects of the narrative are vital for inspiring devotion to divine love and light. Also, all masters are born from the same cloth, the same mysterious force, and the same eternal consciousness. It might be said that focusing on the narrative detracts from the embodiment of the teachings.
Many other religions claim Christianity stole their stories. Some of the ancient writings on parchments and stone indeed point to this possibility. Regardless, much of the evidence has been poorly constructed and presented. It’s incorrect to say that early Christians and propagandistic writers did not steal from this sacred religion, it’s just that, when considering traditional academic procedures, it’s not apparent.
In all things, our devotion and beliefs are personal, and therefore, sacred. While claiming theft might seem justified, it’s also a distraction. With positivity and focus, we can deepen our devotion to our chosen Gods, refrain from judgment, and circumvent our egos.
No worthy God has a penchant for sustaining a vendetta, ego, or attitude. As all precepts are illusions, details are merely dust.
Horus The Child and The Cult of Isis
Most of the writings that equate Horus The Younger with Jesus were written by comparative religion enthusiasts who often referenced the writings of other enthusiasts, most of whom are from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. While compelling on first read, the thrust of this research does not stem from accredited religious figures, Egyptologists, or biblical scholars. This could limit its credibility.
While the narratives around Horus The Child and his mother Isis are fascinating and potentially illuminating, there are few proven similarities to the story of Jesus. The research on this topic is vague. Some of it points to teachings assumed to have been birthed in the City of Atlantis. It might be that the writings that promote the connection between Horus and Jesus are born from hopes rather than qualified scholarship.
The original narrative of Horus the Younger, very different from Horus the Elder, featured a powerful Sun God who commanded the elements from the sky. He was the protector of those who suffered affliction and pain. Often depicted in the arms of his mother, Isis, the imagery most likely had a substantial influence on Christian iconography in the forms of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. While there are many other reported similarities, they may or may not be bonafide.
There is a vast array of conflicting information on this subject, found in libraries and on the web. Because of this, our religious beliefs must stem from the core of our beings and the centers of our devotional hearts.
Mithraism
Mithra is known as the God Sun, and some have claimed him to be the mediator between God and humanity. Sadly, anti-Christian writers may have sought to defame the religion, hoping to victimize their unique God. Other writers, especially those who lived during the years 100-500 AD, such as Justin Martyr, Athenagoras of Athens, and Clement of Alexandria, wanted to remove the stigmas against Christianity in support of making it a legal religion.
While Mithraic writings may have pointed to the notion of salvation, they were most likely based in Zoroastrian principles around man’s participation in the cosmic struggle of a magnificent creation opposing the eternal forces of evil. Other purported similarities between Christ and Mithra have mainly been dismissed, including shared December 25th births, a water-miracle, and the mark of the cross.
Dionysius and Jesus
The culture and religion around Dionysius were born from a philosophical form of Hedonism. While Jesus may have been the true vine of divine love, Dionysius was literally referred to as the God of Grapes, and therefore wine. While both Gods were traveling teachers, performers of miracles, riders of symbolic donkeys, and then murdered, this is where the similarities end.
Regardless of what you believe, your God is whomever you elevate above yourself. With a little faith, Horus, Dionysius, and Krishna could certainly protect you from the perils of this world and the demons within your nature.
In all religions, the details are sketchy. We’ll never know when or how Christ, Mithra, or the other gods in human form were born. Since all of their narratives were written many years after their deaths, we can only assume their stories were born from combinations of divine intervention, subjective truths, mythology, and hope. While we can love them and honor them, we might never know the truth of their physical lives and purpose. It might also be true that the details are unimportant.
The prevailing truth of our lives is that the divine can spring forth and lovingly envelop our spirits in an instant. She can birth a master from a vibrant flower or a ray of sunlight. He can conjure realities and spacetime trajectories that appear to last forever, yet only last a moment.
There are many ways to connect with a loving, divine master. Given their eternal, non-egoistic natures, they probably don’t care which name you call them. Whether it’s Shiva, Saraswati, Aphrodite, Ares, Sol, Tristan, Dolya, Gabrielle, Isolde, Khepri, Koko, or Lena, because they were either born from light or elevated by human consciousness, their vibrations are bright, beneficial, and eternal.
There are many types of gods and masters. There are living masters, birthed/deceased gods, and divine beings that solely live within the other realms. It is up to each of us to command our divinity, bow to the eternal light, and remain humble in our pursuit of perpetual resurrection.
