magnificent appearance. Capella was a little further from the meridian,
to the north; and Orion still further from it to the southward. Procyon,
Sirius, Castor and Pollux had climbed about half-way from the horizon to
the meridian. Regulus had just risen upon the ecliptic. The Virgin still
lingered below the horizon. Fomalhaut was half-way to the meridian in
the Southwest; and to the Northwest were the brilliant constellations,
Perseus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda; while the Pleiades had just
passed the meridian.
ORION is visible to all the habitable world. The equinoctial line passes
through the centre of it. When Aldebarán rose in the East, the Three
Kings in Orion followed him; and as Taurus set, the Scorpion, by whose
sting it was said Orion died, rose in the East.
Orion rises at noon about the 9th of March. His rising was accompanied
with great rains and storms, and it became very terrible to mariners.
In Boötes, called by the ancient Greeks _Lycaon_, from _lukos,_ a wolf,
and by the Hebrews, Caleb Anubach, the Barking Dog, is the Great Star
ARCTURUS, which, when Taurus opened the year, corresponded with a season
remarkable for its great heat.
Next comes GEMINI, the Twins, two human figures, in the heads of which
are the bright Stars CASTOR and POLLUX, the Dioscuri, and the Cabiri of
Samothrace, patrons of navigation; while South of Pollux are the
brilliant Stars SIRIUS and PROCYON, the greater and lesser Dog: and
still further South, Canopus, in the Ship Argo.
Sirius is apparently the largest and brightest Star in the Heavens. When
the Vernal Equinox was in Taurus, he rose heliacally, that is, just
before the Sun, when, at the Summer Solstice, the Sun entered Leo, about
the 21st of June, fifteen days previous to the swelling of the Nile. The
heliacal rising of Canopus was also a precursor of the rising of the
Nile. Procyon was the forerunner of Sirius, and rose before him.
There are no important Stars in CANCER. In the Zodiacs of Esne and
Dendera, and in most of the astrological remains of Egypt, the sign of
this constellation was a beetle (_Scarabœus_), which thence became
sacred, as an emblem of the gate through which souls descended from
Heaven. In the crest of Cancer is a cluster of Stars formerly called
_Prœsepe,_ the Manger, on each side of which is a small Star, the two of
which were called _Aselli_ little asses.
In _Leo_ are the splendid Stars, REGULUS, directly on the ecliptic, and
DENEBOLA in the Lion's tail. Southeast of Regulus is the fine Star COR
HYDRÆ.
The combat of Hercules with the Nemæan lion was his first labor. It was
the first sign into which the Sun passed, after falling below the Summer
Solstice; from which time he struggled to re-ascend.
The Nile overflowed in this sign. It stands first in the Zodiac of
Dendera, and is in all the Indian and Egyptian Zodiacs.
In the left hand of VIRGO (Isis or Ceres) is the beautiful Star SPICA
Virginis, a little South of the ecliptic. VINDEMIATRIX, of less
magnitude, is in the right arm; and Northwest of Spica, in Boötes (the
husbandman, Osiris), is the splendid star ARCTURUS.
The division of the first Decan of the Virgin, Aben Ezra says,
represents a beautiful Virgin with flowing hair, sitting in a chair,
with two ears of corn in her hand, and suckling an infant. In an Arabian
MS. in the Royal Library at Paris, is a picture of the Twelve Signs.
That of Virgo is a young girl with an infant by her side. Virgo was
Isis; and her representation, carrying a child (Horus) in her arms,
exhibited in her temple, was accompanied by this inscription: "I AM ALL
THAT IS, THAT WAS, AND THAT SHALL BE; and the fruit which I brought
forth is the Sun."
Nine months after the Sun enters Virgo, he reaches the Twins. When
Scorpio begins to rise, Orion sets: when Scorpio comes to the meridian,
Leo begins to set, Typhon reigns, Osiris is slain, and Isis (the Virgin)
his sister and wife, follows him to the tomb, weeping.
The Virgin and Boötes, setting heliacally at the Autumnal Equinox,
delivered the world to the wintry constellations, and introduced into it
the genius of Evil, represented by Ophiucus, the Serpent.
At the moment of the Winter Solstice, the Virgin rose heliacally (_with_
the Sun), having the Sun (Horus) in her bosom.
In LIBRA are four Stars of the second and third magnitude, which we
shall mention hereafter. They are Zuben-es-Chamali, Zuben-el-Gemabi,
Zuben-hak-rabi, and Zuben-el-Gubi. Near the last of these is the
brilliant and malign Star, ANTARES in Scorpio.
