The Message of the Stars[1]
[PAGE 1] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
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[ T H E M E S S A G E O F T H E S T A R S ]
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[ BY ]
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[ M A X H E I N D E L ]
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[ AND ]
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[ A U G U S T A F O S S H E I N D E L ]
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AN ESOTERIC EXPOSITION OF
NATAL AND MEDICAL ASTROLOGY
EXPLAINING THE ARTS OF
READING THE HOROSCOPE AND DIAGNOSING
DISEASE
[PAGE 2] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
P.O. BOX 713
OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, U.S.A.
[PAGE 3] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
CHAPTER I
EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
It is a matter of common knowledge among mystics that the evolutionary
career of mankind is indissolubly bound up with the divine hierarchies who
rule the planets and the signs of the Zodiac, and that passage of the Sun
and the planets through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, marks man's progress
in time and in space. Therefore it is not to be wondered at, that in the
course of their investigations into the spiritual development of mankind,
the writers have also encountered much that deals with the Zodiac which is
the boundary of our evolutionary sphere at the present time. So much has
been perceived in THE MEMORY OF NATURE that sheds light upon obscure pas-
sages of the Bible, that notes have been made from time to time of different
points, but how to collect and collage these dissociated writings into a
united whole, has been a great problem for a long time. Even now, the writ-
ers know and feel that what they are bringing forth is only a very, very
weak attempt to set before the students that great body of facts which have
come to them through the memory of nature. They feel, however, that this
will give a new and more profound meaning to the old symbols, and that by
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passing on what has been found they put themselves in line to receive more
light.
Concerning the future evolution of planets; the Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception teaches, on page 256, that "when the beings upon the planet
have evolved to a sufficient degree, the planet becomes a Sun, the fixed
center of the Solar System. When the beings there have evolved to a still
greater degree, and consequently it has reached its maximum of brilliancy,
it breaks up into a Zodiac and becomes, so to speak, the womb of a new Solar
System. Thus the Great hosts of Divine beings who, until then, were con-
fined upon that Sun gain freedom of actions upon a great number of stars
whence they can affect, in different ways, the system which grows up within
their sphere of influence. The planets or many-bearing worlds within the
Zodiac are constantly being worked upon by these forces but in various ways
according to the stage they have reached in evolution. Our Sun could not
have become a sun until it set out from itself all the beings who were not
sufficiently evolved to endure the high rate of vibration and the great lu-
minosity of the beings who were qualified for that evolution. All the be-
ings upon the different planets would have been consumed had they remained
in the Sun. This visible Sun, however, though it is a place of evolution
for beings vastly above man, is not by any means, the Father of other plan-
ets, as material science supposes. On the contrary, it is itself an emana-
[PAGE 5] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
tion fron THE CENTRAL SUN, which is the invisible source of all that IS in
our solar system."
"Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which are reflected the Rays of en-
ergy from the Spiritual Sun, the real Sun is as invisible as the REAL man."
From this teaching it is apparent that the great spiritual hierarchies
which are now guiding our evolution, have had their training for this path
in previous schemes of manifestation, also that what THEY are now doing, WE
shall some day do FOR OTHERS. Already the foremost among our race are
treading the path of initiation, and have thereby advanced into stages, far
beyond the general status of our present humanity. It has been learned that
those who have gone through the Mercurial School of the lesser Mysteries,
and have graduated from the School of the Greater Mysteries are now prepar-
ing human evolution for the Jupiter Period. They have entered the planet
Jupiter, by way of one of the Moons, which serves as a stepping stone. Oth-
ers there are, unfortunately, who have gone the other way. We read in the
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, that even as the whole population of the earth
was at one time expelled from the present Sun because of their inability to
keep up with the vibrations of the beings thereon, thus hindering them and
being hindered themselves, so also it becomes necessary in the Lemurian Ep-
och, to expel a number of the stragglers from earth. Thus the Moon was cast
out into space to revolve as a Satellite around our present planet. Those
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unfortunates are gradually degenerating and the time will come when they
will all go to the planet Saturn, which is the door to Chaos. Thence they
will be expelled to inter-planetary space to await the time when, in a new
system, there will be a favorable condition for their further evolution.
