THE SACRED CONSTELLATIONS

2 THE SACRED CONSTELLATIONS By His Spirit He bath garnished the heavens; His hand bath formed the crooked Serpent. — Job 26:13 THE Gospel story, as written on the stars, like much of the sacred Scriptures, is pictorial. The record is accompanied with important explanatory materials, but the chief substance is given in pictures. THE CONSTELLATIONS

Every atlas of the heavens is filled up with figures and outlines of men, women, animals, monsters, and other objects, each including a certain set of stars. These stars, as thus designated and embraced, constitute so many separate clusters or groups called the Constellations, and these asterisms or constellations cover all the principal stars visible to the naked eye. In the primeval astronomy the number of these figures or star-groups was forty-eight. In imitation of them, dozens more have been added, mostly by modern philosophers. Among these additions are the Sextant, the Giraffe, the Fox and Goose, the Horned Horse, the Fly, the Greyhounds, the Lynx, the Bird of Paradise, Noah’s Dove, the Clock, the Sculptor’s Workshop, the Painter’s Easel, the Air-Pump, Sobieski’s Shield, the Brandenburg Sceptre, and such like; which may serve to designate the groups of inferior stars to which they have been assigned, but which are otherwise totally meaningless, and utterly unworthy of the associations into which they have been thrust. Having no connection whatever with the primitive constellations, except as poor and impertinent imitations, they must of course be thrown out and cast quite aside from the inquiry now in hand. They are no part of the original writing upon the stars, as proposed for our present reading. The primary and chief series of the old forty-eight constellations is formed on the line which the Sun seems to mark in the progress of the year, called the Ecliptic. That line is really the path of the earth around the Sun, in the course of which the Sun seems to move thirty degrees every month, and at the end of the twelfth month appears again where it started at the beginning of the first month. The moon and planets follow apparently much the same path, and are always seen within eight or nine degrees of the line of the Sun’s course. We thus have a Nature-indicated belt, about sixteen degrees wide, extending around the entire circuit of the heavens, half the year north and half the year south of the equator of the earth extended into the sky. THE ZODIAC

Whilst the sun is thus making its annual course from west to east through the centre of this belt or zone, the moon makes twelve complete revolutions around the earth, suggesting the division of this belt into twelve parts, or sections, of thirty degrees each; for twelve times thirty degrees complete the circle. We thus note twelve equal steps or stages in the Sun’s path as it makes its annual circuit through the heavens. And this belt or zone, with these twelve moons or months for its steps or stages, is called the Zodiac, from the primitive root zoad, a walk, way, or going by steps, like Jacob’s ladder. THE TWELVE SIGNS

So, again, each of these steps, stages, or sections includes a certain number of fixed stars, making up a group or constellation, which has its own particular figure, picture, or “sign” to designate it, and after which it is called.

Hence the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, which are given in all the regular almanacs and to which people have generally had much regard in timing their industries and undertakings. These signs are

1. VIRGO, the Virgin: the figure of a young woman lying prostrate, with an ear of wheat in one hand and a branch in the other.

2. LIBRA, the Scales: the figure of a pair of balances, with one end of the beam up and the other down, as in the act of weighing. In some of the old planispheres a hand, or a woman, appears holding the scales.

3. SCORPIO, the Scorpion: the figure of a gigantic, noxious, and deadly insect, with its tail and sting uplifted in anger, as if striking.

4. SAGITTARIUS, the Bowman: the figure of a horse with the body, arms, and head of a man — a centaur with a drawn bow and arrow pointed at the Scorpion.

5. CAPRICORNUS, the Goat: the figure of a goat sinking down as in death, with the hinder part of its body terminating in the vigorous tail of a fish.

6. AQUARIUS, the Waterman: the figure of a man with a large urn, the contents of which he is in the act of pouring out in a great stream from tile sky.

7. PISCES, the Fishes: the figures of two large fishes in the act of swimming, one to the northward, the other with the ecliptic.

8. ARIES, the Ram, by some nations called the Lamb: the figure of a strong sheep, with powerful curved horns, lying down in easy composure, and looking out in conscious strength over the field around it.

9. TAURUS, the Bull: the figure of the shoulders, neck, head, horns, and front feet of a powerful bull, in the attitude of rushing and pushing forward with great energy.