In SCORPIO, ANTARES, of the 1st magnitude, and remarkably red, was one
of the four great Stars, FOMALHAUT, in Cetus, ALDEBARAN in Taurus,
REGULUS in Leo, and ANTARES, that formerly answered to the Solstitial
and Equinoctial points, and were much noticed by astronomers. This sign
was sometimes represented by a Snake, and sometimes by a Crocodile, but
generally by a Scorpion, which last is found on the Mithriac Monuments,
and on the Zodiac of Dendera. It was considered a sign accursed, and the
entrance of the Sun into it commenced the reign of Typhon.
In Sagittarius, Capricornus, and Aquarius there are no Stars of
importance.
Near Pisces is the brilliant Star FOMALHAUT. No sign in the Zodiac is
considered of more malignant influence than this. It was deemed
indicative of _Violence_ and _Death._ Both the Syrians and Egyptians
abstained from eating fish, out of dread and abhorhence; and when the
latter would represent anything as odious, or express hatred by
Hieroglyphics, they painted a fish.
In Auriga is the bright Star CAPELLA, which to the Egyptians never set.
And, circling ever round the North Pole are Seven Stars, known as Ursa
Major, or the Great Bear, which have been an object of universal
observation in all ages of the world. They were venerated alike by the
Priests of Bel, the Magi of Persia, the Shepherds of Chaldea, and the
Phœnician navigators, as well as by the astronomers of Egypt. Two of
them, MERAK and DUBHE, always point to the North Pole.
The Phoenicians and Egyptians, says Eusebius, were the first who
ascribed divinity to the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and regarded them as the
sole causes of the production and destruction of all beings. From them
went abroad over all the world all known opinions as to the generation
and descent of the Gods. Only the Hebrews looked beyond the visible
world to an invisible Creator. All the rest of the world regarded as
Gods those luminous bodies that blaze in the firmament, offered them
sacrifices, bowed down before them, and raised neither their souls nor
their worship above the visible heavens.
The Chaldeans, Canaanites, and Syrians, among whom Abraham lived, did
the same. The Canaanites consecrated horses and chariots to the Sun. The
inhabitants of Emesa in Phœnicia adored him under the name of
Elagabalus; and the Sun, as Hercules, was the great Deity of the
Tyrians. The Syrians worshipped, with fear and dread, the Stars of the
Constellation Pisces, and consecrated images of them in their temples.
The Sun as Adonis was worshipped in Byblos and about Mount Libanus.
There was a magnificent Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, which was pillaged
by the soldiers of Aurelian, who rebuilt it and dedicated it anew. The
Pleiades, under the name of Succoth-Beneth, were worshipped by the
Babylonian colonists who settled in the country of the Samaritans.
Saturn, under the name of Remphan, was worshipped among the Copts. The
planet Jupiter was worshipped as Bel or Baal; Mars as Malec, Melech, or
Moloch; Venus as Ashtaroth or Astarte, and Mercury as Nebo, among the
Syrians, Assyrians, Phœnicians, and Canaanites.
Sanchoniathon says that the earliest Phœnicians adored the Sun, whom
they deemed sole Lord of the Heavens; and honored him, under the name of
BEEL-SAMIN, signifying _King of Heaven._ They raised columns to the
elements, fire, and air or wind, and worshipped them; and Sabæism, or
the worship of the Stars, flourished everywhere in Babylonia. The Arabs,
under a sky always clear and serene, adored the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
Abulfaragius so informs us, and that each of the twelve Arab Tribes
invoked a particular Star as its Patron. The Tribe Hamyar was
consecrated to the Sun, the Tribe Cennah to the Moon; the Tribe Misa was
under the protection of the beautiful Star in Taurus, Aldebarán; the
Tribe Tai under that of Canopus; the Tribe Kais, of Sirius; the Tribes
Lachamus and Idamus, of Jupiter; the Tribe Asad, of Mercury; and so on.
The Saracens, in the time of Heraclius, worshipped Venus, whom they
called CABAR, or The Great; and they swore by the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
Shahristan, an Arabic author, says that the Arabs and Indians before his
time had temples dedicated to the seven Planets. Abulfaragius says that
the seven great primitive nations, from whom all others descended, the
Persians, Chaldæans, Greeks, Egyptians, Turks, Indians, and Chinese, all
originally were Sabæists, and worshipped the Stars. They all, he says,
like the Chaldæans, prayed, turning toward the North Pole three times a
day, at Sunrise, Noon, and Sunset, bowing themselves three times before
the Sun. They invoked the Stars and the Intelligences which inhabited
them, offered them sacrifices, and called the fixed stars and planets
gods. Philo says that the Chaldæans regarded the stars as sovereign
arbiters of the order of the world, and did not look beyond the visible
causes to any invisible and intellectual being. They regarded NATURE as
the great divinity, that exercised its powers through the action of its
parts the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Fixed Stars, the successive
revolutions of the seasons, and the combined action of Heaven and Earth.
