EXPLANATION OF THE PLANISPHERE.

I.
ARIES.
Gen. 4.25.     Exod. 15.1, Gen. 41.32.     Lev. 11.7.     Ezek. 1.912, 17.     Prov. 27.22.     Job 39.15.     1 Sa. 28.16.     Ps. 139.20.     Dan. 4.16.     Gen. 5.9.     Gen. 2.22.
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   1 The Hieroglyphic names here used are given on the authority of Mr. Birch, of the British Museum, by whom they were furnished to C. H. Cottrell, translator of Bunsen's Egypt, and by him they were given to the present writer.
   2 Egg, Job xxxix. 14; hill or heap, Deut. xiii. 16; hill, Arab.
   3 Bunsen says that the sound of the letter G is mostly rendered by K in hieroglyphics. Probably the guttural sound of y would also be so expressed. The addition of the servile letters M or N is common in the ancient dialects, whether Shemitic (Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac), or Hamitic (as the Egyptian), as in the name of the country Mizraim, from [ ], narrow, straitened, (Num xxii. 26,) as the valley of the Nile.
   4 The wolf is now considered the genus, of which the dog is a species, [ ], which cleaves to man.

II.
TAURUS, THE BULL.
Exod. 15.1, 21.     Gen. 8.9.     Ps. 94.17.

III.
GEMINI, THE TWINS.
     The union of the divine and human nature, in Him who was to come, is expressed by a youth loading by the hand a young woman. The man has the frequent appendage of the tail of a quadruped, signifying "this cometh."
Job 6.20.     Isa. 19.3.     Lev. 11.16.     Deut. 32.11.     Gen. 45.21.     Exod. 17.1.     Eccles. 8.2.     Exod. 22.10.
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   3 Ba, in Egyptian any quadruped, also He cometh, [ ], whence the heads of such are placed on a human figure to denote "He cometh."
   4 The hawk, [ ], Naz, caused to come forth, sent forth. Nazir, who preserves, guards, keeps. Isa. xxvi.3, &c.

IV.
CANCER, THE CRAB, OR SCARABAEUS.

Isa. 2.4.     Deut. 33.2.     Job 20.16.     Lev. 11.7.     Ezek. 1.9.     Ps. 139.20.     Dan. 4.16.     Gen. 18.30.     Job 3.25.     Job 1.14.     Job 3.22.     Job 20.16.

V.
LEO, THE LEON 9.
Ps. 93.2.     Exod. 15.4.     Ps. 45.3.     Hos. 6.3.     Num. 32.7.
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   7 The ploughshare here figured accounts for the name of the plough having been given to this constellation.
   8 Fent, worm, serpent. Shakespeare says of the aspic of Cleopatra, "worm of the Nile."
   9 [ ], the lion, Ar, Egyptian, to come.   (B.)
   10 Conquer is probably from the root [ ].

VI.
VIRGO, THE WOMAN, WITH THE BRANCH OR SEED.
Exod. 12.5.     Isa. 26.9.     I Kgs. 7.21.     Gen. 2.17.     Joel 3.10.     Ex. 13.16.     Deut. 33.2.

VII.
LIBRA, THE SCALES.
Gen. 24.11.     Job 37.3.     Job 9.17.     Gen. 3.15.     Exod.12.3.     Gen. 42.30.     Num. 24.21.
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   11 Ab, thirst (B.), Heb. who comes. In the swine representing Ursa Major the tongue out of the mouth is thus accounted for.
   1 Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, is the only constellation whose form corresponds with its name, being a perfect circle. It is vertical over Jerusalem once in every revolution of the earth, and (Isa. lxii.3) its name comes through the Greeks, as of Ariadus, who comes to reign.

VIII.
SCORPIO, THE CONFLICT 2.
Ps. 139.20.     Jer. 19.7.     Ps. 96.13.

IX.
SAGITTARIUS, THE ARCHER 3.
Job. 20.16.     Isa. 30.659.5.     Isa. 53.1.     Gen. 3.14.
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   2 "In ancient zodiacs," apparently Egyptian, "this sign is sometimes represented as a snake, a crocodile, or typhon, with serpents' tails for legs." (Aspin.)
   3 "The Southern Crown is of recent invention, formed from stars formerly belonging to Sagittarius." (Aspin.)