10. GEMINI, the Twins, or a man and woman sometimes called Adam and Eve: usually, two human figures closely united, and seated together in endeared affection. In some of the older representations the figure of this constellation consists of two goats, or kids.

11. CANCER, the Crab: the figure of a crab, in the act of taking and holding on with its strong pincer claws. In Egyptian astronomy the scarabaeus beetle, grasping and holding on to the ball in which its eggs are deposited, takes the place of the crab.

12. LEO, the Lion: the figure of a great rampant lion, leaping forth to rend, with his feet over the writhing body of Hydra, the Serpent, which is in the act of fleeing.

These twelve cardinal signs cover a large part of the visible heavens, and extend entirely around the earth, making and marking the Solar Zodiac. THE MANSIONS OF THE MOON But ancient astronomy gives a further subdivision of these twelve signs into twenty-eight, called the Mansions of the Moon, or the Lunar Zodiac. The moon makes its revolution around the earth in about twenty-eight days, and so suggests the division of its course through the heavens into twenty-eight sections, or steps, one for each day. Two and a third of these sections or Mansions are embraced in each sign of the Solar Zodiac, and each mansion is marked with its own particular name and smaller group of£ stars. Some Oriental nations also had particular and separate sets of figures for the designation of these Lunar Mansions, though not uniformly the same. It is rather from the names of these Mansions, and of the stars in them, than from the figures connected with them, that the significations are to be learned, the main theme being most commandingly given in the twelve cardinal signs of which they are parts. THE THIRTY-SIX DECANS But these twelve great signs do not stand alone. Each one of them has conjoined with it, either on the north or south side of the Zodiacal belt, three other conspicuous constellations, called Decans, from the Shemitic dek, a “Part” or “piece.”

Albumazer — sometimes called Abu Masher — a great Arab physician and astronomer who lived about a thousand years ago, and whose minute and learned writings on the subject have been commented on by Aben Ezra as of the highest authority, refers to “the Decans and their houses according to the Persians, Babylonians, and Egyptians,” and says: “Here follow the Decans, which the Arabs in their language call faces. They are three to each sign of the Way.” He says that the Indians also had these Decans to each sign. And Aben Ezra says: “According to Albumazer, none of these forms from their first invention have varied in coming down to us, nor one of their words [names] changed, not a point added or removed.” Southey (in The Doctor, vol. iii. p. 115) remarks that “in Egypt every month was supposed to be under the care of three Decans, or directors, for the import of the word must be found in the neighboring language of the Hebrews and Syrians. [This word is evidently from the Noetic or Shemitic Decah, to break. Hence Decan, a “piece;’ a “division.” Thus we have dek in Dan 2:45, to denote a fragment or piece. And thus we still have in English the word deck, to denote a part of a ship — the face of a ship, as the Arabs also called these Decans faces.]There were thirty-six of these, each superintending ten days; and these Decans were believed to exercise the most extensive influence. Astrological squares calculated upon this mythology are still in existence.”

These Decans can, for the most part, be distinguished by the fact that those belonging to any one particular sign come upon the meridian, or close along the meridian-line, at the same time with the sign to which they belong. Originally, they perhaps were all on the meridian along with the signs to which they pertain.

Albumazer’s enumeration of them is fully credited by the Jewish Aben Ezra, himself a learned astronomer, Orientalist, and scholar, who wrote a commentary on Albumazer’s work. And after the closest scrutiny, those who have most thoroughly examined and mastered the subject in its various relations entirely agree with the same enumeration, which 1 therefore accept and adopt for the present inquiries into this starry lore, sure that the particular examination of each sign, with the Decans thus assigned to it, will furnish ample internal proof that this enumeration is correct according to the original intention.

I. THE DECANS OF VIRGO

1. Coma, the Infant, the Branch, the Desired One (erroneously, Berenice’s Hair);

2. Centaurus, a centaur, with dart piercing a victim;

3. Bootes, or Arcturus, the great Shepherd and Harvester, holding a rod and sickle, and walking forth before his flocks (erroneously called Bears).