The great feast of the Sabæans was when the Sun reached the Vernal
Equinox: and they had five other feasts, at the times when the five
minor planets entered the signs in which they had their exaltation.
Diodorus Siculus informs us that the Egyptians recognized two great
Divinities, primary and eternal, the Sun and Moon, which they thought
governed the world, and from which everything receives its nourishment
and growth: that on them depended all the great work of generation, and
the perfection of all effects produced in nature. We know that the two
great Divinities of Egypt were Osiris and Isis, the greatest agents of
nature; according to some, the Sun and Moon, and according to others,
Heaven and Earth, or the active and passive principles of generation.
And we learn from Porphyry that Chæremon, a learned priest of Egypt, and
many other learned men of that nation, said that the Egyptians
recognized as gods the stars composing the zodiac, and all those that by
their rising or setting marked its divisions; the subdivisions of the
signs into decans, the horoscope and the stars that presided therein,
and which were called Potent Chiefs of Heaven: that considering the Sun
as the Great God, Architect, and Ruler of the World, they explained not
only the fable of Osiris and Isis, but generally all their sacred
legends, by the stars, by their appearance and disappearance, by their
ascension, by the phases of the moon, and the increase and diminution of
her light; by the march of the sun, the division of time and the heavens
into two parts, one assigned to darkness and the other to light; by the
Nile and, in fine, by the whole round of physical causes.
Lucian tells us that the bull Apis, sacred to the Egyptians, was the
image of the celestial Bull, or Taurus; and that Jupiter Ammon, horned
like a ram, was an image of the constellation Aries. And Clemens of
Alexandria assures us that the four principal sacred animals, carried
in their processions, were emblems of the four signs or cardinal points
which fixed the seasons at the equinoxes and solstices, and divided into
four parts the yearly march of the sun. They worshipped fire also, and
water, and the Nile, which river they styled Father, Preserver of Egypt,
sacred emanation from the Great God Osiris; and in their hymns in which
they called it the god crowned with millet (which grain, represented by
the _pschent_, was part of the head-dress of their kings), bringing with
him abundance. The other elements were also revered by them: and the
Great Gods, whose names are found inscribed on an ancient column, are
the Air, Heaven, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, Night, and Day. And, in
fine, as Eusebius says, they regarded the Universe as a great Deity,
composed of a great number of gods, the different parts of itself.
The same worship of the Heavenly Host extended into every part of
Europe, into Asia Minor, and among the Turks, Scythians, and Tartars.
The ancient Persians adored the Sun as Mithras, and also the Moon,
Venus, Fire, Earth, Air, and Water; and, having no statues or altars,
they sacrificed on high places to the Heavens and to the Sun. On seven
ancient _pyrea_ they burned incense to the Seven Planets, and considered
the elements to be divinities. In the Zend-Avesta we find invocations
addressed to Mithras, the stars, the elements, trees, mountains, and
every part of nature. The Celestial Bull is invoked there, to which the
Moon unites herself; and the four great stars, Taschter, Satevis,
Haftorang, and Venant, the great Star Rapitan, and the other
constellations which watch over the different portions of the earth.
The Magi, like a multitude of ancient nations, worshipped fire, above
all the other elements and powers of nature. In India, the Ganges and
the Indus were worshipped, and the Sun was the Great Divinity. They
worshipped the Moon also, and kept up the sacred fire. In Ceylon, the
Sun, Moon, and other planets were worshipped: in Sumatra, the Sun,
called Iri, and the Moon, called Handa. And the Chinese built Temples to
Heaven, the Earth, and genii of the air, of the water, of the mountains,
and of the stars, to the sea-dragon, and to the planet Mars.
