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the Mysteries). Thus was Jonah three days in the belly of the "great fish," as Christ was
three days in the tomb.

Several early church fathers believed that the "whale" which swallowed Jonah was the
symbol of God the Father, who, when the hapless prophet was thrown overboard,
accepted Jonah into His own nature until a place of safety was reached. The story of
Jonah is really a legend of initiation into the Mysteries, and the "great fish" represents the
darkness of ignorance which engulfs man when he is thrown over the side of the ship (is
born) into the sea (life). The custom of building ships in the form of fishes or birds,
common in ancient times, could give rise to the story, and mayhap Jonah was merely
picked up by

Click to enlarge
THE FIRST INCARNATION, OR MATSYA AVATAR, OF VISHNU.

From Picart's Religious Ceremonials.

The fish has often been associated with the World Saviors. Vishnu, the Hindu Redeemer, who takes upon
himself ten forms for the redemption of the universe, was expelled from the mouth of a fish in his first
incarnation. Isis, while nursing the infant Horus, is often shown with a fish on her headdress. Oannes, the
Chaldean Savior (borrowed from the Brahmins), is depicted with the head and body of a fish, from which
his human form protrudes at various points. Jesus was often symbolized by a fish. He told His disciples that
they should became "fishers of men." The sign of the fish was also the first monogram of the Christians.
The mysterious Greek name of Jesus, ΙΧΘΥΣ, means "a fish." The fish was accepted as a symbol of the
Christ by a number of early canonized church fathers. St. Augustine likened the Christ to a fish that had
been broiled, and it was also pointed out that the flesh of that Fish was the food of righteous and holy men.

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another vessel and carried into port, the pattern of the ship causing it to be called a "great
fish." ("Veritatis simplex oratio est!") More probably the "whale" of Jonah is based upon
the pagan mythological creature, hippocampus, part horse and part dolphin, for the early
Christian statues and carvings show the composite creature and not a true whale.

It is reasonable to suppose that the mysterious sea serpents, which, according to the
Mayan and Toltec legends, brought the gods to Mexico were Viking or Chaldean ships,
built in the shape of composite sea monsters or dragons. H. P. Blavatsky advances the
theory that the word cetus, the great whale, is derived from keto, a name for the fish god,
Dagon, and that Jonah was actually confined in a cell hollowed out in the body of a
gigantic statue of Dagon after he had been captured by Phœnician sailors and carried to