The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-07-18
SAYS CROSS
is VERY OLD
Prime Tells
of Its Use in Early
Times.

tan world was symbol amongst the
races of antiquity as far back as arch
! geological research has been made by
the modern scientific world, formed the
substance of an able and interesting
4 address by Mr. John Prime, the Eng
Iish Theosophist, which he delivered III
Arion Hall last night. His audience
was quite remarkable in some respects,
as men and women OF many creeos
i were present and all showed deep
and appreciative interest in the theo-
ries and facts presented to show that
the cross was more ancient than the
narratives of the earliest history. MT.
Prime used charts peculiar to Theo-
sophical teachings, and these were
helpful to the audience.
4 The speaker said he supposed that
most people have been inculcated with
the idea that the cross is exclusively
j the symbol of the Christian religion
Those who have believed this are prob
. ably the ones who have taken no note
of the Investigations that have been
/ going on, but 1t was a mistake. To the
1 contrary, II was an ancient symbol and
has been used in one or more of its
varied forms in Egypt, Nineveh, Phoe-
nicea, Etrusca, among the Lake Dwell
lers, ancient Peru, India, China, Japan.
Korea Thibet, Babylonia, Assyria,
| Ashante, Cyprus and Rhodes. amongst
| the ancient tribes of Briton, in France,
/ Germany and America The speaker
| proceeded to verify the list. 1t was
sufficient to show the vast antiquity Of
the sign OF the cross. 1t was strange
| feeling among the early missionaries
when they went among heather peoples
TO find they already used the symbol
of their own religion. The speaker told
of visit in Yucatan amongst old ruins
where there were buildings similar to
| the pyramids. but antedating anything
| else known. He found above the door
ways OF the buildings erected on the
fiat tops of these mounds, carvings of
great beauty. Usually there were
three snakes. each coiled and within
each coil appeared a cross. The SYM
bols were similar to that OF the The |
osophical Society.
There must have been some reason !
for sign SO frequently used in all tenn |
pies OF the ancients. Greek Maltese
and Latin crosses all have different
meanings. There was a common idea
that all religions had their origins in
barbarism. DR.. Prime asked the ques- |
ton, How is a religion founded? Is it |
founded by barbarians and gradually |
improved upon by thinking men, or by |
some teacher who goes amongst his
people? He offered for Illustration. the
founder of the Christian religion ini
answer. He came and proclaimed
great faith. We are not teaching
higher religion today, higher than that
taught by the great teacher but rather
we have missed a great many points of
his teachings and today we have a
much more degraded form of his teach
ings than he proclaimed. There were
themselves Christians, many of them
consigning those not of their belief to
hell. The origin of great religions
has been through a great teacher. At
ter many centuries degraded forms of /
religion enter in, and 1t is the mistakes
of men which are the causes and not
the mistakes of the original teachers.
| What were the ancient meanings of
the cross? Part of the answer, he said,
| could be found in the Secret Doctrine,
| where Madame Blavatsky gives some
| thing of the history of these symbols.
| They are found in the pyramids and
| some writer's say that they existed as
| far back as antiquity which reaches
| back over a space of nearly 100, 900
years. There was the original symbol,
| the circle. This typified the absolute,
l God being represented by the circum-
Il
| end. In all religions there is a trinity
! spoken of. Within the circle there APP
peared in the center dot which meant
| the wisdom of God. Then this dot
heightened out horizontally to the sides
| of the circle, dividing it and thia typi-
/ fled the second person of the trinity.
| Then line crossed this al right angles.
| and this typified the third person, and
| there for the first time we have the
| cross within the circle. Then the circle
l Il .aIa
which means activity is about to COM
/ mence The next stage is the cross
with the ends bent over, meaning ac-
| tivity in motion. Then came a form
| called the Maltese. which is another
symbol Of activity. Then the lines ex-
| tend beyond the circle, which means
| creation Then the small circle about
| the junction of the two lines forming
the cross is taken by the rose, which
was the emblem of the Rosicrucians
Then came the form of the Latin cross,
the one generally used by Christians.
/ This form, with or without the fig
IRE of Christ upon it, is accepted in the
Il Christian world as its symbol. 1t is,
however, of antiquity antedating the
/ pyramids Before the fifth century
there is no record of the cross with the
/ Figure. The first was that presented
by Pope Gregory the Great to the Queen
of Isonbardy. There was then express
ed in the Figure no idea of the wounds
and suffering. There were no nails,
| blood or wounds used. These were add
ed later by the monks. In the twelfth
| century the Figure was shown with
| eyes open, radiant in glory. as If bless
! ing humanity. 1t was a figure of life.
| The monks changed it to figure of
death The Crucifxion in the British
| Museum shows the Christ on the Cross
| still living. but with sign of phys
[ ical suffering. Originally it was the
| figure of a man holding his arms out as
! if blessing. This was the idea from
| which the original shape of the cross
| was taken.