The celebrated Labyrinth was built in honor of the Sun; and its twelve
palaces, like the twelve superb columns of the Temple at Hieropolis,
covered with symbols relating to the twelve signs and the occult
qualities of the elements, were consecrated to the twelve gods or
tutelary genii of the signs of the Zodiac. The figure of the pyramid
and that of the obelisk, resembling the shape of a flame, caused these
monuments to be consecrated to the Sun and to Fire. And Timæus of Locria
says: "The equilateral triangle enters into the composition of the
pyramid, which has four equal faces and equal angles, and which in this
is like fire the most subtle and mobile of the elements." They and the
obelisks were erected in honor of the Sun, termed in an inscription upon
one of the latter, translated by the Egyptian Hermapion and to be found
in Ammianus Marcellinus, "Apollo the strong, Son of God, He who made the
world, true Lord of the diadems, who possesses Egypt and fills it with
His glory."
The two most famous divisions of the Heavens, by seven, which is that of
the planets, and by twelve, which is that of the signs, are found on the
religious monuments of all the people of the ancient world. The twelve
Great Gods of Egypt are met with everywhere. They were adopted by the
Greeks and Romans; and the latter assigned one of them to each sign of
the Zodiac. Their images were seen at Athens, where an altar was erected
to each; and they were painted on the porticos. The People of the North
had their twelve _Azes_, or Senate of twelve great gods, of whom Odin
was chief. The Japanese had the same number, and like the Egyptians
divided them into classes, seven, who were the most ancient, and five,
afterward added: both of which numbers are well known and consecrated in
Masonry.
There is no more striking proof of the universal adoration paid the
stars and constellations, than the arrangement of the Hebrew camp in the
Desert, and the allegory in regard to the twelve Tribes of Israel,
ascribed in the Hebrew legends to Jacob. The Hebrew camp was a
quadrilateral, in sixteen divisions, of which the central four were
occupied by images of the four elements. The four divisions at the four
angles of the quadrilateral exhibited the four signs that the
astrologers called _fixed_, and which they regard as subject to the
influence of the four great Royal Stars, Regulus in Leo, Aldebaran in
Taurus, Antares in Scorpio, and Fomalhaut in the mouth of Pisces, on
which falls the water poured out by Aquarius; of which constellations
the Scorpion was represented in the Hebrew blazonry by the Celestial
Vulture or Eagle, that rises at the same time with it and is its
paranatellon. The other signs were arranged on the four faces of the
quadilateral, and in the parallel and interior divisions.
There is an astonishing coincidence between the characteristics assigned
by Jacob to his sons, and those of the signs of the Zodiac, or the
planets that have their domicile in those signs.
_Reuben_ is compared to running water, unstable, and that cannot excel;
and he answers to Aquarius, his ensign being a man. The water poured out
by Aquarius flows toward the South Pole, and it is the first of the four
Royal Signs, ascending from the Winter Solstice.
The Lion (Leo) is the device of _Judah_; and Jacob compares him to that
animal, whose constellation in the Heavens is the domicile of the Sun;
the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; by whose grip, when that of apprentice
and that of fellow-craft,--of Aquarius at the Winter Solstice and of
Cancer at the Vernal Equinox,--had not succeeded in raising him, Khūrūm
was lifted out of the grave.
_Ephraim_, on whose ensign appears the Celestial Bull, Jacob compares to
the ox. _Dan_, bearing as his device a Scorpion, he compares to the
Cerastes or horned Serpent, synonymous in astrological language with the
vulture or pouncing eagle; and which bird was often substituted on the
flag of Dan, in place of the venomous scorpion, on account of the terror
which that reptile inspired, as the symbol of Typhon and his malign
influences; wherefore the Eagle, as its paranatellon, that is, rising
and setting at the same time with it, was naturally used in its stead.
Hence the four famous figures in the sacred pictures of the Jews and
Christians, and in Royal Arch Masonry, of the Lion, the Ox, the Man, and
the Eagle, the four creatures of the Apocalypse, copied there from
Ezekiel, in whose reveries and rhapsodies they are seen revolving around
blazing circles.
The Ram, domicile of Mars, chief of the Celestial Soldiery and of the
twelve Signs, is the device of _Gad_, whom Jacob characterizes as a
warrior, chief of his army.
Cancer, in which are the stars termed _Aselli_, or little assess, is the
device of the flag of _Issachar_, whom Jacob compares to an ass.
Capricorn, of old represented with the tail of a fish, and called by
astronomers the Son of Neptune, is the device of _Zebulon_, of whom
Jacob says that he dwells on the shore of the sea.
Sagittarius, chasing the Celestial Wolf, is the emblem of _Benjamin_,
whom Jacob compares to a hunter: and in that constellation the Romans
placed the domicile of Diana the huntress. Virgo, the domicile of
Mercury, is borne on the flag of _Naphtali_, whose eloquence and agility
Jacob magnifies, both of which are attributes of the Courier of the
Gods. And of _Simeon_ and _Levi_ he speaks as united, as are the two
fishes that make the Constellation Pisces, which is their armorial
emblem.
