Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

STAR-WORMS

Emblematical of low ideals connected with ambition, love of power and fame, and schemings through fear.

“Again, below the moon are other stars, corruptible, deprived of energy, which hold together for a little while, in that they’ve been exhaled out of the earth itself into the air above the earth,—which ever are being broken up, in that they have a nature like unto that of useless lives on earth, which come into existence for no other purpose than to die,—such as the tribe of flies, and fleas, and worms (Corpus Hermeticum, IX.9).” — G. R. S. MEAD, *Thrice‑Greatest Hermes*, Vol. III, p. 51.

In the astral nature there are motives of desire (other stars) which unite with mind (air) and are without permanence. They are symbolised by “creeping things.”

“Tishtrya defeats and expels the pairika, who fall as ‘star‑worms between Earth and Heaven, into the sea Vourukasha (to prevent the waters from coming out)’ (‘The Tir Yasht’).” — HAUG, *Essays*, p. 200.

The mind under the aspect of will (Tishtrya) banishes the fear and ambition (star‑worms) which obscure the higher life, as these are detrimental to the perception of pure truth (water) which flows from above.

“By star wormwood falling from heaven (REV. viii.) is signified the appearance of self‑derived intelligence from a pride springing from infernal love. By a star and also by a lamp is signified intelligence, here self‑derived, because it seemed to burn, and all self‑derived intelligence burns from pride. By ‘wormwood’ is signified infernal falsity from which that intelligence exists.” — SWEDENBORG, *Apocalypse Revealed*, n. 408.

See Also

CREEPING THINGS
PAIRIKA
QEN-QUENTET