Mystery Babylon’s Hidden God
- Michelle Hayman
- Aug 10
- 18 min read
Ancient pagan worship did not simply vanish with the advent of Christianity. Instead, many of its symbols, deities, and even calendar dates were repackaged and woven into new religious forms. At the center of this hidden continuity is Saturn – the old god of time and harvest, often identified with the mysterious “Golden Age” of primeval perfection. From Babylon to Carthage to Rome, Saturn was worshiped under many names (Baal, Molech, Kronos, etc.), frequently with rituals of fire and blood. Today, echoes of Saturn’s cult can be detected in surprising places – even within "Christian" traditions – if one knows what to look for. This exposé will trace how the chief god of Carthage, Baal Hammon, became syncretized with Rome’s Saturn, how the imagery of the “morning star” in literature and liturgy can carry a double meaning. We will also contrast this ancient “Black Sun” cult with the true faith in Jesus Christ, showing how what the Bible calls Mystery Babylon persists in disguising old lies as new light.
Saturn and Baal Hammon – The Golden Age King and Devourer of Children
In the pantheons of the ancient world, Saturn stood out as a primordial ruler – a god of the harvest, wealth, and time who was said to have reigned over a lost Golden Age of peace. The Greeks knew him as Cronus (Kronos), leader of the Titans, and the Romans as Saturnus, a wise but grim old king holding a scythe. Cultures across the Mediterranean and Near East identified their own deities with Saturn when their empires met. Notably, Phoenician and Carthaginian tradition equated Baal Hammon, the chief god of Carthage, with the Roman Saturn. This process of interpretatio romana (Roman interpretation) merged the identities of "gods" across cultures. Thus, the Carthaginians’ elder, bearded god of the sky and fertility – Baal Hammon – was understood to be the same as the Romans’ aged god of time.
Saturn’s mythic profile was two-sided: on one hand, he was the benevolent king of a Golden Age; on the other, he had a dark appetite. In Greek myth, Cronus (Saturn) devoured his own children to prevent them from usurping his throne. This grisly image had real-life parallels. Child sacrifice was a hallmark of Saturn’s cult in several cultures. The name Moloch (Molech) in the Bible refers to a Canaanite idol, a “king” statue that was heated to burn children offered in its arms. In Ammonite and other Semitic contexts, Molech was appeased with the blood of infants – a horrific practice strictly forbidden to Israel. The Philistines’ grain deity Dagon (Dagan), the “fish-god” often depicted with a fish or grain symbol, likewise was a fertility god with possible links to Saturn (as an agricultural deity). In effect, Saturn/Cronus was seen as the grim “king” of the world, manifested in various regions as Baal, El, Dagon, or Cronus. These different names all pointed to a dominant entity: an authoritarian god associated with time, fertility, and the demand of sacrifice. Some interpreters even connect Saturn’s Titan offspring to the Nephilim (giant half-breeds) of Genesis – suggesting that the “Titans” (the serpent's seed) of myth were analogous to the Nephilim, and Saturn (Cronus) as their king corresponds to the age of cosmic rebellion before the flood.
The Bible makes it clear that Israel was tempted by the very cult associated with Saturn. Through the prophet Amos, God rebuked the Israelites, saying, “You have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun, your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves” (Amos 5:26). The name Chiun, rendered as Kaiwan in some translations, was an ancient term for Saturn. In the New Testament, Stephen quotes this same passage, saying, “You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, the figures which you made to worship” (Acts 7:43). Remphan is a Greek transliteration referring to Saturn as an astral deity. Scripture places the worship of Molech — the fire-god of child sacrifice — alongside the worship of Chiun/Remphan, the Saturn deity of the ancients.
God’s judgment on this worship is absolute and unchanging. In 2019, a towering statue of the pagan god Moloch stood outside the Colosseum for over four months as part of the Carthago: The Immortal Myth exhibition. Installed by Italian cultural authorities, the figure’s presence at a site revered for Christian martyrdom struck many as deeply un-Christian and sparked global controversy.
