The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 103 -
Explanation of the fourth to sixth signs of the zodiac.
1
(Mathael:) "Let"s move on now to the fourth sign! Again we see an animal, namely a very courageous bull. After looking after the sheep the old shepherding tribes cared above all to the cattle. In this time the cows were mostly beginning to mate and the strong were divided from the weak and the main concern was for good breeding.
2
The bull, which the Egyptians valued above all, yes, even it was given the place as a scribe because he formed different figures in loose sand through his blowing, was represented standing almost on two back legs. So what was more natural than that the constellation, under which the sun entered this period and in addition the external circumference lines suggested the form of a bull, was called "taurus"?
3
Even the Roman taurus originates from this and through time was only shortened from the original "T a our sat", or "Ti a our sat", which means: Time (sat) of the bull = stand on the back legs.
4
Later this period was also called "Aprilis", namely by the Romans, which however in the Egyptian tongue means nothing other than: A (the bull) uperi (open) liz or lizu (the face), also: Bull, open the gate! - of the open pasture. It hardly needs to be mentioned that in time the old bull was made into a god by the Egyptians. So we have now the creation of the fourth zodiac sign before us faithful to nature and true, and we want to see how the fifth sign was created under the name and form of the twins as Castor and Pollux!
5
This will be very easy to understand, if we think that the old shepherding nation of Egypt had a lot of care and effort of the year with the looking after of the cattle. After this time the heads of the community came together and chose one or two knowledgeable and possibly understanding judges and at the same time judges for this period, who had to look around and check whether all former effort was carried out uniformly well and beneficient. According to the position, an inquirer was named. "Ka I e stor?" was the question and translated meant, "What has he done?" Then followed the serious admonition with the demanded sentence: "Po luxe men!", also "Poluzce men!" - "Give me light on the matter, an explanation!"
6
These later became the twins; but basically the twins were only two sentences, namely a question and then the demand, naturally not only through words, but in deed.
7
But since around such a time of inquiry and checking the sun entered the familiar two-star constellation, they were called "twins" and in the Roman tongue Gemini or also Castor and Pollux, which naturally later were also worshipped as gods through the vain fantasy of the people.
8
We have now got the fifth zodiac sign before us explained just like the previous signs faithfully and truthfully; but now we come to the sixth sign, and there we suddenly see the "crab"! How did it come to the great starry zodiac? I tell you, quite easily and naturally just like the previous ones!
9
You see, in this period of time the day lasts longest; then it begins to become shorter in length, and the elders compared this returning length of the day with the movement of a crab. But at the same time it was the sixth period of thirty days, in which the dew in this country became very strong at night, particularly near to the river. At such a time the crabs climbed out of their marshy holes at night and paid the nearby grassy and dewy meadows a very refreshing and nutritional visit. The old inhabitants of the land on the Nile noticed this very easily and at the beginning made an effort to drive the uninvited guests out of the fat meadows, which particularly for the first inhabitants of this land was no easy job, since in this time the quantity of these great mud insects went into countlessness. At first they encountered them with burning torches, collected them in piles and burned them, which did nothing to the large number, however. In burning however there was always a very good and very inviting smell, and the elders soon thought that the animals were perhaps good to eat, But nonetheless no-one wanted to begin this sampleing of the roast.
10
Later they were boiled in great pots and the soup was found to be very tasty; but no-one wanted to dare. They were given to the pigs that had already been raised by the elders, and these gorged themselves on them and became very fat, which was a very welcome discovery to the Egyptians, for they used much fat from the animals, as well as the skin and the intestines; but they did not enjoy the meat and used it for the additional food for the pigs.
11
But when in time lazy people began to degenerate and to sin against old and wise laws which had come from the pre-flood religious leader Henoch, soon huge prisons were built and the criminals were placed inside. These were fed with boiled crabs and alternately with salted and roasted pork and only a little bread. But one noticed that the criminals thrived with this food and later on in a bad year the free people also tried the terrible-seeming prison food and found that it tasted better than their old traditional food. This realisation was then soon the cause that the enormous quantity of the great and fat Nile crabs soon decreased very much, since they were hunted too much.
12
Later the Greeks and Romans also ate this mud insect and thrived on it; only the Jews even today do not eat it, although Moses did not exactly forbid it.
13
But from all of that it can be more than tangibly seen that the old Egyptians could not choose any better image for the sign of this sixth period of thirty days than this animal that gave them so much work to do in this time period. This picture also lets us think that it received a type of divine honor. Greeks and Romans later dedicated this time period to the goddess Juno and named the time thus in her honor.
14
But now there is the question how this goddess was actually invented and how she received her divine personality. The wise men have different opinions which are basically not badly founded. But the real reason is nonetheless that which was hatched in time just as with the personlaities of Castor and Pollux.
15
Around the time of the crabs it became too hot for manual activities, and one therefore devoted this time to spiritual investigation in great shady temples of which then several were built by the original inhabitants of this land.
16
A main question at the beginning of all spiritual investigation was whether the pure divinity could also be sought in any material conjunction.
17
As all questions by the wise men were only very short, but needed a very long answer, thus was it with this weighty question the same case. They said, "Je U ? (un) o?" translated: "Is that separate divinty, if put next to each other, still a whole divinity?"
18
You ask: How could then these simple letters mean this pronounced sentence? You shall learn the very natural reason right now! The U for the old Egyptians was represented by means of an open semicircle with extended ends, and meant in this way a receptacle for everything divine that comes from above to the people on Earth. It goes without saying that the wise elders understood by this mainly a spiritual gift of light for the soul of a person.
19
The N was represented by a similar semicircle but turned to face downwards (?), and described dead matter, in itself completely spiritless and lightless. The round roofs of some houses and particularly the temple therefore had the form of an up-turned semi-circle and showed that in such places the divine was joined with the material, creates a temporal life and reveals itself to the people at times. From this was created the old, important question: "Je U ? o?", because the O represented the full divinity in its purity.
20
The answer to this old weighty question then meant that all created matter relates to God almost as a wife to her husband and lord. God created in one movement in and through the material His myriads of children of all types. He pollinated the material in one movement with His divinely spiritual influence, and the material bore Him then the countless children conceived in it. That was certainly a very eminent thought which the old wise men had placed as an answer to the familiar, weighty question!
21
In time, particularly for the later descendents who were lusting after the senses, there was no longer any idea about the old Egyptian wisdom, and the question Je un o and the defined femininity of all material was made into a personal goddess and she was given the name at first "Jeu no", then simply "Juno", and she was married to the likewise non-existent god Zeus.
22
The old wise men then considered from wise and very natural reasons the material to be hard, unbending, unsubmissive and thought that one could only gain anything from it through great hard work and great effort. The old imperfections discovered by the old wise men in matter were foisted by later descendents to the god wife Juno, with whom Zeus constantly was lacking. Do you now understand your goddess Juno?"
23
Helena says, "I beg you, my very dearest Mathael, just continue; I could listen to you without interruption for days! Your explanation is not as pictorial and decorated as that of Homer, but it is wise and true, and that is of a thousand times more value and more attractive than all the magical flowery adornment of the great folk singers! Therefore just continue uninterrupted in your tale!"
24
Mathael says, "Are you telling me what I want to hear!? For look, the truth wants to be understood, but never flattered! But I know that you are not flattering me, only the truth, which does not come from me but from God, and so I can continue."