Chapter I. The Sign CAPRICORNUS (The Sea Goat).
The Goat of Atonement Slain for the Redeemed.
It is most noteworthy that this Second Book opens with the Goat, and closes with the Ram: two animals of sacrifice; while the two middle [pg 075] chapters are both connected with fishes.[47] The reason for this we shall see as we proceed.
Both are combined in the first chapter, or “Sign” of Capricornus.
In all the ancient Zodiacs, or Planispheres, we find a goat with a fish's tail. In the Zodiacs of Denderah and Esneh, in Egypt, it is half-goat and half-fish, and it is there called Hu-penius, which means the place of the sacrifice.
In the Indian Zodiac it is a goat passant traversed by a fish.
There can be no doubt as to the significance of this sign.
In the Goat we have the Atoning Sacrifice, in the Fish we have the people for whom the atonement is made. When we come to the sign “Pisces” we shall see more clearly that it points to the multitudes of the redeemed host.
The Goat is bowing its head as though falling down in death. The right leg is folded underneath the body, and he seems unable to rise with the left. The tail of the fish, on the other hand, seems to be full of vigour and life.
The Hebrew name of the sign is Gedi, the kid or cut off, the same as the Arabic Al Gedi. Capricornus is merely the modern (Latin) name of the sign, and means goat.