THE GATE OF LIFE AND DEATH
Thus the Zodiac and the planets are as a book in which we may read the
history of Humanity during past ages, and they also give a key to the future
which is in store for us. In the famous Zodiac in the Temple of Denderah,
Cancer is not pictured as we have it in modern days. There it is a beetle,
a scarab. This was the emblem of the soul, and Cancer has always been known
in ancient times, as well as among modern mystics, to be the sphere of the
soul, THE GATE OF LIFE in the Zodiac whence the spirits coming into rebirth,
enter our sub-lunary conditions. It is therefore aptly ruled by the Moon
which is the planet of fecundation, and it is noteworthy that we find Capri-
corn, which is its opposite, ruled by Saturn the PLANET OF DEATH AND CHAOS,
who is mystically depicted as "the reaper with his scythe and hour glass in
hand." These two opposite signs are therefore turning points in the soul's
career. Cancer and Capricorn respectively mark the highest ascent of the
Sun into the Northern Hemisphere, and its lowest descent into the South. We
observe that during the summer when the Sun is in the sphere of Cancer and
[PAGE 7] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
allied signs, fecundation and growth are the order of the day. But when the
Sun is in the South, in Capricorn, we have winter, when nature is dead. The
fruits of the summer are then consumed and assimilated by us. As a circle
dance of the Sun among the twelve signs determines the seasons of the year
WHEN DIRECT, causing the germination of myriads of seeds cast in the earth,
also the mating of the fauna, which then makes the world alive with the
sights and sounds of manifested life, and at another time leaves the world
dumb, dull and drear in winter's gloom, under the sway of Saturn, so by the
slower backward movement, known as the PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOX, does it
produce the great changes which we know as Evolution. In fact, this preces-
sional measure of the sun marks the birth and death of races, nations and
their religions, for the pictorial Zodiac is a symbolical presentation of
our past, present and future development.
CAPRICORN
Capricorn, the goat, is not a goat at all as we know that animal, but
part fish and part goat. Its Saturnine rulership, and the fact that it re-
ceives the Sun at the dawn of each New Year, naturally by analogy associates
it with the beginning of precessional epochs. It represents the stage in
evolution covering transition from fish, through amphibia to the mammalian
form. The belligerency of the goat is well known, and an apt symbol of the
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struggle for existence, in which the weak perish unless able to outdistance
their foes. This phase of the matter is sometimes expressed in the symbol,
when drawn as part fish and part antelope. Jacob, in the forty-ninth chap-
ter of Genesis, pronounces blessings upon his children, which symbolize the
twelve signs. There he speaks of Naphtali as a "HIND" let loose; thus a
very apt symbol of Capricorn, for when the Sun is there at each winter sol-
stice, it is starting a race through the circle of twelve signs, which it
must complete in a given time--a year.
SAGITTARIUS
When the Sun leaves Capricorn, by precession, it enters the sign Sagit-
tarius, and this is pictured in the symbolical Zodiac as a Centaur, part
horse and part man. Thus it shows aptly, the fact that we have evolved
through the animal stage into the human. The centaur is in the act of draw-
ing his bow, showing that there is something for which the human spirit, on
its pilgrimage through matter, is seeking, that it aspires to something that
lies beyond it, as a lofty ideal, for the bow points upward to the stars.
SCORPIO
The next step in human unfoldment is not so much along the physical lines
as along the mental. Its nature is shown by the Sun's passage through the
sign Scorpio, which is pictorially represented as a SERPENT or SCORPION,
[PAGE 9] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
emblems of cunning and subtility. It is plain from this symbol that the
faculty of the mind evolved by infant humanity was CUNNING, and we still see
that that is a characteristic trait among the lower races, the lower classes
and the lower natures even among our present-day humanity.
LIBRA
But, when the Sun enters the sign Libra, 'THE SCALES,' by precession,
the balance of reason gives him a new start upon the evolutionary path. Un-
der the care of divine instructors man had at that time advanced to the
point where because of this new faculty, reason, he could be made fully re-
sponsible to nature's laws, and thus reap what he had sown, that he might
learn the lesson of life by actual experience, be able to reason out the
connection between cause and effect and in time learn to govern himself so
as to progress further upon the path.
