[PAGE 1]                                            THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
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                          AN ESOTERIC EXPOSITION OF
                         NATAL AND MEDICAL ASTROLOGY
                            EXPLAINING THE ARTS OF
                    READING THE HOROSCOPE AND DIAGNOSING
                                   DISEASE
[PAGE 2]                                            THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
                         THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                         INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
                               P.O. BOX 713
                     OCEANSIDE, CALIFORNIA, 92054, U.S.A.
[PAGE 3]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
                                  CHAPTER I
                      EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
   It  is a matter of common knowledge among mystics that  the  evolutionary
career  of mankind is indissolubly bound up with the divine hierarchies  who
rule  the planets and the signs of the Zodiac,  and that passage of the  Sun
and the planets through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, marks man's progress
in time and in space.   Therefore it is not to be wondered at,  that in  the
course  of their investigations into the spiritual development  of  mankind,
the  writers have also encountered much that deals with the Zodiac which  is
the  boundary of our evolutionary sphere at the present time.   So much  has
been  perceived in THE MEMORY OF NATURE that sheds light upon  obscure  pas-
sages of the Bible, that notes have been made from time to time of different
points,  but  how to collect and collage these dissociated writings  into  a
united whole, has been a great problem for a long time.  Even now, the writ-
ers  know  and feel that what they are bringing forth is only a  very,  very
weak attempt to set before the students that great body of facts which  have
come to them through the memory of nature.   They feel,  however,  that this
will give a new and  more  profound  meaning to the old symbols, and that by
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passing  on what has been found they put themselves in line to receive  more
light.
   Concerning   the   future   evolution   of   planets;   the   Rosicrucian
Cosmo-Conception teaches, on page 256, that "when the beings upon the planet
have  evolved to a sufficient degree,  the planet becomes a Sun,  the  fixed
center of the Solar System.   When the beings there have evolved to a  still
greater degree,  and consequently it has reached its maximum of  brilliancy,
it breaks up into a Zodiac and becomes, so to speak, the womb of a new Solar
System.   Thus the Great hosts of Divine beings who,  until then,  were con-
fined  upon  that Sun gain freedom of actions upon a great number  of  stars
whence they can affect,  in different ways, the system which grows up within
their  sphere of influence.   The planets or many-bearing worlds within  the
Zodiac are constantly being worked upon by these forces but in various  ways
according  to the stage they have reached in evolution.   Our Sun could  not
have  become a sun until it set out from itself all the beings who were  not
sufficiently evolved to endure the high rate of vibration and the great  lu-
minosity of the beings who were qualified for that evolution.   All the  be-
ings  upon the different planets would have been consumed had they  remained
in the Sun.   This visible Sun,  however, though it is a place of  evolution
for beings vastly above man, is not by any means,  the Father of other plan-
ets, as material science supposes.  On the contrary,  it is itself an emana-
[PAGE 5]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
tion fron THE CENTRAL SUN,  which is the invisible source of all that IS  in
our solar system."
   "Our visible Sun is but the mirror in which are reflected the Rays of en-
ergy from the Spiritual Sun, the real Sun is as invisible as the REAL man."
    From  this teaching it is apparent that the great spiritual  hierarchies
which are now guiding our evolution,  have had their training for this  path
in previous schemes of manifestation, also that what THEY are now doing,  WE
shall  some  day do FOR OTHERS.   Already the foremost among  our  race  are
treading the path of initiation, and have thereby advanced into stages,  far
beyond the general status of our present humanity.  It has been learned that
those  who have gone through the Mercurial School of the  lesser  Mysteries,
and have graduated from the School of the Greater Mysteries are now  prepar-
ing  human evolution for the Jupiter Period.   They have entered the  planet
Jupiter, by way of one of the Moons, which serves as a stepping stone.  Oth-
ers there are,  unfortunately, who have gone the other way.   We read in the
Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, that even as the whole population of the earth
was at one time expelled from the present Sun because of their inability  to
keep up with the vibrations of the beings thereon,  thus hindering them  and
being hindered themselves,  so also it becomes necessary in the Lemurian Ep-
och, to expel a number of the stragglers from earth.  Thus the Moon was cast
out into space to revolve as a Satellite  around  our present planet.  Those
[PAGE 6]                                            THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
unfortunates  are  gradually degenerating and the time will come  when  they
will all go to the planet Saturn,  which is the door to Chaos.   Thence they
will be expelled to inter-planetary space to await the time when,  in a  new
system, there will be a favorable condition for their further evolution.
