Corvus the Crow: Q the Cross Stands for Ten, the Tau Cross and 42

Secret Teachings of All Ages - The Cross and the Crucifixion

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, Phœnicia, 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.

The Rosicrucians Their Rites and Mysteries by Hargrave Jennings

CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST

THE ROSY CROSS IN INDIAN, EGYPTIAN, GREEK, ROMAN, AND MEDIÆVAL MONUMENTS

Ptha is the emblem of the Eternal Spirit from which everything is created. The Egyptians represented it as a pure ethereal fire which burns for ever, whose radiance is raised far above the planets and stars. In early ages the Egyptians worshipped this highest being under the name of Athor. He was the lord of the universe. The Greeks transformed Athor into Venus, who was looked upon by them in the same light as Athor (Apuleius, Cicero, Ovid; Ptolemæus, in tetrabibla; Proclus; Ennemoser, vol. i. p. 268, trans. by Howitt).