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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
+Symbolism, by Thomas Inman and John Newton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use
+it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism
+       With an Essay on Baal Worship, On The Assyrian Sacred "Grove," And Other
+
+Author: Thomas Inman
+        John Newton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2012 [EBook #38485]
+Last Updated: August 20, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN AND MODERN SYMBOLISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ANCIENT PAGAN AND MODERN CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+
+By Thomas Inman, M.D.
+
+Consulting Physician To The Royal Infirmary, Liverpool; Late Lecturer
+Successively On Botany, Medical Jurisprudence, Materia Medica And
+Therapeutics, And The Principles And Practice Of Medicine, Etc.; In The
+Liverpool School Of Medicine; Author Of "Foundation For A New Theory And
+Practice Of Medicine;" A "Treatise On Myalgia;" "On The Real Nature Of
+Inflammation," "Atheroma In Arteries," "The Preservation Of Health,"
+"The Restoration Of Health," "Ancient Faiths Embodied In Ancient Names,"
+
+
+Second Edition,
+
+Revised And Enlarged,
+
+WITH AN ESSAY ON BAAL WORSHIP, ON THE ASSYRIAN SACRED "GROVE," AND OTHER
+ALLIED SYMBOLS.
+
+By John Newton, M.R.C.S.E., Etc.
+
+
+
+The woodcuts in the present volume originally appeared in a large work,
+in two thick volumes, entitled Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names.
+It has been suggested to me by many, that a collection of these Figures,
+and their explanation, are more likely to be generally examined than a
+very voluminous book. The one is, as it were, an alphabet; the other, an
+essay. The one opens the eyes; the other gives them opportunities to
+use their vision. The one teaches to read; the other affords means for
+practice. As the larger work endeavours to demonstrate the existence
+of a state of things almost unknown to the British public, so it
+is necessary to furnish overwhelming proof that the allegations
+and accusations made against certain nations of antiquity, and some
+doctrines of Christianity, are substantially true. Consequently, the
+number of witnesses is greater than is absolutely necessary to prove the
+point.
+
+12, Rodney Street, Liverpool,
+
+July 1869.
+
+The demand which has sprung up for this work has induced the Author to
+make it more complete than it was originally. But it could not be
+made perfect without being expanded into a volume whose size would be
+incompatible with cheapness. When every Figure would supply a text for a
+long discourse, a close attention is required lest a description should
+be developed into a dissertation.
+
+In this work, the Author is obliged to confine himself to the
+explanation of symbols, and cannot launch out into ancient and modern
+faiths, except in so far as they are typified by the use of certain
+conventional signs.
+
+A great many who peruse a book like this for the first time, and find
+how strange were the ideas which for some thousands of years permeated
+the religious opinions of the civilised world, might naturally consider
+that the Author is a mere visionary--one who is possessed of a hobby
+that he rides to death. Such a notion is strengthened by finding that
+there is scarcely any subject treated of except the one which associates
+religion, a matter of the highest aim to man, with ideas of the most
+intensely earthly kind. But a thoughtful reader will readily discern
+that an essay on Symbolism must be confined to visible emblems. By no
+fair means can an author who makes the crucifix his text introduce the
+subject of the Confessional, the Eucharist, or Extreme Unction. Nor can
+one, who knows that Buddha and Jesus alike inaugurated a faith which was
+unmarked by visible symbolism, bring into an interpretation of emblems a
+comparison between the preaching of two such distinguished men. In
+like manner, the Author is obliged to pass over the difference between
+Judaism, Christianity as propounded by the son of Mary, and that which
+passes current for Christianity in Rome and most countries of Europe.
+
+All these points, and many more, have been somewhat fully discussed in
+the Author's larger work, so often referred to in this, and to that he
+must refer the curious. The following pages are simply a chapter taken
+from a book, complete perhaps in itself, but only as a brick may be
+perfect, without giving to an individual any idea of the size, style, or
+architecture of the house from which it has been taken. If readers will
+regard these pages as a beam in a building, the Author will be content.
+
+8, Vyvyan Terrace,
+
+Clifton, Bristol,
+
+August, 1874.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+
+APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+It may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is, or has ever
+been, adopted into the service of Religion, without a definite purpose.
+If it be supposed that a religion is built upon the foundation of a
+distinct revelation from the Almighty, as the Hebrew is said to be,
+there is a full belief that every emblem, rite, ceremony, dress, symbol,
+etc., has a special signification. Many earnest Christians, indeed,
+see in Judaic ordinances a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. I have, for
+example, heard a pious man assert that "leprosy" was only another word
+for "sin"; but he was greatly staggered in this belief when I pointed
+out to him that if a person's whole body was affected he was no longer
+unclean (Lev. xiii. 13), which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to
+demonstrate that when a sinner was as black as hell he was the equal of
+a saint. According to such an interpreter, the paschal lamb is a type of
+Jesus, and consequently all whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of
+wood, lintels, and side-posts (Exod. xii. 22, 28). By the same style of
+metaphorical reasoning, Jesus was typified by the "scape-goat," and the
+proof is clear, for one was driven away into the wilderness, and the
+other voluntarily went there--one to be destroyed, the other to be
+tempted by the devil! Hence we infer that there is nothing repugnant to
+the minds of the pious in an examination respecting the use of symbols,
+and into that which is shadowed forth by them. What has been done for
+Judaism may be attempted for other forms of religion.
+
+As the Hebrews and Christians believe their religion to be God-given,
+so other nations, having a different theology, regard their own peculiar
+tenets. Though we may, with that unreasoning prejudice and blind bigotry
+which are common to the Briton and the Spaniard, and pre-eminently so to
+the mass of Irish and Scotchmen amongst ourselves, and to the
+Carlists in the peninsula, disbelieve a heathen pretension to a divine
+revelation, we cannot doubt that the symbols, etc., of Paganism have a
+meaning, and that it is as lawful to scrutinise the mysteries which they
+enfold as it is to speculate upon the Urim and Thummim of the Jews. Yet,
+even this freedom has, by some, been denied; for there are a few amongst
+us who adhere rigidly to the precept addressed to the followers of
+Moses, viz., "Take heed that thou enquire not after their gods, saying,
+How did these nations serve their gods?" (Deut. xii. 30.) The intention
+of the prohibition thus enunciated is well marked in the following
+words, 1 which indicate that the writer believed that the adoption of
+heathen gods would follow inquiry respecting them. It is not now-a-days
+feared that we may become Mahometans if we read the Koran, or Buddhists
+if we study the Dhammapada; but there are priests who fear that an
+inquiry into ecclesiastical matters may make their followers Papists,
+Protestants, Wesleyans, Baptists, Unitarians, or some other religion
+which the Presbytery object to. The dislike of inquiry ever attends
+those who profess a religion which is believed or known to be weak.
+
+
+     * "even so will I do likewise."
+
+The philosopher of the present day, being freed from the shackles once
+riveted around him by a dominant hierarchy, may regard the precept in
+Deuteronomy in another light. Seeing that the same symbolism is common
+to many forms of religion, professed in countries widely apart both as
+regards time and space, he thinks that the danger of inquiry into
+faiths is not the adoption of foreign, but the relinquishment of present
+methods of religious belief. When we see the same ideas promulgated as
+divine truth, on the ancient banks of the Ganges, and the modern
+shores of the Mediterranean, we are constrained to admit that they have
+something common in their source. They may be the result of celestial
+revelation, or they may all alike emanate from human ingenuity. As men
+invent new forms of religion now, there is a presumption that others
+may have done so formerly. As all men are essentially human, so we may
+believe that their inventions will be characterised by the virtues and
+the failings of humanity. Again, experience tells us that similarity in
+thought involves similarity in action. Two sportsmen, seeing a hare run
+off from between them, will fire at it so simultaneously that each is
+unaware that the other shot. So a resemblance in religious belief will
+eventuate in the selection of analogous symbolism.
+
+We search into emblems with an intention different from that with which
+we inquire into ordinary language. The last tells us of the relationship
+of nations upon Earth, the first of the probable connections of mankind
+with Heaven. The devout Christian believes that all who venerate the
+Cross may hope for a happy eternity, without ever dreaming that the
+sign of his faith is as ancient as Homeric Troy, and was used by the
+Phoenicians probably before the Jews had any existence as a people;
+whilst an equally pious Mahometan regards the Crescent as the passport
+to the realms of bliss, without a thought that the symbol was in use
+long before the Prophet of Allah was born, and amongst those nations
+which it was the Prophet's mission to convert or to destroy. Letters
+and words mark the ordinary current of man's thought, whilst religious
+symbols show the nature of his aspirations. But all have this in common,
+viz., that they may be misunderstood. Many a Brahmin has uttered prayers
+in a language to him unintelligible; and many a Christian uses words
+in his devotions of which he never seeks to know the meaning. "Om manee
+pani" "Om manee padme houm," "Amen" and "Ave Maria purissima" may fairly
+be placed in the same category. In like manner, the signification of an
+emblem may be unknown. The antiquary finds in Lycian coins, and in Aztec
+ruins, figures for which he can frame no meaning; whilst the ordinary
+church-goer also sees, in his place of worship, designs of which none
+can give him a rational explanation. Again, we find that a language may
+find professed interpreters, whose system of exposition is wholly wrong;
+and the same may be said of symbols. I have seen, for example, three
+distinctly different interpretations given to one Assyrian inscription,
+and have heard as many opposite explanations of a particular figure, all
+of which have been incorrect.
+
+In the interpretation of unknown languages and symbols, the observer
+gladly allows that much may be wrong; but this does not prevent him
+believing that some may be right. In giving his judgment, he will
+examine as closely as he can into the system adopted by each inquirer,
+the amount of materials at his disposal, and, generally, the acumen
+which has been brought to the task. Perhaps, in an investigation such
+as we describe, the most important ingredient is care in collation and
+comparison. But a scholar can only collate satisfactorily when he has
+sufficient means, and these demand much time and research. The labour
+requires more time than ordinary working folk can command, and more
+patience than those who have leisure are generally disposed to give.
+Unquestionably, we have as yet had few attempts in England to classify
+and explain ancient and modern symbols. It is perhaps not strictly true
+that there has been so much a laxity in the research, of which we
+here speak, as a dread of making public the results of inquiry.
+Investigators, as a rule, have a respect for their own prejudices, and
+dislike to make known to others a knowledge which has brought pain to
+their own minds. Like the Brahmin of the story, they will destroy a fine
+microscope rather than permit their co-religionists to know that they
+drink living creatures in their water, or eat mites in their fruit. The
+motto of such people is, "If truth is disagreeable, cling to error."
+
+The following attempts to explain much of ancient and modern symbolism
+can only be regarded as tentative. The various devices contained herein
+seem to me to support the views which I have been led to form from other
+sources, by a careful inquiry into the signification of ancient names,
+and the examination of ancient faiths. The figures were originally
+intended as corroborative of evidence drawn from numerous ancient and
+modern writings; and the idea of collecting them, and, as it were,
+making them speak for themselves, has been an after-thought. In the
+following pages I have simply reprinted the figures, etc., which appear
+in Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names (second edition). I make no
+attempt to exhaust the subject. There are hundreds of emblems which find
+herein no place; and there are explanations of symbols current to which
+I make no reference, for they are simply exoteric.
+
+For the benefit of many of my readers, I must explain the meaning of the
+last word italicised. In most, if not in all, forms of religion, there
+are tenets not generally imparted to the vulgar, and only given to a
+select few under the seal of secrecy. A similar reticence exists in
+common life. There are secrets kept from children, for example, that are
+commonly known to all parents; there are arcana, familiar to doctors, of
+which patients have no idea. For example, when a lad innocently asks the
+family surgeon, or his parent, where the last new baby came from, he is
+put off with a reply, wide of the mark, yet sufficient for him. When I
+put such a question to the maids in the kitchen, to which place for a
+time I was relegated, the first answer was that the baby came from the
+parsley bed. On hearing this, I went into the garden, and, finding
+the bed had been unmoved, came back and reproached my informant for
+falsehood. Another then took up the word, and said it was the carrot bed
+which the baby came from. As a roar of laughter followed this remark, I
+felt that I was being cheated, and asked no more questions. Then I could
+not, now I can, understand the esoteric sense of the sayings. They had
+to the servants two distinct significations. The only one which I could
+then comprehend was exoteric; that which was known to my elders was the
+esoteric meaning. In what is called "religion" there has been a similar
+distinction. We see this, not only in the "mysteries" of Greece and
+Rome, but amongst the Jews; Esdras stating the following as a command
+from God, "Some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou
+show secretly to the wise" (2 Esdras xv. 26).
+
+When there exist two distinct explanations, or statements, about the
+signification of an emblem, the one "esoteric," true, and known only to
+the few, the other "exoteric," incorrect, and known to the many, it
+is clear that a time may come when the first may be lost, and the last
+alone remain. As an illustration, we can point to the original and
+correct pronunciation of the word [--Hebrew--], commonly pronounced
+Jehovah. Known only to a select few, it became lost when these died
+without imparting it; yet what is considered to be the incorrect method
+of pronouncing the word survives until to-day.*
+
+
+     * It is supposed by some that Jahveh is the proper
+     pronunciation of this word, but as the first letter may
+     represent, ja, ya, or e, and the third u, v, or o, whilst
+     the second and fourth are the soft h, one may read the word
+     Jhuh, analogous to the Ju in Jupiter; Jehu, the name of a
+     king of Israel; Tahu as it is read on Assyrian inscriptions;
+     Jeho, as in Jehoshaphat; Ehoh, analogous to the Evoe or Ewe
+     associated with Bacchus; and Jaho, analogous to the J. A. O.
+     of the Gnostics. The Greek "Fathers" give the word as if
+     equivalent to yave, yaoh, yeho, and too.
+
+But the question is not how the word may be pronounced, but how it was
+expressed in sound when used in religion by the Hebrew and other Semitic
+nations, amongst whom it was a sacred secret, or ineffable name, not
+lightly to be "taken in vain."------
+
+We may fairly assume that, when two such meanings exist, they are not
+identical, and that the one most commonly received is not the correct
+one. But when one alone is known to exist, it becomes a question whether
+another should be sought. If, it may be asked, the common people are
+contented with a fable, believing it true, why seek to enlighten them
+upon its hidden meaning? To show the bearing of this subject, let us
+notice what has always struck me as remarkable. The second commandment
+declares to the Jews, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
+or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the
+earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not
+bow down thyself to them," etc. (Exod. xx. 4). Yet we find, in Numbers
+xxi., that Jehovah ordered Moses to frame a brazen serpent, whose power
+was so miraculous that those who only looked at it were cured of the
+evils inflicted by thanatoid snakes.
+
+Then again, in the temple of the God who is reported to have thus
+spoken, and who is also said to have declared that He would dwell in
+the house that Solomon made for Him, an ark, or box, was worshipped, and
+over it Cherubim were seen. These were likenesses of something, and the
+first was worshipped. We find it described as being so sacred that death
+once followed a profane touching of it (2 Sam. vi. 6, 7), and no fewer
+than 50,070 people were done to death at Bethshemesh because somebody
+had ventured to look inside the box, and had tried to search into
+the mystery contained therein (1 Sam. vi. 19). It is curious that
+the Philistines, who must have touched the box to put their strange
+offerings beside it (see 1 Sam. vi. 8), were not particularly bothered.
+They were "profane"; and priests only invent stories, which are
+applicable to the arcana which they use in worship, to blind the eyes
+of and give a holy horror to the people whom they govern. How David
+worshipped the ark as being the representative of God we see in 2 Sam.
+vi. 14, 16, 17, 21.
+
+The ark of the covenant was indeed regarded by the Jews much as a
+saint's toe-nail, a crucifix, an image of the Virgin, a bit of wood,
+or a rusty old nail is by the Roman Catholics. So flagrant an apparent
+breach of the second commandment was covered for the common Hebrews by
+the assertion that the mysterious box was a token of God's covenant with
+His people; but that this statement was "exoteric," we feel sure, when
+we find a similar ark existing and used in "the mysteries" of Egypt and
+Greece, amongst people who probably never heard of Jews, and could by no
+chance know what passed in the Hebrew temple.
+
+When become dissatisfied with a statement, which is evidently intended
+to be a blind, some individuals naturally endeavour to ascertain what is
+behind the curtain. In this they resemble the brave boy, who rushes upon
+a sheet and turnip lantern, which has imposed upon his companions
+and passed for a ghost. What is a bugbear to the many is often a
+contemptible reptile to the few. Yet there are a great number who would
+rather run from a phantom night after night than grapple with it once,
+and would dissuade others from being bold enough to encounter it.
+Nevertheless, even the former rejoice when the cheat is exposed.
+
+As when, by some courageous hand, that which has been mistaken by
+hundreds for a spectre has been demonstrated to be a crafty man, no one
+would endeavour to demonstrate the reality of ghosts by referring to
+the many scores of men of all ranks who had been duped by the apparition
+thus detected; so, in like manner, when the falsehood of an exoteric
+story is exhibited, it is no argument in its favour that the vulgar in
+thousands and many a wise man have believed it. Speaking metaphorically,
+we have many such ghosts amongst ourselves; phantoms, which pass for
+powerful giants, but are in reality perfect shams. Such we may describe
+by comparing them to the apocryphal vampires. It is to me a melancholy
+thing to contemplate the manner in which mankind have, in every age and
+nation, made for themselves bugbears, and then have felt fear at them.
+We deride the African, who manufactures a Fetish, and then trembles at
+its power, but the learned know perfectly well that men made the devil,
+whom the pious fear, just as a negro dreads Mumbo Jumbo.
+
+In the fictitious narratives which passed for truth in the dark ages
+of Christianity, there were accounts of individuals who died and were
+buried, and who, after a brief repose in the tomb, rose again. Some
+imagined that the resuscitated being was the identical one who had been
+interred. Others believed that some evil spirit had appropriated the
+body, and restored to it apparent vitality. Whatever the fiction was,
+the statement remained unchallenged, that some dead folk returned to
+earth, having the same guise as when they quitted it. We believe that a
+similar occurrence has taken place in religion. Heathendom died, and was
+buried; yet, after a brief interval, it rose again from its tomb. But,
+unlike the vampire, its garb was changed, and it was not recognised. It
+moved through Christendom in a seductive dress. If it were a devil, yet
+its clothing was that of a sheep; if a wolf, it wore broadcloth. If it
+ravened, the victims were not pitied. Heathenism, by which I mean the
+manners, morals and rites prevalent in pagan times or countries, like
+a resuscitated vampire, once bore rule throughout Christendom, in which
+term is included all those parts where Christian baptism is used by all
+the people, or the vast majority. In most parts it still reigns supreme.
+
+When vampires were discovered by the acumen of any observer, they were,
+we are told, ignominiously killed, by a stake being driven through the
+body; but experience showed them to have such tenacity of life that they
+rose again, and again, notwithstanding renewed impalement, and were
+not ultimately laid to rest till wholly burnt. In like manner, the
+regenerated Heathendom, which dominates over the followers of Jesus
+of Nazareth, has risen again and again, after being transfixed. Still
+cherished by the many, it is denounced by the few. Amongst other
+accusers, I raise my voice against the Paganism which exists so
+extensively in ecclesiastical Christianity, and will do my utmost to
+expose the imposture.
+
+In a vampire story, told in Thalaba, by Southey, the resuscitated being
+takes the form of a dearly beloved maiden, and the hero is obliged to
+kill her with his own hand. He does so; but, whilst he strikes the form
+of the loved one, he feels sure that he slays only a demon. In like
+manner, when I endeavour to destroy the current Heathenism, which has
+assumed the garb of Christianity, I do not attack real religion. Few
+would accuse a workman of malignancy who cleanses from filth the surface
+of a noble statue. There may be some who are too nice to touch a nasty
+subject; yet even they will rejoice when some one else removes the dirt.
+Such a scavenger is much wanted.
+
+If I were to assert, as a general proposition, that religion does not
+require any symbolism, I should probably win assent from every true
+Scotch Presbyterian, every Wesleyan, and every Independent. Yet I should
+be opposed by every Papist, and by most Anglican Churchmen. But why?
+Is it not because their ecclesiastics have adopted symbolism into their
+churches and into their ritual? They have broken the second commandment
+of Jehovah, and refuse to see anything wrong in their practice or gross
+in their imagery. But they adopt Jehovah rather than Elohim, and break
+the commandments, said to be given upon Sinai, in good company.
+
+The reader of the following pages will probably feel more interest
+therein if he has some clue whereby he may guide himself through their
+labyrinth.
+
+From the earliest known times there seems to have been in every
+civilised nation the idea of an unseen power. In the speculations of
+thoughtful minds a necessity is recognised for the existence of a
+Being who made all things--who is at times beneficent, sending rain and
+warmth, and who at others sends storm, plague, famine, and war. After
+the crude idea has taken possession of the thoughts, there has been a
+desire to know something more of this Creator, and an examination into
+the works of Nature has been made with the view to ascertain the will
+and designs of the Supreme. In every country this great One has been
+supposed to inhabit the heaven above us, and consequently all celestial
+phenomena have been noticed carefully. But the mind soon got weary of
+contemplating about an essence, and, contenting itself with the
+belief that there was a Power, began to investigate the nature of His
+ministers. These, amongst the Aryans, were the sun, fire, storm, wind,
+the sky, the day, night, etc. An intoxicating drink, too, was regarded
+as an emanation from the Supreme. With this form of belief men lived as
+they had done ere it existed, and in their relations with each other
+may be compared to such high class animals as elephants. Men can live
+peaceably together without religion, just as do the bisons, buffaloes,
+antelopes, and even wolves. The assumption that some form of faith is
+absolutely a necessity for man is only founded on the fancies of some
+religious fanatics who know little of the world.*
+
+
+     * Whilst these sheets were passing through the press, there
+     appeared a work, published anonymously, but reported to be
+     by one of the most esteemed theologians who ever sat upon an
+     episcopal bench. It is entitled Supernatural Religion.
+     London: Longmans, 1874. From it we quote the following, vol.
+     ii., p. 489:--
+
+     "We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief
+     in the reality of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain pure
+     and unimpaired the treasure of Christian Morality, we
+     relinquish nothing but the debasing elements added to it by
+     human superstition. We are no longer bound to believe a
+     theology which outrages reason and moral sense. We are freed
+     from base anthropomorphic views of God and His government of
+     the universe; and from Jewish Mythology we rise to higher
+     conceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being,
+     hidden from our finite minds, it is true, in the
+     impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose Laws of wondrous
+     comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in
+     operation around us. We are no longer disturbed by visions
+     of fitful interference with the order of Nature, but we
+     recognise that the Being who regulates the universe is
+     without variableness or shadow of turning. It is singular
+     how little there is in the supposed Revelation of alleged
+     information, however incredible, regarding that which is
+     beyond the limits of human thought, but that little is of a
+     character which reason declares to be the wildest delusion.
+     Let no man whose belief in the reality of a Divine
+     Revelation may be destroyed by such an inquiry complain that
+     he has lost a precious possession, and that nothing is left
+     but a blank. The Revelation not being a reality, that which
+     he has lost was but an illusion, and that which is left is
+     the Truth. If he be content with illusions, he will speedily
+     be consoled; if he be a lover only of truth, instead of a
+     blank, he will recognise that the reality before him is full
+     of great peace.
+
+     "If we know less than we have supposed of man's destiny, we
+     may at least rejoice that we are no longer compelled to
+     believe that which is unworthy. The limits of thought once
+     attained, we may well be unmoved in the assurance that all
+     that we do know of the regulation of the universe being so
+     perfect and wise, all that we do not know must be equally
+     so. Here enters the true and noble Faith--which is the child
+     of reason. If we have believed a system, the details of
+     which must at one time or another have shocked the mind of
+     every intelligent man, and believed it simply because it was
+     supposed to be revealed, we may equally believe in the
+     wisdom and goodness of what is not revealed. The mere act of
+     communication to us is nothing: Faith in the perfect
+     ordering of all things is independent of Revelation.
+
+     "The argument so often employed by Theologians that Divine
+     Revelation is necessary for man, and that certain views
+     contained in that Revelation are required by our moral
+     consciousness, is purely imaginary, and derived from the
+     Revelation which it seeks to maintain. The only thing
+     absolutely necessary for man is Truth and to that, and that
+     alone, must our moral consciousness adapt itself."
+
+But as there is variety in the workings of the human mind, so there were
+differences in the way wherein the religious idea was carried out.
+Some regarded the sun and moon, the constellations and the planets, as
+ministers of the unseen One, and, reasoning from what was known to
+what was unknown, argued thus: "Throughout nature there seems to be a
+dualism. In the sky there are a sun and moon; there are also sun and
+earth, earth and sea. In every set of animals there are males and
+females." An inquiry into the influence of the sun brought out the facts
+that by themselves its beams were destructive; they were only beneficent
+when the earth was moist with rain. As the rain from heaven, then,
+caused things on earth to grow, it was natural that the main source of
+light and heat should be regarded as a male, and the earth as a female.
+As a male, the sun was supposed to have the emblems of virility, and a
+spouse whom he impregnated, and who thereby became fertile.
+
+In examining ancient Jewish, Phoenician, and other Shemitic cognomens,
+I found that they consisted of a divine name and some attribute of the
+deity, and that the last was generally referable equally to the Supreme,
+to the Sun, as a god, and to the masculine emblem. If the deity was a
+female, the name of her votary contained a reference to the moon and
+the beauties or functions of women. The higher ideas of the Creator were
+held only by a few, the many adopted a lower and more debased view. In
+this manner the sun became a chief god and the moon his partner, and
+the former being supposed to be male and the latter female, both
+became associated with the ideas which all have of terrestrial animals.
+Consequently the solar deity was associated in symbolism with masculine
+and the moon with feminine emblems.
+
+An inquiry into antiquity, as represented by Babylonians, Assyrians,
+Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, and others,
+and into modern faiths still current, as represented in the peninsula of
+India, in the Lebanon, and elsewhere, shows that ideas of sex have been
+very generally associated with that of creation. God has been described
+as a king, or as a queen, or as both united. As monarch, he is supposed
+to be man, or woman, or both. As man differs from woman in certain
+peculiarities, these very means of distinction have been incorporated
+into the worship of god and goddess. Rival sects have been ranged in
+ancient times under the symbol of the T and the O as in later times they
+are under the cross and the crescent. The worship of God the Father has
+repeatedly clashed with that of God the Mother, and the votaries of each
+respectively have worn badges characteristic of the sex of their deity.
+An illustration of this is to be seen amongst ourselves; one sect of
+Christians adoring chiefly the Trinity, another reverencing the Virgin.
+There is a well-known picture, indeed, of Mary worshipping her infant;
+and to the former is given the title Mater Creatoris, "the mother of
+the Creator." Our sexual sections are as well marked as those in ancient
+Jerusalem, which swore by Jehovah and Ashtoreth respectively.
+
+The idea of sexuality in religion is quite compatible with a ritual and
+practice of an elaborate character, and a depth of piety which prefers
+starvation to impurity, or, as the Bible has it, to uncleanness. To eat
+"with the blood" was amongst the Hebrews a crime worthy of death; to eat
+with unwashed hands was a dreadful offence in the eyes of the Pharisees
+of Jerusalem; and in the recent famine in Bengal, we have seen that
+individuals would rather die of absolute hunger, and allow their
+children to perish too, than eat bread or rice which may have been
+touched by profane hands, or drink milk that had been expressed by
+British milkmaids from cows' udders. Yet these same Hindoos, the very
+particular sect of the Brahmins, have amongst themselves a form of
+worship which to our ideas is incompatible with real religion. The folks
+referred to adore the Creator, and respect their ceremonial law even
+more deeply, than did the Hebrews after the time of the Babylonish
+captivity; but they have a secret cult in which--and in the most,
+matter-of-fact way--they pay a very practical homage to one or other of
+the parts which is thought by the worshipper to be a mundane emblem of
+the Creator.
+
+The curious will find in Essays on the Religion of the Hindus, by H. H.
+Wilson, in the Dabistan, translated by Shea and Troyer (Allen and Co.,
+London), 3 vols., 8vo., and in Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of
+London (Trübner and Co.), vols. 1 and 2, much information on the method
+of conducting the worship referred to. The first named author thinks it
+advisable to leave the Brahminic "rubric" for the "Sakti Sodhana," for
+the most part under the veil of the original Sanscrit, and I am not
+disposed wholly to withdraw it.
+
+But Christians are not pure; some of my readers may have seen a work
+written by an Italian lady of high birth, who was in early life forced
+into a nunnery, and who left it as soon as she had a chance. In her
+account she tells us how the women in the monastery were seduced by
+reverend Fathers, who were at one time the instruments of vice, at
+another the guides to penitence. Their practice was to instruct their
+victims that whatever was said or done must be accompanied by a pious
+sentence. Thus, "I love you dearly" was a profane expression; but "I
+desire your company in the name of Jesus," and "I embrace in you the
+Holy Virgin," were orthodox. In like manner, the Hindus have prayers
+prescribed for their use, when the parts are to be purified prior to
+proceeding to extremities, when they are introduced to each other,
+in the agitation which follows, and when the ceremony is completed.
+Everything is done, as Ritualists would say, decently and in order; and
+a pious orgie, sanctified by prayers, cannot be worse than the penance
+ordained by some "confessors" to those faithful damsels whose minds are
+plastic enough to believe that a priest is an embodiment of the Holy
+Ghost, and that they become assimilated to the Blessed Virgin when they
+are overshadowed by the power of the Highest (Luke i. 85).
+
+There being, then, in "religion" a strong sensual element, ingenuity
+has been exercised to a wonderful extent in the contrivance of designs,
+nearly or remotely significant of this idea, or rather union of the
+conceptions to which we have referred. Jupiter is a Proteus in form;
+now a man, now a bull, now a swan, now an androgyne. Juno, or her
+equivalent, is sometimes a woman, occasionally a lioness, and at times
+a cow. All conceivable attributes of man and woman were symbolised; and
+gods were called by the names of power, love, anger, desire, revenge,
+fortune, etc. Everything in creation that resembled in any way the
+presumed Creator, whether in name, in character, or in shape, was
+supposed to represent the deity. Hence a palm tree was a religious
+emblem, because it is long, erect, and round; an oak, for it is hard and
+firm; a fig-tree, because its leaves resemble the male triad. The ivy
+was sacred from a similar cause. A myrtle was also a type, but of the
+female, because its leaf is a close representation of the vesica piscis.
+Everything, indeed, which in any way resembles the characteristic organs
+of man and woman, became symbolic of the one or the other deity, Jupiter
+or Juno, Jehovah or Astarte, the Father or the Virgin. Sometimes, but
+very rarely, the parts in question were depicted au naturel, and the
+means by which creation is effected became the mundane emblem of the
+Almighty; and two huge phalli were seen before a temple, as we now
+see towers or spires before our churches, and minarets before mosques.
+(Lucian, Dea Syria.)
+
+Generally, however, it was considered the most correct plan to represent
+the organs by some conventional form, understood by the initiated,
+but not by the unlearned. Whatever was upright, and longer than broad,
+became symbolic of the father; whilst that which was hollow, cavernous,
+oval, or circular, symbolised the mother. A sword, spear, arrow, dart,
+battering ram, spade, ship's prow, anything indeed intended to pierce
+into something else was emblematic of the male; whilst the female was
+symbolised as a door, a hole, a sheath, a target, a shield, a field,
+anything indeed which was to be entered. The Hebrew names sufficiently
+indicate the plan upon which the sexes were distinguished; the one is a
+zachar, a perforator or digger, and the other nekebah, a hole or trench,
+i, e. male and female.
+
+These symbols were not necessarily those of religious belief. They might
+indicate war, heroism, prowess, royalty, command, etc., or be nothing
+more than they really were. They only symbolised the Creator when they
+were adopted into religion. Again, there was a still farther refinement;
+and advantage was taken of the fact, that one symbol was tripliform, the
+other single; one of one shape, and the other different. Consequently,
+a triangle, or three things, arranged so that one should stand above
+the two, became emblematic of the Father, whilst an unit symbolised the
+Mother.
+
+These last three sentences deserve close attention, for some individuals
+have, in somewhat of a senseless fashion, objected, that a person who
+can see in a tortoise an emblem of the male, and in a horse-shoe an
+effigy of the female organ, must be quite too fantastical to deserve
+notice. But to me, as to other inquirers, these things are simply what
+they appear to be when they are seen in common life. Yet when the former
+creature occupies a large space in mythology; when the Hindoo places it
+as the being upon which the world stands, and the Greeks represent one
+Venus as resting upon a tortoise and another on a goat; and when one
+knows that in days gone by, in which people were less refined, the
+[--Greek--] was displayed where the horse-shoe is now, and that some
+curiously mysterious attributes were assigned to the part in question;
+we cannot refuse to see the thing signified in the sign.
+
+Again, inasmuch as what we may call the most prominent part of the
+tripliform organ was naturally changeable in character, being at one
+time soft, small, and pendent, and at another hard, large, and upright,
+those animals that resembled it in these respects became symbolical. Two
+serpents, therefore, one Indian, and the other Egyptian, both of which
+are able to distend their heads and necks, and to raise them up erect,
+were emblematic, and each in its respective country typified the father,
+the great Creator. In like manner, another portion of the triad was
+regarded as similar in shape and size to the common hen's egg. As the
+celebrated physiologist, Haller, remarked, "Omne vivum ex ovo" every
+living thing comes from an egg; so more ancient biologists recognised
+that the dual part of the tripliform organ was as essential to the
+creation of a new being as the central pillar. Hence an egg and a
+serpent became a characteristic of "the Father," El, Ab, Ach, Baal,
+Asher, Melech, Adonai, Jahu, etc. When to this was added a half moon,
+as in certain Tyrian coins, the trinity and unity were symbolised, and
+a faith expressed like the one held in modern Rome, that the mother of
+creation is co-equal with the father; the one seduces by her charms, and
+the other makes them fructify.
+
+To the Englishman, who, as a rule, avoids talking upon the subject which
+forms the basis of many an ancient religion, it may seem incredible that
+any individual, or set of writers, could have exercised their ingenuity
+in finding circumlocutory euphemisms for things which, though natural,
+are rarely named. Yet the wonder ceases when we find, in the writings of
+our lively neighbours, the French, a host of words intended to describe
+the parts referred to, which correspond wholly with the pictorial
+emblems adopted by the Greeks and others.
+
+As English writers have, as a rule, systematically avoided making any
+distinct reference to the sexual ideas embodied in ancient Paganism,
+so they have, by their silence, encouraged the formation of a school
+of theology which has no solid foundation, except a very animal one. As
+each individual finds out this for himself, it becomes a question with
+him how far the information shall be imparted to others. So rarely has
+the determination to accuse the vampire been taken, that we can point to
+very few English books to which to refer our readers. We do not know one
+such that is easily accessible; K. Payne Knight's work, and the addition
+thereto, having been privately printed, is not often to be found in
+the market. To give a list of the foreign works which the author has
+consulted, prior to and during the composition of his book on Ancient
+Faiths, would be almost equivalent to giving a catalogue of part of
+his library. He may, however, indicate the name of one work which is
+unusually valuable for reference, viz., Histoire abrégée des Differens
+Cultes, par J. A. Dulaure, 2 vols., small 8vo., Paris, 1825. Though
+out of print, copies can generally be procured through second-hand
+booksellers. Another work, 'Récherches sur les Mystères de Paganisme,
+by St. Croix, is equally valuable, but it is very difficult to procure a
+copy.
+
+The ancient Jews formed no exception to the general law of reverence
+for the male emblem of the Creator; and though we would, from their
+pretensions to be the chosen people of God, gladly find them exempt from
+what we consider to be impurities, we are constrained to believe that,
+even in the worship of Jehovah, more respect was given to the symbol
+than we, living in modern times, think that it deserves. In their
+Scriptures we read of Noah, whose infirm temper seems to have been on a
+par with his weakness for wine, cursing one of his three sons because,
+whilst drunk, he had negligently exposed his person, and the young
+man had thought the sight an amusing one. Ham had no reverence for the
+symbol of the Creator, but Shem and Japhet had, and covered it with a
+veil as respectfully as if it had been the ineffable framer of the world
+(Gen. ix. 21-27). As our feelings of propriety induce us to think that
+the father was a far greater sinner than the son, we rejoice to know
+that the causeless curse never fell, and that Ham, in the lands of
+Canaan, Assyria, and Babylonia, and subsequently in Carthaginian Spain,
+were the masters of those Hebrews, whose main force, in old times,
+lay in impotent scoldings, such, as Shakespeare puts into the mouth of
+Caliban.
+
+One of the best proofs of the strong sexual element which existed in the
+religion of the Jews is the fact that Elohim, one of the names of the
+Creator amongst the Hebrews, is represented, Gen. xvii. 10-14, as making
+circumcision a sign of his covenant with the seed of Abraham; and in
+order to ascertain whether a man was to be regarded as being in the
+covenant, God is supposed to have looked at the state of the virile
+organ, or--as the Scripture has it--of the hill of the foreskin. We
+find, indeed, that Jehovah was quite as particular, and examined a male
+quite as closely as Elohim: for when Moses and Zipporah were on their
+way from Midian to Egypt, Exod. iv. 24, Jehovah having looked at the
+"trinity" of Moses' son, and having found it as perfect as when the lad
+was born, sought to slay him, and would have done so unless the mother
+had mutilated the organ according to the sacred pattern. Again, we find
+in Josh. v. 2, and in the following verses, that Jehovah insisted
+upon all the Hebrew males having their virile member in the covenant
+condition ere they went to attack the Canaanites. We cannot suppose that
+any scribe could dwell so much as almost every scriptural writer does
+upon the subject of circumcision, had not the masculine emblem been held
+in religious veneration amongst the Jewish nation.
+
+But the David who leaped and danced, obscenely as we should say, before
+the ark--an emblem of the female creator--who purchased his wife from
+her royal father by mutilating a hundred Philistines, and presenting the
+foreskins which he had cut off therefrom "in full tale" to the king (1
+Sam. xviii. 27, 2 Sam. iii. 14), who was once the captain of a monarch
+who thought it a shame beyond endurance to be abused, tortured, or slain
+by men whose persons were in a natural condition (1 Sam. xxxi. 4),
+and who imagined that he, although a stripling, could conquer a giant,
+because the one had a sanctified and the other a natural member--is the
+man whom we know as the author of Psalms with which Christians still
+refresh their minds and comfort their souls. The king who, even in
+his old age, was supposed to think so much of women that his courtiers
+sought a lovely damsel as a comfort for his dying bed, is believed to
+have been the author of the noble nineteenth Psalm, and a number of
+others full of holy aspirations. It is clear, then, that sexual ideas
+on religion are not incompatible with a desire to be holy. The two were
+co-existent in Palestine; they are equally so in Bengal.
+
+We next find that Abraham, the cherished man of God, the honoured
+patriarch of the Jews, makes his servant lay his hand upon the master's
+member, whilst he takes an oath to do his bidding, precisely like a more
+modern Palestinian might do; and Jacob does the same with Joseph. See
+Gen. xxiv. 8, and xlvii. 29.
+
+As it is not generally known that the expression, "under my thigh," is
+a euphemism for the words, "upon the symbol of the Creator," I may point
+to two or three other passages in which the thigh (translated in the
+authorised version loins) is used periphrastically: Genesis xxxv. 2,
+xlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5. See Ginsburg, in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopadia, vol.
+8, p. 848, 8. v. Oath.
+
+I have on two occasions read, although I failed to make a note of it,
+that an Arab, during the Franco-Egyptian war, when accused by General
+Kleber of treachery, not only vehemently denied it, but when he saw
+himself still distrusted, he uncovered himself before the whole military
+staff, and swore upon his trinity that he was guiltless. In the Lebanon,
+once in each year, every female considers it her duty to salute with her
+lips the reverenced organ of the Old Sheik.
+
+Again we learn, from Deut. xxiii. 1, that any unsanctified mutilation
+of this part positively entailed expulsion from the congregation of the
+Lord. Even a priest of the house of Aaron could not minister, as such,
+if his masculinity had been in any way impaired (Lev. xxi. 20); and
+report says that, in our Christian times, Popes have to be privately
+perfect; see also Deut. xxv. 11, 12. Moreover, the inquirer finds that
+the Jewish Scriptures teem with promises of abundant offspring to those
+who were the favourites of Jehovah; and Solomon, the most glorious
+of their monarchs, is described as if he were a Hercules amongst the
+daughters of Thespius. Nothing can indicate the licentiousness of the
+inhabitants of Jerusalem more clearly than the writings of Ezekiel.* If,
+then, in Hebrew law and practice, we find such a strong infusion of the
+sexual element, we cannot be surprised if it should be found elsewhere,
+and gradually influence Christianity.
+
+
+     * See Ezekiel xxii. 1-30, and compare Jerem. v. 7, 8.
+
+We must next notice the fact, that what we call impurity in religious
+tenets does not necessarily involve indecency in practice. The ancient
+Romans, in the time of the early kings, seem to have been as proper as
+early Christian maidens. It is true that, in the declining days of the
+empire, exhibitions that called forth the fierce denunciations of the
+fathers of the Church took place; but we find very similar occurrences
+in modern Christian capitals. In Spartan days, chastity and honesty
+were not virtues, but drunkenness was a vice. In Christian England,
+drunkenness is general, and we cannot pride ourselves upon universal
+honesty and chastity. It is not the national belief, but the national
+practice, which evidences a people's worth. Spain and Ireland, called
+respectively "Catholic" and "the land of saints," cannot boast of
+equality with "infidel" France and "free-thinking" Prussia. England will
+be as earnest, as upright, and as civilised, when she has abandoned the
+heathen elements in her religion, as when she hugs them as if necessary
+to her spiritual welfare. Attachment to the good parts of religion is
+wholly distinct from a close embrace of the bad ones; and we believe
+he deserves best of his country who endeavours to remove every possible
+source of discord. None can doubt the value of the order, "Do to others
+as you would wish others to do to you." If all unite to carry this out,
+small differences of opinion may at once be sunk. How worthless are
+many of the dogmas that people now fight about, the following pages will
+show.
+
+In our larger work we have endeavoured to show that there may be a deep
+sense of religion, a feeling of personal responsibility, so keen as to
+influence every act of life, without there being a single symbol used.
+The earnest Sakya Muni, or Buddha, never used anything as a sacred
+emblem; nor did Jesus, who followed him, and perhaps unconsciously
+propagated the Indian's doctrine. When the Apostles were sent out to
+teach and preach, they were not told to carry out any form of ark or
+crucifix. To them the doctrine of the Trinity was unknown, and not one
+of them had any particular reverence for her whom we call the Virgin
+Mary, who, if she was 'virgo intacta' when Jesus was born, was certainly
+different when she bore his brothers. Paul and Peter, though said to be
+the fathers of the Roman Church, never used or recommended the faithful
+to procure for themselves "a cross" as an aid to memory. The early
+Christians recognised each other by their deeds, and never had, like
+the Jews, to prove that they were in covenant with God, by putting a
+mutilated part of their body into full view. We, with the Society of
+Friends, prefer primitive to modern Christianity.
+
+In the following pages the author has felt himself obliged to make use
+of words which are probably only known to those who are more or less
+"scholars." He has to treat of parts of the human body, and acts which
+occur habitually in the world, which in modern times are never referred
+to in polite society, but which, in the period when the Old Testament
+was written, were spoken of as freely as we now talk of our hands and
+feet. In those days, everything which was common was spoken of without
+shame, and that which occurred throughout creation, and was seen
+by every one, was as much the subject of conversation as eating and
+drinking is now. The Hebrew-writers were extremely coarse in their
+diction, and although this has been softened down by subsequent
+redactors, much which is in our modern judgment improper still remains.
+For example, where we simply indicate the sex, the Jewish historians
+used the word which was given to the symbol by which male and female
+are known; for example, in Gen. i. 27, and v. 2, and in a host of other
+places, the masculine and feminine are spoken of as zachar and nekebah,
+which is best translated as "borers" and "bored." Another equally vulgar
+way of describing men is to be found in 1 Kings xiv. 10. But these
+observations would not serve us much in symbolism did we not know that
+they were associated with certain euphemisms by which when one thing is
+said another is intended; for an illustration let us take Isaiah vii.
+20, and ask what is meant by the phrase, "the hair of the feet"? It is
+certain that the feet are never hairy, and consequently can never be
+shaved. Again, when we find in Gen. xlix. 10, "the sceptre shall not
+depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet," and compare
+this with Deut. xxviii. 57, and 2 Kings xviii. 27, where the words are,
+in the original, "the water of their feet," it is clear that symbolic
+language is used to express something which, if put into the vernacular,
+would be objectionable to ears polite. Again, in Genesis xxiv. 2 and
+xlvii. 29, and in Heb. xi. 21, it is well known to scholars that the
+word "thigh" and "staff" are euphemisms to express that part which
+represents the male. In Deut. xxiii. 1, we have evidence, as in the last
+three verses quoted, of the sanctity of the part referred to, but the
+language is less refined. Now-a-days our ears are not attuned to the
+rough music which pleased our ancestors, and we have to use veiled
+language to express certain matters. In the following pages, the words
+which I select are drawn from the Latin, Greek, Sanscrit, Shemitic, or
+Egyptian. Hea, Ann, and Asher replace the parts referred to in Deut.
+xxiii. 1; Osiris, Asher, Linga, Mahadeva, Siva, Priapus, Phallus,
+etc., represent the Hebrew zachar ; whilst Isis, Parvati, Yoni, Sacti,
+Astarte, Ishtar, etc., replace the Jewish nekebah. The junction of these
+parts is spoken of as Ashtoreth, Baalim, Elohim, the trinity and unity,
+the androgyne deity, the arba, or mystic four, and the like.
+
+I will only add, that what I refer to has long been known to almost
+every scholar except English ones. Of these a few are learned; but for
+a long period they have systematically refrained from speaking plainly,
+and have written in such a manner as to be guilty not only of suppressio
+veri but of suggestio falsi.
+
+After reading thus far, I can imagine many a person saying with
+astonishment, "Are these things so?" and following up his thoughts by
+wondering what style of persons they were, or are, who could introduce
+into religion such matters as those of which we have treated.
+
+In reply, I can only say that I have nothing extenuated, and set
+down nought in malice. But the first clause of the assertion requires
+modification, for in this volume there are many things omitted which I
+have referred to at length in my larger work. In that I have shown, not
+only that religious fornication existed in ancient Babylon, but that
+there is reason to believe that it existed also in Palestine. The word
+[--Hebrew--] Kadesh, which signifies "pure, bright, young, to be holy,
+or to be consecrated," is also the root from which are formed the words
+Kadeshah and Kadeshim, which are used in the Hebrew writings, and are
+translated in our authorised version "whore" and "sodomite." See Bent,
+xxiii. 17.
+
+Athanasius tells us something of this as regards the Phoenicians, for
+he says, (Oratio Contr. Gent., part i., p. 24.) "Formerly, it is
+certain that Phoenician women prostituted themselves before their idols,
+offering their bodies to their gods in the place of first fruits, being
+persuaded that they pleased the goddess by that means, and made her
+propitious to them."
+
+Strabo mentions a similar occurrence at Comana, in Pontus, book xiii.,
+c. iii. p. 86--and notices that an enormous number of women were
+consecrated to the use of worshippers in the temple of Venus at Corinth.
+
+Such women exist in India, and the priests of certain temples do
+everything in their power to select the loveliest of the sex, and to
+educate them so highly as to be attractive.
+
+The customs which existed in other places seem to have been known in
+Jerusalem, as we find in 1 Kings xiv. 24., XV. 12, that Kadeshim
+were common in Judea, and in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, we discover that these
+"consecrated ones" were located "by the temple," and were associated
+with women whose business was "to make hangings for the grove." What
+these tissues were and what use was made of them will be seen in Ezekiel
+xvi. 16.
+
+Even David, when dancing before the ark, shamelessly exposed himself.
+Solomon erected two pillars in the porch of his temple, and called
+them Jachin and Boaz, and added pomegranate ornaments. We have seen how
+Abraham and Jacob ordered their inferiors to swear by putting the hand
+upon "the thigh"; and we have read of the atrocities which occurred in
+Jerusalem in the time of Ezekiel. Yet the Jews are still spoken of as
+God's chosen people, and the Psalmist as a man after God's own heart.
+
+But without going so far back, let us inquire into the conduct of the
+sensual Turks, and of the general run of the inhabitants of Hindostan.
+From everything that I can learn--and I have repeatedly conversed with
+those who have known the Turks and Hindoos familiarly--these are in
+every position in life as morally good as common Christians are.
+
+My readers must not now assert that I am either a partisan or a special
+pleader when I say this; they must consider that I am making the
+comparison as man by man. I do not, as missionaries do, compare the most
+vicious Mahomedan and Brahmin with the most exemplary Christian; nor do
+I, on the other hand, compare the best Ottoman and Indian with Christian
+criminals; but I take the whole in a mass, and assert that there is
+as large a percentage of good folks in India and Turkey as there is in
+Spain and France, England or America.
+
+The grossest form of worship is compatible with general purity of
+morals. The story of Lucretia is told of a Pagan woman, whilst those
+of Er and Onan, Tamar and Judah relate to Hebrews. David, who seduced
+Bathsheba, and killed her husband, was not execrated by "God's people,"
+nor was he consequently driven from his throne as Tarquin was by the
+Romans.
+
+In prowess and learning, the Babylonians, with their religious
+prostitution, were superior to the "chosen people." Of the wealth and
+enterprise of the Phoenicians, Ancient History tells us abundance.
+
+There are probably no three cities in ancient or modern times which
+contain so many vicious individuals as London, Paris, and New York. Yet
+there are none which history tells us of that were more powerful. No
+Babylonian army equalled in might or numbers the army of the Northern
+United States. Nineveh never wielded armies equal to those of the French
+Napoleon and the German William, and Rome never had an empire equal to
+that which is headed by London.
+
+The existence of personal vice does not ruin a nation in its collective
+capacity. Nor does the most sensual form of religion stunt the
+prosperity of a people, so long as the latter do not bow their necks to
+a priesthood.
+
+The greatest curse to a nation is not a bad religion, but a form of
+faith which prevents manly inquiry. I know of no nation of old that was
+priest-ridden which did not fall under the swords of those who did not
+care for hierarchs.
+
+The greatest danger is to be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at
+vice, and encourage it as a means whereby they can gain power over their
+votaries. So long as every man does to other men as he would that they
+should do to him, and allows no one to interfere between him and his
+Maker, all will go well with the world.
+
+Whilst the following sheets were going through the press, my friend Mr.
+Newton, who has not only assisted me in a variety of ways, but who has
+taken a great deal of interest in the subject of symbolism, gave me
+to understand that there were some matters in which he differed
+very strongly from me in opinion. One of these was as to the correct
+interpretation of the so-called Assyrian grove; another was the
+signification of one of Lajard's gems, Plate iv., Fig. 3; and the most
+conspicuous of our divergencies was respecting the fundamental, or basic
+idea, which prompted the use in religion of those organs of reproduction
+which have, from time immemorial, been venerated in Hindostan, and, as
+far as we can learn, in Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Tyre, Sidon,
+Carthage, Jerusalem, Etruria, Greece, and Rome, as well as in countries
+called uncivilised. I feel quite disposed to acquiesce in the opinions
+which my old friend has formed respecting the Assyrian grove, but I am
+not equally ready to assent to his other opinions.
+
+Where two individuals are working earnestly for the elucidation of
+truth, there ought, in my opinion, to be not only a tolerance of
+disagreement, but an honest effort to submit the subject to a jury of
+thoughtful readers.
+
+As I should not feel satisfied to allow any other person to express my
+opinions in his words, it seemed to me only fair to Mr. Newton to give
+him the facility of enunciating his views in his own language. It was
+intended, originally, that my friend's observations upon the
+"grove" should be followed by a dissertation upon other relics of
+antiquity--notably upon that known as Stonehenge--but circumstances have
+prevented this design being carried into execution.
+
+When two individuals who have much in common go over the same ground,
+it is natural, indeed almost necessary, that they should dwell upon
+identical topics. Hence it will be found that there are points which are
+referred to by us both, although possibly in differing relationship.
+
+As my own part of the following remarks were printed long before I saw
+Mr. Newton's manuscript, I hope to be pardoned for allowing them to
+stand. The bulk of the volume will not be increased to the extent of a
+full page.
+
+If I were to be asked the reason why I differ from Mr. Newton in his
+exalted idea about the adoption of certain bodily organs as types,
+tokens, or emblems of an unseen and an inscrutable Creator, my answer
+would be drawn from the observations made upon every known order of
+priesthood, from the most remote antiquity to the present time. No
+matter what the creed, whether Ancient or Modern, the main object of its
+exponents and supporters is to gain over the minds of the populace.
+This has never yet been done, and probably never will be attempted, by
+educating the mind of the multitude to think.
+
+In Great Britain we find three sets of hierarchs opposed to each other,
+and all equally, by every means in their power, prohibit independent
+inquiry.
+
+A young Romanist convert, as we have recently seen, is discouraged
+from persevering in the study of history and logic; a Presbyterian is
+persecuted, as far as the law of the land permits, if he should engage
+in an honest study of the Bible, of the God which it presents for our
+worship, and of the laws that it enforces. A bishop of the Church of
+England is visited by the puny and spiteful efforts of some of his
+nominal equals if he ventures to treat Jewish writings as other critics
+study the tomes of Livy or of Herodotus.
+
+One set of men have banded together to elect a god on earth, and
+endeavour to coerce their fellow-mortals to believe that a selection
+by a few old cardinals can make the one whom they choose to honour
+"infallible."
+
+Another set of men, who profess to eschew the idea of infallibility in a
+Pope, assume that they possess the quality themselves, and endeavour to
+blot out from the communion of the faithful those who differ from them
+"on points which God hath left at large."
+
+Surely, when with all our modern learning, thought, and scientific
+enquiry, hierarchs still set their faces against an advance in
+knowledge, and quell, if possible, every endeavour to search after
+truth, we are not far wrong when we assert, that the first priests of
+barbarism had no exalted views of such an abstract subject as life, in
+the higher and highest senses, if indeed in any sense of the word.
+
+Another small point of difference between my friend and me is,
+whether there has been at any time a figured representation of a
+kakodoemon--except since the beginning of Christianity--and if, by way
+of stretching a point, we call Typhon--Satan or the Devil--by this
+name, as being opposed to the Agathodoemon, whether we are justified
+in providing this evil genius with wings. As far as I can judge from
+Chaldean and Assyrian sculptures, wings were given to the lesser deities
+as our artists assign them to modern angels. The Babylonian Apollyon,
+by whatever name he went, was winged--but so were all the good gods. The
+Egyptians seem to have assigned wings only to the favourable divinities.
+The Jews had in their mythology a set of fiery flying serpents, but we
+must notice that their cherubim and seraphim were all winged, some with
+no less than three pairs--much as Hindoo gods have four heads and six,
+or any other number of arms.
+
+Mr. Newton assumes that the dragon mentioned in Rev. xii. was a winged
+creature, but it is clear from the context, especially from verses 14
+and 15, that he had no pinions, for he was unable to follow the woman to
+whom two aerial oars had been given.
+
+The dragon, as we know it, is, I believe, a mediæval creation; such a
+creature is only spoken of in the Bible in the book of Revelation, and
+the author of that strange production drew his inspiration on this point
+from the Iliad, where a dragon is described as of huge size, coiled like
+a snake, of blood-red colour, shot with changeful hues, and having three
+heads. Homer, Liddell, and Scott add--used [--Greek--] indifferently for
+a serpent. So does the author of Rev. in ch. xx. 2. I have been unable
+to discover any gnostic gem with anything like a modern dragon on it.
+
+Holding these views, I cannot entertain the proposition that the winged
+creatures in the very remarkable gem already referred to are evil genii.
+
+In a question of this kind the mind is perhaps unconsciously biassed by
+comparing one antiquarian idea with another. A searcher amongst Etruscan
+vases will see not only that the angel of death is winged, but that
+Cupid, Eros, or by whatever other name "desire" or love goes, frequently
+hovers over the bridal or otherwise voluptuous couch, and attends beauty
+at her toilet. The Greeks also gave to Eros a pair of wings, intended,
+it is fancied, to represent the flutterings of the heart, produced when
+lovers meet or even think of each other. Such a subordinate deity would
+be in place amongst so many sexual emblems as Plate iv. Fig. 3 contains,
+whilst a koakdoemon would be a "spoil sport," and would make the erected
+serpents drop rather than remain in their glory.
+
+These matters are apparently of small importance, but when one is
+studying the signification of symbolical language, he has to pay as
+close an attention, and extend the net of observation over as wide a sea
+as a scholar does when endeavouring to decipher some language written
+in long-forgotten characters, and some divergence of opinion between
+independent observers sharpens the intellect more than it tries the
+temper.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+
+PLATE II.
+
+This is taken from a photograph of a small bronze image in the Mayer
+collection of the Free Museum, in Liverpool. The figure stands about
+nine inches high, and represents Isis, Horus, and the fish. It is an
+apt illustration of an ancient custom, still prevalent amongst certain
+Christians, of reverencing a woman, said to be a virgin, giving suck
+to her child, and of the association of Isis, Venus, and Mary with the
+fish. Friday, for example, is, with the Romanists, both "fish day," and
+"dies Veneris." Fish are known to be extraordinarily prolific. There was
+a belief that animals, noted for any peculiarity, imparted their virtues
+to those who ate them; consequently, tigers' flesh was supposed to give
+courage, and snails to give sexual power. The use of fish in connubial
+feasts is still common. Those who consider it pious or proper to eat
+fish on Venus' day, or Friday, proclaim themselves, unconsciously,
+adherents to those heathen ideas which deified parts about which no
+one now likes to talk. The fish has in one respect affinity with the
+mandrake.
+
+Since the first publication of this work, a friend has suggested to me
+another reason, besides its fertility, for the fish being emblematic of
+woman. From his extensive experience as a surgeon, and especially among
+the lower order of courtesans, he has repeatedly noticed during the hot
+months of the year that the parts which he had to examine have a very
+strong odour of fish. My own observations in the same department lead me
+to endorse his assertion. Consequently, I think that in warm climates,
+where the utmost cleanliness can scarcely keep a female free from odour,
+scent, as well as other attributes, has had to do with the selection of
+the fish as an emblem of woman.
+
+Still further, I have been informed by another friend that in Yorkshire,
+and I understand in other counties of England, the double entente
+connected with the fish is so marked that it is somewhat difficult to
+render it into decent phraseology. It will suffice to say that in the
+county mentioned, Lais or Phryne would be spoken of as "a choice bit
+of fish," and that a man who bore on his features the stamp which is
+imprinted by excessive indulgence, would be said to have indulged too
+much in "a fish diet." I do not suppose that in the Yorkshire Ridings
+the folks are unusually well acquainted with mythology, yet it is
+curious to find amongst their inhabitants a connection between Venus
+and the Fish, precisely similar to that which has obtained in the most
+remote ages and in far distant climes.
+
+It is clear from all these facts that the fish is a symbol not only of
+woman, but of the yoni.
+
+PLATE II.
+
+Is supposed to represent Oannes, Dagon, or some other fish god. It is
+copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, pl. xxii., 1, la, and is thus
+described, "Statuette inédite, de grès houiller ou micacé, d'un brun
+verdâtre. Elle porte par devant, sur une bande perpendiculaire, un
+légende en caractères Syriaques très anciens (Cabinet de M. Lambert, à
+Lyon)." I can find no clue to the signification of the inscription. It
+would seem paradoxical to say that there is something in common between
+the bull-headed deity and Oannes. It is so, nevertheless. One indicates,
+par excellence, physical, and the other sexual, power. That Oannes may,
+for the Assyrians, represent a man who played a part with them similar
+to that of Penn among the Indians of Pennsylvania, I do not deny; but,
+when we find a similar fish-god in Philistia and Hindostan, and know
+that Crishna once appeared as a fish, the explanation does not suffice.
+It is curious that Jesus of Nazareth should be called "a fish"; but
+this only proves that the religion of Christ has been adulterated by
+Paganism.
+
+Figs. 1 and 4 are illustrations of the antelope as a religious emblem
+amongst the Assyrians. The first is from Layard's Nineveh, and in it we
+see carried in one hand a triply branched lotus; the second, showing the
+regard for the spotted antelope, and for "the branch," is from Bonomi's
+Nineveh and its Palaces.
+
+Fig. 2 illustrates Bacchus, with a mystic branch in one hand, and a cup
+in the other; his robe is covered with spots arranged in threes. The
+branch is emblematic of the arbor vitæ, or tree of life, and its powers
+of sprouting. Such a symbol is, by outsiders, figured on the houses of
+newly married couples amongst the Jews of Morocco, and seems to indicate
+the desire of friends that the man will show that he is vigorous, and
+able to have many sprouts from the tree of life. It will be noticed
+that on the fillet round the god's head are arranged many crosses. From
+Hislop's Two Babylons, and Smith's Dictionary, p. 208.
+
+Figs. 8 and 5 are intended to show the prevalence of the use of spots
+on priestly dresses; they are copied from Hislop's Two Babylons,
+and Wilkinson, vol. vi., pi. 88, and vol. iv., pp. 841, 858. For an
+explanation of the signification of spots, see Plate iv., Fig. 6, infra.
+
+Fig. 1 represents an Assyrian priest worshipping by presentation of the
+thumb, which had a peculiar signification. Sometimes the forefinger is
+pointed instead, and in both cases the male is symbolised. It is taken
+from a plate illustrating a paper by E. C. Ravenshaw, Esq., in Journal
+of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xvi., p. 114. Amongst the Hebrews,
+and probably all the Shemitic tribes, bohen, the thumb, and ezba, the
+finger, were euphemisms. They are so in some parts of Europe to the
+present day.* The hand thus presented to the grove resembles a part
+of the Buddhist cross, and the shank of a key, whose signification is
+described in a subsequent page.
+
+PLATE III.
+
+
+PLATE IV.
+
+
+Fig. 2 is a Buddhist emblem; the two fishes forming the circle represent
+the mystic yoni, the sacti of Mahadeva, while the triad above them
+represents the mystic trinity, the triune father, Siva, Bel, or Asher,
+united with Anu and Hea. From Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol.