2. THE DECANS OF LIBRA

1. The Cross, over which Centaur is advancing, called the Southern Cross;

2. Victim of Centaur, slain, pierced to death; 3. The Crown, which the Serpent aims to take, called the Northern Crown.

3. THE DECANS OF SCORPIO

1. The Serpent, struggling with Ophiuchus;

2. Ophiuchus, wrestling with the Serpent, stung in one heel by the Scorpion, and crushing it with the other;

3. Hercules, wounded in his heel, the other foot over the Dragon’s head, holding in one hand the Golden Apples and the three-headed Dog of hell, and in the other the uplifted club.

4. THE DECANS OF SAGITTARIUS

1. Lyra, an Eagle holding the Lyre, as triumphant gladness;

2. Ara, the Altar, burning downward;

3. Draco, the Dragon, the old Serpent, winding himself about the Pole in horrid links and contortions.

5. THE DECANS OF CAPRICORNUS

1. Sagitta, the Arrow, or killing dart sent forth, the naked shaft of death;

2. Aquila, the Eagle, pierced and falling;

3. Delphinus, the Dolphin, springing up, raised out of the sea.

6. THE DECANS OF AQUARIUS

1 The Southern Fish, drinking in the stream;

2. Pegasus, a white horse, winged and speeding, as with good tidings;

3. Cygnus, the Swan on the wing, going and returning, bearing the sign of the cross.

7. THE DECANS OF PISCES

1. The Band, holding up the Fishes, and held by the Lamb, its doubled end fast to the neck of Cetus, the Sea- Monster;

2. Cepheus, a crowned king, holding a band and sceptre, with his foot planted on the polestar as the great Victor and Lord;

3. Andromeda, a woman in chains, and threatened by the serpents of Medusa’s head.

8. THE DECANS OF ARIES

1. Cassiopeia, the woman enthroned;

2. Cetus, the Sea-Monster, closely strongly bound by the Lamb;

3. Perseus, an armed and mighty man with winged feet, who is carrying away in triumph the cut-off head of a monster full of writhing serpents, and holding aloft a great sword in his right hand.

9. THE DECANS OF TAURUS

1. Orion, a glorious Prince, with a sword girded on his side, and his foot on the head of the Hare or Serpent;

2. Eridanus, the tortuous River, accounted as belonging to Orion;

3. Auriga, the Wagoner, rather the Shepherd, carrying a she-goat and two little goats on his left arm, and holding cords or bands in his right hand.

10. THE DECANS OF GEMINI

1. Lepus, the Hare, in some nations a serpent, the mad enemy under Orion’s feet;

2. Canis Major, Sirius, the Great Dog, the Prince coming;

3. Canis Minor, Procyon, the Second Dog, following after Sirius and Orion.

COMA, THE DESIRED

11. THE DECANS OF CANCER

1. Ursa Minor, anciently the Lesser Sheepfold, close to and including the Pole;

2. Ursa Major, anciently the Greater Sheepfold, in connection with Arcturus, the guardian and keeper of the flock;

3. Argo, the Ship, the company of travellers under the bright Canopus, their Prince, the Argonauts returned with the Golden Fleece.

XII. THE DECANS OF LEO

1. Hydra, the fleeing Serpent, trodden under foot by the Crab and Lion;

2. Crater, the Cup or Bowl of Wrath on the. Serpent;

3. Corvus, the Raven or Crow, the bird of doom, tearing the Serpent.

This ends up the main story. And the mere naming of these significant pictures casts a light over the intelligent Christian mind, which makes it feel at once that it is in the midst of the most precious symbols and ideas connected with our faith, as they are everywhere set out in the Holy Scriptures. A further and very conspicuous marking among the heavenly bodies appears in the difference between the fixed stars and those more brilliant orbs which are continually changing their places. In reality, none of the stars are absolutely fixed. Nearly all of them have been observed to be in motion, shifting their relative places, but moving so very slowly that the changes are quite imperceptible except when hundreds of years are taken into the observation. But it is very different with some four, five, or more of the most brilliant of the heavenly luminaries. Though seeming to go around the earth like all the other stars, their behavior is eccentric, and their periods and motions are uneven. Two of them make their rounds in less than a year, and three others take two, twelve, and thirty years. They do not keep at the same distances from each other, nor their places among the more fixed stars. They are called Planets, or Wanderers. The names of these five old planets, as known to our astronomy, are, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. There are other planets, but they are not recognizable to the naked eye. And to these five wanderers, hence called planets, the ancients added the Sun and Moon, making the seven most renowned of all the celestial bodies. The path of each of them lies within the limits of the Zodiacal belt or zone; and the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac themselves were mostly regarded as the Twelve Mansions of these conspicuous travellers, which the old idolaters glorified as the seven great gods. THE CONSTELLATIONS DIVINE In these several markings, groupings, and designations of the heavenly hosts we have all the most conspicuous elements and notations of the primeval astronomy. And these pre-eminently are what the text refers to as the garnish of the heavens, of which “the crooked,” or rather “fleeing, Serpent” is here named as a specific part.

