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Title: Phallic Worship
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Language: English
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PHALLIC WORSHIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHALLIC WORSHIP
A DESCRIPTION OF THE MYSTERIES
OF THE
SEX WORSHIP OF THE ANCIENTS
WITH THE HISTORY OF
THE MASCULINE CROSS
AN ACCOUNT OF
PRIMITIVE SYMBOLISM, HEBREW PHALLICISM,
BACCHIC FESTIVALS, SEXUAL RITES, AND
THE MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT FAITHS
LONDON
PRIVATELY PRINTED
1880
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
_The present somewhat slight sketch of a most interesting subject,
whilst not claiming entire originality, yet embraces the cream, so to
speak, of various learned works of great cost, some of which being
issued for private circulation only, are almost unobtainable._
_During the past few years several books have been written upon
Phallicism in conjunction with other kindred matters, but not devoting
themselves entirely to one ancient mystery, the writers have only
partially ventilated the subject. The present work seeks to obviate this
failing by confining its attention entirely to the Sex Worship or
Phallicism of the ancient world._
_Many of the topics have received only slight treatment, being little
more than indicated; but the work will enable the reader to understand
and possess the truth concerning the Phallic Worship of the Ancients._
_Those who desire to know more, or to authenticate the statements and
facts given in this book, should consult the large and important works
of Payne Knight, Higgins, Dulaure, Rolle, Inman, and other writers._
_It was intended to give with this volume a list of works and
miscellaneous pieces written on the subject, but the length of the list
prevented its being added._
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHALLIC WORSHIP
NATURE AND SEX WORSHIP
Sex Worship has prevailed among all peoples of ancient times, sometimes
contemporaneous and often mixed with Star, Serpent, and Tree Worship.
The powers of nature were sexualised and endowed with the same feelings,
passions, and performing the same functions as human beings.
Among the ancients, whether the Sun, the Serpent, or the Phallic Emblem
was worshipped, the idea was the same—the veneration of the generative
principle. Thus we find a close relationship between the various
mythologies of the ancient nations, and by a comparison of the creeds,
ideas, and symbols, can see that they spring from the same source,
namely, the worship of the forces and operations of nature, the original
of which was doubtless Sun worship. It is not necessary to prove that in
primitive times the Sun must have been worshipped under various names,
and venerated as the Creator, Light, Source of Life, and the Giver of
Food.
In the earliest times the worship of the generative power was of the
most simple and pure character, rude in manner, primitive in form, pure
in idea, the homage of man to the supreme power, the Author of life.
Afterwards the worship became more depraved, a religion of feeling,
sensuous bliss, corrupted by a priesthood who were not slow to take
advantage of this state of affairs, and inculcated with it profligate
and mysterious ceremonies, union of gods with women, religious
prostitution and other degrading rites. Thus it was not long before the
emblems lost their pure and simple meaning and became licentious statues
and debased objects.
Hence we have the depraved ceremonies at the worship of Bacchus, who
became, not only the representative of the creative power, but the God
of pleasure and licentiousness.
The corrupted religion always found eager votaries, willing to be
captives to a pleasant bondage by the impulse of physical bliss, as was
the case in India and Egypt, and among the Phœnicians, Babylonians, Jews
and other nations.
Sex worship once personified became the supreme and governing deity,
enthroned as the ruling God over all; dissent therefrom was impious and
punished. The priests of the worship compelled obedience; monarchs
complied to the prevailing faith and became willing devotees to the
shrines of Isis and Venus on the one hand, and of Bacchus and Priapus on
the other, by appealing to the most animating passion of nature.
PHALLICISM
This is the worship of the reproductive powers, the sexual appointments
revered as the emblems of the Creator. The one male, the active creative
power; the other the female or passive power; ideas which were
represented by various emblems in different countries.
These emblems were of a pure and sacred character, and used at a time
when the prophets and priests spoke plain speech, understood by a rude
and primitive people; although doubtless by the common people the
emblems were worshipped themselves, even as at the present day in Roman
Catholic countries the more ignorant, in many cases, actually worship
the images and pictures themselves, while to the higher and more
intelligent minds they are only symbols of a hidden object of worship.
In the same manner, the concealed meaning or hidden truth was to the
ignorant and rude people of early times entirely unknown, while the
priests and the more learned kept studiously concealed the meaning of
the ceremonies and symbols. Thus, the primitive idea became mixed with
profligate, debased ceremonies, and lascivious rites, which in time
caused the more pure part of the worship to be forgotten. But Phallicism
is not to be judged from these sacred orgies, any more than Christianity
from the religious excitement and wild excesses of a few Christian sects
during the Middle Ages.
In a work on the “Worship of the Generative Powers during the Middle
Ages,” the writer traces the superstition westward, and gives an account
of its prevalence throughout Southern and Western Europe during that
period.
The worship was very prevalent in Italy, and was invariably carried by
the Romans into the countries they conquered, where they introduced
their own institutions and forms of worship. Accordingly, in Britain
have been found numerous relics and remains; and many of our ancient
customs are traced to a Phallic origin. “When we cross over to Britain,”
says the writer, “we find this worship established no less firmly and
extensively in that island; statuettes of Priapus, Phallic bronzes,
pottery covered with obscene pictures, are found wherever there are any
extensive remains of Roman occupation, as our antiquaries know well. The
numerous Phallic figures in bronze found in England are perfectly
identical in character with those that occur in France and Italy.”
All antiquaries of any experience know the great number of obscene
subjects which are met with among the fine red pottery which is termed
Samian ware, found so abundantly in all Roman sites in our island. “They
represent erotic scenes, in every sense of the word, with figures of
Priapus and Phallic emblems.”
PHALLUS
The Phallus, or Lingam, which stood for the image of the male organ, or
emblem of creation, has been worshipped from time immemorial. Payne
Knight describes it as of the greatest antiquity, and as having
prevailed in Egypt and all over Asia.
The women of the former country carried in their religious processions,
a movable Phallus of disproportionate magnitude, which Deodorus Siculus
informs us signified the generative attribute. It has also been observed
among the idols of the native Americans and ancient Scandinavians, while
the Greeks represented the Phallus alone, and changed the personified
attribute into a distinct deity, called Priapus.
Phallus, or privy member (_membrum virile_), signifies, “he breaks
through, or passes into.” This word survives in German _pfahl_, and
_pole_ in English. Phallus is supposed to be of Phœnician origin, the
Greek word _pallo_, or _phallo_, “to brandish preparatory to throwing a
missile,” is so near in assonance and meaning to Phallus, that one is
quite likely to be parent of the other. In Sanskrit it can be traced to
_phal_, “to burst,” “to produce,” “to be fruitful”; then, again, _phal_
is “a ploughshare,” and is also the name of Siva and Mahadeva, who are
Hindu deities. Phallus, then, was the ancient emblem of creation: a
divinity who was companion to Bacchus.
The Indian designation of this idol was Lingam, and those who dedicated
themselves to its service were to observe inviolable chastity. “If it
were discovered,” says Crawford, “that they had in any way departed from
them, the punishment is death. They go naked, and being considered as
sanctified persons, the women approach without scruple, nor is it
thought that their modesty should be offended by it.”
SYMBOLS OR EMBLEMS
The Phallus and its emblems were representative of the gods Bacchus,
Priapus, Hercules, Siva, Osiris, Baal, and Asher, who were all Phallic
deities. The symbols were used as signs of the great creative energy or
operating power of God from no sense of mere animal appetite, but in the
highest reverence. Payne Knight, describing the emblems, says:—
“Forms and ceremonials of a religion are not always to be understood in
their direct and obvious sense, but are to be considered as symbolical
representations of some hidden meaning extremely wise and just, though
the symbols themselves, to those who know not their true signification,
may appear in the highest degree absurd and extravagant. It has often
happened that avarice and superstition have continued these symbolical
representations for ages after their original meaning has been lost and
forgotten; they must, of course, appear nonsensical and ridiculous, if
not impious and extravagant. Such is the case with the rite now under
consideration, than which nothing can be more monstrous and indecent, if
considered in its plain and obvious meaning, or as part of the Christian
worship; but which will be found to be a very natural symbol of a very
natural and philosophical system of religion, if considered according to
its original use and intention.”
The natural emblems were those which from their character were most
suitable representatives; such as poles, pillars, stones, which were
sacred to Hindu, Egyptian, and Jewish divinities.
Blavalsky gives an account of the Bimlang Stone, to be found at Narmada
and other places, which is sacred to the Hindu deity Siva; these emblem
stones were anointed, like the stone consecrated by the Patriarch Jacob.
Blavalsky further says that these stones are “identical in shape,
meaning, and purpose with the ‘pillars’ set up by the several patriarchs
to mark their adoration of the Lord God. In fact, one of these
patriarchal lithoi might even now be carried in the Sivaitic processions
of Calcutta without its Hebrew derivation being suspected.”
THE POLE
The Pole was an emblem of the Phallus, and with the serpent upon it, was
a representative of its divine wisdom and symbol of life. The serpent
upon the tree is the same in character, both are representative of the
tree of life. The story of Moses will well illustrate this, when he
erected in the wilderness this effigy, which stood as a sign of hope and
life, as the cross is used by the Catholics of the present day; the
cross then, as now, being simply an emblem of the Creator, used as a
token of resurrection or regeneration. Æsculapius, as the restorer of
health, has a rod or Phallus with a serpent entwined.
The Rev. M. Morris has shown that the raising of the May-pole is of
Phallic origin, the remains of a custom of India or Egypt, and is
typical of the fructifying powers of spring.
The May festival was carried on with great licentiousness by the Romans,
and was celebrated by nearly all peoples as the month consecrated to
Love. The May-day in England was the scene of riotous enjoyment, very
nearly approaching to the Roman Floralia. No wonder the Puritans looked
upon the May-pole as a relic of Paganism, and in their writings may be
gleaned much of the licentious character of the festival.
Philip Stubbes, a Puritan writer in the reign of Elizabeth, thus
describes a May-day in England: “Every parishe, towne, and village
assemble themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and
younge even indifferently; and either goyng all together, or devidyng
themselves into companies, they go some to the woods and groves, some to
one place, some to another, where thei spend all the night in pleasant
pastymes; and in the mornyng they returne, bryngyng with them birch
bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withall.... But
their cheerest jewell thei bryng from thence is their Maie pole, whiche
thei bryng home with great veneration, as thus: thei have twentie or
fortie yoke of oxen, every oxe havyng a sweet nosegaie of flowers placed
on the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie pole
(this stinckyng idoll rather), which is covered all over with flowers
and hearbes, bound rounde aboute with strynges from the top to the
bottome, and sometyme painted with variable colours, with two or three
hundred men, women, and children, followyng it with great devotion. And
thus beyng reared up, with handekerchiefes and flagges streamyng on the
top, thei strawe the grounde aboute, binde greene boughes aboute it,
sett up sommer haules, bowers, and arbours hard by it. And then fall
thei to banquet and feast, to leape and daunce aboute it, as the heathen
people did at the dedication of their idols, whereof this is a perfect
patterne, or rather the thyng itself.”
The ceremony was almost identical with the Roman festival, where the
Phallus was introduced with garlands. Both were attended with the same
licentiousness, for Stubbes gives a further account of the depravity
attending the festivities.
PILLARS
Another type of emblem was the stone pillar, remains of which still
exist in the British Isles. These pillars or so called crosses generally
consist of a shaft of granite with a carved head. In the West of England
crosses are very common, standing in the market and receiving the name
of “The Cross.”
