MythicMithraic tauroctony: the bull-slaying as cosmic-order symbol
UBCorporate memory of the Lucifer rebellion and cosmic dualism
Corporate memory of the Lucifer rebellion and cosmic dualism = Mithraic tauroctony: the bull-slaying as cosmic-order symbol
The Connection
Mithraic iconography centers on the tauroctony, Mithras slaying a bull while a serpent, scorpion, dog, and raven attend the scene. Scholarly analysis (Ulansey, Beck) has demonstrated the astronomical encoding: Mithras represents the power that moves the equinoxes, overcoming the old cosmic order (Taurus age) and inaugurating a new one. The Zoroastrian roots of Mithraism preserve, in garbled form, memory of the Lucifer rebellion as a cosmic conflict between good and evil, and the tauroctony visualizes the renewal of cosmic order after that conflict.
Academic Source
Ulansey, The Origins of the Mithraic Mysteries (1989); Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult (2006)
Historical Evidence(Moderate evidence)
David Ulansey demonstrated that the tauroctony encodes the precession of the equinoxes, with Mithras as the cosmic power who moves the ages. Roger Beck extended the astronomical reading through the grade-hierarchy structure of the mysteries. The UB derives Mithraism from Zoroastrian roots (98:5.3), and Zoroastrian dualism itself from "distorted rebellion memories" (95:6.5), giving a direct lineage from the actual rebellion through Iranian dualism to Roman Mithraic cosmology. The tauroctony reads naturally as a symbolic image of cosmic renewal after the rebellion rather than an abstract astronomical allegory alone.
Related Mappings
Salem teaching corrupted into dying/rising god cult
= Cybele and Attis, mother-son mystery religion
Day of Attis' death, pre-Christian sacred calendar
= "Black Friday," the original day of mourning before Easter
Pre-Christian mother-goddess cult in Rome
= Mother of God temple on the site of St. Peter's Basilica
Paul's composite Christianity
= Jewish morality + Greek philosophy + mystery cult ritual