+xviii., p. 892, plate ii.
+
+Fig. 3 is a very remarkable production. It originally belonged to
+Mons. Lajard, and is described by him in his second Memoire, entitled
+Recherches sur le Culte, les Symboles, les Attributs, et les Monumens
+Figurés de Vénus (Paris, 1837), in pages 32, et seq., and figured in
+plate I., fig. 1. The real age of the gem and its origin are not known,
+but the subject leads that author to believe it to be of late Babylonian
+workmanship. The stone is a white agate, shaped like a cone, and the
+cutting is on its lower face. The shape of this gem indicates its
+dedication to Venus. The central figures represent the androgyne
+deity, Baalim, Astaroth, Elohim, Jupiter genetrix, or the bearded Venus
+Mylitta. On the left side of the cutting we notice an erect serpent,
+whose rayed head makes us recognise the solar emblem, and its mundane
+representative, mentula arrecta; on a spot opposite to the centre of the
+male's body we find a lozenge, symbolic of the yoni, whilst opposite
+to his feet is the amphora, whose mystic signification may readily be
+recognised; it is meant for Ouranos, or the Sun fructifying Terra, or
+the earth, by pouring from himself into her.
+
+
+     * A friend has informed me, for example, that he happened,
+     whilst at Pesth, to look at a gorgeously dressed and
+     handsome young woman. To his astonishment she pointed her
+     thumb precisely in the manner adopted by the Assyrian
+     priests; this surprised the young man still farther, and
+     being, as it were, fascinated, he continued to gaze. The
+     damsel then grasped the thumb by the other hand; thus
+     indicating her profession. My friend, who was wholly
+     inexperienced in the ways of the world, only understood what
+     was meant when he saw my explanation of Fig. 1.
+
+The three stars over the head of the figure, and the inverted triangle
+on its head, are representations of the mythological four, equivalent to
+the Egyptian symbol of life (figs. 31, 82). Opposite to the female are
+the moon, and another serpent, which may be recognised by physiologists
+as symbolic of tensio clitoridis. In a part corresponding to the
+diamond, on the left side, is a six-rayed wheel, emblematic, apparently,
+of the sun. At the female's feet is placed a cup, which is intended to
+represent the passive element in creation. As such it is analogous to
+the crescent moon, and is associated in the Roman church with the round
+wafer, the symbol of the sun; the wafer and cup thus being synonymous
+with the sun and moon in conjunction. It will be observed that each
+serpent in the plate is apparently attacked by what we suppose is
+a dragon. There is some difficulty in understanding the exact idea
+intended to be conveyed by these; my own opinion is that they symbolise
+Satan, the old serpent that tempted Eve, viz., fierce lust, Eros,
+Cupid, or desire, which, both in the male and female, brings about the
+arrectation which the serpents figure. It is not to be passed by without
+notice, that the snake which represents the male has the tail so curved
+as to suggest the idea of the second and third elements of the trinity.
+Monsieur Lajard takes the dragons to indicate the bad principle in
+nature, i. e., darkness, night, Ahriman, etc. On the pyramidal portion
+of the gem the four sides are ornamented by figures--three represent
+animals remarkable for their salacity, and the fourth represents Bel and
+Ishtar in conjunction, in a fashion which can be more easily imagined
+than described in the mother tongue. The learned will find the position
+assumed in Lucretius, Dê Rerum Naturâ, book iv., lines 1256, seq.
+
+Fig. 4 is also copied from Lajard, plate i., fig. 10. It is the reverse
+of a bronze coin of Vespasian, struck in the island of Cyprus, and
+represents the conical stone, under whose form Venus was worshipped at
+Paphos, of which Tacitus remarks, Hist, ii., c. 8, "the statue bears
+no resemblance to the human form, but is round, broad at one end and
+gradually tapering at the other, like a goal. The reason of this is
+not ascertained." It is remarkable that a male emblem should be said to
+represent Venus, but the stone was an aerolite, like that which fell
+at Ephesus, and was said to represent Diana. It is clear that when a
+meteoric stone falls, the chief priests of the district can say that it
+is to be taken as a representative of their divinity.
+
+My very ingenious friend, Mr. Newton, suggests that the Venus in
+question was androgyne; that the cone is a male emblem, within a door,
+gateway, or delta, thus resembling the Assyrian grove. It is certain
+that the serpents, the two stars, and the two candelabra, or altars with
+flame, favour his idea.
+
+Fig. 5 represents the position of the hands assumed by Jewish priests
+when they give the benediction to their flock. It will be recognised
+that each hand separately indicates the trinity, whilst the junction
+of the two indicates the unit. The whole is symbolic of the mystic
+Arba--the four, i, e., the trinity and unity. One of my informants
+told me that, being a "cohen" or priest, he had often administered the
+blessing, and, whilst showing to me this method of benediction, placed
+his joined hands so that his nose entered the central aperture. On his
+doing so, I remarked "bene nasatus," and the expression did more to
+convince him of the probability of my views than anything else.
+
+Fig. 6, modified in one form or another, is the position assumed by the
+hand and fingers, when Homan and Anglican bishops or other hierarchs
+give benediction to their people. A similar disposition is to be met
+with in Indian mythology, when the Creator doubles himself into male and
+female, so as to be in a position to originate new beings. Whilst the
+right hand in Plate VII. symbolises the male, the left hand represents
+the mystic feminine circle. In another plate, which is to be found in
+Moor's Hindu Pantheon, there is a similar figure, but draped fully, and
+in that the dress worn by the celestial spouse is covered with groups
+of spots arranged in triads and groups of four. With regard to the
+signification of spots, we may notice that they indicated, either by
+their shape or by their name, the emblem of womankind. A story of Indra,
+the Hindoo god of the sky, confirms this. He is usually represented as
+bearing a robe covered with eyes; but the legend runs that, like David,
+he became enamoured of the wife of another man, who was very beautiful
+and seen by chance, but her spouse was one whose austere piety made him
+almost equal to Brahma. The evil design of Indra was both frustrated and
+punished. The woman escaped, but the god became covered with marks that
+recalled his offence to mind, for they were pictures of the yoni. These,
+by the strong intercession of Brahma with the Rishi, were changed by the
+latter into eyes. This story enables us to recognise clearly the hidden
+symbolism of the Hindoo and Egyptian eye, the oval representing the
+female, and the circle the male lodged therein--i.e., the androgyne
+creator.
+
+PLATE V.
+
+
+Is a copy of a mediæval Virgin and Child, as painted in Della Robbia
+ware in the South Kensington Museum, a copy of which, was given to me
+by my friend, Mr. Newton, to whose kindness I am indebted for many
+illustrations of ancient Christian art. It represents the Virgin and
+Child precisely as she used to be represented in Egypt, in India, in
+Assyria, Babylonia, Phoenicia, and Etruria; the accident of dress being
+of no mythological consequence. In the framework around the group, we
+recognise the triformed leaf, emblematic of Asher; the grapes, typical
+of Dionysus; the wheat ears, symbolic of Ceres, l'abricot fendu, the
+mark of womankind, and the pomegranate rimmon, which characterises the
+teeming mother. The living group, moreover, are placed in an archway,
+delta, or door, which is symbolic of the female, like the vesica piscis,
+the oval or the circle. This door is, moreover, surmounted by what
+appear to be snails, whose supposed virtue we have spoken of under Plate
+i. This identification of Mary with the Sacti is strong; by-and-by we
+shall see that it is as complete as it is possible to be made.
+
+PLATE VI.
+
+
+Is a copy of figures given in Bryant's Ancient Mythology, plates xiii.,
+xxviii., third edition, 1807. The first two illustrate the story of
+Palemon and Getus, introducing the dolphin. That fish is symbolic of the
+female, in consequence of the assonance in Greek between its name and
+that of the womb, delphis and delphus. The tree symbolises the arbor
+vitæ, the life-giving sprout; and the ark is a symbol of the womb. The
+third figure, where a man rests upon a rock and dolphin, and toys with
+a mother and child, is equally suggestive. The male is repeatedly
+characterised as a rock, hermes, menhir, tolmen, or upright stone, the
+female by the dolphin, or fish. The result of the junction of these
+elements appears in the child, whom both parents welcome. The fourth
+figure represents two emblems of the male creator, a man and trident,
+and two of the female, a dolphin and ship. The two last figures
+represent a coin of Apamea, representing Noah and the ark, called
+Cibotus. Bryant labours to prove that the group commemorates the story
+told in the Bible respecting the flood, but there is strong doubt
+whether the story was not of Babylonian origin. The city referred to
+was in Phrygia, and the coin appears to have been struck by Philip of
+Macedon. The inscription round the head is [--Greek inscription--]See
+Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol. ii.., pp. 128, and 885-892.
+
+The Supreme Spirit in the act of creation became two-fold; the RIGHT
+SIDE WAS MALE, THE LEFT WAS PRAKRITI, SHE IS OF ONE FORM WITH BRAMAH.
+
+She is Maya, eternal and imperishable, such as the Spirit, such is the
+inherent energy. (The Sacti) as the Faculty burning is inherent in pure.
+
+(Bramah Vaivartta Puranu, Professor Wilson.)
+
+
+
+ARDANARI-ISWARA.
+
+From an original drawing by Chrisna Swami, Punoit.
+
+PLATE VII.
+
+Is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindoo pundit for Wm.
+Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its mythology.
+It represents Brahma supreme, who in the act of creation made himself
+double, i.e. male and female. In the original the central part of the
+figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too grossly shown
+for reproduction here. They are replaced by the crux ansata. The reader
+will notice the triad and the serpent in the male hand, whilst in the
+female is to be seen a germinating seed, indicative of the relative
+duties of father and mother. The whole stands upon a lotus, the symbol
+of androgyneity. The technical word for this incarnation is "Arddha
+Nari."
+
+PLATE VIII.
+
+
+Is Devi, the same as Parvati, or Bhavani. It is copied from Moor's
+Pantheon, plate xxx. The goddess represents the feminine element in
+the universe. Her forehead is marked by one of the symbols of the four
+creators, the triad, and the unit. Her dress is covered with symbolic
+spots, and one foot peculiarly placed is marked by a circle having a
+dot in the interior. The two bear the same signification as the Egyptian
+eye. I am not able to define the symbolic import of the articles held
+in the lower hands. Moor considers that they represent scrolls of paper,
+but this I doubt. The raised hands bear the unopened lotus flower, and
+the goddess sits upon another.
+
+PLATE IX.
+
+
+Consists of six figures, copied from Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol.
+vi., p. 278, and two from Bryant's Mythology, vol. ii., third edition,
+pp. 203 and 409. All are symbolic of the idea of the male triad: a
+central figure, erect, and rising above the other two. In one an altar
+and fire indicate, mystically, the linga; in another, the same is
+pourtrayed as a man, as Madaheva always is; in another, there is a tree
+stump and serpent, to indicate the same idea. The two appendages of the
+linga are variously described; in two instances as serpents, in other
+two as tree and concha, and snake and shell. The two last seem to embody
+the idea that the right "egg" of the male germinates boys, whilst the
+left produces girls; a theory common amongst ancient physiologists. The
+figure of the tree encircled by the serpent, and supported by two stones
+resembling "tolmen," is very significant. The whole of these figures
+seem to point unmistakably to the origin of the very common belief that
+the male Creator is triune. In Assyrian theology the central figure is
+Bel, Baal, or Asher; the one on the right Ann, that on the left Hea. See
+Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol. i., pp. 88-85. *
+
+There are some authors who have treated of tree and serpent worship, and
+of its prevalence in ancient times, without having, so far as I can see,
+any idea of that which the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the
+tree of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man by his
+subtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise understand,
+but which to the vulgar are simply trees and snakes. In a fine old
+bas-relief over the door of the Cathedral at Berne, we see an ancient
+representation of the last judgment. An angel is dividing the sheep from
+the goats, and devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing
+hooks or pincers on the portions of the body whence their sins sprang.
+One fat priest, nude as our risen bodies must be, is being savagely
+pulled to hell by the part symbolised by tree and serpent, whilst she
+whom he has adored and vainly sought to disgrace, is rising to take her
+place amongst the blest. It is not those of the sex of Eve alone that
+are inveigled to destruction by the serpent.
+
+
+     * For those who have not an opportunity of consulting the
+     work referred to, I may observe that the Assyrian godhead
+     consisted of four persons, three being male and one female.
+     The principal god was Asher, the upright one, the equivalent
+     of the Hindoo Mahadeva, the great holy one, and of the more
+     modern Priapus. He was associated with Anu, lord of solids
+     and of the lower world, equivalent to the "testis," or egg
+     on the right side. Hea was lord of waters, and represented
+     the left "stone." The three formed the trinity or triad. The
+     female was named Ishtar or Astarte, and was equivalent to
+     the female organ, the yoni or vulva--the [Greek] of the
+     Greeks. The male god in Egypt was Osiris, the female Isis,
+     and these names are frequently used as being euphemistic,
+     and preferable to the names which are in vulgar use to
+     describe the male and female parts.
+
+PLATE X.
+
+
+Contains pagan symbols of the trinity or linga, with or without the
+unity or yoni.
+
+Fig. 1 represents a symbol frequently met with in ancient architecture,
+etc. It represents the male and female elements, the pillar and the half
+moon.
+
+Fig. 2 represents the mystic letters said to have been placed on the
+portal of the oracle of Delphi. By some it is proposed to read the two
+letters as signifying "he or she is;" by others the letters are taken to
+be symbolic of the triad and the unit. If they be, the pillar is a
+very unusual form for the yoni. An ingenious friend of mine regards the
+upright portion as a "slit," but I cannot wholly agree with him, for in
+Fig. 1 the pillar cannot be looked upon as an aperture.
+
+Fig. 3 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon,
+and is one out of many indicating the union of the male and female.
+
+Fig. 4 is emblematic of the virgin and child. It identifies the two with
+the crescent. It is singular that some designers should unite the moon
+with the solar symbol, and others with the virgin. We believe that the
+first indicate ideas like that associated with Baalim, and Ashtaroth in
+the plural, the second that of Astarte or Venus in the singular. Or, as
+we may otherwise express it, the married and the immaculate virgin.
+
+Fig. 5 is copied from Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology, p. 15. It represents
+one of the Egyptian trinities, and is highly symbolic, not only
+indicating the triad, here Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys, but its union
+with the female element. The central god Osiris is himself triune, as
+he bears the horns symbolic of the goddess Athor and the feathers of the
+god Ra.
+
+Fig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor's Hindu Pantheon. The
+lozenge indicates the yoni. For this assertion we not only have evidence
+in Babylonian gems, copied by Lajard, but in Indian and Etruscan
+designs. We find, for example, in vol. v., plate xlv., of Antiquités
+Etrusques, etc., par. F. A. David (Paris, 1785), a draped female,
+wearing on her breast a half moon and mural crown, holding her hands
+over the middle spot of the body, so as to form a "lozenge" with the
+forefingers and thumbs. The triad in this figure is very distinct; and
+we may add that a trinity expressed by three balls or three circles is
+to be met with in the remotest times and in most distant countries.
+
+Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are copied from Cabrera's account of an ancient
+city discovered near Palenque, in Guatemala, Spanish America (London,
+1822). Although they appear to have a sexual design, yet I doubt whether
+the similarity is not accidental. After a close examination of the
+plates given by Cabrera, I am inclined to think that nothing of
+the ling-yoni element prevailed in the mind of the ancient American
+sculptors. All the males are carefully draped in appropriate girdles,
+although in some a grotesque or other ornament, such as a human or
+bestial head, a flower, etc., is attached to the apron or "fall" of the
+girdle, resembling the sporran of the Highlander and the codpiece
+of mediæval knights and others. I may, however, mention some very
+remarkable sculptures copied; one is a tree, whose trunk is surrounded
+by a serpent, and whose fruit is shaped like the vesica piscis; in
+another is seen a youth wholly unclothed, save by a cap and gaiters, who
+kneels before a similar tree, being threatened before and behind by some
+fierce animal. This figure is peculiar, differing from all the rest in
+having an European rather than an American head and face. Indeed, the
+features, etc., remind me of the late Mr. Cobden, and the cap is such as
+yachting sailors usually wear. There is also another remarkable group,
+consisting apparently of a man and woman standing before a cross,
+proportioned like the conventional one in use amongst Christians.
+Everything indicates American ideas, and there are ornaments or designs
+wholly unlike any that I have seen elsewhere. The man appears to offer
+to the cross a grotesque human figure, with a head not much unlike
+Punch, with a turned-up nose, and a short pipe shaped like a fig in his
+mouth. The body is well formed, but the arms and thighs are rounded off
+like "flippers" or "fins." Besting at the top of the cross is a bird,
+like a game cock, ornamented by a necklace. The male in this and the
+other sculptures is beardless, and that women are depicted, can only
+be guessed at by the inferior size of some of the figures. It would be
+unprofitable to carry the description farther.
+
+Figs. 11, 12 are from vol. i., plates xix. and xxiii. of a remarkably
+interesting work, Recherches sur l' origine, l' esprit, et les progrès
+des Arts de la Grèce, said to be written by D'Harcanville, published at
+London, 1785. The first represents a serpent, coiled so as to symbolise
+the male triad, and the crescent, the emblem of the yoni.
+
+Fig. 12 accompanies the bull on certain coins, and symbolises the sexual
+elements, le baton et l'anneau. They were used, as the horse-shoe is
+now, as a charm against bad luck, or vicious demons or fairies.
+
+Fig. 13 is, like figure 5, from Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology, p. 14, and
+is said to represent Isis, Nepthys, and Osiris; it is one of the many
+Mizraite triads. The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as
+surely a pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence
+of a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and
+virgins, intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms of
+faith which deface the greater part of modern religions.
+
+Figure 14 is a symbol frequently seen in Greek churches, but appears to
+be of pre-Christian origin.* The cross we have elsewhere described as
+being a compound male emblem, whilst the crescent symbolises the female
+element in creation.
+
+Figure 15 is from D'Harcanville, Op. Cit., vol. i., plate xxiii. It
+resembles Figure 11, supra, and enables us by the introduction of the
+sun and moon to verify the deduction drawn from the arrangement of the
+serpent's coils. If the snake's body, instead of being curved above the
+8 like tail, were straight, it would simply indicate the linga and the
+sun; the bend in its neck, however, indicates the yoni and the moon.
+
+Figure 16 is copied from plate xvi., fig. 2, of Recueil de Pierres
+Antiques Gravés, folio, by J. M. Raponi (Rome, 1786). The gem represents
+a sacrifice to Priapus, indicated by the rock, pillar, figure, and
+branches given in our plate. A nude male sacrifices a goat; a draped
+female holds a kid ready for immolation; a second man, nude, plays the
+double pipe, and a second woman, draped, bears a vessel on her head,
+probably containing wine for a libation.
+
+Figure 17 is from vol. i. Récherches, etc., plate xxii. In this medal
+the triad is formed by a man and two coiled serpents on the one side of
+the medal, whilst on the reverse are seen a tree, surrounded by a snake,
+situated between two rounded stones, with a dog and a conch shell below.
+See supra, Plate ix., Fig. 6.
+
+PLATE XI.
+
+
+With two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,--exhibits Christian emblems of the
+trinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone or combined; the whole
+being copied from Pugin's Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament (London,
+1869).
+
+Fig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a double union
+of the trinity with the unity, here represented as a ring, Vanneau.
+
+
+     * There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the
+     Edinburgh Review--which almost exhausts the subject--but is
+     too long for quotation here.
+
+Figs. 2, 8, are from Pagin, plate xiv. In figare 2, the two covered
+balls at the base of each limb of the cross are extremely significant,
+and if the artist had not mystified the free end, the most obtuse
+worshipper must have recognised the symbol. We may add here that in the
+two forms of the Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed,
+and the egg-shaped bodies, with their cover, are at the free end of each
+limb, whilst the natural end of the organ is left unchanged. See figs.
+85 and 86. This form of cross is Etruscan. Fig. 8 is essentially the
+same as the preceding, and both may be compared with Fig. 4. The balls
+in this cross are uncovered, and the free end of each limb of the cross
+is but slightly modified.
+
+Fig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate xxxv., fig. 4, of Two
+Essays on the Worship of Priapus (London, 1865). It is thus described
+(page 147): "The object was found at St. Agati di Goti, near
+Naples.......It is a crux ansata formed by four phalli, with a circle
+of female organs round the centre; and appears by the look to have been
+intended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no doubt been
+made for some personage of rank, possibly an ecclesiastic." We see here
+very distinctly the design of the egg- and sistrum- shaped bodies. When
+we have such an unmistakable bi-sexual cross before our eyes, it is
+impossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 8, and Plate xii.,
+Figs. 4 and 7.
+
+Figs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and represent the
+trinity with the unity, the triune god and the virgin united in one.
+
+Fig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of a cross, figured
+plate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the Maltese cross is united with
+the symbol of the virgin, being essentially the same as Fig. 9, infra.
+It is a modified form of the crux ansata.
+
+Fig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each limb of an
+ornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.
+
+Fig. 9 is a well-known Egyptian symbol, borne in the hand of almost
+every divinity. It is a cross, with one limb made to represent the
+female element in creation. The name that it technically bears is crux
+ansata, or "the cross with a handle." A reference to Fig. 4 serves to
+verify the idea which it involves.
+
+Fig. 10 is from Pugin, plate xxxv. In this figure the cross is made by
+the intersection of two ovals, each a vesica piscis, an emblem of the
+yoni. Within each limb a symbol of the trinity is seen, each of which is
+associated with the central ring.
+
+Fig. 11 is from Pugin, plate xix., and represents the arbor vitæ, the
+branch, or tree of life, as a triad, with which the ring is united.
+
+It has been said by some critics that the figures above referred to
+are mere architectural fancies, which never had pretensions to embody
+a mystery; and that any designer would pitch upon such a style of
+ornamentation although profoundly ignorant of the doctrine of the
+trinity and unity. But this assumption is not borne out by fact;
+the ornaments on Buddhist topes have nothing in common with those of
+Christian churches; whilst in the ruined temple of the sun at Marttand,
+India, the trefoil emblem of the trinity is common. Grecian temples
+were profusely ornamented therewith, and so are innumerable Etruscan
+sculptures, but they do not represent the trinity and unity. It has been
+reserved for Christian art to crowd our churches with the emblems of Bel
+and Astarte, Baalim and Ashtoreth, linga and yoni, and to elevate the
+phallus to the position of the supreme deity, and assign to him a virgin
+as a companion, who can cajole him by her blandishment, weary him
+by wailing, or induce him to change his mind by her intercessions.
+Christianity certainly requires to be purged of its heathenisms.
+
+PLATE XII.
+
+
+Contains both pagan and Christian emblems.
+
+Fig. 1 is from Pugin, plate xviii., and is a very common finial
+representing the trinity. Its shape is too significant to require an
+explanation; yet with such emblems our Christian churches abound, that
+the Trinity may never be absent from the minds of man or woman!
+
+Fig. 2 is from Pugin, plate xxi. It is a combination of ideas concealing
+the union patent in Fig. 4, Plate xi., supra.
+
+Fig. 3 is from Moor's Hindu Pantheon. It is an ornament borne by Devi,
+and symbolises the union of the triad with the unit.
+
+Fig. 4 is from Pugin, plate xxxii. It is a double cross made up of the
+male and female emblems. It is a conventionalised form of Fig. 4, Plate
+xi., supra. Such eight-rayed figures, made like stars, seem to have been
+very ancient, and to have been designed to indicate the junction of male
+and female.
+
+Fig. 5 is from Pugin, plate xvii., and represents the trinity and the
+unity.
+
+Fig. 6 is a Buddhist emblem from Birmah, Journal of Royal Asiatic
+Society, vol. xviii., p. 392, plate i., fig. 62. It represents the short
+sword, le bracquemard, a male symbol.
+
+Fig. 7. is from Pagin, plate xvii. See Plate xi., Fig. 3, supra.
+
+Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are Buddhist (see Fig. 6, supra), and symbolise
+the triad.
+
+Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are from Pugin, and simply represent the
+trinity.
+
+Figs. 18 and 19 are common Grecian emblems. The first is associated
+with Neptune and water, the second with Bacchus. With the one we see
+dolphins, emblems of the womb, the name of the two being assonant in
+Greek; with the other, the saying, sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus,
+must be coupled.
+
+PLATE XIII.
+
+
+Consists of varions emblems of the triad and the unit, drawn almost
+exclusively from Grecian, Etruscan, Roman, and Indian gems, figures,
+coins, or sculptures, Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate, Raponi's Recueil,
+and Moor's Hindu Pantheon, being the chief authorities.
+
+PLATE XIV.
+
+
+Is a copy of a small Hindoo statuette in the Mayer Collection in the
+Free Museum, Liverpool. It probably represents Parvati, the Hindoo
+virgin, and her child. The right hand of the figure makes the symbol
+of the yoni with the forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers
+typifying the triad. In the palm and on the navel is a lozenge,
+emblematic of woman. The child, perhaps Crishna, equivalent to the
+Egyptian Horus and the Christian Jesus, bears in its hand one of
+the many emblems of the linga, and stands upon a lotus. The monkey
+introduced into the group plays the same part as the cat, cow, lioness,
+and ape in the Egyptian mythology, being emblematic of that desire which
+eventuates in the production of offspring.
+
+Fig. 1, the cupola, is well known in modern Europe; it is equally so in
+Hindostan, where it is sometimes accompanied by pillars of a peculiar
+shape. In one such compound the design is that of a cupola, supported by
+closely placed pillars, each of which has a "capital," resembling "the
+glans" of physiologists; in the centre there is a door, wherein a nude
+female stands, resembling in all respects Figure 61, except in dress and
+the presence of the child. This was copied by the late Mr. Sellon, from
+a Buddhist Dagopa in the Jumnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, a tracing of
+his sketch having been given to me by William Simpson, Esq., London.
+
+The same emblem may be found amongst the ancient Italians. Whilst I
+was staying in Malta during the carnival time in 1872, I saw in all
+directions men and women selling cakes shaped like the yoni shown in
+Fig. 1. These sweetmeats had no special name, but they came in and went
+out with the carnival.
+
+Fig. 2 represents Venus standing on a tortoise, whose symbolic import
+will be seen by referring to Fig. 74, infra. It is copied from Lajard,
+Sur le Culte de Venus, plate iiia., fig. 5, and is stated by him to be
+a drawing of an Etruscan candelabrum, existing in the Royal Museum at
+Berlin. In his account of Greece, Pausanias mentions that he saw one
+figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and another upon a ram, but he
+declines to give the reason of the conjunction.
+
+Is a representation of Siva, taken from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate
+xiii. Siva is supposed to be the oldest of the Indian deities, and to
+have been worshipped by the aborigines of Hindostan, before the Aryans
+invaded that country. It is thought that the Vedic religion opposed this
+degrading conception at the first, but was powerless to eradicate it.
+Though he is yet the most popular of all the gods, Siva is venerated,
+I understand, chiefly by the vulgar. Though he personifies the male
+principle, there is not anything indecent in pictorial representations
+of him. In one of his hands is seen the trident, one of the emblems
+of the masculine triad; whilst in another is to be seen an oval
+sistram-shaped loop, a symbol of the feminine unit. On his forehead he
+bears an eye, symbolic of the Omniscient, the sun, and the union of the
+sexes.
+
+As it has been doubted by some readers, whether I am justified in
+regarding the sistrum as a female emblem, I append here a quotation from
+Socrates' Ecclesiastical History, Bohn's translation, p. 281, seq. In
+Rome, in the early time of Theodosius, "when a woman was detected in
+adultery.... they shut her up in a narrow brothel, and obliged her to
+prostitute herself in a most disgusting manner; causing little bells
+to be rang at the time.... As soon as the emperor was apprised of this
+indecent usage, he would by no means tolerate it; but having ordered the
+Sistra (for so these places of penal prostitution were denominated) to
+be pulled down," &c. One can as easily see why a female emblem should
+mark a brothel in Rome as a male symbol did at Pompeii.
+
+PLATE XVI.
+
+
+
+
+This Figure represents Assyrian priests offering in the presence of what
+is supposed to be Baal--or the representative of the sun god and of the
+grove. The first is typified by the eye, with wings and a tail, which
+make it symbolic of the male triad and the female unit. The eye, with
+the central pupil, is in itself emblematic of the same. The grove
+represents mystically le verger de Cypris. On the right stands the king;
+on the left are two priests, the foremost clothed with a fish's skin,
+the head forming the mitre, thus showing the origin of modern Christian
+bishops' peculiar head-dress. Arranged about the figures are, the sun;
+a bird, perhaps the sacred dove, whose note, coa or coo, has, in the
+Shemitic, some resemblance to an invitation to amorous gratification;
+in Latin coi, coite; the oval, symbol of the yoni; the basket, or bag,
+emblematic of the scrotum, and apparently the lotus. The trinity and
+unity are carried by the second priest.
+
+Figure 2 is copied from an ancient copper vase, covered with Egyptian
+hieroglyphic characters, found at Cairo, and figured in a book entitled
+Explication des divers monument singuliers, qui ont rapport à la
+religion des plus anciens peuples, par le R. P. Dom.......á Paris, 1739.
+
+
+
+The group of figures represents Isis and Horus in an unusual attitude.
+They are enclosed in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean,
+or of the lotus. This framework may be compared to the Assyrian "grove,"
+and another in which the Virgin Mary stands. The bell was of old a
+symbol of virginity, for Eastern maidens wore them until marriage (see
+Isa. iii. 16). The origin of this custom was the desire that every
+maiden should have at her marriage, or sale, that which is spoken of in
+the Pentateuch as "the token of virginity." It was supposed that this
+membrane, technically called "the hymen" might be broken by too long a
+stride in walking or running, or by clambering over a stile or wall.
+To prevent such a catastrophe, a light chain or cord was worn, under or
+over the dress, at the level of the knees or just above. Its length only
+permitted a short step and a mincing gait. Slight bells were used as a
+sort of ornament, and when the bearer was walking their tinkling was a
+sort of proclamation that the lady who bore them was in the market as a
+virgin. After "the flower" had been plucked, the bells were no longer of
+use. They were analogous to the virgin snood worn on the head of Scotch
+maidens. Isis bears the horns of a cow, because that animal is equally
+noted for its propensity to seek the male and its care to preserve the
+offspring. As the bull with a human head, so a human being with cow's
+horns, was made to represent a deity. The solar orb between the horns,
+and the serpent round the body, indicate the union with the male;
+an incongruous conjunction with the emblem of the sacred Virgin,
+nevertheless a very common one. In some of the coins pictured by E. P.
+Knight, in Worship of Priapus, etc., a cow caressing her sucking
+calf replaces Isis and Horus, just as a bull on other coins replaces
+Dionysus. The group is described in full in Ancient Faiths, second
+edition, Vol. i., pp. 53, 54.
+
+
+
+Figures 3, 4, are taken from Ginsburg's Kabbalah, and illustrate that in
+the arrangement of "potencies" two unite, like parents, to form a third.
+Sometimes we see also how three such male attributes as splendour,
+firmness, and solidity join with beauty to form the mystic arba, the
+trinity and unity.
+
+
+
+Figures 5, 6, are copies from figures found in Carthage and in Scotland,
+from Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, vol. i., plate vi., p. 46
+(London, 1866). This book is one to which the reader's attention should
+be directed. The amount of valuable information which it contains is
+very large, and it is classified in a philosophical, and, we may add,
+attractive manner. The figures represent the arbor vitæ.
+
+Figure 7 is from Bonomi, page 292, Nineveh and its Palaces (London,
+1865). It apparently represents the mystic yoni, door, or delta; and it
+may be regarded as an earlier form of the framework in Plate iv. It will
+be remarked, by those learned in symbols, that the outline of the hands
+of the priests who are nearest to the figure is a suggestive one, being
+analogous to the figure of a key and its shank, whilst those who stand
+behind these officers present the pine cone and bag, symbolic of Ann,
+Hea, and their residence.
+
+
+
+It is to be noticed, and once for all let us assert our belief, that
+every detail in a sculpture relating to religion has a signification;
+that the first right hand figure carries a peculiarly shaped staff; and
+that the winged symbol above the yoni consists of a male archer in a
+winged circle, analagous to the symbolic bow, arrow, and target. The bow
+was an emblem amongst the Romans, and arcum tendere was equivalent to
+arrigere. In the Golden Ass of Apuleius we find the metaphor used in
+his account of his dealings with amorous frolicsome Fotis, "Ubi primam
+sagittam sævi cupidinis in ima procordia mea delapsam excepi, arcum,
+meum et ipse vigore tetendi."
+
+Again, we find in Petronius--
+
+
+     Astra igitur mea mens arcum dum tendit in ilia.
+     Ex imo ad summum viva sagitta volat.
+
+Figures 8 to 14 are representations of the goddess mother, the virgin
+and child, Ishtar or Astarte, Mylitta, Ceres, Rhea, Venus, Sacti, Mary,
+Yoni, Juno, Mama Ocello.
+
+Fig. 8 is a copy of the deified woman or celestial mother, from Idalium,
+in Cyprus. Fig. 9 is from Egypt, and is remarkable for the cow's horns
+(for whose signification see Vol. i., p. 54, Ancient Faiths, second
+edition), which here replace the lunar crescent, in conjunction with the
+sun, the two being symbolic of hermaphroditism, whilst above is a seat
+or throne, emblematic of royalty.
+
+
+
+The two figures are copied from Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii., p. 447,
+in an essay by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, wherein other illustrations of
+the celestial virgin are given. Fig. 10 is a copy of plate 59, Moor's
+Hindu Pantheon, wherein it is entitled, "Crishna nursed by Devaki, from
+a highly finished picture." In the account of Crishna's birth and early
+history, as given by Moor (Op. Cit., pp. 197, et seq.), there is
+as strong a resemblance to the story of Christ as the picture here
+described has to papal paintings of Mary and Jesus. Fig. 11 is an
+enlarged representation of Devaki. Fig. 12 is copied from Rawlinson's
+Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii., p. 899. Fig. 13 is a figure of the mother
+and child found in ancient Etruria at Volaterra; it is depicted in
+Fabretti's Italian Glossary, plate xxvi., figure 349.
+
+
+
+It is described as a marble statue, now in the Guarnacci Museum. The
+letters, which are Etruscan, and read from right to left, may be thus
+rendered into the ordinary Latin characters from left to right, MI:
+GANA: LARTHIAS ZANL: VELKINEI: ME - SE.; the translation I take to
+be, "the votive offering of Larthias (a female) of Zanal, ( = Zancle
+= Messana in Sicily), (wife) of Velcinius, in the sixth month." It
+is uncertain whether we are to regard the statue as an effigy of the
+celestial mother and child, or as the representation of some devout lady
+who has been spared during her pregnancy, her parturition, or from some
+disease affecting herself and child. Analogy would lead us to infer that
+the Queen of Heaven is intended. Figure 14 is copied from Hislop's Two
+Babylons; it represents Indranee, the wife of Indra or Indur, and is to
+be found in Indur Subba, the south front of the Caves of Ellora, Asiatic
+Researches, vol. vi., p. 893.
+
+
+
+Indra is equivalent to Jupiter Tonans, and is represented as seated on
+an elephant; "the waterspout is the trunk of this elephant, and the iris
+is his bow, which it is not auspicious to point out," Moor's Pantheon,
+p. 260. He is represented very much as if he were a satyr, Moor's
+Pantheon, p. 264; but his wife is always spoken of as personified
+chastity and propriety. Indranee is seated on a lioness, which replaces
+the cow of Isis, the former resembling the latter in her feminine and
+maternal instincts.
+
+Figures 15, 16, are copies of Diana of the Ephesians; the first is from
+Hislop, who quotes Kitto's Illustrated Commentary, vol. v., p. 250; the
+second from Higgins' Anacalypsis, who quotes Montfauçon, plate 47. I
+remember to have seen a figure similar to these in the Royal Museum at
+Naples.
+
+
+
+The tower upon the head represents virginity (see Ancient Faiths, second
+edition, Vol. i., p. 144); the position of the hand forms a cross with
+the body: the numerous breasts indicate abundance; the black colour of
+Figure 16 indicates the ordinary tint of the feminine lanugo, the almost
+universal colour of the hair of the Orientals being black about the yoni
+as well as on the head; or, as some mythologists imagine, "Night,"
+who is said to be one of the mothers of creation. (See Ancient Faiths,
+second edition, Vol. n., p. 882.) The emblems upon the body indicate the
+attributes or symbols of the male and female creators.
+
+
+
+Figure 17 is a complicated sign of the yoni, delta, or door of life. It
+is copied from Bonomi's Palaces of Nineveh, p. 809.
+
+Figure 18 signifies the same thing; the priests adoring it present the
+pine cone and basket, symbolic of Ann, Hea, and their residence. Compare
+the object of the Assyrian priest's adoration with that adored by a
+Christian divine, in a subsequent figure. (See Ancient Faiths, second
+edition, Vol. I., p. 88, et seq., and Vol. n., p. 648.)
+
+
+
+Figure 19 is copied from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xxii., fig. 5. It is
+the impression of an ancient gem, and represents a man clothed with a
+fish, the head being the mitre; priests thus clothed, often bearing in
+their hand the mystic bag, are common in Mesopotamian sculptures; two
+such are figured on Figs. 63, 64, infra. In almost every instance it
+will be recognised that the fish's head is represented as of the same
+form as the modern bishop's mitre.
+
+
+
+Figure 20 represents two equilateral triangles, infolded so as to make
+a six-rayed star, the idea embodied being the androgyne nature of the
+deity, the pyramid with its apex upwards signifying the male, that with
+the apex downwards the female. The line at the central junction is
+not always seen, but the shape of the three parallel bars reappears in
+Hindoo frontlet signs in conjunction with a delta or door, shaped
+like the "grove" in Fig. 17; thus showing that the lines serve also to
+indicate the masculine triad. The two triangles are also understood
+as representing fire, which mounts upwards, and water, which flows
+downwards. Fire again is an emblem of the sun, and water of the passive
+or yielding element in nature. Fire also typifies Eros or Cupid. Hymen
+is always represented carrying a torch. It is also symbolic of love;
+e.g., Southey writes.
+
+
+     "But love is indestructible,
+     Its holy flame for ever burneth;
+     From heaven it came,
+     To heaven returneth."
+
+And again, Scott writes--
+
+
+     "It is not phantasy's hot fire
+     Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly," &c.
+
+Figures 21, 22, are other indications of the same fundamental idea. The
+first represents Nebo, the Nahbi, or the navel, characterised by a ring
+with a central mound.
+
+
+
+The second represents the circular and upright stone so common in
+Oriental villages. The two indicate the male and female; and a medical
+friend resident in India has told me, that he has seen women mount upon
+the lower stone and seat themselves reverently upon the upright one,
+having first adjusted their dress so as to prevent it interfering with
+their perfect contact with the miniature obelisc. During the sitting, a
+short prayer seemed flitting over the worshippers' lips, but the whole
+affair was soon over.
+
+Whilst upon this subject, it is right to call attention to the fact that
+animate as well as inorganic representatives of the Creator have been
+used by women with the same definite purpose. The dominant idea is
+that contact with the emblem, a mundane representative of the deity, of
+itself gives a blessing. Just as many Hindoo females seek a benefaction
+by placing their own yoni upon the consecrated linga, so a few
+regard intercourse with certain high priests of the Maharajah sect as
+incarnations of Vishnu, and pay for the privilege of being spouses of
+the god. In Egypt, where the goat was a sacred animal, there were some
+religious women who sought good luck by uniting themselves therewith.
+We have heard of British professors of religion endeavouring to persuade
+their penitents to procure purity by what others would call defilement
+and disgrace. And the "cord of St. Francis" replaces the stone "linga."
+Sometimes with this "cord" the rod is associated; and those who have
+read the trial of Father Gerard, for his seduction of Miss Cadiére under
+a saintly guise, will know that Christianity does not always go hand in
+hand with propriety.
+
+With the Hindoo custom compare that which was done by Liber on the grave
+of Prosumnus (Arnobius adverma Gentes, translated by Bryce and Campbell,
+T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, pp. 252, 258), which is far too gross to
+be described here; and as regards the sanctity of a stone whose top had
+been anointed with oil, see first sentence of paragraph 89, ibid, page
+81. The whole book will well repay perusal.
+
+Figures 28, 24, are discs, circles, aureoles, and wheels, to represent
+the sun. Sometimes the emblem of this luminary is associated with rays,
+as in Plate iii., Fig. 8, and in another Figure elsewhere. Occasionally,
+as in some of the ancient temples in Egypt discovered in 1854, the sun's
+rays are represented by lines terminating in hands. Sometimes one or
+more of these contain objects as if they were gifts sent by the god;
+amongst other objects, the crux ansata is shown conspicuously. In a
+remarkable plate in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature
+(second series, vol. i., p. 140), the sun is identified with the
+serpent; its rays terminate in hands, some holding the handled cross or
+tau, and before it a queen, apparently, worships. She is offering what
+seems to be a lighted tobacco pipe, the bowl being of the same shape as
+that commonly used in Turkey; from this a wavy pyramid of flame rises.
+Behind her, two female slaves elevate the sistrum; whilst before her,
+and apparently between herself and her husband, are two altars occupied
+by round cakes and one crescent-shaped emblem.
+
+
+
+The aureole was used in ancient days by Babylonian artists or sculptors,
+when they wished to represent a being, apparently human, as a god. The
+same plan has been adopted by the moderns, who have varied the symbol by
+representing it now as a golden disc, now as a terrestrial orb, again as
+a rayed sphere. A writer, when describing a god as a man, can say that
+the object he sketches is divine; but a painter thinks too much of his
+art to put on any of his designs, "this woman is a goddess," or "this
+creature is a god"; he therefore adds an aureole round the head of his
+subject, and thus converts a very ordinary man, woman, or child into a
+deity to be reverenced; modern artists thus proving themselves to be
+far more skilful in depicting the Almighty than the carpenters and
+goldsmiths of the time of Isaiah (xl. 18, 19, xli. 6, 7, xliv. 9-19),
+who used no such contrivance.
+
+Figure 24 is another representation of the solar disc, in which it is
+marked with a cross. This probably originated in the wheel of a chariot
+having four spokes, and the sun being likened to a charioteer. The
+chariots of the sun are referred to in 2 Kings xxiii. 11 as idolatrous
+emblems. Of these the wheel was symbolic. The identification of this
+emblem with the sun is very easy, for it has repeatedly been found in
+Mesopotamian gems in conjunction with the moon. In a very remarkable one
+figured in Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii., p. 249, the cross
+is contrived as five circles. It is remarkable that in many papal
+pictures the wafer and the cup are depicted precisely as the sun and
+moon in conjunction. See Pugin's Architectural Glossary, plate iv., fig.
+5.
+
+
+
+Figures 25, 26, 27, are simply varieties of the solar wheel, intended to
+represent the idea of the sun and moon, the mystic triad and unit, the
+"arba," or four. In Figure 26, the mural ornament is introduced, that
+being symbolic of feminine virginity. For explanation of Figure 27, see
+Figures 85, 86.
+
+Figure 28 is copied from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate xiv. F. That author
+states that he has taken it from a drawing of an Egyptian stèle, made by
+M. E. Prisse (Monum. Egypt., plate xxxvii.), and that the original is
+in the British Museum. There is an imperfect copy of it in Rawlinson's
+Herodotus, vol. ii.
+
+
+
+The original is too indelicate to be represented fully. Isis, the
+central figure, is wholly nude, with the exception of her head-dress,
+and neck and breast ornaments. In one hand she holds two blades of corn
+apparently, whilst in the other she has three lotus flowers, two being
+egg-shaped, but the central one fully expanded; with these, which
+evidently symbolise the mystic triad, is associated a circle emblematic
+of the yoni, thus indicating the fourfold creator. Isis stands upon a
+lioness; on one side of her stands a clothed male figure, holding in one
+hand the crux ansata, and in the other an upright spear. On the opposite
+side is a male figure wholly nude, like the goddess, save his head-dress
+and collar, the ends of which are arranged so as to form a cross. His
+hand points to a flagellum; behind him is a covert reference to the
+triad, whilst in front Osiris offers undisguised homage to Isis. The
+head-dress of the goddess appears to be a modified form of the crescent
+moon inverted. It is not exclusively Egyptian, as it has been found in
+conjunction with other emblems on an Assyrian obelisc of Phallic form.
+
+
+
+Figures 29, 30, 31, 32, represent the various triangles and their union,
+which have been adopted in worship. Figure 29 is said to represent fire,
+which amongst the ancient Persians was depicted as a cone, whilst the
+figure inverted represents water.
+
+
+
+Figure 33 is an ancient Hindoo emblem, called Sri Iantra. The circle
+represents the world, in which the living exist; the triangle pointing
+upwards shows the male creator; and the triangle with the apex downwards
+the female; distinct, yet united. These have a world within themselves,
+in which the male is uppermost. In the central circle the image to be
+worshipped is placed. When used, the figure is placed on the ground,
+with Brahma to the east, and Laksmi to the west. Then a relic of any
+saint, or image of Buddha, like a modern papal crucifix, is added, and
+the shrine for worship is complete. It has now been adopted in Christian
+churches and Freemasons' lodges.
+
+It will be noticed that the male emblem points to the rising sun, and
+the female triangle points to the setting sun, when the earth seems to
+receive the god into her couch.
+
+
+
+Figure 34 is a very ancient Hindoo emblem, whose real signification I am
+unable to divine. It is used in calculation; it forms the basis of some
+game, and it is a sign of vast import in sacti worship.
+
+A coin, bearing this figure upon it, and having a central cavity with
+the Etruscan letters SUPEN placed one between each two of the angles,
+was found in a fictile urn, at Volaterræ, and is depicted in Fabretti's
+Italian Glossary, plate xxvi., fig. 858, bis a. As the coin is round,
+the reader will see that these letters may be read as Supen, Upens,
+Pensu, Ensup, or Nsupe. A search through Fabretti's Lexicon affords no
+clue to any meaning except for the third. There seems, indeed, strong
+reason to believe that pensu was the Etruscan form of the Pali panca,
+the Sanscrit pânch, the Bengalli pânch, and the Greek penta, i. e.,
+five. Five, certainly, would be an appropriate word for the pentangle.
+It is almost impossible to avoid speculating upon the value of this
+fragment of archæological evidence in support of the idea that the
+Greeks, Aryans, and Etruscans had something in common; but into the
+question it would be unprofitable to enter here.
+
+But, although declining to enter upon this wide field of inquiry, I
+would notice that whilst searching Fabretti's Glossary my eye fell upon
+the figure of an equilateral triangle with the apex upwards, depicted
+plate xliii., fig. 2440 ter. The triangle is of brass, and was found
+in the territory of the Falisci. It bears a rude representation of the
+outlines of the soles of two human feet, in this respect resembling a
+Buddhist emblem; and there is on its edge an inscription which may be
+rendered thus in Roman letters, KAYI: TERTINEI. POSTIKNU, which probably
+signifies "Gavia, the wife of Tertius, offered it." The occurrence
+of two Hindoo symbols in ancient Italy is very remarkable. It must,
+however, be noticed that similar symbols have been found on ancient
+sculptured stones in Ireland and Scotland. There may be no emblematic
+ideas whatever conveyed by the design; but when the marks appear
+on Gnostic gems, they are supposed to indicate death, i. e., the
+impressions left by the feet of the individual as he springs from earth
+to heaven.
+
+
+
+Figures 35, 36, are Maltese crosses. In a large book of Etrurian
+antiquities, which came casually under my notice about twenty years ago,
+when I was endeavouring to master the language, theology, etc., of the
+Etruscans, but whose name, and other particulars of which, I cannot
+now remember; I found depicted two crosses, made up of four masculine
+triads, each asher being erect, and united to its fellows by the gland,
+forming a central diamond, emblem of the yoni. In one instance, the
+limbs of the cross were of equal length; in the other, one asher was
+three times as long as the others. A somewhat similar cross, but one
+united with the circle, was found some time ago near Naples. It is made
+of gold, and has apparently been used as an amulet and suspended to
+the neck. It is figured in plate 35 of An Essay on the Worship of the
+Generative Powers during the Middle Ages (London, privately printed,
+1865). It may be thus described: the centre of the circle is occupied by
+four oblate spheres arranged like a square; from the salient curves of
+each of these springs a yoni (shaped as in Figure 59), with the point
+outwards, thus forming a cross, each ray of which is an egg and fig. At
+each junction of the ovoids a yoni is inserted with the apex inwards,
+whilst from the broad end arise four ashers, which project beyond the
+shield, each terminating in a few golden bead-like drops. The whole is
+a graphic natural representation of the intimate union of the male and
+female, sun and moon, cross and circle, Ouranos and Ge. The same idea is
+embodied in Figure 27, p. 86, but in that the mystery is deeply veiled,
+in that the long arms of the cross represent the sun, or male, indicated
+by the triad; the short ones, the moon, or the female (see Plate xi.
+Fig. 4).
+
+The Maltese cross, a Phoenician emblem, was discovered cut on a rock
+in the island from which it takes its name. Though cruciform, it had
+nothing Christian about it; for, like the Etruscan ones referred to
+above, it consisted of four lingas united together by the heads, the
+"eggs" being at the outside. It was an easy thing for an unscrupulous
+priesthood to represent this "invention" of the cross as a miracle,
+and to make it presentable to the eyes of the faithful by leaving the
+outlines of Anu and Hea incomplete. Sometimes this cross is figured
+as four triangles meeting at the points, which has the same meaning,
+Generally, however, the Church (as may be seen by a reference to Pugin's
+Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament) adopts the use of crosses where
+the inferior members of the trinity are more or less central, as in our
+Plate xi., Figs. 2, 8, and as in the Figures 40, 41, 42, infra. When
+once a person knows the true origin of the doctrine of the Trinity--one
+which is far too improper to have been adopted by the writers of the
+New Testament--it is impossible not to recognise in the signs which are
+symbolic of it the thing which is signified.
+
+It may readily be supposed that those who have knowledge of the
+heathenish origin of many of the cherished doctrines of the so-called
+Christian church, cannot remain enthusiastic members of her communion;
+and it is equally easy for the enlightened philosopher to understand why
+such persons are detested and abused by the ignorant, and charged with
+being freethinkers, sceptics, or atheists. Sciolism is ever intolerant,
+and theological hatred is generally to be measured by the mental
+incapacity of those who indulge in the luxury. But no amount of abuse
+can reduce the intrinsic value of facts. Nor will the most fiery
+persecution demonstrate that the religion of Christ, as it appears
+in our churches and cathedrals, especially if they are papal, is not
+tainted by a mass of paganism of disgusting origin.
+
+
+
+Figure 37 is copied from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol.
+xviii., p 898, plate 4. It is a Buddhist emblem, and represents the
+same idea under different aspects. Each limb of the cross represents
+the fascinum at right angles with the body, and presented towards a
+barleycorn, one of the symbols of the yoni. Each limb is marked by the
+same female emblem, and terminates with the triad triangle; beyond this
+again is seen the conjunction of the sun and moon. The whole therefore
+represents the mystic curba, the creative four, by some called Thor's
+hammer. Copies of a cross similar to this have been recently found by
+Dr. Schliemann in a very ancient city, buried under the remains of two
+others, which he identifies as the Troy of Homer's Iliad.
+
+
+
+Figures 38 to 42 are developments of the triad triangle, or trinity. If
+the horizontal limb on the free end of the arm were to be prolonged
+to twice its length, the most obtuse would recognise Asher, and the
+inferior or lower members of the "triune."
+
+Figure 43 is by Egyptologists called the 'symbol of life.'
+
+It is also called the 'handled cross,' or crux ansata. It represents
+the male triad and the female unit, under a decent form. There are
+few symbols more commonly met with in Egyptian art than this. In
+some remarkable sculptures, where the sun's rays are represented as
+terminating in hands, the offerings which these bring are many a crux
+ansata, emblematic of the truth that a fruitful union is a gift from the
+deity.
+
+Figures 44, 45, are ancient designs, in which the male and female
+elements are more disguised than is usual. In Fig. 44 the woman is
+indicated by the dolphin.
+
+
+
+Figures 48, 49, represent the trefoil which was used by the ancient
+Hindoos as emblematic of the celestial triad, and adopted by
+modern Christians. It will be seen that from one stem arise three
+curiously-shaped segments, each of which is supposed to resemble the
+male scrotum, "purse," "bag," or "basket.".
+
+Figure 50 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 2.
+He states that it is from a gem cylinder in the British Museum. It
+represents a male and female figure dancing before the mystic palm-tree,
+into whose signification we need not enter beyond saying that it is a
+symbol of Asher. Opposite to a particular part of the figures is to be
+seen a diamond, or oval, and a fleur de lys, or symbolic triad. This
+gem is peculiarly valuable, as it illustrates in a graphic manner the
+meaning of the emblems in question and how the "lillies of France" had a
+pagan origin.
+
+
+
+Figures 51 to 60 are varions representations of the union of the four,
+the arba, the androgyne, or the linga-yoni.
+
+Figure 61. In modern Christian art this symbol is called vesica piscis,
+and is sometimes surrounded with rays. It commonly serves as a sort
+of framework in which female saints are placed, who are generally
+the representatives of the older Juno, Ceres, Diana, Venus, or other
+impersonations of the feminine element in creation. We should not feel
+obliged to demonstrate the truth of this assertion if decency permitted
+us to reproduce here designs which naughty youths so frequently chalk
+upon walls to the disgust of the proper part of the community. We must,
+therefore, have resort to a religious book, and in a subsequent figure
+demonstrate the meaning of the symbol unequivocally.
+
+
+
+Figure 62 represents one of the forms assumed by the sistrum of Isis.
+Sometimes the instrument is oval, and occasionally it terminates below
+in a horizontal line, instead of in an acute angle. The inquirer can
+very readily recognise in the emblem the symbol of the female creator.
+If there should be any doubt in his mind, he will be satisfied after
+a reference to Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1707), vol. ii.,
+plate 61, wherein Diana of the Ephesians is depicted as having a body
+of the exact shape of the sistrum figured in Payne Knight's work on the
+remains of the worship of Priapus, etc. The bars across the sistrum show
+that it denotes a pure virgin (see Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol.
+n., pp. 743-746). On its handle is seen the figure of a cat--a sacred
+animal amongst the Egyptians, for the same reason that Isis was
+figured sometimes as a cow--viz., for its salacity and its love for its
+offspring.
+
+
+
+Figures 63 to 66 are all drawn from Assyrian sources.
+
+
+
+The central figure, which is probably the biblical "grove," represents
+the delta, or female "door." To it the attendant genii offer the pine
+cone and basket. The signification of these is explained subsequently. I
+was unable at first to quote any authority to demonstrate that the pine
+cone was a distinct masculine symbol, but now the reader may be referred
+to Maffei, Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1708), where, in vol. iii., he
+will see a Venus Tirsigera.
+
+The goddess in plate 8, is nude, and carries in her hand the tripliform
+arrow, emblem of the male triad, whilst in the other she bears a
+thyrsus, terminating in a pine or fir cone. Now this cone and stem are
+carried in the Bacchic festivities, and can be readily recognised as
+virga cum ovo. Sometimes the thyrsus is replaced by ivy leaves, which,
+like the fig, are symbolic of the triple creator. Occasionally the
+thyrsus was a lance or pike, round which vine leaves and berries were
+clustered; Bacchus cum vino being the companion of Venus cum cerere. But
+a stronger confirmation of my views may be found in a remarkable
+group (see Fig. 124 infra). This is entitled Sacrifizio di Priapo, and
+represents a female offering to Priapus. The figure of the god stands
+upon a pillar of three stones, and it bears a thyrsus from which depend
+two ribbons. The devotee is accompanied by a boy, who carries a pine-
+or fir- cone in his hand, and a basket on his head, in which may be
+recognised a male effigy. In Figure 64 the position of the advanced hand
+of each of the priests nearest to the grove is very suggestive to the
+physiologist. It resembles one limb of the Buddhist cross, Fig. 37,
+supra. The finger or thumb when thus pointed are figurative of Asher, in
+a horizontal position, with Anu or Hea hanging from one end. Figure
+65 is explained similarly. It is to be noticed that a door is adopted
+amongst modern Hindoos as an emblem of the sacti (see Figs. 152, 153,
+infra).
+
+
+
+My friend Mr. Newton, who has taken great interest in the subject of
+symbolism, regards these "groves" as not being simply emblems of the
+yoni, but of the union of that part with the lingam, or mystic palm
+tree. As his ideas are extremely ingenious, and his theory perfect, I
+have requested him to introduce them at the end of this work.
+
+Figures 67, 68, 69, are fancy sketches intended to represent the "sacred
+shields" spoken of in Jewish and other history. The last is drawn from
+memory, and represents a Templar's shield. According to the method in
+which the shield is viewed, it appears like the os tincæ or the navel.
+Figures 70, 71, represent the shape of the sistrum of Isis, the fruit of
+the fig, and the yoni. When a garment of this shape is made and worn,
+it becomes the "pallium" donned alike by the male and female individuals
+consecrated to Roman worship.
+
+King, in his Ancient Gnostics, remarks: "The circle of the sun is the
+navel, which marks the natural position of the womb--the navel being
+considered in the microcosm as corresponding to the sun in the universe,
+an idea more fully exemplified in the famous hallucination of the Greek
+anchorites touching the mystical 'Light of Tabor,' which was revealed to
+the dèvotee after a fast of many days, all the time staring fixedly upon
+the region of the navel, whence at length this light streamed as from a
+focus." Pages 158, 154.
+
+
+
+Figures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop, and a modern
+nun wearing the emblem of the female sex. In the former, said (in Old
+England Pictorially Illustrated, by Knight) to be a drawing of St.
+Augustine, the amount of symbolism is great. The "nimbus" and the
+tonsure are solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded
+with phallic crosses; its lower end is the ancient T the mark of the
+masculine triad; the right hand has the forefinger extended, like the
+Assyrian priests whilst doing homage to the grove, and within it is the
+fruit, tappuach, which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons the
+pallium in worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the
+unity, the arba, or mystic four. See Ancient Faiths, second edition,
+Vol. n., pp. 915-918.
+
+I take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of King's Gnostics
+and their Remains, (Bell & Daldy, London, 1864). To this period belongs
+a beautiful sard in my collection representing Serapis,... whilst
+before him stands Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a
+wheatsheaf, with the legend... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the very
+terms applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form
+(the 'Black Virgins,' so highly reverenced in certain French Cathedrals
+during the middle ages, proved, when examined critically, basalt figures
+of Isis), her symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Her devotees carried
+into the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the
+obligation to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting,
+unfortunately, the frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed.
+The sacred image still moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at
+it, vi. 530.
+
+
+
+Escorted by the tonsured surpliced train. Her proper title, Domina, the
+exact translation of Sanscrit Isi, survives with slight change in the
+modern Madonna, Mater Domina.
+
+By a singular permutation the flower borne by each, the lotus--ancient
+emblem of the sun and fecundity--now re-named the lily, is interpreted
+as significant of the opposing quality. The tinkling sistrum... is
+replaced by... the bell, taken from Buddhist usages.... The erect oval
+symbol of the Female Principle of Nature became the Vesica Piscis, and
+the Crux Ansata, testifying the union of the male and female in the most
+obvious manner, is transformed into the orb surmounted by the cross, as
+an ensign of royalty. Pp. 71, 72.
+
+
+
+Figure 74 is a well known Christian emblem, called "a foul anchor." The
+anchor, as a symbol, is of great antiquity. It may be seen on an old
+Etruscan coin in the British Museum, depicted in Veterum Popvlorum et
+Regum Nummi, etc. (London, 1814), plate ii., fig. 1. On the reverse
+there is a chariot wheel. The foul anchor represents the crescent moon,
+the yoni, ark, navis, or boat; in this is placed the mast, round which
+the serpent, the emblem of life in the "verge," entwines itself. The
+cross beam completes the mystic four, symbolic alike of the sun and of
+androgeneity. The whole is a covert emblem of that union which results
+in fecundity. It is said by Christians to be the anchor of the soul,
+sure and steadfast. This it certainly cannot be, for a foul anchor will
+not hold the ground.
+
+Figures 75 to 79 are Asiatic and Egyptian emblems in use amongst
+ourselves, and receive their explanation similarly to preceding ones.
+
+Figure 80 is copied from Godfrey Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii., fig.
+27. It is drawn from Montfauçon, vol. ii., pi. cxxxii., fig. 6. In his
+text, Higgins refers to two similar groups, one which exists in the
+Egyptian temple of Ipsambal in Nubia, and is described by Wilson, On
+Buddhists and Jeynes, p. 127, another, found in a cave temple in the
+south of India, described by Col. Tod, in his History of Raj-pootanah.
+The group is not explained by Montfauçon. It is apparently Greek, and
+combines the story of Hercules with the seductiveness of Circe. The
+tree and serpent are common emblems, and have even been found in Indian
+temples in central America, grouped as in the woodcut.
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 81 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate xix., fig.
+11, The origin of this, which is a silver statuette in that author's
+possession, is unknown. The female represents Venus bearing in one hand
+an apple; her arm rests upon what seems to be a representative of the
+mystic triad (the two additions to the upright stem not being seen in
+a front view) round which a dolphin for 'womb' is entwined, from whose
+mouth comes the stream of life. The apple plays a strange part in Greek
+and Hebrew mythology. The story of "the apple of discord," awarded by
+Paris to Venus, seems to indicate that where beauty contends against
+majesty and wisdom for the love of youth, it is sure to win the day. We
+learn from Arnobius that a certain Nana conceived a son by an apple (Op,
+Cit., p. 286), although in another place the prolific fruit is said to
+have been a pomegranate. Mythologically, that writer sees no difficulty
+in the story, for those who affirm that rocks and hard stones have
+brought forth. In the Song of Solomon, apples and the tree that bears
+them are often referred to; and we have in Ch. ii. 5 the curious
+expression, "Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love." We are
+familiar with the account of Eve being tempted by the same fruit.