These stone pillars were first erected in honour of the Phallic deity,
and on the introduction of Christianity were not destroyed, but
consecrated to the new faith, doubtless to honour the prejudices of the
people. These monolisks abound in the Highlands, they are stones set up
on end, some twenty-four or thirty feet high, others higher or lower and
this sometimes where no such stones are to be quarried.
We learn that the Bacchus of the Thebans was a pillar. The Assyrian Nebo
was represented by a plain pillar, consecrated by anointing with oil.
Arnobius gives an account of this practice, as also does Theophrastus,
who speaks of it as a custom for a superstitious man, when he passed by
these anointed stones in the streets to take out a phial of oil and pour
it upon them and having fallen on his knees to make his adorations, and
so depart.
In various parts of the Bible the Pillar is referred to as of a sacred
character, as in Isaiah xix. 19, 20, “In that day shall there be an
altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a _pillar_ at
the border thereof to Jehovah, and it should be for a sign and a witness
to the Lord.”
The Orphic Temples were doubtless emblems of the same principle of the
mystic faiths of the ancients, the same as the Round Towers of Ireland,
a history of which was collected by O’Brien, who describes the Towers as
“Temples constructed by the early Indian colonists of the country in
honour of the _Fructifying_ principle of nature, emanating as was
supposed from the Sun, or the deity of desire instrumental in that
principle of universal generativeness diffused throughout all nature.”
According to the same author these towers were very ancient, and of
Phœnician origin, as similar towers have been found in Phœnicia. “The
Irish themselves,” says O’Brien, “designated them ‘Bail-toir,’ that is
the tower of Baal. Baal was the name of the Phallic deity, and the
priest who attended them ‘Aoi Bail-toir’ or superintendent of Baal
tower.” This Baal was worshipped wherever the Phœnicians went, and was
represented by a pillar or stone or similar objects. The stone that
Jacob set up, and anointed as a rallying place for worship, became
afterwards an object of worship to the Phœnicians.
The earliest navigators of the world were the Phœnicians, they founded
colonies and extended their commerce first to the isles of the
Mediterranean, from thence to Spain, and then to the British Isles.
Historians have accorded to them the settlements of the most remote
localities. They formed settlements in Cyprus, and Atticum, according to
Josephus, was the principal settlement of the Tyrians upon this island.
Strabo’s testimony is, that the Phœnicians, even before Homer, had
possessed themselves of the best part of Spain.
Where the Phœnicians settled, there they introduced their religion, and
it is in these countries we find the remains of ancient stone and pillar
worship.
LOGGIN STONES, ETC.
Loggin stones are by Payne Knight considered as Phallic emblems. “Their
remains,” he says, “are still extant, and appear to have been composed
of a crone set into the ground, and another placed upon the point of it
and so nicely balanced that the wind could move it, though so ponderous
that no human force, unaided by machinery, can displace it; whence they
are called ‘logging rocks’ and ‘pendre stones,’ as they were anciently
‘living stones’ and ‘stones of God,’ titles which differ very little in
meaning from that on the Tyrian coins. Damascius saw several of them in
the neighbourhood of Heliopolis or Baalbeck, in Syria, particularly one
which was then moved by the wind; and they are equally found in the
Western extremities of Europe and the Eastern extremities of Asia, in
Britain, and in China.”
Bryant mentions it as very usual among the Egyptians to place with much
labour one vast stone upon another for a religious memorial.
Such immense masses, being moved by causes seeming so inadequate, must
naturally have conveyed the idea of spontaneous motion to ignorant
observers, and persuaded them that they were animated by an emanation of
the vital spirit, whence they were consulted as oracles, the responses
of which could always be easily obtained by interpreting the different
oscillatory movements into nods of approbation or dissent.
Phallic emblems abounded at Heliopolis in Syria, and many other places,
even in modern times. A physician, writing to Dr. Inman, says: “I was in
Egypt last winter (1865-66), and there certainly are numerous figures of
gods and kings, on the walls of the temple at Thebes, depicted with the
male genital erect. The great temple at Karnak is, in particular, full
of such figures, and the temple of Danclesa likewise, though that is of
much later date, and built merely in imitation of old Egyptian art. The
same inspiring _bas-reliefs_ are pointed out by Ezek. xxiii. 14. I
remember one scene of a king (Rameses II) returning in triumph with
captives, many of whom were undergoing the process of castration.”
Obelisks were also representative of the same emblem. Payne Knight
mentions several terminating in a cross, which had exactly the
appearance of one of those crosses erected in churchyards and at cross
roads for the adoration of devout persons, when devotions were more
prevalent than at present. Stones, pillars, obelisks, stumps of trees,
upright stones have all the same signification, and are means by which
the male element was symbolised.
TRIADS
The Triune idea is to be found in the system of almost every nation. All
have their Trinity in Unity, three in one, which can be distinctly
recognised in the cross. The Triad is the male or triple, the
constitution of the three persons of most sacred Trinity forming the
Triune system. In the analysis of the subject by Rawlinson, we find the
Trinity consisted of Asshur or Asher, associated with Anu and Hea or
Hoa. Asshur, the supreme god of the Assyrians, represents the Phallus or
central organ or the Linga, the _membrum virile_. The cognomen Anu was
given to the right testis, while that of Hea designated the left.
It was only natural that Asshur being deified, his appendages should be
deified also. “Beltus,” says Inman, “was the goddess associated with
them, the four together made up Arba or Arba-il, the four great gods,”
the Trinity in Unity. The idea thus broached receives great confirmation
when we examine the particular stress laid in ancient times respecting
the right and left side of the body in connection with the Triad names
given to offspring mentioned in the scriptures with the titles given to
Anu and Hea. The male or active principle was typified by the idea of
“solidity” and “firmness,” and the females or passive by the principles
of “water,” “softness,” and other feminine principles. Thus the goddess
Hea was associated with water, and according to Forlong, the Serpent,
the ruler of the Abyss, was sometimes represented to be the great Hea,
without whom there was no creation or life, and whose godhead embraced
also the female element water.
Rawlinson also gives a similar conclusion, and states as far as he could
determine the third divinity or left side was named Hea, and he
considered this deity to correspond to Neptune. Neptune was the
presiding deity of the deep, ruler of the abyss, and king of the rivers.
As Darwin and his coadjutors teach, mankind, in common with all animal
life, originally sprung from the sea; so physiology teaches that each
individual had origin in a pond of water. The fruit of man is both solid
and fluid. It was natural to imagine that the two male appendages had a
distinct duty, that one formed the infant, the other water in which it
lived, that one generated the male, the other the female offspring; and
the inference was then drawn that water must be feminine, the emblem of
all possible powers of creation.
It will be seen that the names and signification of the gods and their
attributes had no ideal meaning. Thus in Genesis xxx. 13, we find Asher
given as a personality, which signifies “to be straight,” “upright,”
“fortunate,” “happy.” Asher was the supreme god of the Assyrians, the
Vedic Mahadeva, the emblem of the human male structure and creative
energy. The same idea of the creator is still to be seen in India,
Egypt, Phœnicia, the Mediterranean, Europe, and Denmark, depicted on
stone relics.
To a rude and ignorant people, enslaved with such a religion, it was an
easy step from the crude to the more refined sign, from the offensive to
a more pictured and less obnoxious symbol, from the plain and
self-evident to the mixed, disguised, and mystified, from the unclothed
privy member to the cross.
THE CROSS
The Triad, or Trinity, has been traced to Phœnicia, Egypt, Japan, and
India; the triple deities Asshur, Anu, and Hea forming the “tau.” This
mark of the Christians, Greeks, and Hebrews became the sign or type of
the deities representing the Phallic trinity, and in time became the
figure of the cross. It is remarked by Payne Knight that “The male
organs of generation are sometimes found represented by signs of the
same sort, which properly should be called the symbol of symbols. One of
the most remarkable of these is a cross, in the form of the letter (T),
which thus served as the emblem of creation and generation before the
Church adopted it as a sign of salvation.”
Another writer says, “Reverse the position of the triple deities Asshur,
Anu, Hea, and we have the figure of the ancient ‘tau’ of the Christians,
Greeks, and ancient Hebrews. It is one of the oldest conventional forms
of the cross. It is also met with in Gallic, Oscan, Arcadian, Etruscan,
original Egyptian, Phœnician, Ethiopic, and Pelasgian forms. The
Ethiopic form of the ‘tau’ is the exact prototype and image of the
cross, or rather, to state the fact in order of merit and time, the
cross is made in the exact image of the Ethiopic ‘tau.’ The fig-leaf,
having three lobes to it, became a symbol of the triad. As the male
genital organs were held in early times to exemplify the actual male
creative power, various natural objects were seized upon to express the
theistic idea, and at the same time point to those parts of the human
form. Hence, a similitude was recognised in a pillar, a heap of stones,
a tree between two rocks, a club between two pine cones, a trident, a
thyrsus tied round with two ribbons with the two ends pendant, a thumb
and two fingers, the caduceus. Again, the conspicuous part of the sacred
triad Asshur is symbolised by a single stone placed upright—the stump of
a tree, a block, a tower, spire, minaret, pole, pine, poplar, or palm
tree, while eggs, apples, or citrons, plums, grapes, and the like
represented the remaining two portions, altogether called Phallic
emblems. Baal-Shalisha is a name which seems designed to perpetuate the
triad, since it signifies ‘my Lord the Trinity,’ or ‘my God is three.’”
We must not omit to mention other Phallic emblems, such as the bull, the
ram, the goat, the serpent, the torch, fire, a knobbed stick, the
crozier; and still further personified, as Bacchus, Priapus, Dionysius,
Hercules, Hermes, Mahadeva, Siva, Osiris, Jupiter, Moloch, Baal, Asher,
and others.
If Ezekiel is to be credited, the triad, T, as Asshur, Anu, and Hea, was
made of gold and silver, and was in his day not symbolically used, but
actually employed; for he bluntly says “whoredom was committed with the
images of men,” or, as the marginal note has it, images of “a male”
(Ezek. xvi. 17). It was with this god-mark—a cross in the form of the
letter T—that Ezekiel was directed to stamp the foreheads of the men of
Judæa who feared the Lord (Ezek. ix. 4).
That the cross, or crucifix, has a sexual origin we determine by a
similar rule of research to that by which comparative anatomists
determine the place and habits of an animal by a single tooth. The cross
is a metaphoric tooth which belongs to an antique religious body
physical, and that essentially human. A study of some of the earliest
forms of faith will lift the veil and explain the mystery.
India, China, and Egypt have furnished the world with a _genus_ of
religion. Time and culture have divided and modified it into many
species and countless varieties. However much the imagination was
allowed to play upon it, the animus of that religion was
sexuality—worship of the generative principle of man and nature, male
and female. The cross became the emblem of the male feature, under the
term of the _triad_—three in one. The female was the _unit_; and, joined
to the male triad, constituted a sacred four. Rites and adoration were
sometimes paid to the male, sometimes to the female, or to the two in
one.
So great was the veneration of the cross among the ancients that it was
carried as a Phallic symbol in the religious processions of the
Egyptians and Persians. Higgins also describes the cross as used from
the earliest times of Paganism by the Egyptians as a banner, above which
was carried the device of the Egyptian cities.
The cross was also used by the ancient Druids, who held it as a sacred
emblem. In Egypt it stood for the signification of eternal life.
Schedeus describes it as customary for the Druids “to seek studiously
for an oak tree, large and handsome, growing up with _two principal arms
in the form of a cross_, besides the main stem upright. If the two
horizontal arms are not sufficiently adapted to the figure, they fasten
a _cross-beam_ to it. This tree they consecrate in this manner: Upon the
right branch they cut in the bark, in fair characters, the word ‘Hesus’;
upon the middle, or upright stem, the word ‘Taranius’; upon the left
branch ‘Belenus’; over this, above the going off of the arms, they cut
the name of the god _Thau_; under all, the same repeated, _Thau_.”