VIRGO
Thus, under the guidance of the spiritual hierarchies, focused through
the signs of CAPRICORN, SAGITTARIUS, SCORPIO, and LIBRA, were his physical,
moral and mental attributes acquired, and he was equipped and mental at-
tributes acquired, and he was equipped to commence the spiritual side of his
evolution. The germ of this progress is hidden in the celestial virgin, the
sign VIRGO, which is the vehicle of the immaculate conception, the heavenly
mother of Christ; not of one Christ only, but of many. This is one of the
most sublime signs of the Zodiac and one of the most mystical, so fraught
[PAGE 10] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
with hidden meaning that its full import cannot be fully understood save
when viewed by the internal light of spiritual illumination. Yearly, at the
winter solstice, the immaculate Madonna is ascendant at midnight, when the
new born Sun commences to rise to the task of growing the grain and grape,
to save humanity from the cold and famine, which would inevitably result
were he to remain in the southern declination. The Sun is therefore an apt
symbol of the Savior, born to feed his flock on the spiritual bread of life.
But, as we must have eyes attuned to light to see the sun, so must the
Christ be born within before we can perceive spiritual light. As Angelus
Silesius says:
"Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born
And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
The Cross of Golgotha thou lookest to in vain
Unless within thyself it be set up again."
Therefore, by the precessional passage of the Sun through the sign Virgo,
the germinal impulse was given towards the birth of Christ within man. The
MYSTIC MARRIAGE of the lower self to the higher, the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION,
and the DIVINE MOTHERHOOD, which nourishes deep in its bosom, unseen by a
scoffing world, "THE NEW BORN CHRIST," are actual experiences of a growing
number of people. And without the celestial prototype, fructified by the
solar precession, this would be an impossibility; neither has this ideal
[PAGE 11] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
been realized in such fullness during the past ages as today. The reason of
this will appear when we take up the joint consideration of opposite signs
of the Zodiac.
LEO
A great future is in store for this offspring of the celestial virgin.
Listen to the wonderful prophecy of Isaiah: "For unto us a child is born,
unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders and
his name shall be called WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, the MIGHTY GOD, the EVERLAST-
ING FATHER, the PRICE OF PEACE. Of the increase of His government and peace
there shall be no end."
Humanity is to rise to a wonderful spiritual height and this is symbol-
ized by the Sun's precessional passage through the royal sign Leo, pictori-
ally represented by the king of beasts, the lion. this is an apt allusion
to the King of Creation, who will then embody the three great virtues of the
Master Man, Strength, Wisdom and Beauty.
It is wonderful to trace the various phases of the religions given to the
Great Aryo-Semitic Race from the time they were "called out" in the latter
third of the Atlantean Epoch, to the end of the Aquarian Age, when a new
race will have been definitely born. This aspect of the Zodiac will form
the subject of the following pages. It will shed light on many of the most
obscure passages of the Bible, as only study of this Cosmic Science can.
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When we consider the Zodiac in its religious as well as its evolutionary
aspects, by means of the six pair of opposite signs into which the twelve
may be divided, we also commence with Cancer and Capricorn, for the reason
given in the previous article, namely: that these are the solstitial points
where the Sun reaches its highest and lowest declination.
Considered in this manner, we find that there are two sets of three pairs
of signs, the first being Cancer and Capricorn, Gemini and Sagittarius, Tau-
rus and Scorpio. In these pairs of signs we may read the history of human
evolution and religion, in the early, the middle and the latter third of the
Atlantean Epoch. This is also divisible into three distinct periods,
namely: THE ARYAN AGE, from Moses to Christ, which comes under Aries-Libra;
the PISCEAN AGE, which takes in the last two thousand years under
Pisces-Virgo Catholicism; and the two thousand years which are ahead of us,
called the AQUARIAN AGE, where the signs Aquarius and Leo will be illumi-
nated and vivified by the solar precession, for the upliftment of the Son of
Man (Aquarius), by the Christ within, the Lion of Judah (Leo), to the estate
of Superman.
