Chapter I. EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC（续 3）

In this connection we will note first that the sign Scorpio is represented in the pictorial Zodiac by a ;Scorpion or Serpent, and we wish to impress 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 significant, as we 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

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 arising from the primordial deep. He was then crowned with glory and has the Urasus Naja, an emblem of cosmic wisdom. The Urasus was a part of a serpent's body, with its head 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 seems 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 then 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 sufficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the serpentine spinal cord it vibrates the pituitary body and the pineal gland, con-

necting 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 navel, 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 controlled by an outside intelligence who then 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 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 writh 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 Uragus or serpent is Naja and it was borrowed by the Israelites who expressed the negative faculty of mediumship by affixing the feminine ending "oth": Naioth, while those who are able to function consciously in the spiritual worlds were given the positive, male plural ending "im,"

and were called Nairn. 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 Naioth, 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 Chirst 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 Nairn. And it is very significant that all three, Nairn, Naioth and Endor, where the sorceress that assisted Saul is supposed to have lived, are in the same locality by Mount Tabor.

Every Free Mason knows that the brethren of that Order are called "Sons of the Widow." And it is stated in the Bdble 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 reason why. This we have given in the books on "Free-Masonry and Catholicism" and also in our book 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 Nairn, a Widow's Son or initiate of the old Serpent School, for the priests of Egypt were "pliree messen," children of light. Each had within, the ancient 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 Nairn 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 enters 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, Hindooism, Buddhism and kindred teachings. For in the Aryan Epochs, only the Aryan 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 Age 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, goes through the sign Aries, the Lamb. Jesus was born when the Vernal equinox was in about seven degrees of Aries; so the twenty degrees which lie on the other side belong to the Old Testament period, when, as we say, the chosen people were in captivity and lost in the wilderness of the wrorld ; 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 prophets and the law, but to give us something higher when they shall have been fulfilled. The sign opposite Aries is Libra, the scales or balance of Justice; and therefore we are told in the new religion that there will come a day of judgment (=a=), when Christ shall appear to give to every man according to the deeds done in the body.

Pisces — Virgo (^ — Tlfl) Christ was the Great Shepherd (T), but He

called His disciples to be "fishers 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 religion 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 find the celestial virgin (n£) prominent and the wheat ear of Virgo is the Bread of Life, resultant from the immaculate purity. Thus Christ fed the multitude on fish (Pisces) and loaves (Virgo).