YONI
There is in Hindostan an emblem of great sanctity, which is known as the
“Linga-Yoni.” It consists of a simple pillar in the centre of a figure
resembling the outline of a conical ear-ring. It is expressive of the
female genital organ both in shape and idea. The Greek letter “Delta” is
also expressive of it, signifying the door of a house.
Yoni is of Sanskrit origin. Yanna, or Yoni, means (1) the vulva, (2) the
womb, (3) the place of birth, (4) origin, (5) water, (6) a mine, a hole,
or pit. As Asshur and Jupiter were the representatives of the male
potency, so Juno and Venus were representatives of the female attribute.
Moore, in his “Oriental Fragments,” says: “Oriental writers have
generally spelled the word, ‘Yoni,’ which I prefer to write ‘IOni.’ As
Lingam was the vocalised cognomen of the male organ, or deity, so IOni
was that of hers.” Says R. P. Knight: “The female organs of generation
were revered as symbols of the generative powers of nature or of matter,
as those of the male were of the generative powers of God. They are
usually represented emblematically by the shell _Concha Veneris_, which
was therefore worn by devout persons of antiquity, as it still continues
to be by the pilgrims of many of the common people of Italy” (“On the
worship of Priapus,” p. 28).
If Asshur, the conspicuous feature of the male Creator, is supplied with
types and representative figures of himself, so the female feature is
furnished with substitutes and typical imagery of herself.
One of these is technically known as the _sistrum_ of Isis. It is the
virgin’s symbol. The bars across the _fenestrum_, or opening, are bent
so that they cannot be taken out, and indicate that the door is closed.
It signifies that the mother is still _virgo intacta_—a truly immaculate
female—if the truth can be strained to so denominate a _mother_. The
pure virginity of the Celestial Mother was a tenet of faith for 2,000
years before the accepted Virgin Mary now adored was born. We might
infer that Solomon was acquainted with the figure of the _sistrum_, when
he said, “A garden enclosed is my spouse, a spring shut up, a _fountain
sealed_” (Song of Sol. iv. 12). The _sistrum_, we are told, was only
used in the worship of Isis, to drive away Typhon (evil).
The Argha is a contrite form, or boat-shaped dish or plate used as a
sacrificial cup in the worship of Astarte, Isis, and Venus. Its shape
portrays its own significance. The Argha and _crux ansata_ were often
seen on Egyptian monuments, and yet more frequently on bas-reliefs.
Equivalent to Iao, or the Lingam, we find Ab, the Father, the Trinity;
Asshur, Anu, Hea, Abraham, Adam, Esau, Edom, Ach, Sol, Helios (Greek for
Sun), Dionysius, Bacchus, Apollo, Hercules, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva,
Jupiter, Zeus, Aides, Adonis, Baal, Osiris, Thor, Oden; the cross,
tower, spire, pillar, minaret, tolmen, and a host of others; while the
Yoni was represented by IO, Isis, Astarte, Juno, Venus, Diana, Artemis,
Aphrodite, Hera, Rhea, Cybele, Ceres, Eve, Frea, Frigga; the queen of
Heaven, the oval, the trough, the delta, the door, the ark, the ship,
the chasm, a ring, a lozenge, cave, hole, pit, Celestial Virgin, and a
number of other names. Lucian, who was an Assyrian, and visited the
temple of Dea Syria, near the Euphrates, says there are two Phalli
standing in the porch with this inscription on them, “These Phalli I,
Bacchus, dedicate to my step-mother Juno.”
The Papal religion is essentially the feminine, and built on the ancient
Chaldean basis. It clings to the female element in the person of the
Virgin Mary. Naphtali (Gen. xxx. 8) was a descendant of such
worshippers, if there be any meaning in a concrete name. Bear in mind,
names and pictures perpetuate the faith of many peoples. Neptoah is
Hebrew for “the vulva,” and, Al or El being God, one of the unavoidable
renderings of Naphtali is “the Yoni is my God,” or “I worship the
Celestial Virgin.” The Philistine towns generally had names strongly
connected with sexual ideas. Ashdod, _aish_ or _esh_, means “fire,
heat,” and _dod_ means “love, to love,” “boiled up,” “be agitated,” the
whole signifying “the heat of love,” or “the fire which impels to
union.” Could not those people exclaim, Our “God is love”? (1 John iv.
8).
The amatory drift of Solomon’s song is undisguised, though the language
is dressed in the habiliments of seeming decency. The burden of thought
of most of it bears direct reference to the Linga-Yoni. He makes a woman
say, “He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts” (S. of S. i. 13).
Again, of the Phallus, or Linga, she says, “I will go up the palm-tree,
I will take hold of the boughs thereof” (vii. 8). Palm-tree and boughs
are euphemisms of the male genitals.
HEBREW PHALLICISM
The nations surrounding the Jews practising the Phallic rites and
worshipping the Phallic deities, it is not to be supposed that the Jews
escaped their influence. It is indeed certain that the worship of the
Phallics was a great and important part of the Hebrew worship.
This will be the more plainly seen when we bear in mind the importance
given to circumcision as a covenant between God and man. Another equally
suggestive custom among the Patriarchs was the act of taking the oath,
or making a sacred promise, which is commented upon by Dr. Ginsingburg
in Kitto’s _Cyclopædia_. He says: “Another primitive custom which
obtained in the patriarchal age was, that the one who took the oath put
his hand under the thigh of the adjurer (Gen. xxiv. 2, and xlvii. 29).
This practice evidently arose from the fact that the genital member,
which is meant by the euphemistic expression _thigh_, was regarded as
the most sacred part of the body, being the symbol of union in the
tenderest relation of matrimonial life, and the seat whence all issue
proceeds and the perpetuity so much coveted by the ancients. Compare
Gen. xlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5; Judges vii. 30. Hence the creative organ
became the symbol of the _Creator_, and the object of worship among all
nations of antiquity. It is for this reason that God claimed it as a
sign of the covenant between himself and his chosen people in the rite
of circumcision. Nothing therefore could render the oath more solemn in
those days than touching the symbol of creation, the sign of the
covenant, and the source of that issue who may at any future period
avenge the breaking a compact made with their progenitor.” From this we
learn that Abraham, himself a Chaldee, had reverence for the Phallus as
an emblem of the Creator. We also learn that the rite of circumcision
touches Phallic or Lingasic worship. From Herodotus we are informed that
the Syrians learned circumcision from the Egyptians, as did the Hebrews.
Says Dr. Inman: “I do not know anything which illustrates the difference
between ancient and modern times more than the frequency with which
circumcision is spoken of in the sacred books, and the carefulness with
which the subject is avoided now.”
The mutilation of male captives, as practised by Saul and David, was
another custom among the worshippers of Baal, Asshur, and other Phallic
deities. The practice was to debase the victims and render them unfit to
take part in the worship and mysteries. Some idea can be formed of the
esteem in which people in former times cherished the male or Phallic
emblems of creative power when we note the sway that power exercised
over them. If these organs were lost or disabled, the unfortunate one
was unfitted to meet in the congregation of the Lord, and disqualified
to minister in the holy temples. Excessive punishment was inflicted upon
the person who had the temerity to injure the sacred structure. If a
woman were guilty of inflicting injury, her hand was cut off without
pity (Deut. xxv. 12). The great object of veneration in the Ark of the
Covenant was doubtless a Phallic emblem, a symbol of the preservation of
the germ of life.
In the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament we have
repeated evidence that the Hebrew worship was a mixture of Paganism and
Judaism, and that Jehovah was worshipped in connection with other
deities. Hezekiah is recorded in 2 Kings xviii. 3, to have “removed the
high places, and broken the images, and cut down the groves (Ashera),
and broken in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto
those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it.” The Ashera,
or sacred groves here alluded to are named from the goddess Ashtaroth,
which Dr. Smith describes as the proper name of the goddess; while
Ashera is the name of the image of the goddess. Rawlinson, in his _Five
Great Monarchies of the Ancient World_, describes Ashera to imply
something that stood straight up, and probably its essential element was
the stem of a tree, an analogy suggestive of the Assyrian emblem of the
Tree of Life of the Scriptures. This stem, which stood for the emblem of
life, was probably a pillar, or Phallus, like the Lingi of the Hindus,
sometimes erected in a grove or sacred hollow, signifying the Yoni and
Lingi. We read in 2 Kings xxi. 7, that Manasseh “set up a graven image
in the grove,” and, according to Dr. Oort, the older reading is in 2
Chron. xxxiii. 7, 15, where it is an image or pillar. During the reigns
of the Jewish kings, the worship of Baal, the Priapus of the Greeks and
Romans, was extensively practised by the Jews. Pillars and groves were
reared in his name.
In front of the Temple of Baal, in Samaria, was erected an Ashera (1
Kings xvi. 31, 32) which even survived the temple itself, for although
Jehu destroyed the Temple of Baal, he allowed the Ashera to remain (2
Kings x. 18, 19; xiii. 6). Bernstein, in an important work on the origin
of the legends of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, undoubtedly proves that
during the monarchial period of Israel, the sanguinary wars and violent
conflicts between the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel were between the
Elohistic and Jehovahic faiths, kept alive by the priesthood at the
chief places of worship, concerning the true patriarch, and each party
manufacturing and inserting legends to give a more ancient and important
part to its own faith.
It is not at all improbable that the conflict was between the two
portions of the Phallic faith, the Lingam and Yoni parties. The cause of
this conflict was the erection of the consecrated stones or pillars
which were put up by the Hebrews as objects of Divine worship. The altar
erected by Jacob at Bethel was a pillar, for according to Bernstein the
word altar can only be used for the erection of a pillar. Jacob likewise
set up a Matzebah, or pillar of stone, in Gilead, and finally he set one
up upon the tomb of Rachel.
A great portion of the facts have been suppressed by the translators,
who have given to the world histories which have glossed over the
ancient rites and practices of the Jews.
An instance is given by Forlong on the important word “Rock or Stone,” a
Phallic emblem to which the Jews addressed their devotions. He says, “It
should not be, but I fear it is, necessary to explain to mere English
readers of the Old Testament that the _Stone_ or _Rock Tsur_ was _the
real old god of all Arabs, Jews, and Phœnicians_, that this would be
clear to Christians were the Jewish writings translated according to the
first ideas of the people and _Rock_ used as it ought to be, instead of
‘God,’ ‘Theos,’ ‘Lord,’ etc., being written where Tsur occurs.” Numerous
instances of this are given in Dr. Ort’s worship of Baal in Israel,
where praises, addresses, and adorations are addressed to the _Rock_,
instance, Deut. xxxii. 4, 18. Stone pillars were also used by the
Hebrews as a memorial of a sacred covenant, for we find Jacob setting up
a pillar as a witness, that he would not pass over it. Connected with
this pillar worship is the ceremony of anointing by pouring oil upon the
pillar, as practised by Jacob at Bethel. According to Sir W. Forbes, in
his _Oriental Memoirs_, the “pouring of oil upon a stone is practised at
this day upon many a shapeless stone throughout Hindostan.”
Toland gives a similar account of the Druids as practising the same
rite, and describes many of the stones found in England as having a
cavity at the top made to receive the offering. The worship of Baal like
the worship of Priapus was attended with prostitution, and we find the
Jews having a similar custom to the Babylonians.