There are but three things with which to identify this “fleeing Serpent.” It has been justly said, “It is not likely that this inspired writer should in an instant descend from the garnishing of the heavens to the formation of a reptile.” The discourse is of the starry heavens, and “the Serpent” must necessarily pertain to the heavens. Barnes says: “There can be no doubt that Job refers here to the constellations,” and that “the sense in the passage is, that the greatness and glory of God are seen by forming the beautiful and glorious constellations that adorn the sky.” But if the reference is to a sky-serpent, it must be either the Zodiac itself, often painted on the ancient spheres in the form of a serpent bent into a circle, with its tail in its mouth, or to Draco, or to Hydra, which is the longest figure in the sky, stretching through an entire night, and trailing along as if in flight from the point of the Scales, beneath the Virgin and the Lion, to the point where the feet of the Crab and the Lion press down its snaky head. All things duly considered, I take it as referring to Hydra, just as Leviathan (in Job 41:1) refers to Cetus, the Sea-monster. The Dragon does not so well answer to the description of “the fleeing Serpent,” nor yet the sphere in the figure of a serpent. Hydra is in every respect “the fleeing Serpent,” as distinguished from all other astronomic serpents. It does nothing but flee. It flees from the triumphing Lion, with the Bowl of Wrath on it and the bird of doom tearing it, whilst the holders of the precious possession trample its head beneath their feet. But, in either case, there is here a distinct recognition of the constellations and their figures, and the same noted as the particular garnishing of the heavens to which we are referred to see and read the transcendent glory of Jehovah. Who Job was we do not precisely know. That he lived before the Hebrew Exodus, before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and hence before Abraham, is evidenced from the character, style, contents, and non-contents of his sublime book, which is at once the oldest, broadest, most original, most scientific in all the Bible. From repeated astronomical allusions contained in this book, with which uninformed translators have had much trouble and done some very unworthy work, different mathematicians have calculated that Job lived and wrote somewhere about twenty-one hundred and fifty years before Christ, which carries us back more than one thousand years before Homer and the Greeks, and a millennium and a half before Thales, the first of the Greek philosophers. And yet, already in the time of Job the heavens were astronomically laid out and arranged in the manner just described, with the Zodiac formed, the constellations named, the figures of them drawn and recorded, and the same accepted and celebrated by God’s people as the particular adornment of the sky in which to read the Almighty’s glory.

Very significant also is this word, “garnished,” here employed by our translators. Its main sense is that of ornament, decoration, something added for embellishment; but it has the further meaning of summons and warning. And by these adornings God hath summoned the heavens and filled them with proclamations and warnings of His great purposes: Perhaps it would be hard to find another word to fit so truly to the facts or to the original for which it stands. It falls in precisely with the whole idea of the celestial luminaries being used “for signs,” of the Gospel being written in the stars, and of the adornment and beaming of the heavens with this brightness of all sacred brightnesses. And when we come to the direct analysis of these frescoes on the sky, as I propose in my next Lecture, we will find the diction of the Bible from end to end most thoroughly conformed to these beautiful constellations. But more remarkable and important is the positive testimony here given to the divine origin of these embellishments and significant frescoes. All interpreters agree that the text refers to the heavenly constellations. This is made the more certain by the designation of the Serpent in the second part of the parallelism. That “fleeing Serpent” must mean either Draco, the Zodiac, or Hydra. And the affirmation is clear and pointed that the thing referred to is divine in its formation. Of the Almighty and His wisdom and power Job is speaking; and of that Almighty it is declared, “By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens,” and “His hand formed the fleeing Serpent.” If the frescoing of the sky with the constellations is meant, then He caused it to be done “by His Spirit” — by impulse and inspiration from His own almightiness. If the Zodiac is meant, then His own hand bent and formed it. And if the constellation of the Dragon, or Hydra, is meant, then He himself is the Author of it, and, by implication, the Author of the whole system of the constellations of which Draco, or Hydra, is a part. We may wonder and stand amazed and confounded at the assertion; but here, from the Book of God, is the unalterable voucher for it, that these astronomic figures, in their original integrity and meaning, are from God, and as truly inspired as the Bible itself. And many are the facts which combine to prove that such is verily the truth.

