At the present day phallic symbolism is perpetuated in our church steeples, in the crosses and circles on our altars and prayer-books, in the pictures of the lamb holding a cross within a circle on our church windows, in the cross-buns eaten at the paschal feast, in the Easter eggs, and in various other ways; while the Pyramids of Egypt and the Luxor obelisks—one in London, one in Paris, and one in St. Petersburg—form a connecting phallic link between the ancient Egyptians and ourselves. The sphynx has been said by some to be a phallic figure; but I do not subscribe to this view at all, holding the opinion that it is simply a union of two zodiacal signs, July and August of the fixed zodiac. It appears to me that at a very remote time, when the sign Virgo was about to be supplanted at the vernal equinox by the next sign, Leo—somewhere about fifteen thousand years ago, or rather later—the priests or astrologers hit upon the idea of placing the head of Virgo upon the shoulders of Leo, thus manufacturing a new kind of figure, which, on account of its partaking of the dual nature of the then most prominent of the gods, became very popular, and was depicted in various forms and in many parts of the country. This may also have been the modus faciendi of Capricornus and Sagittarius, if we can imagine a still earlier period when the zodiac was so different from the present form as to have signs represented by a fish, a goat, a horse, and an archer respectively.
Next to the vernal equinoxial sign the ancients held the winter solstitial sign in the greatest veneration, and consequently the goat was a very sacred animal and occupied a prominent place in all symbolical mythologies. It was from this point that the Egyptians calculated their new year, although the Persians always reckoned theirs from the vernal equinox; and it was on December 21st that the Egyptians fixed the creation of the world, which gave origin to the fable of a goat having been the creator, thus accounting for the fact of the early copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch commencing with the following words: “At the commencement the goat (העז) renovated the heavens and the earth” (Genesis I. 1). Here we meet with a very good example of the patchwork style in which the Bible was compiled. In Egypt the new year reckoned from December 21st, and the creation was supposed to date from the same time of the year, and consequently in all records emanating from the Nile district the celestial goat was honoured for the occasion with the chief godship; but in Persia the new year commenced on March 21st, the date of the creation being fixed at the same point of the zodiac, so that the chief godship was assigned to the celestial lamb or ram and its five fellow signs of the summer hemisphere. Therefore, as the Hebrews derived their creation fable from the Persians, using also the Egyptian mythology with which to embellish their newly-made cosmogony, the two fables became mixed somewhat in the minds of these ignorant wanderers, the consequence being that in some of their MSS. the creation was said to have been the act of the goat (העז), while in others it was attributed to the ram-sun, Elyah (אליה), or the six summer signs commencing with the ram-sun, and called on that account the Elohim (אלהים), this word being the plural form of Eloh (אלוה) or Elyah (אליה), a compound word made up of Yah (יה), the Hebrew name for the sun-god, and El (אל), the celestial lamb or ram.
Not only were the three principal signs—the bull, the ram, and the goat—held in great veneration by the Egyptians, but all the zodiacal signs were worshipped in various degrees; indeed, each figure of the zodiac can be easily assigned to one of the principal gods of Egypt, as they were known prior to B.C. 2188. The ram was Amen, the Egyptian Jupiter, called Zeus Amen (Ζευς Αμην) by the Greeks and Jupiter Ammon by the Romans, who was represented with a ram’s head and horns. The bull was Apis, or Serapis, worshipped as a living bull, the incarnation of the principal deity at the vernal equinox. The twins were the Greek Castor and Pollux, who were worshipped by the Egyptians under similar names. The crab was Anubis, the Egyptian Mercury. The lion was Osiris, Ra, or Phthah, according to the district and age, the sun-god at the height of his power at the summer solstitial point, June 24th. The virgin was Isis, the beloved of Osiris. The balances were included with the scorpion, the two being worshipped as Set-Typhon, Tum, or Sekru, according to the district and age, the sun-god at the autumnal equinox, suffering defeat at the hands of the powers of darkness. The centaur-archer was the Egyptian Hercules. The goat was Pan, or Mendes. The water-bearer was Horus, the avenger of his father’s defeat, born December 21st, and a conqueror on March 21st; also Mises, the Egyptian Bacchus, who, being the sign of the sun-god’s birth, leads the twelve signs out of the land of bondage, and institutes the feast of commemoration at the sign of the lamb, whose horns he wears; and also Harmachis. The fishes are Oannes, the Egyptian saviour-fish, who, when that sign was at the winter solstitial point, saved the world as the new-born sun.
