Extracted text
Editorial transcription, proofed and normalized from the scan. Line-break hyphenation, column interleaving, letter-spacing artifacts, and OCR errors have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
The Open Court of Inquiry.
The Editor.
The Hollow Globe.
"I have received copies of The Flaming Sword, and am pleased with the make-up of the Magazine and its contents; though, as heretofore, I cannot accept your basic idea of the earth being concave, and we living on the inside of the globe.
"An idea has recently been advanced that the poles are open, and this I can more readily believe than your idea as above stated. Further, it comes to me that the earth is like a great turbine wheel, and that a great positive current comes in at the north pole, passes spirally around the interior, and out at the south pole, thus causing the earth's daily rotation."
Questions of truth are not what one may "more readily believe." Problems are never settled by opinion, but by demonstration. The world's various fallacies have sprung from primary guesses or hypotheses which pleased the fancy. It is often easier to entertain a fallacy than a truth, because fallacies are mental illusions.
The earth's concavity is a matter of positive demonstration. The Koreshan Cosmogony is not built upon an hypothesis, nor a mere conjecture. We hold that the earth is a hollow globe, not because it may be, but because it must be and is, a great cellular form, with all life contained within the organism. It is a great cosmic body, with functions corresponding to the functions of human life. It is the great womb of Nature. It is a giant egg in process of incubation. It is a great battery, with its positive and negative poles. It is a giant dynamo, generating within itself all the electro-magnetic currents and energies active within itself. It receives no essences nor elements nor currents from without, for the cellular cosmos contains all there is of everything.
The hollow globe of the Koreshan System is radically different from any other idea. The conception that the earth is hollow and open at the poles is not new. It was advocated by Captain Symmes in the early part of the nineteenth century. According to him, the sun shone through the holes to light up the inside. His conception of the outside did not differ materially from that entertained by modern astronomers.
Referring to the above letter, we note that the writer's idea is that currents flow in and out of the earth to produce its motion of rotation. Turbines are usually stationary. The question might arise, what would one conceive to be the reason that the flowing currents should follow the earth around in its supposititious orbit about the sun?
The hollow earth of the Koreshan System is relatively stationary. All its luminaries are within the earth, just as all the brain cells and nervous ganglia are within the body. In fact, the physical universe is analogous in form and function to man. This truth is demonstrated in various ways: Primarily, by the laws of correspondential analogy and comparative anatomy. But corroborative of such analogical reasoning, are facts of demonstration which prove that the surface upon which we live is not outside either a solid or a hollow globe, but the inside surface of the only hollow universal form in existence.
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The Auroral Displays.
"Perhaps some one else is ahead of me with this question, but if not, will you kindly answer in the Open Court? A strange light appeared in the sky here May 25, about 9 p. m. It was a strip of light extending from horizon to horizon across the dome, running slightly northwest and southeast; but it seemed nearly east and west. The stars were shining, and they could be seen here and there in the strip of light. Almost every one who saw it here, was sure that it was caused by the aurora. My own opinion is that something was taking place in the earth, on account of its running so near east and west. Am I anywhere near the right idea?"
It is altogether likely that the phenomenon above referred to was a species of the aurora. There are various kinds of auroral displays. They may appear as long streams of light, pulsating between the horizon and the zenith; as fan-shaped areas of light expanding toward the horizon; as coronas overhead; as flaming swords flashing in the sky; besides the northern lights seen in higher latitudes.
Of course, we would like to have witnessed the phenomenon referred to, especially as we are asked to give a definite answer regarding it. There were doubtless two principal streams of light, extending in opposite directions from the zenith. The fact that the direction was east and west has no particular significance. It is likely that earlier or later than the time mentioned, the streams extended in other directions. We conclude that it was auroral, else it would be seen continuously, night after night.
There is in the sky what is known as the Zodiacal light. At given seasons of the year it is very noticeable in the west in the evening for some time after dark. But it extends in the direction of the ecliptic, which, from the northern states and corresponding latitudes, is considerably inclined from the zenith. It has been ascertained through patient observation on the part of astronomers, that the Zodiacal light extends all the way around the heavens, constituting a belt of light in the Zodiac.
Always, opposite the sun, there is a faint glow called the Gegenschein, a German word meaning counter-glow or reflection. It is known that the brilliance of the Zodiacal light is increasing, and is ultimately to become the great and glorious solar annulus of the Golden Age.
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Cosmogony and Communism.
"A Christian has no use for any earthly science called cosmogony. Communism may do for a small community, but there are too many shirks in the world to be kept. If you call your system a saving religion, it will of necessity deceive every one that embraces it, for it will offer salvation without a change of heart, and a love that is not shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. Therefore, it must be a human concern that cannot save from sin."
Cosmogony is the science of creation. The Old Testament starts out with a treatise on cosmogony. For students of the character of the divine Being, it seems that cosmogony is about the first thing that should be considered. Why? Because the physical cosmos is an expression of the divine mind, and thus we are enabled to "look up through Nature to Nature's God." Have you never read that, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork"?
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 22, No. 7 · Jul 15, 1908 · PDF p. 30