The Old Testament condemns the worship of Molech — and, as later commentators noted, any similar Saturn-linked cult — as among the most detestable of pagan practices. In Leviticus 18:21, God commands, “And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.” In Leviticus 20:2–3, He declares, “Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death… I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name.” In 2 Kings 23:10, during the reforms of King Josiah, “he defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to pass through the fire to Molech,” tearing down the very places where the sacrifices took place. And in Jeremiah 32:35, God again condemns His people for building “the high places of Baal, which are in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech ; which I did not command, nor did it enter My mind that they should do this abomination; to cause Judah to sin.”
These verses make it clear that child sacrifice — central to the Molech cult and later linked by commentators to Saturn/Baal worship — was seen as both murder and blasphemy, profaning God’s name. The Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), where such atrocities occurred, became a byword for hell itself, and God commanded that this practice be utterly abolished under pain of death
What the Bible condemns, archaeology and historical records confirm was happening. At Carthage, the Phoenician colony, excavations of the Tophet (child sacrifice burial ground) have uncovered tens of thousands of urns filled with ashes and tiny bones – the remains of infants and small children sacrificed by fire to Baal Hammon. Classical authors like Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch wrote that the Carthaginians, during times of crisis, would publicly immolate hundreds of children to appease Cronus (the Greek name for Saturn) whom they identified with Baal Hammon. In these accounts, Cronus/Saturn was the hungry god who devoured the city’s offspring in exchange for restoration of favor or fortune. Even the term Molech (from the Semitic root mlk, “king”) might not refer to a distinct god but rather a title or type of sacrifice – essentially offerings made “to the King.” And who was this grim king receiving burnt children? By all accounts, it was Saturn under one guise or another.
Pulling these threads together, we see a consistent archetype: whether called Molech, Baal Hammon, El, or Saturn, this deity demanded the death of the innocent as the highest act of devotion. He was believed to rule over time, fate, and prosperity, granting favors (good harvests, victory, stability) at a terrible price. The Psalmist highlights the reality behind such pagan rites: “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils” (Psalm 106:37). Likewise, the Apostle Paul declared, “The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God” (1 Corinthians 10:20). In the biblical worldview, these gods of the nations were not merely stone idols – they were fronts for demonic forces. A demonic prince was hungry for human worship and blood, masquerading as a legitimate god-king. Thus, the worship of Saturn in its many forms was in fact the worship of the devil, a participation in the kingdom of darkness.
Fast-forwarding through history, this Saturnine cult did not simply disappear. The Book of Daniel suggests that the spiritual powers behind empires remain consistent even as the human kingdoms change. The chief deity of Babylon (which some link to Ninurta) often identified with the planet Saturn) passed his scepter to the Persians, then to the Greeks (Cronus worship persisted in mystery cults), and finally to the Romans, who openly celebrated Saturn in their state religion. In each case, Saturn’s core identity as the time-god and devourer persisted, though the outer forms varied. By the time of Jesus and the early Church, Rome had subsumed many of these cults into its own religious melting pot. And later, when Rome embraced Christianity, the outer idol worship was curtailed – but the underlying framework of “sacred times” and cosmic symbolism proved more enduring. To see how, we must examine both symbolic imagery and the liturgical calendar that came through Rome into Christendom.
The Morning Star and the Return of Saturn’s Golden Age
One of the most intriguing overlaps between pagan and Christian symbolism is the figure of the morning star – in Latin, lucifer, meaning “light-bearer.” In Roman astronomy, Lucifer referred to the planet Venus when it appears as the bright star at dawn. Venus as the morning star heralds the rising sun. This image of dawn’s herald carries profound meaning in both myth and faith.
