Mazzaroth: Or, the Constellations

Post 2      Preface. p. 1-2. 3      Questions to which it is generally believed that there is no            certain Answer to be given,  Tradition or Conjecture being all            that is ever alleged. p. 3. table 4      Objections sometimes urged as to the Origin and Meaning of            the Names and Figures of the  Ancient Constellations. p. 4-5. table 5      What are the real Meanings of the Emblems of the Signs?            p. 6-7. table 6      The Latin Names of the Twelve Signs accounted for by their            Semitic Roots. p. 8. 7      The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, as connected with the            Primitive Prophecies. p. 9-12. 8      Mazzaroth. Chapter I. p. 13-19. ...

p. 1. MOST persons have been taught the names and figures of the signs of the zodiac. Many have been repelled by the explanations usually given of these and the other constellations; and it has been proposed to substitute a kind of survey of the heavens, where lines and angles should take the place of the traditional figures. Should this alteration be adopted, the message these figures were intended to transmit will not be less impressive when the types in which it was conveyed are not longer made subservient to the purposes of practical astronomy; especially as through being thus used the forms of the emblems are already disguised and modernized, and new figures, the most incongruous and absurd, have been intruded among them, while the names of the stars are becoming continually more corrupted.      The object of this work is to show, by the combined testimony of tradition and of ancient writers, and from the meaning of the yet extant ancient names of stars and emblems...

p. 9. THE antiquity and wide diffusion of these emblems, and the mystic veneration in which they were ever held, are traced in the accompanying pages: it is also shown that the notion of the signs having any reference to the seasons is of comparatively late origin, and could not at any time have been sustained consistently with the times and climates of their well-known previous existence. 1 .      It was not till the diffusion of the light of Christianity had cast into shade these dim foreshowings of its great events, that the vague awe with which these emblems were formerly regarded gave place to indifference and neglect, or was only preserved in the reveries of astrology. This reverence 2 , in some cases leading even to idolatry, indicated a tradition that their message was divine. They each represented an action, still to be traced in the fables connected with them 3 , a type, of which the true antitype is to be found in the great subject of the ancient prophecies ...

p. 13. THE power and majesty of the Creator have ever been admired in the starry heavens; and still, as in the days of the inspired poet, in that firmament which showeth the works of His hands are the traces of His infinite wisdom sought out of all those who have pleasure therein; but His glory has long ceased to be deciphered, where it was once clearly read, in those long misunderstood records of remote antiquity, the names and figures of the ancient constellations 1 , as attributed to them beyond the memory of man, beyond the range of history. The first vague yet sublime impression with which all behold the splendid luminaries of the midnight sky is weakened, if not destroyed, when taught to associate with them the debasing legends of heathen mythology, or the trifling allusions 2 to the seasons of the revolving year and the habits of the beasts that perish. How has the poetry of heaven been lowered into the most miserable, the dullest prose! How has that ignorance, which was bliss...

p. 20. IN whatever obscurity the origin of the emblems of astronomy may appear to be enveloped, in the traditions of the nations where they are preserved, no such doubts hang over that of the science itself. It has always and every where been traced back to the earliest race of men. The Hebrews, Chaldeans, Persians, and Arabs inputed its invention to Adam, Seth, and Enoch; the earlier Greeks to their mythical and mysterious personage Prometheus. Soon after the usual date assigned to Noah's flood, astronomy is found in high cultivation in the commencing empire of China; and equally early records of observed eclipses were preserved at Babylon, proving considerable attainments in that science. Those modern writers who acknowledge the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures, if only as historical, generally refer its origination to the antediluvian patriarchs; and to Noah, its transmission to the ancient nations. Those who do not admit that authority, claim for astronomy, from its internal...

2     Explanation of the Tables. p. 1-3. 3     Prophecies of the Messiah, His People and His Enemy,            corresponding with the Thirty-six Decans or Constellations            accompanying the Signs. p. 4. table 4     Authorities for the Antiquity of the Signs of the Zodiac, their           Names and Forms. p. 5-8. tables 5     Aries. The Ram, or Lamb, coming Forth. p. 9. table 6     Taurus. The Bull, coming to Rule. p. 10-11. table 7     Gemini. The Twins, the United. p. 12. table 8     Cancer. The Crab or Scarabaeus, holding the Possession.            p. 13-14. table 9     Leo. The Lion, the Separating. p. 15. table 10   Virgo. The Woman, bearing the Branch. p. 16-17. table  11   Libra. The Scales, the ...