Hours with the Mystics, vol. i. note to book i. chap. 2, by R. A. Vaughan, B.A.).

The words graven upon the zone and the feet of the Ephesian Diana, which Hesychius has preserved, are the following:

"These Ephesian words," says Plutarch (Sympos.), "the Magi used to recite over those possessed with devils." "Damnameneus" is seen on a Gnostic amulet in the De la Turba Collection (The Gnostics, p. 94).

The Argha had the form of a crescent. The Argo, arc, or arche, is the navis biprora. It is clear that, as neither the full moon nor the half-moon was ever the object of worship, it is the crescent horns of the moon which imply the significance. These mean the woman-deity in every religion.

The snake associated with the mysteries among the Hindoos is the cobra-di-capella. It is said that the snake on the heads of all the Idols in Egypt was a Cobra. The name of the monarch or Chief Priest in Thibet is the Lama, or the Grand Lama. Prester-John is the great Priest, or Prestre (Prêtre), Ian, Ion, Jehan, or John (the Sun). Lamia is the "snake" among the Ophidians; Lama is the hand: lamh, hand, is a divine name in the Scythian tongue. It also means the number 10, and the Roman numeral X, which is a cross. Now, the double pyramid, or hand, (a) A, of the Egyptians comprises the mystic mark signifying the two original principles water and fire, as thus —(6)—the union of which, as intersecting triangles, forms the famous Hexalpha, or "Solomon's Seal," or "Wizard's Foot," which, according to the Eastern allegory, is placed (as that of St. Michael) upon the Rebellious Spirits in their "abyss," or "prison."

Pyr is the Greek name of fire (thence Pyramid), and mythologically of the sun, who was the same as Hercules.

And the great analyser of mythology assures us that Pur was the ancient name of Latian Jupiter, the father of Hercules; that he was the deity of fire; that his name was particularly retained amongst the people of Præneste, who had been addicted to the rites of fire. Fire, in short, in these mythologies, as also in all the Christian churches, meets us at every turn. But we must not mix up heathen ideas and Christian ideas in these matters.

Egyptian Torso. (British Museum.)

UR engraving borrows from the West Front of Laon Cathedral, France, a Catherine-Wheel (or "Rose") Window. The twelve pillars, or radii, are the signs of the Zodiac, and are issuant out of the glorified centre, or opening "rose," the sun, or "beginning of all things." King Arthur's Round Table" displays the "crucified" Rose in its centre.

In the "tables," alternating with tying-knots, of the Order of the Garter,-which "Most Noble Order" was originally dedicated, be it remembered, to the Blessed Lady, or to the Virgin Mary, the microcosmical, miniature "King Arthur's Round Table" becomes the individual female discus, or organ, waxing and waning, negative or in flower, positive or natural, alternately red and white, as the Rose of the World: Rosamond, Rosa mundi. And here we will adduce, as our justification for this new reading of the origin of the Order of the Garter, the very motto of the princely order itself:

or,

Fig. 34.

"Honi soit qui mal y pense!"

"YONI' soit qui mal y pense!"

* Tablier, Fr.= Apron.

What this "Yoni" is, and the changes meant and apotheosised through it, the discreet reader will see on a little reflection.

All the world knows the chivalric origin of this Most Noble Order of the Garter.* It arose in a princely act,— rightly considered princely, when the real, delicate, inexpressibly high-bred motive and its circumstances are understood, which motive is systematically and properly concealed. Our great King Edward the Third picked-up, with the famous words of the motto of the Order of the Garter, the "garter"—or, as we interpret it, by adding a new construction with hidden meanings, the "Garder" (or special cestus, shall we call it?)—of the beautiful and celebrated Countess of Salisbury, with whom, it is supposed, King Edward was in love.

The following is from Elias Ashmole: "The Order of the Garter by its motto seems to challenge inquiry and defy reproach. Everybody must know the story that refers the origin of the name to a piece of gallantry: either the Queen or the Countess of Salisbury having been supposed to have dropped one of those very useful pieces of female attire at a dance; upon which old Camden says, with a great deal of propriety, and a most just compliment to the ladies, 'Hæc vulgus perhibet, nec vilis sane hæc videatur origo, cum NOBILITAS Sub AMORE jacet.' The ensign of the order, in jewelry or enamel, was worn originally on the left arm. Being in the form of a bracelet to the arm, it might possibly divert the attention of the men from the reputed original; it might be dropped and resumed without confusion; and the only objection I can see to the use of such an ornament is the hazard of mistake from the double meaning of the term periscelis, which signifies not only a garter, but breeches, which our English ladies never wear: 'Quæ Græci tego×λñ vocant, nostri Braccas' (braces or breeches) 'dicunt,' says an ancient Father of the Church." The Garter, to judge thus from Camden, was not a garter at all for the leg, but an occasional very important item of feminine under-attire ; and King Edward's knightly feeling, and the religious devo* See post, and through Chapter the Thirtieth, for particular facts -very important in the authentic history of the "Garter.

ORIGIN OF THE ORDER OF THE "GARTER.”

159

tion of the object, will be perceived upon close and delicately respectful consideration.

There is great obscurity as to the character of Abraxas, the divinity of the Gnostics. The Eons, or Degrees of Advance in the Zodiacal Circle, are thirty in number to each of the Twelve Signs, and consequently there are 360 to the entire Astronomical Circle, or 365, counting for each day of the solar year. The inscription upon the Gnostic gems, CEOr, is probably intended for EOT; "for the Arabs yet substitute the s for the th in their pronunciation (Gnostics, p. 233; Matter, Histoire Critique du Gnosticisme). In this "s," and the "th" standing for it, lie all the mysteries of Masonry.

+, Christos, was designed for the guide of all that proceeds from God. Sophia-Achamoth is the guide, according to the Gnostics, for all proceeding out of "matter." St. Irenæus, whose period is the end of the second century, draws all these startling inferences from the Book of Enoch, and names "Sophia" as signifying the Divine Wisdom. The Ophite scheme seems evidently the Bhuddistic Bythos, answering to the first Buddha. Sige, Sophia, Christos, Achamoth, Ildabaoth, answer to the successive five others (Gnostics, p. 27; Bellermann's Drei Programmen über die Abraxas-gemmen, Berlin, 1820; Basilides; Tertullian, De Præscript.: "Serpentem magnificant in tantum, ut illum etiam Christo præferant." See Tertullian, Epiphanius, and Theodoret.: St. John iii. 14, also). We now refer the reader to some significant figures towards the end of our volume, which will be found according to their numbers.

Figure 289: The Abraxas-god, invested with all the attributes of Phoebus. Green jasper; a unique type. The Egyptians call the moon the mother of the world, and say it is of both sexes (Plutarch; Spartian, Life of Caracalla). The moon, in a mystic sense, is called by the Egyptians male and female. The above is a gem in the Bosanquet Collection. In the exerque is the address, CABAN-" Glory unto Thee!" On the reverse, in a cartouche formed by a coiled asp,-precisely as the Hindoos write the ineffable name "Aum,"- —are the titles IAN. ABPACAZ (The Gnostics, p. 86).