Our Spiritual Legacy

A LEGACY of untold value has been left by spiritual and intellectual giants who
labored in the dim and misty past. It is the purpose of these lessons to transmit this
priceless heritage to the people of the present day, to whom now rightfully it belongs.

We of the present have specialized in material science, and as a result of that
specialization have possessed ourselves of mechanical contrivances and an
industrial achievement far superior to those of any People in the past. Yet in that past
there were specialists also; the equal of any on earth today. But instead of devoting
their energies to material things, their field was that of spiritual research. And they
were as far in advance of our material scientists in their chosen field, as the material
scientists of today are in advance of their ancient knowledge of the physical
properties of things.

We are where we are today in matters of physical science because men of vast
understanding like Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein have labored in research
and recorded their findings for other men to read. Were it not for the records left by
those of unusual ability, ours would be a sorry world of muddled thought.

Such records give not merely the details of information, to which other men left to
devices of their own might seldom attain, but by revealing the correct method of
ascertaining the fact they eliminate wasted effort on the part of those who otherwise
would follow many a blind trail before finding the one leading to it. Yet because these
men, who themselves have stood upon the intellectual shoulders of other geniuses
who preceded them, have left to us their findings, there is no implication of blind
belief.

Not only are their findings included in the records, but the experiments which led to
these findings also. And it was understood by them, and is so understood by us, that
all and sundry are to have full liberty to repeat these experiments, or if they can, to
devise better experiments of their own, to test the accuracy of this recorded
knowledge.

Likewise, far in the past other men of exceptional talent, generation after generation,
labored under conditions of exceptional advantage to acquire a knowledge, not of the
chemical and mechanical properties of matter, but of the nature and possibilities,
here and hereafter, of the human soul.

To them, that which was of supreme interest was the character of man. Other
knowledge was valuable only to the extent it could be made to contribute some thing
which would enable the soul to reach a higher, fuller destiny.

These men also, standing on the shoulders of other inspired geniuses who preceded
them, acquired vast knowledge in their chosen field, and of this knowledge they left a
careful record.

In here setting forth this record, and something of the methods they employed in
reaching these facts, there is no implication that anyone should accept their findings
in the spirit of blind belief. No more so than that he should thus accept the findings of
our chemists that each molecule of water contains one atom of oxygen and two atoms
of hydrogen.

It would require more than one lifetime to perform every experiment recorded in the
chemical treatise to be found in our libraries. Nevertheless, they have been
performed by others, and anyone is at liberty to perform such of them as he chooses,
again and again to his own satisfaction.

The laboratory of Nature is always open. Whether it be a problem in Euclid, the law
of falling bodies, the influence of the planets on human life, or the survival of the
personality in the spheres of the beyond, he who is willing to perform the requisite
amount of labor need take no statement of fact on faith. Nor was it the desire of the
ancient masters of spiritual science that he should do so.

The Language Employed In Recording the Legacy

–These records left by the wisest men of a very ancient time could not, of course,
have been written in the English language. Even the writing used by the Maya, a race
yet surviving, and conquered by the Spaniards only about 400 years ago, can but be
deciphered now sufficiently to reveal dates and their astronomical learning. The
meaning of the more conventionalized characters is quite unknown.

The most ancient form of writing is the pictograph, in which the thought to be
conveyed is actually, although perhaps roughly, pictured. Until modern schools were
introduced the American Indian often made use of such writing. To represent good
hunting, for instance, he merely painted or carved on a rock the picture of deer and
other game.

The scope of true pictographs, however, is too narrow to recommend their exclusive
use among a people of advanced ideas. But this scope was vastly widened through
using them, not solely to picture a condition as it actually exists, but to represent other
things with which the pictured object most commonly is mentally associated.

To indicate in our desert region, that there was a water-hole in a certain direction, the
American Indian traced on a rock a line in that direction. Where the line ends is the
water-hole; for every Indian trail, in such a region, ends only at a water-hole.

