One more “coincidence”:
“Now it is proved that in geologically recent times, this region of North Africa was in fact a peninsula of Spain, and that its union with Africa (proper) was effected on the North by the rupture of Gibraltar, and on the South by an upheaval to which the Sahara owes its existence. The shores of this former sea of Sahara are still marked by the shells of the same Gastropoda that live on the shores of the Mediterranean.” (Prof. Oscar Schmidt, Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism, p. 244.)
The Mandragora is the Mandrake of the Bible, of Rachel and Leah. The roots of the plant are fleshy, hairy, and forked, representing roughly the limbs, the body, and even head of a man. Its magical and mysterious properties have been proclaimed in fable and play from the most archaic ages. From Rachel and Leah, who indulged in witchcraft with them, down to Shakespeare, who speaks of “shrieking”—
“Like mandrakes torn out of the earth
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad”
—the mandragora was the magic plant par excellence.
These roots are without any apparent stalk, large leaves growing out of the head of the root, like a gigantic crop of hair. They present little similitude to man when found in Spain, Italy, Asia Minor, or Syria, but on the Isle of Candia, and in Karamania near the city of Adan, they have a wonderfully human form, and are very highly prized as amulets. They are also worn by women as a charm against sterility, and for other purposes. They are especially effective in “Black Magic.”
Copernicus wrote his theories on the “Revolution of the Heavenly Bodies” in the sixteenth century, and the Zohar, even if compiled by Moses de Leon in the thirteenth century, states that:
“In the Book of Hammannunah, the Old (or, the Ancient), we learn ... that the earth turns upon itself in the form of a circle; that some are on top, the others below; that ... there are some countries of the earth which are lightened, whilst others are in darkness; these have the day, when for the former it is night; and there are countries in which it is constantly day, or in which at least the night continues only some instants.” (Zohar, iii, fol. 10a, quoted in Myer's Qabbalah, p. 139.)
Athenæus shows that the first letter of Satan's name was represented in days of old by an arc and crescent; and some Roman Catholics, kind, good men, would persuade the public that it is in honour of Lucifer's crescent-like horns that Mussulmans have chosen the crescent for their national arms. Venus, ever since the establishment of Roman Catholic dogmatism, has been identified with Satan and Lucifer, or the Great Dragon, contrary to all reason and logic. As shown by symbologists and Astronomers:
“The association between the serpent and the idea of darkness had an astronomical foundation. The position which the constellation Draco at one time occupied showed that the Great Serpent was the ruler of the night. This constellation was formerly at the very centre of the heavens, and is so extensive that it was called the Great Dragon. Its body spreads over seven signs of the Zodiac; and Dupuis, who sees in the Dragon of the Apocalypse a reference to the celestial serpent, says, ‘It is not astonishing that a constellation so extended should be represented by the author of that book as a great dragon with seven heads, who drew the third part of the stars from heaven and cast them to the earth.’ ” (Staniland Wake, The Great Pyramid, p. 79; Dupuis, iii. 255.)