Roman Catholicism is but one expression of the complex syncretism of Judaism with Hellenistic religious forms. That its most recent expression is flawed and far from perfect is almost an altruism in the symbolic sense. I do not think that any of the world religions can really come to terms with the present future looming before us unless all of them confront what is really a historical crisis represented by the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. This crisis may be roughly formulated along the troublesome axis of disagreement between the archaeological record for the 1st and 2nd centuries CE and the historical one handed down to posterity via Eusebius and Iranaeus for the same period. Much of what remains to be untangled lies under a thick layer of sediment formed from the residues of struggle for political and economic power: ancient religion merged these spheres of power seamlessly into the fabric of family-client relationships within both the city state and later the empire.

The struggle however open at times and however seemingly muted in the West continues to this day. For some serious theological perspective on the Catholic Church from the perspective of a personality who knew the current Pope way-back-when, and was in fact his boss way-back-then, here is Hans Kung’s take on modern Catholicism and where it is headed.

Best – Lancelotto

- The god of merchandise
This is Budha.

- Three Hares of the Silk Road
This iconic theme began in China and spread along the trade routes to end up in English churches.

The Sheng xiao – Chinese Zodiac – is divided into years rather than months, contrary to the association with animals implied in the Greek etymology of “zodiac”, and is not associated with constellations, let alone those spanned by the ecliptic plane.

In Chinese astrology the animal signs assigned by year represent what others perceive you as being or how you present yourself.

The 12 animals are also linked to the traditional Chinese agricultural calendar, which runs alongside the better known lunar calendar. Instead of months, this calendar is divided into 24 two week segments known as Solar Terms. Each animal is linked to two of these solar terms for a period similar to the Western month.

The Rabbit ( ? ) (also translated as Hare) is the fourth animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.

Hares are the intuitive diplomats in Chinese Astrology.

Colour is green (the same as Budha).

The Chinese zodiac, though not entirely identical with the Greek zodiac, nonetheless shares with it the duodecimal system and the idea of using animals as numerical symbols. This is a hint for the triangular relations between early Chinese, Mesopotamian and Greek cultures.

When the Bulgars, an early Turkic tribe within the Hun tribal federation that invaded Europe at the end of the Roman Empire, brought with them the very same Chinese zodiac.

The European Huns used the Chinese Zodiac complete with “dragon”, “pig”. This common Chinese-Turkic Zodiac was in use in Balkan Bulgaria well into the Bulgars’ adoption of Slavic language and Orthodox Christianity.