to a new and glorious career.[1]

[1] It was such things as these which doubtless gave the
Priesthood
its power.


Let us look at the elementary science of those days a
little closer. How without Almanacs or Calendars could
the day, or probable day, of the Sun's rebirth be fixed?
Go out next Christmas Evening, and at midnight you will
see the brightest of the fixed stars, Sirius, blazing in the
southern sky--not however due south from you, but somewhat
to the left of the Meridian line. Some three thousand
years ago (owing to the Precession of the Equinoxes) that
star at the winter solstice did not stand at midnight where
you now see it, but almost exactly ON the meridian line.
The coming of Sirius therefore to the meridian at midnight
became the sign and assurance of the Sun having reached
the very lowest point of his course, and therefore of having
arrived at the moment of his re-birth. Where then was
the Sun at that moment? Obviously in the underworld
beneath our feet. Whatever views the ancients may have
had about the shape of the earth, it was evident to the
mass of people that the Sungod, after illuminating the
world during the day, plunged down in the West, and
remained there during the hours of darkness in some cavern
under the earth. Here he rested and after bathing in the
great ocean renewed his garments before reappearing in the
East next morning.