Astral Worship | Page 2

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.
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