Plato, in his Republic, followed the divisions of the Zodiac and the
planets. So also did Lycurgus at Sparta, and Cecrops in the Athenian
Commonwealth. Chun, the Chinese legislator, divided China into twelve
Tcheou, and specially designated twelve mountains. The Etruscans divided
themselves into twelve Cantons. Romulus appointed twelve Lictors. There
were twelve tribes of Ishmael and twelve disciples of the Hebrew
Reformer. The New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse has twelve gates.
The Souciet, a Chinese book, speaks of a palace composed of four
buildings, whose gates looked toward the four corners of the world. That
on the East was dedicated to the new moons of the months of Spring; that
on the West to those of Autumn; that on the South to those of Summer;
and that on the North to those of Winter: and in this, palace the
Emperor and his grandees sacrificed a lamb, the animal that represented
the Sun at the Vernal Equinox.
Among the Greeks, the march of the Choruses in their theatres
represented the movements of the Heavens and the planets, and the
Strophe and Anti-Strophe imitated, Aristoxenes says, the movements of
the Stars. The number five was sacred among the Chinese, as that of the
planets other than the Sun and Moon. Astrology consecrated the numbers
twelve, seven, thirty, and three hundred and sixty; and everywhere
_seven_, the number of the planets, was as sacred as twelve, that of the
signs, the months, the oriental cycles, and the sections of the horizon.
We shall speak more at large hereafter, in another Degree, as to these
and other numbers, to which the ancients ascribed mysterious powers.
The Signs of the Zodiac and the Stars appeared on many of the ancient
coins and medals. On the public seal of the Locrians, Ozoles was
Hesperus, or the planet Venus. On the medals of Antioch on the Orontes
was the ram and crescent; and the Ram was the special Deity of Syria,
assigned to it in the division of the earth among the twelve signs. On
the Cretan coins was the Equinoctial Bull; and he also appeared on those
of the Mamertins and of Athens. Sagittarius appeared on those of the
Persians. In India the twelve signs appeared upon the ancient coins.
The Scorpion was engraved on the medals of the Kings of Comagena, and
Capricorn on those of Zeugma, Anazorba, and other cities. On the medals
of Antoninus are found nearly all the signs of the Zodiac.
Astrology was practised among all the ancient nations. In Egypt, the
book of Astrology was borne reverentially in the religious processions;
in which the few sacred animals were also carried, as emblems of the
equinoxes and solstices. The same science nourished among the Chaldeans,
and over the whole of Asia and Africa. When Alexander invaded India, the
astrologers of the Oxydraces came to him to disclose the secrets of
their science of Heaven and the Stars. The Brahmins whom Apollonius
consulted, taught him the secrets of Astronomy, with the ceremonies and
prayers whereby to appease the gods and learn the future from the stars.
In China, astrology taught the mode of governing the State and families.
In Arabia it was deemed the mother of the sciences; and old libraries
are full of Arabic books on this pretended science. It flourished at
Rome. Constantine had his horoscope drawn by the astrologer Valens. It
was a science in the middle ages, and even to this day is neither
forgotten nor unpractised. Catherine de Medici was fond of it. Louis
XIV. consulted his horoscope, and the learned Casini commenced his
career as an astrologer.
The ancient Sabæans established feasts in honor of each planet, on the
day, for each, when it entered its place of _exaltation_, or reached the
particular degree in the particular sign of the zodiac in which
astrology had fixed the place of its exaltation; that is, the place in
the Heavens where its influence was supposed to be greatest, and where
it acted on Nature with the greatest energy. The place of exaltation of
the Sun was in Aries, because, reaching that point, he awakens all
Nature, and warms into life all the germs of vegetation; and therefore
his most solemn feast among all nations, for many years before our Era,
was fixed at the time of his entrance into that sign. In Egypt, it was
called the Feast of Fire and Light. It was the Passover, when the
Paschal Lamb was slain and eaten, among the Jews, and Neurouz among the
Persians. The Romans preferred the place of _domicile_ to that of
exaltation; and celebrated the feasts of the planets under the signs
that were their _houses_. The Chaldeans, whom, and not the Egyptians,
the Sabæans followed in this, preferred the places of exaltation.
Saturn, from the length of time required for his apparent revolution,
was considered the most remote, and the Moon the nearest planet. After
the Moon came Mercury and Venus, then the Sun and then Mars, Jupiter,
and Saturn.