Theos-Talk Archives (December 1997 Message tt00120)

Dec 25th 1997

Some thoughts from HPB to be considered, and remembered:


"Though now universally accepted by Christian nations as the anniversary of
the birth of Jesus, the 25th of December was not originally so accepted.
The most movable of the Christian feast days, during the early centuries,
Christmas was often confounded with the Epiphany, and celebrated in the
months of April and May.  As there never was any authentic record or proof
of its identification, whether in secular or ecclesiastical history, the
selection of that day long remained optional;  and it was only during the
4th century that, urged by Cyril of Jerusalem, the Pope (Julius 1) ordered
the bishops to make an investigation and come finally to some agreement as
to the presumable date of the nativity of Christ.  their choice fell upon
the 25th Day of December,---and a most unfortunate choice it ha since
proved !  It was Dupuis, followed by Volney, who aimed the first shots at
this natal anniversary.  They proved that for incalculable periods before
our era, upon very clear astronomical data, nearly all the ancient peoples
had celebrated the births of their sun-gods on that very day.  "Dupuis
showed that the celestial sign of the "Virgin and Child" was in existence
several thousand years before Christ"--remarks Higgins in his
"Anacalyspsis."  -- HPB  III 59
	"Christmas then and Christmas now."   THEOSOPHIST,  Dec. 1879



"[From LUCIFER, Jan. 1888 ]  "Let no one imagine that it is a mere fancy,
the attaching of importance to the birth of the year.  The astral life of
the earth is young and strong between Christmas and Easter.  those who form
their wishes now, will have added strength to fulfill them
consistently...Everything in the Universe was framed according to the
eternal proportions and combinations  of numbers.  'God geometrizes,' and
numbers and numerals are the fundamental basis of all systems of mysticism,
philosophy, and religion.  The respective festivals of the year and their
dates were all fixed according to the Sun--the 'father of all calendars'
and of the Zodiac, or the Sun-god and the twelve great, but still minor
gods;  and they became susbequently sacred in the cycle of national and
tribal religions...

"We are in the Winter Solstice, the period at which the Sun entering the
sign of Capricornus has already, since December 21st, ceased to advance in
the southern Hemisphere, and, cancer or crab-like, begins to move back.  It
is at this particular time that, every year, he is born, and December 25th
was the day of the birth of the sun for those who inhabited the Northern
hemisphere.

It is also on December the 25th, Christmas, the day with the Christians on
which the 'Saviour of the World' was born, that were born ages before him,
the Persian Mithra, the Egyptian Osiris, the Greek Bacchus, the Phoenician
Adonis, the Phrygian Athis...and the Romans marked December 25th in their
calendar as the day natalis solis invicti."  --  H P B  - Articles I, p.
504-5
   "The Year is Dead, Long Live the Year !"  LUCIFER, January 1889



"The Central Point, or the great central sun of the Kosmos, as the
kabalists call it, is the Deity.  It is the point of intersection between
the two great conflicting powers--the centripetal and centrifugal forces,
which drive the planets into their elliptical orbits, that make them trace
a cross in their paths through the Zodiac."	-- H P B Articles II p. 491
	"Cross and Fire"	THEOSOPHIST, November 1879


"Astronomically, this descent into hell symbolized the Sun during the
autumnal equinox when abandoning the higher sidereal regions--there was a
supposed fight between him and the Demon of Darkness who got the best of
our luminary.  Then the Sun was imagined to undergo a temporary death and
to descend into the infernal regions.  But mystically, it typified the
initiatory rites in the crypts of the temple, called the Underworld.
Bacchus, Herakles, Orpheus, Asklepios and all the other visitors of the
crypt, all descended into hell and ascended thence on the third day, for
all were initiates and "Builders of the lower Temple."	--H P B   Articles
III 224
"The Roots of Ritualism in Church and Masonry"   LUCIFER, Mar. 1889

These few references give us an idea of the scope of the subject.  Much
more can be found in ISIS UNVEILED and THE SECRET DOCTRINE if we go to the
INDEX and look up Sun, Zodiac, Calendar, etc...

		Dallas TenBroeck