THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

[70] "These rocky shrines, the formation of which Mr. Grose supposes to
have been a labor equal to that of erecting the Pyramids of Egypt, are
of
various height, extent, and depth. They are partitioned out, by the
labor
of the hammer and the chisel, into many separate chambers, and the
roof,
which in the pagoda of Elephanta is flat, but in that of Salsette is
arched, is supported by rows of pillars of great thickness, and
arranged
with much regularity. The walls are crowded with gigantic figures of
men
and women, engaged in various actions, and portrayed in various
whimsical
attitudes; and they are adorned with several evident symbols of the
religion now prevailing in India. Above, as in a sky, once probably
adorned with gold and azure, in the same manner as Mr. Savary lately
observed in the ruinous remains of some ancient Egyptian temples, are
seen
floating the children of imagination, genii and dewtahs, in multitudes,
and along the cornice, in high relief, are the figures of elephants,
horses, and lions, executed with great accuracy. Two of the principal
figures at Salsette are twenty-seven feet in height, and of
proportionate
magnitude; the very bust only of the triple-headed deity in the grand
pagoda of Elephanta measures fifteen feet from the base to the top of
the
cap, while the face of another, if Mr. Grose, who measured it, may be
credited, is above five feet in length, and of corresponding
breadth."--MAURICE, _Ind. Ant._ vol. ii. p. 135.
[71] According to Faber, the egg was a symbol of the world or megacosm,
and also of the ark, or microcosm, as the lunette or crescent was a
symbol
of the Great Father, the egg and lunette--which was the hieroglyphic of
the god Lunus, at Heliopolis--was a symbol of the world proceeding from
the Great Father.--_Pagan Idolatry_, vol. i. b. i. ch. iv.
[72] Zoroaster taught that the sun was the most perfect fire of God,
the
throne of his glory, and the residence of his divine presence, and he
therefore instructed his disciples "to direct all their worship to God
first towards the sun (which they called Mithras), and next towards
their
sacred fires, as being the things in which God chiefly dwelt; and their
ordinary way of worship was to do so towards both. For when they came
before these fires to worship, _they always approached them on the west
side_, that, having their faces towards them and also towards the
rising
sun at the same time, they might direct their worship to both. And in
this
posture they always performed every act of their worship."--PRIDEAUX.
_Connection._ i. 216.
[73] "The mysteries of Ceres (or Eleusis) are principally distinguished
from all others as having been the depositories of certain traditions
coeval with the world."--OUVAROFF, _Essay on the Mysteries of Eleusis_,