YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY The Original Garden of Eden Discovered AND THE FINAL SOLUTION OF THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMAN, THE TREE AND THE SERPENT BEING THE LUNAR THEORY OF MYTHOLOGY AND THE ANALYSIS AND SATISFACTORY EXPLANATION OF THE ANCIENT MYSTICAL LORE For whieh the author won a prize oj ten thousand dollars By J. M. WOOLSEY Member of The Folk Lore Society of London, and the Folk Lore Society of New York DEDICATED TO THE EMANCIPATION OF THOUGHT AND THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD Copyrighted, 1910 By J. M. WOOLSEY V -ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The new moon, the throne of all the gods And the key of all mythology "The holy house of Odin, Oh, that hall of the silver door That the Goths and the Gods have builded To last forever more." CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTOEY 5 Chapter I SUNSET LORE Prometheus 19 Vision of Abram lit Vision of Jacob 21 Vision of Moses 22 Daniel and the Doom on the Wall 24 Transfignration of Christ 25 Pygmalion 29 Chapter II THE ALTER EGO, OR THE OTHER SELF Page 32 Chapter III THE WAX IMAGE Page 39 Chapter IV THE SCARLET THREAD AND DISCOVERY OF HADES, HELL AND THE BOTTOMLESS PIT Page 44 Chapter V THB HOUSE The House of the Gray Gables 53 Palace of the Sun 56 House of the Volsungs 58 The Winter House 61 The Treasure House 62 CONTENTS Chapter VI THB THRONE Page Discovery of the Visible Throne of God 67 Volsung Throne 71 Chapter VII THB DOGE The House of the Silver Door 77 The Death of Brynhild 84 Chapter VIII THE MAGIC BONE The Jaw-Bone of Samson 's Ass and the Discovery of the Cave of Machpelah 84 Bone of Adam 86 Story of Pelops ¦. . 89 Bones of Orestes ". . . 93 Chapter IX ORIGIN OP MAN Name of Adam 100 Chapter X ORIGIN OF MAN Page 105 Chapter XI THB TEBE The World Tree 115 The Branstock or Pire Tree 122 Babylonian Tree 123 Tree of Horeb 127 The Cosmic Fire Tree from the Welsh Mabinogian 130 Pate of the Ten Captive Lions of Volsung 132 Story of Pyramus and Thisbe I35 Parijata Tree 13jj Nail Tree I39 Tree and Serpent 140 The Mystery of the Golden Branch Eevealed 141 The Fig Tree of Adam and Eve I45 Healing Tree 14g Thorn Tree _ 152 CONTENTS Page Mandrake 154 Mistletoe 156 Two Trees 159 Agni, the Hindu Fire Tree ¦. . . 159 Tree of the Ark 160 Moly , 161 Tree of Cross and Death 162 Chapter XII WISDOM Wisdom Tree 163 Eve 's Tree of Wisdom 163 The Moon Oracle 169 The Dwarf Avatar '. 171 Book of the Egyptian Thoth, the God of Wisdom 174 Wisdom Born of the Moon Sea 177 Heart Wisdom 181 Hermes , 184 Hermes or Mercury 188 Pillar God 191 Hermes or Mercury as Terminus, or God of Boundaries and Merchant 193 Mercury the Grand Eobber 193 The Wisdom of the Horribles .¦ 195 Chapter XIII SATAN Page 200 Set, the Egyptian Satan 206 Chapter XIV THE SWORD The Sword nf the Volsungs, the Gift of Odin, the High God of the Norsemen 211 Sword of Goliath and David 214 Sword of Kalevide 214 Sword of Frithjof 215 Sword of Cheru 216 Tirflng Sword 217 Sword of Fionn 218 Sword of Wainamoinen 219 Guardian Sword 219 The Guardian Sword and SkuU Talisman 222 CONTENTS Chapter XV THE SERPENT Page Symbol of the Serpent 224 Story of Siegfried 235 Serpent Oil 240 The Serpent Pafner 242 Saturn the Swallower 244 Babylonian Serpent 246 Egyptian Serpent 249 Heisrew Serpent 249 Ophir, the Serpent Land 253 Serpent Mounds 258 Modern Serpent 263 Guardian Serpent 264 Chapter XVI THB GARDEN The Garden of Eden 269 Location of the Garden 271 The Quadrangular Inclosure 277 The Golden Age 280 The Isle of Refuge at the Mouth of the River 282 Volsung Garden of the Norsemen 284 Babyloman Garden 286 Scandinavian Paradise Garden 290 Destruction of the Garden 291 Hindu Garden 298 Arab, Chinese, Tibetan Garden 300 Chapter XVII THE WOMAN OF A THOUSAND NAMES Page 306 The Transformed Goddess 310 Venus 313 Psyche 315 Minerva 317 Athene 318 Pandora 319 Hera or Juno 321 Diana ; 323 Story of ActEBon the Hunter and Diana 323 Ceres 326 Proserpine 327 Io ! 331 Isis 332 CONTENTS Page The Swan Maiden 334 Ishtar 339 Tragedy of Ishtar 340 Ishtar Devotional 342 Accadian Hymn to Ishtar 342 Ishtar the Harlot 342 The Two Women— Vashti and Esther 343 Dawn 347 Woman of the East 349 Eape of Idun .' 349 Bovine Goddess 349 Hecate 351 Amazon 351 Chapter XVIII OCEAN THB SOURCE OF ALL THINGS' Page 352 The Four Rivers of Eden 362 Fountain of \ outh 365 Quest of the Amrita S67 Healing Fountain -. 373 Healing Water 377 Soma of the Hindu 380 Eiver Styx 382 Over the River 385 The Old Oaken Bucket 386 Whitsuntide 387 Chapter XIX THB TRAGEDY OF THE YEAR Page 387 Dawning of Spring 393 Mythical Battles 403 Death of Gunnar the Niblung 407 Charioteer 409 Cosmic Riddles 411 The Gambler 415 The First Rebellion and Strife for Immortality 417 « Chapter XX SIN AND CURSE Page 423 Unavoidable Sin 424 Cursed with Madness 426 CONTENTS Page Cursed for Pride 427 Winter Curse 429 Curse of Winter 431 Sin of the Golden Age 433 PhaUicism 43S Babylonian Harlotry 444 Rape of the Ford by the River God 451 Lost Treasure and Fall 459 The Broken Oath 461 Eve 's Serpent 464 Phallic Worship 466 Curse of Eden 470 PhaUicism 472 The Longing Time 479 Chapter XXI SKIN COVERING Page 480 Saul 's Garments 482 Story of Marduk of Babylon 482 Story of Apala 483 Lady Godiva and the Pair of Coventry 487 Story of Actaeon, the Hunter 489 Tale of Urvasi, the Celestial Nymph 491 Christ at the Tanner's Vat 494 Tales of Exile 496 Tale of Chandra ' s Vengeance 496 The Sleeners 498 Eve 's Cave 499 The Story of Little Briar Rose 502 lohigenia in Tauris 503 Eve as the Harlot 506 The Stoning of the Harlot , 510 INTRODUCTORY. Strange is the labyrinth of human thought, its weird fan cies and extravagant dreams. We have been taught truth and find truth but too true, and take refuge in fairylands and air castles to escape from the hard realities of life ; we live in the long-ago, and the by-and-by; today is not worth living for. We have poetry and song to sooth, to reinspire ; we romance, we play tragedy upon the stage, and is all this true? Well. no, but 'tis better than truth; it helps out life's longing, its hunger and thirst. Yes, we have been taught to reverence trijth, but more than sixty per cent, of the reading matter daily drawn from our public libraries is fiction. Well, and what then? even our very life is but a myth, and the world and the universe a dark riddle — who can guess? But aside from the fiction of modern times, we have inherited from forgotten ages a vast repository of fable — tales tender and pathetic ; tales fantastic, grotesque and abnor mal. They are found upon the mouldering papyrus of Egyp tian tombs; they are dug from the ruins of the Babylonian plains. They have drifted down the stream of ages borne on by tongues now silent and unknown, the lip literature of the ancient world. Tales gruesome and savage ; tales wanton and unseemly; tales of all that is monstrous, and the impossible. They are called "Fairy Tales," "Folk" and "Hero Tales," "Old Wives' Tales," "Nursery Yarns," and by the more intolerant, "Wicked Lies," "Stupid Nonsense," and "Unintelligible Jargon." (i THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN At what time, or for what purpose they were written, has been the wonder, not only of modern times, but the wonder of ages far back in the twilight of the past. Pausanias, who wrote up the travels of Greece in the sec ond century, its temples and tales, was a stranger to their under-current of meaning. And Herodotus, the historian of the fifth century B.C., so far from divining their latency, has often bequeathed to us for veritable history a valuable contribution to folk-lore and myth. Even the learned Egyptians were unable to harmonize their gross and mythical theology, and such tales as Eden, sin, serpent, tree of life and deluge, were old in Babylonia, before the rise of the Jewish nation ; even in that remote period they had passed into sacred belief. The tale of Moses, the water child and foundling, was told of Sargon of Akkad, who was found among the reeds and marshes of the Euphrates, and brought up by Akki the waterman (or husbandman) and the kingdom of Sargon extended from Elam on the Persian gulf to the Mediter ranean 3800 B. C. Yet many of these tales had a moral which taught men obedience, patience, and gave them faith and assurance to feel and know that they were God's people, that He made them with His own hands, made for them the sun and moon, taught them the use of fire, gave them clothing and seed corn, and a full covenant title to the land with His divine signature. And though these tales were not true of them selves, they were true to them; it strengthened tribal and national bonds, inspired confidence, and gave thera energy and hope. Maimonides, in the twelfth century, the most famous of all Jewish Rabbis, had discovered the enigmatical sense of the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 7 Old Testament, and says: "Whoever shall find the true sense of it ought to take care not to divulge it. If a person should discover the meaning by himself, or with the aid of another, he ought to be silent, or should speak of it in an enigmatical manner, as I do myself." His followers in the thirteenth century declared the whole Bible to be merely symbolism and allegory. "The great mass of women and common people cannot be induced by mere force of reason to devote themselves to piety, virtue, and honesty, and superstition must, therefore, be employed, and even this is insufficient without the aid of the marvellous and the terrible. For what are the thunder bolts, the aegis, the trident, the torches, the armor of the gods, and all the paraphernalia of antique theology, but fables employed by the founders of states as bugbears to frighten timorous minds; such was mythology, and when our ancestors found it capable of subserving the purposes of social and political life, and even contributory to the knowledge of truth, they continued the education of child hood to maturer years, and maintained that poetry was sufficient to form the understanding of every age ; poets were by no means the first to avail themselves of myths. States and lawgivers had taken advantage of them long before, having observed the bias of mankind." (In part from Strabo's "Introduction to Geography.") And the wise men of the time were plain to say that the common people could only be govemed by surrounding their sacred religion by a halo of mystery and miracles, sacrifice and pompous processions, for these tales had become a part of the spiritual life of the nation, and were so closely interwoven with the religion and ritual that the priesthood dare not aban don them, even if understood, in an age dominated by faith rather than knowledge. 8 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN The main features, or warp, of mythology, are found pretty well scattered over the earth. Witches, ghosts and spells are found everywhere from South Africa to the Arctic sea. Tales of the Rip Van Winkle order, the swallowers and fire stealers, are ubiquitous, so are tales of the invin cible Archer. Tales of the Cinderellas abound over the earth in their main elements, though they differ in form and detail, have nevertheless common ancestral elements. The myths of Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, and Poly nesia have points in common with the mythologies of India, Babylonia, Egypt and Greece, mere divergences from a common type as they have drifted down from the unrecorded ages; and giants, dwarfs, magicians, sorcerers, heroes, drag ons and monsters, spells and enchantments, foundlings and fosterlings, lost and stolen maidens, vocal trees and talking beasts, utensils, lamps, cups, swords, axes, might be termed the common property of myth makers everywhere; tales in which gods and men take beast form and all inan imate things assume personality, and are gifted with .speech; men are turned to beast, to tree and stone, by the wand of a magician, and again resume their former self by the stroke of a rod. The heroes have winged steeds, enchanted armor, charmed lives and invulnerable bodies. They wield magic weapons; they fight and slay each other, then rise frora the deads bare deserts are changed to verdant lawns, golden castles and gorgeous palaces are built in a night, and then vanish in the morning; mountains and forests are swept away as by a lilast of fire, and again are made to reappear by pronounc ing a magic word; distance is annihilated and one is trans ported by a magic chair or sandals to the most distant place hy a wish; food and clothing and all wants are supplied in response to thought. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 9 But myths have not been created from nothing ; they all mean something, no matter how apparently crude and irra tional; they all have an underlying reality. Mythology is not the property or invention of any one nation alone, more than language or agriculture; it is the growth like religion, of ten thousand ages ; the bank account and savings institution of the story-telling world; the mites and penny savings which have become pounds and hoarded in the world's vault. They are the work of innumerable authors, national bards and story tellers, some of them in their germinal forms almost as old as language and human utterance. Myths change with the growth of moral and religious ideas ; the myth is the vehicle of popular belief. Tales began in cell life and grew by a slow process of evo lution; they began in the wigwam and around the camp fire of the forest dwellers, and grew by local and slow variations, continually altered and varied in transmission, while float ing in varied currents of distribution and commercial inter course, and slowly developed according to the genius and spirit of the nation and their narrative power, from the uncivilized and puerile tales of the savage to the folk tale of the peasant and the higher constructive sweep and pictur esque imagination of heroic legend. And as we live today upon the wrecks of former conti nents, so our language and literature are but the reanimated bones of the dead which Deucalion-like, have been cast behind. Mythology has its history in weapons; it may be traced from the sling, the flint stone, and the club, which gave place to the sword and the rifle, from shell money to gold and silver coin ; from the pole of the wigwam to the colossal tower and pyramid, and from tribal custom to a code of laws; 10 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN abstract ideas, priests and sacrifice belong to a higher civili zation than the old shamanism. We trace back mythology to a time when the Asiatic races were tribes with but little cohesion. When their simple stories were but the seeds and saplings which have since become wide-spreading trees. It was at a time when books were few and comparatively unknown, that a good story teller enjoyed special privilege and royal patronage, and many gave their lives to story telling and singing heroic songs at public games and festivals for a living; even the slave has won his freedom for the invention of a good story. Even in the middle ages of chivalry, few even of the noble men and princes could read, and story telling was the liter ature of the age; story telling was a profession, a source of entertainment. India, Babylonia, Persia, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, have all been nurseries and centres of distribution. Tales have been disseminated as widely as their peoples who have been driven to every inhabitable part of the globe ; circulated by the wars of Alexander and brought into Europe by the Arabians and Crusaders, garnished with Oriental imagery; foreign myths gathered and localized tp add lustre and renown to their nationality. But while the bounds of all knowledge have been and are continually being extended, why should the seal of silence be set upon our own Bible mythology? For the serpent talked to Eve, and the ass spoke to Balaam. and the trees talked for Jotham, and the blood of Abel cried out from the ground; and why may not the animals and plants of other people's mythology talk without telling wicked lies? The Greeks had a god-, Kronos, who swallowed his chil- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 11 dren; we have a Jonah swallowed by a fish. Greeks had a Niobe turned to stone; we have a Lot's wife turned to a pillar of salt. The religions of the ancient world were always vascillating and unstable, and nations invaded each other's domains, destroyed their temples and idols, and set up the cult of foreign divinities for the national worship. And we read of the Babylonian kings who cut out the tongues of unbelievers and threw their flesh to the dogs. Fifteen hundred years beforethe Christian era, there was a great upheaval of religion in Westem Asia, the reformation of the old faith, a kingdom of heaven at hand, and the reign of heaven upon earth; and for more than six hundred years before Christ, the more enlightened of the Greeks had out grown their religious faith; had denounced and anathema tized the shameful deeds of their gods and denied the authen ticity of their religion. Their gods Apollo, Helios and Hepha estus were fire and denied a personality ; Poseidon was water, Hera was air, and Artemis the moon. The Iliad, their national epic, had been resolved into a war of the elements; its heroes, Agamemnon, Hector, and Achilles, were but physical agencies and elemental phenom ena, and this line of thought continued to grow and become more pronounced as it approached the Christian Era, in spite cf the disfavor and persecution of the state religion, which still held firm to the old faith and guarded its sacred pre cincts. Anaxagoras was banished from Athens and his writ ings burned for teaching doctrines unfavorable to the pre scribed faith, and for referring miracles and eclipses to natural causes, and that the moon shone from reflected light. Protagoras banished and his writings burned for impiety; even Aristotle had to flee from Athens to avoid arrest, and Socrates lost his life ; stil infidelity increased and grew more 12 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN pronounced as it approached the Christian Era, and the national faith was becoming more and more external. But the myths, whether divine, heroic, or cosmogonic, still remained in want of an explanation for the profane and the impious legends of the gods eould not be reconciled with the religious sentiment, nor with the growing disbelief in obtaining divine aid and assistance from the gods through gifts and magical ceremonies. Many attempts had been made to explain the vile and blasphemous legends of gods and heroes opposed and sub versive to the orthodox religion, which was generally laid to the poets who were loudly censured. The orthodox religion sought for an excuse and tried to allegorize and apologize for the frailties and misdemeanors of their gods and the impurities of their religion, which provided a way of escape for many reprehensible tales through alle gorical and philosophical explanation. The Greek mythology was rationalized ; sophists and cynics searched for a hidden meaning and found moral ideas in the legends and adventures of heroes, such as Cadmus, Theseus, Hercules; but Eusebius, in 2d Book, p. 511, shows how vain have been the eflPorts of all writers to explain the Gre cian and Egyptian fables on physical and moral principles; they were even rejected by the Romans themselves. Again, the ethical theory that the gods represented moral qualities and allegorical philosophy, or were personifications of man's virtues and vices ; as Odin represented wisdom, Thor strength; some represent physical strength, others spiritual strength, and the war of the gods was a conflict between the faculties of the spirit and the body ; that the popular or figura tive representation shielded a secret sense ; that the plain liter ature or apparent history contained abstract truths, or that it contained a higher and lower sense, that it represented hut THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 13 the images of things and held truths of deep significance and religious importance, as in the legend of Psyche, which rep resented the human soul of divine origin subjected to trial and sufliering in its earthly prison-house, the body. Again the historical theory -of Euemerus 316 B.C. claimed that myths were history disguised, that the gods Jupiter, Ormuzd and Odin were once historical persons and became deified. This system of Euemerus and the rationalizing of myths was taught long before his time in Phoenicia, that the gods became men and their legendary history transferred to the earth; as an instance, Actseon, the hunter, cursed to be de voured by his dogs for seeing the nakedness of Diana — the explanation given according to the Euemeristic or historical theory. Actieon was a profligate and spendthrift, and hav ing ruined himself by the expenses of supporting a hunting establishment, was said to have been devoured by his dogs. Second, the story of Europa carried off by a bull, which was the commander of a vessel, either he himself, or the ves sel named Taurus (bull) carried off the Phoenician princess. Though 'weak and impotent, it nevertheless had great vitality and persistence, and continued down through the middle ages and died slow and hard. Again invented for religious instruction or moral allegory like our stories of Cain and Abel, Joseph, Jonah, illustrative of the power and vengeance of the gods for disobedience of their favorite rites, observances and religious tenets. Again by others they were stories to uphold and foster religious opinions. Again the ethnological explanation that the wars of the gods, giants and titans were but tribal feuds between ancient races of men. With some it has been history changed to fable ; to others fable changed to history. 14 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Again the gods were men, ancient warriors and heroes, and ancestors of their race. To some they contain a history of social and political development and are land marks of their social status and economic conditions ; as in the story of Minos, King of Crete, which expressed a political fact. To some others they are astronomical facts ; to some religious and sacerdotal, the clashing of the birth building up and destruc tion of religious and sacerdotal institutions. To some these legends were underlaid by physical philos ophy or occult mystery, or shrouded a moral theosophic or religious conception. De Brosses, 1760, explained the animal worship of the Egyptians as a survival of the ancient savages; that it was survival of a condition of thought once universal and still ft'und among the savages. For in the mythiopoeic age all inanimate things must be inspired with life and volition ; the trees spoke and the stones cried out to the passing footstep, as we witness the incarna tion of the sun and moon and stars, the winds and the waters, sceptre and sword as survivals at the present day. Bryant, 1774, in his "Analysis of Ancient Mythology," which to him was a heathen corruption of Biblical history, and a confused reeollecton of the flood ; which was closely followed by Edward Davies in his "Mythology of the British Druids," a theory popular at one time but today in desuetude. Abbe Banier, 1738, transformed the Greek mjrths into ordi nary history, long since abandoned. Dupuis advanced the stellar an'd astronomical theory 1742- 1809. Creuzer adopted the symbolic explanation, 1836-43. Mr. Max Muller has rested his system of mythology upon the basis of names which has been termed the philological theory, the survival of old words after their meaning was THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 15 lost and the mistaken identity of names. For in the confu sion of the Aryan languages, there appeared many names for one thing, or synonomy, and again many things with one name, or homonymy, a disease which has been termed the malady of language. That these legends arose from the misconception of the old words as they appear in the new and changing forms of dia lectic variation, and this has been the fruitful source of my thology. Mr. Cox, following the track of Mr. Max Muller, claimed that such words as dawn, sun, cloud, &c., lost their original sense, and became names of heroes, gods and goddesses, which was due to the forgetfulness of the original meaning of the terms. The above theory has suffered decay and decadence. According to Mr. Lang, the eminent critic, the strange and illogical elements of mythology are relics of an old stage of thought, survivals of savagery, fetishism, and totemism, coeval with savage life. Of the modern theories the solar and physical have been prominent which sum up mythology as visible phenomena re flected in human life. Folk lore within the last half century has become a special literature and a subject of most absorbing interest. Societies have been formed for collecting the fast disappearing relics of popular antiquities and to make a record for the un written and oral traditions ; to co-ordinate and tabulate man uals of myths, rituals, sacred customs, songs and legends, ar ranged according to their affinities, such as revolve around a central idea and group in a family descended from a eom mon ancestor and others ill defined used as links; and their separate items classified in chronological order as to their primitive form, and later stages of growth; their local ac- 16 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN cretions and variations, their geographical distribution and ethnic variation. How far they are legendary or realistic, and how far they are survivals of ancient creeds and social systems : in a word, how far we may sound the thought and feeling of the pre historic world, its ethnology, sociology, psychology and hidden secrets, and ascertain if possible how far they reflect the re ligious, moral and social status of their time. What then have we gained by so many years of study and research among the vast repositories of tradition we have available for comparison? They by no means attest the intellectual, social, or ethical status of their age or people, for the tales are purposely dis torted by poets and mythographers for amusement, as the most horrible and savage legend in the Greek mythology — that of Atreus— was written in their highest stage of civil ization. Our late Dr. Brinton, that profound scholar in the ab original languages and hero myths of the New World, at last gave up in despair, saying no one symbol will ever unlock the dark arcana of mythology. We have an abundance of crude materials from every land, but expositors are few and shy, and it is but fair to say that the explanation of mythology is not much further ad vanced today than it was two thousand years ago under the Greek philosophy. And the result has been disappointing in the extreme, and the cry still goes up : What meant the strange stories of Sat urn and the swallowers, of Prometheus, and the fire-stealers ; what meant the theriomorphic or beast form of the gods and their unspeakable crimes; what meant the sacrifice of the first born ; the only son and the cannibal feast ; what meant the Tree of Life, sin, serpent, and curse ; or where was Eden THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 17 that land of wonder and doubt, of longing and despair, which has been located in every conceivable place from the equator to the poles, and from the bottomless abyss to the ninth heaven— and still open to inquiry and guess. Professor Sayce claims to have found it in Edinna, the Babylonian Plane. Sir H. Rawlinson has found it in Gan Edin, and by the Persians it was located in the fabulous Heden up in the Hindu Koosh; and it might be found in Ida the Plane of Asgard. Yes, there are Edens and vales of Paradise and Bethels and Zions scattered over the earth, but the original garden of Eden was planted long ages before the advent of man, and when the Babylonian plane and the valley of the Nile slept under the sea. For it was the Garden City of the Gods. There the first temple was built, and on its shining pillar was engraved the name and the image of God, and in the day it was bom there went forth a decree of the gods that that pillar should stand while the sun should shine. We are more than surprised at the public interest awak ened by the mere announcement of the book while still in embryo and already in receipt of a generous and overfiowing correspondence, principally from the middle and New Eng land States, and some from over the sea, far too numerous for reply in detail ; be assured they have been most cordially welcomed. From one, we hear: "Pray where is the Garden? Is it fact or fiction, or what strange conception of the ancient world offered a foundation for its structure?" And from another old veteran in folklore and myth, we have received the following friendly admonition from far over the sea: "But are you sincere in your daring assertion upon a sub ject that has withstood the bombardment of all human in tellect so many thousand years with success and still defies 18 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN analysis? Well, while we are hopeful for your success, we are still amply prepared for disappointment." Most of the communications are highly complimentary and appreciative; some witty and sarcastic, and one we might not fail to mention, which is sky wafting and melodious. It is from a sentimental young lady, apparently in the warmth and fervor of youth, who ends her inimitable flight of fancy half humorously by saying: "You will give me a ticket to the Garden, will you not? Oh do ! How I long to see the old homestead ; is the Tree of Life there? Do the flowers still bloom? Oh, for a voy age to that mystic land, to breathe its fragrant air, to tread its sod. A passport, I beg! I pray! "Most exuberantly and felicitously yours." "Fes, darling-, the Tree of Life is still there. The river rolls, and the sword hangs over the gate." THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 19 ^al , Chapter I. SUNSET LORE. PROMETHEUS. Let us stand facing westward, in the twilight of sunset, about the time of the conjunction of the sun and moon, for they meet and pass each other once a month, and at the meeting, the moon is darkened for about three days. In ancient Egyptian belief, the suu died every night, and a new sun was born in the east every morning, which was no more irrational than our own saying, for we say the day dies every night, and the morrow is a new-born day. Well, let the sun die in the west: It is now dark, and the black moon — the hag, or Hagar — whose light has gone out, is seen to follow behind the sun and steal a ring of light from his orb. That was the woman who crept up behind Christ, and touched the hem of his garment and was made whole. (Matt. 9:20.) For the moon can only carry oil enough in her tank to last for about a month, when she has to meet up with the sun and replenish her lamp. Naked, fireless, and forsaken, she had nowhere else to go — fled westward, and lit her torch in the last rays of the dying sun. Jesus, the sun-god, turned and looked back, pitied her woe, and forgave her. She will now go on eastward and continue to grow and increase until the little leaven shall leaven the whole lump, and her whole body will be filled with light. That was the very place where Prometheus stole fire, for Jove in his wrath had withheld fire from men during the win ter, and in the spring Prometheus, their friend and redeemer, ascended to heaven and drew fire from the wheel of the 20 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN sun's chariot, which is seen coming down upon the black disc of the moon in a ring of light as the new moon in a hollow reed or horn. Fire myths are distributed over the earth among savage as well as civilized nations. In the Hindu, Indra wrenched the wheel from the sun's chariot, for the unwilling gods be grudged fire to the dark orbs of the moon and earth. Again, fire was brought by a raven, which is the same phenomenon : The raven is the black moon coming in spring, with the ring of fire (new moon) in its beak . Again, in an Indian tale, the fire is brought over many waters by a spider on its web, which is the same wonder again differently expressed. The spider is the black moon, bringing a thread of light, the penelope spinning her golden thread of fire, the "scarlet thread upon her black wheel. For this offence, Prometheus the redeemer, was betrayed to Jupiter, and chained to a pillar, with a vulture to prey upon his liver, which grew as fast as devoured; for the moon grows as fast as consumed. The vulture which fed upon the liver of Prometheus, is the dark bird which consumes the light on the moon; the vulture feeding upon Tityus in Erebus ; the Minotaur of Crete, and the seven lean ears of Egypt devouring the seven full ears of summer. It is the cutting off the debtors flesh to pay pound for pound what he owes the Shylock. Departed spirits fed upon the living unless propitiated. Queen Ishtar says: "I will raise the dead, that they may become the devourers of the living. Souls of those who lived in the golden age— that is the springtime and summer— after that, became destroyers; rackshasas, vampires, evil demons in winter, driven to madness like Hercules. The devout Catholic leaves behind him money with the priest to pray for the repose of his soul. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 21 VISION OF ABRAM. That sunset scene was the vision of Abram. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo ! a horror of great darkness fell upon him. And it came to pass when the sun went dovvn, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. (Gen. 15:12,17.) That smoking furnace is the black pit of the moon just burned out on her monthly funeral pyre,- and the burning lamp is the new moon, or torch, that passed from the sun to the moon, which kindled the new fire upon the moon every month. That was the second sight, that was where the sun saw in a vision of the night ; he had to die to become wise in the dark house of wisdom. That moon was his oracle and prophet, the wise interpreter. Saul went there, Odin and Pharaoh. VISION OF JACOB. That was the sunset vision and dream of Jacob when he set out for Padan-Aram, and dreamed of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven; which is the ladder of the new moon. And there God spake to him in a dream from the top of the ladder, and he awoke and set up the tall white pillar of the new moon, and poured oil upon it, and said: "This is the house of God, and gate of heaven.", And it was the sunset scene which reappeared when he returned in the after sum mer and crossed the brook to meet his defrauded brother Esau, who was the angel who came and wrestled with him until daybreak. And the night angel found himself growing weak at the approach of day, for the moon grows strong by night, but weakens at the break of day. It was then he had to let go 22 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN his hold— giants and dwarfs who are of the moon race lose their power and vanish at the sight of day. And the brook Jabbok is the river of death in the west which surrounds the earth, and is the boundary line of the death world. Gilgames, the Babylonian hero, passed over the same way. At the plaee Peniel, the sunset scene is the same, but the auguries are different in spring. The sun Jacob went up strong, but retums to winter quarters weak. It is what hap pened Noah, who was left naked, for Ham had taken away his shield of strength. It was the robe of Adam which left him also naked. The Noah and Jacob and Vulcan were kept lame and hamstrung and emasculated. When Prometheus went up in spring, he kindled the fire of life, and when he came back it was taken from him. VISION OF MOSES. "When my glory passeth by I will put thee in a cleft of the rock ; and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by, and I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen." (Exodus, Ch. 33:22, 3.) It is the sun passing the moon once a month at eon- junction. That cleft rock is the black rock of the moon split, and after the sun has gone down in the west, Moses, the moon, can come out through the crack or rent in the moon (which is visibly the new moon), and see the dim light of the re treating sun, or the twilight of sunset, for the strong sun light of day is fatal to the moon ; that is the ' ' Rock of Ages Cleft for Me " ; that is the gap in the moon, the Ginungagap where creation began. Moses was the peeping Tom of Cov entry. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 23 The only time the moon can behold her husband's face is in the evening, or after dark. She can see his image reflected in her mirror; at other times she is veiled. That is where Lot's wife (moon) looked back at the sun in the west, and became a white pillar of salt on the face of the moon. That is where Orpheus (sun) looked back at Eurydice (moon) before he reached the confines of the western dark ness, and she vanished, absorbed by his rays. The sun going west looks back while yet his beams are strong, and his wife, the moon, is destroyed. Jupiter, who (as we are informed in the 7th canto of Non nus) had ravished Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, while taking her bath in the waters of the Asopus, to become the father of Bacchus. Semele asked Jupiter to visit her in his splendor, and not in disguise, that she might behold him. His remonstrance was in vain ; she beheld him, but to be con sumed by fire. The moon cannot behold the sun by day, but is consumed by his rays. Again in Herodotus B, 2-40, Hercules desired to see Jupi ter, but Jupiter was unwilling to be seen by him, knowing the consequence, but through his persistence, flayed a ram, cut off the head, and held it before him, and then having put on the fleece showed himself. The fleece is the new moon, shorn from the fleece of the ram, and the ram's head is the moon. It is parallel with that of Moses and Jehovah. Moses desired to see God face to face, but Jehovah denied him, for no man could see the sun face to face and live. The sun consumes the moon when he has on his fiery fleece by day; it is only the transformed light of the sun which the moon can behold, or the night sun, so God cleft a hole in the moon rock (same hole of Peeping 24 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Tom) and hid Moses in the moon cave until the sun had passed by the moon, then after the sun had gone down in the west, his backward light shone upon the moon, which does not blind like the strong sun by day— it is a mellow light; it is the sun transfigured on the moon mountain; it is seen as the new moon after sunset. DANIEL AND THE DOOM ON THE WALL. "The sunset of life gave him mystical lore, and fast com ing events cast their shadow before." That was the handwriting upon the wall in the palace of Belshazzar. "When the sun had gone down, the golden let ters of the sun written upon the black wall, or bulletin of the moon." (Dan. 5:25; Dan. 2:19.) For the season of the year is at the autumnal equinox when the sun crosses the line into the southern kingdom, the land of his enemies, and is weighed in the balance. (Libra.) And the angel of night wrote the doom of the year, that the reign of the summer king is ended, and his kingdom given over to a stranger, his evil winter brother. It is the pro phetic mantle and second sight. The dreams that disturb the sleep of the Babylonian king and Pharaoh, are the dreams that disturb the Norse Balder and the wise seers are consulted. (Anderson, 280.) Sometimes the king has the same dream on the second night of darkness, and it will be revealed on the third night when the new moon, the revelator, appears. They are the three dark nights of occultation, and he has to dream two dark nights in vain; the third night it will be revealed hy the golden writing. That was the fountain in which Narcissus (sun) beheld his own ghost in the moon, and knew it for the death token, for it was the sun's face smitten with the pallor of death. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 25 That was the second sight, for the sun has to die at night to enter the dark house of wisdom and become wise. That was his oracle box, his prophet, and wise interpreter. Saul, Pharaoh and Odin, and all the sun-gods had to consult that oracle. It was Odin the Goth, raising up the Vala, the wise old giantess, to learn the fate of Balder. Her grave lay to the east of the door of the dwelling of Hell. The Hell-dog met him and barked long and loud, with his blood-stained breast ; the earth trembled! Toward the north he looked and sang magic songs, and wove a spell with potent runes and en chantments, until she stood up from the grave, wet with dew, and said: "Who has disturbed my peace? Long have I been dead." That was the ghost of Samuel, raised up by the witch of Endor for Saul. (1 Sam. Ch. 28 : 12, etc.) That was the dead Elisha, on whom the dead man was let down when the prophet stood up. (11 Kings, 13:21.) TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST. The moon is the great hall of the divine masquerade. There we witness the transfiguration of Christ when his raiment be came white as snow. It is the golden fleece nailed up to the winter oak in the forest of Mars. It is the dead sun lying in state upon the solar morgue, which is the cold, dark winter moon, the tree of death. It was the origin of metempsychosis, transmigration, trans- substantiation and apotheosis, and the hypostatic relation of the gods. It is where the gods and heroes change shape by incantation and muttering spells. Jupiter here took the form of Diana the moon, to ravish Calisto, and assumed the form of Amphitryon to accomplish the same purpose with Alcmena. It is simply the sun throw- ' 26 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN ing off his golden armor at night, and becoming an ef feminate shadow. It is sunshine transformed into moon light, sun and moon are but skin shifters. There Sigurd the Volsung changed shape with Gunnar the Niblung, And there stood Gunnar, the King, in Sigurd's semblance, wrapped As Sigurd, walking in slumber, for in Grimhild 's guile was he lapped. (Morris: Sigurd the Volsung.) That ghost, that double or soul of the sun seeri upon the moon as a spectral illusion in dreamland; the night walker arisen in his grave clothes, stalking over the sky as the Manes. That moon bcomes the witch-wife in Northern Saga. (Sigurd the Volsung, pp. 31-32.) And she came to Signy, the Queen, and told of deeds of her craft. And how the might was with her, her soul from her body to waft; And on and on together they went to the bower aloft. And hand in hand and alone they sang the spell-song soft, TUl the guest held forth a mirror, and Signy shrank aback From the laughing lips and the eyes and the hair of crispy black; And the hands were ready to cling, and beckoning lamps were the eyes. And the light feet longed for the dance, and the lips for laughter and lies. It is the bright moon of the east changing shape with the dark moon, or hag of winter; or the spring moon putting on her winter garb. They are the Sarah and Hagar. It is how the sun-god changed shapes as he passed through the many houses of the Zodiac under symbols of beasts. A lamb in Aries, and took the skin or coat of the lion in Leo and the goat in Capricorn. Vicram asked for power to leave his own body and trans late his soul and sense into some other body, either of man, bird or beast, either for a day, or for life. And that dur ing the time his body might not decay, but that when ho wished to return to it, he might find his body preserved and fresh as when he left, (Deccan Days, 135.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 27 It is the pirate captain cursed to sail the seas for fifty years, until the day on which his head should touch the earth; and his head was nailed to the mast for all that time and his spirit condemned each night to reanimate his corpse. (Hauff Tales: Story of the Haunted Ship.) The head nailed to the mast is the moon at night, the death's head nailed to the tall white mast of the moon, and that tall white pillar is the soul of light, which reanimates the corpse every night. The fifty years are the fifty-two weeks of the year in round numbers. It explains how that sun can see around corners; can see and not be seen in so many tales of intrigue of that moon- woman in the sun 's absence, or when her husband is' in for eign lands — tales which abound in the Decameron. It was at Bethany, where Christ went up from Jerusalem to Bethany in the evening to visit Mary and Martha, the two sisters. It was up to the moon-house after sunset, where they became visible in their changed garment. The curtain rises upon views, as by a magic lantern with strange shapes and dissolving views — a phantasmagoria. They are signs in the heavens of the coming times. At night the moon is the fairyland, where the slain in battle were raised to life by the Valkyrs, and the dead man awakens from the battlefield, and is seen carrying his severed head under his arm, the black skull held under the white arm of the new moon. A disembodied spirit, a churchyard ghost, a homeless, wandering ghost of the departed, which has entered into the popular superstition of all ages. Geraldine, the mistress of the Earl of Surrey, was shown to him during his travels in Italy, by Cornelius Agrippa, in a mirror which represented her as ill, and reclining upon a couch, reading the sonnets of her lover by the light of a waxen taper. These tales are all moon yarns. 28 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN The moon is the medium of light ; the moon is the regent of the sun. In the moon there dwelt the children of the sun, a substitute who ruled under the direction of the sun in the background. There Adam went to sleep and lost his rib. There Noah went to sleep and lost his garments, and there the deep sleep fell upon Abram to vision, and the sleep fell upon Jacob to dream, and the sleep of Pharaoh and the Baby- Ionian King. In the hero oracles of the ancients, the inquirer of futur ity went to sleep over the grave of the dead man who ap pears to him in a dream. The moon is that dumb man who cannot speak until the spirit of the Lord enters him. (Ezekiel 3 :26.) The moon is dead until the spirit of the sun enters him. There Christ raised to life the ruler's daughter; there he cast out the devil from the dumb man, and he spake. (Matt. 9:33.) It is the blind, dumb moon deprived of light, and the sun gave him light, and the black moon opened his mouth and spake. The rings of the moon are speech, joy and laughter. And this is why the ancients believed in prophetic dreams, and the revelation of sleep, even as the sun fell asleep at night, and was seen to leave the body, and in his night clothes would visit that land of mystery to obtain the understanding given in the visions of the night. (Numbers 24:16.) Balaam's prophesy, "falling into a trance, but having his eyes open" saw the vision of the Al mighty, and knew the knowledge of the most high. There Achilles (Iliad XXIIL, 103) beheld the dead Pa troclus in a dream, and said : ' ' Ay me, there remaineth then even in the house of Hades a spirit and phantom of the dead, for all night long hath the ghost of hapless Patroclus stood THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 29 over me wailing and making moan," for the moon is the ghost- world where ghosts are called up. PYGMALION. Pygmalion, of the Island of Cyprus, a sculptor, modelled an ivory statue of a maiden, and fell in love with the coun terfeit art; caressed, and gave it presents of bright shells, precious stones, flowers, beads and amber, and clothed it with brilliant garments; jewels for her fingers, and a necklace for her neck — pendants for ears, and a string of pearls for her neck. Then he placed her upon a couch of Tyrian purple, and called her his wife. But though perfect in semblance, he was unable to inspire the statue with life, but the festival of Venus being at hand, which was celebrated at Cyprus, he prayed the Gods for help, and Venus heard his prayer, and caused the flame on the altar to shoot up thrice to a fiery point in the air, when the ivory became soft like wax, and felt his warm kiss, and opened timidly her eyes to the light, and beheld at once her creator and lover. The nuptials were performed with the blessing of Venus. Pygmalion, the sculptor was the Adonis, shunning the com pany of maidens in winter, and in spring modelling one of ivory, a new Venus. It is the sun Prince awakening the moon from winter sleep as Sigurd restored Brynhild to life. He is the sun, decking the spring moon with brilliant fiowers, and a necklace and jewels; and the flame that shot up to a point three times, is the fire-altar of tha moon. It is only visible at the third time. On the third evening the new moon is visible, which is Venus, the bride of spring. It is the an nual marriage of sun and moon at spring equinox, for Pyg malion is the spring sun Tammuz-Adonis, and was ar ranging her trousseau and bridal robes for her wedding in the spring, while as yet she was but a cold and marble image ; 30 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN she is the woman who never had a look or word or thought but for her husband ; for the moon is blind and mute, but for the light of the sun. Daedalus, the Athenian artist, invented a wooden cow for Pasiphae, and attempted to escape from the Island of Crete by flight, and invented wings of feathers united by wax for himself and son Icarus, and the youth ascended too high, and the sun melted the wax of his wings, and he fell into the sea and was drowned. Daedalus alone escaped to Sicily. He invented the axe, plumb-line and auger, and introduced masts and sails to ships. The wooden cow he invented for Pasiphse is the black moon ; the wings of wax are those seen on the moon, golden or wax- colored with the black feathers, the moon flying as a bird — the sun melts the wax once a month, and the bird drops, and is three days in sprouting new wings. It is the same spectacle as Phrixus and Helle flying upon the ram of the Golden Fleece, or Bellerophon ascending to heaven upon the winged steed Pegasus. The ship or vehicle is the golden winged moon ; it has mast and sails for ships. The moon is a book of painted images of kings and queens, and knights in armor; of heroes long departed; fair women in azure and gold. This moon-woman sometimes the three fates, past, present and future, wove the golden web and the purple and pall. They weave many colored garments, and have supplied the lunar stage with an endless display of drapery and trappings. They wove the garments of the gods ; they wove the love scenes of spring and the transformation of the gods in winter. Like the little tailor in Vernaleken, who with his magic scissors cut good men out of bad, and with his thimble he sewed on the chopped-off heads of his soldiers, their arms and feet, and they became fresh as before. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 31 ( Tales of Old Lusitania : ' ' The Prediction. " ) A tailor made a dress for a Moorish slave without taking her measure, which exactly fitted, then made a robe for the queen of rich damask. The tailor is the sun Prince, and the Moorish slave is the black moon, whose suit of black exactly fills the orb of the noon, and the dress of damask for the queen is the one fitting the new moon, or silver moon. Sometimes the sun is represented as drawing the maiden irresistibly to the win dow by his magic art, which is the window of the moon. In Hebrew legend Terah, the father of Abraham, was an image maker. Lifeless spectres, baleful eyes, and gruesome forms are seen flitting over the moon, and the image is seen to sweat blood amid the gloom of the sky. It is the stage of the gods, where nightly the great drama of the year is played. Prometheus, an image maker, made men of clay, and then drew the fire of the sun's wheel to inspire life. It is seen as the new moon or fire wheel. On that moon God made His own image ; the moon-man, the image of Himself, the same size and form — first in the clay — and then breathed in it the breath of fire to give it life, which is the new moon, or fire brand seen as the first ring of the moon, and that moon is the image of all the gods; as when Pandora was created all the gods contributed and set their seal. In Hindu he is Twashtri of the Rig- Veda, the divine arti san, he forges thunderbolts, the shaper of all human and ani mal forms. To us it is the sun who is the artist-painter, sketcher limner, the landscape painter, and the moon is his canvas. He paints now in water-color, a sea-piece, then changes to an oil-color, from the sun brush by the grand mas ter of masters. Again he is a sculptor at work, and carves statuary, relievo, intaglio and anaglyph, skilled in terra-cotta and ceramic ware. 32 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN lie is Parrhasius, the Athenian painter, who according to Seneca crucified an old Olynthian captive, to draw from his death agonies a model for a Prometheus in chains, which he was executing, but the original story was that of the sun god crucified upon the moon the transfigured and dying sun whose pale and whitened image is seen reflected upon the moon — the Narcissus gazing in that mirror of the moon to behold each day his failing strength. Chapter II. THE ALTER EGO, OR THE OTHER SELF. Our mirror which shows self, is but illusion. It is not a personal self, but an linage. It is what the moon is to the sun. The moon is a magic looking-glass, a tell-tale that sees and reveals all the secret thoughts and actions of the sun, his movements and positions, and stands there as an index, a dial on the moon stone to note his progress. It writes the histories of the sun, his birth, life and death, and the gene alogy of the solar family. It is the moon bible, the book of divine records. As a man and his shadow seen in a mirror, his double, or other self; as the sun beholds himself upon the moon as a twin brother or co-walker, clothed in a shroud or winding sheet, in a vision of the night. It is Patroclus (the moon) in the armor of Achilles (the sun) at the time he was slain in the Trojan war; it is the moon king borrowing the armor of the sun at night, or the sun walking on the moon with his night clothes on, for Patroclus is the moon, the sun's armor bearer. Faithful to each other as the man and his shadow, when the sun moves, his shadow moves upon the wall. The white figure with drawn sword which is seen walking THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 33 shoulder to shoulder; "the double" with the doomed man; when one moves the other moves also. This ghost follows him wherever he goes, the inexorable fate, the ghost giving warn ing. They are in the same nature and interdependence as Jehovah and Christ when personified. Christ said truly: "I and My Father are one. Whoever hath seen Me hath seen the Father. ' ' Again the same is true of Adam, the image of God, and Christ, who was the second Adam. The moon then became the life index of the sun, whieh has given birth to a voluminous literature. This index gift or token was the kiss of the sun upon the moon at parting at the cross-roads ; it is sometimes called a plant or flower, handkerchief, glove, jewel — no matter what it may be called, it is always the gift of the new moon ring ; or it is a ring given which tightens round the finger, when the other self is in peril; or a stone which changes color, like the Urim and Thummim; sometimes the gift of a fairy. A life token may spring up from buried bones, or it may be a fish bone fastened to a beam of the house as a token, and sweats blood when the hero is in peril. A Cornell tree planted, or it may be a fig, basil, mulberry, myrtle or laurel, in which a knife or sword is stuck at part ing, and when it rusts or drops blood its owner is in peril, or dead. "Other Self" in Sigurd the Volsung, p. 19. Woe's me for the boughs of the Branstock, and the hawks that cried on the fight; Woe's me for the fireless hearthstones, and the hangings of delight, That the women dare not look on lest they see them sweat with blood. Woe 's me for the carven pillars, where the spears of the Volsungs stood ! The hamadryad 's life was identified with her tree ; she was heard to implore the woodman to spare it, for her life was bound up in the tree; if it died, she perished with it. 34 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Again it is a shirt that was bestowed upon the husband by his mother-in-law, and so long as he and his wife are faith ful to each other, it will neither be rent, worn, nor stained. Or in Hindu, the god Siva gives each a red lotus upon sepa rating, and if either is unfaithful during the separation, the lotus in the hand of the other shall fade, but not otherwise, The appearance of the sympathetic token was watched, for the moon was the great oracle and divine soothsayer, from whom no secrets were hidden. Said Rasalu (the sun) : "My life and that of Mahita (the moon) are of one day and one moment; there is no hope of me after his death, his and my fate are one." Sila Dai of the Hindu in Temple Legends of Rasalu. The life of Dermat O'Dyna linked with the life of the boar of Ben Gulban, for when the boar died, it foretold the death of Dermat O 'Dyna. The boar is the new moon of mid summer, the same that slew Tammuz and Adonis. The boar is Mars in disguise, the god of war and death. (Old Celtic Romances by Joyce.) The life of the queen bound up in the life of the dragon, bom the same night with herself; when one died, the other would die also, and the only way the queen could be restored to life was to anoint her temples, chest and nostrils with the blood of the same dragon. "Pentameron" by Basile, p. 268. Epimenides the Cretan had the power of sending his soul out of his body (it is a disembodied soul), and recalling it at pleasure. (Classical Mythology.) He is either the sun or moon ; they are, in a sense, one — the sun sets at night invisi ble, and sends his soul back, that ghost seen upon the moon which is the disembodied sun — again the same is true of the moon. When the sun rises, the soul of the moon is seen to vanish ; they, are the two brothers who live and die alternately. He sees things in sleep and dreams in the ghost world THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 35 things not visible when in the body, which can only be seen by the eye of the fairy, or faith, which can see and not be seen when the eye is rubbed with witch ointment. From this our religious doctrine of seeing by faith was installed, and seeing through a glass darkly. It is how we cannot see God in the flesh; it is only the soul or ghost that can see God after the mortal body is put off. From these visible phenomena were deduced the great sys tems of transsubstantiation, transfiguration, metempsychosis, psychology, apotheosis, black art, thaumaturgy, necromancy, exorcism, conjuration, enchantment, mesmerism, spiritualism. Between the person and his life index, there is a sympa thetic magic. See "Tale of the Gold Children," Grimm, Tale 55, p. 333. Where two golden lilies grew up from the fish that was buried in the ground, and as a token they were left be hind at the old homestead. "While they are fresh you will Imow that we are in health ; if they wither, we are ill ; if they perish, then we are dead." It is how Actseon the hunter sun pursues the fleeing moon as a deer with white homs, to find in the end it was his own pale and transformed image seen in the mirror of the moon, devised for his destruction. Christ suffered upon the cross in appearance only, like Iphigenia and Jeptha's daughter, and the ram of Isaac; it is the phantom substitute or refiex image seen upon the moon. It is how the shade of Iphigenia or a phantom was sacrificed, and how the shade only of the Argive Helen was present at Troy. As Odin said when he hung upon the tree: "Myself to myself I offered, that all wisdom I might know." When Jehovah offered up his child, the moon, the only begotten, he offers up himself, for the moon is his other self— it is self-sacrifice.. 36 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN See article Hesione (Anthon) where Podarces, son of Laom edon, King of Troy, must first be made a slave, and then redeemed before he could be given up to Hesione. That is, the moon must be darkened, its pilot sent to Hades in slav ery, and then redeemed from bondage. Then Hesione took the golden veil from off her head and brought it to him. It is the ring of the new moon, which redeems the captive moon frora darkness. That phantom substitute, or other self, when the shoulder of Pelops was devoured by Ceres, the winter moon-hag, an ivory shoulder was substituted. When Osiris was torn in pieces, and the fragments were all found but one, for which the Phallus was substituted. Jesus said, ' ' The son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do, for what he seeth the Father do, these also doeth the son." (John 5: 19.) It is how Christ and the Father are one, and how Christ is as old as the Father. ' ' I and my Father are one, and who hath seen me hath seen the Father." "All things are double, one against another." The Egyptian gods had a double, a KA soul or shadow, each God identified with his double. Mexico had a god called Omacatl "the double"— the Alter Ego. Sigurd could not die, so long as Guttorm could behold his eyes, like the horse Bayard; the moon-horse will not die so long as he can behold the eye of the sun, his master. (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 258.) As Perseus slew the Gorgon by the image on the moon. The moon god continually demands a sacrifice, as in belief the spirit of the last man buried in a churchyard watches the burial-ground until another is buried there. As soon as the moon is dark, there has been a funeral; THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 37 that is, a light or soul has been buried in its vault, and an other will spring up in its stead. And this sentinel stood at the churchyard gate from sunset until the crowing of the cock, when he was relieved. The moon was to the sun his Alter Ego, or other self, sometimes guardian angel; they live and die for each other. Like the Dioscuri, or twin brothers Castor and Pollux who divide their immortality and live and die alternately for each other. The sun dies at the end of day, that the moon may live by night. Chiron dies for Prometheus, Alcestis dies for Admetus. The sacrifice of the substitute — That spirits of the other world may return to earth if they can find a substitute — as, when Chiron, the winter, died, Prometheus, the spring, was released, or this again may be true of the day and night, as when the sun is buried in the night, the soul of the dead man or woman rises up from the earth or sea. As the fire lit upon the moon, compelled in one sense the presence of the sun, so the shades or disembodied spirits were summoned by sacrifice and ceremony. Even the savages, the North American Indians, had the totem, the symbol of the tribe or household; they were painted on their grave-posts as ancestral totems, as bear and reindeer, crane and beaver ; they represented the moon under the symbolic representation of an animal; this totem was his ancestor, attendant, friend and helper, they stood by each other and were bound by mutual obligations. This magic mirror of the moon was the author and teacher of all magic science, and all the ancient mysteries, and originated the illusory theory so pronounced in the re ligion of the Hindus. The genii, or protecting spirits of the Greeks, like Chris- 38 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN tian guardian angels, are of very ancient belief, according to Hesiod they were thirty thousand in niunber— they were ministers of Zeus, and guardians of men— they were the emanations of the gods, and bore the prayers of men to the deities; one was bom with every man at his birth, and con ducted him to the end of life. The ferryman, Charon, could not be released until the sub stitute took the oar in his place. The phantom in place of Iphigenia in winter, who was stationed at the moon altar of sacrifice. The phantom of Helen seen at Troy, in place of the Argive Helen of Greece. The Helen, the Iphigenia and the Jeptha's daughter, were all illusory. Ishtar could not be released from Hades until a phantom or image was left in her place. Among the Romans, the Genii or protecting spirits, ac companied every created thing from its birth to its final decay, as the other or spiritual self; they belonged not only to men, but to all things animate and inanimate. It taught the doctrine of sympathies between substance and shadow. As two brothers, sun and moon, are in perfect sympathy; they are within signal distance and telephone call; looks and thoughts are continually transmitted. As a lover the moon maiden holds in her hand a mirror of the universe ; she knows the time of his coming, and divines his errand. The picture or portrait of a princess whieh a prince has seen and become enamored with, though the original was in a foreign eountry, is a familiar feature. It is the sun prince at night seeing the moon princess. Maidens held a mirror over the well and looked in it for the face of their future husband reflected upward from the water. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 39 The little golden bell of Gusra Bai, which would ring up her husband whenever she was in trouble. Husband en chanted goes away every morning, stays away all day and comes home in the evening. It explains the visions in fairyland and the ghost-world, when the most distant parts of the earth are visited, and de scribed by a person in a trance, and then afterward had the story verified by people who were then and there present at the same time. It is the sun at night looking around the orb of the earth upon the moon or fairyland. It ' originated the belief in second sight, how the sun had to die at night to acquire wisdom, caught up after death like Paul, to see things in a vision which could not be seen in the flesh; that second sight unknown to mortals for want of a higher sense. It was how fairies, the moon people, could see and not be seen, that these fays and spirits existed every where, but were invisible to mortals, for want of a higher power of vision. As the telescope, like a talisman, can bring to view what we are not able to see through our gross ter restrial bodies, and for the investigation of these phenomena the Psychical Society has been instituted. Chapter III. THE WAX IMAGE. In ancient times sorcery or the occult art was practiced in this way: An image was made of a man for whom the injury was intended and when a pin was driven through the heart of the image, a like punishment would be inflicted upon the living person, or if a human figure was put upon a young tree and a sharp instrument driven into any mem- 40 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN ber of the figure, muttering spells at the same tirae, then a like wound would be found upon its living representative. Anciently, people civilized and savage alike were afraid to have their picture taken for they fancied that the life, or in sorae way a part of the person was taken away and trans ferred to the picture and became a second self, and any wrong inflicted upon the picture would- be visited upon the original. And, it was the same way with their name, if it came into the possession of another person, it could be used to their disadvantage or destruction. That, if you injure footprints you injure the feet that made them, and if you thrust a nail in a man's foot prints, the man would go lame. In time of James the First, the King himself believed that by melting the narae of a raan in wax, the person represent ing the name, like the wax, would be melted and consumed by sickness. The name of the person is attached to the image and if the sorcerer cannot obtain the narae, he can do the person no harra by torturing the image. The name is the baptismal name of the solar hero registered in the moon, it is the mark or sign of the new moon. This superstition prevailed through Europe, Asia and Africa. A Hindu woman dare not tell the name of her husband, and even the gods were compelled by their stupid worshippers likewise to possess a hidden narae. When Ra, the Egyptian sun god, was bitten by a serpent, he .was compelled to give up his hidden name as an antidote. The Jews have a hidden name for their God Jehovah. If a man suspects his wife's fidelity, he writes on a piece of paper the name of his father-in-law and mother-in-law and lays it among the ashes and as it wastes away day after day, his wife if guilty sickens and dies. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 41 A witch dies upon burning her broomstick, which is the ring of the new moon. Meleager died when his mother, Althea, cast the fatal bil let of wood upon the fire for it contained his soul or other self. By burning or hiding a swan-maiden's dress, the maiden becomes a helpless captive. In the story of Chandra Dai of Deccan Days, her soul lay in the heavenly bangles wom upon her ankles which are the two forks of the new moon. With Samson his strength lay in his hair (same thing) which is the sun's hair as he lay asleep upon the lap of the moon. With Sodewa Bai her soul lay in her necklace of pearls which is also the new moon cf spring, the soul of life. With the Egyptian King, Ra, it lay in his holy name. With King Solomon it lay in his seal ring. With Eve it lay in the tree of, life, which is the same, the rod of life that raises the dead, divides and heals the waters, and these are all sun and moon, the heavenly twins with strong sympathies. The life bound up in a tree, the life of a dog or horse bound up in that of his master, for dog represents the moon, for he leads the way before his master, the sun. Again the life of the King is bound up in that of his horse, which is the same moon for it carries the sun upon its back. At Rome a noble had his life-sized effigy at his funeral carried in state. In England wood, leather or wax was used for effigies borne to the tomb with the monarchs and placed over their graves in time of the Henrys, the same with Eliza beth and Queen Anne. Some were made from a caste after death. In France there is still preserved the wax images of the Louis royal effigies, and among the Egyptians it was the ' ' Ka, ' ' the double or soul, that image or sphinx must be sent to Hades before Ishtar the spring moon can be released from |2 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Hades. The Chiron, the Kentaur, must be sent to Hades be fore Prometheus will be released, that is the sun must send his image or other self to the raoon before the spring will be released. Ancient divination practiced by dropping raelted wax into water. Other forms as the burning of the bird-cage by which the bird husband has no refuge and becoraes a prey to his ene mies or burning the wife's other form, she likewise becomes a prey. In obedience to this superstition, a sacrifice or substitute for one 's self must be found in piacular rites, and if nothing else can be found a model of wax or dough must be substi tuted and stand in the place of the Adctim, for the god would accept one life for another to atone for guilt, as a wax image or raodel of a maiden was thrown in the Nile every spring to propitiate the Nile god and became the bride of the Nile. Christ was that image accepted by Jehovah. That is where Actseon, the hunter, slew the deer for the horned deer upon the moon is the image of the sun, or his other self. That is how Agamemnon slew the deer of Diana and Diana accepted his own daughter Iphigenia for a substitute. That is how Lamech slew a man, thereby wounding him self, he says, for I have slain a young man to my hurt, he shot at his own image. The old sun slays his only son, his image on the moon at midsumraer, he shoots at the homs of the fleeing moon, raistaken for a deer, but it is his own image reborn, thereby wounding himself. It was his fountain or water carrier and like Tantalus and Christ and Dermat O'Dyna he will die athirst. It is how spells can be wrought by obtaining the hair, nails or name of a person for all these are but different names THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 43 or symbols of the new moon ring or talisman, the indestruc tible ring of rings. The first principle of life which survives the conflagration of the moon and rises from its ashes, the key that unlocks all the dark raysteries and rends the grave or black vault of the moon which swallows the light. In the same way healing was done by sympathy. When ever the sun recuperated his strength in the spring, he healed the moon of leprosy or blight and blindness and purified her waters — he was the serpent lifted up in the desert or wilder ness of the winter moon. Because it was observed that the wax iraage or likeness of the sun made upon the moon as the other self suffered when the sunlight suffered, it was his life index and corresponding ly when the moon sickened, the sun was known to be ill or impotent, and that is how the moon taught magic to the ancients, and why wax images were raade of such as they wished to destroy, and then punctured and crucified which brought a like misfortune upon the prototype, and how people made wax images of their enemies and hung them in the chimney that they might melt away slowly as their models failed and lost their strength. The Finns produce the image of a person absent in a ves sel of water and aim a shot at it and thereby wound or slay their enemy hundreds of miles distant. (Thorpe, Vol. 2, p. 55.) That was the man Lamech slew. Said Lamech, "I have slain a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt. ' ' (Gen. 4:23.) He was the fierce sun at midsummer, the Hercules and Tantalus who slew the young spring moon, the water carrier and dried the fountain where the sun drank, thereby wound ing himself. A Tantalus dying of thirst, a Christ begging for a drink. 44 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN Ci-iapter IV. THE SCARLET THREAD AND DISCOVERY OF HADES, HELL AND THE BOTTOMLESS PIT. Theseus, King of Athens, slew the Minotaur, a monster, half man, half bull, which had been confined in the Cretan labyrinth and fed on human flesh, which the Athenians were obliged to furnish as tribute. The Athenians were obliged to send fourteen of their hand somest children to the Island of Crete every year to atone for the murder of Androgens, son of Minos, and this was to continue so long as the Minotaur was alive. