scriptures of the older forms of Astrolatry, one version of which,
written with the cuneiform character upon twelve tablets of burnt clay,
exhumed from the ruins of an Assyrian city, and now on exhibition in
the British Museum, is ascribed to Nimroud, the prototype of the
Grecian Hercules, and of Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter of the Old
Testament.



ANNIVERSARIES OF SOLAR WORSHIP.

The Nativity.

Applying the anniversaries inculcated in the worship of God Sol to his
imaginary incarnations, the founders of the ancient Astrolatry made
them refer to the several stages of human existence from infancy to
mature age. Hence, comparing the first day of infantile life to the
shortest day of the year, it would naturally be expected that they
would have placed the anniversary of the Nativity exactly at the Winter
solstice; but, having conceived the idea that the sun stood still for
the space of three days at each of the cardinal points, and making it
represent the figurative death of the genius of that luminary, they
fixed the date for its observance three days later, or on the 25th of
December. The Gnostic adherents to the ancient solar worship, or those
who were conversant with the teachings of the Esoteric philosophy,
knowing that the dramatis personae of the fable of incarnation were
pictured with stars upon the azure vault, recognized the woman "clothed
with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of
twelve stars," referred to in Revelations xii. 1, as the Virgo of the
Zodiac; they also knew that she was the true queen of heaven and mother