In such writing he has gone beyond simple pictograph and employed universal
symbolism. He has not felt the need of picturing the water or the water-hole. He
knows that the end of a trail in every Indian’s mind is associated with a water-hole.
When he pictures where the trail ends, he thus conveys to any other Indian the
information that there water can be found. Such picture writing can be found from
Mexico to Canada throughout the arid region.

We say, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” to convey the idea that the written
thought is superior to warfare. This also is universal symbolism, even though it be not
pictured by a broken sword lying beneath an arrogant pen.

Thus in addition to that which can be recorded as a picture there is also that which can
be recorded orally. The myths and legends and folklore of the various peoples of the
world often are very interesting as stories. But in addition to their entertainment
value, which is given to them to insure that they shall be perpetuated, they also, quite
as much as a picture drawn on a rock, convey ideas of more serious import.

Either pictures or stories may have a certain attractiveness of form; but pictures are
not drawn, nor stories perpetuated, by primitive peoples except as they are employed
to give expression through pictograph or universal symbolism to important thoughts
which there is a desire to convey to other minds.

And because the attributes of objects are fairly constant, as are also their common
associations, thought conveyed in such a manner remains clear and understandable
across intervening centuries and regardless of race or clime. It is in such language as
this, whose meaning does not pass away, nor changed by time nor place, that the
sages of old recorded their ineffable wisdom.

Source of the Legacy

–Few details persist of the civilizations that once existed on the land area over
which now rolls the waters of the Pacific. This land, called Mu by some of the
peoples deriving from it, and termed Lemuria by those of the present day who find
evidence that the lemurs had their origin there, probably was inhabited by several
races in varying stages of culture.

That it actually existed there is abundant geological, biological and ethnological
evidence to prove. Such proof, however, belongs more properly to Course 12, where
the origins of life-forms and human cultures, and there spread from centers of
dispersal, are considered in some detail. But as a lot of nonsense has found its way
into print about this Pacific land area it may not be amiss to indicate that The Problem
of Lemuria, by Lewis Spence, is a book based upon scientific findings, and is
consequently free from the wild speculations written as fact that too frequently are
outstanding features of other books on the subject.

There is even more abundant evidence that Atlantis once occupied some portion of
what is now the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantis, by Ignatius Donelly, was written many
years ago, but is still a good book. The History of Atlantis, by Lewis Spence, brings
the findings down to date, and is authoritative. But as in the case of Lemuria (Mu),
what we know about the inhabitants of this ancient land rests wholly on tradition.

That somewhere on the earth there was a people of intelligence and prowess superior
to the Neanderthal Man who inhabited Europe during glacial times is not tradition,
but positive knowledge. When the last ice sheet receded sufficiently to make the
climate of Europe a little more attractive, the Cro-Magnon race invaded that area and
exterminated its more primitive inhabitants. The indications are that they came out of
the west. In cranial capacity and physique, as shown by their abundant remains, they
were the equal of any race on earth today.

Also in America, as soon as the great ice sheet had receded, a people arrived from
somewhere. They were not Indians, and apparently their culture extended to the
Atlantic seaboard. Their flint points were first turned up in 1925 near Folsom, New
Mexico, along with a type of bison now extinct. After the place where first
discovered, they are called the Folsom people.

Equally certain it is that there existed some people in the distant past who knew vastly
more about the unseen world, about spiritual laws, and about the influence of
astrological energies upon human life than does the modern scientist. This is just as
certain, and for the same reason, as that there were Cro-Magnon and Folsom people.
Portions of this knowledge persist, and are being uncovered from time to time, in
various areas of the world where long ago they took lodgment.

Just where the Stellar Wisdom first was practiced, and from whence it spread, there is
as yet no conclusive evidence to enable us to decide. That in forms which are but
modifications of an identical original it was present at the very beginning of the seven
ancient centers of civilization–Egypt, India, Crete, Peru, Mexico, China and
Chaldea–it is easy to demonstrate. And experience proves that wherever a
particular biological form, or a culture having many complex yet identical
interrelating factors, is present in different areas of the world, it had its origin in a
single region of dispersal.