+Critics imagine that as the apple in Palestine is not good eating, the
+quince is meant; if so, we know that a leaf of that tree is to be
+seen in every amorous picture found in Pompeii, the plant having been
+supposed to increase virile power. Others imagine that the citron is
+intended, whose shape makes it an emblem of the testis. However this may
+be decided, it is tolerably clear, from all the tales and pictures
+in which a fruit like the apple figures, that the emblem symbolised
+a desire for an intimate union between the sexes. The reader will
+doubtless remember how, in Genesis xxx, Leah is represented as
+purchasing her husband's company for a night by means of mandrakes, the
+result being the birth of Issachar; and in the well-known story of the
+Creation we find that the apple gives birth to desire, as shown in the
+recognition for the first time of the respective nudity of the
+couple, which was followed immediately, or as soon as it was possible
+afterwards, by sexual intercourse and the conception of Cain.
+
+
+
+Figure 82 is from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xivb, fig. 3.
+
+The gem is of unknown origin, but is apparently Babylonish; it
+represents the male and female in conjunction: each appears to be
+holding the symbol of the triad in much respect, whilst the curious
+cross suggests a new reading to an ancient symbol.
+
+I have of late heard it asserted, by a man of considerable learning,
+though of a very narrow mind in everything which bears upon religious
+subjects, that there is no proof that the sun was commonly regarded as a
+male, or the moon as a female; and he based his strange assertion solely
+upon the ground that in German and some other languages the sun was
+represented by a feminine, and the moon by a masculine noun. The
+argument is of no value, for [--Greek--] and other Greek and Latin names
+of the yoni, are masculine nouns, and Virga and Mentula, the Roman words
+for the Linga, are feminine. In Hindostan, the sun is always represented
+as a God; the moon is occasionally a male, and sometimes a female deity.
+In ancient Gaulish and Scandinavian figures, the sun was always a male,
+and the moon a female. Their identification will be seen in Figure
+118--as their conjunction is in the one before us--in the position of
+the individuals, and in the fleur-de-lys and oval symbol.
+
+
+
+Figure 88 may be found in Fabretti's Corpus Inscriptionum Italicarum
+(Turin, 1867), plate xxv., fig. 808 f. The coins which bear the figures
+are of brass, and were found at Volaterræ. In one the double head is
+associated with a dolphin and crescent moon on the reverse, and the
+letters Velathri, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the one
+containing the club. The club, formed as in Figure 88, occurs frequently
+on Etruscan coins. For example, two clubs are joined with four balls on
+a Tudertine coin, having on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for
+fighting, and four balls arranged in a square. On other coins are to
+be seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripliform figures,
+associated with three balls in a triangle; sometimes two, and sometimes
+one. The double head with two balls is seen on a Telamonian coin, having
+on the reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned upwards. In
+a coin of Populonia the club is associated with a spear and two balls,
+whilst on the reverse is a single head. I must notice, too, that on
+other coins a hammer and pincers, or tongs, appear, as if the idea was
+to show that a maker, fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be
+symbolised. What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which
+a head appears thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two statuettes of
+silver have been found, representing a double-faced individual. A lion's
+head for a cap, a collar, and buskins are the sole articles of dress
+worn. One face appears to be feminine, and the other masculine, but
+neither is bearded. The pectorals and the general form indicate the
+male, but the usual marks of sex are absent. On these have been found
+Etruscan inscriptions (1) v. cvinti arntias CULPIANSI ALP AN TURCE; (2)
+V. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ alpan TUBCE. Which may be rendered (1)
+"V. Quintus of Aruntia, to Culpian pleasing, a gift"; (2) "V. Quintus
+of Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a gift," evidently showing that they
+were ex voto offerings.
+
+
+
+Col. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49 it is
+associated with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The design is spoken
+of as "the spectacle ornament," and it is very commonly associated with
+another figure closely resembling the letter Z. It is very natural for
+the inquirer to associate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or
+the sun common amongst the sculptured stones in Scotland. Four varieties
+may be seen in plate 48 of sun and moon. On one Scottish monument the
+circles represent wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot.
+As yet I have only been able to meet with the Z and "spectacle ornament"
+once out of Scotland; it is figured on apparently a Gnostic gem (The
+Gnostics and their Remains, by C. W. King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig.
+5). In that we see in a serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having
+the down stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating in
+a circle; besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray terminating in a
+circle, precisely resembling the star in Plate in., Fig. 8, supra. I can
+offer no satisfactory explanation of the emblem.
+
+
+
+Figures 85, 86, represent a Yorkshire and an Indian stone circle. The
+first is copied from Descriptions of Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and
+other Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian Monuments in the Dekkan, by Col.
+Meadows Taylor, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv.
+The mound exists at Twizell, Yorkshire, and the centre of the circle
+indicates an ancient tomb, very similar to those found by Taylor in the
+Dekkan; this contained only one single urn, but many of the Indian
+ones contained, besides the skeleton of the great man buried therein,
+skeletons of other individuals who had been slaughtered over his tomb,
+and buried above the kistvaen containing his bones; in one instance two
+bodies and three heads were found in the principal grave, and twenty
+other skeletons above and beside it. A perusal of this very interesting
+paper will well repay the study bestowed upon it. Figure 86 is copied
+from Forbes Leslie's book mentioned above, plate 59. It represents a
+modern stone circle in the Dekkan, of very recent construction. The
+dots upon the stones represent dabs of red paint, which again represent
+blood. The circles are similar to some which have been found in
+Palestine, and give evidence of the presence of the same religious ideas
+existing in ancient England and Hindostan, as well as in modern India.
+The name of the god worshipped in these recent shrines is Vetal, or
+Betal. It is worth mentioning, in passing, that there is a celebrated
+monolith in Scotland called the Newton Stone, on which are inscribed,
+evidently with a graving tool, an inscription in the Ogham, and another
+in some ancient Aryan character (see Moore's Ancient Pillar Stones of
+Scotland).
+
+
+
+Figure 87 indicates the solar wheel, emblem of the chariot of Apollo.
+This sign is a very common one upon ancient coins; sometimes the rays or
+spokes are four, at others they are more numerous. Occasionally the tire
+of the wheel is absent, and amongst the Etruscans the nave is omitted.
+The solar cross is very common in Ireland, and amongst the Romanists
+generally as a head dress for male saints.
+
+
+
+Figure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the authority of Col.
+Hamilton Smith, who copied it from the original collection made by
+the artists of the French Institute of Cairo. It is said to represent
+Osiris, but this is doubtful. There is much that is intensely mystical
+about the figure. The whip, or flagellum, placed over the tail, and the
+head passing through the yoni, the circular spots with their central
+dot, the horns with solar disc, and two curiously shaped feathers (?),
+the calf reclining upon a plinth, wherein a division into three is
+conspicuous, all have a meaning in reference to the mystic four.
+
+I have long had a doubt respecting the symbolic meaning of the scourge.
+Some inquirers have asserted that it is simply an emblem of power
+or superiority, inasmuch as he who can castigate must be in a higher
+position than the one who is punished. But of this view I can find no
+proof. On the other hand, any one who is familiar with the effect
+upon the male produced by flagellation, and who notices that the
+representations of Osiris and the scourge show evidence that the deity
+is in the same condition as one who has been subjected to the rod, will
+be disposed to believe that the flagellum is an indication or symbol
+of the god who gives to man the power to reproduce his like, or who can
+restore the faculty after it has faded. It is not for a moment to be
+supposed that a deity who was to be worshipped would be depicted as
+a task-master, whose hands are more familiar with punishment than
+blessing.
+
+
+
+Figure 89 is taken from Lajard's Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 14, and
+is an enlarged impression of a gem. A similar figure is to be found in
+Payne Knight's work On the Worship of Priapus. In both instances the
+female is fringed with male emblems. In the one before us a fish,
+apparently a dolphin, is borne in one hand. In the other the woman is
+bearded. These are representations of Ashtaroth--the androgyne deity in
+which the female predominates.
+
+Fig. 90 represents an ancient Italian form of the Indian Ling Yoni. It
+is copied from a part of the Frontispiece of Faber's Dissertation on the
+Cabiri, where it is stated that the plate is a copy of a picture of a
+nymphoeum found when excavating a foundation for the Barbarini Palace at
+Rome. It deserves notice, because the round mound of masonry surmounted
+by the short pillars is precisely similar to similar erections found
+in Hindostan on the East and America on the West, as well as in varions
+parts of Europe. The oval in the pediment and the solitary pillar
+have the same meaning as the Caaba and hole--the upright stone and pit
+revered at Mecca long before Mahomet's time--the tree serves to identify
+the pillar, and vice versa. Apertures were common in ancient sepulchral
+monuments, alike in Hindostan and England; one perforated stone is
+preserved as a relic in the precincts of an old church in modern Rome.
+The aperture is blackish with the grease of many hands, which have been
+put therein whilst their owners took a sacred oath. We have already
+remarked how ancient Abraham and a modern Arab have sworn by the Linga;
+it is therefore by no means remarkable that some of a different form of
+faith should swear by the Yoni.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 91 is stated by Higgins, Anacalypm, p. 217, to be a mark on the
+breast of an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of University College, London.
+It is essentially the same symbol as the crux ansata, and is emblematic
+of the male triad and the female unit.
+
+Figure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal tiara has not
+about it anything particularly Christian, a similar head-dress having
+been worn by gods or angels in ancient Assyria, where it appeared
+crowned by an emblem of "the trinity." We may mention, in passing, that
+as the Romanists adopted the mitre and the tiara from "the cursed brood
+of Ham," so they adopted the episcopalian crook from the augurs of
+Etruria, and the artistic form with which they clothe their angels from
+the painters and um-makers of Magna Gracia and Central Italy.
+
+
+
+Figure 98 is the Mithraic lion. It may be seen in Hyde's Religion of the
+Ancient Persians, second edition, plate i. It may also be seen in vol.
+ii., plates 10 and 11, of Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1707).
+In plate 10 the Mithraic lion has seven stars above it, around which
+are placed respectively, words written in Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician
+characters, ZEDCH. TELKAN. TELKON. TELKON. QIDEKH. UNEULK. LNKELLP.,
+apparently showing that the emblem was adopted by the Gnostics. It
+would be unprofitable to dwell upon the meaning of these letters. After
+puzzling over them, I fancy that "Bad spirits, pity us," "Just one, I
+call on thee," may be made out by considering the words to be very bad
+Greek, and the letters to be much transposed.
+
+
+
+Figure 94 is copied by Higgins, Anacalypsis, on the authority of Dubois,
+who states, vol. iii., p. 88, that it was found on a stone in a church
+in France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred years.
+Dubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no reference to
+the story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on the draped
+figures as representatives of Adam and Eve. We have introduced it to
+show how such tales are intermingled with Sabeanism.
+
+
+
+Figure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p.
+156), and represents Harpocrates seated on a lotus, adoring the mundane
+representative of the mother of creation. I have not yet met with any
+ancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify the yoni so completely
+with various goddesses.
+
+Compare this with Figure 138, infra, wherein the Figure 95. emblem is
+even more strikingly identified with woman, and with the virgin Mary.
+Those who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on
+hoardings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent
+certain ideas in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the
+mystic meaning of O ---- I have elsewhere called attention to the idea
+that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil
+spirits; however grotesque the idea may be, it has existed in all ages,
+and in civilised and savage nations alike. A rude image of a woman who
+shamelessly exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches
+in Ireland, and at Servatos, in Spain, where she is standing on one side
+of the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on the other. The same
+has been found in Mexico, Peru, and in North America. Nor must we forget
+how Baubo cured the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a
+strange fashion to the distressed goddess. Arnobius, Op. Cit., pp. 249,
+250.
+
+As I have already noticed modern notions on the influence produced
+by the exhibition of the yoni on those who are suffering, the legend
+referred to may be shortly described. The goddess, in the story, was
+miserable in consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen
+away by Pluto. In her agony, snatching two Etna-lighted torches, she
+wanders round the earth in search of the lost one, and in due course
+visits Eleusis. Baubo receives her hospitably; but nothing that the
+hostess does induces the guest to depose her grief for a moment. In
+despair the mortal bethinks her of a scheme, shaves off what is called
+in Isaiah "the hair of the feet" and then exposes herself to the
+goddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the denuded spot, is pleased with the
+strange form of consolation, consents to take food and is restored to
+comfort.
+
+
+
+Figure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 8, of Lajard's Culte de Venus.
+He states that it is an impression of a cornelian cylinder, in the
+collection of the late Sir William Ouseley, and is supposed to represent
+Oannes, or Bel and two fish gods, the authors of fecundity. It is
+thought that Dagon of the Philistines resembled the two figures
+supporting the central one.
+
+Figure 97 is a side view of plate 1. The idol represents a female.
+Dagon, the fish god, male above, piscine below, was one of the many
+symbols of an androgyne creator. In the first of the Avatars of Vishnu,
+he is represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish
+himself; the legend being that he was to be the saviour of the world in
+a deluge which was to follow. See Moor's Hindu Pantheon, and Coleman's
+Mythology of the Hindus.
+
+
+
+Figure 98 is a fancy sketch of the fleur-de-lys, the lily of France.
+It symbolises the male triad, whilst the ring around it represents
+the female. The identification of this emblem of the trinity with the
+tripliform Mahadeva, and of the ring with his sacti, may be seen in the
+next figure.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 99, which we have already given on page 46, is one of great value
+to the inquirer into the signification of certain symbols. It has been
+reintroduced here to show the identification of the eye, fish, or oval
+shape, with the yoni, and of the fleur-de-lys with the lingam, which
+is recognised by the respective positions of the emblems in front of
+particular parts of the mystic animals, who both, on their part, adore
+the symbolic palm tree, with its pistil and stamens. The rayed branches
+of the upper part of the tree, and the nearness to it of the crescent
+moon, seem to indicate that the palm was a solar as well as a sexual
+emblem.
+
+
+
+The great similarity of the palm tree to the ancient round towers
+in Ireland and elsewhere will naturally strike the observer. He will
+perhaps remember also that on certain occasions dancing, feasting, and
+debauchery were practised about a round tower in Wicklow, such as were
+practised round the English may-pole, the modern substitute of the
+mystic palm tree. We have now humanised our practice, but we have not
+purified our land of all its veiled symbols.
+
+In some parts, where probably the palm tree does not flourish, the pine
+takes its place as an emblem. It was sacred to the mother of the gods,
+whose names, Rhoea, Ceres, Cybele, are paraphrastic of the yoni. We
+learn from Araobius, Op. Cit., p. 239, that on fixed days that tree was
+introduced into the sanctuary of that august personage, being decorated
+by fleeces and violets. It does not require any recondite knowledge to
+understand the signification of the entrance of the pine into the temple
+of the divine mother, nor what the tree when buried in the midst of a
+fleece depicts. Those who have heard of the origin of the Spanish Royal
+Order of the Golden Fleece know that the word is an enphemism for the
+lanugo of the Romans. Parsley round a carrot root is a modern symbol,
+and the violet is as good an emblem of the lingam as the modern pistol.
+
+It has long been known that the ancient custom of erecting a may-pole,
+surrounding it with wreaths of flowers, and then dancing round it in
+wild orgy, was a relic of the ancient custom of reverencing the symbol
+of creation, invigorated by the returning spring time, without whose
+powers the flocks and herds would fail to increase. It will not fail to
+attract the notice of my readers, that a pine cone is constantly being
+offered to the sacred "grove" by the priests of Assyria.
+
+
+
+Figures 100, 101, represent the Buddhist cross and one of its arms.
+The first shows the union of four phalli. The single one being a
+conventional form of a well-known organ. This form of cross does not
+essentially differ from the Maltese cross. In the latter, Asher stands
+perpendicularly to Anu and Hea; in the former it is at right angles to
+them. "The pistol" is a well-known name amongst our soldiery, and
+four such joined together by the muzzle would form the Buddhist cross.
+Compare Figure 37, ante.
+
+Figures 102, 108, 104, indicate the union of the four creators, the
+trinity and the unity. Not having at hand any copy of an ancient key,
+I have used a modern one; but this makes no essential difference in the
+symbol.
+
+Figures 105, 106, are copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, plate
+ii. They represent ornaments held in the hands of a great female figure,
+sculptured in bas relief on a rock at Yazili Kaia, near to Boghaz Keni,
+in Anatolia, and described by M. C. Texier in 1834. The goddess is
+crowned with a tower, to indicate virginity; in her right hand she holds
+a staff, shown in Figure 106; in the other, that given in Figure 105,
+she stands upon a lioness, and is attended by an antelope. Figure 105 is
+a complicated emblem of the four.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figures 107, 108, 109, are copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate
+lxxxiii. They represent the lingam and then yoni, which amongst the
+Indians are regarded as holy emblems, much in the same way as a crucifix
+is esteemed by certain modern Christians.
+
+
+
+In worship, ghee, or oil, or water, is poured over the pillar, and
+allowed to run off by the spout. Sometimes the pillar is adorned by a
+necklace, and is associated with the serpent emblem. In Lucian's account
+of Alexander, the false prophet, which we have condensed in Ancient
+Faiths, second edition, there is a reference to one of his dupes, who
+was a distinguished Roman officer, but so very superstitious, or, as he
+would say of himself, so deeply imbued with religion, that at the sight
+of a stone he would fall prostrate and adore it for a considerable time,
+offering prayers and vows thereto. This may by some be thought quite
+as reasonable as the practice once enforced in Christian Rome, which
+obliged all persons in the street to kneel in reverence when an ugly
+black doll, called "the bambino," or a bit of bread, over which some
+cabalistic words had been muttered, was being carried in procession past
+them. Arnobins, Op, Cit., p. 81, says, "I worshipped images produced
+from the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of
+elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees; whenever I espied an
+anointed stone, and one bedaubed with olive oil, as if some person
+resided in it, I worshipped it, I addressed myself to it, and begged
+blessings from a senseless stock." Compare Gen. xxviii. 18, wherein we
+find that Jacob set up a stone and anointed it with oil, and called the
+place Bethel, and Is. xxvii. 19, xl. 20, xliv. 10-20.
+
+I copy the following remarks from a paper by Mr. Sellon, in Memoirs of
+the London Anthropological Society, for 1868-4. Speaking of Hindostan,
+he remarks, "As every village has its temple so every temple has its
+Lingam, and these parochial Lingams are usually from two to three feet
+in height, and rather broad at the base. Here the village girls, who are
+anxious for lovers or husbands, repair early in the morning. They make
+a lustration by sprinkling the god with water brought from the Ganges;
+they deck the Linga with garlands of the sweet-smelling bilwa flower;
+they perform the mudra, or gesticulation with the fingers, and, reciting
+the prescribed mantras, or incantations, they rub themselves against
+the emblem, and entreat the deity to make them fruitful mothers of
+pulee-pullum (i.e., child fruit).
+
+"This is the celebrated Linga puja, during the performance of which the
+panchaty, or five lamps, must be lighted, and the gantha, or bell, be
+frequently rung to scare away the evil demons. The mala, or rosary of a
+hundred and eight round beads, is also used in this puja."
+
+See also Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate xxii, pp. 68, 69, 70. Again, in
+the Dabistan, a work written in the Persian language, by a travelled
+Mahometan, about a. d. 1660, and translated by David Shea, for the
+Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland (8 vols., 8vo.,
+Allen and Co., Leadenhall Street, London), we read, vol. ii., pp.
+148-160, "The belief of the Saktian is that Siva, that is, Mahadeva, who
+with little exception is the highest of deities and the greatest of the
+spirits, has a spouse whom they call Maya Sakti.....With them the power
+of Mahadeva's wife, who is Bhavani, surpasses that of the husband. The
+zealous of this sect worship the Siva Linga, although other Hindoos also
+venerate it. Linga is called the virile organ, and they say, on
+behalf of this worship, that as men and all living beings derive their
+existence from it, adoration is duly bestowed upon it. As the linga of
+Mahadeva, so do they venerate the bhaga, that is, the female organ.
+A man very familiar with them gave the information that, according to
+their belief, the high altar, or principal place in a mosque of the
+Mussulmans, is an emblem of the bhaga. Another man among them said that
+as the just-named place emblems the bhaga, the minar or turret of the
+mosque represents the linga." The author then goes on to describe the
+practices of the sect, which may be summed up in the words--the most
+absolute freedom of love.
+
+Apropos of the Mahometan minaret and Christian church towers and spires,
+I may mention that Lucian describes the magnificent temple of the Syrian
+goddess as having two vast phalli before its main entrance, and how at
+certain seasons men ascended to their summit, and remained there some
+days, so as to utter from thence the prayers of the faithful.
+
+
+
+Figures 110, 111, both from Moor, plate lxxxvi., are forms of the argha,
+or sacred sacrificial cup, bowl, or basin, which represent the yoni, and
+some other things besides. See Moor, Hindu Pantheon, pp. 898, 894.
+
+Figure 112. Copied from Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. i., p. 176,
+symbolises Ishtar, the Assyrian representative of Devi, Parvati,
+Isis, Astarte, Venus, and Mary. The virgin and child are to be found
+everywhere, even in ancient Mexico.
+
+
+
+Figure 118 is copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, plate xix.,
+fig. 6, and represents the male and female as the sun and moon, thus
+identifying the symbolic sex of those luminaries. The legend in the
+Pehlevi characters has not been interpreted.
+
+Figure 114 is taken from a mediæval woodcut, lent to me by my friend,
+Mr. John Newton, to whom I am indebted for the sight of, and the
+privilege to copy, many other figures. In it the virgin Mary is seen
+as the Queen of Heaven, nursing her infant, and identified with the
+crescent moon, the emblem of virginity. Being before the sun, she almost
+eclipses its light. Than this, nothing could more completely identify
+the Christian mother and child with Isis and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno,
+and a host of other pagan goddesses, who have been called 'Queen of
+Heaven,' 'Queen of the Universe' 'Mother of God,' 'Spouse of God,' the
+'Celestial Virgin,' the 'Heavenly Peace Maker,' etc.
+
+Figures 115, 116, are common devices in papal churches and pagan
+symbolism. They are intended to indicate the sun and moon in
+conjunction, the union of the triad with the unit. I may notice, in
+passing, that Mr. Newton has showed to me some mediæval woodcuts, in
+which the young unmarried women in a mixed assemblage were indicated by
+wearing upon their foreheads a crescent moon.
+
+
+
+Figure 117 is a Buddhist symbol, or rather a copy of Maityna Bodhisatwa,
+from the monastery of Gopach, in the valley of Nepaul.
+
+
+
+It is taken from Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 894.
+The horse-shoe, like the vesica piscis of the Roman church, indicates
+the yoni; the last, taken from some cow, mare, or donkey, being used in
+eastern parts where we now use their shoes, to keep off the evil eye.
+It is remarkable that some nations should use the female organ, or an
+effigy thereof, as a charm against ill luck, whilst others adopt the
+male symbol. In Ireland, as we have previously remarked, a female
+shamelessly exhibiting herself, and called Shelah-na-gig, was to be seen
+in stone over the door of certain churches, within the last century.
+
+From the resemblance in the shape of the horse-shoe to the "grove" of
+the Assyrian worshippers, and from the man standing within it as the
+symbolic pine tree stands in the Mesopotamian, "Asherah," I think we may
+fairly conclude that the Indian, like the Shemitic emblem, typifies the
+union of the sexes--the androgyne creator.
+
+That some Buddhists have mingled sexuality with their ideas of religion,
+may be seen in plate ii. of Emil Schlagintweit's Atlas of Buddhism in
+Tibet, wherein Vajarsattva, "The God above all," is represented as a
+male and female conjoined. Rays, as of the sun, pass from the group;
+and all are enclosed in an ornate oval, or horse-shoe, like that in this
+figure. Few, however, but the initiated would recognise the nature of
+the group at first sight.
+
+
+
+I may also notice, in passing, that the goddess Doljang (a.d. 617-98)
+has the stigmata in her hands and feet, like those assigned to Jesus of
+Nazareth and Francis of Assisi.
+
+Figure 118 is a copy of the medal issued to pilgrims at the shrine of
+the virgin at Loretto. It was lent to me by Mr. Newton, but the engraver
+has omitted to make the face of the mother and child black, as the most
+ancient and renowned ones usually are.
+
+Instead of the explanation given in Ancient Faiths, Vol. ii., p. 262,
+of the adoption of a black skin for Mary and her son, D'Harcanville
+suggests that it represents night, the period during which the feminine
+creator is most propitious or attentive to her duties. It is unnecessary
+to contest the point, for almost every symbol has more interpretations
+given to it than one. I have sought in vain for even a plausible reason
+for the blackness of sacred virgins and children, in certain papal
+shrines, which is compatible with decency and Christianity. It is clear
+that the matter will not bear the light.
+
+
+
+Figure 119 is from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate iii., fig. 8. It represents
+the sun, moon, and a star, probably Venus.
+
+The legend is in Phoenician, and may be read LNBRB. Levy, in Siegel und
+Gemmen, Breslau, 1869, reads the legend [------], LKBRBO, but does not
+attempt to explain it.
+
+Figure 120 is also from Lajard, plate i., fig. 8. It represents an act
+of worship before the symbols of the male and female creators, arranged
+in three pairs. Above are the heavenly symbols of the sun and moon.
+Below are the male palm tree, and the barred [------], identical in
+meaning with the sistrum, i. e., virgo intacta. Next come the male
+emblem, the cone, and the female symbol, the lozenge or yoni.
+
+
+
+Figure 121 represents also a worshipper before the barred female symbol,
+surmounted by the seven-rayed star, emblem of the male potency, and
+of the sun or the heavens. It will be noticed--and the matter is
+significant--that the hand which is raised in adoration is exactly
+opposite the conjunction of the two. Compare this with Fig. 95, where
+the female alone is the object of reverence.
+
+Lajard and others state that homage, such as is here depicted, is
+actually paid in some parts of Palestine and India to the living symbol;
+the worshipper on bended knees offering to it, la bouche inférieure,
+with or without a silent prayer, his food before he eats it. A
+corresponding homage is paid by female devotees to the masculine emblem
+of any very peculiarly holy fakir, one of whose peculiarities is, that
+no amount of excitement stimulates the organ into what may be called
+creative energy. It has long been a problem how such a state of apathy
+is brought about, but modern observation has proved that it is by the
+habitual use of weights. Such homage is depicted in Picart's Religious
+Ceremonies of all the People in the World, original French edition,
+plate 71.
+
+
+
+Figure 122 is copied from Bryant's Ancient Mythology, third edition,
+vol. iii., p. 193. That author states that he copied it from Spanheim,
+but gives no other reference. It is apparently from a Greek medal, and
+has the word CAMIÛN as an inscription. It is said to represent Juno,
+Sami, or Selenitis, with the sacred peplum. The figure is remarkable
+for showing the identity of the moon, the lozenge, and the female. It
+is doubtful whether the attitude of the goddess is intended to represent
+the cross.
+
+As in religious Symbolism every detail has a signification, we naturally
+speculate upon the meaning of the beads which fringe the lower part of
+the diamond-shaped garment. We have noticed in a previous article that
+the Linga when worshipped was sometimes adorned with beads, which were
+the fruit of a tree sacred to Mahadeva; in the original of fig. 4, plate
+xi. supra, the four arms of the cross have a series of beads depending
+from them. On a very ancient coin of Citium, a rosary of beads, with a
+cross, has been found arranged round a horse-shoe form; and beads
+are common ornaments on Hindoo Divinities. They may only be used for
+decoration and without religious signification; if they have the last, I
+have not been able to discover it.
+
+
+
+Figure 128 is a composition taken from Bryant, vol. iv., p. 286. The
+rock, the water, the crescent moon as an ark, and the dove hovering
+over it, are all symbolical; but though the author of it is right in his
+grouping, it is clear that he is not aware of its full signification.
+The reader will readily gather their true meaning from our articles upon
+the Ark and Water, and from our remarks upon the Dove in Ancient Faiths,
+second edition.
+
+Figure 124 is copied from Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate, vol. 8, plate
+xl. In the original, the figure upon the pillar is very conspicuously
+phallic, and the whole composition indicates what was associated with
+the worship of Priapus.
+
+
+
+This so-called god was regarded much in the same light as 'St. Cosmo and
+St. Damian were at Iseraia, and St. Foutin in Christian France. And it
+is not at all surprising that a church, which has deified or made saints
+of a spear and cloak, under the names Longinus and Amphibolus, should
+also adopt the "god of the gardens," and consecrate him as an object for
+Christian worship, and give him an appropriate name and emblem. But the
+patron saint of Lampsacus was not really a deity, only a sort of saint,
+whose business it was to attend to certain parts. The idea of guardian
+angels was once common, see Matt, xviii. 10, where we read, that each
+child has a guardian in heaven, who looks after his infantile charge. As
+the pagan Hymen and Lucina attended upon weddings and parturitions,
+so the Christian Cosmo and Damian attended to spouses, and assisted in
+making them fruitful. To the last two were offered, by sterile wives,
+wax effigies of the part left out from the nude figure in our plate.
+To the heathen saint, we see a female votary offer quince leaves,
+equivalent to la feuille de sage, egg-shaped bread, apparently a cake;
+also an ass's head; whilst her attendant offers a pine cone. This
+amongst the Greeks was sacred to Cybele, as it was in Assyria to Astarte
+or Ishtar, the name given there to 'the mother of all saints.' The
+basket contains apples and phalli, which may have been made of pastry.
+See Martial's Epigrams, b. xiv. 69. This gem is valuable, inasmuch as it
+assists us to understand the signification of the pine cone offered to
+the 'grove,' the equivalent of le Verger de Cypris. The pillar and its
+base are curiously significant, and demonstrate how completely an artist
+can appear innocent, whilst to the initiated he unveils a mystery.
+
+
+
+Figures 125, 126, 127, are various contrivances for indicating decently
+that which it was generally thought religious to conceal, la bequile, au
+les instrumens.
+
+Figure 128 represents the same subject; the cuts are grouped iso as to
+show how the knobbed stick, le bâton, becomes converted either into a
+bent rod, la verge, or a priestly crook, le bâton pastoral. There is
+no doubt that the episcopal crozier is a presentable effigy of a very
+private and once highly venerated portion of the human frame, which was
+used in long by-gone days by Etruscan augurs, when they mapped out
+the sky, prior to noticing the flight of birds. Perhaps we ought to be
+grateful to Popery for having consecrated to Christ what was so long
+used in that which divines call the service of the devil.
+
+
+
+Figures 129, 130, 131, are, like the preceding four, copied from various
+antique gems; Fig. 129 represents a steering oar, le timon, and is
+usually held in the hand of good fortune, or as moderns would say "Saint
+Luck," or bonnes fortunes; Fig. 180 is emblematic of Cupid, or Saint
+Desire; it is synonymous with le dard, or la pique; Fig. 131 is a form
+less common in gems; it represents the hammer, le marteau qui frappe
+l'enclume et forge les enfans. The ancients had as many pictorial
+euphemisms as ourselves, and when these are understood they enable us
+to comprehend many a legend otherwise dim; e. g., when Fortuna, or luck,
+always depicted as a woman, has for her characteristic le timon, and for
+her motto the proverb, "Fortune favours the bold." we readily understand
+the double entente. The steering oar indicates power, knowledge, skill,
+and bravery in him who wields it; without such a guide, few boats would
+attain a prosperous haven.
+
+
+
+Figure 132 is copied from plate xxix. of Pugin's Glossary of
+Ecclesiastical Ornament (Lond., 1868). The plate represents "a pattern
+for diapering," and is, I presume, thoroughly orthodox. It consists of
+the double triangle, see Figures 20, 80, 81, 82, pp. 82, 88, the emblems
+of Siva and Parvati, the male and female; of Rimmon the pomegranate, the
+emblem of the womb, which is seen to be full of seed through the "vesica
+piscis," la fente, or la porte de la vie. There are also two new
+moons, emblems of Venus, or la nature, introduced. The crown above the
+pomegranate represents the triad, and the number four; whilst in the
+original the group which we copy is surrounded by various forms of the
+triad, all of which are as characteristic of man as Rimmon is of woman.
+There are also circles enclosing the triad, analogous to other symbols
+common in Hindostan.
+
+
+
+Figure 133 is copied from Moor's Hindu, Pantheon, pi. ix., fig. 8. It
+represents Bhavhani, Maia, Devi, Lakshmi, or Kamala, one of the many
+forms given to female nature. She bears in one hand the lotus, emblem of
+self-fructification,--in other similar figures an effigy of the phallus
+is placed,--whilst in the other she holds her infant Krishna, Crishna,
+or Vishnu. Such groups are as common in India as in Italy, in pagan
+temples as in Christian churches. The idea of the mother and child is
+pictured in every ancient country of whose art any remains exist.
+
+
+
+Figure 184 is taken from plate xxiv., fig. 1, of Moor's Hindu Pantheon.
+It represents a subject often depicted by the Hindoos and the Greeks,
+viz., androgynism, the union of the male and female creators. The
+technical word is Arddha-Nari. The male on the right side bears the
+emblems of Siva or Mahadeva, the female on the left those of Parvati or
+Sacti. The bull and lioness are emblematic of the masculine and feminine
+powers. The mark on the temple indicates the union of the two; an
+aureole is seen around the head, as in modern pictures of saints. In
+this drawing the Ganges rises from the male, the idea being that the
+stream from Mahadeva is as copious and fertilising as that mighty river.
+The metaphor here depicted is common in the East, and is precisely the
+same as that quoted in Num. xxiv. 7, and also from some lost Hebrew
+book in John vii. 38. It will be noticed, that the Hindoos express
+androgyneity quite as conspicuously, but generally much less
+indelicately, than the Grecian artists.
+
+
+
+Figure 135 is a common Egyptian emblem, said to signify eternity, but
+in truth it has another meaning. The serpent and the ring indicate l'
+andouille and l' anneau. The tail of the animal, which the mouth appears
+to swallow, is la queue dans la bouche. The symbol resembles the crux
+ansata in its signification, and imports that life upon the earth
+is rendered perpetual by means of the union of the sexes. A ring, or
+circle, is one of the symbols of Venus, who carries indifferently this,
+or the triad emblem of the male. See Maffei's Gemme, vol. iii., page 1,
+plate viii.
+
+Figure 136 is the vesica piscis, or fish's bladder; the emblem of woman
+and of the virgin, as may be seen in the two following woodcuts.
+
+
+
+Figures 137, 138, are copied from an ancient Rosary of the Blessed
+Virgin Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a license from the
+Inquisition; the book being lent to me by my friend, Mr. Newton.
+The first represents the same part as the Assyrian "grove." It may
+appropriately be called the Holy Yoni. The book in question contains
+numerous figures, all resembling closely the Mesopotamian emblem of
+Ishtar. The presence of the woman therein identifies the two as symbolic
+of Isis, or la nature; and a man bowing down in adoration thereof shows
+the same idea as is depicted in Assyrian sculptures, where males offer
+to the goddess symbols of themselves. Compare Figs. 68, 64, 65, 66, pp.
+48 seq.
+
+If I had been able to search through the once celebrated Alexandrian
+library, it is doubtful whether I could have found any pictorial
+representation more illustrative of the relationship of certain symbolic
+forms to each other than is Figure 138. A circle of angelic heads,
+forming a sort of sun, having luminous rays outside, and a dove, the
+emblem of Venus, dart a spear (la pique) down upon the earth (la terré),
+or the virgin. This being received, fertility follows.
+
+
+
+In Grecian story, Ouranos and Ge, or heaven and earth, were the parents
+of creation; and Jupiter came from heaven to impregnate Alcmena. The
+same mythos prevailed throughout all civilised nations. Christianity
+adopted the idea, merely altering the names of the respective parents,
+and attributed the regeneration of the world to "holy breath" and Mary.
+Every individual, indeed, extraordinarily conspicuous for wisdom, power,
+goodness, etc., is said to have been begotten on a woman by a celestial
+father. Within the vesica piscis, artists usually represent the virgin
+herself, with or without the child; in the figure before us the child
+takes her place. It is difficult to believe that the ecclesiastics who
+sanctioned the publication of such a print could have been as ignorant
+as modern ritualists. It is equally difficult to believe that the
+latter, if they knew the real meaning of the symbols commonly used by
+the Roman church, would adopt them.
+
+The last two figures, symbolic of adoration before divine sexual
+emblems, afford me the opportunity to give a description of a similar
+worship existent in Hindostan at the present time. My authority is H.
+H. Wilson, in Essays on the Religion of the Hindoos, Trübner and Co.,
+London. "The worshippers," he remarks, vol. i., p. 240, "of the Sakti,
+the power or energy of the divine nature in action, are exceedingly
+numerous amongst all classes of Hindoos--about three-fourths are of this
+sect, while only a fifth are Vaishnavas and a sixteenth Saivas. This
+active energy is personified, and the form with which it is invested
+depends upon the bias of the individuals. The most favourite form is
+that of Parvati, Bhavani, or Durga, the wife of Siva, or Mahadeva."
+
+"The worship of the female principle, as distinct from the divinity,
+appears to have originated in the literal interpretation of the
+metaphorical language of the Vedas, in which the will or purpose to
+create the universe is represented as originating from the creator, and
+consistent with him as his bride." "The Samaveda for example, says, the
+creator felt not delight being alone; he wished another, and caused
+his own self to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He
+approached her, and thus were human beings produced." A sentiment
+or statement which we may notice in passing is very similar to that
+propounded in Genesis, ch. i. 27, and v. 1, 2, respecting Elohim--viz.,
+that he created man and woman in his own image, i.e., as male and
+female, bisexual but united--an androgyne.
+
+"This female principle goes by innumerable cognomens, inasmuch as every
+goddess, every nymph, and all women are identified with it. She--the
+principle personified--is the mother of all, as Mahadeva, the male
+principle, is the father of all."
+
+"The homage rendered to the Sakti may be done before an image of any
+goddess--Prakriti, Lakshmi, Bhavani, Durga, Maya, Parvati, or Devi--just
+in the same way as Romanists may pray to a local Mary, or any other.
+But in accordance with the weakness of human nature, there are many who
+consider it right to pay their devotions to the thing itself rather than
+to an abstraction. In this form of worship six elements are required,
+flesh, fish, wine, women, gesticulations and mantras which consist
+of various unmeaning monosyllabic combinations of letters of great
+imaginary efficacy."
+
+"The ceremonies are mostly gone through in a mixed society, the Sakti
+being personified by a naked female, to whom meat and wine are
+offered and then distributed amongst the company. These eat and drink
+alternately with gesticulations and mantras--and when the religious part
+of the business is over, the males and females rush together and
+indulge in a wild orgy. This ceremony is entitled the Sri Chakra or
+Purnabhisheka, the Ring or Full Initiation."
+
+In a note apparently by the editor, Dr. Rost, a full account is given
+in Sanscrit of the Sakti Sodhana, as they are prescribed in the Devi
+Rahasya, a section of the Rudra Yâmala, so as to prove to his readers
+that the Sri Chakra is performed under a religious prescription.
+
+We learn that the woman should be an actress, dancing girl, a courtesan,
+washerwoman, barber's wife, flower-girl, milk-maid, or a female devotee.
+The ceremony is to take place at midnight with eight, nine, or eleven
+couples. At first there are sundry mantras said, then the female is
+disrobed, but richly ornamented, and is placed on the left of a circle
+(Chakra) described for the purpose, and after sundry gesticulations,
+mantras, and formulas she is purified by being sprinkled over with wine.
+If a novice, the girl has the radical mantra whispered thrice in her
+ear. Feasting then follows, lest Venus should languish in the absence of
+Ceres and Bacchus, and now, when the veins are full of rich blood, the
+actors are urged to do what desire dictates, but never to be so carried
+away by their zeal as to neglect the holy mantras appropriate to every
+act and to every stage thereof.*
+
+
+     * The above quotations from Wilson's work are selections
+     from his and his Editor's account. In the original the
+     observations extend over eighteen pages, and are too long to
+     be given in their entirety: the parts omitted are of no
+     consequence.
+
+
+It is natural that such a religion should be popular, especially amongst
+the young of both sexes.
+
+Figures 139 to 158 are copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon; they are
+sectarial marks in India, and are usually traced on the forehead. Many
+resemble what are known as "mason's marks," i. e., designs found on
+tooled stones, in various ancient edifices, like our own, "trade marks."
+They are introduced here to illustrate the various designs employed to
+indicate the union of the "trinity" with the "unity," and the numerous
+forms representative of "la nature" A priori, it appears absurd to
+suppose that the eye could ever have been symbolical of anything but
+sight; but the mythos of Indra, given in Ancient Faiths, second edition,
+Vol. n., p. 649, and p. 7 supra, proves that it has another and a hidden
+meaning. These figures are alike emblematic of the "trinity," "the
+virgin," and the "four." Figure 154 is from Pugin, plate v., figure 3.
+It is the outline of a pectoral ornament worn by some Roman ecclesiastic
+in Italy, a. d. 1400; it represents the Egyptian crux ansata under
+another form, the T signifying the triad.
+
+
+
+Figures 155, 156, are different forms of the sistrum, one of the emblems
+of Isis. In the latter, the triple bars have one signification, which
+will readily suggest itself to those who know the meaning of the triad.
+In the former, the emblem of the trinity, which we have been obliged to
+conventionalise, is shown in a distinct manner. The cross bars indicate
+that Isis is a virgin. The cat at the top of the instrument indicates
+"desire," Cupid, or Eros. Fig. 155 is copied from plate ix., R. P.
+Knight's Worship of Priapus.
+
+Figure 157 represents the cup and wafer, to be found in the hands of
+many effigies of papal bishops; they are alike symbolic of the sun and
+moon, and of the elements in the Eucharist. See Pugin, plate iv., figs.
+5, 6, represents a temple in a conventional form; whilst below, Ceres
+appears seated within a horse-shoe shaped ornament.
+
+
+
+
+
+This, amongst other symbols, tends to show what we have so frequently
+before observed, that the female in creation is characterised by a great
+variety of designs, of which the succeeding woodcuts give us additional
+evidence.
+
+Figure 159 represents the various forms symbolic of Juno, Isis, Parvati,
+Ishtar, Mary, or woman, or the virgin.
+
+Figures 160, 161, 162, are copied from Audsley's Christian Symbolism
+(London, 1868). They are ornaments worn by the Virgin Mary, and
+represent her as the crescent moon, conjoined with the cross (in
+Fig. 160), with the collar of Isis (in Fig. 161), and with the double
+triangle (in Fig. 162).
+
+
+
+Figure 163 represents a tortoise. When one sees a resemblance between
+this creature's head and neck and the linga, one can understand why both
+in India and in Greece the animal should be regarded as sacred to the
+goddess personifying the female creator, and why in Hindoo myths it is
+said to support the world.
+
+In the British Museum there are three Assyrian obeliscs, all of which
+represent, in the most conspicuous way, the phallus, one of which has
+been apparently circumcised. The body is occupied with an inscription
+recording the sale of land, and also a figure of the reigning king,
+whilst upon the part known as the glans penis are a number of symbols,
+which are intended apparently to designate the generative powers in
+creation. The male is indicated by a serpent, a spear head, a hare, a
+tiara, a cock, and a tortoise. The female appears under precisely the
+same form as is seen on the head of the Egyptian Isis, Fig. 28. The
+tortoise is to this day a masculine emblem in Japan. See Figs. 174, 175.
+
+But there is no necessity for the animal itself always to be depicted,
+inasmuch as I have discovered that both in Assyrian and Greek art the
+tortoise is pourtrayed under the figure which resembles somewhat the
+markings upon the segments into which the shell is divided. In symbolism
+it is a very common thing for a part to stand for the whole; thus an egg
+is made to do duty for the triad; and a man is sometimes represented by
+a spade. A woman is in like manner represented by a comb, or a mirror;
+and a golden fleece typifies in the first place the "grove," which it
+overshadows, and the female who possesses both.
+
+
+
+It has been stated on page 19 supra, that Pausanias mentions having seen
+at some place in Greece one figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and
+another upon a ram, but he leaves to the ingenious to discover why the
+association takes place.
+
+It was this intimation which led me to identify the tortoise as a male
+symbol. Any person who has ever watched this creature in repose, and
+seen the action of the head and neck when the quadruped is excited, will
+recognise why the animal is dear to the goddess of amorous delight, and
+that which it may remind her of. In like manner, those who are familiar
+with the ram will know that it is remarkable for persistent and
+excessive vigour. Like the cat, whose salacity caused it to be honoured
+in Egypt, the ram was in that country also sacred, as the bull was in
+Assyria and Hindostan.
+
+In fact, everything which in shape, habits, or sound could remind
+mankind of the creators and of the first part of creation was regarded
+with reverence. Thus tall stones or natural pinnacles of rock, the palm,
+pine, and oak trees, the fig tree and the ivy, with their tripliform
+leaves, the mandrake, with its strange human form, the thumb and finger,
+symbolised Bel, Baal, Asher, or Mahadeva. In like manner a hole in the
+ground, a crevice in a rock, a deep cave, the myrtle from the shape of
+its leaf, the fish from its scent, the dolphin and the mullet from their
+names, the dove from its note, and any umbrageous retreat surrounded
+with thick bushes, were symbolic of woman.
+
+So also the sword and sheath, the arrow and target, the spear and
+shield, the plough and furrow, the spade and trench, the pillar by a
+well, the thumb thrust between the two fore-fingers or grasped by the
+hand, and a host of other things were typical of the union which brings
+about the formation of a new being.
+
+I cannot help regarding the sexual element as the key which opens almost
+every lock of symbolism, and however much we may dislike the idea that
+modern religionists have adopted emblems of an obscene worship,
+we cannot deny the fact that it is so, and we may hope that with a
+knowledge of their impurity we shall cease to have a faith based upon a
+trinity and virgin--a lingam and a yoni. Some may cling still to such a
+doctrine, but to me it is simply horrible--blasphemous and heathenish.
+
+
+
+Figures 164, 165, represent a pagan and Christian cross and trinity. The
+first is copied from B. P. Knight (plate x., fig. 1), and represents a
+figure found on an ancient coin of Apollonia. The second may be seen in
+any of our churches to-day.
+
+Figure 166 is from an old papal book lent to me by Mr. Newton, Missale
+Romanum, illustrated by a monk (Venice, 1509). It represents a confessor
+of the Roman church, who wears the crux ansata, the Egyptian symbol
+of life, the emblem of the four creators, in the place of the usual
+pallium.
+
+
+
+It is remarkable that a Christian church should have adopted so many
+pagan symbols as Rome has done. Figure 167 is copied from a small
+bronze figure in the Mayer collection in the Free Museum, Liverpool.
+It represents the feminine creator holding a well marked lingam in her
+hand, and is this emblematic of the four, or the trinity and the virgin.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 168 represents two Egyptian deities in worship before an emblem
+of the male, which closely resembles an Irish round tower.
+
+
+
+Figure 169 represents the modern pallium worn by Roman priests. It
+represents the ancient sistrum of Isis, and the yoni of the Hindoos. It
+is symbolic of the celestial virgin, and the unit in the creative
+four. When donned by a Christian priest, he resembles the pagan male
+worshippers, who wore a female dress when they ministered before the
+altar or shrine of a goddess. Possibly the Hebrew ephod was of this form
+and nature.
+
+Figure 170 is a copy of an ancient pallium, worn by papal ecclesiastics
+three or four centuries ago.. It is the old Egyptian symbol described
+above. Its common name is crux ansata, or the cross with a handle.
+
+Figure 171 is the albe worn by Roman and other ecclesiastics when
+officiating at mass, etc. It is simply a copy of the chemise ordinarily
+worn by women as an under garment.
+
+
+
+Figure 172 represents the chamble worn by papal hierarchs. It is copied
+from Pugin's Glossary, etc. Its form is that of the vesica piscis, one
+of the most common emblems of the yoni. It is adorned by the triad. When
+worn by the priest, he forms the male element, and with the chasuble
+completes the sacred four. When worshipping the ancient goddesses, whom
+Mary has displaced, the officiating ministers clothed themselves in
+feminine attire. Hence the use of the chemise, etc. Even the tonsured
+head, adopted from the priests of the Egyptian Isis, represents "l'
+anneau;" so that on head, shoulders, breast and body, we may see on
+Christian priests the relics of the worship of Venus, and the adoration
+of woman! How horrible all this would sound if, instead of using veiled
+language, we had employed vulgar words. The idea of a man adorning
+himself, when ministering before God and the people, with the effigies
+of those parts which nature as well as civilisation teaches us to
+conceal, would be simply disgusting, but when all is said to be
+mysterious and connected with hidden signification, almost everybody
+tolerates and many eulogise or admire it!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+
+By John Newton, M.R.C.S.
+
+The study of sacred symbols is as yet in its infancy. It has hitherto
+been almost ignored by sacerdotal historians; and thus a rich mine of
+knowledge on the most interesting of all subjects--the history of the
+Religious Idea in man--remains comparatively unexplored. The topic has
+a two-fold interest, for it equally applies to the present and the past.
+As nothing on earth is more conservative than religion, we have still a
+world of symbolism existing amongst us which is far older than our sects
+and books, our creeds and articles, a relic of a forgotten, pre-historic
+past. Untold ages before writing was invented, it is believed that men
+attempted to express their ideas in visible forms. Yet how can a savage,
+who is unable to count his fingers up to five, and has no idea of
+abstract number, apart from things, whose habits and thoughts are of the
+earth, earthy, form a conception of the high and holy One who inhabiteth
+eternity? Even under the highest forms of ancient civilisation, abundant
+proofs exist that the imagination of men, brooding over the idea of the
+Unseen and the Infinite, were bounded by the things which were presented
+in their daily experience, and which most moved their passions, hopes
+and fears. Through these, then, they attempted to embody such religious
+ideas as they felt. They could not teach others without visible symbols
+to assist their conceptions; and emblems were rather crutches for the
+halting than wings to help the healthy to soar. Mankind in all ages
+has clung to the visible and tangible. The people care little for the
+abstract and unseen. The Israelites preferred a calf of gold to the
+invisible Jehovah; and sensuous forms of worship still fascinate the
+multitude.
+
+Whilst studying a collection of symbols, gathered from many climes and
+ages, such as this volume presents, I feel sure that every intelligent
+student will have asked himself more than once--Is there not some key
+which unlocks these enigmas, some grand idea which runs through them
+all, connecting them like a string of beads? I believe that there is,
+and that it is not far to seek. What do men desire and long for most?
+Life. "Skin for skin; all that a man hath will he give for his life," is
+a saying as true now as in the days of Job. "Give me back my youth, and
+I will give you all I possess," was said by the aged Voltaire to his
+physician. And our poet laureate has sung,
+
+
+     'Tis Life, whereof our nerves are scant,
+     O life, not death, for which we pant;
+     More life, and fuller, that I want.
+
+But we must add, as necessarily contained in the idea of Life in its
+highest sense, those things which make Life desirable.
+
+This fulness of life has been the summum bonum, the highest good, which
+mankind has sighed for in every age and clime. For this the alchemists
+toiled, not to advance chemistry, but to discover the Elixir of Life and
+the Philosopher's Stone. But what nature refused to science, the gods,
+it was believed, would surely give to the pious! and the glorious prize
+referred to has been promised by every religion. "I am come that they
+might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Life is
+the reward which has been promised under every system, including that of
+the founder of Christianity. A Tree of Life stood in the midst of that
+Paradise which is described in the book of Genesis; and when the first
+human couple disobeyed their Maker's command, they were punished by
+being cut off from the perennial fount of vitality, lest they should
+eat its fruit and thus live for ever; and in a second Paradise, which is
+promised to the blessed by the author of the book of Revelation, a tree
+of life shall stand once more "for the healing of the nations." To the
+good man is promised, in the Hebrew Scriptures, long life, prosperity,
+and a numerous offspring. "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."* Ps.
+ciii. 5.
+
+In the wondrous theology of Ancient Egypt, which at length is open to
+us, the "Ritual of the Dead" celebrates the mystical reconstruction of
+the body of the deceased, whose parts are to be reunited, as those of
+Osiris were by Isis; the trials are recorded through which the deceased
+passes, and by which all remaining stains of corruption are wiped away;
+and the record ends when the defunct is born again glorious, like that
+Sun which typified the Egyptian resurrection.**
+
+
+     * St. Paul points oat (Eph. vi. 2) that to only one of the
+     ten commandments is a promise added. And what is the
+     promise? "That thy days may be long." (Exod. xx. 12.) See
+     also Psalm cxxxiii. 3, "the blessing, even life for
+     evermore."
+
+     ** Apuleius, who had been initiated into the mysteries of
+     Isis, informs us that long life was the reward promised to
+     her votaries. (Metam. cap. xi.)
+
+In the ancient mythology of India, it is recounted that of old the gods
+in council united together to procure, by one supreme effort, the Amrita
+cup of immortality, which, after the success of their scheme, they
+partake of with their worshippers. Even for the Buddhist, his cold,
+atheistical creed promises a Nirvana, an escape from the horrors of
+metempsychosis, a haven of eternal calm, where "there shall be no more
+death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
+for the former things are passed away;" "there the weary be at rest."
+Rev. xxi. 4, Job iii. 17.
+
+This idea of tranquillity is in striking contrast to the heaven promised
+by the religion of the north of Europe, which was the one most congenial
+to a people whose delight was in conquest and battle. Those who had led
+a life of heroism, or perished bravely in fight, ascended to Valhalla;
+and the eternal manhood which awaited them there was to be passed in
+scenes that were rapture to the imagination of a Dane or a Saxon. Every
+day in that abode of bliss was to be spent in furious conflict, in
+the struggle of armies and the cleaving of shields; but at evening
+the conflict was to cease; every wound to be suddenly healed. Then the
+contending warriors were to sit down to a banquet, where, attended by
+lovely maidens, they could feast on the exhaustless flesh of the boar
+Sæhrimnir, and drink huge draughts of mead from the skulls of those
+enemies who had not attained to the glories of Valhalla.
+
+The paradise promised to the faithful by Mahomet is full of sensuous
+delights. The Arabian prophet dwells with rapture on its gardens and
+palaces, its rivers and bowers. Seventy-two houris, or black-eyed girls,
+rejoicing in beauty and ever-blooming youth, will be created for the
+use of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to
+a thousand years, and his powers will be increased a hundred-fold to
+render him worthy of his felicity.
+
+Thus we see that in all these great historical faiths the prize held
+out to the true believer has this in common, viz., Life, overflowing,
+ever-renewed, with the addition of those things which make life
+desirable for men; whether they are sensuous pleasures, or those which,
+under the loftier ideal of Christianity, are summed up in Life, both
+temporal and eternal, in the light of God.
+
+Such being the case, we might anticipate that the symbols of every
+religion would reproduce, in some shape or other, the ideal which is
+common to all. The earliest and rudest faiths were content with gross
+and simple emblems of life. In the later and more refined forms of
+worship, the ruder types were highly conventionalised, and replaced by a
+more intricate and less obvious symbolism.
+
+We proceed now to investigate the more primitive emblems. The origin of
+life is, even to us, with all our lights, as great a mystery as it was
+to the ancients. To the primitive races of mankind the formation of a
+new being appeared to be a constant miracle, and men very naturally used
+as tokens of life, and even worshipped, those objects or organs by which
+the miracle appeared to be wrought. Thus, the glorious sun, that "god
+of this world," the source of life and light to our earth, was early
+adored, and an effigy thereof used as a symbol. Mankind watched with
+rapture its rays gain strength daily in the Spring, until the golden
+glories of Midsummer had arrived, when the earth was bathed during the
+longest days in his beams, which ripened the fruits that his returning
+course had started into life. When the sun once more began its course
+downwards to the Winter solstice, his votaries sorrowed, for he seemed
+to sicken and grow paler at the advent of December, when his rays
+scarcely reached the earth, and all nature, benumbed and cold, sunk into
+a death-like sleep. Hence feasts and fasts were instituted to mark
+the commencement of the various phases of the solar year, which have
+continued from the earliest known period, under various names, to our
+own times.
+
+The daily disappearance and the subsequent rise of the sun, appeared to
+many of the ancients as a true resurrection; thus, while the east came
+to be regarded as the source of light and warmth, happiness and glory,
+the west was associated with darkness and chill, decay and death. This
+led to the common custom of burying the dead so as to face the east when
+they rose again, and of building temples and shrines with an opening
+towards the east. To effect this, Vitruvius, two thousand years ago,
+gave precise rules, which are still followed by Christian architects.
+
+Sun-worship was spread all over the ancient world. It mingled with other
+faiths and assumed many forms.* Of the elements, fire was naturally
+chosen as its earthly symbol. A sacred fire, at first miraculously
+kindled, and subsequently kept up by the sedulous care of priests
+or priestesses, formed an important part of the religions of Judea,
+Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome, and the superstition lingers amongst
+us still.
+
+
+     * We may point out that, according to all the Gospels,
+     Christ expired towards sunset, and the sun became eclipsed
+     as he was dying. He rose again exactly at daybreak.
+
+So late as the advent of the Reformation, a sacred fire was kept ever
+burning on a shrine at Kildare, in Ireland, and attended by virgins of
+high rank, called "inghean au dagha," or daughters of fire. Every year
+is the ceremony repeated at Jerusalem of the miraculous kindling of the
+Holy Fire at the reputed sepulchre, and men and women crowd to light
+tapers at the sacred flame, which they pass through with a naked body.
+Indeed, solar myths form no unimportant part of ancient mythology. Thus
+the death of nature in the winter time, through the withdrawal of the
+sun, was supposed to be caused by the mourning of the earth-goddess
+over the sickness and disappearance into the realms of darkness of her
+husband and mate, the sun.
+
+Mr. Fox Talbot has lately given the translation of an Egyptian poem,
+more than three thousand years old, and having for its subject the
+descent of Ishtar into Hades. To this region of darkness and death the
+goddess goes in search of her beloved Osiris, or Tammuz. This Ishtar is
+identical with the Assyrian female in the celestial quartette, the
+later Phoenician Astarte, "The Queen of Heaven with crescent horns,"
+the moon-goddess, also with the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus; and the
+Egyptian legend reappears in the west as the mourning of Venus for the
+loss of Adonis.
+
+Again, the fable of Ceres mourning the death of her daughter Proserpine
+is another sun-myth. The Roman Ceres was the Greek [----------], Mother
+Earth, who through the winter time wanders inconsolable. Persephone,
+her daughter, is the vegetable world, whose seeds or roots lie concealed
+underground in the darkness of winter. These, when Spring comes with its
+brightness, bud forth and dwell in the realms of light during a part of
+the year, and provide ample nourishment for men and animals with their
+fruits. The sun, being the active fructifying cause in nature, was
+generally regarded as male. Thus, in the Jewish scriptures, he is
+compared to "a bridegroom coming out of his chamber" (Ps. xix. 5), i.e.,
+as a man full of generative, procreative vigour. The moon and the earth,
+being receptive were naturally regarded as female.
+
+At the vernal equinox, the ancients celebrated the bridal of the sun and
+the earth. Yet, inasmuch as the orbs of heaven and the face of nature
+remain the same from year to year, and perpetually renew light and life,
+themselves remaining fresh in vigour and unharmed by age, the ancients
+conceived the bride and mate of the sun-god as continuing ever virgin.
+Again, as the ancient month was always reckoned by the interval between
+one new moon and the next,--an interval which also marks a certain
+recurring event in women, that ceases at once on the occurrence of
+pregnancy,--the lunar crescent became a symbol of virginity, and as such
+adorns the brow of the Greek Artemis and Roman Diana. This was used as
+a talisman at a very remote period, and was fixed over the doors of the
+early lake-dwellers in Switzerland, like the horse-shoe is to modern
+side-posts. With the sun and moon were often associated the five visible
+planets, forming a sacred seven,--a figure which is continually cropping
+up in religious emblems.
+
+So much for the great cosmic symbols of Life. But the primitive races
+of mankind found others nearer home, and still more suggestive--the
+generative parts in the two sexes, by the union of which all animated
+life, and mankind, the most interesting of all to human beings,
+appeared to be created. This reverence for, or worship of, the organs of
+generation, has been traced to a very early period in the history of the
+human race. In a bone-cave recently excavated near Venice, and
+beneath its ten feet of stalagmite, were found bones of animals, flint
+implements, a bone needle, and a phallus in baked clay. And if we turn
+to those savage tribes who still reproduce for us the prehistoric past,
+this form of religious symbolism meets as everywhere. In Dahomey, beyond
+the Ashantees, it is, according to Captain Barton, most uncomfortably
+prominent. In every street of their settlements are priapic figures.
+The "Tree of Life" is anointed with palm oil, which drips into a pot or
+shard placed below it, and the would-be mother of children prays before
+the image that the great god Legba would make her fertile.
+
+Burton tells us that he peeped into an Egba temple or lodge, and found
+it a building with three courts, of which the innermost was a sort of
+holy of holies. Its doors had carvings on them of a leopard, a fish, a
+serpent, and a land tortoise. The first two of these are female symbols,
+the two latter emblems of the male. There were also two rude figures
+representing their god Obatala, the deity of life, who is worshipped
+under two forms, a male and a female. Opposite to these was the male
+symbol or phallus, conjoined in coitu with the female emblem. Du Chaillu
+met with some tribes in Africa who adore the female only. His guide,
+he informs us, carried a hideous little image of wood with him, and at
+every meal he would take the little fetish out of his pocket, and pour a
+libation over its feet before he would drink himself.
+
+We know that a similar superstition prevailed in Ireland long after
+the advent of Christianity. There a female, pointing to her symbol,
+was placed over the portal of many a church as a protector from evil
+spirits; and the elaborate though rude manner in which these figures
+were sculptured shows that they were considered as objects of great
+importance. It was the universal practice among the Arabs of Northern
+Africa to stick up over the door of their house or tent the genital
+parts of a cow, mare, or female camel, as a talisman to avert the
+influence of the evil eye. The figure of this organ being less definite
+than that of the male, it has assumed in symbolism very various forms.
+The commonest substitution for the part itself has been a horse-shoe,
+which is to this day fastened over many of the doors of stables and
+shippons in the country, and was formerly supposed to protect the cattle
+from witchcraft. From a lively story by Beroalde de Verville, we learn
+that in France a sight of the female organ was believed, as late as the
+sixteenth century, to be a powerful charm in curing any disease in, and
+for prolonging the life of, the fortunate beholder.