The Roman poet Virgil, in his Fourth Eclogue (40 BC), wrote an almost prophetic-sounding poem about the birth of a child who would usher in a new Golden Age. Virgil speaks of the “return of Saturn’s reign” and a renewal of the world: “Now the last age by Cumae’s Sibyl sung has come and gone, and the majestic roll of circling centuries begins anew: Justice returns, and Saturn’s reign returns; now a new lineage is sent down from heaven.” He describes a miraculous infant – “dear child of the gods, great progeny of Jove” – whose birth will initiate an era of peace where “the serpent [of evil] will die” and “the earth shall shower forth gifts, even the very cradle will pour out flowers”. It is a poetic dream of Paradise Restored, explicitly tied to Saturn’s comeback as world ruler.
Saturn as the Hidden Sun and Venus the Light-Bringer (The Occult Mythos)
To fully appreciate how Saturn fits into Mystery Babylon’s cosmic story, we must understand the concept of the “Hidden Sun” or “Black Sun.” In many esoteric traditions, Saturn is revered not just as a distant planet, but as a primordial sun that once shone on an ancient earth or an astral plane. He is the “Dark Father” behind the visible creation. The Nazis’ occult SS circles, for example, adopted a symbol called the “Black Sun” – a wheel-like sunburst of darkness – representing an infinite source of occult power associated with Saturn. The idea is that Saturn’s light is veiled and dark to us now, but it’s still there, an invisible driver of fate and time. He is the Hidden One, often equated with the god of the underworld or the inner sun at the earth’s core.
Why call Saturn a sun? In mythic cosmology, Saturn was often the outermost planet visible to the ancients – the farthest “wandering star.” In some ancient accounts (and modern speculative theories like the Saturn myth hypothesis), Saturn might have loomed larger in the sky in prehistoric times or was imagined to be a central sun of the golden age. Whether or not people literally saw Saturn as a sun, symbolically Saturn was the first light, the first king. Our current bright Sun was considered by some lore to be Saturn’s offspring or replacement. So Saturn became associated with a “former sun” now obscured (hence, black or hidden).
In that esoteric narrative, Saturn’s power will one day be fully restored – the “return of Saturn” we discussed. But how does a hidden god stage a comeback? This is where Venus – the “light-bringer” – plays a crucial role. Venus is unique among planets in that it appears in our sky in two guises: as the Morning Star (Lucifer) at dawn and as the Evening Star at dusk (traditionally called Hesperus or Vesper).
The eight-pointed star, first seen in Sumer as the emblem of Inanna and later adopted by the Babylonians for Ishtar, represents the planet Venus and its rare 8-year celestial cycle, which traces an almost perfect eight-pointed pattern in the sky. Over that same cycle, Venus also marks out a near-perfect five-pointed star; the pentagram ; by returning to the same position in the heavens five times, each about 584 days apart. In the ancient world, the eight-pointed star symbolized her dual role as morning and evening star, while the hidden geometric pentagram was seen as the signature of her celestial magic, binding her to both fertility rites and later occult traditions.
In the Saturnian reading of the myth, Saturn is the hidden king; the dethroned “first sun” or Black Sun ; and Venus, the so-called Queen of Heaven, is his consort and magical intermediary. She descends into the underworld and returns as the light-bringer, reviving the king’s concealed authority and presenting his visible heir, the Sun, to rule in his place. This royal succession; Saturn (hidden king) → Venus/Queen of Heaven (light-bringer and restorer) → Sun (public heir) — recurs in Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Greco-Roman myth, and is reinterpreted by esoteric traditions as an undercurrent even in later Christian liturgy.
The Easter Vigil’s Exsultet contains the “Lucifer stanza” ; a prayer for the eternal Morning Star to meet the Easter flame at dawn. To the faithful, it proclaims Christ’s resurrection; but to the Saturn–Venus initiate, it can be read as Venus’s role in restoring the hidden king’s line, a continuation of the ancient descent-and-return cycle celebrated in Ishtar’s spring festivals. The very season of Easter itself is timed to the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox — the same seasonal slot as the Near Eastern rites of Ishtar’s resurrection and the fertility renewal tied to Venus’s return.