It must not be thought, however, that the Atlantean Epoch only lasted
while the Sun by precession went through Cancer, Gemini, and Taurus, a
[PAGE 13] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
period of only six thousand and a few hundred years; far from it; but there
are spirals within spirals and recapitulation takes place in the epochs and
races, so that we may know what is the general destiny by looking at the
Sun's passage through these signs and therewith taking this import and sym-
bolism into consideration. It may also be said that the further we advance
the smaller do the spirals become, the shorter the time in which a given im-
provement is made, because of the proficiency we attained in former ages,
and therefore it is extremely probable that this present is the last lap,
that the coming Aquarian Age is the final preparatory school day which will
fit us for the new age, the Sixth Epoch, and that this will begin when the
Sun by precession enters Capricorn.
This, of course, would mean that the Second Advent must take place just
before that time, and though it seems to us that so many signs point that
way, still it is a mere surmise and may not have any truth in it at all.
Thousands of people have been misled during all the ages that we know of, to
think that Christ would soon be here; it is, however, better that we are
looking forward to it than if we should say with some, that it will never
take place. In that case the Great Day would find us unprepared and we
should find ourselves among the stragglers who are unfit to attend the wed-
ding feast of the Higher Self to the lower because lacking the "soul-body,"
the "wedding garment," necessary to enfold them.
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CANCER-CAPRICORN
The Sun's passage by precession through the sphere of Cancer with its op-
posite sign Capricorn, designates the early third of the Atlantean period,
which was intensely watery as the whole earth was covered by a dense,
drenching fog. The Niebelung, or "Children of the Mist," lived then in the
basins of the Earth. Cancer was not then represented by the same symbol as
today; in ancient times it was pictorially figured as a beetle or scarab.
This was the signature of the soul, for then mankind was much less body than
soul.
The sign Cancer is watery in its nature, and the fish part of Capricorn,
the opposite sign, also helps to symbolize this state of life under water
when the Sun went through the watery sign Cancer by precession. The Moon,
the planet of fecundation, points mystically to this period of germination,
when mankind first commenced to exercise the Creative function at the dic-
tates of desire inculcated by the Lucifer Spirits. Thus mankind opened the
Gate of physical Life through Cancer, and strayed into the terrestrial
sphere, but opposite stood Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, ready to slay
them with his scythe, and usher them through the Gate of Death back into the
spiritual realms where they are at home.
Capricorn was the opposite of Cancer and embodied the ideal that as the
goat climbs the mountains, so man must leave the basins of Atlantis and come
up from the mist.
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GEMINI-SAGITTARIUS
Our condition during the middle third of the Atlantean Epoch is illus-
trated in the Sun's passage through the sign Gemini, the twins, which aptly
represent infant humanity. During this age the division of soul from soul
by the veil of flesh, which we call the body, became more noticeable, for
the atmosphere had already cleared to a considerable extend, and the facul-
ties of the spirit had become more focused in its physical instrument. With
this delusion of the personal self, there came at once the idea of "me" and
"thee," "mine" and "thine," our individual interests commenced to clash with
those of others, so that a tragedy such as that recorded between Cain and
Abel became possible. Nor was the shedding of blood confined to human be-
ings, for we learn from the Bible that "Nimrod was a might hunter". This
savage ideal was expressed in the Celestial Centaur, Sagittarius, with his
bow and arrow.
But both of these pairs of opposites, Cancer-Capricorn and
Gemini-Sagittarius, may be considered pre-historic hieroglyphics of a devel-
opment accomplished in Sidereal years, long past, though none the less im-
portant on that account. Our own times, with the development prescribed for
them, are symbolically represented in the two pairs of signs within the
fixed cross, the Bull, the Lion, the Serpent and the Man.
For that reason the two pairs of opposites comprising the fixed signs,
Taurus-Scorpio and Leo-Aquarius, are mentioned in the Bible, and we shall
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find that our modern systems of religion are full of allusions to the three
pairs of opposites. Aquarius-Leo and the two adjacent pairs of signs,
Aries-Libra and Pisces-Virgo. These three pairs of opposites are, as al-
ready stated, emblematic of the development in the entire Aryan Epoch. In
the EARLY third of this Epoch, the Sun by precession went through the sign
Aries, the MIDDLE third of its find the Sun in Pisces, by precession, and
during the last third the Sun will go through the sign Aquarius. Then the
solstitial point Capricorn will see the inauguration of a new cycle or age.
