Bill Weintraub:

Mr Barnes says that he's cried himself to sleep, "begging God to take this away."

Can you imagine asking that of God?

I can't.

The love of Men and Masculinity, celebrated in the holy sacrament of Phallic Bonding, has been the most important fact of my life.

I can't imagine my life without that love, or that act.

Naked Wrestler speaks of aggression and the beauty of guys.

"Aggression and the beauty of guys who asserted that aggression," he says.

That's it.

Here are two mixed martial arts fighters.

Look at them.

They're beautiful.

And beautiful in their aggression.

Making love to a man cock2cock -- face2face heart2heart phallus2phallus -- is aggressive.

And beautiful.

It's Man x Man.

That's what it's about.

The Phallic Celebration of Manhood and Masculinity.

You cum together.

There is, in Don Frazer's words, an unrestrained flow of semen.

There are pools of sperm -- mixed, yours and his -- on your bodies.

Your hard, muscular, manly bodies.

What more could you ask for?

Masculinity is a Divine Principle.

Manhood a Divine Gift.

This ability -- to fight and rub your cocks together together until you cum, to cum with another hard, Masculine Man and pool your sperm with his -- is a gift from God.

Warrior buddyrub in I love FROT:

For me, cock-on-cock is the way to go, because you're two equals and you're sharing exactly the same sensations at the same time, and it's all caused by the same action. And when I feel our combined jizz lubricating our dick interface, my orgasm intensifies twofold.

Head-to-head is fun too, but ultimately, when we "take it home," rubbing the sensitive undersides together is really where it's at.

Best of all, you don't necessarily have to be gay to enjoy it. Every guy can join in.

Sorry about the clinical term "interface." It's the only way I can think of to describe it. I'd welcome some other descriptive term. But how can you describe in words the few square inches wherein men's souls converge?

The dick interface is that "few square inches wherein men's souls converge."

He's right.

Men's souls.

The souls of MEN.

Converging through their cocks.

Pastor Barnes wants God to take that away from him.

But God gave it to him.

For a reason.

Don Frazer:

We know the real FREEDOM guys can experience in male genital union. Buddies can BOTH reach their orgasms naturally and directly through their genitals together, ejaculating freely without any restraint or containment.

Is there ANYTHING more quintessentially masculine than feeling your buddy's warm semen gush on your cock and belly while you ejaculate right in his climax?

Fully complete, male union at its BEST. Two guys, naturally being GUYS makes the homosexual experience SHARED.

Fully complete male union.

Men's souls converge.

Through their cocks.

Guys --

First Ted Haggard and now Paul Barnes have sent the young men of America a terrible message.

A message that they should beg God to take from them the Natural Love of Man for Man -- and with it, their Natural Masculinity.

Haggard has said that the Love of Man for Man is immoral, a dark and repulsive force.

When young men look for an alternative to that message, what do they find?

That the alternative is to get fucked up the ass like some soulless, lost, bitch.

Help us counter these lies.

With the TRUTH that Men can and should thank God for the gift of their Masculinity and their Manhood.

And for the Phallic Love of Man for Man inherent in that gift.

Help us.

Help yourself.

FIGHT BACK.

Bill Weintraub

© All material Copyright 2006 by Bill Weintraub. All rights reserved.

Robert Loring

Re: 2nd pastor resigns over gay sex scandal

12-14-2006

Both Haggard and Barnes are SLIME!! They don't represent God but they DO represent HYPOCRISY!! Building up their MILLIONS as "preachers" they were outspoken against the very thing THEY were. Like wolves in sheep's clothing they blasted men who love other men yet they themselves SECRETLY love other men! Their actions did NOT match their words especially their actions done in SECRET! Both of these "staunch christian leaders" are DOGS!!

Barnes says he has asked God to "take this" from him. God is NOT going to take his HOMOSEXUALITY from him so Barnes is WASTING his time even asking! God sees NOTHING wrong or SINFUL about M2M love only the LOST CHRISTIAN CHURCH and this UPSIDE DOWN WORLD do! But NEITHER of those are GOD!!

