David sings: "Blow the trumpet in _the New Moon_; in the time appointed; on our solemn feast-day: for this is a statute unto Israel, and a law of the G.o.d of Jacob. This he ordained to Joseph, for a testimony, when he came out of the land of Egypt."
The reverence paid to Taurus continued long after, by the precession of the Equinoxes, the colure of the vernal equinox had come to pa.s.s through Aries. The Chinese still have a temple, called "The Palace of the horned Bull"; and the same symbol is worshipped in j.a.pan and all over Hindostan. The Cimbrians carried a brazen bull with them, as the image of their G.o.d, when they overran Spain and Gaul; and the representation of the Creation, by the Deity in the shape of a bull, breaking the sh.e.l.l of an egg with his horns, meant Taurus, opening the year, and bursting the symbolical sh.e.l.l of the annually-recurring orb of the new year.
Theophilus says that the Osiris of Egypt was supposed to be dead or absent fifty days in each year. Landseer thinks that this was because the Sabaean priests were accustomed to see, in the lower lat.i.tudes of Egypt and Ethiopia, the first or chief stars of the Husbandman [BOoTES]
sink achronically beneath the Western horizon; and then to begin their lamentations, or hold forth the signal for others to weep: and when his prolific virtues were supposed to be transferred to the vernal sun, baccha.n.a.lian revelry became devotion.
Before the colure of the Vernal Equinox had pa.s.sed into Aries, and after it had left Aldebaran and the Hyades, the Pleiades were, for seven or eight centuries, the leading stars of the Sabaean year. And thus we see, on the monuments, the disk and crescent, symbols of the sun and moon in conjunction, appear successively,--first on the head, and then on the neck and back of the Zodiacal Bull, and more recently on the forehead of the Ram.
The diagrammatical character or symbol, still in use to denote Taurus, [Glyph], is this very crescent and disk: a symbol that has come down to us from those remote ages when this memorable conjunction in Taurus, by marking the commencement, at once of the Sabaean year and of the cycle of the Chaldean Saros, so pre-eminently distinguished that sign as to become its characteristic symbol. On a bronze bull from China, the crescent is attached to the _back_ of the Bull, by means of a cloud, and a curved groove is provided for the occasional introduction of the disk of the sun, when solar and lunar time were coincident and conjunctive, at the commencement of the year, and of the lunar cycle. When that was made, the year did not open with the stars in the _head_ of the Bull, but when the colure of the vernal equinox pa.s.sed across the middle or later degrees of the asterism Taurus, and the Pleiades were, in China, as in Canaan, the leading stars of the year.
The crescent and disk combined always represent the conjunctive Sun and Moon; and when placed on the head of the Zodiacal Bull, the commencement of the cycle termed SAROS by the Chaldeans, and Metonic by the Greeks; and supposed to be alluded to in Job, by the phrase, "Mazzaroth in his season"; that is to say, when the first new Moon and new Sun of the year were coincident, which happened once in eighteen years and a fraction.
On the sarcophagus of Alexander, the same symbol appears on the head of a Ram, which, in the time of that monarch, was the leading sign. So too in the sculptured temples of the Upper Nile, the crescent and disk appear, not on the head of Taurus, but on the forehead of the Ram or the Ram-headed G.o.d, whom the Grecian Mythologists called Jupiter Ammon, really the Sun in Aries.
If we now look for a moment at the individual stars which composed and were near to the respective constellations, we may find something that will connect itself with the symbols of the Ancient Mysteries and of Masonry.
It is to be noticed that when the Sun is _in_ a particular constellation, no part of that constellation will be seen, except just before sunrise and just after sunset; and then only the edge of it: but the constellations _opposite_ to it will be visible. When the Sun is in Taurus, for example, that is, when Taurus _sets with_ the Sun, Scorpio rises as he sets, and continues visible throughout the night. And if Taurus rises and sets with the Sun to-day, he will, six months hence, rise at sunset and set at sunrise; for the stars thus gain on the Sun two hours a month.