Payne Knight gives the following account of it in his work: “The women
of every rank and condition held it to be an indispensable duty of
religion to prostitute themselves once in their lives in her temple to
any stranger who came and offered money, which, whether little or much,
was accepted, and applied to a sacred purpose. Women sat in the temple
of Venus awaiting the selection of the stranger, who had the liberty of
choosing whom he liked. A woman once seated must remain until she has
been selected by a piece of silver being cast into her lap, and the rite
performed outside the temple.”
Similar customs existed in Armenia, Phrygia, and even in Palestine, and
were a feature of the worship of Baal Peor. The Hebrew prophets
described and denounced these excesses which had the same
characteristics as the rites of the Babylonian priesthood. The identical
custom is referred to in 1 Sam. ii. 22, where “the sons of Eli lay with
the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation.”
Words and history corroborate each other, or are apt to do so if
contemporaneous. Thus _kadesh_, or _kaesh_, designate in Hebrew “a
consecrated one,” and history tells the unworthy tale in descriptive
plainness, as will be shown in the sequel.
That the religion was dominating and imperative is determined by Deut.
xvii. 12, where presumptuous refusal to listen to the priest was death
to the offender. To us it is inconceivable that the indulgence of
passion could be associated with religion, but so it was. Much as it is
covered over by altered words and substituted expressions in the
Bible—an example of which see _men_ for male organ, Ezek. xvi. 17—it yet
stands out offensively bold. The words expressive of “sanctuary,”
“consecrated,” and “Sodomite,” are in the Hebrew essentially the same.
They indicate the passion of amatory devotion. It is among the Hindus of
to-day as it was in Greece and Italy of classic times; and we find that
“holy women” is a title given to those who devote their bodies to be
used for hire, the price of which hire goes to the service of the
temple.
As a general rule, we may assume that priests who make or expound the
laws, which they declare to be from God, are men, and, consequently,
through all time, have thought, and do think, of the gratification of
the masculine half of humanity. The ancient and modern Orientals are not
exceptions. They lay it down as a momentous fact that virginity is the
most precious of all the possessions of a woman, and, being so, it
ought, in some way or other, to be devoted to God.
Throughout India, and also through the densely inhabited parts of Asia,
and modern Turkey there is a class of females who dedicate themselves to
the service of the deity whom they adore; and the rewards accruing from
their prostitution are devoted to the service of the temple and the
priests officiating therein.
The temples of the Hindus in the Dekkan possessed their establishments.
They had bands of consecrated dancing-girls called the _Women of the
Idol_, selected in their infancy by the priests for the beauty of their
persons, and trained up with every elegant accomplishment that could
render them attractive.
We also find David and the daughters of Shiloh performing a wild and
enticing dance; likewise we have the leaping of the prophets of Baal.
It is again significant that a great proportion of Bible names relate to
“divine,” sexual, generative, or creative power; such as Alah, “the
strong one”; Ariel, “the strong Jas is El”; Amasai, “Jah is firm”;
Asher, “the male” or “the upright organ”; Elijah, “El is Jah”; Eliab,
“the strong father”; Elisha, “El is upright”; Ara, “the strong one,”
“the hero”; Aram, “high,” or, “to be uncovered”; Baal Shalisha, “my Lord
the trinity,” or “my God is three”; Ben-zohett, “son of firmness”;
Camon, “the erect One”; Cainan, “he stands upright”; these are only a
few of the many names of a similar signification.
It will be seen, from what has been given, that the Jews, like the
Phœnicians (if they were not the same), had the same ceremonies, rites,
and gods as the surrounding nations, but enough has been said to show
that Phallic worship was much practised by the Jews. It was very
doubtful whether the Jehovah-worship was not of a monotheistic
character, but those who desire to have a further insight into the
mysteries of the wars between the tribes should consult Bernstein’s
valuable work.
EARTH MOTHER
The following interesting chapter is taken from a valuable book issued a
few years ago anonymously:
“Mother Earth” is a legitimate expression, only of the most
general type. Religious genius gave the female quality to the
earth with a special meaning. When once the idea obtained that
our world was _feminine_, it was easy to induce the faithful to
believe that natural chasms were typical of that part which
characterises woman. As at birth the new being emerges from the
mother, so it was supposed that emergence from a terrestrial
cleft was equivalent to a new birth. In direct proportion to the
resemblance between the sign and the thing signified was the
sacredness of the chink, and the amount of virtue which was
imparted by passing through it. From natural caverns being
considered holy, the veneration for apertures in stones, as
being equally symbolical, was a natural transition. Holes, such
as we refer to, are still to be seen in those structures which
are called Druidical, both in the British Isles and in India. It
is impossible to say when these first arose; it is certain that
they survive in India to this day. We recognise the existence of
the emblem among the Jews in Isaiah li. 1, in the charge to look
“to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” We have also an
indication that chasms were symbolical among the same people in
Isaiah lvii. 5, where the wicked among the Jews were described
as “inflaming themselves with idols under every green tree, and
slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the
rocks.” It is possible that the “hole in the wall” (Ezek. viii.
7) had a similar signification. In modern Rome, in the vestibule
of the church close to the Temple of Vesta, I have seen a large
_perforated stone_, in the hole of which the ancient Romans are
said to have placed their hands when they swore a solemn oath,
in imitation, or, rather, a counterpart, of Abraham swearing his
servant upon his thigh—that is the male organ. Higgins dwells
upon these holes, and says: “These stones are so placed as to
have a hole under them, through which devotees passed for
religious purposes. There is one of the same kind in Ireland,
called St. Declau’s stone. In the mass of rocks at Bramham Crags
there is a place made for the devotees to pass through.” We read
in the accounts of Hindostan that there is a very celebrated
place in Upper India, to which immense numbers of pilgrims go,
to pass through a place in the mountains called “The Cow’s
Belly.” In the Island of Bombay, at Malabar Hill, there is a
rock upon the surface of which there is a natural crevice, which
communicates with a cavity opening below. This place is used by
the Gentoos as a purification of their sins, which they say is
effected by their going in at the opening below, and emerging at
the cavity above—“born again.” The ceremony is in such high
repute in the neighbouring countries that the famous Conajee
Angria ventured by stealth, one night, upon the Island, on
purpose to perform the ceremony, and got off undiscovered. The
early Christians gave them a bad name, as if from envy; they
called these holes “Cunni Diaboli.” (_Anacalypsis_, p. 346)
BACCHANALIA AND LIBERALIA FESTIVALS
The Romans called the feasts of Bacchus, Bacchanalia and Liberalia,
because Bacchus and Liber were the names for the same god, although the
festivals were celebrated at different times and in a somewhat different
manner. The latter, according to Payne Knight, was celebrated on the
17th of March, with the most licentious gaiety, when an image of the
Phallus was carried openly in triumph. These festivities were more
particularly celebrated among the rural or agricultural population, who,
when the preparatory labour of the agriculturist was over, celebrated
with joyful activity Nature’s reproductive powers, which in due time was
to bring forth the fruits. During the festival a car containing a huge
Phallus was drawn along accompanied by its worshippers, who indulged in
obscene songs and dances of wild and extravagant character. The gravest
and proudest matrons suddenly laid aside their decency and ran screaming
among the woods and hills half-naked, with dishevelled hair, interwoven
with which were pieces of ivy or vine. The Bacchanalian feasts were
celebrated in the latter part of October when the harvest was completed.
Wine and figs were carried in the procession of the Bacchants, and
lastly came the Phalli, followed by honourable virgins, called
_canephorœ_, who carried baskets of fruit. These were followed by a
company of men who carried poles, at the end of which were figures
representing the organ of generation. The men sung the Phallica and were
crowned with violets and ivy, and had their faces covered with other
kinds of herbs. These were followed by some dressed in women’s apparel,
striped with white, reaching to their ancles, with garlands on their
heads, and wreaths of flowers in their hands, imitating by their
gestures the state of inebriety. The priestesses ran in every direction
shouting and screaming, each with a thyrsus in their hands. Men and
women all intermingled, dancing and frolicking with suggestive
gesticulations. Deodorus says the festivals were carried into the night,
and it was then frenzy reached its height. He says, “In performing the
solemnity virgins carry the thyrsus, and run about frantic, halloing
‘Evoe’ in honour of the god; then the women in a body offer the
sacrifices, and roar out the praises of Bacchus in song as if he were
present, in imitation of the ancient Mænades, who accompanied him.”
These festivities were carried into the night, and as the celebrators
became heated with wine, they degenerated into extreme licentiousness.
Similar enthusiastic frenzy was exhibited at the Lupercalian Feasts
instituted in honour of the god Pan (under the shape of a Goat) whose
priests, according to Owen in his _Worship of Serpents_, on the morning
of the Feast ran naked through the streets, striking the married women
they met on the hands and belly, which was held as an omen promising
fruitfulness. The nymphs performing the same ostentatious display as the
Bacchants at the festival of Bacchanalia.
The festival of Venus was celebrated towards the beginning of April, and
the Phallus was again drawn in a car, followed by a procession of Roman
women to the temple of Venus. Says a writer, “The loose women of the
town and its neighbourhood, called together by the sounding of horns,
mixed with the multitude in perfect nakedness, and excited their
passions with obscene motions and language until the festival ended in a
scene of mad revelry, in which all restraint was laid aside.”
It is said that these festivals took their rise from Egypt, from whence
they were brought into Greece by Metampus, where the triumph of Osiris
was celebrated with secret rites, and from thence the Bacchanals drew
their original; and from the feasts instituted by Isis came the orgies
of Bacchus.
DRUID AND HEBREW FAITHS
It seems not at all improbable that the deities worshipped by the
ancient Britons and the Irish, were no other then the Phallic deities of
the ancient Syrians and Greeks, and also the Baal of the Hebrews.
Dionysius Periegites, who lived in the time of Augustus Cæsar, states
that the rites of Bacchus were celebrated in the British Isles; while
Strabo, who lived in the time of Augustus and Tiberius, asserts that a
much earlier writer described the worship of the Cabiri to have come
originally from Phœnicia. Higgins, in his History of the Druids, says,
the supreme god above the rest was called _Seodhoc_ and _Baal_. The name
of Baal is found both in Wales, Gaul, and Germany, and is the same as
the Hebrew Baal.
The same god, according to O’Brien, was the chief deity of the Irish, in
whose honour the round towers were erected, which structures the ancient
Irish themselves designated Bail-toir, or the towers of Baal. In
Numbers, xxii., will be found a mention of a similar pillar consecrated
to Baal. Many of the same customs and superstitions that existed among
the Druids and ancient Irish, will likewise be found among the
Israelites. On the first day of May, the Irish made great fires in
honour of Baal, likewise offering him sacrifices. A similar account is
given of a custom of the Druids by Toland, in an account of the festival
of the fires; he says:—“on May-day eve the Druids made prodigious fires
on these cairns, which being everyone in sight of some other, could not
but afford a glorious show over a whole nation.” These fires are said to
be lit even to the present day by the Aboriginal Irish, on the first of
May, called by them Bealtine, or the day of Belan’s fire, the same name
as given them in the Highlands of Scotland.
A similar practice to this will be noticed as mentioned in the II Book
of Kings, where the Canaanites in their worship of Baal, are said to
have passed their children through the fire of Baal, which seems to have
been a common practice, as Ahaz, King of Israel, is blamed for having
done the same thing. Higgins in his _Anacalypsis_, says this
superstitious custom still continues, and that on “particular days great
fires are lighted, and the fathers taking the children in their arms,
jump or run through them, and thus pass their children through them;
they also light two fires at a little distance from each other, and
drive their cattle between them.” It will be found on reference to
Deuteronomy, that this very practice is specially forbidden. In the
rites of Numa, we have also the sacred fire of the Irish; of St.
