/> silvery moon, and the shining planets, of our solar sphere.



There are three different aspects of this sacred book, and in

each aspect the same characters appear, but in different roles,

their dress and natural surroundings being suited to the natural

play of their symbolical parts. In fact, the whole imagery may be

likened unto a play, or, rather, a series of plays, performed by

the same company of artists. It may be a comedy, or it may be

melodrama, or it may be a tragedy; but the principles behind the

scenes are ever the same, and show forth the same Divine Oneness

of Nature; demonstrating the eternal axiom. ONE TRUTH, ONE LIFE,

ONE PRINCIPLE, AND ONE WORD, and in their fourfold expression, is

the four great chapters of the celestial book of the starry

heavens.



In this aspect the visible cosmos may be represented as a

kaleidoscope. The visible constellations, planets, and other

heavenly bodies, are the bits of colored glass; and Deity the

invisible force, which keeps the instrument in motion. Each

revolution produces a different pictorial figure, which, complete

in its harmony of parts, is perfect in its mathematical

proportions, and beautiful in its geometrical designs. And yet

each creation, each form, and each combination of forms, are

produced by the same little pieces of glass; and all of them, in

reality, are optical illusions; i.e., natural phenomena, which

deceive the physical senses. So it is with Cosmic Nature.



It must not, however, be supposed, because of this perfect and

continual illusion of Nature's playful phenomena, that all

visible creation is purely an illusion of the senses, as some

cranky metaphysicians would have it, because this is not so.



Going back again to our kaleidoscope, we can clearly see that

without it, and its tinted beads, no such optical illusion is

possible. There is, then, a basis of spiritual reality to all

visible physical phenomena; but this basis lies concealed,

because of the perfect illusion which the reflected image

produces upon the material plane of the physical senses. The

beads themselves are real. These are the basis, and the different

pictures are the result, not of the beads, but of the angle from

which they are reflected to our earthly vision. In other words,

THE PLANE FROM WHICH WE BEHOLD THE PHENOMENA.



Hence, the nearer we approach the Divine center of our being, the

less complicated Nature's original designs become, and the

farther we are removed from that central source, the more weird,

mysterious, complicated, and incomprehensible, does Mother Nature

appear, to the finite human mind. And this is especially so, to

man's theological instinct, his religiosity, that constitutes one

of the fundamental factors of his being.



Nature is ever one in her original truths and their duplicate

reflections; but ever conflicting and contradictory in her

multiplied refractions through the minds of men. Therefore, we

will present the primary concept of that grand Astro-Theology

formulated by man's great progenitors; and view the simple

machinery, by which they typified to the primitive mind a general

outline of Nature's Divine providence.



All sacred books begin with an account of physical creation, the

culmination of which, is the appearance of man and woman, as the

parents of the race; and, while they will differ considerably in

detail and make-up, the basic ideas embodied are essentially the

same in all cosmo-genesis; so that in the Jewish Bible,

accessible to all, one can read the primitive story of creation

from a Jewish point of view, and, when read, rest satisfied that

he has read the revelation vouchsafed to man in every age and in

every clime. The only difference is one of mental peculiarity and

national custom, along with climatic conditions. Hindoo,

Chaldean, Chinese, Persian, Egyptian, Scandinavian, Druidic and

ancient Mexican are all the same--different names and drapery, to

suit the people only, but essentially the same in the fundamental

ideas conveyed.



THE CREATION OF THE WORLD



The simple story of creation begins at midnight, when the Sun has

reached the lowest point in the arc--Capricorn. All Nature then

is in a state of coma in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter

time, solar light and heat are at their lowest ebb; and the

various appearances of motion, etc., are the Sun's passage from

Capricorn to Pisces, 60 degrees, and from Pisces to Aries, 30

degrees, making 90 degrees, or one quadrant of the circle. Then

begin in real earnest the creative powers, it is spring time. The

six days are the six signs of the northern arc, beginning with

the disruptive fires of Aries. Then, in their order, Taurus,

Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo; then Libra, the seventh day and the

seventh sign, whose first point is opposite Aries and is the

opposite point of the sphere, the point of equilibrium, equal day

and equal night, it is autumn. It is the sixth sign from Aries,

the first creative action, and so the sixth day following the

fiery force, wherein God created the bi-sexual man. See Genesis,

1:5-27: "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God

created He him, male and female created He them."