Going back to the time when, watched by the Chaldean shepherds, and the husbandmen of Ethiopia and Egypt,
"The milk-white Bull with golden horns Led on the new-born year,"
we see in the neck of TAURUS, the Pleiades, and in his face the Hyades, "which Grecia from their showering names," and of whom the brilliant Aldebaran is the chief; while to the southwestward is that most splendid of all the constellations, Orion, with Betelgueux in his right shoulder, Bellatrix in his left shoulder, Rigel on the left foot, and in his belt the three stars known as the Three Kings, and now as the Yard and Ell.
Orion, ran the legend, persecuted the Pleiades; and to save them from his fury, Jupiter placed them in the Heavens, where he still pursues them, but in vain. They, with Arcturus and the Bands of Orion, are mentioned in the Book of Job. They are usually called the Seven Stars, and it is said there _were_ seven, before the fall of Troy; though now only six are visible.
The Pleiades were so named from a Greek word signifying _to sail._ In all ages they have been observed for signs and seasons. Virgil says that the sailors gave names to "the Pleiades, Hyades, and the Northern Car: _Pleiadas, Hyadas, Claramque Lycaonis Arcton."_ And Palinurus, he says,--
_Arcturum, pluviasque Hyadas, Geminosque Triones, Armatumque auro circ.u.mspicit Oriona,--_
studied Arcturus and the rainy Hyades and the Twin Triones, and Orion cinctured with gold.
Taurus was the prince and leader of the celestial host for more than two thousand years; and when his head set with the Sun about the last of May, the Scorpion was seen to rise in the Southeast.
The Pleiades were sometimes called _Vergili,_ or the Virgins of Spring; because the Sun entered this cl.u.s.ter of stars in the season of blossoms.
Their Syrian name was _Succoth,_ or _Succothbeneth,_ derived from a Chaldean word signifying to _speculate_ or _observe._
The _Hyades_ are five stars in the form of a V, 11 southeast of the Pleiades. The Greeks counted them as seven. When the Vernal Equinox was in Taurus, Aldebaran led up the starry host; and as he rose in the East, Aries was about 27 high.
When he was close upon the meridian, the Heavens presented their most magnificent appearance. Capella was a little further from the meridian, to the north; and Orion still further from it to the southward. Procyon, Sirius, Castor and Pollux had climbed about half-way from the horizon to the meridian. Regulus had just risen upon the ecliptic. The Virgin still lingered below the horizon. Fomalhaut was half-way to the meridian in the Southwest; and to the Northwest were the brilliant constellations, Perseus, Cepheus, Ca.s.siopeia, and Andromeda; while the Pleiades had just pa.s.sed the meridian.
ORION is visible to all the habitable world. The equinoctial line pa.s.ses through the centre of it. When Aldebaran rose in the East, the Three Kings in Orion followed him; and as Taurus set, the Scorpion, by whose sting it was said Orion died, rose in the East.
Orion rises at noon about the 9th of March. His rising was accompanied with great rains and storms, and it became very terrible to mariners.
In Bootes, called by the ancient Greeks _Lycaon_, from _lukos,_ a wolf, and by the Hebrews, Caleb Anubach, the Barking Dog, is the Great Star ARCTURUS, which, when Taurus opened the year, corresponded with a season remarkable for its great heat.
Next comes GEMINI, the Twins, two human figures, in the heads of which are the bright Stars CASTOR and POLLUX, the Dioscuri, and the Cabiri of Samothrace, patrons of navigation; while South of Pollux are the brilliant Stars SIRIUS and PROCYON, the greater and lesser Dog: and still further South, Canopus, in the Ship Argo.
Sirius is apparently the largest and brightest Star in the Heavens. When the Vernal Equinox was in Taurus, he rose heliacally, that is, just before the Sun, when, at the Summer Solstice, the Sun entered Leo, about the 21st of June, fifteen days previous to the swelling of the Nile. The heliacal rising of Canopus was also a precursor of the rising of the Nile. Procyon was the forerunner of Sirius, and rose before him.
There are no important Stars in CANCER. In the Zodiacs of Esne and Dendera, and in most of the astrological remains of Egypt, the sign of this constellation was a beetle (_Scarabus_), which thence became sacred, as an emblem of the gate through which souls descended from Heaven. In the crest of Cancer is a cl.u.s.ter of Stars formerly called _Prsepe,_ the Manger, on each side of which is a small Star, the two of which were called _Aselli_ little a.s.ses.
