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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Astral Worship, by J. H. Hill
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+Title: Astral Worship
+
+Author: J. H. Hill
+
+Release Date: September, 2005  [EBook #8855]
+[This file was first posted on August 14, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ASTRAL WORSHIP ***
+
+
+
+
+E-text prepared by David Deley
+
+
+
+Astral Worship
+
+by
+
+J. H. Hill, M. D.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"Now, what I want is--facts."--_Boz._
+
+
+
+
+
+                    CONTENTS.
+INTRODUCTION                                   5
+THE GEOCENTRIC SYSTEM OF NATURE               13
+   The Earth                                  13
+   The Firmament                              13
+   The Planets                                14
+   The Constellations                         15
+   The Zodiac                                 15
+THE SACRED NUMBERS 7 AND 12                   17
+THE TWELVE THOUSAND YEAR CYCLE                18
+THE ANCIENT TRIAD                             19
+GOD SOL                                       22
+THE ANCIENT COSMOGONY                         30
+FALL AND REDEMPTION OF MAN                    31
+INCARNATIONS OF GOD SOL                       33
+FABLE OF THE TWELVE LABORS                    36
+ANNIVERSARIES OF SOLAR WORSHIP                40
+   The Nativity                               40
+   Epiphany or Twelfth Day                    41
+   Lent or Lenten Season                      42
+   Passion Week                               44
+   Passion Plays                              45
+   Resurrection and Easter Festival           46
+   Annunciation                               48
+   Ascension                                  49
+   Assumption                                 49
+   The Lord's Supper                          50
+   Transubstantiation                         50
+   Autumnal Crucifixion                       51
+   Michaelmas                                 56
+PERSONIFICATIONS OF THE DIVISIONS OF TIME     57
+   The Hours                                  57
+   The Days                                   57
+   The Months                                 58
+   The Seasons                                60
+   Half Year of Increasing Days               63
+   Half Year of Decreasing Days               63
+   Last Quarter of the Year                   64
+ZODIACAL SYMBOLS OF SOLAR WORSHIP             64
+   The Sphinx                                 65
+   The Dragon                                 66
+   The Bull                                   67
+   The Ram                                    68
+   The Lamb                                   68
+   The Fish                                   71
+SIGNS OF THE CROSS                            72
+FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS                74
+   The Oriental System                        75
+   The Occidental System                      75
+   The Second or General Judgment             77
+JEWISH, OR ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY               79
+THE PROPHECIES                                83
+ROMAN OR MODERN CHRISTIANITY                  88
+FREEMASONRY AND DRUIDISM                     109
+THE SABBATH                                  117
+PIOUS FRAUDS                                 121
+CONCLUSION                                   125
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+In an article, entitled "Then and Now," published in the December
+number, 1890, of "The Arena," its author, a distinguished Unitarian
+D.D. of Boston, Mass., says. "Astronomy has shattered the fallacies of
+Astrology; and people have found out that the stars are minding their
+own business instead of meddling with theirs." Now, while it is true
+that modern Astronomy has superseded the ancient system, and people
+have ceased to believe that the stars are intervening in mundane
+affairs, nothing could be further from the truth than the assertion
+that "Astronomy has shattered the fallacies of Astrology;" and those of
+our readers who will accord to this work an unprejudiced perusal can
+hardly fail to be convinced that a large majority of the people of
+Christendom are dominated as much by these fallacies as were our Pagan
+ancestry--the only difference being a change of name. The dogmatic
+element of religion, which was anciently designated as Astrology, is
+now known as Theology.
+
+All the evidences bearing upon the subject indicate that the founders
+of the primary form of religion were a sect of philosophers, known as
+Magi, or wise men, of the Aryan race of Central Asia, who, having lived
+ages before any conceptions of the supernatural had obtained in the
+world, and speculating relative to the "beginnings of things," were
+necessarily confined to the contemplation and study of nature, the
+elements of which they believed to be self-existent and endless in
+duration; but, being wholly without knowledge of her inherent forces,
+they explained her manifold processes by conceiving the idea that she
+was animated by a great and inherent soul or spirit, emanations from
+which impressed all her parts with life and motion. Thus, endowing man,
+and other animals, with souls emanating alike from the imaginary great
+soul of nature, they believed, and taught, that immediately after death
+all souls were absorbed into their source, where, as "the dewdrop slips
+into the shining sea," all personal identity was forever lost. Hence we
+see that although recognizing the soul as immortal, considering it, not
+as an entity existing independent of matter, but as the spirit of
+matter itself, the primary religion was the exponent of the purest form
+of Materialism.
+
+Being the Astronomers of their day, and mistaking the apparent for the
+real, the ancient Magi constructed that erroneous system of nature
+known as the Geocentric, and, in conformity thereto, composed a
+collection of Astronomical Allegories, in which the emanations from the
+imaginary great soul of nature, by which they believed all
+materialities we're impressed with life and motion, were personified
+and made to play their respective parts. Basing the religion they
+instituted upon their system of Allegorical Astronomy, and making its
+personifications the objects of worship, they thus originated the
+anthropomorphic or man-like Gods, and, claiming to have composed them
+under the inspiration of these self same divinities, they designated
+them as sacred records, or Scriptures, and taught the ignorant masses
+that they were literal histories, and their personifications real
+personages, who, having once lived upon earth, and; for the good of
+mankind, performed the wondrous works imputed to them, were then in
+heaven whence they came.
+
+Thus we see that the primary religion, which is popularly known as
+Paganism, was founded in the worship of personified nature; that,
+according special homage to the imaginary genii of the stars, and
+inculcating supreme adoration to the divinity supposed to reside in the
+sun, it was anciently known by the general name of Astrolatry, and by
+the more specific one of solar worship; and that its founders,
+arrogating to themselves the title of Astrologers, gave to its dogmatic
+element the name of Astrology.
+
+In studying the primitive forms of religion it will be found that none
+of them taught anything relative to a future life, for the simple
+reason that their founders had no conceptions of such a state. Hence it
+follows that the laws they enacted were intended solely for the
+regulation of their social relations, and, to secure their observance,
+they were embodied into their sacred records and made part of their
+religion. One form of that most ancient worship was known as Sabaism,
+or Sabism. Another form of the same religion was the Ancient Judaism,
+as portrayed in the Old Testament, and more especially in the
+Pentateuch, or first five books; in the Decalogue of which the only
+promise made for the observance of one of the Commandments is length of
+days on earth; and, in a general summing up of the blessings and curses
+to be enjoyed or suffered, for the observance or violation of the laws,
+as recorded in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, it will be seen they
+are all of a temporal character only. At the beginning of the Christian
+era there were still in existence a sect of Jews known as Sadducees,
+who were strict adherents to the primitive form of worship, and their
+belief relative to the state of the dead we find recorded in
+Ecclesiastes xii., 7, which reads: "Then shall the dust return to earth
+as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it."
+
+For ages the doctrine of soul absorption, immediately after death,
+constituted the belief of mankind; but ultimately recognizing the fact
+that the temporal punishments of the existing laws were wholly
+inadequate to the prevention of crime, and conceiving the idea that the
+ignorant and vicious masses could be governed with a surer hand by
+appealing to the sentiments of hope and fear in relation to the rewards
+and punishments of an imaginary future life, the ancient Astrologers
+resolved to remodel the dogmatic elements of religion so as to include
+that doctrine. But realizing the necessity, of suppressing the belief
+in the absorption of all souls, immediately after death, they ceased to
+teach it, and ultimately it was embodied in that secret and unwritten
+system known as the Esoteric philosophy, in which the Astrologers
+formulated their own private belief, and which for many centuries was
+kept from the knowledge of the uninitiated by their successors in the
+priestly office. As they were the sole custodians of the Scriptures,
+they made do change in their verbiage, but, adding the doctrine of
+future rewards and punishments to that written and openly taught system
+of faith known as the Exoteric creed, they made it the more impressive
+by instituting a system of imposing rites and ceremonies, which they
+designated as Mysteries, into which they initiated the neophytes, and
+in which were portrayed, in the most vivid manner, the rewards and
+punishments of the imaginary future life, which they taught were the
+awards of the Gods for the observance or violation of the laws. These
+teachings were inculcated in the lesser degrees only, but those who
+were found worthy of so great a distinction were also inducted into the
+higher degrees, in which was imparted the knowledge of the Esoteric
+philosophy. In both the lesser and higher degrees the initiates
+received instruction in an oral manner only; and all were bound by the
+most fearful oaths not to reveal the secrets imparted to them.
+
+Thus were the votaries of the ancient Astral worship divided into two
+distinct classes, the Esoterics, or Gnostics; and the Exoterics, or
+Agnostics; the former comprising those who knew that the Gods were
+mythical and the scriptures allegorical; and the latter, those who were
+taught that the Gods were real, and the scriptures historical; or, in
+other words, it was philosophy for the cultured few, and religion for
+the ignorant multitude. The initiates into the secrets of these two
+systems recognized them as the two Gospels; and Paul must have had
+reference to them in his Epistle to the Galatians ii., 2, where he
+distinguishes the Gospel which he preached on ordinary occasions from
+that Gospel which he preached "privately to them which were of
+reputation."
+
+Such was the system of Astrolatry, which, originating in the Orient,
+and becoming, after being remodelled in Egypt, the prototype of all
+Occidental forms of worship, was recognized, successively, as the state
+religion of the Grecian and Roman Empires; and we propose to describe
+the erroneous system of nature upon which it was based, and to develop
+the origins of its cycles, dogmas, ordinances, anniversaries,
+personifications and symbols, with the view to proving that it was the
+very same system which was ultimately perpetuated under the name of
+Christianity. We also propose to present the origins and abridged
+histories of its two forms, the Jewish, or ancient, and the Roman, or
+modern; and to give an account of the conflict between the votaries of
+the latter, and the adherents to the established form of worship, which
+culminated in the fourth century in the substitution of Christianity as
+the state religion of the Roman Empire. We furthermore propose to show
+the changes to which the creed and scriptures were subjected during the
+Middle Ages, and at the Reformation in the sixteenth century, through
+which they assumed the phases as now taught in the theologies,
+respectively of Catholicism and Orthodox Protestantism. We also present
+an article relative to Freemasonry and Druidism, for the purpose of
+showing that, primarily, they were but different forms of the ancient
+Astrolatry. We also devote a few pages to the subjects of the Sabbath,
+and to that of "Pious Frauds."
+
+
+Note.--For the matter published in this work, we are principally
+indebted to the writings of Robert Taylor, an erudite but recusant
+minister of the church of England, who flourished about seventy years
+ago, and who, being too honest to continue to preach what, after
+thorough investigation, he did not believe, began to give expression to
+his doubts by writing and lecturing. Not being able to cope with his
+arguments, the clergy, under the charge of the impossible crime of
+blasphemy, had him imprisoned for more than two years, during which
+time he wrote his great work entitled "The Diegesis," which should be
+read by all persons who are investigating the claim of the Christian
+religion to Divine authenticity.
+
+
+
+THE GEOCENTRIC SYSTEM OF NATURE.
+
+In constructing their system of nature, the ancient Astronomers
+constituted it of the Earth, the Firmament, the Planets, the
+Constellations and the Zodiac, and we will refer to them in the order
+named.
+
+
+The Earth.
+
+Believing that the earth was the only world, that it was a vast
+circular plane, and that it was the fixed and immovable center around
+which revolved the celestial luminaries, the ancient Astronomers, in
+conformity to the requirement of the doctrine of future rewards and
+punishments, as inculcated in the Egyptian Version of the Exoteric
+Creed, divided it into an upper and an under, or nether world, which
+they connected by a sinuous and tenebrious passage.
+
+
+The Firmament.
+
+The azure dome, called the firmament in the book of Genesis, was
+believed to be a solid transparency, which we find described, in the
+fourth chapter and sixth verse, of that collection of Astronomical
+Allegories, called the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, "as a sea of
+glass like unto crystal." It was represented as being supported by four
+pillars, resting upon the earth, one at each of the cardinal points,
+which were designated as "the pillars of heaven." Conceiving the idea
+that there were windows in the firmament, the ancient Astronomers
+called them "the windows of heaven" and taught that they were opened
+when it rained, and closed when it ceased to rain. Hence it is evident
+that the ancient Astronomers did not refer to these pillars and windows
+in a figurative sense, but as real appurtenances to a solid firmament,
+as will be seen by reference to Gen. vii. 11, and viii. 2, Job xxvi.
+11, and Malachi iii. 10.
+
+
+The Planets.
+
+Believing that the stars were but mere flambeaux, suspended beneath the
+firmament, and revolving round the earth, for the sole purpose of
+giving it light and heat; and observing that seven of these, answering
+to the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, had
+perceptible movements, in relation to the other luminaries, the ancient
+astronomers designated them as planets or wandering stars.
+
+
+The Constellations.
+
+Perceiving that the other celestial luminaries maintained the same
+relation to each other, and designating them as fixed stars, the
+ancient astronomers grouped those visible to them into forty-eight
+Constellations; and giving names to these, they also attached names to
+the stars of larger magnitude, which was done for the purpose of
+locating and distinguishing them with greater ease.
+
+
+The Zodiac.
+
+Through twelve of these Constellations, mostly contained within a belt
+of 16 degrees in width, and within which the planets appeared to
+revolve, the ancient astronomers inscribed a central line representing
+the Ecliptic, or apparent orbit of the sun, which they divided into 360
+degrees; and quartering these to denote the seasons, they named the
+cardinal points the Summer and Winter Solstices, and the Vernal and
+Autumnal Equinoxes; the former referring to the longest and shortest
+days of the year; and the latter to the two periods when the days and
+nights are equal. An abbreviatory sign having been attached to each of
+these constellations, the great celestial belt containing them was
+called "the wheel of the signs," or "a wheel in the middle of a wheel,"
+as designated by that old Astrologer, Ezekiel the Prophet, in chap. i.
+and 16th verse. But for the reason that, with only one exception, the
+forms of living things, either real or mythical, were given to them,
+this belt, ultimately, wad designated as the Zodiac; or Circle of
+living Creatures, see Ezekiel, chap. i. Constituting the essential
+feature of the ancient Astronomy, we present, in our frontispiece, a
+diagram of the Zodiac, as anciently represented, to which, as well as
+to Burritts' Celestial Atlas, our readers will be necessitated to make
+frequent reference.
+
+[See plate1.gif]
+
+Recent researches among the ruins of ancient cities have developed the
+fact that several centuries before the beginning of our era the
+astronomers had invented the telescope, and discovered the true or
+heliocentric system of nature; but for the reason that religion had
+been based upon the false, or geocentric system, it was deemed prudent
+not to teach it to the masses. Hence, hiding it away among the other
+secrets of the Esoteric philosophy, the knowledge of it was lost during
+the Middle Ages; and when rediscovered, the hierarchy of the Church of
+Rome, upon the plea that it was contrary to the teachings of Scripture,
+resorted to inquisitorial tortures to suppress its promulgation; but,
+in spite of all their efforts, it has been universally accepted; and,
+in this otherwise enlightened age, we have presented to us the anomaly
+of a religion based upon a false system of Astronomy, while its
+votaries believe in the true system.
