Note 25 — Chapter X · The Mother-goddess of China and Japan

Wu Ti’s sage travelled through the celestial regions until he reached the Milky Way, the source of the Yellow River. He saw the Spinning Maiden, whose radiant garment is adorned with silver stars. She had a lover, from whom she was separated, but once a year she was allowed to visit him, and passed across the heavens as a meteor. This Spinning Maiden, who weaves the net of the constellations, is reminiscent of the Egyptian sky-goddess, Hathor (or Nut), whose body is covered with stars, and whose legs and arms, as she bends over the earth, “represent the four pillars on which the sky was supposed to rest and mark the four cardinal points”. Her lover, from whom she was separated, was Seb.25 In China certain groups of stars are referred to as the “Celestial Door”, the “Hall of Heaven”, &c. Taoist saints dwell in stellar abodes, as well as on the “Islands of the Blest”; some were, during their life on earth, incarnations of star-gods. The lower ranks of the western-cult immortals remain in the garden of the “Royal Mother”; those of the highest rank ascend to the stars.