This also sheds light on Paul’s warning in 2 Corinthians 11:14: “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” In the Saturn–Venus framework, this is not mere metaphor — it is the very mechanism of deception. The “light” is the visible Sun, the public heir of the hidden Black Sun, and the “light-bringer” is Venus, presenting this counterfeit light to the world. Revelation 6:12 foresees the ultimate exposure of this false illumination: “the sun became black as sackcloth of hair,” revealing the true nature of the light that men have trusted, and used for self deification. Nowonder they’re not too keen on people worshiping Christ — after all, how could they climb their own ladder to godhood that way? Just ask good old George Washington.
Over the centuries, the eight-pointed star of Ishtar spread through Babylonian, Assyrian, and Phoenician culture, becoming a key emblem of Mystery Babylon’s Saturn–Venus cult. Today, it sits proudly atop the Porta del Popolo in Rome; a silent witness that the symbols of the old gods remain enshrined at the very heart of the city that claims the name of Christ.
Through a Saturnian lens, Ishtar/Venus can be seen as the agent who retrieves something from the underworld – notably, the power of the old king. In some versions of the myth, Ishtar’s motive for descending was to mourn or rescue her lover Tammuz (a dying god associated with spring – and interestingly, Tammuz is linked to Saturn by some occult researchers as well). In Egyptian mythology, a very similar pattern emerges: Osiris, the great king, is killed and becomes lord of the underworld (hidden ruler); his wife Isis (a goddess of magic and arguably parallel to Ishtar) searches for his body, reassembles him and briefly resurrects him through magic, conceiving a son. That son is Horus, who grows up to take the throne as the new king and sun-god. Here we clearly see: Osiris (the hidden dark sun, ruler of the dead), Isis (the restorative sorceress, Venusian figure bringing new life), and Horus (the young sky-sun, visible and triumphant). Horus is often depicted with the sun and falcon imagery, and one of his titles was “Horus of the Two Horizons” – tying sunrise and sunset (morning star, evening star symbolism perhaps) together.
Likewise, in Greco-Roman myth, while Venus (Aphrodite) doesn’t resurrect Cronus (Saturn) in any literal story, the symbolism still connects them in philosophical allegory. Venus-Aphrodite was born from the severed genitals of Uranus (the sky father whom Cronus deposed), emerging from sea foam – so she is a product of a cosmic upheaval and is older than Zeus’ Olympian order. Some mystery traditions considered Aphrodite the oldest goddess, a fundamental force of attraction and life. She plays a mediating role: married to Vulcan (fire of earth) but lover of Mars (god of passionate war), and friend of sailors (the sea/sky link). Esoterically, Venus unites and mediates opposites – much like she mediates between Saturn’s hidden world and the Sun’s visible world. Helios (the Sun) each dawn is preceded by Venus’s rise; each dusk, Venus lingers after the Sun sets. So the ancients often said “Hesperus (Evening Star) and Phosphorus (Morning Star) are one and the same” – two faces of Venus. The Latin word Lucifer literally comes from the Greek Phosphoros, “Bringer of Light.” It was applied to Venus as morning star, but in Christian tradition it also became a name for the fallen angel (perhaps due to a metaphor in Isaiah 14:12 comparing the king of Babylon to the morning star fallen from heaven).
Putting the pieces together, Venus (Lucifer/Ishtar) in the occult mythos is the one who “brings back the light” – not the pure light of God, but the light of the hidden sun (Saturn). She descends into darkness and rises again, carrying the torch. Thus, in secret societies and illuminist thought, Lucifer is often cast as the hero who brings enlightenment to mankind, against the will of the tyrant God.