Bridget, of Moses, of Mithra, and of India, accompanied with an
establishment of nuns or vestal virgins. A sacred fire is said to have
been kept burning by the nuns of Kildare, which was established by St.
Bridget. This fire was never blown with the mouth, that it might not be
polluted, but only with bellows; this fire was similar to that of the
Jews, kept burning only with peeled wood, and never blown with the
mouth. Hyde describes a similar fire which was kept burning in the same
way by the ancient Persians, who kept their sacred fire fed with a
certain tree called Hawm Mogorum; and Colonel Vallancey says the sacred
fire of the Irish was fed with the wood of the tree called Hawm. Ware,
the Romish priest, relates that at Kildare, the glorious Bridget was
rendered illustrious by many miracles, amongst which was the sacred
fire, which had been kept burning by nuns ever since the time of the
Virgin.
The earliest sacred places of the Jews were evidently sacred stones, or
stone circles, succeeded in time by temples. These early rude stones,
emblems of the Creator, were erected by the Israelites, which in no way
differed from the erections of the Gentiles. It will be found that the
Jews to commemorate a great victory, or to bear witness of the Lord,
were all signified by stones: thus, Joshua erected a stone to bear
witness; Jacob put up a stone to make a place sacred; Abel set up the
same for a place of worship; Samuel erected a stone as a boundary, which
was to be the token of an agreement made in the name of God. Even
Maundrel in his travels names several that he saw in Palestine. It is
curious that where a pillar was erected there, sometime after, a temple
was put up in the same manner that the Round Towers of Ireland
were,—always near a church, but never formed part of it. We find many
instances in the Scriptures of the erection of a number of stones among
the early Israelites, which would lead us to conclude that it was not at
all unlikely that the early places of worship among them, were similar
to the temples found in various parts of Great Britain and Ireland. It
is written in Exodus xxiv. 4, that Moses rose up early in the morning,
and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to
the twelve tribes of Israel, were erected. It is also given out that
when the children of Israel should pass over the Jordan, unto the land
which the Lord giveth them, they should set up great stones, and plaster
them with plaster, and also the words of the law were to be written
thereon. In many other places stones were ordered to be set up in the
name of the Lord, and repeated instances are given that the stones
should be twelve in number and unhewn.
Stone temples seem to have been erected in all countries of the world,
and even in America, where, among the early American races are to be
found customs, superstitions, and religious objects of veneration,
similar to the Phœnicians. An American writer says:—“There is sufficient
evidence that the religious customs of the Mexicans, Peruvians and other
American races, are nearly identical with those of the ancient
Phœnicians.... We moreover discover that many of their religious terms
have, etymologically, the same origin.” Payne Knight, in his Worship of
Priapus, devotes much of his work to show that the temples erected at
Stonehenge and other places, were of a Phœnician origin, which was
simply a temple of the god Bacchus.
STONEHENGE A TEMPLE OF BACCHUS
Of all the nations of antiquity the Persians were the most simple and
direct in the worship of the Creator. They were the puritans of the
heathen world, and not only rejected all images of God and his agents,
but also temples and altars, according to Herodotus, whose authority we
prefer to any other, because he had an opportunity of conversing with
them before they had adopted any foreign superstitions. As they
worshipped the ethereal fire without any medium of personification or
allegory, they thought it unworthy of the dignity of the god to be
represented by any definite form, or circumscribed to any particular
place. The universe was his temple, and the all-pervading element of
fire his only symbol. The Greeks appear originally to have held similar
opinions, for they were long without statues and Pausanias speaks of a
temple at Siciyon, built by Adrastus—who lived in an age before the
Trojan war—which consisted of columns only, without wall or roof, like
the Celtic temples of our northern ancestors, or the Phyrœtheia of the
Persians, which were circles of stones in the centre of which was
kindled the sacred fire, the symbol of the god. Homer frequently speaks
of places of worship consisting of an area and altar only, which were
probably enclosures like those of the Persians, with an altar in the
centre. The temples dedicated to the creator Bacchus, which the Greek
architects called _hypœthral_, seem to have been anciently of this kind,
whence probably came the title (“surround with columns”) attributed to
that god in the Orphic litanies. The remains of one of these are still
extant at Puzznoli, near Naples, which the inhabitants call the temple
of Serapis; but the ornaments of grapes, vases, etc., found among the
ruins, prove it to have been of Bacchus. Serapis was indeed the same
deity worshipped under another form, being usually a personification of
the sun. The architecture is of the Roman times; but the ground plan is
probably that of a very ancient one, which this was made to replace—for
it exactly resembles that of a Celtic temple in Zeeland, published in
Stukeley’s _Itinerary_. The ranges of square buildings which enclose it
are not properly parts of the temple, but apartments of the priests,
places for victims and sacred utensils, and chapels dedicated to the
subordinate deities, introduced by a more complicated and corrupt
worship and probably unknown to the founder of the original edifice. The
portico, which runs parallel with these buildings, encloses the
_temenos_, or area of sacred ground, which in the _pyrœtheia_ of the
Persians was circular, but is here quadrangular, as in the Celtic temple
in Zeeland, and the Indian pagoda before described. In the centre was
the holy of holies, the seat of the god, consisting of a circle of
columns raised upon a basement, without roof or walls, in the middle of
which was probably the sacred fire or some other symbol of the deity.
The square area in which it stood was sunk below the natural level of
the ground, and, like that of the Indian pagoda, appears to have been
occasionally floated with water; the drains and conduits being still to
be seen, as also several fragments of sculpture representing waves,
serpents, and various aquatic animals, which once adorned the basement.
The Bacchus here worshipped, was, as we learn from the Orphic hymn above
cited, the sun in his character of extinguisher of the fires which once
pervaded the earth. He is supposed to have done this by exhaling the
waters of the ocean and scattering them over the land, which was thus
supposed to have acquired its proper temperature and fertility. For this
reason the sacred fire, the essential image of the god, was surrounded
by the element which was principally employed in giving effect to the
beneficial exertions of the great attribute.
From a passage of Hecatæus, preserved by Deodorus Siculus, it seems
evident that Stonehenge and all the monuments of the same kind found in
the north, belong to the same religion which appears at some remote
period to have prevailed over the whole northern hemisphere. According
to that ancient historian, _the Hyperboreans inhabited an island beyond
Gaul, as large as Sicily, in which Apollo was worshipped in a circular
temple considerable for its size and riches_. Apollo, we know, in the
language of the Greeks of that age, can mean no other than the sun,
which according to Cæsar was worshipped by the Germans, when they knew
of no other deities except fire and the moon. The island can evidently
be no other than Britain, which at that time was only known to the
Greeks by the vague reports of the Phœnician mariners; and so uncertain
and obscure that Herodotus, the most inquisitive and credulous of
historians, doubts of its existence. The circular temple of the sun
being noticed in such slight and imperfect accounts, proves that it must
have been something singular and important; for if it had been an
inconsiderable structure, it would not have been mentioned at all; and
if there had been many such in the country, the historian would not have
employed the singular number.
Stonehenge has certainly been a circular temple, nearly the same as that
already described of the Bacchus at Puzznoli, except that in the latter
the nice execution and beautiful symmetry of the parts are in every
respect the reverse of the rude but majestic simplicity of the former.
In the original design they differ but in the form of the area. It may
therefore be reasonably supposed that we have still the ruins of the
identical temple described by Hecatæus, who, being an Asiatic Greek,
might have received his information from Phœnician merchants, who had
visited the interior parts of Britain when trading there for tin.
Anacrobius mentions a temple of the same kind and form, upon Mount
Zilmissus, in Thrace, dedicated to the sun under the title of Bacchus
Sebrazius. The large obelisks of stone found in many parts of the north,
such as those at Rudstone, and near Boroughbridge, in Yorkshire, belong
to the same religion; obelisks being, as Pliny observes, sacred to the
sun, whose rays they represented both by their form and name.—_Payne
Knight’s Worship of Priapus._
BUNS AND RELIGIOUS CAKES
Says Hyslop:—“The hot cross-buns of Good Friday, and the dyed eggs of
Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do
now. The buns known, too, by that identical name, were used in the
worship of the Queen of Heaven, the goddess Easter (Ishtar or Astarte),
as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens, 1,500 years
before the Christian era.” “One species of bread,” says Bryant, “‘which
used to be offered to the gods, was of great antiquity, and called
_Boun_.’ Diogenes mentioned ‘they were made of flour and honey.’” It
appears that Jeremiah the Prophet was familiar with this lecherous
worship. He says:—“The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the
fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven
(Jer. vii., 18)”. Hyslop does not add that the “buns” offered to the
Queen of Heaven, and in sacrifices to other deities, were framed in the
shape of the sexual organs, but that they were so in ancient times we
have abundance of evidence.
Martial distinctly speaks of such things in two epigrams, first, wherein
the male organ is spoken of, second, wherein the female part is
commemorated; the cakes being made of the finest flour, and kept
especially for the palate of the fair one.
Captain Wilford (“Asiatic Researches,” viii., p. 365) says:—“When the
people of Syracuse were sacrificing to goddesses, they offered cakes
called _mulloi_, shaped like the female organ, and in some temples where
the priestesses were probably ventriloquists, they so far imposed on the
credulous multitude who came to adore the Vulva as to make them believe
that it spoke and gave oracles.”
We can understand how such things were allowed in licentious Rome, but
we can scarcely comprehend how they were tolerated in Christian Europe,
as, to all innocent surprise we find they were, from the second part of
the “Remains of the Worship of Priapus”: that in Saintonge, in the
neighbourhood of La Rochelle, small cakes baked in the form of the
Phallus are made as offerings at Easter, carried and presented from
house to house. Dulare states that in his time the festival of Palm
Sunday, in the town of Saintes, was called _le fete des pinnes_—feast of
the privy members—and that during its continuance the women and children
carried in the procession a Phallus made of bread, which they called a
_pinne_, at the end of their palm branches; these _pinnes_ were
subsequently blessed by priests, and carefully preserved by the women
during the year. Palm Sunday! Palm, it is to be remembered, is a
euphemism of the male organ, and it is curious to see it united with the
Phallus in Christendom. Dulare also says that, in some of the earlier
inedited French books on cookery, receipts are given for making cakes of
the salacious form in question, which are broadly named. He further
tells us those cakes symbolized the male, in Lower Limousin, and
especially at Brives; while the female emblem was adopted at Clermont,
in Auvergne, and other places.
THE ARK AND GOOD FRIDAY
The ark of the covenant was a most sacred symbol in the worship of the
Jews, and like the sacred boat, or ark of Osiris, contained the symbol
of the principle of life, or creative power. The symbol was preserved
with great veneration in a miniature tabernacle, which was considered
the special and sanctified abode of the god. In size and manner of
construction the ark of the Jews and the sacred chest of Osiris of the
Egyptians were exactly alike, and were carried in processions in a
similar manner.
The ark or chest of Osiris was attended by the priests, and was borne on
the shoulders of men by means of staves. The ark when taken from the
temple was placed upon a table, or stand, made expressly for the
purpose, and was attended by a procession similar to that which followed
the Jewish ark. According to Faber, the ark was a symbol of the earth or
female principle, containing the germ of all animated nature, and
regarded as the great mother whence all things sprung. Thus the ark,
earth, and goddess, were represented by common symbols, and spoken of in
the old Testament as the “ashera.”
The sacred emblems carried in the ark of the Egyptians were the Phallus,
the Egg, and the Serpent; the first representing the sun, fire, and male
or generative principle—the Creator; the second, the passive or female,
the germ of all animated things—the Preserver; and the last the
Destroyer: the Three of the sacred Trinity. The Hindu women, according
to Payne Knight, still carry the lingam, or consecrated symbol of the
generative attribute of the deity, in solemn procession between two
serpents; and in a sacred casket, which held the Egg and the Phallus in
the mystic processions of the Greeks, was also a Serpent.
