Mazzaroth: Or, the Constellations

In the Egyptian Planisphere this planet is delineated as a woman, under her name Athor, she who cometh; the Christian Church, or the Church of God, in all ages. She is in a kneeling position under her house Taurus, seven stars, the Pleiades, before her. As after the time of the siege of Troy tradition says one vanished, this figure refers to a date previous to that time, 1000 B.C. The swine, enemy of the Serpent, is after; the Ram, of the sign Aries, with the circle of a complete era on his head, before.      From the little respect paid by the Egyptians to the planets, compared with that paid to the more brilliant of the fixed stars, it may be inferred that they knew them to be but earths, while the stars were suns, probably by tradition from the great founder of the science, the Hermes Trismegistus of Egypt and Greece, the great, thrice great, who did not share the destiny of other men, the Prophet Enoch, of whom is recorded, "God took him."      The Eg...

In the time of Seth and Enoch the Pole was among the stars of Draco, the emblem of the enemy; the constellation of the lesser sheepfold had no relation to it, but by degrees the Pole drew nearer to the brightest star in that constellation; the sheep, represented by three of its other stars as quitting their earthly fold (the believing Church), seemed going forth to the cynosure faintly typifying Him who was and is the object of their faith. In the brilliant intensification of this emblem of the fold and sheep going forth, the greater fold (called the Great Bear), it is strikingly represented that their course is to the great Shepherd and guardian of the flocks, typified in Arcturus, He who cometh and returneth. The three stars, daughters of the flock, seem following, seeking Him; but two, representing the boundaries of the fold, point above to the star typifying Him in the earlier dispensation, the lesser and as it were further removed fold. There He , the great Shepherd of the sheep, ...