+
+As civilisation advanced, the gross symbols of creative power were cast
+aside, and priestly ingenuity was taxed to the utmost in inventing a
+crowd of less obvious emblems, which should represent the ancient ideas
+in a decorous manner. The old belief was retained, but in a mysterious
+or sublimated form. As symbols of the male, or active element in
+creation, the sun, light, fire, a torch, the phallus or linga, an erect
+serpent, a tall straight tree, especially the palm and the fir or pine,
+were adopted. Equally useful for symbolism were a tall upright stone
+(menhir), a cone, a pyramid, a thumb or finger pointed straight, a mast,
+a rod, a trident, a narrow bottle or amphora, a bow, an arrow, a
+lance, a horse, a bull, a lion, and many other animals conspicuous for
+masculine power. As symbols of the female, the passive though fruitful
+element in creation, the crescent moon, the earth, darkness, water, and
+its emblem a triangle with the apex downwards, "the yoni," a shallow
+vessel or cup for pouring fluid into (cratera), a ring or oval, a
+lozenge, any narrow cleft, either natural or artificial, an arch or
+doorway, were employed. In the same category of symbols came a ship or
+boat, the female date-palm bearing fruit, a cow with her calf by her
+side, the fish, fruits having many seeds, such as the pomegranate, a
+shell (concha), a cavern, a garden, a fountain, a bower, a rose, a fig,
+and other things of suggestive form, etc.
+
+These two great classes of conventional symbols were often represented
+in conjunction with each other, and thus symbolised in the highest
+degree the great source of life, ever originating, ever renewed. The
+Egyptian temple at Denderah has lately been explored by M. Mariette. In
+a niche of the Holy of Holies he discovered the sacred secret. This was
+simply a golden sistrum (see ante, pp. 44 and 70), an emblem formed by
+uniting the female oval O with the male sacred Tau T; and thus identical
+in meaning with the coarse emblem seen by Captain Burton in the African
+idol temple. A similar emblem is the linga standing in the centre of
+a yoni, the adoration of which is to this day characteristic of the
+leading dogma of Hindu religion. There is scarcely a temple in India
+which has not its lingam; and in numerous instances this symbol is the
+only form under which the great god Siva is worshipped. (See ante, pp.
+72, 78.)
+
+The linga is generally a tall, polished, cylindrical, black stone,
+apparently inserted into another stone formed like an elongated saucer,
+though in reality the whole is sculptured out of one block of basalt.
+The outline of the frame, which reminds us of a Jew's harp (the
+conventional form of the female member), is termed argha or yoni. The
+former, or round perpendicular stone, the type of the virile organ, is
+the linga. The entire symbol, to which the name lingyoni is given, is
+also occasionally called lingam. This representative of the union of the
+sexes typifies the divine sacti, or productive energy, in union with the
+procreative, generative power seen throughout nature. The earth was the
+primitive pudendum, or yoni, which is fecundated by the solar heat,
+the sun, the primitive linga, to whose vivifying rays man and animals,
+plants and the fruits of the earth, owe their being and continued
+existence. These "lingas" vary in size from the tiny amulets worn about
+the neck, to the great monoliths of the temples. Thus the lingam is an
+emblem of the Creator, the fountain of all life, who is represented in
+Hindu mythology as uniting in Himself the two sexes.
+
+Another symbol, the caduceus, older than Greek and Roman art, in which
+it is associated with Esculapius and Hermes, the gods of health and
+fertility, has precisely the same signification as the sistrum and the
+lingam. This is made clear enough in the following extract from a letter
+by Dr. C. E. Balfour, published in Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship,
+1878. "I have only once seen living snakes in the form of the Esculapian
+rod. It was at Ahmednuggar, in 1841, on a clear moonlight night. They
+dropped into the garden from the thatched roof of my house, and stood
+erect."
+
+"They were all cobras, and no one could have seen them without at once
+recognising that they were in congress. Natives of India consider that
+it is most fortunate to witness serpents so engaged, and believe that if
+a person can throw a cloth at the pair so as to touch them with it,
+the material becomes a representative form of Lakshmi,* of the highest
+virtue, and is preserved as such." The serpent, which casts its skin and
+seems to renew its youth every year, has been used from remotest times
+as a living symbol of generative energy, and of immortality; indeed,
+in the most ancient Eastern languages, the name for the serpent also
+signifies life.** It has been usually worshipped as the Agathodoemon,
+the god of good fortune, life, and health; though in the
+Hebrew scriptures, and elsewhere, we meet with a good and a bad
+serpent--Oriental dualism. The Kakodoemon, however, is usually
+represented as winged--the Dragon, as in the following example.
+
+
+     * The consort, or life-giving energy of Vishnu.
+
+     ** As in French, the name for the male organ and for life is
+     the same in sound, though not in spelling or gender.
+
+In the remarkable Babylonian seal, Plate iv., Fig. 8, the deity is
+represented as uniting in himself the male and the female. On each side
+is a serpent, as the emblem of the life flowing from the Creator; that
+on the male side, having round his head the solar glory, is compared
+to the sun-god, as the active principle in creation; that on the female
+side, over whose head is the lunar crescent, to the moon- and earth-
+goddess, the passive principle in creation. Both are attacked by a
+winged dragon, the kakodoemon, or the evil principle. This is according
+to the ancient Chaldean doctrine of two creations of living beings, the
+one good and the other malign. The Chinese still think that an eclipse
+is caused by the efforts of a furious dragon to destroy the sun and
+moon; and Apollo, the sun-god, destroying the serpent Python, has
+reappeared on our coin as St. George killing the dragon. Even Apollyon
+appears in old paintings with huge wings, like those of a bat.
+
+Having thus explained what appears to be the key to a wide range of
+religious symbolism, and shown its application in many cases, we shall
+further apply it to unlock the famous object of Assyrian worship.
+Soon after the discoveries of Botta and Layard were published, it was
+conjectured that this strange object, so continually represented as
+being adored, might be the asherah of the Hebrew scriptures, translated
+"grove" in the English version. How far the view was correct we shall
+now proceed to examine.
+
+The religion of the East at a very remote period appears to have been
+the worship of one God, under several names. The most primitive was
+El, Il, or Al, = the strong, the mighty one; or its plural Elohim, as
+expressing His many powers and manifestations. Another name was Baal or
+Bel,--the lord, which also had a plural form, Baalim. The first word is
+continually used in the Hebrew scriptures, and applied both to the true
+God and the gods of the nations. Baal is only once thus applied, Hosea
+ii. 16; yet Balaam, inspired by God, prophesies from the high places of
+Baal. This name, though so appropriate to the Almighty, became abhorrent
+to the Jews when it was so frequently associated with idolatry, and a
+new cognomen, or "the Supreme," was adopted by them, viz., Jehovah, =
+the Eternal, the Ever-Living One, the Creator; see Exod. iii. 14. "Baal"
+was the supreme god of all the great Syro-Phoenician nations, with the
+insignificant exception of the Jews; and when the latter migrated into
+Canaan they were surrounded on all sides by his worshippers. Towns,
+temples, men, including even a son of Saul, of David and of Jonathan,
+viz., Eshbaal, Meribbaal, and Beelida, were called after him. As the
+sun-god, Baal-Hammon, Song of Sol. viii. 11; 2 Kings xxiii. 5; he
+was worshipped on high places, Num. xxii. 41; and an image of the sun
+appeared over his altars, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4. As the generative and
+productive power, he was worshipped under the form of the phallus,
+Baal-Peor; and youths and maidens, even of high birth, prostituted
+themselves in his honour or service; Num. xxv.; 2 Kings xxiii. 7. As
+the creator, he was represented to be of either or of both sexes; and
+Arnobius tells us that his worshippers invoked him thus:
+
+
+     "Hear us, Baal! whether thou be a god or a goddess."
+
+Though he is of the masculine gender in the Hebrew, the lord, yet Baal
+is called [------], = the lady, in the Septuagint; Hos. ii. 8; Zeph. i.
+4; and in the New Testament, Romans xi. 4. At the licentious worship
+of this androgyne, or two-sexed god, the men on certain occasions wore
+female garments, whilst the women appeared in male attire, brandishing
+weapons. Each of this god's names had a female counterpart; and the
+feminine form of Baal was Beltis, Ishtar, and Ashtarte. As he was the
+sun-god, she was the moon-goddess. Now, whilst the masculine name (as
+Bël or Bâl, Baal, Baalim,) appears nearly one hundred times in the
+Hebrew Old Testament, the feminine equivalent is only found three times
+in the singular Ashtoreth, and six times in the plural Ashtaroth;
+always in association with Baal-worship. Knowing, as we do, the immense
+diffusion of her worship amongst the Babylonians, Assyrians, and
+Phoenicians, this appears strange. There is a word of the feminine
+gender occurring in the Hebrew twenty-four times, viz., Asherah or
+Asharah; plural, Asharth translated in the Septuagint and Latin vulgate,
+a tree, or "grove," in which they have been followed by most modern
+versions, including the English. This supplies the void, for Asharah
+may be regarded as another name for the goddess Ashtoreth, as is plainly
+seen by the following passages: "They forsook Jehovah and served Baal
+and Ashtoreth;" Judges ii. 18; whilst in the following chapter we read,
+"They forgot Jehovah their God, and served the Baalim and the Asharoth;"
+iii. 7. What, then, was the Asharah? It was of wood, and of large size;
+the Jews were ordered to cut it down; Exod. xxxiv. 18, etc.; and Gideon
+offered a bullock as a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Asherah.
+Occasionally it was of stone. It was carved or graven as an image; 2
+Kings xxi. 7. It often stood close to the altar of Baal; Judges vi. 25
+and 80; 1 Kings xvi. 82, 88; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 8. Usually on high places
+and under shady trees; 1 Kings xiv. 28; Jer. xvii. 2; but one was
+erected in the temple of Jehovah by Manasseh; 2 Kings xxi. 7. It had
+priests; 1 Kings xviii. 19; and its worship was as popular as that of
+Baal; for whilst the priests of "the Baal" were four hundred and fifty,
+those of "the Asherah" were four hundred, who ate at the table of Queen
+Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon. It was sometimes surrounded
+with hangings, and was worshipped by both sexes with licentious rites; 2
+Kings xxiii. 7; Ezek. xvi. 16. As Baal was associated with sun-worship,
+so was the Asherah with that of the moon; 2 Kings xxi. 8; 2 Chron.
+xxxiv. 4.
+
+Besides these Asheroth, female emblems of Baal, there were Asherim,
+male emblems of Baal, "symbolising his generative power" (Furst, Hebrew
+Lexicon), which are mentioned sixteen times in the Hebrew scriptures.
+It is only found in the plural, and must have been a multiple
+representation of the singular, Asher, which means "to be firm, strong,
+straight, prosperous, happy," * and cognate with the Phoenician (Osir),
+"husband," "lord," an epithet of Baal.
+
+
+     * The lupanars at Pompeii were distinguished by a sign over
+     the street door, representing the erect phallus, painted or
+     carved, and having the words underneath, "Hie habitat
+     félicitas."
+
+Doubtless this was also identical with the Egyptian Osiris, = the sun,
+= the phallus. He was said to have suffered death like the sun; and
+Plutarch tells us that Isis, unable to discover all the remains of
+her husband, consecrated the phallus as his representative. Thus "the
+Asharim" were male symbols used in Baal-worship, and sometimes consisted
+of multiple phalli, of which the branch carried by an Assyrian
+priest, in Plate iii. Fig. 4, is a conventional form. They were then
+counterparts of the "multimammia" of Greek and Roman worship.* This is
+confirmed by a curious passage, 1 Kings xv. 13 (repeated 2 Chron. xv.
+16). We learn (xiv. 28) that the Jews, under Rehoboam, son of Solomon,
+having lapsed into idolatry, had "built them high places, images, and
+Asharim ("groves," A. V.) on every high hill, and under every green
+tree; and that there were also consecrated ones ("sodomites," A. V.) in
+the land." But Asa, his brother, on succeeding to the throne, swept
+away all these things, and (xv. 18) deposed the queen mother, Maachah,
+because she had made a miphletzeth to an Asherah ("an idol in a grove,"
+A. V.) miphletzeth, is rendered by the Vulgate "simulacrum Priapi."
+The word is derived from palatz, "to be broken," "terrified," or the
+cognate, phalash, palash, "to break or go through," "to open up a way;"
+a word or root found in the Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ethiopie.
+Doubtless the Greek [------] phallus, was hence derived, since it has
+no independent meaning in Greek; and Herodotus and Diodorus expressly
+assert that the chief gods of Greece and their mysteries, especially
+the Dionysiac or Bacchic revels, in which the phallus was carried in
+procession, were derived from the east. Compare also the Latin pales,
+English pale, pole, = Maypole. A similar word, with a corresponding
+meaning, exists in the Sanscrit. Thus, then, according to the Hebrew
+scriptures, there were two chief symbols used in the worship of Baal,
+one male, the other female.
+
+See Figs. 15, 16.
+
+We can now look upon the very symbols themselves, which were so
+used--perhaps the most remarkable in existence. It is well known that
+the Chaldeans, from whom all other nations derived their religion,
+astronomy, and science, gave the name of Bel or Baal to their chief
+god. In the most ancient inscription yet deciphered, written in the
+Babylonian and Arcadian languages, a king rules by "the favour of Bel."
+Another name for Baal is Assur, or Asher, from whom Assyria is named.
+In the cuneiform inscriptions of Sennacherib, the great king of Assyria,
+Nineveh is called "the city of Bel," and "the city beloved by Ishtar."
+In another inscription he says of the king of Egypt:--"the terror of
+Ashur and Ishtar overcame him and he fled." Assurbanipal thus commences
+his annals "The great warrior, the delight of Assur and Ishtar, the
+royal offspring am I." In a cuneiform inscription of Nebobelzitri, we
+read:--"Nineveh the city, the delight of Ishtar, wife of Bel." Again,
+"Beltis, the consort of Bel." "Assur and Beltis, the gods of Assyria."
+Thus we see that Baal and Bel were identical with Assur, and Ashur.
+Doubtless, then, "Asherah" is the last name with the feminine
+termination (as Ish = man, Ishah=woman), and is identical with Ishtar,
+Ashteroth, Astarte and Beltis. The Septuagint has rendered "Asherah" by
+"Astarte," in 2 Chron. xv. 16, and the Vulgate by "Astaroth," in Judges
+iii. 7. Herodotus described (b.c. 450) the great temple of Belus at
+Babylon, and its seven stages dedicated to the sun, moon, and planets,
+on the top of which was the shrine. This contained no statue, but there
+was a golden couch, upon which a chosen female lay, and was nightly
+visited by the god. Now, therefore, that the palaces of the Assyrian
+kings, and their "chambers of imagery," have been by great good fortune
+laid open to us, we might expect to discover the long-lost symbolism of
+Baal-worship. And so we have.
+
+To commence with the simplest. The (Ashcrim) is seen as the mystic
+palm-tree, the tree of life, Fig. 99; the phallic pillar putting
+forth branches like flames, Fig. 65; and the tree with seven phalloid
+branches, so common on Assyrian and Babylonian seals, Plate xvii., Fig.
+4. See also the remarkable Syrian medals, Plate xvii., Fig. 2, on which
+is represented Baal as the sun-god, holding the bow, and surrounded by
+phalli.
+
+Or, least conventional of all, the simple phallus, of which there are
+two remarkable specimens in the British Museum. Each of these is about
+two and a half feet high, and once guarded the bounds of an estate.
+Among the Greeks and Romans, boundaries were also marked by a phallic
+statue of Hermes, the god of fertility. These Assyrian emblems have
+doubtless often been honoured with rural sacrifice. Themselves the most
+expressive symbol of life, they are also covered with its conventional
+emblems.
+
+
+
+A back view of one is given, Figure 174. The body is mainly occupied
+with a full length portrait of the great king. For as the Assyrians
+represented the Deity, the source of all life, by the phallus, so the
+monarch was the god of this lower world, the incarnation of God
+on earth. He was the source of life to the empire, and as such was
+addressed--"O king, live for ever" (Dan. v. 10). He, like the gods,
+never dies. "Le Roi est mort; Vive le Roi" The ensigns of royalty were
+also those of the creator-god. Accordingly, his garments and crown
+are embroidered with that sacred emblem, the Asherah. He bears the
+strung-bow and arrows, emblems of virile power, borne afterwards by the
+sun-god Apollo, and the western son of Venus. An erect serpent occupies
+the other side, and ends with forky tongue near the orifice. The glans
+is covered with symbols. On the summit is a triad of sun emblems;
+beneath are three altars, over two of which are the glans-shaped caps,
+covered with bulls' horns, always worn by the Assyrian guardian angels,
+and intense emblems of the male potency. For in ancient symbolism, a
+part of a symbol stands for the whole; as here, the horns represent the
+bull, and the glans the phallus. Above the third altar is a tortoise,
+whose protruded head and neck reminded the initiated of the phallus; and
+the altars are covered with a pattern drawn from the tortoise scales. We
+have, besides, a vase with a rod inserted, emblem of sexual union, and
+a cock, with wings and plumage ruffled, running after a hen in amorous
+heat. The glans only of the other is copied.
+
+
+
+Fig. 175. At the top are the sun-symbols, as before. Beneath is the
+horse-shoe-like head-dress of Isis, and there are two altars marked with
+the tortoise-emblem in front. Over both rises the erect serpent, and
+upon one lies the head of an arrow or a dart, both male symbols. The
+miphletzeth which Queen Maachah placed in or near the Asherah, probably
+resembled these Assyrian phalli, or the Asherim.
+
+And now we come to the Asherah, a much more complex and difficult
+symbol than any other which we have named. This object has long puzzled
+antiquarians, and though it is continually recurring in the sculptures
+from Nineveh, it has not yet been fully explained. In Fig. 176 we see it
+worshipped by human figures, with eagles' heads and wings, who present
+to it the pine-cone, = the testis, and the basket, =the scrotum (?),
+intense emblems of the male creator.
+
+
+
+Fig. 177 it is adored by the king and his son or successor, with their
+attendant genii. The kings present towards it a well-known symbol of
+life and good fortune, the fist with the forefinger extended, or
+"the phallic hand." Here, then, we have evidently the Asherah, or
+Ashtaroth-symbol, the female Baal, the life-producer, "the door" whence
+life issues to the world. As such the goddess is here symbolised as an
+arched door-way. In the Phonician alphabet, the fourth letter, daleth,
+= a door, has the shape of a tent-door, as on the Moabite stone, A, and
+also in the Greek [------] But another form, perhaps as ancient, is D,
+which, when placed in its proper position, would be [--], the very form
+of the Asherah.* In the plural, this word stands for the labia pudendi,
+[--------], "because it shut not up the doors of the womb," Job iii.
+10.** We infer from Numbers xxv. 6-8, that in the rites of Baal-peor,
+the Kadeshoth, or women devoted to the god, offered themselves to his
+worshippers each in a peculiar bower or small arched tent, called a
+qubbah. The part also through which Phinehas drove his spear (see Num.
+xxv. 8), the woman's vulva, is also called qobbah, the one word being
+derived from the other, according to Onkelos, Aquila, and others. Qubbah
+means, according to Fürst, Heb. Lex., "something hollow and arched, an
+arched tent, like the Arabic El. Kubba, whence the Spanish Al-cova, and
+our Alcove." In the Latin also, the word fornix, a vault, an arch, meant
+a brothel, and from it was derived fornicatio. Qubbah is translated by
+the LXX., kaminos, "an oven or arched furnace" (Liddell and Scott); but
+it meant also the female parts. See Herodotus v. 92 (7). Thus, then, the
+Alcove was itself a symbol of woman, as though a place of entrance and
+emergence, and whence new life issues to the world. And when the male
+worshipper of Baal entered to the kadeshah, the living embodiment of
+the goddess, the analogy to the Asherah became complete, as we shall now
+show.
+
+
+     * The first letter, Aleph, = an ox, is, even on the Moabite
+     stone, written thus, and has become the modern A. In the
+     earlier hieroglyph it must have been thus V. The Egyptian
+     hieroglyph for ten is Compare the Greek [--] and Latin
+     Decem.
+
+     ** The first of the Orphic Hymns is addressed to the goddess
+     Artemisias (Prothnraia) or the Door-keeper, who presided
+     over childbirths, like the Roman Diana Lucina.
+
+The central object in the Assyrian "grove" is a male date-palm, which
+was well known as an emblem of Baal, the sun, the phallus, and life.
+This remarkable tree, Tamar in Phoenician and Hebrew, the phoenix in
+Greek, was formerly abundant in Palestine and the neighbouring regions.
+The word Phoenicia (Acts xi. 19, xv. 8) is derived from phoinix, as the
+country of palms; like the "Idumeo palmo" of Virgil. Palmyra, the
+city of the sun, was called in the Hebrew Tamar (1 Kings ix. 18). In
+Vespasian's famous coin, "Judoa capta," Judoa is represented as a female
+sitting under a palm-tree. The tree can at once be identified by its
+tall, straight, branchless stem, of equal thickness throughout, crowned
+at the top with a cluster of long, curved, feather-like branches, and
+by its singularly wrinkled bark. All these characteristics are readily
+recognised in the highly conventional forms of the religious emblem,
+even in the ornament on the king's robe, fig. 174. The date-palm is
+dioecious, the female trees, which are sometimes used as emblems, being
+always distinguished by the clusters of date fruit. "Thy stature is like
+to a palm-tree, thy breasts to clusters" (Cant. vii. 7). "The righteous
+shall flourish like the palm-tree" (Ps. xcii. 12), fruitful and ever
+green. "They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not" (Jer. x. 8-5).
+The prophet is evidently describing the making of an Asherah. There was
+a Canaanite city called Baal-Tamar, = Baal, the palm-tree, designated
+so, it is probable, from the worship of Baal there "under the form of
+a priapus-column," says Fürst, Heb. Lex. The real form was doubtless an
+"Asherim," a modified palm-tree, as we have already shown. Palm-branches
+have been used in all ages as emblems of life, peace, and victory. They
+were strewn before Christ. Palm-Sunday, the feast of palms, is still
+kept. Even within the present century, on this festival, in many towns
+of France, women and children carried in procession at the end of their
+palm-branches a phallus made of bread, which they called, undisguisedly,
+"la pine," whence the festival was called "La Fête des Pinnes." The
+"pine" having been blest by the priest, the women carefully preserved
+it during the following year as an amulet. (Dulaure, Hist, des differens
+Cultes.)
+
+
+
+Again, the Greek name for the palm-tree, phoenix, was also the name
+of that mythical Egyptian bird, sacred to Osiris, and a symbol of
+the resurrection. With some early Christian writers, Christ was "the
+Phoenix." The date-palm is figured as a tree of life on an Egyptian
+sepulchral tablet, older than the Exodus, now preserved in the museum at
+Berlin. Two arms issue from the top of the tree; one of which presents
+a tray of dates to the deceased, whilst the other gives him water, "the
+water of life." The tree of life is represented by a date-palm on some
+of the earliest Christian mosaics at Rome. Something very like the
+Assyrian Asherah, or sacred emblem, was sculptured on the great doors of
+Solomon's temple, by Hiram, the Tyrian (1 Kings vii. 18-21). We read "he
+carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm-trees and open flowers,
+and spread gold upon the cherubims and palm-trees" (1 Kings vi. 82-35).
+He also erected two phallic pillars in front of the Temple, Jachin
+and Boaz, = It stands--In strength. No wonder Solomon fell to worship
+Astarte, Chemosh, and Milcom.
+
+Although to our modern ideas the mystical tree, symbol of life and
+immortality, seems out of place in Judaism, yet no sooner did the
+Jews possess a national coinage under the Maccabees than the palm-tree
+reappears, always with seven branches (like the golden candlestick, Ex.
+xxv.), as on the shekel represented Plate xvii., Fig. 4. The Assyrian
+tree has always the same number, and the tufts of foliage (symbolising
+the entire female tree) which deck the margins of the mystic D--apt
+emblems of fertility--have also invariably seven branches. This may
+remind us of the seven visible spheres that move around our earth "in
+mystic dance," and of Balak's offering, upon seven altars, seven bulls
+and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1; Rev. ii. 1) The mystic door is also
+barred, like the Egyptian sistrum carried by the priestesses of Isis,
+to represent the inviolable purity and eternal perfection which were
+associated with the idea of divinity. When Mary, the mother of Jesus,
+took the place in Christendom of "the great goddess," the dogmas which
+propounded her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity followed as
+a matter of course.
+
+Thus, then, we explain the greatest symbol in Eastern worship,--it is
+the "Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden," which has remained so
+long a mystery. To Dr. Inman belongs the distinguished merit of having
+first broken ground in the right direction. In his Ancient Faiths, vol.
+1, 1868, he identified the Assyrian "Asherah" with the female "door of
+life," and pointed out its analogy to the barred sistrum. We have
+seen that it is really much more complex, being precisely analogous in
+meaning to the famous crux ansata (Fig. 170), the central mystery of
+Egyptian worship; to the lingam or lingyoni of India (Fig. 109), the
+great emblem of Siva-worship; and to the caduceus of Greece and Rome. As
+represented on the Assyrian sculptures, it is always substantially
+the same. Probably this stereotyped form was the result of a gradual
+refinement upon some rude primitive type, perhaps as coarse as that seen
+by Captain Burton in the African idol-temple.
+
+To exhibit all the strange developments and modifications which this
+idea has assumed in the religious symbolism of Eastern and Western
+nations would require a large volume. But the subject is so rich in
+varied interest that we cannot conclude without taking a glance at it.
+First, the simple O, barred, is reproduced with a contraction towards
+the base, as in the Indian "yoni," and the Egyptian sistrum, used in
+the worship of Isis. Second, within the O was represented the goddess
+herself, as revealed within her own symbol. This is illustrated in
+Plate xvii., Fig. 5, where Demeter or Ceres is thus depicted, with
+her cornucopia, from a bronze coin of Damascus. Thirdly, but much more
+commonly, the goddess holds in her hands emblems of the male potency in
+creation, and thus completes the symbol. As in the coin figured Plate
+xvii., Fig. 8, the goddess, standing within the O, the portico of her
+temple, holds in her right hand the cross, that most ancient emblem of
+the male and of life. In the beautiful Greek coin of Sidon next
+figured, the goddess--evidently Astarte, the moon-goddess, the Queen of
+Heaven--stands on a ship, the mystic Argha or Ark, holding in one hand a
+crozier, in the other the cross. (Plate xvii., Fig. 7.)
+
+
+
+Under Christianity, the Virgin Mary, who, as Queen of Heaven, stands on
+the crescent moon, is pictured beneath the mystic doorway, with (the God
+as) a male child in her arms. See Plate xviii., copied from the woodcut
+title to the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, printed at Czenna, in old
+Prussia, 1492. Like Isis, she is the mother and yet the spouse of God,
+"clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet" (Rev. xii.
+1). The upper half of the picture is very like the Assyrian scenes.
+On either side is a king, Frederick III. and his son the Emperor
+Maximilian, at their devotions. The alcove is of roses, an emblem of
+virginity. The famous Mediæval "Romaunt de la Rose" turns upon this.
+Among the many titles given to "the Virgin" in Mediæval times, we find
+Santa Maria della Rosa, that flower being consecrated to her. Hence it
+is often represented in her hand. Dante writes
+
+
+     "Here is the Rose,
+     Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate."
+
+In Plate xviii., the Virgin goddess is seated with the God-child in
+a bower, exactly the shape of the Assyrian, composed of fruits highly
+significant of sex, as has already been explained. In some Hindoo
+pictures, the child is naked, having the member erect, and also making
+the phallic hand, with the right forefinger erected. (Plate xiv., Fig.
+14.)
+
+In other conventional forms we have male symbols only within the female
+O. This is a very numerous class. In the Fig. 3, Plate xvii., we see the
+fir-tree or pine take the place of the palm-tree, and in Fig. 6, Plate
+xvii., the cone. On this remarkable medal of Cyprus is a representation
+of the temple of Venus at Paphos, famous even in the days of Homer.
+(Odyss. viii. 862.) The worship of that divinity is said to have been
+imported into Cyprus from the East. The goddess united both sexes in her
+own person, and was served by castrated priests. We see here, within the
+innermost sanctum of the temple, a cone as emblem of the male; and the
+meaning is further pointed by the sun-emblem above, inserted within the
+crescent moon.
+
+Let us next examine how the cone came to be used as a masculine emblem.
+If we turn to Figs. 174 and 175, it will be seen that the "glans" was
+particularly honoured as the head of the phallus; it was also the part
+dedicated to God by effusion of blood in the rite of circumcision. This
+"acorn" is conical or dome-shaped, and thus--a part being taken for the
+whole--the cone or pyramid was used as a conventional symbol of the male
+creator. Placed on a stem it is frequently represented as worshipped on
+Assyrian bas reliefs. See Fig. 177. It was also a symbol of fire, the
+sun, and life; as such it formed a fitting monument for the Egyptian
+kings. Our word pyramid is from the Greek puramis, itself derived from
+pur, Jire, and puros, wheat, because pyramid-shaped cakes of wheat and
+honey were used in the Bacchic Fig. 177. rites. It played an important
+part in sun-worship. The emperor Heliogabalus (who, as his name implies,
+had been a priest of Baal, the sun-god, in Syria,) established the
+Syrian worship at Rome. He himself drove the golden chariot of the sun,
+drawn by six white horses, through the streets of Rome to a splendid
+new temple on the Palatine mount, the god being represented by a conical
+black stone, said to have fallen from heaven; and which the emperor
+removed from a temple of the sun, at Emesa, in Syria. At a subsequent
+period, an image of the moon-goddess, or Astarte, was brought by his
+orders from a celebrated fane at Carthage to Rome, and there solemnly
+married with licentious rites to the sun-god, amidst general rejoicing.*
+
+
+     * In Astrology, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was
+     considered the most fortunate of all; such as kings and
+     princes should be born under.
+
+A curious parallel to these mystic nuptials of the Assyrian god and
+goddess may be found in some of the religious ceremonies of the modern
+Hindoos. Fergusson tells us that "the most extraordinary buildings
+connected with Hindu temples are the vast pillared colonnades or
+choultries. By far their most important application is when used as
+nuptial halls, in which the mystic union of a male and female divinity
+is celebrated once a year."
+
+Again, in Indian mythology, the pyramid plays an important part. It
+belongs to Siva, = the sun, = fire, = the phallus, = life. By one
+complex symbol, very common on ancient Hindoo monuments in China and
+Thibet, the universe was thus represented. Notice the upward gradation.
+Earth + water = this globe. The creator-god, whose emblem, flame, mounts
+upwards, is the author and representative of all life upon it; he is the
+connecting link, united by the crescent moon with heaven. The arrow-
+or spear- head inserted within the crescent is an earth emblem of Siva;
+like the lingam it typified the divine source of life, and also the
+doctrine that perfect wisdom was to be found only in the combination of
+the male and female principles in nature. It decorates the roofs of the
+Buddhist monasteries in Thibet, and like the sacred lotus flower and the
+linga, both of which became emblems of Buddha, was derived from older
+faiths. Other interpretations may suggest themselves. This will enable
+us to understand the remarkable sculptures of the second or third
+century, from the Amravati Tope, Plate xix., which present so many
+points in common with the religious symbols of the Chaldeans. In Fig. 2
+we see a congregation of males and females, the sexes being separated,
+worshipping a linga, or stone conical pillar, on the front of which is
+sculptured the sacred tree, with branches like flames; three symbols of
+life in one. It rises from a throne, on the seat of which are placed
+the two emblems of earth and water. In the other figure, the sacred tree
+takes the place of the linga, rising above the throne, as if from the
+trisul or trident, male emblems of Siva. Winged figures, Garudas, attend
+it above, floating over the heads of the worshippers. An intrusion of
+the newer faith is also to be recognised, as the feet of Buddha are
+sculptured before the throne.
+
+In the mysteries of Mithra, the symbols in Fig. 178 were also employed.
+They represented the elements to which the soul ought to be successively
+united in passing through the new birth.
+
+
+
+We will add but two more emblems, culled from medieval heraldry, Figs.
+179 and 180, in both of which the Asherah, the "grove" of Baal-worship,
+will be at once recognised; the arrow and the cross, symbols of the male
+creator, taking the place of the mystic palm-tree.
+
+In all these, from the rudest to the most complex, we are thus able to
+trace a common idea, viz., a feeling after God, as the Life and Light of
+the Universe, and an attempt to express a common hope in visible forms.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
+Symbolism, by Thomas Inman and John Newton
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN AND MODERN SYMBOLISM ***
+
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
+
+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//w3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, by Thomas Inman, M.D.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, by
+Thomas Inman and John Newton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism
+       With an Essay on Baal Worship, On The Assyrian Sacred "Grove," And Other
+
+Author: Thomas Inman
+        John Newton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2012 [EBook #38485]
+Last Updated: November 17, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN AND MODERN SYMBOLISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+ <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+
+<h3>Format Choice</h3>
+
+<div class="mynote">
+The present format is best for most <b>laptops</b> and <b>computers</b>, and generates well to <b>.mobi</b> and <b>.epub</b> files. The higher quality images in this file do not reduce in size to fit the small screens of Tablets and Smart Phones&mdash;part of the larger images may run off the side.
+Another format is available by clicking on the following line:<br /><br />
+<i><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38485/old/files/relative.htm">A file with images which automatically accomodate to any screen size; this is the best choice for the small screens of <b>Tablets</b> and <b>Smart Phones</b>.
+</a></i>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+<hr />
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      ANCIENT PAGAN AND MODERN CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Thomas Inman, M.D.
+    </h2>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        Consulting Physician To The Royal Infirmary, Liverpool; Late Lecturer
+        Successively On Botany, Medical Jurisprudence, Materia Medica And
+        Therapeutics, And The Principles And Practice Of Medicine, Etc.; In The
+        Liverpool School Of Medicine; Author Of "Foundation For A New Theory And
+        Practice Of Medicine;" A "Treatise On Myalgia;" "On The Real Nature Of
+        Inflammation," "Atheroma In Arteries," "The Preservation Of Health,"
+        "The Restoration Of Health," "Ancient Faiths Embodied In Ancient Names,"
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <h4>
+      Second Edition, <br /><br /> Revised And Enlarged, <br /><br />
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      WITH AN ESSAY ON BAAL WORSHIP, ON THE ASSYRIAN SACRED "GROVE," AND OTHER
+      ALLIED SYMBOLS.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      By John Newton, M.R.C.S.E., Etc.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="titlepage (64K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/Plate1-Frontispeice.jpg" alt="Frontispiece 009 "
+      /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The woodcuts in the present volume originally appeared in a large work, in
+      two thick volumes, entitled Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names. It
+      has been suggested to me by many, that a collection of these Figures, and
+      their explanation, are more likely to be generally examined than a very
+      voluminous book. The one is, as it were, an alphabet; the other, an essay.
+      The one opens the eyes; the other gives them opportunities to use their
+      vision. The one teaches to read; the other affords means for practice. As
+      the larger work endeavours to demonstrate the existence of a state of
+      things almost unknown to the British public, so it is necessary to furnish
+      overwhelming proof that the allegations and accusations made against
+      certain nations of antiquity, and some doctrines of Christianity, are
+      substantially true. Consequently, the number of witnesses is greater than
+      is absolutely necessary to prove the point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      12, Rodney Street, Liverpool,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July 1869.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The demand which has sprung up for this work has induced the Author to
+      make it more complete than it was originally. But it could not be made
+      perfect without being expanded into a volume whose size would be
+      incompatible with cheapness. When every Figure would supply a text for a
+      long discourse, a close attention is required lest a description should be
+      developed into a dissertation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this work, the Author is obliged to confine himself to the explanation
+      of symbols, and cannot launch out into ancient and modern faiths, except
+      in so far as they are typified by the use of certain conventional signs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great many who peruse a book like this for the first time, and find how
+      strange were the ideas which for some thousands of years permeated the
+      religious opinions of the civilised world, might naturally consider that
+      the Author is a mere visionary&mdash;one who is possessed of a hobby that
+      he rides to death. Such a notion is strengthened by finding that there is
+      scarcely any subject treated of except the one which associates religion,
+      a matter of the highest aim to man, with ideas of the most intensely
+      earthly kind. But a thoughtful reader will readily discern that an essay
+      on Symbolism must be confined to visible emblems. By no fair means can an
+      author who makes the crucifix his text introduce the subject of the
+      Confessional, the Eucharist, or Extreme Unction. Nor can one, who knows
+      that Buddha and Jesus alike inaugurated a faith which was unmarked by
+      visible symbolism, bring into an interpretation of emblems a comparison
+      between the preaching of two such distinguished men. In like manner, the
+      Author is obliged to pass over the difference between Judaism,
+      Christianity as propounded by the son of Mary, and that which passes
+      current for Christianity in Rome and most countries of Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these points, and many more, have been somewhat fully discussed in the
+      Author's larger work, so often referred to in this, and to that he must
+      refer the curious. The following pages are simply a chapter taken from a
+      book, complete perhaps in itself, but only as a brick may be perfect,
+      without giving to an individual any idea of the size, style, or
+      architecture of the house from which it has been taken. If readers will
+      regard these pages as a beam in a building, the Author will be content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8, Vyvyan Terrace,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clifton, Bristol,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August, 1874.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is, or has ever been,
+      adopted into the service of Religion, without a definite purpose. If it be
+      supposed that a religion is built upon the foundation of a distinct
+      revelation from the Almighty, as the Hebrew is said to be, there is a full
+      belief that every emblem, rite, ceremony, dress, symbol, etc., has a
+      special signification. Many earnest Christians, indeed, see in Judaic
+      ordinances a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. I have, for example, heard a
+      pious man assert that "leprosy" was only another word for "sin"; but he
+      was greatly staggered in this belief when I pointed out to him that if a
+      person's whole body was affected he was no longer unclean (Lev. xiii. 13),
+      which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to demonstrate that when a sinner
+      was as black as hell he was the equal of a saint. According to such an
+      interpreter, the paschal lamb is a type of Jesus, and consequently all
+      whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of wood, lintels, and side-posts
+      (Exod. xii. 22, 28). By the same style of metaphorical reasoning, Jesus
+      was typified by the "scape-goat," and the proof is clear, for one was
+      driven away into the wilderness, and the other voluntarily went there&mdash;one
+      to be destroyed, the other to be tempted by the devil! Hence we infer that
+      there is nothing repugnant to the minds of the pious in an examination
+      respecting the use of symbols, and into that which is shadowed forth by
+      them. What has been done for Judaism may be attempted for other forms of
+      religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Hebrews and Christians believe their religion to be God-given, so
+      other nations, having a different theology, regard their own peculiar
+      tenets. Though we may, with that unreasoning prejudice and blind bigotry
+      which are common to the Briton and the Spaniard, and pre-eminently so to
+      the mass of Irish and Scotchmen amongst ourselves, and to the Carlists in
+      the peninsula, disbelieve a heathen pretension to a divine revelation, we
+      cannot doubt that the symbols, etc., of Paganism have a meaning, and that
+      it is as lawful to scrutinise the mysteries which they enfold as it is to
+      speculate upon the Urim and Thummim of the Jews. Yet, even this freedom
+      has, by some, been denied; for there are a few amongst us who adhere
+      rigidly to the precept addressed to the followers of Moses, viz., "Take
+      heed that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations
+      serve their gods?" (Deut. xii. 30.) The intention of the prohibition thus
+      enunciated is well marked in the following words, 1 which
+      indicate that the writer believed that the adoption of heathen gods would
+      follow inquiry respecting them. It is not now-a-days feared that we may
+      become Mahometans if we read the Koran, or Buddhists if we study the
+      Dhammapada; but there are priests who fear that an inquiry into
+      ecclesiastical matters may make their followers Papists, Protestants,
+      Wesleyans, Baptists, Unitarians, or some other religion which the
+      Presbytery object to. The dislike of inquiry ever attends those who
+      profess a religion which is believed or known to be weak.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * "even so will I do likewise."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The philosopher of the present day, being freed from the shackles once
+      riveted around him by a dominant hierarchy, may regard the precept in
+      Deuteronomy in another light. Seeing that the same symbolism is common to
+      many forms of religion, professed in countries widely apart both as
+      regards time and space, he thinks that the danger of inquiry into faiths
+      is not the adoption of foreign, but the relinquishment of present methods
+      of religious belief. When we see the same ideas promulgated as divine
+      truth, on the ancient banks of the Ganges, and the modern shores of the
+      Mediterranean, we are constrained to admit that they have something common
+      in their source. They may be the result of celestial revelation, or they
+      may all alike emanate from human ingenuity. As men invent new forms of
+      religion now, there is a presumption that others may have done so
+      formerly. As all men are essentially human, so we may believe that their
+      inventions will be characterised by the virtues and the failings of
+      humanity. Again, experience tells us that similarity in thought involves
+      similarity in action. Two sportsmen, seeing a hare run off from between
+      them, will fire at it so simultaneously that each is unaware that the
+      other shot. So a resemblance in religious belief will eventuate in the
+      selection of analogous symbolism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We search into emblems with an intention different from that with which we
+      inquire into ordinary language. The last tells us of the relationship of
+      nations upon Earth, the first of the probable connections of mankind with
+      Heaven. The devout Christian believes that all who venerate the Cross may
+      hope for a happy eternity, without ever dreaming that the sign of his
+      faith is as ancient as Homeric Troy, and was used by the Phoenicians
+      probably before the Jews had any existence as a people; whilst an equally
+      pious Mahometan regards the Crescent as the passport to the realms of
+      bliss, without a thought that the symbol was in use long before the
+      Prophet of Allah was born, and amongst those nations which it was the
+      Prophet's mission to convert or to destroy. Letters and words mark the
+      ordinary current of man's thought, whilst religious symbols show the
+      nature of his aspirations. But all have this in common, viz., that they
+      may be misunderstood. Many a Brahmin has uttered prayers in a language to
+      him unintelligible; and many a Christian uses words in his devotions of
+      which he never seeks to know the meaning. "<i>Om manee pani" "Om manee
+      padme houm," "Amen" and "Ave Maria purissima</i>" may fairly be placed in
+      the same category. In like manner, the signification of an emblem may be
+      unknown. The antiquary finds in Lycian coins, and in Aztec ruins, figures
+      for which he can frame no meaning; whilst the ordinary church-goer also
+      sees, in his place of worship, designs of which none can give him a
+      rational explanation. Again, we find that a language may find professed
+      interpreters, whose system of exposition is wholly wrong; and the same may
+      be said of symbols. I have seen, for example, three distinctly different
+      interpretations given to one Assyrian inscription, and have heard as many
+      opposite explanations of a particular figure, all of which have been
+      incorrect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the interpretation of unknown languages and symbols, the observer
+      gladly allows that much may be wrong; but this does not prevent him
+      believing that some may be right. In giving his judgment, he will examine
+      as closely as he can into the system adopted by each inquirer, the amount
+      of materials at his disposal, and, generally, the acumen which has been
+      brought to the task. Perhaps, in an investigation such as we describe, the
+      most important ingredient is care in collation and comparison. But a
+      scholar can only collate satisfactorily when he has sufficient means, and
+      these demand much time and research. The labour requires more time than
+      ordinary working folk can command, and more patience than those who have
+      leisure are generally disposed to give. Unquestionably, we have as yet had
+      few attempts in England to classify and explain ancient and modern
+      symbols. It is perhaps not strictly true that there has been so much a
+      laxity in the research, of which we here speak, as a dread of making
+      public the results of inquiry. Investigators, as a rule, have a respect
+      for their own prejudices, and dislike to make known to others a knowledge
+      which has brought pain to their own minds. Like the Brahmin of the story,
+      they will destroy a fine microscope rather than permit their
+      co-religionists to know that they drink living creatures in their water,
+      or eat mites in their fruit. The motto of such people is, "If truth is
+      disagreeable, cling to error."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following attempts to explain much of ancient and modern symbolism can
+      only be regarded as tentative. The various devices contained herein seem
+      to me to support the views which I have been led to form from other
+      sources, by a careful inquiry into the signification of ancient names, and
+      the examination of ancient faiths. The figures were originally intended as
+      corroborative of evidence drawn from numerous ancient and modern writings;
+      and the idea of collecting them, and, as it were, making them speak for
+      themselves, has been an after-thought. In the following pages I have
+      simply reprinted the figures, etc., which appear in <i>Ancient Faiths
+      embodied in Ancient Names</i> (second edition). I make no attempt to
+      exhaust the subject. There are hundreds of emblems which find herein no
+      place; and there are explanations of symbols current to which I make no
+      reference, for they are simply <i>exoteric</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the benefit of many of my readers, I must explain the meaning of the
+      last word italicised. In most, if not in all, forms of religion, there are
+      tenets not generally imparted to the vulgar, and only given to a select
+      few under the seal of secrecy. A similar reticence exists in common life.
+      There are secrets kept from children, for example, that are commonly known
+      to all parents; there are <i>arcana</i>, familiar to doctors, of which
+      patients have no idea. For example, when a lad innocently asks the family
+      surgeon, or his parent, where the last new baby came from, he is put off
+      with a reply, wide of the mark, yet sufficient for him. When I put such a
+      question to the maids in the kitchen, to which place for a time I was
+      relegated, the first answer was that the baby came from the parsley bed.
+      On hearing this, I went into the garden, and, finding the bed had been
+      unmoved, came back and reproached my informant for falsehood. Another then
+      took up the word, and said it was the carrot bed which the baby came from.
+      As a roar of laughter followed this remark, I felt that I was being
+      cheated, and asked no more questions. Then I could not, now I can,
+      understand the <i>esoteric</i> sense of the sayings. They had to the
+      servants two distinct significations. The only one which I could then
+      comprehend was <i>exoteric</i>; that which was known to my elders was the
+      <i>esoteric</i> meaning. In what is called "religion" there has been a
+      similar distinction. We see this, not only in the "mysteries" of Greece
+      and Rome, but amongst the Jews; Esdras stating the following as a command
+      from God, "Some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou show
+      secretly to the wise" (2 Esdras xv. 26).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When there exist two distinct explanations, or statements, about the
+      signification of an emblem, the one "esoteric," true, and known only to
+      the few, the other "exoteric," incorrect, and known to the many, it is
+      clear that a time may come when the first may be lost, and the last alone
+      remain. As an illustration, we can point to the original and correct
+      pronunciation of the word [&mdash;Hebrew&mdash;], commonly pronounced
+      Jehovah. Known only to a select few, it became lost when these died
+      without imparting it; yet what is considered to be the incorrect method of
+      pronouncing the word survives until to-day.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It is supposed by some that Jahveh is the proper
+     pronunciation of this word, but as the first letter may
+     represent, ja, ya, or e, and the third u, v, or o, whilst
+     the second and fourth are the soft h, one may read the word
+     Jhuh, analogous to the Ju in Jupiter; Jehu, the name of a
+     king of Israel; Tahu as it is read on Assyrian inscriptions;
+     Jeho, as in Jehoshaphat; Ehoh, analogous to the Evoe or Ewe
+     associated with Bacchus; and Jaho, analogous to the J. A. O.
+     of the Gnostics. The Greek "Fathers" give the word as if
+     equivalent to yave, yaoh, yeho, and too.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But the question is not how the word may be pronounced, but how it was
+      expressed in sound when used in religion by the Hebrew and other Semitic
+      nations, amongst whom it was a sacred secret, or ineffable name, not
+      lightly to be "taken in vain."&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may fairly assume that, when two such meanings exist, they are not
+      identical, and that the one most commonly received is not the correct one.
+      But when one alone is known to exist, it becomes a question whether
+      another should be sought. If, it may be asked, the common people are
+      contented with a fable, believing it true, why seek to enlighten them upon
+      its hidden meaning? To show the bearing of this subject, let us notice
+      what has always struck me as remarkable. The second commandment declares
+      to the Jews, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
+      likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
+      beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down
+      thyself to them," etc. (Exod. xx. 4). Yet we find, in Numbers xxi., that
+      Jehovah ordered Moses to frame a brazen serpent, whose power was so
+      miraculous that those who only looked at it were cured of the evils
+      inflicted by thanatoid snakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then again, in the temple of the God who is reported to have thus spoken,
+      and who is also said to have declared that He would dwell in the house
+      that Solomon made for Him, an ark, or box, was worshipped, and over it
+      Cherubim were seen. These were likenesses of something, and the first was
+      worshipped. We find it described as being so sacred that death once
+      followed a profane touching of it (2 Sam. vi. 6, 7), and no fewer than
+      50,070 people were done to death at Bethshemesh because somebody had
+      ventured to look inside the box, and had tried to search into the mystery
+      contained therein (1 Sam. vi. 19). It is curious that the Philistines, who
+      must have touched the box to put their strange offerings beside it (see 1
+      Sam. vi. 8), were not particularly bothered. They were "profane"; and
+      priests only invent stories, which are applicable to the arcana which they
+      use in worship, to blind the eyes of and give a holy horror to the people
+      whom they govern. How David worshipped the ark as being the representative
+      of God we see in 2 Sam. vi. 14, 16, 17, 21.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ark of the covenant was indeed regarded by the Jews much as a saint's
+      toe-nail, a crucifix, an image of the Virgin, a bit of wood, or a rusty
+      old nail is by the Roman Catholics. So flagrant an apparent breach of the
+      second commandment was covered for the common Hebrews by the assertion
+      that the mysterious box was a token of God's covenant with His people; but
+      that this statement was "exoteric," we feel sure, when we find a similar
+      ark existing and used in "the mysteries" of Egypt and Greece, amongst
+      people who probably never heard of Jews, and could by no chance know what
+      passed in the Hebrew temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When become dissatisfied with a statement, which is evidently intended to
+      be a blind, some individuals naturally endeavour to ascertain what is
+      behind the curtain. In this they resemble the brave boy, who rushes upon a
+      sheet and turnip lantern, which has imposed upon his companions and passed
+      for a ghost. What is a bugbear to the many is often a contemptible reptile
+      to the few. Yet there are a great number who would rather run from a
+      phantom night after night than grapple with it once, and would dissuade
+      others from being bold enough to encounter it. Nevertheless, even the
+      former rejoice when the cheat is exposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As when, by some courageous hand, that which has been mistaken by hundreds
+      for a spectre has been demonstrated to be a crafty man, no one would
+      endeavour to demonstrate the reality of ghosts by referring to the many
+      scores of men of all ranks who had been duped by the apparition thus
+      detected; so, in like manner, when the falsehood of an exoteric story is
+      exhibited, it is no argument in its favour that the vulgar in thousands
+      and many a wise man have believed it. Speaking metaphorically, we have
+      many such ghosts amongst ourselves; phantoms, which pass for powerful
+      giants, but are in reality perfect shams. Such we may describe by
+      comparing them to the apocryphal vampires. It is to me a melancholy thing
+      to contemplate the manner in which mankind have, in every age and nation,
+      made for themselves bugbears, and then have felt fear at them. We deride
+      the African, who manufactures a Fetish, and then trembles at its power,
+      but the learned know perfectly well that men made the devil, whom the
+      pious fear, just as a negro dreads Mumbo Jumbo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the fictitious narratives which passed for truth in the dark ages of
+      Christianity, there were accounts of individuals who died and were buried,
+      and who, after a brief repose in the tomb, rose again. Some imagined that
+      the resuscitated being was the identical one who had been interred. Others
+      believed that some evil spirit had appropriated the body, and restored to
+      it apparent vitality. Whatever the fiction was, the statement remained
+      unchallenged, that some dead folk returned to earth, having the same guise
+      as when they quitted it. We believe that a similar occurrence has taken
+      place in religion. Heathendom died, and was buried; yet, after a brief
+      interval, it rose again from its tomb. But, unlike the vampire, its garb
+      was changed, and it was not recognised. It moved through Christendom in a
+      seductive dress. If it were a devil, yet its clothing was that of a sheep;
+      if a wolf, it wore broadcloth. If it ravened, the victims were not pitied.
+      Heathenism, by which I mean the manners, morals and rites prevalent in
+      pagan times or countries, like a resuscitated vampire, once bore rule
+      throughout Christendom, in which term is included all those parts where
+      Christian baptism is used by all the people, or the vast majority. In most
+      parts it still reigns supreme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When vampires were discovered by the acumen of any observer, they were, we
+      are told, ignominiously killed, by a stake being driven through the body;
+      but experience showed them to have such tenacity of life that they rose
+      again, and again, notwithstanding renewed impalement, and were not
+      ultimately laid to rest till wholly burnt. In like manner, the regenerated
+      Heathendom, which dominates over the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, has
+      risen again and again, after being transfixed. Still cherished by the
+      many, it is denounced by the few. Amongst other accusers, I raise my voice
+      against the Paganism which exists so extensively in ecclesiastical
+      Christianity, and will do my utmost to expose the imposture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a vampire story, told in <i>Thalaba</i>, by Southey, the resuscitated
+      being takes the form of a dearly beloved maiden, and the hero is obliged
+      to kill her with his own hand. He does so; but, whilst he strikes the form
+      of the loved one, he feels sure that he slays only a demon. In like
+      manner, when I endeavour to destroy the current Heathenism, which has
+      assumed the garb of Christianity, I do not attack real religion. Few would
+      accuse a workman of malignancy who cleanses from filth the surface of a
+      noble statue. There may be some who are too nice to touch a nasty subject;
+      yet even they will rejoice when some one else removes the dirt. Such a
+      scavenger is much wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I were to assert, as a general proposition, that religion does not
+      require any symbolism, I should probably win assent from every true Scotch
+      Presbyterian, every Wesleyan, and every Independent. Yet I should be
+      opposed by every Papist, and by most Anglican Churchmen. But why? Is it
+      not because their ecclesiastics have adopted symbolism into their churches
+      and into their ritual? They have broken the second commandment of Jehovah,
+      and refuse to see anything wrong in their practice or gross in their
+      imagery. But they adopt Jehovah rather than Elohim, and break the
+      commandments, said to be given upon Sinai, in good company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader of the following pages will probably feel more interest therein
+      if he has some clue whereby he may guide himself through their labyrinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the earliest known times there seems to have been in every civilised
+      nation the idea of an unseen power. In the speculations of thoughtful
+      minds a necessity is recognised for the existence of a Being who made all
+      things&mdash;who is at times beneficent, sending rain and warmth, and who
+      at others sends storm, plague, famine, and war. After the crude idea has
+      taken possession of the thoughts, there has been a desire to know
+      something more of this Creator, and an examination into the works of
+      Nature has been made with the view to ascertain the will and designs of
+      the Supreme. In every country this great One has been supposed to inhabit
+      the heaven above us, and consequently all celestial phenomena have been
+      noticed carefully. But the mind soon got weary of contemplating about an
+      essence, and, contenting itself with the belief that there was a Power,
+      began to investigate the nature of His ministers. These, amongst the
+      Aryans, were the sun, fire, storm, wind, the sky, the day, night, etc. An
+      intoxicating drink, too, was regarded as an emanation from the Supreme.
+      With this form of belief men lived as they had done ere it existed, and in
+      their relations with each other may be compared to such high class animals
+      as elephants. Men can live peaceably together without religion, just as do
+      the bisons, buffaloes, antelopes, and even wolves. The assumption that
+      some form of faith is absolutely a necessity for man is only founded on
+      the fancies of some religious fanatics who know little of the world.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Whilst these sheets were passing through the press, there
+     appeared a work, published anonymously, but reported to be
+     by one of the most esteemed theologians who ever sat upon an
+     episcopal bench. It is entitled Supernatural Religion.
+     London: Longmans, 1874. From it we quote the following, vol.
+     ii., p. 489:&mdash;
+
+     "We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief
+     in the reality of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain pure
+     and unimpaired the treasure of Christian Morality, we
+     relinquish nothing but the debasing elements added to it by
+     human superstition. We are no longer bound to believe a
+     theology which outrages reason and moral sense. We are freed
+     from base anthropomorphic views of God and His government of
+     the universe; and from Jewish Mythology we rise to higher
+     conceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being,
+     hidden from our finite minds, it is true, in the
+     impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose Laws of wondrous
+     comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in
+     operation around us. We are no longer disturbed by visions
+     of fitful interference with the order of Nature, but we
+     recognise that the Being who regulates the universe is
+     without variableness or shadow of turning. It is singular
+     how little there is in the supposed Revelation of alleged
+     information, however incredible, regarding that which is
+     beyond the limits of human thought, but that little is of a
+     character which reason declares to be the wildest delusion.
+     Let no man whose belief in the reality of a Divine
+     Revelation may be destroyed by such an inquiry complain that
+     he has lost a precious possession, and that nothing is left
+     but a blank. The Revelation not being a reality, that which
+     he has lost was but an illusion, and that which is left is
+     the Truth. If he be content with illusions, he will speedily
+     be consoled; if he be a lover only of truth, instead of a
+     blank, he will recognise that the reality before him is full
+     of great peace.
+
+     "If we know less than we have supposed of man's destiny, we
+     may at least rejoice that we are no longer compelled to
+     believe that which is unworthy. The limits of thought once
+     attained, we may well be unmoved in the assurance that all
+     that we do know of the regulation of the universe being so
+     perfect and wise, all that we do not know must be equally
+     so. Here enters the true and noble Faith&mdash;which is the child
+     of reason. If we have believed a system, the details of
+     which must at one time or another have shocked the mind of
+     every intelligent man, and believed it simply because it was
+     supposed to be revealed, we may equally believe in the
+     wisdom and goodness of what is not revealed. The mere act of
+     communication to us is nothing: Faith in the perfect
+     ordering of all things is independent of Revelation.
+
+     "The argument so often employed by Theologians that Divine
+     Revelation is necessary for man, and that certain views
+     contained in that Revelation are required by our moral
+     consciousness, is purely imaginary, and derived from the
+     Revelation which it seeks to maintain. The only thing
+     absolutely necessary for man is Truth and to that, and that
+     alone, must our moral consciousness adapt itself."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But as there is variety in the workings of the human mind, so there were
+      differences in the way wherein the religious idea was carried out. Some
+      regarded the sun and moon, the constellations and the planets, as
+      ministers of the unseen One, and, reasoning from what was known to what
+      was unknown, argued thus: "Throughout nature there seems to be a dualism.
