The Cross of the Magi Unveiling the Greatest of All the Ancient Mysteries

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Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

DEDICATION 5

PREFACE 6

INTRODUCTION 7

THE GREAT SOLAR MYTH. 10

THE GEOMETRIC GENESIS. 13

MAGIAN MATHEMATICS 22

THE CELESTIAL SQUARE 29

CROSSES AND SWASTIKAS. 37

WHAT THE SWASTIKA REALLY IS. 51

THE CROSS OF THE MAGI

BY

FRANK C. HIGGINS, F. R. N. S.

FRANK C. HIGGINS, F. R. N. S.

AUTHOR OF COPPER COINS OF MODERN EUROPE,

THE CHINESE NUMISMATIC RIDDLE, ETC., ETC.

IT IS IN OR THROUGH SYMBOLS THAT MAN. CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY LIVES, WORKS AND HAS HIS BEING.

HIGHEST OF ALL SYMBOLS ARE THOSE WHEREIN THE ARTIST OR POET HAS RISEN INTO PROPHET AND ALL MEN CAN RECOGNIZE A PRESENT GOD AND WORSHIP THE SAME.

CARLISLE—Sartor Resartus.

DEDICATION

TO MY FRIENDS.

The Cross of the Magi is cordially and gratefully dedicated to my esteemed colleagues of the New York Numismatic Club, through whose appreciative moral support I have been encouraged to persist in a line of research which throws, I am quite sure, an altogether new light on many obscure numismatic problems.

I also wish to acknowledge the generous and sympathetic cooperation of Brother Franklin B. Huntington, 32º and Knight Templar, and of Edward T. Newell, Esq., in my efforts to place the fruits of my researches, in fitting dress, before the public.

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE

To those who are moved to regard the materials of which this little book has been constructed rather commonplace when compared with the importance attributed to them, let us say that the greatest mystery of life lies in the manner with which it envelops, surrounds and permeates us with its unceasing miracles without so much as attracting attention unless we are in the mood to philosophize.

The ancient world, in seeking the ultimate cause of being, sought neither riddles nor enigmas, but the truth.

It realized that the infinite, as an abstract proposition, must embrace both the great and the small within one all sufficing law. The macrocosmos was shown mathematically to be reflected in the microcosmos as the yellow orange is the humble image of earth or sun and so mankind felt the divine impulsion to seek and find.

The philosophies of number and proportion are those which lie the closest to human perception through the medium of the senses.

They constitute, at least, the gateways of reason and we hope to retrace in a sense the footsteps of humanity which have followed the path from darkness to light impelled by the greatest of God’s gifts, the desire of wisdom, and lighted by the glory of His universe, the manifest correlation and vivid symbolism of every atom of Creation.

It is neither our imagination or invention that these fundamental truths were perceived, grasped and their lessons applied by races long vanished.

They foresaw, as we foresee in turn, that a time comes when all which remains of the thought and sentiment of a generation is that which it is able to indite, paint or engrave upon material capable of withstanding the ravages of time far beyond the duration of individual human existence.

Evading with infinite fact and patience, premature revelation to