Julius Caesar
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Caesar, Julius
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) is best known as the emperor who united Rome and built the foundation for its European domination. Popularized by his own writings and those of such notables as William Shakespeare, his story has become legend.
What is not so well documented is the cost of his endeavors to the storehouse of Western religious thought. While serving as captain of the armies of Rome, Caesar was well aware that his political future depended upon military victories to the north and west of Italy. To achieve those victories he was willing to do almost anything, including tearing the spiritual heart out of his enemies.
Knowing the popular will to resist him depended upon the influence of the Druids, the indigenous religious leaders of Gaul, Caesar set out to destroy completely the Druidic priesthood and all semblance of the religion that had, for untold generations, united the people of present-day France. The sacred groves of the Druids were destroyed. Any practice of indigenous paganism was outlawed. One by one, local traditions were rooted out and eliminated. A powerful propaganda campaign was launched, with Caesar's own Gallic Wars leading the way. And, since history is written by the victors, a religion that served the people of Western Europe for hundreds, if not thousands, of years was almost lost to human memory. Only in the past few decades have we begun to understand the religious history of a culture that connected people to the earth and empowered them in their daily lives. Caesar also made a second-hand contribution to Christian history. In 46 BCE he commissioned a calendar that was henceforth called the Julian Calendar. The month of July still bears his name. With modifications and corrections ordered by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, it became the Gregorian calendar used today.