Four Corners of the Earth

A few years ago I came across a number of references to the phrase “four corners of the earth” in Hamlet’s Mill. This is a scriptural term and this exact phrase can be found in Isaiah 11:12 (cf. 2 Nephi 21:12), Revelation 7:1, D&C 124:128, and JST Mark 13:31. Additionally, there are many other scriptures that refer to the “four quarters” of the earth. I thought the following references were insightful, especially regarding the temple liturgy of ancient Israel with the High Priest performing the rites of atonement.

The “Frame” of the Ecliptic

Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend wrote that the corners are marked by the four points of the year – the ecliptic:

Meanwhile, it is necessary to explain again what this “earth” is that modern interpreters like to take for a pancake. The mythical earth is, in fact, a plane, but this plane is not our “earth” at all, neither our globe, nor a presupposed homocentrical earth. “Earth” is the implied plane through the four points of the year, marked by the equinoxes and solstices, in other words the ecliptic. And this is why this earth is very frequently said to be quadrangular. The four “corners,” that is, the zodiacal constellations rising heliacally at both the equinoxes and solstices, parts of the “frame” skambha, are the points which determine an “earth.” Every world-age has its own “earth.” It is for this very reason that “ends of the world” are said to take place. A new “earth” arises, when another set of zodiacal constellations brought in by the Precession determines the year points.¹

Skambha is a Sanskrit word and means “pillar”; the Finnish correlative is Sampo—in other words, the tree that holds up the sky. The word solstice comes from the Latin sol which means sun, and sistit which means “stands”:

For several days before and after each solstice, the sun appears to stand still in the sky—that is, its noontime elevation does not seem to change. At the solstices the sun’s apparent position on the celestial sphere reaches its greatest distance above or below the celestial equator, about 23 1/2° of arc. At the time of summer solstice, about June 22, the sun is directly overhead at noon at the Tropic of Cancer. In the Northern Hemisphere the longest day and shortest night of the year occur on this date, marking the beginning of summer. At winter solstice, about December 22, the sun is overhead at noon at the Tropic of Capricorn; this marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. For several days before and after each solstice the sun appears to stand still in the sky, i.e., its noontime elevation does not seem to change from day to day.²

Equinox , either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect. The vernal equinox, also known as “the first point of Aries,” is the point at which the sun appears to cross the celestial equator from south to north. This occurs about Mar. 21, marking the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. At the autumnal equinox, about Sept. 23, the sun again appears to cross the celestial equator, this time from north to south; this marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. On the date of either equinox, night and day are of equal length (12 hr each) in all parts of the world; the word equinox is often used to refer to either of these dates. The equinoxes are not fixed points on the celestial sphere but move westward along the ecliptic, passing through all the constellations of the zodiac in 26,000 years. This motion is called the precession of the equinoxes. The vernal equinox is a reference point in the equatorial coordinate system.³

Church Liturgy

These days also have significance in medieval church liturgy:

On the zodiacal band, there are four essential points which dominate the four seasons of the year. They are, in fact, in church liturgy the quatuor tempora⁴ marked with special abstinences. They correspond to the two solstices and the two equinoxes. The solstice is the “turning back” of the sun at the lowest point of winter and at the highest point of summer. The two equinoxes, vernal and autumnal, are those that cut the year in half, with an equal balance of night and day, for they are the two intersections of the equator with the ecliptic. Those four points together made up the four pillars, or corners, of what was called the “quadrangular earth.” This is an essential feature that needs more attention. We have said above that “earth,” in the most general sense, meant the ideal plane laid through the ecliptic; meanwhile we are prepared to improve the definition: “earth” is the ideal plane going through the four points of the year, the equinoxes and the solstices. Since the four constellations rising heliacally at the two equinoxes and the two solstices determine and define an “earth,” it is termed quadrangular (and by no means “believed” to be quadrangular by “primitive” Chinese, and so on). And since constellations rule the four corners of the quadrangular earth only temporarily, such an “earth” can rightly be said to perish, and a new earth to rise from the waters, with four new constellations rising at the four points of the year. Virgil says: “lam redit et Virgo. . .” (already the Virgin is returning). (It is important to remember the vernal equinox as the fiducial point; it is from this fact that a new earth is termed to rise from the waters. In reality, only the new vernal equinoctial constellation climbs from the sea onto the dry land above the equator ­the inverse happens diametrically opposite.⁵

