"25th Degree - Night of the Brazen Serpent" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Albert)

Soon they personified the Sun, and worshipped him under the name of OSIRIS, and transmuted the legend of his descent among the Winter Signs, into a fable of his death, his descent into the infernal regions, and his resurrection.

The Moon became Isis, the wife of Osiris; and Winter, as well as the desert or the ocean into which the Sun descended, became TYPHON, the Spirit or Principle of Evil, warring against and destroying Osiris.

From the journey of the Sun through the twelve signs came the legend of the twelve labors of Hercules, and the incarnations of Vishnu and Buddha. Hence came the legend of the murder of Kh№r№m, representative of the Sun, by the three Fellow-crafts, symbols of the three Winter signs, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, who assailed him at the three gates of Heaven and
slew him at the Winter Solstice. Hence the search for him by the nine Fellowcrafts, the other nine signs, his finding, burial, and resurrection.

The celestial Taurus, opening the new year, was the Creative of Bull of the Hindus and Japanese, breaking with his horn the egg out of which the world is born. Hence the bull APIS was worshipped by the Egyptians, and reproduced as a golden calf by Aaron in the desert. Hence the cow was sacred to the Hindus. Hence, from the sacred and beneficent signs of Taurus and Leo, the human-headed winged lions and bulls in the palaces at Kouyounjik and Nimroud, like which were the Cherubim set by Solomen in his Temple: and hence the twelve brazen or bronze oxen, on which the layer of brass was supported.

The Celestial Vulture or Eagle, rising and setting with the Scorpion, was substituted in its place, in many cases, on account of the malign influences of the latter and thus the four great periods the of the year were mailed by the Bull, the Lion, the Man (Aquarius) and the Eagle; which were upon the respective standards of Ephraim, Judah, Reuben, and Dan; and still appear on the shield of American Royal Arch Masonry.

Afterward the Ram or Lamb became an object of adoration, when in his turn, he opened the equinox, to deliver the world from the wintry reign of darkness and evil.

Around the central and simple idea of the annual death and resurrection of the Sun a multitude of circumstantial details soon clustered. Some were derived from other astronomical phenomena; while many were merely poetical ornaments and inventions.

Besides the Sun and Moon, those ancients also saw a beautiful Star, shining with a soft, silvery light, always following the Sun at no great distance when he set, or preceding him when he rose. Another of a red and angry color, and still another more kingly and brilliant than all, early attracted their attention, by their free movements among the fixed hosts of Heaven and the latter by his unusual brilliancy, and the regularity with which he rose and set, These were Venus, Mars, and Jupiter. Mercury and Saturn could scarcely have been noticed in the world's infancy, or until astronomy began to assume the proportions of a science.

In the projection of the celestial sphere by the astronomical priests, the zodiac and constellations, arranged in a circle, presented their halves in diametrical opposition; and the hemisphere of Winter was said to be adverse, opposed, contrary, to that of slew him Summer.
Over the angels of the latter ruled a king (OSIRIS or ORMUZD), enlightened, intelligent, creative, and beneficent. Over the fallen angels or evil genii of the former, the demons or Devs of the subterranean empire of darkness and sorrow, and its stars, ruled also a chief. In Egypt the
Scorpion first ruled, the sign next the Balance, and long the chief of the Winter signs; and then the Polar Bear or Ass, called Typhon, that is, deluge, on account of the rains which inundated the earth while that constellation domineered. In Persia, at a later day, it was the serpent,
which, personified as Ahriman, was the Evil Principle of the religion of Zoroaster.

The Sun does not arrive at the same moment in each year at the equinoctial point on the equator. The explanation of his anticipating that point belongs to the science of astronomy; and to that we refer you for it. The consequence is, what is termed the precession of the equinoxes, by means of which the Sun is constantly changing his place in the zodiac, at each vernal equinox; so that now, the signs retaining the names which they had 300 years before Christ, they and the
constellations do not correspond; the Sun being, now in the constellation Pisces, when he is in the sign Aries.

The annual amount of precession is 50 seconds and a little over [50" 1]. The period of a complete Revolution of the Equinoxes, 25,856 years. The precession amounts to 30║ or a sign, in 2155.6 years. So that, as the sun now enters Pisces at the Vernal Equinox, he entered Aries at that period, 300 years B.C., and Taurus 2455 B.C. And the division of the Ecliptic, now called Taurus, lies in the Constellation Aries; while the sign Gemini is in the Constellation Taurus. Four
thousand six hundred and ten years before Christ, the sun entered Gemini at the Vernal Equinox.

At the two periods, 2455 and 300 years before Christ and now, the entrances of the sun at the Equinoxes and Solstices into the signs, were and are as follows:

BC 2455.
Leo
Scorpio
Aquarius
Vern. Equinox, he entered Taurus
Summer Solstice
Autumnal Equinox
Winter Solstice

BC 300.
Aries
Cancer
Libra
Capricorn
Vern. Eq
Summer Sols
Autumn Eq
Winter Sols

1872.