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, the King of Crete, fur nished the hero Theseus with a ball of thread, which he at tached to the mouth of the cave, and it unwound as he descended and became his guide through the windings of the cavern to the lair of the monster, which he slew. The red thread is the thread of the new moon, which runs down through the black labyrinth of the moon, the bottom of which is Hades, and the monster slain was Hades or Pluto, the god of the underworld. Ariadne the maiden betrayed the winter realm of her father to the sun prince of spring at that time every year. The fourteen victims of sacrifice are the fourteen digits, or white rings of the moon, which take their place every month on the first half, or fourteen days of the lunar month, which are devoured by the succeeding fourteen black vultures, digits, or rings of the later half of the month. The ship which conveyed Theseus to Crete departed under black sails, which were to be exchanged for white ones if he returned victorious. But on his retum, he forgot the signal appointed by his father, and returned under the same sails THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 45 with which he had departed, seeing which, the old King sup posed his son dead, and destroyed himself. The ship which departed under black sails is the moon at conjunction, which will be dark for three days. When it lands at the spring equinox in three days' time, it will wear the white sail of the new moon of spring. At that moment, his father, the old year, will die, which is the fate of every year. The idea was first suggested by observations of the moon, and subsequently transferred to favorable locations upon the earth, as the original adventure of Theseus occurred upon the island of the raoon, it would seek a like habitation in the island of Crete, its chosen representative. Rahab, the harlot, betrayed her father's kingdom to the winter realm, in the way that Ariadne betrayed the kingdom of Minos, and by the same red thread. The Israelites are retuming from their annual winter ex ile, and have arrived at the spring equinox ; the city of Jeri cho is the winter moon about to surrender to the summer. The moon is draped in black, for three days hidden by the sun's rays. On the third day, Rahab, the winter harlot, displayed the red thread (new moon of spring) in the window or door of the black raoon, which is the first digit of the moon and birth of spring. Rahab is the moon, who every winter plays the harlot, and was the Ariadne at Crete, and the Mary Magdalen, out of whom went the seven devils of winter. It is the seventh month on whieh the winter fortress is taken. And the winter fortress is surrounded consequently by seven hedges, seven ditches, as Brynhild the sleeper is surrounded by the seven-fold serpent; consequently Jericho must be en compassed seven times to break the enchantment of winter, and also blow the ramshorn, which is the horn of Aries the ram, the sign of the vernal equinox. (Joshua 2 : 18.) And the same thread whieh let down the spies was put ¦46 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN in the window of the house of the harlot that stood upon the town wall. It is the thread of the Babylonian harlot, and seen in the red window curtain of the harlot to this day. That scarlet thread through the winding labyrinth is the golden branch plucked by iEneas to carry him through the lower world, that rod that piloted Ishtar. rhere Patroclus was seen by Achilles in a dream of the night. Achilles says (Iliad XXIIL, 103), "Ay me! there remaineth then even in the house of Hades a spirit, and phantom of the dead, for all night long hath the ghost of hapless Patroclus stood over me, wailing and making moan," for the moon door is the mouth of Hades. Achilles, the sun, had lent his armor to him, and it had been captured, for the moon is the sun's armor bearer. In the Edda, Idun falls down and is imprisoned under the moon tree root. She ill brooked her descent Under the hoar tree's trunk confined. The root of that tree is in Hades, the foot of the tall pillar of the raoon. That way that Theseus went, is the great highway of the gods from the upper to the lower world; that was the road of the serpent of Hell, that scarlet thread or ring of the new moon was the slot of Fafner, the serpent which Sigurd the Volsung slew. It was described as a path in the desert, and smooth and deep and hollow, and forth from the dark it came, and into the dark it went, and that is the slot of Fafnir, the serpent, whereby he wends to the water and the fathomless pool of old. Sigurd dug a pit under that road, and laid wait, and as the serpent passed over, he slew him, and the blood from the serpent is the red stream of the new moon. Then he loaded THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 47 his horse Greyfell, with the hoard of Andvari, the ancient, and brought it up and scattered it abroad as summer sunlight, that it might bear a hundred fold. It is the Niblung treas ure, and that Hades was the steward who hid his lord's money. This deep, or ocean of the moon, is peopled by those who cannot bear the sunlight of day, and come up frora their hiding after sunset, and every night. Fafnir, the serpent, came up to look at his gold (moonlight), then slid down be fore the break of day, and "loathed the sight of his gold." It was at the root of that pillar which ran down to Hades, that the Egyptian god was buried. Our tombstone is its modest representative. The pyramid and round tower rep resented the pillar of Jacob, the moon pillar. Hades is down in the pit of the moon. That was where Alcestis, the wife of Admetus, went and Admetus, her hus band, was perraitted to go down and bring her back, pro vided he would not look behind him. He is the sun drawing out the new moon ring frora the dark pit of the moon at the time of the three dark nights, and he had her well on the way up, but looked back at the moon while he was still above the western horizon, and the moon, unable to bear hia rays, vanished. Had he waited until he was far down in the west, and his rays dim, he would have succeeded, but if the moon looks back after the sun has gone down, like Lot's wife, she will become a pillar of salt ; or as Niobe, a pillar of stone, the winter pillar; but if the sun beholds her in full armor, she will be reduced to a heap of ashes. But the sun ean never behold his wife by day, or in the flesh ; they can only raeet in a vision of the night, in shadow- land. Admetus says to Alcestis, his wife, "But thy form deftly fashioned out of the cold marble by the hand of some cunning artist, shall share my bed ; and I shall call it by thy name." That bed is where the sun and moon meet at night 48 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN in a vision. Ruth and Boaz met and slept together on that bed of the moon. Sigurd the Volsung and Brynhild met and slept on that bed together, with the sword of the new moon ring between thera; at night the sword divided the upper from the lower world. In Davies' Mythology of the British Druids, it speaks of "Hu, sovereign of boundless dominion, in whose presence our priest trerables before the covering stone, in order to escape the quagmire of Hell." That black stone of the raoon was called the "covering stone" and was over the pit of Hades. It was the black stone rolled off the sepulchre of Christ, and displayed the white linen robe on the third day; and the white robe is the new moon ring. It was the same black stone Jacob rolled off the well for Rachel ; it is the same black stone of the Caaba in the temple of Mahomet. This covering stone appears often in the tales of Northern Europe, and the hero is forewarned to beware of the covering stone down under which so many heroes have disappeared. It was in Hades, which is entered through a dark door in the west, Odysseus made his voyage to the infernal regions. There he poured libations to the dead, and offered up the blood of black sheep, and invoked the Gods, both Pluto and Proserpine, and the soul of Tiresias, the prophet, came out and drank the black blood frora the trench, as Regin quaffed the blood of Fafner the serpent, for wisdom ; and there Odys seus beheld the soul of his deceased mother, and she sat near the blood in silence, and then came and drank of the blood, and knew her son, and said, "0 my son, how didst thou come under the shadow of darkness, being alive?" And when he would lay hold of his mother, she fled from him as a shadow. All had to drink the black blood before they knew THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 49 him, and the shades of the deceased heroes of lUiura raet him exclaiming, "How didst thou dare descend to Orcus where dwell the images of deceased mortals?" That scene was upon the moon in the underworld, for the earth was a hollow dome, through which the sun and moon passed. ^neas went down to Hell attended by the Sibyl, who conducted him to his father, who instructed him in the sub lime mysteries. Before he was allowed to enter Hades, he was obliged to pluck the golden bough as a passport, which he obtained from the Cumaean Sibyl. Two doves were his guides, and perched in the top of the tree. That golden branch is the ring of the new moon. It guided Ishtar in that hall where she beheld it as a golden rod; it was the scarlet thread, the golden branch and ' ' rod of Salvation. ' ' It is the cloak of darkness, which is used throughout my thology ; it is the black coat of the moon ; the helm of dread, the mask of Hades. From out that dark comes the golden words of prophecy. It is the prophetic mantle cast over Elijah. The solar God had to die to become wise; the moon will not open her oracle box of wisdora during the day when the sun reigns. The sun has to give up his eye before he can see the hidden things revealed by the raoon, but when the sun is dead in the west, or closes his eye in sleep, the door of the moon opens. It is the second sight, then his dead ghost comes back and is seen stalking upon the moon ; then only can he read and understand the mysteries. It is how the prophets were blind, like the blind Tiresias of Thebes, and Homer, the harper. It is then the blind moon prophesies ; in mystic language he writes upon the tablets of the moon. It was the origin of transmigration of souls and ancestor worship; the God or ghost of the sun transfigured and ex plains why the dead sun was more beloved than the living; 50 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN he had conquered death, and opened the tomb; it explains how the living Christ was nothing. They demanded his death. ' ' Only give me Jesus ; and Jesus crucified ; that Jesus who had descended into Hell," the mouth of which was the moon, and had arisen the third day and rolled back the black moon stone, and left the grave clothes and the winding sheet. His own people killed hira; not the Jews. They de raanded his blood for their own imaginary self-redemption. As the Osiris, the redeemer of Egypt must die for his people. It was the thread of rope with which the Hindu gods and demons wound around the black moon as a mountain to chum the ocean for Amrita. The red cord is called there the serpent Vasuki, king of serpents, and he was king of the infernal regions; he was the serpent Sesha of a thousand heads. In the "Accadian Mythology" it is the "Bond" or "Rope" of the world, and it is the Golden Cord of Homer. It chained Prometheus to the rock ; it was the cord that bound Samson ; the eord of the new moon of winter. That was the scarlet thread or chain which bound the Norse wolf Fenrer ; it was woven by the dark elves of six things (the six sumraer months) and was soft as a silken thread. That thread tied on one of the twins of the harlot Tamar, and the thread was tied upon Zarah, and his brother was called Phares (broke forth), his name means division, rup ture, and Zarah means east brightness. (Genesis 38: 28.) That scarlet thread was the halter of the horse Pegasus. In the Elder Edda the Norns came to decide the destiny of Helge Hundingsbane ; the Norns came in the night; with all their might they spun the fatal threads; they stretched out the golden cord, and beneath the raiddle of the raoon 's mansion fixed it. East and west they hid the ends and toward the north Nere's sister cast a chain which she bade last THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 51 forever. (Anderson, 210.) Sacrifice bound with a eord. (Psalni 118:27.) That silver cord becomes the belt of strength to Thor, the girdle of amor to Venus, for the gods continually lend to each other their ornaments, their armor and weapons. It was the lock of King Ra of Egypt, the divine lock of the Lord Ra, which was brought frora its secret place to heal the burning wound of King Sibu. (Maspero: Dawn of Civi lization, p. 170.) That lock of hair is the first ring of the new moon ; it is equivalent to the divine ' ' word ' ' or name of God. That was the braid of hair Demeter (Ceres) was weaving in the dark of the moon as she sat by the fountain mourning for the lost Proserpine. The dead in the moon are lifted up by the blood of the sun to the surface of the moon, as Christ bade Lazarus come forth. In the Hindu Rasalu Legends, Puran Bhagat was thrown down into the well by his evil stepmother, and by his prayer to God after his long confinement was drawn out by a single thread of yarn from the spinning wheel that was made in the Golden Age, the skein and ropes in the Silver Age, the thread drawn in the Third Age, and went up to heaven, and the thread was brought down again by a beldame of a hundred years, and Puran Bhagat was drawn out of the well and re stored to life. The Queen hewed off the head of Ferdinand the Faithful, and then put it on again for him, and it healed together directly, so that it looked as if he had a red thread round his throat. (Tale 126, Grimm.) The severed head, is the moon, the death's head; on the third day it is set on again, and where the head joins the neek at the new moon looks like a red thread. The ship went to pieces, and the tailor served the planks together with a needle and thread ; it is sticking together the 52 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN severed pieces of the moon ship, a new thread or plank added every night. (Tale 126, Grimm.) Five eggs from under a bird shot in two by a huntsman, and the tailor sewed the eggs together so that the birds should not be hurt ; and when the bird completed her incubation, the young ones, crept out, and they had a red line around their necks, where they had been sewed together by the tailor. (Tale 129, Grimm.) In Hindu Rasalu Legends, where the virtue of Rani Chan dra was suspected in connection with Mahita Chopra— Rani Chandra to prove her innocence, was compelled to spin a single thread of cotton yarn, and with it both were to draw up water from the wells in an unburnt earthen pot, and when they had done this, her virtue and good name were reestablished. The water lies in the fountain at the root of the moon tree in Hades ; the unburnt pot is the black bowl of the moon ; it will be thoroughly burned at the next full moon, when the sun has reached every part of it. The Hindu Neophite, when initiated in the mysteries is invested with the sacred thread worn over the left shoulder and under the right arm; it is his regeneration, or second birth, when he becomes "twice bom." "Or ever the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl be broken at the fountain, or the wheel at the cistern, ' ' each and every one, the moon under appropriate symbols. Ecclesias tes 12:6.) In Scotland, cattle upon being tumed out in spring for the first time, bave a red piece of worsted thread tied around their tail to secure them against evil eye and elf shot. The scarlet thread which the island queen threw after the retreating Maildune of Celtic tradition, and drew him back. It is the silken cord or thread tied at the wedding of spring. That Man of the Iron Mask of the Bastile, was the old THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 53 Hades of antiquity, that dwelt in the prison house of the moon, and wore the "Helm of Dread," and the story has been domesticated and transferred to the prison of the Bas tile. He kept the winter prison in his former country, and wore the ' ' Helm of Dread. ' ' He appears anciently in the Island of Crete as the Iron Man, that ran round the Island of Crete breathing flame in the time of ]\Iinos, but Theseus, the spring sun, built a fleet and captured the island. This Iron Man was the winter moon, revolving around with a tall pillar of flame, which is the ring of the moon ; in the British Druids he is the keeper of the strong door. The story of Theseus and Ariadne is a solar myth of the spring, and Theseus (sun) released the Iron Man, or Man of the Iron Mask, who had been the winter guardian. Chapter V. THE HOUSE. THE HOUSE OF THE GRAY GABLES. Came to a small house, and had to stoop to entet at the low door. The tall new moon bending to enter the moon house. (Grimm, Tale 51.) The moon was an alien house ; the sun and solar race were foreigners and strangers there, and though the good sun every spring redeemed their land and formed with thera a brother hood, yet in the after summer their old evil nature asserted itself, and they conspired with one another, and banished or put him to death. The hero of creation, he is so old that eleven houses have grown old and crumbled over his head, and he is about to enter the twelfth, the sun's last house on the Zodiac, which completes the yearly circuit, and the end of his career. 54 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN Asked whether she will enter the gold gate or the pitch gate, whether she will live in the white house or the black one. (The white and dark house of the moon.) (Grimm, Tale 24.) In Arnason's Icelandic Legends, Tale of "Bjom of 0x1." The house where Bjorn spent nearly all the time, night and day with his friend the cow-keeper in a cow-house, which was a large building holding thirty beasts. It is the moon holding thirty days, its utmost capacity, like the thirty changes of garment Samson paid for the solution of his riddle. Oriental Folk Lore. Relations of Ssidi Kur. Tale of "The Stealing of the Heart." Proceed to a large black building stained with blood; the skin of a man floats over it instead of a flag. Two fiends stand at the entrance, and present their offerings of blood; within are nine hearts — take the fresh heart. The black building is the black moon stained with the blood of the sun ; the two fiends that present offerings of blood are the two turrets of the new moon. A house built by a thought or wish of the sun. What was before a black hut, becomes a golden palace by a flash of the sun. As soon as the eyes of a person have been anointed with the magic ointment, he can see things which were in visible before ; a house that grew in a night, and disappeared in the moming. For the moon is fairy-land, that land of illusion for which the most monstrous and amusing tales have been invented. When Thor and Loki set out on a joumey to the land of the giants, they arrived at a peculiarly shaped house; its open door was so wide and high that it took up all one side of the house — the door is the new moon. In a story, "The Baba Yaga," four heroes while rambling in a forest found a hut spinning round on a fowl's leg. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 55 (Afanasief VIIL, No. 6.) It is the black hut of the moon, turning around on the stilt of the new moon pillar. Again, in Larminie's West Irish Folk Tales, "Tale of the Red Pong." An outcast boy came at night to a house on the rugged side of a hill on a height, one feather giving it shelter and support. The feather is the quill of the new moon. That house where the clothes never tear nor get old ; where the fuel is never consumed, and where the rice never fails in the pot. (Bengal Tales, Tale XIX.) In a poera of Ossian, called "The Heads" Cuchulin, one of the heroes of Fingal had built a new house before he was wounded and slain, and sent word to his stepfather Conull by one of his raen. Conull, his stepfather, inquired of him what was the height, length and breadth of the house. The messenger sent by the wounded Cuchulin replied when he lay down his nose would touch the roof, the back of his head the floor; and when he stretched himself, his feet would be at the lower and his head at the upper end of the house. The raan is the new raoon ; his feet and nose are the new moon tips. This is the broken subterranean apartment into which Eurystheus retired whenever Hercules returned. He feared to have him enter the gates of the city when he returned from his expeditions, but required him to wait for his orders without the walls. Eurystheus is the moonlight which sinks in the moon and disappears at the approach of the sun, for in the old time the moon was thought to be the oldest of the gods, and father of the sun god, who was his vassal and subservienl. That house in which the Philistines hung up Saul's armor in the house of Ashtaroth. (1 Sam. 31: 10.) It is the bright armor of the sun hung up on the moon temple at night. There also the lyre of Orpheus was hung up in the temple 56 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN of Apollo. Armor and lyre are both the shining rim of the moon seen on the black raoon wall. In that temple of Dagon, Samson ground corn. That is the house of Rahab, the harlot, on the waJll of Jeri cho. It is the last moon house of winter, before entering the spring equinox. In the house of the Wolfings (Morris) it occurs as the house of the token of flame, that lamp forever burning in the house of the gods, that burg which endureth forever. In Prose Edda, when Gylfe, King of Sweden, visited the Asas, he came to a citadel," the roof of which was thatched with golden shields, and the hall was lit up in the evening with shining swords. It is called "Shield burg." It is the house where Christ was born, and the house pulled down by the strong man of old, and the house which Christ said he would destroy and again rebuild in three days. (The moon house destroyed, and rises frora its ashes on the third day.) It is the house of the "seven oaks" and the house of the ' ' seven dials. " It is the house of the ' ' Grey Gables ' ' and the house of the "Seven Gables." And the house forever divided against itself which shall surely fall. Come from the grey old house by the water. Where afar from the lip of the hungry sea; Green grows the grass o 'er the field of the slaughter. And all is a tale for you and me. PALACE OF THE SUN. "Vulcan" made all houses, mansions, furniture and ornaments, and frequently self-moving." — Ovid Metamor B. 11, Fable 1. Vulcan built the palace of the sun, raised aloft on pillars of exquisite workmanship. The sun was carved circling round and the waves reflected the azure Deities. Triton, blowing his shell, and Proteus and ^geon and Doris and THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 57 her daughters, part of them swiraraing, and part sitting on the bank, drying their green hair; some are borne upon fishes. The features in all are not the same, nor yet rauch different ; they are such as those of sisters should be. This house, or palace of the sun is the raoon, built upon pillars which is a pile dwelling of the sun, with piles driven in the moon marsh. The palace of the sun stood on columns of gold and pre cious stones; ivory were the ceilings, and silver the doors. And on the walls Vulcan had represented the earth, the sky and the sea, and on the silver door were engraved the twelve signs of the Zodiac, six on each side. The Niblung House, the winter moon in the west over the river. Sigurd the Volsung in his ride upon his horse, Greyfell, comes to the burg of the Niblungs in cloudland. He rode over a rock wall, beyond which lay his changed love and life, and came to a burg at the ridge end of which had many towers and the wall that wound about them was dark red, worn and ancient, and one house in the midst arises high up over the walls aloft in the wind of the mountains, its golden roofridge glowed. And whiles it is glassy and dark, and whiles it is white and dead, and whiles it is grey as the seaweed, and whiles it is angry and red, and it shimmers under the sunshine and grows black to the threat of the storm. And dusk its gold roof glimmers when the rain clouds over it swarm. (Morris : "Sigurd the Volsung.") And he rode in, under the gate that was long and dark as a cave bored out in the isles of the Northland by the beat of the restless wave. (This cave of the gate.) He rides in the dark of the moon. The above house is the moon of the west over the river of Death. (Sigurd the Volsung. B. Regin.) The moon house 58 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN was built by Regjn, the smith, for his father, Reid- mar. Regin was a dwarf, and so was his father. They are the embryonic forms of life in the raoon, and the scene is thrown back to a tirae before the bright gods of Asgard, or of light, had visited the land of the raoon, and before this they had no fixed serablance, but when the light gods ar rived, they were obliged to take form, and strange shapes went flitting between the night and the eve, and they fell to the working of metals, and Reidmar bade his son Regin, the smith, build him a hall and a glorious house, and the sun and the winds of heaven were as the tools of his smithy ; and he built a hall with great craft, fashioned a forest of pillars, with smooth-wrought stone work, in which the boughs of a garden were mirrored, and its windows were marvels, and its golden hangings soft ; and there sat in the midst of the hall a man like a covetous king, and his chair was the tooth of a whale, wrought smooth with never a flaw; and his gown was the sea-born purple, and he bore a crown upon his head. The house is the moon, and the covetous king in the midst is Reidmar, who answers to Pluto ; and he sits in a chair which is the tooth of a whale, which is the new moon pillar, and the ivory throne. That is the temple and house of God, which Leandris built for Thetis, according to the pattern which she saw in a dream of the night. For that is the only tirae the moon can be seen. (Pausanias B 111, Ch. 14.) HOUSE OP THE VOLSUNGS. House of the Volsungs, or the Moon of the East. In "The House of the Springtirae." (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 1.) It was a dwelling of kings when the world was young; its roofs were thatched with gold, and its doors were silver nailed ; its walls were hung with battle shields, and there was THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 59 the throne of Volsung beneath the blossoraing bower of the Branstock, which sprang up in the midmost hall floor, and reared its blessing roof ward. For it was in the golden age when the gods walked the earth. Wainamoinen, old and truthful, sang the songs of old tradition. Singers can but sing their wisdom. And the cuckoo call the Springtime, Let the hero-host be chanted. Him whose home is in the forest. Him who built upon the mountain. Him who brought the trunks of lindens With their tops and slender branches. Brought them to the best of places. Joined them skilfully together. For the mansion of the nation. For this famous hero-dwelling. Trimly builded is this mansion. In a haven warmly sheltered; Here a hundred men have labored. On the roof have stood a thousand. As the spacious house was building. As this roof was tightly jointed. Here the ancient mansion-buUder, When these rafters were erected, Lost in storms his locks of sable. Scattered by the winds of heaven. Often has the hero-landlord On the rocks his gloves forgotten. Left his hat upon the willows. Lost his mittens in the marshes. — Kalevala, Rune 25. The above story is from the Finnish Kalevala, translated by Crawford. The house is the moon which is rebuilt every spring in the new moon harbor. One hundred men labored upon it, which is the coraplete period of winter. 60 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The old moon architect grew gray in winter and lost his locks of sable. His gloves and hat left behind, or hung on the willow, are the rings lying on the black teraple of the moon, the gifts of the smith, the divine architect. Raja Rasalu was shut up in a cellar twelve years, in obedience to a prophecy, which had warned him not to see his father and mother, for if either his father or raother should see hira before that time, they would die at once. And on the day Raja Rasalu was shut up, the daughter of a certain Raja resolved to marry him, and she built a house on the roadside between the cellar and the river, and awaited his coming. When he passed that way, she said, "I have waited for thee since the day thou wast born ; if thou be the prince, show me thy face." And she became a kite and flew in the air and shaded him, for she had the power of transformation, and he threatened to shoot her with his arrows, and she said, ' ' So raany kings have missed, why should thou hit me ? " and she took her form again, and sat by him at the river, and said, "0 Dhobe, washing clothes upstream, wash loin cloth and turban; for thee I have drawn water with my little finger, so fall thou on my neck." The house or cellar in which Rasalu was shut, is the moon cavem, and is opened but once a year, when the sun arrives at that house, last of the twelve houses; when his cavem is opened, it is the day of the new year. His father and mother, who are the old year, die. The woman who laid wait for him is the harlot moon who built her black hut (the moon) on the sun's track of the ecliptic; her hut was yet dark, for the sun had not looked upon the moon; the new moon had not appeared, for sun and moon were in conjunc tion, and moon was dark, and she said "show me thy face," and she flew in the air like a hawk, and shaded hira as a THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 61 dark moon; he threatened to shoot her with his (sun) arrows. She said "Good shots have missed me," for the sun has al ways to shoot three arrows at the black moon; it is only at the third trial he .lands on the moon ; the first two shots miss, the third shot is seen on the rim of her disk as the new moon. The scene is at sunset, and the sun has disappeared below the westem horizon, and is looking upward on the face of the moon, and is said to be washing his clothes, or bleaching his linen upstream. She tells him to wash loin cloth, and the new moon is the loin cloth, washed white. She says: "For thee I have drawn water with my little finger, so fall thou on my neck." Her little finger is the new moon; it is likewise the arm of Ra salu, the sun which encircles her neck ; she is the same Rachel who drew water from the moon well, and the harlot at the well of Christ. (Legends of the Panjab, by Temple.) THE WINTER HOUSE. It is the winter house of old farmer Celeus, where Demeter went to nurse the young sun prince Demophoon. It is the almshouse, the orphanage, the old woman's home. Old Abram went down there with Sarah. The Holy Family went down there to winter ; Jacob went down there to Buy com ; Samson went down there to grind in a mill; Hercules went down there to weave on the loom of Omphale, the harlot. That house in winter was again the "Robbers roost" as told in the Hauff Tales, "The Inn of the Spessart," which was in league with robbers, where travellers disappeared and were never heard from. The house where Sisyphus lived and killed travellers with a stone. Again it was the house of Sodom, where the travel ler was stretched on an iron rack to suit the long bed. The long bed is the long ring of the new moon. Often a way- 62 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN farer stops at this dark and haunted castle (the raoon) where a ghost appears at night; it is the ghost or soul of the de parted sun which haunts the raoon castle by night. Again it is described as a winter house deserted, in the tale of ' ' Seven Doves ' ' of the Pentaraerone. A ruined house upon a high mountain built long ago— walls cracked, foundations crumbling away; on one side are shattered columns, on another broken statues ; nothing left in good shape but a coat-of-arms over the door, on whieh you will see a serpent biting its tail, a stag, a raven, and a phcE- nix; all these are different syrabols of the moon in winter, the circle of the serpent is never-ending time — the pheenix is everlasting life and resurrection, for it rises from its ashes. The coat-of-arms is the face of the moon, on which is written the heraldic devices, as the handwriting on the wall. From the Egyptian Book of the Dead ' ' 0 Ra-Tmu lord of the Great House, deliver rae frora the God whose face is like unto that of a dog, and who feedeth upon the dead, who watcheth at the bight of the Fiery Lake, and who devoureth the bodies of the dead. ' ' The above is the house of Hades, the house of the strong door of the ' ' British Mythology. ' ' THB TREASURE HOUSE. The treasure house of Atreus at Mycenae. The legend states that the weaJth and prosperity of Mycense declined after the return of the Heraclidas, or sun children; that is, the sun breaks open the moon treasure house and scatters the hoard of gold abroad in sunshine. It is the story of Orchomenus, where the treasure of Min yas was concealed; the narae Orcus alone would betray the secret. Orcus is Hades, or Pluto, who stores away the gold of summer sunshine in the raoon vault, or winter treasure house. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 63 The same fabulous treasure house built by the Hebrews in Egypt during their captivity, under the Pharaohs, and the same exile of Abram and Sarah at a former time ; the winter captivity of the solar and sumraer children under ITades the winter king, which happened every year. Compare the story of Sigurd the Volsung of the Norse Mythology, where Sigurd, the solar hero, every spring makes a raid upon the storehouse of gold held in the underworld by Fafner, the winter king ; Hades, in the guise of a serpent ; he slays the serpent and brings up the gold to scatter abroad in sunshine. "For my hand shall cast it abroad, and earth shall gather again." (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 125.) Regin, the smith, says when longing for the gold : And when my hand is upon it, my hand shall be as the spring. To thaw his winter away, and the fruitful tide to bring; It shall grow, it shall grow into summer and I shall be he that wrought. And my deeds shall be remembered, and my name that once was nought, And there shall be no more dying, and the sea shall be as the land. And the world forever and ever, shall be young beneath my hand. —Sigurd the Volsung, 100. That treasure guarded by the dragon in the Anglo-Saxon tale of Beowulf, an ancient treasure whieh an unknown man had hidden in a mound near the water's waves, and said "Hold thou, 0 earth, the priceless treasure, the wealth of kings, for war and death have taken from me every man of my people." This hoard was found by a dragon the "old twilight scather," a fiery dragon who flew by night. He is Hades, the serpent Fafner, and the unknown man is the sum mer sun who fled from his northern kingdom at the approach of winter. It is the Niblung treasure he buried in the vault of the moon. 64 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The Niblung treasure which changed hands annually be tween the two hostile tribes of Volsungs and Niblungs, the summer and winter, or solar and lunar races, or the gods and dwarfs. Every year the treasure is taken from Asgard, the garden of the Asa gods, and hidden in the earth by that Hades who hid his lord's money. The original scene was confined to the moon, which has been transferred to the earth. Sacred treasures and the property of kings and gods were preserved in religious sanctuaries, as at Mycense and Apollo's temple. That treasure house is the moon, the land of Ophir, the serpent land, where the serpent guards the gold, and where Solomon, the sun sends his ship every year. The moon teraple was hung with allegorical representa tions, and the statues of all the gods were there. Arms and heraldic devices were engraved upon the door. There hung the silver hand, the golden arm, the skull and cross-bones. The description of these celestial cities is rauch the same; the long white wall, and high built, guarded gateway, steeples, towers. Brynhild lives in the long, low, white house, whieh is the house of the east, the new moon upon the old. And the old signboard hung out at the "Inn of the Cross-roads." In spring it is hung out as the sign of the ploughshare of the husbandman. In the after summer it is hung out for the reaping hook of old Saturn, and the ploughshare is beaten into a sword, or the tusk of the boar, or tooth of the sea monster. Unicorn. At one season it is hung out as the horn of plenty; again as a fiery tongue that burns up the vintage. The Hebrew account says he made the sun and moon, and hung thera up for signs and wonders, and the Hebrew seers divined by their lights and shadows. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 65 These were all roadhouses on the King's highway, and stopping places for caravans. Abram, Jacob and Joseph travelled over the road every year, for they were on the way down to winter and Hades, dramatized by the Hebrews as Egypt, or going up in spring to the promised land of the equinox. Often in tales, the sun prince, after a day's travel, comes upon the black raoon as a deserted castle, and enters for a night's lodging; for it is the inn by the roadside so much frequented by travellers — Hermes is the landlord. On this road are pilgrims making their way to perform vows at the shrines of saints, a year's journey. Aside from its sanctity, this house of the moon is used in all mythologies as a celestial theatre where the gods and heroes in masquerade play the tragedy of the year. The principal plays occur at the moon stations of the four cardi nal points, the equinoxes and solstices. They are a company of stock actors ; the time of the play occurs at the meeting of sun and raoon in conjunction at these four cardinal or principal houses. The moon stage is darkened at the sun's approach, and as soon as the play is over, they move on around the sun road, and stop and play a piece suitable and adapted to that season of the year. At the spring equinox, it is the winning of a bride, and at the wedding festivities at summer solstice, the chariot of the sun is stopped and his horses tumed back; the sun prince rebels, or is slain like Tammuz, seduced from virtue by the harlot, or the giants aspire to be gods, and from that on is the decline of the year and the family of summer gods scat tered and driven in exile, and the sun weighed in Libra and found wanting. From that to the winter solstice is the reign of the evil powers, and long tales of adventure and mis- 66 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN fortune until springtirae again, when order and peace are restored, and all these plays, no matter how trivial, are played on the moon stage. On this moon was played the Siege of Troy, and of Thebes, and the Destruction of Jericho; the Hindu Rama Yana and Mahabharata the Niblung lied; the Finnish Kalevala or land of heroes, the epic of Gilgames, and the legends of the Hebrews, Greeks and Egyptians. The infiuenee of the sun and moon varies continually, accord ing to the position they occupy on the ecliptic, for the earth is in sympathy with their moveraents, and when they fail, or are in exile, the earth responds. These signs acquire a character, significant and characteristic of the season of the year, whieh they retain as stationary after the sun has left. Beth-car — The house of the lamb. Beth-peor — House of opening. Beth-haran — House of mercy — the "Mercy Seat." Beth-dagon — House of the fish. Beth-anath — House of affliction. It is a Beth-shemesh, the house of the sun, and a Beth-zur, the house of a rock. Beth Nimrah — House of rebellion. Beth-palet — House of expulsion. Bother — House of division. The moon becomes the fisherman's hut, the Arab's tent, the robber's roost, the haunted house, the palace of Kings, the temple of God, and the house that Jack built. Well does Jacob say of the house of the twin brothers : A house divided against itself must fall ; "instruments of cruelty are within their house," to which heaven and earth bear wit ness every year. In Spring the shiloh is set up, the salem of peace, and the spring lamb and the winter wolf have a treaty of peace, exchange hostages, and lie down together. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 67 But at winter time the wolf is again at the door ; the harp of the sweet-mouthed singer has become a reed pipe, the gods are in council, the demons turned loose, brother wars with brother on the field of the Slain. These are the two rival houses of the year ; between the hostile brothers, the Jacob and Esau, the Volsung and Niblung, the J^]sir and Vanir, or in the Hindu, the Aryas and Dasyus. Chapter VI. THE THRONE. DISCOVERY OF THE VISIBLE THRONE OF GOD. And he made two eherubims of gold beaten out of one piece; made he them on the two ends of the Mercy Seat. (Exodus 37 : 7.) That seat is the ring of the new moon. The two ends of the seat are the twin forks of the moon ring, which are beaten of one piece, and that is the seat of the Hebrew God. The God of Israel who dwelleth between the eherubims. (II Kings 19:15). That is the couch in which the Hindu God Vishnu slept during the intervals of creation, on the couch of Sesha the serpent, the upper limb of the moon ring forming the arch or canopy over the God who sleeps as it were in the fold of the serpent. In the Norse it is the house of Gripir, who sat in a chair of the sea beast's tooth; that was the tooth gift given to Frey at his birth, and compare the Bible Bethshan house of the tooth or ivory. A great white throne (Rev. 20: 11.) and him that sat thereon. 68 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN The Aneient of Days upon his throne whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. This Ancient of Days is seen upon the moon throne; he is Odin, and the gray old serpent the ancient Saturn, the Ancient of Days. (Dan. 7:9.) In his chosen house God said, I will put my name forever. The house is the moon, and the golden narae is the ring of the new moon of Light. (II Chron. 33: 7.) That is the temple which Christ said He would destroy and rebuild in three days, and afterwards said He spake of the temple of His body, which is the moon teraple, destroyed and rises from its ashes in three days. Sacred trees and Bethel stones were the first dwellings of the gods of old; but from the dwelling of trees and stones and the mountain tops, our gods are fleeing before the tele scope, and hiding in the unknown expanse of the ether. And a representation of this moon temple was set up on th.2 earth as an ark, a sacred chest of acacia wood, a portable sanctuary containing the ten coraraandraents ; on this ark was the Mercy Seat surraounted by the cherubim, and the space between the cherubim was appointed as the meeting place be tween God and man. This ark preceded the people and led them on their journeys; as the raoon its heavenly prototype precedes the sun to the end of the journey, and rests at Shiloh or Gilgal. These two arms of the moon were the throne bearers, like Nebo and Marduk, that ran before the black cloud of the coming deluge in the Babylonian deluge. (Dawn of Civiliza tion by Maspero, p. 568.) "And I will speak with thee from above the Propitiatory from between the two eherubims that are upon the ark." (Seat of God.) (Exodus 25: 22; Ps. 80: 1.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 69 God spake to Moses from that Mercy Seat. (Numbers 7:89.) Jehovah dwelt between the two eherubims on the floor of the Mercy Seat. The Lord shal dwell by Benjamin, and shall cover him all day long, and dwell between his shouders. (Deut. 33 :12.) At the mead feast of the Norsemen, the chief god had the lowest seat, for the seat between the pillars is lower than the upright forks of the moon. On New Year's Day, the god of Babylonia, entered the Holy of Holies, and seated himself above the Mercy Seat. St. Brandan, the Irish Saint, was sentenced for his unbelief to search through earth, hell and the sea to find a heavenly gift, and it would only be found where he saw the flame of two twin fires. These are the twin forks of the moon, that meeting place of Bethel, the house of God — ^the Salem or city of peace, at the new moon of the spring equinox. The Lord shall dwell by Benjamin, and shall cover him all day long, and dwell between his shoulders. (Deut. 33 : 12.) This is the arkite who passed through the flood between the knees of Dilan of the deep. (Davies' "British Druids," p. 100.) This house was the place of Jehovah's presence, who in the beginning was one with El, and Jehovah was only another name for El-Jehovah and El and Assher and El were com mon and interchangeable appellations, for in the beginning they were but tribal gods, and all the gods were heathen once, and grew and reformed as their worshippers advanced in civilization, for the god of the creation and the exodus was but a beast. They are the two arms of Moses, held up by Aaron and Hor after the sun had set, which are the two arms of the new 70 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN moon, the reflex image of the solar arms held up to prolong- the light of day. (Exodus 17 : 12.) They are the two ravens on the shoulders of Odin, and his head or seat of wisdom, the centre; as Jehovah, sitting upon the mercy seat, is the head between the two guardian angels (the two forks of the moon) and Christ between the two thieves, and the two angels at the tomb of Christ. They are the Jakin and Boaz, one each side of the temple door. Boaz means a pillar. Jakin represents the summer season, or life, and Boaz represents the winter Hades, for Ruth the summer maiden fled to her uncle Boaz, the winter refuge. And these two bulls or divine protectors are talismanic figures to ward off evil ; some were placed inside the door, and others placed beneath the threshold, all special guardians of the throne. Christ is that rod, or vine, or thyrsus of peace thrust be tween the two contending serpents in spring. And hung in the autumn time between these two thieves in the west, the summer and winter that continually steal each other's kingdom. A tree between two animals (rampant) standing upon their hind legs, is over the lion 's gate at Mycense ; it is over the tombs of Persia. The Phrygians place the tree as a pillar or phallus be tween two bulls, also between two sphynxes (antiquary 1900), in India between two elephants. In Phoenicia between two griffins. On the Adam and Eve cylinder of Chaldea the tree is be tween two human figures sitting face to face. On British arms they are a lion and unicorn standing each THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 71 beside a central figure ; this is repeated on the arms of several of the States of America. VOLSUNG THRONE. There was a dweUing of kings, ere the earth was waxen old, Dukes were the door-wards there, and the roofs were thatched with gold; Earls were the wrights that ^vrought it, and silver nailed its doors. Earls' wives were the wea ving- women, queens' daughters strewed its floors. So there was the throne of Volsung, beneath its blossoming bower. But high o 'er the roof -crest red, it rose 'twixt tower and tower. — Morris: Sigurd the Volsung, p. 2. (It stood between the two towers or forks of the raoon.) We know where Odin's Hall was situated, for the oak thorned stag stands on the roof of Odin's Hall, while the water drips from his horns. The stag horns are the horns of the new moon, like the horns of Jehovah's altar, and the homs over the mercy seat. The shield of the new moon is called Odin's door, for the hall of Odin was in the moon. (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 17.) And again the mistletoe (new moon) which slew Balder grew on the great oak at the gate of Valhal, the Hall of Odin. It shows Odin 's Hall was the moon, for the ring of the new moon was its gate or entrance. Odin is described as a mighty man. Ancient, of bright vis age, with a cloud blue hood and a kirtle gleaming gray, and bore upon his shoulder a mighty ashen beam, burnt bright with the flame of the sea. Odin is then himself the moon. Zicun, the Great Mother, dwelt in the Babylonian pine tree of Eridu, and there dwelt Tammuz, the Sun of Life ; that was their throne. In the Egyptian, the goddess Neith, an appellation of Isis, dwelt in the thorny acacia. 72 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN In Arabia, the voice of Baal was heard from the thorny lotus, the flre tree. Jehovah dwelt in the burning thorn tree of Mt. Horeb, and from that bush He spake to Moses. Jove dwelt in the oak, whose ancient oracle was in the oak woods of Dodona, and spake from the oak tree. Odin rode in the ygdrasil or ash tree ; that was his dwelling, and the word ygdrasil means the vehicle, or carrier of Odin. Idun dwelt in that tree and sprinkled the tree at night with dew. Satan dwelt at the root of that tree in Hades.. And the tree in which they dwell in summer becomes their coffin in winter. Osiris lodged in the acacia (raoon tree) and the bushy part of the moon tree cut off, which revealed a pillar inside, the pillar of the new moon, and in this was the soul of Osiris, the Egyptian Redeemer. Tola, "worm" or serpent. Judge of Israel, dwells in Mt. Ephram in Shamir, the "thom." The shittim wood of which the Jewish altar was built was acacia, which is the sacred thorn. The funeral pyre was interwoven with thoms, and lit by a torch of twisted thoms. They were the white thorns that formed the crown of Christ. It was under the white thorn in full blossom that Merlin fell in his last sleep upon the lap of the enchantress Vivian, or the Lady of the Lake ; this white thom stood in the forest of Broceliande. It was the sacred thorn of Glastonbury, where Arthur was buried. It is the sleep thom that pricked Brynhild on the winter heath. The doves of Jove passed through the wandering rocks, or THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 73 Azure Islands, the two homs of the moon, to carry ambrosia to Father Jove. Odin's Ravens. Again they are the two winter serpents Hercules, the spring sun, strangled in his cradle. They are the new spring, or healing serpents, who licked the ears of Melampus, black moon, asleep, and he became wise unto futurity, as Sigurd and Guion the little. That river of Eden is the river of life described in Revela tions 22 : 1, 2. And this river of life issued from the throne . of God, which is the golden rim of the new moon; the same which issued frora the same throne of Allat, the Queen of the Babylonian Hades, which Ishtar and Tammuz sought every year to renew life, and shows the throne of Jehovah is the same throne, and further this tree of revelation which bears twelve raanner of fruits stood by the River of Life. Shows Throne of God and River of Life and Tree of Life all in the moon. Tammuz, the Babylonian redeemer, dwelt in the holy tree of Eridu. In the Norse Iduna and Bragi live in the boughs of the great world tree, the ygdrasil, and there her lover found her every evening at sunset. At night she sprinkled the tree with the water of the well. Inspiration (the dew), and kept it green, but one night Iduna fell down into a deep valley to the daugh ter of night ; the same valley where Psyche was wafted to the enchanted castle, and met her invisible lover Cupid. It is down in the valley of the shadow of death in the moon, the fairy world, where Proserpine was drawn down by Pluto. When the celestial bull was slain at the annual feast of the ancient Babylonians his horns were dedicated to Shamash, the sun, and suspended on the corners of the altar ; both of them could contain six raeasures of oil each for the six months of 74 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN summer and winter. They are the two prongs of the crescent moon, the horns of Jehovah 's altar. The Egyptian bull Apis, an incarnation of the sun, and identified with Osiris, was black with a white square mark in his forehead, and held between his homs the disc of the sun. (Smith's Dictionary.) In the Egyptian tale of two brothers, Bata becomes a great bull, and was slain, and as he was being killed, he shook his , neck, and two drops of blood fell upon the two doorsteps of His Majesty, one on each side of the great staircase of the King, and they grew into two mighty Persea trees, each of which stood alone, and they grew in one night, and it was told the King, and they were considered as good omens. They were the two forks of the raoon, the Jachin and Boaz. . In Davies' Mythology of the British Druids. The cell of life in the raoon is called the oxpen, as it is otherwise called in mythology, the manger of the horse or ass. It is the cavern in the moon, protected in front by the two flaming pillars of flre ; the two horns of the raoon in this is the dwelling of the chief god, for that moon is the throne of all the gods. (The stall of the ox or bull was the abode of the sun when symbolized as a bull.) Lo, I come in a thick cloud. (Exodus 19: 9.) Made cloud the garment. (Job 38: 9.) Said he would dwell in a thick cloud. (Kings 8: 12.) Spread a cloud for a covering. (Psalms 105: 39.) The cloud covering is the dark moon, and God is the pillar of the cloud. •Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke? (Solomon's Song 3:6.) Lord rideth upon a swift cloud. (Isaiah 19:1.) A cloud and fire infolding itself. (Ezekiel 1:4.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 75 The cloud is the raoon, soraetimes it is a horse the deity rides upon, and called a cloud horse. Lord will eome with fire, and his chariot like whirlwind. (Psalm 66:15.) There went up a smoke out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devouring. (II Samuel 22: 9.) For our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12: 29.) Who cover est thyself with light as a garment. (Psalm 104:2.) He rode upon a cherub and did fly. (Psalm 18: 10.) This cherub is priraarily the moon, the vehicle of the deity ; sometiraes the moon is ridden as a horse. In winter the moon generally becomes the ass ; when a bird it is commonly an eagle, vulture or garuda ; sometimes ridden as a steer or bull — Jehovah or Yahweh generally prefers to ride upon the cloud which is the same moon cloud sometiraes called the cloud horse. Vishnu rode upon the "white faced," "red winged" "Ga ruda, ' ' the king of birds — he is the raoon. Odin rode the Gray Horse, the moon horse, and was called the gray-horsed rider. It was the white horse of Indra produced at the churning of the ocean, the king of horses, and fed upon ambrosia. It it is the first ring of the bright moon. As the gates of the earthly temples and palaces of kings were guarded by watch dogs, bulls, lions, and protecting ani mals, so the door of the moon temple was defended, for the moon was the city and dwelling place of the sun in the heavens. In old times there was but one pillar or stone or May pole set up, as Jacob set up the pillar; or the pillar of Lot's wife; 76 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN then two pillars set up as Hercules set up at Gibralter. Again these two pillars are serpents, and between them, that is in the bed or curve of the moon, was made the chair or seat of the high god, and the pillars each side became iraages significant as birds, or beasts, or serpents, but later, in bull or bovine worship, they became the horns of a bull, and the high god sat between the horns ; but in Jewish times they became human beings, and bent over the hollow of the moon, or the mercy seat. In astronomical times they were increased to twelve pillars of the Zodiac. And that seat of Jehovah on the "mercy seat" between the two horns of the altar or horns of the moon is the same seat of the Babylonian god who on the day of the New Year took his seat on that mercy seat of the "Great White Throne," and again the same throne occupied by Vishnu the Hindu god which formed his seat and canopy which was called the ser pent Sesha. And again the same seat occupied by the Norse god Odin between the two ravens which are the same forks of the moon. The Christian pulpit of to-day stands between the two forks of the half moon altar in front, and occupies the same position, and is an exact copy of the aneient throne of the gods who occupied that same mercy seat between the two horns of the altar whieh were anciently the horns of the divine bull under the bovine worship, when sjonbolic bulls were fed to their god; and Christians still kneel at that same half moon altar and feed upon the sarae raangled flesh and blood of their god as they did in the ancient tirae. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 77 Chapter VII. THE DOOR. THE HOUSE OF THE SILVER DOOR. It was an ancient belief that every person was born of the moon, before being born of his natural mother, as ' ' the moon was the mother of all things," and that the life gerras, in visible as thought and electric fluid permeated all substance, for the sun 's rays were seen to come from afar and bring life ; and as the dew (to them came from the moon) was seen like manna to bring food and life to plants. Porphyry says, de, ant. Nymph. The ancients had a notion that all souls were born through this door of the moon before they were bom from their natural mother; that they were first impregnated, or that the vital spark was there first germi nated and then proceeded through the earthly door of human life, for there was the drawn sword by the eastem door, the way of life. There light was born. Through this same silver door the children came out of the moon ark, consequently the moon became the midwife and mistress of child-bearing ; and as. the sun child or what we call the new moon, was seen to be born from the dark cavern of the moon, a like origin was ascribed to man, and man named the raoon after himself as the thinker, as he raanifested intelligence. As he was continually changing form and in venting signs and characters, the moon became the moon man and god of wisdom. Frora the Hindu : The birth of a child was anciently sig nalled by hanging a bow at the door, in representation of the new raoon bow, which is a bow hung at the door of life where light is bom ; where the little child of the sun is nursed on the lap of its mother, the moon; and the child has a birth-mark 78 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN upon its face, which is the crescent, or first ring of the moon, as Pelops ' ' the burnt face or ivory shoulder, ' ' and ' ' when the bow was hung at my father's door, a sickly looking Buddhist priest, but half covered by his stole, entered the chamber. On one of his breasts was a round piece of plaster like a cast, and my father, waking from sleep, found that I, just born, had a similar black patch on my body." The priest who enters is the moon with a white band on the forehead and a black patch on the other side; he is the moon priest and high priest at the fire altar; the black patch is same as worn by the Amazon. Before this door sat Lucina (Juno) as her name would indi cate, one who brought children to light, a goddess of child- bearing, and she appeared as an old woman, with her feet crossed and fingers joined to retard the birth of Hercules. The old woman is the black moon, who has barred the moon door of light and life with her feet, to retard the birth of the new moon child for three days, for Hercules, as his name implies, is a hero of fame, begotten by Jove by a mortal woman which incurred the jealousy and wrath of his aristo cratic partner, the queen of heaven. It explains how the fairy midwife is conveyed secretly into the hidden chamber to assist in child-births ; the hidden cham ber is the dark moon In Italian Popular Tales : ' ' The King of Love, ' ' the ogress kept back the birth of Rosella's child with hands clasped over her head; as soon as she unclasped her hands Rosella's child was born. As soon as the black hands are taken off the moon's face, the new-born child (new moon) appears. "To this house went a woman, and when she raised her hands to open the door, both the sea and sky glistened and made all the world bright. ' ' It was Gerd the giant 's daugh- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 79 ter, the fairest woraan on earth. She raarried Frey, the Northern god. They are the white hands of the moon, opening her silver door. (Edda, p. 101.) Beth-Peor, house of opening. Baal-Peor would mean the Lord who opened the gates of the year, like Janus, the Lord of renewal. Pausanias, B. 8, Ch. 16, says: The Hebrews have in Jerusalem, a torab of Helen, a woraan of that country, which is so contrived that the door which is of stone like all the rest of the tomb, cannot be opened except on one particular day and month of the year, and then it opens by machinery alone, and keeps open for some little time, and then shuts again; but at any other time it could not be opened. The sun opens the moon door of every constellation, only once a year, then he goes on to the next; it will be closed until the time he arrives there the next year. The tomb above i.s the machpelah, the winter cemetery of the solar race. As in the Rasalu legend and others. When Rasalu was born, he was shut in a subterranean cellar, and where he must remain for a year; if he saw father or mother before that he would die. He cannot show himself; if he tried he must wait there until his father and mother arrive there in a year from his birth, and unlock the moon temple in that con- stellati-on. He is the new moon, or child of the sun and moon. It is on that door and its posts the blood of the lamb, the re deemer's blood, is stained at the spring equinox, when the sun paints the moon door red. The zodiac has twelve gates, and no gate will ever open without a sacrifice; the blood of the sun must be shed on every gate or door of the moon house before it will open. The house demands a sacrifice, and cries for blood upon the moon altar. ¦ It is the woman in the three noodles who was so tall she so THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN could not ride on horseback through the gate, and a parley was held whether to cut off the woman's head or the horse's feet, until the traveller came along, looking for three fools to match the girl he had conditionally promised to marry, and caused her to stoop her head, and in this way she entered the moon gate, and that is how she became stoop-shouldered, and how the fairy-maiden became hunch-backed by carrying the black bundle of the black raoon upon her back. The above was the Diana, the tall goddess (new moon), who stood head and shoulders above her maidens, who stood before her and tried to hide her nakedness from Actaeon, who looked in at the door of the moon. The black horse is the dark moon, upon which the sun prince rides. Heimdall is the doorkeeper of the gods at one extremity of the bridge, and blows a horn. If she be a door, we will inclose her with boards of cedar. (Canticles). Earthly cities and gates were named after the moon gate. The Babylonians named their city Babel (Gate of God) for the new moon was the golden gate, or the door of God. It appears in the "House of Wolfings" by Morris: "Long was that house, and at one end anigh the gable was the Man's door not so high, but a tall man must stoop to enter the hall, and a like door anigh the other gable end, whereby the woman entered, called the women's door." The man's door is the right limb of moon, and the highest; and the women's door is at the lower end, and left horn of the moon. The long house above is the new raoon, and the two ends are called the two gables, and here was the entrance. That was the doot of the black box of the raoon. Pandora opened the first winter moon, or the moon in the first sign of the after summer, and THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 81 let loose all the evils of winter. Same door Eve opened on her way to Hades, or the land of shades ; the door or the way Proserpine opened to herself when she plucked the tall Nar cissus or sleepy plant, for it rooted in Hades. The forbidden door opened by the bride of Blue Beard, the robber bride groora. The door of the moon that opens at three raps, or the open sesame of the robbers' cave; the laughing flower of spring that opens the castle. Arabian Nights, p. 80, in "Story of the Third Calendar: On the fortieth day the prince opened the golden door for bidden, and a black horse winged him through the air and away, for it was at the end of a year of pleasure. The palace of the sun was raised on stately columns and polished ivory covered its highest top, and double folding doors of silver. (Ovid, Metamor, Book 11, Pable First.) The Petra or Betulia are described as having two doors, and again the caves of the nymphs have these two doors. The Mithraic grottoes have the two doors; though the door be barred with steel, it could not resist the sword of light. Two entrances to the cave of Nysa where Bacchus was brought up by the nymphs, and the two entrances are the horns of the moon. (Ovid, B. Ill, Fable 5, p. 99.) The doors of the four cardinal points, or the doors of the four chief houses, are more celebrated in myth lore, being the chief stations of the sun. It was over that door they hung the shining armor of Saul, in the temple of Dagon when his wars were over — the Death's head, the "Golgotha," the place of the skull. (Grimm, Tale No. 89.) The mistletoe which slew Balder grew on the great oak at the gate of Valhal, the Hall of Odin. It is the new moon ring, which grows like a vine or parasite on the old black 82 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN oak, the moon, and this becomes a spear of death. It shows that Valhal, the Hall of Odin, is in the moon, for the ring of the new moon was the gate or entrance. In Sigurd the Volsung, p. 17, the shield of the new moon is called Odin's door. The door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:4.) Pillar of cloud over door. (Deut. 31 : 15.) Abram sat in that door. (Genesis 18: 1.) Sarah heard the promise at the door. (Genesis 18: 10.) Angel opened prison door. (Acts 5: 19.) Everlasting door. (Psalms 24:7.) Door of the shadow of death. (Job 38 : 17.) It is where Melchisedek, the priest king met Abraham re turning from the wars; he was the high priest of the moon altar. Christ is made to say ' ' I am the door of life ; knock at the door and it shall be opened. ' ' It is the door of life, and cell of life, and the door where the stone was rolled from the sepulchre of Christ, that place of the first ring of the new moon of spring. There all the gods were bom from the dark cavern of the moon. It is the manger of Christ, and the cave where Zeus was born ; they were thrice born, for the new moon seen on the lap of the old in the west, is three days old before it bcomes visible; it appears visible on third night. This gate of the Lord into whieh the righteous shall enter, (Psalm 118:20.) Lord loveth the gate of Zion. (Psalm 87 : 2.) Open before Him the two leaved gate. I will loose the. loins of kings to open before Him the two leaved gates. (Isaiah 45:1.) Put blood on posts of gate. (Ezekiel 45:19.