Hillary and the Goddess Athena
A book by Bob Woodward published in 1996 has special relevance
for the 2016 election. The Choice discusses, in depth, Hillary Clinton's
religious beliefs, beliefs that contradict much of what she has said as
a candidate for president. Woodward's book also raises important
questions about Hillary's real values as opposed to the values she
expresses
in public in political contexts. That is, she has wilfully misled voters.
As well, her worldview is conditioned by New Age ideas of various kinds
that, to be kind about it, defy normal logic.
.
The evidence is unarguable, much of it provided by one of America's
most respected biographers and investigative journalists, Bob Woodward.
However, while his book discussed events of 1996, contemporary websites
also tell much the same story. Hillary still has the kinds of beliefs and
values
she self-identified with twenty years ago.
.
You may agree after reading this essay that the issues raised here deserve
to
be discussed openly before Election Day, November 8, 2016. Indeed,
not to do so would represent a betrayal of the American public
by the news media.
.
No-one can accuse me of being a Donald Trump supporter, I have written
several scathing critiques of Mr Trump, someone I regard as singularly
unqualified
to be president. However, he is right about one thing, media bias is
undeniable
and heavily skewed to the political Left. As a consequence, stories that
are critical
of Hillary Clinton are either under-reported or not reported at all. This
does not
constitute "rigging" the election but it certainly creates biases in the
minds of
many voters and makes a Democratic Party victory more likely.
.
As a political Independent I have no case to make for either major party
candidate. However, there is a need to call Hillary Clinton's
inconsistencies
and hypocrisy into account. This article does exactly that. And for this
reason it is safe to predict that the news media will do everything
possible
to suppress the news it reports despite its accuracy and relevance
to who will govern the United States for the next four years.
.
Here are the facts:
.
.
There are several websites that talk about Hillary and the Goddess Athena.
These sites are of uneven quality but with some care it is entirely
possible to extract hard facts and make good use of them.
.
What should be pointed out is that several sites that are quite favorably
disposed to Mrs. Clinton, which emphasize a Hillary / Athena connection,
are "New Age" in character. There is for example, a Playbill site that
advertises a stage production centered on Greek mythology. An Olivia
Clement article for September 24, 2015, has the title: "Hillary Clinton
Greek Tragedy Will Return."
.
This is about the New Georges group, which, we are told, "will revive
its 2008 sold-out hit Hillary: A Modern Greek Tragedy with a
(Somewhat) Happy Ending for a one-night-only benefit presentation.
The Wendy Weiner play interprets Hillary Clinton's life in politics
in the context of Greek mythology."
.
A blurb summarizes things this way:
"Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love,
have been at war since time immemorial," begin press notes from New
Georges.
"When a young girl named Hillary Rodham devotes herself to Athena alone—
spurning romance, make-up and attractive hairstyles—Aphrodite takes
revenge, having her fall in love with a man of mythical charm and
appetites:
Bill Clinton."
.
This is not some kind of amateur production thrown together by a group
of none-too-swift generation Xers. Instead, it was a professionally
crafted
drama which featured in the cast:
.
Mia Barron ("The Devil You Know") as Hillary
Darren Pettie ("Mad Men") as Bill Clinton.
.
The venue was the Five Angels Theatre at the 52nd Street Project
.
.
.
Next we may turn to material posted at the site: Timothy McSweeney's
Internet Tendency. Wayne Gladstone's entry has the headline:
.
"Selections from Hillary Clinton's Dystopian YA [Young Adult] novel,
Athena, Kindness, Incremental Warrior."
.
I'm not at all sure what to make of this material. Hillary's off stage life
does not interest me in any way. Did she actually write such a novel?
Is this satire written "as if" it was penned by Hillary? I simply do not
know.
But the larger point is that there are people "out there" who make a
connection between Hillary and Athena. In other words, even if
you are tempted to buy into the official "spin" manufactured by
the William Clinton White House to explain away Hillary's interest
in the Goddess Athena, to wit, that there were no seances, that Woodward's
book was based on a mistaken impression of events, that the female deity
in question was actually part of a role playing activity devised by
professional psychologists, the fact is that numbers of people who admire
Hillary, or admire all things Clinton, do make a literal connection,
and do take the view that Athena is Hillary's spiritual patroness
.
