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HERALDIC GENEALOGY OF THE "FLEUR-DE-LIS," OR

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4. Bee.

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6. Bee. 7. Imperial Bee.

16

19

8. Fleuron. 9. Charlemagne. 10. A Babylonian Gem. 11 and 12. Early French (also Babylonian). 13. Middle French. 14. Later French. 16. Valois. 17. Henry of Navarre. 18. In England, thus. 19. Bourbon. 20. Egyptian Sculptures: Fleur-de-Lis; Asp.

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The opinion of M. Dupuis was (see his learned memoir concerning the origin of the constellations), that "Libra " was formerly the sign of the vernal equinox, and "Aries" of the nocturnal, autumnal equinox; that is, that since the origin of the actual astronomical system, the procession (precession ?) of the equinoxes had carried forward by seven signs the primitive order of the zodiac. Now, estimating the procession (precession ?) at about 70 years to a degree, -that is, 2115 years to each sign,-and observing that "Aries" was in its fifteenth degree 1447 before Christ, it follows that the first degree of "Libra" could not have coincided with the vernal equinox more lately than 15,194 years before Christ, to which, if you add 1790 years since Christ, it appears that 16,984 years have elapsed since the origin of the "Zodiac" (Volney, Ruins of Empires, 1st English edition, 1792, p. 360).

All white things express the celestial and luminous gods; all circular ones, the world, the moon, the sun, the destinies ; all semicircular ones, as arches and crescents, are descriptive of the moon, and of lunar deities and meanings.

"The Egyptians," says Porphyry, "employ every year a talisman in remembrance of the world. At the summer solstice, they mark their houses, flocks, and trees with red, * See figs. 190, 191, 192, 195, post. See, also, pp. 47, 48, 52, 53, ante.

supposing that on that day the whole world had been set on fire. It was also at the same period that they celebrated the Pyrrhic or 'Fire-Dance."" (And this illustrates the origin of the purifications by fire and water.)

There are seven planets in the solar system. These seven planets are signified in the seven-branched candlestick of the Jewish ritual. The number is a sacred number. These seven "prophets," or angels, have each twelve apostles, places, stella, "stalls," or regions or dominions (stalls as " stables"), for the exercise of their powers. These are the twelve divisions of the great Circle, or the twelve signs of the Zodiac. All this is Cabalistic, Magical, Sabaistical, and Astrological. The name Ashtaroth or Astarte has been derived from Ashre, aster, ast, star, or "starred;" in the same way as the word Sephi-roth comes from the Hebrew root, "roth."

On the black sacred stone ("Kebla," or "Cabar") at Mecca, "there appears the figure of a human head cut," "which some take to be the head of a Venus" (Enthumius Zyabenus, Mod. Un. Hist. i. 213; Sale's Discourse, p. 16; Bibliotheca Biblia, i. 613, 614).

Man's ideas, outwards from himself, must always become . more dreamlike as they recede from him, more real as they approach him.

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Summits of Eastern Minarets.

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST.

MYTH OF THE SCORPION, OR THE SNAKE, IN ITS MANY DISGUISES.

NE of the Targuns says that, a serpent, tempted Adam, or the first man, and not, Eve, his wife. Here we have the object of

adoration of the Ophites-the female generative power-the Destroying, Regenerating Power among the Ophites, and, indeed, the Gnostics generally. The Serpent was called the Megalistor, or Great Builder of the Universe (Maia, or Bhuddist Illusion). Here again we recognise, under another name (Ophites), the Cyclopes, or the builders of the circular Temples at Stonehenge and everywhere else. Mr. Payne Knight has repeated an observation of Stukeley, that "the original name of the temple at Abury was the 'Snake's Head.'" And he adds, "It is remarkable that the remains of a similar circle of stones (circular temple) in Boeotia had the same name in the time of Pausanias" (Pausanias, Boot. cap. xix. s. 2).

The famous oracular stone, enclosed in the seat of St. Edward's chair (the Coronation Chair) in Westminster Abbey, was at one time a stone to which adoration was paid. It was possessed of imagined miraculous gifts. This stone is asserted to be the same which the Patriarch rested

his head upon in the Plain of "Luza,” and is said to have' been carried first to Brigantia, a city of Gallicia, in Spain. From thence it was brought into Ireland by Simon Brech, the first King of the Scots, about 700 years before Christ; and from there, about 370 years after, into Scotland, by King Fergaze (Fergus). In the year of Christ 850 it was placed at the Abbey of Scone (in the county of Perth) by King Kenneth; this being the place where the Scottish Kings were generally crowned in those days. In the year 1297 this Scottish wooden throne or chair, together with their crown and sceptre, was brought into England by the English King Edward the First, and placed in Westminster Abbey.

"Si quid habent veri vel chronica, cana fidesve,
Clauditur hac Cathedra nobilius ecce lapis,
Ad caput eximius Jacob quondam Patriarcha
Quem posuit, cernens numina mirapoli.

Quem tulit ex Scotis, spolians quasi victor honoris,
Edwardus Primus, Mars velut armipotens ;

Scotorum Domitor, noster Validissimus Hector,
Anglorum Decus & gloria militiæ."

Antiquities of Westminster Abbey, 1711.

It is still supposed, in accordance with the ancient prophecies, that the stone in the Coronation Chair has miraculous gifts, and that the sovereignty of England depends upon it; :* as also that the pre-eminence of London is connected with the preservation of London Stone.

Both the ancient relic, London Stone, and the Coronation Stone in Westminster Abbey, seem of the same character. They appear to have been either worn down to their present

*This magical stone carries with it the tradition (how or whence derived no one knows), that it murmurs approval at the coronation when the rightful heir assumes his or her seat on it; but that, on the contrary, it would clap with terrific noise, and fire flash from it, implying protest and denunciation, should an usurper attempt to counterwork or control its mysteries. It still has hooks for the chain which in former unknown times suspended it, when it was borne as a talisman of victory at the head of the army-when doubtless it was regarded as a Palladium of Prosperity, and a Divinity.

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