In _Leo_ are the splendid Stars, REGULUS, directly on the ecliptic, and DENEBOLA in the Lion"s tail. Southeast of Regulus is the fine Star COR HYDRae.
The combat of Hercules with the Nemaean lion was his first labor. It was the first sign into which the Sun pa.s.sed, after falling below the Summer Solstice; from which time he struggled to re-ascend.
The Nile overflowed in this sign. It stands first in the Zodiac of Dendera, and is in all the Indian and Egyptian Zodiacs.
In the left hand of VIRGO (Isis or Ceres) is the beautiful Star SPICA Virginis, a little South of the ecliptic. VINDEMIATRIX, of less magnitude, is in the right arm; and Northwest of Spica, in Bootes (the husbandman, Osiris), is the splendid star ARCTURUS.
The division of the first Decan of the Virgin, Aben Ezra says, represents a beautiful Virgin with flowing hair, sitting in a chair, with two ears of corn in her hand, and suckling an infant. In an Arabian MS. in the Royal Library at Paris, is a picture of the Twelve Signs.
That of Virgo is a young girl with an infant by her side. Virgo was Isis; and her representation, carrying a child (Horus) in her arms, exhibited in her temple, was accompanied by this inscription: "I AM ALL THAT IS, THAT WAS, AND THAT SHALL BE; and the fruit which I brought forth is the Sun."
Nine months after the Sun enters Virgo, he reaches the Twins. When Scorpio begins to rise, Orion sets: when Scorpio comes to the meridian, Leo begins to set, Typhon reigns, Osiris is slain, and Isis (the Virgin) his sister and wife, follows him to the tomb, weeping.
The Virgin and Bootes, setting heliacally at the Autumnal Equinox, delivered the world to the wintry constellations, and introduced into it the genius of Evil, represented by Ophiucus, the Serpent.
At the moment of the Winter Solstice, the Virgin rose heliacally (_with_ the Sun), having the Sun (Horus) in her bosom.
In LIBRA are four Stars of the second and third magnitude, which we shall mention hereafter. They are Zuben-es-Chamali, Zuben-el-Gemabi, Zuben-hak-rabi, and Zuben-el-Gubi. Near the last of these is the brilliant and malign Star, ANTARES in Scorpio.
In SCORPIO, ANTARES, of the 1st magnitude, and remarkably red, was one of the four great Stars, FOMALHAUT, in Cetus, ALDEBARAN in Taurus, REGULUS in Leo, and ANTARES, that formerly answered to the Solst.i.tial and Equinoctial points, and were much noticed by astronomers. This sign was sometimes represented by a Snake, and sometimes by a Crocodile, but generally by a Scorpion, which last is found on the Mithriac Monuments, and on the Zodiac of Dendera. It was considered a sign accursed, and the entrance of the Sun into it commenced the reign of Typhon.
In Sagittarius, Capricornus, and Aquarius there are no Stars of importance.
Near Pisces is the brilliant Star FOMALHAUT. No sign in the Zodiac is considered of more malignant influence than this. It was deemed indicative of _Violence_ and _Death._ Both the Syrians and Egyptians abstained from eating fish, out of dread and abhorhence; and when the latter would represent anything as odious, or express hatred by Hieroglyphics, they painted a fish.
In Auriga is the bright Star CAPELLA, which to the Egyptians never set.
And, circling ever round the North Pole are Seven Stars, known as Ursa Major, or the Great Bear, which have been an object of universal observation in all ages of the world. They were venerated alike by the Priests of Bel, the Magi of Persia, the Shepherds of Chaldea, and the Phnician navigators, as well as by the astronomers of Egypt. Two of them, MERAK and DUBHE, always point to the North Pole.
The Phoenicians and Egyptians, says Eusebius, were the first who ascribed divinity to the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and regarded them as the sole causes of the production and destruction of all beings. From them went abroad over all the world all known opinions as to the generation and descent of the G.o.ds. Only the Hebrews looked beyond the visible world to an invisible Creator. All the rest of the world regarded as G.o.ds those luminous bodies that blaze in the firmament, offered them sacrifices, bowed down before them, and raised neither their souls nor their worship above the visible heavens.
