Virgo

“ Her name is called Aspolia, which means ears of corn, or the seed, which shows that though the woman is seen, it is her Seed who is the great subject of the prophecy.
[pg 034] Passing to the three constellations anciently assigned to the sign Virgo, we come to what may be compared to three sections of the chapter, each giving some further detail as to the interpretation of its teaching.
1. COMA (The Woman and Child) . The Desired of all Nations.
The first constellation in Virgo explains that this coming “Branch” will be a child, and that He should be the “Desire of all nations.” ”

“ By looking to the mother ideal of Virgo during the Piscean Age, and following the Christ's example of sacrificial service, the immaculate conception becomes an actual experience ta each of us, and Christ, the Son of Man, Aquarius, is born within us. ”

“ When the winter months begin, the sun is in the constellation of Sagittarius, in the beginning of spring in the constellation of Pisces, in the beginning of summer, in Gemini, and at the commencement of autumn, in the constellation of Virgo. The zodiacal constellations are very important, and to the people in the olden days, the sun's position in front of them was a way to tell the season of the year. ”

“ While the Virgin was associated with the moon by the early pagans, there is no doubt that they also understood her position as a constellation in the heavens, for nearly all the peoples of antiquity credit her as being the mother of the sun, and they realized that although the moon could not occupy that position, the sign of Virgo could, and did, give birth to the sun out of her side on the 25th day of December. Albertus Magnus states, "We know that the sign of the Celestial Virgin rose over the Horizon at the moment at which we fix the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. ”

“ Believing that God Sol was necessitated to remain at his post to direct the course of the sun, the ancient astrologers conceived the idea of teaching that, attended by a retinue of subordinate genii, he descended to earth through the medium of incarnations at the end of 600 year cycles, to perform the work of man's redemption and, having made Virgo of the Zodiac the mother of the Solar divinity, they taught in their allegorical Astronomy, or scriptures, that his incarnations were born of a Virgin. ”

“ The identity of Ceres, the goddess of the harvest, with this star group quite evident. This figure of the fruitful Virgin was placed in the zodiac as emblematic of the harvest season because the sun is in those stars at that time. The word 'Virgo' originally implied not only a Virgin but any virtuous matron. By an astronomical allegory, the Virgin of August became a goddess who descended to the earth, presided over the harvest, taught mankind agriculture, and was worshipped under various names. ”

“ Prima virgo. We schal, gracyous Lady, wyth alle oure mythis,
Schul ye from us passe, swete sonne of socoure,
That are oure sengler solas radyant in youre lythis,
Youre peynful absence schal make me doloure.
Virgo Secunda. Moste excellent princes in alle vertu that is dith,
Alle hefne and erthe, Lady, you doth honure;
We schal wachyn and wake, as oure dewe and ryth,
Into the tyme ye passe to that hye toure. [389]
Maria. ”

“ Crater, the Cup, has no bright stars; Corvus, the Crow, is an irregular little square which sailors call [Pg 9] Spica’s Spanker, a spanker being a sail of this shape, and two stars of the four point to Spica, the bright star of the Virgin.
Virgo, the Virgin, is one of the constellations of the Zodiac, that zone of stars which marks the apparent pathway of sun, moon, and planets in the sky. All the twelve zodiacal constellations can be seen in both hemispheres, but those south of the equator, which are least well seen in northern countries, are of course the best seen in the south. ”

“ In the astronomical records of every age and race extant we find references to the constellation of the Virgin, and there is every reason to believe that it was one of the first star groups to receive a name.
On the ancient maps, the Virgin is generally represented as a woman with wings, in a walking attitude. In her left hand she bears a head of wheat, or ear of corn, which is marked by the brilliant first magnitude star Spica. ”

“ Every time that the moon is full, in those hours of the night that immediately precede the dawn, when our nightly visions are especially bright, lively, and restless, when the pale lunatics, with their eyes closed and their faces turned towards the sky, return to their cold beds along the dangerous edges of the house tops, when the night-flowers open their chalices,—then the Holy Virgin walks through Her garden with light and quiet steps. ”

