“Why have you come out to the countryside? To see a reed shaken by the wind?”

John the Baptist has stirred my imagination for many years. In Luke’s descriptions of him we find clues that point to what some call, “Temple Theology.” These teachings date to the First Century Christian church and several centuries and millennia prior, throughout times and civilizations, all the way to the most ancient religious teachings on our planet. These religious doctrines of antiquity teach of a pre-mortal Heavenly Council comprised of male and female deities whose priesthoods combined to generate life on earth, and, I believe, our salvation by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. According to my reading of scripture, John was one of Them. (Read on below.)

I see many clues throughout the New Testament that point to the incarnation of this Council in the souls that orbited Jesus of Nazareth while he sojourned on earth. Namely, John’s mother, Elizabeth, and very significantly, Christ’s mother, Mary, as well as Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany. I see ample evidence that First Century Christians, especially Christ himself, instituted a male priesthood of the ecclesiastical church that operated alongside a feminine priesthood that possessed keys of creation and resurrection, and in the union of these keys Christ fulfilled his great work of reconciliation of the human to the divine. To say that this is controversial is an understatement. I understand that. It is, nevertheless, what I believe. Most of my religious artwork both hides, and reveals, these themes. Watch in coming months for a new painting of John’s mother, Elizabeth, a sacred Lady.