Both of these men are men of DISHONOR not because of their secret backroom gay actions but because BOTH have spent years BETRAYING what they are as God created them! Maybe they can both HOOK UP and walk in shame together begging gay men the world over to forgive them for their HYPOCRISY. Sorry but they WON'T get my forgiveness! They should have been as they were created to be and cut all the DEVIL crap!

They are BOTH TRAITORS to evey MALE on this planet!!

Redd

Re: 2nd pastor resigns over gay sex scandal

12-14-2006

Although I'm not surprised that the likes of Haggard and Barnes hide in the church, I would like to know anyone's opinion about why such men go into church ministry.

Why do they marry, sire children, and preach against what they are when they apparently don't believe what they preach?

It seems to me that despite their saying the church-politically correct penance ("I'm sorry I sinned") they don't really believe they've done wrong. I mean, surely, they way they preach faith and God's power to heal and deliver, they would have had their "deliverance" if they prayed the way they claim.

So, what's up with these guys? Theirs seem to go beyond hypocrisy.

redd

Bill Weintraub

Re: 2nd pastor resigns over gay sex scandal

12-15-2006

Thank you Robert and Redd.

Robert says, "They are BOTH TRAITORS to evey MALE on this planet!!"

That's the truth.

Redd asks, "So, what's up with these guys? Theirs seem to go beyond hypocrisy."

Patrick, who was an evangelical pastor in the 1980s, says that the temptation to fornicate and make money -- is very great.

Patrick has told me that at times he had to keep his wife physically with him to prevent church ladies from sexually assaulting him.

And of course he was offered money to change the slant of his sermons.

Constantly.

In one case he was offered money just to stop preaching.

Because he was inclusive.

So I don't think it's real subtle.

And it wasn't subtle in Jesus' day.

Which is why Jesus says, You can serve God or Mammon.

"Why do they marry, sire children, and preach against what they are when they apparently don't believe what they preach?"

Good question.

My answer is that

1. the rewards are huge -- money and power; and

2. they're living in the material world -- following the dictates of the dominant paradigm.

And what the analist-heterosexist paradigm teaches is that you're either gay or straight.

I don't know about Barnes -- Haggard has always seemed really sleazy to me, and Barnes may be too.

But what I know from doing this work is that the average married guy struggles mightily with his same-sex feelings.

Which he's taught are sinful and aberrant.

But they're not aberrant.

They're common.

They're natural.

They're normal.

What about sin?

Well, I'm not a pastor.

I'm a social activist.

My understanding of Christian doctrine is that any sex outside of marriage is a sin.

Doesn't matter whether it's with a man or a woman.

That's doctrine.

And I know that Robert feels that people should not have sex outside a committed relationship.

And my heart is with Robert on that one.

But we're faced with men needing the companionship of other men.

And what we do know is that historically, men had that companionship -- either before marriage or during marriage -- usually both.

The other thing we know is that society is going to change.

People will live longer.

People will be younger longer.

Women of course are increasingly and everywhere emancipated.

They no longer define themselves, as Redd said to me in an email the other day, by their relationships with men.

Which means that social arrangements -- like marriage -- will inevitably change.

Where does that leave men?

Men need to re-find two things:

1. Same-sex-society -- Man Space; and

2. Same-sex-love -- Man Love.

Man Space / Man Love.

Men need the company of other men;

and Men need the freedom to LOVE other men.

Notice I didn't say Man Space / Man Sex.

I said Man Space / Man LOVE.

Because that's what it's been traditionally and historically: Man Space / Man Love.

And I think that's a huge part of the problem.

Our society -- and especially people like Barnes and Haggard -- do not think in terms of Man Love.

To them, male2male means sex -- sleazy sex.

Sex-with-a-male-prostitute-sex.

Sleaze.

But historically, Man2Man has meant Warrior2Warrior.

MAN2MAN has meant WARRIOR2WARRIOR.

And that cannot be sleazy.

For the Warrior Bond to function, it has to be noble and heroic.

Warrior Ethos, Warrior Altruism, Warrior Bond.

That's why I talk in those terms -- nobility and heroism.

I'm sure there are a lot of guys who think that's pie in the sky.

It's not.

I'm being realistic and pragmatic.

