Harking back to the first stages of occultism and knowledge we get to Buddhist symbolism with its wheel, bowl, yellow robe, etc. Chinese history tells us how early the heavenly bodies received the attention of scholars and how the knowledge brought- into practice hidden powers of man. Then westward came the initiated and taught their disciples the mystic religion. The Chaldeans transmitted the teachings to the Egyptians. Greeks and Romans adapted their religious tenets to the Oriental pantheology and philosophy. Early Occidental masters of symbolism were Thales of Miletus (6th cen tury a.c.), the founder of the Ionic sect of philosophers; Anaxagoras, Archelaus, master of Socrates, etc. The Jews soon absorbed the study of astrology with its planetary signifi-• cane and zodiacal mystic rulings, thesymbolic value of numbers (Kabala), etc. As an Eastern people they were naturally early imbued with a symbolic system, and the Mosaic plan fre quently discloses the fact in the Old Testa ment, but we must remember the Egyptians (under whom the Jews had dwelt for so many years) were, in their cult, symbolists. The cult of Judaism has been said to have been built on a monotheistic and ethical basis; not like others, on natural religion and on physical and cosmic hypotheses. A learned Jewish rabbi (Samson Hirsch) declares that the purpose of i Biblical symbols is not to veil the mind or to lay down secrets that are puzzles to he eluci dated, as is the case with other religions, but, on the contrary, to make plainer the inner meaning in the rendering of which the mean ing is mostly declared in words added to the expression. Of such symbols might be men tioned the rainbow, symbol of the pact be tween God and man; innumerable stars, symbol of the promised riches of Israel; stone and ladder of Jacob's dream; prohibition of eating the hip sinew, in everlasting memory of the struggle with God; the commandment to take off the shoes; the blood of the Paschal lamb; shearing of the Levites' head; washing and bathing rites, anointment, laying on of hands, etc. For in their liturgical ritual, as with those of former and later cults, the sacrifice of burnt offering on the altar has always been symbolic of self-abnegation; the burning of incense, symbol of devout prayer reaching to heaven, and so on. With their rigorous sect of Essenes we can recognize, in their peculiar ritual of apparent worship of the rising sun, a physical expression of symbolic reverence, for they seem to have considered the Torah as entirely sym bolic in all its text.
In the claim, by some few, that John the Baptist was an Essene, we come to the early Christians and the Gnostics, Pythagoras (6th century &c), with a knowledge gained (accord ing to ancient claims) by years of actual resi dence and deep study among the Egyptians, Phcenicians, Chaldeans, Jews Arabians, Gallic Druids, Persian Magi and Indian Brahmins, founded at Crotona a religious brotherhood for the reformation of society, besides the study of philosophy. The science of numbers (mathe matics and astronomy) was the basis of theo retical teaching developing into numerical sym bolism and the displaying of dots as units in symmetrical patterns (as on our dice and dominoes), each pattern group becoming a symbolic unit and thereby becoming the es sence of cosmic substance and symbols of such. Later the philosophy of Aristotle (4th century ac.) with its ethics gave much impulse to the cults, and out of the teachings of these great Greek master minds, with such links in the propaganda of mystics as Basilides, Marlon, Valentine, Heracleon, Ptolymeus, Apelles, etc., flourished gnosticism. Thus we get such sects as Ophites, Cainites, Sethians, etc. Thus we have in the first three centuries or more of the Christian era a symbolic cult supposed to cover the entire knowledge of religious sublime prin ciples. In 325 A.D. the religious usage of symbolism was interdicted, but Byzantine churches followed a symbolic ritual containing much of the ancient Oriental mystic wisdom. The symbolism of the Moslem doctrines and architecture has been claimed as being taught to Mohammed by his Jewish secretary, who in turn gained initiation from the Aristotelian The cult of Sufism, with its deep occult symbolic learning, is found practised by its adherents in the land of the Moslem. The '
symbols of the pagan and those of the early ', Christian Church, as Harnack says, were never mere signs,. but always embodied a mystery.' Hence water may be a symbol of cleansing power but the priestly blessing of the water incor porates the mystic value into the water; the bread and the wine are symbols of the Flesh and Blood, but the ritualistic sanctification pro duced the embodied Eucharist. Great teachers of the Christian symbolism were Hugo of Saint Victor (12th century), Durandus (13th cen tury), etc. Much of the symbolic ritual of the Christian Church in Europe was brought from the Orient by the Crusaders, who imbibed their knowledge from Jew, Moslem and other sects that they encountered. And the persecution of the Knights Templar, early in the 14th century, for idolatry was based on rumors of their Oriental symbolic ritual held in mystic secrecy, no doubt, • while the real incentive was jealousy of their power and the desire to grasp their $30,000,000 annual income derived from some 9,000 rich estates. Included in the ritual and architecture of the Roman as well as the Greek Catholic Church are most of the Oriental occult branches of symbolism '.often deviating in form or inter pretation. Thus we find a very thoropgb sys tem of the symbolism of numbers, of colors, of flowers, of animal representation of the Evangelists (Luke as lion, John as eagle, etc.), The priestly vestments are given symbolic form, even the instruments of ritual, as the crozier (taken from the pagan baculus, badge of the cynic philosophers) of episcopal office. But re stricted space forbids discussion of symbols their interpretation in this article dedicated to the history of religious symbolism. More in formation on several symbols will he found un der titles SYMBOLISM, DOVE, DOLPHIN, DRAGON, EAGLE, COLORS, LAMB, LION, DOG, HEART, DEVIL,. ROSE, VINE, eIC.
Allen, J. R.,