Forlong - Rivers of Life

Sun Worship.
his cave, the emblem of perfect purity, which birth by a virgin symbolised. He was
the Lamb of God, because “he rose” or “was born in Aries—anciently known as the
Lamb—when Virgo was on the horizon; and round him there arose his twelve constallations,
which some called disciples, and the whole thus became a galaxy of glory, fit
emblem of a kingly conqueror who was going forth to vanquish “the Prince of the
powers of the Air”—those storms and darkness which had been called Typhon. Such
was he in the Vernal equinox when, ascending to power, he threw open to his children
the blessings they so longed for; and joyously did they greet him with vociferous
shouting as the opener of the prison doors, the proclaimer of liberty to the captives,
the binder of the broken-hearted, and the “Healer of the nations”—all offices which the
Solar Seer, Isaiah, fully comprehended, as may be seen from his writings.
There is no doubt, I think, that the meaning intended to be conveyed by describing
any great one as “Virgin-born,” is chiefly connected with purity from earthly taint,
and a mere desire to honour them—rarely a real belief in sueh a physical impossibility.
Thus, the story which fulsome flatterers told of Alexander, and even of Plato—of whom
some said that “he sprang from Periktione overshadowed by Apollo,” who appeared
afterwards to the husband, Ariston, and told him to “fear not,” for she was with child
by him—I regard as a legend, such as over-zealous Christians might incorporate in
their “Gospels,” but which some avoided, as the writer of “John” for example.
From Egypt, Alexandria, and Syria, Christians would readily pick up the tales of
Osiris—the Sun-god and member of the Triune Godhead, coming upon earth through
the instrumentality of a virgin. Being a manifestation of God, and revealer of truths till
then unknown, Osiris was persecuted by a malevolent Spirit, even unto death; was buried
and descended into Hades, from whence he rose again to judge the quick and the dead
as the Supreme Judge; in which character we principally see him on monuments. The
Osirian (precisely as the author of “the Keys” says of the Mithraic Faith), had all thvarious
“Sacraments as of baptism, penance, the Eucharist, consecration, and others; the
novices of both were subjected to a severely ascetic regime; chastity and virginity were
accounted sacred; both faiths contained the doctrines of the FaIl, the Incarnation, the
Atonement, and the Resurrection.” All these Solar gods, including such as Bacchus,
are said to have beeon born at midnight on the 25th of December, when Virgo is cut
in two by the eastern horizon and when the days visibly increase in length; for the
21st of December is really the shortest day, and that on which Sol’s ancient disciples
doubted or wavered in fear and trembling lest the Kurios (Lord or Sun) had not actually
vanquished death or triumphed over Typhon. Then it is that the most outspoken
doubters are told to thrust their finger into his side, to know if indeed “their Lord liveth.”
And so the Christian Churches, true to the old faiths, dedicate the 21st of December to
the doubting saint—Thomas or Tomas, who is none other, I think, than the Kuthic or
Syrian Tamuz, so called after his Lord.
Many of the orthodox derive Tammuz from \t Tem, “to put away,” and zm Mes,
“wrath,” that is, the Savior or Pacificator; 1 but Dr. A Clarke thinks that he is “the hidden
1 The derivation is probably from the almost obsolete word zmt, “to be powerful,” thinks Fürst, p. 1477 f.
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