Origins

To investigate wether could be any reasonable basis for these Cathar beliefs it is necessary to go a long way back.

The premise is that one of Jesus’ lines of ancestry comes through Cleopatra and therefore through Egypt.

There are many theories about the origins of the Egyptians. One of the characteristics of this civilisation evidenced by carbon dating is that its constructional capability and technology was stronger in its earliest known centuries than in later centuries. There is much speculation that in its early years it possessed technologies such as electricity and even the ability to build flying machines. This obviously leads to further speculation as to what was the origin of this early technology. Consideration of the lost continent of Atlantis, which does appear in legendary sources, and even visitors from outer space, which is a relatively recent concept, inevitably arise. If the origins of the Egyptians lay in visitors from space they were marooned!

Change of Climate

What do we know? Around 8000 years ago, the northern hemisphere had a cap of ice. This promoted a vastly different climate to the one we know today. The whole of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Equator was covered with light forest, grassland and many freshwater lakes. The Mediterranean and Black Sea areas were themselves fertile valleys fed by streams from the ice cap. In the case of the Mediterranean this was supplemented at its eastern extremity by the Nile, running down from central Africa and terminating in a precipitous waterfall to the floor of the valley. The natural wildlife of Africa including elephants and rhinoceros came this far north. Bones of both have been found on Malta.

A Different Race

The fertile area stretched across Arabia into Pakistan and northern India, and supported a large population.  The peoples of these lands were aware of another civilization, isolated from them in some way.  All primitive people had legends of the people they regarded as Gods, who were smarter, bigger and  better able to mobilize the forces of nature. The two civilizations had minimal contact with each other.

Inundation

The climate was changing. The temperatures rose and the ice cap started to melt. The sea level rose by 120 metres over a period of 4000 years. The sea broke through the Straights of Gibraltar to flood the Mediterranean valley and later through the Dardanelles to flood the Black Sea Valley. Similar effects, perhaps accompanied by earthquakes, occurred in the Arabian Sea.

Civilisation Q

Three major civilisations came into being almost simultaneously around its periphery. This indicates that there was a common earlier civilisation in that area. As the sea levels rose and valleys were flooded the peoples of the earlier civilisation were forced to move. I have called this civilisation “Indiantis” because it is in the Indian ocean and the ancient legends place Atlantis in what is now the Atlantic ocean. If those legends were wrong it could be that ” Indiantis” was in fact “Atlantis”. Whatever:-

One group settled on the Indus River in what is now Pakistan (Harappans).

Another group retreated into the Arabian Gulf and ultimately to the Euphrates and Tigris rivers (Mesopotamians).

The third group moved up the Red Sea and ultimately into the Nile Valley. For the third group, the final move into the Nile Valley seems to have taken pace about 6000 years ago.

And so to Egypt

By this time the level of the oceans were very close to the levels we experience today. The Egyptians found the native people of the Nile River Valley to be extremely primitive. They were easily subjected to Egyptian rule.  Not only did they regard their new rulers as Gods, but also the Egyptian rulers themselves believed they were a different race from the people they ruled.

Egyptians believed that the Pharohs were descended from gods. They practiced line Breeding techniques to keep the line pure. Line breeding was the norm not the exection and it continued through to the time of Cleopatra. 

Racial Purity

The Egyptians believed that the first Pharaoh was born of Isis and was a God himself. The whole ruling structure of Pharaohs, Priests and Administrators saw themselves as “Gods”. They were determined to retain their racial purity. This meant that they did not inter-marry with their subjects. They indulged in “line breeding” a technique still used today when dealing with thoroughbred animals. Contrary to popular belief if managed carefully it  reinforces desired characteristics and limits disease and genetic aberration.There are surprisingly detailed records of how the Egyptians kept the bloodline of the gods as pure as possible.

Line Breeding

Brothers married sisters, uncles married nieces. Line breeding works as long as any undesirable traits are identified and eliminated. this means that those with undesirable traits were removed from the succession and prevented from breeding. In some instances this meant death. The records show that this did in fact happen. Once this undesirable traits have been removed, which may take many generations, it is important not to bring in new genes from outside of the controlled breeding pool. Every new gene pool introduced may then take addition generations of  monitoring to eliminate any undesirable traits. Understandably the priests in charge of the breeding program were very careful to the introduction of untested gene pools.

Creation

The story of the first Pharoh’s relation to the gods is a summary of the mystery of creation, of  endless time and the unification of multiple deities.  There seems to have been an attempt in the breeding programme to emulate as closely as possible the mystery of the genealogy of Isis herself. So much time and effort was put into the control of the breeding program that we can assume that if a Pharaoh took a partner who appeared to have no pedigree it simply meant that the person in question was introduced from a secondary level, less well documented.  Even this occurs infrequently.

Women’s rights

All inheritance rights, including the right to rule, came through the mother who then with the guidance of the Priests, chose her partner. Perhaps because of this the Egyptian state was notable for its worship of goddesses and its reputation of treating women as the equal of males.

A good general article on Linebreeding ( but referring to dogs)

http://www.westwindgsps.com/linebreeding.htm

A wikipedia article which specifically mentions Egypt.  Note that the Habsberg problems were due to uncontrolled imprecise inbreeding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding#Royalty_and_nobility

The history and therefore religious beliefs of Egypt and the Jews are closely intertwined.

Refugees

The Egyptians regarded their subjects as “children” meaning immature and innocent and but did have concern for them. After all it was these “children” who worked to create wealth! They avoided committing their children to wars but as will be shown had no scruples about getting other peoples to fight for them.