The Chaldeans, Canaanites, and Syrians, among whom Abraham lived, did the same. The Canaanites consecrated horses and chariots to the Sun. The inhabitants of Emesa in Phnicia adored him under the name of Elagabalus; and the Sun, as Hercules, was the great Deity of the Tyrians. The Syrians worshipped, with fear and dread, the Stars of the Constellation Pisces, and consecrated images of them in their temples.
The Sun as Adonis was worshipped in Byblos and about Mount Liba.n.u.s.
There was a magnificent Temple of the Sun at Palmyra, which was pillaged by the soldiers of Aurelian, who rebuilt it and dedicated it anew. The Pleiades, under the name of Succoth-Beneth, were worshipped by the Babylonian colonists who settled in the country of the Samaritans.
Saturn, under the name of Remphan, was worshipped among the Copts. The planet Jupiter was worshipped as Bel or Baal; Mars as Malec, Melech, or Moloch; Venus as Ashtaroth or Astarte, and Mercury as Nebo, among the Syrians, a.s.syrians, Phnicians, and Canaanites.
Sanchoniathon says that the earliest Phnicians adored the Sun, whom they deemed sole Lord of the Heavens; and honored him, under the name of BEEL-SAMIN, signifying _King of Heaven._ They raised columns to the elements, fire, and air or wind, and worshipped them; and Sabaeism, or the worship of the Stars, flourished everywhere in Babylonia. The Arabs, under a sky always clear and serene, adored the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
Abulfaragius so informs us, and that each of the twelve Arab Tribes invoked a particular Star as its Patron. The Tribe Hamyar was consecrated to the Sun, the Tribe Cennah to the Moon; the Tribe Misa was under the protection of the beautiful Star in Taurus, Aldebaran; the Tribe Tai under that of Canopus; the Tribe Kais, of Sirius; the Tribes Lachamus and Idamus, of Jupiter; the Tribe Asad, of Mercury; and so on.
The Saracens, in the time of Heraclius, worshipped Venus, whom they called CABAR, or The Great; and they swore by the Sun, Moon, and Stars.
Shahristan, an Arabic author, says that the Arabs and Indians before his time had temples dedicated to the seven Planets. Abulfaragius says that the seven great primitive nations, from whom all others descended, the Persians, Chaldaeans, Greeks, Egyptians, Turks, Indians, and Chinese, all originally were Sabaeists, and worshipped the Stars. They all, he says, like the Chaldaeans, prayed, turning toward the North Pole three times a day, at Sunrise, Noon, and Sunset, bowing themselves three times before the Sun. They invoked the Stars and the Intelligences which inhabited them, offered them sacrifices, and called the fixed stars and planets G.o.ds. Philo says that the Chaldaeans regarded the stars as sovereign arbiters of the order of the world, and did not look beyond the visible causes to any invisible and intellectual being. They regarded NATURE as the great divinity, that exercised its powers through the action of its parts the Sun, Moon, Planets, and Fixed Stars, the successive revolutions of the seasons, and the combined action of Heaven and Earth.
The great feast of the Sabaeans was when the Sun reached the Vernal Equinox: and they had five other feasts, at the times when the five minor planets entered the signs in which they had their exaltation.
Diodorus Siculus informs us that the Egyptians recognized two great Divinities, primary and eternal, the Sun and Moon, which they thought governed the world, and from which everything receives its nourishment and growth: that on them depended all the great work of generation, and the perfection of all effects produced in nature. We know that the two great Divinities of Egypt were Osiris and Isis, the greatest agents of nature; according to some, the Sun and Moon, and according to others, Heaven and Earth, or the active and pa.s.sive principles of generation.
And we learn from Porphyry that Chaeremon, a learned priest of Egypt, and many other learned men of that nation, said that the Egyptians recognized as G.o.ds the stars composing the zodiac, and all those that by their rising or setting marked its divisions; the subdivisions of the signs into decans, the horoscope and the stars that presided therein, and which were called Potent Chiefs of Heaven: that considering the Sun as the Great G.o.d, Architect, and Ruler of the World, they explained not only the fable of Osiris and Isis, but generally all their sacred legends, by the stars, by their appearance and disappearance, by their ascension, by the phases of the moon, and the increase and diminution of her light; by the march of the sun, the division of time and the heavens into two parts, one a.s.signed to darkness and the other to light; by the Nile and, in fine, by the whole round of physical causes.