It is the seventh, or day of the Lord (man), the climax of

material creation and Lord of all living things, and be rests in

the blissful Garden of Eden. This seventh day and seventh sign is

the concealed sacred Libra the perfect union of the sexes. Then

comes the fall from Libra, through Scorpio, and banishment from

the Garden of Eden. That is the victory of Satan, or Winter, over

Summer, etc. It is useless to repeat the same old, old story. The

yearly journey of the Sun around the constellated dial of Deity

is the Astro basis of all primitive cosmology.





THE SCHEME OF REDEMPTION



In addition to the creation of the world and the fall of man

through sin, we find all people in possession of a grand scheme

of redemption, and, like the former, we shall find them all

essentially the same. They all require a mediator between the

angry God and disobedient man, and they all require that this

mediator shall be Divine, or semi-Divine. Nothing less can

satisfy Deity's demands; or, rather, let us say man's own carnal

imagination. It is simply another turn of our cosmic

kaleidoscope, and behold! the actors have changed. Capricorn

becomes the stable of the Goat, in the manger of which the young

Savior of the world is born. As a type of all, we will take the

Gospel Savior. It is again midnight. The Sun enters the sign

Capricorn on the twenty- first of December. This is the lowest

point of the arc, South, and for three days he is stationary, or

in darkness. And now it is Christmas Eve. He (the Sun or Savior)

begins to move, and at midnight is born as the celestial Virgo is

rising upon the Eastern quadrant of the skies; hence the Sun-God

is born of a Virgin. Then comes the flight to escape Kronos, or

Saturn (ruling Capricorn), who kills the young babes. There is a

period of silence in the God's history while the Sun is in

transit through the signs Capricorn and part of Aquarius. That

is, he is hidden or obscured by the clouded skies of this period.

We hear of him but once again until he, the Sun-God, or Savior,

is thirty years old, or has transited thirty degrees of space. He

has entered the sign Aquarius (symbolical of the Man.) Now begins

the period of miracles.



Let us digress for a space, and refer to our chapter on the

constellations. We shall find a perfect analogy between this

miracle- working period and the constellations Aquarius and

Pisces, as therein given. The first miracle we read of is turning

water into wine. This may be seen in a threefold aspect. The

Sun-God changes by his life- forces the waters of winter into the

rich vintage of the harvest, where the Virgin (Virgo) Mother

again appears. Again, the wine becomes the blood--the life

offered up on the vernal cross to strengthen, renew and make

merry with new life our Earth and its people. The devil (or

winter), with his powers of darkness, is defeated and man saved.

The final triumph is the crucifixion in Aries, the vernal

equinox, about the twenty-first of March, quickly followed by the

resurrection, or renewal of life. Then the God rises into heaven,

to sit upon the throne at the summer solstice, to bless his

people. We read, that, the Savior of mankind was crucified

between two thieves. Very good. The equinoctial point is the

dividing line between light and darkness, winter and summer. In

other words, the Sun is resuming his northern arc, to replenish

the Earth with his solar force and preserve his people from death

in the coming winter. The life of a Buddha, a Krishna or a

Christ, are all found in their completeness in the life of Horus;

while the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are Isis, Horus and Osirus.

The same trinity, under different names, are found in all

nations. It is the Sun, Moon and Human Soul, which is the only

true mediator of Man.



There is another version of this celestial crucifixion, wherein

the Sun-God-Savior, after the supper of the harvest in Virgo, is

crucified at the autumnal equinox upon the equator. We read that

he was dying from the sixth to the ninth hours--three hours,

three signs, or from the 21st of September to the 21st of

December, when he is laid in the tomb. This is the lowest point

of the Sun's journey in the southern hemisphere, and darkness

holds the balance in our northern hemisphere. The three days in

the tomb are the three months, or three signs, before the vernal

equinox, or the resurrection, the rising out of the South to

bring salvation to the northern portion of our Earth.



We have now only to glance over various diverging lines of the

same cosmology and the same redemption. All these allegories

typified TRUTHS. They all teach the Initiate the mysteries of

creation, of man's destiny and his necessary Cycle of Material

Probation. Some of the most beautiful parables may be read in

this light. Abraham, and the story of his wanderings in the

deserts of Asia Minor; of Lot and his unfaithful wife, are to be

seen still written in the heavens. Hagar and Ishmael are still

there; so also are Esau and his brother Jacob; the story of

Joseph and his brethren; of Sampson and his twelve labors. This

is the same beautiful story. The Sun, shorn of his glory, or

solar force, at the autumnal equinox, stands upon the equator

between the two pillars of the temple (or light and darkness),

and pulls down the temple (or signs) into the southern

hemisphere. And behind this we have the eternal truth of the

soul, when, giving way to the allurements of matter (Delilah),

the soul is shorn of its spiritual covering, or conscience, and

sinks into matter and death. And the story of David and Goliath

can be read to-day as clearly as of yore.