The spiritual preparation for this development commenced about thirteen
thousand B.C., when the Sun by precession, was in the sign Libra, the Bal-
ance, the last time. Different phases of this germinal impregnation of
people then living were carried on during the precessional travel of the Sun
through Virgo, Leo, and culminated in Cancer about eight thousand B.C. when
the last of Atlantis was destroyed by water, substantially as related by the
Egyptian priests to Plato. We shall see presently how the germinal ideals,
given to humanity in those far. by-gone days have grown and flowered into
factors of human development and spiritual standards of the greatest impor-
tance.
TAURUS-SCORPIO
In the latter third of Atlantis, egoism had developed to a far greater
[PAGE 17] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
degree than before, the spiritual sight had been lost by the large majority
of the people who then lived entirely on the material plane and gloried par-
ticularly in their material possessions.
THE BULL was very properly worshiped by them, being an emblem of strength
necessary to conquer the material world. It was, on account of its prodi-
gious strength, an invaluable aid in all their work. The proverb about "the
flesh pots of Egypt" has remained illustrative to the present day, to show
how abundantly that animal supplied their physical need of food, the milk of
the female being also an important article of diet. The possession of many
cattle was therefore ardently desired by the ancient infant nations, and the
worship of the Bull was inaugurated under the solar precession through Tau-
rus during earlier Great Sidereal Years, and continued to the comparatively
modern times, when the Sun by precession went through the sign of Celestial
Bull for the last time.
At that point when the Sun entered the sign of the Lamb, Aries, the Aryan
religions were inaugurated. The religion of the Lamb is to hold sway for
the next Great Sidereal Year, while the Sun by precession passes around the
twelve signs of the Zodiac, as the religion of the Bull has held sway during
the previous celestial year from the time the Sun entered Taurus, until it
left the same sign on its next passage.
New religions, however, are not revealed in their fullness at the
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beginning; they are started and go through a period of gestation long before
the religion which they are to succeed ends its material existence, and
similarly, and ancient religion about to be abrogated survives along after
the religion which succeeds it has become the official source of upliftment
for humanity. The original Semites, chosen to inaugurate the worship of the
Lamb, Aries, during the Aryan Epoch, were taken from "Egypt," the home of
the Bull "Taurus." Not our modern Egypt however. The story of Pharaoh, who
endeavored to prevent their emigration and was drowned, has reference to
Atlantis which was submerged thousands of years before Moses is supposed to
have made his escape with the Israelites through the "Red Sea." The facts
underlying the story are that a multitude of people left the land where the
bull "Taurus" was worshiped, (Atlantis or Egypt) whose inhabitants were then
drowned, to seek a :promised land" beyond the water which had engulfed an
"UNGODLY NATION." There they were dedicated to the worship of the "Lamb"
Aries which had been slain in "Egypt" (Atlantis); through its blood these
pioneers had been preserved from death, and it was thus "the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the (present) World" which we call THE ARYAN EPOCH.
Noah's escape presents another phase of the same occurrence relating that
the mists which had enveloped Atlantis condensed to rain, and flooded the
basis of the earth, leaving a clear atmosphere in which the Rainbow was seen
[PAGE 19] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
for the first time at the opening of the New Age, the Aryan Epoch, where a
new Covenant was made with the pioneers of the polity then ushered in.
Atlantis was the home of the Bull, Taurus, and when the Sun, by preces-
sion, was leaving that sign the last time, the Religion of the Lamb Aries
was definitely ushered in. Thenceforth, the worship of the Bull was abro-
gated and when any of the pioneer race, brought out from the ancient
Atlantean dispensation by the blood of the Lamb, Aries, backslid and wor-
shiped the Taurean "Calf," they acted contrary to the law of progress and
were therefore "Idolaters," and an abomination to the divine hierarchs whose
task it was to guide them during the ages preceding the advent of Christ.
On account of repeated transgressions many were "lost," and they are the
Jews of today who still retain their Atlantean traits (see Cosmo-Concep-
tion).
