greater things than when they are only seen placed aloft as sylvan trophies. The crest of his late Royal Highness Prince Albert displays the Runic horns, or the horns of the Northern mythic hero. They were always a mark of princely and of conquering eminence, and they are fre quently observable in the crests and blazon of the soldier-chiefs, the Princes of Germany. They come from the original Taut, Tat, Thoth, Teut, whence "Teuton" and "Teutonic." These names derive from the mystic Mercurius Trismegistus, "Thrice-Master, Thrice-Mistress," for this personage is double-sexed: "Phoebe above, Lunar Symbols. Diana on earth, Hecate below." Fig. 183. Egyptian Torus, Lotus Enrichment, and various Fig. 177, ante (from the arches of the Temple Church, Fig. 184. Fig. 185. Temple of Apollinopolis Magna, Norman Capital, Door-shaft: London), is a symbol of the "Blessed Virgin;" it is also the "Delphic E," or "Seleucidan Anchor." The "horns" of the Talmud account for the mythological Minotaur, the Bucentaur, Pan and Priapus, the 251 IONIC, CORINTHIAN, AND GOTHIC VOlves. "Sagittary" or Centaur, the sign "Sagittarius," and perhaps all bicorporate human and animal forms. 188 189 JUI 000 190 Fig. 188. Ionic-Greek: "Egg-and-Tongue" Moulding (two of the Fig. 189. Fig. 190. Grecian Moulding, expressing Religious Mysteries. In the group of figures below, showing the various classical forms of the volutes, or flourished horns, in the Fig. 194. 197 Fig. 192. Volute. Fig. 193. Corinthian. Fig. 191. Pantheon at Rome. Fig. 196. Fig. 197. Fig. 198. Fig. 199. Greek-Corinthian: Choragic Monument, Athens. Corinthian, Ionic, and Composite capitals, a close affinity will be remarked with examples of capitals with horns or volutes from the temple of Ellora, in India, and other Indian and Persian temples: placed under, for comparison, in the illustration. Fig. 200. Norman Capital: Foliated Ornament, resembling the Various mouldings, both Gothic and Classic, present shapes drawn from the astronomical sign "Aquarius." These signs, or ciphers, are significant of the "Sea" and of Fig. 201. Canterbury Cathedral: Volutes of the Corinthian form. Fig. 202. Canterbury Cathedral: the "Moon." Glyphs resembling "fishes" mean Iona, or Jonah. They are also symbols of the "Saviour," when they occur amidst the relics left by the early Christians, and in forms of the first Christian centuries. Orb or "Mound." Vertical Arch: Early Norman. (Temple Church.) CHAPTER THE TWENTY-EIGHTH. ROSICRUCIANISM IN STRANGE SYMBOLS. N the following part of our book we supply, in a series of figures, the succession of changes to which the most ancient head-covering,-in itself a significant hieroglyph,-the Phrygian cap, the classic Mithraic cap, the sacrificial cap, or bonnet conique, all deducing from a common symbolical ancestor, became subject. The Mithraic or Phrygian cap is the origin of the priestly mitre in all faiths. It was worn by the priest in sacrifice. When worn by a male, it had its crest, comb, or point, set jutting forward; when worn by a female, it bore the same prominent part of the cap in reverse, or on the nape of the neck, as in the instance of the Amazon's helmet, displayed in all old sculptures, or that of Pallas-Athene, as exhibited in the figures of Minerva. The peak, pic, or point, of caps or hats (the term "cocked hat” is a case in point) all refer to the same idea. This point had a sanctifying meaning afterwards attributed to it, when it was called the christa, crista, or crest, which signifies a triumphal top, or tuft. The "Grenadier Cap," and the loose black Hussar Cap, derive remotely from the same sacred, Mithraic, or emblematical bonnet, or high pyramidal cap. It, in this instance, changes to black, because it is devoted to the illustration of the "fire-workers" (grenadiers), who, among modern military, succeed the Vulcanists, Cyclopes, classic "smiths," or servants of Vulcan, or Mulciber, the artful worker among the metals in the fire, or amidst the forces of nature. This idea will be found by a reference to the high cap among the Persians, or Fire-Worshippers; and to the black cap among the Bohemians and in the East. All travellers in Eastern lands will remember that the tops of the minarets reminded them of the high-pointed black caps of the Persians. The Phrygian Cap is a most recondite antiquarian form; the symbol comes from the highest antiquity. It is displayed on the head of the figure sacrificing in the celebrated sculpture, called the "Mithraic Sacrifice" (or the Mythical Sacrifice), in the British Museum. This loose cap, with the point protruded, gives the original form from which all helmets or defensive headpieces, whether Greek or Barbarian, deduce. As a Phrygian Cap, or Symbolising Cap, it is always sanguine in its colour. It then stands as the "Cap of Liberty," a revolutionary form; also, in another way, it is even a civic or incorporated badge. It is always masculine in its meaning. It marks the "needle" of the obelisk, the crown or tip of the phallus, whether "human" or representative. It has its origin in the rite of circumcision-unaccountable as are both the symbol and the rite. The real meaning of the bonnet rouge, or "cap of liberty," has been involved from time immemorial in deep obscurity, notwithstanding that it has always been regarded as a most important hieroglyph or figure. It signifies the supernatural simultaneous "sacrifice" and "triumph." It has descended from the time of Abraham, and it is supposed to emblem the strange mythic rite of the "circumcisio preputii." The loose Phrygian bonnet, bonnet conique, or "cap of liberty," may be accepted as figuring, or standing for, that detached integument or husk, separated from a certain point or knob, which has various names in different languages, and which supplies the central idea of this sacrificial rite—the spoil or refuse of which (absurd and unpleasant as it may seem) is borne aloft at once as a "trophy" and as the "cap of liberty." |