William Tyler Olcott

“ Some authorities claim that Aquila is the flying eagle, the semblance of the fourth face of the Cherubim, but in view of the fact that Antares, the brilliant first magnitude star in the Scorpion, is always known as one of the so-called four "Royal Stars," known as such from remote antiquity, there seems to be some ground for the argument that the constellation Scorpio was originally considered to represent the eagle. ”

“ Antares belongs to Secchi's third spectroscopic type of stars, the suns that are slowly growing cold as their fires burn low. Like huge embers they still glow with latent heat, like sullen demons doomed to death these flame-scourged suns await the frigid touch that time bestows on life, be it on this mundane sphere or in the uttermost parts of the firmament. ”

“ The three stars in a line, β, δ, and π Scorpii, seem to have attracted attention in all ages, much as the three stars in Orion's Belt are always associated together. The Hindus figured these stars as a Row or Ridge, and on the Euphrates this group represented the Tree of the Garden of Light, associated with the idea of the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden of Eden, which has a special significance when it is recalled that Scorpio may be considered as representing one phase of the Cherubim which was set in the Garden of Eden. ”