Apart from the Astrological key, the Bible is truly a closed book, but
with this key, the matter is different. In the Old Testament reference is
made of two classes of animals: Bulls, which were Taurean, Sheep and Goats,
which were Arian. These alone were used as Sacrifices. (Turtle doves were
permitted as a concession to poverty). All the principal characters of the
Old Dispensation were shepherds (ARIAN) and Christ also announces Himself as
the Great Shepherd.
In the New Testament we find another animal, the Fish, attaining great
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prominence, and the apostles were called to be "Fishers of Men," for then
the sun by precession was nearing the cusp of Pisces, the Fishes, and Christ
spoke of the time when the Son of Man (Aquarius) shall come. Thus our
evolutionary journey is mapped out in the hidden astrological allusions of
the Bible.
The student now has a line on the march of events, which it is well to
keep in mind.
Jesus taught the multitudes in parables but explained the mysteries of
the Kingdom to His disciples. Paul gave spiritual meat to the strong, but
the milk of doctrine to the multitude, for there has always been an esoteric
and an esoteric side to every religion. Taking Taurus, the sign of the
Bull, to symbolize the worship of that animal as practiced in Egypt, Persia
and other countries at that time, then we shall find that the opposite sign,
Scorpio, symbolizes the esoteric doctrine if the priesthood, who were the
guardians of the ancient Atlantean Mysteries.
In this connection we will note first that the sign Scorpio is repre-
sented in the pictorial Zodiac by a Scorpion or Serpent, and we wish to im-
press particularly on the student's mind that the Scorpion has its STING IN
THE TAIL, while the Serpent has the VENOM IN ITS TEETH. This is very sig-
nificant, as well shall see presently.
On looking up the word "serpent" in the Bible, we shall find that there
are about seven words that have thus been translated; but one of them, which
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was borrowed from Egypt, is NAJA. This word is found on the old tablets in
the ancient temples of Egypt where Osiris, the Sun God, is hailed when aris-
ing from the primordial deep. He was then crowned with glory and has the
Uraeus Naja, AN EMBLEM OF COSMIC WISDOM. The Uraeus was a part of a
serpent's body, with its head depicted as protruding from a point in the
forehead just above the nose, where the human spirit has its seat; and
Christ therefore referred to the ancient Serpent-Initiates, when He said:
"Be ye wise as serpents."
In ancient Egypt the King wore a crown adorned by A DOUBLE SERPENT,
URAEUS or NAJA, which seemed to protrude from his forehead when the crown
was placed upon his head. This was to symbolize the fact that he held the
double office of King and Priest by virtue of his sublime wisdom. In India,
also, the guardians of the Mystery Teachings were called Nagas or Serpents.
In the Icelandic "Eddas," the Northern Vedas, Siegfried, the truth seeker,
slays the serpent, tastes of its blood and them becomes wise. Nor, to
elaborate on the statement made above, is it necessary to go outside our own
religion for proof that the serpent is the symbol of wisdom, for the Christ
Himself said: "Be ye wise as serpents." The serpent is certainly not suf-
ficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we
understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the serpen-
tine spinal cord it vibrates the pituitary body and the pineal gland,
[PAGE 22] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
connecting the Ego with the invisible worlds by opening up a hidden sense,
the allusion is perfectly clear.
There is, however, a lower phase of spiritual development, symbolized in
ancient times by placing the Uraeus or serpent at the naval, to show that
the mediumistic faculties in the solar plexus had been developed.
Mediumship is a negative phase of spiritual sight or hearing possessed by a
person who, under the control of an outside intelligence, prophesies. This
undesirable phase of seership was represented in the Zodiac by the symbol of
the Scorpion, which has the sting in its tail. In the Serpent, Initiate the
Creative Cosmic Fire was drawn upward through the head to serve as a
spiritual end; in the Medium the creative energy is expressed for selfish,
sensual ends through the procreative organ ruled by Scorpio.
The point between the eyebrows, whence the serpent of wisdom protrudes,
is THE SEAT OF LIFE, whereas all that opens the womb is subject to THE STING
OF DEATH, contained in the Scorpion's tail.