Atlantis and Mu certainly existed, and it is quite probable that each was inhabited by
several races, some member of one of which perhaps rose to great heights in spiritual
knowledge. But as a naturalist, and a student of the development and dispersal of new
life-forms on earth, I find no evidence on which to base the popular conception that
the inhabitants of these ancient lands were skilled in the construction or use of
machinery. Nor do I believe they were the equal of present-day astronomers in
making precise calculations.

In the Great Pyramid of Egypt, and in some of the embankment mounds of the
Mississippi Valley of America which seem to employ the same formulas,
astronomical proportions and cosmic knowledge are included which have a vast
range. We do not know just how vast, because as scientists of the present day make
new discoveries regarding the structure of our universe, it is revealed that such also
are included in these monuments to the wisdom of the past.

On the whole, however, in so far as there is any evidence to indicate, in the work the
ancients contemplated they had no need for, and did not use, the minute precision
which marks the work of present-day laboratory scientists. Their knowledge of
astronomical ratios and cosmic relations was derived from applying the Law of
Correspondences with the aid of their highly developed psychic faculties, rather than
through the use of refined mechanical contrivances such as are employed today.

They were interested in the various factors, seen and unseen, with which the universe
abounds, as they relate to human life and destiny, here and hereafter. And it is to their
everlasting credit that they worked out a mathematics, and formulated methods of
procedure, which were adequate to meet these practical requirements.

Origin of the Constellations–Without setting the date when the method as we know it, and as it has passed down
to us through the Chaldeans and the Greeks was perfected, nor attempting to decide
how much and when it may have been modified in its passing, we can trace the road
traveled by these ancients who left to us our spiritual legacy.

We can do this with great confidence because we know that the purpose for which
they studied astronomy was to be able to chart astrological influences as they affect
human life, and to correlate spiritual truths with these observed influences. All the
more positive can we be in thus following their steps because most of the methods
they used are still similarly employed in some portion of the world today.

We know, for instance, it was desirable in that ancient time, as it is desirable today,
that some point be fixed upon from which to reckon the days in the year, and from
which to indicate the east-and-west position of the objects to be seen in the heavens.
One cannot, very well, refer to the place of an object along a circle either a circle of
days or a circle in the sky–unless there is some established point to reckon from.

The ancient astrologers of almost every land, as far back as we can trace them. seem
to have recognized the earth to be round. Aristotle, who dominated scholasticism
from the fourth century BC until after the time of Copernicus in the sixteenth century
AD, held and taught this view. Eratosthenes, the librarian at Alexandria, who died
196 BC, measured the size of the earth’s globe; and Hipparchus, born 160 BC,
working from the accepted idea of the Chaldean astrologers that the earth is a globe,
and from his observations that the Sun varies in the speed of its orbital progress,
demonstrated that the earth does not lie at the center of the Sun’s (we now know
apparent) orbit.

It was Christian dogma, misinterpreting, certain biblical passages, which forced its
followers in many localities–although Aristotle was still considered the better
authority by many scholars–on pain of punishment to accept a flat earth with four
corners.

Because a conspicuous star is so easily located, such may at first have been chosen, to
mark the line extending southward from the apparently immovable Pole Star, from
which the positions eastward of the other stars could be located. The conjunction of
the Sun with this star also could have been used to start the year. But in time it was
found that some stars have a motion relative to others, and that the position of the Sun
on the longest and shortest days of the year was shifting westward among the stars.

It became apparent, therefore, that the best point from which to locate stars and
planets in reference to east-and-west, and from which also to commence the year, is
the place in the heavens occupied by the Sun when the days and nights are equal. And
as the spring is looked forward to with such eagerness by people who have felt the
oppressive weight of winter, the Vernal Equinox was the one chosen.

Because it is the best starting point, it is still so used by astronomers; both the timing
and east-and west positions of the stellar bodies being stated by them as so far from
the Vernal Equinox, or first point of Aries.

They draw a line from the Pole Star directly south through the point on the equator
where the Sun crosses it. This line, called the Prime Meridian, cuts off the old year
and the old circle of stars. It is 0 hours of Sidereal Time, 0 degrees of Right
Ascension, and 0 degrees of Zodiacal Longitude where it cuts the celestial equator. It
is thus the point both where and when a new cycle starts.