+
+
+
+THE SACRED NUMBERS 7 AND 12.
+
+In reference to the planets, and the signs of the Zodiac, the numbers
+seven and twelve were recognized as sacred by the ancient Astrologers,
+and dedications were made to them in all kinds and sorts of forms. In
+the allegories, the genii of the planets were designated as spirits or
+messengers to the Supreme Deity, imaginarily enthroned above the
+firmament, which we find described in Revelations iv. 5, as "Seven
+lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of
+God;" and which were represented by lights burning in seven branched
+candlesticks set before the altars in the temples; the central light
+for the Sun; the Moon, Mercury and Venus on one side; and Mars, Jupiter
+and Saturn on the other. The seven branched candlesticks seen in all
+Catholic churches, and in some Protestant ones, are intended to
+represent the same planetary system.
+
+Among the numerous dedications to the genii of the planets we mention
+the seven days of the week, the seven stories of the tower of Babylon,
+the seven gates of Thebes, the seven piped flute of Pan, the seven
+stringed lyre of Apollo, the seven books of fate, the book of seven
+seals, the seven castes into which the Egyptians and East Indians were
+divided, and the jubilee of seven times seven years. Among the
+dedications to the twelve signs we mention the twelve months of the
+year, the grand cycle of 12,000 years, the twelve altars of James, the
+twelve labors of Hercules, the twelve divisions of the Egyptian
+Labyrinth, the twelve shields of Mars, the twelve precious stones,
+ranged in threes to denote the seasons, in the breastplate of High
+Priest, the twelve foundations of the Sacred City, referred to in the
+Book of Revelation, the twelve sons of Jacob, the twelve tribes of
+Israel, and the twelve Disciples. In the Book of Revelation alone the
+number 7 is repeated twenty-four times, and the number 12 fourteen
+times.
+
+
+
+THE TWELVE THOUSAND YEAR CYCLE.
+
+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.
+
+
+
+THE ANCIENT TRIAD.
+
+After conceiving the idea of a primeval chaos, constituted of four
+indestructible elements of which fire was the leading one, the Oriental
+astrologers began to indulge in speculations relative to the agencies
+which were engaged in its organization. Having no knowledge of the
+forces inherent in nature, they imputed this work to three
+intelligences, which, embodying the All in All, they personified by the
+figure of a man with three heads, and to this trinity gave the names of
+Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Such a figure, carved in stone, may be seen in
+the island Cave of Elephanta, near Bombay, India, and is popularly
+believed to represent the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer; but, in
+determining their true signification, we must be governed by the
+ancient teachings that "All things were made by one god-head with three
+names, and this God is all things." Hence the conclusion is
+irresistible that the first person represents neither the creator nor
+organizer of chaos, but chaos itself; the second person, its organizer
+and governor; and the third person, the agent in nature which impresses
+all her parts with life and motion; the latter being the imaginary
+great soul or spirit inculcated in the Esoteric philosophy. In support
+of this opinion it will be found that the Egyptian Triad of Father, Son
+and Spirit is virtually the same we have assigned to its Oriental
+prototype. Thus we see that to the ancient Astrolatry Christendom is
+indebted for the Trinity of
+
+            "God the Father, God the Son,
+             God the Spirit--three in one."
+
+But, having ascribed supreme intelligence or reason to its second
+person, under the name of the Logos, or Word, and designating its third
+person as the Holy Ghost, the ancient Triad was usually formulated as
+the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, as may be seen by reference to
+the text in the allegories which we find recorded in I John v. 7, which
+reads that "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the
+Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one."
+
+Considered in some forms of Astrolatry as too sacred to attach a name
+to the triune Deity, he was called "the One," and we find him thus
+designated in the 4th chapter of Revelation, where, like Zeus and
+Jupiter, of the Grecian and Roman mythologies, he is represented as
+seated above the firmament, upon a throne from which "proceeded
+lightnings and thunderings," and to whom all, the subordinate
+divinities were made to pay homage. As the hurler of thunderbolts he
+was called "the Thunderer," and as the opener of the windows of heaven,
+when it rained, he was designated "Jupiter Pluvius." Such was the
+ancient Triad made to say of himself, in an inscription found in the
+ruins of the temple at Sais in Egypt, "I am all that has been, all that
+is, and all that shall be, and no mortal has lifted yet the veil that
+covers me;" and such was the Triunity referred to as the God Universe
+by Pliny, the Roman philosopher and naturalist, who, flourishing in the
+first century of the Christian era, wrote that he is "An infinite God
+which has never been created, and which shall never come to an end. To
+look for something else beyond it is useless labor for man and out of
+his reach. Behold that truly sacred Being, eternal and immense, which
+includes within itself everything; it is All in All, or rather itself
+is All. It is the work of nature, and itself is nature."
+
+Thus we see that, although inculcating homage to a multitude of
+subordinate divinities, the ancient Astrolatry was only an apparent
+Polytheism; its enlightened votaries, recognizing the dogma of the
+unity of God, were in reality Monotheists, paying supreme adoration to
+the mythical genius of the Sun, to whom we will now direct attention.
+
+
+
+GOD SOL.
+
+In determining the characteristics of the supreme divinity of astral
+worship, it must be borne in mind that its founders taught that he was
+evolved or engendered by the Father, or first person in the sacred
+Triad, from his pure substance, which as we have shown was constituted
+of chaos or the primeval fire into which they supposed all things were
+reduced through the agency of that element at the conclusion of 12,000
+year cycles. Hence, designating that mythical being as the only
+begotten of the Father, they personified him as God the Son, or second
+person in the sacred Triad; and recognizing the Sun as the ruling star,
+very appropriately made him the presiding genius of that luminary,
+under the title of God Sol. According homage to light as his chief
+attribute, he is referred to in the allegories as "The true Light,
+which lighteth every man that cometh into the world," John i., 9; and,
+although designated as the only begotten of the Father, his
+co-existence with him, under the title of the Logos or Word, is shown
+in the text which reads, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
+was with God, and the Word was God," John i., 1.
+
+Personifying the principles of Good and Evil in God Sol, the ancient
+Astrologers consecrated the six divisions of the 12,000 year cycle,
+corresponding to the reproductive months of Spring and Summer, to him
+as Lord of Good, and symbolizing him by the constellation of the Zodiac
+in which the Vernal Equinox successively occurred, as explained
+hereafter, they dedicated the six divisions of that cycle,
+corresponding to the destructive months of Autumn and Winter, to him as
+Lord of Evil, and as such, symbolizing him by the serpent, marked the
+beginning of his reign by the constellation "Serpens," placed in
+conjunction with the Autumnal Equinox. Personifying in him the opposing
+principles of Good and Evil, he was to the ancients both God and Devil,
+or the varied God, who, in relation to the seasons, was described as
+beautiful in Spring, powerful in Summer, beneficent in Autumn and
+terrible in Winter. Thus under various names, intended to represent God
+Sol in relation to the diversified seasons, we find recorded in the
+Scriptures, or solar fables, numerous portrayals of imaginary
+conflicts, in which the Evil principle, triumphing during Autumn and
+Winter, is conquered at the Vernal Equinox by the Good principle, who,
+bringing back equal days and nights, restores the harmony of nature.
+
+The eternal enmity between the principles of Good and Evil, as
+manifested in the diversity of the seasons, we find portrayed in the
+Constellations Hercules and Draco, placed in the northern heavens, in
+which the heel of the former, representing one of the most ancient of
+the imaginary incarnations of God Sol, to which we will refer
+hereafter, is resting upon the head of the latter, as referred to in
+Genesis iii., 15, which makes God Sol, or the Lord God, say to the
+serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
+seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his
+heel." The woman alluded to in this text is the Virgo of the Zodiac, as
+will be made apparent hereafter.
+
+[See plate2.gif]
+
+Of all the divinities of the ancient mythology God Sol was the only one
+distinguished by the exalted title of Lord or Lord God, for the reason
+that he was made the organizer of chaos and governor of heaven and
+earth. Hence, having constituted him the lord of light and darkness, as
+well as good and evil, the ancient astrologers in composing the solar
+fables made him say of himself, "I form the light and create darkness;
+I make peace and create evil, I the Lord do all these things," Isaiah
+xlv., 7. "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done
+it?" Amos iii., 6. Besides the title of Lord or Lord God, the solar
+divinity is also designated in the allegories as the Lord of Lords and
+the King of Kings, the Invincible, the Mighty God, etc.
+
+Subjecting the mythical genius of the sun, in his apparent annual
+revolution round the earth, to the four stages of human life from
+infancy to old age, the ancient Magi fixed the natal day of the young
+God Sol at the winter solstice, the Virgo of the Zodiac was made his
+mother, and the constellation in conjunction with her, which is now
+known as Bootes, but anciently called Arcturus, his foster father. He
+is represented as holding in leash two hunting dogs and driving Ursa
+Major, or the Great Bear, around the north pole, thus showing that the
+original occupation of the celestial foster father of the young God Sol
+was that of a bear driver, and that his sons, referred to in job
+xxxviii., 32, are the dogs Asterion and Chara. It will be observed that
+Virgo is represented in our illustration with a child in her arms, for
+the reason that she is so represented in the ancient Zodiacs, and the
+fact will be readily conceded that she is the only Virgin who could
+give birth to a child and be a virgin still.
+
+[See plate3.gif]
+
+
+
+THE ANCIENT COSMOGONY.
+
+Speculating relative to the order in which chaos had been organized,
+the ancient Astrologers constructed a Cosmogony, which divided the
+labors of God the Son, or second person in the Trinity, into six
+periods of a thousand years each; and which, answering to the six
+divisions of the 12,000 year cycle corresponding to the reproductive
+months of Spring and Summer, taught that in the first period he made
+the earth; in the second, the firmament; in the third, vegetation; in
+the fourth, the Sun and Moon and "the stars also;" in the fifth, the
+animals, fishes, birds, etc., and in the sixth, Man.
+
+That vegetation was made before the Sun was not an inconsistent idea to
+the originators of the ancient Cosmogony. They imagined that the heat
+and light, emanating from the elementary fire, were sufficient to
+stimulate its growth, after which God the Son gathered it together and
+made the Celestial luminaries. In the solar fables this imaginary
+element is called the fire-ether, or sacred fire of the stars.
+
+
+
+FALL AND REDEMPTION OF MAN.
+
+Religion having been based upon the worship of personified nature, it
+is evident that its founders fabricated its dogmatic element from their
+conceptions of her destructive and reproductive processes as manifested
+in the rotation and diversity of the seasons. The apparent retreat of
+the sun from the earth, in winter, and his return in the spring,
+suggesting the idea of a figurative death and resurrection of the
+genius of that luminary, they applied these phenomena of the year to
+man, and composed the allegories relative to his fall and redemption,
+as inculcated in the Exoteric Creed. In the allegory relating to the
+fall, it was taught that, after making the first human pair, the Lord
+of Good or the Lord God placed them in a beautiful garden--corresponding
+to the seasons of fruits and flowers or months of Spring and Summer,
+with the injunction, under a, penalty, not to eat of the fruit of a
+certain tree. When the Lord of Evil, or Devil, symbolized by the serpent
+and represented by the constellation "Serpens" placed in conjunction
+with the Autumnal Equinox, meeting them on the confines of his dominion,
+and tempting the woman, and she the man, they ate of the forbidden
+fruit; thus, falling from their first estate, and committing the
+original sin, they involved the whole human race in the consequences
+of their disobedience. Then the Lord God, pronouncing a curse against
+the serpent, clothed the man and woman with skins to protect them
+against the inclemency of his, dominion as Lord of Evil, and drove them
+from the garden; after which they were necessitated to earn their bread
+by tilling the ground.
+
+In, reference to the plan of redemption, the ancient Astrologers
+divided the 6,000 years appropriated to man, as the duration of his
+race on earth, into ten equal cycles, and taught that at the conclusion
+of each God Sol, as Lord of Good, would manifest himself in the flesh,
+to destroy his works as Lord of Evil, and through suffering and death
+make an atonement for sin. Thus having originated the doctrines of
+original sin, incarnation and vicarious atonement, as parts of the plan
+of redemption, and making its finale correspond, in point of time, to
+the conclusion of the 12,000 year cycle, their successors in the
+priestly office ultimately inculcated the additional dogmas of the
+general judgment and future rewards and punishments, as we have shown
+in our introduction.
+
+Having based the fables of the fall and redemption of man upon the idea
+that he was impelled, without his volition, to pass from the dominion
+of God to that of the Devil, or in other words, upon his subjection to
+the inexorable necessity which makes the inclement seasons of Autumn
+and Winter succeed the beneficent ones of Spring and Summer, its
+authors composed the original of the text which, found in Romans viii.,
+20, reads that "The creature was made subject to vanity (Evil), not
+willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope."
+
+But for the popular teaching in favor of its being literal history, no
+one could read the account of the fall of man, as recorded in the third
+chapter of Genesis, without recognizing it as simply an allegory; or
+fail to realize, the force of the argument of no fall, no redemption,
+and if no redemption, no God to reward or Devil to punish; no hell to
+suffer, or heaven to enjoy. The fact is that these are but antithetical
+ideas which came in together, and must survive or perish together. They
+cannot be separated without destroying the whole theological fabric.
+
+
+
+INCARNATIONS OF GOD SOL.
+
+Believing that God Sol was necessitated to remain at his post to direct
+the course of the sun, the ancient astrologers conceived the idea of
+teaching that, attended by a retinue of subordinate genii, he descended
+to earth through the medium of incarnations at the end of 600 year
+cycles, to perform the work of man's redemption and, having made Virgo
+of the Zodiac the mother of the Solar divinity, they taught in their
+allegorical Astronomy, or scriptures, that his incarnations were born
+of a Virgin. Hence we find that God Sol, usually designated by the
+title of the Word, "was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John i., 14.
+
+In a discourse upon this text delivered by Tillotson, Archbishop of
+Canterbury, in the year 1680, published in the fourth volume of
+Woodhouse's edition of his Grace's sermons, in the year 1744,
+concerning the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour, he explains the
+necessity of incarnation by saying that "There was likewise a great
+inclination in mankind to the worship of a visible Deity, so God was
+pleased to appear in our nature, that they, who were so fond of a
+visible Deity, might have one, even a true and natural image of God the
+Father, the express image of his person." It only requires a little
+reflection to appreciate the Prelate's covert irony and want of faith.
+
+Having ascribed to the imaginary incarnations of God Sol the
+characteristics of heaven-descending, virgin-born, earth-walking,
+wonder-working, dying, resuscitated and ascending sons of God, the
+ancient Astrologers attached to them the several titles of Saviour,
+Redeemer, Avatar, Divine-Helper, Shiloh, Messiah, Christ; and, in
+reference to their foster-father, that of Son of Man. Teaching that
+they continued to make intercession for sin, after their ascension to
+the right hand of the Father, they were also called Intercessors,
+Mediators or Advocates with the Father. From teaching their appearance
+every 600 years originated the Egyptian legend of the Phoenix, a bird
+said to descend from the sun at these intervals, and, after being
+consumed upon the altar in the temple of On, or city of the sun--called
+Heliopolis by the Greeks--would rise from its ashes and ascend to its
+source. According to the civil laws of Egypt, manhood was not attained
+until the age of thirty years. Hence the earthly mission of incarnate
+Saviours was made to begin at that age; and for the reason that,
+relating to the apparent transit of the sun through the twelve signs of
+the Zodiac, it was completed during the period of one year.