“The ark,” says Faber, “was reverenced in all the ancient religions.” It
was often represented in the form of a boat, or ship, as well as an
oblong chest. The rites of the Druids, with those of Phœnicia and
Hindostan, show that an ark, chest, cell, boat, or cavern, held an
important place in their mysteries. In the story of Osiris, like that of
the Siva, will be found the reason for the emblem being carried in the
sacred chest, and the explanation of one of the mysteries of the
Egyptian priests. It is said that Osiris was torn to pieces by the
wicked Typhon, who after cutting up the body, distributed the parts over
the earth. Isis recovered the scattered limbs, and brought them back to
Egypt; but, being unable to find the part which distinguished his sex,
she had an image made of wood, which was enshrined in an ark, and
ordered to be solemnly carried about in the festivals she had instituted
in his honour, and celebrated with certain secret rites.
The Egg, which accompanied the Phallus in the ark was a very common
symbol of the ancient faiths, which was considered as containing the
generation of life. The image of that which generated all things in
itself. Jacob Bryant says:—“The Egg, as it contained the principles of
life was thought no improper emblem of the ark, in which were preserved
the future world. Hence in the Dionysian and in other mysteries, one
part of the nocturnal ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg.”
This egg was called the Mundane Egg.
The ark was likewise the symbol of salvation, the place of safety, the
secret receptacle of the divine wisdom. Hence we find the ark of the
Jews containing the tables of the law; we find too that the Jews were
ordered to place in the ark Aaron’s rod, which budded, conveying the
idea of symbolised fertility: showing that the ark was considered as the
receptacle of the life principle—as an emblem of the Creator.
With the Egyptians Osiris was supposed to be buried in the ark, which
represented the disappearance of the deity. His loss, or death,
constituted the first part of the mysteries, which consisted of
lamentations for his decease. After the third day from his death, a
procession went down to the seaside in the night, carrying the ark with
them. During the passage they poured drink offerings from the river, and
when the ceremony had been duly performed, they raised a shout that
Osiris had again risen—that the dead had been restored to life. After
this followed the second or joyful part of the mysteries. The similarity
of this custom with the Good Friday celebrations of the death of Jesus,
and the rejoicings on account of his resurrection on Easter Sunday, will
be at once observed. It is further said that the missing part of Osiris
was eaten by a fish, which made the fish a sacred symbol. Thus we have
the Ark, Fish, and Good Friday brought together, also the Egg, for the
origin of the Easter eggs is very ancient. A bull is represented as
breaking an egg with his horn, which signified the liberating of
imprisoned life at the opening or spring of the year, which had been
destroyed by Typhon. The opening of the year at that time commenced in
the spring, not according to our present reckoning; thus, the Egg was a
symbol of the resurrection of life at the spring, or our Easter time.
The author of the “Worship of the Generative Powers,” describes the
origin of the hot cross-bun at Easter, which is a further parallelism of
the Christian and Pagan festivals. The author also draws a further
conclusion—that the cakes or buns have in reality a Phallic origin, for
in France and other parts, the Easter cakes were called after the
_membrum virile_. The writer says:—“In the primitive Teutonic mythology,
there was a female deity named in old German, Ostara, and in
Anglo-Saxon, Eastre or Eostre; but all we know of her is the simple
statement of our father of history, Bede, that her festival was
celebrated by the ancient Saxons in the month of April, from which
circumstance that month was named by the Anglo-Saxons, Easter-mona or
Eoster-mona, and that the name of the goddess had been frequently given
to the Paschal time, with which it was identical. The name of this
goddess was given to the same month by the old Germans and by the
Franks, so that she must have been one of the most highly honoured of
the Teutonic deities, and her festival must have been a very important
one and deeply implanted in the popular feelings, or the Church would
not have sought to identify it with one of the greatest Christian
festivals of the year. It is understood that the Romans considered this
month as dedicated to Venus, no doubt because it was that in which the
productive powers of nature began to be visibly developed. When the
Pagan festival was adopted by the Church, it became a moveable feast,
instead of being fixed to the month of April. Among other objects
offered to the goddess at this time were cakes, made no doubt of fine
flour, but of their form we are ignorant. The Christians when they
seized upon the Easter festival, gave them the form of a bun, which
indeed was at that time the ordinary form of bread; and to protect
themselves and those who ate them from any enchantment—or other evil
influences which might arise from their former heathen character—they
marked them with the Christian symbol—the cross. Hence we derived the
cakes we still eat at Easter under the name of hot cross-buns, and the
superstitious feelings attached to them; for multitudes of people still
believe that if they failed to eat a hot cross-bun on Good Friday, they
would be unlucky all the rest of the year.”
ARCHITECTURAL PILLARS DEVISED FROM THE LOTUS
The earliest capital seems to have been the bell or seed vessel, simply
copied without alteration, except a little expansion at the bottom to
give it stability. The leaves of some other plant were then added to it,
and varied in different capitals according to the different meanings
intended to be signified by the accessory symbols. The Greeks decorated
it in the same manner, with the foliage of various plants, sometimes of
the acanthus and sometimes of the aquatic kind, which are, however,
generally so transformed by excessive attention to elegance, that it is
difficult to distinguish them. The most usual seems to be the Egyptian
acacia, which was probably adopted as a mystic symbol for the same
reasons as the olive, it being equally remarkable for its powers of
reproduction. Theophrastus mentions a large wood of it in the “Thebaid,”
where the olive will not grow, so that we reasonably suppose it to have
been employed by the Egyptians in the same symbolical sense. From them
the Greeks seem to have borrowed it about the time of the Macedonian
conquest, it not occurring in any of their buildings of a much earlier
date; and as for the story of the Corinthian architect, who is said to
have invented this kind of capital from observing a thorn growing round
a basket, it deserved no credit, being fully contradicted by the
buildings still remaining in Upper Egypt.
The Doric column, which appears to have been the only one known to the
very ancient Greeks, was equally derived from the Nelumbo; its capital
being the same seed-vessel pressed flat, as it appears when withered and
dry—the only state probably in which it had been seen in Europe. The
flutes in the shaft were made to hold spears and staves, whence a
spear-holder is spoken of in the “Odyssey” as part of a column. The
triglyphs and blocks of the cornice were also derived from utility, they
having been intended to represent the projecting ends of the beams and
rafters which formed the roof.
The Ionic capital has no bell, but volutes formed in imitation of
sea-shells, which have the same symbolical meaning. To them is
frequently added the ornament which architects call a honeysuckle, but
which seems to be meant for the young petals of the same flower viewed
horizontally, before they are opened or expanded. Another ornament is
also introduced in this capital, which they call eggs and anchors, but
which is, in fact, composed of eggs and spear-heads, the symbols of
female generation and male destructive power, or in the language of
mythology, of Venus and Mars.—_Payne Knight._
BELLS IN RELIGIOUS WORSHIP
Stripped, however, of all this splendour and magnificence it was
probably nothing more than a symbolical instrument, signifying
originally the motion of the elements, like the sistrum of Isis, the
cymbals of Cybele, the bells of Bacchus, etc., whence Jupiter is said to
have overcome the Titans with his ægis, as Isis drove away Typhon with
her sistrum, and the ringing of the bells and clatter of metals were
almost universally employed as a means of consecration, and a charm
against the destroying and inert powers. Even the Jews welcomed the new
moon with such noises, which the simplicity of the early ages employed
almost everywhere to relieve her during eclipses, supposed then to be
morbid affections brought on by the influence of an adverse power. The
title _Priapus_, by which the generative attribute is distinguished,
seems to be merely a corruption of _Briapuos_ (clamorous); the _beta_
and _pi_ being commutable letters, and epithets of similar meaning,
being continually applied both to Jupiter and Bacchus by the poets. Many
Priapic figures, too, still extant, have bells attached to them, as the
symbolical statues and temples of the Hindus are; and to wear them was a
part of the worship of Bacchus among the Greeks: whence we sometimes
find them of extremely small size, evidently meant to be worn as amulets
with the phalli, lunulæ, etc. The chief priests of the Egyptians and
also the high priests of the Jews, hung them as sacred emblems to their
sacerdotal garments; and the Brahmins still continue to ring a small
bell at the interval of their prayers, ablutions, and other acts of
devotion; which custom is still preserved in the Roman Catholic Church
at the elevation of the host. The Lacedæmonians beat upon a brass vessel
or pan, on the death of their kings, and we still retain the custom of
tolling a bell on such occasions, though the reason of it is not
generally known, any more than that of other remnants of ancient
ceremonies still existing.[1] It will be observed that the bells used by
the Christians very probably came direct from the Buddhists. And from
the same source are derived the beads and rosaries of the Roman
Catholics, which have been used by the Buddhist monks for over 2,000
years. Tinkling bells were suspended before the shrine of Jupiter Ammon,
and during the service the gods were invited to descend upon the altars
by the ringing of bells; they were likewise sacred to Siva. Bells were
used at the worship of Bacchus, and were worn on the garments of the
Bacchantes, much in the same manner as they are used at our carnivals
and masquerades.
-----
Footnote 1:
The above description is from Payne Knight’s “Symbolical Language of
ancient Art and Mythology.”
HINDU PHALLICISM
The following curious fable is given by Sir William Jones, as one of the
stories of the Hindus for the origin of Phallic devotion:—“Certain
devotees in a remote time had acquired great renown and respect, but the
purity of the art was wanting, nor did their motives and secret thoughts
correspond with their professions and exterior conduct. They affected
poverty, but were attached to the things of this world, and the princes
and nobles were constantly sending their offerings. They seemed to
sequester themselves from this world; they lived retired from the towns;
but their dwellings were commodious, and their women numerous and
handsome. But nothing can be hid from their gods, and Sheevah resolved
to put them to shame. He desired Prakeety (nature) to accompany him; and
assumed the appearance of a Pandaram of a graceful form. Prakeety was
herself a damsel of matchless worth. She went before the devotees who
were assembled with their disciples, awaiting the rising of the sun, to
perform their ablutions and religious ceremonies. As she advanced the
refreshing breeze moved her flowing robe, showed the exquisite shape
which it seemed intended to conceal. With eyes cast down, though
sometimes opening with a timid but tender look, she approached them, and
with a low enchanting voice desired to be admitted to the sacrifice. The
devotees gazed on her with astonishment. The sun appeared, but the
purifications were forgotten; the things of the Poojah (worship) lay
neglected; nor was any worship thought of but that of her. Quitting the
gravity of their manners, they gathered round her as flies round the
lamp at night—attracted by its splendour, but consumed by its flame.
They asked from whence she came; whither she was going. ‘Be not offended
with us for approaching thee, forgive us our importunities. But thou art
incapable of anger, thou who art made to convey bliss; to thee, who
mayest kill by indifference, indignation and resentment are unknown. But
whoever thou mayest be, whatever motive or accident might have brought
thee amongst us, admit us into the number of thy slaves; let us at least
have the comfort to behold thee.’ Here the words faltered on the lip,
and the soul seemed ready to take its flight; the vow was forgotten, and
the policy of years destroyed.