Here is some dialogue from the novel in case you are interested:
.
..."There is to be a vote tonight. The elders shall debate whether to allow
bogmen to marry bogmen. Will you come and speak on our behalf?”
.
-------------
.
There was no denying it, Athena was lost. She had walked the road
to Deasey Castle for many years, but now, no matter what road she took,
the glorious castle spires were no closer.
.
------------
.
Suddenly, she heard a voice from the shadows of Petrol Forest.
Athena turned to see a figure emerge from the darkness. A man, it seemed,
but still dripping with the black of night.
.
“Why can’t I see you even in the light of Hadron’s three moons?” Athena
asked.
.
"Because I've been gathering black life,” he said. “The substance that
makes
our cities run. Our society work.”
.
Athena knew the substance well. It had once flowed freely from
the refinery where her father worked, but that was before the world
caught fire. “You lie,” Athena said. “There is no more black life!”
.
-------------------
.
"I have no doubt of it from the looks of you," the woman said.
“Come inside. Tell us of your adventures.”
.
“I have no time for speeches,” Athena said. “I must find my way to the
castle.”
.
"Oh, you can see the way from up here," the woman said, gesturing to
the very road that lead right to the Castle gates. “But you will pass many
tolls.
It helps to have sacks of gold for your trip. It’s the only way anyone can
get
to the Castle.” The woman pointed to a wagon filled with gold."
.
“You’ll give me all that just for giving a speech. What do you get?”
.
"Nothing comes to mind," the woman replied “But if I think of something
when you get to the castle, I’ll let you know. Now come inside.”
.
.
You can be the judge of symbolic meanings, for example the man dripping
with the dark of night just might be a stand-in for Barack Obama, the gold
that is given Athena just may be an allegory for Hillary's outrageous fees
for giving speeches to Goldman Sachs, and so forth, but all I can do
is to speculate about such things.
.
.
There are also places in the text where we come across 'lessons to be
learned'
from material in the book, for instance:
.
“WHAT DO YOU DO?
* If you go to the elder debate and support gay marriage because all
members of your village should have the right to a love that’s recognized
by the State, close the book now. You will not impress the elders whose
support you will so desperately need on your journey. Instead, your bravery
will be met by an angry horde who throws you into Deadman’s Bog.
* If you oppose Zylorg’s marriage until a more politically opportune
time — perhaps, after several gay bogmen sitcoms become popular — then
congratulations, advance to page 38. "
There are several extended passages like these.
.
.
Of course, not everyone who has read Woodward's book is inclined to see
the sunny side of things.
.
A lengthy article published by God Reports, a 'fundamentalist' website,
Hillary Clinton: Has her faith been influenced by New Age spirituality?
takes a dim view of such goings-on. This March 21, 2016 article by
Mark Ellis remarks that Hillary's frequent comments to the effect that she
is an "old fashioned Methodist" simply cannot be taken seriously.
.
Not that it necessarily is easy to read essays written by people on the
Religious Right. A good deal of the time they simply repeat formulaic
expressions of their religious faith, about which no disagreement is
remotely thinkable since, mais ouis, they have all the truth, about which
no argument is possible.
.
However, there are many exceptions to this rule and Mark Ellis' article
should be classified in the category of actual empirical research albeit
written by a devout Evangelical. It is as objective as anyone might hope
for
-at least until the concluding paragraphs where theology replaces
professional quality reporting.
.
The article started by observing that William Clinton and Hillary
invited a number of self-help book authors to Camp David at the end
of 1994; the objective was that these noted personalities, most of them
associated with the New Age in some way, should use their insights
and knowledge to help the Clinton's make sense of the devastating losses
in Congress and help them devise some kind of plan to move forward.
.
Those present included:
.
Anthony Robbins, author of Awaken the Giant Within
Marianne Williamson, author of A Return to Love
Stephen R. Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Mary Catherine Bateson, daughter of Margaret Mead and
...author of Composing a Life, and
Jean Houston, self-described founder of the human potential movement
...and co-director of the Foundation for Mind Research.