If we now turn with this information to our Bible, we shall find that a
great many things, previously obscure, will become clear. As said, the
Egyptian word for this Uraeus or serpent is Naja and it was borrowed by the
Israelites who expressed the negative faculty of mediumship by affixing the
feminine ending "oth," giving NAIOTH; while those able to function con-
sciously in the spiritual worlds were given the positive, make plural ending
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"im," and were called NAIM. If we read the nineteenth chapter of first
Samuel with this understanding we shall readily see that the incident there
narrated was of a mediumistic nature. David had become afraid of Saul and
he went with Samuel to "Naioth." This is supposed by Bible translators to
be a place, and maybe a village was so named. But if that was the case, it
was because the people who lived in that place were Naoith, or mediums.
They were called prophets in the chapter before us, and it is significant
that as soon as anyone came within their camp, he commenced to prophesy or
speak under control. Even Saul, who came there, anxious to get David away
that he might slay him, was seized by the spirits and prophesied, to the
amazement of all present.
In the New Testament we are told that the Christ went to the city of Nain
and there raised THE SON OF A WIDOW. In the Latin Testament, this city was
not called Nain, but NAIM. And it is very significant that all three, Naim,
Naioth and Endor, where the sorceress that assisted Saul is supposed to have
lived, are in the same locality by Mount Tabor.
Every Freemason knows that the brethren of that Order are called "Sons of
the Widow." And it is stated in the Bible that Hiram Abiff, the Master
Builder of Solomon's Temple, was the Son of a Widow, a cunning craftsman.
We cannot in the present article repeat the Masonic Legend which tells the
[PAGE 24] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
reason why. This we have given the book on "Freemasonry and Catholicism"
and also in our books on the Rosicrucian Philosophy. But suffice it to say
that in the Bible story to which reference has been made, we have one of the
Naim, a Widow's Son or initiate of the old Serpent School, for the priests
of Egypt were "PHREE MESSEN," children of light. Each had within, the an-
cient Serpent Wisdom. But a new religion was being inaugurated, and it was
necessary to raise the ancient Initiates to the Mysteries of the Coming Age.
THEREFORE THE CHRIST, THE LION OF JUDAH, LORD OF THE NEW KINGDOM, WENT TO
THE WIDOW'S SON OF NAIM and raised him up by the strong grip of the Lion's
paw. And we may here emphasize that the first Initiate under the new system
was Hiram Abiff, the highest Initiate of the old system, who by this new
initiation given him by the Christ, became a CHRISTIAN, pledged to bear the
ROSE and the CROSS, which were the symbols of the New Mystery Teachings of
the Western World and he was then given the symbolical name, Christian
Rosenkreuz.
Thus from the time when the Sun entered the sign Aries by precession, it
became a crime for the chosen people to worship the bull exoterically, or to
partake of the esoteric Serpent wisdom. And for a similar reason IT IS
IDOLATRY WHEN PEOPLE OF THE WEST TAKE UP THE EASTERN RELIGIONS. HINDUISM,
BUDDHISM AND KINDRED TEACHINGS. For in the Aryan Epoch, only the Aryan
[PAGE 25] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
Religions, the religions of the Lamb, have the proper effect on the human
evolution. All previous systems are detrimental to the Western people; and
in time those also who are now in the East, the orientals, will be forced to
embrace this religion, or be left far behind in evolution.
THE ARYAN EPOCH
ARIES-LIBRA
The Aryan Epoch may be divided into three eras; but they are all served
by the religion of the Lamb. The first division covers the time when the
Sun, by precession, went through the sign Aries, the Lamb. Jesus was born
when the Vernal equinox was in about seven degrees of Aries; so the
twenty-three degrees which lie on the other side belong to the Old Testament
period, when the chosen people were in captivity and lost in the wilderness
of the world; the new religion had not then found its place. Then the
Christ came and inaugurated this new teaching definitely. He came not to
destroy the old prophecies and the law, but to give us something higher when
they shall have been fulfilled. The sign opposite Aries is Leo, the scales
or balance of Justice; and therefore we are told in the new religion that
there will come a day of judgment, when Christ shall appear to give to every
man according to the deeds done in the body.
PISCES-VIRGO
Christ was the Great Shepherd, but He called His disciples to be "fishers
[PAGE 26] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
of men," for the Sun by precession was then leaving the sign of the Lamb and
entering Pisces, the sign of the fishes. Therefore a new phase of the Aryan
religions was opening up. The Bishop's mitre is also in the form of a
fish's head.