                         THE GATE OF LIFE AND DEATH
   Thus  the Zodiac and the planets are as a book in which we may  read  the
history of Humanity during past ages, and they also give a key to the future
which is in store for us.   In the famous Zodiac in the Temple of  Denderah,
Cancer is not pictured as we have it in modern days.   There it is a beetle,
a scarab.  This was the emblem of the soul, and Cancer has always been known
in ancient times,  as well as among modern mystics,  to be the sphere of the
soul, THE GATE OF LIFE in the Zodiac whence the spirits coming into rebirth,
enter  our sub-lunary conditions.   It is therefore aptly ruled by the  Moon
which is the planet of fecundation, and it is noteworthy that we find Capri-
corn,  which is its opposite, ruled by Saturn the PLANET OF DEATH AND CHAOS,
who is mystically depicted as "the reaper with his scythe and hour glass  in
hand."   These two opposite signs are therefore turning points in the soul's
career.   Cancer and Capricorn respectively mark the highest ascent  of  the
Sun into the Northern Hemisphere, and its lowest descent into the South.  We
observe that during the summer when the Sun is in  the  sphere of Cancer and
[PAGE 7]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
allied signs, fecundation and growth are the order of the day.  But when the
Sun is in the South, in Capricorn, we have winter, when nature is dead.  The
fruits of the summer are then consumed and assimilated by us.   As a  circle
dance  of the Sun among the twelve signs determines the seasons of the  year
WHEN DIRECT,  causing the germination of myriads of seeds cast in the earth,
also  the  mating of the fauna,  which then makes the world alive  with  the
sights and sounds of manifested life,  and at another time leaves the  world
dumb,  dull and drear in winter's gloom, under the sway of Saturn, so by the
slower backward movement,  known as the PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOX,  does  it
produce the great changes which we know as Evolution.  In fact, this preces-
sional  measure of the sun marks the birth and death of races,  nations  and
their  religions,  for the pictorial Zodiac is a symbolical presentation  of
our past, present and future development.
                                  CAPRICORN
   Capricorn,  the goat,  is not a goat at all as we know that  animal,  but
part fish and part goat.   Its Saturnine rulership, and the fact that it re-
ceives the Sun at the dawn of each New Year, naturally by analogy associates
it  with the beginning of precessional epochs.   It represents the stage  in
evolution  covering transition from fish, through amphibia to the  mammalian
form.  The belligerency of the goat is well known, and  an apt symbol of the
[PAGE 8]                                            THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
struggle for existence,  in which the weak perish unless able to outdistance
their foes.   This phase of the matter is sometimes expressed in the symbol,
when drawn as part fish and part antelope.  Jacob,  in the forty-ninth chap-
ter of Genesis, pronounces blessings upon his children,  which symbolize the
twelve signs.   There he speaks of Naphtali as a "HIND"  let loose;  thus  a
very apt symbol of Capricorn,  for when the Sun is there at each winter sol-
stice,  it is starting a race through the circle of twelve signs,  which  it
must complete in a given time--a year.
                                 SAGITTARIUS
   When the Sun leaves Capricorn,  by precession,  it enters the sign Sagit-
tarius,  and  this is pictured in the symbolical Zodiac as a  Centaur,  part
horse  and part man.   Thus it shows aptly,  the fact that we  have  evolved
through the animal stage into the human.  The centaur is in the act of draw-
ing his bow, showing that there is something for which the human spirit,  on
its pilgrimage through matter, is seeking, that it aspires to something that
lies beyond it, as a lofty ideal, for the bow points upward to the stars.
                                   SCORPIO
   The next step in human unfoldment is not so much along the physical lines
as along the mental.   Its nature is shown by the Sun's passage through  the
sign Scorpio, which is pictorially represented  as  a  SERPENT  or SCORPION,
[PAGE 9]                                    EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
emblems  of cunning and subtility.   It is plain from this symbol  that  the
faculty of the mind evolved by infant humanity was CUNNING, and we still see
that that is a characteristic trait among the lower races, the lower classes
and the lower natures even among our present-day humanity.
                                    LIBRA
   But,  when the Sun  enters the sign Libra,  'THE SCALES,'  by precession,
the balance of reason gives him a new start upon the evolutionary path.  Un-
der  the  care of divine instructors man had at that time  advanced  to  the
point where because of this new faculty, reason,  he could be made fully re-
sponsible to nature's laws,  and thus reap what he had sown,  that he  might
learn  the lesson of life by actual experience,  be able to reason  out  the
connection  between cause and effect and in time learn to govern himself  so
as to progress further upon the path.
