Astral Worship

뮞Astral Worship

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Title: Astral Worship
Author: J. H. Hill
Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8855] [This file was first posted on August 14, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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E-text prepared by David Deley

Astral Worship
by
J. H. Hill, M. D.

"Now, what I want is--facts."--_Boz._

CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION 5 THE GEOCENTRIC SYSTEM OF NATURE 13 The Earth 13 The Firmament 13 The Planets 14 The Constellations 15 The Zodiac 15 THE SACRED NUMBERS 7 AND 12 17 THE TWELVE THOUSAND YEAR CYCLE 18 THE ANCIENT TRIAD 19 GOD SOL 22 THE ANCIENT COSMOGONY 30 FALL AND REDEMPTION OF MAN 31 INCARNATIONS OF GOD SOL 33 FABLE OF THE TWELVE LABORS 36 ANNIVERSARIES OF SOLAR WORSHIP 40 The Nativity 40 Epiphany or Twelfth Day 41 Lent or Lenten Season 42 Passion Week 44 Passion Plays 45 Resurrection and Easter Festival 46 Annunciation 48 Ascension 49 Assumption 49 The Lord's Supper 50 Transubstantiation 50 Autumnal Crucifixion 51 Michaelmas 56 PERSONIFICATIONS OF THE DIVISIONS OF TIME 57 The Hours 57 The Days 57 The Months 58 The Seasons 60 Half Year of Increasing Days 63 Half Year of Decreasing Days 63 Last Quarter of the Year 64 ZODIACAL SYMBOLS OF SOLAR WORSHIP 64 The Sphinx 65 The Dragon 66 The Bull 67 The Ram 68 The Lamb 68 The Fish 71 SIGNS OF THE CROSS 72 FUTURE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS 74 The Oriental System 75 The Occidental System 75 The Second or General Judgment 77 JEWISH, OR ANCIENT CHRISTIANITY 79 THE PROPHECIES 83 ROMAN OR MODERN CHRISTIANITY 88 FREEMASONRY AND DRUIDISM 109 THE SABBATH 117 PIOUS FRAUDS 121 CONCLUSION 125

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 Now, while it is true that modern Astronomy has superseded the ancient system, and people have ceased to believe that the stars are intervening in mundane affairs, nothing could be further from the truth than the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