.
If the first three writers, while they may have been on the margins of
scholarly research, were not particularly dubious, the other two,
Mary Bateson and Jean Houston clearly were, as jargon of the era
had it, "space cases." Houston in particular was off the deep end.
As Woodward described her, “She was a believer in spirits, mythic
and other connections to history and other worlds,” and she was
convinced of the existence of various assorted spirits, miscellaneous
spirit beings (mythological to everyone else), and said she could contact
the glorious dead. Hence, for instance, Mrs. Houston's assurance
to Hillary that the first lady somehow reincarnated Joan of Arc.
.
Perhaps most notable about Jean Houston, though, was the fact that
she felt a special connection to the Goddess Athena. As Woodward put it:
"Houston believed that her personal archetypal predecessor was Athena,
the Greek goddess of wisdom. She conducted extensive dialogues
with Athena on her computer that she called “docking with one’s angel."
Houston wore an ancient Hellenistic coin of Athena set in a medallion
around her neck all the time.”
.
Moreover, of anyone at that meeting, Hillary most hit it off with Jean
Houston
-with Mary Bateson the runner-up. Hence, an invitation from the first lady
to both women, to meet in her private office. This took place
in early April of 1995.
.
It was at that time, that Houston commented on a large photograph of
Eleanor Roosevelt which was on prominent display, someone special
to Hillary. Houston then, as Woodward commented, "reached the conclusion
that Eleanor was Hillary’s archetypal, spiritual partner, much as Athena
was for Houston.” She added that Hillary ought to look deeply into
her life to try and find as many connections to Eleanor as possible.
She should do this because, you see, Hillary was the messenger for
all women of history for the past 5000 years who was destined
for some sort of greatness. This continued a theme from the first
meeting at Camp David where Houston had said that "Hillary was
creating a new pattern of possibility for women. She had to hang in there,
not give up. Her time would come when she would be in the place
and the role that she could really express the fullness of what she was.”
It was all coming together, destiny awaited.
.
Next, Houston and Bateson met with Hillary in the Solarium in the White
House,
a large room somewhat like a greenhouse, on the uppermost floor of
the building. This is a photograph of the Solarium, originally from
Woodward's book but also used in the Mark Ellis' article.
.
solarium exterior
Hillary was then asked to close her eyes and visualize Eleanor. After
that, Hillary was told to try and contact Mrs. Roosevelt, to let Eleanor's
spirit enter into her to serve as her personal spirit guide. Which she did
whole-heartedly.
As Hillary meditated on Eleanor, eyes shut, Jean Houston said:
"You're walking down a hall. Now let's describe her."
.
Hillary complied and Houston, satisfied that her new protege was now
operating in Eleanor's aura, or something, told her to talk to
Mrs. Roosevelt. This also happened even if, of course, there
is no verifiable evidence that Eleanor replied however much
Hillary might insist otherwise. Which is almost beside the point
since what is important is that Mrs Clinton believed that Eleanor
was communicating to her. What did Franklin Delano's wife say?
.
After a brief discourse about the problems Hillary was having while
trying to act as if she was a sort of co-president, which had resulted
in a good deal of criticism, Eleanor reputedly commented: "You know,
I thought that would have been solved by now. You’re going to have to
just get out there and do it and don’t make any excuses about it.”
.
Apparently this was only the beginning of the 'conversation' (in Hillary's
head)
but soon enough Houston instructed Mrs Clinton to contact Mahatma Gandhi.
As recounted by Woodward, cited in the article, “Hillary expressed
reverence
and respect for Gandhi’s life and works, almost drawing his and her own
life
together with her words, opening herself up wide…It was a strong personal
outpouring — virtual therapy, and unusual in front of a large group.”
.
Exactly who this group consisted of is anyone's guess, and maybe the group
was fairly small at that, but the point is that Hillary went out on a
spiritual limb
in front of other people -while in the White House, when she was first
lady.
.
Next, Jean Houston asked Hillary to communicate with Jesus. About this,
Hillary balked, saying it was "too personal."