+      In the sky there are a sun and moon; there are also sun and earth, earth
+      and sea. In every set of animals there are males and females." An inquiry
+      into the influence of the sun brought out the facts that by themselves its
+      beams were destructive; they were only beneficent when the earth was moist
+      with rain. As the rain from heaven, then, caused things on earth to grow,
+      it was natural that the main source of light and heat should be regarded
+      as a male, and the earth as a female. As a male, the sun was supposed to
+      have the emblems of virility, and a spouse whom he impregnated, and who
+      thereby became fertile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In examining ancient Jewish, Phoenician, and other Shemitic cognomens, I
+      found that they consisted of a divine name and some attribute of the
+      deity, and that the last was generally referable equally to the Supreme,
+      to the Sun, as a god, and to the masculine emblem. If the deity was a
+      female, the name of her votary contained a reference to the moon and the
+      beauties or functions of women. The higher ideas of the Creator were held
+      only by a few, the many adopted a lower and more debased view. In this
+      manner the sun became a chief god and the moon his partner, and the former
+      being supposed to be male and the latter female, both became associated
+      with the ideas which all have of terrestrial animals. Consequently the
+      solar deity was associated in symbolism with masculine and the moon with
+      feminine emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An inquiry into antiquity, as represented by Babylonians, Assyrians,
+      Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, and others,
+      and into modern faiths still current, as represented in the peninsula of
+      India, in the Lebanon, and elsewhere, shows that ideas of sex have been
+      very generally associated with that of creation. God has been described as
+      a king, or as a queen, or as both united. As monarch, he is supposed to be
+      man, or woman, or both. As man differs from woman in certain
+      peculiarities, these very means of distinction have been incorporated into
+      the worship of god and goddess. Rival sects have been ranged in ancient
+      times under the symbol of the T and the O as in later times they are under the
+      cross and the crescent. The worship of God the Father has repeatedly
+      clashed with that of God the Mother, and the votaries of each respectively
+      have worn badges characteristic of the sex of their deity. An illustration
+      of this is to be seen amongst ourselves; one sect of Christians adoring
+      chiefly the Trinity, another reverencing the Virgin. There is a well-known
+      picture, indeed, of Mary worshipping her infant; and to the former is
+      given the title <i>Mater Creatoris</i>, "the mother of the Creator." Our
+      sexual sections are as well marked as those in ancient Jerusalem, which
+      swore by Jehovah and Ashtoreth respectively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea of sexuality in religion is quite compatible with a ritual and
+      practice of an elaborate character, and a depth of piety which prefers
+      starvation to impurity, or, as the Bible has it, to uncleanness. To eat
+      "with the blood" was amongst the Hebrews a crime worthy of death; to eat
+      with unwashed hands was a dreadful offence in the eyes of the Pharisees of
+      Jerusalem; and in the recent famine in Bengal, we have seen that
+      individuals would rather die of absolute hunger, and allow their children
+      to perish too, than eat bread or rice which may have been touched by
+      profane hands, or drink milk that had been expressed by British milkmaids
+      from cows' udders. Yet these same Hindoos, the very particular sect of the
+      Brahmins, have amongst themselves a form of worship which to our ideas is
+      incompatible with real religion. The folks referred to adore the Creator,
+      and respect their ceremonial law even more deeply, than did the Hebrews
+      after the time of the Babylonish captivity; but they have a secret cult in
+      which&mdash;and in the most, matter-of-fact way&mdash;they pay a very
+      practical homage to one or other of the parts which is thought by the
+      worshipper to be a mundane emblem of the Creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The curious will find in <i>Essays on the Religion of the Hindus</i>, by
+      H. H. Wilson, in the <i>Dabistan</i>, translated by Shea and Troyer (Allen
+      and Co., London), 3 vols., 8vo., and in <i>Memoirs of the Anthropological
+      Society of London</i> (Trübner and Co.), vols. 1 and 2, much information
+      on the method of conducting the worship referred to. The first named
+      author thinks it advisable to leave the Brahminic "rubric" for the "Sakti
+      Sodhana," for the most part under the veil of the original Sanscrit, and I
+      am not disposed wholly to withdraw it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Christians are not pure; some of my readers may have seen a work
+      written by an Italian lady of high birth, who was in early life forced
+      into a nunnery, and who left it as soon as she had a chance. In her
+      account she tells us how the women in the monastery were seduced by
+      reverend Fathers, who were at one time the instruments of vice, at another
+      the guides to penitence. Their practice was to instruct their victims that
+      whatever was said or done must be accompanied by a pious sentence. Thus,
+      "I love you dearly" was a profane expression; but "I desire your company
+      in the name of Jesus," and "I embrace in you the Holy Virgin," were
+      orthodox. In like manner, the Hindus have prayers prescribed for their
+      use, when the parts are to be purified prior to proceeding to extremities,
+      when they are introduced to each other, in the agitation which follows,
+      and when the ceremony is completed. Everything is done, as Ritualists
+      would say, decently and in order; and a pious orgie, sanctified by
+      prayers, cannot be worse than the penance ordained by some "confessors" to
+      those faithful damsels whose minds are plastic enough to believe that a
+      priest is an embodiment of the Holy Ghost, and that they become
+      assimilated to the Blessed Virgin when they are overshadowed by the power
+      of the Highest (Luke i. 85).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There being, then, in "religion" a strong sensual element, ingenuity has
+      been exercised to a wonderful extent in the contrivance of designs, nearly
+      or remotely significant of this idea, or rather union of the conceptions
+      to which we have referred. Jupiter is a Proteus in form; now a man, now a
+      bull, now a swan, now an androgyne. Juno, or her equivalent, is sometimes
+      a woman, occasionally a lioness, and at times a cow. All conceivable
+      attributes of man and woman were symbolised; and gods were called by the
+      names of power, love, anger, desire, revenge, fortune, etc. Everything in
+      creation that resembled in any way the presumed Creator, whether in name,
+      in character, or in shape, was supposed to represent the deity. Hence a
+      palm tree was a religious emblem, because it is long, erect, and round; an
+      oak, for it is hard and firm; a fig-tree, because its leaves resemble the
+      male triad. The ivy was sacred from a similar cause. A myrtle was also a
+      type, but of the female, because its leaf is a close representation of the
+      <i>vesica piscis</i>. Everything, indeed, which in any way resembles the
+      characteristic organs of man and woman, became symbolic of the one or the
+      other deity, Jupiter or Juno, Jehovah or Astarte, the Father or the
+      Virgin. Sometimes, but very rarely, the parts in question were depicted <i>au
+      naturel</i>, and the means by which creation is effected became the
+      mundane emblem of the Almighty; and two huge phalli were seen before a
+      temple, as we now see towers or spires before our churches, and minarets
+      before mosques. (Lucian, <i>Dea Syria</i>.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generally, however, it was considered the most correct plan to represent
+      the organs by some conventional form, understood by the initiated, but not
+      by the unlearned. Whatever was upright, and longer than broad, became
+      symbolic of the father; whilst that which was hollow, cavernous, oval, or
+      circular, symbolised the mother. A sword, spear, arrow, dart, battering
+      ram, spade, ship's prow, anything indeed intended to pierce into something
+      else was emblematic of the male; whilst the female was symbolised as a
+      door, a hole, a sheath, a target, a shield, a field, anything indeed which
+      was to be entered. The Hebrew names sufficiently indicate the plan upon
+      which the sexes were distinguished; the one is a <i>zachar</i>, a
+      perforator or digger, and the other <i>nekebah</i>, a hole or trench, i,
+      e. male and female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These symbols were not necessarily those of religious belief. They might
+      indicate war, heroism, prowess, royalty, command, etc., or be nothing more
+      than they really were. They only symbolised the Creator when they were
+      adopted into religion. Again, there was a still farther refinement; and
+      advantage was taken of the fact, that one symbol was tripliform, the other
+      single; one of one shape, and the other different. Consequently, a
+      triangle, or three things, arranged so that one should stand above the
+      two, became emblematic of the Father, whilst an unit symbolised the
+      Mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These last three sentences deserve close attention, for some individuals
+      have, in somewhat of a senseless fashion, objected, that a person who can
+      see in a tortoise an emblem of the male, and in a horse-shoe an effigy of
+      the female organ, must be quite too fantastical to deserve notice. But to
+      me, as to other inquirers, these things are simply what they appear to be
+      when they are seen in common life. Yet when the former creature occupies a
+      large space in mythology; when the Hindoo places it as the being upon
+      which the world stands, and the Greeks represent one Venus as resting upon
+      a tortoise and another on a goat; and when one knows that in days gone by,
+      in which people were less refined, the [&mdash;Greek&mdash;] was displayed
+      where the horse-shoe is now, and that some curiously mysterious attributes
+      were assigned to the part in question; we cannot refuse to see the thing
+      signified in the sign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, inasmuch as what we may call the most prominent part of the
+      tripliform organ was naturally changeable in character, being at one time
+      soft, small, and pendent, and at another hard, large, and upright, those
+      animals that resembled it in these respects became symbolical. Two
+      serpents, therefore, one Indian, and the other Egyptian, both of which are
+      able to distend their heads and necks, and to raise them up erect, were
+      emblematic, and each in its respective country typified the father, the
+      great Creator. In like manner, another portion of the triad was regarded
+      as similar in shape and size to the common hen's egg. As the celebrated
+      physiologist, Haller, remarked, "<i>Omne vivum ex ovo</i>" every living
+      thing comes from an egg; so more ancient biologists recognised that the
+      dual part of the tripliform organ was as essential to the creation of a
+      new being as the central pillar. Hence an egg and a serpent became a
+      characteristic of "the Father," El, Ab, Ach, Baal, Asher, Melech, Adonai,
+      Jahu, etc. When to this was added a half moon, as in certain Tyrian coins,
+      the trinity and unity were symbolised, and a faith expressed like the one
+      held in modern Rome, that the mother of creation is co-equal with the
+      father; the one seduces by her charms, and the other makes them fructify.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the Englishman, who, as a rule, avoids talking upon the subject which
+      forms the basis of many an ancient religion, it may seem incredible that
+      any individual, or set of writers, could have exercised their ingenuity in
+      finding circumlocutory euphemisms for things which, though natural, are
+      rarely named. Yet the wonder ceases when we find, in the writings of our
+      lively neighbours, the French, a host of words intended to describe the
+      parts referred to, which correspond wholly with the pictorial emblems
+      adopted by the Greeks and others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As English writers have, as a rule, systematically avoided making any
+      distinct reference to the sexual ideas embodied in ancient Paganism, so
+      they have, by their silence, encouraged the formation of a school of
+      theology which has no solid foundation, except a very animal one. As each
+      individual finds out this for himself, it becomes a question with him how
+      far the information shall be imparted to others. So rarely has the
+      determination to accuse the vampire been taken, that we can point to very
+      few English books to which to refer our readers. We do not know one such
+      that is easily accessible; K. Payne Knight's work, and the addition
+      thereto, having been privately printed, is not often to be found in the
+      market. To give a list of the foreign works which the author has
+      consulted, prior to and during the composition of his book on Ancient
+      Faiths, would be almost equivalent to giving a catalogue of part of his
+      library. He may, however, indicate the name of one work which is unusually
+      valuable for reference, viz., <i>Histoire abrégée des Differens Cultes</i>,
+      par J. A. Dulaure, 2 vols., small 8vo., Paris, 1825. Though out of print,
+      copies can generally be procured through second-hand booksellers. Another
+      work, <i>'Récherches sur les Mystères de Paganisme</i>, by St. Croix, is
+      equally valuable, but it is very difficult to procure a copy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ancient Jews formed no exception to the general law of reverence for
+      the male emblem of the Creator; and though we would, from their
+      pretensions to be the chosen people of God, gladly find them exempt from
+      what we consider to be impurities, we are constrained to believe that,
+      even in the worship of Jehovah, more respect was given to the symbol than
+      we, living in modern times, think that it deserves. In their Scriptures we
+      read of Noah, whose infirm temper seems to have been on a par with his
+      weakness for wine, cursing one of his three sons because, whilst drunk, he
+      had negligently exposed his person, and the young man had thought the
+      sight an amusing one. Ham had no reverence for the symbol of the Creator,
+      but Shem and Japhet had, and covered it with a veil as respectfully as if
+      it had been the ineffable framer of the world (Gen. ix. 21-27). As our
+      feelings of propriety induce us to think that the father was a far greater
+      sinner than the son, we rejoice to know that the causeless curse never
+      fell, and that Ham, in the lands of Canaan, Assyria, and Babylonia, and
+      subsequently in Carthaginian Spain, were the masters of those Hebrews,
+      whose main force, in old times, lay in impotent scoldings, such, as
+      Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Caliban.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the best proofs of the strong sexual element which existed in the
+      religion of the Jews is the fact that Elohim, one of the names of the
+      Creator amongst the Hebrews, is represented, Gen. xvii. 10-14, as making
+      circumcision a sign of his covenant with the seed of Abraham; and in order
+      to ascertain whether a man was to be regarded as being in the covenant,
+      God is supposed to have looked at the state of the virile organ, or&mdash;as
+      the Scripture has it&mdash;of the hill of the foreskin. We find, indeed,
+      that Jehovah was quite as particular, and examined a male quite as closely
+      as Elohim: for when Moses and Zipporah were on their way from Midian to
+      Egypt, Exod. iv. 24, Jehovah having looked at the "trinity" of Moses' son,
+      and having found it as perfect as when the lad was born, sought to slay
+      him, and would have done so unless the mother had mutilated the organ
+      according to the sacred pattern. Again, we find in Josh. v. 2, and in the
+      following verses, that Jehovah insisted upon all the Hebrew males having
+      their virile member in the covenant condition ere they went to attack the
+      Canaanites. We cannot suppose that any scribe could dwell so much as
+      almost every scriptural writer does upon the subject of circumcision, had
+      not the masculine emblem been held in religious veneration amongst the
+      Jewish nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the David who leaped and danced, obscenely as we should say, before
+      the ark&mdash;an emblem of the female creator&mdash;who purchased his wife
+      from her royal father by mutilating a hundred Philistines, and presenting
+      the foreskins which he had cut off therefrom "in full tale" to the king (1
+      Sam. xviii. 27, 2 Sam. iii. 14), who was once the captain of a monarch who
+      thought it a shame beyond endurance to be abused, tortured, or slain by
+      men whose persons were in a natural condition (1 Sam. xxxi. 4), and who
+      imagined that he, although a stripling, could conquer a giant, because the
+      one had a sanctified and the other a natural member&mdash;is the man whom
+      we know as the author of Psalms with which Christians still refresh their
+      minds and comfort their souls. The king who, even in his old age, was
+      supposed to think so much of women that his courtiers sought a lovely
+      damsel as a comfort for his dying bed, is believed to have been the author
+      of the noble nineteenth Psalm, and a number of others full of holy
+      aspirations. It is clear, then, that sexual ideas on religion are not
+      incompatible with a desire to be holy. The two were co-existent in
+      Palestine; they are equally so in Bengal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We next find that Abraham, the cherished man of God, the honoured
+      patriarch of the Jews, makes his servant lay his hand upon the master's
+      member, whilst he takes an oath to do his bidding, precisely like a more
+      modern Palestinian might do; and Jacob does the same with Joseph. See Gen.
+      xxiv. 8, and xlvii. 29.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it is not generally known that the expression, "under my thigh," is a
+      euphemism for the words, "upon the symbol of the Creator," I may point to
+      two or three other passages in which the <i>thigh</i> (translated in the
+      authorised version <i>loins</i>) is used periphrastically: Genesis xxxv.
+      2, xlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5. See Ginsburg, in Kitto's <i>Biblical Cyclopadia</i>,
+      vol. 8, p. 848, 8. v. Oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have on two occasions read, although I failed to make a note of it, that
+      an Arab, during the Franco-Egyptian war, when accused by General Kleber of
+      treachery, not only vehemently denied it, but when he saw himself still
+      distrusted, he uncovered himself before the whole military staff, and
+      swore upon his trinity that he was guiltless. In the Lebanon, once in each
+      year, every female considers it her duty to salute with her lips the
+      reverenced organ of the Old Sheik.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again we learn, from Deut. xxiii. 1, that any unsanctified mutilation of
+      this part positively entailed expulsion from the congregation of the Lord.
+      Even a priest of the house of Aaron could not minister, as such, if his
+      masculinity had been in any way impaired (Lev. xxi. 20); and report says
+      that, in our Christian times, Popes have to be privately perfect; see also
+      Deut. xxv. 11, 12. Moreover, the inquirer finds that the Jewish Scriptures
+      teem with promises of abundant offspring to those who were the favourites
+      of Jehovah; and Solomon, the most glorious of their monarchs, is described
+      as if he were a Hercules amongst the daughters of Thespius. Nothing can
+      indicate the licentiousness of the inhabitants of Jerusalem more clearly
+      than the writings of Ezekiel.* If, then, in Hebrew law and practice, we
+      find such a strong infusion of the sexual element, we cannot be surprised
+      if it should be found elsewhere, and gradually influence Christianity.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * See Ezekiel xxii. 1-30, and compare Jerem. v. 7, 8.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We must next notice the fact, that what we call impurity in religious
+      tenets does not necessarily involve indecency in practice. The ancient
+      Romans, in the time of the early kings, seem to have been as proper as
+      early Christian maidens. It is true that, in the declining days of the
+      empire, exhibitions that called forth the fierce denunciations of the
+      fathers of the Church took place; but we find very similar occurrences in
+      modern Christian capitals. In Spartan days, chastity and honesty were not
+      virtues, but drunkenness was a vice. In Christian England, drunkenness is
+      general, and we cannot pride ourselves upon universal honesty and
+      chastity. It is not the national belief, but the national practice, which
+      evidences a people's worth. Spain and Ireland, called respectively
+      "Catholic" and "the land of saints," cannot boast of equality with
+      "infidel" France and "free-thinking" Prussia. England will be as earnest,
+      as upright, and as civilised, when she has abandoned the heathen elements
+      in her religion, as when she hugs them as if necessary to her spiritual
+      welfare. Attachment to the good parts of religion is wholly distinct from
+      a close embrace of the bad ones; and we believe he deserves best of his
+      country who endeavours to remove every possible source of discord. None
+      can doubt the value of the order, "Do to others as you would wish others
+      to do to you." If all unite to carry this out, small differences of
+      opinion may at once be sunk. How worthless are many of the dogmas that
+      people now fight about, the following pages will show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In our larger work we have endeavoured to show that there may be a deep
+      sense of religion, a feeling of personal responsibility, so keen as to
+      influence every act of life, without there being a single symbol used. The
+      earnest Sakya Muni, or Buddha, never used anything as a sacred emblem; nor
+      did Jesus, who followed him, and perhaps unconsciously propagated the
+      Indian's doctrine. When the Apostles were sent out to teach and preach,
+      they were not told to carry out any form of ark or crucifix. To them the
+      doctrine of the Trinity was unknown, and not one of them had any
+      particular reverence for her whom we call the Virgin Mary, who, if she was
+      '<i>virgo intacta</i>' when Jesus was born, was certainly different when
+      she bore his brothers. Paul and Peter, though said to be the fathers of
+      the Roman Church, never used or recommended the faithful to procure for
+      themselves "a cross" as an aid to memory. The early Christians recognised
+      each other by their deeds, and never had, like the Jews, to prove that
+      they were in covenant with God, by putting a mutilated part of their body
+      into full view. We, with the Society of Friends, prefer primitive to
+      modern Christianity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the following pages the author has felt himself obliged to make use of
+      words which are probably only known to those who are more or less
+      "scholars." He has to treat of parts of the human body, and acts which
+      occur habitually in the world, which in modern times are never referred to
+      in polite society, but which, in the period when the Old Testament was
+      written, were spoken of as freely as we now talk of our hands and feet. In
+      those days, everything which was common was spoken of without shame, and
+      that which occurred throughout creation, and was seen by every one, was as
+      much the subject of conversation as eating and drinking is now. The
+      Hebrew-writers were extremely coarse in their diction, and although this
+      has been softened down by subsequent redactors, much which is in our
+      modern judgment improper still remains. For example, where we simply
+      indicate the sex, the Jewish historians used the word which was given to
+      the symbol by which male and female are known; for example, in Gen. i. 27,
+      and v. 2, and in a host of other places, the masculine and feminine are
+      spoken of as <i>zachar</i> and <i>nekebah</i>, which is best translated as
+      "borers" and "bored." Another equally vulgar way of describing men is to
+      be found in 1 Kings xiv. 10. But these observations would not serve us
+      much in symbolism did we not know that they were associated with certain
+      euphemisms by which when one thing is said another is intended; for an
+      illustration let us take Isaiah vii. 20, and ask what is meant by the
+      phrase, "the hair of the feet"? It is certain that the feet are never
+      hairy, and consequently can never be shaved. Again, when we find in Gen.
+      xlix. 10, "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
+      between his feet," and compare this with Deut. xxviii. 57, and 2 Kings
+      xviii. 27, where the words are, in the original, "the water of their
+      feet," it is clear that symbolic language is used to express something
+      which, if put into the vernacular, would be objectionable to ears polite.
+      Again, in Genesis xxiv. 2 and xlvii. 29, and in Heb. xi. 21, it is well
+      known to scholars that the word "thigh" and "staff" are euphemisms to
+      express that part which represents the male. In Deut. xxiii. 1, we have
+      evidence, as in the last three verses quoted, of the sanctity of the part
+      referred to, but the language is less refined. Now-a-days our ears are not
+      attuned to the rough music which pleased our ancestors, and we have to use
+      veiled language to express certain matters. In the following pages, the
+      words which I select are drawn from the Latin, Greek, Sanscrit, Shemitic,
+      or Egyptian. Hea, Ann, and Asher replace the parts referred to in Deut.
+      xxiii. 1; Osiris, Asher, Linga, Mahadeva, Siva, Priapus, Phallus, etc.,
+      represent the Hebrew <i>zachar </i>; whilst Isis, Parvati, Yoni, Sacti,
+      Astarte, Ishtar, etc., replace the Jewish <i>nekebah</i>. The junction of
+      these parts is spoken of as Ashtoreth, Baalim, Elohim, the trinity and
+      unity, the androgyne deity, the arba, or mystic four, and the like.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will only add, that what I refer to has long been known to almost every
+      scholar except English ones. Of these a few are learned; but for a long
+      period they have systematically refrained from speaking plainly, and have
+      written in such a manner as to be guilty not only of <i>suppressio veri</i>
+      but of <i>suggestio falsi</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After reading thus far, I can imagine many a person saying with
+      astonishment, "Are these things so?" and following up his thoughts by
+      wondering what style of persons they were, or are, who could introduce
+      into religion such matters as those of which we have treated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reply, I can only say that I have nothing extenuated, and set down
+      nought in malice. But the first clause of the assertion requires
+      modification, for in this volume there are many things omitted which I
+      have referred to at length in my larger work. In that I have shown, not
+      only that religious fornication existed in ancient Babylon, but that there
+      is reason to believe that it existed also in Palestine. The word [&mdash;Hebrew&mdash;]
+      <i>Kadesh</i>, which signifies "pure, bright, young, to be holy, or to be
+      consecrated," is also the root from which are formed the words <i>Kadeshah</i>
+      and <i>Kadeshim</i>, which are used in the Hebrew writings, and are
+      translated in our authorised version "whore" and "sodomite." See Bent,
+      xxiii. 17.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Athanasius tells us something of this as regards the Phoenicians, for he
+      says, (<i>Oratio Contr. Gent</i>., part i., p. 24.) "Formerly, it is
+      certain that Phoenician women prostituted themselves before their idols,
+      offering their bodies to their gods in the place of first fruits, being
+      persuaded that they pleased the goddess by that means, and made her
+      propitious to them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strabo mentions a similar occurrence at Comana, in Pontus, book xiii., c.
+      iii. p. 86&mdash;and notices that an enormous number of women were
+      consecrated to the use of worshippers in the temple of Venus at Corinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such women exist in India, and the priests of certain temples do
+      everything in their power to select the loveliest of the sex, and to
+      educate them so highly as to be attractive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The customs which existed in other places seem to have been known in
+      Jerusalem, as we find in 1 Kings xiv. 24., XV. 12, that <i>Kadeshim</i>
+      were common in Judea, and in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, we discover that these
+      "consecrated ones" were located "by the temple," and were associated with
+      women whose business was "to make hangings for the grove." What these
+      tissues were and what use was made of them will be seen in Ezekiel xvi.
+      16.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even David, when dancing before the ark, shamelessly exposed himself.
+      Solomon erected two pillars in the porch of his temple, and called them
+      Jachin and Boaz, and added pomegranate ornaments. We have seen how Abraham
+      and Jacob ordered their inferiors to swear by putting the hand upon "the
+      thigh"; and we have read of the atrocities which occurred in Jerusalem in
+      the time of Ezekiel. Yet the Jews are still spoken of as God's chosen
+      people, and the Psalmist as a man after God's own heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But without going so far back, let us inquire into the conduct of the
+      sensual Turks, and of the general run of the inhabitants of Hindostan.
+      From everything that I can learn&mdash;and I have repeatedly conversed
+      with those who have known the Turks and Hindoos familiarly&mdash;these are
+      in every position in life as morally good as common Christians are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My readers must not now assert that I am either a partisan or a special
+      pleader when I say this; they must consider that I am making the
+      comparison as man by man. I do not, as missionaries do, compare the most
+      vicious Mahomedan and Brahmin with the most exemplary Christian; nor do I,
+      on the other hand, compare the best Ottoman and Indian with Christian
+      criminals; but I take the whole in a mass, and assert that there is as
+      large a percentage of good folks in India and Turkey as there is in Spain
+      and France, England or America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grossest form of worship is compatible with general purity of morals.
+      The story of Lucretia is told of a Pagan woman, whilst those of Er and
+      Onan, Tamar and Judah relate to Hebrews. David, who seduced Bathsheba, and
+      killed her husband, was not execrated by "God's people," nor was he
+      consequently driven from his throne as Tarquin was by the Romans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In prowess and learning, the Babylonians, with their religious
+      prostitution, were superior to the "chosen people." Of the wealth and
+      enterprise of the Phoenicians, Ancient History tells us abundance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are probably no three cities in ancient or modern times which
+      contain so many vicious individuals as London, Paris, and New York. Yet
+      there are none which history tells us of that were more powerful. No
+      Babylonian army equalled in might or numbers the army of the Northern
+      United States. Nineveh never wielded armies equal to those of the French
+      Napoleon and the German William, and Rome never had an empire equal to
+      that which is headed by London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The existence of personal vice does not ruin a nation in its collective
+      capacity. Nor does the most sensual form of religion stunt the prosperity
+      of a people, so long as the latter do not bow their necks to a priesthood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest curse to a nation is not a bad religion, but a form of faith
+      which prevents manly inquiry. I know of no nation of old that was
+      priest-ridden which did not fall under the swords of those who did not
+      care for hierarchs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest danger is to be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at
+      vice, and encourage it as a means whereby they can gain power over their
+      votaries. So long as every man does to other men as he would that they
+      should do to him, and allows no one to interfere between him and his
+      Maker, all will go well with the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst the following sheets were going through the press, my friend Mr.
+      Newton, who has not only assisted me in a variety of ways, but who has
+      taken a great deal of interest in the subject of symbolism, gave me to
+      understand that there were some matters in which he differed very strongly
+      from me in opinion. One of these was as to the correct interpretation of
+      the so-called Assyrian grove; another was the signification of one of
+      Lajard's gems, Plate iv., Fig. 3; and the most conspicuous of our
+      divergencies was respecting the fundamental, or basic idea, which prompted
+      the use in religion of those organs of reproduction which have, from time
+      immemorial, been venerated in Hindostan, and, as far as we can learn, in
+      Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, Jerusalem,
+      Etruria, Greece, and Rome, as well as in countries called uncivilised. I
+      feel quite disposed to acquiesce in the opinions which my old friend has
+      formed respecting the Assyrian grove, but I am not equally ready to assent
+      to his other opinions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where two individuals are working earnestly for the elucidation of truth,
+      there ought, in my opinion, to be not only a tolerance of disagreement,
+      but an honest effort to submit the subject to a jury of thoughtful
+      readers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I should not feel satisfied to allow any other person to express my
+      opinions in his words, it seemed to me only fair to Mr. Newton to give him
+      the facility of enunciating his views in his own language. It was
+      intended, originally, that my friend's observations upon the "grove"
+      should be followed by a dissertation upon other relics of antiquity&mdash;notably
+      upon that known as Stonehenge&mdash;but circumstances have prevented this
+      design being carried into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When two individuals who have much in common go over the same ground, it
+      is natural, indeed almost necessary, that they should dwell upon identical
+      topics. Hence it will be found that there are points which are referred to
+      by us both, although possibly in differing relationship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As my own part of the following remarks were printed long before I saw Mr.
+      Newton's manuscript, I hope to be pardoned for allowing them to stand. The
+      bulk of the volume will not be increased to the extent of a full page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I were to be asked the reason why I differ from Mr. Newton in his
+      exalted idea about the adoption of certain bodily organs as types, tokens,
+      or emblems of an unseen and an inscrutable Creator, my answer would be
+      drawn from the observations made upon every known order of priesthood,
+      from the most remote antiquity to the present time. No matter what the
+      creed, whether Ancient or Modern, the main object of its exponents and
+      supporters is to gain over the minds of the populace. This has never yet
+      been done, and probably never will be attempted, by educating the mind of
+      the multitude to think.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Great Britain we find three sets of hierarchs opposed to each other,
+      and all equally, by every means in their power, prohibit independent
+      inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young Romanist convert, as we have recently seen, is discouraged from
+      persevering in the study of history and logic; a Presbyterian is
+      persecuted, as far as the law of the land permits, if he should engage in
+      an honest study of the Bible, of the God which it presents for our
+      worship, and of the laws that it enforces. A bishop of the Church of
+      England is visited by the puny and spiteful efforts of some of his nominal
+      equals if he ventures to treat Jewish writings as other critics study the
+      tomes of Livy or of Herodotus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One set of men have banded together to elect a god on earth, and endeavour
+      to coerce their fellow-mortals to believe that a selection by a few old
+      cardinals can make the one whom they choose to honour "infallible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another set of men, who profess to eschew the idea of infallibility in a
+      Pope, assume that they possess the quality themselves, and endeavour to
+      blot out from the communion of the faithful those who differ from them "on
+      points which God hath left at large."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely, when with all our modern learning, thought, and scientific
+      enquiry, hierarchs still set their faces against an advance in knowledge,
+      and quell, if possible, every endeavour to search after truth, we are not
+      far wrong when we assert, that the first priests of barbarism had no
+      exalted views of such an abstract subject as life, in the higher and
+      highest senses, if indeed in any sense of the word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another small point of difference between my friend and me is, whether
+      there has been at any time a figured representation of a <i>kakodoemon</i>&mdash;except
+      since the beginning of Christianity&mdash;and if, by way of stretching a
+      point, we call Typhon&mdash;Satan or the Devil&mdash;by this name, as
+      being opposed to the <i>Agathodoemon</i>, whether we are justified in
+      providing this evil genius with wings. As far as I can judge from Chaldean
+      and Assyrian sculptures, wings were given to the lesser deities as our
+      artists assign them to modern angels. The Babylonian Apollyon, by whatever
+      name he went, was winged&mdash;but so were all the good gods. The
+      Egyptians seem to have assigned wings only to the favourable divinities.
+      The Jews had in their mythology a set of fiery flying serpents, but we
+      must notice that their cherubim and seraphim were all winged, some with no
+      less than three pairs&mdash;much as Hindoo gods have four heads and six,
+      or any other number of arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Newton assumes that the dragon mentioned in Rev. xii. was a winged
+      creature, but it is clear from the context, especially from verses 14 and
+      15, that he had no pinions, for he was unable to follow the woman to whom
+      two aerial oars had been given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dragon, as we know it, is, I believe, a mediæval creation; such a
+      creature is only spoken of in the Bible in the book of Revelation, and the
+      author of that strange production drew his inspiration on this point from
+      the Iliad, where a dragon is described as of huge size, coiled like a
+      snake, of blood-red colour, shot with changeful hues, and having three
+      heads. Homer, Liddell, and Scott add&mdash;used [&mdash;Greek&mdash;]
+      indifferently for a serpent. So does the author of Rev. in ch. xx. 2. I
+      have been unable to discover any gnostic gem with anything like a modern
+      dragon on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Holding these views, I cannot entertain the proposition that the winged
+      creatures in the very remarkable gem already referred to are evil genii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a question of this kind the mind is perhaps unconsciously biassed by
+      comparing one antiquarian idea with another. A searcher amongst Etruscan
+      vases will see not only that the angel of death is winged, but that Cupid,
+      Eros, or by whatever other name "desire" or love goes, frequently hovers
+      over the bridal or otherwise voluptuous couch, and attends beauty at her
+      toilet. The Greeks also gave to Eros a pair of wings, intended, it is
+      fancied, to represent the flutterings of the heart, produced when lovers
+      meet or even think of each other. Such a subordinate deity would be in
+      place amongst so many sexual emblems as Plate iv. Fig. 3 contains, whilst
+      a <i>koakdoemon</i> would be a "spoil sport," and would make the erected
+      serpents drop rather than remain in their glory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These matters are apparently of small importance, but when one is studying
+      the signification of symbolical language, he has to pay as close an
+      attention, and extend the net of observation over as wide a sea as a
+      scholar does when endeavouring to decipher some language written in
+      long-forgotten characters, and some divergence of opinion between
+      independent observers sharpens the intellect more than it tries the
+      temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      PLATE II.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/054.jpg" alt="Plate II 054 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This is taken from a photograph of a small bronze image in the Mayer
+      collection of the Free Museum, in Liverpool. The figure stands about nine
+      inches high, and represents Isis, Horus, and the fish. It is an apt
+      illustration of an ancient custom, still prevalent amongst certain
+      Christians, of reverencing a woman, said to be a virgin, giving suck to
+      her child, and of the association of Isis, Venus, and Mary with the fish.
+      Friday, for example, is, with the Romanists, both "fish day," and "dies
+      Veneris." Fish are known to be extraordinarily prolific. There was a
+      belief that animals, noted for any peculiarity, imparted their virtues to
+      those who ate them; consequently, tigers' flesh was supposed to give
+      courage, and snails to give sexual power. The use of fish in connubial
+      feasts is still common. Those who consider it pious or proper to eat fish
+      on Venus' day, or Friday, proclaim themselves, unconsciously, adherents to
+      those heathen ideas which deified parts about which no one now likes to
+      talk. The fish has in one respect affinity with the mandrake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since the first publication of this work, a friend has suggested to me
+      another reason, besides its fertility, for the fish being emblematic of
+      woman. From his extensive experience as a surgeon, and especially among
+      the lower order of courtesans, he has repeatedly noticed during the hot
+      months of the year that the parts which he had to examine have a very
+      strong odour of fish. My own observations in the same department lead me
+      to endorse his assertion. Consequently, I think that in warm climates,
+      where the utmost cleanliness can scarcely keep a female free from odour,
+      scent, as well as other attributes, has had to do with the selection of
+      the fish as an emblem of woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still further, I have been informed by another friend that in Yorkshire,
+      and I understand in other counties of England, the <i>double entente</i>
+      connected with the fish is so marked that it is somewhat difficult to
+      render it into decent phraseology. It will suffice to say that in the
+      county mentioned, Lais or Phryne would be spoken of as "a choice bit of
+      fish," and that a man who bore on his features the stamp which is
+      imprinted by excessive indulgence, would be said to have indulged too much
+      in "a fish diet." I do not suppose that in the Yorkshire Ridings the folks
+      are unusually well acquainted with mythology, yet it is curious to find
+      amongst their inhabitants a connection between Venus and the Fish,
+      precisely similar to that which has obtained in the most remote ages and
+      in far distant climes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is clear from all these facts that the fish is a symbol not only of
+      woman, but of the yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE II.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is supposed to represent Oannes, Dagon, or some other fish god. It is
+      copied from Lajard, <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>, pl. xxii., 1, la, and is
+      thus described, "Statuette inédite, de grès houiller ou micacé, d'un brun
+      verdâtre. Elle porte par devant, sur une bande perpendiculaire, un légende
+      en caractères Syriaques très anciens (<i>Cabinet de M. Lambert, à Lyon</i>)."
+      I can find no clue to the signification of the inscription. It would seem
+      paradoxical to say that there is something in common between the
+      bull-headed deity and Oannes. It is so, nevertheless. One indicates, <i>par
+      excellence</i>, physical, and the other sexual, power. That Oannes may,
+      for the Assyrians, represent a man who played a part with them similar to
+      that of Penn among the Indians of Pennsylvania, I do not deny; but, when
+      we find a similar fish-god in Philistia and Hindostan, and know that
+      Crishna once appeared as a fish, the explanation does not suffice. It is
+      curious that Jesus of Nazareth should be called "a fish"; but this only
+      proves that the religion of Christ has been adulterated by Paganism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 1 and 4 are illustrations of the antelope as a religious emblem
+      amongst the Assyrians. The first is from Layard's <i>Nineveh</i>, and in
+      it we see carried in one hand a triply branched lotus; the second, showing
+      the regard for the spotted antelope, and for "the branch," is from
+      Bonomi's <i>Nineveh and its Palaces</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 illustrates Bacchus, with a mystic branch in one hand, and a cup in
+      the other; his robe is covered with spots arranged in threes. The branch
+      is emblematic of the <i>arbor vitæ</i>, or tree of life, and its powers of
+      sprouting. Such a symbol is, by outsiders, figured on the houses of newly
+      married couples amongst the Jews of Morocco, and seems to indicate the
+      desire of friends that the man will show that he is vigorous, and able to
+      have many sprouts from the tree of life. It will be noticed that on the
+      fillet round the god's head are arranged many crosses. From Hislop's <i>Two
+      Babylons</i>, and Smith's <i>Dictionary</i>, p. 208.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 8 and 5 are intended to show the prevalence of the use of spots on
+      priestly dresses; they are copied from Hislop's <i>Two Babylons</i>, and
+      Wilkinson, vol. vi., pi. 88, and vol. iv., pp. 841, 858. For an
+      explanation of the signification of spots, see Plate iv., Fig. 6, infra.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 represents an Assyrian priest worshipping by presentation of the
+      thumb, which had a peculiar signification. Sometimes the forefinger is
+      pointed instead, and in both cases the male is symbolised. It is taken
+      from a plate illustrating a paper by E. C. Ravenshaw, Esq., in <i>Journal
+      of Royal Asiatic Society</i>, vol. xvi., p. 114. Amongst the Hebrews, and
+      probably all the Shemitic tribes, <i>bohen</i>, the thumb, and <i>ezba</i>,
+      the finger, were euphemisms. They are so in some parts of Europe to the
+      present day.* The hand thus presented to the grove resembles a part of the
+      Buddhist cross, and the shank of a key, whose signification is described
+      in a subsequent page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE III. <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/059.jpg" alt="Plate Iii. 059 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      PLATE IV. <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/062.jpg" alt="Plate Iv. 062 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 is a Buddhist emblem; the two fishes forming the circle represent
+      the mystic yoni, the sacti of Mahadeva, while the triad above them
+      represents the mystic trinity, the triune father, Siva, Bel, or Asher,
+      united with Anu and Hea. From <i>Journal of Royal Asiatic Society</i>,
+      vol. xviii., p. 892, plate ii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 3 is a very remarkable production. It originally belonged to Mons.
+      Lajard, and is described by him in his second <i>Memoire</i>, entitled <i>Recherches
+      sur le Culte, les Symboles, les Attributs, et les Monumens Figurés de
+      Vénus</i> (Paris, 1837), in pages 32, <i>et seq</i>., and figured in plate
+      I., fig. 1. The real age of the gem and its origin are not known, but the
+      subject leads that author to believe it to be of late Babylonian
+      workmanship. The stone is a white agate, shaped like a cone, and the
+      cutting is on its lower face. The shape of this gem indicates its
+      dedication to Venus. The central figures represent the androgyne deity,
+      Baalim, Astaroth, Elohim, Jupiter genetrix, or the bearded Venus Mylitta.
+      On the left side of the cutting we notice an erect serpent, whose rayed
+      head makes us recognise the solar emblem, and its mundane representative,
+      <i>mentula arrecta</i>; on a spot opposite to the centre of the male's
+      body we find a lozenge, symbolic of the yoni, whilst opposite to his feet
+      is the amphora, whose mystic signification may readily be recognised; it
+      is meant for Ouranos, or the Sun fructifying Terra, or the earth, by
+      pouring from himself into her.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A friend has informed me, for example, that he happened,
+     whilst at Pesth, to look at a gorgeously dressed and
+     handsome young woman. To his astonishment she pointed her
+     thumb precisely in the manner adopted by the Assyrian
+     priests; this surprised the young man still farther, and
+     being, as it were, fascinated, he continued to gaze. The
+     damsel then grasped the thumb by the other hand; thus
+     indicating her profession. My friend, who was wholly
+     inexperienced in the ways of the world, only understood what
+     was meant when he saw my explanation of Fig. 1.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The three stars over the head of the figure, and the inverted triangle on
+      its head, are representations of the mythological four, equivalent to the
+      Egyptian symbol of life (figs. 31, 82). Opposite to the female are the
+      moon, and another serpent, which may be recognised by physiologists as
+      symbolic of <i>tensio clitoridis</i>. In a part corresponding to the
+      diamond, on the left side, is a six-rayed wheel, emblematic, apparently,
+      of the sun. At the female's feet is placed a cup, which is intended to
+      represent the passive element in creation. As such it is analogous to the
+      crescent moon, and is associated in the Roman church with the round wafer,
+      the symbol of the sun; the wafer and cup thus being synonymous with the
+      sun and moon in conjunction. It will be observed that each serpent in the
+      plate is apparently attacked by what we suppose is a dragon. There is some
+      difficulty in understanding the exact idea intended to be conveyed by
+      these; my own opinion is that they symbolise Satan, the old serpent that
+      tempted Eve, viz., fierce lust, Eros, Cupid, or desire, which, both in the
+      male and female, brings about the arrectation which the serpents figure.
+      It is not to be passed by without notice, that the snake which represents
+      the male has the tail so curved as to suggest the idea of the second and
+      third elements of the trinity. Monsieur Lajard takes the dragons to
+      indicate the bad principle in nature, i. e., darkness, night, Ahriman,
+      etc. On the pyramidal portion of the gem the four sides are ornamented by
+      figures&mdash;three represent animals remarkable for their salacity, and
+      the fourth represents Bel and Ishtar in conjunction, in a fashion which
+      can be more easily imagined than described in the mother tongue. The
+      learned will find the position assumed in Lucretius, <i>Dê Rerum Naturâ</i>,
+      book iv., lines 1256, seq.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is also copied from Lajard, plate i., fig. 10. It is the reverse of
+      a bronze coin of Vespasian, struck in the island of Cyprus, and represents
+      the conical stone, under whose form Venus was worshipped at Paphos, of
+      which Tacitus remarks, Hist, ii., c. 8, "the statue bears no resemblance
+      to the human form, but is round, broad at one end and gradually tapering
+      at the other, like a goal. The reason of this is not ascertained." It is
+      remarkable that a male emblem should be said to represent Venus, but the
+      stone was an aerolite, like that which fell at Ephesus, and was said to
+      represent Diana. It is clear that when a meteoric stone falls, the chief
+      priests of the district can say that it is to be taken as a representative
+      of their divinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My very ingenious friend, Mr. Newton, suggests that the Venus in question
+      was androgyne; that the cone is a male emblem, within a door, gateway, or
+      delta, thus resembling the Assyrian grove. It is certain that the
+      serpents, the two stars, and the two candelabra, or altars with flame,
+      favour his idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 5 represents the position of the hands assumed by Jewish priests when
+      they give the benediction to their flock. It will be recognised that each
+      hand separately indicates the trinity, whilst the junction of the two
+      indicates the unit. The whole is symbolic of the mystic Arba&mdash;the
+      four, i, e., the trinity and unity. One of my informants told me that,
+      being a "cohen" or priest, he had often administered the blessing, and,
+      whilst showing to me this method of benediction, placed his joined hands
+      so that his nose entered the central aperture. On his doing so, I remarked
+      "<i>bene nasatus</i>," and the expression did more to convince him of the
+      probability of my views than anything else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 6, modified in one form or another, is the position assumed by the
+      hand and fingers, when Homan and Anglican bishops or other hierarchs give
+      benediction to their people. A similar disposition is to be met with in
+      Indian mythology, when the Creator doubles himself into male and female,
+      so as to be in a position to originate new beings. Whilst the right hand
+      in Plate VII. symbolises the male, the left hand represents the mystic
+      feminine circle. In another plate, which is to be found in Moor's <i>Hindu
+      Pantheon</i>, there is a similar figure, but draped fully, and in that the
+      dress worn by the celestial spouse is covered with groups of spots
+      arranged in triads and groups of four. With regard to the signification of
+      spots, we may notice that they indicated, either by their shape or by
+      their name, the emblem of womankind. A story of Indra, the Hindoo god of
+      the sky, confirms this. He is usually represented as bearing a robe
+      covered with eyes; but the legend runs that, like David, he became
+      enamoured of the wife of another man, who was very beautiful and seen by
+      chance, but her spouse was one whose austere piety made him almost equal
+      to Brahma. The evil design of Indra was both frustrated and punished. The
+      woman escaped, but the god became covered with marks that recalled his
+      offence to mind, for they were pictures of the yoni. These, by the strong
+      intercession of Brahma with the Rishi, were changed by the latter into
+      eyes. This story enables us to recognise clearly the hidden symbolism of
+      the Hindoo and Egyptian eye, the oval representing the female, and the
+      circle the male lodged therein&mdash;i.e., the androgyne creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE V. <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/067.jpg" alt="Plate V. 067 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of a mediæval Virgin and Child, as painted in Della Robbia ware
+      in the South Kensington Museum, a copy of which, was given to me by my
+      friend, Mr. Newton, to whose kindness I am indebted for many illustrations
+      of ancient Christian art. It represents the Virgin and Child precisely as
+      she used to be represented in Egypt, in India, in Assyria, Babylonia,
+      Phoenicia, and Etruria; the accident of dress being of no mythological
+      consequence. In the framework around the group, we recognise the triformed
+      leaf, emblematic of Asher; the grapes, typical of Dionysus; the wheat
+      ears, symbolic of Ceres, <i>l'abricot fendu</i>, the mark of womankind,
+      and the pomegranate <i>rimmon</i>, which characterises the teeming mother.
+      The living group, moreover, are placed in an archway, <i>delta</i>, or
+      door, which is symbolic of the female, like the <i>vesica piscis</i>, the
+      oval or the circle. This door is, moreover, surmounted by what appear to
+      be snails, whose supposed virtue we have spoken of under Plate i. This
+      identification of Mary with the Sacti is strong; by-and-by we shall see
+      that it is as complete as it is possible to be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE VI. <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/070.jpg" alt="Plate Vi. 070 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of figures given in Bryant's <i>Ancient Mythology</i>, plates
+      xiii., xxviii., third edition, 1807. The first two illustrate the story of
+      Palemon and Getus, introducing the dolphin. That fish is symbolic of the
+      female, in consequence of the assonance in Greek between its name and that
+      of the womb, <i>delphis and delphus</i>. The tree symbolises the <i>arbor
+      vitæ</i>, the life-giving sprout; and the ark is a symbol of the womb. The
+      third figure, where a man rests upon a rock and dolphin, and toys with a
+      mother and child, is equally suggestive. The male is repeatedly
+      characterised as a rock, hermes, menhir, tolmen, or upright stone, the
+      female by the dolphin, or fish. The result of the junction of these
+      elements appears in the child, whom both parents welcome. The fourth
+      figure represents two emblems of the male creator, a man and trident, and
+      two of the female, a dolphin and ship. The two last figures represent a
+      coin of Apamea, representing Noah and the ark, called <i>Cibotus</i>.
+      Bryant labours to prove that the group commemorates the story told in the
+      Bible respecting the flood, but there is strong doubt whether the story
+      was not of Babylonian origin. The city referred to was in Phrygia, and the
+      coin appears to have been struck by Philip of Macedon. The inscription
+      round the head is [&mdash;Greek inscription&mdash;]See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>,
+      second edition, Vol. ii.., pp. 128, and 885-892.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Supreme Spirit in the act of creation became two-fold; the RIGHT SIDE
+      WAS MALE, THE LEFT WAS PRAKRITI, SHE IS OF ONE FORM WITH BRAMAH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She is Maya, eternal and imperishable, such as the Spirit, such is the
+      inherent energy. (The Sacti) as the Faculty burning is inherent in pure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (Bramah Vaivartta Puranu, Professor Wilson.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/073.jpg" alt="073 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ARDANARI-ISWARA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From an original drawing by Chrisna Swami, Punoit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE VII.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindoo pundit for Wm.
+      Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its mythology.
+      It represents Brahma supreme, who in the act of creation made himself
+      double, i.e. male and female. In the original the central part of the
+      figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too grossly shown
+      for reproduction here. They are replaced by the <i>crux ansata</i>. The
+      reader will notice the triad and the serpent in the male hand, whilst in
+      the female is to be seen a germinating seed, indicative of the relative
+      duties of father and mother. The whole stands upon a lotus, the symbol of
+      androgyneity. The technical word for this incarnation is "Arddha Nari."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE VIII. <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/075.jpg" alt="Plate Iii. 075 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is Devi, the same as Parvati, or Bhavani. It is copied from Moor's <i>Pantheon</i>,
+      plate xxx. The goddess represents the feminine element in the universe.
+      Her forehead is marked by one of the symbols of the four creators, the
+      triad, and the unit. Her dress is covered with symbolic spots, and one
+      foot peculiarly placed is marked by a circle having a dot in the interior.
+      The two bear the same signification as the Egyptian eye. I am not able to
+      define the symbolic import of the articles held in the lower hands. Moor
+      considers that they represent scrolls of paper, but this I doubt. The
+      raised hands bear the unopened lotus flower, and the goddess sits upon
+      another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE IX. <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/078.jpg" alt="Plate Ix. 078 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Consists of six figures, copied from Maurice's <i>Indian Antiquities</i>,
+      vol. vi., p. 278, and two from Bryant's <i>Mythology</i>, vol. ii., third
+      edition, pp. 203 and 409. All are symbolic of the idea of the male triad:
+      a central figure, erect, and rising above the other two. In one an altar
+      and fire indicate, mystically, the linga; in another, the same is
+      pourtrayed as a man, as Madaheva always is; in another, there is a tree
+      stump and serpent, to indicate the same idea. The two appendages of the
+      linga are variously described; in two instances as serpents, in other two
+      as tree and <i>concha</i>, and snake and shell. The two last seem to
+      embody the idea that the right "egg" of the male germinates boys, whilst
+      the left produces girls; a theory common amongst ancient physiologists.
+      The figure of the tree encircled by the serpent, and supported by two
+      stones resembling "tolmen," is very significant. The whole of these
+      figures seem to point unmistakably to the origin of the very common belief
+      that the male Creator is triune. In Assyrian theology the central figure
+      is Bel, Baal, or Asher; the one on the right Ann, that on the left Hea.
+      See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. i., pp. 88-85. *
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are some authors who have treated of tree and serpent worship, and
+      of its prevalence in ancient times, without having, so far as I can see,
+      any idea of that which the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the
+      tree of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man by his
+      subtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise understand, but
+      which to the vulgar are simply trees and snakes. In a fine old bas-relief
+      over the door of the Cathedral at Berne, we see an ancient representation
+      of the last judgment. An angel is dividing the sheep from the goats, and
+      devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing hooks or pincers
+      on the portions of the body whence their sins sprang. One fat priest, nude
+      as our risen bodies must be, is being savagely pulled to hell by the part
+      symbolised by tree and serpent, whilst she whom he has adored and vainly
+      sought to disgrace, is rising to take her place amongst the blest. It is
+      not those of the sex of Eve alone that are inveigled to destruction by the
+      serpent.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * For those who have not an opportunity of consulting the
+     work referred to, I may observe that the Assyrian godhead
+     consisted of four persons, three being male and one female.
+     The principal god was Asher, the upright one, the equivalent
+     of the Hindoo Mahadeva, the great holy one, and of the more
+     modern Priapus. He was associated with Anu, lord of solids
+     and of the lower world, equivalent to the "testis," or egg
+     on the right side. Hea was lord of waters, and represented
+     the left "stone." The three formed the trinity or triad. The
+     female was named Ishtar or Astarte, and was equivalent to
+     the female organ, the yoni or vulva&mdash;the [Greek] of the
+     Greeks. The male god in Egypt was Osiris, the female Isis,
+     and these names are frequently used as being euphemistic,
+     and preferable to the names which are in vulgar use to
+     describe the male and female parts.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      PLATE X. <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/081.jpg" alt="Plate X. 081 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Contains pagan symbols of the trinity or linga, with or without the unity
+      or yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 represents a symbol frequently met with in ancient architecture,
+      etc. It represents the male and female elements, the pillar and the half
+      moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 represents the mystic letters said to have been placed on the
+      portal of the oracle of Delphi. By some it is proposed to read the two
+      letters as signifying "he or she is;" by others the letters are taken to
+      be symbolic of the triad and the unit. If they be, the pillar is a very
+      unusual form for the yoni. An ingenious friend of mine regards the upright
+      portion as a "slit," but I cannot wholly agree with him, for in Fig. 1 the
+      pillar cannot be looked upon as an aperture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 3 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, copied from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>,
+      and is one out of many indicating the union of the male and female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is emblematic of the virgin and child. It identifies the two with
+      the crescent. It is singular that some designers should unite the moon
+      with the solar symbol, and others with the virgin. We believe that the
+      first indicate ideas like that associated with Baalim, and Ashtaroth in
+      the plural, the second that of Astarte or Venus in the singular. Or, as we
+      may otherwise express it, the married and the immaculate virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 5 is copied from Sharpe's <i>Egyptian Mythology</i>, p. 15. It
+      represents one of the Egyptian trinities, and is highly symbolic, not only
+      indicating the triad, here Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys, but its union with
+      the female element. The central god Osiris is himself triune, as he bears
+      the horns symbolic of the goddess Athor and the feathers of the god Ra.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>. The
+      lozenge indicates the yoni. For this assertion we not only have evidence
+      in Babylonian gems, copied by Lajard, but in Indian and Etruscan designs.
+      We find, for example, in vol. v., plate xlv., of <i>Antiquités Etrusques</i>,
+      etc., par. F. A. David (Paris, 1785), a draped female, wearing on her
+      breast a half moon and mural crown, holding her hands over the middle spot
+      of the body, so as to form a "lozenge" with the forefingers and thumbs.
+      The triad in this figure is very distinct; and we may add that a trinity
+      expressed by three balls or three circles is to be met with in the
+      remotest times and in most distant countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are copied from Cabrera's account of an ancient city
+      discovered near Palenque, in Guatemala, Spanish America (London, 1822).
+      Although they appear to have a sexual design, yet I doubt whether the
+      similarity is not accidental. After a close examination of the plates
+      given by Cabrera, I am inclined to think that nothing of the ling-yoni
+      element prevailed in the mind of the ancient American sculptors. All the
+      males are carefully draped in appropriate girdles, although in some a
+      grotesque or other ornament, such as a human or bestial head, a flower,
+      etc., is attached to the apron or "fall" of the girdle, resembling the
+      sporran of the Highlander and the codpiece of mediæval knights and others.
+      I may, however, mention some very remarkable sculptures copied; one is a
+      tree, whose trunk is surrounded by a serpent, and whose fruit is shaped
+      like the <i>vesica piscis</i>; in another is seen a youth wholly
+      unclothed, save by a cap and gaiters, who kneels before a similar tree,
+      being threatened before and behind by some fierce animal. This figure is
+      peculiar, differing from all the rest in having an European rather than an
+      American head and face. Indeed, the features, etc., remind me of the late
+      Mr. Cobden, and the cap is such as yachting sailors usually wear. There is
+      also another remarkable group, consisting apparently of a man and woman
+      standing before a cross, proportioned like the conventional one in use
+      amongst Christians. Everything indicates American ideas, and there are
+      ornaments or designs wholly unlike any that I have seen elsewhere. The man
+      appears to offer to the cross a grotesque human figure, with a head not
+      much unlike Punch, with a turned-up nose, and a short pipe shaped like a
+      fig in his mouth. The body is well formed, but the arms and thighs are
+      rounded off like "flippers" or "fins." Besting at the top of the cross is
+      a bird, like a game cock, ornamented by a necklace. The male in this and
+      the other sculptures is beardless, and that women are depicted, can only
+      be guessed at by the inferior size of some of the figures. It would be
+      unprofitable to carry the description farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 11, 12 are from vol. i., plates xix. and xxiii. of a remarkably
+      interesting work, <i>Recherches sur l' origine, l' esprit, et les progrès
+      des Arts de la Grèce</i>, said to be written by D'Harcanville, published
+      at London, 1785. The first represents a serpent, coiled so as to symbolise
+      the male triad, and the crescent, the emblem of the yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 12 accompanies the bull on certain coins, and symbolises the sexual
+      elements, <i>le baton et l'anneau</i>. They were used, as the horse-shoe
+      is now, as a charm against bad luck, or vicious demons or fairies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 13 is, like figure 5, from Sharpe's <i>Egyptian Mythology</i>, p. 14,
+      and is said to represent Isis, Nepthys, and Osiris; it is one of the many
+      Mizraite triads. The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as
+      surely a pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence of
+      a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and virgins,
+      intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms of faith which
+      deface the greater part of modern religions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 14 is a symbol frequently seen in Greek churches, but appears to be
+      of pre-Christian origin.* The cross we have elsewhere described as being a
+      compound male emblem, whilst the crescent symbolises the female element in
+      creation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 15 is from D'Harcanville, <i>Op. Cit</i>., vol. i., plate xxiii. It
+      resembles Figure 11, <i>supra</i>, and enables us by the introduction of
+      the sun and moon to verify the deduction drawn from the arrangement of the
+      serpent's coils. If the snake's body, instead of being curved above the 8
+      like tail, were straight, it would simply indicate the linga and the sun;
+      the bend in its neck, however, indicates the yoni and the moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 16 is copied from plate xvi., fig. 2, of <i>Recueil de Pierres
+      Antiques Gravés</i>, folio, by J. M. Raponi (Rome, 1786). The gem
+      represents a sacrifice to Priapus, indicated by the rock, pillar, figure,
+      and branches given in our plate. A nude male sacrifices a goat; a draped
+      female holds a kid ready for immolation; a second man, nude, plays the
+      double pipe, and a second woman, draped, bears a vessel on her head,
+      probably containing wine for a libation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 17 is from vol. i. <i>Récherches</i>, etc., plate xxii. In this
+      medal the triad is formed by a man and two coiled serpents on the one side
+      of the medal, whilst on the reverse are seen a tree, surrounded by a
+      snake, situated between two rounded stones, with a dog and a conch shell
+      below. See <i>supra</i>, Plate ix., Fig. 6.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XI. <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/087.jpg" alt="Plate Xi. 087 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      With two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,&mdash;exhibits Christian emblems of
+      the trinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone or combined; the whole
+      being copied from Pugin's <i>Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament</i>
+      (London, 1869).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a double union of
+      the trinity with the unity, here represented as a ring, <i>Vanneau</i>.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the
+     Edinburgh Review&mdash;which almost exhausts the subject&mdash;but is
+     too long for quotation here.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 2, 8, are from Pagin, plate xiv. In figare 2, the two covered balls
+      at the base of each limb of the cross are extremely significant, and if
+      the artist had not mystified the free end, the most obtuse worshipper must
+      have recognised the symbol. We may add here that in the two forms of the
+      Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed, and the egg-shaped
+      bodies, with their cover, are at the free end of each limb, whilst the
+      natural end of the organ is left unchanged. See figs. 85 and 86. This form
+      of cross is Etruscan. Fig. 8 is essentially the same as the preceding, and
+      both may be compared with Fig. 4. The balls in this cross are uncovered,
+      and the free end of each limb of the cross is but slightly modified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate xxxv., fig. 4, of <i>Two
+      Essays on the Worship of Priapus</i> (London, 1865). It is thus described
+      (page 147): "The object was found at St. Agati di Goti, near
+      Naples.......It is a <i>crux ansata</i> formed by four phalli, with a
+      circle of female organs round the centre; and appears by the look to have
+      been intended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no doubt
+      been made for some personage of rank, possibly an ecclesiastic." We see
+      here very distinctly the design of the egg- and sistrum- shaped bodies.
+      When we have such an unmistakable bi-sexual cross before our eyes, it is
+      impossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 8, and Plate xii.,
+      Figs. 4 and 7.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and represent the trinity
+      with the unity, the triune god and the virgin united in one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of a cross, figured
+      plate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the Maltese cross is united with the
+      symbol of the virgin, being essentially the same as Fig. 9, <i>infra</i>.
+      It is a modified form of the <i>crux ansata</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each limb of an
+      ornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 9 is a well-known Egyptian symbol, borne in the hand of almost every
+      divinity. It is a cross, with one limb made to represent the female
+      element in creation. The name that it technically bears is <i>crux ansata</i>,
+      or "the cross with a handle." A reference to Fig. 4 serves to verify the
+      idea which it involves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 10 is from Pugin, plate xxxv. In this figure the cross is made by the
+      intersection of two ovals, each a <i>vesica piscis</i>, an emblem of the
+      yoni. Within each limb a symbol of the trinity is seen, each of which is
+      associated with the central ring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 11 is from Pugin, plate xix., and represents the <i>arbor vitæ</i>,
+      the <i>branch</i>, or tree of life, as a triad, with which the ring is
+      united.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been said by some critics that the figures above referred to are
+      mere architectural fancies, which never had pretensions to embody a
+      mystery; and that any designer would pitch upon such a style of
+      ornamentation although profoundly ignorant of the doctrine of the trinity
+      and unity. But this assumption is not borne out by fact; the ornaments on
+      Buddhist topes have nothing in common with those of Christian churches;
+      whilst in the ruined temple of the sun at Marttand, India, the trefoil
+      emblem of the trinity is common. Grecian temples were profusely ornamented
+      therewith, and so are innumerable Etruscan sculptures, but they do not
+      represent the trinity and unity. It has been reserved for Christian art to
+      crowd our churches with the emblems of Bel and Astarte, Baalim and
+      Ashtoreth, linga and yoni, and to elevate the phallus to the position of
+      the supreme deity, and assign to him a virgin as a companion, who can
+      cajole him by her blandishment, weary him by wailing, or induce him to
+      change his mind by her intercessions. Christianity certainly requires to
+      be purged of its heathenisms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XII. <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/091.jpg" alt="Plate Xii. 091 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Contains both pagan and Christian emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 is from Pugin, plate xviii., and is a very common finial
+      representing the trinity. Its shape is too significant to require an
+      explanation; yet with such emblems our Christian churches abound, that the
+      Trinity may never be absent from the minds of man or woman!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 is from Pugin, plate xxi. It is a combination of ideas concealing
+      the union patent in Fig. 4, Plate xi., <i>supra</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 3 is from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>. It is an ornament borne by
+      Devi, and symbolises the union of the triad with the unit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is from Pugin, plate xxxii. It is a double cross made up of the
+      male and female emblems. It is a conventionalised form of Fig. 4, Plate
+      xi., <i>supra</i>. Such eight-rayed figures, made like stars, seem to have
+      been very ancient, and to have been designed to indicate the junction of
+      male and female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 5 is from Pugin, plate xvii., and represents the trinity and the
+      unity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 6 is a Buddhist emblem from Birmah, <i>Journal of Royal Asiatic
+      Society</i>, vol. xviii., p. 392, plate i., fig. 62. It represents the
+      short sword, <i>le bracquemard</i>, a male symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 7. is from Pagin, plate xvii. See Plate xi., Fig. 3, <i>supra</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are Buddhist (see Fig. 6, supra), and symbolise the
+      triad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are from Pugin, and simply represent the trinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 18 and 19 are common Grecian emblems. The first is associated with
+      Neptune and water, the second with Bacchus. With the one we see dolphins,
+      emblems of the womb, the name of the two being assonant in Greek; with the
+      other, the saying, <i>sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus</i>, must be
+      coupled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XIII. <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/094.jpg" alt="Plate Xiii. 094 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Consists of varions emblems of the triad and the unit, drawn almost
+      exclusively from Grecian, Etruscan, Roman, and Indian gems, figures,
+      coins, or sculptures, Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i>, Raponi's <i>Recueil</i>,
+      and Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, being the chief authorities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XIV. <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/096.jpg" alt="Plate Xiv. 096 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of a small Hindoo statuette in the Mayer Collection in the Free
+      Museum, Liverpool. It probably represents Parvati, the Hindoo virgin, and
+      her child. The right hand of the figure makes the symbol of the yoni with
+      the forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers typifying the triad. In
+      the palm and on the navel is a lozenge, emblematic of woman. The child,
+      perhaps Crishna, equivalent to the Egyptian Horus and the Christian Jesus,
+      bears in its hand one of the many emblems of the linga, and stands upon a
+      lotus. The monkey introduced into the group plays the same part as the
+      cat, cow, lioness, and ape in the Egyptian mythology, being emblematic of
+      that desire which eventuates in the production of offspring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1, the cupola, is well known in modern Europe; it is equally so in
+      Hindostan, where it is sometimes accompanied by pillars of a peculiar
+      shape. In one such compound the design is that of a cupola, supported by
+      closely placed pillars, each of which has a "capital," resembling "the
+      glans" of physiologists; in the centre there is a door, wherein a nude
+      female stands, resembling in all respects Figure 61, except in dress and
+      the presence of the child. This was copied by the late Mr. Sellon, from a
+      Buddhist Dagopa in the Jumnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, a tracing of his
+      sketch having been given to me by William Simpson, Esq., London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same emblem may be found amongst the ancient Italians. Whilst I was
+      staying in Malta during the carnival time in 1872, I saw in all directions
+      men and women selling cakes shaped like the yoni shown in Fig. 1. These
+      sweetmeats had no special name, but they came in and went out with the
+      carnival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 represents Venus standing on a tortoise, whose symbolic import will
+      be seen by referring to Fig. 74, <i>infra</i>. It is copied from Lajard,
+      <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>, plate iiia., fig. 5, and is stated by him to
+      be a drawing of an Etruscan candelabrum, existing in the Royal Museum at
+      Berlin. In his account of Greece, Pausanias mentions that he saw one
+      figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and another upon a ram, but he
+      declines to give the reason of the conjunction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is a representation of Siva, taken from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>,
+      plate xiii. Siva is supposed to be the oldest of the Indian deities, and
+      to have been worshipped by the aborigines of Hindostan, before the Aryans
+      invaded that country. It is thought that the Vedic religion opposed this
+      degrading conception at the first, but was powerless to eradicate it.