It had been observed that people born within 30 days after this chosen starting point,
that is, from March 21 to April 21, were aggressive, used their heads when taking the
offensive, and were given to leadership and to “butting in” on the affairs of others. In
selecting a symbolical pictograph to represent these Aries qualities nothing seemed
so appropriate as the Ram.

When it was found that people born in the following 30 days, from April 21 to May
21, were slow to anger, but violent and headstrong when once aroused, that they did
not turn aside from obstacles, but stubbornly crushed their way through them by
force and perseverance, the Bull was selected as best representing these Taurus traits.

The pictures thus selected to convey the outstanding qualities of those born under
each 30 degree section of the path of the Sun were traced in the sky as stellar
constellations. These constellated pictures are not each 30 degrees in extent, as are
the signs which they describe. Some are more ant some are less than 30 degrees. Yet a
pictograph system must portray the first major division of the zodiac with the first
constellation, and the second major division with the second constellation in the
circle, wherever these may have shifted in the precessional cycle.

It was also anciently found, and made constant use of by the Chaldeans, that each of
these twelve signs could be divided into three sections, and each of these sections,
which were called decanates, had a distinct influence of its own; only less
pronounced than that of the sign itself.

Therefore, to express in pictograph writing the influence of these 36 sections of the
zodiac, embracing 10 degrees each, the ancients traced the 36 ultra-zodiacal
constellations in the sky.

And in placing these symbolical pictographs of the influence of the 36 decanates of
the zodiac in the heavens, they used the same system as they tit when they traced the
pictures of the 12 signs. That is, the first ultra-zodiacal constellation pictured the first
10 degrees of the zodiac, the second ultra-zodiacal constellation pictured the second
10 degrees of the zodiac, and so on.

Modern maps of the sky have many more than 48 constellations, because with the
study of modern astronomy, kings and notables desired something placed in the
heavens to remember them by, and the astronomers were accommodating. But the
Greeks visited Chaldea and brought home the celestial sphere of the Chaldeans. And
these old Greek sources show only the 48 constellations given in the illustration on
page 3.To form 48 distinct pictures, both north and south hemispheres of the heavens were
used. To place pictures covering much of the two hemispheres on a single plane
surface in their true relation to their distance from the commencement of the zodiac,
causes pictures of one hemisphere greatly to overlap and obliterate the outlines of
pictures of the other hemisphere. Hence, if the pictures of all 48 constellations are
given on a single page, their true positions must be distorted.

The illustration on page 2 thus gives the ancient picture of each of the 48
constellations in correct detail, and proper proportion as to size; but moved
sufficiently from its true place in the zodiac that the complete picture can be shown.
The relation to the particular section of the zodiac which each ultra-zodiacal
constellation represents in pictograph, is here denoted by the symbol of the sign to
which the decanate belongs, and by a number showing whether it relates to the first,
second, or third decanate of this sign. The diagram on page 10 shows this relationship
fully.

The System Used to Denote the Zodiacal Relationship of Each Constellation

–Modern astronomers, because their work largely relates to observation, find it
more convenient to locate positions in the heavens east from the Prime Meridian.
Thus the east-west positions of the planets and stars are given in the Nautical
Almanac for each day of the year in terms of Right Ascension.
But a vast amount of observation both ancient and modern–the Anu Enlil Series of
the Chaldeans, which recorded both the positions in the heavens and the coincident
events which happened on the earth, alone extending unbroken for over a thousand
years –has made it clear that it is the position of a planet along the path of the Sun,
and not its distance eastward from the Prime Meridian, which determines its
influence upon human life.

Not only the signs of the zodiac and their decanates are measured along the path of
the Sun, called the ecliptic, but the aspects that are formed between the planets, both
in a birth-chart and by progression, are calculated along this path. The same point
which is cut by the Prime Meridian is used as a starting place, that is, the first point of
Aries; but the line of reference instead of extending south from the Pole Star through
this point, extends south through it from the Pole of the Ecliptic. The distance from
the Vernal Equinox, and from this line of reference, along the path of the Sun, or
ecliptic, which a star or constellation is, is called its Zodiacal Longitude.