In Scripture, Passover is fixed by the full moon of the first month in the Hebrew calendar; it has nothing to do with the spring equinox. Christ’s death and resurrection took place at Passover, not on a date linked to pagan solar cycles. In 325 AD, the Council of Nicaea broke the Resurrection feast’s direct link to the biblical Passover, distancing it from its Hebrew roots and fixing it instead to the Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox. This moved the most important Christian celebration out of the Jewish calendar and into the season long marked by pagan spring and fertility festivals across the ancient world
This alignment was entrenched under pope Gregory XIII’s calendar reform in 1582, which reset the dates so Easter would always follow the equinox, ensuring it stayed in lockstep with the old pagan “power days.” The pope had no mandate from Christ or His Father, or from the New Testament, to regulate such things, yet the Church asserted authority over time itself — a Saturnian act, since Saturn is the ancient master of cycles. Much like the Sabbath, which was also abolished, this was done under the claim of “divine authority”; yet not from Christ or His Father. A man whose throne doesn’t even exist in Scripture presumed to rewrite God’s Word, even though the Holy Spirit, who authored the Scriptures through the apostles, had already given both the Sabbath as a perpetual covenant and Christ’s resurrection firmly linked to Passover. So someone please tell me; where did their so-called divine authority come from to do that?
Neither does Scripture ever call Mary the “Queen of Heaven”; in fact, that title in Jeremiah refers to a pagan goddess whom God condemned. Mary, though blessed among women, was born into the same fallen state as all humanity after Satan deceived Adam and Eve into taking the forbidden fruit, severing mankind’s direct connection to God and corrupting the body with mortality. Only Christ, born without that corruption, is worthy to reign over heaven and earth. Elevating Mary to this title is not only unscriptural but mirrors the old Venus/Ishtar archetype — the so-called “light-bringer” who in pagan myth restores the rule of the hidden king.
If the apostles never instructed believers to tie the Resurrection to the equinox, why was the Roman church so determined to abandon the Passover date and re-anchor it to the sun?
The Black Sun vs. the True Son – Exposing the Great Counterfeit
All these threads lead to a critical spiritual choice, which can be framed as “Black Sun versus Son of God,” or false light versus true light. The Hermetic and alchemical traditions, which carried forth much of ancient occult knowledge through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, spoke of the “Great Work” of spiritual transformation. In alchemy, it was taught that by undergoing the nigredo (symbolic death), the practitioner could eventually attain the rubedo (reddening) and albedo (whitening) – in other words, achieve purification and enlightenment, even immortality (the philosopher’s stone, turning lead to gold, is all allegory for turning mortal man into an immortal, enlightened being). Saturn, the Black Sun, presides over that crucial first step; he is the keeper of the gateway of death that one must pass to be reborn as a god. This is nothing less than the serpent’s promise repackaged: “Ye shall not surely die… ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). It invites humans to seek godhood through secret knowledge and self-transformation, rather than through repentance and faith in the true God.
Jesus gave a sobering warning about this very kind of deception: “Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness” (Luke 11:35). In other words, be careful that the “inner illumination” you think you have swallowed isn’t actually darkness in disguise. The Black Sun is exactly that – a darkness feigning to be light. The Luciferians and occultists champion Lucifer as the giver of light (knowledge, freedom from rules), but Jesus calls Satan “a murderer from the beginning… and the father of lies” (John 8:44). How can a murderer appear as an angel of light? By offering a counterfeit salvation that appeals to human pride.
If, as we’ve explored, much of the outer trappings of paganism made its way into Church tradition, could it be that some of the inner reality did too? The bold claim of many Protestant reformers was that the Roman Church had so corrupted the faith with man-made ritual and idolatry that it had become “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots” (language from Revelation 17) in their time. They cited the worship-like devotion to images, the accumulation of wealth and power by the church, and the persecution of true saints as evidence. Whether one agrees fully or not, it’s undeniable that by the late medieval era, the Church was a mix of genuine Christian elements and disturbingly pagan or occult elements. The Knights Templar and other orders were accused of secretly worshiping idols (like Baphomet, a goat-headed figure). Popes engaged in astrology and political intrigue. The boundary between Christian mysticism and Hermetic magic sometimes blurred in Renaissance times. All the while, the common people were kept in line by the yearly cycle of feasts, fasts, and mandatory Mass – essentially spiritual bondage through time and fear.
