The story of the War in Heaven was known to them; and was simply a myth, which
represented the conflict between day and night, sunshine and storm.
The doctrine of the Millennium was familiar to them, a time when, as they
believed, the dead would be raised, and "the sea return again the remains of
the departed." At this time the dead were to be judged before an assembled
world, and the righteous separated from the wicked.
These doctrines were contained in the ZendAvesta (the Living Word), which,
judging from its language, is said by Professor Miiller to be older than the
cuneiform inscriptions of Cyrus (B.C. 560). The Persians believe that
Zoroaster, the founder of their religion, received this Book of the Law from
the Lord, in the midst of thunders and lightnings, as he prayed one day on a
high mountain. While the King of Persia and the people were assembled together,
Zoroaster came down from the mountain unharmed, bringing with him the Book of
the Law. The points of resemblance between this account of the Persians and the
later account of the Hebrew Moses, bringing the Tables of the Law from Mount
Sinai, are very striking.
If we turn to the Egyptians, we shall find that the Aryan sun-myths became the
foundation of their religion also. One of their names for the Sun was Osiris.
The facts relating to the incarnation, birth, life, and death of Osiris are
very similar to those in the legends of the Hindoo and Persian sun-gods. It was
said that he was born on the twenty-fifth of December, and that he was the son
of Seb and Neith, or Nut, whose common appellation was the Lady of the
Sycamore. At the birth of Osiris a voice was heard proclaiming, " The Ruler of
all the earth is born." Like other sun-gods, he met with temptations over which
he triumphed, but was finally conquered by his foes. At the annual festival,
in early spring, which commemorated his sufferings and tragical death, there
was a species of drama, in which the particulars were exhibited with loud la
mentations. His image covered, as were those in the temple, with black veils
was carried in a procession. The Mourning Song, whose plaintive tones were
noted by Herodotus, and has been compared to the Miserere sung in Rome, was
followed in three days by the language of triumph. His tomb was illuminated, as
is the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and for thousands of years it was the
object of pious pilgrimages. (See Note 5.)
His worship was universal throughout Egypt, where he was gratefully regarded as
the great exemplar of self-sacrifice, in giving his life for others, as the
Manifester of Good, as the Opener of Truth, and as being full of goodness and
truth. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, the oldest Bible in the world, represents
him as "seeing all things, hearing all things," and " noting the good and evil
deeds of men." On the most ancient Egyptian monuments he is represented as
Judge of the Dead, seated on his throne of judgment, bearing a staff, and
carrying the crux ansata (the most common form of the cross) with the St.
Andrew's cross on his breast. These sculptures were contemporary with the
building of the pyramids, which were built centuries before Abraham is said to
have been born. Osiris was represented with the trefoil (the leaf of the Vila,
or Bel-tree, which is triple in form) on his head, that being one of the
ancient symbols of the f/iree-m-o/ie mystery the Trinity. As second person
of the Trinity he was called the Word. In one of the sacred books of the
Egyptians occurs the following : " I know the mystery of the Divine Word ; the
Word of the Lord of All, which was the maker of it." " The Word is the first
person after himself, uncreated, infinite, ruling over all things that were
made by him."
The monogram of Osiris is X and P in combination, and is now used as the
monogram of Jesus Christ. His symbol is the serpent, which was the earliest
symbol of Jesus, centuries later. Among the many hieroglyphic titles which
accompany the figure of Osiris on the walls of temples and tombs are Lord of
Life, Resurrected One, Eternal Ruler, Manifester of God, Full of Goodness and
Truth.
There was great splendor of ritual in the Egyptian religion, including
gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax tapers, processional services, and
lustrations. The priests wore white surplices, and were shorn and beardless.
There were also sprinklings of holy water. The rite of Baptism was observed,
with the sign of the cross, and also the Eucharist, the sacred cake being
eaten after it had been consecrated by the priest, and made veritable ^'
flesh of his flesh." The sun, moon, and five planets were each of them assigned
a day of the week, the seventh day being Saturn's Day, and kept as a holy day.
The Immortality of the Soul was believed in and was a very ancient doctrine ;
for on a monument thousands of years old is the epitaph : " May thy soul
attain to the Creator of all mankind." Like the Buddhists, the ancient
Egyptians were familiar with the War in Heaven myth and the Tree of Life myth.