+
+To impress the ignorant masses with the belief that the scriptures were
+literal histories, and the incarnate Saviours real personages, the
+ancient Astrologers caused tombs to be erected in which it was claimed
+they were buried. Such sepulchres were erected to Hercules at Cadiz, to
+Apollo at Delphi, and to other Saviours at many other places, to which
+their respective votaries were induced to perform pilgrimages. In Egypt
+the pyramids were built, partly for astronomical purposes, and partly
+as tombs for Saviours, claimed to have been kings, who had once ruled
+over the country; and why should we not recognize that magnificent
+structure known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at Jerusalem, as
+but another of those tombs of Saviours in which no Saviour was ever
+entombed?
+
+Thus we have shown that it was God Sol, the only begotten of the
+Father, or second person in the sacred Triad, to whom supreme adoration
+was inculcated in all forms of the ancient Astrolatry; and that its
+cultured votaries, understanding that the doctrines pertaining to the
+fall and redemption of man were evolved from the figurative death and
+resurrection of the solar divinity, recognized the doctrine of
+incarnation as a priestly invention intended only for the ignorant
+masses.
+
+
+
+FABLE OF THE TWELVE LABORS.
+
+The authors of the original solar fables, having lived in that remote
+age in which physical prowess was recognized as the highest attribute
+of humanity, conceived the idea that God Sol, while passing through his
+apparent orbit, had to fight his way with the animals of the Zodiac,
+and with others in conjunction with them. Hence, designating him as the
+Mighty Hunter, and calling his exploits the twelve labors, they made
+the incarnate Saviours the heroes of similar ones on earth, which they
+taught were performed for the good of mankind; and that, after
+fulfilling their earthly mission, they were exhaled to heaven through
+the agency of fire. When these fables were composed the Summer Solstice
+was in the sign of Leo, and making the twelve labors begin in it, the
+first consisted in the killing of a lion, and the second, in rescuing a
+virgin (Virgo) by the destruction of a Hydra, the constellation in
+conjunction with her. Upon one of the Assyrian marbles on exhibition in
+the British Museum these two labors are represented as having been
+performed by a saviour by the name of Nimroud. In the constellations of
+Taurus, the bull of the Zodiac, and of Orion, originally known as
+Horns, in conjunction therewith, we have groupings of stars
+representing the latter as one of the mighty hunters of the ancient
+Astrolatry, supporting on his left arm the shield of the lion's skin,
+the trophy of the first labor, and holding a club in his uplifted right
+hand, is engaged in performing the tenth labor by a conflict with the
+former.
+
+[See plate4.gif]
+
+The fable of the twelve labors constituted the sacred records or
+scriptures of the older forms of Astrolatry, one version of which,
+written with the cuneiform character upon twelve tablets of burnt clay,
+exhumed from the ruins of an Assyrian city, and now on exhibition in
+the British Museum, is ascribed to Nimroud, the prototype of the
+Grecian Hercules, and of Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter of the Old
+Testament.
+
+
+
+ANNIVERSARIES OF SOLAR WORSHIP.
+
+The Nativity.
+
+Applying the anniversaries inculcated in the worship of God Sol to his
+imaginary incarnations, the founders of the ancient Astrolatry made
+them refer to the several stages of human existence from infancy to
+mature age. Hence, comparing the first day of infantile life to the
+shortest day of the year, it would naturally be expected that they
+would have placed the anniversary of the Nativity exactly at the Winter
+solstice; but, having conceived the idea that the sun stood still for
+the space of three days at each of the cardinal points, and making it
+represent the figurative death of the genius of that luminary, they
+fixed the date for its observance three days later, or on the 25th of
+December. The Gnostic adherents to the ancient solar worship, or those
+who were conversant with the teachings of the Esoteric philosophy,
+knowing that the dramatis personae of the fable of incarnation were
+pictured with stars upon the azure vault, recognized the woman "clothed
+with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of
+twelve stars," referred to in Revelations xii. 1, as the Virgo of the
+Zodiac; they also knew that she was the true queen of heaven and mother
+of God; and that the infant, anciently represented in her arms, and
+with whom, in their day, she arose on the Eastern horizon at midnight
+on the 24th of December, was the same of whom the people were taught to
+sing at Christmas "Unto us a child is born this day."
+
+With the knowledge of these facts we can readily see that this is the
+Virgin and child which constituted the originals of those exquisite
+paintings, by the old masters, known as the Madonna and Child.
+
+
+Epiphany or Twelfth Day.
+
+In reference to the twelve signs through which the sun makes his
+apparent annual revolution, the twelfth day after Christmas, answering
+to the 6th of January, was observed by the votaries of the ancient
+Astrolatry as the anniversary of the Epiphany or Twelfth Day. In the
+solar fables, it was taught that a star appeared in the heavens on that
+day to manifest the birthplace of the infant Saviour to the Magi or
+Wise Men of the East, who came to pay him homage, and to present him
+with the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, as related in Matthew
+ii. 11.
+
+The reason for presenting these gifts is explained by the facts that of
+the seven metals dedicated to the genii of the planets, gold was the
+one consecrated to God Sol; and frankincense and myrrh were the gums
+burned in censers in his worship.
+
+In reading the account of the Magi's visit to the infant Saviour, we
+have but to exercise our thinking faculties to realize that it is
+allegory instead of literal history.
+
+
+Lent or Lenten Season.
+
+In the ancient solar fables it was taught that the persecutions to
+which the incarnate Saviours were subjected while passing through the
+dominion of God Sol as Lord of Evil, raged with greatest fury during
+the forty days preceding the festival of Easter, which period,
+beginning when the days were perceptibly lengthening, was called Lent,
+or the Lenten season. It was during this season that the votaries of
+the ancient religion were taught to manifest their sympathy for the
+Saviour in his imaginary conflict with the Devil by abstaining from all
+festivities, and by fasting and prayer; and, as that was the season in
+which the flocks and herds were poor in flesh, while the seas and
+rivers abounded with fish in good condition, the ancient priests,
+making a virtue of necessity, enjoined a diet principally of fish, and
+for that reason placed the constellation Pisces at the point in the
+Zodiac in which the Lenten season anciently began; which, without
+regard to the day of the week, was always observed on the 15th day of
+February, the name of that month having been derived from the Februa,
+or feast of purification and expiation of the old Roman calendar.
+
+At the council of Nice the Lenten season was made to begin on the
+fourth day of the week, and in reference to the ancient custom of the
+more devout sprinkling ashes upon their heads at the feast of the
+Februa, it is called Ash Wednesday.
+
+Hence we see that all years in which Ash Wednesday does not come on the
+15th of February, the Lenten season must necessarily contain a greater
+or lesser number than the original assignment of forty days.
+
+
+Passion Week.
+
+The last seven days of Lent is called Passion Week, in reference to the
+apparent passage of the sun across the Celestial equator at the Vernal
+Equinox or 21st of March; the ancient astrologers having conceived the
+idea that the sun stood still for the space of three days at each of
+the cardinal points, and making it represent the figurative death of
+the genius of that luminary, it was observed as the anniversary of the
+Vernal crucifixion or passion of the incarnate Saviours; and in
+commemoration of their imaginary sufferings and death it was the custom
+to expose in the temples during the last three days of Passion Week
+figures representing their dead bodies, over which the votaries of
+solar worship, especially the women, made great lamentation. It was in
+reference to one of these images, laid out in the temple at Jerusalem,
+to which the jealous Jehovah, considering it a great abomination in his
+own house, is made to direct the attention of Ezekiel, the prophet,
+who, looking, beheld "Women weeping for Tammuz" as recorded in the
+eighth chapter. This divinity was the Phoenician prototype of the
+Grecian Adonis, to whom the women of Judea preferred to pay homage.
+
+It was during the last three days of Passion Week that the votaries of
+solar worship performed their severest penance. Besides fasting and
+prayer, the more devout flagellated and slashed themselves and others
+with knives and thongs, and carried heavy crosses up steep acclivities.
+In all ultra-Catholic countries the priests, in imitation of the
+ancient custom, expose in the churches figures representing the dead
+Saviour, over which the laity, especially the women, weep and mourn;
+and the more devout men cut and slash themselves, and each other, with
+knives and thongs; and, in imitation of the imaginary tramp of Jesus
+with his cross up Calvary's rugged side, bear heavy crosses up steep
+acclivities.
+
+
+Passion Plays.
+
+Anciently dramas representing the passion of incarnate saviours, called
+Passion plays, were enacted upon the stage. The most celebrated of
+these divine tragedies, known as Prometheus Bound, and composed by the
+Greek poet AEschylus, was played at Athens 500 years before the
+beginning of the Christian era. To show that this sin-atoning saviour
+was not chained to a rock, while vultures preyed upon his vitals, as
+popularly taught, but was nailed to a tree; we quote front Potter's
+translation of the play, that passage which, readily recognized as the
+original of a Christian song, reads as follows:
+
+            "Lo, streaming from the fatal tree,
+               His all atoning blood:
+             Is this the infinite? 'Tis he--
+               Prometheus and a God.
+             Well might the sun in darkness hide,
+               And veil his glories in,
+             When God the great Prometheus died
+               For man, the creature's sin."
+
+The veiling of the sun, as represented in these plays, having reference
+to the imaginary sympathy expressed by God Sol for the sufferings of
+his incarnate son, was shown upon the stage by shading the lights. The
+monks of the Middle Ages enacted plays representing the passion of the
+Christian Saviour, and the Bavarian peasantry, perpetuating this
+custom, perform the play every tenth year.
+
+
+Resurrection and Easter Festival.
+
+In conformity to the ancient teachings, the incarnate saviours,
+considered as figuratively dead for the space of three days at the
+Vernal Equinox, or 21st of March, were raised to newness of life after
+the expiration of that time. Hence, the 25th of March, without regard
+to the day of the week, was celebrated as the anniversary of the Vernal
+resurrection. On the morning of this day it was the custom of the
+astrologers to say to the mourners assembled in the temples, "Be of
+good cheer, sacred band of initiates; your God has risen from the dead,
+his pains and his sufferings shall be your salvation." Another form of
+this admonition, quoted from an ancient poem in reference to the
+Phoenician Tammuz, reads as follows:
+
+            "Trust ye saints, your God restored,
+             Trust ye in your risen Lord,
+             For the pains which he endured,
+             Your salvation hath procured."
+
+Then would begin the festivities of Easter, which corrupted from
+Eostre, and derived from the Teutonic mythology, was one of the many
+names given to the goddess of Spring. In the observance of this
+festival the temples were adorned with floral offerings; the Hilaries
+sang their joyful lays; the fires upon the pyres, or the fire-altars,
+were extinguished and rekindled with new fire, or sacred fire of the
+stars, which the Astrologers taught was brought down from heaven by the
+winged genius Perseus, the constellation which, anciently, was in
+conjunction with the Vernal Equinox; Paschal candles, lit from the new
+fire, were distributed to the faithful and the Paschal feast, Easter
+feast, or the feast of the passover, was eaten in commemoration of the
+passion of the incarnate saviours, or, in other words, of the passage
+of the sun across the celestial equator. In ultra-Catholic countries
+the descent of the sacred fire is represented by some secretly arranged
+pyrotechny, and the credulous laity, believing they have witnessed a
+miraculous display, eagerly solicit Paschal candles lit from it; and in
+imitation of the ancient festivities in honor of the return of spring,
+all Catholic churches, and most of Protestant ones, are adorned with
+flowers, the bells ring out their merriest peals, and "Gloria in
+Excelsis" and other jubilant songs, similar to the lays of the ancient
+Hilaries, are sung.
+
+
+Annunciation.
+
+The anniversary of the Nativity having been placed on the 25th of
+December, according to the course of nature, the 25th of March was
+anciently celebrated as the anniversary of the annunciation, and is
+still observed on that day, and the duty of saluting the Virgin (Virgo)
+and announcing her conception by the Holy Ghost or third person in the
+Trinity was assigned to the genius of Spring. In the Chaldean version
+of the Gospel story the name of Gabriel was given to this
+personification, and in the Christian version of that story he is made
+to perform the same office; see Luke i. 26-35.
+
+
+Ascension.
+
+Celebrating the anniversary of the ascension forty days after Easter,
+it was anciently observed on the 4th of May, and it was taught that the
+incarnate saviours ascended bodily into heaven, in a golden chariot
+drawn by four horses caparisoned with gilded trappings, all glittering
+like fire in the fervid sunlight. Hence when we read in II. Kings ii.
+11, that "There appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, . . .
+and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven," we must accept this
+text as descriptive of the imaginary ascension of one of the incarnate
+saviours of ancient Judaism.
+
+
+Assumption.
+
+When the Summer solstice was in the sign of Cancer, the sun was in that
+of Virgo in the month of August, and the anniversary of the Assumption
+was observed on the 15th of that month, and is so observed at the
+present time. The fact that the anniversary of the Ascension precedes
+that of the Assumption explains why Jesus is made to say to his mother
+(Virgo) soon after his resurrection, "Touch me not: for I am not yet
+ascended to my Father." John xx. 17.
+
+
+The Lord's Supper.
+
+In the ancient solar worship the so-called ordinance of the Lord's
+Supper was observed just before the anniversary of the autumnal
+crucifixion; and consisting of bread and wine, in reference to the
+maturing of the crops and completion of the vintage, was, like the
+modern festival of the hardest home, a season of thankfulness to the
+Lord (God Sol) as the giver of all good gifts. Hence being observed but
+once a year, it was in reality not an ordinance but an anniversary; and
+the fact that Christians partake of these emblems so frequently during
+the year indicates that the original signification of the Lord's Supper
+has been lost.
+
+
+Transubstantiation,
+
+or the conversion of the bread and wine into the veritable blood and
+body of Christ, is a doctrine of the Catholic church which was derived
+from the ritual of the ancient solar worship.
+
+In the 26th chapter of Matthew we have an account of the Lord
+administering the last supper to his Disciples on the eve of the
+autumnal crucifixion, and in verse 27 it reads that "he took the cup,
+and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it." The
+compilers of the modern version of the Gospel story must surely have
+inadvertently copied this text as it read in the ancient versions of
+that old, old story, which, when observed in remembrance of "Our Lord
+and Saviour Bacchus," was called the Bacchanalia, or feast, of Bacchus.
+At these orgies the participants give thanks for the wine by not only
+drinking all of one cup, but many more; in fact they kept on drinking
+until they fell under the table.
+
+
+Autumnal Crucifixion.
