In determining the duration of the period within which were to occur
the events taught in the doctrines of the Exoteric Creed, the ancient
Astrologers dedicated a thousand years to each of the signs of the
Zodiac, and thus inaugurating the cycle of twelve thousand years,
taught that, at its conclusion, the heaven and the earth, which they
believed to be composed of the indestructible elements of fire, air,
earth and water, would, through the agency of the first of these, be
reduced to chaos, as a preliminary to the reorganization of a new
heaven and a new earth at the beginning of the succeeding cycle. Such
was the origin of the grand cycle of the ancient Astrolatry, and it
must be borne in mind that its authors made its conclusion to
correspond in time and circumstance to the doctrines relating to the
finale of the plan of redemption.