+      Though he is yet the most popular of all the gods, Siva is venerated, I
+      understand, chiefly by the vulgar. Though he personifies the male
+      principle, there is not anything indecent in pictorial representations of
+      him. In one of his hands is seen the trident, one of the emblems of the
+      masculine triad; whilst in another is to be seen an oval sistram-shaped
+      loop, a symbol of the feminine unit. On his forehead he bears an eye,
+      symbolic of the Omniscient, the sun, and the union of the sexes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it has been doubted by some readers, whether I am justified in
+      regarding the sistrum as a female emblem, I append here a quotation from
+      Socrates' <i>Ecclesiastical History</i>, Bohn's translation, p. 281, seq.
+      In Rome, in the early time of Theodosius, "when a woman was detected in
+      adultery.... they shut her up in a narrow brothel, and obliged her to
+      prostitute herself in a most disgusting manner; causing little bells to be
+      rang at the time.... As soon as the emperor was apprised of this indecent
+      usage, he would by no means tolerate it; but having ordered the <i>Sistra</i>
+      (for so these places of penal prostitution were denominated) to be pulled
+      down," &amp;c. One can as easily see why a female emblem should mark a
+      brothel in Rome as a male symbol did at Pompeii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XVI. <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/101.jpg" alt="Plate Xvi. 101 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/104.jpg" alt="104 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This Figure represents Assyrian priests offering in the presence of what
+      is supposed to be Baal&mdash;or the representative of the sun god and of
+      the grove. The first is typified by the eye, with wings and a tail, which
+      make it symbolic of the male triad and the female unit. The eye, with the
+      central pupil, is in itself emblematic of the same. The grove represents
+      mystically <i>le verger de Cypris</i>. On the right stands the king; on
+      the left are two priests, the foremost clothed with a fish's skin, the
+      head forming the mitre, thus showing the origin of modern Christian
+      bishops' peculiar head-dress. Arranged about the figures are, the sun; a
+      bird, perhaps the sacred dove, whose note, <i>coa</i> or <i>coo</i>, has,
+      in the Shemitic, some resemblance to an invitation to amorous
+      gratification; in Latin <i>coi</i>, <i>coite</i>; the oval, symbol of the
+      yoni; the basket, or bag, emblematic of the scrotum, and apparently the
+      lotus. The trinity and unity are carried by the second priest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 2 is copied from an ancient copper vase, covered with Egyptian
+      hieroglyphic characters, found at Cairo, and figured in a book entitled <i>Explication
+      des divers monument singuliers, qui ont rapport à la religion des plus
+      anciens peuples</i>, par le R. P. Dom.......á Paris, 1739.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/105.jpg" alt="105 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The group of figures represents Isis and Horus in an unusual attitude.
+      They are enclosed in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean, or
+      of the lotus. This framework may be compared to the Assyrian "grove," and
+      another in which the Virgin Mary stands. The bell was of old a symbol of
+      virginity, for Eastern maidens wore them until marriage (see Isa. iii.
+      16). The origin of this custom was the desire that every maiden should
+      have at her marriage, or sale, that which is spoken of in the Pentateuch
+      as "the token of virginity." It was supposed that this membrane,
+      technically called "the <i>hymen</i>" might be broken by too long a stride
+      in walking or running, or by clambering over a stile or wall. To prevent
+      such a catastrophe, a light chain or cord was worn, under or over the
+      dress, at the level of the knees or just above. Its length only permitted
+      a short step and a mincing gait. Slight bells were used as a sort of
+      ornament, and when the bearer was walking their tinkling was a sort of
+      proclamation that the lady who bore them was in the market as a virgin.
+      After "the flower" had been plucked, the bells were no longer of use. They
+      were analogous to the virgin snood worn on the head of Scotch maidens.
+      Isis bears the horns of a cow, because that animal is equally noted for
+      its propensity to seek the male and its care to preserve the offspring. As
+      the bull with a human head, so a human being with cow's horns, was made to
+      represent a deity. The solar orb between the horns, and the serpent round
+      the body, indicate the union with the male; an incongruous conjunction
+      with the emblem of the sacred Virgin, nevertheless a very common one. In
+      some of the coins pictured by E. P. Knight, in <i>Worship of Priapus</i>,
+      etc., a cow caressing her sucking calf replaces Isis and Horus, just as a
+      bull on other coins replaces Dionysus. The group is described in full in
+      <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. i., pp. 53, 54.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/106.jpg" alt="106 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 3, 4, are taken from Ginsburg's <i>Kabbalah</i>, and illustrate
+      that in the arrangement of "potencies" two unite, like parents, to form a
+      third. Sometimes we see also how three such male attributes as splendour,
+      firmness, and solidity join with beauty to form the mystic <i>arba</i>,
+      the trinity and unity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/107.jpg" alt="107 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 5, 6, are copies from figures found in Carthage and in Scotland,
+      from Forbes Leslie's Early <i>Races of Scotland</i>, vol. i., plate vi.,
+      p. 46 (London, 1866). This book is one to which the reader's attention
+      should be directed. The amount of valuable information which it contains
+      is very large, and it is classified in a philosophical, and, we may add,
+      attractive manner. The figures represent the <i>arbor vitæ</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 7 is from Bonomi, page 292, <i>Nineveh and its Palaces</i> (London,
+      1865). It apparently represents the mystic yoni, door, or delta; and it
+      may be regarded as an earlier form of the framework in Plate iv. It will
+      be remarked, by those learned in symbols, that the outline of the hands of
+      the priests who are nearest to the figure is a suggestive one, being
+      analogous to the figure of a key and its shank, whilst those who stand
+      behind these officers present the pine cone and bag, symbolic of Ann, Hea,
+      and their residence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/108.jpg" alt="108 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is to be noticed, and once for all let us assert our belief, that every
+      detail in a sculpture relating to religion has a signification; that the
+      first right hand figure carries a peculiarly shaped staff; and that the
+      winged symbol above the yoni consists of a male archer in a winged circle,
+      analagous to the symbolic bow, arrow, and target. The bow was an emblem
+      amongst the Romans, and <i>arcum tendere</i> was equivalent to <i>arrigere</i>.
+      In the <i>Golden Ass</i> of Apuleius we find the metaphor used in his
+      account of his dealings with amorous frolicsome Fotis, "Ubi primam
+      sagittam sævi cupidinis in ima procordia mea delapsam excepi, arcum, meum
+      et ipse vigore tetendi."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, we find in Petronius&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Astra igitur mea mens arcum dum tendit in ilia.
+     Ex imo ad summum viva sagitta volat.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Figures 8 to 14 are representations of the goddess mother, the virgin and
+      child, Ishtar or Astarte, Mylitta, Ceres, Rhea, Venus, Sacti, Mary, Yoni,
+      Juno, Mama Ocello.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 8 is a copy of the deified woman or celestial mother, from Idalium,
+      in Cyprus. Fig. 9 is from Egypt, and is remarkable for the cow's horns
+      (for whose signification see Vol. i., p. 54, Ancient Faiths, second
+      edition), which here replace the lunar crescent, in conjunction with the
+      sun, the two being symbolic of hermaphroditism, whilst above is a seat or
+      throne, emblematic of royalty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/109.jpg" alt="109 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The two figures are copied from Rawlinson's <i>Herodotus</i>, vol. ii., p.
+      447, in an essay by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, wherein other illustrations of
+      the celestial virgin are given. Fig. 10 is a copy of plate 59, Moor's
+      Hindu Pantheon, wherein it is entitled, "Crishna nursed by Devaki, from a
+      highly finished picture." In the account of Crishna's birth and early
+      history, as given by Moor (Op. Cit., pp. 197, et seq.), there is as strong
+      a resemblance to the story of Christ as the picture here described has to
+      papal paintings of Mary and Jesus. Fig. 11 is an enlarged representation
+      of Devaki. Fig. 12 is copied from Rawlinson's <i>Ancient Monarchies</i>,
+      vol. iii., p. 899. Fig. 13 is a figure of the mother and child found in
+      ancient Etruria at Volaterra; it is depicted in Fabretti's Italian
+      Glossary, plate xxvi., figure 349.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/110.jpg" alt="110 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is described as a marble statue, now in the Guarnacci Museum. The
+      letters, which are Etruscan, and read from right to left, may be thus
+      rendered into the ordinary Latin characters from left to right, MI: GANA:
+      LARTHIAS ZANL: VELKINEI: ME - SE.; the translation I take to be, "the
+      votive offering of Larthias (a female) of Zanal, ( = Zancle = Messana in
+      Sicily), (wife) of Velcinius, in the sixth month." It is uncertain whether
+      we are to regard the statue as an effigy of the celestial mother and
+      child, or as the representation of some devout lady who has been spared
+      during her pregnancy, her parturition, or from some disease affecting
+      herself and child. Analogy would lead us to infer that the Queen of Heaven
+      is intended. Figure 14 is copied from Hislop's <i>Two Babylons</i>; it
+      represents Indranee, the wife of Indra or Indur, and is to be found in
+      Indur Subba, the south front of the Caves of Ellora, Asiatic Researches,
+      vol. vi., p. 893.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/111.jpg" alt="111 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Indra is equivalent to Jupiter Tonans, and is represented as seated on an
+      elephant; "the waterspout is the trunk of this elephant, and the iris is
+      his bow, which it is not auspicious to point out," Moor's <i>Pantheon</i>,
+      p. 260. He is represented very much as if he were a satyr, Moor's <i>Pantheon</i>,
+      p. 264; but his wife is always spoken of as personified chastity and
+      propriety. Indranee is seated on a lioness, which replaces the cow of
+      Isis, the former resembling the latter in her feminine and maternal
+      instincts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 15, 16, are copies of Diana of the Ephesians; the first is from
+      Hislop, who quotes Kitto's <i>Illustrated Commentary</i>, vol. v., p. 250;
+      the second from Higgins' <i>Anacalypsis</i>, who quotes Montfauçon, plate
+      47. I remember to have seen a figure similar to these in the Royal Museum
+      at Naples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/112.jpg" alt="112 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The tower upon the head represents virginity (see <i>Ancient Faiths</i>,
+      second edition, Vol. i., p. 144); the position of the hand forms a cross
+      with the body: the numerous breasts indicate abundance; the black colour
+      of Figure 16 indicates the ordinary tint of the feminine <i>lanugo</i>,
+      the almost universal colour of the hair of the Orientals being black about
+      the yoni as well as on the head; or, as some mythologists imagine,
+      "Night," who is said to be one of the mothers of creation. (See <i>Ancient
+      Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. n., p. 882.) The emblems upon the body
+      indicate the attributes or symbols of the male and female creators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/113.jpg" alt="113 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 17 is a complicated sign of the yoni, delta, or door of life. It is
+      copied from Bonomi's <i>Palaces of Nineveh</i>, p. 809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 18 signifies the same thing; the priests adoring it present the
+      pine cone and basket, symbolic of Ann, Hea, and their residence. Compare
+      the object of the Assyrian priest's adoration with that adored by a
+      Christian divine, in a subsequent figure. (See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>,
+      second edition, Vol. I., p. 88, et seq., and Vol. n., p. 648.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0027" id="linkimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/114.jpg" alt="114 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 19 is copied from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xxii., fig. 5. It is the
+      impression of an ancient gem, and represents a man clothed with a fish,
+      the head being the mitre; priests thus clothed, often bearing in their
+      hand the mystic bag, are common in Mesopotamian sculptures; two such are
+      figured on Figs. 63, 64, infra. In almost every instance it will be
+      recognised that the fish's head is represented as of the same form as the
+      modern bishop's mitre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0028" id="linkimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/115.jpg" alt="115 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 20 represents two equilateral triangles, infolded so as to make a
+      six-rayed star, the idea embodied being the androgyne nature of the deity,
+      the pyramid with its apex upwards signifying the male, that with the apex
+      downwards the female. The line at the central junction is not always seen,
+      but the shape of the three parallel bars reappears in Hindoo frontlet
+      signs in conjunction with a delta or door, shaped like the "grove" in Fig.
+      17; thus showing that the lines serve also to indicate the masculine
+      triad. The two triangles are also understood as representing fire, which
+      mounts upwards, and water, which flows downwards. Fire again is an emblem
+      of the sun, and water of the passive or yielding element in nature. Fire
+      also typifies Eros or Cupid. Hymen is always represented carrying a torch.
+      It is also symbolic of love; e.g., Southey writes.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "But love is indestructible,
+     Its holy flame for ever burneth;
+     From heaven it came,
+     To heaven returneth."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And again, Scott writes&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "It is not phantasy's hot fire
+     Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly," &amp;c.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Figures 21, 22, are other indications of the same fundamental idea. The
+      first represents Nebo, the Nahbi, or the navel, characterised by a ring
+      with a central mound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0029" id="linkimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/116.jpg" alt="116 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The second represents the circular and upright stone so common in Oriental
+      villages. The two indicate the male and female; and a medical friend
+      resident in India has told me, that he has seen women mount upon the lower
+      stone and seat themselves reverently upon the upright one, having first
+      adjusted their dress so as to prevent it interfering with their perfect
+      contact with the miniature obelisc. During the sitting, a short prayer
+      seemed flitting over the worshippers' lips, but the whole affair was soon
+      over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst upon this subject, it is right to call attention to the fact that
+      animate as well as inorganic representatives of the Creator have been used
+      by women with the same definite purpose. The dominant idea is that contact
+      with the emblem, a mundane representative of the deity, of itself gives a
+      blessing. Just as many Hindoo females seek a benefaction by placing their
+      own yoni upon the consecrated linga, so a few regard intercourse with
+      certain high priests of the Maharajah sect as incarnations of Vishnu, and
+      pay for the privilege of being spouses of the god. In Egypt, where the
+      goat was a sacred animal, there were some religious women who sought good
+      luck by uniting themselves therewith. We have heard of British professors
+      of religion endeavouring to persuade their penitents to procure purity by
+      what others would call defilement and disgrace. And the "cord of St.
+      Francis" replaces the stone "linga." Sometimes with this "cord" the rod is
+      associated; and those who have read the trial of Father Gerard, for his
+      seduction of Miss Cadiére under a saintly guise, will know that
+      Christianity does not always go hand in hand with propriety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Hindoo custom compare that which was done by Liber on the grave
+      of Prosumnus (<i>Arnobius adverma Gentes</i>, translated by Bryce and
+      Campbell, T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, pp. 252, 258), which is far too
+      gross to be described here; and as regards the sanctity of a stone whose
+      top had been anointed with oil, see first sentence of paragraph 89, ibid,
+      page 81. The whole book will well repay perusal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 28, 24, are discs, circles, aureoles, and wheels, to represent the
+      sun. Sometimes the emblem of this luminary is associated with rays, as in
+      Plate iii., Fig. 8, and in another Figure elsewhere. Occasionally, as in
+      some of the ancient temples in Egypt discovered in 1854, the sun's rays
+      are represented by lines terminating in hands. Sometimes one or more of
+      these contain objects as if they were gifts sent by the god; amongst other
+      objects, the <i>crux ansata</i> is shown conspicuously. In a remarkable
+      plate in the Transactions of the <i>Royal Society of Literature</i>
+      (second series, vol. i., p. 140), the sun is identified with the serpent;
+      its rays terminate in hands, some holding the handled cross or <i>tau</i>,
+      and before it a queen, apparently, worships. She is offering what seems to
+      be a lighted tobacco pipe, the bowl being of the same shape as that
+      commonly used in Turkey; from this a wavy pyramid of flame rises. Behind
+      her, two female slaves elevate the sistrum; whilst before her, and
+      apparently between herself and her husband, are two altars occupied by
+      round cakes and one crescent-shaped emblem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0030" id="linkimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/118.jpg" alt="118 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The aureole was used in ancient days by Babylonian artists or sculptors,
+      when they wished to represent a being, apparently human, as a god. The
+      same plan has been adopted by the moderns, who have varied the symbol by
+      representing it now as a golden disc, now as a terrestrial orb, again as a
+      rayed sphere. A writer, when describing a god as a man, can say that the
+      object he sketches is divine; but a painter thinks too much of his art to
+      put on any of his designs, "this woman is a goddess," or "this creature is
+      a god"; he therefore adds an aureole round the head of his subject, and
+      thus converts a very ordinary man, woman, or child into a deity to be
+      reverenced; modern artists thus proving themselves to be far more skilful
+      in depicting the Almighty than the carpenters and goldsmiths of the time
+      of Isaiah (xl. 18, 19, xli. 6, 7, xliv. 9-19), who used no such
+      contrivance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 24 is another representation of the solar disc, in which it is
+      marked with a cross. This probably originated in the wheel of a chariot
+      having four spokes, and the sun being likened to a charioteer. The
+      chariots of the sun are referred to in 2 Kings xxiii. 11 as idolatrous
+      emblems. Of these the wheel was symbolic. The identification of this
+      emblem with the sun is very easy, for it has repeatedly been found in
+      Mesopotamian gems in conjunction with the moon. In a very remarkable one
+      figured in Rawlinson's <i>Ancient Monarchies</i>, vol. ii., p. 249, the
+      cross is contrived as five circles. It is remarkable that in many papal
+      pictures the wafer and the cup are depicted precisely as the sun and moon
+      in conjunction. See Pugin's Architectural Glossary, plate iv., fig. 5.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0031" id="linkimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/119.jpg" alt="119 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 25, 26, 27, are simply varieties of the solar wheel, intended to
+      represent the idea of the sun and moon, the mystic triad and unit, the
+      "arba," or four. In Figure 26, the mural ornament is introduced, that
+      being symbolic of feminine virginity. For explanation of Figure 27, see
+      Figures 85, 86.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 28 is copied from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate xiv. F. That author
+      states that he has taken it from a drawing of an Egyptian stèle, made by
+      M. E. Prisse (<i>Monum. Egypt</i>., plate xxxvii.), and that the original
+      is in the British Museum. There is an imperfect copy of it in Rawlinson's
+      <i>Herodotus</i>, vol. ii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0032" id="linkimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/120.jpg" alt="120 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The original is too indelicate to be represented fully. Isis, the central
+      figure, is wholly nude, with the exception of her head-dress, and neck and
+      breast ornaments. In one hand she holds two blades of corn apparently,
+      whilst in the other she has three lotus flowers, two being egg-shaped, but
+      the central one fully expanded; with these, which evidently symbolise the
+      mystic triad, is associated a circle emblematic of the yoni, thus
+      indicating the fourfold creator. Isis stands upon a lioness; on one side
+      of her stands a clothed male figure, holding in one hand the <i>crux
+      ansata</i>, and in the other an upright spear. On the opposite side is a
+      male figure wholly nude, like the goddess, save his head-dress and collar,
+      the ends of which are arranged so as to form a cross. His hand points to a
+      flagellum; behind him is a covert reference to the triad, whilst in front
+      Osiris offers undisguised homage to Isis. The head-dress of the goddess
+      appears to be a modified form of the crescent moon inverted. It is not
+      exclusively Egyptian, as it has been found in conjunction with other
+      emblems on an Assyrian obelisc of Phallic form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0033" id="linkimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/121.jpg" alt="121 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 29, 30, 31, 32, represent the various triangles and their union,
+      which have been adopted in worship. Figure 29 is said to represent fire,
+      which amongst the ancient Persians was depicted as a cone, whilst the
+      figure inverted represents water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0034" id="linkimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/122.jpg" alt="122 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 33 is an ancient Hindoo emblem, called Sri Iantra. The circle
+      represents the world, in which the living exist; the triangle pointing
+      upwards shows the male creator; and the triangle with the apex downwards
+      the female; distinct, yet united. These have a world within themselves, in
+      which the male is uppermost. In the central circle the image to be
+      worshipped is placed. When used, the figure is placed on the ground, with
+      Brahma to the east, and Laksmi to the west. Then a relic of any saint, or
+      image of Buddha, like a modern papal crucifix, is added, and the shrine
+      for worship is complete. It has now been adopted in Christian churches and
+      Freemasons' lodges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be noticed that the male emblem points to the rising sun, and the
+      female triangle points to the setting sun, when the earth seems to receive
+      the god into her couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0035" id="linkimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/123.jpg" alt="123 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 34 is a very ancient Hindoo emblem, whose real signification I am
+      unable to divine. It is used in calculation; it forms the basis of some
+      game, and it is a sign of vast import in sacti worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A coin, bearing this figure upon it, and having a central cavity with the
+      Etruscan letters SUPEN placed one between each two of the angles, was
+      found in a fictile urn, at Volaterræ, and is depicted in Fabretti's <i>Italian
+      Glossary</i>, plate xxvi., fig. 858, bis a. As the coin is round, the
+      reader will see that these letters may be read as Supen, Upens, Pensu,
+      Ensup, or Nsupe. A search through Fabretti's <i>Lexicon</i> affords no
+      clue to any meaning except for the third. There seems, indeed, strong
+      reason to believe that <i>pensu</i> was the Etruscan form of the Pali <i>panca</i>,
+      the Sanscrit <i>pânch</i>, the Bengalli <i>pânch</i>, and the Greek <i>penta</i>,
+      i. e., five. Five, certainly, would be an appropriate word for the
+      pentangle. It is almost impossible to avoid speculating upon the value of
+      this fragment of archæological evidence in support of the idea that the
+      Greeks, Aryans, and Etruscans had something in common; but into the
+      question it would be unprofitable to enter here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, although declining to enter upon this wide field of inquiry, I would
+      notice that whilst searching Fabretti's <i>Glossary</i> my eye fell upon
+      the figure of an equilateral triangle with the apex upwards, depicted
+      plate xliii., fig. 2440 ter. The triangle is of brass, and was found in
+      the territory of the Falisci. It bears a rude representation of the
+      outlines of the soles of two human feet, in this respect resembling a
+      Buddhist emblem; and there is on its edge an inscription which may be
+      rendered thus in Roman letters, KAYI: TERTINEI. POSTIKNU, which probably
+      signifies "Gavia, the wife of Tertius, offered it." The occurrence of two
+      Hindoo symbols in ancient Italy is very remarkable. It must, however, be
+      noticed that similar symbols have been found on ancient sculptured stones
+      in Ireland and Scotland. There may be no emblematic ideas whatever
+      conveyed by the design; but when the marks appear on Gnostic gems, they
+      are supposed to indicate death, i. e., the impressions left by the feet of
+      the individual as he springs from earth to heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0036" id="linkimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/124.jpg" alt="124 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 35, 36, are Maltese crosses. In a large book of Etrurian
+      antiquities, which came casually under my notice about twenty years ago,
+      when I was endeavouring to master the language, theology, etc., of the
+      Etruscans, but whose name, and other particulars of which, I cannot now
+      remember; I found depicted two crosses, made up of four masculine triads,
+      each <i>asher</i> being erect, and united to its fellows by the gland,
+      forming a central diamond, emblem of the yoni. In one instance, the limbs
+      of the cross were of equal length; in the other, one <i>asher</i> was
+      three times as long as the others. A somewhat similar cross, but one
+      united with the circle, was found some time ago near Naples. It is made of
+      gold, and has apparently been used as an amulet and suspended to the neck.
+      It is figured in plate 35 of <i>An Essay on the Worship of the Generative
+      Powers during the Middle Ages</i> (London, privately printed, 1865). It
+      may be thus described: the centre of the circle is occupied by four oblate
+      spheres arranged like a square; from the salient curves of each of these
+      springs a yoni (shaped as in Figure 59), with the point outwards, thus
+      forming a cross, each ray of which is an egg and fig. At each junction of
+      the ovoids a yoni is inserted with the apex inwards, whilst from the broad
+      end arise four ashers, which project beyond the shield, each terminating
+      in a few golden bead-like drops. The whole is a graphic natural
+      representation of the intimate union of the male and female, sun and moon,
+      cross and circle, Ouranos and Ge. The same idea is embodied in Figure 27,
+      p. 86, but in that the mystery is deeply veiled, in that the long arms of
+      the cross represent the sun, or male, indicated by the triad; the short
+      ones, the moon, or the female (see Plate xi. Fig. 4).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Maltese cross, a Phoenician emblem, was discovered cut on a rock in
+      the island from which it takes its name. Though cruciform, it had nothing
+      Christian about it; for, like the Etruscan ones referred to above, it
+      consisted of four lingas united together by the heads, the "eggs" being at
+      the outside. It was an easy thing for an unscrupulous priesthood to
+      represent this "invention" of the cross as a miracle, and to make it
+      presentable to the eyes of the faithful by leaving the outlines of Anu and
+      Hea incomplete. Sometimes this cross is figured as four triangles meeting
+      at the points, which has the same meaning, Generally, however, the Church
+      (as may be seen by a reference to Pugin's <i>Glossary of Ecclesiastical
+      Ornament</i>) adopts the use of crosses where the inferior members of the
+      trinity are more or less central, as in our Plate xi., Figs. 2, 8, and as
+      in the Figures 40, 41, 42, <i>infra</i>. When once a person knows the true
+      origin of the doctrine of the Trinity&mdash;one which is far too improper
+      to have been adopted by the writers of the New Testament&mdash;it is
+      impossible not to recognise in the signs which are symbolic of it the
+      thing which is signified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may readily be supposed that those who have knowledge of the heathenish
+      origin of many of the cherished doctrines of the so-called Christian
+      church, cannot remain enthusiastic members of her communion; and it is
+      equally easy for the enlightened philosopher to understand why such
+      persons are detested and abused by the ignorant, and charged with being
+      freethinkers, sceptics, or atheists. Sciolism is ever intolerant, and
+      theological hatred is generally to be measured by the mental incapacity of
+      those who indulge in the luxury. But no amount of abuse can reduce the
+      intrinsic value of facts. Nor will the most fiery persecution demonstrate
+      that the religion of Christ, as it appears in our churches and cathedrals,
+      especially if they are papal, is not tainted by a mass of paganism of
+      disgusting origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0037" id="linkimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/126.jpg" alt="126 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 37 is copied from the <i>Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society</i>,
+      vol. xviii., p 898, plate 4. It is a Buddhist emblem, and represents the
+      same idea under different aspects. Each limb of the cross represents the
+      <i>fascinum</i> at right angles with the body, and presented towards a
+      barleycorn, one of the symbols of the yoni. Each limb is marked by the
+      same female emblem, and terminates with the triad triangle; beyond this
+      again is seen the conjunction of the sun and moon. The whole therefore
+      represents the mystic curba, the creative four, by some called Thor's
+      hammer. Copies of a cross similar to this have been recently found by Dr.
+      Schliemann in a very ancient city, buried under the remains of two others,
+      which he identifies as the Troy of Homer's Iliad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0038" id="linkimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/127.jpg" alt="127 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 38 to 42 are developments of the triad triangle, or trinity. If
+      the horizontal limb on the free end of the arm were to be prolonged to
+      twice its length, the most obtuse would recognise <i>Asher</i>, and the
+      inferior or lower members of the "triune."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 43 is by Egyptologists called the 'symbol of life.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is also called the 'handled cross,' or <i>crux ansata</i>. It
+      represents the male triad and the female unit, under a decent form. There
+      are few symbols more commonly met with in Egyptian art than this. In some
+      remarkable sculptures, where the sun's rays are represented as terminating
+      in hands, the offerings which these bring are many a <i>crux ansata</i>,
+      emblematic of the truth that a fruitful union is a gift from the deity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 44, 45, are ancient designs, in which the male and female elements
+      are more disguised than is usual. In Fig. 44 the woman is indicated by the
+      dolphin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0039" id="linkimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/128.jpg" alt="128 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 48, 49, represent the trefoil which was used by the ancient
+      Hindoos as emblematic of the celestial triad, and adopted by modern
+      Christians. It will be seen that from one stem arise three
+      curiously-shaped segments, each of which is supposed to resemble the male
+      <i>scrotum, "purse," "bag," or "basket</i>.".
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 50 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 2. He
+      states that it is from a gem cylinder in the British Museum. It represents
+      a male and female figure dancing before the mystic palm-tree, into whose
+      signification we need not enter beyond saying that it is a symbol of
+      Asher. Opposite to a particular part of the figures is to be seen a
+      diamond, or oval, and a <i>fleur de lys</i>, or symbolic triad. This gem
+      is peculiarly valuable, as it illustrates in a graphic manner the meaning
+      of the emblems in question and how the "lillies of France" had a pagan
+      origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0040" id="linkimage-0040">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/129.jpg" alt="129 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 51 to 60 are varions representations of the union of the four, the
+      arba, the androgyne, or the linga-yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 61. In modern Christian art this symbol is called <i>vesica piscis</i>,
+      and is sometimes surrounded with rays. It commonly serves as a sort of
+      framework in which female saints are placed, who are generally the
+      representatives of the older Juno, Ceres, Diana, Venus, or other
+      impersonations of the feminine element in creation. We should not feel
+      obliged to demonstrate the truth of this assertion if decency permitted us
+      to reproduce here designs which naughty youths so frequently chalk upon
+      walls to the disgust of the proper part of the community. We must,
+      therefore, have resort to a religious book, and in a subsequent figure
+      demonstrate the meaning of the symbol unequivocally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0041" id="linkimage-0041">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/130.jpg" alt="130 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 62 represents one of the forms assumed by the sistrum of Isis.
+      Sometimes the instrument is oval, and occasionally it terminates below in
+      a horizontal line, instead of in an acute angle. The inquirer can very
+      readily recognise in the emblem the symbol of the female creator. If there
+      should be any doubt in his mind, he will be satisfied after a reference to
+      Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i> (Rome, 1707), vol. ii., plate 61,
+      wherein Diana of the Ephesians is depicted as having a body of the exact
+      shape of the sistrum figured in Payne Knight's work on the remains of the
+      worship of Priapus, etc. The bars across the sistrum show that it denotes
+      a pure virgin (see <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. n., pp.
+      743-746). On its handle is seen the figure of a cat&mdash;a sacred animal
+      amongst the Egyptians, for the same reason that Isis was figured sometimes
+      as a cow&mdash;viz., for its salacity and its love for its offspring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0042" id="linkimage-0042">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/131.jpg" alt="131 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 63 to 66 are all drawn from Assyrian sources.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0043" id="linkimage-0043">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/132.jpg" alt="132 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The central figure, which is probably the biblical "grove," represents the
+      delta, or female "door." To it the attendant genii offer the pine cone and
+      basket. The signification of these is explained subsequently. I was unable
+      at first to quote any authority to demonstrate that the pine cone was a
+      distinct masculine symbol, but now the reader may be referred to Maffei,
+      <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i> (Rome, 1708), where, in vol. iii., he will
+      see a Venus Tirsigera.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The goddess in plate 8, is nude, and carries in her hand the tripliform
+      arrow, emblem of the male triad, whilst in the other she bears a thyrsus,
+      terminating in a pine or fir cone. Now this cone and stem are carried in
+      the Bacchic festivities, and can be readily recognised as <i>virga cum ovo</i>.
+      Sometimes the thyrsus is replaced by ivy leaves, which, like the fig, are
+      symbolic of the triple creator. Occasionally the thyrsus was a lance or
+      pike, round which vine leaves and berries were clustered; Bacchus <i>cum
+      vino</i> being the companion of Venus <i>cum cerere</i>. But a stronger
+      confirmation of my views may be found in a remarkable group (see Fig. 124
+      infra). This is entitled <i>Sacrifizio di Priapo</i>, and represents a
+      female offering to Priapus. The figure of the god stands upon a pillar of
+      three stones, and it bears a thyrsus from which depend two ribbons. The
+      devotee is accompanied by a boy, who carries a pine- or fir- cone in his
+      hand, and a basket on his head, in which may be recognised a male effigy.
+      In Figure 64 the position of the advanced hand of each of the priests
+      nearest to the grove is very suggestive to the physiologist. It resembles
+      one limb of the Buddhist cross, Fig. 37, <i>supra</i>. The finger or thumb
+      when thus pointed are figurative of Asher, in a horizontal position, with
+      Anu or Hea hanging from one end. Figure 65 is explained similarly. It is
+      to be noticed that a door is adopted amongst modern Hindoos as an emblem
+      of the sacti (see Figs. 152, 153, <i>infra</i>).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0044" id="linkimage-0044">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/133.jpg" alt="133 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      My friend Mr. Newton, who has taken great interest in the subject of
+      symbolism, regards these "groves" as not being simply emblems of the yoni,
+      but of the union of that part with the lingam, or mystic palm tree. As his
+      ideas are extremely ingenious, and his theory perfect, I have requested
+      him to introduce them at the end of this work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 67, 68, 69, are fancy sketches intended to represent the "sacred
+      shields" spoken of in Jewish and other history. The last is drawn from
+      memory, and represents a Templar's shield. According to the method in
+      which the shield is viewed, it appears like the <i>os tincæ</i> or the
+      navel. Figures 70, 71, represent the shape of the sistrum of Isis, the
+      fruit of the fig, and the yoni. When a garment of this shape is made and
+      worn, it becomes the "pallium" donned alike by the male and female
+      individuals consecrated to Roman worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King, in his <i>Ancient Gnostics</i>, remarks: "The circle of the sun is
+      the navel, which marks the natural position of the womb&mdash;the navel
+      being considered in the microcosm as corresponding to the sun in the
+      universe, an idea more fully exemplified in the famous hallucination of
+      the Greek anchorites touching the mystical 'Light of Tabor,' which was
+      revealed to the dèvotee after a fast of many days, all the time staring
+      fixedly upon the region of the navel, whence at length this light streamed
+      as from a focus." Pages 158, 154.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0045" id="linkimage-0045">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/134.jpg" alt="134 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop, and a modern nun
+      wearing the emblem of the female sex. In the former, said (in <i>Old
+      England Pictorially Illustrated</i>, by Knight) to be a drawing of St.
+      Augustine, the amount of symbolism is great. The "nimbus" and the tonsure
+      are solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded with phallic
+      crosses; its lower end is the ancient T the mark of the masculine triad;
+      the right hand has the forefinger extended, like the Assyrian priests
+      whilst doing homage to the grove, and within it is the fruit, <i>tappuach</i>,
+      which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons the pallium in
+      worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the unity, the <i>arba</i>,
+      or mystic four. See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. n., pp.
+      915-918.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of King's <i>Gnostics
+      and their Remains</i>, (Bell &amp; Daldy, London, 1864). To this period
+      belongs a beautiful sard in my collection representing Serapis,... whilst
+      before him <i>stands</i> Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the
+      other a wheatsheaf, with the legend... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the
+      very terms applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form
+      (the 'Black Virgins,' so highly reverenced in certain French Cathedrals
+      during the middle ages, proved, when examined critically, basalt figures
+      of Isis), her symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Her devotees carried into
+      the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the obligation
+      to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting, unfortunately, the
+      frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed. The sacred image still
+      moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at it, vi. 530.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0046" id="linkimage-0046">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/135.jpg" alt="135 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Escorted by the tonsured surpliced train. Her proper title, Domina, the
+      exact translation of Sanscrit Isi, survives with slight change in the
+      modern Madonna, Mater Domina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a singular permutation the flower borne by each, the lotus&mdash;ancient
+      emblem of the sun and fecundity&mdash;now re-named the lily, is
+      interpreted as significant of the opposing quality. The tinkling
+      sistrum... is replaced by... the bell, taken from Buddhist usages.... The
+      erect oval symbol of the Female Principle of Nature became the Vesica
+      Piscis, and the Crux Ansata, testifying the union of the male and female
+      in the most obvious manner, is transformed into the orb surmounted by the
+      cross, as an ensign of royalty. Pp. 71, 72.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0047" id="linkimage-0047">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/136.jpg" alt="136 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 74 is a well known Christian emblem, called "a foul anchor." The
+      anchor, as a symbol, is of great antiquity. It may be seen on an old
+      Etruscan coin in the British Museum, depicted in <i>Veterum Popvlorum et
+      Regum Nummi</i>, etc. (London, 1814), plate ii., fig. 1. On the reverse
+      there is a chariot wheel. The foul anchor represents the crescent moon,
+      the yoni, ark, navis, or boat; in this is placed the mast, round which the
+      serpent, the emblem of life in the "verge," entwines itself. The cross
+      beam completes the mystic four, symbolic alike of the sun and of
+      androgeneity. The whole is a covert emblem of that union which results in
+      fecundity. It is said by Christians to be the anchor of the soul, sure and
+      steadfast. This it certainly cannot be, for a foul anchor will not hold
+      the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 75 to 79 are Asiatic and Egyptian emblems in use amongst
+      ourselves, and receive their explanation similarly to preceding ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 80 is copied from Godfrey Higgins' <i>Anacalypsis</i>, vol. ii.,
+      fig. 27. It is drawn from Montfauçon, vol. ii., pi. cxxxii., fig. 6. In
+      his text, Higgins refers to two similar groups, one which exists in the
+      Egyptian temple of Ipsambal in Nubia, and is described by Wilson, <i>On
+      Buddhists and Jeynes</i>, p. 127, another, found in a cave temple in the
+      south of India, described by Col. Tod, in his <i>History of Raj-pootanah</i>.
+      The group is not explained by Montfauçon. It is apparently Greek, and
+      combines the story of Hercules with the seductiveness of Circe. The tree
+      and serpent are common emblems, and have even been found in Indian temples
+      in central America, grouped as in the woodcut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0048" id="linkimage-0048">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/137.jpg" alt="137 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0049" id="linkimage-0049">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/138.jpg" alt="138 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 81 is copied from Lajard, <i>Culte de Venus</i>, plate xix., fig.
+      11, The origin of this, which is a silver statuette in that author's
+      possession, is unknown. The female represents Venus bearing in one hand an
+      apple; her arm rests upon what seems to be a representative of the mystic
+      triad (the two additions to the upright stem not being seen in a front
+      view) round which a dolphin for 'womb' is entwined, from whose mouth comes
+      the stream of life. The apple plays a strange part in Greek and Hebrew
+      mythology. The story of "the apple of discord," awarded by Paris to Venus,
+      seems to indicate that where beauty contends against majesty and wisdom
+      for the love of youth, it is sure to win the day. We learn from Arnobius
+      that a certain Nana conceived a son by an apple (Op, Cit., p. 286),
+      although in another place the prolific fruit is said to have been a
+      pomegranate. Mythologically, that writer sees no difficulty in the story,
+      for those who affirm that rocks and hard stones have brought forth. In the
+      Song of Solomon, apples and the tree that bears them are often referred
+      to; and we have in Ch. ii. 5 the curious expression, "Comfort me with
+      apples, for I am sick of love." We are familiar with the account of Eve
+      being tempted by the same fruit. Critics imagine that as the apple in
+      Palestine is not good eating, the quince is meant; if so, we know that a
+      leaf of that tree is to be seen in every amorous picture found in Pompeii,
+      the plant having been supposed to increase virile power. Others imagine
+      that the citron is intended, whose shape makes it an emblem of the testis.
+      However this may be decided, it is tolerably clear, from all the tales and
+      pictures in which a fruit like the apple figures, that the emblem
+      symbolised a desire for an intimate union between the sexes. The reader
+      will doubtless remember how, in Genesis xxx, Leah is represented as
+      purchasing her husband's company for a night by means of mandrakes, the
+      result being the birth of Issachar; and in the well-known story of the
+      Creation we find that the apple gives birth to desire, as shown in the
+      recognition for the first time of the respective nudity of the couple,
+      which was followed immediately, or as soon as it was possible afterwards,
+      by sexual intercourse and the conception of Cain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0050" id="linkimage-0050">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/139.jpg" alt="139 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 82 is from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xivb, fig. 3.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gem is of unknown origin, but is apparently Babylonish; it represents
+      the male and female in conjunction: each appears to be holding the symbol
+      of the triad in much respect, whilst the curious cross suggests a new
+      reading to an ancient symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have of late heard it asserted, by a man of considerable learning,
+      though of a very narrow mind in everything which bears upon religious
+      subjects, that there is no proof that the sun was commonly regarded as a
+      male, or the moon as a female; and he based his strange assertion solely
+      upon the ground that in German and some other languages the sun was
+      represented by a feminine, and the moon by a masculine noun. The argument
+      is of no value, for [&mdash;Greek&mdash;] and other Greek and Latin names
+      of the yoni, are masculine nouns, and Virga and Mentula, the Roman words
+      for the Linga, are feminine. In Hindostan, the sun is always represented
+      as a God; the moon is occasionally a male, and sometimes a female deity.
+      In ancient Gaulish and Scandinavian figures, the sun was always a male,
+      and the moon a female. Their identification will be seen in Figure 118&mdash;as
+      their conjunction is in the one before us&mdash;in the position of the
+      individuals, and in the <i>fleur-de-lys</i> and oval symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0051" id="linkimage-0051">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/140.jpg" alt="140 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 88 may be found in Fabretti's <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Italicarum</i>
+      (Turin, 1867), plate xxv., fig. 808 f. The coins which bear the figures
+      are of brass, and were found at Volaterræ. In one the double head is
+      associated with a dolphin and crescent moon on the reverse, and the
+      letters Velathri, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the one
+      containing the club. The club, formed as in Figure 88, occurs frequently
+      on Etruscan coins. For example, two clubs are joined with four balls on a
+      Tudertine coin, having on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for
+      fighting, and four balls arranged in a square. On other coins are to be
+      seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripliform figures,
+      associated with three balls in a triangle; sometimes two, and sometimes
+      one. The double head with two balls is seen on a Telamonian coin, having
+      on the reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned upwards. In a
+      coin of Populonia the club is associated with a spear and two balls,
+      whilst on the reverse is a single head. I must notice, too, that on other
+      coins a hammer and pincers, or tongs, appear, as if the idea was to show
+      that a maker, fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be symbolised.
+      What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which a head appears
+      thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two statuettes of silver have been
+      found, representing a double-faced individual. A lion's head for a cap, a
+      collar, and buskins are the sole articles of dress worn. One face appears
+      to be feminine, and the other masculine, but neither is bearded. The
+      pectorals and the general form indicate the male, but the usual marks of
+      sex are absent. On these have been found Etruscan inscriptions (1) v.
+      cvinti arntias CULPIANSI ALP AN TURCE; (2) V. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ
+      alpan TUBCE. Which may be rendered (1) "V. Quintus of Aruntia, to Culpian
+      pleasing, a gift"; (2) "V. Quintus of Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a
+      gift," evidently showing that they were ex voto offerings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0052" id="linkimage-0052">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/141.jpg" alt="141 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Col. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49 it is associated
+      with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The design is spoken of as "the
+      spectacle ornament," and it is very commonly associated with another
+      figure closely resembling the letter Z. It is very natural for the
+      inquirer to associate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or the sun
+      common amongst the sculptured stones in Scotland. Four varieties may be
+      seen in plate 48 of sun and moon. On one Scottish monument the circles
+      represent wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot. As yet I
+      have only been able to meet with the Z and "spectacle ornament" once out
+      of Scotland; it is figured on apparently a Gnostic gem (<i>The Gnostics
+      and their Remains</i>, by C. W. King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig. 5). In
+      that we see in a serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having the down
+      stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating in a circle;
+      besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray terminating in a circle,
+      precisely resembling the star in Plate in., Fig. 8, supra. I can offer no
+      satisfactory explanation of the emblem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0053" id="linkimage-0053">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/142.jpg" alt="142 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 85, 86, represent a Yorkshire and an Indian stone circle. The
+      first is copied from <i>Descriptions of Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and
+      other Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian Monuments in the Dekkan</i>, by Col.
+      Meadows Taylor, <i>Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy</i>, vol. xxiv.
+      The mound exists at Twizell, Yorkshire, and the centre of the circle
+      indicates an ancient tomb, very similar to those found by Taylor in the
+      Dekkan; this contained only one single urn, but many of the Indian ones
+      contained, besides the skeleton of the great man buried therein, skeletons
+      of other individuals who had been slaughtered over his tomb, and buried
+      above the kistvaen containing his bones; in one instance two bodies and
+      three heads were found in the principal grave, and twenty other skeletons
+      above and beside it. A perusal of this very interesting paper will well
+      repay the study bestowed upon it. Figure 86 is copied from Forbes Leslie's
+      book mentioned above, plate 59. It represents a modern stone circle in the
+      Dekkan, of very recent construction. The dots upon the stones represent
+      dabs of red paint, which again represent blood. The circles are similar to
+      some which have been found in Palestine, and give evidence of the presence
+      of the same religious ideas existing in ancient England and Hindostan, as
+      well as in modern India. The name of the god worshipped in these recent
+      shrines is Vetal, or Betal. It is worth mentioning, in passing, that there
+      is a celebrated monolith in Scotland called the Newton Stone, on which are
+      inscribed, evidently with a graving tool, an inscription in the Ogham, and
+      another in some ancient Aryan character (see Moore's Ancient Pillar Stones
+      of Scotland).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0054" id="linkimage-0054">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/143.jpg" alt="143 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 87 indicates the solar wheel, emblem of the chariot of Apollo. This
+      sign is a very common one upon ancient coins; sometimes the rays or spokes
+      are four, at others they are more numerous. Occasionally the tire of the
+      wheel is absent, and amongst the Etruscans the nave is omitted. The solar
+      cross is very common in Ireland, and amongst the Romanists generally as a
+      head dress for male saints.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0055" id="linkimage-0055">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/144.jpg" alt="144 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the authority of Col.
+      Hamilton Smith, who copied it from the original collection made by the
+      artists of the French Institute of Cairo. It is said to represent Osiris,
+      but this is doubtful. There is much that is intensely mystical about the
+      figure. The whip, or flagellum, placed over the tail, and the head passing
+      through the yoni, the circular spots with their central dot, the horns
+      with solar disc, and two curiously shaped feathers (?), the calf reclining
+      upon a plinth, wherein a division into three is conspicuous, all have a
+      meaning in reference to the mystic four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have long had a doubt respecting the symbolic meaning of the scourge.
+      Some inquirers have asserted that it is simply an emblem of power or
+      superiority, inasmuch as he who can castigate must be in a higher position
+      than the one who is punished. But of this view I can find no proof. On the
+      other hand, any one who is familiar with the effect upon the male produced
+      by flagellation, and who notices that the representations of Osiris and
+      the scourge show evidence that the deity is in the same condition as one
+      who has been subjected to the rod, will be disposed to believe that the
+      flagellum is an indication or symbol of the god who gives to man the power
+      to reproduce his like, or who can restore the faculty after it has faded.
+      It is not for a moment to be supposed that a deity who was to be
+      worshipped would be depicted as a task-master, whose hands are more
+      familiar with punishment than blessing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0056" id="linkimage-0056">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/145.jpg" alt="145 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 89 is taken from Lajard's <i>Culte de Venus</i>, plate i., fig. 14,
+      and is an enlarged impression of a gem. A similar figure is to be found in
+      Payne Knight's work <i>On the Worship of Priapus</i>. In both instances
+      the female is fringed with male emblems. In the one before us a fish,
+      apparently a dolphin, is borne in one hand. In the other the woman is
+      bearded. These are representations of Ashtaroth&mdash;the androgyne deity
+      in which the female predominates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 90 represents an ancient Italian form of the Indian Ling Yoni. It is
+      copied from a part of the Frontispiece of Faber's <i>Dissertation on the
+      Cabiri</i>, where it is stated that the plate is a copy of a picture of a
+      nymphoeum found when excavating a foundation for the Barbarini Palace at
+      Rome. It deserves notice, because the round mound of masonry surmounted by
+      the short pillars is precisely similar to similar erections found in
+      Hindostan on the East and America on the West, as well as in varions parts
+      of Europe. The oval in the pediment and the solitary pillar have the same
+      meaning as the Caaba and hole&mdash;the upright stone and pit revered at
+      Mecca long before Mahomet's time&mdash;the tree serves to identify the
+      pillar, and <i>vice versa</i>. Apertures were common in ancient sepulchral
+      monuments, alike in Hindostan and England; one perforated stone is
+      preserved as a relic in the precincts of an old church in modern Rome. The
+      aperture is blackish with the grease of many hands, which have been put
+      therein whilst their owners took a sacred oath. We have already remarked
+      how ancient Abraham and a modern Arab have sworn by the Linga; it is
+      therefore by no means remarkable that some of a different form of faith
+      should swear by the Yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0057" id="linkimage-0057">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/146a.jpg" alt="146 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="146b (16K)" src="images/146b.jpg" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 91 is stated by Higgins, Anacalypm, p. 217, to be a mark on the
+      breast of an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of University College, London.
+      It is essentially the same symbol as the <i>crux ansata</i>, and is
+      emblematic of the male triad and the female unit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal tiara has not about
+      it anything particularly Christian, a similar head-dress having been worn
+      by gods or angels in ancient Assyria, where it appeared crowned by an
+      emblem of "the trinity." We may mention, in passing, that as the Romanists
+      adopted the mitre and the tiara from "the cursed brood of Ham," so they
+      adopted the episcopalian crook from the augurs of Etruria, and the
+      artistic form with which they clothe their angels from the painters and
+      um-makers of Magna Gracia and Central Italy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0058" id="linkimage-0058">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/147.jpg" alt="147 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 98 is the Mithraic lion. It may be seen in Hyde's <i>Religion of
+      the Ancient Persians</i>, second edition, plate i. It may also be seen in
+      vol. ii., plates 10 and 11, of Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i>
+      (Rome, 1707). In plate 10 the Mithraic lion has seven stars above it,
+      around which are placed respectively, words written in Greek, Etruscan and
+      Phoenician characters, ZEDCH. TELKAN. TELKON. TELKON. QIDEKH. UNEULK.
+      LNKELLP., apparently showing that the emblem was adopted by the Gnostics.
+      It would be unprofitable to dwell upon the meaning of these letters. After
+      puzzling over them, I fancy that "Bad spirits, pity us," "Just one, I call
+      on thee," may be made out by considering the words to be very bad Greek,
+      and the letters to be much transposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0059" id="linkimage-0059">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/148.jpg" alt="148 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 94 is copied by Higgins, <i>Anacalypsis</i>, on the authority of
+      Dubois, who states, vol. iii., p. 88, that it was found on a stone in a
+      church in France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred
+      years. Dubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no
+      reference to the story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on
+      the draped figures as representatives of Adam and Eve. We have introduced
+      it to show how such tales are intermingled with Sabeanism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0060" id="linkimage-0060">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/149.jpg" alt="149 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (<i>Nineveh and Babylon</i>,
+      p. 156), and represents Harpocrates seated on a lotus, adoring the mundane
+      representative of the mother of creation. I have not yet met with any
+      ancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify the yoni so completely
+      with various goddesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Compare this with Figure 138, <i>infra</i>, wherein the Figure 95. emblem
+      is even more strikingly identified with woman, and with the virgin Mary.
+      Those who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on
+      hoardings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent
+      certain ideas in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the mystic
+      meaning of O &mdash;&mdash; I have elsewhere called attention to the idea
+      that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil
+      spirits; however grotesque the idea may be, it has existed in all ages,
+      and in civilised and savage nations alike. A rude image of a woman who
+      shamelessly exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches in
+      Ireland, and at Servatos, in Spain, where she is standing on one side of
+      the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on the other. The same has
+      been found in Mexico, Peru, and in North America. Nor must we forget how
+      Baubo cured the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a strange
+      fashion to the distressed goddess. Arnobius, <i>Op. Cit</i>., pp. 249,
+      250.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I have already noticed modern notions on the influence produced by the
+      exhibition of the yoni on those who are suffering, the legend referred to
+      may be shortly described. The goddess, in the story, was miserable in
+      consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen away by Pluto.
+      In her agony, snatching two Etna-lighted torches, she wanders round the
+      earth in search of the lost one, and in due course visits Eleusis. Baubo
+      receives her hospitably; but nothing that the hostess does induces the
+      guest to depose her grief for a moment. In despair the mortal bethinks her
+      of a scheme, shaves off what is called in Isaiah "the hair of the feet"
+      and then exposes herself to the goddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the
+      denuded spot, is pleased with the strange form of consolation, consents to
+      take food and is restored to comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0061" id="linkimage-0061">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/150.jpg" alt="150 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 8, of Lajard's <i>Culte de Venus</i>.
+      He states that it is an impression of a cornelian cylinder, in the
+      collection of the late Sir William Ouseley, and is supposed to represent
+      Oannes, or Bel and two fish gods, the authors of fecundity. It is thought
+      that Dagon of the Philistines resembled the two figures supporting the
+      central one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 97 is a side view of plate 1. The idol represents a female. Dagon,
+      the fish god, male above, piscine below, was one of the many symbols of an
+      androgyne creator. In the first of the Avatars of Vishnu, he is
+      represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish
+      himself; the legend being that he was to be the saviour of the world in a
+      deluge which was to follow. See Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, and
+      Coleman's <i>Mythology of the Hindus</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0062" id="linkimage-0062">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/151a.jpg" alt="151 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 98 is a fancy sketch of the <i>fleur-de-lys</i>, the lily of
+      France. It symbolises the male triad, whilst the ring around it represents
+      the female. The identification of this emblem of the trinity with the
+      tripliform Mahadeva, and of the ring with his sacti, may be seen in the
+      next figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="151b (4K)" src="images/151b.jpg" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 99, which we have already given on page 46, is one of great value
+      to the inquirer into the signification of certain symbols. It has been
+      reintroduced here to show the identification of the eye, fish, or oval
+      shape, with the yoni, and of the <i>fleur-de-lys</i> with the lingam,
+      which is recognised by the respective positions of the emblems in front of
+      particular parts of the mystic animals, who both, on their part, adore the
+      symbolic palm tree, with its pistil and stamens. The rayed branches of the
+      upper part of the tree, and the nearness to it of the crescent moon, seem
+      to indicate that the palm was a solar as well as a sexual emblem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0063" id="linkimage-0063">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/152.jpg" alt="152 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The great similarity of the palm tree to the ancient round towers in
+      Ireland and elsewhere will naturally strike the observer. He will perhaps
+      remember also that on certain occasions dancing, feasting, and debauchery
+      were practised about a round tower in Wicklow, such as were practised
+      round the English may-pole, the modern substitute of the mystic palm tree.
+      We have now humanised our practice, but we have not purified our land of
+      all its veiled symbols.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In some parts, where probably the palm tree does not flourish, the pine
+      takes its place as an emblem. It was sacred to the mother of the gods,
+      whose names, Rhoea, Ceres, Cybele, are paraphrastic of the yoni. We learn
+      from Araobius, <i>Op. Cit.</i>, p. 239, that on fixed days that tree was
+      introduced into the sanctuary of that august personage, being decorated by
+      fleeces and violets. It does not require any recondite knowledge to
+      understand the signification of the entrance of the pine into the temple
+      of the divine mother, nor what the tree when buried in the midst of a
+      fleece depicts. Those who have heard of the origin of the Spanish Royal
+      Order of the Golden Fleece know that the word is an enphemism for the <i>lanugo</i>
+      of the Romans. Parsley round a carrot root is a modern symbol, and the
+      violet is as good an emblem of the lingam as the modern pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has long been known that the ancient custom of erecting a may-pole,
+      surrounding it with wreaths of flowers, and then dancing round it in wild
+      orgy, was a relic of the ancient custom of reverencing the symbol of
+      creation, invigorated by the returning spring time, without whose powers
+      the flocks and herds would fail to increase. It will not fail to attract
+      the notice of my readers, that a pine cone is constantly being offered to
+      the sacred "grove" by the priests of Assyria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0064" id="linkimage-0064">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/153.jpg" alt="153 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 100, 101, represent the Buddhist cross and one of its arms. The
+      first shows the union of four phalli. The single one being a conventional
+      form of a well-known organ. This form of cross does not essentially differ
+      from the Maltese cross. In the latter, Asher stands perpendicularly to Anu
+      and Hea; in the former it is at right angles to them. "The pistol" is a
+      well-known name amongst our soldiery, and four such joined together by the
+      muzzle would form the Buddhist cross. Compare Figure 37, <i>ante</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 102, 108, 104, indicate the union of the four creators, the
+      trinity and the unity. Not having at hand any copy of an ancient key, I
+      have used a modern one; but this makes no essential difference in the
+      symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 105, 106, are copied from Lajard, <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>,
+      plate ii. They represent ornaments held in the hands of a great female
+      figure, sculptured in bas relief on a rock at Yazili Kaia, near to Boghaz
+      Keni, in Anatolia, and described by M. C. Texier in 1834. The goddess is
+      crowned with a tower, to indicate virginity; in her right hand she holds a
+      staff, shown in Figure 106; in the other, that given in Figure 105, she
+      stands upon a lioness, and is attended by an antelope. Figure 105 is a
+      complicated emblem of the four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0065" id="linkimage-0065">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="154a (27K)" src="images/154a.jpg" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="154b (63K)" src="images/154b.jpg" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 107, 108, 109, are copied from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, plate
+      lxxxiii. They represent the lingam and then yoni, which amongst the Indians
+      are regarded as holy emblems, much in the same way as a crucifix is
+      esteemed by certain modern Christians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0066" id="linkimage-0066">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/155.jpg" alt="155 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In worship, <i>ghee</i>, or oil, or water, is poured over the pillar, and
+      allowed to run off by the spout. Sometimes the pillar is adorned by a
+      necklace, and is associated with the serpent emblem. In Lucian's account
+      of Alexander, the false prophet, which we have condensed in <i>Ancient
+      Faiths</i>, second edition, there is a reference to one of his dupes, who
+      was a distinguished Roman officer, but so very superstitious, or, as he
+      would say of himself, so deeply imbued with religion, that at the sight of
+      a stone he would fall prostrate and adore it for a considerable time,
+      offering prayers and vows thereto. This may by some be thought quite as
+      reasonable as the practice once enforced in Christian Rome, which obliged
+      all persons in the street to kneel in reverence when an ugly black doll,
+      called "the bambino," or a bit of bread, over which some cabalistic words
+      had been muttered, was being carried in procession past them. Arnobins, <i>Op,
+      Cit</i>., p. 81, says, "I worshipped images produced from the furnace,
+      gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of elephants, paintings,
+      wreaths on aged trees; whenever I espied an anointed stone, and one
+      bedaubed with olive oil, as if some person resided in it, I worshipped it,
+      I addressed myself to it, and begged blessings from a senseless stock."
+      Compare Gen. xxviii. 18, wherein we find that Jacob set up a stone and
+      anointed it with oil, and called the place Bethel, and Is. xxvii. 19, xl.
+      20, xliv. 10-20.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I copy the following remarks from a paper by Mr. Sellon, in <i>Memoirs of
+      the London Anthropological Society</i>, for 1868-4. Speaking of Hindostan,
+      he remarks, "As every village has its temple so every temple has its
+      Lingam, and these parochial Lingams are usually from two to three feet in
+      height, and rather broad at the base. Here the village girls, who are
+      anxious for lovers or husbands, repair early in the morning. They make a
+      lustration by sprinkling the god with water brought from the Ganges; they
+      deck the Linga with garlands of the sweet-smelling bilwa flower; they
+      perform the <i>mudra</i>, or gesticulation with the fingers, and, reciting
+      the prescribed <i>mantras</i>, or incantations, they rub themselves
+      against the emblem, and entreat the deity to make them fruitful mothers of
+      <i>pulee-pullum</i> (i.e., child fruit).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is the celebrated Linga puja, during the performance of which the <i>panchaty</i>,
+      or five lamps, must be lighted, and the <i>gantha</i>, or bell, be
+      frequently rung to scare away the evil demons. The <i>mala</i>, or rosary
+      of a hundred and eight round beads, is also used in this puja."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      See also Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, plate xxii, pp. 68, 69, 70. Again,
+      in the <i>Dabistan</i>, a work written in the Persian language, by a
+      travelled Mahometan, about a. d. 1660, and translated by David Shea, for
+      the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland (8 vols., 8vo.,
+      Allen and Co., Leadenhall Street, London), we read, vol. ii., pp. 148-160,
+      "The belief of the Saktian is that Siva, that is, Mahadeva, who with
+      little exception is the highest of deities and the greatest of the
+      spirits, has a spouse whom they call <i>Maya</i> Sakti.....With them the
+      power of Mahadeva's wife, who is Bhavani, surpasses that of the husband.
+      The zealous of this sect worship the <i>Siva Linga</i>, although other
+      Hindoos also venerate it. <i>Linga</i> is called the virile organ, and
+      they say, on behalf of this worship, that as men and all living beings
+      derive their existence from it, adoration is duly bestowed upon it. As the
+      linga of Mahadeva, so do they venerate the <i>bhaga</i>, that is, the
+      female organ. A man very familiar with them gave the information that,
+      according to their belief, the high altar, or principal place in a mosque
+      of the Mussulmans, is an emblem of the <i>bhaga</i>. Another man among
+      them said that as the just-named place emblems the bhaga, the minar or
+      turret of the mosque represents the linga." The author then goes on to
+      describe the practices of the sect, which may be summed up in the words&mdash;the
+      most absolute freedom of love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Apropos</i> of the Mahometan minaret and Christian church towers and
+      spires, I may mention that Lucian describes the magnificent temple of the
+      Syrian goddess as having two vast phalli before its main entrance, and how
+      at certain seasons men ascended to their summit, and remained there some
+      days, so as to utter from thence the prayers of the faithful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0067" id="linkimage-0067">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/158.jpg" alt="158 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 110, 111, both from Moor, plate lxxxvi., are forms of the <i>argha</i>,
+      or sacred sacrificial cup, bowl, or basin, which represent the yoni, and
+      some other things besides. See Moor, <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, pp. 898, 894.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 112. Copied from Rawlinson's <i>Ancient Monarchies</i>, vol. i., p.
