Mani VS Mary

“…So at that time I was sent out through the gracious pleasure of my all-blessed Father, to come into the world so that through me the creation should be hallowed and so that He, through me, should reveal the truth of His gnosis in the midst of the peoples and religions…” - Mani In Gnosticism the snake stands for Wisdom. The Manichaeans believed that matter was evil and that bearing children into the evil world was participation in matter. To them, the diety would never be born of a woman into evil matter. This attitude advanced the position of Mary for the Roman church, the Mother of God became a very important figure.

Nativity and Gnostics

Byzantine, the era of the slates. Giotto Nativity Arena, Padua. It has been said by researchers that the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas was produced by the Manichaeans - it is included in the Nag Hammadi codices collection. Wisdom Sophia. Did these repeated images inspire Andy Warhol? He grew up with them. Escape by Night - the Flight into Egypt.

The Five Steps of the Manichaean Bema Altar

A Michigan slate with what appears to be a nativity scene on the left, with serpents on the pillars - a rather Gnostic nativity, and a five-stepped altar on the right. This compares the the five stepped Manichaean altar called the "Bema". On the slate there is a small statue at the top, some say that Mani`s book of pictures was on top of the altar. "This symbol is known as the Manichaean Cross of Light and Life. Depicted are the 5 Steps of the Holy Bema, the 8 Arms of the Cross and the circle depicts the presence of Mir Izgadda and His calling for all the sparks of Light to be regathered into the Cross of Life and Life. Mir Izgadda is a man who wrote teachings related to Manichaeism. Some consider him the Messiah of modern times." Manichaeism was the chief rival of Christianity. Mani first traveled to India and his religion is like the guru worshipping cults of india. The members had to travel and preach rather than settle down. A photo of some of the slates for size. A stamped clay Michigan artifact with the glyphs marching off to the right and to the left. The Creation slate - Creation of the Heavens and the Creation of the earth with Adam and Eve. Another serpent wound around a tree. An Egyptian revival notepad for taking notes.

Behemoth on the Slates

This slate has been tranlated as "Leviathan" read from right to left like Hebrew, but he looks more like Behemoth - Behemoth as the hippo and Leviathan as the gator. One of the soldiers is floating in the river with hippo who has big teeth! This must be the Nile. The Leviathan slate. Leviathans as cherubim? This slate tells quite a story. The Manichee priest wore a big white headdress and costume like this often with a cross at the throat. The Manichaean Bema feast, note the leader in the center in the big white headdress and big white robe. Fearless leader with pyramids. Man with a bird hat - a Sidicus bird hat!

The Manichaean Bema

Orthodox Bema throne - Manichaean. Manichaeans worshipping under the Tree of Life. "...“heresy” of equating Christ with the sun. Higgins relates of the influential and widespread Gnostic group called the Manichaeans: When a Manichaean came over to the orthodox he was required to curse his former friends in the following terms: “I curse Zarades [Zarathustra/Zoroaster] who, Manes said, had appeared as a God before his time among the Indians and Persians, and whom he calls the sun. I curse those who say Christ is the sun, and who make prayers to the sun, and to the moon, and to the stars, and pay attention to them as if they were really Gods, and who give them titles of most lucid Gods, and who do not pray to the true God, only towards the East, but who turn themselves round, following the motions of the sun with their innumerable supplications. I curse those persons who say that Zarades and Budas [Buddha] and Christ and Manichaeus and the sun are all one and the same.” In his 2nd Apology, Justin Martyr acknowledges that the Gnostic-Christian Manichaeans were “sunworshippers”...." Bema feast. Portrait of Mani - rock crystal. Peacock angel from Mithra.com, note the cuneiform. Mithra gate.

Manichaean Christianity (?)

"While the vast majority of these writings were written in a version of the Syriac script known as Manichaean script, the German researchers, perhaps for lack of suitable fonts, published most of them using the Hebrew alphabet (which could easily be substituted for the 22 Syriac letters)." Moses mosaic. Mani. Khocho Temple. The earliest portrait of St. Augustine, note how is is looking directly at the viewer.

Russian Manichaeans

Manichaeans. As Kvakin notes, authors such as Berdyaev (1992), Lotman and Uspenskii (1985), and Raeff (1966) have traced the roots of Manichaean tendencies in Russian ... James Hastings, ‎John Alexander Selbie, ‎Louis Herbert Gray - 1916 - ‎Religion In the persecution of the Manichaeans Pope Leo I. played a specially ... of the Russian Molokanye has been described as a modified fonn of Manicha-ism. Russian Bible illustrations. The cross of St. Thomas. Mani in China. Manichaeans from Khocho. Dunhuang Manichaean text. Dunhuang. Russian church.