Bible -- Commentaries; Bible -- Feminist criticism; Women in the Bible
Not only were Hebrew feasts and seasons based upon that science, but
many Christian ones, as Easter and Christmas are due to the same cause.
The festival of St. John the Baptist takes place at the time of the
sun's lowest southern declination, December 22. In like manner the
festival of St. John the Evangelist occurs at midsummer day, when the
sun reaches its highest northern declination. All those church periods
are purely astronomical or astrological in character. The "Alpha" and
"Omega" of Revelation contain profound evolutionary truths,
significative of spirit and of matter, or God unmanifested and
manifested.
The famous seven churches of Asia, to whom this book was largely
addressed, were all astrological and based upon the seven planets of
the ancients. Of these seven churches that of Ephesus stood first. On
the shores of Aegean Sea, it was famous for its magnificent temple to
the moon-goddess Artemis, or Diana. This temple was one of the seven
wonders of the ancient world, nations vieing with each other in their
gifts to add to its splendor. The moon being the emblem or "angel" of
Ephesus, the cry of the multitude when Paul spake there, "Great is
Diana of the Ephesians!" was an astrological recognition of the power
of the moon over human affairs. It is to be noted that none of the
seven churches of Asia received the writings of Paul. In the astrology
of Chaldea, as in that of Asia Minor, the moon was first among the
planets. It must be remembered that the numbers seven and twelve, so
frequently mentioned in Re-Veilings, are of great occult significance
in relation to the earth.
The angel of the church of Smyrna, to whom the second letter was
addressed, was the sun, "the only sun" dying and rising each day; that
of Pergamos, the beneficent Jupiter, who became the supreme god of the
Greek world. The angel of Thyatira, the lovely and loving Venus, by
some deemed the most occult of the planets, sustained her old-time
character for lasciviousness in her connection with that church. The
fiery, warlike Mars, angel of the church of Sardis, called "the Great
King," and Saturn, the angel of the church of Philadelphia, are
astrologically known as malefic planets. Saturn identified with Satan,
matter and time, is for occult reasons looked upon as the great
malefic. The angel of the church of Laodicea,
Mercury or Hermes, the ambiguous planet, is, next to Venus, the most
occult of all the planets; it is, masculine or feminine, the patron of
learning or of thieves, as it is aspected. Most profound secrets
connected with the spiritual interests of the race during the middle
portion of the fifth round are hidden in the letter to the angel of the
church of Laodicea.
M. J. G.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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