The Four Corners and Temple Liturgy

In Approaching Zion, Dr. Hugh W. Nibley wrote about the significance of the altar in ancient Israel which will perhaps tie these concepts together:

Consider now how the rites of atonement were carried out under the law of Moses. Before approaching the tabernacle or tent covering the Ark, Aaron and his sons would be washed at the gate (Exodus 29:4); then they would be clothed with the ephod, apron, and sash (Exodus 29:5), and a mitre, a flat cap or pad that was meant to support the weight of a crown, was placed on his head (Exodus 29:6). The priests were also anointed (Exodus 29:1, 7) and consecrated or set apart (Exodus 29:9). Then they put their hands upon the head of a bullock (Exodus 29:10), transferring their guilt to the animal, which was slain, and its blood put upon the horns of the altar (the four corners of the world) (Exodus 29:12). The same thing was done with a ram (Exodus 29:15-16), and its blood was sprinkled as an atonement for all and placed upon the right ear and right thumb of Aaron, to represent his own blood as if he were the offering (Exodus 29:20). The blood was sprinkled over the garments of the priests (Exodus 29:21), who then ate parts of the ram with bread (Exodus 29:22-24), Aaron and his sons “eat[ing] those things wherewith the atonement was made” (Exodus 29:33). For the rest of the year, every day, a bullock was offered for atonement (Exodus 29:36). Then the Lord received the High Priest at the tent door, the veil (in Leviticus 16:17-19, the High Priest alone enters the tabernacle), and conversed with him (Exodus 29:42), accepting the sin offering, sanctifying the priests and people, and receiving them into his company to “dwell among the children of Israel, and [to] be their God” (Exodus 29:45). This order is clearly reflected in D&C 101:23: “And prepare for the revelation which is to come, when the veil of the covering of my temple, in my tabernacle, which hideth the earth, shall be taken off, and all flesh shall see me together.” What an at-one-ment that will be!⁶

Cosmos and temple seem to come together at the altar during the rites of atonement!

Sources:

1. de Santillana, Giorgio and Hertha von Dechend. Hamlet’s Mill: An Essay Investigating the Origins of Human Knowledge and its Transmission Through Myth. Jaffrey, New Hampshire: Godine, 1977. 235; hereafter Hamlet’s Mill.↩
2. “Solstice”. Infoplease. 1 March 2009.↩
3. “Equinox”. Infoplease. 1 March 2009.↩
4. Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week – specifically, the Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, formerly set aside for fasting and prayer in the liturgical calendar of the Western Churches, but significantly not in the Eastern Orthodox Church (where Celtic traditions were not a concern). These days are set apart for special prayer and fasting, and considered especially suitable for the ordination of clergy. The Ember Days were known in the medieval church as quatuor tempora (the “four seasons”), or jejunia quatuor temporum (“fasts of the four seasons”). The Ember Weeks – the weeks in which the Ember Days occur – are the week between the third and fourth Sundays of Advent, between the first and second Sundays of Lent, the week between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, and the calendar week after the one in which Holy Cross Day (September 14) falls (e.g. if September 14 were a Sunday, September 24, 26 and 27 would be Ember Days, the latest dates possible; with September 14 as a Saturday, however, the Ember Days would occur on September 18, 20 and 21 – the earliest possible dates).↩
5. Hamlet’s Mill, 62.↩
6. Nibley, Hugh W. “The Meaning of the Atonement”. Approaching Zion. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1989. 578; italics added.↩

Related posts

• LDS Temples
• Truman Madsen Tribute
• Sodom and Gomorrah
• Seven Heavens
• No Atonement Except for the Character of Christ