Earlier this week, Louisiana became the first state to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in all public classrooms.
According to AP News, “Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as, ‘foundational documents of our state and national government.’”1
And you know what? That’s true; they are.
In January 2021—right on the heels of the Great Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction in Aquarius—I released an episode of Discourse of the Stranger, a podcast about mythology, religion and critical thinking, on the Biblical book of Exodus. In it, I re-told the story of Moses, the Pharaoh, the Passover plagues, the titular escape from Egypt, and yes, the Ten Commandments, from the Gnostic perspective. This completely flips the Judeo-Christian canon on its head because it casts the Biblical God as Yaldaboath, the manifestation of Ignorance.
The whole thing is fascinating, so I’ve uploaded the audio to this email for your listening pleasure. You can also listen to this episode, and thirty-five other ones, on Spotify.
But—Too Long; Won’t Listen, here’s what you need to know…
There once was a Babylonian king named Hammurabi, who received a set of laws from the god Shamash, who ruled over the Sun and justice. These laws would become known as “Hammurabi’s Code,” and were carved onto a giant, black phallic obelisk, which is now housed in The Louvre. It’s one of the oldest and most extensive legal codes on record, and predates the birth of Moses by about a thousand years. So by the time the Ten Commandments came onto the scene, these were already well-established laws of the region.
When put side-by-side, the laws handed down by that-which-Christians-call-God in Exodus are incredibly similar to Hammurabi’s Code.
In fact, the differences between them lie with the severity of the Hebrew laws, which were far more brutal than then Babylonian code. For instance, where Hammurabi’s Code would call for a trespasser’s hand to be cut off, the Biblical laws would have them killed.
Scholars debate why this change was made, but the version of me doing research in 2021 linked this to a familiarity with regional laws, which greatly influenced the surrounding nation states, including Palestine, which is where the Israelites ended up after their infamous stint of wandering. So it was essentially an adoption of local laws with greater consequences, infused with a new contract of social and religious laws.
This is very interesting when looking at our modern justice system—and now specifically this ruling to put the Ten Commandments in Louisiana schools—for two reasons:
Hammurabi himself is one of the inspiring lawmakers carved into the wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building!
The founding of religious freedoms in the United States was largely due to one sect of Christianity wanting to separate from another sect of Christianity, and the European Catholic Church.
While we may think religious freedom means something else in modern times, constitutionally, it really did just mean freedom for Christians (although there is a lot of support for the Founding Fathers being deists, who weren’t so dogmatic about their religious practices).
For all of the people saying, No, we are not a Christian nation, we should not have this Christian iconography in schools—that in and of itself is a bit ironic because the Ten Commandments, the Hebrew Laws, came from the Code of Hammurabi. So we now have this timeline of Hammurabi’s Code directly influencing Hebrew laws, directly influencing Western laws, directly influencing American laws.
So yes, in essence, American laws are Christian laws. We are deeply, deeply a Christian nation, even though we may not want to hold onto those roots.
What really incenses me about this decision is just how many steps Republicans have taken to strip schools and students of any and all support. Agendas for political action in 2025 include ending universal school lunches, which would create food insecurities for countless kids across many states.2 Some, like Project 2025, would see the Federal Department of Education eliminated completely, in order to give educational responsibilities back to the states.3
Why is this a terrible idea? Well, as the below tweet from CBS News Contributor, David Begnaud shows, states like Louisiana are already rank close to last in areas like health care, infrastructure, and overall state of the economy. Especially after this Ten Commandments ruling, it’s inane to think that if given the chance to take over the education system, it wouldn’t slip like the rest of the state’s statistics—not to mention devolve into even more religious and state propaganda.
Another thought, since we’re already in the weeds:
The Louisisana ruling states that posters must be on display in all classroom that receive state funding by 2025, but no state funding is being offered to pay for the posters themselves. This means that private companies will profit off of this ruling, and feels very much like the American flag and the Pledge of Allegiance, which was written by Francis Bellemy as “a marketing gimmick, [for] Youth’s Companion… the country’s largest circulation magazine… [which] offered U.S. flags to readers who sold subscriptions.”4
Another instance of American Capitalism at its finest, folks.
What a tangled mess.
THE ROAD TRIP STARTS TOMORROW:
Today’s the last chance to sign-up for the live session of What Are the Rules of the Road, a 2-hour virtual workshop on the Life Path and Public Persona numbers. Replay available for those who cannot make it live, and you’ll receive a small discount for signing up for the whole 3-course trip.
WORK WITH ME THIS SUMMER!
LA HONEYS—I’m psyched to be offering IRL mini readings on your numerological “Holy Trinity” at Open Eye Crystals’s READERS X HEALERS event on June 30th. RSVP for free! Then, join me again at Open Eye on July 20th for Numerology 101: Know Your Numbers, a workshop on the core numbers of your chart.
If virtual is your jam, or we’re geographically separated, I have options for virtual 1-on-1 numerology readings and tarot readings through Moonlight.
Last, but certainly not least, I’m hosting a potentially spicy virtual writing workshop called Healing Your Creativity with Fanfiction on July 25th through Ophelia’s Books. More details on this soon, but sign-ups are open!
Please pass along these links to anyone you think could benefit from or enjoy this work, and I hope to see you IRL or on Zoom this summer!
Until next time, just keep swimming!
xx, bee
“New law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments” (Associated Press, June 19, 2024)
“House Republicans Want to Ban Universal Free School Lunches” (The Intercept, March 21, 2024)
“Project 2025: The Trump Presidency wish list, explained” (BBC, June 11, 2024)
“How the Pledge of Allegiance Went From PR Gimmick to Patriotic Vow” (Smithsonian, 2015)
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