Astral Worship — J. H. Hill
H. Hill You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Astral Worship Author : J. H. Hill Release date : September 1, 2005 [eBook #8855] Most recently updated: April 6, 2014 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8855 Credits : Produced by David Deley *** START OF 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 Now, while it is true that modern Astronomy has superseded the ancient system, and people have ceased to believe that the stars are intervening in mundane affairs, nothing could be further from the truth than the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 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