These twelve signs of the zodiac were, in fact, the twelve principal gods of all races; the seven summer signs, including the two equinoxial signs, being the seven specially sacred gods, inhabiting the upper temple of the most high god, which was the vault of the summer heavens, supported by the two pillars of the equinoxes or covenants. Almost every race had temples divided into upper and lower courts or rooms, the upper one being the residence of their chief gods; and these temples were originally meant to represent the universe, having an upper hemisphere, governed by the good principle, and a lower hemisphere, governed by the bad principle, this idea being frequently further represented by a closed ark or chest, representing the lower or dark hemisphere, upon which sat the chief deity, representing the good principle of the upper hemisphere. The Egyptians, according to Plutarch, enclosed the body of Osiris in an ark every year at the autumnal equinox, when the sun was in Scorpio, which was a rite emblematical of the annual death of the sun-god of summer; and the Jews, it will be remembered, suffered defeat at the hands of the Philistines, immediately after they had taken the ark out of Shiloh, where it had been deposited, the word Shiloh being the name of a tiny group of stars in the sign Scorpio. The movable temple of the Hebrews, or tabernacle, as described in Exodus, is the best example we have of this representation of the universe, being described in such minute detail as to betray its meaning to the dullest mind. It was divided into two portions—the lower or outer portion, and the upper or inner portion, the holy of holies, where dwelt the Hebrew chief tribal god, Yahouh, or Yah, sitting upon the ark of the covenant, representing the winter part of the heavens between the two covenants or equinoxes. On each side of Yah was a cherub, or monster with four faces (or, according to some, with four bodies)—one like a bull, another like a man, a third like an eagle, and the last like a lion, as we find fully described by Ezekiel (chap. i.). In my “Popular Faith Unveiled” (pp. 131, 174, and 247) I have attributed these heads (or bodies) to the four zodiacal signs of ascension after the vernal equinox, that like a bull to Taurus, that like a man to Gemini, that like an eagle to Cancer, and that like a lion to Leo; but, according to Sir W. Drummond, in his “Œdipus Judaicus,” they correspond with the signs at the four quarters of the sphere—viz., the man to Aquarius, the ox to Taurus, the lion to Leo, and the eagle to Scorpio, this calculation being based on the supposition that the cherubim were first introduced during the period prior to B.C. 2188, when Taurus was the vernal equinoxial point, while mine supposes Aries to have been the chief zodiacal sign. Which calculation is right the reader must decide for himself, after carefully studying the reasons given for both conclusions. Clement of Alexandria, in his “Stromata,” says of these cherubim: “Each of them has six wings, whether they typify the two bears, as some will have it, or, which is better, the two hemispheres.... Both have twelve wings, and thus through the circle of the zodiac, and of self-marrying time, they typify the world perceived by the senses.” The table in the temple was symbolical of the earth, as we learn from Clement of Alexandria again, when he says: “The table, as I think, signifies the image of the earth; it is sustained by four feet, answering to the summer, autumn, spring, and winter.” The shew-bread was placed on the table in front of Yah, and was divided into twelve pieces, typical of the twelve signs, as we find stated in Ex. xxv. 22 and 30 (literally translated): “And I will hang [or be deposited] there, set [or sitting] before thee; and I will talk to thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim, which are upon the ark of the testimony ... and thou shalt set shew-bread always upon the table in front of me.” The candlesticks, with three branches on each side and one in the centre, having seven lamps burning on them, represented the seven summer signs, including both the equinoxial ones. Josephus tells us that the candlesticks were divided into seventy parts, answering to the seventy decans of the seven signs. The veil of the temple was of blue, purple, and scarlet, and represented the atmospheric vault of heaven tinged, as it frequently is, by the sun’s rays. The pomegranates represented the fixed stars. The dress of the high priest was ornamented with 566 bells, corresponding with the days of the sidereal year, with two bright emeralds and twelve precious stones, which, according to Clement of Alexandria, represented the sun and moon and the twelve signs of the zodiac.
Sufficient has been said to leave no doubt as to the real meaning of the tabernacle and its appurtenances, and, I think, to establish the truth of what I have previously stated—viz., that the ancient religions were of astronomical origin and abounding in symbolical rites and ceremonies. It only remains for me now to repeat what I have maintained before in other essays—that the Christian religion of to-day, although modified by time and circumstances, having been considerably manipulated so as to be brought within touch of modern requirements, is nothing more or less than a rehash of the Egyptian, Persian, Hindu, and Phœnician mythologies—an old worn-out faith, in fact, dressed in gaudy and attractive garments.
THE EARTH OF THE VEDIC PRIESTS.