X.
CAPRICORNUS, THE FISH-GOAT 4.
Gen. 49.17.    Ps. 139.20.     Job 3.25.     Job 7.2.

XI.
AQUARIUS, THE WATER-BEARER 7.
Gen. 41.1.     Job 39.18.     Gen. 6.15.
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   4 In an Oriental zodiac given by Sir Wm. Jones, this sign is represented as a fish, out of whose mouth is coming forth an antelope surrounded by aquatic birds. In an Egyptian zodiac the sea-goat is held in a band by a figure called Anubis, who shall be sent forth, [ ]; in an Indian one it is said to be "a goat passant, traversed by a fish."
   5 S. the pronoun he, she, or it.  (B.)
   6 Bau, according to Bunsen is the verb "to come," and the noun derived from it, in the hieroglyphic, as in the Hebrew and Greek, and their derivative languages. Ba*, according to Bunsen's vocabulary, is also a beast, cattle, as bos, Latin, [ ], Greek, a beeve. In Hebrew, it is "to come," [ ], in Latin and in modern languages often taking its sound of v. Hence a beast or beast's head is a hieroglyphic sign for "who comes."
   7 Aru, a river.  (B.)
   8 There is another headless figure below Pisces, where the ascending node, or winter solstice, had been B.C. 4000.
   9 No hieroglyphic name was here given in the list from which the others are supplied, but there are two characters immediately below what is here considered as representing Pegasus, a human figure, with a fillet or diadem round the head, whose hand takes hold of the head of a horse. Of these characters, the first is always read as Pe. the second appears to stand for Ka, and Peka, or Pega, is in Hebrew, the chief+; and Sus, the horse, so named as swiftly coming, returning, as the year after the winter solstice, anciently in this sign.
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          * Baion is a branch, in Greek, of the palm-tree, also in Egyptian (Parkh.).
          + As "Pacha."

XII.
PISCES, THE FISHES.
Amos 8.8.     Gen. 3.15.     Gen. 17.15.     Job 14.13.
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   10 U, to come (B.), Or, to come (B.).
   Those creatures who are mentioned by naturalists as the natural enemies of the serpent were peculiarly honoured by the Egyptians, the hawk, the ibis, the ichneumon, the cat, the swine. That they fed on the serpent may be one reason why the Jews were ordered to hold them unclean. Lev. xi. The poisonous serpent, known by the breadth of the head, was the representation of the enemy. The innocuous serpent or snake, whose head is slender and pointed, was the hieroglyphic figure of the progression of time, which its swift and noiseless well typifies.
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     The Twelve Signs and their accompanying thirty-six Decans occupy the central group of the planisphere. In the circle of figures below, and enclosing that group, the five planets may be recognized, each in one of the "houses." or positions, traditionally, and from all antiquity, assigned to them. To the figures thus to be explained, no "tail" is appended; it cannot apply to them, as "this cometh," for they are circling continually, and as it were always present with us.
     Marks of reference have been inserted in the lithograph for the proposed explanations. These are, in the twelve signs, Roman numerals, in the thirty-six decans, Arabic cyphers; for the planets, the five English vowels in capitals, and the four and twenty letters of the English alphabet for other figures. The hieroglyphic names of the decans are said to be found on this planisphere: one at least of the names of the planets is there, Athor, that of the Egyptian Venus, by whose figure it may be read.

ON THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE SIGNS.
(See page 3.)

