Born 3rd or 4th Year BC in Tyana in Cappadocia, at 16 Appollonius of Tyana became a disciple of Pythagoras, renouncing flesh, wine and women. He wore no shoes and let his hair and beard grow long.

He soon became a reformer and fixed his abode in the Temple of Aesculapius - the serpent healing deity we discovered to be of paramount importance in The Serpent Grail, and who himself originated from the Egyptian architect Imhotep.

The hill where these wise men lived [2] was defended on all sides by immense piles of rocks. As soon as the travellers had dismounted a messenger from one of the Masters appeared, wearing of all things, a serpent Caduceus on his brow - an obvious allusion to the enlightenment process via the Indian Kundalini, or coiled serpent.

Platitudes were given and when in conversation Apollonius learned from Larchus, that these Nagas had delivered their wisdom to the Egyptians and even Ethiopia, which as Hivviah or Cush was named after the worship of serpents. 

Eventually Apollonius became a wise sage himself and his own notoriety grew. Aurelian vowed to erect Temples and statues to his honour "for was there ever any thing among men more holy, venerable, noble, and divine than Apollonius? He restored life to the dead; he did and spoke many things beyond human reach." (Vopiscus in Aurelian, cap. 24)

Truly, Temples and statues were erected to Apollonius in many places, including his own town of Tyana. Unlike Jesus, there is evidence to prove that Apollonius actually existed. As Moncure D. Conway said in his book Modern Thought:

"The world has been for a long time engaged in writing lives of Jesus." 

The library of such writing has grown since then. But when we come to examine them, one startling fact confronts us: all these books relate to a personage concerning whom there does not exist a single scrap of contemporary information - not one! Nobody can say with any conviction that Jesus was a real person.

On the other hand and by accepted tradition, Apollonius was born in the reign of Augustus, the great literary age of the nation of which he was a subject. In the Augustan age historians flourished; poets, orators, critics and travellers abounded. Yet not one of them mentions the name of Jesus Christ, much less any incident of his life. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius admitted that it was to Apollonius that he owed his own philosophy, and erected Temples and statues in his honour. No statues or Temples were erected to Jesus.

Faust said, "Everyone knows that the Evangeliums were written neither by Jesus nor by his apostle, but long after their time by some unknown persons, who, judging well that they would hardly be believed when telling of things they had not seen themselves, headed their narratives with the names of the apostles or disciples contemporaneous with the latter."

On the other hand, the written record of the life of Apollonius is very sound and Philostratos who wrote the Life of Apollonius was the close friend of Damus who had related the whole thing in person.

Philostratos said, "Some consider him as one of the Magi, because he conversed with the Magi of Babylon and the Brahmans of India and the Gymnosophists of Egypt. But even his wisdom is reviled, as being acquired by the magic art, so erroneous are the opinions formed of him. Whereas Empedocles and Pythagoras and Democritus, though they conversed with the same Magi, and advanced many paradoxical sentiments, have not fallen under the like imputation. Even Plato, who travelled in Egypt, and blended with his doctrines many opinions collected there from the priests and prophets, incurred not such a suspicion, though above all men on account of his superior wisdom."

The very fact that Apollonius was in danger of usurping the "idea" of Christ with his own "factual" life caused much consternation amongst the early Christians. Justin Martyr, one of the Church Fathers of the 2nd century said, "How is it that the talismans by Apollonius have power over certain members of creation, for they prevent, as we have seen, the fury of the waves, the violence of the winds, and the attacks of wild beasts. And whilst Our Lord's miracles are preserved by tradition alone, those of Apollonius are most numerous, and actually manifested in present facts, so as to lead astray all beholders?"

The book by Philostratos was therefore, and not surprisingly, kept back from translation and distribution. In fact, the books of the New Testament did not appear until at least one hundred years after the Life of Apollonius.

Even the birth of Apollonius bears some remarkable similarities to the fictional life of Christ. Whilst his mother was pregnant with Apollonius, Proteus, the Egyptian God, appeared to her and said, "Thou shalt bring forth me!" The mother of Apollonius was to bring forth God.

Incidentally, Proteus was known to take the form of a snake.

According to Phillimore, Apollonius actually founded a church and a community, made up of his disciples. It is highly likely that these were connected to a branch of the Essene, known as the Therapeuts and Nazarenes.  

Indeed there was a group known as the Apolloniei, the adherents of Apollonius, who actually survived some centuries after his death. These constituted what became the Christian Church, after the Council of Nicaea - so Apollonius did indeed begin Christianity, based upon serpentine myths and traditions of the oldest order. 

In fact Eunapius stated that Philostratos should have called his book "The Sojourning of a God Among Men." However once the decision had been made to plump for the newly created Christ, cobbled together from various deities, Apollonius was repressed. It is basically because of books like the one of Philostratos that the ancient libraries at places such as Alexandria were torched. Destroy the evidence of the opposition and there appears to be no opposition. But they missed one vital piece of evidence in their own book.

In 1st Corinthians 3:3-6 it says, "for while one saith, I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who, then, is Paul, and whom Apollos, but ministers, by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase."

1 In De Vita Apollonii (The Life of Apollonius) Philostratos tells us of the superstitious practices carried out by those of Arabia and India with some remarkable tales about "eating the heart and liver of serpents, for the purpose of acquiring knowledge of the thoughts and languages of animals." Philostratos wrote extensively on Apollonius of Tyana, the great sage who is seen by many as being the true Christ.

2 Taxila was the capital of ancient Punjab (Hindus). In the Sanskrit language it was Takshacila or simply "Prince of the serpent tribe." Taxila was a famous place, having been mentioned in several languages and connected with the infamous Silk Road between the Far West (Babylonia) and the Far East (China). Here lies the oldest known Hindu shrine in the Pillared Hall, on the site of the western end, said to have had a ceremonial function. The king of Taxila was called Taxiles and in 329 BC he invited Alexander the Great to support him against aggressors. In 184 BC the Greeks invaded and placed Demetrius on the throne. The town was rebuilt and strangely it was called Sirkap (severed head). It was a multi-ethnic area now with Greeks, Bactrians, western Iranians and Hindus all living together. There was a great mix of Hinduism, serpent worship, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Greek religious beliefs all mixing together-a place very much like Alexandria.

Apollonius of Tyana went to Taxila as we find in the Life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratos. "I have already described the way in which the city is walled, but they say that it was divided up into narrow streets in the same irregular manner as in Athens, and that the houses were built in such a way that if you look at them from outside they had only one storey, while if you went unto one of them, you at once found subterranean chambers extending as far below the level of the earth as did the chambers above." (Section 2.2). It was the King of Taxila (Phroates) who wrote a letter of recommendation for Apollonius to Iarchus in-order to have him learn the wisdom of the Nagas of Kashmir.

By Phillip Gardiner
Philip Gardiner is a best selling author of The Shining Ones, The Serpent Grail and Gnosis: The Secret of Solomon’s Temple Revealed.  He can be seen on TV, heard on radio and has written for hundreds of magazines around the world. His website is www.philipgardiner.net