Part 131 (1/2)

At length the child is born, and a halo of serene light encircles his cradle, just as the Sun appears at early dawn in the East, in all its splendor. His presence reveals itself there, in the dark cave, by his first rays, which brightens the countenances of his mother and others who are present at his birth.[481:3]

6. _He was ordered to be put to death._ All the Sun-G.o.ds are fated to bring ruin upon their parents or the _reigning monarch_.[481:4] For this reason, they attempt to prevent his birth, and failing in this, seek to destroy him when born. Who is the dark and wicked Kansa, or his counterpart Herod? He is _Night_, who reigns supreme, but who must lose his power when the young prince of glory, the Invincible, is born.

The _Sun_ scatters the _Darkness_; and so the phrase went that the child was to be the destroyer of the reigning monarch, or his parent, _Night_; and oracles, and magi, it was said, warned the latter of the doom which would overtake him. The newly-born babe is therefore ordered to be put to death by the sword, or exposed on the bare hillside, as the Sun seems to rest on the Earth (Ida) at its rising.[481:5]

In oriental mythology, the destroying principle is generally represented as a serpent or dragon.[482:1] Now, the position of the sphere on Christmas-day, the birthday of the Sun, shows the Serpent all but touching, and certainly aiming at the woman--that is, the figure of the constellation _Virgo_--who suckles the child Iessus in her arms.

Thus we have it ill.u.s.trated in the story of the snake who was sent to kill Hercules, when an infant in his cradle;[482:2] also in the story of Typhon, who sought the life of the infant Saviour Horus. Again, it is ill.u.s.trated in the story of the virgin mother Astrea, with her babe beset by Orion, and of Latona, the mother of Apollo, when pursued by the monster.[482:3] And last, that of the virgin mother Mary, with her babe beset by Herod. But like Hercules, Horus, Apollo, Theseus, Romulus, Cyrus and other _solar heroes_, _Christ_ Jesus has yet a long course before him. Like them, he grows up both wise and strong, and the ”old Serpent” is discomfited by him, just as the sphynx and the dragon are put to night by others.

7. _He was tempted by the devil._ The temptation by, and victory over the evil one, whether Mara or Satan, is the victory of the _Sun_ over the clouds of storm and darkness.[482:4] Growing up in obscurity, the day comes when he makes himself known, tries himself in his first battles with his gloomy foes, and _s.h.i.+nes_ without a rival. He is rife for his destined mission, but is met by the demon of storm, who runs to dispute with him in the duel of the storm. In this struggle against darkness the beneficent hero remains the conqueror, the gloomy army of Mara, or Satan, broken and rent, is scattered; the Apearas, daughters of the demon, the last light vapors which float in the heaven, try in vain to clasp and retain the vanquisher; he disengages himself from their embraces, repulses them; they writhe, lose their form, and vanish.

Free from every obstacle, and from every adversary, he sets in motion across s.p.a.ce his disk with a thousand rays, having avenged the attempts of his eternal foe. He appears then in all his glory, and in his sovereign splendor; the G.o.d has attained the summit of his course, it is the moment of triumph.

8. _He was put to death on the cross._ The Sun has now reached his extreme Southern limit, his career is ended, and he is at last overcome by his enemies. The powers of _darkness_, and of _winter_, which had sought in vain to wound him, have at length won the victory. The bright Sun of summer is finally slain, _crucified in the heavens_, and pierced by the arrow, spear or thorn of winter.[483:1] Before he dies, however, he sees all his disciples--his retinue of light, and the _twelve_ hours of the day, or the twelve months of the year--disappear in the sanguinary melee of the clouds of the evening.

Throughout the tale, the _Sun-G.o.d_ was but fulfilling his doom. These things must be. The suffering of a violent death was a necessary part of the mythos; and, when his hour had come, he must meet his doom, as surely as the Sun, once risen, must go across the sky, and then sink down into his bed beneath the earth or sea. It was an iron fate from which there was no escaping.

