KMT THE BEGINNING OF BEGINNING

About the origin of the Zodiac Should it be asked at what epoch this system (the zodiacal symbolism), took its birth, we shall answer on the testimony of the monuments of astronomy itself, that its principles appear with certainty to have been established about 17,000 years ago. And if it be asked to what people it is to be attributed, we shall answer that the same monuments, supported by unanimous traditions, attribute it to the first tribes of Egypt The Ruins of Empires, pp 120-123 by C.F. Volney At the time of creation - man a mortal creature made in the image of an immortal being was sent down to be an embellishment of the divine body of the Cosmos. Man was made to view the universe with awe and wonder, and to come to know his maker. And God summoned all the gods in heaven, asking each of them in turn; what can you provide for humanity who are about to be made? Then the Sun said 'I will shine upon him in the day time, the Moon promised to give light after. Saturn announced that he had already become father of Penal Justice and Necessity. Jupiter begot peace for them so they would not be utterly destroyed by wars. Mars said he was already father of Struggle, Anger and Strife. Venus offered Love, Pleasure and Laughter. Mercury offered Intelligence and Wisdom. To man - as long as you were sinless you dwelt in the places nigh to heaven; but now that blame has come upon you, you have been condemned to imprisonment in the organs of mortal bodies and must yourself dwell in the region assigned to them.. In that region, Desire and Necessity will be your masters; for it is they, after me, are masters and captain of all things below. I will keep my eyes on you and, if the charges against you be but slight, you shall be released from your deadly bondage of the flesh and freed from sorrow and you will greet again your home above. However if you shall be found guilty of any greater sins, when you quit your bodily frames, you shall not dwell in heaven but you shall be transferred into the bodies of beasts , and thence forth continue to wander upon earth. Souls imprisoned in bodies - began to quarrel among themselves; and the stronger men used the weaker as tools, and made them attack each other and array themselves in hostile ranks, and make war on one another. And the strong tortured and slew the powerless; and they enslaved the living, and cast out the dead unburied. Then the elements (which out of all things get their beginning and into which all things are resolved when they cease to be, paying a debt that must be paid) resolved to petition God: Hermetica / Scott p186. 1. Fire "I am polluted; I am forced to consume human flesh, reveal thyself to the world and put an end to human savagery. 2. Air: "I am made turbid from the reek that rises form the corpses, so that I breed sickness and cease to be wholesome. 3. Water: "O father self begotten and Maker of Nature, please give command that my streams be kept pure for the rivers and the seas are ever washing off the defilement of the slayers, and receiving the corpses of the slain." 4. Earth: "I am soaked through and through with the juices of rotting corpses, I am forced to contain beings unworthy of me." At first the planets (the heavenly gods complained saying that humanity have inquisitive eyes, hear what they have no right to hear. 'They reach out with audacious hands. They will drag up the roots of plants, and investigate the properties of stones. They will dissect the lower animals - and one another also!

They will seek to discover how it is that they are alive, and what is hidden. They will cut down the woods of their native land and sail across the sea to see what lies there. They will dig mines and search the uttermost depths of the Earth. All this might be bearable, but they will do much more. They will press on to explore the world above, seeking by observation to discover the laws that govern the movement of the heavens.' Atum replied: I will build the Zodiac - a secret mechanism in the stars, linked to unerring and inevitable fate. The lives of men from birth to final destruction shall be controlled by the hidden workings of this mechanism.