54. We have explained this theory above, p. 125. It was foreign to the religion of Zoroaster and was introduced into the mysteries of Mithra with the Chaldean astrology. Moreover, ancient mythological ideas were always mixed with this learned theology. For instance, it was an old Oriental belief that souls, being regarded as material, wore clothing (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 15, n. 5; Bousset, _Archiv fuer Religionswiss._, IV, 1901, p. 233, n. 2; _Rev. hist. des relig._, 1899, p. 243, and especially Boeklen, _Die Verwandtschaft der juedisch-christlichen und der parsischen Eschatologie_, Goettingen, 1902, pp. 61 ff.) Thence arose the notion prevalent to the end of paganism, that the soul in passing through the planetary spheres, took on the qualities of the stars "like successive tunics." Porphyry, _De abstin._, I, 31: [Greek: Apoduteon ara tous pollous hemin chitonas k. t. l.]; Macrobius, _Somnium Sc._, I, 11, Sec. 12: "In singulis sphaeris aetherea obvolutione vestitur"; I, 12, Sec. 13: "Luminosi corporis amicitur accessu"; Proclus, _In Tim._, I, 113, 8, Diehl ed.: [Greek: Periballesthai chitonas], Procl., _Opera_, Cousin ed., p. 222: "Exuendum autem nobis et tunicas quas descendentes induti sumus"; Kroll, _De orac. Chaldaicis_, p. 51, n. 2: [Greek: Psuche hessamene noun]; Julian, Or., II, p. 123, 22, (Hertlein). Cf. Wendland, _Die hellenistisch-roemische Kultur_, p. 168 n. 1. Compare what {270} Hippolytus, _Philos._, V, I, says of Isis (Ishtar?) in connection with the Naasenians. She is [Greek: heptastolos], because nature also is covered with seven ethereal garments, the seven heavens of the planets; see Ps.-Apul., _Asclepius_, 34 (p. 75, 2 Thomas): "Mundum sensibilem et, quae in eo sunt, omnia a superiore illo mundo quasi ex vestimento esse contecta." I have insisted upon the persistence of this idea, because it may help us to grasp the significance attributed to a detail of the Mithra ritual in connection with which Porphyry relates nothing but contradictory interpretations. The persons initiated into the seven degrees were obliged to put on different costumes. The seven degrees of initiation successively conferred upon the mystic were symbols of the seven planetary spheres, through which the soul ascended after death (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 316), the garments assumed by the initiates were probably considered as emblems of those "tunics" which the soul put on when descending into the lower realms and discarded on returning to heaven. 55. Renan, _Marc-Aurele_, p. 579. 56. Anatole France, _Le mannequin d'osier_, p. 318. Cf. Reinach, _op. cit._ [p. 260], p. 232. VII. ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC.