Astral Worship by J. H. Hill.

First published in 1895.

This ebook edition was created and published by Global Grey on the 17th November 2018,
and updated on the 10th April 2023.
The artwork used for the cover is ‘Sun, Moon, Seasons and Twelve Months’
painted by an unknown artist.
This book can be found on the site here:
globalgreyebooks.com/astral-worship-ebook.html
©Global Grey 2023
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Contents
Introduction
The Geocentric System Of Nature
The Sacred Numbers 7 And 12
The Twelve Thousand Year Cycle
The Ancient Triad
God Sol
The Ancient Cosmogony
Fall And Redemption Of Man
Incarnations Of God Sol
Fable Of The Twelve Labors
Anniversaries Of Solar Worship
Personifications Of The Divisions Of Time
Zodiacal Symbols Of Solar Worship
Signs Of The Cross
Future Rewards And Punishments
Jewish Or Ancient Christianity
The Prophecies
Roman Or Modern Christianity
Freemasonry And Druidism
The Sabbath
Pious Frauds
Conclusion
 1

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Astronomy has superseded the ancient system, and people have ceased to believe that the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.
 2

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
 3

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.
 4

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.
 5

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.
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.
 6

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.
 7

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.
 8

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.
 9

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.
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.
 10

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.
 11

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.
 12

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.
 13

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.
 14

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.
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.
 15

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 personæ 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
 16

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 Æschylus, 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,
 17

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.
 18

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,
 19

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.
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.
 20

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
 21

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?
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.
 22

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 50¼ 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
 23

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 23½ degrees, the true angle of obliquity of the
Ecliptic. This symbol is still retained in the Catholic Church.
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.
 24

Signs Of 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 23½ 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?
 25

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
 26

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.
 27

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
 28

ΙΗΣ, 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.
 29

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
 30

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.
 31

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
 32

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
 33

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 philosophicalkind, 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 be 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
 34

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
 35

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
 36

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
 37

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.
 38

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 astrology.
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.
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
 39

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.
 40

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, 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.”
 41

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.
 42

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 ægis 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
 43

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.”
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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
 45

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.
THE END
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