                                    VIRGO
   Thus,  under the guidance of the spiritual hierarchies,  focused  through
the signs of CAPRICORN, SAGITTARIUS, SCORPIO, and LIBRA,  were his physical,
moral  and mental attributes acquired,  and he was equipped and  mental  at-
tributes acquired, and he was equipped to commence the spiritual side of his
evolution.  The germ of this progress is hidden in the celestial virgin, the
sign VIRGO, which is the vehicle of the immaculate conception,  the heavenly
mother of Christ;  not of one Christ only, but of many.   This is one of the
most  sublime  signs  of the Zodiac and one of the most mystical, so fraught
[PAGE 10]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
with  hidden  meaning that its full import cannot be fully  understood  save
when viewed by the internal light of spiritual illumination.  Yearly, at the
winter solstice,  the immaculate Madonna is ascendant at midnight,  when the
new  born Sun commences to rise to the task of growing the grain and  grape,
to  save humanity from the cold and famine,  which would  inevitably  result
were he to remain in the southern declination.   The Sun is therefore an apt
symbol of the Savior, born to feed his flock on the spiritual bread of life.
But,  as  we  must have eyes attuned to light to see the sun,  so  must  the
Christ  be born within before we can perceive spiritual light.   As  Angelus
Silesius says:
         "Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born
          And not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn.
          The Cross of Golgotha thou lookest to in vain
          Unless within thyself it be set up again."
   Therefore, by the precessional passage of the Sun through the sign Virgo,
the germinal impulse was given towards the birth of Christ within man.   The
MYSTIC MARRIAGE of the lower self to the higher,  the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION,
and the DIVINE MOTHERHOOD,  which nourishes deep in its bosom,  unseen by  a
scoffing world,  "THE NEW BORN CHRIST," are actual experiences of a  growing
number of people.   And without the celestial prototype,  fructified by  the
solar  precession,  this  would  be an impossibility; neither has this ideal
[PAGE 11]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
been realized in such fullness during the past ages as today.  The reason of
this  will appear when we take up the joint consideration of opposite  signs
of the Zodiac.
                                     LEO
   A  great future is in store for this offspring of the  celestial  virgin.
Listen  to the wonderful prophecy of Isaiah:  "For unto us a child is  born,
unto us a Son is given,  and the government shall be upon his shoulders  and
his name shall be called WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR, the MIGHTY GOD, the EVERLAST-
ING FATHER, the PRICE OF PEACE.  Of the increase of His government and peace
there shall be no end."
   Humanity  is to rise to a wonderful spiritual height and this is  symbol-
ized by the Sun's precessional passage through the royal sign Leo,  pictori-
ally represented by the king of beasts, the lion.   this is an apt  allusion
to the King of Creation, who will then embody the three great virtues of the
Master Man, Strength, Wisdom and Beauty.
   It is wonderful to trace the various phases of the religions given to the
Great Aryo-Semitic Race from the time they were "called out"  in the  latter
third  of the Atlantean Epoch,  to the end of the Aquarian Age,  when a  new
race  will have been definitely born.   This aspect of the Zodiac will  form
the subject of the following pages.   It will shed light on many of the most
obscure passages of the Bible, as only study of this Cosmic Science can.
[PAGE 12]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
   When we consider the Zodiac in its religious as well as its  evolutionary
aspects,  by means of the six pair of opposite signs into which  the  twelve
may be divided,  we also commence with Cancer and Capricorn,  for the reason
given in the previous article, namely:  that these are the solstitial points
where the Sun reaches its highest and lowest declination.
   Considered in this manner, we find that there are two sets of three pairs
of signs, the first being Cancer and Capricorn, Gemini and Sagittarius, Tau-
rus and Scorpio.   In these pairs of signs we may read the history of  human
evolution and religion, in the early, the middle and the latter third of the
Atlantean  Epoch.   This  is also divisible  into  three  distinct  periods,
namely:  THE ARYAN AGE, from Moses to Christ, which comes under Aries-Libra;
the  PISCEAN  AGE,  which  takes  in  the  last  two  thousand  years  under
Pisces-Virgo Catholicism;  and the two thousand years which are ahead of us,
called  the AQUARIAN AGE,  where the signs Aquarius and Leo will be  illumi-
nated and vivified by the solar precession, for the upliftment of the Son of
Man (Aquarius), by the Christ within, the Lion of Judah (Leo), to the estate
of Superman.
