In Mithraism the slaying of a Bull by the Sungod occupies the same place as the slaying of the Lamb in the Christian cult. It took place at the Vernal Equinox and the blood of the Bull acquired in men's minds a magic virtue. Owing to the Precession of the Equinoxes, the crossing-place of the Ecliptic and Equator was different at the time of the establishment of Mithra-worship from what it was in the Christian period; and the Sun instead of standing in Aries, at the Vernal Equinox stood about two thousand years earlier in the constellation of the Bull. Taurus therefore became the symbol of the triumphant God, and the sacrifice of the bull a holy mystery. It must be remembered that in the early centuries of our era the Mithra-cult was spread over the whole Western world, and it may almost be said to have been a matter of chance whether Mithraism should overwhelm Christianity, or whether the younger religion by adopting many of the rites of the older one should establish itself...
