What is known about the author
Publication records identify Hill by his initials. Contemporary notices of Astral Worship add M.D., but his medical education and practice have not been securely identified. His full name, birth and death dates, upbringing and nationality remain unclear.
An April 1897 book notice in the Omaha Daily Bee lists Astral Worship under the New York publisher The Truth Seeker Company and names J. H. Hill, M.D. Advertisements in The Progressive Thinker later offered the book to readers interested in religious questions. These notices document its circulation without supplying a personal history of its author.
Religion interpreted through the heavens
Hill’s introduction argues that religions commonly treated as distinct arose from the worship of personified nature, especially the sun. In his account, priests turned astronomical allegories into supposed histories. He also claims that they taught rewards and punishments after death as a means of controlling behaviour, while reserving a different philosophy for initiates.
He applies this theory to sacred numbers, the zodiac, seasons and festivals. Seven lamps become the seven celestial bodies of ancient astronomy; twelve disciples become the signs of the zodiac. The sun’s annual movement supplies his explanation for stories of death and resurrection. These proposed correspondences form his argument, rather than establishing historical transmission between all the traditions he connects.
His chapter on Freemasonry and Druidism extends the same interpretation to ritual and architecture. Hill reads Masonic pillars as supports of the heavens and the mock coffin and sprig of acacia as the sun’s seasonal death and return. He presents both movements as continuations of astral worship.
