Extracted text
Editorial transcription, lightly normalized from the scan. Line-break hyphenation and unmistakable OCR errors have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
The Open Court of Inquiry.
#### The Sun's Spiral Motion.
"According to the Copernican system, the change of the seasons is caused by the 'inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit.' Now, what terms do you use to make a statement concerning the change of seasons according to the Koreshan System, in which the earth has no orbit nor diurnal rotation? What does revolve? Is it the central sun alone, carrying with it the projected sun, as a mirror throws a reflection, when it revolves? I would not suppose that the interior atmospheres, constituting the heavens, revolve? Do they?" —A Reader.
The only thing that the "inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit" is supposed to do in the Copernican system, in relation to the change of seasons, is to admit of the visible sun standing immediately over the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn, which are respectively, 23½° north and south of the equator. Now, whatever admits of the same results, so far as the apparent relation of the sun to the tropics is concerned, is what our correspondent wants to know.
It is the sun's spiral motion, as related to the earth; that is, the motion of the visible sun, caused by the combined revolution of the heavens daily and the Zodiacal sweep of the sun yearly. The annual path of the sun is the ecliptic. This sustains an angle of 23½° to the equator. There are four cardinal points of the ecliptic—the two equinoctial points, and the two solstitial points. The equinoctial points occur in March and September, and the solstitial points in June and December. On June 22, the sun is in the zenith of the tropic of Cancer, and on December 21, in the zenith of the southern tropic; in the former case, it is the beginning of our summer, and in the latter, the beginning of our winter. Spring begins at the vernal equinox, and autumn begins at the autumnal equinox.
The revolution that occurs is the annual revolution of the visible sun, in the order of the Zodiac—that is, from west to east, in the heavens, about one degree per day, passing through one constellation every month, and completing the year in about 365 days. The interior cause of the visible sun's motion, both diurnal and annual, is as constituted of the tilt, rotation, and oscillation of the central sun. No matter where the visible sun is, it is directly in front of the face or light side of the central sun. The projected sun is not a mere picture of the central sun, but is a projection—that is, a refocalization near the upper surface of our atmosphere.
The central sun is the great "bull's-eye lantern"; the projected sun is the refocalization of the light from the lens of the lantern; and as the lantern is turned about, it causes the refocalization to sweep the heavens day after day, moving in the form of spirals, the courses of which lie between the tropics. Instead of supposing that the atmospheres revolve, consider the revolution of spheres of energy, and the points of light called suns and stars, in both the interior atmospheres, and our external sea of air.
#### The Precession and the Calendar.
"Does not the precession of the equinoxes change the relation of the months to the seasons, so that eventually December will be mid-summer, and June mid-winter? Suppose that in A. D. 1, the vernal equinox occurred on March 22. Would not the precession of the equinoxes bring it to April 22 in A. D. 2000, and so on? It looks that way to me, but I may be wrong." —A Reader.
The precession of the equinoxes does not change the relation of the calendar months to the seasons, for the reason that the precession does not constitute the basis of reckoning of solar time. The sun's own annual motion is this basis, and it measures the length of the tropical year, which is the year of the seasons. As long as the present calendar remains in vogue, the months will sustain their present relation to the seasons.
Let it be understood that the precession of the equinoxes is the yearly movement of the meridians which mark the points where the sun crosses the celestial equator in March and September. The ecliptic, the sun's path, cuts the celestial equator at an angle of 23½°. The ecliptic is the sun's path in the heavens—that is, notwithstanding the fact that the sun makes a revolution in 24 hours, it nevertheless moves about one degree per day in the heavens towards the east, completing a revolution in about 365 days; so that once a year the sun reaches the vernal equinox—that is, where it crosses the celestial equator in the spring.
The exact length of the tropical year—that is, the definite length of time required for the sun to return to the vernal equinox, is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. The calendar is based on this reckoning, allowing leap-years, according to the Gregorian calendar. Now, the sun does not cross the equator at exactly the same place every year, there being about 50" of a degree of space between, or about 20 minutes of time. The sidereal year is therefore longer than the tropical year. If the tropical year were 20 minutes longer than now, the months would change in relation to the seasons, just as the constellations change in relation to the equinoxes.
The only thing that could change the relation of the months to the seasons now, would be an error in the calendar. The Julian calendar used to be in vogue. According to it, the year was 365¼ days in length. This was too long by about 11 minutes and 14 seconds, making a loss of about 3 days in 400 years. In 1582, at the time Pope Gregory authorized the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, it was found that a loss of 10 days had been caused by the Julian calendar. Consequently, the calendar was put forward 10 days. The old calendar is now 12 days behind. Russia still uses the old calendar, and all Russian dates are 12 days behind those of other countries. The Gregorian calendar, with its intercalary day every four years, represents very closely the length of the true solar year; and the variation of the equinoxes as related to the equinoctial months is very slight indeed. Thus the precession of the equinoxes has no such effect in the relation of the months to the seasons, as may be at first apparent. All the times of the seasons are carefully calculated.
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The source scans remain the record. This page preserves the periodical's claims without presenting its conclusions as independently established results.
Source: The Flaming Sword · Vol. 18, No. 35 · February 7, 1905 · Physical PDF p. 12
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 18, No. 35 · Feb 7, 1905 · PDF p. 12