     TAMETOURIS AMMON, the reign of Ammon, dominion, government. The ram's head, crowned as it were with a circle, is below in the planisphere, marked i, having two horns, as the beeve, and one of the ram.
     ISIS, who saves. Apis and Aleph, chief, as the bull of the herd. A figure with the divine attribute of ostrich feathers on the head, and the tail of the beeve appended, is above, as Auriga, the third Decan of Taurus. Horias, who cometh; the zodiacal bull being always in the act of coming.
     CLUSUS, CLAUSTRUM HORI, place of him who cometh. The figures in Gemini are walking, coming. In the planisphere the second appears to be feminine, and has not the tail; the companion of Him that cometh, the congregation or church of His people.
     KLARIA, the cattle-folds or station of Typhon, or the ass, so agreeing with the standard of Issachar, and with the beeve below. These names therefore appear to be of earlier origin than the planisphere, where the Scarabaeus, the beetle, marks the position the solstice had attained. In the figure and name of the ass, there is no allusion to the solstice.
     PI MENTEKEON, the pouring out, the inundation of the Nile, shows the solstice, which was in Leo at the date assigned to the creation of Adam. The inundation is here figured by a woman pouring out of two vases, the solstice remaining in Leo 1000 years; this name and emblem referring to that time - not from observation, but from calculating backwards.
     ASPOLIA, the seed, the promised seed of the woman, showing the love of Him who "so loved the world," &c.
     LAMBADIA, the branch of graciousness, mercy. Has not the branch been an emblem of peace always and every where? The olive-branch of peace." Ab, he cometh, may be read here between Libra and Virgo, - the bird, A; the beeve, B. Over the balance the youth touching his lip, he bruises and is bruised; and above, the wolf Zeeb, this shall come; again above him the throned figure with the flail, he shall bruise.
     ISIAS, he shall save; the ibis-headed and enthroned figure who treads under foot the serpent.
     PI MAERE, the station of graciousness, where the conqueror who shall come, as the arrow from the bow, treads the serpent under foot. The characters under the hind foot read he conquers (Knem).
     HUPENIUS, place of the sacrifice, the kid, whose head is united to the body of the fish; the ibis-headed and tailed figure stands over the junction. He, the head, is joined to His body the Church.
     HUPEI TIRION, place of him coming down, poured out. The pourer has not the tail.
     PI-COT ORION, PISCIS HORI, the fishes of Him that cometh. Here is the ascending node or winter solstice, where Aquarius and Pisces join, answering to the summer solstice in Leo.
     Those who invented the emblems derived them from the prophecies that had been given them in Gen. iii.15; the seed of the woman shall come, shall be bruised in the heel, and shall bruise the serpent's head. Every name and every figure of this record of ancient astronomy relates to this prophecy, this promise, and to this alone.

     The five figures here considered as representing the planets, marked with the five vowels, are, 
          A   Jupiter, under his house Gemini.
          E   Mars, hawk-headed, under his house Aries, with hieroglyphics near, which read "He conquers,
                bruises, is bruised."
          I   Venus, Athor, under her house Taurus, the Pleiades before her 1
          O   Mercury, shakal-headed, under his house Pisces.
          U   Saturn, circle-headed, under his house Capricornus.

                         Egyptian Names of Planets. (Montucia, Hist. des Math.)

                         Rephan, Deus temporis, or Pan .   .   .   Saturn.
                         Pi-Cheus, Deus Vitae.   .   .   .   .   .   .    Jupiter.
                         Moloch 2, Typhon  .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .    Mars.
                         Pi-Othiris, or Osiris   .   .   .   .   .   .   .    The Sun.
                         Thaut, or Pi-Ermes .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   Mercury.
                         Surath, or Athord, or Souroi  .   .   .   .    Venus.
                         Isis, or Domina Maris et Humidorum.   The Moon.
                         Pi-Cochos Achtephon, the circle completed.

     The Egyptian week began with Saturday. (Montucia, Hist. des Math.)
     In Egypt a branch of the palm, with twelve shoots, was used at the winter solstice, as a symbol of the year completed.

ON THE FIGURES MARKED a, b, &c.