+      176, symbolises Ishtar, the Assyrian representative of Devi, Parvati,
+      Isis, Astarte, Venus, and Mary. The virgin and child are to be found
+      everywhere, even in ancient Mexico.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0068" id="linkimage-0068">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/159.jpg" alt="159 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 118 is copied from Lajard, <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>, plate
+      xix., fig. 6, and represents the male and female as the sun and moon, thus
+      identifying the symbolic sex of those luminaries. The legend in the
+      Pehlevi characters has not been interpreted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 114 is taken from a mediæval woodcut, lent to me by my friend, Mr.
+      John Newton, to whom I am indebted for the sight of, and the privilege to
+      copy, many other figures. In it the virgin Mary is seen as the Queen of
+      Heaven, nursing her infant, and identified with the crescent moon, the
+      emblem of virginity. Being before the sun, she almost eclipses its light.
+      Than this, nothing could more completely identify the Christian mother and
+      child with Isis and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno, and a host of other pagan
+      goddesses, who have been called 'Queen of Heaven,' 'Queen of the Universe'
+      'Mother of God,' 'Spouse of God,' the 'Celestial Virgin,' the 'Heavenly
+      Peace Maker,' etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 115, 116, are common devices in papal churches and pagan
+      symbolism. They are intended to indicate the sun and moon in conjunction,
+      the union of the triad with the unit. I may notice, in passing, that Mr.
+      Newton has showed to me some mediæval woodcuts, in which the young
+      unmarried women in a mixed assemblage were indicated by wearing upon their
+      foreheads a crescent moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0070" id="linkimage-0070">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/160.jpg" alt="160 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 117 is a Buddhist symbol, or rather a copy of Maityna Bodhisatwa,
+      from the monastery of Gopach, in the valley of Nepaul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0071" id="linkimage-0071">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/161.jpg" alt="161 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is taken from Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 894.
+      The horse-shoe, like the <i>vesica piscis</i> of the Roman church,
+      indicates the yoni; the last, taken from some cow, mare, or donkey, being
+      used in eastern parts where we now use their shoes, to keep off the evil
+      eye. It is remarkable that some nations should use the female organ, or an
+      effigy thereof, as a charm against ill luck, whilst others adopt the male
+      symbol. In Ireland, as we have previously remarked, a female shamelessly
+      exhibiting herself, and called Shelah-na-gig, was to be seen in stone over
+      the door of certain churches, within the last century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the resemblance in the shape of the horse-shoe to the "grove" of the
+      Assyrian worshippers, and from the man standing within it as the symbolic
+      pine tree stands in the Mesopotamian, "Asherah," I think we may fairly
+      conclude that the Indian, like the Shemitic emblem, typifies the union of
+      the sexes&mdash;the androgyne creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That some Buddhists have mingled sexuality with their ideas of religion,
+      may be seen in plate ii. of Emil Schlagintweit's <i>Atlas of Buddhism in
+      Tibet</i>, wherein Vajarsattva, "The God above all," is represented as a
+      male and female conjoined. Rays, as of the sun, pass from the group; and
+      all are enclosed in an ornate oval, or horse-shoe, like that in this
+      figure. Few, however, but the initiated would recognise the nature of the
+      group at first sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0072" id="linkimage-0072">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/162.jpg" alt="162 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I may also notice, in passing, that the goddess Doljang (a.d. 617-98) has
+      the stigmata in her hands and feet, like those assigned to Jesus of
+      Nazareth and Francis of Assisi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 118 is a copy of the medal issued to pilgrims at the shrine of the
+      virgin at Loretto. It was lent to me by Mr. Newton, but the engraver has
+      omitted to make the face of the mother and child black, as the most
+      ancient and renowned ones usually are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of the explanation given in <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, Vol. ii., p.
+      262, of the adoption of a black skin for Mary and her son, D'Harcanville
+      suggests that it represents night, the period during which the feminine
+      creator is most propitious or attentive to her duties. It is unnecessary
+      to contest the point, for almost every symbol has more interpretations
+      given to it than one. I have sought in vain for even a plausible reason
+      for the blackness of sacred virgins and children, in certain papal
+      shrines, which is compatible with decency and Christianity. It is clear
+      that the matter will not bear the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0073" id="linkimage-0073">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/163.jpg" alt="163 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 119 is from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate iii., fig. 8. It represents the
+      sun, moon, and a star, probably Venus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The legend is in Phoenician, and may be read LNBRB. Levy, in Siegel und
+      Gemmen, Breslau, 1869, reads the legend [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], LKBRBO,
+      but does not attempt to explain it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 120 is also from Lajard, plate i., fig. 8. It represents an act of
+      worship before the symbols of the male and female creators, arranged in
+      three pairs. Above are the heavenly symbols of the sun and moon. Below are
+      the male palm tree, and the barred [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], identical in
+      meaning with the sistrum, i. e., <i>virgo intacta</i>. Next come the male
+      emblem, the cone, and the female symbol, the lozenge or yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0074" id="linkimage-0074">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/164.jpg" alt="164 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 121 represents also a worshipper before the barred female symbol,
+      surmounted by the seven-rayed star, emblem of the male potency, and of the
+      sun or the heavens. It will be noticed&mdash;and the matter is significant&mdash;that
+      the hand which is raised in adoration is exactly opposite the conjunction
+      of the two. Compare this with Fig. 95, where the female alone is the
+      object of reverence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lajard and others state that homage, such as is here depicted, is actually
+      paid in some parts of Palestine and India to the living symbol; the
+      worshipper on bended knees offering to it, <i>la bouche inférieure</i>,
+      with or without a silent prayer, his food before he eats it. A
+      corresponding homage is paid by female devotees to the masculine emblem of
+      any very peculiarly holy fakir, one of whose peculiarities is, that no
+      amount of excitement stimulates the organ into what may be called creative
+      energy. It has long been a problem how such a state of apathy is brought
+      about, but modern observation has proved that it is by the habitual use of
+      weights. Such homage is depicted in Picart's <i>Religious Ceremonies of
+      all the People in the World</i>, original French edition, plate 71.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0075" id="linkimage-0075">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/165.jpg" alt="165 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 122 is copied from Bryant's <i>Ancient Mythology</i>, third
+      edition, vol. iii., p. 193. That author states that he copied it from
+      Spanheim, but gives no other reference. It is apparently from a Greek
+      medal, and has the word CAMIÛN as an inscription. It is said to represent
+      Juno, Sami, or Selenitis, with the sacred peplum. The figure is remarkable
+      for showing the identity of the moon, the lozenge, and the female. It is
+      doubtful whether the attitude of the goddess is intended to represent the
+      cross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As in religious Symbolism every detail has a signification, we naturally
+      speculate upon the meaning of the beads which fringe the lower part of the
+      diamond-shaped garment. We have noticed in a previous article that the
+      Linga when worshipped was sometimes adorned with beads, which were the
+      fruit of a tree sacred to Mahadeva; in the original of fig. 4, plate xi.
+      <i>supra</i>, the four arms of the cross have a series of beads depending
+      from them. On a very ancient coin of Citium, a rosary of beads, with a
+      cross, has been found arranged round a horse-shoe form; and beads are
+      common ornaments on Hindoo Divinities. They may only be used for
+      decoration and without religious signification; if they have the last, I
+      have not been able to discover it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0076" id="linkimage-0076">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/166.jpg" alt="166 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 128 is a composition taken from Bryant, vol. iv., p. 286. The rock,
+      the water, the crescent moon as an ark, and the dove hovering over it, are
+      all symbolical; but though the author of it is right in his grouping, it
+      is clear that he is not aware of its full signification. The reader will
+      readily gather their true meaning from our articles upon the Ark and
+      Water, and from our remarks upon the Dove in <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second
+      edition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 124 is copied from Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i>, vol. 8,
+      plate xl. In the original, the figure upon the pillar is very
+      conspicuously phallic, and the whole composition indicates what was
+      associated with the worship of Priapus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0077" id="linkimage-0077">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/167.jpg" alt="167 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This so-called god was regarded much in the same light as 'St. Cosmo and
+      St. Damian were at Iseraia, and St. Foutin in Christian France. And it is
+      not at all surprising that a church, which has deified or made saints of a
+      spear and cloak, under the names Longinus and Amphibolus, should also
+      adopt the "god of the gardens," and consecrate him as an object for
+      Christian worship, and give him an appropriate name and emblem. But the
+      patron saint of Lampsacus was not really a deity, only a sort of saint,
+      whose business it was to attend to certain parts. The idea of guardian
+      angels was once common, see Matt, xviii. 10, where we read, that each
+      child has a guardian in heaven, who looks after his infantile charge. As
+      the pagan Hymen and Lucina attended upon weddings and parturitions, so the
+      Christian Cosmo and Damian attended to spouses, and assisted in making
+      them fruitful. To the last two were offered, by sterile wives, wax
+      effigies of the part left out from the nude figure in our plate. To the
+      heathen saint, we see a female votary offer quince leaves, equivalent to
+      <i>la feuille de sage</i>, egg-shaped bread, apparently a cake; also an
+      ass's head; whilst her attendant offers a pine cone. This amongst the
+      Greeks was sacred to Cybele, as it was in Assyria to Astarte or Ishtar,
+      the name given there to 'the mother of all saints.' The basket contains
+      apples and phalli, which may have been made of pastry. See Martial's <i>Epigrams</i>,
+      b. xiv. 69. This gem is valuable, inasmuch as it assists us to understand
+      the signification of the pine cone offered to the 'grove,' the equivalent
+      of <i>le Verger de Cypris</i>. The pillar and its base are curiously
+      significant, and demonstrate how completely an artist can appear innocent,
+      whilst to the initiated he unveils a mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0078" id="linkimage-0078">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/168.jpg" alt="168 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 125, 126, 127, are various contrivances for indicating decently
+      that which it was generally thought religious to conceal, <i>la bequile,
+      au les instrumens</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 128 represents the same subject; the cuts are grouped iso as to
+      show how the knobbed stick, <i>le bâton</i>, becomes converted either into
+      a bent rod, <i>la verge</i>, or a priestly crook, <i>le bâton pastoral</i>.
+      There is no doubt that the episcopal crozier is a presentable effigy of a
+      very private and once highly venerated portion of the human frame, which
+      was used in long by-gone days by Etruscan augurs, when they mapped out the
+      sky, prior to noticing the flight of birds. Perhaps we ought to be
+      grateful to Popery for having consecrated to Christ what was so long used
+      in that which divines call the service of the devil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0079" id="linkimage-0079">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/169.jpg" alt="169 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 129, 130, 131, are, like the preceding four, copied from various
+      antique gems; Fig. 129 represents a steering oar, <i>le timon</i>, and is
+      usually held in the hand of good fortune, or as moderns would say "Saint
+      Luck," or <i>bonnes fortunes</i>; Fig. 180 is emblematic of Cupid, or
+      Saint Desire; it is synonymous with <i>le dard, or la pique</i>; Fig. 131
+      is a form less common in gems; it represents the hammer, <i>le marteau qui
+      frappe l'enclume et forge les enfans</i>. The ancients had as many
+      pictorial euphemisms as ourselves, and when these are understood they
+      enable us to comprehend many a legend otherwise dim; e. g., when Fortuna,
+      or luck, always depicted as a woman, has for her characteristic <i>le
+      timon</i>, and for her motto the proverb, "Fortune favours the bold." we
+      readily understand the <i>double entente</i>. The steering oar indicates
+      power, knowledge, skill, and bravery in him who wields it; without such a
+      guide, few boats would attain a prosperous haven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0080" id="linkimage-0080">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/170.jpg" alt="170 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 132 is copied from plate xxix. of Pugin's Glossary of
+      Ecclesiastical Ornament (Lond., 1868). The plate represents "a pattern for
+      diapering," and is, I presume, thoroughly orthodox. It consists of the
+      double triangle, see Figures 20, 80, 81, 82, pp. 82, 88, the emblems of
+      Siva and Parvati, the male and female; of Rimmon the pomegranate, the
+      emblem of the womb, which is seen to be full of seed through the "<i>vesica
+      piscis," la fente, or la porte de la vie</i>. There are also two new
+      moons, emblems of Venus, or <i>la nature</i>, introduced. The crown above
+      the pomegranate represents the triad, and the number four; whilst in the
+      original the group which we copy is surrounded by various forms of the
+      triad, all of which are as characteristic of man as Rimmon is of woman.
+      There are also circles enclosing the triad, analogous to other symbols
+      common in Hindostan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0081" id="linkimage-0081">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/171.jpg" alt="171 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 133 is copied from Moor's <i>Hindu, Pantheon</i>, pi. ix., fig. 8.
+      It represents Bhavhani, Maia, Devi, Lakshmi, or Kamala, one of the many
+      forms given to female nature. She bears in one hand the lotus, emblem of
+      self-fructification,&mdash;in other similar figures an effigy of the
+      phallus is placed,&mdash;whilst in the other she holds her infant Krishna,
+      Crishna, or Vishnu. Such groups are as common in India as in Italy, in
+      pagan temples as in Christian churches. The idea of the mother and child
+      is pictured in every ancient country of whose art any remains exist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0082" id="linkimage-0082">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/172.jpg" alt="172 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 184 is taken from plate xxiv., fig. 1, of Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>.
+      It represents a subject often depicted by the Hindoos and the Greeks,
+      viz., androgynism, the union of the male and female creators. The
+      technical word is Arddha-Nari. The male on the right side bears the
+      emblems of Siva or Mahadeva, the female on the left those of Parvati or
+      Sacti. The bull and lioness are emblematic of the masculine and feminine
+      powers. The mark on the temple indicates the union of the two; an aureole
+      is seen around the head, as in modern pictures of saints. In this drawing
+      the Ganges rises from the male, the idea being that the stream from
+      Mahadeva is as copious and fertilising as that mighty river. The metaphor
+      here depicted is common in the East, and is precisely the same as that
+      quoted in Num. xxiv. 7, and also from some lost Hebrew book in John vii.
+      38. It will be noticed, that the Hindoos express androgyneity quite as
+      conspicuously, but generally much less indelicately, than the Grecian
+      artists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0083" id="linkimage-0083">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/173.jpg" alt="173 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 135 is a common Egyptian emblem, said to signify eternity, but in
+      truth it has another meaning. The serpent and the ring indicate <i>l'
+      andouille and l' anneau</i>. The tail of the animal, which the mouth
+      appears to swallow, is <i>la queue dans la bouche</i>. The symbol
+      resembles the <i>crux ansata</i> in its signification, and imports that
+      life upon the earth is rendered perpetual by means of the union of the
+      sexes. A ring, or circle, is one of the symbols of Venus, who carries
+      indifferently this, or the triad emblem of the male. See Maffei's <i>Gemme</i>,
+      vol. iii., page 1, plate viii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 136 is the <i>vesica piscis</i>, or fish's bladder; the emblem of
+      woman and of the virgin, as may be seen in the two following woodcuts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0084" id="linkimage-0084">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/174.jpg" alt="174 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 137, 138, are copied from an ancient Rosary of the Blessed Virgin
+      Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a license from the Inquisition; the
+      book being lent to me by my friend, Mr. Newton. The first represents the
+      same part as the Assyrian "grove." It may appropriately be called the Holy
+      Yoni. The book in question contains numerous figures, all resembling
+      closely the Mesopotamian emblem of Ishtar. The presence of the woman
+      therein identifies the two as symbolic of Isis, or <i>la nature</i>; and a
+      man bowing down in adoration thereof shows the same idea as is depicted in
+      Assyrian sculptures, where males offer to the goddess symbols of
+      themselves. Compare Figs. 68, 64, 65, 66, pp. 48 seq.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I had been able to search through the once celebrated Alexandrian
+      library, it is doubtful whether I could have found any pictorial
+      representation more illustrative of the relationship of certain symbolic
+      forms to each other than is Figure 138. A circle of angelic heads, forming
+      a sort of sun, having luminous rays outside, and a dove, the emblem of
+      Venus, dart a spear (<i>la pique</i>) down upon the earth (<i>la terré</i>),
+      or the virgin. This being received, fertility follows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0085" id="linkimage-0085">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/175.jpg" alt="175 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In Grecian story, Ouranos and Ge, or heaven and earth, were the parents of
+      creation; and Jupiter came from heaven to impregnate Alcmena. The same
+      mythos prevailed throughout all civilised nations. Christianity adopted
+      the idea, merely altering the names of the respective parents, and
+      attributed the regeneration of the world to "holy breath" and Mary. Every
+      individual, indeed, extraordinarily conspicuous for wisdom, power,
+      goodness, etc., is said to have been begotten on a woman by a celestial
+      father. Within the <i>vesica piscis</i>, artists usually represent the
+      virgin herself, with or without the child; in the figure before us the
+      child takes her place. It is difficult to believe that the ecclesiastics
+      who sanctioned the publication of such a print could have been as ignorant
+      as modern ritualists. It is equally difficult to believe that the latter,
+      if they knew the real meaning of the symbols commonly used by the Roman
+      church, would adopt them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last two figures, symbolic of adoration before divine sexual emblems,
+      afford me the opportunity to give a description of a similar worship
+      existent in Hindostan at the present time. My authority is H. H. Wilson,
+      in <i>Essays on the Religion of the Hindoos</i>, Trübner and Co., London.
+      "The worshippers," he remarks, vol. i., p. 240, "of the Sakti, the power
+      or energy of the divine nature in action, are exceedingly numerous amongst
+      all classes of Hindoos&mdash;about three-fourths are of this sect, while
+      only a fifth are Vaishnavas and a sixteenth Saivas. This active energy is
+      personified, and the form with which it is invested depends upon the bias
+      of the individuals. The most favourite form is that of Parvati, Bhavani,
+      or Durga, the wife of Siva, or Mahadeva."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The worship of the female principle, as distinct from the divinity,
+      appears to have originated in the literal interpretation of the
+      metaphorical language of the Vedas, in which the <i>will or purpose to
+      create</i> the universe is represented as originating from the creator,
+      and consistent with him as his bride." "The Samaveda for example, says,
+      the creator felt not delight being alone; he wished another, and caused
+      his own self to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He
+      approached her, and thus were human beings produced." A sentiment or
+      statement which we may notice in passing is very similar to that
+      propounded in Genesis, ch. i. 27, and v. 1, 2, respecting Elohim&mdash;viz.,
+      that he created man and woman in his own image, i.e., as male and female,
+      bisexual but united&mdash;an androgyne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This female principle goes by innumerable cognomens, inasmuch as every
+      goddess, every nymph, and all women are identified with it. She&mdash;the
+      principle personified&mdash;is the mother of all, as Mahadeva, the male
+      principle, is the father of all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The homage rendered to the Sakti may be done before an image of any
+      goddess&mdash;Prakriti, Lakshmi, Bhavani, Durga, Maya, Parvati, or Devi&mdash;just
+      in the same way as Romanists may pray to a local Mary, or any other. But
+      in accordance with the weakness of human nature, there are many who
+      consider it right to pay their devotions to the thing itself rather than
+      to an abstraction. In this form of worship six elements are required,
+      flesh, fish, wine, women, gesticulations and <i>mantras</i> which consist
+      of various unmeaning monosyllabic combinations of letters of great
+      imaginary efficacy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The ceremonies are mostly gone through in a mixed society, the Sakti
+      being personified by a naked female, to whom meat and wine are offered and
+      then distributed amongst the company. These eat and drink alternately with
+      gesticulations and mantras&mdash;and when the religious part of the
+      business is over, the males and females rush together and indulge in a
+      wild orgy. This ceremony is entitled the <i>Sri Chakra or Purnabhisheka</i>,
+      the Ring or Full Initiation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a note apparently by the editor, Dr. Rost, a full account is given in
+      Sanscrit of the <i>Sakti Sodhana</i>, as they are prescribed in the <i>Devi
+      Rahasya</i>, a section of the <i>Rudra Yâmala</i>, so as to prove to his
+      readers that the <i>Sri Chakra</i> is performed under a religious
+      prescription.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We learn that the woman should be an actress, dancing girl, a courtesan,
+      washerwoman, barber's wife, flower-girl, milk-maid, or a female devotee.
+      The ceremony is to take place at midnight with eight, nine, or eleven
+      couples. At first there are sundry mantras said, then the female is
+      disrobed, but richly ornamented, and is placed on the left of a circle
+      (Chakra) described for the purpose, and after sundry gesticulations,
+      mantras, and formulas she is purified by being sprinkled over with wine.
+      If a novice, the girl has the radical mantra whispered thrice in her ear.
+      Feasting then follows, lest Venus should languish in the absence of Ceres
+      and Bacchus, and now, when the veins are full of rich blood, the actors
+      are urged to do what desire dictates, but never to be so carried away by
+      their zeal as to neglect the holy mantras appropriate to every act and to
+      every stage thereof.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The above quotations from Wilson's work are selections
+     from his and his Editor's account. In the original the
+     observations extend over eighteen pages, and are too long to
+     be given in their entirety: the parts omitted are of no
+     consequence.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0086" id="linkimage-0086">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/178.jpg" alt="178 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is natural that such a religion should be popular, especially amongst
+      the young of both sexes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 139 to 158 are copied from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>; they are
+      sectarial marks in India, and are usually traced on the forehead. Many
+      resemble what are known as "mason's marks," i. e., designs found on tooled
+      stones, in various ancient edifices, like our own, "trade marks." They are
+      introduced here to illustrate the various designs employed to indicate the
+      union of the "trinity" with the "unity," and the numerous forms
+      representative of "<i>la nature" A priori</i>, it appears absurd to
+      suppose that the eye could ever have been symbolical of anything but
+      sight; but the mythos of Indra, given in <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second
+      edition, Vol. n., p. 649, and p. 7 <i>supra</i>, proves that it has
+      another and a hidden meaning. These figures are alike emblematic of the
+      "trinity," "the virgin," and the "four." Figure 154 is from Pugin, plate
+      v., figure 3. It is the outline of a pectoral ornament worn by some Roman
+      ecclesiastic in Italy, a. d. 1400; it represents the Egyptian crux ansata
+      under another form, the T signifying the triad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0087" id="linkimage-0087">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/179.jpg" alt="179 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 155, 156, are different forms of the sistrum, one of the emblems
+      of Isis. In the latter, the triple bars have one signification, which will
+      readily suggest itself to those who know the meaning of the triad. In the
+      former, the emblem of the trinity, which we have been obliged to
+      conventionalise, is shown in a distinct manner. The cross bars indicate
+      that Isis is a virgin. The cat at the top of the instrument indicates
+      "desire," Cupid, or Eros. Fig. 155 is copied from plate ix., R. P.
+      Knight's <i>Worship of Priapus</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 157 represents the cup and wafer, to be found in the hands of many
+      effigies of papal bishops; they are alike symbolic of the sun and moon,
+      and of the elements in the Eucharist. See Pugin, plate iv., figs. 5, 6,
+      represents a temple in a conventional form; whilst below, Ceres appears
+      seated within a horse-shoe shaped ornament.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0088" id="linkimage-0088">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/180.jpg" alt="180 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0089" id="linkimage-0089">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/181.jpg" alt="181 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This, amongst other symbols, tends to show what we have so frequently
+      before observed, that the female in creation is characterised by a great
+      variety of designs, of which the succeeding woodcuts give us additional
+      evidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 159 represents the various forms symbolic of Juno, Isis, Parvati,
+      Ishtar, Mary, or woman, or the virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 160, 161, 162, are copied from Audsley's <i>Christian Symbolism</i>
+      (London, 1868). They are ornaments worn by the Virgin Mary, and represent
+      her as the crescent moon, conjoined with the cross (in Fig. 160), with the
+      collar of Isis (in Fig. 161), and with the double triangle (in Fig. 162).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0090" id="linkimage-0090">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/182.jpg" alt="182 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 163 represents a tortoise. When one sees a resemblance between this
+      creature's head and neck and the linga, one can understand why both in
+      India and in Greece the animal should be regarded as sacred to the goddess
+      personifying the female creator, and why in Hindoo myths it is said to
+      support the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the British Museum there are three Assyrian obeliscs, all of which
+      represent, in the most conspicuous way, the phallus, one of which has been
+      apparently circumcised. The body is occupied with an inscription recording
+      the sale of land, and also a figure of the reigning king, whilst upon the
+      part known as the <i>glans penis</i> are a number of symbols, which are
+      intended apparently to designate the generative powers in creation. The
+      male is indicated by a serpent, a spear head, a hare, a tiara, a cock, and
+      a tortoise. The female appears under precisely the same form as is seen on
+      the head of the Egyptian Isis, Fig. 28. The tortoise is to this day a
+      masculine emblem in Japan. See Figs. 174, 175.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there is no necessity for the animal itself always to be depicted,
+      inasmuch as I have discovered that both in Assyrian and Greek art the
+      tortoise is pourtrayed under the figure which resembles somewhat the
+      markings upon the segments into which the shell is divided. In symbolism
+      it is a very common thing for a part to stand for the whole; thus an egg
+      is made to do duty for the triad; and a man is sometimes represented by a
+      spade. A woman is in like manner represented by a comb, or a mirror; and a
+      golden fleece typifies in the first place the "grove," which it
+      overshadows, and the female who possesses both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0091" id="linkimage-0091">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/183.jpg" height="82" width="91" alt="183 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It has been stated on page 19 <i>supra</i>, that Pausanias mentions having
+      seen at some place in Greece one figure of Venus standing on a tortoise,
+      and another upon a ram, but he leaves to the ingenious to discover why the
+      association takes place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was this intimation which led me to identify the tortoise as a male
+      symbol. Any person who has ever watched this creature in repose, and seen
+      the action of the head and neck when the quadruped is excited, will
+      recognise why the animal is dear to the goddess of amorous delight, and
+      that which it may remind her of. In like manner, those who are familiar
+      with the ram will know that it is remarkable for persistent and excessive
+      vigour. Like the cat, whose salacity caused it to be honoured in Egypt,
+      the ram was in that country also sacred, as the bull was in Assyria and
+      Hindostan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, everything which in shape, habits, or sound could remind mankind
+      of the creators and of the first part of creation was regarded with
+      reverence. Thus tall stones or natural pinnacles of rock, the palm, pine,
+      and oak trees, the fig tree and the ivy, with their tripliform leaves, the
+      mandrake, with its strange human form, the thumb and finger, symbolised
+      Bel, Baal, Asher, or Mahadeva. In like manner a hole in the ground, a
+      crevice in a rock, a deep cave, the myrtle from the shape of its leaf, the
+      fish from its scent, the dolphin and the mullet from their names, the dove
+      from its note, and any umbrageous retreat surrounded with thick bushes,
+      were symbolic of woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So also the sword and sheath, the arrow and target, the spear and shield,
+      the plough and furrow, the spade and trench, the pillar by a well, the
+      thumb thrust between the two fore-fingers or grasped by the hand, and a
+      host of other things were typical of the union which brings about the
+      formation of a new being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot help regarding the sexual element as the key which opens almost
+      every lock of symbolism, and however much we may dislike the idea that
+      modern religionists have adopted emblems of an obscene worship, we cannot
+      deny the fact that it is so, and we may hope that with a knowledge of
+      their impurity we shall cease to have a faith based upon a trinity and
+      virgin&mdash;a lingam and a yoni. Some may cling still to such a doctrine,
+      but to me it is simply horrible&mdash;blasphemous and heathenish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0092" id="linkimage-0092">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/184.jpg" alt="184 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 164, 165, represent a pagan and Christian cross and trinity. The
+      first is copied from B. P. Knight (plate x., fig. 1), and represents a
+      figure found on an ancient coin of Apollonia. The second may be seen in
+      any of our churches to-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 166 is from an old papal book lent to me by Mr. Newton, <i>Missale
+      Romanum</i>, illustrated by a monk (Venice, 1509). It represents a
+      confessor of the Roman church, who wears the <i>crux ansata</i>, the
+      Egyptian symbol of life, the emblem of the four creators, in the place of
+      the usual <i>pallium</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0093" id="linkimage-0093">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/185a.jpg" alt="185 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is remarkable that a Christian church should have adopted so many pagan
+      symbols as Rome has done. Figure 167 is copied from a small bronze figure
+      in the Mayer collection in the Free Museum, Liverpool. It represents the
+      feminine creator holding a well marked lingam in her hand, and is this
+      emblematic of the four, or the trinity and the virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img alt="185b (61K)" src="images/185b.jpg" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 168 represents two Egyptian deities in worship before an emblem of
+      the male, which closely resembles an Irish round tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0094" id="linkimage-0094">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/186.jpg" alt="186 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 169 represents the modern <i>pallium</i> worn by Roman priests. It
+      represents the ancient sistrum of Isis, and the yoni of the Hindoos. It is
+      symbolic of the celestial virgin, and the unit in the creative four. When
+      donned by a Christian priest, he resembles the pagan male worshippers, who
+      wore a female dress when they ministered before the altar or shrine of a
+      goddess. Possibly the Hebrew ephod was of this form and nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 170 is a copy of an ancient <i>pallium</i>, worn by papal
+      ecclesiastics three or four centuries ago.. It is the old Egyptian symbol
+      described above. Its common name is <i>crux ansata</i>, or the cross with
+      a handle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 171 is the albe worn by Roman and other ecclesiastics when
+      officiating at mass, etc. It is simply a copy of the chemise ordinarily
+      worn by women as an under garment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0095" id="linkimage-0095">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/187.jpg" alt="187 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 172 represents the <i>chamble</i> worn by papal hierarchs. It is
+      copied from Pugin's <i>Glossary</i>, etc. Its form is that of the <i>vesica
+      piscis</i>, one of the most common emblems of the yoni. It is adorned by
+      the triad. When worn by the priest, he forms the male element, and with
+      the chasuble completes the sacred four. When worshipping the ancient
+      goddesses, whom Mary has displaced, the officiating ministers clothed
+      themselves in feminine attire. Hence the use of the chemise, etc. Even the
+      tonsured head, adopted from the priests of the Egyptian Isis, represents
+      "l' anneau;" so that on head, shoulders, breast and body, we may see on
+      Christian priests the relics of the worship of Venus, and the adoration of
+      woman! How horrible all this would sound if, instead of using veiled
+      language, we had employed vulgar words. The idea of a man adorning
+      himself, when ministering before God and the people, with the effigies of
+      those parts which nature as well as civilisation teaches us to conceal,
+      would be simply disgusting, but when all is said to be mysterious and
+      connected with hidden signification, almost everybody tolerates and many
+      eulogise or admire it!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0096" id="linkimage-0096">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/188.jpg" alt="188 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      By John Newton, M.R.C.S.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The study of sacred symbols is as yet in its infancy. It has hitherto been
+      almost ignored by sacerdotal historians; and thus a rich mine of knowledge
+      on the most interesting of all subjects&mdash;the history of the Religious
+      Idea in man&mdash;remains comparatively unexplored. The topic has a
+      two-fold interest, for it equally applies to the present and the past. As
+      nothing on earth is more conservative than religion, we have still a world
+      of symbolism existing amongst us which is far older than our sects and
+      books, our creeds and articles, a relic of a forgotten, pre-historic past.
+      Untold ages before writing was invented, it is believed that men attempted
+      to express their ideas in visible forms. Yet how can a savage, who is
+      unable to count his fingers up to five, and has no idea of abstract
+      number, apart from things, whose habits and thoughts are of the earth,
+      earthy, form a conception of the high and holy One who inhabiteth
+      eternity? Even under the highest forms of ancient civilisation, abundant
+      proofs exist that the imagination of men, brooding over the idea of the
+      Unseen and the Infinite, were bounded by the things which were presented
+      in their daily experience, and which most moved their passions, hopes and
+      fears. Through these, then, they attempted to embody such religious ideas
+      as they felt. They could not teach others without visible symbols to
+      assist their conceptions; and emblems were rather crutches for the halting
+      than wings to help the healthy to soar. Mankind in all ages has clung to
+      the visible and tangible. The people care little for the abstract and
+      unseen. The Israelites preferred a calf of gold to the invisible Jehovah;
+      and sensuous forms of worship still fascinate the multitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst studying a collection of symbols, gathered from many climes and
+      ages, such as this volume presents, I feel sure that every intelligent
+      student will have asked himself more than once&mdash;Is there not some key
+      which unlocks these enigmas, some grand idea which runs through them all,
+      connecting them like a string of beads? I believe that there is, and that
+      it is not far to seek. What do men desire and long for most? <i>Life</i>.
+      "Skin for skin; all that a man hath will he give for his life," is a
+      saying as true now as in the days of Job. "Give me back my youth, and I
+      will give you all I possess," was said by the aged Voltaire to his
+      physician. And our poet laureate has sung,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Tis Life, whereof our nerves are scant,
+     O life, not death, for which we pant;
+     More life, and fuller, that I want.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But we must add, as necessarily contained in the idea of Life in its
+      highest sense, <i>those things which make Life desirable</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This fulness of life has been the <i>summum bonum</i>, the highest good,
+      which mankind has sighed for in every age and clime. For this the
+      alchemists toiled, not to advance chemistry, but to discover the Elixir of
+      Life and the Philosopher's Stone. But what nature refused to science, the
+      gods, it was believed, would surely give to the pious! and the glorious
+      prize referred to has been promised by every religion. "I am come that
+      they might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Life
+      is the reward which has been promised under every system, including that
+      of the founder of Christianity. A Tree of Life stood in the midst of that
+      Paradise which is described in the book of Genesis; and when the first
+      human couple disobeyed their Maker's command, they were punished by being
+      cut off from the perennial fount of vitality, lest they should eat its
+      fruit and thus live for ever; and in a second Paradise, which is promised
+      to the blessed by the author of the book of Revelation, a tree of life
+      shall stand once more "for the healing of the nations." To the good man is
+      promised, in the Hebrew Scriptures, long life, prosperity, and a numerous
+      offspring. "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."* Ps. ciii. 5.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the wondrous theology of Ancient Egypt, which at length is open to us,
+      the "Ritual of the Dead" celebrates the mystical reconstruction of the
+      body of the deceased, whose parts are to be reunited, as those of Osiris
+      were by Isis; the trials are recorded through which the deceased passes,
+      and by which all remaining stains of corruption are wiped away; and the
+      record ends when the defunct is born again glorious, like that Sun which
+      typified the Egyptian resurrection.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * St. Paul points oat (Eph. vi. 2) that to only one of the
+     ten commandments is a promise added. And what is the
+     promise? "That thy days may be long." (Exod. xx. 12.) See
+     also Psalm cxxxiii. 3, "the blessing, even life for
+     evermore."
+
+     ** Apuleius, who had been initiated into the mysteries of
+     Isis, informs us that long life was the reward promised to
+     her votaries. (Metam. cap. xi.)
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the ancient mythology of India, it is recounted that of old the gods in
+      council united together to procure, by one supreme effort, the Amrita cup
+      of immortality, which, after the success of their scheme, they partake of
+      with their worshippers. Even for the Buddhist, his cold, atheistical creed
+      promises a Nirvana, an escape from the horrors of metempsychosis, a haven
+      of eternal calm, where "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor
+      crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are
+      passed away;" "there the weary be at rest." Rev. xxi. 4, Job iii. 17.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This idea of tranquillity is in striking contrast to the heaven promised
+      by the religion of the north of Europe, which was the one most congenial
+      to a people whose delight was in conquest and battle. Those who had led a
+      life of heroism, or perished bravely in fight, ascended to Valhalla; and
+      the eternal manhood which awaited them there was to be passed in scenes
+      that were rapture to the imagination of a Dane or a Saxon. Every day in
+      that abode of bliss was to be spent in furious conflict, in the struggle
+      of armies and the cleaving of shields; but at evening the conflict was to
+      cease; every wound to be suddenly healed. Then the contending warriors
+      were to sit down to a banquet, where, attended by lovely maidens, they
+      could feast on the exhaustless flesh of the boar Sæhrimnir, and drink huge
+      draughts of mead from the skulls of those enemies who had not attained to
+      the glories of Valhalla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The paradise promised to the faithful by Mahomet is full of sensuous
+      delights. The Arabian prophet dwells with rapture on its gardens and
+      palaces, its rivers and bowers. Seventy-two houris, or black-eyed girls,
+      rejoicing in beauty and ever-blooming youth, will be created for the use
+      of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a
+      thousand years, and his powers will be increased a hundred-fold to render
+      him worthy of his felicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus we see that in all these great historical faiths the prize held out
+      to the true believer has this in common, viz., <i>Life, overflowing,
+      ever-renewed, with the addition of those things which make life desirable
+      for men</i>; whether they are sensuous pleasures, or those which, under
+      the loftier ideal of Christianity, are summed up in <i>Life, both temporal
+      and eternal, in the light of God</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such being the case, we might anticipate that the symbols of every
+      religion would reproduce, in some shape or other, the ideal which is
+      common to all. The earliest and rudest faiths were content with gross and
+      simple emblems of life. In the later and more refined forms of worship,
+      the ruder types were highly conventionalised, and replaced by a more
+      intricate and less obvious symbolism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We proceed now to investigate the more primitive emblems. The origin of
+      life is, even to us, with all our lights, as great a mystery as it was to
+      the ancients. To the primitive races of mankind the formation of a new
+      being appeared to be a constant miracle, and men very naturally used as
+      tokens of life, and even worshipped, those objects or organs by which the
+      miracle appeared to be wrought. Thus, the glorious sun, that "god of this
+      world," the source of life and light to our earth, was early adored, and
+      an effigy thereof used as a symbol. Mankind watched with rapture its rays
+      gain strength daily in the Spring, until the golden glories of Midsummer
+      had arrived, when the earth was bathed during the longest days in his
+      beams, which ripened the fruits that his returning course had started into
+      life. When the sun once more began its course downwards to the Winter
+      solstice, his votaries sorrowed, for he seemed to sicken and grow paler at
+      the advent of December, when his rays scarcely reached the earth, and all
+      nature, benumbed and cold, sunk into a death-like sleep. Hence feasts and
+      fasts were instituted to mark the commencement of the various phases of
+      the solar year, which have continued from the earliest known period, under
+      various names, to our own times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The daily disappearance and the subsequent rise of the sun, appeared to
+      many of the ancients as a true resurrection; thus, while the east came to
+      be regarded as the source of light and warmth, happiness and glory, the
+      west was associated with darkness and chill, decay and death. This led to
+      the common custom of burying the dead so as to face the east when they
+      rose again, and of building temples and shrines with an opening towards
+      the east. To effect this, Vitruvius, two thousand years ago, gave precise
+      rules, which are still followed by Christian architects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sun-worship was spread all over the ancient world. It mingled with other
+      faiths and assumed many forms.* Of the elements, fire was naturally chosen
+      as its earthly symbol. A sacred fire, at first miraculously kindled, and
+      subsequently kept up by the sedulous care of priests or priestesses,
+      formed an important part of the religions of Judea, Babylonia, Persia,
+      Greece and Rome, and the superstition lingers amongst us still.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * We may point out that, according to all the Gospels,
+     Christ expired towards sunset, and the sun became eclipsed
+     as he was dying. He rose again exactly at daybreak.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      So late as the advent of the Reformation, a sacred fire was kept ever
+      burning on a shrine at Kildare, in Ireland, and attended by virgins of
+      high rank, called "<i>inghean au dagha</i>," or daughters of fire. Every
+      year is the ceremony repeated at Jerusalem of the miraculous kindling of
+      the Holy Fire at the reputed sepulchre, and men and women crowd to light
+      tapers at the sacred flame, which they pass through with a naked body.
+      Indeed, solar myths form no unimportant part of ancient mythology. Thus
+      the death of nature in the winter time, through the withdrawal of the sun,
+      was supposed to be caused by the mourning of the earth-goddess over the
+      sickness and disappearance into the realms of darkness of her husband and
+      mate, the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Fox Talbot has lately given the translation of an Egyptian poem, more
+      than three thousand years old, and having for its subject the descent of
+      Ishtar into Hades. To this region of darkness and death the goddess goes
+      in search of her beloved Osiris, or Tammuz. This Ishtar is identical with
+      the Assyrian female in the celestial quartette, the later Phoenician
+      Astarte, "The Queen of Heaven with crescent horns," the moon-goddess, also
+      with the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus; and the Egyptian legend
+      reappears in the west as the mourning of Venus for the loss of Adonis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, the fable of Ceres mourning the death of her daughter Proserpine is
+      another sun-myth. The Roman Ceres was the Greek [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;],
+      Mother Earth, who through the winter time wanders inconsolable.
+      Persephone, her daughter, is the vegetable world, whose seeds or roots lie
+      concealed underground in the darkness of winter. These, when Spring comes
+      with its brightness, bud forth and dwell in the realms of light during a
+      part of the year, and provide ample nourishment for men and animals with
+      their fruits. The sun, being the active fructifying cause in nature, was
+      generally regarded as male. Thus, in the Jewish scriptures, he is compared
+      to "a bridegroom coming out of his chamber" (Ps. xix. 5), i.e., as a man
+      full of generative, procreative vigour. The moon and the earth, being
+      receptive were naturally regarded as female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the vernal equinox, the ancients celebrated the bridal of the sun and
+      the earth. Yet, inasmuch as the orbs of heaven and the face of nature
+      remain the same from year to year, and perpetually renew light and life,
+      themselves remaining fresh in vigour and unharmed by age, the ancients
+      conceived the bride and mate of the sun-god as continuing ever virgin.
+      Again, as the ancient month was always reckoned by the interval between
+      one new moon and the next,&mdash;an interval which also marks a certain
+      recurring event in women, that ceases at once on the occurrence of
+      pregnancy,&mdash;the lunar crescent became a symbol of virginity, and as
+      such adorns the brow of the Greek Artemis and Roman Diana. This was used
+      as a talisman at a very remote period, and was fixed over the doors of the
+      early lake-dwellers in Switzerland, like the horse-shoe is to modern
+      side-posts. With the sun and moon were often associated the five visible
+      planets, forming a sacred seven,&mdash;a figure which is continually
+      cropping up in religious emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much for the great cosmic symbols of Life. But the primitive races of
+      mankind found others nearer home, and still more suggestive&mdash;the
+      generative parts in the two sexes, by the union of which all animated
+      life, and mankind, the most interesting of all to human beings, appeared
+      to be created. This reverence for, or worship of, the organs of
+      generation, has been traced to a very early period in the history of the
+      human race. In a bone-cave recently excavated near Venice, and beneath its
+      ten feet of stalagmite, were found bones of animals, flint implements, a
+      bone needle, and a phallus in baked clay. And if we turn to those savage
+      tribes who still reproduce for us the prehistoric past, this form of
+      religious symbolism meets as everywhere. In Dahomey, beyond the Ashantees,
+      it is, according to Captain Barton, most uncomfortably prominent. In every
+      street of their settlements are priapic figures. The "Tree of Life" is
+      anointed with palm oil, which drips into a pot or shard placed below it,
+      and the would-be mother of children prays before the image that the great
+      god Legba would make her fertile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burton tells us that he peeped into an Egba temple or lodge, and found it
+      a building with three courts, of which the innermost was a sort of holy of
+      holies. Its doors had carvings on them of a leopard, a fish, a serpent,
+      and a land tortoise. The first two of these are female symbols, the two
+      latter emblems of the male. There were also two rude figures representing
+      their god Obatala, the deity of life, who is worshipped under two forms, a
+      male and a female. Opposite to these was the male symbol or phallus,
+      conjoined <i>in coitu</i> with the female emblem. Du Chaillu met with some
+      tribes in Africa who adore the female only. His guide, he informs us,
+      carried a hideous little image of wood with him, and at every meal he
+      would take the little fetish out of his pocket, and pour a libation over
+      its <i>feet</i> before he would drink himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We know that a similar superstition prevailed in Ireland long after the
+      advent of Christianity. There a female, pointing to her symbol, was placed
+      over the portal of many a church as a protector from evil spirits; and the
+      elaborate though rude manner in which these figures were sculptured shows
+      that they were considered as objects of great importance. It was the
+      universal practice among the Arabs of Northern Africa to stick up over the
+      door of their house or tent the genital parts of a cow, mare, or female
+      camel, as a talisman to avert the influence of the evil eye. The figure of
+      this organ being less definite than that of the male, it has assumed in
+      symbolism very various forms. The commonest substitution for the part
+      itself has been a horse-shoe, which is to this day fastened over many of
+      the doors of stables and shippons in the country, and was formerly
+      supposed to protect the cattle from witchcraft. From a lively story by
+      Beroalde de Verville, we learn that in France a sight of the female organ
+      was believed, as late as the sixteenth century, to be a powerful charm in
+      curing any disease in, and for prolonging the life of, the fortunate
+      beholder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As civilisation advanced, the gross symbols of creative power were cast
+      aside, and priestly ingenuity was taxed to the utmost in inventing a crowd
+      of less obvious emblems, which should represent the ancient ideas in a
+      decorous manner. The old belief was retained, but in a mysterious or
+      sublimated form. As symbols of the male, or active element in creation,
+      the sun, light, fire, a torch, the phallus or linga, an erect serpent, a
+      tall straight tree, especially the palm and the fir or pine, were adopted.
+      Equally useful for symbolism were a tall upright stone (menhir), a cone, a
+      pyramid, a thumb or finger pointed straight, a mast, a rod, a trident, a
+      narrow bottle or amphora, a bow, an arrow, a lance, a horse, a bull, a
+      lion, and many other animals conspicuous for masculine power. As symbols
+      of the female, the passive though fruitful element in creation, the
+      crescent moon, the earth, darkness, water, and its emblem a triangle with
+      the apex downwards, "the yoni," a shallow vessel or cup for pouring fluid
+      into (<i>cratera</i>), a ring or oval, a lozenge, any narrow cleft, either
+      natural or artificial, an arch or doorway, were employed. In the same
+      category of symbols came a ship or boat, the female date-palm bearing
+      fruit, a cow with her calf by her side, the fish, fruits having many
+      seeds, such as the pomegranate, a shell (<i>concha</i>), a cavern, a
+      garden, a fountain, a bower, a rose, a fig, and other things of suggestive
+      form, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two great classes of conventional symbols were often represented <i>in
+      conjunction with</i> each other, and thus symbolised in the highest degree
+      the great source of life, ever originating, ever renewed. The Egyptian
+      temple at Denderah has lately been explored by M. Mariette. In a niche of
+      the Holy of Holies he discovered the sacred secret. This was simply a
+      golden sistrum (see <i>ante</i>, pp. 44 and 70), an emblem formed by
+      uniting the female oval O with the male sacred Tau T; and thus identical
+      in meaning with the coarse emblem seen by Captain Burton in the African
+      idol temple. A similar emblem is the linga standing in the centre of a
+      yoni, the adoration of which is to this day characteristic of the leading
+      dogma of Hindu religion. There is scarcely a temple in India which has not
+      its lingam; and in numerous instances this symbol is the only form under
+      which the great god Siva is worshipped. (See <i>ante</i>, pp. 72, 78.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The linga is generally a tall, polished, cylindrical, black stone,
+      apparently inserted into another stone formed like an elongated saucer,
+      though in reality the whole is sculptured out of one block of basalt. The
+      outline of the frame, which reminds us of a Jew's harp (the conventional
+      form of the female member), is termed <i>argha or yoni</i>. The former, or
+      round perpendicular stone, the type of the virile organ, is the <i>linga</i>.
+      The entire symbol, to which the name <i>lingyoni</i> is given, is also
+      occasionally called <i>lingam</i>. This representative of the union of the
+      sexes typifies the divine <i>sacti</i>, or productive energy, in union
+      with the procreative, generative power seen throughout nature. The earth
+      was the primitive <i>pudendum, or yoni</i>, which is fecundated by the
+      solar heat, the sun, the primitive <i>linga</i>, to whose vivifying rays
+      man and animals, plants and the fruits of the earth, owe their being and
+      continued existence. These "lingas" vary in size from the tiny amulets
+      worn about the neck, to the great monoliths of the temples. Thus the
+      lingam is an emblem of the Creator, the fountain of all life, who is
+      represented in Hindu mythology as uniting in Himself the two sexes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another symbol, the <i>caduceus</i>, older than Greek and Roman art, in
+      which it is associated with Esculapius and Hermes, the gods of health and
+      fertility, has precisely the same signification as the sistrum and the
+      lingam. This is made clear enough in the following extract from a letter
+      by Dr. C. E. Balfour, published in Fergusson's <i>Tree and Serpent Worship</i>,
+      1878. "I have only once seen living snakes in the form of the Esculapian
+      rod. It was at Ahmednuggar, in 1841, on a clear moonlight night. They
+      dropped into the garden from the thatched roof of my house, <i>and stood
+      erect</i>."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They were all cobras, and <i>no one could have seen them without at once
+      recognising that they were in congress</i>. Natives of India consider that
+      it is most fortunate to witness serpents so engaged, and believe that if a
+      person can throw a cloth at the pair so as to touch them with it, the
+      material becomes a representative form of Lakshmi,* of the highest virtue,
+      and is preserved as such." The serpent, which casts its skin and seems to
+      renew its youth every year, has been used from remotest times as a living
+      symbol of generative energy, and of immortality; indeed, in the most
+      ancient Eastern languages, the name for the serpent also signifies life.**
+      It has been usually worshipped as the <i>Agathodoemon</i>, the god of good
+      fortune, life, and health; though in the Hebrew scriptures, and elsewhere,
+      we meet with a good and a bad serpent&mdash;Oriental dualism. The <i>Kakodoemon</i>,
+      however, is usually represented as winged&mdash;the Dragon, as in the
+      following example.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The consort, or life-giving energy of Vishnu.
+
+     ** As in French, the name for the male organ and for life is
+     the same in sound, though not in spelling or gender.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the remarkable Babylonian seal, Plate iv., Fig. 8, the deity is
+      represented as uniting in himself the male and the female. On each side is
+      a serpent, as the emblem of the life flowing from the Creator; that on the
+      male side, having round his head the solar glory, is compared to the
+      sun-god, as the active principle in creation; that on the female side,
+      over whose head is the lunar crescent, to the moon- and earth- goddess,
+      the passive principle in creation. Both are attacked by a winged dragon,
+      the kakodoemon, or the evil principle. This is according to the ancient
+      Chaldean doctrine of two creations of living beings, the one good and the
+      other malign. The Chinese still think that an eclipse is caused by the
+      efforts of a furious dragon to destroy the sun and moon; and Apollo, the
+      sun-god, destroying the serpent Python, has reappeared on our coin as St.
+      George killing the dragon. Even Apollyon appears in old paintings with
+      huge wings, like those of a bat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having thus explained what appears to be the key to a wide range of
+      religious symbolism, and shown its application in many cases, we shall
+      further apply it to unlock the famous object of Assyrian worship. Soon
+      after the discoveries of Botta and Layard were published, it was
+      conjectured that this strange object, so continually represented as being
+      adored, might be the <i>asherah</i> of the Hebrew scriptures, translated
+      "grove" in the English version. How far the view was correct we shall now
+      proceed to examine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The religion of the East at a very remote period appears to have been the
+      worship of one God, under several names. The most primitive was <i>El, Il,
+      or Al</i>, = the strong, the mighty one; or its plural <i>Elohim</i>, as
+      expressing His many powers and manifestations. Another name was <i>Baal or
+      Bel</i>,&mdash;the lord, which also had a plural form, <i>Baalim</i>. The
+      first word is continually used in the Hebrew scriptures, and applied both
+      to the true God and the gods of the nations. Baal is only once thus
+      applied, Hosea ii. 16; yet Balaam, inspired by God, prophesies from the
+      high places of Baal. This name, though so appropriate to the Almighty,
+      became abhorrent to the Jews when it was so frequently associated with
+      idolatry, and a new cognomen, or "the Supreme," was adopted by them, viz.,
+      Jehovah, = the Eternal, the Ever-Living One, the Creator; see Exod. iii.
+      14. "Baal" was the supreme god of all the great Syro-Phoenician nations,
+      with the insignificant exception of the Jews; and when the latter migrated
+      into Canaan they were surrounded on all sides by his worshippers. Towns,
+      temples, men, including even a son of Saul, of David and of Jonathan,
+      viz., Eshbaal, Meribbaal, and Beelida, were called after him. As the
+      sun-god, Baal-Hammon, Song of Sol. viii. 11; 2 Kings xxiii. 5; he was
+      worshipped on high places, Num. xxii. 41; and an image of the sun appeared
+      over his altars, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4. As the generative and productive
+      power, he was worshipped under the form of the phallus, Baal-Peor; and
+      youths and maidens, even of high birth, prostituted themselves in his
+      honour or service; Num. xxv.; 2 Kings xxiii. 7. As the creator, he was
+      represented to be of either or of both sexes; and Arnobius tells us that
+      his worshippers invoked him thus:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Hear us, Baal! whether thou be a god or a goddess."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Though he is of the masculine gender in the Hebrew, the lord, yet Baal is
+      called [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], = the lady, in the Septuagint; Hos. ii. 8;
+      Zeph. i. 4; and in the New Testament, Romans xi. 4. At the licentious
+      worship of this androgyne, or two-sexed god, the men on certain occasions
+      wore female garments, whilst the women appeared in male attire,
+      brandishing weapons. Each of this god's names had a female counterpart;
+      and the feminine form of <i>Baal was Beltis, Ishtar, and Ashtarte</i>. As
+      he was the sun-god, she was the moon-goddess. Now, whilst the masculine
+      name (as Bël or Bâl, Baal, Baalim,) appears nearly one hundred times in
+      the Hebrew Old Testament, the feminine equivalent is only found three
+      times in the singular Ashtoreth, and six times in the plural Ashtaroth;
+      always in association with Baal-worship. Knowing, as we do, the immense
+      diffusion of her worship amongst the Babylonians, Assyrians, and
+      Phoenicians, this appears strange. There is a word of the feminine gender
+      occurring in the Hebrew twenty-four times, viz., Asherah or <i>Asharah</i>;
+      plural, <i>Asharth</i> translated in the Septuagint and Latin vulgate, a
+      tree, or "grove," in which they have been followed by most modern
+      versions, including the English. This supplies the void, for <i>Asharah</i>
+      may be regarded as another name for the goddess <i>Ashtoreth</i>, as is
+      plainly seen by the following passages: "They forsook Jehovah and served
+      Baal and Ashtoreth;" Judges ii. 18; whilst in the following chapter we
+      read, "They forgot Jehovah their God, and served the Baalim and the
+      Asharoth;" iii. 7. What, then, was the <i>Asharah</i>? It was of wood, and
+      of large size; the Jews were ordered to cut it down; Exod. xxxiv. 18,
+      etc.; and Gideon offered a bullock as a burnt sacrifice with the wood of
+      the Asherah. Occasionally it was of stone. It was carved or graven as an
+      image; 2 Kings xxi. 7. It often stood close to the altar of Baal; Judges
+      vi. 25 and 80; 1 Kings xvi. 82, 88; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 8. Usually on high
+      places and under shady trees; 1 Kings xiv. 28; Jer. xvii. 2; but one was
+      erected in the temple of Jehovah by Manasseh; 2 Kings xxi. 7. It had
+      priests; 1 Kings xviii. 19; and its worship was as popular as that of
+      Baal; for whilst the priests of "the Baal" were four hundred and fifty,
+      those of "the Asherah" were four hundred, who ate at the table of Queen
+      Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon. It was sometimes surrounded
+      with hangings, and was worshipped by both sexes with licentious rites; 2
+      Kings xxiii. 7; Ezek. xvi. 16. As Baal was associated with sun-worship, so
+      was the Asherah with that of the moon; 2 Kings xxi. 8; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides these Asheroth, female emblems of Baal, there were Asherim, male
+      emblems of Baal, "symbolising his generative power" (Furst, Hebrew
+      Lexicon), which are mentioned sixteen times in the Hebrew scriptures. It
+      is only found in the plural, and must have been a multiple representation
+      of the singular, Asher, which means "to be firm, strong, straight,
+      prosperous, happy," * and cognate with the Phoenician (Osir), "husband,"
+      "lord," an epithet of Baal.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The lupanars at Pompeii were distinguished by a sign over
+     the street door, representing the erect phallus, painted or
+     carved, and having the words underneath, "Hie habitat
+     félicitas."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Doubtless this was also identical with the Egyptian Osiris, = the sun, =
+      the phallus. He was said to have suffered death like the sun; and Plutarch
+      tells us that Isis, unable to discover all the remains of her husband,
+      consecrated the phallus as his representative. Thus "the Asharim" were
+      male symbols used in Baal-worship, and sometimes consisted of multiple
+      phalli, of which the branch carried by an Assyrian priest, in Plate iii.
+      Fig. 4, is a conventional form. They were then counterparts of the "<i>multimammia</i>"
+      of Greek and Roman worship.* This is confirmed by a curious passage, 1
+      Kings xv. 13 (repeated 2 Chron. xv. 16). We learn (xiv. 28) that the Jews,
+      under Rehoboam, son of Solomon, having lapsed into idolatry, had "built
+      them high places, images, and Asharim ("groves," A. V.) on every high
+      hill, and under every green tree; and that there were also consecrated
+      ones ("sodomites," A. V.) in the land." But Asa, his brother, on
+      succeeding to the throne, swept away all these things, and (xv. 18)
+      deposed the queen mother, Maachah, because she had made a <i>miphletzeth</i>
+      to an Asherah ("an idol in a grove," A. V.) <i>miphletzeth</i>, is
+      rendered by the Vulgate "simulacrum Priapi." The word is derived from <i>palatz</i>,
+      "to be broken," "terrified," or the cognate, <i>phalash, palash</i>, "to
+      break or go through," "to open up a way;" a word or root found in the
+      Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ethiopie. Doubtless the Greek [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;]
+      <i>phallus</i>, was hence derived, since it has no independent meaning in
+      Greek; and Herodotus and Diodorus expressly assert that the chief gods of
+      Greece and their mysteries, especially the Dionysiac or Bacchic revels, in
+      which the <i>phallus</i> was carried in procession, were derived from the
+      east. Compare also the Latin <i>pales</i>, English <i>pale, pole</i>, =
+      May<i>pole</i>. A similar word, with a corresponding meaning, exists in
+      the Sanscrit. Thus, then, according to the Hebrew scriptures, there were
+      two chief symbols used in the worship of Baal, one male, the other female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      See Figs. 15, 16.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We can now look upon the very symbols themselves, which were so used&mdash;perhaps
+      the most remarkable in existence. It is well known that the Chaldeans,
+      from whom all other nations derived their religion, astronomy, and
+      science, gave the name of Bel or Baal to their chief god. In the most
+      ancient inscription yet deciphered, written in the Babylonian and Arcadian
+      languages, a king rules by "the favour of Bel." Another name for Baal is
+      Assur, or Asher, from whom Assyria is named. In the cuneiform inscriptions
+      of Sennacherib, the great king of Assyria, Nineveh is called "the city of
+      Bel," and "the city beloved by Ishtar." In another inscription he says of
+      the king of Egypt:&mdash;"the terror of Ashur and Ishtar overcame him and
+      he fled." Assurbanipal thus commences his annals "The great warrior, the
+      delight of Assur and Ishtar, the royal offspring am I." In a cuneiform
+      inscription of Nebobelzitri, we read:&mdash;"Nineveh the city, the delight
+      of Ishtar, wife of Bel." Again, "Beltis, the consort of Bel." "Assur and
+      Beltis, the gods of Assyria." Thus we see that Baal and Bel were identical
+      with Assur, and Ashur. Doubtless, then, "<i>Asherah</i>" is the last name
+      with the feminine termination (as Ish = man, Ishah=woman), and is
+      identical with Ishtar, Ashteroth, Astarte and Beltis. The Septuagint has
+      rendered "Asherah" by "Astarte," in 2 Chron. xv. 16, and the Vulgate by
+      "Astaroth," in Judges iii. 7. Herodotus described (b.c. 450) the great
+      temple of Belus at Babylon, and its seven stages dedicated to the sun,
+      moon, and planets, on the top of which was the shrine. This contained no
+      statue, but there was a golden couch, upon which a chosen female lay, and
+      was nightly visited by the god. Now, therefore, that the palaces of the
+      Assyrian kings, and their "chambers of imagery," have been by great good
+      fortune laid open to us, we might expect to discover the long-lost
+      symbolism of Baal-worship. And so we have.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To commence with the simplest. The (Ashcrim) is seen as the mystic
+      palm-tree, the tree of life, Fig. 99; the phallic pillar putting forth
+      branches like flames, Fig. 65; and the tree with seven phalloid branches,
+      so common on Assyrian and Babylonian seals, Plate xvii., Fig. 4. See also
+      the remarkable Syrian medals, Plate xvii., Fig. 2, on which is represented
+      Baal as the sun-god, holding the bow, and surrounded by phalli.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Or, least conventional of all, the simple phallus, of which there are two
+      remarkable specimens in the British Museum. Each of these is about two and
+      a half feet high, and once guarded the bounds of an estate. Among the
+      Greeks and Romans, boundaries were also marked by a phallic statue of
+      Hermes, the god of fertility. These Assyrian emblems have doubtless often
+      been honoured with rural sacrifice. Themselves the most expressive symbol
+      of life, they are also covered with its conventional emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0098" id="linkimage-0098">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/207.jpg" alt="207 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A back view of one is given, Figure 174. The body is mainly occupied with
+      a full length portrait of the great king. For as the Assyrians represented
+      the Deity, the source of all life, by the phallus, so the monarch was the
+      god of this lower world, the incarnation of God on earth. He was the
+      source of life to the empire, and as such was addressed&mdash;"O king,
+      live for ever" (Dan. v. 10). He, like the gods, never dies. "<i>Le Roi est
+      mort; Vive le Roi</i>" The ensigns of royalty were also those of the
+      creator-god. Accordingly, his garments and crown are embroidered with that
+      sacred emblem, the Asherah. He bears the strung-bow and arrows, emblems of
+      virile power, borne afterwards by the sun-god Apollo, and the western son
+      of Venus. An erect serpent occupies the other side, and ends with forky
+      tongue near the orifice. The <i>glans</i> is covered with symbols. On the
+      summit is a triad of sun emblems; beneath are three altars, over two of
+      which are the glans-shaped caps, covered with bulls' horns, always worn by
+      the Assyrian guardian angels, and intense emblems of the male potency. For
+      in ancient symbolism, <i>a part of a symbol stands for the whole</i>; as
+      here, the horns represent the bull, and the glans the phallus. Above the
+      third altar is a tortoise, whose protruded head and neck reminded the
+      initiated of the phallus; and the altars are covered with a pattern drawn
+      from the tortoise scales. We have, besides, a vase with a rod inserted,
+      emblem of sexual union, and a cock, with wings and plumage ruffled,
+      running after a hen in amorous heat. The glans only of the other is
+      copied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0099" id="linkimage-0099">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/208.jpg" alt="208 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 175. At the top are the sun-symbols, as before. Beneath is the
+      horse-shoe-like head-dress of Isis, and there are two altars marked with
+      the tortoise-emblem in front. Over both rises the erect serpent, and upon
+      one lies the head of an arrow or a dart, both male symbols. The <i>miphletzeth</i>
+      which Queen Maachah placed in or near the Asherah, probably resembled
+      these Assyrian phalli, or the Asherim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now we come to the Asherah, a much more complex and difficult symbol
+      than any other which we have named. This object has long puzzled
+      antiquarians, and though it is continually recurring in the sculptures
+      from Nineveh, it has not yet been fully explained. In Fig. 176 we see it
+      worshipped by human figures, with eagles' heads and wings, who present to
+      it the pine-cone, = the testis, and the basket, =the scrotum (?), intense
+      emblems of the male creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0100" id="linkimage-0100">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/209.jpg" alt="209 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 177 it is adored by the king and his son or successor, with their
+      attendant genii. The kings present towards it a well-known symbol of life
+      and good fortune, the fist with the forefinger extended, or "the phallic
+      hand." Here, then, we have evidently the Asherah, or Ashtaroth-symbol, the
+      female Baal, the life-producer, "the door" whence life issues to the
+      world. As such the goddess is here symbolised as an arched door-way. In
+      the Phonician alphabet, the fourth letter, <i>daleth</i>, = a door, has
+      the shape of a tent-door, as on the Moabite stone, A, and also in the
+      Greek [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;] But another form, perhaps as ancient, is D,
+      which, when placed in its proper position, would be [&mdash;], the very
+      form of the Asherah.* In the plural, this word stands for the <i>labia
+      pudendi</i>, [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], "because it shut not up the
+      <i>doors</i> of the womb," Job iii. 10.** We infer from Numbers xxv. 6-8,
+      that in the rites of Baal-peor, the <i>Kadeshoth</i>, or women devoted to
+      the god, offered themselves to his worshippers each in a peculiar bower or
+      small arched tent, called a <i>qubbah</i>. The part also through which
+      Phinehas drove his spear (see Num. xxv. 8), the woman's vulva, is also
+      called <i>qobbah</i>, the one word being derived from the other, according
+      to Onkelos, Aquila, and others. Qubbah means, according to Fürst, Heb.