.
All of this took place in the course of about one hour. "Woodward says
this session with Houston– which some labeled a séance – " was hushed up.
"There were attempts to keep the sessions secret, because some thought
there would be comparisons to Nancy Reagan’s use of astrology
in the White House."
.
There were other such get-together featuring Jean Houston, sometimes
involving Mary Bateson and unnamed others,
.
All of which has been too much for many Christians. One Christian author,
Eric Barger, quoted in the article, reacted with these words:
.
"So Eleanor Roosevelt was giving her advice about running the country.
This is what the Bible calls necromancy...This is speaking to any entity
in the spirit realm except God. Necromancy is ...[presumed] communication
with a being in the spirit realm. It isn’t Eleanor that Hillary is
communicating with
– it is actually a demon masquerading as Eleanor Roosevelt.”
.
Or it is an hallucination. Or some other psychological malfunction.
Or simply -to be charitable about it- Hillary's imagination working
overtime.
.
In any case, while it is unclear what happened with Jean Houston
immediately
after the events of those days in the Spring of 1995, there was another
psychic,
or medium, who ministered to Hillary's spiritual needs somewhat later.
This was
Marianne Williamson, a star in the New Age phenomenon of those years.
“Williamson popularized what is really the bread and butter of the New Age
movement today, the ‘Course in Miracles’ book. She spent the night in
[the]
White House when the Clintons were there and went up to the rooftop
solarium for the séances,” we are told.
.
This information has been independently verified. As the article informs
us:
"In 1994 [the year before,] Esquire magazine reported that Hillary Clinton
was a devotee of Williamson, that Williamson was spending nights in
the Lincoln bedroom, and the pair were staying up late exploring how
to heal America. Oprah was largely responsible for boosting
Williamson’s popularity and her book sales."
.
This is where White House spin went into overdrive.
.
As the Mark Ellis article put it:
.
"Hillary entered into a long-discourse directed toward the former first
lady."
Houston asked Hillary to become more open to communicating with Eleanor.
Not only that, Hillary was asked to assume the perspective of Mrs.
Roosevelt,
that is, to act as Eleanor's "channel," or medium. This is where 'quotes'
ostensibly from Eleanor came from.
.
All of which, of course, most normal people would regard as bordering
insanity, or no better than a clear indicator of some kind of troubling
psychological problem. And that could not be tolerated. All of this had
to be made to go away, William needed to put politics first, as president
he had no choice. And so the story -the preferred narrative of the facts-
was engineered to suit. Especially reports that there were séances in the
Executive mansion; if such stories became public knowledge the
1996 elections would be jeopardized, and Woodward, who might
be more-or-less discreet, wasn't the only journalist with at least
parts of the overall story.
.
..
But there was a lot to try and explain away.
.
.
As the Mark Ellis article continued:
..
One element of what might be called 'Operation Spin' involved Paul Kengor,
then researching Hillary's recent forays into spirituality. Kengor, now
best
known as the author of God and Hillary Clinton: a spiritual life,
went on record as denying that there were séances, but also said that
the meetings Hillary had with spiritual advisors "were definitely bizarre
and far more out-of-line than anything First Lady Nancy Reagan did
with her astrologer in the 1980s.”
.
Not exactly a strong scholarly defense, but, since Kengor had credibility,
his remarks were a help. Hillary herself supplied a large part of the
defense.
In Kengor's words, cited by Ellis, “Mrs. Clinton did not deny the reports,
and neither did her staff. Once the revelations became public, she tried
to joke about them and move on, clearly embarrassed, especially
politically,”
.
There was also Hillary's future book. To cite Ellis again:
.
"Houston urged Hillary to write a book about children, and Hillary decided
to pursue an idea that had already been germinating. She didn’t like her
first draft, however, so she reached out to Houston for help. “In October
and November 1995, Houston virtually moved into the White House
residence for several days at a time to help,” Woodward recounted.
With Houston’s assistance, It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons
Children Teach Us was published in early 1996 and rose to the top
of the New York Times bestseller list."
.