   It  must  not be thought, however, that the Atlantean Epoch  only  lasted
while  the  Sun  by  precession  went  through Cancer, Gemini, and Taurus, a
[PAGE 13]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
period of only six thousand and a few hundred years; far from it;  but there
are spirals within spirals and recapitulation takes place in the epochs  and
races,  so  that we may know what is the general destiny by looking  at  the
Sun's passage through these signs and therewith taking this import and  sym-
bolism into consideration.   It may also be said that the further we advance
the smaller do the spirals become, the shorter the time in which a given im-
provement  is made,  because of the proficiency we attained in former  ages,
and  therefore it is extremely probable that this present is the  last  lap,
that the coming Aquarian Age is the final preparatory school day which  will
fit us for the new age,  the Sixth Epoch,  and that this will begin when the
Sun by precession enters Capricorn.
   This,  of course,  would mean that the Second Advent must take place just
before that time,  and though  it seems to us that so many signs point  that
way,  still  it is a mere surmise and may not have any truth in it  at  all.
Thousands of people have been misled during all the ages that we know of, to
think  that Christ would soon be here; it is,  however,  better that we  are
looking  forward to it than if we should say with some,  that it will  never
take  place.   In that case the Great Day would find us  unprepared  and  we
should find ourselves among the stragglers who are unfit to attend the  wed-
ding feast of the Higher Self to the lower because lacking the  "soul-body,"
the "wedding garment," necessary to enfold them.
[PAGE 14]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
                              CANCER-CAPRICORN
   The Sun's passage by precession through the sphere of Cancer with its op-
posite sign Capricorn,  designates the early third of the Atlantean  period,
which  was  intensely  watery as the whole earth was  covered  by  a  dense,
drenching fog.   The Niebelung, or "Children of the Mist," lived then in the
basins of the Earth.   Cancer was not then represented by the same symbol as
today;  in ancient times it was pictorially figured as a beetle  or  scarab.
This was the signature of the soul, for then mankind was much less body than
soul.
   The sign Cancer is watery in its nature,  and the fish part of Capricorn,
the  opposite sign,  also helps to symbolize this state of life under  water
when the Sun went through the watery sign Cancer by precession.   The  Moon,
the planet of fecundation,  points mystically to this period of germination,
when  mankind first commenced to exercise the Creative function at the  dic-
tates of desire inculcated by the Lucifer Spirits.   Thus mankind opened the
Gate  of  physical Life through Cancer,  and strayed  into  the  terrestrial
sphere,  but opposite stood Saturn,  the ruler of Capricorn,  ready to  slay
them with his scythe, and usher them through the Gate of Death back into the
spiritual realms where they are at home.
   Capricorn  was the opposite of Cancer and embodied the ideal that as  the
goat climbs the mountains, so man must leave the basins of Atlantis and come
up from the mist.
[PAGE 15]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
                             GEMINI-SAGITTARIUS
   Our  condition during the middle third of the Atlantean Epoch  is  illus-
trated in the Sun's passage through the sign Gemini, the twins,  which aptly
represent infant humanity.   During this age the division of soul from  soul
by the veil of flesh,  which we call the body,  became more noticeable,  for
the atmosphere had already cleared to a considerable extend,  and the facul-
ties of the spirit had become more focused in its physical instrument.  With
this delusion of the personal self, there came at once the idea of "me"  and
"thee," "mine" and "thine," our individual interests commenced to clash with
those  of others,  so that a tragedy such as that recorded between Cain  and
Abel became possible.   Nor was the shedding of blood confined to human  be-
ings,  for we learn from the Bible that "Nimrod was a might  hunter".   This
savage ideal was expressed in the Celestial Centaur,  Sagittarius,  with his
bow and arrow.
   But   both   of   these  pairs   of   opposites,   Cancer-Capricorn   and
Gemini-Sagittarius, may be considered pre-historic hieroglyphics of a devel-
opment accomplished in Sidereal years,  long past,  though none the less im-
portant on that account.  Our own times, with the development prescribed for
them,  are  symbolically represented in the two pairs of  signs  within  the
fixed cross, the Bull, the Lion, the Serpent and the Man.
   For  that reason the two pairs of opposites comprising the  fixed  signs,
Taurus-Scorpio  and  Leo-Aquarius,  are mentioned in the Bible, and we shall
[PAGE 16]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
find  that our modern systems of religion are full of allusions to the three
pairs  of  opposites.   Aquarius-Leo and the two adjacent  pairs  of  signs,
Aries-Libra and Pisces-Virgo.   These three pairs of opposites are,  as  al-
ready stated,  emblematic of the development in the entire Aryan Epoch.   In
the EARLY third of this Epoch,  the Sun by precession went through the  sign
Aries,  the MIDDLE third of its find the Sun in Pisces,  by precession,  and
during the last third the Sun will go through the sign Aquarius.   Then  the
solstitial point Capricorn will see the inauguration of a new cycle or age.