“Whilst the devotees were lost in their passions, and absent from their
homes, Sheevah entered their village with a musical instrument in his
hand, playing and singing like some of those who solicit charity. At the
sound of his voice, the women immediately quitted their occupation; they
ran to see from whom it came. He was as beautiful as Krishen on the
plains of Matra. Some dropped their jewels without turning to look for
them; others let fall their garments without perceiving that they
discovered those abodes of pleasure which jealousy as well as decency
had ordered to be concealed. All pressed forward with their offerings,
all wished to speak, all wished to be taken notice of, and bringing
flowers and scattering them before him, said—‘Askest thou alms! thou who
are made to govern hearts. Thou whose countenance is as fresh as the
morning, whose voice is the voice of pleasure, and they breath like that
of Vassant (Spring) in the opening of the rose! Stay with us and we will
serve thee; nor will we trouble thy repose, but only be zealous how to
please thee.’ The Pandaram continued to play, and sung the loves of Kama
(God of Love), of Krishen and the Gopia, and smiling the gentle smiles
of fond desire....
“But the desire of repose succeeds the waste of pleasure. Sleep closed
the eyes and lulled the senses. In the morning the Pandaram was gone.
When they awoke they looked round with astonishment, and again cast
their eyes on the ground. Some directed to those who had formerly been
remarked for their scrupulous manners, but their faces were covered with
their veils. After sitting awhile in silence they arose and went back to
their houses, with slow and troubled steps. The devotees returned about
the same time from their wanderings after Prakeety. The days that
followed were days of embarrassment and shame. If the women had failed
in their modesty, the devotees had broken their vows. They were vexed at
their weakness, they were sorry for what they had done; yet the tender
sigh sometimes broke forth, and the eyes often turned to where the men
first saw the maid—the women, the Pandaram.
“But the women began to perceive that what the devotees foretold came
not to pass. Their disciples, in consequence, neglected to attend them,
and the offerings from the princes and nobles became less frequent than
before. They then performed various penances; they sought for secret
places among the woods unfrequented by man; and having at last shut
their eyes from the things of this world, retired within themselves in
deep meditation, that Sheevah was the author of their misfortunes. Their
understanding being imperfect, instead of bowing the head with humility,
they were inflamed with anger; instead of contrition for their
hypocrisy, they sought for vengeance. They performed new sacrifices and
incantations, which were only allowed to have effect in the end, to show
the extreme folly of man in not submitting to the will of heaven.
“Their incantations produced a tiger, whose mouth was like a cavern and
his voice like thunder among the mountains. They sent him against
Sheevah, who with Prakeety was amusing himself in the vale. He smiled at
their weakness, and killing the tiger at one blow with his club, he
covered himself with his skin. Seeing themselves frustrated in this
attempt, the devotees had recourse to another, and sent serpents against
him of the most deadly kind; but on approaching him they became
harmless, and he twisted them round his neck. They then sent their
curses and imprecations against him, but they all recoiled upon
themselves. Not yet disheartened by all these disappointments, they
collected all their prayers, their penances, their charities, and other
good works, the most acceptable sacrifices; and demanding in return only
vengeance against Sheevah, they sent a fire to destroy his genital
parts. Sheevah, incensed at this attempt, turned the fire with
indignation against the human race; and mankind would soon have been
destroyed, had not Vishnu, alarmed at the danger, implored him to
suspend his wrath. At his entreaties Sheevah relented; but it was
ordained that in his temples those parts should be _worshipped_, which
the false doctrines had impiously attempted to destroy.”
THE CROSS AND ROSARY
The key which is still worn with the Priapic hand, as an amulet, by the
women of Italy appears to have been an emblem of the equivocal use of
the name, as the language of that country implies. Of the same kind,
too, appears to have been the cross in the form of the letter _tau_,
attached to a circle, which many of the figures of Egyptian deities,
both male and female, carry in their left hand; and by the Syrians,
Phœnicians and other inhabitants of Asia, representing the planet Venus,
worshipped by them as the emblem or image of that goddess. The cross in
this form is sometimes observable on coins, and several of them were
found in a temple of Serapis, demolished at the general destruction of
those edifices by the Emperor Theodosius, and were said by the Christian
antiquaries of that time to signify the future life. In solemn
sacrifices, all the Lapland idols were marked with it from the blood of
the victims; and it occurs on many Runic ornaments found in Sweden and
Denmark, which are of an age long anterior to the approach of
Christianity to those countries, and probably to its appearance in the
world. On some of the early coins of the Phœnicians, we find it attached
to a chaplet of beads placed in a circle, so as to form a complete
rosary, such as the Lamas of Thibet and China, the Hindus, and the Roman
Catholics now tell over while they pray.
BEADS
Beads were anciently used to reckon time, and a circle, being a line
without termination, was the natural emblem of its perpetual continuity;
whence we often find circles of beads upon the heads of deities, and
enclosing the sacred symbols upon coins and other monuments. Perforated
beads are also frequently found in tombs, both in the northern and
southern parts of Europe and Asia, whence are fragments of the chaplets
of consecration buried with the deceased. The simple diadem, or fillet,
worn round the head as a mark of sovereignty, had a similar meaning, and
was originally confined to the statues of deities and deified
personages, as we find it upon the most ancient coins. Chryses, the
priest of Apollo, in the “Iliad,” brings the diadem, or sacred fillet,
of the god upon his sceptre, as the most imposing and invocable emblem
of sanctity; but no mention is made of its being worn by kings in either
of the Homeric poems, nor of any other ensign of temporal power and
command, except the royal staff or sceptre.
THE LOTUS
The double sex typified by the Argha and its contents is by the Hindus
represented by the “Mymphœa” or Lotus, floating like a boat on the
boundless ocean, where the whole plant signifies both the earth and the
two principles of its fecundation. The germ is both Meru and the Linga;
the petals and filaments are the mountains which encircle Meru, and are
also a type of the Yoni; the leaves of the calyx are the four vast
regions to the cardinal points of Meru; and the leaves of the plant are
the Dwipas or isles round the land of Jambu. As this plant or lily was
probably the most celebrated of all the vegetable creation among the
mystics of the ancient world, and is to be found in thousands of the
most beautiful and sacred paintings of the Christians of this day—I
detain my reader with a few observations respecting it. This is the more
necessary as it appears that the priests have now lost the meaning of
it; at least this is the case with everyone of whom I have made enquiry;
but it is like many other very odd things, probably understood in the
Vatican, or the crypt of St. Peter’s. Maurice says that among the
different plants which ornament our globe, there is not one which has
received so much honour from man as the Lotus or Lily, in whose
consecrated bosom Brahma was born, and Osiris delighted to float. This
is the sublime, the hallowed symbol that eternally occurs in oriental
mythology, and in truth not without reason, for it is itself a lovely
prodigy. Throughout all the northern hemispheres it was everywhere held
in profound veneration, and from Savary we learn that the veneration is
yet continued among the modern Egyptians. And we find that it still
continues to receive the respect if not the adoration of a great part of
the Christian world, unconscious, perhaps, of the original reason of
this conduct. _Higgins’s Anacalypsis._
The following is an account given of it by Payne Knight, in his curious
dissertation on Phallic Worship:—“The Lotus is the Nelumbo of Linnæus.
This plant grows in the water, among its broad leaves puts forth a
flower, in the centre of which is formed the seed vessel, shaped like a
bell or inverted cone, and perforated on the top with little cavities or
cells, in which the seeds grow. The orifices of these cells being too
small to let the seeds drop out when ripe, they shoot forth into new
plants in the places where they are formed: the bulb of the vessel
serving as a matrix to nourish them, until they acquire such a degree of
magnitude as to burst it open and release themselves, after which, like
other aquatic weeds, they take root wherever the current deposits them.
This plant, therefore, being thus productive of itself, and vegetating
from its own matrix, without being fostered in the earth, was naturally
adopted as the symbol of the productive power of the waters, upon which
the active spirit of the Creator operated in giving life and vegetation,
to matter. We accordingly find it employed in every part of the northern
hemisphere, where the symbolical religion, _improperly called idolatry_,
does or ever did prevail. The sacred images of the Tartars, Japanese,
and Indians are almost placed upon it, of which numerous instances occur
in the publications of Kœmpfer, Sonnerat, etc. The Brahma of India is
represented as sitting upon his Lotus throne, and the figure upon the
Isaaic table holds the stem of this plant surmounted by the seed vessel
in one hand, and the Cross representing the male organs of generation in
the other; thus signifying the universal power, both active and passive,
attributed to that goddess.”
Nimrod says:—“The Lotus is a well-known allegory, of which the expansive
calyx represents the ship of the gods floating on the surface of the
water; and the erect flower arising out of it, the mast thereof. The one
was the galley or cockboat, and the other the mast of cockayne; but as
the ship was Isis or Magna Mater, the female principle, and the mast in
it the male deity, these parts of the flower came to have certain other
significations, which seem to have been as well known at Samosata as at
Benares. This plant was also used in the sacred offices of the Jewish
religion. In the ornaments of the temple of Solomon, the Lotus or lily
is often seen.”
The figure of Isis is frequently represented holding the stem of the
plant in one hand, and the cross and circle in the other. Columns and
capitals resembling the plant are still existing among the ruins of
Thebes, in Egypt, and the island of Philœ. The Chinese goddess, Pussa,
is represented sitting upon the Lotus, called in that country Lin, with
many arms, having symbols signifying the various operations of nature,
while similar attributes are expressed in the Scandinavian goddess Isa
or Disa.
The Lotus is also a prominent symbol in Hindu and Egyptian cosmogony.
This plant appears to have the same tendency with the Sphinx, of marking
the connection between that which produces and that which is produced.
The Egyptian Ceres (Virgo) bears in her hand the blue Lotus, which plant
is acknowledged to be the emblem of celestial love so frequently seen
mounted on the back of Leo in the ancient remains. The following is a
translation of the Purana relating to the cosmogony of the Hindus, and
will be found interesting as showing the importance attached to the
Lotus in the worship of the ancients:—“We find Brahma emerging from the
Lotus. The whole universe was dark and covered with water. On this
primeval water did Bhagavat (God), in a masculine form, repose for the
space of one Calpho (a thousand years); after which period the intention
of creating other beings for his own wise purposes became predominant in
the mind of the _Great Creator_. In the first place, by his sovereign
will was produced the flower of the Lotus, afterwards, by the same will,
was brought to light the form of Brahma from the said flower; Brahma,
emerging from the cup of the Lotus, looked round on all the four sides,
and beheld from the eyes of his four heads an immeasurable expanse of
water. Observing the whole world thus involved in darkness and submerged
in water, he was stricken with prodigious amazement, and began to
consider with himself, ‘Who is it that produced me?’ ‘whence came I?’
‘and where am I?’
“Brahma, thus kept two hundred years in contemplation, prayers, and
devotions, and having pondered in his mind that without connection of
male and female an abundant generation could not be effected—again
entered into profound meditation on the power of the Supreme, when, on a
sudden by the omnipotence of God, was produced from his right side
_Swayambhuvah Menu_, a man of perfect beauty; and from the Brahma’s left
side a woman named _Satarupa_. The prayer of Brahma runs thus:—‘O
Bhagavat! since thou broughtest me from nonentity into existence for a
particular purpose, accomplish by thy benevolence that purpose.’ In a
short time a small white boar appeared, which soon grew to the size of
an elephant. He now felt God in all, and that all is from Him, and all
in Him. At length the power of the Omnipotent had assumed the body of
_Vara_. He began to use the instinct of that animal. Having divided the
water, he saw the earth a mighty barren stratum. He then took up the
mighty ponderous globe (freed from the water) and spread the earth like
a carpet on the face of the water; Brahma, contemplating the whole
earth, performed due reverence, and rejoicing exceedingly, began to
consider the means of peopling the renovated world.” _Pyag_, now
Allahabad, was the first land said to have appeared, but with the
Brahmins it is a disputed point, for many affirm that _Casi_ or Benares
was the sacred ground.
