THE TWELVE THOUSAND YEAR CYCLE.

In determining the duration of the period within which were to occur the events
taught in the doctrines of the Exoteric Creed, the ancient Astrologers dedicated a
thousand years to each of the signs of the Zodiac, and thus inaugurating the cycle
of twelve thousand years, taught that, at its conclusion, the heaven and the earth,
which they believed to be composed of the indestructible elements of fire, air, earth
and water, would, through the agency of the first of these, be reduced to chaos, as a
preliminary to the reorganization of a new heaven and a new earth at the beginning
of the succeeding cycle. Such was the origin of the grand cycle of the ancient
Astrolatry, and it must be borne in mind that its authors made its conclusion to
correspond in time and circumstance to the doctrines relating to the finale of the
plan of redemption