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 83 The two leaved gate is the ring of the new moon with two prongs. It is that window down through which Michael let King David that he might escape. (I Sam., 19:12.) It is the door and window of Noah's ark. It is the gate of Eden, where Adam and Eve were born. The church door made after that form, called Door of Life, and the key of the door is a Yoni, a female symbol. This was the lighted doorway of Odin's Hall. So there lies Sigurd the Volsung, and far away forlorn are the blossomed boughs of the Branstock and the house where he was born; to what end was wrought the roof ridge and the rings of the silver door, etc. (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 65.) That moon door was the mouth which opened and delivered oracles. In spring it speaks peace, and at winter war and the doom of kings ; it speaks both death and resurrection. After Jason has performed the rites of enchantment, the silver door bursts open, and reveals the sacred grove and guardian dragon. The first-born child of the sun became priest of the moon temple ; he is the first-bom who is slain at midsummer. Adam, in its generic sense, means first man ; like Ion in the tragedy of Ion in Euripides, where according to the response of the oracle, the one called Ion would meet his father at the temple door, and by that sign his father would know him. And as the child of Creusa appeared at the door of the temple, he was hailed as Ion or John, because he first met him — Ion first or primitive — he was the first-born child of the sun, the Melchlzedek, or priest king of the moon temple, who met Abram at the door of the moon temple. The Melchlzedek without beginning or end of days, who has been the unknown mystery of ages ; he was that Eros who existed as the life prin- 84 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN ciple in the chaos of waters before the creation — he is the first fing of light upon the moon. DEATH OF BRYNHILD The dying Brynhild cried out in her last hour to Sigurd, her murdered lover and lord : For long I have wearied and waited, till the sorrows of life should be And asoft on the bosom of God, our love should be laid at the last. "0 Sigurd, behold me dying, and reraember thy pledge. Come from thy sombre abode, and in thy shadowy airnis bear me away, for it is my wish that together we may go to Odin's Hall, and I will keep close by your side as we enter there, that the shining door may not swing to and shut me out. ' ' The holy house of Odin, Oh, that hall of the silver door That the Goths and the gods have builded. To last forever more. The last prayer of Brynhild before she ascended the funeral pyre with Sigurd by her side, where the faithful sword Gram was laid between them. (Cox and Jones, p. 68, and Sigurd the Volsung. ) Chapter VIII. THE MAGIC BONE. THE JAW-BONE OF SAMSON'S ASS AND THE DIS COVERY OF THE CAVE OF MACHPELAH. And he found a new jaw-bone of an ass, and put forth his hand and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith, and he cast the jaw-bone away out of his hand and was athirst and THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 85 God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and water came out. (Judges 15: 19.) The jaw bone is the new raoon ; it was the club of Hercules cut in the same Nemean wood, and where Samson and Her cules both slew the lion who dwelt in the sign Leo, and it was the ox goad of Shamgar with which he slew six hundred men. ^Judges 3:3L) In Hindu Rama's bow is the destroyer's flaming jaw and was kept in an eight-wheeled iron chest; same jaw Samson used. And it eame to pass that as the Moabltes were burying a man, they cast him in the sepulchre of Elisha, and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha he revived and stoop up on his feet. (II Kings 13 : 21.) The old Jewish Rabbis gave the name Luz to an imaginary little bone supposed to exist at the base of the spinal column, and indestructible; and by the immortal power of this bone when fermented in a kind of dew from heaven, the resurrec tion of the dead was affected. Luz means light; it was the bone of light, the moon torch relit after its death, and the human soul was supposed to obtain immortality in the same way, for it was born of the moon ray, and man revived again in the world to come, from this bone Luz. It could not be steeped in water, nor bumed by fire; it could not be ground in a mill, nor broken by an anvil; but it would cleave the anvil and break the hammer. All this is now witnessed upon the moon. The bone is the new moon, which is seen to cleave or split the black anvil and break the hararaer ; it cannot be bumed by fire, nor ground in a mill; the one "bone that shall not be broken." The bone, or stone splitter, used by Solomon in building his temple, the Shamer stone he obtained from Ashmedai. That was the cave of Machpelah, in the land of the Hittites, 86 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN for Abraham dwelt among the Hittites in the land of Canaan ; there Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah (Genesis, 49:31) were buried. Machpelah is the moon, which is the cave of "double-divi sion" one of light, and one part of darkness, with a sword between. Sigurd the Volsung and Brynhild slept there, both on one bed, and the sword between thera ; and the sword is the ring of the new moon between the upper and lower world of the moon. (Sigurd the Volsung, Brynhild, p. 218.) Ruth and Boaz slept there on that same bed. Boaz is Hades ; his name means a pillar ; he is one of the pillars of Jachin and Boaz that stand one on each side of doorways. Boaz is that pillar of the winter temple which Samson pulled down in spring as soon as his hair had grown out. BONE OF ADAM. In Leland's Algonquin Legends, Lox the hero, is slain, but cries out to the earth to spare his backbone, for in that lay his life ; and a voice came from the bone and cried to his leg to come, and then his arm, and in this way he called his mem bers together, and became again Lox. It is that first bone, or ring of the new raoon, which will call together the flock of moon rings, one ring every night, until the number is complete and the moon is full; for the first ring of the moon is the seed ring in Norse mythology, from which drop the other rings. The same story is found in the Hebrew mythology: the vision of Ezekiel in the valley of bones. " Oh ! ye dry bones. hear the word of the Lord. And the sinnews and the flesh came upon them ; their breath came, and they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army. (Ezekiel, Ch. 37.) Again, in the Tale of the Beneficent Frog of D'Aulnoy, where at three blows of a wand the Dragon's bones fomi them- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 87 selves into a triuraphal arch to commemorate the good events. The arch is the new moon which dispels the darkness of the moon on the third day of occultation or the third blow of the wand, or the rod of the new moon. In Aztec tradition, at the place of the Seven Caves, Holotl, the messenger god is sent down to Hades to procure an ances tral bone six feet long, and was pursued by the keeper, and in the struggle for possession the bone was broken, but the frag ments were put in a basin, and all the gods drew blood from their bodies and sprinkled the remains, and there was a movement among the fragments which increased with vitality until a human pair were created, and they were fed on the juice of the maguey, and grew and increased in stature and became a man and woman from the ancestral bone. (Ban croft's Pacific Coast Indians, Vol. 3, p. 58.) In Maori Legends of New Zealand, the hero goes to the underworld to obtain the magic jaw bone of his grandfather, which was kept by his grandmother, by which she performed great feats. Again the ancestral bones are brought back in dry gourds and rattled. Rata, the hero, shaped a canoe from a tall pine and sailed to the land of the fairies, who lived in the land where the sun rises ; they keep in dark regions under the water by day, and return to the earth when the sun sets, and there from a cave he obtained the bones of his ancestor who was killed by the evil Makutu. They were guided to the place by his bones, which rattled more and more loudly the nearer they ap proached ; when they had retumed home, they ceased to rattle. In the Aztec Exodus, Huitsiton, the high priest, died; he disappeared in the night, called to take his seat among the gods, and Tescatlipoca addressed him: "Behold I will cause thy flesh to be consumed, that thy skull and bones may remain to thy sons as a consolation, that they may consult thee re- 88 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN speeting the route they have to follow, that thou mayest direct them and show unto them the land which I have chosen for them." (This is the skull of Mimer, the moon which Odin carried with him as an oracle, Mimer 's head.) Where they shall find a Nopal tree growing alone upon a rock in the midst of the waters, and on this nopal an eagle holding a serpent in his claws ; there they shall halt ; there will my tem ple be built. The god gave directions that the bones of Huitsilopochtli should be carried in an urn or ark on the shoulders of four priests, "god bearers," and through these priests the god should make known his will to the people. (Bancroft's Pacific Coast Indians, Vol. 5. p. 326, 327.) They are the bones of Joseph carried up from Egypt in He brew Exodus. Huitsiton above described dies like Idmon the seer, with the Argonauts, and Eabani, the seer in Babylonian epic, when stripped of his flesh, his skull and bones remain, which is the black skull of the moon, containing the white bones, which are consulted as an oracle in all mythology. The moon goes ahead and leads the way, and arrives first before the sun, and when she halts and the two planets come together at conjunction, they build the temple, or lay the cornerstone, which is seen as new moon after the sun has gone down in the west. It was a belief even among the American Indians that the soul dwelt in the bones, and that in the bones was the seed of life, and if planted in the earth or preserved unbroken in safety they would again germinate, put on flesh, and become a human being. (Brinton : Myths of New World, p. 257.) During a pestilence, which destroyed men and cattle, the Pythian Priestess at Delphi bade them bring the bones of Hesoid from Naupaetus to Orchomenus, and that a crow would show the place of their concealraent. The crow was found THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 89 sitting upon a stone, and the bones of Hesiod were found in the hollow of the stone. (Pausanias, B. 9, Ch. 38.) STORY OF PELOPS. Pelops was son of Tantalus and grandson of Jupiter, who was slain and served up by his father, Tantalus, at a banquet given to the gods to try their divinity ; who all abstained from the food but Ceres, who, worn and frantic with the loss and pursuit of Proserpine, ate one of the shoulders. Mercury instructed by Jupiter, put all the parts back in the caldron and drew forth Pelops alive and perfect in all his parts except the shoulder, which was replaced by one of ivory, which flashed forth rays of light and healed all complaints bj^ its touch, and all the descendants of Pelops ever afterward were raarked with this ivory shoulder. The Palladium, which was a statue of Minerva, which fell from heaven upon Troy, was made of the bones of Pelops, and upon this depended the safety of their city, for it was a talis man or charm against evil. Pelops is the moon ; his name means ' ' burnt face ' ' in allu sion to one side of the moon being dark and the other bright, for the lunar hero has endless names. He is called in another story CEdipus, which means "swelled foot" and the foot is the part covered by the bright sandal of the new moon, and the black is the swollen part, for an evil prophecy had gone forth about his future, and his father had pierced his ankles and inserted through the wound a leather thong, which caused his foot to swell and become deformed, and had the child exposed to die, for it had been foretold that he would cause the death of his father. In another tale we find him called ' ' light foot, ' ' for in the race with the sun the raoon always arrives at the goal or crossroad first. Again, he is Jason, the one-sandaled raan, having lost one 90 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN of his sandals in crossing the river. It is the sun prince (new moon) leaping over the moon ford where he leaves one of his golden sandals (new raoon) stuck fast in the raud of the river ford. The sandal is the new moon. But to resume the story of Pelops,, who is the young spring sun, who is said to have been cooked and served up at the midsummer feast which was at the conjunction of sun and moon. His father Tantalus (the sun) was the cook; the moon child is now a burnt corpse, the black cinder of the moon, for the fountain of the moon at that time is dried up and vegeta tion withers. His parts are all put back in the caldron of the moon, and on the third day the moon appears full in all its parts except one shoulder, for which one of ivory is substi tuted. For the white moon is built up of white rings, one added every night until she is full; and the black moon is likewise built up of black rings, one added every night. But she disap pears just before she has her full complement; that is before she is perfectly round and full, and when she next appears to us in the west, it is found that one of her dark rings has been lost and in its place a bright ring or ivory shoulder has been substituted, which we call the new moon; which truly flashes rays and heals all disease; for as that golden ring touches the dead or leprous moon, it is quickened to life and resumes its journey, and is seen to take up its bed and walk, and the bed is the black bundle of the moon carried by the one healed. In the Egyptian story, he, Osiris '(moon) , is torn in pieces and all the parts found but one, for which the phallus is substituted, which is the sarae new moon. The miracle of Pelops restored to life is the same as that performed by Medea, who put an old ram in the caldron or furnace of the moon and drew out of it a lamb. It is the old THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 91 black moon just entering the sign of Aries the ram, at the spring equinox, and the black raoon the Saturn, the swallower, has devoured all his bright children, the rings; but on the third night the raagician draws forth from his raaw the young spring lamb. As Aaron gathered all the moon rings and jewels in the wilderness of Israel, and melted them up in the crucible of the moon from which he drew forth on the third evening a golden calf ; which is the same new moon, the offspring of the sun and moon when they were symbolized as bull and cow, under the old bull or Tauric worship of Jehovah. When the Greeks returned home from Troy to Pisa, the ship which carried the shoulder bone of Pelops was wrecked near Euboea, and years afterward this bone was drawn up in a net from the sea by a fisherman named Damarmenus who hid it in the sand, for it was one of marvellous size. He then went to Delphi to inquire of the oracle in regard to it and was instructed to give the bone to the people of Elis, and the fisherman was made custodian of the treasure. This bone worked miracles. The ship which carried the bone was the black moon, dark at conjunction, wrecked and gone to pieces. And the bone, which is the new moon, gone to the bottom of the moon sea, and the fisherman raises the new moon on the third day in his black net, which is the dark nebulous net drawing the new moon ring from the sea. It was Ran's net, same one Loki borrowed when he raked the gold and "flower of the waters" for Odin's ransom; and the fisherman is the Dictys who fished up Danse and her child in the chest. It had been foretold that Troy, the winter moon of the west, which is Hades, could not be taken without an arrow of Her cules, and the bones of Pelops. The arrow of Hercules is the golden ray shot from the sun at the end of winter, and this will be the bone of Pelops, or the firebrand seen upon the 92 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN shoulder of Pelops at the conjunction of the sun and moon at the spring equinox, when the house of the west will give way to the house of the east and the golden fleece of the sun ram and the golden age of spring will be restored ; but so long as Troy, the Hades or winter held the palladium or talisman, or key of spring, she could not be taken, nor the spring un locked ; for whoever holds that bone, whether winter or sum mer, can rule the season like the magic halter of Bellerophon, which is the new moon of spring. It will tame the moon horse, and he will obey the bit, which is the yoke of the new moon by which Jason tamed the fire-breathing bulls; for the moon always follows the sun, as soon as he throws over her the golden rein of the new moon, and is obedient to the golden ring. The bones of Pelops had been beaten in a mortar and molded into a palladium, or image of Minerva (new moon), which stood guard as the winter guardian, serpent or sword at the gate of Troy. As soon as it is taken and removed to the gate of the east, the spring and summer house will retain it and rule for the next six months, and it will again be given up at the autumnal equinox, when the spring moon, Helen, will again elope with Paris and carry the summer treasures of Menelaus with her. Its virtue depends upon its location ; it is a migratory bone at the spring equinox ; it is all healing, but in winter the reverse. The story of Pelops and its affinities form a numerous and very interesting, group, and of wide distribution. All his descendants inherited the ivory shoulder ; that was their brand and family coat-of-arms, and all new moons are but reincarna tions of the old. The tragedy was again repeated by Atreus, the son of Pelops, who killed the sons of his brother Thyestes, and served them up to their father at a banquet, and while Thyestes was THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 93 eating he caused the hands and heads of his children to be brought in and shown him. At the sight of the deed the sun stopped his chariot in the midst of his career. The two sons are the twin forks of the moon slain at mid summer every year and cooked by the fierce heat of the sun. The banquet lasts for three days while the moon is in hiding. At the end of that time, the members of his children are brought in and shown to their father — the head is the black skull of the moon, and the hands are the two bright hand tips of the new moon ; for the sun had now set in the west, other wise the hands would not be visible to the sun. It was the shoulder of Pelops, eaten by Ceres. BONES OF ORESTES. After the Lacedemonians were defeated in the contest with the Tegeans, they consulted the Delphian oracle, and were told by the Pythoness they would never prevail until the bones of Orestes, the son of Agamemnon were removed to Sparta. Long search was made without avail, and again the oracle was consulted, which gave response in dark sayings.. "Level and smooth is the plain where Arcadian Tegea standeth; there two winds are ever by strong necessity blow ing, counter stroke answers stroke, and evil lies upon evil. There all teeming earth doth harbor the son of Atrides. " The plain is the moon where Vulcan the blacksmith ham mers on his anvil at the forge, where counter stroke follows stroke; and the two winds are the winds of Vulcan's forge; the moon is the place where the winds and waters meet ; he is forging the new spring sun rings, the bones of Orestes. The bones were discovered there by Lychas. The story runs thus : Lychas went to Tegea, where was the temple of Minerva (moon) and entered the workshop of a smith, and Hephaestus (Vulcan) the smith told Lychas that he began to 94 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN dig a well for himself in. that same room, and at a certain depth came upon a coffin seven cubits long, and found the man inside the same length, but never believed in the giants of old until then. Lychas and his companion knights found the place corre sponded to the utterance of the Pythoness, the sword being wrought on the anvil, the sword of evil lying upon evil. The room of the smith was rented, the grave opened, and the bones of Orestes carried to Sparta. (Herodotus, B. I, Ch. 67, 68.) The sun and the winds, the forge and bellows, anvil and hammer, are the tools of his smithy. The sun is slowly heat ing up the forge of the moon, keeping the fire alive through the winter; the new moon bones buried there will be dug up and taken to the spring sign, and Tegea will surrender, for the winter raoon will never surrender until the new fire has been kindled, which are the resurrected bones of Orestes. These bones were dug up from the moon vault, the bone yard, the Potter's field, the Machpelah, the graveyard of the solar family. In the Thessallan flood Deucalion the Thessalian Noah es caped the flood and landed on Mt. Parnassus, where he left the ark. They then consulted the ancient oracle of Themis, and were told to depart from the fane with veiled heads and ungirt vestments, and cast behind them the great bones of their an cestors to repeople the earth, and those cast behind Deucalion became men and those cast by Pyrrha became woraen. These bones cast by Deucalion are the same as the dragon teeth sown by Cadmus and Jason on the bare black face of the moon. They are the white rings or bones of the moon, for stones are called earth bones. Eve 's rib, where the bones of the weaving witch are bumed but a small piece of a rib of the witch flew out of the fire and THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EEEN 95 began to spin around in the dust, and lo ! another witch grew out of it. The piece of bone is the new moon ring that escapes from the conflagration of the moon — it is Eve's rib. Sandipani, master-at-arms, had been the preceptor of Krishna and Bala-rama, and for his services he requested them to give him his dead son drowned in the sea. Taking up arms they marched against the ocean, but the all compre hending sea said to them : " I have not killed the son of Sandi pani, a demon who lives in the sea in the form of a eonch shell, seized the boy; he is still under my waters." Krishna plunged into the water, and slew the demon ancl took the conch shell made of his bones and bore it as his horn; it strengthens the gods and fills demons with dismay ; it is the conch shell of Venus, which is the shell of the 'new moon. It is the Gjallar horn of Ragnarok, and the trumpet of the last day. It is the hom Heimer blows under the moon tree ; it was the trump of Jericho ; it sounds the knell of winter, and wakes the dead in spring, and becomes the nest of a demon under the sea, the serpent guarding the treasure. It was the horn of Amalthea, the goat that suckled Jupiter, who was the Christmas child, the redeemer born at the winter solstice in the sign of Capricorn, the goat. They are all one — the. trumpet of the new moon, which is the conch or shell of Venus. ' ' To thee, 0 Bard of the borders, I adress myself ; mayest thou be advanced by him whose bones were formed of mist in the place where two cataracts of wind mingle together." (Davies' Mythology, 573.) That is where Adam was born ; the two cataracts are the two forks of the moon. Enchanted dice were made of bones from a graveyard and used in the games called hucklebones, and knucklebones, used 96 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN in gambling, by the two great gamblers of the year, the sum mer and winter, who played for the kingdom twice a year with bones made from those of the sheep Aries, or the ram of the spring equinox. The same bone heard in counting out rhymes, as Ener, mener, moner, Mike, Basaloner, bone, or strike. Enchanted dice were made of dead men's bones dug from the graveyard. Again in One-ery, two-ery, Ziceary zan; Hollow bone, crack a bone, Ninery, ten. The most sacred oath of the Egyptians was by the bones of Osiris buried at Philae. In Roman Catholic churches the bones and relics of saints and martyrs are kept within the solid altar imitating the charnel house of the moon, which is the Machpelah and sepul chre of the solar f arnily. In the Eighth Century a church could not be consecrated without having in its possession the bone or relic of a saint. In the Church of St. John the Baptist of New York City, is kept a sacred bone of St. Anne ; it lies in a little case at the altar and works miracles in healing. Captain Cook was killed by natives of the Hawaiian Islands, and his bones preserved by the priests, and continued to re ceive the prayers and worship of the people in their temples. According to Hugo in the French Revolution, the Brittons of Brittany carried crosses made of dead men's bones. That twin bone or breast bone of the fowl which represents the twin bone of the new raoon, is still broken and placed over THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 97 the eastern door by the maiden to await the coming and en trance of her suitor from the East. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had said to Israel, ye shall carry up my bones with you. (Exodus 13:19.) And the bones of Joseph were buried at Shechem in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver; which are the one hundred days of winter, the period of the winter ex ile, or the winter tax. (Joshua 24: 32.) And David took the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from Beth-shan where the Philistines had hanged them, and they were buried iu the sepulchre of Kish his father. (II Samuel 21: 12.) They were the bones of Theseus, brought back from Scyros by Cimon and buried in the heart of Athens 469 B. C. Now we know why the bones of Jacob and Joseph must be brought back from Egypt before they could enter the prom ised land, for that bone was the passport and key. It was why Troy could not be taken without the bones of Pelops, and why a church could not be consecrated in the Middle Ages until it contained the bone of a saint, because all temples of worship, ancient and modern, are lunar temples and built with entire reference to the moon temple and its fire altar, and as that moon contained the white bone of life, even so must its earthly representative contain the sign and symbol of its celestial prototype, that bone of him who has died and arisen and works miracles and heals by its touch, that bone that shall not be broken, that bone of one that hung on that Golgotha or "place of a skull" his healing cross, that one who shall yet wake the sleepers and renew the golden age in the garden of the east. ' ' Carry with you my bones wherever you may go ; there let 98 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN them be buried and when above the grave my name you call, my bones shall moan to your cry." (Arabian Nights.) As they witnessed every year the renewal of life in the house of the east, they were led to infer that there occurred the first creation and beginning of life, consequently the re currence of the annual creation was thrown back to the begin ning of time when the creation of the world began at that house of the east from that bone or seed of life, and the long ing and vanity of mankind soon wove a corresponding history and genealogy for themselves, and that bone becarae an an cestor as in the creation of Eve from the new moon bone, or as Deucalian the Thessalian Noah and his wife Pyrrha raised up a crop of men to repeople the world after the Thessalian deluge by throwing bones (moon rings) behind them; or again as Cadmus, one of the culture heroes of Greece, sowed the bones of a dragon to raise up a crop of men, and we can understand how all the aneient people worshipped the bones of their ancestors, and how a skull bone was hung up at the great gate of a city for an oracle, for it represented the moon, and God gave them the sun and moon and said "Let them be for signs. ' ' But at the autumnal equinox, the theatre and stage play is changed to the west; the sun has now arrived at the line of his enemies, the southern and winter signs, a Jacob wrestling with the angel of death, his spermal cord withered for the marrow of life has gone out; he is lame and impotent, and from this on we will have the interesting pilgrimage of the solar race. The white bone still rises in the moon and goes on before to lead the way down through the many named southem hemi sphere, as Lower World, Hades, Egypt, Fairyland, Wilderness of Sinai, Land of Exile. The moon is the leader, that black skull with the two white twin bones that still marks the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 99 poison prescription and dead medicine in pharmacopeia. It is the same bone to appearance, as the bone of spring, but the healing bone is fabled lost and only a phantom or substitute left, as in the escape of Iphigenia from sacrifice, and a phan tom left in her place. For the new spring moon bone, the healer and fertilizer, has lost its marrow or life-giving power, and there is no more fertilizing dew, and though the sun shines, it cannot beget life — sun and moon are deprived of sex, the sun transfigured and emasculated. And the birth and marriage of sun and moon, and their court retinue, their brief summer life, their fall and misfor tune, their exile, and their pilgrimage to recover the lost treasure, or the stolen maiden, have furnished the principal material for all the great epics of the ancient world. A wandering Israel, going home to the Promised Land, and the moon leads the way as a pillar of fire by night, and a pillar of cloud by day. The Greeks looking for a lost Helen, the spring moon stolen and earried off to Hades and captivity, whieh gave us the story of Homer the harper. In the Hindu Rama Yana it is the search for the same spring virgin, as a Sita carried off by a demon to an isle of the sea ; or gone off to look for the lost mill Sampo, the summer moon, that mill which grinds bread and drops manna and honey; that oracle box, that ark of the covenant, that chest of Osiris, that box of Pandora; that box that held the magie bone and the bones of their ancestors through the winter of death, and brought up the bones of Jacob and Joseph from Egypt. It brought back the bones of Pelops and the bones of Orestes, for spring could never come until that white bone of the new moon arrived at the spring festival, the key to unlock the door of life. 100 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN And we bury the bones of our dead and place over them a tall white stone, the semblance of the moon pillar, and on the stone that cross-bone of the life to come; it faces the rising sun, it speaks for itself. "Going back to the east, going home to Asa-land, and the Garden of God." Chapter IX. ORIGIN OF MAN. NAME OF ADAM. The first people of the peninsula of Arabia were called Ad, which means "ancient;" they were giants, and had the ten mythical kings at their head, and were destroyed by a cata clysm. Among the Babylonians the name occurs as a race name, and not as individual; they recognized two races — the Adamu or dark race, and the Sarku, the light race, and in Genesis 5 : 2 it also occurs as a race name and says male and female created he them and called their name Adam. Adam in the Samothracian mysteries was a name given to the first of the Cabiri. He was Adam, quadman, or the ' ' Easterner ' ' and Adamas was a surname, also of Hades. In Phoenician he appears as Adam, quadman, or Cadman, the "easterner." Kedem "the east" who became the founder of Thebes, the capital of Boeotia. Our Adara latinized as Adaraus, is found in the classical Atamas, who married the daughter of Cadmus and succeeded to the throne of Thebes; he was the father of Phrixus and Helle, who fled to Colchis on the ram of the golden fleece. The above Atamas or Atharaas is clearly the Babylonian Tam- rauz, "The sun of Life," who married Ishtar, the woman of THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 101 the East, or our Anglo-Saxon Easter, in the spring garden of the east under the tree of life. Adam Cadman, the easterner, and Atamas and Tammuz all agree in name and character; they marry the maid of the spring equinox, and are all exiled from the garden at the end of the vernal season. Joseph is the same Tammuz exiled to the bread land — the winter sacrifice for bread, the Samson in winter bondage grinding corn. Adara was made in the image of Jehovah ; he is Jehovah the sun, photographed upon the moon — ^the other self; he is a form of Jehovah, the Jehovah Adonai or Jehovah Adonis who is the same with the above Tammuz ; Christ the Shepherd, who is Adam reborn; he says he is the second Adam, and Christ says: Who hath seen me hath seen the father. Christ and Adam are both the image of God, consequently the shepherd of the earth as an incarnation of God. God gave Adam a body without a soul, and thou leddest him into Paradise whieh thy right hand had planted before ever the earth was. (Esdras 3 : 5-6.) Genesis contains two accounts of human creation — (Genesis 1 : 26-7.) Where both are created together. (Genesis 11 : 7-8) And the Lord God created man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into hira the breath of life, and afterward created the woman from one of his bones, and to perform this he caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam for three days. The rib taken from Adam is the ring of the new moon, while the moon is asleep for the three dark nights. It is the deep sleep that fell upon Abram and Noah and Samson when they lost their strength and manhood Adam is one of the bones cast behind Deucalion after the flood, to make man ; and one of the crop sown by Cadmus at Thebes, and again by Jason at Colchis. In the Heroic Age and primitive stages of history, the in quirer of futurity went to sleep over the grave of the dead 102 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN man, and the dead was called forth to give counsel as the shade of Samuel to Saul. It was the Totem to the cave dreamer who kept a three days' fast and slept in the temple in the skin of the slain animal, which if in the sign of Aries would be a sheepskin ; if in the sign of Taurus, would be in the hide of a bull ; and if in the sign Leo he would wrap up in the skin of a lion. The in quirer always obtained a response on the third day, for that is the time when the golden letters or response appears on the black wall of the moon temple, for the earthly temple cor responded in every way, and was governed by its parent tem ple, the moon, which never slept but three nights at a time, and the response will be the first ring or revelation of light, which is the new moon on the third day of its languor and somnolence. Adam and Eve formed by the old system of creating by division as a heaven and earth split apart as with a wedge. Eve was born from the side of Adam. Fo of China and Buddha brought forth from the right side of a virgin, and Christ according to the Manichfeans born frora the right side of a virgin. According to the Winnebagos, the great spirit took a piece of his body and a piece of earth and made man. In a Mangaian myth a woman manufactured a child from a piece of flesh torn out of her own side. It is the woman springing from the side of Siva and Adam, an Athene from the head of Zeus ; a man and woman sprang from the arm pit of the giant Ymer in Scandinavia. Ea united himself to Damkina his spouse, whom he had deduced from himself. Anu by the same duplication became Anat— and the god Bel became Belit; it was a sort of two fold, duplex, or doublefaeed being as seen in Hindu between THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 103 Siva and his wife Parvati, where she is represented as the fe male energy of Siva. (Maspero 53.) The wise Indra has been engendered by holy rites on the skirts of the mountains at the confluence of rivers. (Rig. Veda, Wilson, Vol. 4, p. 244.) The skirts are the margin of the moon at the same conflu ence of rivers. In Davies' ^Mythology of British Druids, 573, Song of Taliesin, we find, "To thee, 0 Bard of the borders, I address myself; mayest thou be advanced by him whose bones were formed of mist in the place where two cataracts of wind mingle together." The twin cataracts are the twin forks of the new moon. Brandan was doomed to search the three worlds for a heavenly gift, and it would only be found where he saw the flame of two twin fires, and that they were the eyes of an ox, and on the tongue of the ox he should find the gift. The twin fires are the two forks of the new moon. It is related in the Popol Vuh that after two signal failures, the final creation of man took place at Paxil or Cayala "land of divided and stagnant waters" (which is the moon marsh on the shore of the moon sea.) The two failures are the two first nights of the dark moon, and light is born upon the moon on the third night. (Ban croft: Pacific Coast Indians, Popol Vuh, Vol. 11, p. 716.) The river Dee in North Wales rises from two springs and runs through Tegid Lake, but preserves its waters unmixed with the lake water, and after passing through carries out no more than it brought in, and these two springs are distin guished by the names of Dwyvaur and Dwyvach, and these are the names of the two first human beings, which shows the first pair to have been the twin forks of the new moon. 104 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN In a Navajo legend, the two children are born on the moun tain where the fogs meet; they were the mountain divinities of the Navajos; they stand upon the raountain and call the clouds together, and these two divinities are accompanied by two hunchbacks (dwarfs) — who have clouds upon their backs which hold the seeds of all vegetation. The fog mountain is the moon, which is the cloud land and the mist world which holds the seeds of all vegetation: The bones of Orestes were found in Tegea, where two winds forever by strong compulsion blow ; stroke answers stroke, and woe lies on woe, (Herodotus B. 1, Clio 67-68) which is the moon where the two currents of wind and water move, and the stroke is heard on the anvil, for the moon is the workshop of the smith ; there they dug out the bone of Orestes, which is the new moon of spring. It was at the gap of the gaping where the two curents met in the Norse creation, where the cold wind and current from the north met the warm from the south, and the first giant man was made at the gap, that yawning gap or cleft of the black moon. In Bancroft's Pacific Coast Indians, Vol. 3, p. 70-73, in the Mexican traditions of the Miztecs, in the days of the beginning of things, two brothers born of two trees that stood at the entrance of the gorge of Apoala that raaintained themselves despite a violent wind, continually rising from the cave ; after ward they separated and one was a bowraan and shot at the sun and drove hira behind the western clouds; the Jacob and Esau, and one a bowraan and hunter, a wild Ishmael. They are the two horns of the moon that stand at the entrance of the dark moon cave — the Jachin and Boaz, the two bulls or lions on each side of the door seen in ancient sculpture at temple doors. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 105 Chapter X. ORIGIN OF MAN. It was a very ancient belief that the germs of every human child were first engendered in the moon and then flashed to earth as by an electrical wave, and the moon was the old family tree. A hollow tree overhanging a pool, is designated as the first abode of unborn infants, and little children are taught to be lieve that babies are brought by the doctor from cavernous trees, and we still call the child a ' ' chip of the old block. ' ' And all over Germany from north to south, the infant is supposed to come from a hollow tree overhanging a pool, which is the tall pillar of the new moon. Maypole or phallus bending over the blue waters of the moon lake. And the stork bird was called the baby bringer. This stork is likewise the tall white aquatic bird, the new moon standing in the pool of the moon marsh, the priest crane of the British Druids and the ibis of the Egyptians and this stork in European folklore was the messenger that brought the holy child to the Virgin Mary. This new moon messenger was thc angel who gave joy to Sarah and became a mandrake to Ra chel, and brought little Samuel to the bosom of Hannah; he is the Melchlzedek, the man without beginning or end of days, who met Abraham the sun at the moon door. In the Persian account after the world was created, Or muzd created the bull and Ahriman the evil one, slew him, and the drops that fell from his body upon the ground pro duced plants. And after the particles of his body had been purified by the light of the sun for forty years, they germinated the ribas tree, which consisted of two steras ; and these inspired by the 106 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDElT breath of Ormuzd, became the first man and woman, called Meshia and Meshiane. The bull visibly is the dark raoon, or dead bull, out of which the two horns or limbs of the new moon are created. The Assyrian raonuments represent the sarae ribas tree on which the first human pair sprouted. In the Norse account after the heaven and earth had been created from the dead body of Ymir (the black moon giant) Odin and his two brothers came to the shore of the sea and found two trees, the Ask and Embla, which were lifeless ; and out of the Ask they made a man, and out of the Embla they raade a woman ; they are the two trees of the Persian and the two trees of Eden, and the two horns of the raoon. The Egyptians represented the constellation of Gemini (the twins) by the figure of two plants or sprigs of plants. From this it has been inferred that the story of the first creation of man was written about the time that the spring equinox oc curred in the constellation of Gemini "the twins," "the month of building and brick making, ' ' which would be at least six thousand years ago. The sacred fire of the Hindus was kindled by these two sticks in friction, the male and female; and the fire child was said to be born of two sticks. To the book of the Jewish law wore attached two sacred sticks called "the wood of life." They are the two sticks of our cross, and the two chopsticks with which the Chinamen eat their food. Joseph is the fruitful bough (Genesis 49: 22), that tender vine by a well which hangs over the wall ; it is the vine of the new spring moon which hangs over the black wall of the moon. Christ and Absalom die on that tree like Helen and Myrrha, the mother of Adonis, who when she changed life, entered a myrrh tree ; Daphnis was changed to a bay tree. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 107 Adonis who was Adaraus and Tammuz was born on a myrrh tree. In symbolical language Christ was a scion of that old family tree of the moon, born of the sacred tree and died upon it. for all the solar children are born of the moon, the dark green tree and rock in the golden cradle ' ' on the tree top. ' ' We are told by Hesychius that the race of men was from the fruit of the ash. This rib as tree or bush of the Persian that bore the twins is the tamarisk bush at Byblos, in which the dead body of Osiris lodged, which quickly shot up and became a tree and grew round the chest, that it might not be seen; it was cut down by the king of that country for a pillar to support the roof of his palace, the chest still being concealed in the trunk. The bushy tree is the black moon that surrounds or encloses the tall pillar or ring of the new moon pillar. These two trees are the two forks of the raoon, which occur as the two pillars of the moon temple; the two pillars of the temple of Dagon upon which the house (of the moon) stood (Judges 16 : 26-29) ; they were the two middle pillars.. Adam and Eve, the twins, are the twin forks of the moon seen in the constellation of Gemini. In the Babylonian myth of creation, Marduk, with the help of Aruru created the seed of mankind, the ushshu plant and the ditti plant of the marsh. The sun supplies the rib for Eve, which is the new moon ring, the ivory shoulder of Pelops. This is the origin of ancestral worship for the sun and moon were their ancestors worshipped under the symbol of tree, serpent, and stone, as shadows upon the dial plate of the moon. Juvenal in his sixth satire says when the world was new. 108 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN men sprang from the soil or opening oak; the Grecian idea that men had sprung from oak and ash. The Pelopidae descended from the plane tree, and among the Persians the house of the Achsemenidag had sprung from the plane tree. These children of the sun born upon the moon are all fire children bom of the fire tree. Virgil's ^neid, B. VIIL, p. 314, says men had their birth from trunks of oak trees. "These woods were first the seat of Sylvan powers, of nymphs and fauns, and savage men, who took their birth from trunks of trees and stubborn oak." (Dryden.) It was the vine that grew from the grave of Tristram, and ran along the wall and descended in the grave of Isolde. It was cut down three times, and each time grew up more vigor ous. It was the new moon cut down the first two nights, and the third night appears visible, having grown in strength. According to the Ephesians, Apollo was born under an olive tree on the isle of Delos. It is the little new moon born under the shadow of the dark moon tree, which is the old mother tree or nurse. "Battle of the Trees" by the Welsh poet Taliesin: "Exist ing of yore in the great seas born from the time when the shout was heard; we' were put forth decoraposed and simplified by the tops of the birch. The tops of the oak connected us to gether by the incantation of Mael Drew while srailing at the side of the rock. Ner (Nereus: sea) remained in calm tran quility." (Davies' British Druids, Appendix 7, p. 538.) Taliesin says: When my transformation was accomplished, not of father or mother was I produced, but of nine elementary forms of the fruits of fruits. (Nine damsels qf the sea.) Homer had nine mothers ; so had the Norse Hymer. The tops THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 109 of the birch are the homs of the moon, which decompose and distil life from the dark waters of the raoon sea or abyss of the waters below. They are the stag homs over Odin's throne, which distil sweet waters from the bitter waters of the abyss. Mael Derw is the cold sea that rocked and swayed and sang while being churned for amrita, or the water of life. Buddha, ' ' the enlightened, ' ' born at the foot of a tree, and did not touch the earth, for Brahma received him in a vase of gold, which is the cup of the new moon. The father and mother long for a child begotten by long fasting and prayer in sackcloth to imitate the dark moon in penance and sacrifice for the child, is a reincarnation of sun and moon in a new birth. The man is born again of his wife, and his wife becomes his mother, and her sun child is her hus band in a new birth. Lao-tsee, the Chinese divine, was born under a tree where his celestial mother stopped to rest. It is the tree where Hagar rested with little Ishmael in the desert of Beersheba, where was a well of water. (Genesis 21 : 15.) These two sprouts appear as two brothers, as when Odin was caught and held in the black cave of the moon by Reidmar the Ancient, who . said to Odin : "Or hadst thou belike a brother thy twin for evil and good." (Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin p. 89.) In the Egyptian tale of "The Two Brothers," the wife of Pharaoh caused the death of the bull Apis, and .two Persea trees sprang frora the blood, and when the tree was cut a chip flew and was swallowed by the evil wife of Pharaoh which caused her to becorae pregnant. Adonis was born of Myrrha; his raother had been changed to a rayrrh tree, and all these gods went back to the old moon tree, the oak, to hybemate in winter. Pire to the ancients was a god, and the fire gods or Lares, 110 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN phallic progenitors, dwelt there as images by every domestic hearth; man was animated with this same fire hidden in his own clay ; he was a lineal descendent of this sarae Lar, phallus, or solar fire, and the study of this hidden principle of life was the chief feature of all the ancient religions, for the domestic hearth was made the representative of the hearth fire upon the moon, that altar of sacrifice in the moon temple. Kasyapa, the Vedic sage, according to the Atharva-veda, was self -born, and sprang from time. (Dawson, p. 153.) In another Hindu conception, the divine creative power fell in twain and became male and female. The Egyptian Ptah, the parent of all things, was of double sex. An Orphic fragment says Jupiter was both male and female. These ideas of human origin were taught by observations of the moon, that marvelous land of light and darkness, and con tinual evolution — land of creation and destruction, witchcraft and magic. Again they were autocthonous, or sprung from their own soil, as Egyptians from the black mud of the Nile, and the Chaldean and Hebrew from the red earth of Mesopotamia, Adam was earth-born. The different States of Greece claimed to be autochonous, each having its own ancestors sprung from a tree, rock or marsh. Ptah becomes a frog to create man, suggested by the gene sis and evolution of the frog from the egg to the tadpole, and lastly to a frog. Tribes of Northwest descended from a raven or dog. Raven is the black moon ; dog is the moon, the Hecate, the dog that follows his master, the sun, the moon, the watch-dog of the night. Again they show some cavern from which their ancestors THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 111 sprang, which is the moon cave ; many of the American tribes point to some high raountain or rock, which is the moon mountain domesticated. Aztecs born in a place called the seven caverns, which is in the moon, the cave of the sibyl and seven sleepers. The Greeks repeopled the earth after the flood by casting stones behind them, which are the bright rings or crystal stones of the moon, one of which is cast every night. They are the same stones swallowed by Saturn. In the Norse account Ymer, the first man, formed of frost and fire, the progeny of the chaos. In the Chaldean account Bel eut off his own head and mixed his blood with the clay to forra raan. In the Hindu, Prajapati, the universal soul, formed raan frora his breath; the soul was his first breath. In another account raan carae forth from the earth at the call of the divine voice. (Both the divine breath and the divine voice are the flash of simlight upon the dark moon.) The Babylonia Ea, the god of the sea, was a potter, and had molded men out of clay. In the Egyptian Ptah was a potter, and is seen kneading man out of clay on a potter's wheel. The Jews, not to be outdone, have taught Jehovah the potter's trade. In a Zulu myth man eame from a bed of reeds; in other mjrths from trees, plants, and rocks. According to Pindarl the first man carae from the Cephissian marsh, that is, born among the reeds of the moon raarsh. The sun is the artist creator and image maker, like Terah, the father of Abraham. He was Daedalus, celebrated for his skill in architecture and statuary ; he forraed the wooden cow (moon) for Passiphae, wife of the Cretan king. All these creatures are but a play of sunlight upon the 112 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN moon ; spectres seen in the magic mirror of the raoon ; for to the ancient world the raoon was the raother of all things. It is now known that man existed in Europe when England was joined to the continent of Europe, when the German ocean was dry land, and the Tharaes river was a tributary of the Rhine. The Hindu Manu, Egyptian Menes, Greek Minos, Manes, Man and Moon, all belong to the sarae faraily of words, and are types of the first man. The Adam, or first man of the Hindus, was called Yama ; he was the son of the sun, and had a twin sister named Yami. He was the first of men that died and prepared a place for departed souls in the celestial world, "a horae that cannot be taken away, and those who die now follow the paths to the plaee whither our ancient fathers have departed." Where he becarae like the Babylonian Tammuz, and the Egyptian Osiris, and our Christ, the god of departed souls, and judge of the dead. He was Pluto or Minos, and in a later su preraacy sat upon his throne of judgment in the lower world, assisted by his recorder and councillor with messengers to gather and bring in souls of the dead, and a porter kept the door of the judgment hall. Again in Hindu Nara was the first man, the original man, the mover of the waters ; he lies floating on a leaf or shell. It is but another name of Brahma. The first man who governed the world in Persian traditions, was Keioumaratz, who lived a thousand years and reigned thirty. He descended from a raountain covered with the skin of a tiger, and taught men the use of clothes and nutritive food. Ahriman, the genius of evil, sent a demon to destroy him. Noah is the regenerate Adam; he appears again to Abra ham as Melchisedek; again as Christ. He has appeared the regenerate man and redeemer every year since the moon ear- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 113 ried a torch, for all these reformers and culture heroes and redeemers are one and the same, the coming of prophecy, the one promised to save the moon and redeem the earth; that angel Messiah, that high priest at the moon altar. In another variant, Adam's first wife was Lillith (Baby lonian Talith Thalassa), the sea. The first wife of Jupiter was Latona, whose name means oblivion — darkness. The first wife of Abraham was Hagar — Hag (black moon). The first wife of Jacob was Leah, the same dark or concealed one. The first wife is the elder or westem moon, and sometimes the dark unredeemed and primitive chaos. They are a form of the sun and moon brought down to the earth as stewards, husbandmen, vine dressers, to remain for a season in mortal form. The patriarchs are but a solar chronology of the ancients, which have become terrestial and nationalized; solar names have beeome personal and ancestral, and their mythic ex ploits veritable history. Adam and Eve are the sun and moon, and all the phe nomena are lunar, but as the earth was in sympathy with sun and moon to the ancients their history becoraes one, and the earth's changes correspond and are governed by those of the moon, and when spring began on the moon at Easter, the earth revived and awoke from winter sleep. But to us all law, order and civilization upon the earth have been introduced by the sun. The story of Adam and Eve is older than the star groups, for the story of Adam, the sun god, is seen in the attitude of crushing the head of the serpent in a star painting of the Zodiac; the new-bom sun of the spring as Hercules bruising the serpent 's head with his heel. Consequently the conception and details of the story are 114 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN older than the star painting, for events precede narrative — a nation is older than its history. Among all civilized nations we find this ideal man as pro- jenitor of the hunian race, as a civilizer, friend, instructor with great variety of original conception and detail ; as a class they are eivilizers from a far country to which they retum or mysteriously disappear, as Moses, Romulus, Quetzalcoatl, Ly curgus, Zoroaster, Buddha. The story of Adam and Eve is but the story of the Baby lonian Tammuz and Ishtar, and the Phoenician Venus and Adonis, the sun prince and moon princess, who celebrate their nuptials every spring under the tree of life in the garden of the moon, which is the cosmic stage and the throne room of the gods, lit up by the two flaming torches of the moon as footlights. It is where the gods play the solemn pantomime of the year at their annual feasts, where the old sea captain .^ger, and the divine Homer and Wainamoinen are the harpers and sing in the golden feast-hall amid the carven images, the life and death of the year. Adam and Eve return to that spring garden every year as at the beginning, and in the after sumraer tirae the serpent woos and weds Eve. The same Pluto or Hades who weds Proserpine, and the Paris who elopes with the Argive Helen. And as Samson's wife was given to his companion whom he had used as his friend. (Judges 14: 20.) Every year the young prince sun and the moon princess meet at the spring equinox and celebrate their wedding; she has been in hiding all winter, the little Cinderella, or cinder girl sitting on the deserted ash heap of the winter moon — she is wed with the golden ring — the first ring of the Easter raoon, and throws off her blue dress for one of gold, but Adam was the tamer of beasts ; that is another way by which he can be THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 115 identified. That is, he named them as soon as he pronounces their name ; he has control of them ; he is the Bellerophon who tamed Pegasus with the golden bridle. The bridle is the new moon or halter. The name is the first word ever spoken ; it is visibly the new moon ring. The same way Jason tamed the fire-breathing bulls of Col chis with this golden yoke of the new moon of spring, that universal tamer and messenger of peace. Hercules broke in the man-eating mares of Diomede in this way. In the Persian legends it is related that all and every species of wild animal was obedient to the command of Husheng. / Chapter XI. THE TREE. THE WORLD TREB. The vast world tree of iron, which in the beginning of all things spread through space its root, the power of God, its heart sustains the three worlds. The oak tree of the Kalevala, Rune 2nd: This tree over shadowed the land, hid the sunlight and stopped the clouds from passing, and was cut down by a pigmy of a finger's length, who in three nights became a giant and felled the oak tree which had a hundred branches. The tree is the winter moon, the number one hundred alone would betray it; the pigmy woodchopper is the first ring of light to arrive upon the black moon forest, and in three strides during the three dark days of the raoon, he leaped out as a tall giant pillar, and in one-half of a month chopped down the black forest of the moon ; at the end of that time the fourteen days, the moon became full and bright; the three steps of the dwarf are the same three strides of the Hindu god Vishnu. 116 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN Among the many lunar symbols with which mythology abounds, that of the tree is the most universal and familiar. At every lunation or the period of time from one new raoon to the next, the sun overtakes the moon when her old fire is put out and new fire kindled, and as the sun passed over the disc of the moon, it suggested the rubbing of two sticks together (as fire was kindled in that way for the domestic hearth) and the old moon log was seen going east again with one edge on fire, and consequently called a fire tree. Yes, the moon bumed down once a month, like a log of wood, and again sprouted from the old stump. And people worshipped this fire bringer or celestial torch, the home of the fire ; and it was likened to a hearth and fire altar, and one was made like it on earth by the friction of two sacred pieces of wood chosen from trees that were ignitable with lunate leaves and red berries, or such as it would seem the moon had adopted for its abode upon earth; and a tree was selected for a temple and dwelling of their god sanctified and his presence invited. There the altar was set up, and the image of their god. And the tree was hung with arms and weapons and shining omaments, and became an oracle, and a priest was appointed to perform sacrifice and interpret the will of the god, and the moon tree flourished and was green amidst the fire, for it was the fire of life and put forth limbs and lamps as living branches. For fire seemed to be concealed in wood and when two pieces were rubbed together by friction the angry fire came out, bit like a serpent with fiery tongue, and consumed its father and mother, as Agni the Hindu fire-child, born of the two sticks, and became priest of the moon altar. f The sacred trees of Eden and all the other trees referred to i in aneient mythology, whether as tree of life or death, or of j bane or healing, or of knowledge, are all one, and the same THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 117 visible tree of the moon and all the sacred trees chosen upon earth are but representatives of this lunar prototype and in herit its powers and properties. In general, the oak, ash and olive were favorite in Europe; the pine, cedar and thorn in Babylonia, the plane tree and Horaa of Persia, and the fig mango and soma of India, and the palm, a general favorite from India to Egypt. But the palm tree was the most common symbolical tree of eastern nations, India, southem Babylonia and in Egypt, and among the Hebrews, for the palm, it was said, never changed its leaves, and was noted for its longevity. The palm put forth a shoot every month, and was shown at Christmas with twelve shoots, or type of the year, and the palm imitated the solar ray. Sometimes the entire moon is described as a green tree, and the white pillar of the sun rod or new moon is the stalk, and sometimes the crystal root, again it is a green tree ignited by fire upon one edge. Again the moon is a garden filled with green trees and one taller and more conspicuous than the rest, standing in the midst, whieh is the new moon, or white pillar or tree of life. For the moon is chameleon, or tree of many colors, and changing forms, travelling through the constellations, with a new home every month, or house of many mansions ; the new moon is sometimes a vine or creeper; sometimes the moon is a bush, and then the branches or furze cut off and trimmed down to a pillar, or the stalk of the new moon; again it is transplanted to the center of the earth in imagination, and towers to heaven ; again a cosmic tree that fills the universe, heaven, earth and Hell, and has a triform root. The tree is sometimes single, sometimes dual, and either male or female. Though the same tree is multiplied indefi nitely to suit cosraic and sacred numbers, two for east and 118 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN west, or good and evil, or life and death, or again increased to three for the three worlds, or a triform root to suit the triad or three gods, or to six to suit the summer months, or twelve, to fill the Zodiac of twelve constellations, or three hundred and sixty to accommodate the days of the year. . In the end they are all summed up in one tree, whether sunshine or shadow, and represented upon the plane of the moon. When the nation died, their tree and god died with them. With the ancient civilizations in general, the sacred tree was like the god whom it sheltered ; elastic and capable of infinite expansion, and grew until it filled all worlds and the universe, and accommodated itself to the beliefs and whims of its worshippers and compelled to proclaim their laws and oracles. The Irmansul or Hermaic pillar set up by Hermes, was the same moon tree whether in wood or stone, the universal pillar or column, and that is why it was set up at cross-roads upon the earth, because the moon pillar which it represented was set up there at the place where sun and moon met every month and crossed roads, and set up a memorial stone at the mizpah or meeting place, the pillar of Jacob, of Samson and Her cules. It was the Jacob, the messenger, or missionary of the sun setting out every year on his journey around the pathway of the ecliptic, setting up pillars as he stops at the inns or cara- vanseries of entertainment, until twelve pillars are established on his outing. These are the twelve pillars set up by Joshua at Gilgal which means "a circle;" they are the twelve trees mentioned in Revelation ; they are milestones on the old stage road; landmarks of the sun's dominion; outside this he dare not go. These are the twelve kingdoras, and each has its landmark or corner stone. India had fourteen trees, sacred to the fire god Agni, "the tree of great light, ' ' the shining tree on the eastem mountain. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 119 The fourteen trees represent the fourteen nights of the moon 's increase, each night adds a ring or pillar to the moon, during the fulling time of each month. As the moon kept time and marked epochs and seasons, it became an historical tree, as it registered the births and deaths of the solar, lunar and planetary families, it became a genealogical and astronomical tree. As the moon gave signs and signals and mirrored all the actions and thoughts of the sun and the universe, it became an oracle tree. As the moon pumped up the tides and controlled the ocean, and dis tributed the rain, it became the source and fountain of all waters. As its waters sustained all vegetation, it became the tree of all seeds and all fruits, and dropped manna and bread from heaven. As the moon arose from its ashes and renewed its light, it becarae the tree of life and immortality. As the moon tree or pillar went round the universe, and set up its pillar or tree in the twelve houses, it became the uni versal tree or column, and the cosmical tree. As the raoon is in constant sympathy with the sun, it be comes a sympathetic tree, and when the sun departs from the vernal equinox or house of life in the east, he leaves a pledge or life token with the moon raaiden ; he plants a tree of life, which holds his image, and so long as he retains his vigor, the tree will flourish, but when his strength fails, the moon pales, and the tree withers. It gave the oil of healing to all nations, raised the dead, and defied age. The early village coramunities planted a sacred village tree, a holy tree overshadowing a well or inclosure. Every place of worship, every town and village among the British Druids held a sacred tree. We keep an ancestral record of births and deaths, and call it a family tree. 120 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Married couples planted a wedding tree, and over the last resting place of the dead was set a raemorial or guardian tree. Some trees were dedicated to the gods, some to the evil one, some to love, and to sorrow, some to healing and death. The tree represented their god and their faith, as in Assyria and Babylonia, they represented Asher and Anu, as the tree of Canaan planted by Abraham represented Jehovah. As our yule log and cross tree represent Christ. The Greek philosophers attributed to plants not only a soul or spirit, but an intellect. Pliny, B. 12, Ch. 1, says of plants: "Nothing can live with out a vital spirit, and that trees formed the first temples of the gods, and even at the present day the country people con secrate the finest among their trees to some divinity; as the beech to Jupiter, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus, the poplar to Hercules, and the laurel to Apollo. ' ' Prayers for offspring were offered by women at the foot of trees, and women bore children with their back to the thorn tree, and between two fires, the two torches of the crescent raoon. The ancient warrior implored God beneath the tree before battle, and hung his armor and robes upon its boughs in grati tude for victory. But to us at the present day, the tree is illusory, like Aladdin 's lamp, and Jonah 's gourd ; they grow in a night, and disappear in the morning, but to the ancient world the moon was animated by a spirit, and as mistress of the waters controlled all animal and vegetable life. An Euphratean fragraent : "O moon, chief of the gods, king of the gods, of heaven and earth, of the stars upon stars, which dwell in heaven great — into this temple when joyfully thou dost enter the holy buildings and the temple of "The Great Tree." (Records of the Past, Vol. 5, p. 147.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 121 Of old, councils were held under trees, the oldest court house, and the oldest temple were under trees ; there they held worship and festival ; there the maiden was espoused. Under the ash tree the gods hold council every day. Abraham received the angels under an oak. Abimelech was made king by the oak that was in Shechem. The national councils of the Anglo-Saxons were held be neath the shelter of the oak, and after the conversion of the northern pagans, the Christian preacher continued his ser vices under the same trees, and they were called gospel oaks. Kings of the east had throne trees, where they sat in judg ment; the Persian kings were enthroned under a plane tree. King Pepin of France held his court under a tree. There Deborah sat to judge Israel forty years, and the red man met under his council tree. The great bo tree, Africus Religiosa of Ceylon, has fleshy, heart-shaped leaves; there is a patriarch tree standing in Ceylon worshipped 2200 years ; it has been prophet, priest and king. It has been knelt to, prayed to, given them council, and answered prayers. The cross tree is still worshipped; it is stamped upon our holy books and temples, and worn as charms and amulets blessed by the priest. Oaks were planted on the boundaries of lands (this would identify it with the Irmansul) on English parishes ; the gospel oaks are survivals of Jove's tree. They are the twin forks of the new moon of spring, when it arrives at the mizpah or the shiloh, the end of winter, the "Noah's rest," where the ark landed, and the Salem was built, the city of peace; the wandering Jew is the moon who had the mark of the moon cross upon his f ootsole ; he could rest for three days every month at sun's crossing while the raoon was in hiding. 122 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN In 1248 Philip Augustus erected the Saint Chapelle to hold the sacred relic of a piece of this same tree, of the cross which was once the tree of Adam's paradise. We still have the sacred tree of our ancestors; it stands in the temple at Christmas time, loaded with gifts. It is burned at Christmas as a yule log, a sacriflce to God, and it stands as a maypole at the spring festival. It stands in church yards as Rowan, yew and weeping willow, but they flourish best in imagination as a tree of life in some far off paradise, or one that blossoms in the heavens and bears twelve fruits, as echoed in Revelation. THE BRANSTOCK OR FIRE TREE. From Sigurd the Volsung, by William Morris. The story opens upon the Volsung dwelling and the garden of the gods in the Golden Age, before the entering in of terror in the latter days. The dwelling is the moon of the spring equinox. And in that dwelling of kings was a raarvellous thing to be hold, for from its midmost hall-floor there sprang up a mighty tree, which was called the Branstock; and it was while they sat feasting around the Branstock at the spring festival, and a sea king sang with his harp, that into the Volsung doorway there entered a mighty man, and strode up to the Branstock and drew a gleaming sword, and smote it deep in the tree-bole and said: "Let the man among you who is able to pluck it from the oakwood, e'en take it for my gift." Many tried, but none could draw the gift, until it came the turn of Sig- raund the Volsung, who drew the naked blade and waved it over his head. The sword that the god Odin smote in the tree is the new moon of spring thrust deep in the dark moon. The scene of the above is in the raoon, which has arrived in conjunction with the sun at the beginning of the Golden Age THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 123 of spring, when the gods, sun and moon have come down to dwell with men. The tree-bole in which the sword was thrust is the dark round moon unalloyed with sunlight at conjunction of sun and moon when they meet at the entrance of the northern kingdom. The Branstock raeans "fire tree." Bran as heard in fire brand, and stock as heard in gun-stock, or gun-tree and whip- stock. On the evening described, the cloud blue Odin enters and thrusts a sword of light in the tree-bole or black moon, and the sword is the new raoon, or sword of the sun; it will lie there until the third day concealed, when Sigmund the spring sun king will draw it oiit. He alone is able to draw out the the sword of victory. Sigmund the sun will go on to conquer and restore order through the six constellations, or houses of summer ; though well he knows his fate, that after his battle reaping he will be the last of the sheaves laid to rest, in the house of the west where Volsung, his father fell, the house of the Niblungs. There the sons of Volsung were all slain but Sigmund and Signy, his sister, the moon princess, of the house of the east, who was carried off by King Siggeir the Goth, answering to Pluto or Hades, the one who conducted Eve and Proserpine to their winter hermitage. BABYLONIAN TREE. ' "Within the deep there was a streara before the house of the gods had been made. Merodach raised upon the seashore a bank; he caused the plant to be brought forth ; he made the tree. ' ' "In Eridu a stalk grew shadowing; in a holy place did it be come green. Its root was of white crystal, which stretched toward the deep; before Ea was its eourse in Bridu teeming 124 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN with fertility ; its seat was the central place of the earth ; its foliage was the couch of Zikum, the priraeval mother ; into the heart of its holy house which spread its shade like a forest, hath no raan entered. There is the home of the mighty raother who passes across the sky." In the midst of the tree was Tamrauz; there is the shrine of the true gods. Before Ba was its course, it was the serpent's path, the path of Ea the god of the sea, and the "serpent rope;" it is found again in the Norse as the path or slot of Pafner the serpent. [(In Sigurd the Volsung, by Williara Morris.) The tree of Eridu is the tree that gave oracles. (Maspero, p. 642.) This Babylonian world tree that grew in Eridu, the sacred city, is described as a vine or root of crystal sprouting in tha sea or abyss before the world was created, and was a theory conceived from observations of the moon where the little crystal, germ of light, we call the new moon, sprouted in the blue depths of the moon sea and grew to a tree of light that illumined the world, and could again be folded up in the twinkling of an eye and concealed in its cavern, for the m6on at that time and many ages after, was self-luminous before the origin of its light was discovered. And upon this theory they rested the first creation of the world which began in the deep as a little island like the germ of the new raoon, and grew to its present stature from the deep or abyss. And this same tree we find in the Norse ygdrasil, which had a root of crystal, and again in the Branstock or fire tree, cut down every year and again sprouted from its ancient wondrous root, as told in Sigurd the Volsung, by Morris. "The Branstock bloometh to heaven from its ancient won drous root. "And the summer hath shone on its blossoms, and Sigurd's THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 125 sword is the fruit." (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 131, by Wil liam Morris.) The tree of Nebuchadnezzar was cut down, but the sturaps and roots were left, like the Volsung tree, which sprouted frora its wondrous, ancient root, and again cut down for a floating ark. (Daniel 4: 16.) It is the tree seen in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, which grew and reached to heaven, and to the end of earth; and a watcher eame down from heaven and commanded the tree cut down, but to leave the stump and roots protected with a band. This is the same Volsung tree that again sprouts from its won drous root every spring. (Daniel 4: 15.) Homa was the first of the trees which Ahura Mazda planted in the fountain of life in the Persian paradise. He who drank of its juice never died ; it gave health, life, and immor tality. The Homa never dies; the Homa plant used was the chosen symbol of the new moon of spring, that ring which never dies, but rises from its ashes. The flower resembles the lotus ; it is called in the Avesta the "word of Life," "Tree of Life," "Source of the water of Life ; " it was drunk as a pledge, like our sacrament of bread and wine, and contained the body of God. The Haoma plant used by the Zend or West Aryans, grows like the vine with leaves, like the jessamine ; it grows upon the mountains of Asia, and the Parsees of India still send their priests to Kirman to procure the plant for their religious rites. The drink made from it was stimulating, inspiring, and gave knowledge, this is how the tree came to be called a knowl edge tree, and the juice a drink of knowledge, and how the old Aryans of India fed their gods on soma juice to make them strong to fight their enemies, and enabled Indra to over come the serpent Vritra. The Homa of the Zend or West Aryans was likewise a world 126 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN tree, a tree of all seeds, fpr it ascended to heaven, and its roots were in a lake, and an eagle perched in the top, which was the sarae tree as Eridu, which took root in the sea and ascended to heaven. Soma was king of plants, and presented as an offering to God; it gave life and immortality, and was itself deified and exalted to the rank of a god. By drinking it, man became like the gods; in soma the priest drank his god, as we drink the blood of Christ; by it man averted death — it was the drink of a covenant. The soma plant of the Hindu is a climbing plant — a vine, the Asclepias Acida ; it is a milk-weed, and yields a railk- white juice, like the white river of life seen running frora the moon. It yields purer railk than any other known plant, and frora this was chosen to represent the railky stream of the new moon, and was used in the great soma sacrifice. This drink was a divine juice, and like the nectar of the Greeks was the drink of the gods. Indra drank soraa to obtain strength. One soraa plant was for earth, and the other grew in the raiddle of a great sea and contained the healing powers of all vegetables and gave im mortal life. The heavenly soma dropped from the peepul, or religious fig tree; the gods sat beneath it and drank immor tality ; it was the tree of all fruits and seeds, and grew in the heaven of Brahma in a lake called Aza, and at its foot grew all healing plants. And the principal cause of the fall and apostasy of thc ancient nations that have come down to us as fragmentary was caused by the sweet juice of a plant or stimulating beverage which corrupted and depraved ; a hint of which is thrown out in our Eden myth, that as soon as Adam and Eve had tasted of the fruit of the vine tree, or knowledge tree, their eyes were opened, and we still call a little drop from the bottle, an ' ' eye-opener. ' ' THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 127 The oldest name of Babylon in the old Turanian language is Tin-Tir-Ki, ' ' the place of the tree of life ' ' ; for it repre sented the garden of the moon from which all emigration started; on the sarcophagi of Babylon appears the symbol of the tree of eternal life, and the sumerian or accadian tree of life is a plant of pyramidal shape, whieh has been identified with the Persian homa, which still grows upon the mountains, and is still used by the Parsees in preparing their sacred stimulating and inspiring drink. The Babylonian tree of life at Eridu ' ' the good city ' ' had engraved upon its core the name of Ea, the chief god, and a man possessed of the seven evil spirits was sent to this tree to be healed by Merodach, the son of Ea. (Merodach, their healer and redeemer.) And this was the form of the magical text: "Let the fire of the cedar tree that destroys the wickedness of the Incubus on whose core the name of Ea is written with the spell supreme, the spell of Eridu, of purity from founda tion to roof ; let its fire ascend and to the sick man never may these seven evil spirits approach." The sacred tree is sometiraes pine, cedar, or vine tree. When Ishtar entered Hades, the portals were opened by the keeper, and lo ! as it were a green bough cut off, a rod of salvation cut from a tree, for she had descended to bring back Tammuz, her shepherd and spouse, the redeemer of the year. And here we have that same rod of salvation, the golden branch, that tree of life, and the redeemer in old Babylonia 2000 years and more before the Christian Era. TREE OF HOREB. The burning bush, or fire tree of Horeb, which is the acca dian Gis-Bar, or ' ' wood of light, ' ' the ' ' god of light, ' ' which is the Hi-No-Ki or fire tree of Japan. 