+
+The beneficent seasons of Spring and Summer coming to an end at the
+Autumnal Equinox, the 22d of September was made the anniversary of the
+Autumnal Crucifixion. The vernal resurrection and Autumnal Crucifixion,
+representing the alternate triumph of the personified principles of
+Good and Evil, as manifested in the diversity of the seasons; we find
+appropriately expressed in two religious pictures. In the one, the
+Saviour, appealing as a vigorous young man, surrounded by a brilliant
+halo, representing the rays of the all-conquering Sun of Spring, is
+rising triumphantly from the tomb, before whom the demon of Winter, or
+Devil, is seen retreating in the background. In the other, the
+vanquished Saviour, represented by the figure of a lean and haggard
+man, with a crown of thorns upon his head, around which appears a faint
+halo of the Sun's declining rays, and above which is placarded the
+letters I. N. R. I., the initial letters of Latin words, signifying the
+life to come, or the eternal life, is suspended upon the cross, at the
+foot of which his mother Mary (Virgo) is represented as kneeling in a
+mourning attitude, and by her side is seen a serpent and a skull, the
+emblems of Evil and of Death.
+
+[See plate5.gif & plate6.gif]
+
+
+Michaelmas.
+
+In the calendar of the ancient Astral Worship, the fourth day after the
+Autumnal Equinox was dedicated to the genius of Autumn. In the Chaldean
+allegories the name of Michael was given to this personification, and
+called Michaelmas, or feast of Michael. In the Catholic calendar this
+anniversary is placed an the 29th of September, instead of the 26th of
+that month, while that of St. Matthew, the Christian genius of Autumn,
+which should be placed on the 26th of that month, is observed on the
+21st.
+
+Thus we have shown that the anniversaries of the ancient Astral Worship
+were all fixed, and from church history we learn that they were so
+observed by the Christians until the Council of Nice in the year 325,
+when the Bishops assembled at that celebrated convocation, desiring to
+have the festival of Easter celebrated on Sunday, which had been made
+the Sabbath by the edict of Constantine, in the year 321, ordered that
+it should be observed on the Sunday of the full moon, which comes on or
+next after the Vernal Equinox. Hence, converting it into a movable
+festival, its allied feasts and fast days were also made movable.
+
+
+
+PERSONIFICATIONS OF THE DIVISIONS OF TIME.
+
+In the ancient solar fables the several divisions of time were
+personified and made to pay homage to the Triune Deity, supposed to be
+enthroned above the firmament.
+
+
+The Hours.
+
+The genii of the hours were designated as Elders, and we find them
+described in the 4th chapter of Revelation as sitting round about the
+throne upon four and twenty seats, clothed in white raiment, and crowns
+of gold upon their heads.
+
+
+The Days.
+
+Each day of the year was appropriately personified, and these genii of
+the days constitute the saints of the Christian calendar. Of these we
+will refer to but one. According to the ancient belief that the sun
+stood still for the space of three days at each of the cardinal points,
+the 24th of June was made the first of the decreasing days; and
+dedicating it to St. John the Baptist, he is made to say in reference
+to his opposite, (the genius of the 25th of December, and first of the
+increasing days,) "He must increase, but I must decrease." This text,
+found in John iii. 30, simply means that the days of the one must
+increase in length, while the days of the other must decrease.
+
+
+The Months.
+
+The fable of the twelve labors having been superseded by others, in
+which the genii of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, corresponding to the
+months, were designated as angels, and made to minister to God Sol
+while making his apparent annual revolution; but, when constituted the
+attendants of the incarnate saviours during their imaginary earth life,
+they were personified as men and called Disciples. Of these genii of
+the months we will refer only to the first and the last. The first
+month, dedicated to the genius known in the mythology as Janus, and
+from which was derived the name January, was portrayed with two faces,
+the one of an old man looking mournfully backward over the old year,
+and the other of a young man looking joyfully forward to the new year.
+This personification, made the opener of the year, and represented as
+holding a pair of cross-keys, was called "The carrier of the keys of
+the kingdom of heaven." Hence, the Popes of Rome, claiming apostolic
+succession from Peter, the Janus of the Christian twelve, wear
+cross-keys as the insignia of their office. Sometimes a crosier, or
+shepherd's crook, is substituted for one of the keys, in reference to
+his arrogated office of the leader of the sheep! The authority for the
+assumption that the Popes are Peter's successors is found in Matthew
+xvi. 18, 19; but its fallacy becomes apparent when we bear in mind that
+the scriptures are but collections of astronomical allegories, and that
+the Peter referred to in the text was not a man, but the mythical
+genius of the month of January.
+
+In reference to the last month, we find that the authors of the ancient
+solar fables, ever doubting whether God Sol, after inaugurating Winter
+by his supposed retreat from the earth, would return to revivify nature
+with his life-giving rays, gave to the genius of the twelfth month the
+title of the Doubter. In the Christian calendar this personification is
+known as Thomas, and a more specific dedication of the shortest day of
+the year having been made to him, the 21st day of December is called
+St. Thomas day.
+
+
+The Seasons.
+
+When the cardinal points were in the constellations Leo, Taurus,
+Aquarius and Scorpio, the astrologers, objecting to the signification
+of the latter, substituted the constellation in conjunction therewith,
+which is known as Aquila (Ak-we-la) or Flying Eagle. In the allegorical
+astronomy of that remote period these genii of the seasons were
+designated as beasts, and as such we find them referred to in
+Revelation iv. 7, which reads as follows: "And the first beast was like
+a lion (Leo), and the second beast like a calf (Taurus, the bull calf),
+and the third beast had a face as a man, (Aquarius, the waterman) and
+the fourth beast was like a flying eagle (Aquila)." In the first chapter
+of Ezekiel, the prophet, the genii of the seasons are referred to in
+the same manner.
+
+These genii of the seasons, standing, imaginarily, at the four corners
+of the heavens, were called corner-keepers, and making them witnesses
+to God Sol in his apparent annual revolution, the founders of the
+Astral Worship designated them as Archangels, Evangelists, God-Spellers
+or Gospel-Bearers, and claiming inspiration from them, composed four
+different histories of the birth and earth-life of the incarnate
+saviour, to each of which they attached a name, and called these
+records the Gospel story. In its Chaldean version, the names of
+Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel were given them; but while the
+first two of these are mentioned in the Christian Gospel story, its
+authors gave to the Evangelists the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke and
+John. Thus knowing the true signification of the Disciples and
+Evangelists, the very pertinent question presents itself: If they are
+not the genii of the months and the seasons, why are there just twelve
+of the one and four of the other?
+
+[See plate7.gif]
+
+
+Half Year of Increasing Days.
+
+In the ancient astrolatry, the half year of increasing days, extending
+from the Winter to the Summer Solstice, was personified by the
+composite figure representing the constellations of Taurus and
+Aquarius, which, constituted of the winged body of a bull and the head
+and beard of a man, was called the Cherubim. This personification we
+find portrayed upon the Assyrian marbles on exhibition in the British
+Museum.
+
+
+Half Year of Decreasing Days.
+
+The half year of decreasing days, extending from the Summer to the
+Winter Solstice, was personified by the figure, which, representing the
+constellations of Leo and Aquila, and composed of the winged body and
+limbs of a lion, with the head of an eagle, was called the Seraphim.
+These last two personifications constituted the Archangels of the
+ancient Astral Worship.
+
+
+Last Quarter of the Year.
+
+The last quarter of the year was personified in the ancient allegories
+as a decrepit old man, who, stung by a Scorpion (Scorpio), and fatally
+wounded by an arrow from the quiver of an archer (Saggitarius) dies at
+the Winter Solstice; and, after lying in the grave for the space of
+three days, is brought to life again. Such was the personification
+referred to in the Christian Gospel-story as having been raised from
+the grave by the mandate, "Come forth, Lazarus." Thus have we shown
+that the elders and the saints; the angels, and the Archangels; the
+Cherubim and Seraphim; and also poor old Lazarus, are but
+personifications of the several divisions of time.
+
+
+
+ZODIACAL SYMBOLS OF SOLAR WORSHIP.
+
+Having shown that the founders of the ancient astrolatry accorded
+homage to God Sol as Lord of Evil, under the symbol of the serpent, and
+marked the beginning of his reign, as such, by the constellation
+"Serpens" placed in conjunction with the Autumnal Equinox; we will now
+direct attention to the symbols under which he was worshipped as Lord
+of Good, which, corresponding to the form of the constellation in which
+occurred the Vernal Equinox, and which was changed to correspond to the
+form of the succeeding constellation as that Cardinal point passed into
+it, by that process, known in Astronomy, as the precession of the
+Equinoxes, its explanation becomes essential to a correct understanding
+of our subject.
+
+After long observation, aided by the telescope, of which they were
+undoubtedly the original inventors, the ancient Astrologers discovered
+that the Sun, in making his apparent annual revolution, did not return
+to the same point in the heavens, but fell behind that of the preceding
+year, at the, rate of 50 1/4 seconds of a degree annually. At this rate
+of precession, which modern, calculation has confirmed, it requires 71
+2-3 years for the Cardinal points to pass through one degree on the
+Ecliptic, and 2150 years through thirty degrees, or one sign of the
+Zodiac. The knowledge of this process affording an exact chronology, we
+are enabled, not only to determine the origin of these symbols, but to
+approximate, very nearly, to the respective dates of their adoption.
+
+
+The Sphinx.
+
+From the teachings of Astronomy we learn that the Summer Solstice is
+now occupying the point between the signs of Taurus and Gemini, from
+which we know that that Cardinal point has passed through three whole
+signs since it was between the signs of Leo and Virgo, and we have but
+to multiply 2,150 by 3 to determine that it has been about 6,450 years
+ago. Hence, the tourist to the Nile valley, when viewing, near the base
+of old Cheops, the great Egyptian pyramid, a colossal head and bust of
+a woman, carved in stone, and learns that it is attached to a body, in
+the form of a lion in a crouching attitude 146 feet long, hidden
+beneath the shifting sands of the Libyan desert; if possessed of the
+knowledge of the precession of the Equinoxes, he will be enabled to
+solve the riddle of the Sphinx by recognizing in that grotesque
+monument the mid-summer symbol of solar worship, when the Summer
+Solstice was between the signs of Leo and Virgo.
+
+
+The Dragon.
+
+When the Summer Solstice was between the signs of Leo and Virgo, the
+Winter Solstice was between those of Aquarius and Pisces, and the
+figure composed of the body of a man with the tail of a fish became the
+mid-winter symbol of solar worship. Such was the form of this symbol to
+which the ancient Phoenicians paid homage to the Lord under the name of
+Dagon.
+
+
+The Bull.
+
+At the same time the Summer Solstice entered the sign of Leo, the
+Vernal Equinox entered that of Taurus, and the bull becoming the spring
+symbol of solar worship--the Lord was designated in the ancient
+allegories as the bull of God which taketh away the sin of the world;
+which, shorn of its allegorical sense, signifies the sun in Taurus, or
+sun of spring, which taketh away the evil of Winter. Such is the
+purport of hieroglyphical inscriptions upon papyrus rolls found in
+Egypt, and engraved upon obelisks erected in the Nile valley, one of
+which has been recently brought to the City of New York and set up in
+Central Park. In the East Indies this symbol was represented by the
+figure of a bull with the solar disk between his horns; and the
+Egyptians, who were of Hindoo origin, perpetuating it in their "Apis,"
+it was reproduced in the golden calf of the ancient Israelites. The
+Assyrians represented this symbol by the figure of a winged bull with
+the face and beard of a man; the Phoenicians, in their "Baal," by the
+figure of a man with a bull's head and horns; and the small silver
+bull's heads with golden horns, recently discovered by Dr. Schliemann
+in the ruins of Mycenae, were jewels worn by the women of that ancient
+city, when the Vernal Equinox was in the sign of Taurus.
+
+
+The Ram.
+
+By deducting 2,150 years from 6,450, we determine that about 4,300
+years; ago the Vernal Equinox entered the sign of Aries, and the spring
+symbol of solar worship, changing from the bull to the ram, was
+represented by ram-headed figures, two of which, found in Egypt, are on
+exhibition in the British Museum. Then the text which read the bull of
+God, was changed to the Ram of God which taketh away the sins of the
+world.
+
+
+The Lamb.
+
+Ultimately attaching a meek and lowly disposition to the imaginary
+incarnations of the mythical genius of the sun, the symbol of the ram
+was changed to that of the lamb, and the text in the allegories, which
+read the Ram of God, was changed to read "The Lamb of God which taketh
+away the sin of the World," John i, 29. The explanation we have given
+relative to the Zodiacal Symbols of solar worship makes the assurance
+doubly sure that the originals of the New Testament were composed when
+the Vernal Equinox was in the sign of Aries, as will be shown
+hereafter. Having adopted the symbol of the lamb, it was represented by
+several forms of what is known as Agnus Dei, or Lamb of God, one of
+which was in the form of a bleeding lamb with a vase attached into
+which blood is flowing, which originated in reference to the shedding
+of blood as a vicarious atonement for sin. But the most comprehensive
+form of this symbol in its astronomical signification, was represented
+by the figure of a lamb in a standing attitude, supporting the circle
+of the Zodiac, divided into quarters to denote the seasons. At each of
+the cardinal points there was a small cross, and the lamb held in its
+uplifted fore-foot a larger cross, the long arm of which was made to
+cut the celestial equator at the angle of 23 1/2 degrees, the true
+angle of obliquity of the Ecliptic. This symbol is still retained in
+the Catholic Church.
+
+[See plate8.gif]
+
+
+The Fish.
+
+By deducting 2,150 years from 4,300 we determine that about 2,150 years
+ago the Vernal Equinox entered the sign of Pisces; and although the
+original version of the New Testament was founded upon the symbol of
+the lamb, it is a historical fact that for centuries after the
+beginning of our era, the Christians paid homage to the Lord under the
+symbol of the fish; but ultimately going into desuetude, the lamb was
+retained as the distinguishing symbol of the Christian religion until
+the year 680, at which date another was substituted, as will be shown
+under our next heading.
+
+
+
+SIGNS OP THE CROSS.
+
+Among the numerous symbols of solar worship, besides those we have
+already referred to, there are three to which we will direct attention.
+Two of these were of astronomical signification: the one adopted when
+the Spring Equinox was in the sign of Taurus and shaped like the letter
+T, was the model after which the ancient temples were built; and the
+other, shaped like the letter X, in reference to the angle of 23 1/2
+degrees made by the crossing of the Ecliptic and the Celestial equator,
+is known as St. Andrew's Cross. The third, and most important of all
+the symbols of solar worship, in its relation to the Christian
+religion, which, having no astronomical signification, originated in
+Egypt, in reference to the annual inundation of the river Nile. To mark
+the height to which the water should rise to secure an abundant
+harvest, posts were planted upon its banks to which cross beams were
+attached thus +. If the water should rise to the designated height, it
+was called "the waters of life," or "river of life;" and, ultimately,
+this form of the cross was adopted as the symbol of the life to come,
+or eternal life; and the ancient astrologers had it engraved upon
+stone, encircled with a hieroglyphical inscription to that effect, one
+of which was discovered in the ruins of the temple erected at
+Alexandria, and dedicated to "our Lord and Saviour Serapis."
+
+But, if the water failed to rise to the required height, and the
+horrors of starvation becoming the inevitable result, it was the custom
+of the people to nail to these crosses symbolical personifications of
+the Demon of Famine. To indicate the sterility of the domain over which
+he reigned, he was represented by the figure of a lean and haggard man,
+with a crown of thorns upon his head; a reed cut from the river's bank
+was placed in his hands, as his unreal sceptre; and, considering the
+inhabitants of Judea as the most slavish and mean-spirited race in
+their knowledge, they placarded this figure with the inscription: "This
+is the King of the Jews." Thus, to the ancient Egyptians, this sign of
+the cross was blessed or accursed as it was represented with, or
+without, this figure suspended upon it.
