Before Rome: Mediumship and God

MaryAnna
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Before Rome. Before Orthodoxy. Before doctrine. This is a podcast about Mediumship and God: For most of human history, communicating with the dead, seeking signs, interpreting dreams, and experiencing the unseen were ordinary parts of life. Join medium and researcher MaryAnna as she explores the forgotten spiritual world of our ancestors—from village wells and household shrines to desert hermits, prophets, mediums, and the birth of organized religion. Before mediumship was feared and shunned, it was a literal part of our everyday lives.

  1. 4d ago

    Before Rome: Mediumship and God : Episode 4 — The Guest List

    Episode 4 — The Guest List In this episode, MaryAnna takes a deep dive into one of the central questions of the podcast: why is it acceptable to ask dead saints for help, but not your own grandmother? It starts with a personal story — a visit to a local Orthodox church that left her speechless. The ancient aesthetic, the veneration of saints, the practice of intercession — asking the dead to advocate on your behalf — all of it fascinated her. But when mediumship came up, the same wall appeared that always appears. From there, MaryAnna walks through the history of the Christian church: Pentecost as the starting gun, the five patriarchates that governed the early church together, and the Great Schism of 1054 that split Rome and Constantinople into two very different directions. The Filioque controversy — a single Latin word Rome added to the Nicene Creed without asking anyone — is unpacked as less of a theological disagreement and more of a power grab. The episode then turns to the Bible itself. MaryAnna examines Deuteronomy 18, the passage most often used to condemn mediumship, and traces it back to its original context: the worship of Moloch and ritual human sacrifice — which has nothing to do with what modern mediums do. She breaks down the words necromancer, sorcerer, and diviner as they appear in both the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint, and makes the case that "questioning the dead" through dark ritual is not the same thing as a medium sitting across from a grieving mother. A key point: the word "medium" itself is a mistranslation that evolved over centuries. The original Hebrew terms were translated differently depending on the language, the era, and the translator — and scholars still debate what some of them actually meant. The episode closes with a reminder that the wall between you and Spirit was built by people. Which means it was never real to begin with. Topics covered: Saint intercession vs. mediumship — what's actually the difference?The Orthodox Church: history, structure, and surprising beliefsPentecost and the five patriarchatesThe Great Schism of 1054 and the Filioque controversyDeuteronomy 18 in context — Moloch, human sacrifice, and mistranslationNecromancer vs. medium: the words are not the sameThe Septuagint and how Bible translation shapes theologyThe Desert Fathers and a non-Hollywood view of demonsFind Before Rome:Spotify | Apple Podcasts | beforerome.comNew episodes every Thursday

    32 min

  2. Jun 25

    Episode 3: How Did God Become God?

    Episode 3: How Did God Become God? Before Rome: Mediumship and God with MaryAnna Episode Summary In this episode, MaryAnna takes us back to the ancient world to explore one of the most provocative questions in religious history: How did a regional deity named Yahweh become the God — singular, universal, and unchallenged? This is not a debate about faith. It's an invitation to be curious, ask questions, and follow the historical evidence wherever it leads. What We Cover The world Abraham actually lived in — a polytheistic landscape full of gods of storms, fertility, war, wisdom, cities, mountains, and even household deitiesPolytheism vs. Monotheism — what these words mean and why the shift from many gods to one was not sudden or cleanYahweh's origins — scholarly evidence that Yahweh began as a regional storm and warrior god, fierce and territorial, before becoming the universal GodAsherah, Yahweh's wife — archaeological evidence that was systematically edited out of scriptureThe priestly class of Jerusalem — how centralizing worship meant centralizing power, and how that shaped the texts we have todayKing Josiah and 622 BC — the purge that changed everything: smashed altars, executed priests, burned bones, and eliminated seers, diviners, mediums, and "knowers" (Yidioni) from Israelite lifeThe Ob (medium) and the Yidioni (knower) — who these people were, what they did, and how they were woven into everyday community lifeDirect ancestral contact — why ancient consultation was specific, relational, and intentional, not a free-for-all with the deadThe Witch of Endor — a preview of a future deep-dive episodeWho controls access to the divine — the argument that has never ended, from ancient priests to modern churchesA seed planted: The Desert Mothers — coming in future episodesKey Takeaway The wall between you and Spirit was built by people — which means it was never real to begin with. You don't need permission from a priest, a pastor, or a building to access whatever you believe God is. Mentioned / Coming Soon The Witch of Endor (future episode)The Desert Mothers (future episode)Demons, angels, and fallen angels (future episode)Find the Podcast🎙 iHeartRadio | Amazon Podcasts | Spotify | Apple Podcasts🌐 beforerome.com

    18 min

  3. Jun 22

    Mediumship and God: Voices

    Before Rome: Mediumship and God Episode 2 — Voices Hosted by MaryAnna Why does Abraham get to hear a voice from God and become the father of three religions — but if your neighbor said the same thing, you'd give him the side eye? That's the question MaryAnna starts with in this episode, and it only gets more interesting from there. This episode digs into the world Abraham actually lived in: a bustling Mesopotamian city built around moon god worship, a world full of gods, omens, and divine messages — none of which looked anything like the biblical religion that would later be built around his story. In this episode: Who Abraham really was before Judaism, Christianity, or Islam existedUr of the Chaldeans — the moon god city where Abraham grew upWhy the name "Yahweh" showing up in Abraham's story may be an anachronismThe Israelites weren't monotheists — and the archaeological evidence backs that upHow centuries of priestly editing, the Council of Nicaea (325 AD), and the Catholic Church shaped which gods made the final cutWhy we accept ancient spiritual experiences as sacred but dismiss modern ones as suspectThe double standard we apply to mediums, intuitives, and anyone who claims to hear from Spirit todayKey question of the episode: If Abraham showed up today and told you God spoke to him and he was selling everything to walk into the desert — would you believe him? Next episode: Who was Yahweh before the Bible tells us who Yahweh was? Let's go dig up some gods. Before Rome: Mediumship and God is about reclaiming the history the church was never entitled to take — especially from women. New episodes explore the deep, complicated, and inconvenient roots of spirituality, mediumship, and divine communication.

    17 min
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About

Before Rome. Before Orthodoxy. Before doctrine. This is a podcast about Mediumship and God: For most of human history, communicating with the dead, seeking signs, interpreting dreams, and experiencing the unseen were ordinary parts of life. Join medium and researcher MaryAnna as she explores the forgotten spiritual world of our ancestors—from village wells and household shrines to desert hermits, prophets, mediums, and the birth of organized religion. Before mediumship was feared and shunned, it was a literal part of our everyday lives.

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