Surrounded by natural barriers for long periods Egypt was relatively peaceful. However as the icecap melted the climate changed and the surrounding grasslands turned to desert. In the end the major source of water in the eastern Mediterranean was the Nile. The ranks of those who worked for the Egyptian Rulers were swollen by refugees from the surrounding countryside who migrated to the Nile delta to avoid the impact of the drought elsewhere. Around 4000 years ago the pressure of refugees became too great. Some of the refugees, known as the Hyskos, rebelled and established their own state in the Nile delta, Lower Egypt

Set

This group, or at least the dominant faction in this group, were the ancestors of the Hebrews.  The “Gods” retained control of Upper Egypt and spent considerable time and effort trying to teach this new generation of “children” the error of their ways.   This was all to no avail. The Hyskos, to distinguish themselves from the Egyptians, chose Set as their God, whom they then proclaimed as the only God.  Set was the God of desert, storm, crocodiles, hippopotamuses and foreigners, all the things Egyptians most feared, he was therefore the God of retribution, the God who punished the Egyptians for their misdemeanours. Set, the Hyskos chosen god had also had a bad record with women. In legend he killed his brother Osiris because he was jealous that Osiris married Isis. Still rejected by Isis he fathered a child with Nephthis, who had disguised herself as Isis. Once he discovered this ploy he disowned the child.

The Exodus

Slowly but surely the Egyptian rulers reclaimed Lower Egypt in what was perhaps the first religious war,  the followers of Isis against the followers of Set.  Multitudes of Hyskos were taken into servitude. Finally around 3500 years ago a combination of their own determination to be independent and the Egyptian God’s impatience with these unruly children led to them being expelled from Egypt. Later Hebrew and Jewish records knew this event as the “Exodus”.

Plagues and pestilence

We are now back in the area of pure speculation. At this point then Old Testament, rejected by Cathars as influenced by Set, the Bad God, resorts to sticks turning into snakes, water issuing from rocks and a parting of the waters of the Red Sea as it tries to explain how and why the Hebrews left Egypt. According to the Old Testament, the last days of the servitude of the Hebrews (Hyscos) caused great distress on both sides.

Genocide

Forget the bullrushes. Moses was a Prince of Egypt.

. The Egyptian rulers, in a genocidal action ordered the execution of all male Hyskos. In retribution the Hyskos called on Set, who they now regarded as the only God, to punish the Egyptians.  They now referred to Set as YHWH, in more modern times perhaps Jehovah, to keep his identity a secret. According to the Old Testament, he obliged with a series of plagues which ravaged the Egyptian nation and from which the Egyptian rulers themselves were not exempt. It is an event surrounded by mystery and legend.

The Old Testament tells us that the person who led the Hebrews out of Egypt was a  a crown prince of Egypt and a commander of the Egyptian armies whose name was Moses. Centered on various calculations of when the Hyskos finally left Egypt, it is possible the biblical Moses could be Ramose or Amenmose, brothers, sons or nephews of the female Pharaoh Hatshepusat. Jewish tradition identifies Moses as a Hebrew. In truth we have no precise idea who Moses was.

The Bullrushes

Hebrew history claims he was saved from the execution of male children by being floated down the Nile in a basket, where he was found and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter.  He was then brought up as her own son, which is how he became crown prince of  Egypt. It is not recorded who she claimed was the father.  Moses is supposed to have a brother Aaron from whom all the Priests in Israel are descended. We do not know how Aaron escaped death. Apparently Moses retained knowledge of his true ancestry because his biological sister won a job as his nurse!

Female Leaders

. The leader of the Hyskos at this vital juncture, until Moses took control, was possibly also a female, (because all the male children in the previous generation had been eliminated?).  Nevertheless in the eyes of the Hyskos/Hebrews their oppressor was female and their leader who failed them was also a woman!  This was probably the basis for the subsequent Jewish discrimination against women, the result of an accumulation of circumstances 3500 years ago! In Egypt, after the period in which the Exodus is thought to have occurred, the remnants of the Hyskos, retained adherence to Set. In the rest of Egypt the dominance of Isis was undiminished. Core Egyptian beliefs continued to encourage the equality of women.

This may have been the event which gave rise a belief in a struggle between good and bad gods competing for the hearts and minds of the human race

Exit Moses

Just to add to the mystery, Moses then vanished from mainstream history. Neither Ramose or Amenmose played any part in Egyptian history nor Moses is not a key figure in the ongoing history of the Jews!  It is possible that Moses took no lasting part in the future of the Hebrews because he was an Egyptian.  His motive for leading the Hebrews to the Promised Land is then a matter of further speculation. It is of course possible that the two Egyptian princes Moses and Aaron left Egypt to form another state because of their position being “usurped” by Hatshepuset.  It may be all a good story to expedite the creation of a buffer state to the north, which protected Egypt from jealous eyes. They simply adopted the Hyscos “children” to provide a population in the new state.

Priests and Kings

The Jewish Kings were therefore not descended from Moses or Aaron but from Seth, third son of Adam and then according to  the old testament through Noah the only survivor of the great flood. No connection with Moses or Aaron whatsoever. Presumably the vast crowd involved in the Exodus were all descendants of Noah!?All the Jewish high priests were however descended from Aaron and therefore they may have been Egyptian, they certainly adopted the Role similar to the Egyptian Priests in the new Jewish state.

Moses ? He married a Kushite Princess and his descendants ultimately came to power as Pharohs of Egypt!  He almost certainly was an Egyptian Prince!