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“Primarily, the pentacle is a pagan religious symbol.” Fache nodded. “Devil worship.” “No,” Langdon corrected, immediately realizing his choice of vocabulary should have been clearer.
Nowadays, the term pagan had become almost synonymous with devil worship—a gross misconception. The word’s roots actually reached back to the Latin paganus, meaning country-dwellers. “Pagans” were literally unindoctrinated country-folk who clung to the old, rural religions of Nature worship.
“You’re kidding, right? We’re going to visit a knight?” Langdon gave an awkward smile. “We’re on a Grail quest, Sophie. Who better to help us than a knight?”
“The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.” “Okay.”
started on Christian icons. Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras—called the Son of God and the Light of the World—was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity’s weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans.”
“This symbol is the original icon for male,” he told her. “A rudimentary phallus.” “Quite to the point,” Sophie said.
“The chalice,” he said, “resembles a cup or vessel, and more important, it resembles the shape of a woman’s womb. This symbol communicates femininity, womanhood, and fertility.”
“Did Jesus have a girlfriend?” Her grandfather was silent for several moments. “Would it be so bad if He did?”
The ability of the woman to produce life from her womb made her sacred. A god. Intercourse was the revered union of the two halves of the human spirit—male and female—through which the male could find spiritual wholeness and communion with God.
Traditional American Thanksgiving tables still bore pagan, horned fertility symbols. The cornucopia or “horn of plenty” was a tribute to Baphomet’s fertility and dated back to Zeus being suckled by a goat whose horn broke off and magically filled with fruit.
The saltiness in the cognac now registered. I’m being murdered!
easy to find your way in, but impossible to find your way out. A literal tourist trap,
