(1) Adam directing Seth how to reach the Garden of Eden.
(2) Seth placing the three seeds from the Tree of Life
under the tongue of the dead Adam.
(3) The Queen of Sheba, refusing to place her feet upon the sacred tree,
forded the stream.
(4) Placing the sacred tree over the door of Solomon's Temple.
(5) The crucifixion of Christ
upon a cross made from the wood of the holy tree.
(6) Distinguishing the true cross from the other two by testing
its power to raise a corpse to life.
![[Image: 18100.jpg]](http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/img/18100.jpg)
In his article on the Cross and Crucifixion in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Thomas Macall Fallow casts
much light on the antiquity of this ideograph. "The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-
Christian times, and among non-Christian peoples, may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of
nature worship."
Not only is the cross itself a familiar object in the art of all nations, but the veneration for it is an
essential part of the religious life of the greater part of humanity. It is a common symbol among the
American Indians--North, Central, and South. William W. Seymour states: "The Aztec goddess of rain
bore a cross in her hand, and the Toltecs claimed that their deity, Quetzalcoatl, taught them the sign and
ritual of the cross, hence his staff, or sceptre of power, resembled a crosier, and his mantle was covered
with red crosses." (The Cross in Tradition, History and Art.)
The cross is also highly revered by the Japanese and Chinese. To the Pythagoreans the most sacred of all
numbers was the 10, the symbol of which is an X, or cross. In both the Japanese and Chinese languages
the character of the number 10 is a cross. The Buddhist wheel of life is composed of two crosses
superimposed, and its eight points are still preserved to Christendom in the peculiarly formed cross of
the Knights Templars, which is essentially Buddhistic. India has preserved the cross, not only in its
carvings and paintings, but also in its architectonics; a great number of its temples--like the churches and
cathedrals of Christendom--are raised from cruciform foundations.
On the mandalas of the Tibetans, heaven is laid out in the form of a cross, with a demon king at each of
the four gates. A remarkable cross of great antiquity was discovered in the island caves of Elephanta in
the harbor of Bombay. Crosses of various kinds were favorite motifs in the art of Chaldea, Phoenicia,
Egypt, and Assyria. The initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece were given a cross which they
suspended about their necks on a chain, or cord, at the time of initiation. To the Rosicrucians,
Alchemists, and Illuminati, the cross was the symbol of light, because each of the three letters L V X is
derived from some part of the cross.
(2) Seth placing the three seeds from the Tree of Life
under the tongue of the dead Adam.
(3) The Queen of Sheba, refusing to place her feet upon the sacred tree,
forded the stream.
(4) Placing the sacred tree over the door of Solomon's Temple.
(5) The crucifixion of Christ
upon a cross made from the wood of the holy tree.
(6) Distinguishing the true cross from the other two by testing
its power to raise a corpse to life.
In his article on the Cross and Crucifixion in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Thomas Macall Fallow casts
much light on the antiquity of this ideograph. "The use of the cross as a religious symbol in pre-
Christian times, and among non-Christian peoples, may probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with some form of
nature worship."
Not only is the cross itself a familiar object in the art of all nations, but the veneration for it is an
essential part of the religious life of the greater part of humanity. It is a common symbol among the
American Indians--North, Central, and South. William W. Seymour states: "The Aztec goddess of rain
bore a cross in her hand, and the Toltecs claimed that their deity, Quetzalcoatl, taught them the sign and
ritual of the cross, hence his staff, or sceptre of power, resembled a crosier, and his mantle was covered
with red crosses." (The Cross in Tradition, History and Art.)
The cross is also highly revered by the Japanese and Chinese. To the Pythagoreans the most sacred of all
numbers was the 10, the symbol of which is an X, or cross. In both the Japanese and Chinese languages
the character of the number 10 is a cross. The Buddhist wheel of life is composed of two crosses
superimposed, and its eight points are still preserved to Christendom in the peculiarly formed cross of
the Knights Templars, which is essentially Buddhistic. India has preserved the cross, not only in its
carvings and paintings, but also in its architectonics; a great number of its temples--like the churches and
cathedrals of Christendom--are raised from cruciform foundations.
On the mandalas of the Tibetans, heaven is laid out in the form of a cross, with a demon king at each of
the four gates. A remarkable cross of great antiquity was discovered in the island caves of Elephanta in
the harbor of Bombay. Crosses of various kinds were favorite motifs in the art of Chaldea, Phoenicia,
Egypt, and Assyria. The initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece were given a cross which they
suspended about their necks on a chain, or cord, at the time of initiation. To the Rosicrucians,
Alchemists, and Illuminati, the cross was the symbol of light, because each of the three letters L V X is
derived from some part of the cross.