Because it is the Zodiacal Longitude or a heavenly body, instead of its Right
Ascension, which determines its influence over human life, astrologers do not use
the positions of the heavenly bodies as they are given in the Nautical Almanac in
erecting and progressing birth-charts. Instead, they use an astronomical ephemeris,
in which the ephemeris maker has conveniently, and by means of a simple formula,
converted the Right Ascension positions of the Nautical Almanac into the Zodiacal
Longitude which is required in all astrological work.

Now as astrologers of every age have used the Zodiacal Longitude positions of the
heavenly bodies in their work–the star tables of both Hipparchus and Ptolemy
including such zodiacal longitudes it is apparent that if they wished to indicate the
order of sequence of pictures drawn in the sky they would use Zodiacal Longitude to
indicate it. And that is just what we find they did.

The outlines of these pictures are not suggested by the contour of lines of stars. The
pictures are imposed over star groups where their sequence would correspond to the
same sequence of the sections of the zodiac which they were drawn to explain. The
boundaries of the constellated figures, consequently, are quite arbitrary.

Modern astronomers, in ignorance of their true purport, have expanded some of the
constellations to embrace adjacent areas, and contracted others to allow for the
inclusion of new ones not recognized in ancient times. Thus in the matter of their size
and sequence no reliance can be placed upon modern astronomical atlases.

Fortunately, about 1820, Alexander Jamieson published in a school atlas the pictured
constellations of the ancients, with Longitude, Declination, Right Ascension, and
Latitude of each correctly mapped for that year. Jamieson obtained these from some
large, highly emblazoned, foreign monkish charts, which were reduced according to
scale. Whence Jamieson obtained these old celestial maps, no one appears to know.
But they are the most authentic maps of the ancient heavens we now possess, and are
to be found reproduced in Henry Melville’s “Veritas,” published in London in 1874,
which only recently has gone out of print.

We are under no obligation to accept the Ram as the proper picture of the influence of
the first 30 degrees of the zodiac; or that the Sea Goat, able to swim in water, travel on
the land, and scale the mountain heights, correctly portrays the diplomatic qualities
and vaunting ambition of our Capricorn friends, over whom the tenth 30 degree
section of the zodiac holds particular sway. Yet our everyday astrological
observations convince us that these pictographs have been given their proper
allocations.

Nor do we need to rest on any arbitrary method of sequence to convince ourselves
that the pictured constellation corresponding to any decanate of the zodiac really
portrays the significant quality over which that 10 degree section has special
influence. Thousands of astrologers are using these decanate influences in their
work. They have found that the picture and its Key-word accurately describe the
influence of each.

Thus when we trace the manner in which they were given their proper place in the
sky, we find it was after the system most direct and easily understood:

Starting after the first constellation which was to picture the first 10 degree section of
the zodiac, no matter how far north or south the following ones were placed, the first
point of their pictured outlines touched by Zodiacal longitude determined their order
of sequence. According to this simplest of methods the second constellation,
picturing the second decanate of the zodiac, was placed so that the portion of its
outline nearest 0 degrees Aries was second in Zodiacal Longitude. The tenth
ultra-zodiacal constellation, picturing the tenth decanate of the zodiac, in that portion
of its outline nearest to 0 degrees Aries, was tenth in Zodiacal Longitude And the
thirty-sixth ultra-zodiacal constellation. Cassiopeia, picturing the last decanate in the
zodiac, was as farthest removed in the Zodiacal Longitude of that portion of its
outline nearest 0 degrees Aries, following eastward around the circle.

The proper order of sequence, both according to the Zodiacal Longitude of the most
westward point in the outline of each ultra-zodiacal constellation and according to
the findings of research in natal astrology, is given in picture and in diagram on pages
2 and 10.

The Method Used to Perpetuate the Spiritual Teachings

–The objects sought by the ancients in these pictures, however, were not merely to
portray the influence of a section of the zodiac over human life, but also to set forth
the particular spiritual teaching which was equally related to the same zodiacal
section.

