THE ORIGINAL PRE-DILUVIAN ZODIAC

The Zodiac Signs were originally instituted by Adam, Seth and Enoch before the Flood. Their meaning was transmitted to Noah who preserved it, according to the Enoch and Hermetic literature, on an Emerald Prism, left hidden in Egypt. The Egyptians called Adam’s son, Seth “Agathodaimon”, i.e. “The Good, or Beneficent, Spirit”, and Seth’s descendant Enoch “The First Thoth (Hermes)”. The builder of the Great Pyramid, the Pharaoh Khufu or Cheops, is said in native Egyptian literature to have used the secret writings of “Thoth” (i.e. of Enoch) to build the Great Pyramid of Gizeh. He found the knowledge of the whereabouts of these writings of Thoth in the possession of a humble seer of very advanced age. For the identity of this seer, go to: http://www.christianhospitality.org/resources/6-days-creation-online/content/6-days-creation33#Section626-36. Thus the secrets of the star-signs were preserved after the Flood in Egypt and used to construct the Great Pyramid. This Egyptian tradition, combined with the witness of the Enoch and Hermetic literature, confirms the testimony of Josephus that the antediluvian patriarchs discovered the secrets of the Zodiac and that their discoveries were inscribed on a monument of stone which remained standing to Josephus’ own time in Northern Egypt (the Siriadic land as he calls it). The Siriadic Land is where the Great Pyramid of Gizeh is located. In the picture of the Zodiac from Denderah in Egypt reproduced below the zodiacal circle is marked in red. It is remarkable that the symbol of the Ogdoad or “Group of Eight” (representing the Eight persons saved in the Ark of Noah), an oval with eight persons within it at a position corresponding to one o’clock, is located beneath the signs of Capricorn and Aquarius, which are the star-signs of Noah and Shem respectively (Capricorn = Noah, Aquarius = Shem, see below). The divine members of the Ogdoad were referred to in Egypt as the eight original progenitors of mankind, four male and four female, who emerged out of the waters of Chaos and founded the regenerated world upon the peak of a primeval mountain projecting out of the waters. All the “gods” (primeval kings) of Egypt traced their descent from them. The Armenian historians (following Moses of Khorene, History of the Armenians, I. vii.) record that the Egyptians called one of these Ptah (“Hephaistos” = Ham, the progenitor of the Egyptian race) and said that his son was Ra (“the Sun” = Cush), and his son Geb (“Chronos” = Nimrod).

The Original Meaning of the Zodiac Signs

Evidence of a correspondence between the Prediluvian Patriarchs and the signs of the Zodiac is found in the Jewish synagogue inscription from Engedi (below).

The synagogue itself was destroyed around AD 530 so this inscription dates some time from the early Byzantine period. It lists the Prediluvian Patriarchs first from Adam to Japheth in two rows, then immediately following the names of the signs of the Zodiac in two rows, then the names of the Hebrew months. Thus:

1. Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,|

2. Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth,|

3. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo,|

4. Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and Aquarius, Pisces.|

5. Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, Elul,|

6. Tishrei, Marheshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat|

7. And Adar.

The three final Zodiac names are written in a curious way thus: gdy wdly dgym i.e. literally “Capricorn AND Aquarius Pisces”. Considering that these correspond positionally to Noah AND Shem, Ham-and-Japheth (the last two corresponding to the two linked fishes of Pisces), the odd phraseology is understandable. The parallelism with the months too is complete when it is realised that the last month Adar was duplicated in certain years (Adar and Ve-Adar) to bring the lunar months in line with the solar calendar. Here implicitly in line 7 (“And Adar” — Ve-Adar in the original Hebrew) is a reference to the two Adars corresponding to the two fishes of Pisces and the two coeval Patriarchs Ham and Japheth.