What's pie in the sky is analism.

Endless buttfucking and promiscuity -- and effeminacy -- are supposed to lead to a gay paradise.

They don't.

We know where they lead: to dysphoria -- unhappiness -- and death.

The Warrior Way:

Men loving Men

Phallically and Faithfully.

In the Catholic right message thread, Robert said:

The rebirth of the Brotherhood of Man is returning whether the Christian Right likes it or not! This upside down and LOST world is going to be set back aright whether the Christian Right likes it or not. WHY? Because the Creator DOES NOT cater to the whims of the Christian Right, or Left, for that matter! God has His OWN desires and in the end HE WILL TRIUMPH and NOT our HUMAN INVENTED, EGO WORSHIPPING, SELF RIGHTEOUS RELIGIONS!!

Robert is right.

These religions are false.

The fact is, as Patrick has said to me, that

All true love stems from God; and

Human love is a reflection of divine love.

THE TRUE LOVE OF MAN FOR MAN IS AS TRUE AS THE TRUE LOVE OF MAN FOR WOMAN.

AND if it is TRUE, IT CAN ONLY COME FROM GOD.

Which is the way Warrior societies have experienced the True Love of Man for Man.

Plutarch -- Greek, ca 100 AD: a male lover is a friend inspired by God.

"in-spired" -- God has breathed into him.

And to those men, that God was, in Robert's phrase, The Warrior God:

The image of War God held as an ideal in the male mind makes that male begin to walk down the paths of masculinity and warrior. It makes him unafraid to simply be the masculine male that he was born to be. It makes him unafraid to show his naked chest and nude body to the world. It makes him unafraid to love other brothers and it puts him in touch with his own manhood and the manhood of all other males. The image of War God is a naturally masculine ideal. It is an image of natural manhood. It is an image and ideal that stands directly opposed to the lies we are fed by the modern world. Lies that seek to eat away and destroy our natural masculinity and male pride!

It has been written that our true battles in life are not against flesh and blood but against the dark powers of the air. This means that the true battles in our lives are in our own minds, individually and collectively. It is the human mind which is the true battlefield. It is in the male mind that the war upon manhood is being waged.

Since the dawn of time warrior societies such as those of ancient Sparta held the image of God as Warrior. Modern warriors must also hold the image of the Divine as Warrior. It is incongruent for one who claims to be a masculine warrior to hold onto an image of the Divine as emasculated wimp! What we become in our life begins in our own minds. We become what we think. We become weak wimps and emasculated males because those are the things our thoughts focus on. Those thoughts need to be changed into God as Warrior and ourselves as truly WARRIORS! Everything begins with a thought whether that thought is conscious or unconscious. Our minds are continually in thought whether we realize it or not. Those thoughts make us into what we become in our lives, wimp or warrior.

Behavior change begins with thought. "Change the thinking. Change the behavior." That is the basic and most sacred premise of Cognitive Psychology, which pretty much hits human behavior and thought right on the nail. Males today must change their thinking and, in turn, our behavior will change for we become what we think. Our behavior is a reflection of our thoughts. Hold a weak image in your mind and you will become that weak image. Hold a manly, masculine image in your mind and you will become manly and masculine. That image can be the image of the Warrior Christ, or the Warrior Mohammed, or the Warrior God of the Old Testament, or any other Warrior image of the Divine. What matters is that the modern warrior hold the image of a warrior god as his masculine ideal.

Robert says, the "Warrior image of the Divine."

"What matters is that the modern warrior hold the image of a warrior god as his masculine ideal."

Because that ideal "makes him unafraid to love other brothers and it puts him in touch with his own manhood and the manhood of all other males."

I agree.

Men like Barnes and Haggard have abandoned the Warrior God, the God of Masculinity and Manhood.

Jesus threw the money-changers out of the temple.

Barnes and Haggard have brought them back in.

And that's the choice -- between Mammon or Manhood.

Money or Manhood.

Warrior societies weren't powered by money.

They were powered by the sacred and loving bonds between men.

PHALLUS

FIDELITY

MASCULINITY

When Men can again proudly embrace all three -- we will have won.

FIGHT BACK.

