ON THE PLANET VENUS.
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 Egyptians knew, what the Greeks did not for a long time, that the morning and the evening star were the same planet: Pythagoras is said to have been the first who pointed out this fact to the Greeks; he is also said to have acquired his astronomy with other knowledge in Phoenicia. What the Phoenicians then knew must have been known to the Hebrews, at that time a highly civilized nation, and having had the instruction of Solomon. They therefore must have recognized the planet under both its aspects. As an evening star it is not mentioned in Scripture, and it is doubtful whether it is alluded to as a morning star, except in the Apocalypse. In Isaiah xiv. 12, Lucifer is in the original Hillel, the shining, the brilliant, a name which has no affinity with any extant of the planet Venus, though much with many names of the Sun, as Heli, Sanscrit, and Helios, Greek. If, however, from the mythology of the ancients, we may infer the original symbolization of the planet Venus, as a type of the Church of Him who was to come, the Sun of Righteousness 1, both these aspects will be found expressive and suitable. Before the first coming, the Church as the morning star, heralded the Sun by prophecy; and in the evening star typified the declension of the Jewish dispensation, still however transmitting some rays of the splendour of the promised Messiah. After the Sun of the first coming was set, the twilight of the great apostasy began to close around; when the Church, as the planet Venus, receding from the source of light, became less bright, even while increasing in apparent magnitude, it might well be typified by the evening star; again approximating to the Sun, disappearing from our sight, to rise in renewed splendour as the morning star announcing His return.
Venus, the beloved, the bright, the star of evening, descending and declining in brilliancy after the departure of the the sun, but to return as the morning star with increased splendour at his reappearance, - by all tradition spoken of as the bride of a divine person, of Mars or of Odin, - is an expressive and suitable type of the Church, falling away and to be restored at the second coming of her Lord, as the bride of Christ, the Lamb's wife of the Apocalyptic vision. The invariableness of this tradition is the more remarkable, as the Germans and other northern nations made the moon masculine, as in the well-known legend of Anningait and Ajut among the Laplanders.
This planet was considered sacred to the Assyrian goddess Baltis, nSya, who is represented with a star on her head, and standing on a lion. "A female divinity called by Diodorus Sieulus, Hera (who bears), held in her right hand a serpent by the head, and in the other a sceptre," probably originally a branch. Layard identifies her with Astarte 2, starry, and Mylitta, bringing forth.
"You ought, if possible, to get a sight of Lepsius's Introduction. Only one volume is out, and not translated. I hold him to be a great charlatan in many things, but as regards scholarship he is unrivalled; and in this volume everything that can be said on Greek and Egyptian astronomy is to be found. It is a quarto of magnificent print, and I can lend it you if you like. If you look to Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 6, you will see what he says about Pythagoras and the evening star. The Greeks strictly called Hesperus the evening star., Phosphorus the morning star; the Latins, Lucifer and Vesperugo.
"What Lepsius says is briefly this. 'Authorities are given.' The fifth planet, the star of Aphrodite, is called by the Greeks Heosphoros, called by Aristotle Hera. The morning star is Sion or Toone, Toone being morning. Kircher said the Coptic for Venus was Souroh 3." (C. H. Cottrell.)
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 Egyptians knew, what the Greeks did not for a long time, that the morning and the evening star were the same planet: Pythagoras is said to have been the first who pointed out this fact to the Greeks; he is also said to have acquired his astronomy with other knowledge in Phoenicia. What the Phoenicians then knew must have been known to the Hebrews, at that time a highly civilized nation, and having had the instruction of Solomon. They therefore must have recognized the planet under both its aspects. As an evening star it is not mentioned in Scripture, and it is doubtful whether it is alluded to as a morning star, except in the Apocalypse. In Isaiah xiv. 12, Lucifer is in the original Hillel, the shining, the brilliant, a name which has no affinity with any extant of the planet Venus, though much with many names of the Sun, as Heli, Sanscrit, and Helios, Greek. If, however, from the mythology of the ancients, we may infer the original symbolization of the planet Venus, as a type of the Church of Him who was to come, the Sun of Righteousness 1, both these aspects will be found expressive and suitable. Before the first coming, the Church as the morning star, heralded the Sun by prophecy; and in the evening star typified the declension of the Jewish dispensation, still however transmitting some rays of the splendour of the promised Messiah. After the Sun of the first coming was set, the twilight of the great apostasy began to close around; when the Church, as the planet Venus, receding from the source of light, became less bright, even while increasing in apparent magnitude, it might well be typified by the evening star; again approximating to the Sun, disappearing from our sight, to rise in renewed splendour as the morning star announcing His return.
Venus, the beloved, the bright, the star of evening, descending and declining in brilliancy after the departure of the the sun, but to return as the morning star with increased splendour at his reappearance, - by all tradition spoken of as the bride of a divine person, of Mars or of Odin, - is an expressive and suitable type of the Church, falling away and to be restored at the second coming of her Lord, as the bride of Christ, the Lamb's wife of the Apocalyptic vision. The invariableness of this tradition is the more remarkable, as the Germans and other northern nations made the moon masculine, as in the well-known legend of Anningait and Ajut among the Laplanders.
This planet was considered sacred to the Assyrian goddess Baltis, nSya, who is represented with a star on her head, and standing on a lion. "A female divinity called by Diodorus Sieulus, Hera (who bears), held in her right hand a serpent by the head, and in the other a sceptre," probably originally a branch. Layard identifies her with Astarte 2, starry, and Mylitta, bringing forth.