The Zodiac Signs, therefore, were allocated to Adam and his descendants as follows:

Adam, represented by his firstborn son, Abel = Aries

Aries is the sign representing the first generation, that of Adam himself, and Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac in every astrological system. However, there is no trace of Adam personally in the sign. The reason for this is as follows. Adam, at the beginning of his conscious life, was translated (“taken by God” like Enoch) into the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2. 15), and then, after the Fall, was transported back again to till the land from which he was earlier translated (Genesis 3. 23). Adam himself, therefore, appears, not in the Lamb-sign, Aries, but in the neighboring sign of Auriga, raised up, as it were, above the Lamb, and over the horn of the Bull, Taurus (see the following sign). Adam has been taken up and out of the sign Aries. On the disappearance of Adam, the brothers Cain and Abel were left alone at the Gate of the Garden to resolve their differences. Thus, Aries, the Lamb, represents Adam’s firstborn Abel, the shepherd. The firstborn son in Oriental thought is the bearer of the father’s name. Abel was, in this sense, the new Adam. The Hebrew name of the sign, Taleh, “Lamb”, means literally “One Lying on the Ground” (from the root t-w-l, to lie prostrate on the ground, to be cast headlong on the ground). Accordingly, the Lamb in Aries is depicted recumbent, i.e. lying on the ground. Abel was cast headlong on the ground when he was murdered by Cain. Abel types the Lamb, Jesus, who was sacrificed (murdered) to atone for the sins of the world, and who was, and is, the dying Seed of the Woman (Messiah), and the Spiritual Adam (I Corinthians 15. 45). The Lamb is depicted looking behind him, apprehensively. Above the Lamb’s head hangs the sign Deltoton, or Triangulum, representing the sharp, triangular, stone (in ancient star-lore, a plough-stone), with which Cain, the plough-man, struck and killed him.

Seth = Taurus

Seth was so named because his mother, Eve, exclaimed at his birth “God has appointed me another [or different] seed in place of Abel whom Cain slew”. (The Hebrew form of the name Seth is “Shet”, meaning “He appointed”.) Similarly God appointed (by adoption) another Seed, by another Comforter, the Holy Spirit, in place of the crucified Jesus, namely, “One like the Son of Man”, in place of the mortal Jesus, the “Son of Man”, to be raptured up to heaven and take the kingdom in the Millennium. (Daniel 7. 13, Revelation 1. 13, 14. 14). This “One like the Son of Man” was identified by revelation to Daniel the Prophet as “the People of the Saints of the Most High” (Daniel 7. 27, 22). The “other” Seed is really the same Seed in another form, that is, the Messiah, embodied by the Holy Spirit in the saints. The exchange of Seth for Abel because of the latter’s murder by Cain is exactly symbolized in the conjoined sign Taurus-Auriga: the jealous bull (the bull part of the sign Taurus, Cain) attacks two children who are protected by the shepherd Auriga and Capella, the latter being the children’s mother: i.e. Auriga = Adam and Capella = Eve, and the two children of Eve are Seth and Abel. The Hermetic literature states that Agathodaimon is the Biblical patriarch Seth. In Egypt Agathodaimon was equated with Osiris and Osiris was believed to be represented in the Zodiac by the sign of Taurus.

Enosh = Gemini

The name Enosh means “Human Companionship”. It is represented in the Zodiac by two equivalent males, two men embracing in fellowship, or sometimes (more rarely) a male and female pair (Gemini).

Cainan = Cancer

Cainan means “Gathering Together into a Home, Nest or Community”. It is represented in the Zodiac by a crab or similar creature gathering together its offspring with its pincers (the offspring being the cluster of stars known as Praesepe).

Mahalalel = Leo

Mahalalel means “Public Recognition, or Acclaim, of the Divine Leader”, symbolized in the Zodiac by a Lion, the “universally recognized King of Beasts”.

Jared = Virgo

Jared means “descent” or “fall” (from the root y-r-d), or, when used of branches, “felling”. The star sign originally denoted, and is sometimes still represented as, a Felled Branch. Anciently, Jared’s name was taken to signify prophetically the prediluvian descent of the sons of God and their indiscriminate commingling with the daughters of men in Gen. 6. This, in turn, was a historical development and reduplication of the fall of Eve in Gen. 3. As Eve was seduced by the fallen angel Satan working through the serpent (2 Cor. 11. 3, cp. Rev. 12), so the daughters of men were seduced by the fallen sons of God in Gen. 6. God promised, however, that a Seed of the Woman would come one day who would crush the serpent’s head, and who would be wounded in the heel himself in the process (Gen. 3. 15). This great Bible theme is symbolized by the sign of Virgo which represents a sexually mature virgin, holding an aphrodisiacal vine-plant, who is (or is to be) the mother of a “Seed” (Spica). The botanical imagery is clear throughout. The Virgin, lying on her side, is actually identified with the Fallen Tree or Felled Branch which is to bring forth the promised Seed. Sometimes the Branch is a Palm Branch, the Palm being a tree which reproduces by fertilizing itself, i.e. by “virgin birth”. Though the reference in the name might be secondarily to the commingling of sons of God with human women before the Flood, it signifies primarily the Virgin Birth of the Promised Seed of the Woman, i.e. the “Descent” of the Son of God from Heaven, and His Incarnation, of which the prediluvian descent of evil spirits was a Satanic perversion (cp. Protevangelion 10. 5-7).