+
+When the Roman, or modern, form of Christianity was instituted, the
+hieroglyphical inscription signifying the life to come or eternal life
+was substituted by a placard nailed to the cross with the letters I. N.
+R. I. inscribed upon it, which are the initials of the Latin words
+conveying the same meaning. But if we would learn how the figure of a
+man came to be suspended upon this form of the cross, we must refer to
+Mediaeval History, which teaches that in the year 680, under the
+Pontificate of Agathon, and during the reign of Constantine Pogonat, at
+the sixth council of the church, and third at Constantinople, it was
+ordered in Canon 82 that "Instead of a lamb, the figure of a man nailed
+to a cross should be the distinguishing symbol of the Christian
+religion." Now, as this figure is represented by that of a lean and
+haggard man, with a crown of thorns upon his head, does it not look as
+if the old Egyptian Demon of Famine was the model after which it was
+constructed?
+
+
+
+FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS.
+
+In the ancient Astrolatry, two different systems of future rewards and
+punishments were inculcated; the Oriental or East Indian, and the
+Occidental or Egyptian; the former, ignoring the resurrection of the
+body, taught but one judgment immediately after death, and the latter
+inculcated an individual judgment immediately after death, the
+resurrection of the body, and a general judgment at the end of the
+world, or conclusion of the 12,000 year cycle.
+
+
+The Oriental System.
+
+Considering perfect happiness to consist in absolute rest, the Oriental
+astrologers conceived a state of eternal and unconscious repose,
+equivalent to soul absorption, to which they gave the name of Nirvana,
+into which they taught that, by the awards of the gods, the souls of
+the righteous, or those who had lived what they called "the
+contemplative life," would be permitted to enter immediately after
+death. But, for the souls of sinners, they invented a system of
+expiatory punishments which, known as the Metempsychosis, or
+transmigration of souls, taught that they would be compelled to
+successively animate the bodies of beasts, birds, fishes, etc., for a
+thousand years before being permitted to enter the Nirvana.
+
+
+The Occidental System.
+
+In concocting the doctrine of the first judgment the Egyptian
+astrologers, ignoring the Nirvana, inculcated the future sentient
+existence of the soul; and, while retaining the Metempsychotial
+expiations of the Oriental system, taught that its rewards, and
+principal punishments, would be enjoyed or suffered in the under or
+nether world, the existence of which they had conceived in constructing
+their system of nature. This imaginary region, known to the Egyptians
+as the Amenti, to the Greeks as Hades, and to the Hebrews as Sheol, was
+divided by an impassable gulf into the two states of happiness and
+misery which were designated in the Grecian mythology as the Elysium,
+or Elysian Fields, and the Tartarus. In the lower part of the latter
+was located the Phlegethon, or lake of fire and brimstone, the smoke
+from which ascended into an upper apartment.
+
+In this system it was taught that the souls of the two extremes of
+society, constituted of the righteous and the great sinners, would be
+consigned immediately after the first judgment, the one to the Elysium,
+and the other to the Phlegethon, where they were to remain until the
+second or general judgment; while the souls of less venial sinners,
+constituting the greater mass of mankind, before being permitted to
+enter the Elysium would be compelled to suffer the expiatory
+punishments of the Metempsychosis, or in the upper region, or "smoky
+row" of the Tartarus. Such was the Egyptian purgatory, and its denizens
+constituted "the spirits in prison" referred to in I. Peter iii. 19,
+from which the astrologers claimed to have the power to release,
+provided their surviving friends paid liberally for their propitiatory
+offices; and, from this assumption, the clergy of the Catholic church
+derived the idea of saying masses for the repose of the soul. These
+doctrines were carried by Pythagoras from Egypt to Greece about 550
+years before the beginning of our era; and passing from thence to Rome,
+the Greek and Latin poets vied with each other in portraying Hades and
+the joys and terrors of its two states.
+
+
+The Second or General Judgment.
+
+The Egyptian Astrologers, recognizing the soul as a material entity,
+and conceiving the idea that in the future life it would require a
+material organization for its perfect action, taught that at the
+general judgment it would be re-united to its resurrected body. In
+conformity to this belief, Job is made to say in chapter xix. 25, 26,
+"I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter
+day upon the earth; and though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh
+shall I see God." The higher class Egyptians, however, fearing that
+their existence would continue to be of the same shadowy and intangible
+character after the second judgment, as they believed it would be in
+the Amenti, if worms were allowed to destroy their bodies, hoped to
+preserve them until that time by the process of embalming.
+
+The imaginary events to occur in connection with the second judgment,
+which, constituting the finale of the plan of redemption, and
+inculcated in what are known as the doctrines of Second Adventism, were
+to be inaugurated by an archangel sounding a trumpet summoning the
+quick and the dead to appear before the bar of the gods to receive
+their final awards. At the second judgment, designated in the
+allegories as "the last day," "day of judgment," "great and terrible
+day of the Lord," etc., it was taught that the tenth and last saviour
+would make his second advent by descending upon the clouds, and after
+the final awards, the elect being caught up "to meet the Lord in the
+air" (I. Thes. iv. 17), the heaven and the earth would be reduced to
+chaos through the agency of fire. In reference to that grand
+catastrophe we find it recorded in II. Peter iii. 10, that "the heavens
+shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with
+fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be
+burned up."
+
+After the organization of a new heaven and a new earth it was taught
+that upon the latter would descend a beautiful city, with pearly gates
+and golden streets, called the City of God, the Kingdom of God, the
+Kingdom of Heaven or New Jerusalem, in which the host of the redeemed
+would, with their Lord and Saviour, enjoy the Millennium, or thousand
+years of happiness unalloyed with evil; and such was the Kingdom for
+the speedy coming of which the votaries of Astral worship were taught
+to pray in what is known as the Lord's Prayer.
+
+According to the teachings of the Allegories, there were to be no sun,
+moon or stars during the Millennium, their authors having arranged it
+so that the light of those luminaries would not be needed, as we find
+recorded in Rev. xxi. 23, and xxii. 5: "The city had no need of the
+sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God did
+lighten it," and "there shall be no night there; and they need no
+candle, neither the light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them
+light." It must be remembered, when reading the fanciful ideas relative
+to the City of God, that they were composed by men who, living in a
+very ignorant age, gave free rein to fervid imaginations.
+
+
+
+JEWISH OR ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY.
+
+It is our purpose to present the evidences showing that a system of
+Astral worship, which we designate as Jewish Christianity, was in
+existence more than two centuries and a half before the institution of
+its modern form. In verification of this assertion we must find the
+initial point of our inquiry in ancient history, which teaches that in
+the division of the Grecian Empire among his generals, after the death
+of Alexander the Great, who died 332 years before the beginning of our
+era, the governorship of Egypt and adjacent provinces was secured by
+Ptolemy Lagus, or Soter, who, having subsequently suppressed a revolt
+in Judea, removed from that country a large body of its inhabitants to
+people the new city of Alexandria, which had been laid out by order of
+and named after the great Conqueror.
+
+The Egyptian version of the Gospel story, being more appropriate to the
+Nile Valley than to the region from whence they came, the Greek
+colonists of Alexandria adopted it, but preferring to pay homage to
+Serapis, one of the ninth incarnations of God Sol, which they imported
+from Pontus, a Greek province of Asia Minor, they erected to his
+worship that celebrated temple known as the Grand Serapium; and,
+transferring the culture and refinement of Greece to the new city, it
+became, under the Ptolemian dynasty, a great seat of learning; the arts
+and sciences flourished, an immense library was collected, the various
+forms of Astral worship were represented and schools for the
+dissemination of the several phases of Grecian philosophy and Oriental
+Gnosticism were founded.
+
+Such being the environment of the Jewish residents of Alexandria, they
+soon acquired the vernacular and adopted the religion of the Greeks,
+who, having ever attached to their incarnate saviours the title
+signifying the Christ, or the anointed, were known as Christians.
+Encouraged by the liberal policy of Philadelphus, the second Ptolemy, a
+body of their learned men, who had been educated in the Greek schools,
+founded a college for the education of their own people, which
+institution was ultimately known as the University of Alexandria. Under
+the auspices of Philadelphus the professors of that institution
+rendered their Hebrew sacred records into the Greek language, which
+translation is known as the Septuagint, or Alexandrian version of the
+Old Testament.
+
+Having acquired from the Egyptian astrologers the arts of healing,
+thaumaturgy and necromancy, and teaching them in their school, the
+professors of the Jewish college of Alexandria assumed the title of
+Essenes, or Therapeutae, the Egyptian and Greek words signifying
+Doctors, Healers or Wonder Workers. Possessed of the sad and gloomy
+characteristics of their race, they adopted the "Contemplative Life,"
+or asceticism of the Oriental Gnosticism, from which they derived the
+name of Ascetics. Founding a church for the propagation of their
+peculiar tenets, those who were set apart for the ministry assumed the
+title of Ecclesiastics. Inculcating rigid temperance and self-denial
+among their people, they were known as Enchratites, Nazarites or
+Abstainers; and the more devout among them retiring to monasteries, or
+to the solitude of caves and other secluded places, were also
+designated as Monks, Cenobites, Friars, Eremites, Hermits or
+Solitaries.
+
+The time having arrived, according to the cyclic teachings of Astral
+worship, for the manifestation of the tenth and last incarnation of God
+Sol, or, in other words, to, give a new name to the mythical genius of
+the sun, the professors of the Jewish school of Alexandria is resolved
+to inaugurate their own form of worship. While retaining the same title
+under which they had paid homage to Serapis and known as Christians,
+Essenes or Therapeutae, they substituted for their Christ the name of
+the Grecian Bacchus, which, composed of the letters {Greek:
+IOTA,ETA,SIGMA}, signifies Yes, Ies or Jes. In composing their version
+of the Gospel story, having, like their race, no inventive genius, they
+appropriated that of Serapis as its basis and laid its scene in the
+land of their ancestry, but inconsistently retained the sign of the
+cross and the phraseology connected there with, which, having special
+reference to the Nile River and its annual inundation, had no
+application whatever to the sterile land of Judea. Selecting what they
+conceived to be the best from other versions of the Gospel story, and
+assuming the title of Eclectics, they designated their system as the
+Eclectic Philosophy. In proof of the eclectic character of the Gospel
+and Epistles of ancient Christianity, we refer to the Asceticism
+inculcated therein, which, derived from the Oriental Gnosticism, we
+find perpetuated in the scriptures of modern Christianity; we also
+refer to the miracle of converting water into wine, taken from the
+Gospel story of Bacchus, and to the statements that the Saviour was the
+son of a carpenter and was hung between two thieves, copied from the
+story of Christna, the Eighth, Avatar of the East Indian astrolatry.
+Thus we see that, although the scene of the Gospel story of ancient
+Christianity was laid in the land of Judea, its authors having adopted
+a Greek version of that story as its basis, given a Greek title and
+name to their Messiah, perpetuated a Greek name for their sect and
+quoted exclusively from the Septuagint, or Greek version of the Old
+Testament, the facts show conclusively that it was not Jews of Judea,
+but Hellenized Jews of Alexandria, who were the real authors of the
+ancient Christianity.
+
+
+
+THE PROPHECIES.
+
+The clergy having ever claimed that the prophecies are Divine
+revelations of events yet to occur, and having incessantly agitated
+society by preaching their speedy fulfillment, we propose to expose the
+fallacy of their teachings by showing that these scriptures are not the
+records of future events, Divinely reavealed, but that they originated
+with the founders of Astral worship, who predicated them upon
+predetermined events of their own concoction, relative to the general
+judgment, and setting up of the kingdom of heaven, which were to occur
+as the finale of the plan of redemption and from which were derived the
+doctrines of second adventism; and, in determining the exact time when
+then were to occur, we have but to prove that it was coincident with
+the conclusion of the last half of the grand cycle of 12,000 years,
+which, as we have shown, was dedicated to man as the duration of his
+race on earth.
+
+As evidence that the founders of the Jewish or ancient Christianity
+believed, like the votaries of other forms of Astral worship, that the
+prophecies were soon to be fulfilled, we find that the New Testament,
+of the original version of which they were the authors, is replete with
+such texts as "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand," Matt. iv.
+17; "There be some standing here which shall not taste death till they
+see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom," Matt. xxi. 28; "The time is
+fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand," Mark i. 15. That the
+original version of the New Testament was composed when the Vernal
+Equinox was in the sign of Aries we are assured by reason of the fact
+that it inculcates homage to the Lord under the symbol of the Lamb; and
+that it was during the last, or 30th degree of that sign, can readily
+be proven by appealing to history and to astronomy, the former of which
+teaches that the Jews were removed from Judea to Alexandria twenty-five
+years before the accession to the throne of Philadelphus, the Second
+Ptolemy, to whom we have referred in our preceding article, and who,
+after reigning thirty-nine years, died 246 years before the beginning
+of our era. By reference to the Celestial atlas we will find that the
+Vernal Equinox will pass out of the sign of Pisces into that of
+Aquarius, or in the year 1900, and we have but to deduct that period of
+time from 2150, the number of years required for the cardinal points to
+pass through one whole sign, to determine that the Spring Equinox
+passed out of the sign of Aries into that of Pisces 250 years before
+the beginning of our era, or about 2,100 years ago. Now, from the
+projections of the astrological science, we are assured that the last
+half of the grand cycle of 12,000 years, which was allotted to man as
+the duration of his race on earth, was made to begin at a time
+corresponding to the Autumnal Equinox, when that cardinal point was
+passing out of the sign of Virgo, and that of necessity it had to come
+to an end at a time corresponding to the Vernal Equinox, when that
+cardinal point was passing out of the sign of Aries; from which we know
+why, at the last judgment, the office of trumpeter was assigned to the
+Archangel Gabriel, the genius of Spring, and why it was a ram's horn
+with which he was to "toot the crack o' doom"
+
+When the time arrived for the fulfillment of the prophecies we can well
+imagine that, fearing the wrath of the Lamb, there were weeping,
+wailing and gnashing of teeth among the terror-stricken sinners, while
+those who believed they had made their calling and election sure were
+looking with feverish expectancy for the second advent of their Lord
+and Saviour; and, doubtless, clothed with their ascension robes, they
+watched and waited, with ears alert, to hear the sound of Gabriel's
+trumpet, summoning the quick, and the dead to the general judgment. But
+not a blast from the archangel's ram's horn was heard reverberating
+along the skies, no Lord appeared descending upon the clouds to meet
+the elect in the air, and, in the last act of the fearful drama of
+"judgment day," the curtain refused to be rung down upon a burning
+world.
+
+With the non-fulfillment of the prophecies, the more enlightened
+elements of society began to scoff at the priests, who were temporarily
+demoralized, but true to their deceptive instincts, soon rallying with
+the plea of a mistake having been made in the calculations based upon
+the prophecies, they undoubtedly concocted scripture to meet that very
+emergency, for, to the taunts of the scoffers who, in reference to the
+second advent of the Lord, enquired "Where is the sign of His coming?