Bill Weintraub

© All material Copyright 2006 by Bill Weintraub. All rights reserved.

Robert Loring

Re: 2nd pastor resigns over gay sex scandal

12-15-2006

Well I am an ordained preacher so let me put two more of my cents in on this one lol.

The term "sin" comes from the sport of archery and it means "missing the mark." Sin also means "error" and "mistake." Both Haggard and Barnes missed the mark! They both made an error and mistake. Their mistake/sin was that of hypocrisy which is saying one thing but doing another and believing one thing yet doing it anyway. BTW I understand that MORE famous preachers are about to be "outed" so stay tuned.

I believe God brings PEOPLE together. I do NOT believe it happens by accident. When God brings two PEOPLE together in a relationship then he expects them to commit to each other, love each other, and spend their lives together be those people male or female, gay, straight, whatever. Sex outside of the committed relationship is missing the mark, error, mistake.

Barnes and Haggard, as Bill says, don't think in terms of man love. They and people like them think in terms of sex which should be a PART of love but which is NOT love. Money and power are very appealing to most people and most people WILL betray themselves, God, and all others for the sake of money and power and that's a FACT. The Bible calls such people as Barnes and Haggard "double minded" because one part of them wants the self glory of money and power while the other side of them wants M2M sex. So they try to have both and end up leading SECRET and DOUBLE lives eventually becoming hypocrites. All the gay HATE sermons these two men have preached are NOT so much directed at gay people as they are directed at their OWN SELF HATRED! In all their sermons they were condemning themselves more than they were condemning the general gay public.

Bill says that Patrick said, "All true love stems from God; and Human love is a reflection of divine love." I absolutely agree with that. Human love IS a reflection of God's love and, as the Bible teaches, God IS love. That love that is God SURPASSES ALL HUMAN understanding meaning it is NOT completely like the love we have in the world. God's love is UNCONDITIONAL and IN-CLUSIVE while the love in this world is usually conditional (I'll love you if......) and EX-clusive. This is one aspect of God that many Christians do NOT understand and/or DO NOT want to understand because God's inclusive love challenges what they have been told in church.

Sad FACT is the majority of Christians have NOT read the Bible. Many have "skimmed" through it or studied a few verses but as far as actually reading it, they haven't. Instead they rely on the preachers to just tell them what it says and what it means. That, however, is NOT what God had in mind! God wants a PERSONAL relationship with every INDIVIDUAL and NOT a generic collective relationship. God wants to speak to us INDIVIDUALLY through our hearts not through the mouth of a preacher! Preachers are SUPPOSE to be TEACHERS but more often they are DICTATORS who dictate their own interpretations of Scripture and who expect their Congregations to believe what they are told lock, stock, and barrel. But that is NOT what God wants!

"Men like Barnes and Haggard have abandoned the Warrior God, the God of Masculinity and Manhood." That is absolutely RIGHT! These men became LOST in HYPOCRISY but MORE than that these men became lost in SELF HATRED because they betrayed their own true, God-created selves! Trying to be something they are NOT (ie: straight8) they came to depise and hate themselves and thus became lost in the HELL of their OWN minds! These men wanted the money, fame, and power but they ALSO wanted the M2M SEX!! They were embroiled in an inner "civil war" and they LOST that civil war because of their own hypocrisy and SELF HATRED.

"Jesus threw the money-changers out of the temple. Barnes and Haggard have brought them back in."

You bet they did!! And they did because they chose to love money, fame, and power MORE than they chose to love God.

I know what men like Haggard and Barnes have gone through inside themselves because I have been through the same thing. Years of self rejection! Years of trying to in some way balance one's faith with one's homosexuality. Years of feeling guilty and condemned because of one's M2M feelings and thoughts and desires. Years of feeling like God made you gay as a punishment for something unknown! Years of being MADE to feel SHAME over your sexuality and M2M attractions! But, in the end, there comes a time when you must deal with it and confront it. You can continue to try to hide it (which normally does NOT work well) or you can come to the thinking, "Hey, this is the way I feel God created me and this IS who and what I am AND God STILL LOVES me ANYWAY!" When you come to this ACCEPTANCE of yourself you come to realize that all people have gay feelings (whether they admit it or not) and you come to realize that God does NOT condemn homosexuality. What the Bible condemns is PROMISCUITY and WHOREDOM! Betrayal of the one God sent into your life to be your MATE male or female!! That is what God hates! That is missing the mark! That is error! That is mistake! And that IS SIN!!