128 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN And there was a man called Moses and he was born in Egypt, and the child of a Hebrew slave, and when he grew up, in his anger he slew an Egyptian and fled for his life, and came to the land of Midian and was employed by Jethro, a priest of that country to herd his sheep ; and he pastured the flock at a mountain called Horeb, ' ' the desert mountain, ' ' and as he was passing one day he saw a tree on fire, and though it continually burned it was not consumed, and he turned aside to witness the strange spectacle. And it was in the days when all things had a soul, and the trees and the stones spoke, and the tree in flames cried out to Moses and the spirit of the tree spoke from its topmost branch. That tree was the moon, just emerging from the rays of the sun in the west after the sun had gone down, and the sun had set the moon on fire, and one side was buming, while on the other side the leaves were green. It was the fire of life, not the burning destroying fire which consumes. It was spring time, and the sun had come up from the south to renew verdure. Moses was that sun and leader, not the heavenly immortal sun, but a son of the sun, an inferior sun, the sun of the eari;h, the tiller and husbandman of the earth, the keeper of the vineyard, subject to the will of his heavenly father, and died with the year. Sometimes an attribute or function of the deity was ex alted to the highest rank — ^was detached as it were from the solar power and became a separate individual god. And gods were multiplied to fill out the dramatis personse of the lunar stage and give greater scope to the celestial tragedy. And we find a morning sun, a noon sun and a night sun distinct. We have a sun for each of the twelve constellations ; a sun for each of the seasons, and a sun of heaven, a sun of earth, and a sun of the underworld, a sun of life, and a sun df THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 129 death — ^not the supreme sun of the upper heaven, but agents of the sun, or the sun in special or limited capacities, or the sun as a hero. The above I\Ioses, the law giver, is the sun transferred to the earth, playing the tragedy of the year in a human way with local scenery to satisfy the vanity and overweening con ceit of the Jews, though not confined to the Jews alone, for all the ancient civilizations have sought to raise the standard of their importance through the exploits of heroes and mythical and miraculous history. This Moses the Jew was the common property of all civilized nations, as leader, law-giver, and culture hero. He was Romu lus, who slew his brother Remus. These were all righteous murders, and a way was always provided for their escape. The Egyptian slain or rent by Moses by the thrust of the spring sword of light from the sun, was his brother, the moon. It was redemption ; the moon did not die, but was awakened from his torpor and winter sleep by the sword of the sun, and restored to his former self. As the scales fell from the eyes of persecuting Paul, and memory came back to forgetful Peter by the light of that moming sword, which was the crow of the cock. And the dark Egyptian brother (the moon) became the friend and helper of Moses, as Paul and Peter became the ser vants of God, and Eabani to Gilgames. The house of refuge is at the spring equinox, the Shiloh of peace, where all animosities were forgotten, and wolf and lamb lie down together. For it was midway, and on the dividing line between the two kingdoms of north and south, and votes were equal; six would be cast for summer on the north, and the other six below the line would be cast for winter. And the verdict for the culprit would result in a tie, and the court adjourn. By the observance of these astronomical laws, houses of 130 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN refuge were established where the murderer might flee and be safe from his pursuers. They were duly recognized and ap pointed among the Jews, Greeks and other nations — even among the Pacific Coast Indians of America. They are of frequent occurrence in classical times where the offender raight flee to that altar of a god, which is the raoon altar, and claim protection. Throughout all the ancient world the people turned to the east for peace, for hope, for resurrection, toiling on through the storm of winter "until Shiloh come." And so persistent do they become that they are going to have the world de stroyed at a Millenium or Ragnarok, and have it created anew, filled with the leaven of peace, "just to satisfy the longings of such as are redundant with credulity." THE COSMIC FIRE TREE PROM THE WELSH MABI NOGIAN. Peredur saw a tree by the side of a river one half of which was in flames from the root to the top, and the other half was green and in full leaf. It is the same tree of Moses, the green tree of the moon set on flre in the west by the sun's fire after sunset. Again in the Hindu, Raja Rasalu eame upon a sandal wood tree whieh was burning, and he asked his wise speech friend why it was, and it turned out that a serpent had bitten the tree and caused it to bum, and there flew a young swan out of the tree and the Raja caused the fire to be put out, and the tree again became green and the swan flew back. The fire serpent is the new moon ring ; Rasalu is the sun who can withhold his fire and the moon will again become green. The moon is that chest that inclosed the dead body of the Egyptian god Osiris, which floated to Byblos and went ashore THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 131 in a thicket of Tamarisk heath, and the heath grew to a tree and folded the chest in a husk, and the king of Byblos cut off the bushy part and made of it a post to support the roof of his house, and his wife Isis went to Byblos and begged the post, for it contained the soul of her husband Osiris. It was the bushy moon deprived of its cloak of darkness which exposed the white pillar which contained the soul of Osiris. This is the husk that enclosed the sleeping Brynhild on the heath. Revelations 22 : 1, 2 proves that the tree of life is the moon, which bears twelve manner of fruits and yields her fruit every month, and the leaves were for the healing of the nations, and this tree stood by the river of life, which issued from the throne of God. That river of life is the golden river of the new moon, running from the throne of God, the same river of life which issued from the throne of Allat, the queen of the Babylonian Hades, which Istar and Tamuz sought every year for the healing of the nations. Chinese traditions: It was in the reign of Yao about 2100 B.C., a kind of plant grew on each side of the palace stairs, and was called a Calendar plant; on the first day of the month it produced one pod and so on every day a pod, to the fifteenth of the month, and then on the sixteenth one pod fell off, and so on every day a pod to the last of the month, and if the month was a short one, one pod shrivelled up without falling. The Calendar tree is the moon which produces a white pod or ring every night to the middle of the month, or full moon, and then loses a pod or ring until the moon is dark and the month that will be short a pod will be February. Barbarosa sleeps until the ravens cease to fly about, when he shall break the magic ties of winter, give battle to his ene mies on the Rhine and then he will hang his shield on a. 132 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN withered peav tree which will blossom and bear fruit, which is the tree God planted in Eden, and the tree Abraham replanted when he dug a well, the withered fig tree or winter tree of Christ reinispired with life and become the budding rod of Aaron and the white wand of Mercury. The above is a legend of the year played by the sun and moon, but transferred to the Rhine with Frederick Barbarossa, the redbeard, substituted for the solar hero. In Wide Awake Tales, p. 108, we find the million-fold rice which reopens in a single night ; it was the tallest spike of rice which grew in the centre ; that spike is the first ring or pillar of the moon ; it grows in the moon raarsh and ripens in one night ; rice grows in the water and is very prolific. FATE OF THB TEN CAPTIVE SONS OP VOLSUNG. At the end of summer the ten sons of Volsung are taken captive by Siggeir the Goth, and led to the forest, where a . great-boled oak, the mightiest they could find, was cut down in the lawn of the first mile of the wood, and the ten captives were chained two and two to the tree in fetters of iron and left to be devoured by wolves. That is the same oak tree of life of the east which has gone over to the west at the end of summer ; and every moming the woodmen of Siggeir brought back word that two had been devoured and the hopples held the bare white bones of the heroes until at last it came the tum of Sigmund and his captive mate Sigi; and from out the thicket the gray wolves drew nigh in the evening, and the he wolf fell upon Sigi, and the she wolf thrust her muzzle right into the very face of Sigmund. And he caught her with his teeth, for his hands were bound with hopples, and in the struggle his fetters broke, and he THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 133 slew her with his hopples — he found Sigi dead, and the gray wolf had fled to the forest. The tree cut down is the dark tree of the moon, in which are bound its silver rings, two and two in pairs ; the two forks of each moon ring making a pair. The scene at the end of sum mer, when the summer tree of life or moon tree is cut down in the west, for the moon has moved through six signs since she left the sign of spring in the east, and she is now the last sheaf or moon tree of summer. The scene takes place at the conjunction of sun and moon, when they meet at the time of the three dark nights. The captives are bound two and two, making the five couples ; the wolves devour two every night, which leaves a white strip with two homs, which is the moon ring, or bones. In this way they are devoured until the flesh is eaten off the moon, and the bare white bones or rings of the moon left. The ten captive sons of Volsung are the ten kings or fabu lous heroes at the head of most of the ancient civilizations; they are the ten patriarchs of the Hebrew list and Noah the tenth, like Sigmund the Volsung, escapes to renew the year anciently of ten months. It is Sinon the Greek captive es caped to Troy with hands bound to betray their city by the Wooden Horse. It is the Burylochus who escaped from the wiles of Circe to inform Ulysses of the fate of his comrades; it is the horse Greyfell of Sigurd the Volsung, who alone swam the ford when all the rest were drowned. In a word it is the one ring of the moon that escapes the conflagration of the lunar orb and returns the sole survivor, the first ring of the new moon, that deathless one. The Branstock, fire tree, or tree of life, is every year cut down in the autumn and floats as an ark and called a golden serpent or dragon on its way down through Aquarius, the water region; it is the ark of Noah and Hindu Manu, and 134 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN Argo of Jason ; the dragon is the sarae one that drew the chariot of Cadmus and Harmonia to the Elysian Plains, the fire serpent drawing the black car of the moon behind it. And again it is in the spring that the evil tree which grew in winter is cut down and with it the palace of Siggeir the Goth, is burned by Sigmund and his son Sinfiotli delivered from bondage (the old sun and the new sun) and during the conflagration of the palace his sister Signy refuses to leave the house and is consumed by the fire, all but her feet, which were found in the ashes untouched by the fire. Her feet are the two forks of the new moon ; she is our Easter moon, the Virgin reborn and purified by fire every spring to become the bride of the Adam, the Tammuz, the Adonis, or moon reborn. The story of Sigurd the Volsung is filled everywhere with dark and dire mythology hitherto unintelligible. The above story is but an unrestrained riot of imagination to see how monstrous a tale may be told, and yet in its hidden sense be true translated into intelligible English. It means that every year when the old year moon arrives at the spring equinox, it is burned out — becomes totally dark in the fires of the sun, when the two luminaries meet in that sign entering the northern kingdom, and she is reborn as the new raoon, and becomes the new bride of Easter, or spring moon. Her feet alone were left which fire can never bum ; they are the two forks of the new moon which become wedding slippers, necklace, wedding ring, and bride, all in one. But the Branstock sprouts again every spring from its ancient wondrous root, and again every winter floats as an ark bearing the seed of life baek to the east. The moon is continually burned over and then renewed, de voured as provender, first by the white and then the black race THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 135 as pasture devoured by sheep and cattle, or as the liver of Prometheus which grows as fast as consumed. STORY OP PYRAMUS AND THISBE. But the early poets and mythographers took great liberty in the rendering and elaboration of myths, and instead of dying upon a tree, or by a tree, or buried in a tree or sepulchre, the solar divinities were changed into a tree by metamorphosis. As with the serpent, they were not always bitten by a serpent, but changed into serpents, as Cadmus and Harmonia, or turned to stone like Niobe and Lot's wife; and the most numerous are those changed to trees and shrubs in autumn time, to the funereal fig or cypress, or in spring to trees of life, as the vine and olive. In a Babylonian tale Pyramus and Thisbe are forbidden the presence of each other and made love and whispered through the chink of a wall which separated their dwellings, and there they planned an elopement and a meeting place at the tomb of Ninus, under a white mulberry tree. Thisbe arrived first at the trysting, closely veiled, but was frightened by a lion, and in her flight dropped her veil, and as it lay in the path of the lion, was torn by the mouth of the animal, already made bloody from the recent destruction of some cattle. Pyramus arrived later, and beholding the bloody veil, sup posed the maiden destroyed by a wild beast, and slew himself in despair. Thisbe, after her fright, again appeared upon the scene, beheld her lover dead, threw herself upon the same sword, and together they died. The mulberry tree which hung over the fatal spot, changed its color from snow-white to red. 136 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The chink in the wall where the lovers whispered, is the ring of light where the sun has rent the black wall of the moon, which we call new moon, which marks the boundary of their habitations. It is the machpelah or cave of double divi sion, and divides the two kingdoms of light and darkness ; the same cave in which Sigmund the Volsung and Sinfiotli were buried by Siggeir the Goth, and the lovers have been for bidden each other's company, for the love season is over, and the sun declining turns southward toward winter. The scene is at the conjunction of sun and moon at mid summer, the end of the northern career of the sun in the sign of Leo the lion, where Samson and Hercules slew the same lion. Thisbe, the dark moon, veiled or raasked by the rays of the sun arrives first. The lion is the sun's paw, appearing upon the black moon or the new moon at the third day of conjunc tion. The sword and the red blood are the same in appear ance, and so is the tree now turned to red by the sun's ray. It is that sacrifice which always occurs when the sword of the stm slaughters the moon ; the spear wound in his side, and the red blood of atonement is seen upon the fire altar. It was the young spring sun always died at midsumraer. The sisters of Phseton are changed to poplars on the banks of the Eridanus, as they lament the fate of their brother slain by the thunderbolt from Jove. Their tears harden and fall in the river as amber. It is the annual death of his only son, the moon child, who is the son of the sun, and always retrogrades at this season and is turned backward. The grief of the sisters is the wail of the summer women weeping for Tararauz slain, and their tears harden to the yel low pellucid new moon, which is likened to amber. In classics, a Leucothea is dishonored by Apollo and buried THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 137 alive by her father, and the god caused the frankincense shrub to spring from her grave, which is the winter moon. It is the moon maiden at conjunction, when the sun darkens the chamber of the moon for three nights, and dishonors the maiden ; her grave is the black moon covered with a pall, and . from that grave she springs as the incense tree, or winter moon. Philemon and Baucis were transformed into two trees, the oak and linden, and their cottage into a temple of Zeus, where they became his priests before he opened the flood gates. The temple is the moon, and the two priests are two forks of the new moon. Myrrha changed to an incense-breathing tree. Nymph Lotis, who had been changed to the form of a lotus plant while fleeing from the vile pursuit of a god. These transformations to tree and stone and beast were at the end of summer; it was a temporary suspension of life through winter ; it is the light of the moon going back in the heart or root of its parent tree. As Daphnis was identified with her tree, the laurel, Zeus with the oak, Minerva with the olive, for she created the tree. Abram was himself the tree he planted, and made his own mark or iraage on the moon — he was the fire tree. - Odin with the ygdrasil, and the Volsungs with the branstock and the moon became the goddess of the fire tree, the vestal virgin that guarded the sacred fire ; she was the housekeeper of the sun and kept his fire, and became the custodian of the altar; she often played the part of tree and serpent herself upon the lunar stage. Hermits and ascetics clothed theraselves in bark, and re tired to the forest, or with long matted locks, clothed in sack cloth and ashes, in imitation of the winter moon. The moon raaiden no longer susceptible to love rejects the sun's embrace; the dews cease, the plants which owed their 138 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN sustenance to the raoon, wither and die; changed into dark and hideous faces that turn away from the sun; riot ensues; the world runs back. PARIJATA TREE. In the Hindu story the Pari j ata tree was produced at the churning of the ocean, and was one of the nine sea-bom gems. It was a tree of great beauty, of fragrant flowers and fruits; the flowers possessed of magic virtue, to win the love of raen when wom in a woman's hair, and the fruit made one wise. In the Vishnu Purana is a legend which tells of Krishna and his wife going to the heaven of Indra, when the wife of Krishna desired the Pari j ata tree which had been planted in the garden of Indra. Indra gave Krishna the tree so long as he reraained upon the earth. This Parijata tree was then transplanted upon earth, and in the garden of Kesava; the sraell of this paradise tree per fumed the earth for three furlongs, and enabled every one approaching to recollect the events of a prior existence, so that on beholding their faces in that tree, all the Yadavas contemplated themselves in their original celestial forms. (It was in the mirror of the moon they beheld.) (Vishnu Purana, Vol. 5, p. 105.) The Parijata tree retumed to heaven when Krishna died, together with his Sudharman palace. They return at the end of summer like the Apsaras and swan maidens. (Wilson: Vishnu Purana, Vol. 5, p. 155, 200.) Like the apples of Juno, they were but only for the sum mer, and when sumraer ended, they were sent back to the land of shades under the guardianship of the serpent Ladon ; every THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN l39 spring they are brought back by the sun king Hercules, and in winter stolen back by the serpent king of winter. Like the summer fire of Prometh"us, it is lent but for a season ; it was a scion cut from a heavenly tree — the moon. Like the cup bearers of Jove's banquet hall, caught up from earth to the moon to escape the perils of the evil season of winter, a>^ Pelops, Iphigenia, Hebe, and Jack and Jill, the water car riers, to retum again to earth in the spring. Like the quicken tree brought from fairyland in "Tale of Dermot and Grania" in Celtic Romance (Joice) the fairy quicken tree of Dooroo guarded by Sharvan the surly giant, the moon tree which comes down from heaven every year to dwell in the garden of the east. The above was Eve's tree of knowledge. NAHj TREE. On the Ides of September a nail was driven by the supreme Pretor in the temple wall of the Capitoline Jupiter; this marked a year, and was the annual nail, the record of time. It was first driven at the dedication of the temple. For it was dedicated on the Ides of September, and an era was reckoned from that day. It was similar to the binding of a bundle of reeds, or the sheaf of the year among primitive nations. The lapse of each Etruscan year was recorded by driving a nail into the temple of Nortia, (the goddess of Pate) at Volsinii. In Vienna the sacred tree still stands in the centre of the eity, in which anciently every apprentice before starting upon his journey drove a nail. It was called "stoch am Eisen" (the iron tree or stump). It was a luck nail, or token; the point where the old year ends is where the new begins. 140 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The apprentice was the wandering Bellerophon, and the coin on his annual joumey through winter; the wandering Jew who left a cross frora the sole of his shoe wherever he stopped once a month on the moon. The iron tree would seem to be the winter tree, for iron in mythology universally represents winter and death, or the age of winter. Hades wore the iron mask and the helm of dread ; and in many tales the exile from the summer land was forced to go on until he wore out the iron shoes. The apprentice is the Sigurd or Siegfried, the future son of spring, apprenticed to his old uncle, the sraith, who is none other than the winter raoon. That was the nail driven in the teraple of Jair, the Hebrew judge ; they are the three nails driven at the crucifixion, for the three seasons of the year, and the three worlds, and the trinity of the gods. TREE AND SERPENT. In many tales the serpent is represented as a ring of light .encircling br embracing the dark orb of the moon. Again the serpent lies at the root of the tree. The following is from the ' ' Book of the Dean of Lismore ' ' : A rowan tree stood iu Loch Mai Every quarter, every month; It bore its well-ripened fruit — There stood the tree, alone, erect, Its fruit than honey sweeter far, That precious fruit so richly red Did sufSce for a, man's nine meals. A year it added to man's life. Health to the wounded it could bring, A monster fierce lay at its root. Which they who sought its fruit must fight. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 141 The above is the same Hades that lay at the root of the Narcissus, pulled by Proserpine. It was the jNIercurius or bottle imp that lay at the root of the summer tree ; the roots extend to Hell and the abyss. That was Eve's tree. The serpent Nidhog, lay at the root of the ygdrasil ; it is the axe that lies at the root of the tree. For one half the year the serpent is bound ; the other half of the year the Prometheus is bound in sleep, or hybemates. Again a snake lies under a tree and exhausts its powers. "Kill the snake and transplant the tree." Again a toad takes the place of the snake. (Sixty Folk Tales, p. 23.) The same spotted winter snake came out from under the fire altar at the sacrifice of Agamemnon at Aulis, and ascended the plane tree and devoured nine sparrows. A.t Altis Pausanias mentions to have seen a Hercules, and the apple tree in the garden of the Hesperides, and the dragon coiled around the tree and was carved in cedar wood. (Pau sanias, B. 6, Ch. 19.) THE MYSTERY OP THE GOLDEN BRANCH RE VEALED. There was a sacred lake and grove and temple in the vicinity of Aricia in Latium about a dozen miles from Rome, near by the Appian Way. They were at the foot of the Alban mountains, and it was in that grove there grew a wondrous tree, around which a strange creature might have been seen prowling with anxious look, and in his hand he carried a sword. He was a priest and, a murderer, and the man he was look- 142 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN ing for would some day come upon him and slay hira and take the priesthood in his stead, for that was the law of the sanctu ary; for he could only take the office by slaying the priest, and then held it until he himself was slain. This grove stood at Nemi, on the northern shore of the lake, and within this sacred enclosure stood the tree, and only a runaway slave might break one of its boughs ; this branch was broken by ^neas, who fled from Troy. This temple of Diana in Latium represents the moon temple of Shilo, or the garden of the east, which is the garden of Eden at the spring equinox; every spring a new priest takes possession of the moon temple at the Easter festival. He is the first ring of the moon, or new moon, the Melchlzedek or priest king, who came out to meet Abraham returning from the wars; when he arrives the old moon dies and the moon is dark, and on the third day the new priest officiates at the altar; this new priest can never take the office until the old one is slain, and the fire of his altar put out, and then on the third evening the new fire is kindled, which is priest and altar, all one. The same misfortune will happen to himself on the next anniversary. This new arrival is the ^neas, who fled frora Troy, which is the old moon burnt three days ago. The Moses, the murderer, who slew his brother three days ago ; and the temple he is to occupy will come up in the moon constellation of Aries in three days, during which time he has been herding the sheep of Jethro, and he has been the Aries or ram to lead the flock ; in one sense it is the new moon of the spring succeeding himself as priest of the altar. This ^neas is the runaway slave from the old raoon, and the one who broke off its last golden ring or golden bough, and THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 143 ran away; he will plant it on the moon of the vernal equinox; he can be called ^neas or Moses, and has many names; he is the Jason with the golden fleece; he is Joseph the golden vine that hangs over the wall which is the black wall of the moon. The story is that of the ferryman so often told. He will continue to ferry the dead over the stream until he gives the oar (new moon) into the hand of another, and jumps ashore. The ferry boat is the new moon seen upon the stygian lake of the moon; boat and oarsmen are both one; he is on his last voyage, which ends the old year. The next new moon seen on the lake will be his successor who will hold his office for one year also. This priest of Diana's temple is the Herod, uneasy about that one born to dethrone him, the Jason or one- sandaled man whom Pelias feared ; that Laius, King of Thebes, warned by the oracle to beware of offspring, and had the foundling exposed on Mt. Cithaeron for destruction, but the opdipus escaped to fulfil prophecy. Now Saul abode in Gibeah, under a tree in Ramah, having his spear in his hand, troubled and waiting for David, the son of Jesse, who had obtained the sword of Goliath, and was dwelling an outcast in the forest of Hareth, and he trembled for his kingdom and fate. (I Samuel 22: 6.) ' ' Caradoc with the shrunken arm, ' ' who went to receive knighthood at Arthur's court, when a stranger arrived and offered to lay his neck upon the block for any knight to strike on condition that if he survived the blow, the knight should submit to the same experiment the next anniversary. Caradoc was the one who inflicted the blow, and sent the head of the strange knight rolling from his shoulders; the decapitated knight followed the head, picked it up, and replaced the head upon hie shoulders with complete success, and said he would 144 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN return when the court was assembled the next year, and -claim his turn. The strange knight turned out to be his own father, Eliaures, the enchanter ; the severed head is the black moon cut off by the red sword of the new moon, or young moon of spring, the son. of the old enchanter. The head is placed back on the red neck or sword gash and raakes off eastward. It is the old head or old year cut off by the new to tally the years, that anxious man prowling around the tree, sword in hand, as related in the first story; the shrunken arm of Caradoc is the ring of the new moon. The slayer could remain in the city of his refuge until the death of the high priest. (Numbers 35: 32.) A painting by Turner, the artist, perpetuates this myth of the golden bough ; it represents a priest guarding the tree of the Golden Bough, which stands in a sacred grove. The golden bough is plucked, the priest slain, and the slayer be comes his successor. When ^neas descended to the shades below, he was obliged to pluck the golden bough as a passport. The golden bough grew on a double tree. Two doves were his guides, perched in the top of the tree. He rent the shining bough and bore it to the Sibyl's cave, and together they went to the ferryman and presented the golden rod to Charon as a passport to be ferried over the death stream. If any living person presented hiraself to cross the river of the dead, he was not allowed to enter the bark until he should present to Charon a golden bough obtained from the Cumaean Sibyl. "And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall no more be consumed with hunger. (Ezekiel 34:29.) In other tales this golden branch appears as the man or THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 145 woman with the golden hand or golden arm — the moon with a golden arm. The magic wand of Mathonwy, which grows in the wood with more exuberant fruit on the bank of the river of spectres; Kynan shall obtain it when he governs. (Davies' Mythology British Druids, p. 41.) The golden branch grew upon the banks of the Styx, the river of death at the west. Of the twelve rods for the twelve houses of Israel, Aaron's rod was the only one which blossomed, the rod of the house of the east. (Numbers 17:31. That golden rod by which Moses divided the waters and smote the rock, and the rod of Elisha laid on the dead child of the Shunammite. (II Kings, 4:31.) It is the spire of the church steeple, the stick cast in the bitter waters, and the stick that caused the axe to swim. (II Kings 6:6.) There shall come forth a rod out of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. (Isaiah 11: 1.) THB PIG TREE OF ADAM AND EVE. Yama the Hindu, Hades or Pluto-Minos, is called Audum- bara or Udumbara, "the fig tree." (Dawson.) The cases in which the ancient Egyptians were buried are found to be Egyptian sycamore, or fig. The fig tree is funereal; in Ben Jonson's "Masque of Queens. Third witch. Yes, I have brought to help our vows, Horned poppy, cypress boughs. The fig tree wild that grows on tombs. And juice that from the larch tree comes. It was the winter tree for Eve. 146 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN The whirlpool of Charybdis lies under a great fig tree in full leaf. When Ulysses was sucked in by the whirlpool of Charybdis he held to a wild fig tree growing there, until it was again thrown out, when he resumed his winter voyage home to the Isle of Ithica. In legend the holy family rested under a fig tree on their winter flight to Egypt. This fig tree overhung the CastaUan fountain on Parnassus. In the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries the procession halted at this tree on the sacred road from Athens to Eleusis. Illus founded Ilium on the plain, and was buried by the wild fig tree in the middle of the plain. "They rushed through the raiddle of the plain by the wild fig tree by the tomb of Hus. ' ' The fruitless fig tree of Christ showed the sterile part of the year wanting in virility. The wife of Hector says: Stay then in this tower, and call up to the wild fig tree all thy re tired power. Queen Isis recovered all the pieces of Osiris but one, the fourteenth, which had been swallowed by a fish. This lost piece was replaced by one made of fig wood, and the lost piece was the phallus or virile member. An Egyptian tomb at Thebes represents a scene in paradise, where the souls are partaking of the fruit and water of the fig tree. And the above tree is the ficus sycaraorus. A fig tree overshadowed Romulus and Reraus in the Luper cal cave on the Palatine hill, as the Erica overshadowed Osiris, and the ivy perforraed the sarae office for Bacchus. The contention between summer and winter. (Judges 9:8.) Went to anoint king and said to the fig tree reign ; said to the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 147 vine reign. (Joshua 11:13-14.) One is the tree of winter, the other the vine, the tree of spring and summer. The fig is inevitably connected and associated with sex. It is a tradition of the Jews that Eve fell by this tree; that she ate of the lingam fig, or male fig tree, and they sewed fig leaves together to hide their nakedness. The ficus religiosa or religious fig tree of India is the sacred fig tree, and is never allowed to be cut ; its leaves are used in divination ; it is the haunt of ghosts and hobgoblins. They have worshipped this tree 2200 years in succession; they pray to it and consult it as an oracle ; it is their prophet and priest ; it is still young and renews itself yearly. The lingam or male emblem was hung in the hollow of the female fig tree, and barren women prayed to it with pro pitiatory offerings; in Hindu belief the seed of this tree was dropped frora heaven. In the Hindu legend when Brahma had taken human form, a blossom of the sacred fig tree was dropped from heaven for his temptation, and at the instigation of his wife, Brahma ob tains the blossom to render himself immortal, for which he re ceived a curse similar to Adam. To see thy shame is phallic, in the 18th book of the Odyssey. The braggart Irus is told if he is beaten in the strife with Odysseus, he will be given over to King Echetus, and have his shame cut off and thrown to dogs, a periphrase to avoid ob scenity. That was the shame of Eden hidden by fig leaves; the shame of Noah revealed by Ham and covered by his brothers. The fig tree was sacred frora Italy to India. A basket of figs was carried in the processions of the Eleu sinian mysteries, and the phalli carried were made of the wood of the fig tree. The ficus indica is the tree of knowledge (Eve's tree) ; a 148 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN variety of the ficus religiosa which was the tree under whieh Buddha conteraplated; wherever Buddha went, the tree was transplanted. HEALING TREE. Healing fire M^as kindled by rubbing two pieces of wood in violent rotary motion ; they must be male and female trees of sacred wood, and their fire was kindled frora this through which cattle were driven to cure plague and murrain. This superstition was taught by the sun and moon every spring when the sun passed by the moon at the spring equinox, when the old fire of the moon was put out for three days, and the new fire was kindled by the amatory friction of sun and moon while passing, for at that season nature awoke from the grave of winter. In all Saxon countries in the middle ages, a hole formed by two branches of a tree growing together, possessed great me dicinal virtue. The sacred ash Avas split, and the sick were passed through the cleft ; then the tree was bound up again for the healing of the nations. This split in the tree or the earth was made to represent the split or rent in the moon tree, made by the sword of the spring sim, for at this time of year and no other the revival of nature began. This tree was at springtime cleft and held open by wedges, and naked children pushed through the opening as a cure for their maladies ; then the wound in the tree Mas plastered over, and if the wound in the tree healed, the child healed, but if the tree continued to gape, the prescription was a failure. They were also passed through perforated rocks and holes of the earth, but a natural cleft in a rock or tree was pre ferred ; that ' ' rock of ages cleft for me. ' ' THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 149 Sometimes a bush which had taken root at both ends was used, or a hole in a churchyard wall. In India they were passed through a golden yoni which rep resented the same female cleft of the raoon. It was taught by observation of the raoon when every spring the black moon tree was cleft or split by the sword of the sun ; this cleft or rent of light occurred at the time the wounds of winter were healed, and which no other sun was able to do. It raised the dead; it healed the waters, renewed vegetation, reinspired life; and it seemed a revelation from heaven as taught by the moon, the divine oracle of the ancient world. The new moon of spring which was the sun rod upon the moon was the great healer of the nations; that serpent lifted up in the moon wilderness on the pole of the moon, and per sonified and exalted to a god. It was Apollo the healer, and .3i]sculapius the healer, and the Christ of modern times, whose miracles are annually per formed upon the moon. It was not the Volsung, the old sun of the departed year who could draw the new fire or spring sword out of the branstock or fire tree, which was the moon; it was only the new sun who eould draw out the healing rod of the new moon from the tree bole, that sun of life, the son of the sun, that serpent of the wilderness lifted up upon a pole ; not the burn ing, destroying sun that like Hercules and Tantalus, burned up the vintage every year, and destroyed their own children, but the crucified and arisen sun transfigured upon the moon, the great mediator between the two destroying powers, sun and moon, or summer and winter; that was the great healer who churned or troubled the moon fountain for Naman the Syrian, and he only came once a year and that was in spring- 150 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN time, and all these miracles were but the personified antics of the year. And we are worshipping the same visible objects to day, though taught to abhor idolatry. A healer Christ, a human tree of vicarious atonement which healed disease and death according to a recognized analogy and ritual. The spear of Achilles healed with one end of its shaft or ash the wound it had made with the other. The serpent that bit Eve at the end of suramer now heals ¦\\'hen lifted up in springtime, heals its own bite. Sword wounds were healed by applying the remedy to the sword. "I gave you not fire for your blasphemies, but cast a tree in the water and made the river sweet." (11 Esdras 1 : 23.) It was the serpent rod that smote the red sea, which is the fiery gash or road across the black moon waters, that road we call the new moon ; the same tree used at the churning of the Hindu waters for amrita, or the water of life. "And they journeyed three days and found no water, and they came to Marah, the bitter waters. And Moses prayed, and the Lord showed them the bitter tree of Ardiphne ; and Moses wrote upon it the great name of God, and cast it in the waters and they were made sweet. ' ' ( Song of Miriam. ) This tree, sometimes called Rododaphne, grows beside the water and bears blossoms like the lily of a bitter taste. It is the name given to the bitter herbs eaten at the passover. That great name written upon the tree is the name or word of the new moon, the first ring of the raoon, the first word ever spoken, that creator that came up out of the moon waters. The moon to the ancients by its supposed raoisture was the mother of plant life, and in plants were stored a remedy for all ills. And plants were gathered in the right stage of the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 151 moon according to prescribed rules— plants to which known or imaginary virtues were ascribed. Herb lore became a study to search out the life giving power or elixir of life. Trefoil became sacred from its three leaves, the triad or trinity. Some from a number of leaves coincid ing with a cycle number; others like Soraa and the vine for their stimulating or inspiring properties. Love filters and potions were used by those skilled in ama tory magic, extracted from aphrodisiac plants and animals known to be salacious. In Persian belief a divine spirit had entered the horaa plant and the liquor distilled from its juices was a specific for all disease. The potency and healing properties of the wand or branch depended upon the time it was cut, for it should be cut at healing time— for it is the new moon of spring that heals and performs miracles in the hand of Moses, and the club cut in the nemean wood in the hand of Hercules. But this healing rod of spring became at the end of sum mer a wand of evil in the hand of the Circe, the siren, and the demon of dread. Healing herbs were collected and boiled with certain mys terious sighs and words according to formulas in books of magic. Plants and trees which remained green through the winter, or had a root or leaf of the form of human members, were venerated by their association; or such as grew upon the graves of holy men, or sprang from the footfall of a goddess, or from the blood of murdered innocence, were sacred and medicinal. In many tales the serpent discovers the magic all healing plant that restores life, and is seen to bring the plant and lay it on its dead mate, whieh restores its life. 152 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN Polyidus having observed the serpent in the act applied the same plant and restored Glaucus, for that never-dying ser pent or first ring of the moon, restores the dead moon to life on the third day. When the wife of Etana the serpent, could not bring forth the son who lay in the womb, she sought the plant of parturi tion used by midwives to facilitate delivery, and was told by Shamash, the sun god, it could be found only in the heaven of Anu, the chief god. (JMaspero : Dawn of Civilization, 699.) The plant is the ring of the new raoon, the Sesame that opens the door of the black moon; that worab from which light and life escape. Por the new moon was the wonder working flower that sprang from the blood of murder, the flower or plant that sprang frora the dark slain moon, the mother of plants and herbs; it sprang from the black hill of Calvary, "the place of the skull." The rose of the mystic garden that has blos somed upon the parent tree. THORN TREE. Jehovah dwelt in the burning thorn tree on Mt. Horeb, ancl from that bush he spoke to Moses. That tree of light and life on which was kindled the spring fire— the tree was sacred to Jehovah. The Assyrians had the thorn tree of light sacred to the god Ashur. In Arabia, the thorny lotus was the sacred fire tree, and there was heard the voice of God. Tola, "judge of Israel," Tola, "worra" or "serpent" dwells in Mt. Ephraim in Shamir, the "thorn." THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 153 In India Agni the fire god was the tree of great light, the shining tree on the eastem mountain. The Egyptians held sacred the thorny acacia inhabited by the goddess Neith, an appellation of Isis. The shittim wood of which the Jewish altars were built, was acacia, which is the sacred thorn. In the Babylonian epic, the hero Gilgames, obtained this hawthorn as a gift frora the land over the river to carry horae to the land of raortals. It was the plant which restored youth, but the serpent would not let it go, and snatched it frora him at the first watering place. It was the chosen emblem of the moon which was filled with white thorny spikes ; it was the thorn or new moon spike which pierced the hand of Brynhild, the moon maiden, by which she was lulled to winter sleep. The funeral pyre was interwoven with thorns and lit by a torch of twisted thorns. It was Christ's crown of thorns, and the thorn tree on whieh he was hanged. This sacred thorn stood at Glastonbury, where Arthur was buried. Under the white thorn in full blossom Merlin fell in his last sleep upon the lap of the enchantress Vivian, or the lady of the lake. This white thorn stood in the forest of Broceliande. Joseph of Arimathea brought with him a staff made from Christ's crown of thorns, and when he landed in Britain, it was planted by him in the ground one Christraas day. It took root and branch, and the next day it was covered with white blossoms. This was the famous Glastonbury thorn. It sprouted two trunks from a single root, which are the two forks of the new moon. Slips were taken from it and planted in gardens about Glastonbury, and its descendants are still 154 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN seen standing, and holy blossoms were sold from St. Joseph's tree. This tree of life has brought with it the two prongs of the original tree of the new moon with its two prongs, the same as seen in the constellation of Gemini the twin tree, and as told in Persian tale, the two children born on tha berry bush, the same tree frora which Eve and the Virgin Mary ate, as told in Kalevala, where the Virgin Mary ate the phallic berry; these twin stems still form the Christian cross. MANDRAKE. The mandrake, was a mystery to the ancients, and lexicog raphers give us no light upon it at the present time, like the herb Molly in Homer to ward off sleep, which is the opposite of the mandrake. The raoon was the mother of all vegetation in ancient be lief, and as the moon was the mother, likewise of sorcery and witchcraft, herbs were everywhere sought and studied, to learn their potency for healing. And the forra of the mandragora suggested its nature and affiliation. The word means in simple language "moon dragon ' ' from man or moon, all one, and ' ' draco " " dragon. ' ' The first ring of the moon was the chosen representative of the solar phallus, that serpent of seduction, that mandrake, the dragon of the moon sea. Rachel, the woman of the royal line, was barren, and Rachel cried out against Jacob : ' ' Give me children or I die ! " Jacob grew angry and retorted: "Am I in the place of God?" It was only by the raoon dragon, "Holy Ghost" or serpent of Eden by whom she came in possession of the royal son Joseph; that mandrake was Reuben himself, the eldest, the ' ' water child ' ' of the moon sea ; and Jacob threw it up to him THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 155 in his last blessing (Genesis, Ch. 49) where Jacob accused him of defiling his father 's bed. And Jacob in his dying blessing had not forgotten the rape of his wife by Reuben. (Genesis, Ch. 49.) "Reuben, thou art my first born, ray might, and the beginnig of my strength, unstable as water shalt thou not excel ; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed and defiled it; he went up to my couch. ' ' The dragon serpent was the same messenger who paid a visit to the barren Sarah behind the silver door of the moon; for all these are but moon yarns which have been brought down and domesticated upon the earth. That serpent dwelt in the moon tree as fire dwelt in wood, and was concealed in wood. These ideas were first conceived when the moon was supposed to be self-luminous. This dragon serpent was the one that seduced Eve; it was the chief god of the ancient world, who took all forms ; he was the old Jupiter Ammon who begat Alexander the Great, who went over across the desert to his temple to obtain a corre sponding response from his oracle, that he was the divine son of the supreme god. This first ring of the moon or solar phallus, cloud messenger, or Holy Ghost begat all the sons of God; and the plant sup posed to possess the same aphrodisiac properties as its pro totype the moon, was found to be the mandrake, or moon dragon, a plant having a human reserablance and possessed of a charm or talismanic power. The mandragora was gathered with a certain forraula : ' ' Trace three circles around it with a sword, then turn toward the west and dig it up." The three circles traced around the dark moon now in total darkness, are the rings, one for each of the three dark 156 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN nights ; on the third night the new moon is brought out as if by magic, three circles or rings in one, and appears in the west after sunset. It was said to grow under a gallows or where a murder had been committed. For the moon is the cross tree on which the solar light is crucified, and the new moon is the flower or plant growing from the ashes of the bumt moon under the gallows tree, and must be pulled by a dog with a rope attached to its tail ; and the dog is the familiar name of the raoon, who is the watch dog of the sky at night— the dog is the black raoon, and the rope is the new moon halter. The story then is transparent; the mandrake or moon dragon is the ring of the new moon pulled out of the shell of the old moon after hard pulling for three nights. It was used to facilitate pregnancy, and in love philters, and was originally suggested by the golden rod which was ob served to fertilize the dark moon. All the sacred food and drink of the ancients had reference to the moon, which supplied the earth with sustenance and the bread of life; and food and drink were chosen and care fully selected as best represented its prototype the moon, and then sanctified and hallowed by the blessing of the priesthood. MISTLETOE. Such plants as were sufficiently hardy and vital to retain their verdure or blossom in winter, as mistletoe and Glaston bury thorn, myrtle and ivy, were sacred to the nativity of midwinter, and the mistletoe which matured at Christmas was raost sacred, and a fit emblem of life ; it never dies, and con tinues green in winter. The leaves and berries of the mistletoe grow in clusters of THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 157 threes on a stalk like trefoil, which enhanced its sanctity as siraulating the trinity or triune god. The mistletoe resembled the new moon or golden branch, or sun plant begotten by. a stranger from a foreign land, and the old moon became the nurse of the adopted child of the sun. Like the mistletoe, the new moon or fire child seemed of parasitic growth, or a graft or scion from a tree of light, and the mistletoe on earth seemed possessed of like characteristics, with its heavenly prototype, as it was a sky aspiring plant which disdained to tread the earth. The Sim was likened to an eagle which soared aloft, and built its nest in the top of a tree to rear its young. As in the Volsung saga, this Volsung tree was ' ' the beloved of the crag- dwelling eagles." And Samson (sun) hid away in the rock Etam, ' ' the eagle 's nest. ' ' It was the mistletoe that took up its abode in the home of another like some birds which build no nest of their own, but lay their eggs in the nest of an adopted nurse, as the cow bunting, and was a fit representa tive of the little white stranger rocked by the moon "on the tree top." And when the mistletoe was chosen for its earthly symbol, it at once inherited the magic and miraculous char acter of the moon worship. Among the Druids the plant was called "all heal," and on the sixth day after the appearance of the new moon at the be ginning of each month, the plants of the mistletoe were gath ered on the white robe of a priest and afterward distributed among the people and kept as charms. But there was the sacred mistletoe which grew upon the consecrated oak, which was sought at the time of the new raoon (like the bull "apis"), which in their belief had been sent there frora heaven, and the place selected by the gods for the abode of the sacred plant, and when found, the event was cele brated with song and sacrifice. 158 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The plant was cut at the root with a golden sickle, no iron being allowed, and white robed priests ascended the tree amid solemn chants, and as it fell upon a white cloth, two white bulls or heifers were slain, and a festival took place under the tree, and the sacrifice divided among all the participants. The druid maiden was married under an oak, the bride dressed in black wreath of dark leaves upon her forehead. The mistletoe afforded a passport to the infernal regions, and silenced Charon ; it was the golden branch seen in Hades by Ishtar. A drink prepared from the mistletoe would impart fecun dity to animals, and was an antidote for all poisons. The name raistletoe, from mist, darkness. This mistletoe grew just outside the great gate of Valhalla. It was the spear that came out of the darkness of the moon with the blow of death (like the boar's tooth) that killed Adonis. It would not take the oath not to hurt Balder, for it was then a feeble little twig, the new moon unborn, for it was at conjunction of sun and moon when the moon was dark for three days, and the gods were at play shut in the charaber of the moon, and could not hit Balder until the third day, when the arrow of the new raoon pierced hira in the west at sunset, for the arrow was born over the line of midsuraraer; he was the same Guttorm the youngest who slew Sigurd; he was born the night Sigurd was slain. It was Virgil's Aurum and Raraus Aureus which the arch druid gathered with a golden hook raade like the new moon sickle which it represented. In Welsh it was called the "ffithereal tree," the tree of the "high sumrait." This raistletoe was called in Brittany the "herb d'or" or herb of gold; the priests went barefoot in white robes and fasting, to search, for the plant ; only holy raen are able to see it, like the San Greai which it was. It shines at a distance THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 159 like gold, and if one tread upon it, he will fall asleep, and will corae to understand the language of birds, dogs and wolves. (Thorpe : Vol. ll, p. 275-277.) TWO TREES. The tree which Eve appropriated was the tree of the west, the autumnal tree. That tree or oak which fell upon Jason and killed him, and that moon tree or ark that carried off Cadmus and Harraonia. On the Egyptian Zodiac of Dendera preserved at Paris, the two trees stand east and west; the west was the palm sur mounted with the ostrich feather; the east tree puts forth a pair of leaves and has the symbols of generation, for here is the seat of generative force of nature— life comes in from the east, and goes out at the west. To the book of Jewish law was attached two sacred sticks, called the wood of life. Anciently the tree of the east was lit up with torches turn ing upward; and the tree of the west had its lights turned downward, for there the light of the sun went out. Two trees of Genesis: The mythraic grottoes have two doors, the Petra or Betulia had two doors, so had the cave of the nymphs. And the two trees stand at the east and west by these two doors. AGNI THB HINDU FIRE TREE. Agni, the god of fire was let down from heaven by Mataric- van, the messenger of Vivasvat. Altharvan found him con cealed in wood frora which he was induced to come out by friction. The moon is the tinder box, and the sun, the kindling spark 160 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN as it crosses the moon's disk at the meeting of the sun and moon at conjunction. Agni, called the offspring of two mothers. (Rig. Veda, Wilson, Vol. 1, p. 79.) It was believed that fire had fallen from heaven and taken its abode in trees and birds, which showed marks of celestial origin in red fruit and plumage, and that these trees were inflammable and oracular. Fire first drawn by rubbing sticks in friction, then by a fire drill, which was superseded by the flint and tinder box, and lastly by the friction match. Plame leaped up in a pyramid toward heaven, its supposed origin; it had been concealed upon earth, but whenever the tree or stone was ignited, the fire escaped and fled upward, which may have suggested cremation and a like escape for the human soul. Great Agni, essence but one, yet thy forms are three : as fire on earth, as lightning in atmosphere, and in heaven as flaming sun ; he had his primal birth in heaven, but of old a sage, a holy sage, conveyed hira down on earth to shine, and he abode there as a citizen of earth. The two pieces of fuel from which Agni is born are sun and moon, by friction at conjunction, joined in wedlock, when forth flashed Agni. TREB OF THE ARK. The oldest temple of the Ephesian Artemis was within the bole of an elm, or the stem of an oak. (Pausanias, VIII, 13:2.) And the images of God were set either on or under trees. Noah was in the ark of gopher wood, an evergreen tree of life ; he dwelt through the winter there as Osiris in the Tama risk. Adonis enclosed in the myrrh tree. Saul abode under THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 161 a tree (I Samuel 22 : 6), Deborah dwelt under a palm (Judges 4:5), and the old nurse of Jacob was buried at Bethel under an oak. (Genesis 35: 8.) The Hindu Yama sits at the foot of the sacred tree, so does Mercurius and Hades in nortbern Saga Hei sits at the foot of the ygdrasil ash. There is but one tree in mythology, which is the moon, under the change of the seasons. The tree is the moon in spring and suraraer it is animated. but in winter it becomes the ark, prison house or tomb of the solar light, or ark of Noah. MOLY. Circe (winter moon) gave Ulysses (sun in winter hemi sphere) the lethean cup of winter sleep, but being provided with the herb moly, whose properties are wakeful, and anti- lethean, he threw the enchanted herb in the cup as a counter- charm, which rendered her potion powerless ; when to her sur prise he escaped death and remained upon her island a whole year. The Homeric moly (Odysseus X, 305) was black at the root with a milk-like flower, it was potent against raagic, and was given Ulysses by Hermes, and was said to have sprung from the blood of a giant slain by the sun in aid of his daughter in her island. The druids used the mistletoe for the same purpose, as Ulysses did the moly; it was an antidote against poison and a panacea for all disease, and a protection against evil, as the Scandinavians used the rowan or mountain ash, a universal charm. The moly was the same as the nim leaves in the Indies, a charm against snakes. Again the euphorbia or milk-hedge is used for an antidote in India, and called the life-giving herb. 162 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Ancient Etruscans had a magic plant they called tinia, the sarae name as their god Jupiter, and this plant cured people afflicted with the evil spirit; and with this plant they made the sign of the cross and wore it upon their necks; they blessed themselves with this herb. It is the leaf the raven dropped at the feet of Sigmund the Volsung, by which he restored Sinfiotli to life. All the above charra plants are the same new moon or rod of life which drives the darkness or enemies of light from the moon; it is light overcoming darkness; they were used an ciently as we now use the cross for the same purpose. TREE OP CROSS AND DEATH. Thou hast seen the trees of gold. The sign that dying eyes behold. For these trees grow on the river bank on the western boundary between the kingdom of light and darkness. They grow on the bank of spectres, the dying sun beholds them in the west. The sun child was born upon the moon tree, and when the suraraer light fails it returns to the tree again, and is ab sorbed or slain by the tree, for it gave life and takes it again. Sometimes the light was nailed to that cross tree, or crucified upon it— hanged to it as a gallows tree or nailed to it as Christ and Helen of Troy— or the tree falls upon the hero as the speaking oak fell upon Jason. Again he is consumed by the tree as Hercules and Meleager ; again it is sharpened to a spear to pierce him, as the mistletoe slew Balder, and the oak spear of the Finnish songs pierced the side of "the mother's son, ' ' and the tusk of the wild boar slew Adonis. The summer sun is entombed in a tree like Osiris, or hanged on a tree like Absalom ; or floats in a hollow tree or ark, the trunk of that tree reaches down to Hades. J THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 163 The wandering Jew can find rest at any place where two oaks grow together in the form of a cross, for there the moon rests for three days every month. Evil spirits dance at the cross-roads. At twelve o'clock on Christmas night the peasant listens at cross-roads and at boundary stones. The sun crossing the moon leaves the sign of the cross upon her door at parting. All our panel doors are framed inside with crosses. Cross-bones mark our poisonous medical prescriptions. Chapter XII. WISDOM. WISDOM TREE. The most common representative of the raoon on earth was a tree, for the moon was likened to a tree ; its central white pillar representing the body of the tree, and the green bushy part the foliage; and a favorite tree was selected and en closed in a garden where the presence of the gods was invited, and a priest appointed to interpret the wisdom of the oracle tree. Such was the tree of Bridu at the mouth of the Euphrates, for it was in the days when the trees spoke : it was a wisdom tree. It was a tree of light and knowledge which illuminated the world when the sun himself had failed, and called a world tree; the "holy family" dwelt in that tree of Eridu. EVE'S TREE OF WISDOM. The moon from the earliest times was the land of mysticism and enchantment, and the seat of spells and incantations, and the abode of the vampire and the evil eye. And this moon was supposed to be the summit of the waters, and conse- 164 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN quently associated with the rivers and the ocean tides, and seemed to be the mouth of the "Great Deep." And down through its depths ran a shining road or pillar to Hades and the underworld, and by the Scandinavians, Babylonians and others this pillar was called a tree, and under its root lay the fountain of wisdom which was kept by Mimer, the wise giant, for he was the guardian of the tree and fountain for the Norsemen ; and this fountain of wisdom was called Urd, where dwelt the three weird sisters, the "Norns" or Fates, past, present and future, who ruled the fate of the world. They were present at the birth of every person and cast the mystic charm and spell of nativity. The above Mimer, the wise giant, was god of all waters; god of all wisdom and prototype of all giants, and like Ea, the Babylonian god, lived down in the abyss, for the giants were older than the i^sa gods who consulted these giants for wisdom. And the above tree of the Norsemen referred to was an ash tree and called ygdrasil, or "the bearer of Odin," the chief god, for like the Jewish god Jehovah, he dwelt in the tree. Thence arose the three Virgins with much knowledge. From this lake which is below the tree ; Urd one is called, the other Verdandi, They engraved upon tablets; Skuld was the third; They consulted the laws, they interrogated fate, And proclaimed destiny to the children of men. —The Lay of Wala : Asgard and the Gods. P. 310. Mimer 's well of wisdora and knowledge is concealed under the root of the ygdrasil tree. Mimer the god of the water is the owner of the well and continually drinks from it with the Gjallar hom, which is the hom of the new moon. Whatever was placed in this water became white in the sign of Aries at the spring equinox; there the robes were washed white in the blood of the lamb. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 165 The thirsty sun gods drank at the moon fountain, which during the day was covered by a black stone, and the sun could never quench his thirst until he had given a pawn. And this was how Odin could never drink wisdom from Mimer 's well (the golden stream issuing from the black depths of the moon) until he had first pawned his eye or given, his eye in pledge ; that is, the sun 's fiery eye must set at night before the fountain of life and wisdom (door of new moon) will open ; then the black stone or covering of the well is removed —the same black stone Jacob lifted from Rachel's well. On the Neapolitan Stele, as recorded in Records of the Past, Old Series, Vol. 4 : "0 Lord of gods, Xnum king of the double land, who riseth to enlighten the world; whose right eye is the solar disk, and whose left eye is the moon." Again this fountain was guarded by a serpent in winter, and the serpent was again slain in spring, as Sigurd the Vol sung slew the serpent Fafner. That is the same fountain kept by the serpent which Cad mus slew in spring, and seized the water for sacrifice ; and the; same winter serpent Apollo slew and took his fountain and established an oracle for the serpents were the foes of the summer gods, but they were all sacred serpents. And this golden stream of knowledge ran up to the homs of the moon and was distilled and dropped in a fountain of living waters, fountain of inspiration, which was the food and drink of the gods — it was the nectar and ambrosia of the Greek gods, the homa and soma of the Persian and Hindu gods, and the mead of the Norse gods, and the wine of the Christian, for all this earthly beverage represented the golden stream of the new moon, the light and life of the ancient world. Wisdom is second sight, the knowledge of signs and letters 166 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN are hidden in the dark moon, and the sun has to become blind before he can read the hidden mysteries. As soon as the sun goes down in the west and puts out his light, the moon reveals the hidden characters and signs ; it originated sacrifice for the sunlight has to be slain. Por in Egypt Thoth is the tongue of Ra the sun. That is the way Odin (the sun) speaks with Mimer 's head (the moon head). On this wisdom tree the pillar of the new moon old Odin, the chief god of the Scandinavians, hung nine nights head down ward on the "wind rocked tree" to sweat out the runes or magic letters of wisdom on the ygdrasil, the ash tree, and the wisdom tree of the Norsemen. And this ygdrasil, or "ve hicle of Odin" was the speaking oak of Jupiter, that limb of the speaking oak set in the prow of the Argo, the wisdom tree of Horeb, that spoke to Moses with a tongue of fire in spring, but during the summer that constellation of the spring equinox has gone over for six signs, and now sets in the west, and is a funereal tree ; the summer light will go in the tree as the Egyptian god Osiris went into his winter tree, for that is the tree on which the golden fleece was nailed in the grove of Mars, the god of war and death, and the tree on whieh Christ was hung. That tree of wisdom was the token tree ; so long as it flour ished the summer garden prospered ; when the fruit failed, it was the sign the summer had ended. It is a tree of light, and light is a parent of knowledge. During the three days of the moon 's darkness, Peter had lost his memory, but when the cock crew light dawned upon the moon and Peter remembered the Lord. The cock is the new moon ring; at that time it says of Adam and Eve their eyes were opened. The book of the moon is the sun 's record written by Hermes (the moon) his scribe and counsellor. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 167 Knowledge all came from the moon under many symbols, as a cup or ring, or a drink of knowledge, or a tree or a flsh of knowledge; it is the rod or runestaff of knowledge to the Norsemen, the serpent of knowledge to Eve. Jehovah dwelt in the moon tree and spoke from the burning bush or sacred thorn, which is the tree of the moon. In early Hebrew times they had tree and serpent worship, but after schooling abroad, it fell in disrepute. "And it came to pass upon the third day I sat under an oak, and behold there came a voice out of a bush over against me and said : In the bush I did reveal myself unto Moses, and now I say unto thee. (II Esdras 14: 1.) The voice of the new moon comes from the dark moon on thc third day as the new moon. Tree and serpent worship existed in Crete 5000 years ago ; tree and serpent worship was universal from unknown ancl prehistoric times, even among savages. The cosmic tree of Eridu, the Babylonian tree which gave oracles through a priest who was appointed its guardian and protector, represented the moon, like all the world trees, which is seen on moonlight nights to illuminate the whole earth and that is how it became a world tree. In India Buddha the sage, sat under the bo-tree of knowl edge twenty-eight days to receive his illumination, the number of days in the lunar month. The Scandinavian Odin hung on the ygdrasil (tree of knowledge) nine nights head downward, for the runes of wis dom. The nine represents the nine months of pre-natal life. Adam ate of that tree instructed by the serpent who said "Ye shall be wise as the gods." There was a city in strife about electing a new king at the Baling festival, and it was decided to throw a dough image in 168 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN the tree and let the tree decide, and the tree caught the baling of destiny the figure thrown was the image of the sun god upon the moon tree, for the moon tree would accept no other for its king than the image of the sun, which is the new moon ring image of the sun and his other self. Nations in general chose the trees indigenous to their own soil as god given. The oak and pine, the cedar, birch and alder spoke in wooden words to the Norsemen, the Britain and the Pinlander. Oracular or oracle trees were established in the old time and a priest appointed to interpret the will of the gods. Zeus spoke from the divine oaks of Dodona ; Jehovah spoke from the thorn tree of Horeb. The Jews had altars and idols under every green oak and upon every high hill. (Ezekiel 6:13.) And burned incense under the oak. (Hosea 4: 13.) For the moon was the first oracle tree and hung out golden letters upon its black wall, and the trees spoke for Jotham, and under these trees Jehovah communed with his people in the olden time. "That tall oak of many tongues that foretold the death of Hercules ' ' the word of Augury and said the earing tide of the twelfth year should bring the son of Zeus rest. That same speaking oak that was cut down for the prow of the Argo. The same from which a rudder was made for the ship of Arad-Ba (Charon) to ferry Gilgames over the waters of death. When the Norseman emigrated he took with him the main beam of the house to consult as an oracle, to guide and direct the colony it represented ; that pillar of fire by day and a cloud at night. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 169 The sacred oaks of Dodona were hung with bells which when moved by the wind gave vocal oracles; it was the medium of the god; priests interpreted the response. THB MOON ORACLE. The moon oracle was consulted by all aneient nations; it began in savagery and has existed until the present time among the highest civilizations. The Jews consulted an ark for wisdom, which was a box drawn by two heifers which represented the moon drawn by the two white horns of the moon. It explains the Urim and Thummim, the understanding and memory; the moon remembers at night and records all the transactions of the days and years. The sun has gone blind at night and his blindness has given him that marvellous sight, and he can read from the moon oracle where his own vision could not penetrate by day. It is the gift of the Holy Ghost to understand all languages, for the Holy Ghost is the wise serpent, the tongue of fire sent every spring as a messenger. Wisdom dwelt in the dark ; the ancient mysteries were moon mysteries and celebrated and taught in dark caverns. The cleft in the earth at Delphi was chosen as the site of an oracle where communication could be had with the lower world to ward which the passage directed, where was a cave of great depth. Por wisdom, the ancient world constdted the cup of the moon, that cup in Benjamin's sack, by which he divined, still in vogue by tea drinkers in fortune telling, and the cup is still tumed around three times to represent the three nights revolution of the dark moon before she will reveal her hidden secret, the revelation of the new moon. 170 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN The Children of Israel inquired of the ark of the covenant. (Judges 20:27.) They inquired for this wisdom by dreams and by Urim and by prophets, wizards and wise women, of familiar spirits (I Samuel, Ch. 28) and by the Ephod. (Samuel 30:7.) ' ' I will open my mouth in a parable : I will utter dark say ings of old. (Psalra78:2.) ' ' The Lord spake to Moses on the mount out of the fire and the cloud and thick darkness with a great voice, and he added no more." (Deuteronomy 5: 22.) The mountain of fire and the cloud was the moon repre sented on earth by Mt. Sinai, which means moon mountain ("sin" — the moon). The ark of the covenant attended the Israelites in all their wars and wanderings ; it was a migratory moon house. This moon ark was captured by the Philistines and taken to the house of Dagon and kept seven months, or the period of winter, and in the seventh month at the return of spring, the moon always returned, drawn by the two heifers, the twin forks of the moon. It is the black moon coming into the spring equinox drawn by the two forks of the moon. At the oracle of Amphiaraus near Oropus, the inquirer after abstaining from wine for three days, and from all food for twenty-four hours, slept in the temple on the skin of a ram which he had sacrificed. The ram is the sign Aries, three days dead in darkness from the light of the sun. All wisdom came from the depths of the moon-sea; in that dark abyss light and knowledge first germinated; that first ring of the moon was the voice of the deep, and all good gifts were churned out of the moon waters. When Ceadach fell with a spear wound, Fin chewed his prophetic thumb to the bone and marrow to obtain the knowl edge for his cure, and the thumb is the first ring of the moon. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 171 the great revelator. ( Curtin : ' ' Hero Tales of Ireland, ' ' Part m.) The wise woman is well understood by reading the tale of Rosamunda in Arnason's Icelandic Tales, where Rosamunda the maiden was fair, but so ignorant she could never learn anything, until her lover gave her a rod which was a gift from the evil one, and with the aid of this rod she learned and re membered everything. The rod is the first ring of the new moon, which is light and knowledge. Tezcatlipoca ' ' Shining Mirror ' ' in Mexican Legend, had an image of black marble, his ears adorned with golden rings, in the left hand he held a golden fan polished like a mirror; in this he saw reflected all that happened. The mirror is the moon, which reflects all the actions and positions of the sun and the gods and heroes, like the two ravens (homs of the moon) of Odin in the Scandinavian, and the Urim and Thummim of Hebrew; it was the oracle of all nations throughout the aneient world. THE DWARF AVATAR. He was the dwarf Avatar of the Hindu. The sun has to be corae an erabryo or dwarf before he can have second sight. The Egyptian god of wisdora was a deformed dwarf. Tages was ploughed from the furrow, the wise man for the Etruscans, no bigger than a thumb. Tages is the first ring of the moon seen ploughed up as a golden furrow upon the dark field of the moon ; the same phenomena as the Hindu Sita or the golden furrow ploughed up by Janaka, who became the wife of Rama. The idea is still preserved in the Christian faith: "unless ye become as little children ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. ' ' This was learned from observations of the moon, which had 172 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN to die and be consumed and reborn as dwarf or little child. Por in that ring of the moon lay all wisdom. It was the con centration of wisdom, and the wise man Thoth was a dwarf deformed like the moon. Prometheus and the serpent both wish to elevate man to be like God in wisdom and happiness. Jove or Jehovah alarmed lest man become too wise and cease to worship the gods, crucified Prometheus and sent Pandora to ruin mankind; struck Hercules with raadness to slay his own children ; destroyed the summer garden and was ever watchful lest man should conquer disease and death, and live alway; and for this reason he slew Esculapius the healer. All this story throughout is but the personification of the solar year and the eternal evolution of matter. This is how he slew Christ while begging for his life. The Bible everywhere enjoins wisdom. "In the hearts of all that are wise-hearted I have put wis dom." (Exodus 31:6.) "Better to get wisdom than gold." (Proverbs 16: 16.) "Law of wisdom a fountain of life." (Psalm 13: 14.) "Price of wisdom above rubies. " (Job 28 : 18.) And the above is from the mouth of God who then turned and cursed the world and the human race with an everlasting curse for obtaining wisdom. The idea is most absurd, and of all the whims that are found in that old Chaldean book of magic there is none which has caused so rauch criticisra and dissension as that of the forbidden tree of knowledge, for where and for what end was the tree ? And how did the tree become wise? It is not after all so strange wheri we learn that the tree is the moon, and the moon wa's the seat of all wisdom to the ancient world. The moon made signs and characters upon the wall- the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 173 moon died and again arose frora the grave; and the moon taught magic and dark sayings from under a cloud, and priests were appointed to interpret her oracles ; and the raoon was likened to a tree — the tall white pillar was the stem, and the cloudy part was the foliage, and their noblest tree on the hill top was selected for its earthly representative ; sometimes a cave was selected for a temple which imaged the dark cavern of the moon. And a Sibyl was appointed for its guardian and inter preter, who swooned and became delirious under anaesthetic agency while transmitting the response of the gods from her dark recess. And in the oldest records of Babylonia, six thousand years before the Christian Era, we read of that oracle tree at Bridu, with its appointed priest and interpreter ; that tree with its root of white crystal that overshadowed the earth. All knowledge, all healing water, all healing herbs, charms and talismans were hidden in Hades, and raised up from that grave by enchantment. Odin, the high god of the Asas, was obliged to go down to Hades and wake the prophetess to learn the fate of Balder. Saul had to let down the witch to wake and raise the prophet Samuel. Old Wainamoinen, the spring harper of the Kale vala, was obliged to go down there and. wake the old song giant Vipunen, to obtain the three words of wisdom to com plete his ark, which was to bring back the lost mill Sampo, and the black giant opened his mouth and swallowed him, and Wainamoinen built a fire in the giant and roasted him until he gave up the three lost words, or the ring of the Bastermoon : "the tree of life." Wainaraoinen is the solar prince, or last ring of light swal lowed by the black moon ; the same sea raonster who swallowed Jonah and Christ, and the third day turned them loose. It is 174 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN the sun every spring wakening the dorraant raoon, and when the old song giant awoke, he sang the song of joy and gladness. Sang the ancient songs of wisdom, Sang the first of all creations. Listen all the stars of heaven, Sun and moon stand still to listen; Fall the waves upon the deep sea, Stop the rivers in their courses. — Crawford's Kalevala, Rune 17. Eneas, accompanied by the Sibyl, descends to Hell and is conducted by the Sibyl to his father Anchises, who instructs him in the sublime mysteries in the sixth book of the Eneid. For wisdom lies in the deep cavern of the moon. In the Odyssey, the shades of the departed could not be come rational until they had tasted the life blood of a victim of sacrifice ; then the wan form of the mother of Odysseus be came raindful of her son, and her soul awoke. That is, the dark shades of the dead shut in the moon can not become rational until bathed in light, which is the blood of the sun. BOOK OF THE EGYPTIAN THOTH THE GOD OF WISDOM. Odin thirsted for this knowledge, and pawned his sight for it. It was hidden in the lower chamber of the raoon ; it was obtained by sacrifice and death. Odin says: "Myself to ray self I offered that all wisdora I might know."" (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 96.) In the Volsung Saga, Sigurd slew the black winter moon as a serpent, and roasted his heart which he ate. It is the seed ring of the moon, the first ring, and there came a change over him, and he knew the speech of the fowl kind, and all the ways of the beast kind, and felt himself beset with evil in the land of many foes. