st and most
flourishing city of Ionia, in Asia Minor), were all crucified.[486:2]

Semi-Ramis was both a queen of unrivaled celebrity, and also a goddess,
worshiped under the form of a Dove. Her name signifies the _Supreme
Dove_. She is said to have been slain by the last survivor of her sons,
while others say, she flew away as a bird--a Dove. In both Grecian and
Hindoo histories this mystical queen Semiramis is said to have fought a
battle on the banks of the Indus, with a king called Staurobates, in
which she was defeated, and from which she flew away in the form of a
Dove. Of this Nimrod says:

"The name Staurobates, the king by whom Semiramis was finally
overpowered, _alluded to the cross on which she perished_,"
and that, "_the crucifixion was made into a glorious mystery
by her infatuated adorers_."[486:3]

Here again we have the crucified Dove, the _Sun_, for it is well known
that the ancients personified the Sun _female_ as well as male.

We have also the fable of the Crucified Rose, illustrated in the jewel
of the _Rosicrucians_. The jewel of the Rosicrucians is formed of a
transparent red stone, with a red _cross_ on one side, and a red _rose_
on the other--thus it is a _crucified rose_. "The Rossi, or
Rosy-crucians' idea concerning this emblematic red cross," says Hargrave
Jennings, in his _History of the Rosicrucians_, "probably came from the
fable of _Adonis_--_who was the Sun whom we have so often seen
crucified_--being changed into a red rose by Venus."[487:1]

The emblem of the _Templars_ is a red rose on a cross. "When it can be
done, it is surrounded with a glory, and placed on a calvary (Fig. No.
36). This is the Naurutz, Natsir, or Rose of Isuren, of Tamul, or
Sharon, or the Water Rose, the Lily Padma, Pena, Lotus, _crucified in
the heavens for the salvation of man_."[487:2]

[Illustration: Fig. No. 36.]

Christ Jesus was called the ROSE--the Rose of Sharon--of Isuren. He was
the renewed incarnation of _Divine Wisdom_. He was the son of Maia or
Maria. He was the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley, which
bloweth in the month of his mother Maia. Thus, when the angel Gabriel
gives the salutation to the Virgin, he presents her with the lotus or
lily; as may be seen in hundreds of old pictures in Italy. We see
therefore that Adonis, "the Lord," "the Virgin-born," "the Crucified,"
"the Resurrected Dove," "the Restorer of Light," is one and the same
with the "Rose of Sharo