"You ought, if possible, to get a sight of Lepsius's Introduction. Only one volume is out, and not translated. I hold him to be a great charlatan in many things, but as regards scholarship he is unrivalled; and in this volume everything that can be said on Greek and Egyptian astronomy is to be found. It is a quarto of magnificent print, and I can lend it you if you like. If you look to Pliny, Hist. Nat. ii. 6, you will see what he says about Pythagoras and the evening star. The Greeks strictly called Hesperus the evening star., Phosphorus the morning star; the Latins, Lucifer and Vesperugo.
"What Lepsius says is briefly this. 'Authorities are given.' The fifth planet, the star of Aphrodite, is called by the Greeks Heosphoros, called by Aristotle Hera. The morning star is Sion or Toone, Toone being morning. Kircher said the Coptic for Venus was Souroh 3." (C. H. Cottrell.)
NOTES.
A Spanish missionary wrote in Mexican (1529) the traditions of their religion, &C., which he had gathered from the Mexicans themselves. This is published in vol. vi. of Lord Kingsborough's great work. (B. M.)
At Palenque is found a vulture slaying a serpent, and the cross among sacred emblems; also, a woman and child, holding a branch, receiving offerings; also, seven stars on a blue ground, probably the Pleiades (?); and a man and woman with a sword between them.
Many Hebrew words may be found in the dialects of the Indians, as Abba, father.
The name of the sun was Naolin, who arises, comes. (Lord Kingsborough, B.M.)
When the sign Aries (the white rabbit) arrived, they fasted for the fall of the first man.
Much has been written on the Cabiri of Samothracia, the three potent divinities. Cabir appears to have been the Gentile equivalent of Cherub, "like the mighty," Cabiri being "like the strong" or "mighty," also, though from a different root. The triad of the Greeks and Romans was, of the god of the heavens, the god of the sea, and the god of the infernal regions, or separate state; but the Egyptians and Oriental heathen made theirs of father, son, and mother. (This mother was however not like the Freya of the Scandinavians, but represented the planet Venus; she was Isis, Isha, the woman of Gen. iii. 15, and of the sign Virgo.) Such, too, we find it in Mexico; while in Polynesia we find it of father, son, and bird, as may be seen in the London Missionary Museum.
The following is an extract from a letter of the clergyman referred to on p. 23. It was received by the Writer of Mazzaroth a few days before the close of life, and accepted as a correct and beautiful application of the figures to which it relates. A friend, who was in daily intercourse with the lamented Writer of this work at the time, testifies of the pleasure with which the idea contained in the letter was dwelt upon by the spirit so soon about to pass from amid symbols to realities.
"The figures of the five planets in the Dendera Planisphere are all of them distinctly characteristic. One of them is unclothed, Venus, and in B kneeling attitude, with four dolphins erect on her head. Does this figure symbolize the Church of Christ (Nogah), His 'beloved,' here in her state by nature, to be clothed only in His righteousness, and made 'to sit with Him in heavenly places?' If so, such raising up may be indicated by the four dolphins erect on the head of this kneeling figure - a dolphin being the ancient symbol of raising or lifting up. The Church's future elevation in glory seems indicated likewise by a youth sitting on a lotus on the right of the four dolphins, the meaning of which is, 'hidden but to come.' 'When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.'
"If my rendering of the Planet Venus in the Dendera Planisphere is correct, it might account for the Greek fable of Venus rising from the sea."
____________________________________________________________________________
1 Mal. iv. 2.
2 Zohara is the Arabic name for the planet Venus.
3 Heb. star of twilight.
At Palenque is found a vulture slaying a serpent, and the cross among sacred emblems; also, a woman and child, holding a branch, receiving offerings; also, seven stars on a blue ground, probably the Pleiades (?); and a man and woman with a sword between them.
Many Hebrew words may be found in the dialects of the Indians, as Abba, father.
The name of the sun was Naolin, who arises, comes. (Lord Kingsborough, B.M.)
When the sign Aries (the white rabbit) arrived, they fasted for the fall of the first man.
Much has been written on the Cabiri of Samothracia, the three potent divinities. Cabir appears to have been the Gentile equivalent of Cherub, "like the mighty," Cabiri being "like the strong" or "mighty," also, though from a different root. The triad of the Greeks and Romans was, of the god of the heavens, the god of the sea, and the god of the infernal regions, or separate state; but the Egyptians and Oriental heathen made theirs of father, son, and mother. (This mother was however not like the Freya of the Scandinavians, but represented the planet Venus; she was Isis, Isha, the woman of Gen. iii. 15, and of the sign Virgo.) Such, too, we find it in Mexico; while in Polynesia we find it of father, son, and bird, as may be seen in the London Missionary Museum.
The following is an extract from a letter of the clergyman referred to on p. 23. It was received by the Writer of Mazzaroth a few days before the close of life, and accepted as a correct and beautiful application of the figures to which it relates. A friend, who was in daily intercourse with the lamented Writer of this work at the time, testifies of the pleasure with which the idea contained in the letter was dwelt upon by the spirit so soon about to pass from amid symbols to realities.
"The figures of the five planets in the Dendera Planisphere are all of them distinctly characteristic. One of them is unclothed, Venus, and in B kneeling attitude, with four dolphins erect on her head. Does this figure symbolize the Church of Christ (Nogah), His 'beloved,' here in her state by nature, to be clothed only in His righteousness, and made 'to sit with Him in heavenly places?' If so, such raising up may be indicated by the four dolphins erect on the head of this kneeling figure - a dolphin being the ancient symbol of raising or lifting up. The Church's future elevation in glory seems indicated likewise by a youth sitting on a lotus on the right of the four dolphins, the meaning of which is, 'hidden but to come.' 'When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.'
"If my rendering of the Planet Venus in the Dendera Planisphere is correct, it might account for the Greek fable of Venus rising from the sea."
____________________________________________________________________________
1 Mal. iv. 2.
2 Zohara is the Arabic name for the planet Venus.
3 Heb. star of twilight.
Comments
Post a Comment