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 175 That seed ring of the moon contains the three drops brewed from the caldron of Ceridwen, the British Ceres, which set the little finger of Guion on fire and made him wondrous wise, and that little finger is the ring of the moon, the immortal ring. It is the thurab of Finn McCool which he chewed for knowl edge; it is Prey's tooth gift. Harpocrates or the infant Horus has his finger in his raouth. It is said that Moses while in the ark of bullrushes nourished himself by sucking his thumb. It is a current belief among many people who are not over- wise that the marmot and bear sustain themselves during win ter by sucking their forepaw. The first ring of the moon contained the hidden wisdom, the essence, or concentration of all wisdom, the soul of the sun. It was the ambrosial food of Apollo, and the honey fed to the infant Jupiter by bees. Soraetimes this knowledge is acquired by eating a divine fish or a magic salmon of knowledge, when the moon is symbolized as a fish, for all wisdom and knowledge came from the moon. It was the concentration of wisdom dis tilled frora the caldron of the moon. This knowledge is funereal and lies at the root of the moon tree. The judges of the dead sit there : Rhadamanthus, Osiris, and Tamrauz; they are the changed forra of the sun. Ra becomes Rhadamanthus, Osiris becomes a Serapis, as Proserpine is but the changed or winter form of Ceres who becomes queen of Hell. Wisdom with the ancients was something dark and concealed; the ancient mysteries were conducted in caves of the earth representing the dark cavern of the moon, the original seat of all wisdora. Eabani after his return to the land of light, speaks of Hades as ' ' the land of his knowledge. ' ' 176 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN That was the book of the Egyptian Thoth, lord of scribes, prince of wizards, master of sorcery, which contained magic formulas, and this book was buried in a seven-foot casket and sunk in the Nile where it was guarded by dragons who swam about it. But a certain magician, who was a son of a king, by his cunning discovered the place and turned aside the course of the Nile, and took the book, which shortened his life in fulfil ment of prophecy, for their eyes were opened like Sigurd the Volsung and Guion the Little, and they saw their peril. Por it had been foretold that the book would be returned, and whoever held the book would be compelled to bring it back with a fork and a stick in his hand, and a lighted brazier upon his head. It is the book of wisdom every year must be carried back to the vault of the moon like the Niblung treasure of gold. Hell will have its own (the fork and stick and brazier are the new moon which guides the traveller home). The wise man Thoth of Egypt is the wise Mimer of the Scandinavian, and the wise old Ba of Babylonia, and the wise old giant Vipuna of the Kalevala, awakened in the spring from his winter sleep by Wainamoinen, who took from him the magic word ; that was the book buried at Surippak before the Chaldean flood. The theft of the Vedas in Hindu, the book of knowledge, caused the destruction of the world by a deluge ordered by Brahma the supreme god; they were stolen while he was asleep. The theft of the divine fire by Prometheus brought down the curse and the wrath of the gods upon mankind. The theft of the divine knowledge and the book of wisdom stolen from Thoth, the divinity of wisdom in Egypt, caused THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 177 the curse of his race and the shortening of life as told in the tale of Setnau. The same tablets of the gods were stolen by the evil power of winter as a Zu bird in Babylonia. The bite of an apple in Hebrew legend, the bite of a wisdora apple from the wisdom tree, brought a never ending curse upon the huraan race, and upon this silly, stupid fable the Christian religion has been founded. In the Norse tale, Sigurd the Volsung slew the serpent Faf ner who had stolen the wisdom treasures and slept upon them in Hades, and took baek the treasures of wisdom. As Heri and Brahma after the Hindu deluge slew the demon Haya- griva and recovered the sacred books of the Vedas, which con tain all divine and human knowledge, like the Egyptian book of Thoth that contained all knowledge and was buried under the Nile (which was substituted for Hades) and dug up after the flood of winter as told iri the tale of Setnau. And the same books of omens and oracles buried at Sip- para before embarking, and again dug up after the Baby lonian flood subsided ; the sarae wisdora that Eve in concert with this same serpent demon stole from Eden, and went down with it to Hades. WISDOM BORN OF THE MOON SEA. Sea gods were noted for wisdom, and this divine wisdom was taught by the moon, that well of golden wisdora seen to corae up from the nether world in golden rings and words. In the most remote times Ea the great god of Babylonia, was lord of the Chaos, and husband of Babu (the abyss) whose visible manifesta,tion was in the moon, was seen to come up from the sea and take his seat on the great white throne of the moon on the first day of the new year, and this was called the "mercy seat." 178 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The Accadians called the deep Apsu, the "house of knowl edge." It was the dwelling of Ea, the god of wisdora. The moon at that early time was not known to shine from reflected light, but was supposed to be self-luminous. The Babylonian Ea was the lord of the abyss; he repre sented the bottomless abyss, the dark waters which had filled the universe before the day of creation. (Maspero: Dawn of Civilization, p. 652.) Ea was father and king of the gods ; the sun was his vassal, as Hercules submits to the will of Eurystheus. Ea was leader, king of the abyss of chaos, overseer of the treasures of heaven and earth, prince of Heaven, the lord of the sun god. (Records of the Past: Vol. 8.) Ea knew all knowledge, past, present and future; he was instructor, scribe, physician, wizard and master of craft, lord of spells and charms, and the strongest of the gods and wisest, for he had lain in the womb of the abyss and witnessed the moulding of matter ; he was potter, smith, gardener, husband man, the wise serpent of the river of the great deep ; as he was born of the water, he was represented as a fish or man- fish, and wore a fish-head dress, or was clothed in a fish skin. As the moon was too far away, the scene was brought down to their own Erythrsen sea or the Persian Gulf, out of which issued Oannes, the fish god, or raan-fish, the wise raan and great teacher of mankind ; and after him five other fish mon sters appeared at different stages of time, each one iraproving upon his predecessor which came out of the Red sea. All wisdom came from the sea, and the sea deities were sons of the ocean, and all had the gift of prophecy, and were con sulted by the sun god for wisdom, as Odin consulted Mimer and Aaron was the speech friend of Moses. The sea deities who were the guardians of the moon foun tain kept it closely guarded and covered with a black stone THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 179 during the day while the sun shone, so that it was invisible, and the owner of the raoon well only drank at night during the sun's absence. And the wise man of the moon when perverse was seized by the solar deity and compelled to give up his secret knowl edge, as Hercules seized Nereus the "^ea elder" when asleep upon the seashore and compelled his instruction in regard to the recovery of the Hesperian apples. The above Nereus is the moon asleep or dark at the near approach of the sun and held fast for three days unable to escape until the third day, when he gives up on the third even ing the secret, which is the ring of the new moon in the west, which is the three golden apples in one. The wind-bound Menelaus seized Proteus the "sea elder" in the same way asleep upon the shore, and compelled him to give relief on the third day, for the moon is the god of the winds and the waters and of sail craft. And the sun had another ingenious device for. obtaining wisdom from the moon which he resorted to in spring time, as soon as his warm rays could turn water to wine, he would draw off the water in the moon tank by day during the absence of his rival brother and fill it up with wine (sunshine), and as soon as his brother had becorae inebriated, he was bound and compelled to give up his secret wisdom; in this way Midas trapped Silenus the demigod ; and in the same way King Solo mon ensnared his wise counsellor Asmodeus or Ashmedai to obtain the Shamir stone to be employed in building his temple. The same legerdemain as when Christ turned water to wine at the wedding of stm and moon at the spring equinox in Cana of Galilee. (It was his own wedding.) In early Babylonian times this moon fountain was kept by Eabani, born of the sea, as his name implies, and he was a satyr, half -man and half -goat ; the Pan, the shepherd god, the 180 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Silenus, that demigod; and this Eabani was a herdsman and drank out of the same fountain with his gazelles, and in the spring a harlot was sent to reclaim him, for he was a half- savage with matted locks. The civilizing influence of the harlot from Ishtar's eourt upon the wild man Eabani, is the same as the maid flung in the sea at springtime to wed the dragon ; the maiden flung in the Nile; the Venus compelled to wed the firesmith Vulcan, the redemption of the year, the churning of the bitter waters. The drinking trough where Eabani with matted locks drank with his gazelles, is the moon fountain where the classical Pro teus kept his herds of seals and sea calves by the shore of the moon sea. That Eabani the satyr is the "shaggy demon of the raoun tain pass," the winter moon run wild in winter for want of the warm redeeming rays of the sun ; he is under the curse of winter, and that harlot is the warm spring sun that will re claim him;- he is that wild steed Pegasus who drank at the fountain of Pirene, who was reclaimed by the golden bridle of Bellerophon. Numa, the king of Rome, set large goblets of wine and raead at the fountain in the grove of Aventine, where Picus and his son Faunus came to rest in the shade and relieve their thirst, and placed there twelve young men in ambush, each with a fetter in his hand, and as soon as they became drowsy with wine, they were bound and made to disclose the secret by which the lightning might be deprecated. This old wise giant of the Norsemen was also called Sut- tung, who kept his bevei'age hidden down in a cavern of the earth guarded by his daughter Gunlad, and Odin bored an auger hole down to her abode, won her favor, and escaped with his prize, though hotly pursued by the enraged damsel. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 181 The auger hole is the ring of the new moon, the tube seen going down in the dark recess of the black moon. The liquid was kept in three jars ; he asked to sample the mead by a swallow from each jar, but the maiden found that one swallow was sufficient to empty each jar, and the wily god had decamped with her entire stock. The scene is at the time of the spring equinox, and Odin re turned upon the moon and deposited the three draughts in one, which is the all healing fountain of the spring moon, the three rings in one. And all these elders and wise men are the moon, the wise man who is caught and held for three nights in darkness until the third night, when he is compelled to reveal his wisdom in that message contained, in the ring of light, the first ring of the moon. The moon can never hold that secret but three days ; if he attempted to, it would burst out of itself. HEART WISDOM. Among Pacific Coast Indians, Hurakan, the same with Tohil and Quetzalcoatl, was called "Heart of Heaven." (Ban croft: VoL 3, p. 476, 7.) In the figure of the Indian Manabozho his heart is shown as a triangle. The persea, or peach tree of Egypt, was the holy tree of Athor (Venus), for its fruit resembled a heart. The Egyptian Homs carried the sacred heart on his breast; so did the Bel of Babylon, and the Vishnu of India. At the Mexican sacrifice the heart of the victim was torn out as an offering to the gods, and a sacrament for the priests. It is the same sacred heart of the Virgin Mary, torn and bleeding, seen exposed in windows and picture galleries as sanguinary, as the Aztec sacrifice. 182 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN One of the titles of the Virgin Mary is "Our Lady of Good Heart." Six thousand human hearts were annually torn out and fed to the flames for the Mexican god Quetzalcoatl. In the Egyptian tale of "The Two Brothers," Bata, the younger brother, after his emasculation, went to the mountain of the cedar trees and placed his heart in the top of the cedar tree. The heart to the ancients was the seat of the memory. We still say "we have leamed by heart" or "committed to memory." "Now Sigurd eats of the heart that once in the dwarf king lay. "The hoard of the wisdom begrudged— the might of the ear lier day." (Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin, p. 132.) It is Sigurd the Volsung, the sun prince of spring, who has Slain the dwarf king Regin and feasted upon his heart, and grown wise of heart. ' ' The heart made wise by the heart. ' ' Whoever secures the heart can overcome like; whoever ob tains the magic rod or new raoon ring, the golden bridle of Bellerophon, will rule the horse Pegasus for the next six months of summer time, when he will throw his rider and escape. The warm blood of the spring sacrifice will enable Sigurd the solar prince, to conquer and rule during sumraer, at the end of which he will be overcome by the winter power.. It is a savage rendering of what we behold every spring : the slaughter of the black winter moon by the sword of the sun prince at the spring festival of Easter when sun and moon meet, and the sun takes possession of his northem kingdom. The moon is struck dead for three days, but awakes to a higher life. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 183 Among the Albanians their chief god is the moon; human sacrifice is performed with a sacred lance with which the heart is pierced through the side, which is done by one who has experience in this office ; when the victim has fallen, they all trample upon it as a mode of purification for themselves. (Strabo, B. 11, c. 4.) This was the smoking heart of the human victim held up by the Aztec toward its prototype in heaven, and reflected on in Christianity, requiring the worshipper to give his heart to God, a living sacrifice — ' ' and feed on him in thine heart with thanksgiving. ' ' This idea ran through all ages, savage and civilized. Sav ages killed their wise man and benefactor and feasted upon his flesh and blood, as we feed upon the mangled Christ to be come wise, and drink his blood to partake of his nature. We have not learned it from savages, for but a little while ago we were ourselves savage, and have brought it up with us all the way from savagery. Even within the historic period of Europe, it has been shown that among the inhabitants of Central Europe they tore out the hearts of their victims and ate them like the savage Aztecs of the Pacific coast. The story is told in Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin, 132 — Sigurd the Volsung ate of the heart of the serpent. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Unas is the first-born of the first-born. Unas is a bull in heaven. Unas hath eaten the red crown and the white crown; he hath eaten all the knowledge of the gods. The soul of the gods is in Unas. Por in commori. with other nations they be lieved that by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of an other, they absorbed his nature. It was Sigurd the Volsung eating the heart of the serpent Pafner, and Guion Bach of British Mythology drinking the 184 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN three drops of inspiration (first ring of the new raoon) dis tilled frora the caldron of the moon. And the Christian sacrament of eating the slain body of Christ and drinking his blood which is best told in the com munion service familiar to us all: "The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee ; preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. ' ' The heart among the Hindus is the seat of wisdora. The Sioux Indians ate the hearts of their captive enemies which were distributed through the war party in bits. Among Sandwich Islanders the heart and liver of human victims were offered in the teraples and eaten as a sacrament and religious rite; by this they were supposed to inherit the virtues and higher nature of the deceased. "And the Urim and Thummira shall be worn upon Aaron's heart before the Lord. ' ' ( Exodus 29 : 30. ) A suppliant appears imploring protection, and praying that his heart may not be taken from him in the underworld of spirits. "May naught rise up against me in judgment in the pres ence of the Lord of the trial ; homage to thee, 0 my heart. ' ' (From the Egyptian Papyrus of Ani.) (Vignette, the deceased, holding his heart to his breast with his left hand, and kneeling before a monster vrith a knife in his hand.) "Let not this my heart be taken from me by the fighter in Annu." HERMES. Hermes or Mercury was the omniform god that humanized deity of innumerable attributes and functions, continually THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 185 shading off into new varieties of character, and inseparably interwoven with other gods, until his sphere is widened to cover the whole field of mythology. Substitute the word moon for Hermes and ilercury and wisdom, and we need no other interpreter. The Egyptians tell us that Hercules rides in the sun, and Hermes in the moon, for the works of the moon seem to indi cate wisdom and cunning. (Plutarch, Vol. 4. p. 166.) To us these signs and characters upon the moon are but telegrams from the sun; to us he is the night stalker, the ghost of the sun which was the living sun of the day before ; but to the old world it came up from the depths of the lower world. In the early ages of Norse Mythology, Regin the moon was the Master of Masters and taught everything, but later his craft was stolen and divided up into specialties ; and it was Frey that had taught men to reap and sow ; and the building of houses and the sailing of the sea was claimed by Thor, and Freya came in to teach weaving-lore, and Bragi had invented the harp and taught men music, and of all these honors the wise man, Regin, had been robbed arid then turned loose as a "wandering scald." (Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin, p. 98.) And we find the same in the most aneient time of Baby lonian history, where Ea the wise man knew all wisdora and was master of all science, all trades, and all craft. And all these offices in the early ages belonged collectively to the moon man, which later became subdivided and multi plied into many individual characters. The moon was the great scribe scholar, revelator and in ventor of hieroglyphics and letters, raanifested thought and ingenuity, originated the twenty-eight days of the month and kept them with great precision; he could assume as many changes of form and dress as an actor upon the human stage ; 186 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN he could becorae invisible while standing before you face to face in broad daylight ; he would die and come to life ; he would be consumed by fire and rise the third day from the ashes, con sequently must have an immortal soul. He kept a fountain of healing waters; was a physician and anointed with holy oil; he taught fasting for every month; he clothed in sack cloth and went three days without food; he died daily and yearly, and freely gave his life for others. He was an astronomer, for he was king of the night world, and chief stai' of the night; for the sun can never be an as tronomer; his look annihilates the star world. The raoon was a fortune-teller; he looked in that divining cup of silver, the cup of Joseph, and interpreted the drearas of the night. He was clerk, bookkeeper, register, scribe and recorder, and kept the world's history and the deeds of kings and heroes in the archives of the raoon vault. And that is how he becarae the god of wisdom, a living oracle and authority, consulted by all nations before engaging in any important undertaking; he was master of cunning and craft, a magician, knew all past, present and future, and became ambassador, counsellor, and right hand man of the gods; a Mimer or Regin or Ken taur, to educate the young sun gods, Achilles, Hercules, and Jason. We can see how the idea of knowledge originated and grew, from the observation of the moon ; it first appeared as a spirit message from the land of darkness, and a revelation, and was written in letters of gold The moon was that divine teacher who drew a panoraraa of the changing scenery of the year in cunning pictures, and recorded the history of the revolving ages with a pen of fire. Well was the moon called the "deep thinker," the "inter preter," the "story teller," the "harper," and the "his torian." THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 187 As the moon was the head and source of waters, it became the fountain of wisdom, and became the teacher and instructor of the- solar princes who were sent off to the moon to be edu cated ; he was Chiron the Kentaur, who educated Jason, Her cules, Achilles, and Esculapius; as Silenus he was foster- father and preceptor to Bacchus. As "speech friend" and counsellor of the sun god, he was Aaron to Moses (who said he was slow of speech) ; he was Mimer to Odin; he was Hea- bani to Gilgames ; he was Proteus the ' ' sea elder ' ' who prophe sied to Menelaus; he was Nereus the "sea elder" who prophe sied to Hercules. He was Azazel of the Talmud to whom Solomon went every day for wisdom. As Thoth he was the wisdora god of Egypt. The moon at the beginning chose for a ring the rich gift of wisdom, and when the sun has hidden behind the earth at night, dropped the ring in the pool of the moon waters. He was Luxraan to Raraa ; he was the wise Wuzeer to Vicrara Maharajah, and under their joint rule the kingdom always prospered. The ocean was the "deep thinker" frora whom all wisdom came. He became the mentor, the counsellor to Telemachus: he was the Nestor, the ' ' Pylian Sage ' ' in Homer ; he was the speaking ship to the Argonauts. He kept the day book and journal of time, and was the essence, soul and other self of the sun, master of the word ' ' Logos ' ' which nothing in heaven or earth could withstand. In Sophocles, Ajax, the dying hero, says: "I call great Hermes, guide of all the dead, dweller in the dark, to close mine eyes." (The range of Hermes was from heaven to hell.) Hermes Thoth of the Egyptians, scribe of the gods, chron- ologer of heaven and earth. The Greeks identified their god Hermes with the Egyptian god Anubis under the name Her- manubis. 188 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN He is represented by intelligent animals — the ape, baboon, dog, fox, or by the wise parrot. Caleb is a dog. Gabriel had a pack of hounds; death has hell hounds; they are the pack that slew Actseon; Odin has hounds in his hunt — for the wateh dog was the wisest of animals. In Norse he is called Hermod, Odin's favorite, and called the "rapid one." He rode Odin's horse called Sleipner to the death world to offer Hei a ransom for Balder ; he leaped over the castle wall and brought back the ring Draupner (the ring of the new moon.) The new moon ring is the focus of all roads. The Babylonian and Assyrian Hermes was Nebo, and his symbol the cuneiform wedge, for he was the inventor of the cuneiform writing. In the Aztec creation Mercury appears as Xolotl the mes senger god, and is sent to Hades to bring up a bone of the dead, six feet long, from which to make a man and woman. This Xolotl could take various fonns and finally died as a fish. HERMES OR MERCURY. Hermes was a protector of the flock, patron of shepherds, and has the rod of fertility like Jacob. The charactei; of a Hermes or Mercury varied with the advance of civilization and religious conceptions, continually interwoven, amplified, and confused by local variations. He conducted souls to the underworld, and then brought them, back; for he carried the wand of both light and dark ness; he drives all the bright cattle, rings and jewels in the moon cave and then brings them back. By the white wand of the spring moon as Jacob he turned the black moon rings into white and increased his own herd with mavericks at the ex pense of Laban. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 189 Hermes could curse and tum to ashes and destroy king doms, like the Hindu Siva; that is, turn the moon to black ness and ashes, and again stand as the watch-dog and defender of the sky when he returned with his lantern. In his many characters and vocations he is at once messen ger, spy, post-boy, and carried the scarlet letter in the black pouch of the moon mail-bag ; informer, robber, trickster, cheat, liar, fraud; he is the accuser and executioner. Peeping Tom, and jack-of -all- trades — for the moon is a sympathetic object and betrays the secrets of the gods. He could play all roles and characters and completely filled the moon stage. And after all that has been said and written, who are all these gods and demons, these demigods and heroes, these giants and dwarfs and this vast menagerie of beasts, birds, and fishes, these masked figures and transformed monsters but the sun and moon that play on the moon stage in so many forms? And the sun is the great leading character; for what is the bright moon itself but the transformed sun playing a tableau upon the dark groundwork of the moon's disc with a magic lantern. He was Merlin who worked spells and rendered great ser vice to King Arthur ; he could assume any form, and changed himself into a dwarf, a harper and a stag. Hymn to Mercury, Orphic 28, calls him angel of Jove, pre fect of conquests, celestial messenger, friend of men and prophet of discourse, rejoicing as a wrestler and fraud divine. Hymn 57 to Hermes, calls him guide of souls to the under world ; his wand raakes light and darkness. Hermes or Mercury was called the ' ' god of travellers, ' ' and kept the Moon Inn, or Travellers Home, where the sun gods tarried and lodged at night; this road house was called also the ' ' Sun Hotel. ' ' Stone heaps were thrown up at these road 190 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN crossings, and every passing sun traveller or one halting at the inn, was required to throw a stone; that is, add another ring every night to the pile of precious stones or raoon rings. On the Plains of Tibet this sacred heap of stones is raised to the gods by the wayside and called an Obo, on which every passing traveller is required to cast a stone of piety. (Sagas : Far East, p. 95.) Even the Pacific Coast Indians throw up these stone heaps at road crossings and over graves. (Bancroft: Pacific Coast Indians, p. 765.) That is, the moon collects a ring or coin of silver from the sun travellers as a fee for a night's lodging, or a toll at the road gate. In Yucatan all members of a household prayed often and eamestly for the safe return of the absent raeraber, and the traveller carried incense on his journey, and at each night fall he stood on end three small stones, and on three other flat stones placed before the flrst, he burned incense and offered a prayer to Ekchua (merchant) the god of travellers, and when late the traveller was like to arrive after dark at his stopping place, he deposited a stone in a hollow tree and pulled out some hairs from his eyebrows and blew toward the setting sun, hoping thereby to induce that orb to retard his setting. (Bancroft: Vol. 2, p. 738.) It was a religious duty, when passing some prominent point on the road, or spot where an iraage of Ekchua stood to add a stone or two to the heap already acuraulated. (Bancroft: Vol. 3, p. 467.) In Alaska, according to Bancroft, each native added a stone to the burial hillocks when passing, and the heaps seemed of great antiquity. (Bancroft: Vol. 4, p. 742.) Small stone heaps are thrown up by the Indians at road crossings and over graves. (Bancroft: Vol. 4, p. 765.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 191 The American Indians of Honduras and among the Ozark hills, add a stone as they pass the burial places of chiefs. It is the sun traveller every night halting at the inn of the moon, adds another bright ring or stone to the heap, an offer ing to the traveller 's god. Among American Indians trade and traffic exchange was made known and expressed in their sign language by crossing the forefingers, which iraitated the crossroads on the moon, the merchants ' exchange, and the travellers ' home. Great heaps of stones on hills called cairns are found on the Toot hills, which are hills dedicated to the Celtic god. Tot or Tent or Teutates. PILLAR GOD. Herraes guided lost travellers, and appears on the dark moon as a guide post when the sun is lost at night. His statues at first were rude posts set up by highways, fields and gardens, as Hermse. With the Etrurians he was the god Terminus, the worship introduced in Etruria by the Pelasgi. Irmin columns— Irrain means universal. (Asgard and Gods, 152.) And the letter I or the one word, or the indi vidual power, or the universal pillar represents the new moon, and the self-existence, I and ' ' am. ' ' Irmin is the same as Odin, Heimdall or Herraod ; Odin was identical with the Saxon god Irmin, and his statue was called Irminsul. The pillars of Hercules and Samson and the pillar of Atla,s and Lot's wife are the same as the pillar to which Prometheus was chained. The pyramids of Egypt are all that same pillar, down to the rod in the hand of Moses, and the maypole on the green, and the pole of the barber. 192 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN A green pillar stood side by side with the sun pillar before the Phoenician temples; it represented the green color of the moon. Abimelech was made king by the Plain of the Pillar in Shechem (Judges 9:6) as Scottish kings were crowned upon a stone. He is the great king of the world who had corae (in Celtic legend) to invade Erin, and the trunk of his body was formed of one bone which no sword in the land could cut through, and that bone is the pillar of the new raoon. Hercules, Samson, Prometheus and Jacob were all pillar gods ; Osiris was a pillar god and confined in the raoon pillar every winter ; Samson died crushed by the same pillar ; Jason was a pillar god and died crushed by his pillar ; Christ fell and fainted under his pillar, and at the last was nailed to it ; Jeho vah dwelt in that cloudy pillar of fire and sraoke ; the Hindu god Vishnu slept in that pillar ; it was his couch and canopy. Atlas was a pillar god. That hollow pillar of the raoon led down to Hades, and the pyraraids, and round towers were but head stones over the sepulchral cavern. Mercurius lies down there and the robbers are buried there at the bottora of the pyramid; Satan and Loki lie chained there. The round towers with an opening high up in the air represented that moon pillar where the dead are thrown down to the bottom in Hades. Pluto becomes the dog Cerberus and Hindu Kubera, who is lord of the treasures of the lower world, and that indentifies both Pluto (Hades) Plutus, Cerberus and Kubera with the serpent, and dragon and dwarf, because Fafner (the serpent moon) guards the treasures in the raoon vault, and so does the serpent Ladon. It identifies Hermes (the dog) with the king of the dead. Hades, Yama, and Rhadamanthus and Minos, and this Herraes. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 193 HERMES OR MERCURY AS TERMINUS, OR GOD OP BOUNDARIES AND MERCHANT. The sun and moon met once a month and crossed each other's track; they were said to meet at the crossroads, and a cross or mark was made on the disc of the moon in commem oration of the event. Hermes set up a pillar there, and like Jacob, was the pillar god, and that is why the image of Hermes was set at crossroads upon the earth. This becarae the Ir minsul or universal pillar, or the meraorial stone at the mizpah or meeting place. This is how he came to be a god of boundaries ; he set up the corner stone and fenced in the dorainions of the sun in a circle of twelve pillars, and hence was called Terrainus, the god of boundaries. Theseus established the boundaries of the Attic territory, and set up a pillar on the Isthmus of Corinth to mark the limits of Attica and Peloponesus. The moon was a merehant, leader of the caravan, and carae in frora foreign lands with gold and silver and amber, stop ping at the moon stations once a month to display his silks, purple, and fine linen at the monthly fairs ; sometimes a pack peddler seen as the white pillar carrying the black pack upon his back ; for this great highway of the ecliptic was likened to a caravan route of the desert over which merchants carry their goods, stopping at the crossroads and trading posts of the sky desert< He was the voyager who brought the gold of Ophir to King Solomon from Ophis, the serpent land. MERCURY THB GRAND ROBBER. Mercury, grand robber ; Mercurius, high sheriff ; has under him constable and bailiff; he is the "bottle imp." At times 194 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN one with Hades and Charon the ferryman, to conduct souls to the underworld. He is messenger, spy, informer, accuser and executioner ; his thefts were honorable and unavoidable; he stole Alcmena from the coffin, and substituted a stone in her place, probably he did the same for the wife of Cronos (Rhea). Loki of the Norse corresponds with Mercury in purloining Idun's apples and bringing about the death of Balder by the mistletoe, and in having to restore Sif 's hair and Odin's ring. Loki, like Hermes and Absalom, fair and beautiful to behold like Satan, an angel of light, but two-sided, raischievous and perverse in nature. He was "Jack o' Lantern" in old tradition, the raover of the land-mark, and thus doomed to wander light in hand. His rod of correction becomes the ' ' cudgel in the sack, ' ' the concealed weapon in the moon. Agni is the youngest of the gods in the Hindu, whose chariot is the lightning, and whose hair is flame. Agni is the messenger between gods and men. Mercury was a born robber, and began that vocation before he left the cradle ; he robbed Apollo of his oxen, Venus of her girdle. Mars of his sword, Vulcan of his tools, and even Jupiter of his sceptre. We can see how he became a robber: he darkens the moon by driving off all the bright cattle, silver and gold rings into the raoon cave. In this way he opened and closed the eyes of mortals with his magic staff, and caused sleep or wakefulness, or light and darkness upon the moon. He becarae a lying prophet, and noted for fraud and per jury; he was that Jacob who lifted up his hands before God and swore: "As God liveth I am thy son Bsau," and yet he swore the truth, for Jacob and Esau are one and the same THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 195 under a change of dress; when the moon becomes dark he is the hairy Esau, and when he pulls off that hairy coat he is Jacob, the bright and smooth side of the moon. He was at tinies creator, betrayer and executioner. He tied Ixion to the revolving wheel which is the solar light crucified upon the lunar disc. He chained Prometheus to the rock of Caucasus, and nailed Christ to the cross in the same place. He sold Hercules to the winter harlot Omphale. This highway robber as Mercury was captain of the band of Ishmaelites who sold Joseph in Egypt. He was that rascal who hid the divining cup in Benjamin's sack, which is the silver cup of the new moon hid in the black sack of the moon for three days. He was the captain of the forty thieves who hid their money in a cave which only the magic word "Sesame" would open, and that word is the ring of the new raoon which opens the black cave of the raoon on the third day or when thrice re peated. He was the robber Barabbas tumed loose at the crucifixion of Christ; and the butler turned loose from the prison of Pharaoh ; and this ubiquitous agency we have portrayed in the above was the chief god of the Gauls. CaBsar says of the Gauls : ' ' They pay the greatest honors to Mercury, whom they represent as the inventor of all arts, and after him Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, and Minerva. THE WISDOM OP THB HORRIBLES. The moon man is a cross between the light and darkness; a serai-man — the white part is human, and the other a beast. They appear as the two brothers, good and evil, both born in one house. As Jacob says to the twins in his blessing, instru ments of cruelty are in their habitation. They are Simeon and 196 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Levi, and Levi is the serpent ; they are Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, and Esau is the hairy one, the satyr ; they are Solo mon and Asmodeus, Jehovah and Satan, Odin and Loke ; the good nature is frora the sun or light, and the evil from the moon, or -darkness. They comprise satyrs, Kentaurs, Gandharvas, demons, ghouls, and have great diversity of character, from a friend and helper '-> a destroying fiend; they might be collectively arranged/ er the name of demi-gods. Eabar ^ as half man and half goat, or man-goat ; or again as a C ps, half man and half serpent — a man-drake, man- dragon, or moon serpent. Again as a kentaur or a man-horse, or the Babylonian Oannes, the man-fish, or Dagon, the fish god of the Philistines. They are the gods iri different changes of dress during their journey through the signs of the Zodiac. They are generally composite beings and winter guardians, like the Egyptian sphinx, or the Nebuchadnezzar an eagle man or Garuda, or Hebrew Cherubim (Kirubi) the two bulls, the sarae two fire-breathing bulls at Colchis, awaiting the taraing yoke of the hero Jason. The moon was the most ancient of the gods, and in the earliest time was chief god and father of the sun god who was his vassal. And this moon child when born was represented as a monster and abandoned by his mother. Vulcan, the Olyrapian artist, sraith-, and metal worker, was born lame, and his raother Juno was so shocked at the sight of him, that she flung him from Olyrapus to the earth, whieh was .said to have been the cause of his laraeness. He is the raoon with one crooked, limping leg, which is the ring of the new moon. Q3iioe, the mother of Pan (the moon) Avas frightened at his horrible figure when born. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 197 Venus disowned lier offspring Priapus, being shocked at his deformitj'. Esop, the fabulist, pot-bellied, crook-legged; Ais-opos, burnt -faced, sarae as Pelops. A monster was Esop, deformed, thrown from a rock and killed. (He is the moon fabulist.) He is the Avagddu ' ' utter darkness ' ' of the British Druidi cal Mythology, a son of Ceridwen, the British Ceres, and born a hideous creature ; he is the black moon be^. 'e he is re deemed with light, and his mother endeavored to ke up for his deficiency by giving him great learning and ^ ^Ju^om and boiled the moon caldron for a year and a day, .. '¦ 1 with potent herbs, and repeating magic ceremonies, and at the end of the year the moon kettle burst, and the elixir of life and divine wisdom ran out on one edge of the raoon, which we call the new moon. By this his exaltation was accomplished, and he became the wisest of raen, and his name was changed to Elphin, or Taliesin, and married the spring virgin, who was mistress of the dew and the rainbow. He was called the "Radiant front" and the "thrice born." He was Eros, the blind god of the Greeks, whose name was changed through the mysteries to Phanes — as the name of Abram was exalted to Abraham. In the above ridiculous story, the wisdom of Avagddu would unmistakably identify him with the moon, the wisest of beings, for all these wise raen were the moon and deformed monsters. The Avagddu of the British Druids is the Cupid (new moon ring) to whom Psyche is wed, born in the impenetrable dark ness of the black moon monster, awaiting regeneration by the holy anointing oil of the redeemer sun. In Bancroft's Pacific Coast Indians, we are told of Citlali- cue, the goddess who gave birth to the flint knife, or the knife that strikes fire, and was ashamed of her progeny and the 198 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN children born of the flint knife ; and when they rpplied to her for the bone of life, or the marow bone, she said: "Had you been what you ought to have been, you inight still have been in my company. ' ' The above flint knife or fire knife is the fire child Agni ; he is the Avagddu or utter darkness;' he is the blind god Eros of the Greeks. In the Finland Tales of the Kalevala, he is Semmer the limping hoy, who sowed the humid swamp ground. The ol^ forms of these tales represent ruder conceptions. In the'Argyleshire Series of Folklore No. 4: In "The Lay of the Smithy" — a tall, bent lad on one leg, one top eye in his forehead — a big raan, ugly and deformed with a darksome helmet of skin. "Whence have you come, or are you a clothier to shape skins." He replied to Cumal: "I have corae to put you under spells; follow me westward to the door of my smithy." This identifies the smith with Hades. This tall bent lad is a smith and a hunter of souls ; he is the moon raonster, the old crooked serpent. The moon is that dubious King Bes of Egypt, a grotesque creature with horns and eyes on a level with the top of his head ; a tailed creature, half man, half animal ; with bandy legs; a god of music and dancing. He was a destructive force in nature, and in the Book of the Dead identified with Set. He has a protruding tongue like the Mexican moon god, and the earliest gods of Egypt and Babylon, which identifies him with the black moon, with its tongue of fire. He was Elijah, the Tishbite, a "hairy man," and wore a leather girdle about his loins for these wild prophets who dwelt in the mountains and caves were wise men. Such was John the Baptist, an outcast in shaggy raiment, a form of Eabani the satyr. They were wise men ; they were the Esau and Ishmael. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 199 And Abraham begat Ishraael by Hagar the Hag, and he became a wild hunter and a bowman and dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, as Bsau the wild hunter dwelt in Mt. Seir. (Genesis 36:8.) Pan was once comely, but Venus transformed him into a hideous creature. Again, see King Albaun (Mclnnes, p. 69) who again be comes beautiful by a turri on the floor, and this big ugly one becomes the faithful friend. The well «-liore Gilgames met the harlot, is the well where Christ met the harlot ; in the first instance the harlot re forms the wise man, but in the second, the wise man reforms the harlot. The story is that of Midas, the Thracian sun king, who over came Silenus the satyr in the same way, by filling his water trough with wine. It is Christ turning water into wine at the wedding of Cana of Galilee. It is in other tales the Atahensic fiung down into the sea to still the waters, or the Japan maiden flung down into the sea personified as a dragon, or the virgin maiden flung down into the Nile, or Venus the warm spring sun wedding with the monster blacksmith. This monster moon, though very wise, is but half human, half white, half black, and every winter runs wild when abandoned by the sun, and sits by his water trough in the moon with matted locks, and every spring has to be re deemed by the warm spring sun. Such was Eabani the satyr, who was a half goat, for he was the wise man, the friend and prophet to Gilgames the sun, and what Aaron was to Moses. Gilgames, the Babylonian sun king, employed a harlot from Ishtar's court to woo Eabani the winter moon, who had run wild and become a savage. For Eabani was a sea god, and 200 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN kept the fountain of the moon, and sat by the water trough with his herds who had become wild. That harlot is the per sonification of the warm spring sun that wakes the dormant moon. The flocks of Eabani forsook him even as in the conflict of Bel and the dragon. The flocks forsook the dragon and fled Avhen she was overcome by Bel Merodach, and as Christ's dis ciples forsook him and fled. Chapter XIII. SATAN. The moon is half light and half darkness ; one half the year good, and the other half evil. He is a composite creature and two-sided. He became the devil, who took all forms, and was a jack-of-all-trades, and played many characters, from a mis chievous troll to a demon of the darkest die. Devils assume all degrees of wickedness until they reach the very incarnation of evil. The Satan of Job, and the lying .spirit of Ahab, and the Asraodeus, the king of demons in the tirae of King Solomon, and the Loki of Scandinavia, and that tempter of Christ — all had access to the court of heaven and the presence of God. They were all originally the personified raoon— evil in winter, but in spring and summer reclaimed. Some partly evil, some only raischievous, and little to be feared, as European ogres and goblins, Greek Titans and giants — shapeless dwarfs. Deraon itself is daimon divinity; deraonism was the estab lished theology of the ancient world. The prince of devils, once the god of the highest order. The king of Hell, the one of the highest and noblest of the gods. Devil worship or the destroyer was the oldest worship of antiquity. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 201 In olden .time, there were good and evil demons ; each person had two demons; every disease had a deinon— famine, drought, affliction ; and among savages everything had a soul : his horse, his house, his sandal, his ox, and arrow. The human soul be came a demon after death, sometimes most malignant and had to be appeased. It all means the personification of evil, visible as the winter raoon. Whenever this evil takes forra it is plainly visible as the moon, whether as the hunchback dwarf, the new moon with the black pack on his back, or the new moon as the gray backed serpent, teeth and claws are always the forks of the new moon. In the Persian systera Ahriman, the Persian devil, was to be finally reconciled with Orrauzd, but the Christian devil was dooraed to everlasting fire. The raoon becoraes the green coat man, the charcoal burner, chimney sweep, and old Nick, or St. Nicholas, who comes down the black chimney at Christmas; satyr, smith, and dwarf, has cleft hoof and flees at the first rays of the rising sr,n and the crow of the cock. In Argyllshire Series No. 3, he is the big lad with skin covering of great strength, with two big nails on his two big toes, which are the two prongs of the new moon. Again as the tall bent lad with the skin covering, and fleet of foot, which is the tall bent moon with the blue skin covering on liis back. Again he is old Nic, ogre, old scratch, with the big toe nail, as heard in the comic song : "Did you ever see the devil, with his iron wooden shovel, digging up the gravel with his big toe nail." Ho carries the black sack in which he bags souls; the sack is the black raoon. Benjarain's sack in which is the divining cup of Joseph, which is the flrst ring of the raoon. In Finnish raagic songs the devil was suramoned to heal tho 202 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN sick man, and their devil was a hunchback. "Let Hissi come from Hiatola, the hunchback from the home of gods, to cast out evil." (The hunchback moon.) The devil is seen in Assyrian sculpture: a demon with claws, horns, tail, wings ; and is pursued by the god Adar. His members are drawn from many^ aniraals, and he has inherited a hairy form, and hoofs and tails and homs of Pan and satyrs, to make a composite being most horrible. He is that stranger who wrestled with Jacob at the river crossing (the brook Jabbok) and begged to be let loose when daylight was approaching in the morning, for the moon race is afraid of daylight. Hercules wrestled with the same god of the Achelous for the hand of Deianeira, and tore off one of his horns for a cornucopia; for it was springtime, and Hercules the sun was able to overcorae him. The horn is a fork of the moon, and became the spring bride, the Easter maiden. They wrestle twice a year ; in the autumn the winter god will again prevail. He becomes the hell hound Cerberus, at the door of Hades- he is again the nine-headed hydra ; he can take all forras like the gods above. Th evil demons lived in the east ; Guttorm was there fight ing, so Thor made an expedition against the evil demons in the east ; in the winter the evil suitors of Penelope. (Ander son 224.) There is always a way of escape provided for the evil one, and the murderer Cain, and Moses ; the wild boar, and mara thon bull, and the Paris allowed to escape, for they were raised up for that purpose. And in spring time the good and the evil wed and join hands to build up the earth laid waste. The giant, Polyphemus, the outlawed Cyclops, joins with the Argonauts to bring back the golden fleece. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 203 The gods and demons all unite to churn the moon sea for amrita, that all healing spring that ran from the phallic sacri fice of Uranus, the heaven god, that sarae fountain filled with blood that ran from Iramanuel's veins. Asmodeus, the evil winter king of King Solomon, is re deemed by that same fountain, and assists Solomon in building his temple— as Apollo and Neptune built the walls of Troy. That sarae fountain prepared for Silenus, the satyr by Midas, by which he was captured and reclaimed. It was the evil tree that gave knowledge to Eve. The ser pent lifted up in the wilderness, the all healing serpent of the spring, was the same serpent that bit and banished Eve in the autumn ; the serpent heals its own bite. Death is but a mode of life, and evil but a form of good. All good came from evil, and evil was the parent of good; all things were generated from the poisonous abyss. Christ was the fruit of the evil tree. And the redeemers, Tammuz and Adonis and Krishna, the fruit of the spear and boar's tusk. Sigurd ate of the heart of the poison serpent Fafner, for wisdom. Satan is the alter ego of the gods, good and evil are one. The gods were born of evil giants. The Persian religion recognized physical and moral evil. Osiris and his brother represent the confiict of light and darkness, at first physical good and evil, and then a warfare between right and wrong, in reference to the welfare of the human soul. The Norns love yet withhold their helping; they hate and refrain from the blow; they haye fashioned the good and the evil and abide the change and the end. (Sigurd the Vol sung, 126.) Good and evil are one and the same thing seen under dif ferent aspects. 204 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN It is now accepted that good cannot exist without evil; we could never have known good but for evil; we learn things by their opposites, like up and down— we would not know light but for darkness. God sent an evil spirit to trouble Saul. (I Samttel, 16 :14.) "T ara the Lord; I form the light; I create evil; I make peace." (Isaiah 45:7.) I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne, and the hosts of heaven on his right and left. Jehovah said, Who will entice Ahab. And there came forth the spirit and stood before Jehovah and said, I will entice him. I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. (I Kings 22 : 20 to 23.) Then he set Satan against Job without cause. Satan still held to his integrity and said to Jehovah, Thou movest me against him Avithout cause. Fate Avas a moral evil inseparable from good, and evil grew into a separate personality; in later schools as Persian and Hebrew. The angel that met Balaam is called "the angel of the Lord" and a "Satan." In Job Satan is associated with the sons of God, and appears with the gods. On the Day of Atonement among the Jews, the urn or moon box was shaken and brought up two lots : one was written for the name of God, and the other was written for Azzazel ; and these names were placed upon two goats, and a tongue-shaped pieee of scarlet wool was twisted on the head of the scapegoat to be sent away ancl be placed opposite the gate from which he should be sent. This Azzazel was the devil, or the ' ' demon of dry places." People set apart a piece of land to the devil, a propitiatory gift; it was deserted and devoted to the service of the dcA'il. and left unfilled. A necessary evil the fates decree— the devil rode a dun horse : the dun moon. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 205 They sacrificed unto devils to gods whom they knew not. (Deuteronomy 32 : 17.) According to Captain John Smith, the colonizer of Virginia, the chief god of the Virginia Indians Avas the devil, him they call Okee, and serve him raore from fear than love ; they have his image carved in the teraple, painted and adomed with chains of copper and beads and covered with skin. According to Tyler the Florida Indians worshipped the evil spirit Tola, and had sraall regard for the good spirit. At the tirae of the Eden rayth, the evil one was worshipped as a serpent, and Satan is a later name, and Jehovah was worshipped as a serpent in the wilderness, and long after, down to the Jewish reformation of Hezekiah. That horn of Satan is the horn which grew out of Cain's head, the horn of the new raoon. The horn which spake great Avords against the Most High. (Daniel 7 : 8, 25.) In Job's tirae Satan and Jehovah are on good terms, and ag.ain in Christ's time, Satan Avas in high power and tempted Christ and offered to buy out his kingdom. He is the Hermes who fixed the chains upon Prometheus, the chief executioner Avho hanged the baker in Joseph's prison, and the man who hanged Christ, as a constable sheriff to exe cute the captive sun taken doAvn frora his throne in the northem kingdom, across the line of division in the southem hemisphere, where he is deprived of his fertilizing power. The devil, in Christian legend, is hell's constable; he, like Hermes, binds and torments, and the bands which Prometheus had are the same which bound Samson, the thread that run round the dark moon. The Targum of Jonathan says that Soloraon sent Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, to bind Asmodeus the king of the devils, and he made hira drunk with wine, and obtained frora him the 206 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN secret hiding place of the worra that cleft the hardest stone, and by the help of this Solomon built his temple. Then the devil asked Solomon for his signet ring, and having obtained this, the devil stretched one wing to the firmament, and the other to the earth, and jerked Solomon four hundred miles away, and assumed the likeness of Solomon, and seated hiraself upon his throne. The Asmodeus its the winter moon awakened and regener ated in spring by the wine or warm sunshine, to again rebuild the temple, for the winter moon has the same form and fea ture as the spring and summer moon, but in winter the king dom changes hands. In Persian myth the evil spirit Ahriman drew away by falsehood and lies the followers of Ormuzd, who joined Ahri man by which he gained power over Ormuzd for 3000 years. As Asraodeus banished Solomon from the throne and ruled in his stead ; as the sumraer Jupiter was dethroned by the winter Hades and loSt his thunderbolt. SET, THE EGYPTIAN SATAN. In ancient Egypt, Set or Sutech, the evil power, was a great and glorious god, who had raagnificent teraples, and was worshipped side by side with the god of goodness. He was the brother of Osiris, the saviour, and was very popular frora the fifth to the nineteenth dynasty — kings called theraselves "Beloved of Set." He was a great warrior, and the companion of the chief god Amen. Set originally figured together with the head of Horus on one body, and Set was a friendly god, a god of the lower world, and assisted the souls of the deceased kings who called themselves "Beloved of Set" as late as the nineteenth dy nasty; but in the tAventy-second dynaf3ty was regarded as the origin of all evil, and his statues and iraages defaced and destroyed. (Budge, Book of the Dead.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 207 The Osiris and Typhon were brothers : one was good and the other evil ; they both came from the parent of light. At tiraes Osiris is moral good, and Set is moral evil, or a friend in disguise through his destructive power. But the character of Set varied according to the altered theories of a higher cul ture, and we find Set at one time court officer, constable and executioner of the gods, and at another the personification of all that was evil. Set Typhon was red haired and white skinned, of violent, gloomy and jealous temper. (Maspero 174.) But the divinities of darkness and death faded out and Set ceased to have divine honors from the Egyptians, who erased the name of the Typhonian god from the monuments about the time of the twenty-second dynasty ; and the Jews followed suit and substituted the eagle in the place of Dan the scor pion man in the general decline and falling off of devil worship. Plutarch says in his Isis and Osiris, Ch. XXX, "That the poAver of Typhon dimmed and crushed was in its last agonies and convulsions; he was finally expelled from the Pantheon and his images mutilated and effaced. In the old religion Set and Osiris were brothers, and seemed different characters of the same divinity; as in later Greek Zeus and Hades were identified and Zeus himself was called the infernal Jupiter. This old religion carried with it the idea that partial evil was universal good. The waterman Akki saved the castaway ; Hea the sea saved the Babylonian Noah that Bel, the earth god had dooraed to die. Poseidon the devouring sea found a refuge for Latona, that the earth had denied a resting place. Satan saved Eve the death doomed of Jehovah; Jehovah said, Thou shalt surely die. But Satan said, ' ' Thou shalt not 208 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN die. ' ' And so far as the story goes Satan told her the truth. Satan and Jehovah are twins, yet they are the reverse side of the same coin. The angel of light and the redeeraer of spring, the healing serpent lifted up in the wilderness, becomes again the biting serpent of winter, that cold and evil eye that turns to stone. In the Kalevala, Ahti is a hero and brother of Wainamoi nen the minstrel, and Umarinen the smith; they are three brothers ; he is a hero, a swordsraan, and can only be killed by the serpent; he has the unnamed finger, has black hair, and appears unbidden at the banquet of Pohyola, the wedding ban quet. He arrives one day too late. We are told in one of the Gathas or hyrans of the Persian or Iramian religion, that Ahura Mazda, the good spirit, and .A.hriman, the evil spirit, were twins. These two Spirits are twins; They made known in times that are by-gone. That whieh is good and evil, In thought, word and action. Devil was once co-equal with Jehovah as a great god. Je hovah was never able to overcome hira, this evil being took from Jehovah and ruled in the garden of the gods half the year. The Persian Ormuzd, the chief god of light, had a brother Ahriman, who was the evil principle of death and darkness, and they were both the offspring of "endless time" and Ahriman was about equal in power to Orrauzd. Hades in Greek is the brother to Zeus, and in fact but the other self of Zeus, for Hades among the Greeks theraselves Vv^as called the infernal Jupiter. And when Odin the Norse god and his corapanions were im prisoned in the hall of Reidmar the Ancient, who is Hades, the scene is in the west over the river of death ; for Loke had THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 209 slain Otter the Avater carrier, and for his ransora the moon god demanded all the summer sunshine, the Niblung treasure. And Reidmar said to Odin : " Of old it was said the gods were twin born onee." And thou AUfather Odin, hast thou come on a bastard brood ? Or hadst thou belike a brother thy twin for evil and good. That waked amidst thy slumber and slumbered midst thy Avork? (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 89.) The aboA'^e colloquy occurs upon the moon during the three dark nights of conjunction, when the solar powers have been trapped in the moon, and will not be released until they de liver up the Niblung treasure of gold, which is the sumraer sunshine. And Odin says of himself : I knew and I wrought and foreordered, and evil sat by my side. And myself by myself hath been doomed. And I look for the fateful tide; And I deal with the generations, and the men my hand h.ath made; And myself by myself shall be grieved. Lest the world and its fashioning fade. (Morris, Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin, p. 96.) Satan, a meraber of the trinity in Hindu, Brahraa (creator), Vishnu (preserver), Siva (destroyer) ; in Norse the trinity of Odin, Hcenir and Loke (destroyer), in Greek Zeus, Poseidon and Hades (destroyer) ; in the dual system of Persia Orrauzd was creator and Ahriman was the evil destroyer, and equal to Ormuzd, the creator of good. When the serpent Tatig fled to Siva for protection, he waa saved, for he was none other than Siva himself, and he branded him Avith a ring (the new moon) that none might slay hira; as in tale of Niwal Dai (Temple's Legends of the Pun jab) for he Avas but a form of Siva hiraself. 210 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN ¦When Horus fought and conquered Typhon the evil power, his own mother Isis saved Typhon from death. When Cain, the evil destroyer, slew sumraer Abel, he was consecrated by Jehovah with the brand of the new moon ring that none might slay him, and that brand was the seal of God. The high gods would not allow the power of evil to be over come. Zeus slew his oavu son Esculapius, the divine healer, that Hades (death and hell) might have its own, Jehovah did the same thing and slew his oavu son and turned the robber Barabbas loose. As Odin met and struck the sword from the hand of Sig mund on the battle field that the Niblung (winter) power might prevail. None of the evil powers are more marked and striking than that of Siva the Hindu destroyer, where everything in their religion and mythology is monstrous and overgroAvn ; Siva went naked and smeared himself with ashes; he carried a skull ; held revels in cemeteries where he danced and sang and again stood in silent meditation (which is the winter moon personified. ) Though one with Brahma, yet fights against Brahma ; some times supreme god, for he is but a form of Vishnu and Brahma ; he is blue necked, and wears a string of skulls about his neck, which are but the rings of the new raoon. He is lord of ghosts and goblins, and haunts cemeteries. He was half male and half female, and is represented with one side painted with lamp black, and the other side with red lead, and has the new moon for his symbol. And all this is unmistakably lunar. In the epic of the Hindu Ramayana, this Siva the de stroyer appears as Ravana the demon of Lanka, or Ceylon and carries off Sita, the suraraer maiden, as Hades abducted THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 211 Proserpine, and Paris eloped Avith the Argive Helen. He was king of the demons, called Rakshasas; he could assume all forms, and his bright teeth were like the new raoon. His form was a thick cloud or mountain ; the god of death with open mouth. His body was scarred Avith wounds in flicted by all the divine arms — scarred by the thunderbolt of Indra ; the tusk of the elephant, and the discus of Vishnu, and these are the scars of the raoon. He could agitate the seas and split the mountains, a breaker of all laAvs ; a ravisher of other men 's wives. He was tall as a mountain peak (ncAV moon) and stopped with his arms the sun and moon in their course. And yet this Siva was beautiful to behold, like Loke and Absalom, without spot or blemish, the delight and irresistible charra of woraen. Pie was not invited to the spring festival. like Discord (winter) at the spring wedding of Peleus, and the Ilamarinen, who appears unbidden at the Avedding of Pohyola of the Kalevala ; which proves him to be the personifi cation of winter. This Satan was originally the winter moon, the friend and ally of the sun in summer, but his enemy in winter. Chapter XIV. THE SWORD. THE SWORD OF THE VOLSUNGS, THE GIFT OF ODIN, THB HIGH GOD OF THB NORSEMEN. One evening as the Volsungs were feasting around the bran stock, or fire tree in the Volsung garden, Odin entered the doorway and strode up to the branstock and drew a gleaming sword, and smote it deep in the tree-bole of the oak for a scabbard, and said : ' ' Now let the man among you whose heart and hand may shift, to pluck it frora the oak-wood, e'en take 212 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN it for my gift, a sword for the world to praise. ' ' All tried in vain to draw the sword, until it came the turn of Sigmund, the son of Volsung, who in a careless fashion drew it from the scabbard of the fire-tree, and waved it aloft over his head. (Morris: Sigurd the Volsung, Book 1, p. 5.) The sword thrust in the bole or stem of the branstock or fire- tree, Avas the sword of the new moon at conjunction, or com ing together of sun and moon Avhen the moon is darkened for three days, and the sword of light is sheathed in the tree ; it will be drawn out by the sun prince on third night as new moon. Sigmund, the son of Volsung, lost this sword in the battle of the island with Siggeir the Goth, who was the Avinter king. Sigmund and Sinfiotli are taken captive by Siggeir thc Goth, and bound and hoppled, and cast in a pit which was two fold, and sundered by a stone into two chambers and roofed with turf, but over the head of Sinfiotli was a little space left bare in the rafters, and his mother, Signy, stole out in the night and drew forth a sword wrapped in Avheat straw, and thrcAV it SAviftly down in the grave mound, and when he un wound it, he found the Volsung sword, and together they hewed their Avay out of the pit. (Sigurd the Volsung, B. 1, p. 42.) This is most decisive. The twofold pit is the moon, which is divided into tAvo chambers ; the rift in the rafters is the space where the ring of fire, or new moon will appear; the old mother moon threw doAvn to her child the sword of light, by which they hew their way out of the machpelah, or cave of double division, Avhich is the moon, divided into two divisions by the sword of light. Again at the last battle of Sigmund, it was broken in shards, met by the twibill of Odin; and his wife Hiordis came from her hiding after the battle was over, and gathered . THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 213 the shards in her apron, and fled to the thicket, and when Sigurd her child, was groAvn, she gave him the broken frag ments, which were welded together again by Regin the smith — a sword for the world "god fashioned." With this sword he smote an anvil in twain — (the anvil is the black raoon split with the golden sword of the new moon) —and when Sigurd rode upon his war horse, the sword sang a war song in its sheath. With this SAVord he rode to the glittering heath, and smote on the door of destruction to Avaken the warder of death. With this sAvord he woke Bryn hild from her trance sleep upon the heath. She is the spring moon, the husk maiden Avrapped in the black husk of the moon; he ran his sword down and peeled off the husk, and laid her Avhite linen bare. With this sword he slew the ser pent Fafner, who slept upon the Niblung treasure of gold, and scattered it abroad in suraraer sunshine, and reaped a hundred-fold. This sword-god, fire-god, serpent-god, all one, and dwelt in the bole or stem of the dark green moon tree; and that first ring is the fruit of the tree ; it dwelt in the tree as fire dwells in wood. Sigurd's sword was called Gram. (Anderson, p. 155.) It had been the bane of his father, and the fate of all his kin. It was called the serpent of the branstock, and the worm of bitter tooth. It was called the light of the branstock, the hope of the Volsung tree ; the sunderer, the deliverer, and the torch of the days to be. In spring the new moon is a dove or messenger of peace— but at the end of summer it is a destroying sword, a sword of wrath ; it is Mars the god of war ; sometimes he becomes a wild boar, and is seen rooting up the spring garden upon the moon Avith his tusk, which is the ncAV moon. 214 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN In springtime the branstock or fire-tree bloometh to heaven from its ancient Avondrous root, but in autumn the summer hath shone on its blossoms, and Sigurd's sword is the fruit, for the new moon ring of spring becomes the bitter fruit of the moon tree in autunm. And at the last Sigurd and Brynhild were laid together on the bale high builded in the hallowed field of the Niblungs, and Brynhild was lain on the topmost bale and when the bale fire was kindled, there came an elder of days, who bore upon his shoulder the sword of the branstock, and laid it between the sleepers. SWORD OP GOLIATH AND DAVID. And David, when he fled from Saul, went to Abimelech, the priest, for he was unarmed, and asked for a sword, and the priest said: "The sword of Goliath the Philistine is here, whom thou slew in the valley of Blah ; it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. There is none other here," and David said : ' ' There is none like that ; give it rae. " (I Sarauel 21-: 9.) The scene is upon the moon, and all the characters in the play are moonshine ; and the sword of David behind the ephod is the neAT moon ring in its scabbard. It is the same sword, the first ring of the spring moon ; the sword wrapped in the bask of the linden, and thrown in the rent of the roof of the dark moon, into the cave of Sinfiotli by his mother, the sword of the branstock, or fire tree, the gift of Odin. And the boy waved it over his head Avith joy saying : ' ' Best unto babe is mother." SWORD OF KALEVIDE. The sword of Kalevide in Kalevipoeg. The sword on which the smiths had labored seven years, which was wrought of THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 215 seven kinds of Swedish iron, with the aid of seven charms and tempered in seven waters. And this sword was stolen and fell in the hands of a sor cerer, Avho sank in the mud, and Kalevide awoke and called to his sword as to a brother, and asked the sword who had stolen it ; and the sword sang how the sorcerer had carried it oft' and it had slipped in the water into the arms of the fairest of the water nymphs. And Kalevide heaped up a load of sand in a swamp, and as he lay, the sorcerer crept on him, and by incantations and magic herbs, thrcAV him into winter sleep where he lay dreaming of a sword made in an Under ground smithy by Umarinen, the smith. The sword is the uoav moon, being wrought through the seven raonths and seven charms of winter; the sorcerer is Hades of the underground smithy in the pit of the moon— and the sand heap which Kalevide built up in the swamp is that white sand bar in the swamp at the mouth of the moon river. SWORD OF FRITHJOF. Sword of Frithjof from the Norse Saga. The sword of Frithjof was Angurvadel, the lightning's brother; on its hilt were engraved mystic runes Avhich none might interpret, which reddened in war, and tumed pale in peace ; it had no respect for slumber or gray hairs. "Sharp is its tongue, it thirsteth ever raore for blood, for a dark spirit from Nifiheim dwelleth in the steel." Valhalla was lit up by sAvords instead of fire. (Young: Edda, p. 188.) Swords tempered with the venom of serpents and poison of the spider— born Avith a rage and thirst for blood, and caused the ruin and death of the possessor. Arthur's sword Avas Excalibur, the gift of the water, a 216 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN mystic arm arose from the sea and gave the sword, and when he died the same Avhite arra arose and took it back ; it was the lady of the lake, Morgan the fairy ; and when Arthur died he charged Sir Bedivere to throw the sword into the water. Twice he essayed, and then repented of his proraise and hid the sword ; but the third time he threw the sword far out into the water, when the white hand and arm caught the sword and vanished beneath the waves. The white arra is the new raoon seen rising from the moon Avater on the third night of the moon's darkness. SWORD OF CHERU. The sword of Cheru, fashioned by dwarfs, hung in the temple where it would receive the first rays of the sun always brought victory to its possessor; prophecy had foretold that whoever Avielded it would conquer the world, and then should himself die by the sword. It was stolen from the temple one night ; the Norns or the fates were at the bottom of it, but no one would reveal its hiding place. It fell in the hands of Vitellius, who became by it emporer of Rome; and in the end he lived to fulfil prophecy, for it became the instrument of his death. It was left hanging in the antechamber of his house, from which it was stolen by a soldier, who left in its place his own rusty blade, which failed Vitellius in battle, and the soldier cut off his head. The soldier, at the end of his life, returned and buried the sword on the banks of the Danube, and built over it a hut ; and when the country was ravaged by Attila, the ' ' scourge of God, ' ' it was found by a herder whose cow had stepped upon the blade and been cut. It was recognized at once by Attila to be the sword of Cheru from its fine workraanship. He waved it over his head THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 217 and proclaimed himself the conqueror of the world. He afterward settled in Hungary and married the Burgundian princess Ildieo, Avhose father he had slain, and upon her wed ding night took advantage of his inebriety, and slew him Avith the self-same sword Avhich gives both victory and de feat ; it afterwards passed into the hands of Charles the Fifth. Since then it has passed to the hands of St. Michael the Archangel, the Angel of God, Avho met Balaam on the ass. This SAvord of Cheru Avhich hung in the teraple where it received the first rays of the sun, is the new moon, thc first part of the moon temple to be illuminated. When it disap peared the second time, it was left hanging in the antechamber of the house of Vitellius, which is thc entry of the black moon, where the new moon is left hanging. It was again buried on the banks of the Danube river, substituted for the moon river ; and the cow that stepped upon it is the dun raoon cow, Avhich turned up the new moon again, the ancient sword of God Avhich became the property of Attila. It is the sword of God, the new moon of spring, and the victory over the winter; and again the sword and slayer of the year ; the sword which Saul fell upon, and the sword Ajax threw himself upon. It was the same sword thrust into the mouth of the wolf Fenris, the hilt resting upon his lower jaw, and the point against his palate. It is visibly the sAvord of the neAv raoon gaping wide the mouth of the black raoon. TIRPING SWORD. The Tirfing sAvord of the Eddas which would cut through iron and stone as a garment, Avould never stain or rust, and Avas always victorious. It was dwarf wrought, and a bane and curse were woven in the blade, that its wrath could never be stayed. It fell in the 218 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN hands of Angantyr, Avho bore the sAVord when he fought for the hand of the fair Ingeborg, and slew twelve raen. And when Angantyr died, he had the sword buried with him. But his daughter Hervor, dressed in male attire, landed alone at night at the island cemetery (raoon) guided bj' the burial flame that stood above the grave, that sepulchral flre Avhich is visible above the graves of heroes at night to guard their sacred repose ; and there by her magic spells raised him up from the grave and compelled the gift of the magic blade. The sword is the new moon seen arising from the dark sepulchre of the black moon on the third night, as Samuel was raised by the Avitcli of Endor. The Tirfing sword sIcav his brother and slew his foster-son, and its wrath could not be stayed after it had slain the boar. Hervor is the moon in winter; she becomes an 'Xr.iazon, but when the winter is over, the Amazon takes off male attire, and returns the sword to the sun, as Hercules and Theseus over came the Amazons, and as Sigurd cut off the armor of Bryn hild. (Keightley, p. 74.) SWORD OP FIONN. The sword of Fionn was made of iron and coals frora a place that was not good (Hades, the fire-pit of the raoon) and Avas to be tempered in the first living thing that entered the smithy, Avhether it was the blood of man, woman or dog ; even a sword had to be tempered in blood. The blood will be the first flash of sunlight upon the black moon. Por the elements of the moon are material, gross and destructive, and have to be redeemed by the blood of the sun. The sword was made by the Telchines, the artiflcers who wrought the sickle of Saturn ; they are the same Avith Voland, Wailand and Regin. Sword of light: That sword Avhen thrown into the air re- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 219 turned to the hand of Blue NiaU over seas of water and fire. (Laramie: West Irish Folk Tales, p. 13 to 60.) The SAvord that Egeus had deposited under a heavy rock; the gift to him who should be able to lift the rock. It Avas lifted by his son Theseus, Avhen he attained to manhood, where the sAvord and sandals of his father Egeus were buried. The sword is the new moon of spring, under the black rock of the moon ; he lifts the black stone of the moon off the ncAv moon ring, as William Tell lifted the apple off the head of his boy, with the arrow of light shot from the sun. SWORD OF WAINAMOINEN. Quick the virgin of the vapors Breathed a fog upon the waters. Held the minstrel Wainamoinen, Anchored in the fog and darkness; Bound him one day, then a second, Then a third, till dawn of morning. With his sword he smote the billows. From his magie blade flowed honey. Quick the vapor breaks and rises. Leaves the waters clear for rowing. — Crawford's Kalevala, Rune 42. It is the moon boat three days befogged in the mist of the dark moon ; the three dark nights Wainamoinen smites or chums the moon sea with his SAVord, and frora its blade flowed honey — like the churning of the ocean in the Hindu for amrita, the golden honey of the new moon. GUARDIAN SWORD. "And he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden eheru bims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3 : 24.) 