Hieroglyph of Transfixion.

CHAPTER THE LAST.

ASTRO-THEOSOPHICAL SYSTEM OF THE

ROSICRUCIANS-THE

ALCHEMIC MAGISTERIUM.

HE letters of all languages are significant marks or symbols, which have the "Twelve," or rather the original "Ten, Signs" of the "Zodiac" for their beginning. Of these letters there is a certain group which has, in the characters of all languages, a hieroglyphical reference to the originally single, and afterwards double, sign, "Virgo-Scorpio," which is supposed to give the key to the secret or cabalistic "Story of Creation." These letters are S and Z, L and M; or rather a group, which is marked by A, II, M, Σ, S, Z—L, M, V, W. The significant aspirates, or "vowel-sounds," follow the same rule. The "Snake-like Glyph," or disguise, in which the "Recusant Principle" is supposed to have invested himself, has coiled (so to say), and projects significant curves and inflections, through all this group of letters and sounds; which is perceivable, by a close examination and quick ear, in all languages, living and dead. The sigma presents itself to the eye (that recognises) in the Hebrew, the Sanscrit, the Persian, the Arabic, the Coptic, the Old Gothic, the Georgian or Iberian, the Ancient Armenian, the Ethiopic or Gheez,

the Sclavonic, the Greek, the Latin, the Samaritan, the Irish, the Etruscan,-of all which alphabets, and the symbols serving for their "numerals," we had prepared a comparative table, to prove the identity of the sign "VirgoScorpio" and its ciphers; but we forbore in deference to our limits, which did not advisedly admit of the addition.

A comparative display of all marks or symbols which give occult expression to the "female side of nature," and its astronomical and astrological signs, affords the same result of identity. The marks of the "signs" mg and m, and their ciphers, are interchangeable, and reflect from one to the other. It must be remembered that the sign "Libra"

-our modern September-the "hinge-point" or "balancecentre" of the two wings of the celestial Zodiac-was an addition by the Greeks. Here, according to the Sabæan astrological tradition, the origin of "Good and Evil," of the malific and the benevolent "cabalistic investments of nature," the beginning of this "two-sexed," intelligent sublunary world, were to be found-all contained in the mysteries of this double sign.

The cabalistic theory, and the Chaldæan reading, is, that the problems of the production of the sensible world are not to be read naturally, but supernaturally. It was held that man's natural law is contained in God's magical law. It followed from this that present nature is secondary nature: that man is living in the "ruins" of the angelic world, and that man himself is a "ruin." Man fell into the degradation of "nature" as the result of the seduction by the woman (to sexual sin), which produced the "generations" according to Man's ideas. The strange theories as to the history of the first world prevalent among the Cabalists imply that the appearance of " woman" upon the scene was an "obtrusion," in the sense of a thing unintended. Thus her

THE CELESTIAL "EGIS."

327

advent upon the scheme of creation-to use one of their mysterious expressions-was at a late and evil period of the world, which had sunk from the "supernatural" into the "natural." As woman had no part in the earliest world, and as her origin was altogether of another nature from that of man, the traces of her introduction, and the hints as to her true character, are to be found mystically in the original sign, "Virgo-Scorpio," double-sided (yet identical) at first, but afterwards divided. These divided "personalities" were set thereafter in mythologic opposition. The reader is referred to the Zodiac on p. 65, fig. 12, where will be found the diagram illustrative of this idea, which was originated amidst the magic of the Syro-Chaldæans; it yet remains the key to all the mythologies.

The sign "Virgo-Scorpio" stands in the present order of things, or in this non-angelic or mortal world, as a divided sign, because in the "World of Man"-as "born of Woman" -enmity has been placed between the "Snake" and the "Woman." Thenceforth, from the "Fall," and as a consequence of it, they are in opposition. The sign of the "Balances" is placed between, as the rescuing heavenly shield, miraculously interposed, separating, as the tremendous "Egis," the two originally conjoint signs, and simultaneously presented "both ways" (to speak in figure), defending "each from either"-"until the time shall be complete!"—which means the Apocalyptic "New Heaven and New Earth."

Marks, movements, or influence from the side of "Scorpio," or from the sinister side, are malign, and mean danger; because they represent the "Old Serpent," or, in other terms, the "Great Deep," or "Matter." Of such character are the letters "S" and "Z," and all their compounds; because this originally "single" sound, or letter

8. Scorpio, Genitalia
9. Sagittarius, Hips and Thighs
10. Capricorn, Knees and Hams
11. Aquarius, Legs and Ankles
12. Pisces, Feet and Toes

nx

Holy of Holies.

Crown of Glory.

Crown of Thorns.

Apse or Apsis.

"The Blessed Lady"" St. John."

Man's Side.

(Sun.)

Dexter.

North Transept.
(Chief Nail.)
Right Hand.

Woman's Side.

(Moon.)

Axis inclined
(Ecliptic.)

(Chapter-House.)

Sinister.

Place of "Fons,'
Two Nails, in the

Male: Sacred
Pillar-" Jachin."

Wine.

"Fountain," or "Font."

Latin Rite, in the Feet; One Nail in the Greek Rite.

Bread.

Female: Sacred

Pillar-"Boaz."

PROCESSION OF THE "LOGOS," OR "WORD," ACCORDING TO THE GNOSTICS.

(East.)

ASTRO-THEOSOPHIC CHART.

Robertus de Fluctibus (Robert Flood, or Fludd), Rosicrucian.

329