They are eternal, spiritual verities of human nature, and record,

not only the history of the human race, its mutations and

transmutations, but of the individual man and the suffering and

delusive joys of his material life. Aye, more! It is the record

of all his past existence and a type of his eternal destiny in

the future.



Another turn of our cosmic kaleidoscope, and lo! the scene

changes --the play extended, the angles greater, caused by the

revolution of our solar parent through his celestial Zodiac. As

the Sun passes out of one sign into another, or, in other words,

forms a different angle to his own center of force, a new

dispensation is born to the world; or, rather, re-born under a

new guise. The great Sun-God appears to change his nature and

manifests an entirely different set of attributes. That is the

way man personified this play of Nature, through his imperfect

conception of the cause of this change. But to him it was, and

is, a truth, and man's effort to externalize these attributes in

a Divine personality was, and is, strictly from the plane of his

mental development and spiritual unfoldment.



The two pictures of this Astro-Theology, as set forth in the two

divisions of the Jewish Bible, will illustrate our meaning. The

Sun had entered the sign Aries some time prior to the exodus from

Egypt. Aries is the constellation of Mars, the fiery, destructive

and warrior element, or force, in Nature, and we find the Jewish

conception of God a perfect embodiment of these attributes: The

Lord of Hosts, a God mighty in battle, delighting in the shedding

of blood and the smell of burnt offerings, ever marshalling the

people to battle and destroying their foes and the works of his

own hands; a God imbued with jealousy, anger, and revenge. This

was the type set up by the Jewish savior and lawgiver, Moses.



After a period of 2,160 years, we find the Christian cosmology

ushered in. The Sun has entered the sign Pisces, which is ruled

by Jupiter, the beneficent father. The Christ, or mediator, of

the Christian Gospel was an embodiment of the joint qualities of

the sign and ruling planet. Gentle, loving and merciful, His

words were messages of love and peace; His work was with the

poor, oppressed and fallen; he eschewed sacrifices and burnt

offerings; a contrite heart was the best offering; He taught the

people that God was their Father, loving all, just, yet merciful.

But a strong taint of the old conception has remained with the

human race, hiding, at times, the beauty of the latter concept.

These are, again, the refractions of eternal truths, viewed by

man from his material plane. The elements are here presented, the

alphabet and its key clearly defined. Therefore, let each one

explore this tangled labyrinth of Astro-Theology for him or

herself, and work out the various correspondencies at leisure. It

is enough to indicate the starry originals of all this seemingly

confused mass of so-called Divine revelation in sacred books.



They, one and all, pertain to the same celestial phenomena, and

the various Bibles are the outcome of man's serious attempt to

tabulate and externalize this heavenly order, to record his

conceptions of these starry aspects and movements with their

corresponding effects upon the Earth.



Probably the purest system to us is that which may yet be derived

from Chaldean sources. This sacerdotal caste were the most

perfect in their astral conceptions and complete in their

symbolic system of recording, and if the great work found in King

Sargon's library in seventy tablets is ever translated, it will

prove of priceless value to the student of these weird, but

sublime, astrological mysteries.



In conclusion, as we reflect upon the fourfold aspect of the

subject that we have presented in outline in these pages, the

whole imagery passes in review before the mental vision. We see

that the radiant constellations of the heavenly vault, with the

beautiful reflection and counterpart, the shining Zodiac, are the

two halves of the great Cycle of Necessity, the spiral of

eternal, universal life, which binds the whole into unity, and

unity into infinity. It is the grand scheme of creative life. The

seven principles of Nature, or Divine Activities, are the forces

producing the phenomena within seven angelic states, seven

kingdoms, and, by seven planets, upon the external plane; the

planets being the passive mediums of the positive spiritual

forces. Upon this dual spiral, which reflects the seven rays of

the solar spectrum is produced seven musical notes; one half of

the spiral in sound and color being the complementary of the

other half. Man, the Earth, and our solar system, are revolving,

each orb in its own key, and its own peculiar ray, meeting and

blending with other spirals, and the whole blending into one

mighty spiral Cycle of Progressive Life, revolving around the

Eternal, Infinite Ego-God, ever involving and evolving the

attributes, powers and possibilities of the One great central

source of Being.



It is a grand orchestra, pealing out in richest melody and

sublime HARMONY, the grand Anthem of Creation: "We Praise Thee, O

God."