Each position in the sky that had an influence over human conduct, to them implied
that there should be a definite teaching which revealed how the individual could
overcome the threatened danger, or how he could take fullest advantage of the
spiritual opportunity offered.

Natal astrology was not ignored. It was used as an avenue by which to make life on
earth more successful, to the advantage of the individual and of society as a whole.
But it was never lost sight of that the soul existed before incarnation in human form,
and that it would continue to exist and function after the dissolution of the physical
body. Therefore, they deemed it of even greater importance to know the spiritual
trends associated with each astrological position than it was merely to know its
influence as affecting the material fortune.

It was these spiritual teachings which defined the relation of the soul to other entities
and to the cosmic whole, as revealed by the influence of the various sections of the
zodiac, that the wise ones of old most earnestly desired to perpetuate, and to pass on
to coming generations as the most valuable of all possible bequests. Yet the amount
of information which could be conveyed by a single symbolical pictograph was
narrowly restricted to the ability of others coming later to interpret it.

There is, however, also an oral form of universal symbolism commonly employed by
primitive people. It conveys information through the avenue of a story. Therefore, to
make correct interpretation of the pictographs drawn in the sky more certain, and to
give details that were difficult to incorporate in such pictures, those who traced the
constellations wove about each a symbolic story.

These stories, modified by time and custom though they are, still clearly reveal their
correct stellar relationship. Some of the constellations and some of the stories, like
those relating to Halloween and the destruction of the world, to May Day and the
May Pole Dance, and to the Great Bear that circles the northern pole, are to be found
among the people of every continent. Others are now less universally known; yet still
are to be found as the cherished myths of certain peoples.

Thus it is that the sacred literature and the sacred customs retained by various
peoples, when collected and interpreted according to the universal symbolism
employed by those who gave them origin, afford a clear exposition of the Stellar
Wisdom of the past. Racial memory, even though their meaning has long been lost,
still feels the-r sacredness, still feels that they have spiritual import, and still
preserves them, even as lifeless cloaks from which the vitality they once embraced,
and which rightfully they still should clothe, has long since departed.

In each of the twelve lessons to follow, using the same universal symbolism in
reference to the zodiac that was employed by those who first traced the constellated
pictures, and using the stories about the characters thus pictured that are still retained
in myth, legend and sacred custom, I shall indicate the spiritual teachings which
originally were attached to one of the zodiacal constellations and the three
constellations picturing its decanates.

In each instance I trust to be able not merely to indicate the spiritual doctrine taught
by a constellation, but to point out the obvious implications of the universal
symbolism employed by those who drew the picture in the sky and told a story to still
further explain its purport. And I hope to do this in so clear a manner that the reader
can easily discern the process followed by the ancients in thus perpetuating their
findings, and that he will be able to recognize in each instance just why they adopted
the picture and story employed, and thus to discern how wisely they selected each as
best fitted to transmit the idea they wished to convey.

Why Moderns Are So Ignorant of the Stellar Wisdom

–Their wisdom in using pictures among the stars which the vandal hand of man has
been unable to erase, and stories which have persisted in sacred literature, or like that
of Santa Claus, in spite of the accepted sacred literature, is not merely demonstrated
by the history of the past, but by events of the present day.

It has been the almost universal custom of those who rose to power, for the purpose of
fastening their own pet religious beliefs upon the minds of their followers, as
completely as possible to destroy all records and remembrance of every preceding
religion. Even the name, as well as the beliefs, of Akhenaten, that most spiritual ruler
of Egypt, was chiseled from temple and tomb wherever found.

In the Alexandrian Library, founded by Ptolemy Soter about 300 BC, had been
collected, in so far as vast resources and research could obtain it, the written
knowledge of the world, reputed to represent 700,000 volumes. It was over these
scientific documents and treasures of literature, in so far as they had been collected,
that Eratosthenes had been brought from upper Egypt to act as custodian. No wonder
he could measure the globe and lay down precedents for finding latitude on the
earth’s surface which in principle are still followed by the mariners of our day!

