The Origin And References Of The Hermesian Spurious Freemasonry.

to each , as in the following example of a prayer to the Morning Star , the Grecian Venus from the Persian Desatir : — " O mighty and admirable lady ! mistress of knoAvledge , and lady of action ! I ask of thee , most blest in the two abodes (

meaning heaven and earth ) that thou ask of thy Father and Lord that he would illuminate my soul , and smooth my difficulties ; that He Avould draw me near to Him , that He would enlighten the band of light lendourand bless them and usand

sp , , purify us for ever , and to everlasting of everlasting . " The heathen oracles , which professed to explain the heavenly predictions , " reached to so hig h a degree of reputation that , as Cicero observesno expedition for a long

, time was undertaken , no colony sent out , and often no affair of any distinguished family or individual entered on without previously attaining their judgment and sanction . Their authority was so high , that the first fathers of the christian church

could no otherwise account for a reputation thus universally received , than by supposing that the devils were permitted by God Almig hty to inform the oracles with a more than human prescience , that all the world mig ht be concludedin idolatry and unbelief ,

and the necessity of a saviour be made more apparent . * It was in unison with these opinions that mankind , in comparatively recent times , Avere induced to believe that their destiny Avas governed by the stars ;

animantium corpora a lumine planetarum affici ; and the superstitions were prevalent in Europe down to the last century , —even if they are now extinct—notwithstanding it is quite clear that , as soon as the doctrine of Christ was made knownall the power

, of the devils was broken . What is added by some , that Jesus learned magical arts in Egypt , carries a much less appearance of truth , than the like objection of the heathen against Moses , which Ave find in Pliny and Apuleius . For it does not appearbut

, from the books of His disciples , that Jesus ever Avas in Egypt , and they add , that he returned from thence a child . t Those Avho practised judicial astrology as a science , defended their opinions by such

arguments as these . That , though they readily admitted that the stars cannot operate immediately on the soul of man , yet they undertook to demonstrate that their influence Avorked mediately by the humours and corporeal organs , on which

the soul's operation depends ; ( i . e . ) the material organs , and the elementary matter Avhereof these organs consist , is as much subject to the influence of the stars , as any other elementary matter ; and thus they Avork upon men ' s minds and dispositions .

The B . Moses , a very learned Jew , thought that the will of the stars might be determined by a more literal process . He says "The heavens are not without some soul ; which is no other than that of those blessed intelligences Avho govern the

stars and dispose them into such letters as God has ordained ; declaring unto , men , by means of this writing , what events they are to expect . " The several qualities of each p lanet operating on elementary matter are described as folloAVs : —

Saturn s extremely cold , ancl meanly dry ; Jove kindly warms and moistens all the sky ; Mars is a furnace Avhich doth nature spoil , By roasting that whicli should but gently boil .

The Sun ' s a fountain both of light and heat , Yet do his beams but moderately dry ; Venus is Avarm , her moistening virtue great ; And like his consort , still is Mercury . Luna is cold and various ; her chief power Consists in moisture , and the abundant shower .

When men succeed in persuading themselves by these and similar arguments , that their lives and fortunes are under the direction of theheavenly bodies , the exercise of freewill becomes useless ; and they succumb to circumstances so implicitly as

to accelerate and fulfil every important prediction Avhether for good or evil . It was however for one or other of these reasons that the point Avithin a circle , as an emblem of the deity , the human soul , and a starAvas conspicuously placed in the

, centre of this Hermetic Tablet . The last figure in this series is the circle and the calyx of the lotus , or a sceptre . In either case it was the phonetic symbol of Osiris or Orus , who were one