Now, understand, I am NOT one of those Christian-preacher people who runs to and fro pretending I am holier-than-thou as some of you who know me can well attest to. Before anything else I am a man and human being complete with thoughts, successes, and failures. A human being who makes mistakes just like anyone else. A human being who struggles just like anyone else struggles. A minister who has struggled just as Barnes and Haggard have struggled but who came to a DIFFERENT conclusion and resolve and, thus, a different outcome!

The Christian Church, in general, teaches that homosexuality is wrong and sin but that is not exactly what the Bible says! What the Bible condemns as sin is promiscuity be it be straight or gay promiscuity. A careful study of the original terms used in the Bible reveals this beyond doubt and DESPITE what the invented churches of MAN say to the contrary! There is a very good writing on the Internet called "A Letter to Louise" authored by a Baptist preacher that goes into this matter.

Barnes and Haggard betrayed themselves and betrayed God. Not because of their homosexuality but because they chose to live a lie of hypocrisy pretending to be something they were not. They both abandoned God in favor of money, fame, and power. All of their gay-hate preaching kept the money coming in and kept them in the public spotlight. But, at the same time, it all was the product of their own SELF REJECTION and SELF HATRED!! Too bad these two men failed to come to terms with their Christianity and homosexuality because they both could have become great pro-Man Love speakers! But, you see, both of these men were products of this upside down society we are living in that supports the false doctrine that M2M is sin!! These two men are just as much victims of this lost society as all the rest of us are! They are both now DEFEATED and their defeat came about NOT by God but by their own hands because they refused to just be who and what they are and chose to live a LIE instead!!

Redd

Re: 2nd pastor resigns over gay sex scandal

12-15-2006

Thanks guys.

So the Haggards and Barnes go into ministry as a cleansing of a sin, they say, that plagues them.

They marry and make love to an imaginary male during intimacy with their wives.

They, I suppose, preach God's love while suffering His guilt and linger in such paradox because of a church-said-so theology.

They prosper through a God-on-my-side religion that people actually follow.

These men could do so much good for humanity.

I haven't been a church goer in years after having attended regularly for years. But I believe ministers can impact change in positive ways. I mentioned the excommunication of Carlton Pearson in Tulsa, OK because of his theological shift from a religion of exclusion to one of inclusion. Rev. Pearson lost many members from his mega-church that collected over $25,000 in offerings weekly.

He also gained members. Here is the great part, however: many of his members were weary of the exclusion and condemnation. They were weary of the "monster God" the church has created and welcomed Rev. Pearson's insight about a God who is for, not against humanity.

I wonder if the Haggards and Barnes will eventually come to know and preach a de-monstered God.

redd

Bill Weintraub

Re: 2nd pastor resigns over gay sex scandal

12-16-2006

Thank you guys.

These are good, frank discussions.

People like Barnes and Haggard do tremendous damage.

Really incalcuable.

That damage is to the lives of all men, and ultimately of course women too.

Their behavior is truly dreadful.

I've talked about how after Chuck and I had met Dr. Green, he attempted to put us in touch with some of his religious right allies.

Dr. Green was naive.

He thought those people would help us because they wanted to do something about AIDS.

No.

They don't want to do something about AIDS.

They want to make pious noises about AIDS.

And they like Dr Green's work because they can spin it in a way that makes it appear to endorse their highly selective reading of the Bible.

But propping up their belief system is far more important to them than actually preventing HIV infection.

Dr. Green is a medical anthropologist, with an intense interest in native African healers, shamans, "witch-doctors," etc; and he was very intrigued by the way the Ugandans had come up with a completely indigenous African program to fight HIV infection -- which was spectacularly successful.

Where Western-style condom campaigns had failed so utterly.

But what happened in Uganda was not "Christian" per se -- it was a mobilizing of the population, including ministers, imams, native healers, and other folks -- against HIV.