          a. A female figure pouring, sending forth, the inundation, when the summer solstice was in Leo 3.
          b. He who cometh, ibis-headed, coming to destroy the serpent, as does the ibis 4; pointing to two stars as his, being apparently those of Gemini above, now called Castor and Pollux.
          c. The ibis-headed Hermes, Mercury, pointing to the two stars in Gemini as being his "house."
          d. Draco, a dragon or serpent, on a pedestal, horned (Cerastes?), not having the poisonous head of the species.
          e. Alpha Draconis, the antediluvian pole-star.
          f. Three bright stars of Orion: Rigol, Bellatrix, Betelsuez. The tailed figure, He who cometh, points to these stars as his.
          g. Aldebaran in Taurus.
          h. The seven Pleiades, proving this planisphere to have originated more than 1000 B.C.
          i. A cycle beginning in Aries, the ancient zodiac.
          j. The later pole-star in Ursa Minor, and the fishes of Pisces.
          k. A youth holding a flail, "He shall be bruised," and pointing to the lip," He shall bruise," or break, [ ], seated on the lotus, "hidden, but to come," as the lotus, beneath the water.
          l. He who cometh, ibis-headed, pointing to a star, Al Natik, the wounded, as his.
          m. A headless figure, showing the place of the earliest known ascending node, where Aquarius joined Pisces; followed by two heads, of a beeve and a sheep, where the ascending node might have been before the time of Adam.
          n. A cycle beginning in Taurus, twelve stars above the twelve signs from equinox to equinox.
          o. Eight captives bound, as Misam, in Pisces, the nebula in Andromeda.
          p. He who cometh, ibis-headed, lotus-crowned, pointing to the two stars, Vegas in  Lyra, and Deneb, the Judge or Lord who cometh, in Cygnus.
          q. A cycle beginning in Capricornus, pointed to by a female figure, the moon, ibis-headed, who cometh.
          r. Three figures. 1, He who cometh, ibis-headed; 2, Lotus-crowned, hidden; 3, Shakal-headed, who cometh, pointing to a star as his, Antares in Scorpio.
          s. The female swine Ursa Major, with three stars, probably the tail-stars. A cycle beginning in Aries. A lotus-crowned figure holding a flail, He shall bruise, having the horns of Aries.
          t. He who cometh, ibis-headed, with a cycle on the head.
          u. He who cometh with human visage, lotus-crowned.
          v.      "           "        pointing to a star, the present polar star, Kochab.
          w.     "           "        ibis-headed, pointing to six stars in Ursa Major.
          x.      "           "        human-headed, horned, pointing to three stars, in Ursa Minor.
          y.      "           "        crowned with the mitre, pointing to three stars, in Virgo, Spica being alone above, ibis-headed followed by a female figure, Virgo, pointing also to three stars, Coma, Zavijavah, and Al Mureddin.
          z.      "           "        ibis-headed, crowned with the pestle and mortar of bruising, with characters which read "He who shall conquer," pointing to three stars, Regulus, Denebola, and Al Giebha, in Leo 5.