Jean Houston also played a part, reacting strongly when reporters suggested
that Hillary had taken part in occult activities. As Ellis put it:
"Houston angrily
denied they were séances, saying they were merely creative
“brainstorming” sessions."
.
Also defusing any questions that might arise was the fact that Hillary,
officially a Methodist, attended Foundry United Methodist Church
in Washington D.C., where Philip Wogaman was the pastor. However,
far from being "old fashioned Methodist" in any way, Foundry United
was a close as a church can be to Unitarianism as any Methodist
institution can possibly get. Or, s'il vous plait, it might just as well
have been called 'Foundry New Age Coven,' or something like that.
.
This is not to say that Wogaman was wrong about everything, as Mark Ellis
implied. For one, I must agree that his critique of laissez-faire
capitalism
rings mostly true. And, like him, I also affirm that “The Scriptures, like
the
Washington Post, contain both truth and error.” Yes there are any number
of criticisms one might legitimately have made about the pastor's economic
and political policy views but the point here is that his religious views
were off the deep end.
.
And his views of social issues had just about no relationship at all to
the Bible.
To cite just one example, read Romans 1: 24-32 some time, one of about
30 passages in the holy book that uncompromisingly condemn homosexuality
as an unspeakable evil that deserves death. That is, each and every time
that the Bible discusses homosexuality specifically it denounces it and
consigns homosexuals to Hell.
.
Yet at Foundry Church, ever since his conversion to the Methodist version
of Unitarianism, Wogaman went out of his way to put homosexuals on a
pedestal, to excuse each and every pathology associated with
homosexuality,
and, to top it off, reserved the front row of pews for homosexuals as if
they
were guests of honor. Despite, needless to say, Christ's condemnation
of sodomy in Matthew 11: 20-24. Yes, indeed, it is there in black
and white for anyone who wishes, to read for himself -or herself.
.
That is, Hillary's professed Christian faith was a travesty. And her
'psychic'
propensities were painfully real.
..
.
Also a factor in the story was Hillary's attraction to the founder of
Tikkun
magazine, a Left-wing rabbi named Michael Lerner. He had been a member
of SDS at one time and had said publicly that he was a Marxist. But this
was Cultural Marxism more than anything else, derived from Herbert Marcuse,
which has little to do with rights for the working class and a lot to do
with
dropping acid (LSD), Rock 'n Roll, and, while we are not told any details,
swinging sex.
.
This was also about violence. Which is to say that Rabbi Lerner was more
than a Cultural Marxist, he had once been a Marxist-Leninist with
Bolshevik
sympathies. Hence, while a professor at the University of Washington,
he "was indicted for a violent assault against the U.S. Federal
courthouse
in Seattle on February 17, 1970 and spent eight months in jail."
.
It must be doubted that Hillary had any kind of rioting-in-the-streets
sentiments as far as Lerner and Tikkun were concerned. We are discussing
the 1990s, not the late sixties or the early seventies. And Lerner had
moved on.
Tikkun might sometimes feature snippets of Marx but the real 'action' it
advocated had much more to do with the environment, Cabbalism,
generalized mysticism, and Jewish medievalism. A heady stew for
spiritual seekers who wanted something a little different.
.
The point is that Tikkun became part of the spiritual mix in the William
Clinton
White House, and Rabbi Lerner became a frequent guest. As did Maya
Angelou,
who promoted her own version of New Age religion. The relationship with
Lerner was not to last, the rabbi had developed a sense of conscience
over the years and openly challenged the Clintons for their vanity, or as
the
article characterized it, "because Lerner concluded they were in politics
ultimately for their own financial gain and self-aggrandizement." Which,
needless to say, 'sounds about right' and sounds quite contemporary.
.
.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
.
.
Another article written by an Evangelical is also highly critical of
Hillary's
religious views. This is an anonymous piece available on the Web under the
lengthy title:
.
BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON TURN TO KNOWN MEDIUMS
AND NEW AGE SPIRITUALISTS FOR ADVICE --
FURTHER EVIDENCE THE CLINTONS ARE
PRACTICING WITCHES
.