Neith, the mother of Osiris, was worshipped as the Holy Virgin, the Great
Mother, yet an Immaculate Virgin. There was a grand celebration held in her
honor, called the Feast of Lamps, which has come down to the present time as
Candlemas Day, or the Purification of the Virgin Mary.
Horus, another Egyptian name for the Sun, was said to have been born of the
immaculate virgin Isis (the Moon), on the twenty-fifth of December. On this day
the effigy of the infant Horus, lying in a manger, was exhibited amid great
rejoicings. Being of royal descent, his life was sought by Typhon (darkness or
night), and in consequence he was brought up secretly on the isle of Buto. Like
other sun-gods, he was tempted, but was not vanquished. He is represented, in
Egyptian art, as overcoming the Evil Serpent, and standing triumphantly upon
him. It was said that he performed many miracles, among them the raising of the
dead. He was finally slain, and descended into Hell. In three days he rose from
the dead and ascended into Heaven. His death and resurrection were celebrated
with great pomp. He was called the Royal Good Shepherd, Lord of Life, Only-
Begotten, Saviour, the Anointed, or the Christ; and when represented as Horus
Sneb, the Redeemer. He is generally represented as an infant in the arms of his
mother Isis, or sitting on her knee ; and in many of these representations both
the mother and child are black. As the Sun seemingly rests on the earth at his
rising, it was said that he was sitting in the lap of his mother; and as the
earth is black, or dark, before the rising of the Sun, the mother and child
were represented as black. (See Appendix E.)
The most ancient pictures and statues, in Italy and other parts of Europe, of
what are supposed to be representations of the Virgin Mary and the infant
Jesus, are black. The infant god in the arms of his black mother, with white
eyes, teeth, and drapery, is himself perfectly black. The images are adorned
with jewels, and in some cases the Virgin is crowned with a triple crown. The
explanation of these early representations of the Virgin Mary and infant Jesus,
^ black, yet crowned and covered with jewels, is that they are of pre-
Christian origin ; they are Isis and Horus, and perhaps, in some cases, De
vaki and Crishna, baptized anew. In many parts of Italy are to be seen
pictures of the Holy Family, of great antiquity, the groundwork often of gold.
These pictures represent the mother, with a child on her knee, and a little boy
by her side. The Lamb is generally seen in the picture. They are inscribed Deo
Soli, and are representations of Isis and Horus.
The Deo Soli betrays their Pagan origin. Isis was worshipped in Europe as well
as Egypt, for centuries before and after the Christian era. She was wor
shipped as the Virgin Mother, and styled Our Lady, Queen of Heaven, Star of the
Sea, Governess, Mother of God, Intercessor. It is related that Isis, being at
one time on a journey, came to the River Phcedrus, which was in a " rough air."
Wishing to cross, she commanded the stream to be dried up, and it obeyed her.
It was said that she healed the sick and gave sight to the blind. Pilgrimages
were made to her temples, by the sick.
Isis was represented as standing on the crescent moon, with twelve stars
surrounding her head ; precisely as the Virgin Mary is now represented in al
most every Roman Catholic Church on the continent of Europe. She was also
represented with the infant Horus in her arms, enclosed in a framework of the
flowers of the Egyptian bean, the sacred lotus ; as the Virgin Mary was
afterwards represented in mediaeval art.
The sun-myth began its hold upon the Egyptians more than five-thousand years
ago, when men trusted in a Risen Saviour, and confidently hoped to rise from
the grave as he had risen.
The ancient Egyptians had the legend of the Tree of Life, the fruit of which
enabled those who ate of it to become as gods.
The Egyptian records contain no account of a cataclysmal deluge, the land
apparently never having been visited by other than the annual beneficent
overflow of the Nile. Indeed, Pharaoh Khoufoucheops was building his pyramid,
according to Egyptian chronicle, when the whole world was under the waters of a
universal Deluge, according to Hebrew chronicle. The Egyptians have no account
of the destruction of Pharaoh and his army, in the Red Sea, or of the other
circumstances attending the Exodus from Egypt. We find, in Egyptian history,
that at one time the land of Egypt was infected with disease ; and, through the
advice of the sacred scribe Phritiphantes, the king caused the infected people
to be driven out of the country. The infected people were the brick-making
slaves, known as the Children of Israel, who were infected with leprosy. "The
most noble of them went under Cadmus and Danaus to Greece, but the greater
number followed Moses, a wise and valiant leader, to Palestine."