Crishna, the crucified Saviour of the Hindoos, is a personification of the Sun crucified in the heavens. One of the names of the Sun in the Vedic hymns is _Vishnu_,[483:2] and Crishna is Vishnu in human form.[483:3]

In the hymns of the _Rig-Veda_ the _Sun_ is spoken of as ”_stretching out his arms_,” in the heavens, ”to bless the world, _and to rescue it from the terror of darkness_.”

Indra, the crucified Saviour wors.h.i.+ped in Nepal and Tibet,[484:1] is identical with Crishna, the Sun.[484:2]

The princ.i.p.al Phenician deity, El, which, says Parkhurst, in his Hebrew Lexicon, ”was the very name the heathens gave to their G.o.d SOL, their Lord or Ruler of the Hosts of Heaven,” was called ”_The Preserver_ (or _Saviour_) of _the World_,” for the benefit of which _he offered a mystical sacrifice_.[484:3]

The crucified _Iao_ (”Divine Love” personified) is the crucified Adonis, the Sun. The Lord and Saviour Adonis was called _Iao_.[484:4]

_Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, was crucified in the heavens. To the Egyptian the cross was the symbol of immortality, an emblem of the _Sun_, and the G.o.d himself was crucified to the tree, which denoted his fructifying power.[484:5]

_Horus_ was also crucified in the heavens. He was represented, like Crishna and Christ Jesus, with _outstretched arms in the vault of heaven_.[484:6]

The story of the crucifixion of _Prometheus_ was allegorical, for Prometheus was only a t.i.tle of the SUN, expressing _providence_ or _foresight_, wherefore his being _crucified_ in the extremities of the earth, signified originally no more than the restriction of the power of the SUN during the winter months.[484:7]

Who was _Ixion_, bound on the wheel? He was none other than the G.o.d _Sol_, crucified in the heavens.[484:8] Whatever be the origin of the name, _Ixion_ is the ”_Sun of noonday_,” crucified in the heavens, whose four-spoked wheel, in the words of Pindar, is seen whirling in the highest heaven.[484:9]

The _wheel_ upon which Ixion and criminals were said to have been extended _was a cross_, although the name of the thing was dissembled among Christians; it was a St. Andrew's cross, of which two spokes confined the arms, and two the legs. (See Fig. No. 35.)

The allegorical tales of the triumphs and misfortunes of the _Sun_-G.o.ds of the ancient Greeks and Romans, signify the alternate exertion of the generative and destructive attributes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. No. 35]

_Hercules_ is torn limb from limb; and in this catastrophe we see the _blood-red sunset_ which closes the career of Hercules.[485:1] The Sun-G.o.d cannot rise to the life of the blessed G.o.ds until he has been slain. The morning cannot come until the Eos who closed the previous day has faded away and died in the black abyss of night.

_Achilleus_ and _Meleagros_ represent alike the _short-lived Sun_, whose course is one of toil for others, ending in an early death, after a series of wonderful victories alternating with periods of darkness and gloom.[485:2]

In the tales of the Trojan war, it is related of Achilleus that he expires at the Skaian, or _western gates of the evening_. He is slain by Paris, who here appears as the Pani, or dark power, who blots out the light of the Sun from the heaven.[485:3]

We have also the story of _Adonis_, born of a virgin, and known in the countries where he was wors.h.i.+ped as ”The Saviour of Mankind,” killed by the wild _boar_, afterwards ”rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.” This Adonis, Adonai--in Hebrew ”My Lord”--is simply the _Sun_.

He is crucified in the heavens, put to death by the wild boar, _i. e._, _Winter_. ”Babylon called Typhon or Winter _the boar_; they said he killed Adonis or the fertile _Sun_.”[485:4]

The _Crucified Dove_ wors.h.i.+ped by the ancients, was none other than the crucified Sun. Adonis was called the _Dove_. At the ceremonies in honor of his resurrection from the dead, the devotees said, ”Hail to the Dove!

the Restorer of Light.”[485:5] Fig. No. 35 is the ”Crucified Dove” as described by Pindar, the great lyric poet of Greece, born about 522 B.