+for, since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
+from the beginning of creation," they answered that "The Lord is not
+slack concerning His promise," but "as a thief in the night" he would
+soon come and all things be fulfilled. See II. Peter, chapter iii.
+
+Following up the history of this interesting subject, we find that the
+founders of modern Christianity, to which we will refer in our next
+article, in composing their version of the New Testament from that of
+the Jewish, or ancient Christians, made no change in its verbiage
+relative to the prophecies; but when Constantine I., Emperor of Rome,
+became the patron of the church, her hierarchy, tired of figuring upon
+them, secured a long respite from that troublesome subject by claiming
+to have made other calculations, which put off the time of fulfillment
+to the year 1000; and from history we learn when the time arrived the
+whole of Christendom was fearfully agitated upon the subject: Since
+then every generation has been vexed with the fallacies of second
+adventism; and the facts of the case justify the charge that the
+clergy, by teaching that the prophecies refer to events yet to occur,
+are perpetuating a most stupendous fraud upon Christendom, and an
+earnest and efficient protest should be inaugurated against the further
+agitation of the monstrous delusion of second adventism, which is
+frightening thousands of weak-minded people into insanity and causing a
+vast amount of social distress.
+
+
+
+ROMAN OR MODERN CHRISTIANITY.
+
+Having presented the evidences that the Jewish, or ancient
+Christianity, originated at the University of Alexandria, under Greek
+rule, we now propose to show that its modern form emanated from the
+same source, under Roman rule; but, before entering upon this
+investigation, it is important to become conversant with the sentiments
+manifested towards religion by the cultured element of Roman society in
+that enlightened era, which, designated as the golden age of
+literature, was adorned by such distinguished orators, philosophers,
+historians, poets and naturalists as Cicero, Tacitus, Pliny, Horace and
+Virgil. In reference to this subject, Gibbon, in his history of The
+Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. I., chapter 2, says: "The
+various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all
+considered by the people as equally true, by the philosophers as
+equally false and by the magistrate as equally useful. Both the
+interests of the priests and the credulity of the people were
+sufficiently respected. In their writings and conversation the
+philosophers of antiquity asserted the independent dignity of reason,
+but they resigned their actions to the commands of law and custom.
+Viewing with a smile of pity and indulgence the various errors of the
+vulgar, they diligently practiced the ceremonies of their fathers,
+devoutly frequented the temples of the gods, and sometimes
+condescending to act a part on the theatre of superstition, they
+concealed the sentiments of an atheist under the sacerdotal robe.
+Reasoners of such a temper were scarcely inclined to wrangle about
+their respective modes of faith or of worship. It was indifferent to
+them what shape the folly of the multitude might choose to assume, and
+they approached with the same inward contempt and the same external
+reverence to the altars of the Lybian, the Olympian or the Capitoline
+Jupiter." Upon the same subject Mosheim, in his church history, Book
+I., chapter 1, says that "The wiser part of mankind, about the time of
+Christ's birth, looked upon the whole system of religion as a just
+object of contempt and ridicule."
+
+In determining why such adverse sentiments were entertained towards
+religion by "the wiser part of mankind," about the time referred to in
+the foregoing quotations, it will be found to have been owing to the
+extensive spread of the Esoteric philosophy, which taught, as
+previously stated, that the gods were mythical and the scriptures
+allegorical. While attainable only through initiation, it was
+necessarily confined to a limited number, but, ultimately getting
+beyond the control of the priests and vast numbers acquiring the
+knowledge of its secrets without initiation, it became evident that it
+was but a question of time when there would be no respectable element
+left to sustain religion. At this juncture our attention is directed to
+the University of Alexandria, which, at that time, was in a flourishing
+condition. Having ceased to be an exclusively Jewish school, students
+from all parts of the Roman Empire, without regard to nationality, were
+attending it, and its professors were drawn from the ranks of both
+Jewish and Gentile scholars. Realizing the hopelessness of reviving the
+ancient faith among the enlightened clement of society, and the
+impossibility of proselyting them to a new form of superstition, these
+professors resolved to institute a system of worship exclusively for
+the Jews and the lower and neglected classes of Gentiles, including the
+slaves and criminals. To that end they rewrote the scriptures of the
+Jewish or ancient Christianity, which had been preserved among the
+secret archives of the University. Retaining their teachings relative
+to the finale of the plan of redemption, and its monasticism; also the
+land of Judea as the scene of its version of the Gospel story, and the
+name of its saviour, to which they added the Latin terminal "us," thus
+making it Iesus or Jesus, they perpetuated the Greek name of
+Bacchus--the same that was ultimately perverted into the monogram
+which, consisting of the Roman letters I. H. S., is found in all
+Catholic churches, and in some Protestant ones, is falsely supposed to
+stand for Jesus Hominum Salvator, or Jesus, Saviour of Men. Conforming
+their version of the Gospel story to the lowly condition of its
+expected votaries, they attached to the saviour the characteristics of
+poverty, and made it teach that he was born in a manger, that his
+disciples were but humble fishermen and that the poor would be the only
+elect in the kingdom of heaven. Dropping the name of Essenes or
+Therapeutae, and retaining that of Christian, they incorporated a
+thread of real history corresponding to the reign of Augustus, and
+arbitrarily made the Christian era begin at that time. Having thus
+completed their scheme, they prudently destroyed the original from
+which they compiled their scriptures, and sending out missionaries to
+all parts of the Empire commissioned them to preach salvation only to
+the Gentile rabblement and to the Jews.
+
+That the sacred records of the ancient Essenes or Therapeutae
+constituted the basis of the scriptures of modern Christianity we have
+the authority of Eusebius, the church historian of the fourth century,
+from whom we learn nearly all that is reliable of its history during
+the first three centuries.  In his Ecclesiastical History, Book II.
+chapter 17, he makes the important admission that "Those ancient
+Therapeutae were Christians, and that their writtings are our Gospels
+and Epistles." As further evidence that modern Christianity is but a
+survival of the Eclectic philosophy of the ancient Therapeutae, we have
+another important admission by the same historian, who, in quoting from
+an apology addressed to the Roman Emperor, Marcus Antoninus, in the
+year 171, by Melito, Bishop of Sardis, in Lydia, a province of Asia
+Minor, makes that apologist say, in reference to certain grievances to
+which the Christians were subjected, that "the philosophy which we
+profess truly flourished aforetime among the barbarous nations; but
+having blossomed again in the great reign of thy ancestor, Augustus, it
+proved to be, above all things, ominous of good fortune to thy
+kingdom." Thus we have indubitable evidence that it was the Eclectic
+philosophy of the Jewish, or ancient Christianity, which "blossomed
+again," in its modern form, during the reign of Augustus.
+
+From the testimony of Philo, as referred to by Eusebius, and from the
+writings of Josephus, the Jewish historian, we learn that, at the
+beginning of our era, the descendants of the ancient Essenes were still
+observing the practices and customs of monasticism. But as Josephus
+refers to them only as descendants of the ancient Essenes, and makes no
+mention of Christ or Christians--except in one paragraph which has been
+conceded by the best authorities to be an interpolation it is evident
+that, at that time, they had no connection with the University of
+Alexandria, and nothing whatever to do with the institution of modern
+Christianity. It is also apparent that the Jews of Judea had no hand in
+its organization, for, if they had instituted it, they would not have
+attached to the Messiah the Greek title signifying the Christ, but,
+writing their version of the Gospel story in their own dialect, would
+have used the Hebrew word signifying the Shiloh (see Gen. xlix. 10);
+and furthermore, having conceived the idea that he would manifest
+himself as a great temporal prince, who would re-establish the throne
+of David, and deliver them from the oppression of foreign rulers, they
+would not have attached to him the humble characteristics of the Christ
+of the new Testament. Again, if they had been the authors of modern
+Christianity, it would have been a most surprising inconsistency for
+them to turn right about and reject its conceptions of a savior,
+especially when that rejection resulted in the dire persecutions to
+which their race has ever been subjected by the Christians. But the
+Gentile riffraff, attracted by the gracious promises of enjoying in the
+world to come the felicities denied them in this, eagerly attached
+themselves to the new sect, which rapidly increased in numbers, and its
+votaries, glorying in the opprobrious epithet of Ebionites, or needy
+ones, made themselves so obnoxious by their aggression and turbulent
+dispositions that, barely tolerated by the Government and condemned by
+the cultured adherents to the established religion, many of them,
+courting the crown of martyrdom, suffered death at the hands of the
+civil authorities; and thus was engendered that spirit of hatred
+against their fancied oppressors which only awaited the opportunity to
+manifest itself in deeds of rapine and-bloodshed.
+
+The fanacticism which prevailed among the earlier Christians was the
+direct result of their dense ignorance, and to this sole cause we may
+ascribe all the trouble which the Roman Government had with them, and
+to become convinced of this fact we have but to study church history.
+In reference to this subject Mosheim, in his Ecclesiastical History;
+Vol. 4, part 2, chap. 1, says: "It is certain that the greatest part
+both of the bishops and presbyters were men entirely destitute of
+learning and education. Besides, that savage and illiterate party, who
+looked upon all sorts of erudition, particularly that of a
+philosophical kind, as pernicious, and even destructive of true piety
+and religion, increased both in number and authority. The ascetics,
+monks and hermits augmented the strength of this barbarous faction, and
+not only the women, but also all who took solemn looks, sordid
+garments, and a love of solitude, for real piety, were vehemently
+prepossessed in their favor." In almost any history of England we will
+find it recorded that, even in the ninth century, King Alfred lamented
+that there was at that time not a priest in his dominions who
+understood Latin; and even for some centuries after the bishops and
+prelates of the whole Christian community were marksmen, i. e., they
+supplied by the sign of the cross the inability to write their own
+names. If the bishops and priests were so supremely ignorant what can
+he said in reference to the literary attainments of the laity?
+
+The Christians were alternately persecuted and tolerated by the Roman
+Emperors until the first quarter of the fourth century, when certain
+events occurred through which the Church of Rome became the recipient
+of Imperial Patronage. Constantine I., called the Great, having made
+himself sole Emperor by destroying all other claimants to the throne,
+applied to Sopater, one of the priests of the established religion, for
+absolution, and was informed that his crimes were of such an atrocious
+character that there was no absolution for him. Believing that the
+Phlegethon, or lake of fire and brimstone, awaited him in the future
+life, unless he could obtain absolution, he became very much distressed
+when one of his courtiers, learning the cause and referring him to the
+Church of Rome, he at once applied to her Bishop, Silvester, who,
+readily granting the desired absolution, he added another victim to his
+butcher bill by ordering the death of the honest priest who had refused
+to grant him absolution. The Christian sect having become a powerful
+and dangerous faction, Constantine conceived the idea of strengthening
+his usurped and precarious position by attaching it to his interest,
+and to that end he professed himself a convert to its tenets, and,
+taking the Church of Rome under his especial patronage, elevated her
+Bishop to the rank of a prince of the Empire and gave him one of his
+palaces for a residence.
+
+The Christian hierarchy, knowing that it would be a potent means of
+confirming the faith of the laity in the Gospel story as a literal
+history to have a tomb of the Saviour to which pilgrimages could be
+made, and appealing to Constantine to provide one, he sent his mother,
+Helena, to Judea to find the place and, of course, discovering what she
+went to look for, he had erected, under her supervision, over the
+designated spot, that splendid edifice which, known as the church of
+the Holy Sepulchre, remains to this day. Helena, good at finding lost
+things, also claimed to have discovered the veritable cross upon which
+the Saviour had been crucified; and her son, worthy of such a mother,
+claimed, as recorded by Eusebius, that he had seen with his own eyes
+the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, bearing
+the inscription: "In Hoc Signo Vinces," signifying "Under this sign,
+conquer." Those were times of remarkable and supernatural occurrences.
+
+At the time Constantine became the patron of Christianity the bishops
+and presbyters of the several churches, seemingly ignorant of the
+teachings of the Esoteric philosophy relative to the origin of the
+Trinity, were divided into two factions in discussing the relation
+between the Father and the Son. One party, headed by Athanasius, a
+presbyter of Alexandria, and afterwards bishop of that see, advocated
+the ancient belief that the three persons in the godhead of Father, Son
+and Holy Ghost is but one God, that Christ is consubstantial or
+co-eternal with the Father, and that he became man to perform his
+mission of redemption. Such, in brief, is what is known as the
+Athanasian or Trinitarian Creed. The other party, headed, by Arius,
+another presbyter of Alexandria, advocated the belief in one God alone
+and that Christ, having no existence until begotten of the Father, is
+not consubstantial or co-eternal with him. Such, in substance,
+constitutes what is known to the Trinitarian or Orthodox Christians as
+the Arian or Unitarian heresy. Could stronger evidence be adduced that
+this controversy was the result of ignorantly making a distinction
+where there is no difference, for whether Trinitarian or Unitarian the
+mythical genius of the sun is the God to whom they all paid supreme
+adoration, although the Christians of to-day would deny it most
+emphatically.
+
+The faction, advocating the Trinitarian creed having converted the
+Emperor to their belief, and influencing him to enforce it as a
+fundamental doctrine of the Christian theology, he, in the year 325,
+summoned, at his own expense, a general council of bishops and priests
+to meet at Nice, in Bithynia, a province of Asia Minor. When they had
+assembled he appeared among them, clad in gorgeous attire, with a
+jewel-studded diadem upon his royal brow, and, seated upon a gilded
+chair, presided over their deliberations. A minority of them, holding
+"most contumaciously" to the Arian heresy, and refusing to change their
+views at the bidding of the Emperor, he banished them from their
+respective bishoprics, while the majority adopted the Trinitarian
+creed, and appealing to Constantine to suppress the writings of Arius
+he issued an edict for that purpose, which we present as follows:
+"Moreover we thought that if there can be found extant any work or book
+compiled by Arius the same should be burned to ashes, so that not only
+his damnable doctrine may thereby be wholly rooted out, but also that
+no relic thereof may remain unto posterity. This we also straightway
+command and charge, that if any man be found to hide or conceal any
+book made by Arius, and not immediately bring forth such book, and
+deliver it up to be burned, that the said offender for so doing shall
+die the death. For as soon as he is taken our pleasure is that his head
+shall be stricken off from his shoulders." Rather a blood-thirsty,
+edict to be issued by the "puissant, the mighty and noble Emperor," and
+a very inconsistent one, considering that he soon afterwards readopted
+the Unitarian faith and restored the banished bishops to their
+respective sees; but, regardless of his action, the Church of Rome
+sustained the Trinitarian creed and enforced the dogma of the supreme
+divinity of Christ.
+
+Thus we see that the history of Christianity, in the first half of the
+fourth century, cannot be written without incorporating considerable
+from the life of Constantine, whose ensanguined record before his
+pretended conversion marks him as the most brutal tyrant that ever
+disgraced the imperial purple; but the appalling crimes he perpetrated
+afterwards, among which were the scalding his inoffending wife to death
+in a bath of boiling water, and the murdering, without cause, of six
+members of his family, one of which was his own son, justify what a
+learned writer said of him, that "The most unfortunate event that ever
+befell the human race was the adoption of Christianity by the
+crimson-handed cut-throat in the possession of unlimited power," and
+yet Constantine was canonized by the Eastern church.