So the religious right has mis-read Uganda.

Purposefully.

Now, I said these people do a lot of damage.

And what they do inevitably comes back to haunt them.

Brett's parents were fundamentalists of the Ted Haggard sort.

When Brett came out as a gay man, they threw him out of their lives.

Was that one of the reasons he was relatively promiscuous?

I think so.

In that era in particular, guys would come out, their families would disown them, and they'd embark on a frantic search for a partner -- for a new family.

Indeed, Brett titled an article he wrote about the months in his life before he and I met -- "The Year of Living Desperately."

Desperately.

After he was diagnosed, Brett's parents behaved even more badly than they had before.

Which is saying something.

After a few years of Brett being ill, however, they told us they'd decided that "hardness of heart" was also a sin, and that they should try to make amends.

Whether that was true or not, the damage had been done.

Brett didn't trust them.

Once when they were visiting, I planned to take a small trip because they were there to look after Brett.

But Brett became acutely ill, and tearfully begged me not to go.

He was literally afraid of being left alone with them.

So of course I stayed.

A couple years later, when Brett was dying, I asked him if he wanted to see his parents.

NO.

He didn't want them around.

So they weren't with him when he died.

Brett died on his father's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

I wonder if people like Haggard and Barnes think such things can't happen to them.

They can.

And will.

The religious right rant is that homosexuality destroys the family.

Which is yet another Orwellian construction -- our opponents are full of them.

The religious right, in the form of Brett's parents, destroyed Brett's family.

Not Brett.

He was a loyal son.

What he was not, was a hypocrite of the Ted Haggard / Mark Foley / Paul Barnes school.

He was an open and proud Man who Loved another Man.

And he found in that love a true spirituality, completely different from the false religions put forth by the "religious right" -- which is neither.

In Beatific, Luke Shelton says of his relationship with Stephen, "what Stephen and I were doing was, in its way, sacramental to us."

They were doing Frot.

Frot was Sacramental to them.

In Soldier Cockfight, Warrior Biggun refers to a "holy tryst":

I ground my dick against his and mixed our juices against our bellies, warm seed of men united in the climax of a holy tryst. I loved him right then for his power and strength, his beauty and raw energy, for the things which make us all men - the powerful, enigmatic brooding presence we all carry within us, the driving forces and lusts which draw us together in such beautiful combat.

"warm seed of men united in the climax of a HOLY tryst".

Don Frazer talks frequently of cumming in your buddy's climax:

Is there ANYTHING more quintessentially masculine than feeling your buddy's warm semen gush on your cock and belly while you ejaculate right in his climax?

Right.

The merging of semen is the merging of Manhood.

As a sacrament, it's a SYMBOLIC act -- and all the more significant for its symbolism.

In I love FROT, Warrior buddyrub says,

For me, cock-on-cock is the way to go, because you're two equals and you're sharing exactly the same sensations at the same time, and it's all caused by the same action. And when I feel our combined jizz lubricating our dick interface, my orgasm intensifies twofold.

Head-to-head is fun too, but ultimately, when we "take it home," rubbing the sensitive undersides together is really where it's at.

Best of all, you don't necessarily have to be gay to enjoy it. Every guy can join in.

Sorry about the clinical term "interface." It's the only way I can think of to describe it. I'd welcome some other descriptive term. But how can you describe in words the few square inches wherein men's souls converge?

"the few square inches wherein men's souls converge"

Frot is a Sacrament.

Frot is a Sacrament which unites the warm seed of men in the climax of a HOLY tryst.

Frot is a Sacrament which creates for Men's phalluses a physical and spiritual interface, those few square inches wherein men's souls converge.

Masculinity is a Divine Principle, Manhood a Divine Gift, and Frot a Holy Sacrament, the expression of True Male Spirituality.

Not false religion.

Armed with that knowledge -- and let that knowledge be your sword, buckler, and shield -- let's come back to the WAR GOD.

I said earlier, "Manhood not Mammon.

"Warrior societies weren't powered by money.

"They were powered by the sacred and loving bonds between men."

And I want to look at, in that regard, some amulets which were buried with the bodies of Jewish warriors who'd fought the Seleucid Greeks -- ca 168 BC.