This is cited here primarily to make the point that the farther Right also
took notice of all these things and some of its stalwarts made loud noises
about Hillary and her religion. While such commentary does not rise to
the level of "news" it nonetheless is worth knowing about.
.
To quote from the article, first about Jean Houston, she "believed that
her personal archetypal predecessor was Athena, the Greek goddess
of wisdom. She conducted extensive dialogues with Athena ..."
.
Whether this means that Hillary also came to regard Athena as her own
spirit guide also is not certain. However, to accept Houston as her
personal
"guru" tells us that she accepted Athena's high status as legitimate. As
if,
were you to accept a Zoroastrian as a spiritual mentor, you could somehow
deny legitimacy to the prophet Zarathushtra who, after all, would be
the inspiration for your spiritual mentor. In other words, while Hillary
may not have had special feelings about Athena, she obviously regarded
the Goddess as real, authoritative, and good -Good with a capital "G."
.
Which is not being said as some kind of condemnation of Goddess worship.
As a former teacher of Comparative Religion, I try to be as broad minded
as it is possible for me to get. The point is that, whatever it is that you
believe,
you should be honest about it.
.
.
Also important is the following observation about Hillary's communications'
with the illustrious dead, most notably Eleanor Roosevelt and Gandhi.
These sessions were characterized as "dialogues." As the article noted
about the word dialogue:
.
"Carrying on an imaginary conversation with someone using vivid mental
techniques still does not result in "dialogues"; only an actual seance
would
produce dialogue. The only way in which Jean Houston could have a dialogue
with Athena is through a seance; however, because Houston and other
New Agers know that the general public is not yet ready for seances,
they disguise their activity as imagination."
.
There is more. It seems as if Hillary and Jean Houston and Mary Bateson
met together "several times over the next year, to conduct seances with
Eleanor Roosevelt. You will remember the stories in the first year of the
Clinton
Administration, when Hillary confessed that she regularly communicated
with Eleanor; stories at the time even labeled these communications as
seances.
Not only did Hillary admit she talked to Eleanor, she said Eleanor talked
back !
[emphasis in original] This admission clearly identifies these sessions as
seances..."
.
"The White House spin team tried to recast these seances as just imaginary
conversations with Eleanor, but that kind of spin will only convince the
gullible."
And, after all, "seances is what Jean Houston and Mary Catherine Bateson
do."
.
Which is a reasonable enough conclusion to reach. In fact, it is difficult
to
arrive at some other conclusion. Where Rightists lose everyone else is
when they take matters one step too far, requiring people to accept
their religion-derived characterizations as unarguable truths. Hence:
.
"This shocking development further proves our contention that Bill and
Hillary
are practicing witches, for this kind of action is precisely what witches
would do."
.
Is it necessary to go that far? Or maybe you would prefer to go further and
argue that William Clinton is the Antichrist and Hillary is a demoness
from Hell.
In any case, the jury is out on the accusation that they are witches.
Besides,
things would be bad enough for the two of them if this information becomes
news, and, of course, this is newsworthy at a time when Hillary Clinton
is poised to become the next President of the United States.
.
Any argument she might make that her Methodist faith precludes any such
thing is belied by an inconvenient truth: Rev. Wogaman, her pastor at
Foundry Church, taught the God is androgynous, a combination of
male and female, hence is as much a Goddess as a God.
.
.
In any case, here is the story. It is documented thoroughly. Will the news
media
ignore it because they hate Donald Trump? I am someone who also is very
unimpressed with Mr. Trump. Indeed, I wish both Hillary and Trump
could lose. Our choices in 2016 are an insult to all Americans.
.
.
What would happen if the news media decided not to break this story
until after the election?
.
On what conceivable moral grounds could the news media justify
withholding information about the character of a potential president
of the United States from the voting public?
.
There are no justifiable moral grounds for any such thing. The news media
could damages its credibility beyond repair if it fails to report
news of major importance to American citizens as they
decide who to vote for on November 8.
.
Sorry if you don't like this news but it is the cold sober truth.
.
.
Billy Rojas
Eugene, Oregon
October 20, 2016
.
This is a revised version of an original
dated October 18, 2016
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