MERU
The learned Higgins, an English judge, who for some years spent ten
hours a day in antiquarian studies, says that Moriah, of Isaiah and
Abraham, is the Meru of the Hindus, and the Olympus of the Greeks.
Solomon built high places for Ashtoreth, Astarte, or Venus, which
because mounts of Venus, _mons veneris_—Meru and Mount Calvary—each a
slightly skull-shaped mount, that might be represented by a bare head.
The Bible translators perpetuate the same idea in the word “calvaria.”
Prof. Stanley denies that “Mount Calvary” took its name from its being
the place of the crucifixion of Jesus. Looking elsewhere and in earlier
times for the bare calvaria, we find among Oriental women, the Mount of
Venus, _mons veneris_, through motives of neatness or religious
sentiment, deprived of all hirsute appendage. We see Mount Calvary
imitated in the shaved poll of the head of a priest. The priests of
China, says Mr. J. M. Peebles, continue to shave the head. To make a
place holy, among the Hindus, Tartars, and people of Thibet, it was
necessary to have a mount Meru, also a Linga-Yoni, or Arba.
LINGAM IN THE TEMPLE OF ELORA
This marvellous work of excavation by the slow process of the chisel,
was visited by Capt. Seeley, who afterwards published a volume
describing the temple and its vast statues. The beauty of its
architectural ornaments, the innumerable statues or emblems, all hewn
out of solid rock, dispute with the Pyramids for the first place among
the works undertaken to display power and embody feeling. The stupendous
temple is detached from the neighbouring mountain by a spacious area all
round, and is nearly 250 feet deep and 150 feet broad, reaching to the
height of 100 feet and in length about 145 feet. It has well-formed
doorways, windows, staircases, upper floors, containing fine large rooms
of a smooth and polished surface, regularly divided by rows of pillars;
the whole bulk of this immense block of isolated excavation being
upwards of 500 feet in circumference, and having beyond its areas three
handsome figure galleries or verandas supported by regular pillars.
Outside the temple are two large obelisks or phalli standing, “of
quadrangular form, eleven feet square, prettily and variously carved,
and are estimated at forty-one feet high; the shaft above the pedestal
is seven feet two inches, being larger at the base than Cleopatra’s
Needle.”
In one of the smaller temples was an image of Lingam, “covered with oil
and red ochre, and flowers were daily strewed on its circular top. This
Lingam is larger than usual, occupying with the altar, a great part of
the room. In most Ling rooms a sufficient space is left for the votaries
to walk round whilst making the usual invocations to the deity (Maha
Deo). This deity is much frequented by female votaries, who take
especial care to keep it clean, washed, and often perfume it with
oderiferous oils and flowers, whilst the attendant Brahmins sweep the
apartment and attend the five oil lights and bell ringing.” This oil
vessel resembled the Yoni (circular frame), into which the light itself
was placed. No symbol was more venerated or more frequently met with
than the altar and Ling, Siva, or Maha Deo. “Barren women constantly
resort to it to supplicate for children,” says Seeley. The mysteries
attended upon them is not described, but doubtless they were of a very
similar character to those described by the author of the “Worship of
the Generative Powers of the Western Nations,” showing again the
similarity of the custom with those practised by the Catholics in
France. The writer says:—“Women sought a remedy for barrenness by
kissing the end of the Phallus; sometimes they appear to have placed a
part of their body, naked, against the image of the saint, or to have
sat upon it. This latter trait was perhaps too bold an adoption of the
indecencies of Pagan worship to last long, or to be practised openly;
but it appears to have been innocently represented by lying upon the
body of the saint, or sitting upon a stone, understood to represent him
without the presence of the energetic member. In a corner in the church
of the village of St. Fiacre, near Monceaux, in France, there is a stone
called the chair of St. Fiacre, which confers fecundity upon women who
sit upon it; but it is necessary nothing should intervene between their
bare skin and the stone. In the church of Orcival in Auvergne, there was
a pillar which barren women kissed for the same purpose and which had
perhaps replaced some less equivocal object.”
The principal object of worship at Elora is the stone, so frequently
spoken of; “the Lingam,” says Seeley, and he apologises for using the
word so often, but asks to be excused, “is an emblem not generally
known, but as frequently met with as the Cross in Catholic worship.” It
is the god Siva, a symbol of his generative character, the base of which
is usually inserted in the Yoni. The stone is of a conical shape, often
black stone, covered with flowers (the _Belia_ and _Asuca_ shrubs). The
flowers hang pendant from the crown of the Ling stone to the spout of
the _Argha_ or _Yoni_ (mystical matrix); the same as the Phallus of the
Greeks. Five lamps are commonly used in the worship at the symbol, or
one lamp with five wicks. The Lotus is often seen on the top of the
Ling.
VENUS-URANIA.—THE MOTHER GODDESS
The characteristic attribute of the passive generative power was
expressed in symbolical writing, by different enigmatical
representations of the most distinguished characteristic of the female
sex: such as the shell or _Concha Veneris_, the fig-leaf, barley corn,
and the letter Delta, all of which occur very frequently upon coins and
other ancient monuments in this sense. The same attribute personified as
the goddess of Love, or desire, is usually represented under the
voluptuous form of a beautiful woman, frequently distinguished by one of
these symbols, and called Venus, Kypris, or Aphrodite, names of rather
uncertain mythology. She is said to be the daughter of Jupiter and
Dione, that is of the male and female personifications of the
all-pervading Spirit of the Universe; Dione being the female Dis or
Zeus, and therefore associated with him in the most ancient oracular
temple of Greece at Dodona. No other genealogy appears to have been
known in the Homeric times; though a different one is employed to
account for the name of Aphrodite in the “Theogony” attributed to
Hesiod.
The _Genelullides_ or _Genoidai_ were the original and appropriate
ministers or companions of Venus, who was however, afterwards attended
by the Graces, the proper and original attendants of Juno; but as both
these goddesses were occasionally united and represented in one image,
the personifications of their respective subordinate attributes were on
other occasions added: whence the symbolical statue of Venus at Paphos
had a beard, and other appearances of virility, which seems to have been
the most ancient mode of representing the celestial as distinguished
from the popular goddess of that name—the one being a personification of
a general procreative power, and the other only of animal desire or
concupiscence. The refinement of Grecian art, however, when advanced to
maturity, contrived more elegant modes of distinguishing them; and, in a
celebrated work of Phidias, we find the former represented with her foot
upon a tortoise; and in a no less celebrated one of Scopas, the latter
sitting upon a goat. The tortoise, being an androgynous animal, was
aptly chosen as a symbol of the double power; and the goat was equally
appropriate to what was meant to be expressed in the other.
The same attribute was on other occasions signified by a dove or pigeon,
by the sparrow, and perhaps by the polypus, which often appears upon
coins with the head of the goddess, and which was accounted an
aphrodisiac, though it is likewise of the androgynous class. The fig was
a still more common symbol, the statue of Priapus being made of the
tree, and the fruit being carried with the Phallus in the ancient
processions in honour of Bacchus, and still continuing among the common
people of Italy to be an emblem of what it anciently meant: whence we
often see portraits of persons of that country painted with it in one
hand, to signify their orthodox elevation to the fair sex. Hence, also
arose the Italian expression _far la fica_, which was done by putting
the thumb between the middle and fore-fingers, as it appears in many
Priapic ornaments extant; or by putting the finger or thumb into the
corner of the mouth and drawing it down, of which there is a
representation in a small Priapic figure of exquisite sculpture,
engraved among the _Antiquities of Herculaneum_.
LIBERALITY AND SAMENESS OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS
The same liberal and humane spirit still prevails among those nations
whose religion is founded on the same principles. “The Siamese,” says a
traveller of the seventeenth century, “shun disputes and believe that
almost all religions are good” (“Journal du Voyage de Siam”). When the
ambassador of Louis XIV asked their king, in his master’s name, to
embrace Christianity, he replied, “that it was strange that the king of
France should interest himself so much in an affair which concerns only
God, whilst He, whom it did concern, seemed to leave it wholly to our
discretion. Had it been agreeable to the Creator that all nations should
have had the same form of worship, would it not have been as easy to His
omnipotence to have created all men with the same sentiments and
dispositions, and to have inspired them with the same notions of the
True Religion, as to endow them with such different tempers and
inclinations? Ought they not rather to believe that the true God has as
much pleasure in being honoured by a variety of forms and ceremonies, as
in being praised and glorified by a number of different creatures? Or
why should that beauty and variety, so admirable in the natural order of
things, be less admirable or less worthy of the wisdom of God in the
supernatural?”
The Hindus profess exactly the same opinion. “They would readily admit
the truth of the Gospel,” says a very learned writer long resident among
them, “but they contend that it is perfectly consistent with their
Shastras. The Deity, they say, has appeared innumerable times in many
parts of this world and in all worlds, for the salvation of his
creatures; and we adore, they say, the same God, to whom our several
worships, though different in form, are equally acceptable if they be
sincere in substance.”
The Chinese sacrifice to the spirits of the air, the mountains and the
rivers; while the Emperor himself sacrifices to the sovereign Lord of
Heaven, to whom all these spirits are subordinate, and from whom they
are derived. The sectaries of Fohi have, indeed, surcharged this
primitive elementary worship with some of the allegorical fables of
their neighbours; but still as their creed—like that of the Greeks and
Romans—remains undefined, it admits of no dogmatical theology, and of
course no persecution for opinion. Obscure and sanguinary rites have,
indeed, been wisely prescribed on many occasions; but still _as actions
and not as opinions_. Atheism is said to have been punished with death
at Athens; but nevertheless it may be reasonably doubted whether the
atheism, against which the citizens of that republic expressed such
fury, consisted in a denial of the existence of the gods; for Diagoras,
who was obliged to fly for this crime, was accused of revealing and
calumniating the doctrines taught in the Mysteries; and from the
opinions ascribed to Socrates, there is reason to believe that his
offence was of the same kind, though he had not been initiated.
These were the only two martyrs to religion among the ancient Greeks,
such as were punished for actively violating or insulting the Mysteries,
the only part of their worship which seems to have possessed any
vitality; for as to the popular deities, they were publicly ridiculed
and censured with impunity by those who dared not utter a word against
the populace that worshipped them; and as to the forms and ceremonies of
devotion, they were held to be no otherwise important, then as they were
constituted a part of civil government of the state; the Pythian
priestess having pronounced from the tripod, that _whoever performed the
rites of his religion according to the laws of his country, performed
them in a manner pleasing to the Deity_. Hence the Romans made no
alterations in the religious institutions of any of the conquered
countries; but allowed the inhabitants to be as absurd and extravagant
as they pleased, and to enforce their absurdities and extravagances
wherever they had any pre-existing laws in their favour. An Egyptian
magistrate would put one of his fellow-subjects to death for killing a
cat or a monkey; and though the religious fanaticism of the Jews was too
sanguinary and too violent to be left entirely free from restraint, a
chief of the synagogue could order anyone of his congregation to be
whipped for neglecting or violating any part of the Mosaic Ritual.
The principle underlying the system of emanations was, that all things
were of one substance, from which they were fashioned and into which
they were again dissolved, by the operation of one plastic spirit
universally diffused and expanded. The polytheist of ancient Greece and
Rome candidly thought, like the modern Hindu, that all rites of worship
and forms of devotion were directed to the same end, though in different
modes and through different channels. “_Even they who worship other
gods_,” says Krishna, the incarnate Deity, in an ancient Indian poem
(_Bhagavat-Gita_), “_worship me although they know it not_.”—_Payne
Knight._
THE END.
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes
Some inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have been
retained.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text.
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