When the Roman emperors adopted Christianity they saw in this great body of
scientific knowledge and spiritual tradition a menace to the blind belief they
demanded of their subjects. They destroyed the Alexandrian Library, and not content
with burning books, they demolished all statuary, wherever found, that would give
any inkling of the wisdom of the past. Of the Alexandrian volumes that escaped the
ravages of Imperial Rome, the Mohammedans, equally as fanatical in their desire to
preserve only the Bible and the Koran, made short work as they invaded westward.

When America was discovered it was rich in astrological wisdom. But the decree
went out that every vestige of that knowledge, which was looked upon as diabolical,
should be destroyed.

In The Church of Light QUARTERLY I have published articles–Stellar Religion
and Healing of Akhenaten (Egypt); Stellar Religion of Southwest Indians; Astrology
of the Aztecs; Posidonius and Chaldea; Itzamna, Great Initiate of the Maya; The
Arkansas Astrological Stone; etc. — in which has been set forth in considerable
detail the Stellar Wisdom of various peoples in so far as it has been uncovered by
modern research. These articles are available in the book, ASTROLOGICAL LORE
OF ALL AGES, by Elbert Benjamine.

In this course, therefore, the stellar attainments of particular peoples will receive no
consideration. Instead, the attention will be devoted to indicating the spiritual
doctrines which in part measure were retained by all, in much larger measure by
some and in lesser measure by others, and in full measure probably only by the most
enlightened few.

Even the detailed explanation of the Aztec Calendar Stone which forms the lower
illustration on page 13 must be referred to the article on Aztec Astrology. Suffice it
here to say that it is a single season calendar by which not only the day of the year, but
the zodiacal position of both Sun and Moon could be ascertained on that day. Too
large to destroy, as it is of basaltic porphyry eleven feet, eight inches in diameter, and
weighs some twenty-four tons, sometime between 1551 and 1559 after the execution
of such Aztecs as were known to possess historical or astrological knowledge, Friar
Alonso de Montufar had the stone secretly buried.

No one suspected its existence for over 200 years until in 1790, when some
workmen, excavating in the Plaza Mayor, unearthed this huge testimonial of
astrological knowledge, and it now rests in the Mexican National Museum.

The picture above it, preserved by Veytia, gives the names of the 13 days in each
week, and the 7 weeks in each season, the dots being, of course, the universal
symbols for the number of the week or day. It is thus, together with the universal
symbolism in its center, merely a less conventionalized reproduction of the same
factors sculptured on the Aztec Calendar Stone.

All four seasons of the Aztec Solar-Lunar calendar have been preserved to us by
Diego Duran, who paid for his disregard of Spanish orders by being burned alive.
The sketch, which was included in his “History of the Indians of New Spain,” written
earlier than 1588, is reproduced at the lower left-hand corner of the illustration on
page 14. The diagram at the lower right-hand corner of the illustration explains just
how it was used to find the relation between Sun and Moon on any day, and to find
when any given aspect of Moon to Sun recurred throughout the year.

At the upper right-hand corner of the illustration on page 14 is the Triskelion
Calendar used by the Aztecs, as preserved by Clavigero. By its means the Aztecs and
other people who used it, could determine any distance in the future or the past, when
an eclipse would occur and where visible, also when New Moons would occur, ant
which house of the chart they would occupy.

In the lower center of the illustration is a sketch of a date stone found on a Tennessee
tomb, which employs both the Triskelion and the Swastika Calendars, after the Aztec
manner, to record the time of an important burial. To left and right of it are Triskelion
and Swastika symbols as commonly found in Europe.

The main part of the illustration on page 14 represents the Arkansas Astrological
Stone. It was found a few years ago by a boat builder on the bank of Lake Hamilton,
which is formed by damming the water of the Ouachita River near Hot Springs,
Arkansas.

This Astrological Stone, although using quite different names for the 13 days in each
week, and for the 7 weeks in each of the four seasons of the year, employs the same
method, and determines the relation of Sun and Moon on any day of the year in
precisely the same way, as does the Aztec Calendar Stone. In addition there are other
symbols which relate to the astrological practice and the occult knowledge of the
mound builders. These are fully explained in the article.