This scenario is the very outcome a Saturnian scheme would desire: people think they are worshiping the true God, when in reality their devotion is being siphoned off to uphold a system that doesn’t set them free but rather keeps them dependent on earthly mediators and rituals. Paul wrote of false apostles, “for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). The greatest deception is that which most closely imitates truth. It is possible for there to be “another Jesus” and “another gospel” (2 Cor. 11:4) – meaning a counterfeit Christ and a counterfeit salvation message – which still uses all the familiar Christian terms and symbols, but directs faith toward a lie.
If we apply this to what we’ve discussed: the true Jesus is the incarnate Son of God, who finished the work of our redemption on the cross (“It is finished” John 19:30), and who calls us into a direct relationship with God through Him – “no man comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). The false “Jesus” (the one the devil would have people follow) might be an impostor that demands ongoing sacrifice or that keeps people at a distance from God, subject to a priestly caste or a rigid system of works.
It’s noteworthy that in occult circles, there is talk of a coming “Solar Messiah” or a global leader who will unite spirituality – often linked with astrological ages (like the Age of Aquarius). This figure is sometimes associated with the return of Apollo or the rise of Luciferian enlightenment. Could this be the final Saturnian deception – a false Christ (Antichrist) who claims to bring the Golden Age, using all the right phrases (“peace,” “unity,” even quoting scripture) but in reality drawing worship to Satan? Revelation describes the Beast (Antichrist) as having a number: 666, “the number of a man”. This number has long been linked to man’s wisdom and perfection apart from God. The ultimate Antichrist figure will do the same, and the world will be poised to accept him because for millennia the collective psyche has been primed with Golden Age expectations under various gods – especially Saturn.
The capstone of Mystery Babylon’s plan would be to enthrone a man as world savior who embodies the Saturnian ideal – maybe a reincarnation of Osiris/Horus, or Apollo, or the Mahdi, etc. – and to have all religions see in him what they’ve been waiting for. If such a one is hailed at the Vatican or in Jerusalem or on the world stage, using Christian language, performing “miracles,” and urging humanity into a new era of peace (while secretly being empowered by the dragon, Satan), it would be the zenith of deception. The Bible warns of a time when the Antichrist will exalt himself above God and demand worship, even sitting in God’s temple (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4). It also says the false messiah will have a partner, the False Prophet, who will deceive the world with miracles and cause an image of the beast to be worshiped (Revelation 13:13-15). Some have speculated this False Prophet could be a compromised Christian leader or even a pope who helps merge Christianity into a one-world religion honoring the Beast. If the religious calendar, symbolism, and pageantry are already steeped in cosmic Saturnian motifs, one can see how easily people might slide into that without realizing it.
In the face of such deception, the call of God remains what it has always been: “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). It means breaking allegiance with the false rhythms and false lights, and turning fully to the Light of the World, Jesus Christ (John 8:12).
Satan said in the beginning, “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Centuries later, Rome’s own boasts echoed the same lie. Pope Leo XIII declared, “We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty.” But even Irenaeus, in Against Heresies, records that the church in Rome was founded by both Peter and Paul — not by Peter alone, and certainly not to enthrone him as a monarch over all believers. Peter had no throne, no papal title, and no mandate from Christ to rule the Church as God’s earthly stand-in. Yet today, a man whose “throne” does not even exist in Scripture claims the authority to rewrite God’s law, sever Christ’s resurrection from Passover, and alter the Sabbath — all while invoking an “apostolic succession” that collapses under the testimony of the early Church itself.