Part 130 (2/2)

looking down upon with love, and overshadowing the maiden, the broad flus.h.i.+ng light of _Dawn_, or the _Earth_. From this union the _Sun_ is born without any carnal intercourse. The _mother_ is yet a _virgin_.

This is ill.u.s.trated in Hindoo mythology by the union of Pritrivi, ”_Mother Earth_,” with Dyaus, ”Heaven.” Various deities were regarded as their progeny.[478:3] In the Vedic hymns the _Sun_--the Lord and Saviour, the Redeemer and Preserver of Mankind--is frequently called the ”_Son of the Sky_.”[478:4]

According to Egyptian mythology, Seb (the _Earth_) is overshadowed by Nut (_Heaven_), the result of this union being the beneficent Lord and Saviour, Osiris.[478:5] The same thing is to be found in ancient Grecian mythology. Zeus or Jupiter is the _Sky_,[478:6] and Danae, Leto, Iokaste, Io and others, are the _Dawn_, or _the violet light of morning_.[478:7]

”The _Sky_ appeared to men (says Plutarch), to perform the functions of a _Father_, as the _Earth_ those of a _Mother_.

The sky was the father, for it cast seed into the bosom of the earth, which in receiving them became fruitful, and brought forth, and was the mother.”[479:1]

This union has been sung in the following verses by Virgil:

”Tum pater omnipotens fecundis imbribis aether Conjugis in grenium laetae descendit.”

(Geor. ii.)

The _Phenician_ theology is founded on the same principles. _Heaven_ and _Earth_ (called Ouranos and Ghe) are at the head of a genealogy of aeons, whose adventures are conceived in the mythological style of these physical allegorists.[479:2]

In the Samothracian mysteries, which seem to have been the most anciently established ceremonies of the kind in Europe, the _Heaven_ and the _Earth_ were wors.h.i.+ped as a male and female _divinity_, and as the _parents of all things_.[479:3]

The Supreme G.o.d (the _Al-fader_), of the ancient _Scandinavians_ was _Odin_, a personification of the _Heavens_. The princ.i.p.al G.o.ddess among them was _Frigga_, a personification of the _Earth_. It was the opinion among these people that this Supreme Being or Celestial G.o.d had united with the Earth (Frigga) to produce ”Baldur the Good” (the Sun), who corresponds to the Apollo of the Greeks and Romans, and the Osiris of the Egyptians.[479:4]

_Xiuletl_, in the Mexican language, signifies _Blue_, and hence was a name which the Mexican gave to _Heaven_, from which _Xiuleticutli_ is derived, an epithet signifying ”_the G.o.d of Heaven_,” which they bestowed upon _Tezcatlipoca_, who was the ”Lord of All,” the ”Supreme G.o.d.” He it was who overshadowed the Virgin of Tula, Chimelman, who begat the Saviour Quetzalcoatle (the Sun).

3. _His birth was foretold by a star._ This is the bright _morning star_--

”Fairest of stars, last in the train of Night, If better, thou belongst not to the Dawn, Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn With thy bright circlet”--

which heralds the birth of the G.o.d _Sol_, the beneficent Saviour.

A glance at a geography of the heavens will show the ”chaste, pure, immaculate Virgin, suckling an infant,” preceded by a _Star_, which rises immediately preceding the Virgin and her child. This can truly be called ”_his Star_,” which informed the ”Wise Men,” the ”Magi”--_Astrologers and Sun-wors.h.i.+pers_--and ”the shepherds who watched their flocks by night” that the Saviour of Mankind was about to be born.

4. _The Heavenly Host sang praises._ All nature smiles at the birth of the Heavenly Being. ”To him all angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the powers therein.” ”Glory to G.o.d in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.” ”The quarters of the horizon are irradiate with joy, as if moonlight was diffused over the whole earth.” ”The spirits and nymphs of heaven dance and sing.” ”Caressing breezes blow, and a marvelous light is produced.” For the Lord and Saviour is born, ”to give joy and peace to men and Devas, _to shed light in the dark places_, and to give sight to the blind.”[480:1]

5. _He was visited by the Magi._ This is very natural, for the Magi were _Sun-wors.h.i.+pers_, and at early dawn on the 25th of December, the astrologers of the Arabs, Chaldeans, and other Oriental nations, greeted the infant Saviour with gold, frankincense and myrrh. They started to salute their G.o.d long before the rising of the Sun, and having ascended a high mountain, they waited anxiously for his birth, facing the East, and there hailed his first rays with incense and prayer.[480:2] The shepherds also, who remained in the open air watching their flocks by night, were in the habit of prostrating themselves, and paying homage to their G.o.d, the Sun. And, like the poet of the Veda, they said:

”Will the powers of darkness be conquered by the _G.o.d of light_?”

And when the Sun rose, they wondered how, just born, he was so mighty.

They greeted him:

”Hail, Orient Conqueror of Gloomy Night.”

And the human eye felt that it could not bear the brilliant majesty of him whom they called, ”The Life, the Breath, the Brilliant Lord and Father.” And they said:

”Let us wors.h.i.+p again the _Child of Heaven_, the Son of Strength, Arusha, the Bright Light of the Sacrifice.” ”He rises as a mighty flame, he stretches out his wide arms, he is even like the wind.” ”His light is powerful, and his (virgin) mother, the Dawn, gives him the best share, the first wors.h.i.+p among men.”[480:3]

6. _He was born in a Cave._ In this respect also, the history of _Christ_ Jesus corresponds with that of other Sun-G.o.ds and Saviours, for they are nearly all represented as being born in a cave or dungeon.

This is the dark abode from which the wandering _Sun_ starts in the morning.[481:1] As the Dawn springs fully armed from the forehead of the cloven Sky, so the eye first discerns the blue of heaven, as the first faint arch of light is seen in the East. This arch is the cave in which the infant is nourished until he reaches his full strength--in other words, until the day is fully come.

As the hour of his birth drew near, the mother became more beautiful, her form more brilliant, while the dungeon was filled with a heavenly light as when Zeus came to Danae in a golden shower.[481:2]

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