There is no call, I am sure, to give further instances of the fanatical endeavors which
at various times have swept all important lands in the effort to obliterate all
knowledge of preceding beliefs and customs; for we can see the process now in
operations. Soviet Russia has placed a ban on God and religion; the Scopes trial made
it illegal to teach evolution in the schools of Tennessee; and Hitler, dictator of
Germany, not content to decide the religion his people must adopt, has made it illegal
even to possess any book or literature relating to astrology.

The Religion of the Stars in Stone

–Yet in spite of the ease with which, for the most part, the more intricate astrological
knowledge could be destroyed, so enthusiastically did the people of late prehistoric
times build their monuments to the four chief tenets of THE RELIGION OF THE
STARS, that the combined vandalism of subsequent ages has failed appreciably to
remove them.

Huge stone monuments commemorating the stellar belief are to be found wherever
there is land in a belt extending entirely around the world. Thousands of them,
embracing four different types, still stand. In England, in France, in Egypt, in
Mesopotamia, in India, in Peru, in Mexico and in the United States, there exist these
stupendous stone records of beliefs inherited from a still more ancient people.

Even as the zodiac is divided by solstice and equinox into four quadrants, each
represented by an arm of the swastika and presided over by the Bull, the Lion, the
Eagle or the Man, so the ancient Stellar Religion had four corresponding outstanding
doctrines, which like the quadrants of the swastika (see illustration this page) united
in the complete circle of spirit to express a single all-embracing spiritual doctrine.

Dome-shaped mounds were used for magical ceremonies and for initiation. They are
so used today by primitive peoples, the kiva of the Indians of the Southwest being a
single example of many that can be cited. These were places where they went to
demonstrate the hidden powers of the mind.

The sign Taurus, governing one quadrant, is the exaltation of the Moon, ruler of
Mentality and of the feminine in nature. It is an earthy sign, and the dome of earth
often was provided with a small entrance to the interior. Here then we have a teaching
regarding the gestation of thought, and a record of the belief that man, through the
proper exercise of his mentality, can control his own life and destiny, here and
hereafter.

Huge, straight shafts of rock, upright like the rays of the midday Sun, symbolize the
virile masculine powers which are associated with the sign Leo, which governs
another heavenly quadrant. The house Leo naturally occupies in a birth-chart is the
one concerned with pleasure, love-affairs and children.

The love of husband for wife and of wife for husband is a most holy and sacred thing,
and is one of the most constructive forces that man can utilize. The love of parents for
their children approaches the deific in its sanctity, and germinates the seed of that
unselfish love that alone makes immortality possible. These straight shafts of stone,
and the round towers which dot the globe, both record the belief of an ancient people
that love is the way to life.

A horizontal slab supported by two or more pillars presents the form of a doorway.
These dolmens are more than doorways, for the conspicuous feature of their
construction is the flat, table-like surface presented by the slab held thus high above
the ground. It strikes the eye at once as a plane, a plane above the earth.

The third quadrant of the heavens is presided over by Scorpio, ruling the house of
death in a natural birth-chart. In its higher aspect it is pictured as an eagle. Thus does
the slab of stone supported by two pillars indicate that death is the doorway to a
higher plane of conscious existence, and that passing through it man ceases to crawl
in the dust like a scorpion and soars, like an eagle, to a life of greater power and
freedom.

Aquarius, presiding over the fourth quadrant of the zodiac, measures the influence of
the stars with one hand, while water running from his urn flows down upon the earth
even as do the vibrations of the planets.

Huge concentric circles of stone portray the orbits of the planets. These cromlechs, as
they are called, bring to us the same message that is revealed by the constellation of
the Man. They attest to the belief of those, who at the cost of tremendous labor
erected them, that the planets have an influence over human life and destiny.

When these four ancient doctrines are united, their mutual implications become as
obvious as that a circle is formed by the united zodiacal quadrants. The whole, as a
logical necessity, then becomes summed up as the spiritual admonition,
CONTRIBUTE YOUR UTMOST TO UNIVERSAL WELFARE.