UNIVERSAL RELIGION.

...only the image of the celestial bull the zodiac sign Taurus, to which homage was paid. This animal only possessed the ability to provide prophetic signs as a result of the practice of divination through the stars, and specifically through the bull of the Zodiac. The oracle of Jupiter-Ammon a syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity often depicted with ram's horns, established in Libya, was similarly based on connections with celestial signs, and especially with the sign of Aries the Ram, from which Jupiter-Ammon borrowed his attributes. This ram was honored in the cities of Egypt which used it to derive the prognostic signs upon which the science of divination was founded. These signs did not all come from the same constellations. Those who honored the goat revered in it the sign of Capricorn. Those who placed themselves under the protection of the constellation of Pisces the Fish abstained from eating fish. We have seen the same practice in Syria, established on the same astrological principle, where the image of the celestial fish was revered under the title of the image of the Syrian Gods. Thus, the worship given to the ox at Memphis, to the goat at Mendes, to the fish at Oxyrhynchus, and to the ram at Thebes relates, in the final analysis, to the stars and to the visible universal cause; in other words, to Nature, the great divinity of all peoples. The most learned of the Rabbis, the famous Maimonides (1), and other Jewish doctors (2), speaking from the most ancient books of their nation, assert that the constellation of the ram was worshipped by the Egyptians. In the Egyptian planisphere a map of the stars on a flat surface, printed in the Oedipus by Kircher (3), one sees the figure of Jupiter-Ammon, wearing a ram's head, occupying the first of the twelve signs. Germanicus Caesar (4),

in his commentaries on Aratus, says regarding Aries, the first of the signs, that Bacchus gave the name of Jupiter-Ammon to this celestial animal and raised a magnificent temple to him. We should hardly doubt that the other sacred animals of Egypt which have their counterparts in the sky received, like the ram, a cult related to the stars. Thus, the sacred dog, or Anubis, received homage which related to Sirius or the beautiful star of Canis Major the Great Dog constellation (5). The bright star of the ship the constellation Argo Navis was honored under the symbol of Canopus, or a vase from which water escapes. It was in these stars, says Plutarch, that the Egyptians believed the souls of their leaders or their Gods were placed (6). By leaders, one should understand the tutelary genius of each city, or those powerful chiefs whose names were consecrated in the books of sacred astrology, as we have seen in the passage by Chaeremon (7).

What finally proves the intimate connection between astrology and religion among the Egyptians is that the book of astrology was one of the sacred books that their priests carried at the head of processions, as can be seen in Clement of Alexandria (8). They also carried the palm branch, which was regarded as a symbol of astrology. The four sacred animals led in these same processions were considered, says the same Clement of Alexandria (9), to be emblems of the four signs or cardinal points which fix the seasons at the equinoxes and the solstices original: "tropiques" and divide the annual march of the sun, their great divinity, into four parts. From this also comes the expression "Year of God" (10),

(1) Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed original: "More. Nevock." Part 3, chapter 46, page 480.
(2) Rabbi Yehuda in the Zohar.
(3) Kircher, Oedipus volume 3, page 113. Also volume 2, Part 2, page 206.
(4) Germanicus Caesar, chapter 18.
(5) Aelian, On the Nature of Animals book 10, chapter 45.
(6) Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris page 359.
(7) See above page 9.
(8) Clement of Alexandria, Stromata book 6, page 633.
(9) Stromata book 5, page 567.
(10) Censorinus, On the Birthday original: "de Die Natali".

UNIVERSAL RELIGION.

to designate the great solar period the Sothic cycle of 1,461 years for which the celestial dog, one of these four animals, fixed the beginning.

Not only were the sun, moon, planets, and other stars the primary objects of worship for the ancient Egyptians, as proven by the testimony of Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew authors (1) who spoke of them, but also the other elementary agents of Nature: water, fire, and so on. The Nile, and everything that carried a character of cause and perpetuity, likewise received homage. They also revered water and fire, Porphyry tells us (2), as the most beautiful of the elements because they are those which contribute most to our preservation (b). Athanasius (3), in his diatribe against the worshippers of Nature, whom he calls pagans, reproaches them for giving worship to rivers and fountains. He cites as an example (4) the Egyptians, who had a singular veneration for water and attached an idea of divinity to it. It is known, in fact, that the Nile was considered by the Egyptians to be a benevolent divinity to which Egypt owed its fertility and wealth. The rhetorician Aristides (5) expresses himself thus regarding this river:

"There was nothing in Egypt so
revered, and which was honored with a
more religious cult than the Nile; it was almost
the unique object of all the feasts and
all the solemnities established there."
These homages were based on the great utility it provided to Egypt, following the observation of Maximus of Tyre (6) and Julius Firmicus (7); thus, it was given the name of Father,

of the preserver of Egypt, and of the sacred emanation of the great God Osiris, as can be seen in Plutarch (8). In the hymns that the Egyptians addressed to it, they celebrated the author of their harvests, the God crowned with ears of grain who brought abundance with him (9). The poets gave it the title of the Egyptian Jupiter (10), and the theologians made it the father of several of their divinities, as can be confirmed by the genealogies of the Gods given to us by Cicero (11) in his treatise On the Nature of the Gods, and by the testimony of Diodorus Siculus (12). The city of Nilopolis and its temple were consecrated to it (13). Near the Cataracts, above Elephantine, there was a college of priests attached to its cult (14). The most magnificent festivals were celebrated in its honor, especially at the moment when it was about to pour out the waters into the plains that came every year to fertilize them (15). Its statue was carried through the countryside in great ceremony. People then went to the theater where meals were given. Dances were celebrated and hymns were sung similar to those addressed to Jupiter, whose function the Nile performed on earth (16). The God himself was invited to take part in the feast and to descend into the fields; otherwise, it was imagined that he would not have left his bed (17). This was not merely a festival of joy instituted every year at the time of the flooding, whose greater or lesser rise decided the fate of the Egyptians each year; it was

(1) Manetho, book 1, Apotelesmatika, line 203. Jablonski, Egyptian Pantheon, book 3, chapter 6. Same, in the introduction, section 24. Same, book 1, chapter 2, Section 3.
(2) Porphyry, cited in Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, book 3, chapter 4, page 94.
(3) Athanasius, volume 1, Against the Heathen, page 26.
(4) Ibid, On the Incarnation, page 100.
(5) Aristides the Rhetorician, On Egypt.
(6) Maximus of Tyre, Dissertation 38.
(7) Julius Firmicus, On the Error of Profane Religions.
(8) Plutarch, Table Talk original: "Symp.", book 8, page 729.
(9) Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 39, page 626.
(10) Athenaeus, book 5, page 203.
(11) Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, book 3.
(12) Diodorus Siculus, page 12.
(13) Stephanus, under the entry Neilos Nile.
(14) Heliodorus, book 2, page 110.
(15) Palladius, Lausiac History, chapter 52. Great Library of the Fathers, Paris, volume 13, page 980.
(16) Nicetas of Serrae, Commentary on Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 39.
(17) Nonnus in the Works of Gregory of Nazianzus, volume 2, Column 529. Rhetorician Libanius, Oration for the Temples, cited by Valerius in the notes to Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book 4, chapter 25.