220 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The sacred tree or grove of Anu the Babylonian god, was guarded by a sword turning to all four cardinal points. This SAVord is celebrated in the religious hymn in the liturgy of ancient Babylonia; it has flfty external points, and seven concentric rays. The fifty have reference to the fifty-two weeks of the year in round numbers ; and the seven concentric rays have reference to the seven-fold serpent that surrounds Brynhild in winter sleep, and seven-fold devil that inhabited Mary Magdalen, the moon in winter exile, the seven months of Avinter. A fiery wheel guarded the Hindu Soraa, keen-edged and sharp as a razor. (Mahabharata, Vol. I, p. 109.) It is the revolving wheel on which Ixion was crucified. In olden time the treasures Avere guarded by serpents and dragons, as Ladon guarded the Hesperian apples, and Fafner the serpent guarded the Niblung treasure. The sword defends the moon temple in heaven, and the sword defends the church and cross, its image on earth. The moon was the original Avatchman and guardian of the night, the watch dog, lit up with a torch or larap at the door or entrance of the teraple to guard the vault or cavern of the moon which held the gold and treasures, the arms and panoply of the gods. And the moon temple Avas transferred to the earth with all its strange witchcraft and superstition, and the moon's guardians were set up as the skull, death's head, bulls, lions, eagles, ravens, dragons, cross and crescent, and composite be ings, as sphinx-phoenix, hydra-Kentaur, or the bell upon the church steeple, which was the image of the black moon with its flaming tongue (new moon ring) to scare aAvay evil powers and the enemies of light. Many still haunt our public groves and parks as heirlooms of the past. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 221 The Avinged sun disk Avhicli protected from evil Avas seen carved over the entrances of Egyptian temples and tombs ; this office Avas supplied also by the guardian sphinx. Among Icelandic traditions, when a new churchyard is made, the first man buried therein does not corrupt or raolder, but reraains incorrupt, and is called the "waking-raan" or Avatchman of the graveyard. Hesiod, Op. et. Dies, 109, tells us that the men of the Golden Age becarae after death guardians and Avatchers over mortals, or demons, or the ghosts of dead men ; a good demon or guar dian genius. In an Accadian hymn, records of past Vol. 11 Old Series : "0 Shepherd, Lord Tammuz, Bridegroom of Ishtar, Lord of Hades, Lord of Tul-sukhba ! ' ' For the retired gods deprived of their kingdom, turn ad visers, prophets and counsellors, as they did to Rhea, who im plored them for the safety of her child. This guardian Avas the bearer as well as the guardian of the Deity. Jehovah rode upon the bull or cherub and did fly, and in Avinter this cherub became his guardian. (Psalm 18:10.) As Odin rode upon the ygdrasil, "bearer of God"; Siva rode upon the bull, Vishnu upon the garuda or eagle; Christ and the holy faraily upon the ass or winter moon, so it was both the vehicle and guardian ; sometimes the gods rode on chariots drawn by serpents, and this guardian is but the transformed sun in winter guarding his treasure as an enchanted prince. Hades wearing the helm of dread, guardian of winter treas ures, arid waiting like Barbarossa till the raven shall cease flying and the dove returns frora the south in spring. Under the tauric or bull Avorship, the tAvin forks of the new moon beconie the horns of the bull, and were the cherubim placed one each side of the doorways of Euphratean temples. 222 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN as Kirubi ; they are seen as winged guardians before Assyrian palaces. THE GUARDIAN SWORD AND SKULL TALISMAN. The death's head led the way in Exodus; the wise head, the oracle head, the head of Miraer the wise, the horse head of Palada, the head of John the Baptist. In a Mabinogian tale of Branvyen, the daughter of Llyr, Bendigeid Vran was Avounded in the foot with a poisoned dart, and he coraraanded that they should cut oft' his head, and bear it to the white raoun tain in London, and bury it there with the face toward Prance; for a long tirae they would be upon the road, and they Avere at Gwales in Penvro, fourscore years, and they re mained with the head incorrupt until they opened the door toward Aber Henvelen and toAA'ard Cornwall — the head was finally buried in the white mountain, for while it was in con cealment, no invasion could come across the sea to the island. Indra cut off the head of Namuchi, using a foara of water for his Aveapon, and the head followed him, crying: "0 slayer of a friend, 0 wretch!" (Mahabharata, Vol. 6, p. 169.) The same scene referred to in the Hindu Rasalu legends, "Weep not severed heads." The skull of Orpheus the harper gave oracles after his death, so did the skull of Miraer, the wise. It was at Golgotha "place of a skull" where Christ was crucified. After Miraer 's head was cut off, it still remained near the fountain, and gave oracles, the same oracle of Memnon and Merlin, Sarauel prophecying frora the tomb. And they put Saul's armor within the house of their gods, and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. (I Chronicles 10:10.) THE ORIGINAL'- GARDEN OF EDEN 223 The head of Holofemes, chief captain of the army of Assur ; and the head was hung upon the highest place of the wall. The Aztecs set up skulls, the Scythians set up pyramids of skulls, northern nations of Europe suspended or affixed them to the end of the beams, and the gable cross. In India they set up skulls ; they were offerings and symbols of the gods and guardians over the house and oracles. Herodotus 4-103 says the Scythians set up skulls on a pole above the house as guar dians. The Assyrian tree of life is an artificial tree, as shown on bas-reliefs, and is guarded by winged genii with heads of eagles, and the Supreme Deity hovers over the free. In Hindu the Garudas guard the ambrosial or sacred juice of the soma ; they are our guardian or patron saints, the guardian angels of our temples. The winged bull of Assyria took the place of the sphinx of Egypt as sword or talisman. In classic literature, Hesiod Op. et Dies, 109, the men of the Golden Age became after death demons, guardians and watchers over mortals; demons Avere interraediate between gods and raen; soraetimes they were the ghosts of dead men considered patron saints, in Christian mythology became good angels. Prom the earliest times of Babylonian Shamanism, CA'cry object had its spirit, good or bad, which had to be controlled by priests and sorcerers, who used ma-gic formulaa for warding off the attaek of demons and cherubs, bulls, sphinxes and com posite creatures were set to guard houses and temples from evil. Cherubira celestial spirits in Scripture have several descrip tions differing from one another, described in shapes of men, oxen, lions, eagles, and these joined together in composite figures. 224 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Walls and temples Avere furnished Avith these mysterious talismans. Cherubs, bulls, and hybrid creatures guarded temples and Avails everywhere in Babylonia and Assyria against evil spirits. The doors of the houses and shops of the modern Egyptians are inscribed Avith sentences from the Koran, as a charm to preserve from the evil eye; they are also Avorn as personal charms. Gnomes, griffins, dragons, bulls, lions, and fantastic mon sters of the olden time still guard the entrances of our for ests, as Avhen of old they Avere haunted by spectres. These talismans were magical figures, celestial images of the planets cut in wood or engraved upon a sympathetic stone, which was supposed to receive its influence. The talismans still used by the more superstitious and less cultured Christians, as exorcisms, bell, book and candle, charm bones and crosses, philacteries, holy wafer, are but relics of the old Shamanism of our cannibal ancestors. Chapter XV. THE SERPENT. SYMBOL OF THB SERPENT. Sacred serpents for healing and divination Avere kept in ancient temples of Bacchus and Apollo among Greeks. They Avere supposed to be the incarnation of the gods sun and moon, like the divine bull and elephant. As a serpent was seen to coil around the moon in a bright ring, a like one Avas supposed to girdle the earth, as in the Norse we find the raidgard or Avorld serpent, which sur rounded the earth hidden in the ocean. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 225 The moon is likened to a serpent because it casts its skin and rencAvs its age. And by making a circle like the new moon with its tail to its head, it represented the elliptical orbits of the moon and planets, ending where they began, a symbol of eternity. Again the lightning supposed to come from the moon ran down the sky in a ziz-zag line, like the serpent track. It had a forked tongue like the serpent, hissed and bit like the ser pent; it rattled like the rattlesnake, and the medicine man of the American Indians carried a drum and rattles. Again the moon was likened to a tree, for it burned like wood and supported combustion, and this fiery serpent dwelt in wood, and Avhen the wood Avas rubbed and irritated, the fiery serpent carae out and bit the tree and consumed the wood. Another reason Avhy the raoon was likened to a serpent : it opens its raouth and swallows all the children of light, as a serpent swallows her young, and then disgorges thera, as did Saturn, the black moon swallow his children, until the young est, Jupiter, the sunlight, had gained sufficient strength to break in the door of the moon and compel his father to dis gorge them in spring. Eusebius says the Persians all worshipped first principles under the form of serpents. The serpent accompanied almost all the gods. The serpent was upon the standards of the Romans, Per sians and Assyrians; it was a cobra in India, asp in Egypt, rattlesnake in Araerica, dragon in Babylon. A dragon ornaraented the banner of Pendragon in the druidical religion of Britain, and the standard of King Arthur Avas a dragon, the magical work of Merlin. The prow of the ancient galley Avas surmounted with the head of a dragon. 226 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN The American Indians have serpent mounds upon the banks of rivers overlooking the water. China still has the blue dragon portrayed on her yellow triangular flag, the land of the great dragon throne. And that all these gods of the aneient Avorld, Avhether Baby lonian, Egyptian, Greek, Hindu or Hebrew, are shape chang ers, and can assume any form at will, and that no raatter what their zoomorphic forms or attributes, when summed up they are but the sun and moon. They are the two brothers now hostile, and then united in the alternate destruction and renewal of the seasons. The serpent was the ruling symbol of the primitive religions, its birthplace and dAvelling is upon the moon ; both the sum mer serpent and winter serpent are one, the first ring of the raoon. The serpent is both creator and destroyer ; it is the healing serpent of resurrection, lifted up as the rod or pole of the new moon in spring, to the desert Hebrews, and it becomes like our serpent Christ, the serpent judge, or ruler of the dead, like the Egyptian Osiris; he is the serpent guardian of the dead, in winter as the serpent Pafner was to the maiden Brynhild, or winter raoon on the heath ; the same ideas in all their de tails are carried out among the ancient nations, civilized and savage alike, which is conclusive proof that the nations of the old and new Avorld must have had prehistoric intercourse. The Hebrews worshipped the serpent god down to the time of the reform of Hezekiah, when the brazen serpent which Moses had raade was broken in pieces for the children of Israel had burned incense to it until that day. (II Kings 18:4.) It is generally tihought that the druid circle of Stonehenge and other circles, croralechs or dolraens and archways, and THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 227 the long colonnades at Carnac. in Brittany and other parts of Europe are older than the druidical worship, and belong to the stone age before the arrival of the Celts, and belonged to the Tumuli, or mound builders of Europe, corresponding to the mound builders of America, the rude beginning of civic life, for ancient cities grew up around the temple which was the seed of social and religious life. The sword is identified with the serpent in Sigurd the Vol sung, by William Morris, Sigmund, p. 43, where King Sig mund and his son Sinfiotli had been buried in an earthen mound by King Siggeir 's bondsmen, to be starved in the underground dungeon. It was at the eve of the day when Signy the mother of Sinfiotli, stole away to the grave mound, bribed the thralls to silence with gifts, and drcAV forth some thing hid in wrappings of wheat straAV, and threw it in through the roof of the mound Avhere for a space the rafters were left bare. Sinfiotli unwound the wrappings and cried out when he beheld the SAVord of the Branstock. Then loud the fosterling cried : "Yea, a Avorm of bitter tooth. ' ' The serpent of the Branstock and the sword of the days of thy youth." And with this sword Sigmund and his son Sinfiotli hewed their way out of the tomb. The grave mound is the black raoon at conjunction, which has swalloAved up, Saturn-like, the children of light. The raoon mother throAvs his sword to her boy through the rift of the rafters, that silver door Avhere the light goes in and out; that sword is the one Sigmund pulled out of the Branstock, the sword of light, the "Beloved Brand" by which the heroes escape and Avin the victory over Avinter. This identifies sword and serpent beyond doubt. In tale of "The Beneficent Frog" D'Aulnoy: "At three blows of a wand the dragon's bones form themselves into a 228 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN triumphal arch to comraeraorate the good events. The arch j? the new raoon of spring, and shows that the new moon con stitutes the bones of the serpent as well as Adam's rib." The three blows are the three strokes given the raoon at the time of the three dark nights before the arch of the new moon will appear. In Japanese legend, chief of the four beasts is the dragon; he is a dragon of both good and evil; he has presence and invisibility; he will become contracted to the size of a silk thread, or swell to fill the expanse of heaven and earth (like Vishnu). The above is an unmistakable serpent which is the moon alternately dilating and contracting at wax and wane. A jewel in the serpent's crest is equal to the treasure of seven kings; lights the way into and out of enchanted places beneath the Avaters; and the loss of the jewel is the death of the serpent; sometimes it is a diaraond in the serpent's mouth. In Hindu story this jewel is the quintessence of all worlds ; as soon as it departs, plague, famine, and serpents appear. (Rig- Veda, Wilson, Vol. 4, p. 83.) The jewel in the serpent's head is the new moon. The sacred cobra Avith a jewel in his mouth, was lord of the garden imder the waves, who kept Hera Bai, the beautiful princess a captive; on the third night of trial the cobra was captured in an iron trap while on a visit to the upper world, and the jewel taken from him. The cobra is the moon serpent coming from his garden pal ace or fairyland under the moon sea ; he comes up two nights and lays do-wn his jcAvel, but returns Avith it, which the third night he is forced to relinquish— that is, the black moon gives up the jewel of the new raoon, on the third night of occulta- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 229 tion, or the time the neAV moon first appears in the west, or has escaped from the dark nights. The aneient Hindu villages were built in a grove left stand ing in the centre of the settlement ; the abode of the gods and the cultivated ground ran around this in a circuit as the vil lage boundary and guard, and this boundary was called ' ' The Holy Snake." The prototype of this is the new moon ring seen running around the old black moon. There is a curious tale of the serpent in the Egyptian story of Setnau, where Ptah-nefer-Ka killed the serpent which was the guardian of the sacred book of Thoth, which was buried in a golden box under the middle of the river Coptos, and he cut the serpent in two twice and each time he grcAV together and was made Avliole. But the third time he cut hira in two he threw sand in the gap and it remained in two pieces. The serpent is the moon ring now concealed in the black moon ; it is not until the third stroke of the sun when the new moon ring appears in two pieces, the two forks gaped apart with the black cloud of sand between them. It is the same wonder or miracle performed by Hermes, when he thrcAV the rod between the two contending serpents, Avhieh represent the summer and winter, or the two thieves on the cross, one on each side of a central figure, when they meet at the spring equinox, the city of peace. Sometimes it is one serpent rod the healer, the one that Bellerophon threw over the wild steed Pegasus; he was the tamer of animals ; the same raagic which Adam used when all the animals were made to pass before him, and he gave thera names or stamped thera with that name or brand of the new moon which is the name and image of God; the same rod Jacob used to brand the cattle and sheep of Laban, and the one Moses used in his thaumaturgic exploits with Pharaoh. It is the solar beam shot out in a straight rod from the sun, but 230 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN when it strikes the moon it coils in a serpent circle or new raoon. The "great white snake" seen in Sutherland, which never rests day or night, and besides running along the ground, it has a revolving motion peculiar to itself, tuming over and over through an ivory ring, which is loose in its body. This ring is formed from its own slime, and sometimes drops off, in which case the snake makes another, and the finder of the riiig is safe against all disasters and enchantments. (Folk Lore of Sutherlandshire, by Miss Demster.) The above has been a moon yarn domesticated. The white snake is the moon Avhich rests not day or night, and revolves, turning through the ivory ring of the new moon, Avhich it casts off once a month, and makes another. The ring is a talisman or charra ; it is the Ovum Anquinum, or the serpent 's egg of the Celtic priesthood, which the serpents made from their slime. The same Sesha, the Hindu serpent, which was the couch of the god Vishnu ; he wears a white necklace, which is the ring of the new moon around the neck of the dark raoon. As in another tale, the serpent slept on the treasure of seven kings ; he is the serpent Pafner of the Volsung Saga, the gold wallower who slept on the treasures which were the "ransora of Odin. ' ' The seven kings are the seven winter months. Again the serpent sleeps upon a gold ring; it is the dark ball of the moon sleeping upon the golden arra of the new raoon; in the Norse the serpent Fafner is called the "gold wallower. ' ' In the Popul Vuh (Central Araerica) we flnd Gucumutz, the "plumed serpent"— "heart of the lake" and "heart of the sea ' ' which represents the Avhite heart of the moon sea. In Ralston 's Russian Folk Tales are found snakes Avith THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 231 twenty-eight and tAventy-nine heads, evidently in reference to the number of days in the lunar month. A globe encircled by a serpent expressed the animating spirit both male and female, which governs the world ; this serpent Avas also called Uranus, or the royal serpent which adorned the head of both kings and gods. All these battles and the slaughter of serpents and dragons by the sun prince in spring, is the sun reclaiming the moon Avitli the sword of healing, and this slaughter or sacrifice is salvation and redemption. It is waking the dormant moon to life, as in other tales, by the prick of a needle, or the sting of a bee ; sometimes this transformed moon or monster as in the Hindu Ramayana longs for Rama the sun, Avhen he will be released from the curse and regain his human form, which is accoraplished by the stroke of the sword of the sun. It was in the fortieth year of the Hebrew pilgrimage that the brazen serpent was lifted up on a pole to cure the bite of the fiery serpents. (Numbers 21: 5.) The old forra of the winter god was a monster — comraonly a dragon or serpent with legs, and again a man-faced ser pent, or again a man with a mask; they continually grow more human ; later the mask is thrown oft' and the Hades be comes in the Homeric period a Paris, and elopes with the Ar give Helen in the absence of her former husband, Avho was the spring and the summer sun now in exile; and the Hades is brought up from the nether regions and becomes the winter city of Troy. In the Norse tale, Fafner the serpent warrior, guards the treasure on Glisten heath, which is the glistening heath of the moon, Avhere he is seen surrounding the dark cavern of the moon as a serpent ring. The dog-headed Cerberus is the same Hades, and has the tail 232 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN of a serpent and the head of a dog, which is the moon watch dog. He was Sesha in the Hindu, king of Patala;, or the infernal regions, a serpent with one thousand heads; he was the new moon ring— first ring of the moon, and was wrapped around Mt. Mandara, which is the black moon mountain, and with this red cord to twirl the black raountain; the ocean was churned for the life giving waters in the golden age. The ancient Britains had the throne of Pendragon; their highest god was Uther Pendragon. The dog is the favorite syrabol of the raoon. Herraes and Hecate were the raoon watch dogs of the night. The favorite lines of the Chinese are zig-zag, or serpentine forra; they prefer these lines to the straight in their streets and houses, in their land of the dragon throne. The serpent works of Avebury in Wiltshire, represent a huge serpent in earthworks ; its head resting upon Overton, which still retains its old narae, Ophis town, or serpent town, contracted to Overton. The Avorks enclose tAventy-eight acres, the number of days in a lunar raonth ; it represents the raoon serpent like Ea of Babylonia lord of the abyss of waters, and had his seat on the ivory throne of the moon, the chair of the sea beast's tooth, and the tooth of the whale, which is the Avhite crag of the ncAv moon, that one who was lord of the serpent rope, oldest of the gods and father of the sun gods, that old one, gray and ancient, who is none other than that first ring of light, the immortal ring of the new raoon, the original creator who fashioned all things. The "Ancient Dragon," "ancient one," who is Saturn, Cronos, Tan, sometimes adored as a pillar, tree, stone ; he was the oldest of the gods, father of all the gods— he is the phallus. He was a tyrant, propitiated with sacrifice and the blood of the first-born lord of the sea and lord of death and Hell. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 233 He was older than the Jehovah worship and belonged to the old Moloch worship of the Canaanites. That old serpent, the gray and ancient keeper of the great seal and counter of days. I beheld where the ancient of days did sit whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. (See Daniel 7:9.) That throne is the ivory throne of the new moon pillar ; the throne of the Babylonian Ea the wise, and also of Jehovah, between the two forks of the new moon which bend over the mercy seat. The prototype of the dragon was the ocean, for the sea was the source of all waters, but the throne of the sea god was the moon, for the moon governed and controlled the ocean, and was seen to draAv it to and fro daily in the tides, but this was before the law of attraction Avas understood, and it will be observed Avhenever the serpent or dragon appears as a char acter in a play the stage and scenery will be positively recog nized as the raoon. That old talking serpent, the wise serpent, who owns the raoon box, the oracle of the gods, becomes in later mythology the Hermes, the Mercury, god of speech. He was that serpent which drew the Hindu ark to its desti nation ; that same serpent Uther Pendragon, or wonderful su preme dragon, which drew the vessel with the iron door to the top of the hill. He drew the car of Ceres and Cadmus. (Davies' Mythology, British Druids, p. 120.) There was a time when Star A of the polar dragon stood at the jiole ; this dragon was afterAvard spelled out in stars as a star painting about the North Pole, for he represented the cold, biting winter, and the destroyer. The figure is made arbitrarily for there is no natural serpent form ; it is an arti ficial arrangement, and his head anciently contained the polar 234 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN star; when the sun reached his highest ascension at midsum mer, the serpent Avarmed up, and enraged, chased the sun back. (Ovid Metamorph., B. 11, Fable 1.) Dragons, especially of tawny color, are considered sacred to Esculapius. (Pausanias, Vol. 1, B. 11.) Serpent Fafner, of the Volsung Saga ; his folds were black and ashen gray (Sigurd the Volsung, 124), lord of the fearful face, he took the form of a serpent in winter to hoard the golden treasure of the sun in Hades, after Otter his brother had been slain, Avho Ava.s the mid,summer sun, the Adonis. The above Pafner is the moon of winter ; he is described in the Volsung Saga as appearing from behind the dark moon. A -R'an face comes from the darkness. And is wrought in man-like wise; And the lips are wreathed with laughter. And bleared are the blinded eyes. The river Orontes, according to tradition, Avas carved out by a great dragon, Avhich disappeared at its source. (Strabo, XVI, 2:7.) This Avas the slot or track of the serpent Fafner in Volsung Saga, Sigurd the Volsung, the red road, or dividing line made by the new moon ring through the black waters of the moon. In Welsh legend, St. Samson drew a dragon out of a cave accompanied by a boy; he tied only a linen girdle about its neck, which caused it to become docile; it was then led to a precipice and thrown in the sea; the cave from which thc dragon Avas drawn is the black cavern of the moon ; the linen girdle is the ring of the new moon ; it is the black moon led by the sun ring or new moon about its neck— the lion led by the little boy. In British IMythology the oxen of Hugh Gadarn drcAv the dragon or beaver out of the lake (moon lake) ; this serpent had stopped the flow of the moon waters ; it is visibly the sun THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 235 and raoon at springtirae pulling off the Avaters of the moon, causing the flow of the tides until the new moon island is bare. These tales are not historical, but simply tales of the sun and moon huraanized. STORY OF SIEGFRIED. In the raiddle age roraance we are introduced to a noble prince in the Netherlands, called Siegfried, the son of King Sigraund of the glorious house of the Wolfings. The prince Avas a stalwart youth, of great strength and beauty, but so wayw^ard and rebellious that he becarae unmanageable to his parents, who apprenticed him to Mimer, the smith, who was his uncle, and lived in a forest, and Avas a Avise man and a school master; but even here he fell into his old ways and broke things in the smithy and drove the anvil into the ground with his terrific blows ; and in hope to get rid of him, his uncle sent him off to the charcoal burner to bring some charcoal to tem per a sword. It was a dangerous track in a wild forest, infested with serpents, but he dressed himself in a leather suit for the occa sion, and on his way found a SAvamp filled with hissing ser pents, on which he piled brush and obtained fire from the charcoal burner, and the serpents were burned up. He then went around the swamp and found a river of hot fat, Avhich had issued from the buming serpents, in which he dipped his finger and found it covered with a horn-like skin ; he then bathed his whole body in the liquid fat and found himself covered with horn from head to foot, except in one place AV'here a leaf had stuck to his skin, Avhich had been unob served at the time; having dressed he slew a great dragon, Avhich confronted him, and then returned to the smithy, Avhere he slew his uncle the smith, and then forged a SAvord Avhich he tempered in the dragon's blood. 236 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN We have here one of the most potent and decisive tales of the serpent that is to be found in the wide range of mythi cal lore. To most people that would read like history more or less exaggerated, or at least might embody some historical truths ; but there is not a word of truth in it ; no such person as Siegfried or his father Sigmund, or his mother Sigelinde, 01- his uncle Mimer, ever had any personality; even the shop never had an existence upon the earth. Yet the story in one sense is true, that is aUegorically true— true as shadow to the sun. The location and solution of the story is to be found in the moon, the serpent's bed. Siegfried is the sun prince, son of King Sigmund the sun; he is sent off to the moon as the golden sun child among the black, swarthy people of the moon, as the white child, for the sun and his wife abandon their children to the care of the raoon, who picks up and adopts the foundlings, and his wife becomes the old black nurse. There they are educated by Mimer the wise man, who kept the oracle box of wisdora ; he is otherwise called Waylan d the Smith, and also Regin; he is identical with Chiron the kentaur, who educated Achilles, Hercules and Esculapius. It was at that time nearing spring, and the young sun coming frora the south Avas waxing strong ; he is the sword of the sun as seen upon the moon when he takes possession of his northern kingdom; in spring he slays the old moon, who has been guardian of the golden treasure (summer sunlight), who was in reality the transformed sun of the previous year in winter sleep. The new-b^rn light, or sword of the sun which we call the new moon, gives the old black moon a sword thrust, AA'hich renews his life and youth ; it is in reality the sun succeeding himself; this sword thrust is called sacrifice which means ultimately regeneration; but the elements of the story date far back in the primitive times of tree and serpent Avorship, THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 237 Avhen the moon was supposed to be self-luminous, and these two hostile children both dwelt upon the moon as twins, and as Jacob said of Simeon and Levi: "Instruments of cruelty are in their habitation. ' ' They were the Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Osiris and Typhon of Egypt, Ormuzd and Ahri man of the Persian, — this leads to sorae confusion, for even down to the tirae of the fifth century before the Christian Era, the life of Anaxagoras the philosopher, was imperiled for asserting that the moon shone by borrowed light. But the above story was at least revised and rewritten at a time when they had formed correct ideas of the moon's light. To continue the analysis of the story, the charcoal burner lives up in the black part of the moon forest, which appears a black smoking pit ; he soraetiraes plays the part of a chim ney-sweep, devil or Old Nick. Siegfried sets fire to the black forest of the raoon, and tries out the fat of the serpents, which appears as a pool of fat or oil, is what we call the new moon in which he bathes. It is a savage and burlesque representation of the confiict between sun and moon at their raeeting in spring — the moon naturally evil and perverse, had becorae a destroying power for want of the warm and civilizing rays of the sun, which the sun rod or SAVord of the spring sun alone could accom plish. We witness the scene every spring, for in the old- world belief redemption had to begin in the moon, that silver door of life had to be opened, that fountain of living waters had to be released from captivity and delivered from the power of the serpent, for he was the new-born sun of spring, the Jacob who rolled the black stone covering or black ser pent from the crystal waters, and watered the flock; the ser pent Sigurd sleAV, and the one Apollo and Cadraus slew. But the serpent is not slain ; he is a sacred serpent, the guardian angel in raonster forra. These aniraals were all gods 238 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN of the old world; the seeraing evil was universal good. Christ did not die, but arose the third day, as the new-born ring of light upon the raoon after its conflagration. The Egyptian redeemer Osiris, did not die, though he was torn in fourteen pieces — the fourteen rings of the bright moon— but arose, and his soul went into the moon pillar. The sacred serpent which guarded the spring at Thebes AA^hich Cadmus slew to accomplish the spring sacrifice, did not die ; he was only changed and delivered from his beast form ; in this way he dies every spring. This was the Avise serpent, the supreme god of Avisdom who was both creator and destroyer. The serpent is but one, both good and evil, and the seeming death and slaughter is but transition and renewal of life, and that spear of death is but the sword of light Avhich severs the bonds of the moon and sets the captive free ; hence every year and twice a year at the change of seasons, the moon was said to be slain, but AA'as the old moon changing its skin, or putting on a habit and regalia suitable to the season, whether of sum mer or Avinter. Story frora the Hindu: A grandson of Arjuna, while hunting deer and boars, wolves and buffaloes, shot a deer Avhich escaped wounded, and the hunter followed far in thc thicket, and he came upon a holy sage sitting in a cow pen, and the hunter inquired of him if he had seen the deer, and asked again and again without reply, for the holy sage Avas under a vow of silence, and the hunter in anger hung a dead snake upon his shoulder. He was bitten by the snake Tak shaka. Janamejaya, son of the sage bitten, performed in revenge a sacrifice of serpents (Nagas) and built a fire and poured into it clarified butter, and the snakes by the thousand fell into the fire crying piteously, sAvollen and breathing hard; they were THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 239 of various colors, the Avhite, the black, the liluc; and the fat and the marrow of the snakes falling into the fire began to floAV in rivers and all Avere burned but Takshaka, who was the prince of the snakes and sought the protection of Indra ; for that sacrifice Avas for the extermination of the serpent race, and the prince of snakes Takshaka Avas fast being drawn in the fire. Cast off by Indra, he hung in midair, about to fall — sight failing, dizzy, and unconscious, but Avas, at the inter cession of Astika, saved, and this is the same serpent Tatig saved in tale of Niwal Dai. The serpent Cain, Avho Avas saved by Jehovah, Avho set his seal upon his forehead, which is the seal of the new moon ring upon the orb of the dark moon; he is the same serpent Typhon saved by Queen Isis of Egypt, after the conflict be tween the sun and moon, and the victory over the evil Typhon by Horus. The hunter is the sun, the lord of the earth, in pursuit of the moon fleeing as a horned deer; she escapes as usual and hides in the thicket or cave of the dark moon ; the sage sit ting in the coav pen (for the moon was symbolized as a cow) is unable to answer, for he, the moon, is dumb and dark, com pelled to silence, and the hunter sun hangs a little dead snake upon his shoulder as an insult. The snake is the thread of the neAV moon seen hanging on the black moon, who is the sage in penance, and the serpent sacrifice is the same as that of Siegfried, by setting the moon forest on fire, Avhich tries out a lake of oil, which is the new moon of Easter. The saakes are all burned but the one, gray and ancient, and indestructible, 'who survives the conflagration of the moon — the Beelzebub turned loose. "The trip of Siegfried through the forest is the same taken by Theseus on his way to Athens. And the buming of the swamp or moon morass is the same burned by Wainamoinen, 240 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN who brought the eagle down from heaven to fire the forest and burned all but the birch tree— the tree of life, a rest for weary eagles in their flight, and then sowed the ashes with magic grain. Again in the Mahabharata, there is the same curse upon the serpent and the burning of the forest of Khandava to destroy the serpents, to clear a place for the foundation of a temple in the place where Delhi now stands; even Indra protected the serpents, but through Agni they all perished except their king Takshaka, and friendly relations restored between the Pandus and the Nagas, similar to that between Esir and Vanir. The swamp burned by Siegfried is the one which Umarinen, the blacksmith, in the Finnish epic, has to plough, the seprent field of Hissi. The Argonautic Jason has to plough the sarae serpent field with the fire-breathing bulls, and sow it with serpents' teeth; which is the same ground Cadmus sowed at Thebes. The first crop is rude and savage like the first flow of the ocean churned for amrita, which Siva drank. SERPENT OIL. That oil that ran from the serpent slain by Siegfried, and which we see lying on one side of the burnt black moon, was the oil of mercy, the oil of healing. That was the oil which Jacob poured upon the pillar he set up, and called it the house of God, and the gate of heaven. This oil was used to anoint ambrosial stones. It is the oil that God gave to Moses to grease Aaron's beard, and threatened every man with death that should make any hair oil like it. (Exodus, Ch. 30 : 33.) That Avas the Avidow's cruse of oil that failed not for her, and the prophet Elijah during the famine. (I Kings 17 : 16.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 241 And the victim of sacriflce had oil poured upon it, and the sacrificial post to Avhich it was bound. "And thou shalt anoint with anointing oil the tabernacle and all that is therein, and all the vessels, and shalt anoint the altar and the laver, and thou shalt anoint Aaron the priest, and his sons for an everlasting priesthood." (Exodus 40.) With this oil Samuel anointed David, the youngest son of Jesse ; he was the eighth son and a shepherd. "And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment; it shall be an holy anointing oil. (Exodus 30: 25.) And they carried the oil in an ox hom, shaped like the new moon. (I Samuel 16: 1.) Fill thy hom with oil; for it was in the horn of the new moon it was kept. Epopeus built a temple to Athene, and when it was finished prayed the goddess to show him a sign of her approval, and after the prayer, oil trickled in front of the temple. On the third day the black teraple flows the oil of the new moon in front (it is like making statues bleed on the walls of the Roraan cathedrals to inspire faith) . Viracocha, the culture hero of the Peruvians, arose frora Lake Titicaca; his narae signifies fat or foara of the sea, and Venus arose from that fat or foam of the moon sea. This ointment is used in the sacrament of extreme unction of the Roman church, and called in the Greek church the ' ' oil of prayer" — it is adrainistered to give spiritual strength; in the hour of death the priest anoints the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands and feet of the sick, and prays at each unction that the Lord of his mercy through that unction will remit the sins of the patient. Vishnu slew two formidable serpents, which sprang from his e.ur while he was asleep. They were thrown into the sea and produced a great quan- 242 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN tity of marrow or fat, which was used by Narayana in forming the earth; it was said the marrow covered the earth. THB SERPENT FAFNER. From Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin, p. 97, a story from the Norse, by William Morris. Pafner the warrior slew his father Reidmar the Ancient for his gold, and then took the form of a serpent and brooded upon the gold in the greedy house in which he hid the gold. This was at the end of summer, but Sigurd the sun slew hira in the spring, and scattered the golden hoard abroad in sunshine. The serpent Fafner is the moon serpent, a man serpent, the Avinter serpent— the same serpent Ladon that guarded the apples of Juno. He guards the golden treasures of the sum mer sunshine in winter which are stored in the moon. He wears Eger's helraet— the helm of dread. It is the mask of Hades or Pluto which shows how Pluto became the god of wealth, as that nether region formerly guarded by the serpent was the treasure house of the sun, and left in charge of the serpent Fafner, the lord of the fearful face. Odin, the high god, gave Sigurd the hero directions to find the abode of the serpent, the gold Avallower, who was sleeping upon the gold. It was a path in the desert, smooth and deep and hollow; it was the golden furrow we call the new moon, Avhich had never been furrowed by the rain, and forth from the dark it came and into the dark it went, and under the road Sigurd the spring sun lay concealed, and smote upward as the serpent slid doAvn his path into the fathomless pool. It was the highway of the gods in going to the lower world, the path to the gold walloA\'er's home, the lord of death. Odin rode doAvn that road to see Balder; the way that Theseus went to the cave of the Minotaur of Crete, which THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 243 roadway is marked by the thread of Ariadne. It was under this slot of the serpent that Sigurd the Volsung dug a pit and lay in it, until the serpent passed over his head, when he thrust upAvard Avith the sword and sleAV him, and then leaped from the pit and the river of blood. This Fafner the serpent is the gray and ancient one which bit Gunnar the Niblung in the pit ; he is the Ancient of days, old Father Tirae, the Saturn who carried the scythe. This dark and direful tragedy is but a savage rendering of our Easter festival at the spring equinox, the celestial wed ding — the moon brother of the sun must be stabbed by the sword of the sun which opened the fountain of life, seen as a golden river of sunshine running doAvn the rim of the black raoon ; it was a righteous raurder to sever the bonds of winter, as Saturn was stabbed that Venus the spring might be born. The spring festival was celebrated in many ways. The British druids at that season celebrated the May festival by drawing the sacred shrine or house of the god from the swamp, which is draAving the new moon over the ford while the as sembled train danced with garlands upon their brows, and loud was the clattering of shields round the ancient caldron in frantic mirth, and the gashing of thighs. This ark was drawn out by oxen araid crooked horns and crooked swords, which iraitated the curved sickle of the ncAV moon. Sacrifice was performed and the blood smeared upon the stalks of plants, and on the chain of the oxen, while the attendants danced in circular revolution representing the mo tion of planets. The gashing of thighs was the phallic sacrifice and the same sacrifice performed at the ancient spring festival when Venus, that same spring moon, Avas born from the phallic blood of the maimed Uranus. It was a Bacchanalian festival. The serpent is but Jupiter under a mask— the helm of dread ; at other times, Pafner was said to be a raan disguised. 244 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN or at another cursed, deforraed, or larae and blind for sorae offense ; he slew his father Reidraar for the gold, and was in tum slain by Sigurd, the spring sun. SATURN THE SWALLOWER. A tablet in a cliff house of southern Colorado represents a serpent in the act of swallowing the sun. Saturn the swallower, is the moon anciently; in Babylonia he was the oldest of the gods, and father of the sun god ; his children are the rings which he alternately swallows, and then disgorges, for he is soraetimes called old Father Tirae, and his sign is the first ring of the moon, which is his reaping hook. He was represented as a serpent, for like the serpent, he swallowed his young; as the giant Vipuna of the Kalevala — he swallowed Wainamoinen, the sun prince, who went to his oracle box for the lost word, and the black moon swallowed hira, and the prince, or spring sun then built a fire in him and roasted him until he awoke and delivered the word of life. Wainamoinen is seen coming out of his mouth on the third day as the new raoon of Spring, which is the word of life. ' This serpent Saturn swallowed Jonah in the same way, but was obliged to turn him loose on the third day. He swallowed Christ, who was the same redeemer and sun of life, and the third day he arose, for he is never allowed to hold his captive but three days. In a second edition, he is Jupiter who swallowed Metis, who burst from his head from a blow of a hatchet, which is the same phenomenon as the Jonah arising from the deep on the third day, visibly the ring of the new moon appearing from the black skull of the old. In the Hindu, Vishnu is seen driving a herd of cattle into the mouth of a cave for safety, which is the cave of the raoon, the sarae place in which Mercury drove the cattle of Apollo. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 245 The serpents, Vrittra and Ahi, who are the foes of Indra, swallow up the golden Avaters of life. That same black moon as a Avolf swallowed little Red Rid- inghood. In the old English romance of the time of King Vortigern, a raonarch began to construct a tower of defense which three tiraes fell to the ground, and the astrologers gave answer that it required the blood of a human victim — a child born with out the intervention of a human father, and that his blood should bathe the first stone of the foundation. And after a diligent search the child Merlin was found at play with other children, and was the child of an incubus, for his mother had been overpowered by a demon Avhile she was asleep. When the child Merlin was born he was hurried to the bap tismal font, Avhere his name was pronounced, and the charmed name or mark (which is the new moon ring) placed on its forehead, and thus saved from the evil deraons. Merlin acquainted the king of the fraud of the astrologers and said the insecurity of the foundation of the tower was caused by the contest of two raonster serpents deep down in the earth — their den was found and the two dragons, the white and the red, arose and fought and the white dragon overcame the red, which died on the third day. The red fire is the native destroying fire of the moon, the winter fire of the smiths, and the white fire is the spring fire of life, tempered by the genial rays of the sun. They are the two serpents Mercury found in contention and threw his rod between them at the spring equinox, where they both united and twined around the rod of peace; they are the lion and lamb, the compromise of winter and summer. That illegitimate child born of the incubus or Holy Ghost, is the redeemer of the Christian Pantheon. The story was very ancient and served its time through raany nations before 246 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN it was adopted by the Christians ; it carae doAvn frora the stone age. The contest takes place at the conjunction of the sun and moon, and they fight at the pit of the dark raoon where the new raoon will appear at the third day, when the evil winter serpent, the typhon, will die; the fight occurs every spring. The druidical ark had the forepart stored with corn and mounted aloft with the connected serpents ; this was the ark of the British CeridAven or Ceres. (Davies' Druidical Mythol ogy, p. 17.) The ark is the black moon draAvn by the connected serpents or the twin horns of the new raoon, connected at the base as pilot of the barge. The hydra, or water serpent (moon) destroyed by Her cules. This hydra was multiplied by her wounds ; for every head cut off two sprouted ; that is, every time the sword of the sun smites the moon, a forked or two-pronged moon is created — the new moon with two forks. The tAVO serpents that fought in springtirae and twined around the rod of Hermes ; two that fought under the founda tion — the white and the red — and the red typhon was slain. The two serpents that licked the ears of Melampus the sooth sayer, by which he understood the voices of birds, and peered into futurity. They Avere the two ravens or prophetic birds upon the shoulders of Odin the chief god of the Norseraen; in winter they- become the two devouring serpents on the shoulders of the Persian King Dzohak, the tyrant which required the brains of men to appease their appetite. BABYLONIAN SERPENT. In the ancient Accadian and Babylonian account, the ocean floAved around the earth like a girdle, sometimes called a THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 247 snake, and sometiraes a rope— called "the river of the snake," ' ' the river of the rope of the great god, " " the river of the great deep, " " the river of the sheepcote of the ghostworld. ' ' Ea ruled the sea and was called "the serpent of the river of the snake." The river of the girdle of the great god, its prototype was the girdle of the golden river running round the dark orb of the moon. The slaying of the serpent in spring which is the winter raoon, is witnesed every spring and through all mythologies has the same meaning— the sword of the sun piercing the black moon, stabbing the fountain of concealed waters which have been imprisoned through winter, as Moses smote the rock in the wilderness, and as Cadmus slew the black raoon serpent of Thebes to obtain the waters of life ; then the spring rains be gin which are fertile, and the dews fall and the rainbow appears. The fabulous St. George and St. Patrick slew and banished the sarae serpent; they are the personified sword of the sun, or blade of light seen to smite the black moon, as the Baal- Peor or opener of the door of life and the fountain. In the Babylonian the Bel-Merodack contends with the dragon or serpent tiamat, coresponding to the python of the Greeks by Apollo and the slain tiamat is the moon sea, or source of all waters personified as a dragon ; it was the first chaos of waters acted upon and redeemed by the sun at the creation; it has to be redeemed every spring; it took place at the same time and for the same purpose as the churning of the raoon waters by the Hindus to obtain ararita, and draw out the hidden treasures of the deep ; that moon to the an cients was the mouth of the deep and was seen to suck up the ocean at a gulp and spew it out in the tide daily. In some figures the dragon is seen harnessed to a chariot and driven by Bel; again a horned goddess standing between the 248 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF ISDEN wings of the dragon, and the dragon vomiting water; and again a bull stabbed in the shoulder and a stream of water behind him poured frora a vase from the sky, and before the dragon is a goddess with uplifted arras enveloped in strearas of water ; behind is a star in a crescent ; in later forms a ser pent is substituted for the dragon. The dragons of Babylonia and Assyria have the shape of a four-footed animal with claws, wings and feathers ; this is the form of a dragon since 3000 B.C. Before that the serpent of Williams ' cylinder shows a serpent Avith a feather head and a horned nose, exactly like the one found among the aboriginal Americans. The dragon has water running from his mouth on Baby lonian cylinders; that is why ancient gutter-spouts from the roofs of houses of the middle ages, terminate in a dragon's head with the roof water running from the dragon's mouth. In winter the dragons hid this water. (Revelations 12: 5-15.) "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. (Revelations 12 : 15-16.) There is an antique design in Mons. de Gebelin 's Monde Primitif, Tom. IV, Pl. 7, Fig. 1, of Ceres in pursuit of Proser pine raounted upon a half moon dravm by dragons holding torches in her hands. "For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of his father Abraham, the Philistines had stopped up." (Genesis 26:15.) A fountain inhabited by a serpent which will not allow any water to be drawn without a sacrifice of a woman. (Legend of Perseus, Vol. Ill, p. 2.) The dragon is the winter devil and demon. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 249 EGYPTIAN SERPENT. The serpent of Apopi inhabited the celestial Nile and waged Avar Avith the sun and overturned his boat. The serpent is still believed by the Egyptians to live at the bottom of the Nile as an iraraense serpent ; another lives in the serpent mountain. (Maspero.) The Theban serpent still lodges in one of the chambers of Amenhatpow ; it is often seen to descend to the river. The Egyptians fed the serpents of the field with bread and cakes and fruit to make their fields fruitful. The asp Avas worshipped among the Egyptians by the narae of Urseus, though its bite was fatal ; it adorned the crowns of their kings. The amulet of the serpent's head was placed on mummies to prevent their being bitten by snakes in the underworld. (Budge: Egyptian Funereal Archaeology, p. 265.) HEBREW SERPENT. And God said to Adam: Thou shalt bruise the serpent's head and he shall bruise thy heel, as seen on the star map, a Hercules (sun) bruising the head of the serpent with his heel. Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse's heel causing his rider to fall backward. (Genesis 49:16-17.) It is the serpent biting the heels of the horses of the sun at midsuramer, causing them to fall backward and turn to the south; it occurs every year when the sun has attained his highest altitude at the summer solstice ; it is the Jacob born with his hand ahold of the heel of Esau. Tola was judge of Israel, the serpent judge; he was the worm judge who succeeded Abimelech. Tola means a worm. 250 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN a serpent like the Lind worra of northem mythology, and he dwelt in the mountain thorn tree Shamir in ^It. Ephraim. (Judges 10:1.) The Levites were serpent priests; their name is heard in Leviathan, the serpent of the sea, the Lui-Tan or serpent dragon of Egypt. The Lord shall slay Leviathan, the crooked serpent, the piercing serpent, and slay the dragon that is in the sea. (Isaiah 27:1.) The healers of later date retained the serpent, and Escu lapius the physician and healer carried a serpent; the first priests Avere serpent priests. Again in regard to the bruised heel of Adara, we have a parallel in the Hindu, where Krishna is seen in conflict with a serpent which bites his heel ; at last he died by a Avound in his heel. Philoctetes, the Grecian hero of the Trojan war bitten in the foot by a serpent. It is the door of the moon, shuts and bites off the heel of the sun as he crossed the moon house at conjunction, and left behind as the ring of the new moon. As in the nursery tale where the maiden sat in the chamber folding up her clothes, Avhen in flew a black bird and nipped off her nose. She is the moon maiden folding up her white linen in the wardrobe of the moon, and the black bird is the black raoon that nips off her nose, and the nose is the first ring of the new moon as it nipped off her undergarments. Abram planted that tree and swore by his thigh, which was the home and abode of the phallus, or serpent of life and generation. The Genesis tree and serpent worship of Hebrews Avas from Babylonia. The brazen serpent was worshipped in the wilder ness. Christ was that serpent it says, and must be lifted up ; for this healer or redeemer was old as serpent worship. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 251 Eve was beguiled by the Avise serpent, who was the lord of the underworld, the wise judge, the winter serpent who every year blighted the garden. The speaking serpent of Adara is the speaking oak of the Argo, and the speaking ass of Baalara. "Canst thou draw Leviathan out of the deep with a hook ; who dare stir hira up. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. He beholdeth all things and raaketh the deep to boil as a pot." (Job 41.) These two serpents are forever at war ; they are the summer and winter humanized as Jehovah and Satan, the sun and the moon as Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau; they are the rob bers that hung on the cross with Christ, and the two who were iraprisoned with Joseph in Egypt, the baker (sun) and the butler (the raoon or wine man). The serpent was the chief god of old; the highest god, worshipped under the form of a serpent ; in winter he became a guardian serpent, and watched and guarded the slumbering solar fire ; in spring he aAvoke at the stroke of the sword of light, Avhen he cast off his old skin and renewed life as the serpent redeemer lifted up in the wilderness of the black moon. In the days of serpent worship Jehovah and Satan were the two serpents and were brothers, as Zeus and Hades, or Jupiter and Pluto ; they were but one being in two forms. Moses made a brazen serpent which continued to be wor shipped at Jerusalera as an image of Jehovah down to the time of Hezekiah in spite of God's command in the decalogue, Avhich said: "Thou shalt not make a graven image or like ness," which shows that the . decalogue could not have been in existence at the time of Moses and the wilderness, forbid ding image worship; or why did Moses dare to lift up an image in the wilderness against the law of God? It shows that the reform of image worship and raonotheisra were of late 252 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN date; in the time of the Jewish exile, they worshipped a dragon in the temple of the Chaldeans, a brazen dragon like the one continued among the Hebrews in the tirae of Hezekiah the reformer. Hebrews worshipped the brazen serpent in the wilderness, but in Hezekiah 's time it was outgrown, and we find in II Kings 18 : 4, he broke in pieces the bra,zen serpent that Moses had made. Moses handled the serpent, and so did Pharaoh, and worked miracles. This magie serpent is seen coiled in a rim of fire upon the moon ; it was their religion in the time of Moses, and why not in the time of Hezekiah? This serpent, worshipped in the wilderness, was preserved for five centuries, in the temple, and the children of Israel did bum incense to it. (II Kings 18:4.) Again the serpent had not lost its cunning in the days of Christ. "Be ye wise as serpents." This is the same serpent of wisdora who deceived Eve, a Satan who ruled conjointly with Christ, the kingdom of the world, and is identified with the same old serpent still in power, and this serpent worship was continued long among the sect of Christians called Ophites, Nicolaitans and Gnostics also. TertuUian says: "They even prefer the serpent to Christ, because the serpent brought the knowledge of good and evil in the world. Epiphanius describes these ceremonies thus : ' ' They keep a living serpent in a chest, and at the time of the raysteries en tice him out by placing bread before him; the door being opened he issues forth, and having ascended the table, folds himself above the bread. This they call a perfect sacrifice; they not only break and distribute this among the votaries. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 253 Lut whosoever wishes may kiss the serpent." Por the god of all antiquity had a serpent form. These serpents Avere kept in a chest, because the moon ser pents were kept in the black chest of the moon. OPHIR THB SERPENT LAND. Ophiusa (serpent land) was a name given to many places in ancient geography, to a eity in Scythia; it was one of the names of the island of Rhodes; it is serpent land, the moon, the Niblung treasure, guarded by the serpents in so many tales — serpent Pafner, serpent Ladon. The most ancient name of Delphi Avas Pytho, the serpent eity ; there Apollo slew the serpent and built the eity, as did Cadmus at Thebes. OvertoAvn, England, still comraemorates the serpent mound found there, or Ophis toAvn — wherever that serpent was slain the city was built, and the Pison river running from the Gar den of Eden is that python serpent river which, according to the biblical account, abounds with gold and precious stones. The more ancient name of Ops or Rhea of Greeks was Opis, and would seem to be a contraction of Ophis (serpent). Cecrops in Attic legend was a half serpent, a civilizer of Attica. Cadmus and Harmonia were changed to serpents ; he was the builder of Thebes ; they were Ophiomorphous. Divination Avas practiced by Ophioraancy or predicting events by serpents, by their coils and raanner of eating.. Ophir was the savings bank and the treasure-house of the sun ; it was guarded by iron doors, the black cover of the hid den vault within the moon ; it held buried there by the old king, the summer sun, before his hasty flight, the treasure to whieh the young prince is the future heir. Sometimes the secret vault is revealed to him in a dream, and the place will be indicated by a "wonder floAver, " which is the new moon, which is the door of the vault, or he will find it guarded by snakes or drag- 254 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN ons, or by a light or flame, a treasure fire or blue flarae, or it will be found where a white snake suns itself, or it is hidden under the vat in the wine cellar. All these indicators are the light flarae or fire of the ring of the ncAv moon in spring, and the prince will go down in the wine cellar, which is Hades, and like Sigurd the Volsung, will drag forth gold (sunshine) to the earth and scatter it abroad; he will be the sower who Avill reap a hundred fold. But he Avill first have to slay the dragon, which is the black moon pierced by the sword of light, when the golden treasure streams forth, for that is the den of the winter dragon. That treasure is the gold which has been tried in the furnace seven times, and the seventh time it appears as the new moon of spring in the seventh month of winter, for it was the furnace Avhere the mythical children were cast seven times heated. It Avas where the moon made its mythical voyage for King Solomon ; that ship of the ' ' Ancient Mariner, ' ' to the vault, guarded by the serpent, the old gold wallower; it was on the first river of Eden, the Pison or Python, the serpent river. (Genesis 2 : 11.) I will make a man more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. (Isaiah 13:12.) That serpent is the chap who hid his lord's money. Sigurd the Volsung, the sun prince, after slaying the ser pent Fafner, the dread gold wallower, brought up from the floor of the sea the hoard of Andvari the Ancient. Gold gear of hosts unburied. And the coin of cities dead, Great spoil of the ages of battle. Lay there on the serpent 's bed ; And there gleamed the wonder of all: The Hauberg, all of gold. Whose like is not in the heavens. Nor has earth of its fellow told. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 255 The raoon rings stand for all coin and money; it was the bag Judas threw into the temple ; it Avas the money Abraham paid for Machpelah. It was the money paid to the Egyptians for corn, and the money put back in each raan's sack; it is the money bag of the lord which can never fail. It holds the treasure of a thousand kings and the pearl of great price. The land of Ophir is in the interior of the moon, on the floor of the moon sea, all gold a product of the sea; it orig inated by the churning of the moon sea by the solar beam or fire rod of the sun, Avhich brings out the golden sunshine, the rings and amulets, the necklaces of the moon raaiden, and the bright arraor of the gods. This is the Golden Age whieh oc curs every spring, and the raoon is the treasure house which the Hebrews built in Egypt (substituted for Hades) and the treasure house from which Solomon (sun) drew his treasures. Serpents were kept as oracles at Delphi and in the caves of Trophonius. The golden tripod at Delphi stood on a brazen three-headed serpent. (Herodotus, B. 9, 80.) But the chief centre of serpent worship was Epidaurus, at the temple of Esculapius, where serpents were kept and fed down to the tirae of Pausanias; some were of great size — thirty cubits in length. These serpents were kept for sale by the Epidaurian priests, from which large profits were realized ; it was the rep resentative of Esculapius, and a charra like the cross, which had the sarae origin as the serpent ; they are one ; the one raised in the wilderness was on a pole or cross. The Romans 293 B.C. sent a deputation to Epidaurus to procure a sacred serpent in order to stop a great pestilence at Rome, and built for it a temple in the Tiber. It was re ceived with divine honors. 256 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Serpents represented divinities; these serpents were na tional fetiches; some were consecrated to the powers be neath the earth. The healing gods carried the Agathodemon, or the serpent emblem of healing, also the chalice, or salutary cup, sur rounded by serpents. The cup is the new raoon. These ser pents were kept and fed in their teraples as living iraages of the healing divinity. Although Apollo was a serpent-slayer, he hiraself was god of medicine, or the healer, and was worshipped like Escu lapius, his son, under the form of a serpent. A prophetic serpent was kept at Athens as an oracle to the honor of Esculapius. The Esculapian serpent still winds the barber's pole, for hair cutting was a sacred rite, and the barber also let blood and acted as healer and physician too. They had magical ointments made of the grease of serpents. The Athenians kept and fed a large serpent, which used to live in the temple as a guard to the Acropolis, and its raonthly food placed before it, which consisted of a honey cake. (Herodotus 8: 41.) In Iliad XI, 38, a three-headed snake adorned the buckler of Agaraeranon. In the mysteries of Bacchus, the frantic women ran about with serpents m their bosoms and twisted in their hair. In the mysteries a serpent was placed in the bosora of the initiated. The union of the two serpents, (a symbol of peace), used for both war and peace ; it lulled to slumber, and again sum moned souls from the shades. (Metaraorphoses, B. 1, Fable 14.) It was an olive branch wreathed with two snakes— in tirae of war heralds and ambassadors carried a caduceus. The winter serpent that stopped the waters was also a THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 257 sacred serpent, and for killing the serpent at Thebes Cadmus Avas obliged to spend a year in servitude to Mars. The python kept Avatch over the oracle box at Delphi ; this serpent had been evil and destroyed the people and cattle of the surrounding country. It was the winter moon, which is ahvays evil, and had to be stabbed Avith the golden weapon, the sword of light frora the sun ; after this it arose and fol lowed hand in hand with the suramer sun as aid and helper, as Paul when the scales fell from his eyes at the voice of God, and as Peter when the shout came from the hill of shouting (the crow of the cock) and his dull winter forgetfulness left him, the serpent was connected Avith the fountain and water; he is the black raoon hiding the golden water of life, and has to be slain by Cadmus (sun) before he can sacrifice, for a sacrifice cannot be performed on the moon without that water of life ; the serpent is that mercury Avho appropriates the ar raor and weapons of the gods, and is compelled by Apollo to bring back the stolen cows and cattle ; he is the black crow carrying the shining tinsels in its beak to hide in the moon cavern. This same serpent snatched from Gilgames the branch or tree of life, whieh he was bringing horae frora the land of his exile. This moon serpent is compelled like Saturn, to disgorge the bright treasure. At Epirus in Italy was an oracle surrounded by a grove and circular wall, in which was kept sacred serpents descended from the python of Delphi— on the great festival of the year a virgin priestess entered the grove naked, holding in her hand the sacred food; if they devoured it eagerly a fruitful harvest was anticipated. Gods Avere born of serpents and Titans; the Volsungs had the flash of serpents in their eyes. Saturn was a Titan, Jupiter of Titanic descent. Cecrops, the founder of Athens was half man and half ser- 258 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN pent; the chief gods of the Norsemen were descended frora Titanic powers. Modern investigation has shown that the oracle of Delphi was founded before the tirae of the Greeks, and Avas an old serpent oracle under the old serpent worship. When Demeter (Ceres) left Eleusis, she gave to Triptole mus, the son of Celeus, her chariot drawn by winged snakes, and bade him travel over the earth and distribute corn and give lessons in agriculture ; on his return he restored the char iot to Ceres. The chariot was the moon drawn by the tAvin forks or ser pents. Cadmus and Harmonia at the end of suramer were draAvn away to the elysian fields in a chariot drawn by dragons. The car is the blue moon house drawn by the two fire serpents or the tAVO forks of the moon. The tree of the branstock or fire tree of the Volsungs was cut down in auturan and floated as a golden dragon. In the tirae of the Hindu deluge this moon tree or box was draAvn by a fish— all these cars are the moon house, or ark of Noah. On the Egyptian zodiac the serpent stood in place of scor- pio of the Greeks. The oldest legends of Orpheus ascribe his death to the bite of a serpent, like Ra, the Egyptian. SERPENT MOUNDS. The serpent mound of Adaras County, Ohio, is the raost perfect and conspicuous of any yet discovered in America. It stands upon a high crescent shaped hill on Brush Creek, in the wedge of the river ; the entire length of the serpent from mouth to tail is 1116 feet. Its tail is in three coils, and its THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 259 head points to the west, and partly within its jaAvs is an oval figure called the egg, and beyond that is a frog. Parallel to the Adams County, Ohio, serpent, is the serpent mound of Adams County, Illinois, near Quiney. It overlooks the Mississippi valley, as serpents have their abode by the Avater side, for the river is emblematic of the serpent, and floAved from the moon ; the prototype of the earth serpent ; this effigy is 1450 feet long, divided into three parts: neck, 600 feet long ; body, Avith coils, 300 feet ; tail, 450 feet long, and the kinks in the tail 100 feet. The effigy conforms to the crest of the river bank, which has been crowned with a ser pent. (American Antiquary, 1870.) There is a serpent of standing stones existing in Dakota, and serpent effigies surrounding serpentine hills at Green Lake, and at Madison and Potosi, Wisconsin. At Fort Ancient, forty miles from Cincinnati, the walls of the fort are in the form of a crooked serpent (like the crooked serpents mentioned in Job and Isaiah) ; the heads of these ser pents form the gateways, and the tails form the other part. There is a serpent mound in the Rice Lake district of On tario, on the shore of Rice Lake, near the mouth of Indian River ; it lies on a high bluff ; it is a serpent and egg mound, one hundred and ninety feet from head to tail, having four convolutions, each forty feet long, ancl the general height about four or five feet, and about twenty-five feet wide at the base. The egg mound lies in front of the head of the serpent at a distance of twenty-five feet, but having a diameter of forty by thirty-six feet. It was a sacred earth Avork having various kinds of earth used in its construction to give it a spotted and mottled appearance. In the egg were found four skeletons ; two were in the lower strata, supposed to be more ancient and prehistoric, and two 260 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN in an upper stratum, more modern. (John McLean : Ameri can Antiquary, 1896-7.) Ptah, the Egyptian creator, took the form of a frog, which Avas chosen as a syrabol of evolutionary creation; it was seen to begin as an egg deposited in the water as a rainute egg, then transform to a tadpole, and frora that to its raaturity as a frog. The Peruvians of South Araerica worshipped adders. Don Alvarez found in a town of 8000 lodges, a tower in which was kept a serpent twenty-seven feet long. Mixcoatl, the god of hunting — the narae means "cloud ser pent, ' ' and the narae, according to Mr. Bancroft, is said to be coraraon to a whole class of deities, or heroes somewhat re sembling the Niblungs of European mythology; and further supposed to be connected with the thunder storm. Mixcoatl, the cloud serpent, or Iztac — Mixcoatl, the white or gleaming cloud serpent, the only divinity of the ancient Chicimecs, held in high honor by the Nicaraguans and Otomis, and identified with Taras, suprerae god of the Tarascos, and Caraaxtli, god of the Teo — Chichimecs, is another personifica tion of the thunder storm. He was represented, like Jove, with a bundle of arrows in his hand, the thunderbolts. (Ban croft: Vol. 3, p. 403.) There are earth works on the Ohio river at Portsraouth, with twenty railes of earth walls of horseshoe pattern, covered ways and walled inclosures, which in their entire series reserable the great circle at Avebury, Bngland, which contains the sarae horseshoe and circular inclosures connected by standing stones. The serpent at Avebury is represented by two avenues Avhich led to Kennet on one side, and to Beckhampton on the other, and the head of the serpent resting 'at Overton teraple. The sarae avenues of several railes once extended from Stone- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 261 henge, one traced seventeen hundred feet, and the other ex tends northwest for two railes. A reraarkable serpent effigy has been discovered in Scot land ; the tail of the serpent lies on the shore of Loch Nell, the groimd gradually rises from seventeen to twenty feet in height, forraing a double curve like the letter S ; the ridge raodified to forra the spine of the serpent, and large stones Avere set to form its ribs. The head forms a circular caim on which are the remains of an altar; this cairn contained three large stones forraing a megallthic chamber. Both the Adaras County serpent and the one on the shore of Loch Nell have their heads pointing west and each terrainates with a circular inclosure containing an altar. Stonehenge, the great cathedral of Britain in Wiltshire, was a new improvement on the old serpent earth works, though of itself older than tradition, but even this grand old ruin was preceded by a more ancient prehistoric work called the ' ' Par ent of Stonehenge." Its outline was that of a serpent and built of unhewn stones, the head constructed of a double circle of unhewn stones, and an earthen circumvallation represented the body, and two avenues of stone, one mile each, represented the neck and tail of the serpent. These ancient, prehistoric temples were called dracontia or dragon temples, according to Dr. Stukely, as quoted by Sir Richard Hoare ; these temples were a mystery even at that time. The serpents of Adams County, Ohio and Illinois, and Loch Nell of Scotland, represent the same idea as the serpent of the Hesperides, and the serpent Fafner of the Northem Saga, guarding the sacred treasures ; they are guardians and custo dians of the tomb and the dead, the ancestral serpent, the be getter, the serpent Ladon lay in the west, and all these above mentioned lay with head to west. 262 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN These serpent mounds were temples or shrines Avhere sacri fice was offered and represented the temple of the moon, which was the moon serpent, whieh appears as a crescent or horseshoe and contained an altar, the same as afterward appeared as the Hebrew Cherubim, Avhich is the arms of the crescent moon which encircle the mercy seat, which is the throne or dwelling of all the chief gods of the ancient Avorld. The principal tribes of North American Indians worshipped the serpent. These serpent effigies were mainly on rivers and followed the winding ridges of the river banks. They were natural ridges and raounds raodified and improved. The serpent of Adams County makes its own effigies and digs a serpentine route through the hills, and leaves the bluffs zig-zag and in convolutions, which in general outline resemble a serpent, which were raodified and improved by art. Sometimes these serpent avenues are indicated, and mounds connected by paths of buffalo bones. In Peru a horned and hairy rattlesnake with a tail of gold was worshipped as the god of riches, the Pluto or the ser pent, that guarded the Ophir or winter treasure. Quetzalcoatl, the wonderful serpent, the Mexican redeem er and civilizer, was a "feathered serpent," a winged or bird serpent, like the winged serpents of the Hebrew Exodus, and that Jehovah serpent raised upon a pole. Many ancient races, and conspicuous in raodern tiraes as flat-headed Indians of Paciflc Coast and Puget Sound, flat ten their heads artificially in likeness of the serpent. In some of the altar stones of Mexico is seen the serpent coiled around the egg, like the common Phrenician symbol. In Mexico the serpent guards the temples and forms the bal ustrades to the stairways of the temples, and the winged ser- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 263 pent surmounts the doorways of the altar teraples at Palen- que and Uxmal. In the temple of Mexico live rattlesnakes were kept as pets and fed with sacrificial meat and feathers strewed where they made their bed and reared their young. The province of Chiapas was the supposed cradle of the Maya race, and there was the City of the Serpents. The sculptured serpent was common to Maya cities, as at Chichen, Uxmal, and Palenquc; they guard the entrance to the sanctuaries and are woven in the decorations; the ser pents were generally ornaraented with feathers which raeant a fiying or bird serpent. The Chichimecs of Mexico worshipped the gleaming cloud serpent, Mixcoatl. ¦ MODERN SERPENT. In India, among the lower class, as a fetish snake he still holds caste side by side with the orthodox Hindu divinities. And Brahmanisra is held as an innovation. The cobra is worshipped as a creature of supernatural powers, and in death is cremated and supposed to watch over hidden treasures. Serpent worship still exists in the Philippine Islands and in Corea, where the serpent is sacred and fed Avith choice food and protected as the spirit of God. The Indians of New Mexico worship an enormous serpent to which is fed new-born babies in an adobe house closely guarded, as discovered by Major Lewellyn, a Catholic priest. Among the Dahomeys, the raost iraportant is the snake god, who has, like Soloraon, one thousand snake wives. In India, the nagas or serpents are demi-gods, with a human face and serpent body; the human face is the bright shining part of the moon, for the moon is a composite creature peopled 264 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN by two nations, the Jacob and Esau, both from the womb of Rebekah the raoon ; their abode is under the earth ; their king was Vasuki or Sesha. The serpent is but a delusive form of a god. The Hindu serpent Sesha, king of the serpent race and of Patala, the infernal regions, a serpent of a thousand heads, which is the couch and canopy of Vishnu ; while sleep ing the intervals of creations, he was the great rope twisted around Mt. Mandara, which was used as a churn in churning the ocean for amrita. He is clothed in purple and Avears a white necklace; he is called Ananta the endless, the symbol of etemity; his hood is called the island of jewels. Snake worship still continues in India throughout the land ; and teraples are dedicated to their worship; it is the oldest worship ; it has passed into the architecture and Avoven in sculpture, gems and seals; the Hindus still have snake festi vals like the American Indians. In early Hindu times the villages were built in a grove left standing in the center of the settlement, the house of the gods, and the cultivated land ran around this in a circuit, as the village boundary and guard, and this boundary is called the "holy snake." The holy snake is the ring of the new moon. This custom was common to southwestern Asia, and to Egypt and Greece. GUARDIAN SERPENT. Though these monsters are destroyers, they are also faith ful guardians of treasures and souls of the dead. Hermes as executioner, carries off the doomed, but is also the trusty guide upon iheir return. Fafner, the destroying serpent, slew his father in the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 265 Volsung Saga, yet he lies down and coils around the Avinter sleep of Brynhild, as her guardian. On Etruscan reraains, griffons and winged demons guard the urns where repose the ashes of the dead. An Etruscan sphinx as depicted upon the funereal urn; the moon is represented in her ancient and true character, as a "beast of prey" and "man devouring," with a human skull beneath her paw, a fury Avith a torch stands behind her. (Dennis: Vol. 2, p. 166.) She is goddess of death, yet guar dian of the dead. Miraer was considered the prototype of all dragons and giants, who guard buried treasures and gold. He was guar dian of the tree and fountain of wisdom, and guardian of treasures. Serpents, swords, winged bulls and lions as guardians are but the sun and moon in Zoomorphic forra during winter. The serpent that guarded the fountain against Cadraus and Gilgames, and the serpent that guarded the fountain Avhere the ass drank which carried the price of Prometheus — it shows what the eye of Odin was ; the sun has to put out his light of day, or give up his day light before the moon door or spring will open ; that moon is the left eye of Odin. The lion was destroyer among beasts, yet two stone lions crouch one on each side of the door of an Etruscan tomb as guardians of the sepulchre. (Dennis: Etruscan Cities, Vol. 1, p. 33.) Krishna and Balarama were both sitting on the banks of a river, when a serpent crawled out of the raouth of Bala- rama, the serpent Sesha, of which he was an incarnation, and the serpent glided in the water and' took the soul of Bala- rama with him. He was the serpent that bit the sumraer sun. King Nala, and that serpent was under a curse frora which Nala should 266 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN deliver him, and the serpent told Nala that the poison should work upon him until the evil spirit was gone out of him and he would be restored ; the bite had transformed Nala into an ill-shaped dwarf. (Bawson.) The shades of the dead among the Zulus are in serpentine bodies. The snake with the Greeks was the companion of the dead. The serpent appears in folds upon the Lazarium, or fam ily altar, as excavated frora the ruins of Pompeii. Minerva created the olive tree and planted it upon the Acropolis in care of the serpent god Erechthonius, which has been fairly indentified with Neptune, and this guardian ser pent is the sea; he must be identified with Ladon, to whom Juno entrusted her garden of Hesperides. The sun and moon in mythology are compelled to assume the form of beast, bird, reptile, and all aniraate and inani mate forms during winter, and are disenchanted in spring by the rod, wand, cross, kiss or talisman, all of which are but one, the first new moon of spring. And all these strange metamorphoses were gathered and strung together in continuous narrative by Ovid in a way to make them appear interdependent and affiliated. Orestes in Euripides is called the dragon stained with his mother's blood, for he has become the dragon of winter, the devourer. Sometimes it is the benignant princess enchanted, who be comes a Rakshasa; the enchanted princess who lay dead all day long, but at night got up and ate people. The winter moon, a devouring ghoul at night— during the last fortnight the moon is devoured. Wainamoinen changes to a serpent (Kalevala: Rune 16); changes forra and stature like a serpent in a circle, "creep ing like a worm of magic, like an adder through the grasses." THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 267 A fisherman's son whose boat went down in the sea to the wonder garden or fairyland, and where all the people were enchanted; a huge snake met the young raan and said: "Kiss me. ' ' At the third time he kissed the snake it turned into a lovely maiden, the enchanted daughter of the lord of the castle, who became his bride. The sun prince kisses the dark rim of the moon three times before it appears to us as the new moon; he kisses the moon every night for the three dark nights when the moon is in hiding, or obscured by the rays of the sun. The moon is redeemed by the kiss of the good serpent every spring, and again the moon is betrayed by the kiss of the winter Judas at the end of summer. (Evans' Old Ballads, Vol. 4: "The Worm of Spindleston heights.") The princess was tumed into a worm by a witch step mother, and the cave is shown to this day where she folded up. and the stone trough from which she drank the milk of seven cows before she went to sleep ; and they built a ship of rowan masts and went after her to the North Country; when her deliverer landed and laid on her head, she cried out : Oh quit thy sword and bend thy bow. And give me kisses three; If I'm not won ere the sun go down, Won I shall never be. He bent his bow and quit his sword. And gave her kisses three. She crept into a hole a worm. And returned a fair lady. The new moon crept in hiding as a little thread or worm by day, and as the sunlight faded in the west, at night, the new moon crept out at the kiss of the sun on the rim of her shield. 