“ Wail fitfully beneath the mighty blast.
This fearing, mark the months and Signs of heaven,
Whither retires him Saturn's icy star,
And through what heavenly cycles wandereth
The glowing orb Cyllenian. Before all
Worship the Gods, and to great Ceres pay
Her yearly dues upon the happy sward
With sacrifice, anigh the utmost end
Of winter, and when Spring begins to smile. ”

“ A beautiful moon had risen, and was shining, but you could not see her, only the light she shed down from her throne on high through the soft white mist that had risen from the wet ground and was wavering and dancing solemnly to and fro, filling the space between heaven and earth, as if to veil the sacred sights of the Holy Eve from mortal eyes. ”

“ At noon-day the sky is as black as pitch, except in the region of the sun; and the stars shine out as at midnight. When the sun disappears in the horizon, darkness is as sudden as the darkness of an eclipse, or the extinguishing of a candle in a room. ”

“ For when the sun is midway on his course Between the blasts of northwind and of south, Heaven keeps his two goals parted equally, By virtue of the fixed position old Of the whole starry Zodiac, through which That sun, in winding onward, takes a year, Illumining the sky and all the lands With oblique light—as men declare to us Who by their diagrams have charted well Those regions of the sky which be adorned With the arranged signs of Zodiac. ”

“ The rainbow appears when one part of the sky is clear, which intimates mercy remembered in the midst of wrath; and the clouds are hemmed as it were with the rainbow, that they may not overspread the heavens, for the bow is coloured rain or the edges of a cloud gilded. ”

“ If indeed thou wilt regard the hastening sun and the moon's ordered sequences, never will an hour of the morrow deceive thee, nor wilt thou be taken in the wiles of a cloudless night. When the moon first gathers her returning fires, if she clasp a dark mist in her dim crescent, drenching rain will be in store for husbandman and seafarer ”

“ The sky, grey in autumn, snowy in winter, and golden in spring, corresponds to the grey sky of evening, the silver one of night, and the golden one of morning. Spring is the dawn of the year; the primitive myth is but amplified; the last hour of the day awakens the aurora; the last month of the solar year awakens the spring. The application of the myth of the day to the year is one of the greatest simplicity. ”

“ I will give you a sign from heaven. In the evening, at sunset you say, 'It will be fine weather, for the sky is as red as fire.' But in the morning, if the sky is red, you say, 'It will be a stormy day, for the sky is red as fire, and threatening.' You learn to read the signs in the sky, yet you do not know how to read the signs of the times. ”

“ And besides they had their own names for all the wonderful and curious things in the heavens; thus the Milky Way was the Pathway of Ghosts; the Northern Lights, the Death Dance of the Spirits; the Rainbow was the Heaven of the Flowers, where they all blossomed again after fading on the earth, and the shadows on the moon were the body of an old woman who had been thrown there by her grandson. ”

“ Then out upon the darkness, gruesome but sublime, flashes the glory of the incomparable corona, a silvery, soft, unearthly light, with radiant streamers, stretching at times millions of uncomprehended miles into space, while the rosy, flaming protuberances skirt the black rim of the Moon in ethereal splendour. It becomes curiously cold, dew frequently forms, and the chill is perhaps mental as well as physical. ”

“ Two great zones of light, like the knees of the angel of the dawn, showed, and, far above, wings in tumultuous colour and wide-spread arms of light struggling as if to smash down the crystal doors—and then, tumult dying and colour fading, at a stroke the western sky showed not a single star and in the eastern sky stood day. ”

“ The dew of the morning comes from the womb of the night, and under the rays of the rising sun is drawn into the air to be formed into clouds to give rain upon the earth. So are the true saints to be the dew of the dawn of millennial glory, upon whom the Sun of righteousness shall shine and draw up into the new heavens as clouds to give the latter rain of blessing, and as showers to water the earth. ”