     In this planisphere, the stars and emblems are appropriately connected; as in Sirius one star of the first magnitude; in Gemini two stars, one most brilliant in the lion's foot on the serpent, one clear and bright in the head of the bull; in Scorpio one, red as if for wrath and blood, where the enemy bruises the heel, while his own head is bruised by the victor.
     It will be seen that the signs of the zodiac are the same in this ancient Egyptian planisphere as those now in use, but that in the figures representing the other constellations there is small resemblance, except perhaps in that of Orion, walking, coming.
     The antiquity indicated by the place of the solstice in this planisphere would at once overthrow the already almost exploded idea of the signs having any reference to the seasons.
     In the design sometimes called the title-page to the cave at Ipsamboul, a hero-figure with divine attributes, especially the common Egyptian, the vulture over the head, whose Oriental name Ayit, conveys "he that cometh," has been called Sesostris; but the inscription above, like the figure, seems to refer to one greater than Sesostris, to the conqueror who should come; both may have thus been originally intended, and in adulation applied to a human sovereign. It is thus read, "The living good God, the glorious guardian smiling the south country, treading down the north country, the victorious King cometh, smiting with the sword the boundaries of all the nations of the world." The prophecy of Balaam is here recalled to remembrance, of the sceptre that should smite the corners of Moab and destroy (properly subjugate) all the children of Seth.
     The figure of the conqueror of colossal stature attended by the lion, and having the reins of his fiery coursers attached to his waist, appears also more divine than human; surely no mere mortal could so guide them; the lion may typify the triumphs of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, predicted in the last blessing of his father, Jacob.
     If the inventors, the first framers of the hieroglyphs, understood and intended to express the first prophecies, those who followed would probably add to or change them in some degree. Much, however, has been preserved: the twelve signs marvellously so, in so many, so far distant nations, distant in time and place.
     It will be seen that the pervading import of the names and emblems is "He that cometh will come, and will not tarry." Four thousand years before His first coming it was thus announced. He came in the fulness of time, beyond which He would not tarry. The types of His incarnation and sufferings were then fulfilled: they now remain monuments of accomplished prophecy. Those of His second coming in glory point onward, in faith and hope, to that futurity of which the past is a pledge and a foretaste. Of that second coming it has been even more urgently proclaimed, "Behold, He cometh quickly." Near two thousand years have gone by in "the earnest expectation of the creature." - an interval, long in comparison with man's transitory existence, but short if compared with the ages of earth's duration from that "beginning" to which refer the first words of earth's history. If compared with the infinitudes of eternity to come, it will be short indeed! - a narrow interval of immeasurable results, commencing with the purchase of that glorious realm from which it will be surveyed, and terminating with the return of that King whose expecting subjects have still sighed forth, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus; come quickly."
     This explanation is founded on the principle that the prophetic promise recorded in Genesis iii.15, was known to all the children of Adam, and from Noah 6 to all his descendants, among whom is mentioned Mizraim, son of Ham 7, considered the founder of Egyptian colonization after the flood. Manetho speaks of records preserved in the "sacred language" from before the flood, and translated after that event.
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   1 Those stars, being seven, refer to a time previous to the siege of Troy, when the seventh Pleiad is said to have disappeared, at least 1000 years B.C.
   2 Moloch, Heb. Melech, King, a frequent epithet of Mars.
   3 Near this figure may be seen on the planisphere the representation of the moon, as a female figure sending forth as arrow, as in allusion to the Noetic name Yareah, [ ], going forth, or sent forth, intensitive from Yarah, to send forth, Ps. lxiv.4, [ ] an Arabic sense of which is to send forth sparks or rays.
   In Hebrew and Egyptian the moon has names of the two genders; in Hebrew Jareah, masculine, and Lebana, feminine.
   In Egyptian Aah, a companion, appears to be of either gender. this name is also Persian, as Aah, and is to be traced in Sanscrit, in Hima and Soma.
   The Scandinavian Mone and Monath, by some considered to be derived from Mene, [ ], to number, as months the year, but may rather be from Aah, with the frequently added letters m, n, and th.
   Bunsen gives a very similar word, Maha, as an archer; also, Ar, as a gazelle or antelope, which perhaps, suggested by the name Yareah, gave rise to the usual Greek attribute of the huntress Diana, and perhaps to her being called a huntress, which does not seem a suitable personification of the moon.
   Champollion gives Her as to go out; also a near approach to Yareah.
   4 The Egyptians punished with death any one who killed a hawk or an ibis. Among them no animal was so sacred as the ibis and the hawk. In the British Museum are many mummies of the ibis.
   5 It has been thought that the animal-headed figures are only masked. See Hamilton's AEgyptiaca.
   Ibis-headed figures are frequent. The Ibis religiosa, most sacred among the Egyptian symbols, was the well-known enemy of serpents; killing, even if it did not devour. Its reliques were preserved with the care of human ones. With its long sharp beak it slew them, therefore the band denoted the character, the enemy of the serpent.
   6 It is observed in the Chronology of Sir Isaac Newton, that the Egyptians attributed their astronomy to a person, one of whose names was Oannes,who came from the Red Sea, a tradition which points to Noah, especially when it is remembered that the name of Noah's vessel was Thebah, and that on the walls of the Egyptian Thebes were represented figures of a ship.
   Modern Egyptologers remark that there is no trace of imperfect civilization in Egypt. That country appears to have been colonized by those possessing all the knowledge in science and in art of the land they came from; and the Egyptians did not improve on either, but they perpetuated both.
   7 The Egyptians called their land Chem, from their forefather, Ham; in Genesis called Mizraim, from his son, derived from the root [ ], pressed together, bound up, Isa. i.6, Syriac, &c. Being in the dual, it is supposed to be Upper and Lower Egypt, or the two sides of the Nile.

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