   The  spiritual preparation for this development commenced about  thirteen
thousand B.C.,  when the Sun by precession, was in the sign Libra,  the Bal-
ance,  the  last time.   Different phases of this germinal  impregnation  of
people then living were carried on during the precessional travel of the Sun
through Virgo, Leo, and culminated in Cancer about eight thousand B.C.  when
the last of Atlantis was destroyed by water, substantially as related by the
Egyptian priests to Plato.   We shall see presently how the germinal ideals,
given to humanity  in those far.  by-gone days have grown and flowered  into
factors of human development and spiritual standards of the greatest  impor-
tance.
                               TAURUS-SCORPIO
   In the latter third of Atlantis,  egoism  had  developed to a far greater
[PAGE 17]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
degree than before,  the spiritual sight had been lost by the large majority
of the people who then lived entirely on the material plane and gloried par-
ticularly in their material possessions.
   THE BULL was very properly worshiped by them, being an emblem of strength
necessary to conquer the material world.   It was,  on account of its prodi-
gious strength, an invaluable aid in all their work.  The proverb about "the
flesh pots of Egypt"  has remained illustrative to the present day,  to show
how abundantly that animal supplied their physical need of food, the milk of
the female being also an important article of diet.   The possession of many
cattle was therefore ardently desired by the ancient infant nations, and the
worship of the Bull was inaugurated under the solar precession through  Tau-
rus during earlier Great Sidereal Years,  and continued to the comparatively
modern times,  when the Sun by precession went through the sign of Celestial
Bull for the last time.
   At that point when the Sun entered the sign of the Lamb, Aries, the Aryan
religions  were inaugurated.   The religion of the Lamb is to hold sway  for
the next Great Sidereal Year,  while the Sun by precession passes around the
twelve signs of the Zodiac, as the religion of the Bull has held sway during
the previous celestial year from the time the Sun entered Taurus,  until  it
left the same sign on its next passage.
   New  religions,  however,  are  not  revealed  in  their  fullness at the
[PAGE 18]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
beginning; they are started and go through a period of gestation long before
the  religion  which they are to succeed ends its  material  existence,  and
similarly,  and ancient religion about to be abrogated survives along  after
the religion which succeeds it has become the official source of  upliftment
for humanity.  The original Semites, chosen to inaugurate the worship of the
Lamb,  Aries,  during the Aryan Epoch, were taken from "Egypt,"  the home of
the Bull "Taurus."  Not our modern Egypt however.  The story of Pharaoh, who
endeavored  to prevent their emigration and was drowned,  has  reference  to
Atlantis which was submerged thousands of years before Moses is supposed  to
have made his escape with the Israelites through the "Red Sea."   The  facts
underlying the story are that a multitude of people left the land where  the
bull "Taurus" was worshiped, (Atlantis or Egypt) whose inhabitants were then
drowned,  to seek a :promised land"  beyond the water which had engulfed  an
"UNGODLY  NATION."   There they were dedicated to the worship of the  "Lamb"
Aries which had been slain in "Egypt"  (Atlantis);  through its blood  these
pioneers had been preserved from death, and it was thus "the Lamb slain from
the  foundation  of  the (present) World" which we  call  THE  ARYAN  EPOCH.
Noah's  escape presents another phase of the same occurrence  relating  that
the  mists which had enveloped Atlantis condensed to rain,  and flooded  the
basis of the earth, leaving a clear atmosphere in which the Rainbow was seen
[PAGE 19]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
for the first time at the opening of the New Age,  the Aryan Epoch,  where a
new Covenant was made with the pioneers of the polity then ushered in.
   Atlantis was the home of the Bull, Taurus,  and when the Sun,  by preces-
sion,  was leaving that sign the last time,  the Religion of the Lamb  Aries
was definitely ushered in.   Thenceforth,  the worship of the Bull was abro-
gated  and  when  any of the pioneer race,  brought  out  from  the  ancient
Atlantean dispensation by the blood of the Lamb,  Aries,  backslid and  wor-
shiped  the Taurean "Calf,"  they acted contrary to the law of progress  and
were therefore "Idolaters," and an abomination to the divine hierarchs whose
task  it was to guide them during the ages preceding the advent  of  Christ.
On account of repeated transgressions many were "lost," and  they  are  the
Jews  of  today  who  still retain their Atlantean traits (see Cosmo-Concep-
tion).
