this name, even among savages in whose country no great bears exist. The origin of the name Great Bear is quite unknown, although Max Müller endeavoured to prove more suo that it arose from the corruption of a word meaning something originally different. This constellation was once known as the "Sheepfold"; and it would appear from the emblems herewith that the Great Bear was regarded as a symbol of the Great Spirit, the Triple Perfection (note the three circles on the collar of fig. 314), the Light of the World, the Alpha and Omega, or Jesus Christ.

The only reason I can surmise for this symbolism is the material fact that Bears hibernate during winter and sub

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314

315

316

sist for long periods upon their own fat, and that thus by the simple system of analogy underlying all symbolism the Bear became elevated into an emblem of the Self-Existent, the Everlasting, the I AM. The foliage among which the Great Bear in the ornament herewith is seated is the mystic Amaranth, a fact confirmatory of this theory, for the Amaranth of the poets was a familar and well-recognised symbol of the everlasting and the incorruptible.3

1 Custom and Myth, A. Lang, pp. 121-142. 2 The Perfect Way, p. 331.

3 Amarantos=the everlasting. remains red to the last. Cf. Milton—

Its blood-red flower never fades, but

"Immortal Amaranth, a flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life,

Begun to bloom; but soon for man's offence,

To Heaven removed where first it grew.”—Paradise Lost.

The constellation of the Great Bear consists of Seven Great Stars, two of which point to the Pole Star, the fixed hinge and pivot upon which turns the Universe. The reason why the ancients christened the constellation of the Great Bear by this apparently inappropriate name was in all probability its constitution of Seven Great Stars. The association of Seven with the Spirit of God has persisted to the present day, and Christians still speak of the sevenfold gifts of the Septiform Spirit. ORMUZ, the supreme God of Light, was said to sit at the head of a Hierarchy of Seven Holy Immortals.1 Of INDRA the Vedas state :

"Seven bright rays bedeck his brow,

Seven great rivers from him flow." 2

3

The Hindoos describe Oм, the solar fire, as riding in a car drawn by seven green horses preceded by the Dawn, and followed by thousands of Genii worshipping him and modulating his praises. The Egyptians expressed the name of the Supreme Being by a word of seven vowels,* and the association of seven with the Great Spirit was apparently universal."

It is evident that the mystic has in all ages conceived himself as a miniature facsimile of the Spiritual Powers above him, and there is small doubt that the devisers of these Bear emblems, self-applying the words of Isaiah,

1 The Rigveda, E. V. Arnold, p. 19.

2 Dutt, p. 10.

3 The Hindoos, p. 155.

4 The Gnostics, King, p. 319.

5 Plutarch, discussing the symbolism of numbers, says:

And what need

is there to talk about the others when the Seven, sacred to Apollo, will alone exhaust the whole day, should one attempt to enumerate all its properties? In the next place, we shall prove that the Wise Men quarrelled with common custom as well as with long tradition, when they pushed down the Seven from its place of honour and dedicated the Five unto the god as the more properly pertaining to him."-On the E at Delphi.

6 lix. 9–11.

1

regarded themselves as little bears: "We wait for light, but behold obscurity: for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We roar all like bears and mourn sore like doves." Wherefore, continues Isaiah, the Almighty wondered that there was no intercession, and, cloaking Himself with zeal, raised up a standard against His enemies. The call of the Spirit was symbolised by the Horn associated with the designs herewith.

Observe how at the sound of this Horn the Great Bear is awakened from the impassive pose of the preceding

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320

321

322

designs and transported into an attitude of fury. "According to their deeds," says Isaiah, "accordingly He will repay fury to His adversaries.” 1

That the Horn typified the Call of the Spirit is manifest from the S of Spiritus in fig. 323, and by the SS of Sanctus Spiritus introduced into figs. 326 and 325. Note also the Cross of Lux surmounting fig. 324.

There is a MS. in the British Museum (eleventh century), wherein DAVID is represented receiving inspiration from the Holy Spirit in the form of a Dove. Overhead the Divine Hand projects from a cloud and extends a Horn, from which issue five flames or rays of light.2

1 lix. 18.

2 Cf. Christian Symbolism, Mrs Henry Jenner, p. 40.

The Three Rays striking down on to fig. 328 are the Three Light Rays that occur frequently in Egyptian hieroglyphics;1 the more modern descendant of these three rays is the three-lobed Fleur de Lys, whence the heraldic three feathers of the Prince of Wales.

In Scandinavian mythology the Horn was fabled to be

preserved under Yggdrasill, the sacred world-tree. According to the Finns, it was in "the midst of Heaven," and the Kalevala attributes to it the same magical properties of making the desert blossom like the rose, as were assigned to the Holy Grail—

"Fetch the cow-horn from a distance,

Fetch it from the midst of heaven;

Bring the mead-horn down from heaven,

Let the honey-horn be sounded.

1 Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, A. W. Churchward, passim.