Forlong - Rivers of Life

446
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
what we esteem occult, secret, and gross mysteries; but they were animals like their
flocks, neither astronomers nor spiritualists, and though given to seeing types and
symbols, not addicted to spiritualising these.
In Ramsay’s Travels of Cyrus, we are told that the vernal equinox fetes were thus
celebrated in Syria, and this, be it remembered, five hundred years before Christ.
“When Cyrus entered the temple, he found the people clad in mourning. In a cavern
lay the image of a young man (the dying Saviour) on a bed of flowers and odoriferous
herbs. Nine days were spent in fasting, prayers, and lamentations, after which the public
sorrow ceased and was changed into gladness. Songs of joy succeeded weeping (for
Tamuz), the whole assembly singing the hymn, ‘Adonis is returned to life, Urania
weeps no more,’ he has re-ascended to heaven, he will soon return to earth, and banish
hence all crimes and miseries for ever.” 1 This Adonis, or the Summer Sun, was in Syria
said to be killed by a boar, corresponding to the Typhon who killed Osiris. This is the
autumnal idea, because then fruits and leaves fall, and all vegetation becomes corrupt,
giving off gases poisonous to man and beast, and causing fevers and agues, especially
in far back ages, when there were neither suitable homes nor clothing to mitigate
such evils. This is the “death which then entered into the world,” and so the fetes of that
period pourtray the fears of the season, and the joys attendant on “Deliverance,” and
the Church teaches much at the autumn concerning “the Fall” of Adam and Eve.
As she borrows her Easter from the old Eostre, so she chose the old astrological
periods for all her own so-called events, saying it was:
The feast of the VIRGIN - - when the Sun enters ARIES the Ram.
That of JOHN THE BAPTIST, - when he enters CANCER or the Crab.
That of MICHAEL, - - when he enters LIBRA or the SCALES.
That of JESUS, - - - when he enters CAPRICORN or the GOAT.
which four are our Cardinal points, viz.~ the Autmnal and Vernal Equinoxes, and
Winter and Summer Solstices. 2
The minor festivals or sacred daye were fixed on favourite old astrological days. 3
Thus the day on which the sun entered.
Aquarius, was St. Paul’s Day.
Pisces ,, St. Matthew, the Angel with the Book.
Taurus ,, St. Mark, the angel with the Lion.
Leo ,, St. James.
Virgo ,, St. Bartholemew
Scorpio ,, St. Simon and Jude
Gemini ,, Corpus Christi, end of May.
Luke was represented as a Bull, Ox, or Cow; John as an Eagle—Old Jove’s and
Vishnoo’s sign, on which the Church is so fond of placing her “Book of Life.” The
Apostles themselves must be twelve in number, and when one was lost another was a
appointed, as in the ease of Virgo and Libra already noticed ; but I do not desire here
to cast any doubt upon the historical character of the apostles, nor yet their number,
1 A foot-note tells us that these rites are detailed in S.S. Jerome, Cyril, Macrobius, &c.
2 Million of Facts. Sir Rich. Phillips.
3 Ibid., p. 38.