268 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN It was the kiss of Iblis upon the naked shoulder of Zokah, and two serpents grew — the serpents fed upon brains. It is the winter kiss of Judas to Christ. (Shah Nameh, p. 10.) The two dusky birds or eagles of Gwenddolen (British Druids) whieh guarded his treasure wearing a yoke of gold; and who devoured daily two persons for their dinner, and the same number for their supper, same as the vulture which devoured Prometheus. In sumraer they are the good serpents, but in winter evil until redeemed. On the caduceus of Mercury the serpents are not crested; the crested serpent was ominous of war. In the fortress of Dinas Emrys or ambrosial city of Snow don, the dragons were lodged by Beli, or child of the sun, and the destiny of Britain supposed to depend upon their preservation ; they were lodged there in the teraple of Ceres ; and these dragons were harnessed to the car of Ceridwen or Ceres. (Davies' Mythology, 436.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 269 Chapter XVI. THE GARDEN. THE GARDEN OF EDEN. Eden, in the Seventh Century, was placed east of China, be yond -the ocean. Upon a map of the Ninth Century, in the library of Stras bourg, it lies to the east of Asia. Upon a raap of the world in the library of Corpus Christi College, Carabridge, of the Twelfth Century, Eden is an island opposite the mouth of the Ganges. On the Hereford map of the Thirteenth Century, it is an island off the coast of India, and more often placed in the island of Ceylon. 270 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN And by a world of visionaries, as Avell as trained scientists, it has been located in Somallland, Africa — Equatorial Africa, Australia, and by others the cradle land has been found in Southern Asia and the poles of the earth, particularly the North Pole. The garden of the ancient Finns was Kalevala, the "Land of Heroes. ' ' For thousands of years the world has been filled with ca pricious and eccentric ideas in regard to the origin of the world, the Garden of Paradise, and the droAvning of the world by a flood, generally prosecuted by people of ardent imagination and Utopian ideality. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the Paradise of God." (Revelations 2:7.) There have been many allegorical interpretations ; Philo supposed Eden to have been a symbol of the soul and the four rivers represented specific virtues. Origen supposed Eden was heaven, and the rivers repre sented divine wisdom. In the erratic opinion of Luther, the flood had -altered the course of the four rivers by which their locality might not now be identified. Josephus, the historian, supposed the river that ran from the Garden was the oeean streara, which iri his time was supposed to encircle the earth. And by another upheaval of human intelligence, the old Christian Paradise lay far in the east, beyond the stream of the ocean, and was raised so high that it escaped the flood; as the Hyperborean, the western or winter garden was placed far in the northwest, where the raidsummer sun disappears. This Hesperian garden was in the placid ocean of the far west upon an island of bliss, Avhich no ship could approach. There dwelt the Hesperides, the three sisters who guard- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 271 ed the trees of golden apples, but failed to discharge their duties and sometimes plucked off the apples themselves, like Eve when Juno sent the serpent Ladon to guard them ; he is the rightful owner of the garden in winter. The Jews had before them the mythical tales of many na tions, principally Babylonian, Persian and Phoenician, filled with absurdities which they endeavored in a manner to har monize, moralize and render consistent. After the final summing up of the learned discussion upon the subject from the time of the fathers down to the present, it has been pronounced by the Ninth Edition of the Ency clopedia Britannica an insoluble problem. LOCATION OF THB GARDEN. Eden is where Jason landed when he jumped the moon ford and left his sandal (the new moon) on the shore of the moon sea. It is where the children of Israel forded the Red Sea and landed upon the third day in the same place on the shore of the moon, where they celebrated their "passover" of three days — for the sun or solar children are always three days crossing the raoon for the moon every month at the ap proach of the sun becomes a dark sea over which the sun is three days crossing and is seen to land the third evening, having left his sandal (new moon) on the shore. The Garden of Eden was where Noah landed and where Jason landed with the golden fleece ; it was in the new moon bay at the vernal equinox; it wag where Cain built the first city; it was where that mysterious boat came ashore with a little boy asleep upon a sheaf of wheat. He had no name; he knew no country, and they named him Sheaf (in Northern Legend) and the little boy is the new moon of Easter asleep on the golden sheaf; the boat is the raoon that landed Noah, and Jason, captain of Argo. 272 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN It is the vine garden and wine garden Noah planted in spring; but this vine garden or constellation which arose in the east at the vernal equinox had travelled over and set in the west in the autumn sunset, and Noah drank his wine and fell in winter sleep and lost his strength ; and that garden of Noah is the same garden of Midas at the foot of the moun tain where Noah planted, and there Midas trapped the raoon Silenus the satyr to help him civilize the world, for Midas was the spring sun and tiller. It was the same garden of Bacchus, the garden of, Adam and Tammuz and Adonis ; it is the spring garden that the sun plants upon the moon every spring, for Eden is the gol den gift of the sun. A stone pillar set tip was moon worship; the Maypole set up in spring in a circle represented the moon garden of spring, and all the groves the Israelites ordered cut down was the very worship that Abram had set up. Among the Mayas of Yucatan, they had oratories in thick groves, and if they found a 'large tree which grew over a spring, they held the place to be divine, because two divinities met in the tree and in the pool. (Bancroft: Pacific Coast In dians, Vol. 2, p. 688. At the marriage of Pelops and Hippodamia, Poseidon raised a bridal chamber of the waves which arched in bright and graceful curves over the marriage bed. This arch was the new moon, and identifies the Gardej The God Frey in the Northern -SS^a met Gerd on Bar Island, where their nuptials were celebrated. Bar Island is the new moon, or the sand bar at the mouth of the moon river ; it is the Avedding at the ford of the river between the sun and moon at the spring equinox. Gefjun obtained from Gylfe, King of Sweden, a piece of land as large as she could plough in a day and a night, and she tore out from the main land and drew it into the sea a THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 273 piece large enough for the island of Seeland. In the original it is the moon raaiden asks of the sun as much land as she can plough in a day, and cut out a piece of the sun large as the ring of the new moon. It is what Jason ploughed and the furrow Romulus ploughed; it is the wheel torn from the chariot of the sun and lain upon the raoon, the garden spot of Eden, or new moon of spring. Queen Dido inclosed her gift of land by cutting up the hide into a long string, which is seen as the thread of the new moon inclosing the dark ground of the moon. It is the city of Forsetti, the peace god; it is where the lion and lamb lie down together ; the place where Esir and Vanir exchange hostages ; where the red man buried the hatchet and planted the tree of .peace, that peace that passeth all imderstanding ; that still small voice not heard in the wind nor the storm. There was the first city of peace — the ring of the new raoon of the spring equinox. Frithjof went to take possession of his farm, three miles long of farm and pasture, and on the shore of the sea. (Cox and Jones, p. 22.) It is the ring of the new moon of the spring equinox on the shore of the moon sea; it is three miles long, or raade of three strips. That little slip of land soraetiraes three ells, which is the new moon between the woodland and the sea. And the many humorous descriptions of the Garden, such as the lean fox which entered the garden and grew so fat he could not get out until he starved himself lean again. It is the new moon ring which enters the moon inclosure and grows so fat that he fills the moon garden and can only escape by starving himself down to a single ring at the moon gate. Or another, where it took a whirlwind three days to tear up enough of the forest for a bleaching place for clothes. 274 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN The forest is the black moon, and the clearing place is the part seen covered with the white linen or new moon. It is the story of Wainamoinen 's sowing (Kalevala Rune, 2). He felled the forest and left only one tree standing, the birch for the cuckoo, and sowed in the ashes the first crop of barley. The tree he left was the Tree of Life, the new moon pillar. Again, Eden is the clearing which Cadraus sowed with the serpent's teeth, and prepared a place for the building of the city of Thebes. Again, it is the ground ploughed by Jason with the fire- breathing bulls. It is the forest filled with serpents burned by Siegfried, Avhich ran out in a lake of oil, and the lake of oil is the new moon of spring. In the cosraogonical system of Japan, Izanagi stirred up the sea with a celestial spear, and the drops which fell from the point congealed and became an island upon which Izanagi and Izanani, the male and feraale pair, descended and took up their abode. This is the white island of the new moon in the moon sea. The Japanese call their sacred island "Heaven's one pil lar" (which is the pillar of the new raoon). It is the first land or eye land raised from the moon sea, and one likened to it is raised from the waters of the earth. That Garden was where Abram dug a well and planted a tree ; that Garden where Noah planted a vineyard and drank too much wine; that Garden where Christ turned Ai^ater to wine at Cana of Galilee. It was where the fruitful vine of Joseph hung over a wall, which is seen as the creeping vine of the new moon, hanging over the black wall of the raoon. (Gen. 49: 22.) The same vine which grew in the Babylonian Garden of Eden and became a Tree of Life that overshadowed the world. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 275 It was where Eve and Ishtar and Venus and the Cinder ella were married every spring; the wedding of sun and moon, and the wedding of heaven and earth. It is that fairy garden, the diamond castle, invisible by day, where the shipwrecked Ogier finds himself in company Avith Morgan Le Pay. The Temple of Ipsambul in Nubia has a representation of the woman, the tree, and the serpent, and upon the Eden cylinder of Babylonia is seen a man and a woman on each side of a tree, and a serpent erect where fruit is offered. Ezekiel calls Eden the Holy Mountain of God (Ezekiel 28 : 14), for the moon to the ancients was the Holy Mountain of the sky ; it was a mountain of fire when kindled by the sun, or a desolate waste when burned over; it had a golden river and a reedy marsh and was likened to almost every thing which raen beheld upon the earth. In classics, Dardanus swam over from Samothrace on an inflated skin and founded Troy, and that inflated hide is the black moon just entering the new constellation of spring, and this sun settler or gardener is seen on one side of the black moon, having crossed the flood and planted a garden like Adam, or Jehovah or Abram, who went to a far coun try and planted a tree and dug a well, that one of Ishtar's lovers who was the husbandman of Father Anu ; it is the hide Avith the man inside, which the Garuda bird or eagle flcAV over the sea with to Lanka in the Rama Yana, and Sinbad the sailor sewn up in an oxhide and carried aloft to the mountain of gems by a bird; the oxhide is the same sack of Benjamin, the black sack of the moon, which held the divin ing cup of Joseph when the Jacobites were escaping from Egypt. Wainamoinen, the hero of the Kalevala, found a desert island and climbed upon it from the sea and sowed it Avith forest trees. 276 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Then arose old Wainamoinen, With his feet upon the island. On the island washed by ocean. Broad expanse devoid of verdure. On the island vast and A'acant. — Garden of Wainomoinen, from the Kalevala, by Crawford, Rune 2. The island was the winter moon, that barren land, that vagabond land where Cain the exile fled, and that desert island at he mouth of the river Achelous where Alcniffion the murderer fled. At the new moon of Pharaenoth (March) was solemnized thc entrance of Osiris into the moon to fecundate that orb that it might in turn fecundate the earth. They then take up their summer residence upon the earth until the fall, ancl curse of the year. It is the story of Little Content in Sheneland of Holme Lee's Fairy Book, of the poor woodchopper who had chopped out and planted a garden in the forest, and one only child, a little boy, had been bom to the poor couple, in their cot tage by a stream; the birds sang to him, and the wild thing,? of the forest were not afraid, but carae to behold his face. Loud rang the sound of the woodraan's ax in the forest as his mother sang at her wheel. But at her appointed time the fairy nettle carae and sprang up by the cottage door. She waved her -ndtch wand here and there. And muttered spells upon the air. Breathed a eurse upon the river. To ruin hearth and home forever. And the sound of the axe, the Avheel and the loom Avere no more heard, and Little Content was frowned aAvay and driven into the forest; a heavy stupor fell upon his father and mother through the long Avinter, and the little boy fled to THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 277 the wilds on the hill; he turned to look back at the golden meadow and the house by the river side. But the spring came back and thawed the winter away, and the memory of a little boy came back to his mother, who went over the hills calling for the lost one; and it was one morning, Two little feet ran down from the mountains. By the path that encircled the sea. And out through the wood, lawn and meadow. And home to his father and me; And the brook ran on with the story. And the winds far wandering wide. That tale of the golden meadow. And the house by the river side. THE QUADRANGULAR INCLOSURE. The oldest Egyptian temple was a square inclosure, and the original Greek temple was a small square apartraent. The Zend serpent had three heads, and was slain by Thrse- tona, and the Vedic Trita was killed in the four-cornered vara or garden of god. Th^ Egyptians extended this square to the universe, which to them was a square box. This was the yoke of the inclosure of the Babylonian Anu, the quadrangular field of the vara or garden of god. Etruscan teraples are nearly square in conforraity with the templura which was an arbitrary division of the heavens and the earth, both of which are the square between the four car dinal points of the compass. Native races of Central Araerica had the sacred number four, and the earth was to the Quiches a square plain hung from heaven by four cords. Janus was quadrifrons and had four faces; his temples were built with four equal sides; each side contained a door and three windows, making four doors for the four cardinal 278 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN points, and the three Avindows on each of four sides rep resented the twelve months. The Chaldean ark was one hundred and forty cubits long, and the deck one hundred and forty wide — a square box. The Garden of St. John, the visionary, describes the won derful city of the New Jerusalem, fifteen hundred miles square on a terraced mountain. (Revelatioris 21 : 16.) The plan of the square inclosure was first raarked out by the sun who made four principal stations at the cardinal points, and these four points were connected by four straight lines on earth, and this was the earthly kingdom of the sun and his square inclosure. Grouping four countries around a central one, making five is found to have been common to both the Aryans of Persii and India, as pointed out by M. Obry and also Mr. Lenormant. It was agreeable to their cosmical ideas then entertained, whieh divided the world into four great islands or continents in the direction of the cardinal points, having Meru in the centre, down from which ran the four rivers, and this is the common tradition of the sacred garden and inclosure upon a mountain plateau, a quadrangular inclosure having its four sides turned to the four cardinal points. Nimrod had the sarae division ; it says the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech, Accad. and Calneh, and towns everywhere from Asia to Aztecs, have a square in the centre from which lead four grand avenues to the four quarters of the earth. The ancient Babylonian monarchs had the title of the ' ' King of the four regions ; ' ' they formed a tetrarchy in ac cordance with the Paradise mountain of the east. The square with a cross in the centre is the sacred sign of the earth. The cross was made by connecting the four car dinal points, and the moon had the same division ; it was on that revolving cross, that ever revolving fiery wheel, which Ixion was fixed with brazen bands. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 279 It was the cross where robbers and raalefactors were hanged ; there the baker of Pharaoh was hanged, and the butler, or winter waterman was turned loose ; there Christ was hanged, and Barabbas, the winter robber, was released. That was the cross roads where sun and moon met,; there was the guide board for the traveller; there was erected the Herraaic pillar and the heap of stones, and there occurred the principal heroic feats and tragedies of legendary history. Sun and moon are not attractive to each other until spring, but repel each other in winter. Amphitrite fled the love of Poseidon until he came riding upon a dolphin, for that is the fish which appears at spring time like the cuckoo, dove and swallow, the harbingers of spring. After the winter war and strife only will Cadmus wed Harmonia, which means that sun and moon harmonize at the spring equinox, that Shiloh of peace. It was in the flower garden of Venus in spring time when her festivals were held and her attendants Avove her garlands of sweet scented flowers in the garden of Athens. It was where Proserpine, the flower girl, was gathering flowers in a meadow near the seashore when stolen ; there Eu ropa was gathering flowers in the same meadow near the sea shore. Vertumnus, the suitor of Pomona, tried many ways to win her love, but she kept her garden locked and allowed no man to enter. Vertumraus, after employing raany disguises — as reaper, plowman, vine dresser, a discharged soldier, fish erman, and an old woman like Thok, he finally appeared as a youth, and a mutual love sprang up between thera. The blighted winter garden restored by the arrival of a stranger — a castaway — who carae floating down the river. The stranger is the sun prince who appears as the first ring of the Easter moon. (Bengal Tales, L. B. Dai, No. 6.) 280 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN A deserted city, devastated by ogres, ghosts, demons, boars, or a blighted garden, becoraes green again by the touch of a hero (the sun). Far away in fhe centre of a Raja's kingdora, there dwells his daughter the princess in a glass palace ; around the palace runs a river and garden of flowers, and she will raarry only the man who can jump the river. (Deccan Days, p. 102.) It is the ford leaped by Jason when he left his sandal upon the raoon shore. Rama on a war horse jumps it three times, and the third time he enters thegarden. The first two nights he is not visible to us, but the third jump reveals the sun on the shore of the black moon as the sun prince, or new moon ring. THE GOLDEN AGE. The Golden Age of the Greeks was in the time of Saturn. The Golden Age of the Persians in the tirae of Yima. Of Hindus in the time of Yama ; of the Egyptians, in the time of Ra; of the Scandinavians, in the time of Frey, and of the HebrcAvs, in the time of Adara. Ophion and Eurynome ruled over Olympus until they Avere dethroned by Saturn and Rhea. Ophion (Ophis: serpent) was a serpent, so that the garden of the gods was first ruled by the serpent. Most nations have the same traditions of a primitive time of innocence and peace Avhere the soul will return after death. That Golden Age in Oriental imagery when the treasury was full — the poor at ease and each day a festival — ^when the wayfaring people went on through forest and plane tossing up gold ; and the house door unlocked. The Golden Age was common to the Oriental nations when the men and the cattle were immortal; the trees and the water never dried. Flocks wandered alone unherded, and the air was filled THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 281 with the song of birds, and nothing as yet had learned evil. The Golden Age of the Norsemen was in Asgard the Garden of the Asas on the Plain of Ida. An age of innocence until the arrival of Gulveig, the enchantress. She had been thrice cast in the fire, and at each time arose more beautiful than before, until the souls of gods and men were filled with longing. Gulveig is the harlot moon in the after summer, the thrice born; that moon who is invisible until she has been born for three nights, and only becomes visible in the west on the third night. She has been cast in the solar fire for three nights, and every time arose more beautiful. She be comes the Venus, the "mother of harlots;" she is Eve, the Avinter harlot, who betrayed the summer garden ; she is Ishtar the troth breaker, and the Magdalen of seven devils. The Egyptian Golden Age of King Ra continued until an evil woman caused a serpent to bite him, and then stole frora hira his holy name and talisman, the same Eve in league with the winter serpent. The Golden Age of the Hindu was called Krita, the first of the four ages, when the tiger and bull drank together out of the same pool, and the beast and the bird spoke. It ended with Kali the evil or iron age of winter. Silver then was more abundant, Gold among the guests in plenty. On the hills were money pockets. Money bags along the vaUeys. — Kalevala, Rune 25. The sun as a hero is represented in fable as having a purse of gold which is self -replenishing. In the Northern Mythology, we have the Golden Age of old King Frodi, the king of Denmark, when the gold strewed the highway and the fields, and the gold sowed its own seeds. The time when a little boy could go about unharmed with 282 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN a belt of gold about his waist. (And the belt of gold is the ring of the new moon.) And then followed Prodi's downfall, for in his house were two maiden servants of the giant race named Fenja and Menja — he bought them of a giant for slaves — to turn a quern, or grotti or hand mill. At first this mill ground gold and peace, but in time Frodi became hard-hearted, and they were allowed no more tirae to rest than while the note of the cuckoo lasted, or the time of a song, which awoke their giant nature, and they ground no more for peace, but for fire and war, which ended the Golden Age and the life of Frodi. Every year the keepers of the sumraer garden are obliged to leave, and in the oldest legends are conducted by a serpent who becomes their guardian; Cadmus and his wife, Har monia, Avhen their summer reign was ended, left for the Elysian fields of the west in a chariot drawn by serpents. The branstock bloometh to heaven from the ancient wondrous root. And the summer hath ohone on its blossoms, and Sigurd 's sword is the fruit. The same root of the tree is preserved in the tale of Nebuch adnezzar. (Daniel 4': 15.) In the spring the sword is beaten into a ploughshare, and in autumn the ploughshare is again molded into a sword, when the fruit of that tree becomes a biting serpent or sword. (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 13.) THB ISLE OP REFUGE AT THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER. A sympathetic tree is planted at the mouth of a great river when the traveller departs, for it is an oracle tree, and will re veal the fate and condition of the absent one. Alcmoaon, afflicted Avith madness for the murder of his mother, was pursued by the avenging fury Eriphyle, and was directed by an oracle to find a place that was not in existence THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 283 at the time of his murder, for no place on earth at the time of his murder would receive him. He found refuge at last upon an island or delta at the mouth of the river Achelous, Avhich had been recently deposited by the last flood tide of the moon ; it Avas the island of Zoar raised up for Lot. It is tho island of the first new moon of spring at the raouth of thc black moon river. Gilgames, when cursed with disease, set out for Shamash- Napishtim, who lived afar off at the mouth of a river ; one who had escaped death and been translated; in going he had to cross the waters of death. Osiris drifted to the mouth of the river Nile, and his coffin was found on a raound under a gigantic acacia. Consult Appendix No.. 8, p. 546, Davies' Mythology of British Druids, where Ugnac says to Taliesin: "Thou knight who rep air est to the river's mouth on a war like steed, come with me ; I take no denial. ' ' This was the river mouth Odysseus reached after swiraraing three days in the sea, and cried out in prayer : ' ' Hear me, O King, whoever thou art, unto thee I tum in prayer. ' ' And the river god stayed the stream and stilled the waves. (It was then the white island became visible above the waves), the same landing place of Noah and of Lot, on Zoar, the little island, and that sandbar at the mouth of the river Achelous where that exile accursed should find a resting plaee. The swan knight floated down that river when summer had ended, and it was down that river the Lyre of Orpheus floated, singing his death song. A boat came up that river in spring and brought little Seaf asleep on a sheaf of wheat, and when at last his work was done, it carried him back. The gods and their merchandise floated upon that river ; over that river old Charon ferried the dead. Sigmund the Volsung carried in his arms the dead body of Sinflotli to the mouth of a river, where a man met him in a 284 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN boat and he laid the corpse thereon, and man and boat van ished. It was Odin, gray-clad like the mountain cloud at the mouth of the moon river. A map of the TAvelfth Century places Paradise as an island at the mouth of the Ganges, and it was because the first settle ments and civilizations were planted at the river's mouth; for there the fertility Avas annually restored by natural irri gation, and could support a dense population; and the new moon island was likened to it, which arose as a white island or sand bar at the mouth of the moon river. Aurva was produced from the thigh of his father, and he was a devouring fire and about to consume the world, but Brahma interfered and found a place for him at the mouth of the ocean; it is represented as a flame with a horse's head; it is the flame of the new moon, or fire child, burning up the moon waters, the only place that can quench his thirst. Both the eastern and western gardens are placed on an island, and the island is described as the island of the moon. VOLSUNG GARDEN OF THB NORSEMEN. "It was a dwelling of kings in the Golden Age, when the earth was young; its roofs were thatched with gold, and its doors were silver nailed. Dukes were the doorwards there, and its walls were hung with shields. There the women worked in the silk and the gold the deeds of the world that should be and the deeds that were of old." But the glory of the house was a marvellous tree that sprang up from its midmost nail-floor, and wreathed the roof with the glory of summer, and men called that tree the bran stock, and the throne of Volsung was beneath its blossoming bower, and 'twas one evening in May a mighty raan strode into the feast hall of the Volsung dwelling, cloud-blue was his hood, and his kirtle gleaming-gray, and drew a sword and thmst it deep in the tree-bole and said : THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 285 Now let the man among you whose heart and hand may shift. To pluck it from the oak wood, e 'en take it for my gift. — Sigurd the Volsung, Book I, pp. 1-2. After the battle between the Volsungs and Niblungs, for the Volsungs left their golden dwelling after summer ancl went over to the west to abide the winter with the Niblungs. The Volsungs were slain in the last battle — none escaped but Sig mund, and he said to his sister Signy who had been carried off by Siggeir (Hades) to the kingdom of the west, as together they lament the fall of the Volsung house and their garden of the east deserted. And A\'ho next shall shake the locks, or the silver door-rings meet? Who shall pace the floor, beloved, worn down by the Volsung feet? And didst thou think, my sister, when we sat in our summer bliss. Beneath the boughs of the Branstock, that the world was like to this? That garden of the Volsungs is the spring moon of the east ; the moon on the annual round of the ecliptic has twelve houses or stopping places, and in mythology each moon becomes stationary for a play house, even after the sun and moon have left ; the present house is the house of the east, the spring house, and the most important house on the ecliptic, for it is the "house of life" and reanimation. In the scene above de scribed the tree is the dark green moon out of which the spring hero draws the gleaming golden sword of the new moon at the Easter festival. It is called the lea of Lymdale, 'twixt the wood and the water side. For men call it the gate of the world, -n-here the kings of men abide. — Sigurd the Volsung, p. 161. And they came to the land of the waters, and the lea by the woodlands end; And there is the burg of Brynhild, the white-walled house and long And the garth her father fashioned before the days of wrong. — Sigurd the Volsung, p. 152. 286 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN Yet I bid thee look on the land 'twixt the wood and the silver sea. In the bight of the swirling river and the house that sheltered me. — Sigurd the Volsung, p. 146. That garden described above is the Easter moon; the lea 'twixt the wood and the water side is the ring of the new moon on the sea shore between the dark wood of the moon on one side, and the ocean on the other; it was the garden of bliss, she says, before the days of wrong (sin). It is called the Gate of the World, where the kings of raen abide. (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 161, Book III.) Though the garden has been transferred to the earth, it still retains its lunar scenery, its trappings and accoutrements, its furniture and upholstery. BABYLONIAN GARDEN. We have identified the garden by the tree of life, by the sword, by the bones of Adam, and the throne of God, and it can still be further proven by the most ancient records which represent the garden as the first land ever created, the little white island of the new moon, arisen from the moon waters, which scene was arbitrarily transferred to the earth and their own soil by different nations to render themselves the chosen race of the gods, and separated from the outland barbarians Let us take perhaps the most ancient garden known; the garden of Eridu, at the mouth of the Euphrates. A creation legend from the Semitic time of Babylonian his tory — the glorious house (chief temple of Eridu). The house of the gods in a glorious place had not been made ; the deep had not been made ; a city had not been built, when within the sea the current was, in that day Eridu was made — was con structed within the deep. (Records of the Past, Vol. 6. New Series, p. 109.) In Eridu a palm stalk grew overshadowing ; in a holy place did it become green (for the tree of life was called variously THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 287 pine, palm-tree, and vine) ; its root was of bright lapis which stretched toward the deep. Before the god Ea was its growth in Eridu teeming with fertility. Its seat was the central place of earth ; its foliage was the couch of Zikun, the primeval mother. Into the heart of its holy house which spread its shade like a forest, hath no man entered. There is the home of the mighty mother who passes across the sky. In the midst of it was the god Tammuz, end of the Aecado-Sumerian hymn. The accadian tree of life was the pine tree of Bridu, the shrine of the god Irnin, which was an ancient name of the Euphrates, as the snake river Avhich encircled the world like a rope and was the stream of Ea the snake, god of the tree of life in the days of snake worship, and was the same snake of the Hebrew garden of Genesis. "Tree of life"— The Accadian Ges-Din. The Babylonians in common with other nations, consulted the moon, the Avise one, and the mother of all things, and from the midst of the watery abyss of the moon arose a little white island. That island of light we call the new moon, or again it was described as a sand bar at the mouth of the moon river, and this was supposed the first land that arose from the abyss and the first land created. But the Babylonians must have something more tangible than this vapory dreamland of the moon, and founded a sacred city on the shore of the sea at the mouth of the Euphrates, representing as nearly as possible its lunar prototype, and called it Eridu or the "Good City"; it was the lowest of the seven cities, and here they planted the sacred tree and altar whieh they gave to the gods, and invited their presence to hear and answer prayer and wateh over their spiritual and doraestic life, for the moon was too far away — they wanted a "god with us." In this tree that overshadowed the earth dwelt the great 288 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN moon mother that passed over the sky, and this tree was also the abode of Tammuz, the shepherd redeemer who was slain, and arose frora the dead and became the Noah who navigated the ark, and also the judge of the dead in the lower world, like the Egyptian Osiris and our Christ. Ea was the god of Eridu and lord of the garden ; he was a culture god and the spirit of the waters. The garden of Eridu of the Babylonians was the raoon city transferred to earth; the dwelling of the great raoon raother who passed over the sky; there Tammuz dwelt; he was the young spring sun, the personification of the spring verdure, and when vegetation withered at midsummer, Tammuz was said to be slain, and women wept for Tammuz. The Phoenicians called this god Adonis, and when he died at midsumraer, his garden was represented by an earthen ves sel filled with earth and planted with wheat, barley, fennel, and lettuce, and in this garden they hid the image of Adonis, and as soon as the trees and the plants withered, they began the search for the lost Adonis; coffins were exposed at every door at the mourning of Adonis, and statues of Venus and Adonis were carried in procession with pots of corn, herbs and lettuce, which were called the gardens of Adonis. It corresponds to the Hindu tale of Puran Bhaghat and his garden, where he was brought up as a child ; he was slain and ¦ thrown into a well, and drawn out in spring by a thread and retumed to his garden, long dry and neglected, over which he sprinkled water in the narae of God, and the garden again be came green and all the people gathered about to behold the miracle. This sacred tree of Eridu gave oracles through the medium of a priest. Eridu belonged especially to Ba, the god of the waters ; Ea and Ishtar reigned in Eridu, where she was queen. There Tamrauz and Ishtar were married under the tree of life, but the whole panorama is brought down from the moon. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 289 Avhere the sun prince and moon princess are married every year at the spring equinox. She still retains her old name with us as the Easter moon. Ea was a river god and king of the deep, also lord of the earth, master of all created things — prince of the zenith of heaven, king of the rivers and the garden, god of life and wis dom, and husband of Bahu or Bohu, the abyss. It is a reflex of the moon, its prototype, where the white pillar is seen to rise from the dark waters of the lunar abyss as bright crystal, which is the tree of life. In lunar mythology the dark part of the moon is often de scribed as forest, and the light or smooth part lit by the sun is called plain or raeadow. Plain is a coramon name for Edens and gardens, as distin guished from the forest or wild land as Magh Mell — the plain of honey of Celtic literature; the elysian plain of the Greeks, and again the Nysian plain where Proserpine was gathering flowers at the time of her abduction, and Ida, the plain of Asgard. Eridu, now one hundred and thirty miles inland, was once the primeval seaport of Chaldea; the foundation was laid 6000 B.C. There was doubtless an island out in the sea below the mouth of the river Euphrates upon which the garden was planted, and which has disappeared and become raainland by the silt of the river. The ancient name of Babylon was Tin-Tir-Ki, which signi fies "the place of the tree of life." The cherub-winged, man-headed bull watched the gates and guarded the tree of life. Eridu was the most southern of the seven cities and stood on the shores of the Persian gulf. And the aneient people of Japan had the same ideas, and have a record of that same Jewel Island that arose frora the 290 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN churning of the primitive abyss ; that island that arose from the froth of the sea, which was the island of the new moon of the spring equinox. These phantom islands are found among civilized and sav age over the earth, as the Delos of the Greeks raised up from the sea to become the birthplace of Apollo; they are found among South Sea Islanders as islands fished up from the deep. The description of Eridu corresponds to the island of the new moon seen to rise from the blue sea or abyss of the moon, for that raother that passes over the sky is the moon tree which alone could overshadow the earth, and its crystal root is the first ring of the moon; to this abode the gods (sun and moon) were invited, as we invoke their presence by prayer and praise. SCANDINAVIAN PARADISE GARDEN. Asgard: God's ward, or inclosure; God's guard. Asgard ; the abode of the gods, shaded by the ash tree in which Iduna sits with the apples of life. This garden is separated from the giant or evil land by the river Ifing. There dwelt the twelve Esir, and one seat for Odin ; it was a prosperous place until entered by three raaidens from Jo- tunheim, or giant-land. In the Scandinavian Edda it says the scene of the fall is not among mortals, but among the divine Asas. Idun dwelt with Bragi, an inspired singer, in Paradise, the raiddle of the Avorld, and perfectly innocent; the gods entrusted her with their apples of iramortality. But sin enters, oaths are broken, and evil is let loose. As gard is stormed; the exterior Avail of the Asas overthrown; the Wanes by strategy break down the rampart — and this was the first war in the world. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 291 It was the golden age of suramer ; no artists had lacked for gold; but the gold of the summer failed; artists stopped work ; it had been brought about by Loke, who set up a rivalry, for there were Iavo sets of artists, and the ancient gods were called upon to decide upon the works of the two sets of artists. Then followed an uproar in the heavenly court — the nature of the gods change, friends beeome foes, magic songs are heard in the air, sacrifice is abandoned, the raven croaks from the tree — the summer is betrayed. Idun, the maid of the spring garden of Asgard, or the gar den of the Asas, is imprisoned in winter under the root of the yggdrasil, the moon tree. "She ill-brooked her descent under the hoar tree's trunk confined. ' ' For Hades was under the root of the new moon tree, and each pyramid of the Egyptians was the centre of an Acropolis. As the Egyptians buried their dead at the base or root of the tall pyramid — "the pyraraid of souls" which represented the tall pillar of the new moon, seen to run down to the Mach pelah or kingdom of the dead, of which our white tombstone is a modest representative. DESTRUCTION OP THE GARDEN. Eve 's apple Avas the passport to Hades, her winter exile, for it was the tree of life, the token, the index — when that tree failed the summer ended. It is the golden bough plucked by Eneas for a gift to Charon before he could enter Hades. Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, must die, and her father (the sun) gives up the daughter like Jephthah; itis the redemption of the year, like the ransom of Odin; it is the virgin daughter of the spring ; she will awake again the next 292 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN spring, when her enchanted prince is restored, and the mar riage, or the mingling of the blood of the virgin with the bitter waters of the moon dragon, will transform him to an angel of light. The same offense as the plucking of the Narcissus by Pro- s.-rpine, and the plucking of the fruit by Eve frora the tree of gold, or the plucking of the golden bough by Eneas ; it raeans the end of summer, and the rod plucked becoraes the passport and guide through the shadowland of winter; the speaking oak in the prow of the Argo, the rod of life of Hermes, the rod of Jacob, the rod of Moses and Aaron, the pillar of fire that led Israel through the wilderness. Trophonius and his brother Agamedes built the treasury for Hyrieus, and left a secret stone loose, through which they ex tracted the gold, and the treasury house was the moon where the gold is drawn off at the wane — a ring of gold every night, and a trap was set and Agamedes Avas caught, and Trophonius, unable to extricate him, cut off his head and carried it off for fear of their detection. The red mark of the new moon ring is the place where the dark head of the moon was severed frora his body. This Zeus Trophonius is the nourishing Jnipiter and Aga medes, the thoughtful or wise one. Trophonius had an oracle upon a high mountain encircled with white stones, which is the temple of Stonehenge and the circle of Gilgal, which rep resented the circle of the Zodiac. These two brothers are the sun and moon — Trophonius was a descriptive name of Zeus. In a Russian tale, the fmit is stolen by the fire-bird; its feathers blaze, its eyes shine like crystal, and in the dead of the night it flies in a garden whieh it illuminates; it feeds upon golden apples which have the power to restore youth and THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 293 beauty; its song heals the sick, and gives sight to the blind. (Ralston, p. 285.) It is the bird that three children of the king are set to watch ; the two first fall asleep on their nightly watch, but the third one is more vigilant, and captures a quill from the bird's wing. The quill is the golden ring of tha moon caught on the disk of the black moon on the third night of her occultation; the tAVO first nights the children fall asleep and the bird escapes in the dark. In the Northern mythology the tale of exile is more sim plified ; where the golden statue of Odin stood in the royal hallway, and the gold was cut away from a secret place in the statue for the necklace of his queen, and the artists were bribed, and the queen showed favor to a demon of low rank in the house, who had of late ventured to shoAV his admiration for the mistress. (This demon is the same serpent of Eden.) And when Odin the king, missed his treasure of gold, he became furious and threatened his household Avith death, but the demon, at the command from the queen, caused the watchmen to fall asleep, and tore down the statue from above the door and broke it in pieces. Then Odin withdrew from the gods and disappeared in dis tant regions, and all the blessings of earth followed him, and a false Odin took his place and let loose the storms of winter, and the ice giants, and the earth mourned, and his people longed for his return. His approach in spring was first made known and welcomed by the thunder and lightning when the usurper fied, and Odin resumed his throne, and with him came the verdure of spring. They were the summer Odin and the winter Odin, and the twain Avere each to each the other self. The substance of the same story was told of old King Solo- 294 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN mon who Avas outwitted by the winter Asmodeus his brother, and remained a long time in exile; although the new king looked like the old one, they soon found he was but a mock image ; he is the pale, emasculated sun seen exiled in the south ern heraisphere every Avinter. Jove, the raper, the robber, the destroyer, becomes the win ter king and guardian ; the Stygian Jove, the infernal Jupitei, who wears the iron mask, the helm of dread — truly behind a f roAvning providence he hides a smiling face. There is another class of stories where the woman is not forced away against her will, but longs for the robber. Passiphffi, the wife of Minos, king of Crete, was a victim of this strange passion and longing for the AA^hite Cretan bull that came up from the bottom of the moon sea, and gratified her desire by entering an artificial cow — and the bull and the cow are the sun and the moon ; her offspring was a half-breed — between a man and a bull (the minotaur.) These semiferine creatures are the hybrid moon, half white, half black — a mon ster — when the sun is in Leo he is a man-lion ; when in Taurus, he is a man-bull, and Avhen in Capricorn, he is a man-goat. Dermot 0 'Dyna had a beauty spot no woman could resist ; he was the favorite of the maidens. He is the moon, and the beauty spot is the ivory shoulder of Pelops, the new moon; he eloped with Grania AA'ho had been promised to Fin McCool. '(Joyce: Old Celtic Romances.) The Hindu Siva, both creator and destroyer — it was said that no woman could behold Siva without being ennamored; he was god of the phallus and generating principle; he Avas likewise the moon ; all the wives of the Rishis were enraptured Avith his great beauty. Sometimes the woman longed for the robber, and left king dom and palace, and fled after him weeping and moaning to THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 295 the gallows in spite of the prayers and entreaties of her father, the king. As in a tale of the Aztecs, the princess fell in love with the pepper A'ender of the streets and would have no other. The Asmodeus Ashmedai demon of lust — these semiferine creatures as satyrs, Kentaurs, gandharvas, are in a general sense, the moon race. The Helen of Troy Avho eloped with Paris, and this Paris is the Avinter moon robber, one of the Hindu Panis or cattle stealers. The Pysche inspired by Venus with the love of a monster, and the monster is a Cupid in disguise — the beauty and the beast. Ancl these destroyers of the sumrner garden becorae the suitors and rioters in the house of Ulysses during his absence in the winter war of Troy, and the money changers in the temple of the moon that Christ drove out, and restored the summer rule of prayer and praise. Sometimes it is the woman Avho turns seducer at the decline of the season, as Delilah who betrayed Samson. Venus entraps Tanhauser; the fairy queen entraps Thomas the Rimer. And when Rasalu came home from hunting he discovered footmarks. Said Rasalu : " I gave thee a garden to thy desire, with peaches, mangoes, pomegranates — Avho threw down the well brim Rani? Who broke the platform? Who has taken out the water in pitchers ? Who has thrown down the stones ? Who has broken into my palace ? ' ' The garden is the moon now in darkness, for Rasalu (the sun) has returned, and the moon is dark; the well brim and platform of the garden are broken down; the fountain is dry, and he is about to accuse her of infidelity during his absence, Avhen she retorts : " It is thou who hast ruined my garden ! ' ' 296 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN (From the Hindu Rasalu Legends) The sun as Raja Rasalu : Sila Day said to him setting fire to water : ' ' Thou hast ruined me ; thou hast destroyed ray garden. ' ' Rasalu says : " To see the flower of thy virtue I came to thy door." The sun sets fire to the moon garden. Rasalu is the midsummer sun that every year in tropical countries burns up the waters and consumes the grass ; at that time the spring sun, the gardner, is slain the Tammuz and Adonis, and also the garden of the earth, her foster child. Or it is the summer flower girl, or the Proserpine, who has been stolen by the high god Jupiter himself. Or it is the summer maiden Io, the priestess of Juno, who has been vio lated by the high god Jupiter, and then changed to a cow with the ' ' all seeing Argus ' ' to guard her ; but Mercury slew Argus and released Io to wander over the earth lowing with pain, stung by a gadfly. This story has been the source of volumi nous literature and shallow in the extreme ; like other myths it is confined to the moon, and consequently the raoon has to assurae raany forras and characters in the same play. Io is the moon, cursed, banished and driven to wander every year transformed to a cow, a common symbol of the raoon, as the sun was the bull; the Egyptian Isis was cursed to beeome a cow and wear horns in winter; Venus was also the Ashtoreth Karnaim, or horned Venus. Argus is the moon and has an eye in the back of his neck, which is the ring of the new raoon on the rira of the black moon. Argus is the moon, or watch dog of the night, and the same old faithful dog Argus, who raet Ulysses on his retum horae to Ithaca; he is slain by Mercury, that is the raoon 's light put out. Argus had one hundred eyes: that is the unmistakable pe- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 297 riod of winter, the hundred days so often used, like the num ber seven also the winter period. Argus turned the cow loose by day to graze when the moon is loose and invisible, but at night he tied her up to a pole, AA-hich is the pole of the new moon. (Ovid's Metamor., Fable 14.) The cord is the red ring about the moon's neck at night, but Juno, not to be outdone, sent a gadfiy to sting the heifer Avhich caused her to roam over the earth, which she does every year at the present tirae. The gadfiy is the ring of the new moon, or the firebug on the back of the black moon, and is the Kentaur or bull driver. (The word 'Kentaur' means bull goad or prick, as a prick in the end of a stick used for driv ing oxen.) The gadfly then means the prick or goad or stinger of the moon who has been transformed to a eow. Tmly Jove stole the treasures of the temple of Hyrieus to^ gether with his brother Agamedes; they left a stone loose in the wall of the moon temple through which from time to time they purloined the treasure of the king; he the chief god himself was the destroyer of the year. He struck Esculapius the great healer and physician and slew him with a thunder bolt for healing the sick; he ravaged the celestial temple AAhich his oavu hands had helped to build, and slew his own children and tumed loose the destroying flends, like all-father Odin of the north, who tumed destroyer, and at the end of the year went upon his ' ' Hell ride ' ' scattering destruction. Proserpine became winter guardian ; Osiris becomes lord of the underworld, Jupiter or Zeus becomes the guardian of Hades, for the Greeks theraselves called their chief god Zeus the Stygian Jove. Reidmar, the winter brother of Odin, says to him when he had snared him in a net and corapelled Odin to ransoix '^is life with all the gold he possessed : ' ' And they call thee Odin 298 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF' EDEN for this, and stretch forth hands in vain, and pray for the gifts of a god who giveth and taketh again." (Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin, p. 90.) And Odin said: Lo, I look on the curse of the gold, and wrong amended by wrong. And love by love confounded, and the strong abased by the strong; And T order it all £.nd amend it, and the deeds that are done I see. And none other beholdeth or knoweth, and who shall be wise unto me. Sigurd the Volsung, B. Regin, p. 95. Jehovah says : I have created the workman to make and the waster to destroy. (Isaiah 54:16.) I create both light and darkness; I make peace and create evil. (Isaiah 45: 7.) It was Jehovah who slew his own son though he begged for his life. Jehovah like Jupiter destroys his own garden every year. He is Saturn the reaper. It is the transformed sun and moon who become the de vourers, the Saturn Avho instituted the golden age, turns de stroyer, and swallows his children; the year rolls round, and steals away the breath that flrst it gave, and the Ceres, the summer moon who had been the sympathizing and benevolent, tumed to a ghoul to devour the shoulder of Pelops. It is the story of Eve, told with so many variations, yet the main features are easily recognized. HINDU GARDEN. The Avord "Paradise," used variously among nations as ' ' Inclosure, " " Garden " or " Orchard. ' ' The Hindu Paradise, the city of Brahma, was situated upon Mt. Meru, which reached to heaven and was encircled by the Ganges. It Avas the eity of the gods forever golden with sunshine; its f)lants and trees were celestial, Avhieh were watered by the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 299 great river AA'hich Aoavs from the fountain of immortality, and he who drank of that water Avould never die. This river sep arated in four streams and ran down the four sides of the mountain, and these streams were called the Chaishu, Bhadra, Sita, and Ganga. Mt. Meru, on whieh the garden was placed was a fabulous raountain north of the Himalayas; it is also called "Golden Mountain," "Lotus Mountain," "Jewel Peak," and "Mount of the Gods. ' ' This garden had the sacred grove and Jambu Tree of Life and Immortality, guarded by a dragon. In Persian tradition this paradise of good old King Yima in the ' ' Golden Age ' ' stood to the north of the Iranian coun try, the old Aryan home; at that place he was slain by the serpent adversary, and he was the flrst man and became lord of the departed, like the Babylonian Tammuz, and Egyptian Osiris, who died in the north at the summer solstice. In Parsee tradition Mashya and Mashyoi were placed in Heden, where grew Hom the tree of life. The Holy Monntain or Persian Paradise was Albordj, which Avas the abode of Ormuzd and good spirits and sent forth rivers like Mt. Meru; it was in the Hindu Koosh mountains where was situated Airjana Veedjo, the flrst abode of the Aryan race ; there is mentioned the district Heden, and Zoroaster was born in Hedenesh, and these fragmentary and mythical accounts were gathered by the Jews during their exile and woven in their narrative of Genesis. "Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God." (Ezekiel 28:13.) "The cedars in the Garden of God could not hide him." (Ezekiel 31: 8.) 300 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN ARAB, CHINESE, TIBETAN GARDEN. The Arab legends have a garden eastward on a mountain of Jacinth, unapproachable to man, with trees, flowers and fountains. The Chinese have a Paradise mountain — Kwen-Lun; it is the mount of the assembly ; it is round in form, and there is the marvelous tree and fountain of four rivers. The Chinese have a Golden Age — the Garden of the Apples of Immortality, guarded by a winged- serpent, and attribute the fall to increase of knowledge and the seduction of a woman. The Thibetans had the sacred mountain Himavata, where grew the tree of life, Zampu, and frora the foot of this tree flowed the four streams to the four quarters of the world. In a cave temple of southern India there is shown an Adam and Eve at the foot of an ambrosial tree, with a serpent twined in the branches, offering them fruit from his mouth. This drawing was brought from India by Colonel Coombs. According to Bouchet, at the temple of Madura in India. there is the story of the temptation in the garden, and the two trees are one of good, and one of cAdl. And the fall of Adara and Eve is found sculptured in the teraple of Ipsambul in Nubia. The story of Adara and Eve and the fall is represented on a Babylonian seal bearing date 2000 B.C, where a man and woman are seated on either side of a tree bearing fruit, and a serpent erect reared on the extremity of its tail, stands at the right. It is supposed to represent the Garden and Grove of Anu, guarded by a sword of fifty points— the fifty-two Aveeks of the year. The gods all destroy their own work at the end of summer ; Hercules, Tantalus and Saturn all destroy their children. And ' this death was but the sleep of recuperation. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 301 Osiris and Tammuz, and Christ, Proserpine and Ishtar, all awake again and return to their place. It requires no high power of criticism to fathora the myth. of the garden, the woman, and the serpent, when the religious faith and rites of the age in which it was written, are under stood. In the beginning it was a nature myth, and the characters of the drama are sun and moon in the change of the seasons, ivhich later have been humanized and raoralized by raany Avriters to raake thera appear realistic and historical. Adara was but an ideal man under various names araong all civilized nations. The Hebrews were as ignorant of the subject as we have been ; they placed the garden vaguely as ' ' eastward, ' ' in their latest araended account. Jehovah told Adam and Eve they might eat of all the trees but one — the tree of knowledge — but later he found another tree — the tree of life — which had been overlooked, which he also forbade and set a cherub to guard. The cause of the apostasy of Adam and Eve, the protoplasts, Avas the "tree of knowledge" before the age of letters or written history appeared. The Scriptures everywhere recommend and enjoin wisdom. "Better to get wisdom than gold." (Proverbs 16:16.) "If any lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given." (James, Epistle 1: 5.) "Be ye wise as serpents and harmless as doves." (Mat thew 10:16.) "The five wise virgins took oil." (Matthew 25:2.) "The law of wisdom is a fountain of life." (Proverbs 13:14.) ".Wisdom is above rubies. " (Job 28 : 18.) "God gave Solomon wisdom." (I Kings 4: 29.) 302 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN But in Eden they were denied wisdora and cursed for ob taining wisdora, not only Adara and Eve, but the whole world was cursed forever with thoms and thistles, toil and slavery, and all this because a woman bit an apple; cursed the ser pent to crawl which had always crawled before gods and raen were born, and finally the matter was compromised, and he accepted his son only begotten as a hostage and a ransom, Avho by his death should atone for the apple, and saw him die a long, slow death of agony, spiked to a tree, though he begged for his life to let the cup pass by. And then think of a religion founded upon this monster absurdity, and translated into more than four hundred lan guages and proclaimed over the earth by a vast ecclesiastical army for two thousand years. Enough to make dogs howl, and the very stones cry out. The story is unmeaning and contradictory to the universal trend of mythology among all nations, for every year the talis man was stolen or carried off by force at the end of summer, and sought and found by the hero of spring, and brought back to the spring equinox, sometimes as tree of life, water of life, apples of life, rod of life, hammer of Thor, thunderbolt of Jove, golden fleece, tablets of the gods, Niblung treasure, mill of Sarapo; stolen maiden, but always found and brought back to renew the yearly tragedy. The lost Helen was re stored; Hercules (sun) brought back the Hesperian apples; Jason brought back the fleece; Noah brought back the exiles in the ark; Adam and Eve were restored to the garden the next spring, and the tree of Eden again budded and bloomed from that "wondrous root." In the early religions the good and the evil were both worshipped, and the serpent held the garden half the year in Avinter, and was own brother to Jehovah; later the evil Avas debased, and the sun god of light and the serpent of dark- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 303 ness were moralized into good and evil, and the Avar which had been fought between light and darkness became a moral con fiict between good and evil, and all this evil was said to be foreordained, to Avork out man's higher destiny. Jehovah ancl the serpent are the two masters of the garden. What Jehovah told Adam and Eve was true in one sense, and the reverse which the serpent said was also true ; it was both a tree of life and death. In the east, during the suramer the moon Avas a tree of life, but in the west for the other part of the year, the winter time, it A\'as the tree of death. And this is how the Jehovah compiler and narrator became confused ; he Avas copying from different manuscripts and traditions, and the old cosmic sense of the tree and the fruit and of Satan Avere lost, and to the Jews it was sacred history ; in the original cosmic tragedy of the poets and mythographers it was a tra gedy of the year. The season had progressed to the border of Avinter, there being at that time but two seasons of the year, the summer and winter, and at the boundary line of the au tumnal equinox, AA'hich is the dividing line between the two great champions of the sky; the sun and moon, are gambling for the possession of the garden, and Satan (moon) or ser pent, or winter Hades, wins the garden, which becomes the dragon garden. In the old story Jehovah and Satan, mere personifications of sun and moon, are but blind and uncon scious agents in the hands of fate, but later personified, and used for moral and religious instruction. As a story it is most absurd and has no historical value, not even a moral. Jehovah said of the fruit: In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die. But Satan said they should not, but on the con trary, should beeome Avise, and as far as the story goes, the serpent told the truth, but in a more rational view there was no sin committed at all, for not one of the characters ever had any individuality or personality, for all the characters — the 304 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN garden, tree, serpent and Jehovah, are but raoonshine, and moon antics, the gliraraer of light and shadow upon the raoon Vi'hich have given rise to the principal religious rites and cereraonies of the ancient world. A subject elaborated with great variety of detail and play of iraagination by raany nations according to their own ideals and absurd fancies. The garden was a celestial city where the fall and degener acy of man was celebrated among the principal nations of the ancient world. Where Adam the protoplast and apostate was created mor tal and sent out of Paradise lest he should obtain immor tality by stealth. All the symbols and scenery of this garden, no matter Avhere they are transported, carry with them the lunar scen ery and phantasmagoria. We still celebrate the return of Adam and Eve every spring at the coming of the Easter raoon ; that is the promised land where the exiles return, the little white island raised up from the sea, the Delos or new formed land at the mouth of the river, the Zoar for Lot, the mountain peak for Noah. That is the Kalevala, the "land of heroes," or the sons of God, the children of the sun, whose image is seen reflected upon the moon's disk. Adam returns every spring to the New Jerusale^n, or "city of peace" and raarries the "New Magdalen" or reformed harlot, our Easter, who was the Babylonian Ishtar, who is as old as moon worship which begari in savagery. All the gods, like their worshippers, have arisen from rude beginnings. The oldest worship in Greece, according to Pau sanias, was rude stones. Pausanias saw among the images of Greece a three-headed Artemis, each head being that of an animal, and he saw a Demeter with a horse 's head, and an THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 305 Artemis with a fish 's tail, a Zeus with three eyes. These were images of pre-Homeric times. And we need not marvel at the monster hybrid forms and the idolatry of the Egyptians, for it belonged to all the early religions, but disappeared sooner among the more enlightened nations. These huge and monstrous forms of the gods be longed alike to the early half civilized Babylonian, Hindu and Aztec; they began before the invention of letters and alpha bets. These hieroglyphs or sacred symbols were the first efforts of unwritten language. War was pictured by a sword. There were no letters for the word sun, and they made an image ot the sun, and the same of the moon, and the mild sun in Aries was a lamb, and the raging sun at the sumraer solstice a lion. And spring was represented by a dove or cuckoo or night ingale, as dark winter was represented by the raven and the wolf. And as the character of these gods became more and more diversified, corresponding symbols were attached to their idol gods, and these became stereotyped, and to these the peo ple had so long been accustoriied, they continued on long after the invention of letters and written language, as Phoenix, Sphinx, dragon. And to these raonster idols the civilizations of Central Araerica clung until corapelled to abandon. Their serpent was the same serpent Moses made in the wilderness by the ex press command of Jehovah himself (Nurabers 21:8, 9) and was worshipped on down to the time of King Hezekiah — not withstanding Jehovah long before had given comraand "on the tables of stone thou shalt not raake a graven image. ' ' And the savage huraan iraages with protruding tongues represented the black moon with its protruding tusk or tongue of the new moon. They were but humanized images of the 306 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN moon, like the Cherubim or bull images of Babylonians. "Je hovah rode on the winged cherub and did fly." Whether a Avinged animal or bird, sometimes steer, and again eagle or vulture ; no matter what the symbol whether the horse or the ass on which Christ rode ; they are all one and the sarae thing. The moon, which is at once the house, the ark, or the vehicle of God. Odin rode on that moon as the gray horse; again he dwelt and rode in that moon as a tree, the ygdrasil — "the bearer or carrier of God." Jehovah rode in that same moon as a cloud horse, or drawn or propelled with the two wings of the new moon, as a bird, for the moon was the common vehicle of all the gods, sometimes called a chariot, drawn by horses or serpents, which were the two forks of the new moon. Some times they were the wings of a bird ; sometimes this ring of the new moon was called a fish, for the moon was the common dwelling and playhouse of all the gods. By the expansion of ideas, the ordinary day and night be came priraitive day and night, and eternal day and night; and the gods grew with the nations' growth, until they ac quired innuraerable attributes and functions, and great diver sity of character, and their realra extended to infinity. Chapter XVII. THE WOMAN OF A THOUSAND NAMES. The Hindus are especially profuse and exhaustive in their epithets, and magnify and exalt their gods to infinity, as Mad- hu-Kasa the "life of creatures, the center of imraortality." She sprang frora the sky, the earth, the air, the sea, the fire, the wind; she was the raother of the Adityas. (Dawson.) The Adityas, originally the twelve suns of the Zodiac, are transferred to a sphere beyond the sun, moon and stars ; they become the celestial light, the eternal sustainers of luminous life, existing behind and beyond the visible spheres. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 307 Aditi is heaven, aditi is firmament, aditi is mother, father, and son ; aditi is all the gods ; aditi is the five classes of raen ; Aditi is generation and birth. (Rig- Veda, Vol. 1, p. 230, Wil son.) Aditi, though wife of Vishnu at one time, is expanded to infinity, and after all this exaltation under a profusion of epi thets, she wol-e a pair of earrings which identifies her with the moon. The gods and goddesses were infinite in narae and form ; the Egyptian Isis was called "the Avoman of a thousand names." The Egyptian Hathor had three hundred naraes; the wife of the Hindu Siva has many naraes and forms, as Parvati, Devi, Kati, Bhavani, Durga, etc. For the gods and goddesses are but the same sun and raoon, varied and diversified, and made to conforra to the character of the weather and season of the year in the twelve houses, or of winter and summer in the two kingdoms of east and west, or in the three abodes of heaven, earth, and hell.. Discord is but the black and winter moon, sister of Nemesis, driven from heaven for breeding quarrels among the gods. She threw the golden apple among the gods at the spring festival. She is described as pale, ghastly, with torn dress, and eyes sparkling with fire, and carries in her bosom a con cealed weapon, which is the sword of the new moon ; her torn dress and fiery eyes will identify her with the dark winter moon. She is the Medusa who was formerly a maid of great beauty, and cursed by Minerva, who envied her personal attractions. Frau Holda sometimes appears as a lovely woraan, and again as a hag with a hollow back, which is the hollow back of the crooked raoon ring. Berchta has a swan foot, which be coraes the larae leg of Vulcan, the cleft foot of Satan, and the 308 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN long nose of the dwarf; and all these are but the fantastic creations of poets, and the teratology of myth mongers, much of which has become veritable history to the over credulous. Maha-devi, the great goddess, wife of Siva, the feraale energy of Siva, both raild and fierce, principally worshipped as a deraon. She has many epithets, as "Light," "Star," "Kama," "the mountaineer," the brilliant, ' the type of beauty ; in her form of a fury she is called ' ' bloody toothed. ' ' Kali, "the black," AA'ith a hideous countenance dripping with blood, encircled with snakes, and hung round with skulls ; the blood before her iraage is never allowed to dry. As Maha- Maya she is the great illusion ; still she is called fosterer of the world, "world's fair one." She is called raountain-born, earth-born ; she is- Kanya ' ' the virgin, ' ' she is called the ever lasting, the virtuous, pearl-eared and nourisher of herbs, which alone would identify her with the mo.on. The Babylonian Ishtar, queen of love and beauty, mistress of heaven and earth, ' ' the great goddess. ' ' The kind mother who soothed the sick and dying, who fell every year from her lofty station to become the raother of harlots, who wooed but to destroy her husbands. Well it can all be explained in a word : she was the moon, which can only be good when warmed by the early spring and suraraer sun; while she can but touch his garments, otherwise she becomes a leper and outcast, lurking in darkness and de pravity. Diana, a spotless virgin, and yet of vengeance, slaying her eneraies. Venus, a god of love and joy, in spring, turns out a harlot in winter, and compels' her sensual and debasing rites upon females. In general, at the approach of winter, the summer bride is repudiated and becomes the waiting maid of her more fortu- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 309 nate rival ; but after all it is but the sarae woman acting in a different dress and capacity. The Proserpine is but the sum mer form of Ceres, going down to become the queen of Hades ; the Iphigenia, daughter of Diana, is the summer form or other self of Diana, who has gone to officiate at the winter altar. As a nation became commercial, maritirae elements Avere in troduced into the worship of their gods — in peace the deities became patrons of agriculture, law and science, and their characters becarae mixed by the blending of different cults. And always so, for Diana and Ishtar were at one tirae the devoted mother, and again in winter a fury, and Diana from whom all blessings flowed demands the sacrifice of her children. It is only transposed in this way, a seeming will yet involun tary, for her children died every year, slain by the fates and the sun and raoon became identified with the fates, like Saturn and Tantalus destroying their offspring as the demons of winter. And the sun and moon sometimes bisexual, having both male and female principles. And the sun has both the raoon and earth to wife for celestial and terrestrial raythology are closely interwoven. We trace thera back to priraitive forms like their half sav age worshippers, and find the gods always possess the sarae character and degree of civilization ; as their worshippers they are never in advance, but are continually reforraed and brought up to the latest ideals of the age. The god rising higher and higher toward an abstract con ception of God, until he transcends existence; a god beyond reason, a nameless, formless one of negative theology. Truly our religions are self-taught, and our gods are what we make them. , 310 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN THE TRANSFORMED GODDESS. We read of the Phorcydes having one eye and one tooth in common, which they passed from one to another — the tooth is the new moon, and the eye is the same ; they are the three seasons, or the three fates ; each held the rule for one-third of che year, and then passed the sceptre or new moon ring to the next occupant of the throne. Then there are the Graiae, or gray-haired women, the moon — always born with gray hair. In the Hindu Saubhari the sage married the fifty daugh ters of King Mandhatri; they are the fifty -two weeks of the year in round numbers. (Dawson.) Soma married the twenty-seven daughters of Daksha: they are the personifications of the twenty-seven lunar asterisms. Again Soma was cursed with periodical consuraption (the moon's waning and wasting at the end of every month). Kasyapa married the thirteen daughters of Daksha: the thirteen raoons of the year. Hei, the Norse goddess of death, was parti-colored, who is the moon Avith spotted face, both white and black. In the Rig-Veda, night and day continually efface each other's complexion. In Slav Tales, by Chodsko, there are twelve princesses in disguise for the suitor to pick from, and only one of them has golden hair, who is his destined bride. She is the new moon of the spring equinox, the Venus of the Golden Age of spring. Again she is that woman AA'ho would do nothing until she got three bloA^'s of a stick. She is the dark moon who will not awake from her three days ' slumber until the third night, when she will get the third blow of the sun rod, and open her eye as new moon. (Camp bell's Tales of West Highlands.) This moon is the old hag Avho .was muttering spells against THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 311 Grettir the Strong, when he threw a stone and broke her leg, Avhich was a month in getting well. The stone is the new moon ring, which becomes the bent and crooked leg. It will be a month before she recuperates. The moon fulls and wanes every month. (Cox and Jones Teutonic Tales.) She is the homely hag under a spell who becomes a bloom ing raaiden by the tap of a wand or raarriage kiss from the sun prince in spring. The moon is the tall and high-shouldered Revata, the wife of Bala Rama, who Avas a giantess, and to reduce her stature, he attached a ploughshare to her shoulders, which made her stoop-shouldered and crooked. The ploughshare is the dark part of the moon. Sir Gawain compelled to marry a lady of hideous aspect under the disguise of an enchantress ; she succeeded in having the charm half removed, and bade him choose whether he would have her fair by day or by night. He chose the night, when he alone could see her, for the sun can only behold the moon by night. (Age of Chivalry, p. 90.) She is the girl whose clothes never tear or grow old; the girl whose fuel is never consumed, and the girl whose rice never fails in the pot. (Bengal Tales, p. 238.) Chelidon turned into a swallow by Zeus and Procne turned into a nightingale are transparent: they are the exiled moon in winter, translated to the spring equinox ; they are the birds of spring. The Norse giantess and mother of Orvandel, was named Groa (English grow) ; she grew from a child to a woman in fourteen nights (the moon orb is filled with light in fourteen nights, a ring added every night). The Indian Aviteh sucks the blood of her victim through a string let down through a hole in the roof until it touches the 312 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN body, which is our vampire; the string is the new moon thread. Gudrun of the Niblung Lied, was born in the land of the Niblungs, the house of the western moon. She was called the "white armed" and the queen and the darling of lands. The new raoon is always born in the west; she is the second wife of the sun, pale and tall as a goddess ; but the first wife of the spring is golden-haired, the spring raoon of the east in the golden age of spring. Sometimes they are two sisters, day and night, of different color that follow and relieve each other; or the two sisters Mary and Martha of Christian fame. Mary, the docile spring and sumraer raoon, and Martha, the scold, as her name im plies. The feminine of Mars, the war god, she is the winter woman, the one who so often becoraes the stepmother and per secutes the children of her more lovable sister, she began a quarrel with the lazy, indolent Mary, the dreamer, who wouldn 't do the housework. Medusa was once a maiden far famed for her beauty, with lovely hair, now changed to a serpent, with a Gorgon face that turns the beholder to stone. She won the love of the sea king, and for an improper amor with the sea god, was cursed by Minerva. It is the old form of the rape of Hades and Proser pine. (Ovid, B. 4, Fable 10.) Arthur's three wives each had the narae of "Lady of the Surarait of the Water" (Gwenhwyvar). They are the moons of the three seasons. After the wedding, brought home at night, she began to undress, her beauty disappeared, eyes, nose, hair, and all the rest were false, and left an old woraan. When he threw her out of the window she became again beautiful; for a witch had enchanted her. (Tales of Old Lusitania, p. 83.) THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 313 The moon becoraes a hag by day, but when thrown out of the sky window at night, her beauty is restored. VENUS. Venus is the spring moon of Easter; she was a mermaid, born of the churning of the moon waters by the solar phallus, or sun rod ; she was the Aphrodite born of the foam of the sea, as her narae implies, Aphros (foara), which identifies her Avith Venus churned from the blue waters of the moon sea by the phallic blood of the maimed Uranus; visibly Venus and Aphrodite are the first new moon of spring which has been created by the friction of the sun and raoon at the spring equinox in a conjugal way. As the boy Atles sprang from the phallic blood of the dis- merabered Agdistis. (Pausanias, B. 7, ch. 17.) In Hindu she is Laksmi, wife of Vishnu, who likewise arose frora the sea by the churning of the waters. In Hindu, as a class they are called Apsaras, which signifies "moving in the water," for they are so many raoon rings which arise from the amors of the sun and moon. The Ap saras were fairy -like creatures, "ladies of pleasure," who be came the wives and raistresses and coraraon property alike of gods and deraons. In the Finnish Kalevala, she is Al-lo-tar, "datighter of the waves. ' ' All these goddesses are but the raoon, and when they exist otherwise it is only in narae, for when they take form and be come actresses, their stage dress is the moon, and they play upon the moon stage. Venus and Aphrodite and Minerva, Ishtar and Astarte at the old horaestead, were the raoon, but gather a Avide range of character in their local adaptations, and by the duties as- 314 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN signed them and the part they have to play to satisfy their votaries and the freaks of the poets. As Venus in war was "Victrix" in peace she was "Con cordia," as a sea goddess she Avas Marina, as a harlot she re ceived the appellation of Libertina; for in winter she was obliged to become a seducing and destroying power like thc winter moon; she seduced ITelen of Troy and drove her own daughter Psyche down to the infernal shades; but every spring she rises from the sea in rebirth as a spotless virgin, having bathed in the water of life; but in the after sumraer she forgets her sex, wears a beard, or puts on horns, and be coraes the Ashtoreth Karnaim, or homed Venus, but her birth will always identify her with the froth or white foam of the raoon sea, which is the vernal moon, the gold-clad maiden of the golden age of spring, though in winter she will be called the raother of harlots. The Gulveig (gold thirst) of the Norse mythology, the one Avho hungers and thirsts for gold; she is the moon robbed of her golden dress, that gold-clad maiden though pierced and thrice burned, still lives. Siva says to Parvati (Venus) "Thou wast born as the daughter of the mount of snow. ' ' As the raoon 's digit springs frora the sea : the digit is the white finger of the raoon. Venus received the prize over all her competitors in the contest for the golden apple, which is the sun apple thrown upon the floor of the moon at the Easter festival, and wears the belt of amor which inspires love, which is the same new moon ring, and upon one occasion lent it to her rival Juno to win back the lost love of her spouse, for all the stage dress and fixtures and implements are the common property of the moon actors. But Aphrodite must play the role assigned her, and Aph rodite, the warm arm of the spring moon raust wed the winter THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 315 warrior Mars, and together they begat the maid Harmonia ; or as Venus she must wed Vulcan, the larae winter blacksmith of the moon, for the good and the evil must wed for the redemp tion of the year. And every spring Venus left heaven and came to dwell on earth Avith the mortal Adonis for the summer season; as Evadne slighted the address of Apollo and raarried a mortal ; as the Hindu Daraayanti spurned the love of all the gods to wed with Nala, and as the Shulamite wed the keeper of the vineyard rather than Solomon, the high sun king in all his glory. PSYCHE. Psyche, daughter of Venus, was the youngest of three sis ters, the three seasons, and envied by her jealous sisters, and also by Venus, the old goddess whose altars were being neg lected ; consequently, to accomplish her ruin, she was exposed upon a rock to be devoured by a monster where she sat weep ing, until she was wafted by a zephyr to a valley of enchant ment, where she found a palace in the midst of a grove of foun tains and flowers, which she entered, and was regaled with music by invisible performers. When she retired at night she was addressed by an unseen youth in soft accents, and she became his wife under a vow never to behold him with her raortal eyes. But when the news reached her envious sisters, she was persuaded by them that her invisible lord was but a monster to devour her. Alarraed at the startling disclosure, she provided herself with a dagger and larap, and in disobedience of her injunction visited him in his sleep, when instead of a dragon, she beheld the god of love hiraself. Leaning forward in -rapture, a drop of oil fell frora her 316 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN larap upon his shoulder, when he awoke, and fled frora her, ut tering reproach; and then followed the separation. For Pschye became the lamplighter, and had lit the moon lamp for which the moon raonster had been waiting for three days. The moon will not move out from hiding until his torch is lit, which appears as his motor or moving power — that spark of fire, or drop of oil let fall upon the dark moon is the gadfiy or goadfly, which stung Io when she fled as a dun cow; that spark of fire or new moon is the Kentaur or bull driver. The "gold children" (Grimm, Tale 85). Where the suitor married the maiden while he was clothed in the skin of a bear ; but when he retired at night threw off his bear skin and became a golden youth. He is the raoon, who is in skin covering by day, and under a cloudy cloak, but at night throws off his disguise and be comes the golden prince. The story of Psyche is but one of the many forms of the ex ile and seclusion of the moon maiden, at the end of her sum raer bliss; she is the Proserpine drawn down to the lower or winter world by Hades, for that black moon is a skin shifter and has many forms : when he throws off the husk covering he is Cupid, the Ncav Moon, the 'god of love' the Siva, and the Dermot O'Dyna who have a beauty spot (the new raoon) which no woman can forego. Psyche has been inspired with the love of a monster, who is Hades in disguise as a white bull to enaraor Pasiphce, the golden deer to allure the Hindu Sita, the cunning serpent to betray Eve. But the torch that Psyche lit was the hope left in Pandora's box, that torch will guide the pilgrims on through the lower world and valley of death until they meet again, and rencAv ' their love in the land of promise.. For it was the pillar of light to Israel in the jungle ; it was that rod of light or golden THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 317 branch that guided Eneas on his journey through the land of shades. It is the same scene as when Lady Godiva of Coventry (who is the moon) for a certain Avager agrees to ride through the toAvn naked. It is the monthly meeting of sun and moon when the moon is veiled or darkened for three days while crossing the sun 's track, and this scene is transferred to Coventry. The woman was naked, but concealed in the dark husk of the moon, and would have remained so but for the mischievous eye of Peeping Tom, who on the third evening had prepared a hole in the side of the dark moon, where the light shines through in a ring, which we call the new raOon. The same flash of light by which Jehovah betrayed the nakedness of Eve on the third evening in the cool of the day, he cried out in a voice to Adam and Eve that voice or word of God which is the flash of light which opened the moon door, where they were concealed and exposed their nakedness. It is the season of separation which happens every year. As soon as the torch of the sun is applied to the moon, it is seen to move further and further every night toward the east. "It is wonderful to be three nights in the room with a woman and not know who she is." (Compare Curtin 's Myths of Ireland, p. 95.) MINERVA. Minerva, the Latin goddess, was the moon, for she was born of the cleft head of Jove by a wound made by Vulcan with a brazen hatchet, whieh is the scar or gash of the new moon seen upon the dark ground of the old moon — it is the rim of the sun which is the forehead of Zeus peering over the edge of the black moon. Again Minerva Avas called Tritogenia, or thrice born like Gulveig of the Norse mythology, who arose three times from 318 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN the fiery furnace, each time more beautiful, which is the new moon thrice born before she rises frora the moon lake ; she is hidden to us until the third night; that is, every new moon when first observed, is three nights old, or three rings in one. She can again be identified with the moon, for Bellerophon slept at her altar and in a dream of the night the goddess ap peared to him and gave hira a bridle with which to capture the wild horse, Pegasus; and upon waking he found the bridle lying by his side, when Pegasus gave his mouth to the charra of the magic bit. The altar is the moon where the solar prince visited the moon in a dream of the night, and saw in a vision the bridle of the new moon lying by his side at the fountain of Pirene, where the horse Avas accustomed to drink every night (it was the fountain where Odin drank) ; it is the magic halter by which the sun subdues the moon for the sun is seen to ride the moon as a horse. Again the Palladium, a statue of Minerva, which fell from heaven down to the city of Troy, was made of the bones of Pelops, which are the white bones or rings of the moon from Avhich all the bright gods were raade — Pelops the "burnt face," as his name implies, is the moon man having one side of his face burned. All these plays are lunar pantoraimes played upon the moon stage at night, and not upon the earth ; the stage scenery is all lunar ; people all look upward with their prayers and incantations ; the temples of the gods were lunar built with their towers, turrets, altars and wings.. Again the Egis of Minerva with the Gorgon's head in the center, is the full orbed moon, and that Gorgon the dark spot in the center, is still visible to us. ATHENE. Athene is the new moon of Easter, for she won the victory over Poseidon the sea, at the contest or churning of the bitter THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 319 Avaters, and produced the olive, the symbol of victory and peace. She herself was the daughter of Poseidon the sea, and the Tritonian marsh, the triform raarsh of the moon; she was connected with waters and lakes, and born of the waters like Venus, and again originated from the head of Jove like Min erva of the Latins, with whora she is identified by the blow of a hatchet, Avhich is the gash of the new raoon. In the Odyssey, she became a turnskin and appeared as a swallow, quail or eagle, and perched upon the roof of the moon hall. Athene, as Ate, was the goddess of ancient Troy, where her image was found owl-headed, as the owl was the symbol of the moon, both being nocturnal in their habits ; that is why she is called "night Avandering. " She was the Ate thrown down from heaven to mark the site of Troy, like Asteria, Atahensic and Ilmatar, who are the new moon ring of spring thrown down at the spring equinox to wed or mark the site of the new city ; she originally came from Chaldea and passed from there to Carchemiseh, and from there to Troy and Greece. Under the refinement of Greek culture she became a spot less virgin, and the ethereal light which produced the light of early morning and evening. In war she became the "front fighter" or the warlike maiden; in leechcraft she became the healer and physician. PANDORA. Pandora is the Hindu Maya "Illusion" or "Deception," a female form of' celestial origin, created to deceive; she is the winter moon enchantress and source of spells. She is the Norse Gulveig (Goldthirst) born as a wicked enchantress, and cast three timea into the smelting pot, and 320 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN each time arose more beautiful, and she was the cause of the first war between the Esir and Vanir; she stirred up strife and evil desire, which ended the summer garden. Gulveig, though pierced and thrice burned, still lives. Gulveig is the silver ring of the moon cast in the furnace of the black raoon three nights in succession, and the third night appears three rings in one, thrice born — the first two nights the rings are invisible. In the celebration of the ancient raysteries of nature wor ship, there was carried a box which held the syrabols of con ception, or birth, death and transition. This box represented the black chest of the moon, which was an oracle box; there are twelve of these raoons on the solar route, one for each sign, and each one opened but once a year by the new raoon doors ; six of thera are suramer stations, and six are winter, and Pandora opened the door of the first winter sign and turned the evils loose. The first raoon box of spring contains the trousseau and wedding outfit of the moon princess. It is the same raoon box in which Osiris was locked and carried aAvay to winter quarters; he crawled in his own win ter prison (Hades). In Russian folk-lore, Ivan let out Koshchei the Deathless, or winter robber, who had been confined ; he was Barabbas, the robber turned loose in winter. It is Mercurius, the executioner, turned loose by the wood chopper to slay him ; he was the bottle imp or the evil spirit of the bottle of Grirara Tales. Pandora is the robber's bride who opened the blue closet, the den of Blue Beard, who is the winter moon wearing a blue beard. She is the Psyche sent to Hades by Venus to bring a box of beauty, but on her way back she opened the box to procure THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 321 some of the beauty for herself, and found it filled with pois onous exhalations from which she fell in a swoon. It is Red Riding Hood opening the door to the winter wolf. It is the little Surya Bai opening the forbidden window to receive the claw and sting of the winter Rakshasa. It is Eve betraying sumraer to the cave of Machpelah, the boneyard of the universe. HERA OR JUNO. Teraenus, the son of Pelasgus, brought up and built three temples for her, and called her by three names or titles; when she was still a maiden he called her the "Child-god dess ' ' ; after she was raarried to Zeus, he called her the ' ' Full- grown, " but after she separated from Zeus and returned to Stymphalus, he called her the "Widow." According to this she played the complete tragedy of the year. (Pausanias, B. 8, Ch. 22.) Hera, ocean born, says to Aphrodite: "I ara going to the limits of the earth, and Okeanos, father of the gods, and to mother Tethy's, who reared me in their halls" (for all the gods are ocean born). As the iraperial Juno, she was the never ending persecutor of Hercules, the earthly sun, and kept the winter garden or Hades, in the west, where she gave the golden apples to the keeping of the winter dragon — the western Hades, but Her cules, every spring, brought thera back to the east like the golden fleece to the spring equinox. Juno called the Juno Avernus or infernal JunO. (Ovid. B. 14, Fable 3.) But in the latter classification of the gods, she was pro moted to the first rank as queen of heaven, and becarae exclusive. Hera can be identified with the moon in many ways; she 322 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN had for her door-keeper Hercules, the sun, who opened her door, which is the silver door of the moon opened by the sun. Hera again identified with the moon, for she is called the "white armed" which are the white arms of the new moon. She is again found horned as a cow, and the homs are the forks of the moon ; the cow is the most coramon symbol of the moon. She was ocean born, like Laksmi, Urvasi, Venus, and the horde of Apsaras, who are seen churned from the moon sea, bom frora the ' ' raoving waters ' ' or churning of the deep ; none other than our old Easter, the first spring moon, whose arrival we still celebrate with joy. Hera was suspended to an anvil by Jupiter for disobedi ence ; which is the new moon seen hanging from the black moon which is the anvil of old Vulcan the blacksmith. The scene is that of Paul let doAvn by a basket, and Odin hanging head doAvnward upon the tree. Many idols of Hera are found at ancient Troy, in the shape of cows, or heads of cows, or in the form of a woman with a very compressed head, with two cow homs. Hera idols, as a horned woraan, also found at Mycense, until its final destruc tion and abandonment. (Schlieman's Ilios, p. 330.) Zeus and Hera were in the olden time married in spring time, like Tamrauz and Ishtar,- and Venus and Adonis, under the Tree of Life, in the garden of the east, where Zeus wooed Hera as a cuckoo, and was received in her bosora, for the cuckoo was the prophet of returning spring. Por Juno was the goddess of nuptials, and called the "Yoker. " She has for her bird the cuckoo, and carries the pomegranate in her hand, the erablem of fecundity; and became once a year a spotless virgin by bathing herself in a sacred Argive fountain, like all the winter harlots. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 323 DIANA. Diana is the moon ; her name means lurainous ; she presides over hunting, chastity and raarriage, which were assigned to her arbitrarily. Her temple at Ephesus was a moon temple carefully con structed in reference to moon superstitions. The Magnesians frora Lydia had a sanctuary of Diana of the White Brow, and the White Brow is the new raoon. (Annals of Tacitus, Book III.) The Tauric Diana was but a Hecate, a Proserpine, and a Hindu Kali. As Jupiter became in winter a Stygian Jove or Hades— apparent destruction is but a mode of reproduc tion. She was Diana on earth, Selene or moon in heaven, and Proserpine below, and represented with three faces, horse, dog and woman, the sphinx is triform. Diana is the moon, for she comes to gaze upon the fair face of Endymion in the cave of Latmos— the moon gazing on the sleeping sun in the dark cavem of the moon. STORY OF ACTEON THE HUNTER AND DIANA. Actfeon, the sun, is upon the last hunt of the sumraer with his pack of fifty dogs, which are the fifty-two weeks of the year in round numbers; he is chasing the moon which he overtakes once a month; he mistakes the raoon with its two white homs, for a deer. It is in reality himself; his own iraage reflected upon the moon in the dim evening light. when he arrives at the moon, the moon as Diana puts out her light, that is, hides in the cavern of the moon; and at the third day he enters her cavem unbidden, and beholds her naked, for as soon as the sun can see the moon at night, she is obliged to unveil, and throws off the blue veil of conceal ment, and her raaids, the dark part of the moon, rush to hide 324 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN her nakedness, but the tall pillar of the new moon rises above them. Before this she was concealed in the bath, for the moon was the mistress of the waters. Actffion the deer, and Diana, are each one and all the moon. This proves Diana to be the new inoon pillar ; the sun lifts her blue veil as Jehovah. The sun, on the third day of con cealraent, caused Eve to open up her cave, dr rather he opens the silver door of the raoon, which caused her to be seen in dishabille. This was the nakedness of Eve. The scene is of annual occurrence, the last raoon of summer, the seducer drawing the sun god westward, as a golden-homed deer. It was the same horned deer as a raale, that enticed the Hindu Sita beyond the charraed inclosure. The Egyptian Osiris was torn in fourteen pieces every year by Typhon, his brother. The fourteen pieces are the fourteen rings of the raoon when she is full every month, one ring added every night. In the present case, Diana brings a curse upon the sum raer sun for seeing her nakedness at the end of suraraer In the story of the Hindu Urvasi, the celestial nyraph, she sees the nakedness of her husband Pururavas, and flees from him like other swan maidens at the end of sumraer. Krishna, the Hindu deity, was slain by the arrow of Jaras the hunter, who raistook him at a distanee for a deer. But the gods grew in iraportance with the growth of the nation; her ancient statue was a rude block of wood of great antiquity, a goddess of nature and fecundity, raany breasted ; it was preserved in a shrine at her teraple. Under a more special and exclusive character, like Athene, she becarae a virgin, impassable to love, and her priests were nnder a vow of celibacy. Diana stopped the fleet at Aulis, because Agameranon iu a hunt had killed this same pet deer of Diana. The fleet col- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 325 leetively is represented by the flagship of the moon, whieh is now dark, and AriU continue so for three days in conjunction with the sun, and Diana demands the death of his daughter Iphigenia, whose blood is seen to flow in a red streara upon the side of the black raoon ship on the third night. This is the slaughter, of the child of Agaraeranon, the new raoon born of the sun. It is then the ship of the moon moves on ; this was the foundation of all sacrifice taught by the moon, who is Diana herself, and this same Iphigenia becomes the priestess of the moon altar every winter. It is Diana herself in her Avinter form in Hades, and this moon was never known to move until she had blood shed upon the altar; it is the pro pelling power of the moon, what the gadfly was to Io, and this gadfly is the Kentaur, or bull goader, who rides the moon bull, the prick or goad or gadfly are one ; the firefly from the sun that lights upon the moon the third evening at the time of the raeeting of sun and moon, and pricks or goads the raoon eastward. The gods, male or female, could take all forms ; they could curse and transform themselves or each other into beast, bird, fish, serpent, tree and stone. Diana changed herself into a deer to accomplish the death of Otus and Ephialtes. Again the black moon is changed to a cow by putting on a pair of horns ; again the moon as Juno becomes an old woraan, to carry Jason over the river, which is the black raoon carrying the young sun in spring over the black waters, and landing hira as the sun prince of spring on the shore of the black raoon. Again the raoon becoraes a little slip of a girl, the thread of the new raoon, and at the end of the raonth will again be corae a black hag. In this way the sun and raoon can be said to curse the earth with barrenness every winter, and send each other into exile. 326 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN .Diana the raoon is at one tirae the goddess of childbirth, and aids women as a midwife, for the bright rings or sun children were seen to issue from the dark womb of the moon ; but again she obstructs the delivery of such woraen as have incurred her displeasure, and is seen shutting off the light and barricading the door of the moon to prevent the birth of the sun child, which she can do but for three nights, when the light bringer will pity the throes of the mother and burst open the door. And this explains the dark side of the moon, the two fold nature; at one time an angel of light, and at another, a, fiend. It accounts for the frailties of Ishtar of Babylonia, in suraraer the kind mother, who again becomes the wanton harlot, who tortures and abandons her husbands. CERES. Ceres or Demeter, was the moon; she is called Mycalessia "the lowing" or the moon, as a horned cow that drops dew and railk to the earth. Ceres is the Cereus (waxy) ; she waxes and wanes, and the moon was the hive where honey was raade. Melissa, the Babylonian goddess, was the honey woraan, as her name implies; and Deborah, the Hebrew woman, means a bee. Samson went into that hive at his wedding, and held his honeymoon. Our maidens at their wedding in spring, still celebrate their honeymoon. Of old she married Jove, and became the raother of Pros erpine. She plays the three roles or seasons of the year for Proserpine is but the winter form of Demeter. At that tirae Demeter became a fury. As a ghost of the dead she wan dered about and devoured the flesh of Pelops, as when Sigmund the Volsung afflicted with lycanthropy; the frenzy of Hercules when he slew his own children ; or as the Cerid- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 327 wen, the British Ceres, devoured or swallowed Guion, the lit tle child. Demeter carried in her hand for syrabols, both ears of corn and poppies, syrabols of life and death. To the Greek, the visit of Demeter to Eleusis, and the establishment of the mysteries was a sacred and historical fact, and as conflrmed in belief as the advent of Christ in Pales tine, and the founding of Christianity. PROSERPINE. The young Proserpine is concealed by her mother, Ceres, in a far-off place in Sicily, lest her beauty should betray her to ruin. Her solitude was of no avail; she was allured by Venus, Diana and Pallas from her retreat, and rambled to gather flowers upon a lawn, inhaling with rapture their fra grance. But Avhile engaged in plucking one of the greatest beauty, the narcissus, which grew by a stream, she was seized and drawn to the shades below, crying in vain for help. The gods pretend to pity, though Zeus approved the rape of Proserpine ; her maids had betrayed her, and Hermes led the way to the shades. Pluto opened the waters with his trident through which he descended with the maiden who left her girdle still floating upon the waters: which is the ring of the spring moon cast off, which was the belt of amor worn also by Venus. She bewails her fate when too late, and from the land of shades she appeared to her mother in a dream ; then began the wanderings of Ceres for the lost one; she is begirt with a serpent. Proserpine was espoused in autumn (See Orphic hymn 29) and Sallust says her rape means the descent of souls ; it is de scent or errand of Ishtar, and the rape of Europa. 328 THE .ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN Proserpine plucked the narcissus because it is a funeral flower, and groAvs about graves ancl sepulchres ; the furies wore chaplets raade of the narcissus. The plant was sacred to Proserpine ; she was preparing her obsequies in advance. On Etruscan urns the rape of Proserpine is seen depicted. Hades in his chariot carrying his bride, and four steeds lashed to a gallop, and a Fury with extended Avings is the charioteer, Avhile a Triton or serpent stretches across the traek. In an other scene of the sarae subject Charon Avith a serpent in each hand stands at the horses' heads. Though the gods may doom, yet nature sympathizes with the lost or stolen maiden. The friendly animals become their guides and the birds their messengers, as they do in the rape of the Hindu Sita, the same summer maiden who was stolen by Ravan the giant, who disguised himself as a golden deer; he was the winter moon Hades, and own brother to Rama. But the trees and stones become vocal and point out the place of their concealment. Prom the heavens corae signs, and from the earth rise forms and unite to break the spell of enchantment. Proserpine means ' ' death bearer ' ' ; she has a twofold nature of both creation and destruction. Diana becomes Iphigenia at the Avinter altar of the raoon — they are all the other self. 'Ceres becomes Proserpine. Venus becomes Psyche, or the soul of Venus in transit to the soul world. Proserpine called "only begotten," "many formed," "horned," a vernal queen, she has power over life and death, whose holy forra in budding fruits Ave view; espoused in au turan and mled the fair palace of the blissful plains where happy spirits dwell and Pluto reigns. The Eleusinian mysteries were celebrated about the time of - THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 329: the autumnal equinox, held nine days, from the fifteenth of September to the twenty-third. The Eleusinian mysteries, the most sacred of the Greeks, like the mysteries of Isis, and Christian mysteries were founded upon the allegorical tale of the year. The abduction of Proserpine, Europa, Helen of Troy, Eve, Hindu Sita, all one, Avith the winter Diana, Red Riding-hood and little Primrose. Proserpine was the personification of the young spring moon, placed in a garden upon the earth called Eden ; or gar den of the east, for she always enters at the spring equinox at the eastern gate ; she is our Anglo-Saxon Easter, and Baby lonian Ishtar. In the Norse raythology she was placed in a garden on the plain of Ida. The Greeks throw the scene upon the Nysian plain ; Latins locate the garden at the grove and lake of Enna in the island of Sicily. The word "Nysa" is of wide circulation and was the Nase or Nose, which was the nose or promontory of the new moon. Proserpine was banished from earth in Avinter to beeome queen of the underworld. In ancient Babylonian tiraes the queen of the lower world was called Bahu, but in the tragedy of Ishtar she was Allat, but in classical Greek she became Per sephone, and Latinized as Proserpine. She is like the dooraed prince of the summer time, the Tam muz, the Adonis, or Phrygian Atys, whose fate had been fore told, and no matter where concealed, or how well guarded, he will die at the appointed time by the arrow of fate, which is the fire bolt shot from the sun, which pierces the raoon, and he will die like Siegfried of the Niblung tale, or the Hindu Krishna. And at the restoration of spring the curse was found to be a blessing in disguise — that the All-Father worked in many ways his wonders to perform — "a judgment dire in mercy great." 330 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN When he went upon that errand of mercy, he became a Holy Ghost, for that serpent deceiver of Eve was the great god Jove-Jehove, the sun hiraself disguised as a Holy Ghost; the sun come back from the lower world at night as a ghost to woo and deceive the virgin raoon. As the Greek god Zeus the sun becarae a white swan, or assumed a feraale forra to fertilize the raoon. This Hades is but Jove, wearing a mask ; he is the infernal Jupiter, or Stygian Jove. The seven seeds of the pomegranate which Proserpine swal lowed, represent the seven winter months, for spring arises in the seventh month of lunar time, and was founded upon the observations of nature where seed sown in the ground must die before it can be quickened and raised to life — that through death was the only way to life ; and upon this was founded the ancient Phrygian, Thracian, Egyptian and Eleusinian rays teries, which furnished the substance of Christianity, the re deraption, the resurrection and the new life. Arid in this prefigurative and typical way, Proserpine swal lowed the "seedy apple," Eve swallowed the sarae funereal fruit ; the Ceres or Demeter devoured the shoulder of Pelops, which is the seed ring or first ring of the moon, from which all the rest are born. The Ceridwen or British Ceres, as a fury, swallowed Guion the little, whieh is the same seed ring or first ring of the moon, and she carried him nine raonths, and brought him forth reborn as the redeemer child ; it was then her cruel na ture left her, and she became the loving and devoted raother, and all this means that the winter moon blighted and de prived of the redeeming rays of the sun, wanders as an out cast during the winter. Por it was a poor savage belief of the ancient world that un less the dead received burial rites, their ghost would escape THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 331 ' and becorae a demon to devour the living; a kind of Lycan thropy, and this is how Demeter, the winter moon, hungry and crazed with her nine days' search for Proserpine, had be come a ghoul, and bit off the shoulder of Pelops, the "burnt- faced" boy, which is the moon, with one side of his face burned; and it is how the British Ceridwen became a ghoul and chased down and devoured Guion the little, who was the sarae seed ring of the new moon. And Ave find the belief was rampant in the time of the descent of Ishtar to the shades in pursuit of Tammuz ; she had likewise become a fury and stormed the portals of Hell. "Open! Open!' or I will demolish your gates! and turn the dead loose to devour the living ! ' ' This belief continued almost to our present tirae, and even in the middle ages, a stake was driven through a dead man, for fear his ghost would escape and haunt the living. The moon is the great swallower, a Saturn, the black moon devouring the bright rings of the sun; the sarae golden seeds of Proserpine ; they will all be thrown up again from the maw of the moon, as he threw up Jonah on the third day, for he is the floating ark that swallowed the family of .Noah, the prison house, the house of refuge in winter, and will come back again in spring and land thera on the mount of the east at the spring equinox. 10. Io was the moon changed to a white cow, her chief symbol, as the Egyptian Isis was changed to a cow; and most of the goddesses wore homs, like the Ashtoreth Karnaim, "the horned Venus. ' ' She was stung by the gadfly as she wandered lowing Arith pain; the gadfly, the sarae that stung the steed Pegasus, until he threw his rider Bellerophon; the gadfly is the flrebug, or fire spark of the new raoon, which lights on the 332 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN back of the old and acts as a propeller by stinging or goading the moon, the same whip of Bootes, the ox-driver, and the ox- goad of Shamgar, the Hebrew judge, with which he slew 600 men, the kentaur or bull goader, and the same stimulator that the blood of Iphigenia was to the ship of Agamemnon, when he set sail from Aulis, for his ship was the moon, the Argo, whieh will never move out of her haven until stung by the firefly. The Argus who watched Io Avas the moon, for it was said he had an eye in the back of his neck which is the eye of the new moon in the neck of the old black moon ; this was after ward changed to 100, the period of winter, the time he was her guardian; he is the old dog Argus who met Odysseus on his return home. -Io was tied to a stake at night and turned loose by day to graze. The stake is the new moon to which Io is tied at night, but tumed loose by day from the night pillar to graze, and was then invisible. That Argus is the Argo, the moon ship, which brought back the Golden Fleece. ISIS. Originally Isis dwelt alone at Buto, and spontaneously con ceived and gave birth to Horus, and suckled hira araong the reeds of the raarsh without eraploying a nurse. This was at a time when god and goddess were one and the same being with two faces, a masculine and feminine aspect ; later she was married to Osiris. (Maspero: Dawn of Civilization, p. 131.) Ra created Shu formed out of hiraself alone on the first day of creation. Jove created Minerva born frora his head ; Hera (Juno) created Vulcan spontaneously. The universe was possessed of a feraale as well as a raale principle; the Babylonians gave their gods a feminine coun terpart. Both the sun and moon were bisexual. Isis became a servant in the household of Pharaoh ; stole the THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 333 secret of his name from Ra; she was an enchantress; she molded a serpent from raud and the divine saliva which she hid in the dust of the road, by Avhich Ra was bitten as he was going his daily round. Nothing could save him but an exor cism pronounced in his own ineffable name which had been given him by his father and mother at his birth, and this all- powerful narae was hidden within his body, and could only be extracted by a surgical operation, which she perforraed with success, and by virtue of the name made of herself a goddess. (Maspero: DaAvn of Civilization, p. 163.) Later, in the Alexandrian period, under the ucav system of religion and philosophy, Isis had acquired a universal char acter, the passive principle of fecundity. This passive force of nature had many forms of expression among different na tions, both universal, or of more or less limited capacity. The Egyptian Isis, in her fullest capacity, coraprehended universal nature when called Eleusinian Ceres, Celestial Ve nus, and Proserpine ; she answers : " I am nature, the parent of things, the sovereign of the elements, the primary progeny of time, the most exalted of the deities, the first of the heavenly gods and goddesses, the queen of the shades, the uniform countenance who disposes with my rod the nuraerous lights of heaven, the breezes of the sea, of the raournful silence of the dead whose single deity the world venerates in many forms, with various rites and many naraes. ' ' "The Phrygians call rae 'mother of the gods.' the Athe nians call me 'Ceropian Minerva,' the Cyprians the 'Paphian Venus,' the Cretans 'Dictymian Diana,' the Sicilians 'Sty gian Proserpine. ' At Eleusis I am called ' Ceres ; ' sorae have invoked me as 'Juno,' 'BeUona,' 'Hecate,' but the Ethi opians and Egyptians call me 'Isis.' She was also called 'lady,' 'mother,' 'mistress,' 'nurse.'." What a leap from a Avater Avitch to the throne of the universe 334 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN —yet no more extravagant than that of the Greek Athene, the Glaucopis, or owl-headed creature as seen on rude clay vases, and figures on the site of Troy the Ate thrown down an exile from heaven and the exalted goddess of later growth, the pure and spotless virgin ; or the serene light or source of light which existed before the sun or moon. What a stretch of thought from Ishtar the divine raother sovereign of the universe, the loving friend and nurse, to the deraon, the fury, a stranger to pity, the destroyer of her raany husbands, who storraed the gates of Hell and defied the gods. Yet not much different frora Jove and Apollo or Diana of the Greeks, and what better can we say of Jehovah; and yet it was not Jehovah but his worshippers by whom he was begotten. When he began he walked the earth and talked face to face with Adam and Eve, made garden, but later said: "No man could even look upon him or see his face and live." THE SWAN MAIDEN. The swan maiden is the new moon, and collectively the bright rings of the moon. The swan raaiden is captured every spring by the sun, and the prize maiden becomes his wife. The capture and abduction occurs at the raeeting of sun and moon at spring equinox when the moon is in darkness for three days, and the snow-white raaidens, or swan raaidens, which are the bright rings of the moon, are taking a bath in the dark blue waters of the moon lake, and are invisible, like Diana at her bath when seen against her will by Actseon. While they are bathing, the sun lies in ambush, concealed from view, until the third evening, when he spied one of the maidens, and branded her with the ring of the new moon- she was the only maiden captured, the rest escape in the dark. THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 335 In other words, the sun stole her swan dress; it is seen lying upon the shore of the moon lake, and is what we call the new moon. The moon follows the sun, begging in vain for her swan dress that she might fly away with her sisters; but the sun is unyielding, and she is forced to become his summer bride ; but in the autumn time the hidden dress is found, and she is seen flying home to fairyland, leaving husband and children behind. The ring, or swan dress, is the halter of the horse or cow in other tales, which compels the moon to follow the sun. Who ever is possessed of the halter can take away the cow, as the black moon, and its white halter are inseparable; it was the halter throAvn over Pegasus, the moon steed, and the yoke of Jason, by which he tamed the fire-breathing bulls. This identifies the swan maiden with the Hindu Apsaras, or the nyraphs of Indra's heaven, for like the swan raaidens, they are water born and churned from the moon sea ; all are heavenly clad and heavenly gemmed, divine maidens possessed of charra and fascination, voluptuous, and have amors with mortals on earth as well as gods, and drive their lovers to madness. This again identifies the Apsaras with Venus, or Aphrodite and Laksmi. Venus was water born, from that sarae white foara seen on the raargin of the raoon lake, churned by the mutilated genital member of Uranus, streaming down the raoon; the sarae scene as when the Apsaras were churned by the araorous friction of the sun bearas and the water which produced amrita or amor, and Venus like thera, was given to lust and amor, the voluptuous harlot, and the mother of har lots, though the type of beauty. Urvasi was one of these celestial nymphs of Indra's heaven; she Avas churned from the moon water by the solar phallus, 336 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN and Avas cursed to come upon earth and become the mistress of Pururavas. She agreed to live with Pururavas upon certain conditions ; first that she have two rams which she loved as children, and they must always be kept near her bed and never suffered to be earried away; second, that he must never be seen by her when he was naked, and that clarified butter should be her food. But the inhabitants of Swarga were anxious for her return, and came by night and stole her rams, which caused Pururavas to pursue the robbers, during which time a flash of light revealed his nakedness to Urvasi, Avhich broke the charm, and Urvasi fled frora hira at the end of suramer; fled in comraon with all the swan raaidens at the approach of winter, for the summer sun always loses his robe at the end of sumraer. Samson was sheared and became naked, so did Adam and Noah, and the Babylonian sun king Gilgaraes, who cried aloud: "Why am I naked?" Joseph compelled to give up his coat; Christ stripped naked; the same nakedness as that of Diana, who cursed her lord, the sun, and gave his meat to the winter wolves and dogs. Eve was stripped naked and hid in the moon cave, and the sun king, Jehovah, on the third evening called out, and the silver door of the raoon opened at the call of his voice, and betrayed her nakedness. . The rams of Urvasi are the Phrixus and Helle who flee every year at the end of summer to the west, to the grove of Mars, where the fleece of the sun rara Aries, of the equinox, is nailed up in winter and brought back every spring by the Argo, the ark of the moon ; and the Urvasi is the voluptuous maiden that leaves her husband every year and elopes with a new suitor, as did the Argive Helen with Paris, and Eve Arith the winter robber, Satan, and Ishtar, the Babylonian harlot. THB IOHIGmA(L i GARDEN! ; OF < tEUmi 337 the woman' of manyihuabaiMilsi liikte.aUl-tWe/swaHimaidensjia'iid Apsaras. <. ; . > ir h -\. '.,-'|i.i) t-.l ^' - iim-, ,-:)(\.i- ^¦.¦¦, iloo.M ^j'A, '"Urvtasii isi-.the Ate, > or'Sp3?ing>'riM)on throA'sm d'oAvn f rcaa ithe ether; to"th@ spmngrequino.xito;-' mark, the ,site.;nfi tte' ciity/«f pidace'ev.e(ryiispritigi, MShaiisittlriiatar the ''iE-theriJs, dkughter,/-' Afi'ho' left (the solitude of Ether and: descerided in-' SthehwasresHof theocean. 'y- jiiin-j-i.' , i)ii,, .Xif^.i;,- ;*! .ri-u.x' iUj 'cjyo i '.ji'i'iqr- •iifij \::i-.: .'nliTo-aud fro, itjey,, toss,, the, maideUj, ;>r il-jiflv/ .--.ii-, i!-.!j!-,v v!n / With,h(;r,,^pq^f,,the^f,oJ)fflg, b|}^o^v:p,j,^| „mr{tB.,.ni-.y,[i , . , , , , — Kalevala, Rune I. ^¦uLaksmi ds one'cfjitheiA-psarasj-ilike- ApHroditfe-? ^he: .sprang from' the- ftothl of i th^- ,sea ',i ^ei floated iOn ,'thei"o©tae fdoii^ti; to the torth for-a sei^s^, S9p:pg- times under a cnrse, ocrtbrown idown tD-;in,arfe ,t^Q,|Sifp,.flf ...a icit^^) (OiTi ¦stiHj;tbe,'fl'ooasi or ipui?ify-)tihe;'W9(terp, as ,.aft/4:tfth,^)isic, d?Mt retum io.the moon' or lelrhen ftt thei0pd|p|,^ii;iii;(in}i^i;, n ^,j.[| 338 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN The swan dress, which is the ring of the new moon, renders the raoon captive, and she is obliged as avc see, to follow the sun as if led by a golden halter, which is the solar halter, or new moon ring. And she is seen following the sun westward every night, and she will be obedient until the change of the season — as Bellerophon threw this halter (new moon of spring) over the horse Pegasus, and he becarae quiet and do cile; which is the same yoke or halter Jason threw over the fire-breathing bulls of Colchis, and the same yoke by which Samson controlled his heifer Delilah, until the summer season was ended, when she became a harlot and went off with the winter Philistines, for the sun rod or yoke had lost its power over the moon maiden, whom he calls his heifer (who is the horned raoon) for the summer king and winter king at that season gamble for the prize, and the Philistines won, for they had thrown the winter yoke over the moon heifer, which was the mark of winter servitude. And Samson said: "Had ye not ploughed my heifer, ye had not won." For the yoke or new raoon ring on the third night betrayed her servitude. In the sarae way the swan maiden lost her dress; -she was in the power of its possessor for the suramer season. In the same way Eve was obliged to follow the winter serpent Satan or Hades, for he had stolen her sumraer dress or talis man. The stolen talisman raay be a dress, necklace, name, or casket; they are all one: the talisman of the new moon, the magic wand, the enchanter's rod, the life secret. These swans dwelt in the heavenly lake, the lotus pond. It is the garden and lake of the moon where the swans come daily in flocks to feed and bathe in the lake, and one was snared and captured, and the rest flew away. Swans were kept in sacred ponds and rivers as symbols of the moon maiden, Aphrodite and Venus; they were seen THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 339 soaring in the sky out of sight, and supposed to go to the moon lake and carry letters under their wings, and act as messengers between sun prince and moon princess. ISHTAR. The Babylonian goddess Ishtar is one of extreme antiquity ; her more raodern character is interwoven with material which existed in the meraory of the people and priestly records, long before their most primitive history began. Ishtar is found assisting Sargon of Agade in his battles 3800 B.C. She was the goddess of the ancient Sumerlans, and later of the Semites. In early times, 2600 B.C., Ishtar was called in Erech, Nana of Erech, her consort Lugalbanda was Dumu-zi, Tammuz or Adonis, and her worship like that of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, seems to be coeval with the birth of their civilization. The earliest religion of Accad and the Accadians, was Sharaanisra, when the world swarmed with demons who were controlled by priests and sorcerers. She began as a witch and sorceress — a black hag who dwelt in the moon, and was afterward brought down for convenience to dwell in stocks and stones, and grew up and waxed strong Avith the growth of the nation, and ended in the circle of the divine aristocracy and kingly court. Por gods gradually acquire the character of the people over whom they rule, but although the people were under the patronage of their gods, the gods were still more dependent upon the patronage of their worshippers, for when the gods are abandoned they cease to exist. The name of this goddess Ishtar extended northward, and is heard as Astarte of the Phoenicians, and Ashtaroth, the con sort of Baal, and Ashtoreth Karnaim, the horned Venus ; and is (he same Esther of the Hebrews, and our old Anglo-Saxon 340 THE iORiIGmA&;f«ARDEN -OF EDEN Ifl i ''A-gaitt ' Wei 'dick identiff y '- isMuf'-MHh^ the mfff)T^,i^^hen) A#y £ cended thy rairipfert^-bf Uruk aridfcuJ^d Galgsai^s'-ffe- 'iltafii^ taeyfcglestJiifls'Jlbf&.ll ;) -it^was ¦thi?n''Eab'ariy tore^the'-'ghSllttfe W6tii the hull arid thriew-it in'the Jao«(;ol?-'the''goiddmgf;'The-rateii{I ber 'ttfi thef buili is IlflYe»-i3eWJ ntbon;'- or Mm'^Mlimi,^%}iim a,p-' pears in the A\'est after sunset, as thrown spat Spori the' face- ofi the'"dari4--ny<5n/:Ishttar.^ns Ix^'yjA io noi'sif')'! -ta^rl-n.^ exIT 9'iTfeiS) iW a 'clineherc ' ilt kMm^'i&t irice -'Avhat the' "phaltosi^gi^iflid the phallic Avorship, and it is td'^feisive for Ishtar; thfey ate both tsi^bef'seeri'itpoii thfeifaee-of theittooiif ns'th'e'new raoon ring. •gnoi:ta \)i>::::-ii i,m, i<<; h , , -j ;.,,¦: /^.o,,-, ,'„, i,;,,-, >>r,,,;^, ,,1 r'i-/,i, ;,l ^ jjTf Im^j ^^);^.lofii-i^nj ,][sh1(ar js ^ oi^r spring GI;od<^ess faster, whp, is the new raoon of the spring, equinox, whose wedding festival we still celebrate at that period, as it wa,s ot'old, perhaps. six tlipugan(i, years ago,, on the baj^ks-.^f, th^.Biiphrates, , -w-here she Avere the Ataniag and Neplji^ele, ,'the cpoAvned heads of Theban '¦'''-.; ' 1 1 ' ' I ' ,' . u ¦ , ' I ' ) < , , . ^, 1 1 ( , I , III ^ 1 1 ¦ ¦ J I . ; 5 1 ¦ 1 J Ji ' J "j J 1 f r M M ) r r fame, and the same Adamus and Eve of Hebrew notoriety, ' .i.-ir"^'-! i,i -j'f,'-,-, -T-i\'\ .liO,:i,,.ir,iij;,i,; st,; and thet Venus and Adonis of ,PlM:nicia: their liistory is .one 1 1 , ' '¦ I /.' J 1 ' I I - M '11 , , . ¦' ' ) , i ji.^, i. -- -1 , 1.1 i J • -¦: : .! I , i, J [, rn jTi'i til 1 and the, sanae, , .tliat beg|an jn . thCj .smiling, morn .of the^ Golden, ^gg, ap,d,epde(j., willi ;the^Y[f,?pj'>; # .-f|l)^r,-S¥'^-^"-„&,^ 'w'^c^u^^er'^ w4Jk?^iP'.olo .no bee ^-'-TieH =A^jr,.r{t8,T "rv^,'^rft si Tammuz, the young prince, and the glory of Ishtar, was TH'E ' OttlGl^l^ti! ^ARDElNf ' W E-BMltr SM slain at the midsli'lniri^i- ifiliriil 'ivh^n thb' Women cast their ¦yeils tQihea,v,en .and; wept, fo,r Tammuz ^la-in,' i , Ishtar refusefl to be. 'comforted, cUiaI foUoAved , liim, lAveepiipg down tp.the .s|l;ii^des beloAv, iand :Avhen refused, entrance, by the keeper oftlifj gSitps, slie became a, fury,and,bi^^t upon the, doors ,eryiiig: ,",Opeiii! f)p, I (AA'il-l hrea,k ,dl.i ,.,-j ,i:--;; -; : ; -iv.i,. -,, (Queen _,^sh^r was ,^ippg(i|of /her JijAvels, ,^?i(^,ap,pji|ire},, ajUd •l"ef|,g.^Jj:^ ji stiUjslpiiQ.pefusetl t9,]^ea5A;.f,..p,j:^d ,ii];^de,,l|er,l)ojne, ,Ayi|tli the dead untjl s^$. st^i^yed the-g,Qds,,|:pj si]biniss^,Qn;,,for^ishe cursed the ejirtijL -^ith b,arrenin|^ssj,,sl:^e, ,.<5tQrilized,t|he .Avaters; she dried ,thifefilt :»,,'-i -;ii>fii -I't --.iw/- 'jrlfel The Jews were pre-eminent for this.cself'-ivatiintingiiamd.-'d'isj- play and sought continually to glorify themselves by a fabu lous hiktb-ry' at' th'e'experise of ' other' fiatiiori;^ to niaWe rip for l^rinfeifiorityt a race who had sprung froninthe diesert,; (itin- erg.nt , like ma^y- of their ,c(.nl'. -...-.it bri,; "'-,t b( Jupiter married Latqnfv,;fpr his:,fi);st ,wif^,;| slfi,e A^as ^^j [Titap ^fi4i -^-Qt^fi abl^ck veil, upon, hep fp.rehe^,di1;0j.expreps Ujight; ^lier name, seems 'l^o ^bf; allied, to L.etlje, ,the,->Yp,1i9p|;o|:,^clf^rkne^s and the prip^9i;(li,at,s^gn„„„,, .,at-~OKi:>Z 'uh t,-, ',..-.,-.¦/ i:i;,,"-l:'f .q|^/4ii4j thifl,(^.eUler,, sister ;dw,ells,-fit ,tfiy ,jf5|:,t ,ha,ii,d,, ap,d,,tliy ypung^r.sister tl?at,,;dwe,lletlii, iSt -itl^y .rigljl; hand.'', ,(Ez(^kiel 16 : 46.) Jacob marrie(|^,t,l^^ -^i^e^^ fi?^s_t.. (Bld.er, is left, ^^}}:}i ¦,{l?h©,y9Ufl.ger„;0p |Wqi3J,£^a,,pf(,):,lp,e (:;fst,,,i|i.,,.'tl;xi, fairest,, (Ji^c^^es 15-,;.2.j,,,, "Js,uq|; her younger sis,1;p,f,ai}.'9r;trian sh|e? Take her instead,?;, ^R-,/ .t;-;;,, '4, ^, ,'-.i.[(Jl ii: H,[ ;,,,.' -j-i (fforf--' rl-n af-friipy £}p,(f.Tj;i,v\raerous ias^,t.he,,,,|i^sti,A\:ifo p;^ ti\e ea.'jt, .and ,the second w;vfe,^n4is,1,^pinpthe|ir ,pf t|i^ Ay^st ^Avl^p persecutes, "the ?}}^JidKfi%,p<;ithe,,rir?t; ,t:fie,,siecpn(| wife i^ t|je mppn ^pf^ the wpst, th.? -winter ^fimm> „r .s,„vf Unr. .,fi.-,i., -..,„.-„[ .i-- , t ,-',-,/ ,',„,' ,;^!jjThey,aj;e.J;li,e two vA^piuen disputing ov^y the child that called for the judgment of Solomon., , It Avas the evil Aviriter moori '' " '¦-¦ "¦ ,-'¦' , •- ," ¦'¦!:m",-;) , 1,1 i ,i ll ',/ 1,- .1)1' ,; ',i,|,' ,,jil tha't Atvould slay the child in, envy,, the pne Avho appears m ¦'•[I '¦'¦'¦,;'•'' '¦¦•'i '",""'¦' ''i^"'' '¦'•--¦•¦r^ ,"i,''h[ ,',.ru,; ,,.,,,,,, (,,-,/, myth as, the eyu .steprnotper. , They' appear instructive again m ilal'y 'and Marffia," arid Mary is the peacefril one^iaird-MarthanistheiiSiOold as her name Avould indicate. •'¦¦^¦<^ '^''* '*"" '¦-'i'"'-' y^iinu,! ,..,) tmA Martha is' the A\^ymflri of the' Avesfrii- Arintfer, and her name and cha,racter ,are f blind iri" ¦the' i'airy Queeri Mab, queen of the fairies, the Brse Meabhdh, an Irish princess; but Christ '^^jj'Oili^S the 'Cause- -of Mfeiry • the indolent, is(j.':4muCh i likle/ ihim- self', a- drek'ttier.-i i(;Ilitke*llO': 40;)' ¦nil ,ij -iii/-, m iMiunr-iH 'lo '''I'Thei'frwo ¦Malrjysiabe-yiiel^mothel' of- Christ, AybO(iistth$)-suw- nier- 'Woman; ' ahd'cMEtPj*' iMflig^alleHi: /hQft(Sisit0i",',isi;,itl|,fi-,ryiin,-|jf)' 346 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN woman inhabited by seven devils, the seven raonths of winter ; her name Magdalen means a tower, which is the tall pillar of the new moon. Aditi and Diti (two names as an antithesis) were two sis ters, and the children of Aditi were the children of light, and the children of Diti were dark, and these two hostile bands and rivals vied brood against brood and afterwards met and joined in couricil to live in peace, as Volsung and Niblung, ^ser and Vaner of the Norse — the sumraer and winter. Though the woman of the east is a wise woman, she is de scribed as short and squat built and ruddy; she is not so handsorae as the new moon of the west. Odysseus told Calypso the enchantress of the island of Ogy gia, who detained him in her isle that Penelope, his first wife, whom he had left at Ithaca in the east, was inferior to her in stature, feature and show, she being a mortal, still his heart was ever with her, and to her he raust return. The witch wife, or the raoon, carae to Signy Volsung, and they went to the bower aloft, and hand in hand they sang the spell song soft, and they changed shapes, and the witch-wife became a queen with the steadfast eyes of gray. And when Signy beheld herself in a mirror she shrank back from the laughing lips and eyes, and the hair of crispy black. And the hands were ready to cling, Aud beckoning lamps were the eyes. And the light feet longed for the dance. And the lips for laughter and lies. —Sigurd the Volsung, B. Sigmund, p. 32. And in the garb of the witch-wife Signy fled to the cave of Sigmund in exile, in the cave of the dwarfs, and there they wooed in many ways, like Lot and his daughters; and there the royal babe Sinfiotli was begotten between brother and sis- THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN 347 ter that the seed of the Volsungs raight not perish from the earth. That was the moon cave where Eve fled to hide her shame, and where Demeter fled after the rape with Saturn. They are the two queens, Brynhild of the east or the spring moon, and Gudrun of the west, the second wife of Sigurd, who is the winter raoon. Brynhild is the wise woman of the east, and is compelled to go over to the west in the after suraraer and cross the west ern river to the winter house of the Niblungs. She is de scribed as swan white, and sits on the dark blue bench cloths, and the carven ivory throne drawn by the snow white har nessed yoke beasts ; this is clearly the snow white moon maiden sitting on the carven ivory throne of the new moon, and the dark blue bench cloths are the blue coverings of the moon. In this way she rides over the rushing ford to the house of war and death. In Sigurd the Volsung, Book 2, Hiordis (Herodias) the woraan of the east, changed attire with her handraaid to de ceive the sea rovers, and the gold clad one of the east said to her handmaid : " ' Give rae thy blue attire, and take my pur ple and gold, and ray crown of the sea floods fire." And the two woraen shift their raiment there, and the raoon of the west was described as the blue-clad one, white and lovely-eyed, tall as a goddess, and wore a ring upon her finger. DAWN. This Dawn woraan is treated by the poets in raany fanciful and preposterous forras, enveloped in poetry. At one tirae she is in red or purple dress, the sister of the sun, who raeets him just before day, and vanishes; and again is seen to fol low hira down to his grave in the west, and appears only in the morning and evening tvrilight. 348 Titfi ' 'OttlGlNAL ' GARDEN! : OF ' EBBT^ ¦ '¦Ushil^'the'Dawri''wiia'-tlia ttt'Ofe-'e^^oiSu'klr of tire VediciD^itieS — she was the Eos of the Greeks and Aurora of the LatiriS/ji'i l?sh'as^tl'ie''V^i'(? Deity, -was- bbto-'aia'cweveryimoming^'but her sistel^ '#afe^''sild' 'an'd i isOmbre ni^ht.' ' -'(Muir ¦; ' 'MJetrierik'&iDW scri't:)' """^^ ¦'" ¦'•"'' ¦>-'''' ''¦ '¦'' '''"'',"'^1 ,«n'.,-')', , fi-/i-l -'-I' '-¦Ui YoriT '"Tri teef 'Vedas ¦Dawri"ha's- thb' ,stos^ of 'day ;' theyr Aie itwasis-f ters of dift'erent color Avho follow and relieve'eachiMher.'/lt w, ' t'o' 'ihiJ"Gi'e6k!^' Aurora signified:the-east. w^ •¦-•- b.fiif.rria Agaiiiriri'^ the " Ve'dttS'' these! Da-Avnfe' oiVet^read- ther/whole wb'rlcl Ari'fh uriifbi'iri inA'edtirig light: ¦ (Ri'gi-Veda'';' Wilson^,i Voh 3','^V'31%.'f"' '-"'''' '-'¦"''' -"'J '"' J-ri;^ iJiii. ,Mrril// ua//,- -rv, \M\-vy, ¦'''i'gairi,'''fhb'''Adit:^s live- itl'the eleirientS"(yf celestial -Tiglit us fH'b'*M'^tSIfa'*s'" bf 'lunririott^'i life "^existing: bejfffind ¦the', -folsiiile j5hfeiltiMerii:,"'npt''<}iy''rior da,Wii' npi*' moonlight; 'ibuti'^hgaiv£ri« t/bWiiglil ¦" ^i!"i'i'''">'' "^rdd -./ll ,,-!<; v.s\],.[.s ,[.;„,„• ,,,,],,' ~Xinh ^"B^f'the'l^illes' bf ¦^shMSi'a.nd thb Da;wns'-^te iri their' o»igSnaI character identified with the moon, for Ushas spfcto'^ from'the b'Cad 'pf '-the ' Vbdib' 'Dyaus'.-Avho is D'eils;' Zeus ori Jupiter v as Miriefv'd|'"th'b"Latiri' goddess,' sprAng"-frbm 'the split "oi'f^oleft liead of Jbve— whicli^ visibly ig the swoTd cilt br' wound in ¦'tihe hea!d of the'tiibbri', Whicli is' Avhat'Avb'ball' the riri'g ol^ the TS(SfA riipon'! Avhich'is^Mineiw'a herself "'Avhb lea;]oed ' forth fi*oriS tiie brain of lier sire. " In anbthet vib-iV it 'is the' forehead' bf the sun' peering over ,the dark Avail bf 'tlie 'm'oori'; thfe -'birth 'of Athene or Minerva is the sariie appeariri'ce as tlikt of Verius, Avho is the same neAV moon ,pl70duv; Avhiqh, ,jde^^ti/ies ¦fhem all Avitli tlie' Apsaras,^ or ,s!waa ]ina-jdep§^,chiiiirned,,ff_pm, t|he mopn ^ea bj^ the frictiori bf the solar and lunar, ppw^i'?;;iand, :^e,same p tliq lliridu Sita AAdio'ispraagfifnoitiitheiigpldeflii iJ^^rroAy,:, heij- ,i;atlier, the, sun, ploughed upon the field of, trie ,paoPU.,|.,,^., j, ,^. ^,,|,^^(^- , , TliE,-:^ Om>Gl-Nam 'GAR,DEN : -OF :' EDIEN (3(48 ,;.v,-.' mra 9xl1 so b.iWOM(A:NiiOF'.iffiHtBi EAST: ,- •//<.•.) h m; iioom b -. lyij^jj ^^jf g , iof OdySieA's '^ Perielbiie ;?^ ^t'^'ri' and ' urira-^feUed ' 'hbi- '^dli',' Vhi'bli ' ii ' the 'Web 'of' the riibori,'' fbr ' she ' H^'a^ ^the ' H^iriftri' bf tifc eastl'Srid «'oVe iffteffiy bblbrs:'"" '=¦''''"- '""" '" '"'; '^^^'^ '-'•Bfynhild, 'alsb the A+birikii \l'W^'%kV;^ wb<^e 'fiiM fea^riffs arid historic tale's 'uiiPn 'her' Iborii'.' ¦^""'' "'' ''^''- •""""' ''* '^'^ '-'!;ferit "that up'pet 'ether' hal3 rib foi'm'; thblbSw^rii'eri'^^''\^eSi--riri^, ri^bklaceS',"^old6n slifipefe;' cHl-ri^Hh'fe at'kT'bt i\i'doif'bffike't;'-atid 'fdl tlibse' AA''bmeri,'wlietHe'i^ 6¥ h'6af6n^^bl''eay&'W"iritd^i-Wpirld, pbssessed of luriar attHbutfes?-'^' 'J'"* fi-J^"o'iril .vu,..'o 8B7,- n.;.. ¦¦'JB^ynhffl, before' lieii'dbath', VkhHi¥hM^eri^'mk''he¥'3:vk •aHH' ch'est'and'driiA^'fft-tJj iedrirfg^^fffi-tf f Sit (A'i^fig/thaf '^luteens IraHre'' wPteri,' 'arid ^lle' '^ifohe -ifl 'the dtisky 'hblis^e'^£fe ^i M^ar 'iri' 'tlife ¦iim'vei^'' TMs^-atk''tir'--'bhte^i^lifrb 'dfbW''ffoni;' iS' trie'irioori'J' the sariie' bbx" b'r' 'c'askfe-f-' aVM^Ii 'I*diidbra''b|)t'ried.""A'rid'tl'ieS'b t¥e'a- sures she distributed among her maidenfe, arid'^&!ll Mbse \r'ek- ^rirbS^ B6iM|"tb -Tthe iribori;''aiid 'ribt' 'to th(i-dilA\Ti.-'''"'(Si^rird the Volsung, p. 271.) " ^-''«^^ «i ''^'"''^ 9^"" ' "''-'''^ '"'V"*' ebt lo .iiif.erriBil .ilt'nojrf^A •>-,« .•/-'o-j rioora orit gfl-//- .-ir/fi'i ."^ RAPE OP IDUN. ..t.n-..Y byiri-.il '" Iri the' Edda, Tduriis'ihiprisoried in tlie ygdrasil. ',' " , She ill-brooked her descent, , ' rj ¦lot J.ii.>i^P!;q br.ni a. -c:i' -c!-^ -J'i'i ','"•¦., ¦¦:¦¦ ' ¦ if,' '-^-f irlqK«Bl ' Under the hoar-tree s trunk conhned. ... i , 95rt;j-::; grit vd ¦ ¦ j,' ^tiri;-; "Ib (i-..iil-/^ ,'i'"i ) lo ['-/' ' 'tUd-ff erit for Hades was under the root of the moon tree. 8i;iBb'*Cl „,,.Slie -^Ajag., ,1;lie, s.un;iraer ^.i:po,orx .a|-ncl-,,i;esi,c,led .:\n,,thp-,'tr.ee,,of:,ljife, Avhich bore apple^.of .lifCp ,^nd,-JU o^e ,a,cqQjiqt,,^^l..^Je£pi-jaiyp. -drpppe.d,^dpAY]i,i^|.o,JTa4t,s,.,,;, .-j^^^ .,,;-jft.ty/. nBioirrarlT sifT .dU,e exit «vo ^^'^i^frNE^GOm^^^l ' '' ^^f ''' 'f ' ,-,. ,yind^-r^e-^plfl,,T§iia,Bif 'or^iljijll, worship, Mien Glhi.icsmnKas in the sign of Taurus the bull, fpr£ab(,^ijtt-i::}Xes,i^-C3ieilIisfflred -years,,- it -was- the«-, $li£ ^m-^.f^^_r^mholxmd mtoiii liirfj, , aisi-Ithe 350 THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OF EDEN moon as a cow ; it was then the redeemer child of the sun was a calf and came tripping over the hill as the "heifer footed messenger. It was in that age that Aaron made the golden calf out of the golden rings and amulets of the raoon. He sealed up the gold and silver of the luminaries in the furnace of the moon, shut the door, and on the third evening drew out the new moon or golden calf born of the sun and moon while they were in the bovine stage of bull and cow; but for the next twenty-one hundred years in round numbers, while the sun was going through the sign of Aries the ram, this little child redeemer was called the larab of God, as sung in the Canticles: behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains. During that sign Jove was a rara, and clothed in fine wool- he was the ram of Abraham caught in the thicket and sacri ficed in the moon furnace, and the third day reborn as Isaac, the reborn sun of spring. Hannah, mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1) was the moon, for she says "raine horn is exalted." Venus was the raoon cow, as Ashtoreth, Karnaira, or the homed Venus. Io was the moon eow, for she Avent lowing over the earth with pain and longing for her deliverer. Passiphae was the moon cow, for she had a mad passion for the white bull of Crete, which she gratified by the artifice of Daadalus. Isis was cursed by her son Horus, to become a cow and wear horns — the moon under the symbol of a cow. The Phoenician Astarte, the Greek Diana wore upon her head the hide of a bull when she wandered over the earth. Europa becarae the raoon cow in the hands of Jupiter, and continued so until she was changed back to her spring form by Cadmus, the spring hero. Hera, the moon, was Avorshipped as a cow, for many idols THE ORIGINAL GARDEN OP EDEN 351 of Hera are found in ancient Troy arid Mycenae in the form of a woman with a very corapressed,' head and two horns in the lowest strata and worshipped th^e until the destruction of the city. (Schlieman's Ilios, p. 330.) A cow was sacrificed to Hera and a bull to Zeus; she is called ox-eyed. ;, HECATE. Hecate was the moon, for she presided over nocturnal cere monies and magic rites. She could increase or dirainish at will, and had expiatory sacrifices on the thirtieth of every month, and was the daughter of night. Her statues were dog-headed, and placed at crossroads, for the moon was the dog, the attendant and companion of the sun, and the crossroads was where sun and moon met every month, and set up a pillar or added a stone. Fishermen prayed to her, for she was mistress of the sea; she filled the stage, and played a great diversity of character. She was a very ancient divinity. AMAZON. An erratic and fanciful rendering of the winter moon. Diana was an Amazon; she was goddess of the warlike Araazons, and these Araazons were th» priestesses of the Asi atic Diana, who was a warrior and huntress. Juno took the forra of an Araazon to cause the death of Hippolyte, the queen of the Amazons, when Hercules carried off her girdle, for she wore the belt of Mars, the winter war rior. They are the winter moon raultiplied indefinitely by the fiction of poets, for they are overcorae in spring by Hercules or Bellerophon, the solar hero. They excelled in hunting and war — they were feraale Ken- Qm 'THE ¦ ORIGIN At, i -^GARtJSUsT ¦ '(f)^ ' EMN itiiui's^they 'betra^^-'thei*; Itin'ri dharactei*; 'fb5!'"tjhey'J'#e]*e''arini?d witba'^^^i-egeferitshifeldi Av^hiifth "iS'the shield 'of' the riibbtt'.'' I'lifey avpt^sl!iif>pid'Mars,iithe''g'(!>d' c>¥ 'WAP;-&nd Aii^itiii?. ' '^Thej^'^^^a'i^a their right breast, which' is the'br*a9t''Pf' the'iridon'yUvitl^^one "side!-white4nd'tib'dth*ii'bkok.' 'Tl ¦ t bo-i/i, ,-)i;^ kby/ -itiyj L They were man haters, and held their men id sei'vile boridi'- tion in winter, as Omphale h^ld Hercules as a servant. They Avere mythical husband deserters and slayers, like -lahtat^/'Ditofai'Dei'Stn^it-a; aild thW Atohiari"Wholliete'hi'ist'tf the %ellj' arid ' the' one' of ' Stivbli ' 'htlsbteds.-"'''fPhe;^ ^Mt Jitfitatbaith'e S'terilit^ pif'"thfe"yea'r'in"Wilittir, like -fhe' feiti'aScill^tic/ti''of''the priests while the sun occupied' the inferior Sigrife'.''' '""' .--"I'^f" ¦^'-'AViriike-'riiaidenS, AttiaMUs,- 'Me the giant maidbhiri Norse, 'A\ihoi"g]»6itlhd'iflt''the='ftiill, the' MeHia, -Fkii^' 'whd' gfdririd^'iti 'Ft»Mi'S''lliiM^;' theiy"AV'e*e warlike -tvomeri who 'fPu'glrt i'li 'battle i4iad''sleAV'a chief,' but'at ienph'^wer^ overcoirie aind soid^'fpt borid '^Hnl'^k' to-^grriid iii FrPdl^S riiill. ¦ Th(^y were 'eight '^fgft high/' and'^ likS'^he giant woirieti who ea nie at winter 'to -Ak'^Sid and corrupted and betrayed the garden of the ' Asas'; '"'ftiey- are all the giant forces of winter qpppsed to the civilizing forces of summer law and order. nf'OK! i^-trri-// -ffft 'to iifii'i i! i, ,, ',:'i ,ii ' ,''jii- -lijfrri') riA Chapter XVIII. -Vf.k Hf\-\ '+0 p.,R^<,t.=|fif-!q "r'i )-, I, -¦ , 'vr;i,:/. i-if!t haf. ,^.n