“ How softly does the Spring day gradually fold back its nun-veil, and the Earth grow bright, as if it were the morning of a Resurrection!--The quicksilver-pillar of the barometer, the guiding Fire-pillar of the weather-prophet, rests firmly on Fixlein's Ark of the Covenant. The Sun raises himself, pure and cool, into the morning-blue, instead of into the morning-red. ”

“ Then as the spring drew near, if, indeed, such a word as spring be at all applicable to an abode of utter dreariness, a faint twilight would be just discernible. The illuminated portion of the sky would move round and round the horizon each twenty-four hours, gradually becoming more and more conspicuous, until at last the edge of the sun appeared. ”

“ A flash of lightning swift from ether sprang
With thunder. Turmoil universal blent
Earth, sea and sky; the empyrean rang 613 With arms, and loudly pealed the Tuscan trumpet's clang.
LXX . Upward they look: again and yet again
Comes the loud crash of thunder, and between
A cloud that frets the firmamental plain,
With bright, red flash amid the sky serene,
The glitter of resounding arms is seen.
All tremble; but Æneas hails the sign
Long-promised. "Ask not," he exclaims, "what mean
These prodigies and portents; they are mine. 622 Me great Olympus calls; I hear the voice divine. ”

“ When daylight has merged into twilight, and twilight has deepened into darkness, myriads of shining points dot the vast expanse of the night sky, and you have been taught that these shining points are the Lamps illumining the abode of your Gods and Goddesses, whom you have regarded as the Messengers of Andûmana̤ the Supreme One. Among those shining points is one gleaming with a soft, silvery radiance, which your Priests have named Inglos ēvecto Fryda̤, which, I am told, would in my language mean Fryda̤'s lamp or light. Truly this silvery point is the Earth world where I dwell. ”

“ The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light; but the Cross shall shine and shall obscure the heavenly luminaries. When the stars shall fall, it alone shall send forth radiance, that thou mayst learn how the Cross is more luminous than the moon and more glorious than the sun. ”

“ I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. ”

“ Therefore, as the constellations of summer accompanied the season of long, warm, and unclouded days, and that of fruits and harvests, they were considered as the powers of light, fecundity, and creation; and, by a transition from a physical to a moral sense, they became genii, angels of science, of beneficence, of purity and virtue. And as the constellations of winter were connected with long nights and polar fogs, they were the genii of darkness, of destruction, of death; and by transition, angels of ignorance, of wickedness, of sin and vice. ”

“ Now there is another light, a light that is above even the sun. That is the light of Easter day. The tomb of death is no longer dark, for the resurrection light brightens every corner and shines in radiance through the open doorway. ”

“ The Vigil of Venus.
Tomorn who ne'er hath loved shall love, and who hath loved shall love tomorn.
Spring is young, spring now is chanting, spring is all the world reborn.
Love in spring is knit to love, bird weds with bird in springtide hours,
And the wood unbinds her rippling tresses under nuptial showers.
Tomorn who ne'er hath loved shall love, and who hath loved shall love tomorn. ”

“ The man who has seen the rising moon break out of the clouds at midnight has been present like an archangel at the creation of light and of the world. I remember one summer day, in the fields, my companion pointed out to me a broad cloud, which might extend a quarter of a mile parallel to the horizon, quite accurately in the form of a cherub as painted over churches, — a round block in the centre, which it was easy to animate with eyes and mouth, supported on either side by wide-stretched symmetrical wings. ”

“ The origin of the Trinity is obvious to anyone who will observe the daily manifestations of the sun. This orb, being the symbol of all Light, has three distinct phases: rising, midday, and setting. The philosophers therefore divided the life of all things into three distinct parts: growth, maturity, and decay. Between the twilight of dawn and the twilight of evening is the high noon of resplendent glory. God the Father, the Creator of the world, is symbolized by the dawn. His color is blue, because the sun rising in the morning is veiled in blue mist. ”