   Apart  from the Astrological key,  the Bible is truly a closed book,  but
with this key,  the matter is different.   In the Old Testament reference is
made of two classes of animals:  Bulls, which were Taurean, Sheep and Goats,
which were Arian.   These alone were used as Sacrifices.  (Turtle doves were
permitted as a concession to poverty).  All the principal characters of  the
Old Dispensation were shepherds (ARIAN) and Christ also announces Himself as
the Great Shepherd.
   In the New  Testament  we  find another animal, the Fish, attaining great
[PAGE 20]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
prominence,  and the apostles were called to be "Fishers of Men,"  for  then
the sun by precession was nearing the cusp of Pisces, the Fishes, and Christ
spoke  of  the  time when the Son of Man (Aquarius) shall  come.   Thus  our
evolutionary  journey is mapped out in the hidden astrological allusions  of
the Bible.
   The  student now has a line on the march of events,  which it is well  to
keep in mind.
   Jesus  taught the multitudes in parables but explained the  mysteries  of
the Kingdom to His disciples.   Paul gave spiritual meat to the strong,  but
the milk of doctrine to the multitude, for there has always been an esoteric
and  an esoteric side to every religion.   Taking Taurus,  the sign  of  the
Bull, to symbolize the worship of that animal as practiced in Egypt,  Persia
and other countries at that time, then we shall find that the opposite sign,
Scorpio,  symbolizes the esoteric doctrine if the priesthood,  who were  the
guardians of the ancient Atlantean Mysteries.
   In  this  connection we will note first that the sign Scorpio  is  repre-
sented in the pictorial Zodiac by a Scorpion or Serpent,  and we wish to im-
press particularly on the student's mind that the Scorpion has its STING  IN
THE TAIL,  while the Serpent has the VENOM IN ITS TEETH.   This is very sig-
nificant, as well shall see presently.
   On looking up the word "serpent"  in the Bible,  we shall find that there
are about seven words that have thus been translated; but one of them, which
[PAGE 21]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
was borrowed from Egypt,  is NAJA.  This word is found on the old tablets in
the ancient temples of Egypt where Osiris, the Sun God, is hailed when aris-
ing  from the primordial deep.   He was then crowned with glory and has  the
Uraeus  Naja,  AN  EMBLEM  OF COSMIC WISDOM.  The Uraeus was  a  part  of  a
serpent's  body,  with its head depicted as protruding from a point  in  the
forehead  just  above the nose,  where the human spirit has  its  seat;  and
Christ  therefore referred to the ancient Serpent-Initiates,  when He  said:
"Be ye wise as serpents."
   In  ancient  Egypt  the King wore a crown adorned by  A  DOUBLE  SERPENT,
URAEUS  or NAJA,  which seemed to protrude from his forehead when the  crown
was placed upon his head.   This was to symbolize the fact that he held  the
double office of King and Priest by virtue of his sublime wisdom.  In India,
also,  the guardians of the Mystery Teachings were called Nagas or Serpents.
In the Icelandic "Eddas," the Northern Vedas,  Siegfried,  the truth seeker,
slays  the  serpent,  tastes of its blood and them becomes  wise.   Nor,  to
elaborate on the statement made above, is it necessary to go outside our own
religion for proof that the serpent is the symbol of wisdom,  for the Christ
Himself said:   "Be ye wise as serpents."  The serpent is certainly not suf-
ficiently sagacious to warrant a literal meaning of this saying; but when we
understand that when the creative fire is drawn upwards through the  serpen-
tine  spinal  cord  it  vibrates  the  pituitary  body and the pineal gland,
[PAGE 22]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
connecting  the Ego with the invisible worlds by opening up a hidden  sense,
the allusion is perfectly clear.
   There is, however, a lower phase of spiritual development,  symbolized in
ancient  times by placing the Uraeus or serpent at the naval,  to show  that
the   mediumistic  faculties  in  the  solar  plexus  had  been   developed.
Mediumship is a negative phase of spiritual sight or hearing possessed by  a
person who, under the control of an outside intelligence, prophesies.   This
undesirable phase of seership was represented in the Zodiac by the symbol of
the Scorpion, which has the sting in its tail.  In the Serpent, Initiate the
Creative  Cosmic  Fire  was  drawn upward through the head  to  serve  as  a
spiritual end;  in the Medium the creative energy is expressed for  selfish,
sensual ends through the procreative organ ruled by Scorpio.
   The point between the eyebrows,  whence the serpent of wisdom  protrudes,
is THE SEAT OF LIFE, whereas all that opens the womb is subject to THE STING
OF DEATH, contained in the Scorpion's tail.
