Thus the Egyptian of Thebes named stars of inundation, or Aquarius, those stars under which the Nile began to overflow; stars of Taurus the bull, those under which they began to plow; stars of Leo those under which lions, driven from the desert by thirst, appeared on the banks of the Nile; stars of the sheaf, or of the harvest virgin Virgo, those of the reaping season; stars of the lamb Aries, stars of Capricorn, those under which these precious baby lambs and goats were brought forth: and thus was resolved the first part of the difficulty.
In the same manner he named the stars of the crab, those where the sun, having arrived at the tropic at the summer solstice, retreated by a slow retrograde motion like the crab or Cancer.
He named stars of the balance, or Libra, those where the days and nights, being equal, seemed in equilibrium, like that instrument; and stars of the Scorpio, those where certain periodical winds bring vapours, burning like the venom of the scorpion.
Gemini was human wedding season. Pisces was fishing season. Sagittarius was when they shot arrows in war and gazelle hunting.
They would say by a natural metaphor: The bull spreads over the earth the germs of fecundity (in spring) he restores vegetation and plenty: the lamb (or ram) delivers the skies from the maleficent powers of winter; he saves the world from the serpent of Ophiuchus (emblem of the humid season) and restores the empire of goodness (summer, joyful season): the scorpion pours out his venom on the earth, and scatters diseases and death. The same of all similar effects.
This language, understood by everyone, was attended at first with no inconvenience; but in the course of time, when the calendar had been regulated, the people, who had no longer any need of observing the heavens, lost sight of the original meaning of these expressions; and the allegories remaining in common use became a fatal stumbling block to the understanding and to reason. Habituated to associate to the symbols the ideas of their archetypes, the mind at last confounded them. The same emblems, whom fancy had transported to the skies, returned again to the earth; but being thus returned, clothed in the livery of the stars, they claimed the stellary attributes, and imposed on their own authors. Then it was that the people, believing that they saw their gods among them, could pray to them with more convenience: they demanded from the ram of their flock the influences which might be expected from the heavenly ram; they prayed the scorpion not to pour out his venom upon nature; they revered the crab and the fish, Cancer and Pisces, of the river Nile; and by a series of corrupt but inseparable analogies, they lost themselves in a labyrinth of well connected absurdities.
People of Japan, your bull, which breaks the cosmic egg, is only the bull of the zodiac, which in former times opened the seasons, the age of creation, the vernal equinox. It is the same bull Apis which Egypt adored, and which your ancestors, Jewish Rabbis, worshipped in the Golden Calf. This is still your bull, followers of Zoroaster, which, sacrificed in the symbolic mysteries of Mithra, poured out his blood which fertilized the earth. And ye Christians, your bull of the Apocalypse, with his wings, symbol of the Gospel of Luke, has no other origin; and your Lamb of God, sacrificed, like the bull of Mithra, for the salvation of the world, is only the same sun, in the sign of the celestial ram, which, in a later age, opening the equinox in his turn, was supposed to deliver the world from evil, that is to say, from the constellation of the serpent Ophiuchus, from that great snake, the parent of winter, the emblem of the Ahrimanes, or Satan of the Persians, your school masters. Yes, in vain does your imprudent zeal consign idolaters to the torments of the Tartarus which they invented; the whole basis of your system is only the worship of the sun, with whose attributes you have decorated your principal personage. It is the sun which, under the name of Horus, was born, like your God, at the winter solstice, in the arms of the celestial virgin Isis, and who passed a childhood of obscurity, indigence, and want, answering to the season of cold and frost. It is he that, under the name of Osiris, persecuted by Set the tyrant of the desert air, was put to death, shut up in a dark sarcophagus, emblem of the hemisphere of winter, and afterwards, ascending from the inferior zone towards the zenith of heaven, arose again from the dead triumphant over the angels of destruction.
Ye priests! who murmur at this relation, you wear his emblems all over your bodies; your tonsure is the disk of the sun; your stole is the zodiac; your rosaries are symbols of the stars and planets. Ye pontiffs and prelates! your mitre, your crozier, your mantle are those of Osiris; and that cross whose mystery you extol without comprehending it, is the ankh of Serapis, traced by the hands of Egyptian priests on the plan of the figurative world; which, passing through the equinoxes and the solstices, became the emblem of the future life and of the resurrection, because it touched the gates of ivory and of horn, through which the soul passed to heaven.
COUNT VOLNEY, "THE RUINS," ON THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION
This episode definitely struck my heart, and I enjoyed seeing Blue Cat’s tough side, of not caving into Fuwa’s demands (such as refusing to give her the cookie), as well as her vulnerable side. The most impactful moment for me was when her smokescreen bomb had accidentally been flung at and blew up against her beloved leader Olivia. It certainly gave me a fright, especially with Blue Cat’s distress. She is the only survivor, who had miraculously gotten off of the planet before everyone was completely consumed. The girls recognized Blue Cat didn’t want to bring harm to them, as she was certain to have only taken the Princess pens, while leaving them with their pendants to ensure their safety. And she continued showing that side of her as despite everything she had been saying, she fought alongside the precures and did her best to protect them with the cards she had in her hands.
As for her Cure Cosmos form, while the transformation sequence was quite pretty and I really liked the triangle reference to prisms, it was still very pretty. Her precure design is also stunning, but I do kind of wished they stuck with her true form. I feel like it’s a missed opportunity, especially given her race was just said to have been feared upon by others, which is why they ended up drifting to the barren Planet Rainbow, where there they were able to figure out how to make use of the Rainbowite resources to help the planet flourish, and become inhabitable. And since Fuwa had given her a brand new pen, she now has the blue one, so I am curious to see how this is going to play out now in terms of using the Princess Pens.
As for the two 'raiders, Ayewan looks like she will be the one to fall (if she does fall for good that is) in this fight. Kappard will be there to witness it, as he was ordered by Lord Garuogre to take over her mission, or at least assist in some way. So far today, he has just been observing on the sidelines, watching Ayewan do her thing as she had insisted she will deal with this herself. She decided to use the dark pen on herself, and became quite intimating. Varying on how the fight plays out next week, the dark pen which is now in Kappard’s hands may remain in their clutches so as long the girls are unable to get it back. There looks to be lots of action, so I’m looking forward to it!
I wasn’t expecting Master Darknest to actually appear at the battle by taking possession of Ayewon, and enhancing her power which put her in a lot of pain. It was quite interesting to see counter Kappard’s argument he had made in the past, by how right now at that moment, she could clearly see Ayewon was suffering. Yuni teamed up together to fight Ayewon, and Hikaru, having recovered Aries’ pen was able to share it with Yuni so she could deliver the final blow.
Speaking of Ayewon, I am curious to see where she ought to run off now that she doesn’t appear to have returned to the KNotraiders headquarters to witness Master Darknest’s return. It was quite a dramatic scene too, with the destruction of his crystal, and now that he has a physical body. I am all over his wicked design, and I like that his face continues to be concealed, but perhaps a factor in that could potentially be attributed to the fact he has yet to reclaim his true strength, as mentioned earlier.