Page 260 - Foundations

The Egyptians show a scarab in place of the crab. The scarab was a type of dung beetle renowned for
rolling a large ball of dung along the ground. The female scarab lays a single egg in the ball, and hides
it in a burrow it constructs in the ground until the young emerges from the ball. Although the
Egyptians developed many fables relating to this sacred insect, comparing it to the god Khepri rolling
the sun across the sky, and attributing to the scarab the power of resurrection, one can discern the
germ of thought linking this symbol to the idea of holding fast one’s offspring in the act of the beetle
holding fast to the ball it moves along the ground.

The name Cancer stems from a Latin root meaning “to hold,” or “to circle.” All of the constellations
in this sign convey some message of Christ holding firmly onto His people. The Egyptians referred
to this sign as Klaria, meaning “Cattlefolds.” The Arabic name for it is Al Sartan, “Who Holds, or
Binds.” The Hebrew name was Ausar. This word is used in the following verse.

Genesis 49:11
He binds (ausar) his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine...

The brightest star in Cancer is Tegmine. The name of this star means “Holding.” Another star is
called in the Hebrew Acubene, “Sheltering, or Hiding Place.” Other stars are Ma’alaph, “assembled
thousands,” and Al Himarein, “the kids, or lambs.”

Speaking of the decans of Cancer, Kenneth Fleming writes:

Ursa Minor is widely known as the Little Bear and is paired with Ursa Major, the Great Bear. They
are also known as the Big and Little Dippers, though this is very modern. Even the idea of the bears
goes no further back than the Greeks. The bear symbol does not appear at all in the old zodiacs of
Chaldea, Persia, Egypt, or India... The bear idea seems to have come from a confusion of words. An
old Persian word for bear is similar to the word for sheepfold, and the Greeks appear to have
mistaken one word for the other, according to Bullinger.

Bullinger explains this mix-up in the following way.

Here we come to another grievous mistake, or ignorant perversion of the truth, as shown in the
ancient names of these two constellations...

No one who had ever seen a bear would have called attention to a tail, such as no bear ever had, by