   If we now turn with this information to our Bible,  we shall find that  a
great  many things,  previously obscure,  will become clear.   As said,  the
Egyptian word for this Uraeus or serpent is Naja and it was borrowed by  the
Israelites who expressed the negative faculty of mediumship by affixing  the
feminine  ending "oth,"  giving NAIOTH;  while those able to  function  con-
sciously in the spiritual worlds were given the positive, make plural ending
[PAGE 23]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
"im,"  and  were called NAIM.   If we read the nineteenth chapter  of  first
Samuel with this understanding we shall readily see that the incident  there
narrated was of a mediumistic nature.   David had become afraid of Saul  and
he went with Samuel to "Naioth."   This is supposed by Bible translators  to
be a place, and maybe a village was so named.  But if that was the case,  it
was  because  the people who lived in that place were  Naoith,  or  mediums.
They  were called prophets in the chapter before us,  and it is  significant
that as soon as anyone came within their camp,  he commenced to prophesy  or
speak under control.   Even Saul, who came there,  anxious to get David away
that  he might slay him,  was seized by the spirits and prophesied,  to  the
amazement of all present.
   In the New Testament we are told that the Christ went to the city of Nain
and there raised THE SON OF A WIDOW.  In the Latin Testament,  this city was
not called Nain, but NAIM.  And it is very significant that all three, Naim,
Naioth and Endor, where the sorceress that assisted Saul is supposed to have
lived, are in the same locality by Mount Tabor.
   Every Freemason knows that the brethren of that Order are called "Sons of
the  Widow."   And it is stated in the Bible that Hiram  Abiff,  the  Master
Builder of Solomon's Temple,  was the Son of a Widow,  a cunning  craftsman.
We cannot in the present article  repeat  the Masonic Legend which tells the
[PAGE 24]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
reason  why.   This we have given the book on "Freemasonry and  Catholicism"
and also in our books on the Rosicrucian Philosophy.   But suffice it to say
that in the Bible story to which reference has been made, we have one of the
Naim,  a Widow's Son or initiate of the old Serpent School,  for the priests
of Egypt were "PHREE MESSEN," children of light.   Each had within,  the an-
cient Serpent Wisdom.  But a new religion was being inaugurated,  and it was
necessary to raise the ancient Initiates to the Mysteries of the Coming Age.
THEREFORE THE CHRIST,  THE LION OF JUDAH, LORD OF THE NEW KINGDOM,  WENT  TO
THE  WIDOW'S SON OF NAIM and raised him up by the strong grip of the  Lion's
paw.  And we may here emphasize that the first Initiate under the new system
was  Hiram Abiff,  the highest Initiate of the old system,  who by this  new
initiation given him by the Christ, became a CHRISTIAN,  pledged to bear the
ROSE and the CROSS,  which were the symbols of the New Mystery Teachings  of
the  Western  World  and he was then given the  symbolical  name,  Christian
Rosenkreuz.
   Thus from the time when the Sun entered the sign Aries by precession,  it
became a crime for the chosen people to worship the bull exoterically, or to
partake  of  the esoteric Serpent wisdom.   And for a similar reason  IT  IS
IDOLATRY  WHEN PEOPLE OF THE WEST TAKE UP THE EASTERN RELIGIONS.   HINDUISM,
BUDDHISM  AND  KINDRED  TEACHINGS.  For  in  the Aryan Epoch, only the Aryan
[PAGE 25]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
Religions,  the religions of the Lamb,  have the proper effect on the  human
evolution.   All previous systems are detrimental to the Western people; and
in time those also who are now in the East, the orientals, will be forced to
embrace this religion, or be left far behind in evolution.
                               THE ARYAN EPOCH
                                 ARIES-LIBRA
   The Aryan Epoch may be divided into three eras;  but they are all  served
by  the religion of the Lamb.   The first division covers the time when  the
Sun,  by precession, went through the sign Aries, the Lamb.   Jesus was born
when  the  Vernal  equinox  was in about seven  degrees  of  Aries;  so  the
twenty-three degrees which lie on the other side belong to the Old Testament
period,  when the chosen people were in captivity and lost in the wilderness
of  the  world;  the new religion had not then found its  place.   Then  the
Christ  came and inaugurated this new teaching definitely.   He came not  to
destroy the old prophecies and the law, but to give us something higher when
they shall have been fulfilled.  The sign opposite Aries is Leo,  the scales
or  balance of Justice;  and therefore we are told in the new religion  that
there will come a day of judgment, when Christ shall appear to give to every
man according to the deeds done in the body.
                                PISCES-VIRGO
   Christ was the Great Shepherd, but He called His disciples to be "fishers
[PAGE 26]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
of men," for the Sun by precession was then leaving the sign of the Lamb and
entering Pisces, the sign of the fishes.  Therefore a new phase of the Aryan
religions  was  opening up.   The Bishop's mitre is also in the  form  of  a
fish's head.