The New Testament, therefore, does not mention the Bull or the Lamb, but
references to the fishes are numerous. We also found the celestial virgin
prominent and the wheat ear of Virgo is the Bread of Life, to be gained only
through immaculate purity. Thus Christ fed the multitude of fish (Pisces)
and loaves (Virgo).
Before the time of Christ, the new religion of the Lamb (Aries), could
get no foothold. Moses, the erstwhile leader, could not bring the chosen
people to the "promised land." That was reserved for Joshua, the son of
Nun. Joshua is the Hebriac for "Jesus" and the Hebrew word for "Nun" means
"fish" (Pisces). It was thus foretold that the religion of the Lamb would
attain prominence during the precessional passage of the Sun through the
sign Pisces, the fishes.
This prophecy has been fulfilled, for during the two thousand years which
have elapsed since the birth of Jesus, the Western religion has been taught
by a celibate priesthood, worshiping an immaculate virgin, symbolized by the
celestial sign Virgo, which is the opposite of Pisces. This same priesthood
has also enjoined the eating of fish and forbidden the use of flesh on
[PAGE 27] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
certain days. When the children of Israel left the flesh pots of Egypt,
where the Bull was slain, they left it by the blood of the Lamb. But in the
Piscean dispensation no shedding of blood is enjoined and flesh eating is
condemned as a sin at certain times, for man is now taught to forsake the
lusts of the flesh and also lusting after the flesh.
This ideal was tried under the Aryan dispensation, when the chosen people
were yet in the Wilderness, so called, but without success; they would not
have the heavenly manna. Now, however, man is being weaned from the can-
nibalistic practice, and in the seven hundred years which remain before the
Aquarian age is definitely ushered in, we will, in all probability, have
made great strides, both in overcoming the lust of the flesh and the lust
after the flesh. For Virgo, the immaculate celestial virgin, and the ears
of wheat contained in the sign, show both these ideals as profitable to soul
growth at the present time. Jupiter, the planet of benevolence and philan-
thropy, which rules Pisces, has been a prominent factor in promoting altru-
ism during the past two milleniums.
AQUARIUS-LEO
It is often said, and rightly so, that the boy is father of the man. And
on the same principle we may say that the Son of Man is the Super-Man;
therefore, when the Sun by precession enters the celestial sign Aquarius,
[PAGE 28] THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
the water-bearer we shall have a new phase of the religion of the Lamb,
exoterically; and the ideal to be striven for is shown in the opposite sign,
Leo.
The Moon, which is the habitat of the autocratic Race Ruler and Lawgiver,
Jehovah, is exalted in Taurus, the sign of the Bull, and all Race religions,
even the Mosaic phase of the Aryan religion of the Lamb, demanded a sacrifi-
cial victim for every transgression of that law. But the Sun is exalted in
Aries, and when the great Sun spirit, Christ, came as High Priest of the
Aryan religion, He abrogated sacrifice of OTHERS by offering up HIMSELF AS A
PERPETUAL SACRIFICE for sin.
By looking to the mother ideal of Virgo during the Piscean Age, and fol-
lowing the Christ's example of sacrificial service, the immaculate concep-
tion becomes an actual experience to each of us, and Christ, the Son of Man,
Aquarius, is born within us. Thus, gradually, the third phase of the Aryan
religion will be ushered in and a new ideal will be found in the Lion of
Judah, Leo. Courage of conviction, strength of character and kindred vir-
tues will then make man truly the King of Creation, worthy of the trust and
the confidence of the lower orders of life as well as the love of the Divine
Hierarchs above.
This, the mystic message of Man's evolution, is marked in flaming charac-
ters upon the field of Heave, where he who runs may read. And when we study
the revealed purpose of God, we shall in turn learn to conform intelligently
[PAGE 29] EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
to that design, thereby hastening the day of emancipation from our present
cramped environment to the perfect liberty of free Spirits, risen superior
to the law of Sin and Death, through Christ, the Lord of Love and Life.
It is for us to decipher this message, and solve the Riddle of the Uni-
verse.