Chapter 818

[←811]

The speculation of Mackey, the self-made adept of Norwich, in his Mythological Astronomy, is a curious idea—yet one perhaps not so very far from the truth. He says that the Kabiri named Axieros and Axiokersa (a) derived their names from kab or cab, a “measure,” and from urim, the “heavens”—the Kabirim being thus “a measure of the heavens”; and (b) that their distinctive names, implying the principle of generation, referred to the sexes. For “the word sex was formerly understood by ax; which ... has, in our time, settled into sex. [And he refers to Encyclopædia Londiniensis, at the word ’aspiration.’] Now if we give the aspirated sound to Axieros, it would become Sax or Sexieros; and the other pole would be Sexiokersa. The two poles would thus become the generators of the other powers of nature—they would be the Parents of the other powers; therefore, the most powerful Gods.” (Op. cit., p. 39.)