Crocodiles and Plant Medicine: Lessons of the Modern Shaman
Crocodile came to me recently in ceremony. At first I was startled by his appearance, feeling I have already embraced every shadow aspect of myself he represents. Since his visit, however, I have spent time welcoming him and examining the teachings he now brings.
Crocodile/Snake holds our basal self, our deepest fears and lesser-evolved leanings which are held in the reptilian brain. In sacred ceremony and spiritual initiations, it is snake or crocodile who confronts you to face and embrace that which you fear most. His personal challenge to me: “You’re not a true shaman. You don’t work in the rain forest, you don’t ingest plant medicines, and you’re falsely holding your craft, thereby misleading those you serve.”
On more than one occasion I have been questioned and warned against calling myself a shaman. I haven’t studied in the jungle, I don’t have any hint of bronzed pigment in my Irish skin, and I don’t have a Maestro or don teaching me the ways. My path is unique in devoted past-life reclamation, shamanic journey, and an early proclamation at five-years-old that I would be a shaman. I was born ready and haven’t looked back. However, the thorny challenges still arise.
Enter the internal struggle of spirit and shadow. It’s brought me to a place of deep self-inquiry and an eventual and potent reclamation. It’s also offered me a new perspective on the path of the modern shaman.
What is a Shaman?
When asked, “What is a shaman?” my easiest answer is “someone who works in the invisible spaces to bring peace and healing to those whom they are in service.”
“Shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements. The shaman operates primarily within the spiritual world, which in turn affects the human world. The restoration of balance results in the elimination of the ailment.”
Tryptamine Palace
In Cave and Cosmos, Michael Harner suggests it is simply “one who knows.”
Core and Indigenous Shamanism
The big divide in the shamanic communities lies between those who work in the rain forest with the lineage of indigenous wisdom in their blood; and so-called Plastic Shamans who have no connection to the cultures and traditions they represent.
As shamanism has gained prevalence in the modern era, “core shamanism” has become the accepted term for those who use the methods of the shaman but have not been raised in the traditional cultures. The Foundation for Shamanic Studies has reintroduced the shamanic journey for self-healing, while the Psychonauts have lead a revolution through chemically assisted self-inquiry. Both are valid paths that differ greatly from a jungle education. While the efficacy of the practice is all that should matter, there still lies a division.
Plant Medicine
Another crucial distinction for indigenous shamans is their relationships with the plants. Dietas are ceremonial ingestions of plant medicines that teach the shaman how to walk between and within the astral worlds. Any number of teacher plants are used, from tobacco to ayahuasca. These ceremonies are performed with great reverence and honor and remain within sacred guidelines as sincere spiritual endeavors to deepen the path of the seeker. The illusion of this world fades away and great insights are gained, revealing the true nature of one’s own soul.
Freakin’ awesome when done in this sacred space, right?
I, however, am a different kind of shaman. I traverse the dimensions without the use of hallucinogens. Drums, deep meditation, and the psychic connection with spirits and plant allies, for me, have been enough. And Croc challenged me on this also: “Is your plant abstinence genuinely enough to gain such an alliance with the spirit realms?”
In the modern world, our relationship to the plants is vastly different than that of the indigenous shaman. We don’t commune with them personally, nor do we seek to hone their wisdom. As a result, contemporary seekers often misuse the medicines. In my younger days, I experimented with mushrooms recreationally. I found them an expansive and uplifting dalliance that only affirmed my path as a seer and healer. Yet I took them with no noble intent.
Recently, I found myself called to work more closely with the plants in ceremonial space and felt conflicted. My ego holds my hallucinogenic refrain as a badge of honor — a way of ensuring the purity of the messages received. And yet I found myself deeply appreciating the plant spirits again, in great awe and gratitude for the teachings they shared.
And what they shared was this: I’ve connected more than sufficiently with the plant spirits. I learn and walk beside them every day to offer blessings to my community. I need not ingest them, for they have been my allies all along!
In a recent Aubrey Marcus podcast, Astral Snakes and Binaural Beats (episode 59), Cory Allen shared his most recent devotion is not in using the plant medicines, but rather simply being in the astral plane without any enhancements. Under the influence of the medicine, “The consciousness of the plant is with you in that space and colors your vision of that space. If you get there without it, you are completely you and you are on your own.” Boom, validation! And Croc began to smile.
What I realized was, it all comes back to me not having any allies, any perceptions, any filters on my experience in these worlds. The mark of the shaman is not who they are when they’re on the medicines or how they handle these energies inside of them. It is who they are in the absence of any aids at all!