   The New Testament, therefore, does not mention the Bull or the Lamb,  but
references  to the fishes are numerous.  We also found the  celestial virgin
prominent and the wheat ear of Virgo is the Bread of Life, to be gained only
through immaculate purity.   Thus Christ fed the multitude of fish  (Pisces)
and loaves (Virgo).
   Before  the time of Christ,  the new religion of the Lamb (Aries),  could
get no foothold.   Moses,  the erstwhile leader,  could not bring the chosen
people  to the "promised land."   That was reserved for Joshua,  the son  of
Nun.  Joshua is the Hebriac for "Jesus" and the Hebrew word for "Nun"  means
"fish"  (Pisces).   It was thus foretold that the religion of the Lamb would
attain  prominence  during the precessional passage of the Sun  through  the
sign Pisces, the fishes.
   This prophecy has been fulfilled, for during the two thousand years which
have elapsed since the birth of Jesus,  the Western religion has been taught
by a celibate priesthood, worshiping an immaculate virgin, symbolized by the
celestial sign Virgo, which is the opposite of Pisces.  This same priesthood
has  also  enjoined  the  eating  of  fish and forbidden the use of flesh on
[PAGE 27]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
certain  days.   When the children of Israel left the flesh pots  of  Egypt,
where the Bull was slain, they left it by the blood of the Lamb.  But in the
Piscean  dispensation no shedding of blood is enjoined and flesh  eating  is
condemned  as a sin at certain times,  for man is now taught to forsake  the
lusts of the flesh and also lusting after the flesh.
   This ideal was tried under the Aryan dispensation, when the chosen people
were yet in the Wilderness,  so called, but without success;  they would not
have the heavenly manna.   Now,  however,  man is being weaned from the can-
nibalistic practice,  and in the seven hundred years which remain before the
Aquarian  age is definitely ushered in, we will,  in all  probability,  have
made  great strides,  both in overcoming the lust of the flesh and the  lust
after the flesh.   For Virgo, the immaculate celestial virgin,  and the ears
of wheat contained in the sign, show both these ideals as profitable to soul
growth at the present time.   Jupiter, the planet of benevolence and philan-
thropy,  which rules Pisces, has been a prominent factor in promoting altru-
ism during the past two milleniums.
                                AQUARIUS-LEO
   It is often said, and rightly so, that the boy is father of the man.  And
on  the  same  principle we may say that the Son of Man  is  the  Super-Man;
therefore,  when  the  Sun by precession enters the celestial sign Aquarius,
[PAGE 28]                                           THE MESSAGE OF THE STARS
the  water-bearer  we shall have a new phase of the religion  of  the  Lamb,
exoterically; and the ideal to be striven for is shown in the opposite sign,
Leo.
   The Moon, which is the habitat of the autocratic Race Ruler and Lawgiver,
Jehovah, is exalted in Taurus, the sign of the Bull, and all Race religions,
even the Mosaic phase of the Aryan religion of the Lamb, demanded a sacrifi-
cial victim for every transgression of that law.   But the Sun is exalted in
Aries,  and when the great Sun spirit, Christ,  came as High Priest  of  the
Aryan religion, He abrogated sacrifice of OTHERS by offering up HIMSELF AS A
PERPETUAL SACRIFICE for sin.
   By looking to the mother ideal of Virgo during the Piscean Age,  and fol-
lowing the Christ's example of sacrificial service,  the immaculate  concep-
tion becomes an actual experience to each of us, and Christ, the Son of Man,
Aquarius,  is born within us.  Thus, gradually, the third phase of the Aryan
religion  will  be ushered in and a new ideal will be found in the  Lion  of
Judah,  Leo.   Courage of conviction, strength of character and kindred vir-
tues will then make man truly the King of Creation,  worthy of the trust and
the confidence of the lower orders of life as well as the love of the Divine
Hierarchs above.
   This, the mystic message of Man's evolution, is marked in flaming charac-
ters upon the field of Heave, where he who runs may read.  And when we study
the revealed purpose of God, we shall in turn learn to conform intelligently
[PAGE 29]                                   EVOLUTION AS SHOWN IN THE ZODIAC
to that design,  thereby hastening the day of emancipation from our  present
cramped environment to the perfect liberty of free Spirits,  risen  superior
to the law of Sin and Death, through Christ, the Lord of Love and Life.
   It is for us to decipher this message,  and solve the Riddle of the  Uni-
verse.