Enoch = Libra

Enoch means to begin to teach, instruct, train, tame, break in, or to initiate an animal or human (originally, by control of the jaws, or by rubbing the palate), or, by derivation, to dedicate a building. It is symbolized by the sign of Libra, meaning the beginning of the acquisition of judgment or discernment, and originally this sign formed the jaws of the claws of the Scorpion (representing Divine Judgment by the Word). The sign depicts the commencement of the weighing, one scale being lower than the other, i.e. specifically the beginning of judgment or discernment.

Methuselah = Scorpio

Methuselah means “Armed Man,” “Security Man,” lit. “Man of a Sting, or, Dart.” It is symbolized by Scorpio, a creature armed with a sting, which it throws at its victim, like a dart, using its bow-like tail.

Lamech = Sagittarius

Lamech comes from a root l-m-k. The meaning is “to melt, sink down, cringe, bow, be bent, vanish away, fade out or dissolve”, so that l-m-k is a variant of n-m-k, “to dissolve” (as elsewhere in Hebrew l and n are interchangeable, e.g. lachatz and nachatz both mean “to press”). The root n-m-k is cognate to the words makak and maqaq which are used to describe a melting, bending or bowing effect. The name Lamech is a noun formed from this root and means, therefore, “Bowing” or “Bending,” being aptly sybolized by the bent bow of Sagittarius, and in some zodiacs the asterism is represented, accordingly, simply by a bent bow. The loaded bow is also a symbol of male fertility — hence the equine body of Sagittarius in other zodiacs. Another connotation is “Fading Out”, so that Sagittarius is specifically the Shooter of Meteoric Arrows, which burn out in the atmosphere. From the root meaning arises the further signification “subdue, level, cause to bow down, overthrow” and hence the name Lamech is interpreted to mean “the strong, the mighty, the wild and invincible overthrower”. This meaning, too, is aptly portrayed by the figure of a wild centaur, stepping forward into combat, in the act of firing a bow, levelling his enemies with a shower of meteoric arrows.

Noah = Capricorn

Noah means “Rest or Relief”, literally the “Reclining of an Animal”. It is symbolized by the reclining ungulate, goat, sheep or antelope of Capricorn, which in some Zodiacs is simply a reclining ungulate, but in others is depicted with the tail of a fish, representing the two phases of Noah’s life, pre- and post-Flood. The Flood was believed to have been foretold by a gathering of all the planets in the sign of Capricorn.

Aquarius = Shem

Shem means “Name”, particularly the Name of God. A person’s name is the label attached to his person, otherwise the “handle” to his spirit. When the Hebrews wished to bring the Spirit of God into their midst, they “called on His Name”. Knowledge of the Name gave one familiarity, and therefore co-operation, with the Person. The symbol of this concept in the Zodiac is the Shaduf or Water-drawer. This is a long pole with a water-bucket on its end, balanced on a fulcrum, used by Near-Eastern peasants to draw water from the river and turn and pour it into an irrigation ditch. Water symbolizes Spirit (Person, Soul), and the Shaduf or Water-drawer, is the Handle (Name) employed to get a hold on the water (Spirit). The long string of stars in Aquarius is precisely the shape of a Shaduf. The constellation is known accordingly in Hebrew as the “Water-bucket” (Deli).

Japheth and Ham = Pisces

Japheth means “Multiplication of Progeny or Numerical Expansion”. It is represented by crossed fishes in Pisces, a fish being symbolic of numerical increase of progeny. There is a further reference in the sign to the Flood through which Japheth passed (like a fish, cf. Capricorn), and to the fact that there was a conflict between Japheth’s descendants and the Hamites, specifically with Ham’s son Canaan and his progeny, who, though bound by family kinship to Japheth (the Band, the asterism Risha, in the sign of Pisces), yet tended in an earthly and opposite direction (symbolized by the fish in Pisces swimming along the ecliptic, i.e. the worldly path, contrary to the direction of the other fish, which is swimming towards the zenith, i.e. Heaven).

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