Who, of all the sons of men, can point out any other origin of these remarkable denotations of the starry heavens? Who can tell us when, where, or by whom else the Zodiac was invented, its signs determined, and the attendant constellations fixed? Historical astronomy is totally at a loss to give us any other information on the subject. Here is the Solar Zoad, with its twelve signs and their thirty-six Decans; here is the Lunar Zoad, with its twenty-eight Mansions, each with its own particular stars, and each with its very expressive name; and here are the noted seven Chiefs, playing a part in the traditions, sciences, theologies, and superstitions of earth, as brilliant as their splendid display on the face of the sky; but whence and how they were framed into these systems or came to place so conspicuous, acceptation so universal, and life so commanding and imperishable, even the science which handles them most is quite unable to explain. As seven cities claimed to be the birthplace of Homer, who most likely was born in neither, so men in their uncertainty have referred to names and widely different countries, times, and ages for the source and authorship of the primeval astronomy, with about equal reason for each, and no solid reason for either. The world has looked in vain for the origin of these inventions on this side of the Flood, or anywhere short of those inspired patriarchs and prophets who illumined the first periods of the race with their superior wisdom and exalted piety.

AGE OF THE CONSTELLATIONS

One great and commanding fact in the case is that, as far back as we have any records of astronomy, these sidereal embellishments and notations existed and are included. We know from the Scriptures that they are older than any one of the books which make up the Christian and Jewish Bible. We have monumental evidence in the Great Pyramid of Gizeh that they were known and noted when that mighty science-structure was built, twenty-one hundred and seventy years before the birth of Christ and a thousand years before Homer, who also refers to them. The learned Dr. Seyffarth, than whom there is not a more competent witness living, affirms that we have the most conclusive proofs that our Zodiac goes back among the Romans as far as seven hundred and fifty-two years before Christ, among the Greeks seven hundred and seventy-eight years before Christ, among the Egyptians twenty-seven hundred and eighty-one years before Christ, and among the Oriental peoples as far as thirty-four hundred and forty- seven years before Christ — even to within the lifetime of Adam himself. Riccioli affirms that it appears from the Arab astronomy that it is as old as Adam’s time, and that the names preserved by it are antediluvian. Bailly and others have given it as their conclusion that astronomy must have had its beginning when the summer solstice was in the first degree of Virgo, and that the Solar and Lunar Zodiacs are as old as that time, which could only be about four thousand years before Christ. Professor Mitchell says: “We delight to honor the names of Kepler, Galileo, and Newton; but we must go beyond the epoch of the Deluge, and seek our first discoveries among those sages whom God permitted to count their age by centuries, and there learn the order in which the secrets of the starry world yielded themselves up.” According to Drummond, “Origen tells us that it was asserted in the Book of Enoch (quoted by the apostle Jude) that in the time of that patriarch the constellations were already named and divided.” Albumazer attributes the invention of both Zodiacs to Hermes; and Hermes, according to the Arab and Egyptian authorities, was the patriarch Enoch. Josephus and the Jewish rabbis affirm that the “starry lore” had its origin with the antediluvian patriarchs, Seth and Enoch. THE SABBATIC WEEK AND THE STARS

