At the great temple of Baal, they had a palm tree standing in the midst of the garden, and in the holy temple of Jehovah they had a stone pillar around which the Kadishim, at the vernal equinox, danced in the nude. This is the day dedicated to Astarte, or Ishtar or Easter. This occult ceremony is one of the most beautiful and entrancing in our refulgent and god-given religion. As the Tree of Life stands in the midst of the circle of females, so the rays from the sun penetrate the earth and annually renew its life. So the rays of the sun at high noon penetrated the ark, that old box in which the priests kept the male and female emblems, and before which King David for occult reasons danced in the altogether. The ark corresponds with the sacred Argha of the Hindus, an oblong vessel, a sacrificial chalice, used in the worship of Isis, Astarte and Venus. It is a most holy symbol, containing, in the play, the germs of all living things, and when we drink out of it at the communion service, we drink eternal life. They planted the Tree of Life in the midst of the garden or grove, as God planted the tree in the midst of the Garden of Eden. You will notice the serpent coiled about the tree in Eden. This is the symbol of Life. The serpent is a symbol of the female. The Israelites were commanded not to worship idols, but in the darkest hour of their history, when their own God, Jehovah, had sent upon them the plague of serpents and consigned them to destruction, then they called upon the mighty sun-god, they looked upon the brazen serpent on a cross, the Elevation of the Host, and the remnant of Israel was saved. Israel, it is said, worshipped the serpent or Devil until about 726 B. C. You will see this same god on the Masonic chart. The Talmud says that when Ben Asai and Ben Zoma were to be initiated into the Garden of Delights, Ben Asai looked and lost his sight, and Ben Zoma looked and lost his reason. Eusebius shows that St. James, the brother of Jesus and first Bishop of Jerusalem, never shaved or took a bath, and he alone could enter into the holy places. The merry maidens who circulate about the May-pole on May-day are devoted devotees of the loving god Baal Poer. And we on Palm Sunday carry palm leaves from the sacred palm tree to show that we are faithful worshippers of the true god Baal. In Italy, the clergy had at one time, according to Isis Unveiled, 2-5, a thriving trade in those things which they called the holy limbs of Saints Cosmo and Damiano. These male emblems were made of wax and certainly beautiful to behold. The divine spirit shining through them in resplendent glory cast its radiance afar. He who was so fortunate as to possess sufficient filthy lucre to purchase one saved his immortal soul from Hell, for was it not the symbol of life and the image of the great god.