+
+During the first three centuries, when Christianity was but a weak
+sect, her bishops addressed numerous apologies to the Roman Emperors,
+in which they claimed tolerance from the government on the ground that
+their form of worship was virtually the same as the established
+religion. But after Constantine's pretended conversion its hierarchy
+began to labor for the recognition of Christianity as the state
+religion, and to give to their demand some show of consistency they
+insisted that their scriptures were really historical, and that there
+was no resemblance whatever between the two forms of worship; while
+theirs was of Divine authenticity the Pagans was purely a human
+institution.
+
+For centuries after the convocation of the council of Nice the peace
+and harmony of the several churches were disturbed by the rancorous
+discussion of the same old questions of Trintarianism and Unitarianism,
+the Western church adhering to the former while a majority of the
+Eastern congregations maintained their faith in the latter; but
+ultimately the Trinitarian party, gaining the ascendency, and
+persecuting the adherents of the Unitarian faith, the greater part of
+them retired into northern Arabia where they founded numerous
+monasteries; and from history we learn that, having impressed their
+Unitarian faith upon the populace of that country, it was ultimately
+incorporated into the Koran, the sacred book of Mohammedanism; and,
+while becoming votaries of that form of worship, still retained the
+belief that Christ was but one of the prophets.
+
+The cultured adherents to the established form of worship, becoming
+alarmed at the growing power and influence of the Christians and at the
+prospect of such an ignorant and vicious rabble obtaining control of
+the government, regardless of their pledge to keep the Gnosis secret,
+publicly announced that the Gods were mythical and the scriptures
+allegorical, and engaged in a heated controversy with the Christians
+upon the subjects. The character of their discussions is well, although
+supposititiously, expressed by Gerald Massey, in his work entitled,
+"The Historical Jesus and the Mythical Christ;" page 179, American
+edition, where he makes the Gnostics say to the Christians, "You poor
+ignorant idiots; you have mistaken the mysteries of old for modern
+history, and accepted literally all that was only meant mystically." To
+which the Christians responded, "You spawn of Satan, you are making the
+mystery by converting our accomplished facts into your miserable
+fables; you are dissipating and dispersing into thin air our only bit
+of solid foothold in the world, stained with the red drops of Calvary.
+You are giving a satanic interpretation of the word of revelation and
+falsifying the oracles of God. You are converting the solid facts of
+our history into your newfangled allegories;" to which the Gnostics
+replied, "Nay, it is you who have taken the allegories of Mythology for
+historical facts."
+
+But it was impossible to stem the rising tide; the lessons which the
+priesthood had taught the ignorant masses had been too well learned.
+They were sure that their scriptures were historical; that Jesus Christ
+was truly the incarnate saviour who had died and rose again for the
+salvation of the elect, and that being the elect it would be
+pre-eminently just and proper that the old Pagan form of worship should
+be abrogated and theirs recognized as the state religion. Thus the
+conflict raged until the year 381, when, under the reign of the Emperor
+Theodosius the Great, this demand having been formally made, and the
+Senate, fearing the tumult a refusal would excite, with a show of fair
+dealing ordered the presentation, before that body, of the respective
+merits of the two forms of worship. In that memorable discussion, which
+lasted a whole week, Symmachus, a senator, advocated the old system,
+and Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, the new, which resulting, as a foregone
+conclusion, in the triumph of Christianity, a decree to that effect was
+promulgated.
+
+Then the long deferred opportunity having arrived, the vengeful
+bishops, hounding on a no less vengeful laity, ruthlessly murdered the
+priests of the old religion, and, appropriating its emoluments to their
+own use, they seized upon its temples, and demolishing some, converted
+others into churches. With iconoclastic hands they destroyed some of
+the statues representing the ancient divinities, or after mutilation
+exposed others in public places to the derision of the populace.
+Subjecting the adherents to the older form of worship, whom they
+designated as infidels, to the most diabolical indignities and
+persecutions, they destroyed their works of art, burned their
+libraries, suppressed their schools of learning, and either killed or
+exiled their professors. Among the atrocious acts perpetrated by these
+fiends in human shape none was more barbarous than the one committed in
+Alexandria, in the year 415, when Hypatia, the beautiful and
+accomplished daughter of Theon, who had succeeded her father as
+professor of mathematics and philosophy in the Alexandrian University,
+while on her way to deliver a lecture, was, by order of Bishop Cyril,
+dragged from her chariot and murdered in a most revolting manner.
+
+One of the successors of Theodosius justified himself in decreeing the
+spoliation of the old religion upon the grounds that "It was unbecoming
+a Christian government to supply the infidels with the means of
+persevering in their errors." Another one of the Emperors, more zealous
+than his predecessors, decreed the death penalty against all persons
+discovered practicing any of the rites and ceremonies of the old
+religion. Thus the onslaught of Christian savagery obliterated the
+civilization of Greece and Rome, and inaugurated that long reign of
+intellectual night known as the Dark Ages, which, materially aiding in
+effecting the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, made it possible to
+erect upon its ruins that Italian Oligarchy, which, since then, has
+ruled the greater part of Christendom.
+
+The dogmatic element of the ancient astrolatry, as incorporated into
+the Christian creed, underwent no material change until the
+inauguration of the dark ages, when the bishops of the several
+churches, in the delirium of metaphysical speculation, concocted the
+previously unheard of doctrine of pre-existence of spirit, in
+conformity to which God was declared to be purely a spiritual deity,
+who, existing before matter, created the universe of nothing. Being the
+sole custodians of the scriptures; and changing the six periods of a
+thousand years each to the six days of creation, they altered Gen. i,
+1, to read, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,"
+which in the original read: "In the beginning, when the Gods (Elohim or
+Alehim) had made (shaped or formed) this heaven and this earth." These
+radical changes necessitating others, they made two distinct and
+independent beings of the principles of Good and Evil personified in
+the God Sol; the former they embodied in Jesus the Christ and the
+latter in the Christian Devil, thus supplanting old Pluto; the
+presiding genius of the under world.
+
+Rejecting the ancient doctrines relative to the soul, and teaching
+that, having proceeded from a purely spiritual deity, it would exist
+eternally as an independent spiritual entity, they substituted for the
+ancient system of limited rewards and punishments the one inculcating
+their endless duration. These changes in the creed, which were
+confirmed at the general council of Constantinople, in the year 553,
+necessitating further alterations of the scriptures, the righteous were
+promised "eternal life" in the Paradise of God beyond the stars; and,
+While consigning great sinners to "everlasting punishment" in the
+Tartarian fires of the under world, the less venial were to expiate
+their crimes in the same old Purgatory. Thus, having invented an
+endless heaven and an endless hell for purely spiritual souls, and
+neglecting to expunge the doctrines of the resurrection of the body,
+the setting up of the kingdom of heaven upon a reorganized earth and
+other materialistic teachings of the ancient religion, they made of the
+creed and scriptures such a conglomeration of "things new and old"
+that, without the Astrological key, it would be impossible to determine
+what they originally taught.
+
+At the Reformation in the 16th century Luther and his coadjutors, while
+projecting into the Protestant creed all the cardinal tenets of
+Catholicism, excepting that of Purgatory, made no change in the
+verbiage of the scriptures. Thus retaining the awful doctrine of
+endless hell, the reformers constructed a creed which they intended for
+the government of Protestants for all time; but, doing what had never
+been done before in the history of the world, they gave the scriptures
+to the laity, and, whether or not they secured the right of private
+judgment or individual interpretation, it has been taken all the same;
+and thus opening the door to investigation, it must ultimately result
+not only in the abrogation of hell, but in the relegation to the limbo
+of oblivion of the whole dogmatic element of religion.
+
+As a fitting conclusion to this article, we again direct the attention
+of our readers to the subject of the primary source of religious
+dogmas. Prior to the establishment of Christianity as the state
+religion of the Roman Empire, the philosophers who wrote against it
+invariably made the charge that its theology was derived from the
+ancient Paganism. After its establishment as the state religion of the
+Empire, the hierarchy of the church, knowing that this charge was
+unanswerable, instigated the Emperor Theodosius I. to promulgate an
+edict decreeing the destruction of all books antagonistic to
+Christianity. This edict, directed more particularly against the
+writings of Celsus, was carried out so effectually that we know nothing
+of what he wrote, only as quoted by Origen, the distinguished church
+father of the third century, who attempted to answer in eight books
+what Celsus had written in one, entitled "The True Discourse." In one
+of his quotations from Celsus' work he makes that philosopher say "that
+the Christian religion contains nothing but what Christians held in
+common with heathens, nothing that was new or truly great." See
+Bellamy's translation, chapter 4. During the earlier centuries the
+Christians were divided into numerous sects, entertaining very
+divergent views, and each faction, holding all others to be heretical,
+charged them with having derived their doctrines from the Pagan
+religion. Upon this subject we find that Epiphanius, a celebrated
+church father of the 4th century, freely admits that all that differed
+from his own were derived from the heathen mythology. Such was the
+position of all orthodox writers during the Middle Ages, and since the
+Reformation the Protestant clergy have uniformly made the same charge
+against the Catholic; a few quotations from their writings we present
+for the edification of our readers.
+
+Jean Daille, a French Protestant minister of the 17th century, in his
+treatise entitled La Religion Catholique Romaine Institute par Nama
+Pompile, demonstrates that "the Papists took their idolatrous worship
+of images, as well as all their ceremonies, from the old heathen
+religion." Bishop Stillingfleet of the English church and a writer of
+considerable eminence in the 17th century, said, in reference to the
+complaisant spirit of the early church towards the Pagans, that "it was
+attended by very bad consequences, since Christianity became at last,
+by that means, nothing else but reformed Paganism, as to its divine
+worship." See Stillingfleet's defense of the charge of idolatry against
+the Romanists, vol. 5, page 459. M. Turrentin, of Geneva, Switzerland,
+a learned Protestant writer of the 17th century, in one of his orations
+describing the state of Christianity in the 4th century, says "that it
+was not so much the Empire that was brought over to the faith, as the
+faith that was brought over to the Empire; not the Pagans who were
+converted to Christianity, but the Christians who were converted to
+Paganism." Thus, having shown that the Catholics derived all their
+cardinal tenets from the Pagan mythology, the Protestants must surely
+have obtained theirs from the Catholics, for they teach all of them
+except that of Purgatory.
+
+
+
+FREEMASONRY AND DRUIDISM.
+
+The rites and ceremonies of Astral worship, under the name of Druidism,
+were primarily observed in consecrated groves by all peoples; which
+custom was retained by the Scandinavian and Germanic races, and by the
+inhabitants of Gaul and the British Islands; while the East Indians,
+Assyrians, Egyptians, Grecians, Romans, and other adjacent nations,
+ultimately observed their religious services in temples; and we propose
+to show that the modern societies of Freemasonry, and ancient order of
+Druids, are but perpetuations of the grove and temple forms of the
+ancient astrolatry. In determining the fact that Freemasonry finds its
+prototype in the temple worship of ancient Egypt, we have but to study
+the Masonic arms, as illustrated in Fellows' chart, in which are
+pictured, as its objects of adoration, the sun and moon, the seven
+stars, known as Pleiades in the sign of Taurus; the blazing star
+Sirius, or Dog-star, worshipped by the Egyptians under the name of
+Anubis, and whose rising forewarned those people of the rising of the
+Nile River; the seven signs of the Zodiac from Aries to Libra,
+inclusive, through which the sun was supposed to pass in making his
+apparent annual revolution, and which constitutes the Royal arch from
+which was derived the name of one of its higher degrees; and its
+armorial bearings, consisting of pictures of the Lion, the Bull, the
+Waterman, and the Flying Eagle, which representing the signs at the
+cardinal points, constituted the genii of the seasons. Besides these,
+we have the checkered flooring or mosaic work, representing the earth
+and its variegated face, which was introduced when temple worship
+succeeded its grove form; the two columns representing the imaginary
+pillars of heaven resting upon the earth at Equinoctial points, and
+supporting the Royal arch; also the letter "G" standing for Geometry,
+the knowledge of which was of great importance to the natives of Egypt
+in establishing the boundaries of their lands removed by the
+inundations of the Nile, the square and compass, being the instruments
+through which the old landmarks were restored, and which ultimately
+became the symbols of justice. The cornucopia, or horn of plenty,
+denoted the sun in the sign of Capricorn, and indicated the season when
+the harvest was gathered and provisions laid up for Winter use; the
+cenotaph or mock coffin with the sign of the cross upon its lid,
+referred to the sun's crossing of the celestial equator at the Autumnal
+Equinox, and to the figurative death of the genius of that luminary in
+the lower hemisphere; whose resurrection at the Vernal Equinox is
+typified by the sprig of acacia sprouting near the head of the coffin.
+The serpent, issuing from the small vessel to the left, represented the
+symbol of the Lord of Evil under whose dominion was placed the seasons
+of Autumn and Winter; and the figure of a box at the right hand,
+represented the sacred ark in which, anciently, the symbols of solar
+worship were deposited; but which is now used by the masons as a
+receptacle for their papers.
+
+[See plate9.gif]
+
+After, the promulgation, in the fifth century, of the edict by one of
+the Emperors of Rome, decreeing the death penalty against all persons
+discovered practicing any of the rites and ceremonies of the ancient
+religion, a body of its cultured adherents, determining to observe them
+secretly, banded themselves together into a society for that purpose.
+With the view to masking their real object, they took advantage of the
+fact that the square and compass, the plumbline, etc., were symbols of
+speculative masonry in the temple form of Astral worship, they publicly
+claimed to be only a trades-union for the prosecution of the arts of
+architecture and operative masonry; but, among themselves, were known
+as Free and Accepted Masons or Freemasons. In imitation of the ancient
+mysteries they instituted lower and higher degrees; in the former they
+taught the Exoteric creed, and in the latter the Esoteric philosophy,
+as explained in our introduction. Inculcating supreme adoration to the
+solar divinity the candidates for initiation were made to personate
+that mythical being and subjected to the ceremonies representing his
+figurative death and resurrection, were required to take fearful oaths
+not to reveal the secrets of the order. To enable them to recognize
+each other, and to render aid to a brother in emergencies, they adopted
+a system of grips, signs and calls; and to guard against the intrusion
+of their Christian enemies they stationed watchmen outside of their
+lodges to give timely warning of their approach. Thus was instituted
+the original Grand Lodge of Freemasonry, from which charters were
+issued for the organization of subordinate lodges in all the principal
+cities throughout the Roman Empire.
+
+Becoming cognizant of the true object of Freemasonry, the Hierarchy of
+the Church of Rome resolved to suppress the order, and to that end
+maintained such a strict espionage upon its members that, no longer
+able to assemble in their lodges, they determined to defend themselves
+by an appeal to arms, and gathering together in strongholds, for a long
+time successfully resisted the armies of the church; but ultimately,
+being almost exterminated, the residue disbanded, and we hear no more
+of Freemasonry, as a secret order, until the conclusion of the Dark
+Ages, when the Reformation, making it possible, a form of the order,
+recognizing Christianity, was revived among the Protestants; but the
+Church of Rome, true to her traditions, has never ceased to hurl
+anathemas against it and all other secret societies outside of her own
+body. Thus, having made it apparent that Freemasonry, as primarily
+instituted, was but a perpetuation of the temple form of Astral
+worship, we can readily see that, while some of its symbols are as old
+as the ancient Egyptian religion, it did not, as a secret order, take
+its rise until Christian persecution made it necessary. Hence it cannot
+justly lay claim to a greater antiquity than the fifth century of the
+Christian era.