Serapis was another Egyptian sun-god, whose followers were called Christians
and Bishops of Christ.
In Grecian fable there are many saviours.
The sun-god Hercules, son of Zeus (the sky) and Alcmene, was born, like the
other saviours, on the twenty-fifth of December the triple night, as the
Greeks named the winter solstice. At his birth, Zeus, the God of gods, spake
from Heaven and said : " This day shall a child be born, of the race of
Perseus, who shall be the mightiest of the sons of men." While an infant in his
cradle, Hera, the lifelong foe of Hercules, sent two serpents to strangle him,
but he killed them. The position of the spheres, on the twenty-fifth of
December, shows the zodiacal sign of the Serpent, aiming at, and almost
touching, the Virgin, who has the child lesus in her arms, in the constellation
Virgo. (See Appendix F.)
Hercules was said to have been swallowed by a huge fish (in one account it is a
dag), at Joppa, the place where the Hebrew Jonah was said to have been
swallowed by a whale. Hercules remained in the fish three days and three nights
(the winter solstice), and came out unhurt, with the exception of being shorn
of his locks. The Sun is shorn of his locks by winter. An abundance of hair and
a long beard are mythological attributes of the Sun, denoting its rays. (See
Note 6.)
Many of the exploits of Hercules are similar to those accredited to the Hebrew
Samson. Samson's death reminds us of Hercules, who died at the winter solstice,
in the far west, where his two pillars are set up to mark his wanderings.
Samson also died at the two pillars ; but they were not the Pillars of the
World, but those which supported a great banqueting-hall, and a feast was being
held in honor of Dagon, the fish-god. The Sun was in the sign of the Waterman,
when Samson, the sun-god, died. Samson was one of the names of the Sun, the
name signifying the sunny, as well as the strong.
Hercules rose from the funeral pile and ascended into heaven in a cloud, amid
peals of thunder. At his death, lola (the fair-haired Dawn) again stands by his
side, cheering him to the last. Then once more the face of Hercules flushed
with a deep joy, and he said: "Ah, lola, brightest of maidens, thy voice shall
cheer me as I sink down in the sleep of death. I saw and loved thee in the
bright morning-time; and now again thou hast come, in the evening^ fair as the
soft clouds which gather around the dying Sun.^*
The black mists were spreading over the sky ; but still Hercules sought to gaze
on the fair face of lola, and to comfort her in her sorrow. " Weep not, lola,"
he said ; " my toil is done, and now is the time of rest. I shall see thee
again, in the bright land which is never trodden by the feet of Night." Then,
as the dying god expired, darkness was on the face of the earth ; from the high
Heaven came down the thick cloud, and the din of the thunder crashed through
the air.
Hercules was said to be self-produced, the Generator and Ruler of all things,
and the Father of Time. He was called the Saviour, and the words Hercules the
Saviour were engraved on ancient coins and monuments. He was also called the
OnlyBegotten and the Universal Word. He was said to have been re-absorbed
into God.
The story of Hercules was known in the island of Thasos, by the Phoenician
colony settled there, five centuries before the Greeks knew of it ; yet its
antiquity among the Babylonians antedates that. He is identical with Izdubar,
the Babylonian lionkiller.
The ancient Greeks had a tradition of the Islands of the Blessed, the Elysium,
on the borders of the earth, abounding in every charm of life, and the Garden
of the Hesperides, the Paradise, in which grew a tree bearing the golden
apples of Immortality. It was guarded by three nymphs and a serpent, or dragon,
the ever-watchful Ladon. It was one of the labors of Hercules to gather some
of these Apples of Life. When he arrived at the Garden, he found it guarded
by a dragon. Ancient medallions represent a tree with a serpent twined around
it. Hercules has gathered an apple, and near him stand the three nymphs,
called the Hesperides.