It is generally claimed that the Sabbath, and the week of seven days which it marks, date back to the beginning of the race, to the institution of God himself at the completion of the great creation-work. But that system of the seven days is essentially bound up with these selfsame astronomical notations. We find among all the ancient nation s — Chaldeans, Persians, Hindoos, Chinese, and Egyptians that the seven days of the week were in universal use; and, what is far more remarkable, each of these nations named the days of the week, as we still do, after the seven planets, numbering the Sun and Moon among them. Hence we say Sun-day, Moon-day, Tuisco or Tuves’-day (Tuisco being the Anglo-Saxon name for Mars), Woden’s-day (Woden being the same as Mercury), Thor’s-day (Thor being the same as Jupiter), Friga-day (Frega or Freiya being the same as Venus), and lastly, Saturn-day, anciently the most sacred of the seven. The order is not that of the distance, velocity, or brilliancy of the orbs named, neither does the first day of the week always coincide among the different nations; but the succession, no matter with which of the days begun, is everywhere the same. It is impossible to suppose this mere accident or chance; and the fact forces the conclusion that the devising and naming of the seven days of the week dates back to some primitive representatives of the race, from whom the tradition has thus generally descended, and who at the same time knew and had regard to the seven planets as enumerated in the primeval astronomy. THE ALPHABET AND THE STARS

It is now mostly admitted that alphabetic writing is as old as the human family — that Adam knew how to write as well as we, and that he did write. There certainly were books or writings before the Flood, for the New Testament quotes from one of them, which it ascribes to Enoch, and Adam still lived more than three hundred years after Enoch was born. All the known primitive alphabets had the same number of letters, including seven vowels, and all began, as now, with A, B, C, and ended with S, T, U. But whilst we are using the alphabet every day in almost everything, how few have ever thought to remark why the letters appear in the one fixed order of succession, and why the vowels are so irregularly distributed among the consonants Yet in the simple every-day a, b, c’s we have the evidence of the knowledge and actual record of the seven planets in connection with the Zodiac, dating back to the year 3447 before Christ. If we refer the twenty-five letters of the primitive alphabet to the twelve signs of the Zodiac, placing the first two letters in Gemini as the first sign, and take the seven vowels in their places as representing the seven planets, a for the Moon, e for Venus, the two additional sounds of e [ E and E, with place next to the Hebrew Cheth and the Latin h.] for the Sun and Mercury, i for Mars, o for Jupiter, and u for Saturn, as Sanchoniathon and various of the ancients say they are to be taken, the result is that we find the Moon in the first half of Gemini, Venus in the first half of Leo, the Sun in the latter half of Virgo, Mercury in the first half of Libra, Mars in the latter half of Scorpio, Jupiter in the latter half of Aquarius, and Saturn in the first half of Gemini; which, according to Dr. Seyffarth, is an exact notation of the actual condition of the heavens at an ascertainable date, which can occur but once in many thousands of years, and that date is the seventh day of September, 3447 before Christ.

It would be very absurd to say that this was mere accident. But, if it was not accident, it proves what the Arab and Jewish writers affirm, that the alphabet was in existence before the Flood, and demonstrates that astronomy is coeval with the formation of the alphabet.

Other facts, equally striking, but rather complex for ready popular statement, exist, to some of which we may have occasion to refer, all going to show and prove that the notations of the heavens so fully recorded in all antiquity do unmistakably date back beyond the Flood; that they came into being by no long-forming induction of man; that the whole system appeared full and complete from the start, like Pallas from the brain of Jove; and that the only true answer to the question of its origin is the one given in the text, which unequivocally ascribes it to the inspiration of God, who by His Spirit garnished the heavens and with His own hand bent the traditional ring of their goings.

It thus appears that in treating of these starry groupings and pictures we are dealing with something very different from the inventions of paganism and mythology — with something as sacred in origin, as venerable in age, and as edifying in import as anything known to man. Corrupt religion and classic fable have interfered to obscure and pervert their meaning, and scientific self-will has crowded them with impertinent and unmeaning additions; but, in reality, they constitute the primeval Bible — a divine record of the true faith and hope of man, the oldest in human possession. With solemn and jealous veneration does it become us to regard them, and with devout earnestness to study them, that we may get from them what God meant they should be to His children upon the earth, sure that what, by His Spirit, He caused to be written on the sky is of one piece with what, by the same Spirit, He has caused to be written in His Word.

Field of glories! Spacious field,
And worthy of the Master:
He whose hand With hieroglyphics, elder than the Nile,
Inscribed the mystic tablet; hung on high
To public gaze, and said, Adore, O man!
The finger of thy God.