+
+According to Masonic annals a Grand Lodge was organized at York,
+England, early in the tenth century, but, like the lodges of Southern
+Europe, was suppressed by the Church of Rome. In 1717 a Grand Lodge was
+organized at London, England, and soon afterwards the old Grand Lodge
+at York was revived, and its members took the name of Free and Accepted
+Ancient York Masons, from which emanated the charter of the Grand Lodge
+in the United States, which was organized in Boston in 1733. In 1813
+the rivalry between the Grand Lodges of York and London was
+compromised, and the supremacy of the former was conceded.
+
+From church history we learn that in the year 596 of our era Pope
+Gregory I. dispatched Augustin, and forty other monks of the order of
+St. Andrew, from Rome to Britain, to convert the natives to
+Christianity; but, while the Anglo-Saxons embraced the new faith, the
+Britons rejected it, and, being persecuted by the Christians, retired
+to the fastnesses of the country known as Wales, where, for a long
+period, they maintained the observance of the Druidical form of
+worship; and although that country has long since become Christianized,
+the society of the Ancient Order of Druids has existed with an
+uninterrupted succession at Pout-y-prid, where the Arch-Druid resides,
+and from, whence emanated the charter of the Grand Lodge of the order
+in this country. In reference to the Druidism on the continent, history
+records the fact that when one of the reigning kings became a convert
+to Christianity the whole of his subjects were baptized into the Church
+of Rome by Imperial decree.
+
+
+
+THE SABBATH.
+
+In determining the origin of the seventh day Sabbath, we must of
+necessity refer to that source of all religious ordinances, the ancient
+astrolatry, the founders of which, having taught that God Sol was
+engaged in the reorganization of Chaos during the first six periods of
+the twelve thousand year cycle, corresponding to the months of Spring
+and Summer, they conceived the idea that he ceased to exert his
+energies, or rested from his labors on the seventh period,
+corresponding to the first of the Autumn months. Hence, deriving the
+suggestion from the apparent septenary rest in nature, they taught that
+God ordained the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath or rest day for
+man.
+
+In conformity to this ordinance the founders of ancient Judaism
+enforced the observance of the seventh day Sabbath in the fourth
+commandment of the Decalogue, which, found in Gen. xx. 8-11,[1] reads
+as follows, viz: "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days
+shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the
+Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
+nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant,
+nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six
+days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is,
+and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day
+and hallowed it." Thus was the seventh day of the week made the Sabbath
+of the Old Testament; but the authors of the Jewish or ancient
+Christianity, looking for the immediate fulfillment of the prophecies
+relative to the second judgment, ignored its observance, as may be seen
+by reference to Mark ii. 23, 27; John v. 2-18; Romans xiv. 5; and Col.
+ii. 16; and the founders of modern Christianity, perpetuating the
+belief in the speedy fulfillment of those prophecies, made no change
+relative to the Sabbath in their version of the New Testament.
+
+After Constantine's pretended conversion to Christianity, and the time
+for the fulfillment of the prophecies had been put off to the year
+10000, as previously stated, the hierarchy of the church appealed to
+the Emperor to give them a Sabbath, and although they knew that the
+seventh day of the week was the Sabbath of the Old Testament, and that
+Sunday was the first of the six working days, according to the fourth
+commandment, their hatred to the Jews for refusing to accept their
+Christ as the Saviour induced them to have it placed on the first day
+of the week. Hence that obliging potentate, in the year 321,
+promulgated the memorable edict, which, found in that Digest of Roman
+law known as the Justinian Code, Book III., Title 12, Sec. 2 and 3,
+reads as follows, viz.: "Let all judges and all people of the towns
+rest and all the various trades be suspended on the venerable day of
+the Sun. Those who live in the country, however, may freely and without
+fault attend to the cultivation of their fields lest, with the loss of
+favorable opportunity, the commodities offered by Divine Providence
+shall be destroyed." Thus we see that the primary movement towards
+enforcing the observance of Sunday, or Lord's Day, as the Sabbath, did
+not originate in a Divine command, but in the edict of an earthly
+potentate.
+
+This edict was ratified at the third council of Orleans, in the year
+538; and in order, "that the people might not be prevented from
+attending church, and saying their prayers," a resolution was adopted
+at the same time recommending the observance of the day by all classes.
+From merely "recommending," the Church of Rome soon began to enforce
+the observance of the day; but, in spite of all her efforts, it was not
+until the 12th century that its observance had become so universal as
+to receive the designation of "The Christian Sabbath."
+
+Cognizant of the manner in which Sunday was made the Sabbath, Luther
+issued for the government of the Protestant communion the following
+mandate: "As for the Sabbath, or Sunday, there is no necessity for
+keeping it;" see Michelet's Life of Luther, Book IV., chapter 2. Luther
+also said, as recorded in Table Talk, "If anywhere the day (Sunday) is
+made holy for the mere day's sake; if anywhere anyone sets up its
+observance upon a Jewish foundation, then I order you to work on it, to
+dance on it, to ride on it, to feast on it, and to do anything that
+shall reprove this encroachment on the Christian spirit of liberty."
+Melancthon, Luther's chief coadjutor in the work of Reformation,
+denied, in the most emphatic language, that Sunday was made the Sabbath
+by Divine ordainment; and in reference thereto John Milton, in reply to
+the Sunday Sabbatarians, makes the pertinent inquiry: "If, on a plea of
+Divine command, you impose upon us the observance of a particular day,
+how do you presume, without the authority of a Divine command, to
+substitute another in its place?"
+
+During the reign of Elizabeth, Queen of England, a sect of fanatics,
+known as Dissenters or Nonconformists, basing their action upon the
+fallacious arguments derived from the fourth commandment, and upon the
+plea that the Saviour was raised from the dead on the first day of the
+week, inaugurated what is known as the Puritan Sabbath, which having
+been transferred to our shores by the voyagers in the Mayflower, and
+enforced by those statutory enactments known as Blue Laws, caused the
+people of New England to have a blue time of it while the delusion
+lasted; and now a large body of Protestant clergy perverting the
+teachings of scripture, and, ignoring the authority of the Reformers,
+are disturbing the peace of society by their efforts to enforce the
+code of sundry laws, which were enacted through their connivance. Thus
+have we shown that, originating with the Catholics and adopted by the
+Protestants, the Sunday Sabbath is purely and entirely a human
+institution, and, being such, we must recognize all Sunday laws as
+grave encroachments upon constitutional liberty; and it behooves the
+advocates of individual rights to demand their immediate repeal; for
+unless a vigilant watch is kept upon the conspirators who secured their
+enactment, our fair land will soon be cursed by a union of church and
+State, the tendency in that direction having been indicated by the
+unprecedented opinion recently handed down by one of the Justices of
+the United States Supreme Court that this is a Christian Government.
+
+
+
+PIOUS FRAUDS.
+
+By claiming to be divinely appointed for the propagation of a divinely
+authenticated religion, the priesthood of all forms of worship have
+ever labored to deceive and enslave the ignorant multitude; and in
+support of these fallacious assumptions have resorted to all manner of
+pious frauds, in reference to which we quote from both Pagan and
+Christian sources with the view to showing that the moderns have
+faithfully followed the ancient example. Euripedes, an Athenian writer,
+who flourished about 450 years before the beginning of our era,
+maintained that, "in the early state of society, some wise men insisted
+on the necessity of darkening truth with falsehood and of persuading
+men that there is an immortal deity who hears and sees and understands
+our actions, whatever we may think of that matter ourselves." Strabo,
+the famous geographer and historian of Greek extraction, who flourished
+about the beginning of the Christian era, wrote that "It is not
+possible for a philosopher to conduct by reasoning a multitude of women
+and the low vulgar, and thus to invite them to piety, holiness and
+faith; but the philosopher must make use of superstition and not omit
+the invention of fables and the performance of wonders. For the
+lightning and the aegis and the trident are but fables, and so all
+ancient theology. But the founders of states adopted them as bugbears
+to frighten the weak-minded." Varro, a learned Roman scholar, who also
+flourished about the beginning of our era, wrote that "There are many
+truths which it is useless for the vulgar to know, and many falsehoods
+which it is fit that the people should not know are falsehoods."
+
+So much from Pagan authorities relative to the necessity of deceiving
+the ignorant masses. We will now present some Christian authorities
+upon the same subject; and first from Christ himself, who in addressing
+his disciples is made to say, in Mark iv, 11, 12, "Unto you it is given
+to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but unto them that are
+without all these things are done in parables, that seeing they may see
+and not perceive; and hearing they may hear and not understand." Paul,
+in his fourteen Epistles, inculcates and avows the principle of
+deceiving the common people. He speaks of having been upbraided by his
+own converts with being crafty and catching them with guile and of his
+known and wilful lies abounding to the glory of God. See Romans iii. 7,
+and II. Cor. xii. 16. If Christ and Paul were guilty of deception,
+their followers had good excuse for the same course of conduct. Upon
+this subject Beausobre, a very learned ecclesiastical writer, who
+flourished about the beginning of the 18th century, says: "We see in
+the history which I have related a sort of hypocrisy that has been,
+perhaps, but too common at all times; that churchmen not only do not
+say what they think, but they do say the direct contrary of what they
+think. Philosophers in their cabinets; out of them they are content
+with fables, though they well know that they are fables." Historie de
+Manichee, vol. 2, page 568. Bishop Synesius, the distinguished author
+of religious literature and Christian father of the 5th century, said:
+"I shall be a philosopher only to myself, and I shall always be a
+bishop to the people." Mosheim, the distinguished author of
+Ecclesiastical History, Vol. I., page 120, says: "The authors who have
+treated of the innocence and sanctity of the primitive Christians have
+fallen into the error of supposing them to have been unspotted models
+of piety and virtue, and a gross error indeed it is, as the strongest
+testimonies too evidently prove." The same author, in Vol. I., page.
+198, says in the fourth century "it was an almost universally adopted
+maxim that it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie, when by such
+means the interest of the church might be promoted." In his
+Ecclesiastical History, Vol. II., page 11, he says that "as regards the
+fifth century, the simplicity and ignorance of the generality in those
+times furnished the most favorable occasion for the exercise of fraud;
+and the impudence of impostors in contriving false miracles was
+artfully proportioned to the credulity of the vulgar; while the
+sagacious and the wise, who perceived these cheats, were overawed into
+silence by the dangers that threatened their lives and fortunes if they
+should expose the artifice." Thomas Burnet, D.D., who flourished about
+the beginning of the 18th century, in his treatise entitled De Statu
+Mortuorum, purposely written in Latin that it might serve for the
+instruction of the clergy only, and not come to the knowledge of the
+laity, because, as he says, "too much light is hurtful for weak eyes,"
+not only justifies, but recommends the practice of the most consummate
+hypocrisy, and that, too, on the most awful of all subjects; and would
+have his, clergy seriously preach and maintain the reality and eternity
+of hell torments, even though they should believe nothing of the sort
+themselves. See page 304. Hugo Grotius, the eminent writer of Holland
+in the 17th century, says in his 22d Epistle: "He that reads
+ecclesiastical history, reads nothing but the roguery and folly of
+bishops, and churchmen." In the language of Robert Taylor, from whom we
+have taken most of the quotations under this heading, we assert that
+"no man could quote higher authorities," to prove "the roguery and
+folly of bishops and churchmen."
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+Having presented the evidences in support of the apparently untenable
+assertion that, notwithstanding the numerous modes in which man has
+manifested his devotional proclivities, the world has virtually had but
+the one religion founded in the worship of personified nature, we are
+necessitated to recognize the facts that the Christian Scriptures like
+the sacred records of other forms of nature worship are, but a
+collection of astronomical allegories; that the gospel story is truly
+"the old, old story" which had been told of a thousand other Saviours
+before it was applied to the Christian Messiah; that Jesus is but one
+of the many names given to imaginary incarnations of the mythical
+genius of the sun; and that the Disciples and Evangelists are but the
+genii of the months and the seasons. Such being the facts, which cannot
+be successfully refuted, we must believe that the Christian religion,
+instead of being of Divine authenticity, as popularly claimed, is
+purely and entirely of human origin, and that all its teachings
+relative to a future state are but priestly inventions, concocted for
+the purpose of enslaving the ignorant masses.
+
+When we think of the thousand millions of dollars invested in church
+properties, and estimate the cost of maintaining more than a hundred
+thousand priests and ministers, in supporting foreign and domestic
+missions and in publishing religious literature; besides the taxes
+applied to the care of the religious insane, and realize the fact that
+all of this vast sum of money is abstracted from the resources of the
+people, we would not have to go outside of our own country to
+appreciate the fact that religion is the burden of all burdens to
+society; and when we contemplate the great disturbance to the social
+relation, resulting from sectarian strife, and the almost universal
+disposition of Christians to persecute and ostracize those who differ
+with them in opinion, we can readily subscribe to the sentiment
+accredited to one of our revolutionary sires, that "this would be a
+good world to live in if there was no religion in it."
+
+If the clergy had been laboring as faithfully to impress the observance
+of ethical principles as they have to indoctrinate the people with the
+superstitions of religion, we would not now be deploring the great
+demoralization of society. It is a grave arraignment of the clericals
+to charge them with being, indirectly, the cause of this lamentable
+state of things; but it is a condition that might have been expected,
+for, when entering the ministry, they engaged themselves, not so much
+to teach ethics as to propagate faith in the doctrines of their
+respective sects. Thus hampered they cannot do the good to society
+their better natures might desire. Hence the only hope for improvement
+is for the people to wholly ignore the dogmatic element of religion,
+and refusing to longer support it, demand that moral training shall be
+the grand essential of education. If this course were adopted and
+persistently followed, it would be but a question of time when mankind
+would come into being with such a benign heredity that crime would be
+almost impossible.
+
+Then, since religion inculcates a salvation that does not save, let us
+rise superior to its false teachings and, accepting science as the true
+saviour of mankind, find our whole duty in the code of natural
+morality, the spirit of which is embodied in that comprehensive precept
+known as the golden rule, which, being the outgrowth of the discovered
+necessities of association, without which society could not exist, it
+necessarily constituted man's sole rule and guide long before priest or
+temple; and founded in the eternal principles of right, truth and
+justice must remain as man's sole rule and guide when priest and church
+are numbered among the things that were. Spirit of progress! speed the
+day when all mankind, redeemed from the bondage of superstition, will
+recognize the great truth that nature, governed by her own inherent
+forces, is all that has been, all that is and all that shall be; and
+that, ceasing to indulge in the vain hope of a blissful immortality in
+a paradise beyond the stars, will make a real paradise of this old
+earth of ours.
+
+
+----------------------------
+[1](Editorial note: the original text erroneously attributed this
+quote to Genesis 20:8-11; actually it is from Exodus 20:8-11.)
+
+
+
+
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