These were the soldiers of the Maccabees, and the politics of that war are very complicated.

But basically it pitted Jews fighting for what they saw as religious freedom, against their Syrian Greek overlords.

What may surprise you, in looking at these amulets, is the Greek and other pagan imagery.

But the Greeks had been in that area of the world for at least a couple centuries at that point, and the Jews had absorbed Greek culture.

The Maccabees were of course opposed to any graven image, and they were chagrined to find these amulets on the bodies of their own soldiers.

But they were there.

Now, most of the figures are what scholars call the "Anguipede," which means the snake-footed god.

As I'll explain below, I don't think these were meant to be literal depictions of a god -- but rather symbols of powers which would provide protection during battle.

Let's take a look at these Warrior amulets:

This is a common figure.

He's holding a shield and a whip, which tells us he's a war god, he has the head of a cock -- a fighting cock -- and his feet are snakes.

These are all masculine and phallic symbols.

The Greek letters at the base spell out the Hebrew name for God.

Again, these are Hebrew amulets worn by people much exposed to Greek culture.

This is the same figure, now bearing the Greek war god Ares on his head.

Here's the same figure, this time accompanied by six-pointed stars of David -- symbols of the Jewish state -- and even a crescent -- almost 800 years before Islam.

So in these first three, we see cocks and snakes associated with war and of course masculinity.

This is the Greek sun god, Helios.

He's standing on a lion who's standing on a crocodile.

And to the left is a variant on the Egyptian god Horus.

This is a frankly phallic figure, with the head of a crowned lion.

And finally an eagle, with a snake wound around its feet which then becomes phallic.

The figure on the right is thought to be the Egyptian god Anubis.

So what you see are guys going into battle wearing amulets decorated with figures that are part cock, part human, and part snake -- and with erect gods.

There's also solar imagery, including the lion and Helios.

Because the sun is a symbol of Masculine Power.

What are we to make of these amulets?

Here's mythographer Joseph Campbell:

It is amazing, but now undeniable, that the vocabularly of symbol is to such an extent constant through the world that it must be recognized to present a single pictorial script, through which realizations of a tremendum [a sense of awe in the presence of the sacred or transcendent] experienced through life are given statement.

Apparent also is the fact that not only in higher cultures, but also among many of the priests and visionaries of the folk cultures, these symbols -- or, as we often say, "gods" -- are not thought to be powers in themselves but are signs through which the powers of life and its revelations are recognized and released: powers of the soul as well as of the living world.

First of all, Campbell says that "the vocabulary of symbol is ... constant through the world."

And, I would add, through time.

We're living more than 2000 years after the warriors who wore these symbols died.

But we recognize the link between cock, snake, phallus -- and aggression.

Male sexuality and aggression.

Male aggressive power -- Male sexual power.

These symbols are plain to us.

Campbell also says these symbols help us realize the sacred or transcendent -- a tremendum, something tremendous and awe-inspiring.

Finally, he says,

these symbols -- or, as we often say, "gods" -- are not thought to be powers in themselves but are signs through which the powers of life and its revelations are recognized and released: powers of the soul as well as of the living world.

So: what you see on these amulets are symbols of the Warrior God.

"signs through which the powers of life and its revelations are recognized and released: powers of the soul as well as of the living world."

The symbols are signs through which:

"the powers of life and its revelations are recognized and released"

"powers of the soul"

Here, by the way, is an actual amulet:

Cock, snakes, shield, whip -- and the name of God.

The figure wears a kilt so that the interface between his body and the snakes is left to the imagination.

Which is as it should be.

Because the snakes are symbols of his male aggressive power.

And it's through such symbols that the powers of the Warrior soul are recognized and released.

Bill Weintraub

PS

Here's a so-called avatar which I found on an internet fight site:

Our age is a lot more literal than that of the Maccabees.

Why?

For one thing, because of the religious right, we're MAN-phobic and homophobic.

We're afraid of frankly phallic symbols.

So cocks and snakes are by and large out.

For the moment.

NOT forever.

© All material Copyright 2006 by Bill Weintraub. All rights reserved.