+      Lex., "something hollow and arched, an arched tent, like the Arabic El.
+      Kubba, whence the Spanish <i>Al-cova</i>, and our <i>Alcove</i>." In the
+      Latin also, the word <i>fornix</i>, a vault, an arch, meant a brothel, and
+      from it was derived <i>fornicatio</i>. Qubbah is translated by the LXX.,
+      kaminos, "an oven or arched furnace" (Liddell and Scott); but it meant
+      also the female parts. See Herodotus v. 92 (7). Thus, then, the Alcove was
+      itself a symbol of woman, as though a place of entrance and emergence, and
+      whence new life issues to the world. And when the male worshipper of Baal
+      entered to the <i>kadeshah</i>, the living embodiment of the goddess, the
+      analogy to the Asherah became complete, as we shall now show.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The first letter, Aleph, = an ox, is, even on the Moabite
+     stone, written thus, and has become the modern A. In the
+     earlier hieroglyph it must have been thus V. The Egyptian
+     hieroglyph for ten is Compare the Greek [&mdash;] and Latin
+     Decem.
+
+     ** The first of the Orphic Hymns is addressed to the goddess
+     Artemisias (Prothnraia) or the Door-keeper, who presided
+     over childbirths, like the Roman Diana Lucina.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The central object in the Assyrian "grove" is a male date-palm, which was
+      well known as an emblem of Baal, the sun, the phallus, and life. This
+      remarkable tree, <i>Tamar</i> in Phoenician and Hebrew, the <i>phoenix</i>
+      in Greek, was formerly abundant in Palestine and the neighbouring regions.
+      The word <i>Phoenicia</i> (Acts xi. 19, xv. 8) is derived from <i>phoinix</i>,
+      as the country of palms; like the "<i>Idumeo palmo</i>" of Virgil.
+      Palmyra, the city of the sun, was called in the Hebrew <i>Tamar</i> (1
+      Kings ix. 18). In Vespasian's famous coin, "<i>Judoa capta</i>," Judoa is
+      represented as a female sitting under a palm-tree. The tree can at once be
+      identified by its tall, straight, branchless stem, of equal thickness
+      throughout, crowned at the top with a cluster of long, curved,
+      feather-like branches, and by its singularly wrinkled bark. All these
+      characteristics are readily recognised in the highly conventional forms of
+      the religious emblem, even in the ornament on the king's robe, fig. 174.
+      The date-palm is dioecious, the female trees, which are sometimes used as
+      emblems, being always distinguished by the clusters of date fruit. "Thy
+      stature is like to a palm-tree, thy breasts to clusters" (Cant. vii. 7).
+      "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree" (Ps. xcii. 12), fruitful
+      and ever green. "They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not" (Jer.
+      x. 8-5). The prophet is evidently describing the making of an Asherah.
+      There was a Canaanite city called Baal-Tamar, = Baal, the palm-tree,
+      designated so, it is probable, from the worship of Baal there "under the
+      form of a priapus-column," says Fürst, Heb. Lex. The real form was
+      doubtless an "Asherim," a modified palm-tree, as we have already shown.
+      Palm-branches have been used in all ages as emblems of life, peace, and
+      victory. They were strewn before Christ. Palm-Sunday, the feast of palms,
+      is still kept. Even within the present century, on this festival, in many
+      towns of France, women and children carried in procession at the end of
+      their palm-branches a phallus made of bread, which they called,
+      undisguisedly, "la pine," whence the festival was called "La Fête des
+      Pinnes." The "pine" having been blest by the priest, the women carefully
+      preserved it during the following year as an amulet. (Dulaure, <i>Hist,
+      des differens Cultes.</i>)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0101" id="linkimage-0101">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/213.jpg" alt="213 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Again, the Greek name for the palm-tree, <i>phoenix</i>, was also the name
+      of that mythical Egyptian bird, sacred to Osiris, and a symbol of the
+      resurrection. With some early Christian writers, Christ was "the Phoenix."
+      The date-palm is figured as a tree of life on an Egyptian sepulchral
+      tablet, older than the Exodus, now preserved in the museum at Berlin. Two
+      arms issue from the top of the tree; one of which presents a tray of dates
+      to the deceased, whilst the other gives him water, "the water of life."
+      The tree of life is represented by a date-palm on some of the earliest
+      Christian mosaics at Rome. Something very like the Assyrian Asherah, or
+      sacred emblem, was sculptured on the great doors of Solomon's temple, by
+      Hiram, the Tyrian (1 Kings vii. 18-21). We read "he carved upon them
+      carvings of cherubims and palm-trees and open flowers, and spread gold
+      upon the cherubims and palm-trees" (1 Kings vi. 82-35). He also erected
+      two phallic pillars in front of the Temple, Jachin and Boaz, = It stands&mdash;In
+      strength. No wonder Solomon fell to worship Astarte, Chemosh, and Milcom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although to our modern ideas the mystical tree, symbol of life and
+      immortality, seems out of place in Judaism, yet no sooner did the Jews
+      possess a national coinage under the Maccabees than the palm-tree
+      reappears, <i>always with seven branches</i> (like the golden candlestick,
+      Ex. xxv.), as on the shekel represented Plate xvii., Fig. 4. The Assyrian
+      tree has <i>always</i> the same number, and the tufts of foliage
+      (symbolising the entire female tree) which deck the margins of the mystic
+      D&mdash;apt emblems of fertility&mdash;have also invariably seven
+      branches. This may remind us of the seven visible spheres that move around
+      our earth "in mystic dance," and of Balak's offering, upon seven altars,
+      seven bulls and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1; Rev. ii. 1) The mystic door is
+      also barred, like the Egyptian sistrum carried by the priestesses of Isis,
+      to represent the inviolable purity and eternal perfection which were
+      associated with the idea of divinity. When Mary, the mother of Jesus, took
+      the place in Christendom of "the great goddess," the dogmas which
+      propounded her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity followed as a
+      matter of course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, then, we explain the greatest symbol in Eastern worship,&mdash;it is
+      the "Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden," which has remained so long
+      a mystery. To Dr. Inman belongs the distinguished merit of having first
+      broken ground in the right direction. In his <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, vol.
+      1, 1868, he identified the Assyrian "Asherah" with the female "door of
+      life," and pointed out its analogy to the barred sistrum. We have seen
+      that it is really much more complex, being precisely analogous in meaning
+      to the famous <i>crux ansata</i> (Fig. 170), the central mystery of
+      Egyptian worship; to the lingam or lingyoni of India (Fig. 109), the great
+      emblem of Siva-worship; and to the caduceus of Greece and Rome. As
+      represented on the Assyrian sculptures, it is always substantially the
+      same. Probably this stereotyped form was the result of a gradual
+      refinement upon some rude primitive type, perhaps as coarse as that seen
+      by Captain Burton in the African idol-temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To exhibit all the strange developments and modifications which this idea
+      has assumed in the religious symbolism of Eastern and Western nations
+      would require a large volume. But the subject is so rich in varied
+      interest that we cannot conclude without taking a glance at it. First, the
+      simple O, barred, is reproduced with a contraction towards the base, as in
+      the Indian "yoni," and the Egyptian sistrum, used in the worship of Isis.
+      Second, within the O was represented the goddess herself, as revealed
+      within her own symbol. This is illustrated in Plate xvii., Fig. 5, where
+      Demeter or Ceres is thus depicted, with her cornucopia, from a bronze coin
+      of Damascus. Thirdly, but much more commonly, the goddess holds in her
+      hands emblems of the male potency in creation, and thus completes the
+      symbol. As in the coin figured Plate xvii., Fig. 8, the goddess, standing
+      within the O, the portico of her temple, holds in her right hand the
+      cross, that most ancient emblem of the male and of life. In the beautiful
+      Greek coin of Sidon next figured, the goddess&mdash;evidently Astarte, the
+      moon-goddess, the Queen of Heaven&mdash;stands on a ship, the mystic Argha
+      or Ark, holding in one hand a crozier, in the other the cross. (Plate
+      xvii., Fig. 7.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0102" id="linkimage-0102">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/217.jpg" alt="217 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Under Christianity, the Virgin Mary, who, as Queen of Heaven, stands on
+      the crescent moon, is pictured beneath the mystic doorway, with (the God
+      as) a male child in her arms. See Plate xviii., copied from the woodcut
+      title to the <i>Psalter of the Blessed Virgin</i>, printed at Czenna, in
+      old Prussia, 1492. Like Isis, she is the mother and yet the spouse of God,
+      "clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet" (Rev. xii. 1).
+      The upper half of the picture is very like the Assyrian scenes. On either
+      side is a king, Frederick III. and his son the Emperor Maximilian, at
+      their devotions. The alcove is of roses, an emblem of virginity. The
+      famous Mediæval "Romaunt de la Rose" turns upon this. Among the many
+      titles given to "the Virgin" in Mediæval times, we find <i>Santa Maria
+      della Rosa</i>, that flower being consecrated to her. Hence it is often
+      represented in her hand. Dante writes
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Here is the Rose,
+     Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In Plate xviii., the Virgin goddess is seated with the God-child in a
+      bower, exactly the shape of the Assyrian, composed of fruits highly
+      significant of sex, as has already been explained. In some Hindoo
+      pictures, the child is naked, having the member erect, and also making the
+      phallic hand, with the right forefinger erected. (Plate xiv., Fig. 14.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In other conventional forms we have male symbols only within the female O.
+      This is a very numerous class. In the Fig. 3, Plate xvii., we see the
+      fir-tree or pine take the place of the palm-tree, and in Fig. 6, Plate
+      xvii., the cone. On this remarkable medal of Cyprus is a representation of
+      the temple of Venus at Paphos, famous even in the days of Homer. (Odyss.
+      viii. 862.) The worship of that divinity is said to have been imported
+      into Cyprus from the East. The goddess united both sexes in her own
+      person, and was served by castrated priests. We see here, within the
+      innermost sanctum of the temple, a cone as emblem of the male; and the
+      meaning is further pointed by the sun-emblem above, inserted within the
+      crescent moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us next examine how the cone came to be used as a masculine emblem. If
+      we turn to Figs. 174 and 175, it will be seen that the "glans" was
+      particularly honoured as the head of the phallus; it was also the part
+      dedicated to God by effusion of blood in the rite of circumcision. This
+      "acorn" is conical or dome-shaped, and thus&mdash;a part being taken for
+      the whole&mdash;the cone or pyramid was used as a conventional symbol of
+      the male creator. Placed on a stem it is frequently represented as
+      worshipped on Assyrian bas reliefs. See Fig. 177. It was also a symbol of
+      fire, the sun, and life; as such it formed a fitting monument for the
+      Egyptian kings. Our word pyramid is from the Greek <i>puramis</i>, itself
+      derived from pur, Jire, and puros, wheat, because pyramid-shaped cakes of
+      wheat and honey were used in the Bacchic Fig. 177. rites. It played an
+      important part in sun-worship. The emperor Heliogabalus (who, as his name
+      implies, had been a priest of Baal, the sun-god, in Syria,) established
+      the Syrian worship at Rome. He himself drove the golden chariot of the
+      sun, drawn by six white horses, through the streets of Rome to a splendid
+      new temple on the Palatine mount, the god being represented by a conical
+      black stone, said to have fallen from heaven; and which the emperor
+      removed from a temple of the sun, at Emesa, in Syria. At a subsequent
+      period, an image of the moon-goddess, or Astarte, was brought by his
+      orders from a celebrated fane at Carthage to Rome, and there solemnly
+      married with licentious rites to the sun-god, amidst general rejoicing.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In Astrology, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was
+     considered the most fortunate of all; such as kings and
+     princes should be born under.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A curious parallel to these mystic nuptials of the Assyrian god and
+      goddess may be found in some of the religious ceremonies of the modern
+      Hindoos. Fergusson tells us that "the most extraordinary buildings
+      connected with Hindu temples are the vast pillared colonnades or
+      choultries. By far their most important application is when used as
+      nuptial halls, in which the mystic union of a male and female divinity is
+      celebrated once a year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, in Indian mythology, the pyramid plays an important part. It
+      belongs to Siva, = the sun, = fire, = the phallus, = life. By one complex
+      symbol, very common on ancient Hindoo monuments in China and Thibet, the
+      universe was thus represented. Notice the upward gradation. Earth + water
+      = this globe. The creator-god, whose emblem, flame, mounts upwards, is the
+      author and representative of all life upon it; he is the connecting link,
+      united by the crescent moon with heaven. The arrow- or spear- head
+      inserted within the crescent is an earth emblem of Siva; like the lingam
+      it typified the divine source of life, and also the doctrine that perfect
+      wisdom was to be found only in the combination of the male and female
+      principles in nature. It decorates the roofs of the Buddhist monasteries
+      in Thibet, and like the sacred lotus flower and the linga, both of which
+      became emblems of Buddha, was derived from older faiths. Other
+      interpretations may suggest themselves. This will enable us to understand
+      the remarkable sculptures of the second or third century, from the
+      Amravati Tope, Plate xix., which present so many points in common with the
+      religious symbols of the Chaldeans. In Fig. 2 we see a congregation of
+      males and females, the sexes being separated, worshipping a linga, or
+      stone conical pillar, on the front of which is sculptured the sacred tree,
+      with branches like flames; three symbols of life in one. It rises from a
+      throne, on the seat of which are placed the two emblems of earth and
+      water. In the other figure, the sacred tree takes the place of the linga,
+      rising above the throne, as if from the trisul or trident, male emblems of
+      Siva. Winged figures, Garudas, attend it above, floating over the heads of
+      the worshippers. An intrusion of the newer faith is also to be recognised,
+      as the feet of Buddha are sculptured before the throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mysteries of Mithra, the symbols in Fig. 178 were also employed.
+      They represented the elements to which the soul ought to be successively
+      united in passing through the new birth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0105" id="linkimage-0105">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/221.jpg" alt="221 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We will add but two more emblems, culled from medieval heraldry, Figs. 179
+      and 180, in both of which the Asherah, the "grove" of Baal-worship, will
+      be at once recognised; the arrow and the cross, symbols of the male
+      creator, taking the place of the mystic palm-tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all these, from the rudest to the most complex, we are thus able to
+      trace a common idea, viz., a feeling after God, as the Life and Light of
+      the Universe, and an attempt to express a common hope in visible forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0106" id="linkimage-0106">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig">
+      <img src="images/222.jpg" alt="222 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
+Symbolism, by Thomas Inman and John Newton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
+no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use
+it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
+eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism
+       With an Essay on Baal Worship, On The Assyrian Sacred "Grove," And Other
+
+Author: Thomas Inman
+        John Newton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2012 [EBook #38485]
+Last Updated: August 20, 2014
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN AND MODERN SYMBOLISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ANCIENT PAGAN AND MODERN CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+
+By Thomas Inman, M.D.
+
+Consulting Physician To The Royal Infirmary, Liverpool; Late Lecturer
+Successively On Botany, Medical Jurisprudence, Materia Medica And
+Therapeutics, And The Principles And Practice Of Medicine, Etc.; In The
+Liverpool School Of Medicine; Author Of "Foundation For A New Theory And
+Practice Of Medicine;" A "Treatise On Myalgia;" "On The Real Nature Of
+Inflammation," "Atheroma In Arteries," "The Preservation Of Health,"
+"The Restoration Of Health," "Ancient Faiths Embodied In Ancient Names,"
+
+
+Second Edition,
+
+Revised And Enlarged,
+
+WITH AN ESSAY ON BAAL WORSHIP, ON THE ASSYRIAN SACRED "GROVE," AND OTHER
+ALLIED SYMBOLS.
+
+By John Newton, M.R.C.S.E., Etc.
+
+
+
+The woodcuts in the present volume originally appeared in a large work,
+in two thick volumes, entitled Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names.
+It has been suggested to me by many, that a collection of these Figures,
+and their explanation, are more likely to be generally examined than a
+very voluminous book. The one is, as it were, an alphabet; the other, an
+essay. The one opens the eyes; the other gives them opportunities to
+use their vision. The one teaches to read; the other affords means for
+practice. As the larger work endeavours to demonstrate the existence
+of a state of things almost unknown to the British public, so it
+is necessary to furnish overwhelming proof that the allegations
+and accusations made against certain nations of antiquity, and some
+doctrines of Christianity, are substantially true. Consequently, the
+number of witnesses is greater than is absolutely necessary to prove the
+point.
+
+12, Rodney Street, Liverpool,
+
+July 1869.
+
+The demand which has sprung up for this work has induced the Author to
+make it more complete than it was originally. But it could not be
+made perfect without being expanded into a volume whose size would be
+incompatible with cheapness. When every Figure would supply a text for a
+long discourse, a close attention is required lest a description should
+be developed into a dissertation.
+
+In this work, the Author is obliged to confine himself to the
+explanation of symbols, and cannot launch out into ancient and modern
+faiths, except in so far as they are typified by the use of certain
+conventional signs.
+
+A great many who peruse a book like this for the first time, and find
+how strange were the ideas which for some thousands of years permeated
+the religious opinions of the civilised world, might naturally consider
+that the Author is a mere visionary--one who is possessed of a hobby
+that he rides to death. Such a notion is strengthened by finding that
+there is scarcely any subject treated of except the one which associates
+religion, a matter of the highest aim to man, with ideas of the most
+intensely earthly kind. But a thoughtful reader will readily discern
+that an essay on Symbolism must be confined to visible emblems. By no
+fair means can an author who makes the crucifix his text introduce the
+subject of the Confessional, the Eucharist, or Extreme Unction. Nor can
+one, who knows that Buddha and Jesus alike inaugurated a faith which was
+unmarked by visible symbolism, bring into an interpretation of emblems a
+comparison between the preaching of two such distinguished men. In
+like manner, the Author is obliged to pass over the difference between
+Judaism, Christianity as propounded by the son of Mary, and that which
+passes current for Christianity in Rome and most countries of Europe.
+
+All these points, and many more, have been somewhat fully discussed in
+the Author's larger work, so often referred to in this, and to that he
+must refer the curious. The following pages are simply a chapter taken
+from a book, complete perhaps in itself, but only as a brick may be
+perfect, without giving to an individual any idea of the size, style, or
+architecture of the house from which it has been taken. If readers will
+regard these pages as a beam in a building, the Author will be content.
+
+8, Vyvyan Terrace,
+
+Clifton, Bristol,
+
+August, 1874.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+
+APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+It may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is, or has ever
+been, adopted into the service of Religion, without a definite purpose.
+If it be supposed that a religion is built upon the foundation of a
+distinct revelation from the Almighty, as the Hebrew is said to be,
+there is a full belief that every emblem, rite, ceremony, dress, symbol,
+etc., has a special signification. Many earnest Christians, indeed,
+see in Judaic ordinances a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. I have, for
+example, heard a pious man assert that "leprosy" was only another word
+for "sin"; but he was greatly staggered in this belief when I pointed
+out to him that if a person's whole body was affected he was no longer
+unclean (Lev. xiii. 13), which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to
+demonstrate that when a sinner was as black as hell he was the equal of
+a saint. According to such an interpreter, the paschal lamb is a type of
+Jesus, and consequently all whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of
+wood, lintels, and side-posts (Exod. xii. 22, 28). By the same style of
+metaphorical reasoning, Jesus was typified by the "scape-goat," and the
+proof is clear, for one was driven away into the wilderness, and the
+other voluntarily went there--one to be destroyed, the other to be
+tempted by the devil! Hence we infer that there is nothing repugnant to
+the minds of the pious in an examination respecting the use of symbols,
+and into that which is shadowed forth by them. What has been done for
+Judaism may be attempted for other forms of religion.
+
+As the Hebrews and Christians believe their religion to be God-given,
+so other nations, having a different theology, regard their own peculiar
+tenets. Though we may, with that unreasoning prejudice and blind bigotry
+which are common to the Briton and the Spaniard, and pre-eminently so to
+the mass of Irish and Scotchmen amongst ourselves, and to the
+Carlists in the peninsula, disbelieve a heathen pretension to a divine
+revelation, we cannot doubt that the symbols, etc., of Paganism have a
+meaning, and that it is as lawful to scrutinise the mysteries which they
+enfold as it is to speculate upon the Urim and Thummim of the Jews. Yet,
+even this freedom has, by some, been denied; for there are a few amongst
+us who adhere rigidly to the precept addressed to the followers of
+Moses, viz., "Take heed that thou enquire not after their gods, saying,
+How did these nations serve their gods?" (Deut. xii. 30.) The intention
+of the prohibition thus enunciated is well marked in the following
+words, 1 which indicate that the writer believed that the adoption of
+heathen gods would follow inquiry respecting them. It is not now-a-days
+feared that we may become Mahometans if we read the Koran, or Buddhists
+if we study the Dhammapada; but there are priests who fear that an
+inquiry into ecclesiastical matters may make their followers Papists,
+Protestants, Wesleyans, Baptists, Unitarians, or some other religion
+which the Presbytery object to. The dislike of inquiry ever attends
+those who profess a religion which is believed or known to be weak.
+
+
+     * "even so will I do likewise."
+
+The philosopher of the present day, being freed from the shackles once
+riveted around him by a dominant hierarchy, may regard the precept in
+Deuteronomy in another light. Seeing that the same symbolism is common
+to many forms of religion, professed in countries widely apart both as
+regards time and space, he thinks that the danger of inquiry into
+faiths is not the adoption of foreign, but the relinquishment of present
+methods of religious belief. When we see the same ideas promulgated as
+divine truth, on the ancient banks of the Ganges, and the modern
+shores of the Mediterranean, we are constrained to admit that they have
+something common in their source. They may be the result of celestial
+revelation, or they may all alike emanate from human ingenuity. As men
+invent new forms of religion now, there is a presumption that others
+may have done so formerly. As all men are essentially human, so we may
+believe that their inventions will be characterised by the virtues and
+the failings of humanity. Again, experience tells us that similarity in
+thought involves similarity in action. Two sportsmen, seeing a hare run
+off from between them, will fire at it so simultaneously that each is
+unaware that the other shot. So a resemblance in religious belief will
+eventuate in the selection of analogous symbolism.
+
+We search into emblems with an intention different from that with which
+we inquire into ordinary language. The last tells us of the relationship
+of nations upon Earth, the first of the probable connections of mankind
+with Heaven. The devout Christian believes that all who venerate the
+Cross may hope for a happy eternity, without ever dreaming that the
+sign of his faith is as ancient as Homeric Troy, and was used by the
+Phoenicians probably before the Jews had any existence as a people;
+whilst an equally pious Mahometan regards the Crescent as the passport
+to the realms of bliss, without a thought that the symbol was in use
+long before the Prophet of Allah was born, and amongst those nations
+which it was the Prophet's mission to convert or to destroy. Letters
+and words mark the ordinary current of man's thought, whilst religious
+symbols show the nature of his aspirations. But all have this in common,
+viz., that they may be misunderstood. Many a Brahmin has uttered prayers
+in a language to him unintelligible; and many a Christian uses words
+in his devotions of which he never seeks to know the meaning. "Om manee
+pani" "Om manee padme houm," "Amen" and "Ave Maria purissima" may fairly
+be placed in the same category. In like manner, the signification of an
+emblem may be unknown. The antiquary finds in Lycian coins, and in Aztec
+ruins, figures for which he can frame no meaning; whilst the ordinary
+church-goer also sees, in his place of worship, designs of which none
+can give him a rational explanation. Again, we find that a language may
+find professed interpreters, whose system of exposition is wholly wrong;
+and the same may be said of symbols. I have seen, for example, three
+distinctly different interpretations given to one Assyrian inscription,
+and have heard as many opposite explanations of a particular figure, all
+of which have been incorrect.
+
+In the interpretation of unknown languages and symbols, the observer
+gladly allows that much may be wrong; but this does not prevent him
+believing that some may be right. In giving his judgment, he will
+examine as closely as he can into the system adopted by each inquirer,
+the amount of materials at his disposal, and, generally, the acumen
+which has been brought to the task. Perhaps, in an investigation such
+as we describe, the most important ingredient is care in collation and
+comparison. But a scholar can only collate satisfactorily when he has
+sufficient means, and these demand much time and research. The labour
+requires more time than ordinary working folk can command, and more
+patience than those who have leisure are generally disposed to give.
+Unquestionably, we have as yet had few attempts in England to classify
+and explain ancient and modern symbols. It is perhaps not strictly true
+that there has been so much a laxity in the research, of which we
+here speak, as a dread of making public the results of inquiry.
+Investigators, as a rule, have a respect for their own prejudices, and
+dislike to make known to others a knowledge which has brought pain to
+their own minds. Like the Brahmin of the story, they will destroy a fine
+microscope rather than permit their co-religionists to know that they
+drink living creatures in their water, or eat mites in their fruit. The
+motto of such people is, "If truth is disagreeable, cling to error."
+
+The following attempts to explain much of ancient and modern symbolism
+can only be regarded as tentative. The various devices contained herein
+seem to me to support the views which I have been led to form from other
+sources, by a careful inquiry into the signification of ancient names,
+and the examination of ancient faiths. The figures were originally
+intended as corroborative of evidence drawn from numerous ancient and
+modern writings; and the idea of collecting them, and, as it were,
+making them speak for themselves, has been an after-thought. In the
+following pages I have simply reprinted the figures, etc., which appear
+in Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names (second edition). I make no
+attempt to exhaust the subject. There are hundreds of emblems which find
+herein no place; and there are explanations of symbols current to which
+I make no reference, for they are simply exoteric.
+
+For the benefit of many of my readers, I must explain the meaning of the
+last word italicised. In most, if not in all, forms of religion, there
+are tenets not generally imparted to the vulgar, and only given to a
+select few under the seal of secrecy. A similar reticence exists in
+common life. There are secrets kept from children, for example, that are
+commonly known to all parents; there are arcana, familiar to doctors, of
+which patients have no idea. For example, when a lad innocently asks the
+family surgeon, or his parent, where the last new baby came from, he is
+put off with a reply, wide of the mark, yet sufficient for him. When I
+put such a question to the maids in the kitchen, to which place for a
+time I was relegated, the first answer was that the baby came from the
+parsley bed. On hearing this, I went into the garden, and, finding
+the bed had been unmoved, came back and reproached my informant for
+falsehood. Another then took up the word, and said it was the carrot bed
+which the baby came from. As a roar of laughter followed this remark, I
+felt that I was being cheated, and asked no more questions. Then I could
+not, now I can, understand the esoteric sense of the sayings. They had
+to the servants two distinct significations. The only one which I could
+then comprehend was exoteric; that which was known to my elders was the
+esoteric meaning. In what is called "religion" there has been a similar
+distinction. We see this, not only in the "mysteries" of Greece and
+Rome, but amongst the Jews; Esdras stating the following as a command
+from God, "Some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou
+show secretly to the wise" (2 Esdras xv. 26).
+
+When there exist two distinct explanations, or statements, about the
+signification of an emblem, the one "esoteric," true, and known only to
+the few, the other "exoteric," incorrect, and known to the many, it
+is clear that a time may come when the first may be lost, and the last
+alone remain. As an illustration, we can point to the original and
+correct pronunciation of the word [--Hebrew--], commonly pronounced
+Jehovah. Known only to a select few, it became lost when these died
+without imparting it; yet what is considered to be the incorrect method
+of pronouncing the word survives until to-day.*
+
+
+     * It is supposed by some that Jahveh is the proper
+     pronunciation of this word, but as the first letter may
+     represent, ja, ya, or e, and the third u, v, or o, whilst
+     the second and fourth are the soft h, one may read the word
+     Jhuh, analogous to the Ju in Jupiter; Jehu, the name of a
+     king of Israel; Tahu as it is read on Assyrian inscriptions;
+     Jeho, as in Jehoshaphat; Ehoh, analogous to the Evoe or Ewe
+     associated with Bacchus; and Jaho, analogous to the J. A. O.
+     of the Gnostics. The Greek "Fathers" give the word as if
+     equivalent to yave, yaoh, yeho, and too.
+
+But the question is not how the word may be pronounced, but how it was
+expressed in sound when used in religion by the Hebrew and other Semitic
+nations, amongst whom it was a sacred secret, or ineffable name, not
+lightly to be "taken in vain."------
+
+We may fairly assume that, when two such meanings exist, they are not
+identical, and that the one most commonly received is not the correct
+one. But when one alone is known to exist, it becomes a question whether
+another should be sought. If, it may be asked, the common people are
+contented with a fable, believing it true, why seek to enlighten them
+upon its hidden meaning? To show the bearing of this subject, let us
+notice what has always struck me as remarkable. The second commandment
+declares to the Jews, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
+or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the
+earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not
+bow down thyself to them," etc. (Exod. xx. 4). Yet we find, in Numbers
+xxi., that Jehovah ordered Moses to frame a brazen serpent, whose power
+was so miraculous that those who only looked at it were cured of the
+evils inflicted by thanatoid snakes.
+
+Then again, in the temple of the God who is reported to have thus
+spoken, and who is also said to have declared that He would dwell in
+the house that Solomon made for Him, an ark, or box, was worshipped, and
+over it Cherubim were seen. These were likenesses of something, and the
+first was worshipped. We find it described as being so sacred that death
+once followed a profane touching of it (2 Sam. vi. 6, 7), and no fewer
+than 50,070 people were done to death at Bethshemesh because somebody
+had ventured to look inside the box, and had tried to search into
+the mystery contained therein (1 Sam. vi. 19). It is curious that
+the Philistines, who must have touched the box to put their strange
+offerings beside it (see 1 Sam. vi. 8), were not particularly bothered.
+They were "profane"; and priests only invent stories, which are
+applicable to the arcana which they use in worship, to blind the eyes
+of and give a holy horror to the people whom they govern. How David
+worshipped the ark as being the representative of God we see in 2 Sam.
+vi. 14, 16, 17, 21.
+
+The ark of the covenant was indeed regarded by the Jews much as a
+saint's toe-nail, a crucifix, an image of the Virgin, a bit of wood,
+or a rusty old nail is by the Roman Catholics. So flagrant an apparent
+breach of the second commandment was covered for the common Hebrews by
+the assertion that the mysterious box was a token of God's covenant with
+His people; but that this statement was "exoteric," we feel sure, when
+we find a similar ark existing and used in "the mysteries" of Egypt and
+Greece, amongst people who probably never heard of Jews, and could by no
+chance know what passed in the Hebrew temple.
+
+When become dissatisfied with a statement, which is evidently intended
+to be a blind, some individuals naturally endeavour to ascertain what is
+behind the curtain. In this they resemble the brave boy, who rushes upon
+a sheet and turnip lantern, which has imposed upon his companions
+and passed for a ghost. What is a bugbear to the many is often a
+contemptible reptile to the few. Yet there are a great number who would
+rather run from a phantom night after night than grapple with it once,
+and would dissuade others from being bold enough to encounter it.
+Nevertheless, even the former rejoice when the cheat is exposed.
+
+As when, by some courageous hand, that which has been mistaken by
+hundreds for a spectre has been demonstrated to be a crafty man, no one
+would endeavour to demonstrate the reality of ghosts by referring to
+the many scores of men of all ranks who had been duped by the apparition
+thus detected; so, in like manner, when the falsehood of an exoteric
+story is exhibited, it is no argument in its favour that the vulgar in
+thousands and many a wise man have believed it. Speaking metaphorically,
+we have many such ghosts amongst ourselves; phantoms, which pass for
+powerful giants, but are in reality perfect shams. Such we may describe
+by comparing them to the apocryphal vampires. It is to me a melancholy
+thing to contemplate the manner in which mankind have, in every age and
+nation, made for themselves bugbears, and then have felt fear at them.
+We deride the African, who manufactures a Fetish, and then trembles at
+its power, but the learned know perfectly well that men made the devil,
+whom the pious fear, just as a negro dreads Mumbo Jumbo.
+
+In the fictitious narratives which passed for truth in the dark ages
+of Christianity, there were accounts of individuals who died and were
+buried, and who, after a brief repose in the tomb, rose again. Some
+imagined that the resuscitated being was the identical one who had been
+interred. Others believed that some evil spirit had appropriated the
+body, and restored to it apparent vitality. Whatever the fiction was,
+the statement remained unchallenged, that some dead folk returned to
+earth, having the same guise as when they quitted it. We believe that a
+similar occurrence has taken place in religion. Heathendom died, and was
+buried; yet, after a brief interval, it rose again from its tomb. But,
+unlike the vampire, its garb was changed, and it was not recognised. It
+moved through Christendom in a seductive dress. If it were a devil, yet
+its clothing was that of a sheep; if a wolf, it wore broadcloth. If it
+ravened, the victims were not pitied. Heathenism, by which I mean the
+manners, morals and rites prevalent in pagan times or countries, like
+a resuscitated vampire, once bore rule throughout Christendom, in which
+term is included all those parts where Christian baptism is used by all
+the people, or the vast majority. In most parts it still reigns supreme.
+
+When vampires were discovered by the acumen of any observer, they were,
+we are told, ignominiously killed, by a stake being driven through the
+body; but experience showed them to have such tenacity of life that they
+rose again, and again, notwithstanding renewed impalement, and were
+not ultimately laid to rest till wholly burnt. In like manner, the
+regenerated Heathendom, which dominates over the followers of Jesus
+of Nazareth, has risen again and again, after being transfixed. Still
+cherished by the many, it is denounced by the few. Amongst other
+accusers, I raise my voice against the Paganism which exists so
+extensively in ecclesiastical Christianity, and will do my utmost to
+expose the imposture.
+
+In a vampire story, told in Thalaba, by Southey, the resuscitated being
+takes the form of a dearly beloved maiden, and the hero is obliged to
+kill her with his own hand. He does so; but, whilst he strikes the form
+of the loved one, he feels sure that he slays only a demon. In like
+manner, when I endeavour to destroy the current Heathenism, which has
+assumed the garb of Christianity, I do not attack real religion. Few
+would accuse a workman of malignancy who cleanses from filth the surface
+of a noble statue. There may be some who are too nice to touch a nasty
+subject; yet even they will rejoice when some one else removes the dirt.
+Such a scavenger is much wanted.
+
+If I were to assert, as a general proposition, that religion does not
+require any symbolism, I should probably win assent from every true
+Scotch Presbyterian, every Wesleyan, and every Independent. Yet I should
+be opposed by every Papist, and by most Anglican Churchmen. But why?
+Is it not because their ecclesiastics have adopted symbolism into their
+churches and into their ritual? They have broken the second commandment
+of Jehovah, and refuse to see anything wrong in their practice or gross
+in their imagery. But they adopt Jehovah rather than Elohim, and break
+the commandments, said to be given upon Sinai, in good company.
+
+The reader of the following pages will probably feel more interest
+therein if he has some clue whereby he may guide himself through their
+labyrinth.
+
+From the earliest known times there seems to have been in every
+civilised nation the idea of an unseen power. In the speculations of
+thoughtful minds a necessity is recognised for the existence of a
+Being who made all things--who is at times beneficent, sending rain and
+warmth, and who at others sends storm, plague, famine, and war. After
+the crude idea has taken possession of the thoughts, there has been a
+desire to know something more of this Creator, and an examination into
+the works of Nature has been made with the view to ascertain the will
+and designs of the Supreme. In every country this great One has been
+supposed to inhabit the heaven above us, and consequently all celestial
+phenomena have been noticed carefully. But the mind soon got weary of
+contemplating about an essence, and, contenting itself with the
+belief that there was a Power, began to investigate the nature of His
+ministers. These, amongst the Aryans, were the sun, fire, storm, wind,
+the sky, the day, night, etc. An intoxicating drink, too, was regarded
+as an emanation from the Supreme. With this form of belief men lived as
+they had done ere it existed, and in their relations with each other
+may be compared to such high class animals as elephants. Men can live
+peaceably together without religion, just as do the bisons, buffaloes,
+antelopes, and even wolves. The assumption that some form of faith is
+absolutely a necessity for man is only founded on the fancies of some
+religious fanatics who know little of the world.*
+
+
+     * Whilst these sheets were passing through the press, there
+     appeared a work, published anonymously, but reported to be
+     by one of the most esteemed theologians who ever sat upon an
+     episcopal bench. It is entitled Supernatural Religion.
+     London: Longmans, 1874. From it we quote the following, vol.
+     ii., p. 489:--
+
+     "We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief
+     in the reality of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain pure
+     and unimpaired the treasure of Christian Morality, we
+     relinquish nothing but the debasing elements added to it by
+     human superstition. We are no longer bound to believe a
+     theology which outrages reason and moral sense. We are freed
+     from base anthropomorphic views of God and His government of
+     the universe; and from Jewish Mythology we rise to higher
+     conceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being,
+     hidden from our finite minds, it is true, in the
+     impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose Laws of wondrous
+     comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in
+     operation around us. We are no longer disturbed by visions
+     of fitful interference with the order of Nature, but we
+     recognise that the Being who regulates the universe is
+     without variableness or shadow of turning. It is singular
+     how little there is in the supposed Revelation of alleged
+     information, however incredible, regarding that which is
+     beyond the limits of human thought, but that little is of a
+     character which reason declares to be the wildest delusion.
+     Let no man whose belief in the reality of a Divine
+     Revelation may be destroyed by such an inquiry complain that
+     he has lost a precious possession, and that nothing is left
+     but a blank. The Revelation not being a reality, that which
+     he has lost was but an illusion, and that which is left is
+     the Truth. If he be content with illusions, he will speedily
+     be consoled; if he be a lover only of truth, instead of a
+     blank, he will recognise that the reality before him is full
+     of great peace.
+
+     "If we know less than we have supposed of man's destiny, we
+     may at least rejoice that we are no longer compelled to
+     believe that which is unworthy. The limits of thought once
+     attained, we may well be unmoved in the assurance that all
+     that we do know of the regulation of the universe being so
+     perfect and wise, all that we do not know must be equally
+     so. Here enters the true and noble Faith--which is the child
+     of reason. If we have believed a system, the details of
+     which must at one time or another have shocked the mind of
+     every intelligent man, and believed it simply because it was
+     supposed to be revealed, we may equally believe in the
+     wisdom and goodness of what is not revealed. The mere act of
+     communication to us is nothing: Faith in the perfect
+     ordering of all things is independent of Revelation.
+
+     "The argument so often employed by Theologians that Divine
+     Revelation is necessary for man, and that certain views
+     contained in that Revelation are required by our moral
+     consciousness, is purely imaginary, and derived from the
+     Revelation which it seeks to maintain. The only thing
+     absolutely necessary for man is Truth and to that, and that
+     alone, must our moral consciousness adapt itself."
+
+But as there is variety in the workings of the human mind, so there were
+differences in the way wherein the religious idea was carried out.
+Some regarded the sun and moon, the constellations and the planets, as
+ministers of the unseen One, and, reasoning from what was known to
+what was unknown, argued thus: "Throughout nature there seems to be a
+dualism. In the sky there are a sun and moon; there are also sun and
+earth, earth and sea. In every set of animals there are males and
+females." An inquiry into the influence of the sun brought out the facts
+that by themselves its beams were destructive; they were only beneficent
+when the earth was moist with rain. As the rain from heaven, then,
+caused things on earth to grow, it was natural that the main source of
+light and heat should be regarded as a male, and the earth as a female.
+As a male, the sun was supposed to have the emblems of virility, and a
+spouse whom he impregnated, and who thereby became fertile.
+
+In examining ancient Jewish, Phoenician, and other Shemitic cognomens,
+I found that they consisted of a divine name and some attribute of the
+deity, and that the last was generally referable equally to the Supreme,
+to the Sun, as a god, and to the masculine emblem. If the deity was a
+female, the name of her votary contained a reference to the moon and
+the beauties or functions of women. The higher ideas of the Creator were
+held only by a few, the many adopted a lower and more debased view. In
+this manner the sun became a chief god and the moon his partner, and
+the former being supposed to be male and the latter female, both
+became associated with the ideas which all have of terrestrial animals.
+Consequently the solar deity was associated in symbolism with masculine
+and the moon with feminine emblems.
+
+An inquiry into antiquity, as represented by Babylonians, Assyrians,
+Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, and others,
+and into modern faiths still current, as represented in the peninsula of
+India, in the Lebanon, and elsewhere, shows that ideas of sex have been
+very generally associated with that of creation. God has been described
+as a king, or as a queen, or as both united. As monarch, he is supposed
+to be man, or woman, or both. As man differs from woman in certain
+peculiarities, these very means of distinction have been incorporated
+into the worship of god and goddess. Rival sects have been ranged in
+ancient times under the symbol of the T and the O as in later times they
+are under the cross and the crescent. The worship of God the Father has
+repeatedly clashed with that of God the Mother, and the votaries of each
+respectively have worn badges characteristic of the sex of their deity.
+An illustration of this is to be seen amongst ourselves; one sect of
+Christians adoring chiefly the Trinity, another reverencing the Virgin.
+There is a well-known picture, indeed, of Mary worshipping her infant;
+and to the former is given the title Mater Creatoris, "the mother of
+the Creator." Our sexual sections are as well marked as those in ancient
+Jerusalem, which swore by Jehovah and Ashtoreth respectively.
+
+The idea of sexuality in religion is quite compatible with a ritual and
+practice of an elaborate character, and a depth of piety which prefers
+starvation to impurity, or, as the Bible has it, to uncleanness. To eat
+"with the blood" was amongst the Hebrews a crime worthy of death; to eat
+with unwashed hands was a dreadful offence in the eyes of the Pharisees
+of Jerusalem; and in the recent famine in Bengal, we have seen that
+individuals would rather die of absolute hunger, and allow their
+children to perish too, than eat bread or rice which may have been
+touched by profane hands, or drink milk that had been expressed by
+British milkmaids from cows' udders. Yet these same Hindoos, the very
+particular sect of the Brahmins, have amongst themselves a form of
+worship which to our ideas is incompatible with real religion. The folks
+referred to adore the Creator, and respect their ceremonial law even
+more deeply, than did the Hebrews after the time of the Babylonish
+captivity; but they have a secret cult in which--and in the most,
+matter-of-fact way--they pay a very practical homage to one or other of
+the parts which is thought by the worshipper to be a mundane emblem of
+the Creator.
+
+The curious will find in Essays on the Religion of the Hindus, by H. H.
+Wilson, in the Dabistan, translated by Shea and Troyer (Allen and Co.,
+London), 3 vols., 8vo., and in Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of
+London (Truebner and Co.), vols. 1 and 2, much information on the method
+of conducting the worship referred to. The first named author thinks it
+advisable to leave the Brahminic "rubric" for the "Sakti Sodhana," for
+the most part under the veil of the original Sanscrit, and I am not
+disposed wholly to withdraw it.
+
+But Christians are not pure; some of my readers may have seen a work
+written by an Italian lady of high birth, who was in early life forced
+into a nunnery, and who left it as soon as she had a chance. In her
+account she tells us how the women in the monastery were seduced by
+reverend Fathers, who were at one time the instruments of vice, at
+another the guides to penitence. Their practice was to instruct their
+victims that whatever was said or done must be accompanied by a pious
+sentence. Thus, "I love you dearly" was a profane expression; but "I
+desire your company in the name of Jesus," and "I embrace in you the
+Holy Virgin," were orthodox. In like manner, the Hindus have prayers
+prescribed for their use, when the parts are to be purified prior to
+proceeding to extremities, when they are introduced to each other,
+in the agitation which follows, and when the ceremony is completed.
+Everything is done, as Ritualists would say, decently and in order; and
+a pious orgie, sanctified by prayers, cannot be worse than the penance
+ordained by some "confessors" to those faithful damsels whose minds are
+plastic enough to believe that a priest is an embodiment of the Holy
+Ghost, and that they become assimilated to the Blessed Virgin when they
+are overshadowed by the power of the Highest (Luke i. 85).
+
+There being, then, in "religion" a strong sensual element, ingenuity
+has been exercised to a wonderful extent in the contrivance of designs,
+nearly or remotely significant of this idea, or rather union of the
+conceptions to which we have referred. Jupiter is a Proteus in form;
+now a man, now a bull, now a swan, now an androgyne. Juno, or her
+equivalent, is sometimes a woman, occasionally a lioness, and at times
+a cow. All conceivable attributes of man and woman were symbolised; and
+gods were called by the names of power, love, anger, desire, revenge,
+fortune, etc. Everything in creation that resembled in any way the
+presumed Creator, whether in name, in character, or in shape, was
+supposed to represent the deity. Hence a palm tree was a religious
+emblem, because it is long, erect, and round; an oak, for it is hard and
+firm; a fig-tree, because its leaves resemble the male triad. The ivy
+was sacred from a similar cause. A myrtle was also a type, but of the
+female, because its leaf is a close representation of the vesica piscis.
+Everything, indeed, which in any way resembles the characteristic organs
+of man and woman, became symbolic of the one or the other deity, Jupiter
+or Juno, Jehovah or Astarte, the Father or the Virgin. Sometimes, but
+very rarely, the parts in question were depicted au naturel, and the
+means by which creation is effected became the mundane emblem of the
+Almighty; and two huge phalli were seen before a temple, as we now
+see towers or spires before our churches, and minarets before mosques.
+(Lucian, Dea Syria.)
+
+Generally, however, it was considered the most correct plan to represent
+the organs by some conventional form, understood by the initiated,
+but not by the unlearned. Whatever was upright, and longer than broad,
+became symbolic of the father; whilst that which was hollow, cavernous,
+oval, or circular, symbolised the mother. A sword, spear, arrow, dart,
+battering ram, spade, ship's prow, anything indeed intended to pierce
+into something else was emblematic of the male; whilst the female was
+symbolised as a door, a hole, a sheath, a target, a shield, a field,
+anything indeed which was to be entered. The Hebrew names sufficiently
+indicate the plan upon which the sexes were distinguished; the one is a
+zachar, a perforator or digger, and the other nekebah, a hole or trench,
+i, e. male and female.
+
+These symbols were not necessarily those of religious belief. They might
+indicate war, heroism, prowess, royalty, command, etc., or be nothing
+more than they really were. They only symbolised the Creator when they
+were adopted into religion. Again, there was a still farther refinement;
+and advantage was taken of the fact, that one symbol was tripliform, the
+other single; one of one shape, and the other different. Consequently,
+a triangle, or three things, arranged so that one should stand above
+the two, became emblematic of the Father, whilst an unit symbolised the
+Mother.
+
+These last three sentences deserve close attention, for some individuals
+have, in somewhat of a senseless fashion, objected, that a person who
+can see in a tortoise an emblem of the male, and in a horse-shoe an
+effigy of the female organ, must be quite too fantastical to deserve
+notice. But to me, as to other inquirers, these things are simply what
+they appear to be when they are seen in common life. Yet when the former
+creature occupies a large space in mythology; when the Hindoo places it
+as the being upon which the world stands, and the Greeks represent one
+Venus as resting upon a tortoise and another on a goat; and when one
+knows that in days gone by, in which people were less refined, the
+[--Greek--] was displayed where the horse-shoe is now, and that some
+curiously mysterious attributes were assigned to the part in question;
+we cannot refuse to see the thing signified in the sign.
+
+Again, inasmuch as what we may call the most prominent part of the
+tripliform organ was naturally changeable in character, being at one
+time soft, small, and pendent, and at another hard, large, and upright,
+those animals that resembled it in these respects became symbolical. Two
+serpents, therefore, one Indian, and the other Egyptian, both of which
+are able to distend their heads and necks, and to raise them up erect,
+were emblematic, and each in its respective country typified the father,
+the great Creator. In like manner, another portion of the triad was
+regarded as similar in shape and size to the common hen's egg. As the
+celebrated physiologist, Haller, remarked, "Omne vivum ex ovo" every
+living thing comes from an egg; so more ancient biologists recognised
+that the dual part of the tripliform organ was as essential to the
+creation of a new being as the central pillar. Hence an egg and a
+serpent became a characteristic of "the Father," El, Ab, Ach, Baal,
+Asher, Melech, Adonai, Jahu, etc. When to this was added a half moon,
+as in certain Tyrian coins, the trinity and unity were symbolised, and
+a faith expressed like the one held in modern Rome, that the mother of
+creation is co-equal with the father; the one seduces by her charms, and
+the other makes them fructify.
+
+To the Englishman, who, as a rule, avoids talking upon the subject which
+forms the basis of many an ancient religion, it may seem incredible that
+any individual, or set of writers, could have exercised their ingenuity
+in finding circumlocutory euphemisms for things which, though natural,
+are rarely named. Yet the wonder ceases when we find, in the writings of
+our lively neighbours, the French, a host of words intended to describe
+the parts referred to, which correspond wholly with the pictorial
+emblems adopted by the Greeks and others.
+
+As English writers have, as a rule, systematically avoided making any
+distinct reference to the sexual ideas embodied in ancient Paganism,
+so they have, by their silence, encouraged the formation of a school
+of theology which has no solid foundation, except a very animal one. As
+each individual finds out this for himself, it becomes a question with
+him how far the information shall be imparted to others. So rarely has
+the determination to accuse the vampire been taken, that we can point to
+very few English books to which to refer our readers. We do not know one
+such that is easily accessible; K. Payne Knight's work, and the addition
+thereto, having been privately printed, is not often to be found in
+the market. To give a list of the foreign works which the author has
+consulted, prior to and during the composition of his book on Ancient
+Faiths, would be almost equivalent to giving a catalogue of part of
+his library. He may, however, indicate the name of one work which is
+unusually valuable for reference, viz., Histoire abregee des Differens
+Cultes, par J. A. Dulaure, 2 vols., small 8vo., Paris, 1825. Though
+out of print, copies can generally be procured through second-hand
+booksellers. Another work, 'Recherches sur les Mysteres de Paganisme,
+by St. Croix, is equally valuable, but it is very difficult to procure a
+copy.
+
+The ancient Jews formed no exception to the general law of reverence
+for the male emblem of the Creator; and though we would, from their
+pretensions to be the chosen people of God, gladly find them exempt from
+what we consider to be impurities, we are constrained to believe that,
+even in the worship of Jehovah, more respect was given to the symbol
+than we, living in modern times, think that it deserves. In their
+Scriptures we read of Noah, whose infirm temper seems to have been on a
+par with his weakness for wine, cursing one of his three sons because,
+whilst drunk, he had negligently exposed his person, and the young
+man had thought the sight an amusing one. Ham had no reverence for the
+symbol of the Creator, but Shem and Japhet had, and covered it with a
+veil as respectfully as if it had been the ineffable framer of the world
+(Gen. ix. 21-27). As our feelings of propriety induce us to think that
+the father was a far greater sinner than the son, we rejoice to know
+that the causeless curse never fell, and that Ham, in the lands of
+Canaan, Assyria, and Babylonia, and subsequently in Carthaginian Spain,
+were the masters of those Hebrews, whose main force, in old times,
+lay in impotent scoldings, such, as Shakespeare puts into the mouth of
+Caliban.
+
+One of the best proofs of the strong sexual element which existed in the
+religion of the Jews is the fact that Elohim, one of the names of the
+Creator amongst the Hebrews, is represented, Gen. xvii. 10-14, as making
+circumcision a sign of his covenant with the seed of Abraham; and in
+order to ascertain whether a man was to be regarded as being in the
+covenant, God is supposed to have looked at the state of the virile
+organ, or--as the Scripture has it--of the hill of the foreskin. We
+find, indeed, that Jehovah was quite as particular, and examined a male
+quite as closely as Elohim: for when Moses and Zipporah were on their
+way from Midian to Egypt, Exod. iv. 24, Jehovah having looked at the
+"trinity" of Moses' son, and having found it as perfect as when the lad
+was born, sought to slay him, and would have done so unless the mother
+had mutilated the organ according to the sacred pattern. Again, we find
+in Josh. v. 2, and in the following verses, that Jehovah insisted
+upon all the Hebrew males having their virile member in the covenant
+condition ere they went to attack the Canaanites. We cannot suppose that
+any scribe could dwell so much as almost every scriptural writer does
+upon the subject of circumcision, had not the masculine emblem been held
+in religious veneration amongst the Jewish nation.
+
+But the David who leaped and danced, obscenely as we should say, before
+the ark--an emblem of the female creator--who purchased his wife from
+her royal father by mutilating a hundred Philistines, and presenting the
+foreskins which he had cut off therefrom "in full tale" to the king (1
+Sam. xviii. 27, 2 Sam. iii. 14), who was once the captain of a monarch
+who thought it a shame beyond endurance to be abused, tortured, or slain
+by men whose persons were in a natural condition (1 Sam. xxxi. 4),
+and who imagined that he, although a stripling, could conquer a giant,
+because the one had a sanctified and the other a natural member--is the
+man whom we know as the author of Psalms with which Christians still
+refresh their minds and comfort their souls. The king who, even in
+his old age, was supposed to think so much of women that his courtiers
+sought a lovely damsel as a comfort for his dying bed, is believed to
+have been the author of the noble nineteenth Psalm, and a number of
+others full of holy aspirations. It is clear, then, that sexual ideas
+on religion are not incompatible with a desire to be holy. The two were
+co-existent in Palestine; they are equally so in Bengal.
+
+We next find that Abraham, the cherished man of God, the honoured
+patriarch of the Jews, makes his servant lay his hand upon the master's
+member, whilst he takes an oath to do his bidding, precisely like a more
+modern Palestinian might do; and Jacob does the same with Joseph. See
+Gen. xxiv. 8, and xlvii. 29.
+
+As it is not generally known that the expression, "under my thigh," is
+a euphemism for the words, "upon the symbol of the Creator," I may point
+to two or three other passages in which the thigh (translated in the
+authorised version loins) is used periphrastically: Genesis xxxv. 2,
+xlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5. See Ginsburg, in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopadia, vol.
+8, p. 848, 8. v. Oath.
+
+I have on two occasions read, although I failed to make a note of it,
+that an Arab, during the Franco-Egyptian war, when accused by General
+Kleber of treachery, not only vehemently denied it, but when he saw
+himself still distrusted, he uncovered himself before the whole military
+staff, and swore upon his trinity that he was guiltless. In the Lebanon,
+once in each year, every female considers it her duty to salute with her
+lips the reverenced organ of the Old Sheik.
+
+Again we learn, from Deut. xxiii. 1, that any unsanctified mutilation
+of this part positively entailed expulsion from the congregation of the
+Lord. Even a priest of the house of Aaron could not minister, as such,
+if his masculinity had been in any way impaired (Lev. xxi. 20); and
+report says that, in our Christian times, Popes have to be privately
+perfect; see also Deut. xxv. 11, 12. Moreover, the inquirer finds that
+the Jewish Scriptures teem with promises of abundant offspring to those
+who were the favourites of Jehovah; and Solomon, the most glorious
+of their monarchs, is described as if he were a Hercules amongst the
+daughters of Thespius. Nothing can indicate the licentiousness of the
+inhabitants of Jerusalem more clearly than the writings of Ezekiel.* If,
+then, in Hebrew law and practice, we find such a strong infusion of the
+sexual element, we cannot be surprised if it should be found elsewhere,
+and gradually influence Christianity.
+
+
+     * See Ezekiel xxii. 1-30, and compare Jerem. v. 7, 8.
+
+We must next notice the fact, that what we call impurity in religious
+tenets does not necessarily involve indecency in practice. The ancient
+Romans, in the time of the early kings, seem to have been as proper as
+early Christian maidens. It is true that, in the declining days of the
+empire, exhibitions that called forth the fierce denunciations of the
+fathers of the Church took place; but we find very similar occurrences
+in modern Christian capitals. In Spartan days, chastity and honesty
+were not virtues, but drunkenness was a vice. In Christian England,
+drunkenness is general, and we cannot pride ourselves upon universal
+honesty and chastity. It is not the national belief, but the national
+practice, which evidences a people's worth. Spain and Ireland, called
+respectively "Catholic" and "the land of saints," cannot boast of
+equality with "infidel" France and "free-thinking" Prussia. England will
+be as earnest, as upright, and as civilised, when she has abandoned the
+heathen elements in her religion, as when she hugs them as if necessary
+to her spiritual welfare. Attachment to the good parts of religion is
+wholly distinct from a close embrace of the bad ones; and we believe
+he deserves best of his country who endeavours to remove every possible
+source of discord. None can doubt the value of the order, "Do to others
+as you would wish others to do to you." If all unite to carry this out,
+small differences of opinion may at once be sunk. How worthless are
+many of the dogmas that people now fight about, the following pages will
+show.
+
+In our larger work we have endeavoured to show that there may be a deep
+sense of religion, a feeling of personal responsibility, so keen as to
+influence every act of life, without there being a single symbol used.
+The earnest Sakya Muni, or Buddha, never used anything as a sacred
+emblem; nor did Jesus, who followed him, and perhaps unconsciously
+propagated the Indian's doctrine. When the Apostles were sent out to
+teach and preach, they were not told to carry out any form of ark or
+crucifix. To them the doctrine of the Trinity was unknown, and not one
+of them had any particular reverence for her whom we call the Virgin
+Mary, who, if she was 'virgo intacta' when Jesus was born, was certainly
+different when she bore his brothers. Paul and Peter, though said to be
+the fathers of the Roman Church, never used or recommended the faithful
+to procure for themselves "a cross" as an aid to memory. The early
+Christians recognised each other by their deeds, and never had, like
+the Jews, to prove that they were in covenant with God, by putting a
+mutilated part of their body into full view. We, with the Society of
+Friends, prefer primitive to modern Christianity.
+
+In the following pages the author has felt himself obliged to make use
+of words which are probably only known to those who are more or less
+"scholars." He has to treat of parts of the human body, and acts which
+occur habitually in the world, which in modern times are never referred
+to in polite society, but which, in the period when the Old Testament
+was written, were spoken of as freely as we now talk of our hands and
+feet. In those days, everything which was common was spoken of without
+shame, and that which occurred throughout creation, and was seen
+by every one, was as much the subject of conversation as eating and
+drinking is now. The Hebrew-writers were extremely coarse in their
+diction, and although this has been softened down by subsequent
+redactors, much which is in our modern judgment improper still remains.
+For example, where we simply indicate the sex, the Jewish historians
+used the word which was given to the symbol by which male and female
+are known; for example, in Gen. i. 27, and v. 2, and in a host of other
+places, the masculine and feminine are spoken of as zachar and nekebah,
+which is best translated as "borers" and "bored." Another equally vulgar
+way of describing men is to be found in 1 Kings xiv. 10. But these
+observations would not serve us much in symbolism did we not know that
+they were associated with certain euphemisms by which when one thing is
+said another is intended; for an illustration let us take Isaiah vii.
+20, and ask what is meant by the phrase, "the hair of the feet"? It is
+certain that the feet are never hairy, and consequently can never be
+shaved. Again, when we find in Gen. xlix. 10, "the sceptre shall not
+depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet," and compare
+this with Deut. xxviii. 57, and 2 Kings xviii. 27, where the words are,
+in the original, "the water of their feet," it is clear that symbolic
+language is used to express something which, if put into the vernacular,
+would be objectionable to ears polite. Again, in Genesis xxiv. 2 and
+xlvii. 29, and in Heb. xi. 21, it is well known to scholars that the
+word "thigh" and "staff" are euphemisms to express that part which
+represents the male. In Deut. xxiii. 1, we have evidence, as in the last
+three verses quoted, of the sanctity of the part referred to, but the
+language is less refined. Now-a-days our ears are not attuned to the
+rough music which pleased our ancestors, and we have to use veiled
+language to express certain matters. In the following pages, the words
+which I select are drawn from the Latin, Greek, Sanscrit, Shemitic, or
+Egyptian. Hea, Ann, and Asher replace the parts referred to in Deut.
+xxiii. 1; Osiris, Asher, Linga, Mahadeva, Siva, Priapus, Phallus,
+etc., represent the Hebrew zachar ; whilst Isis, Parvati, Yoni, Sacti,
+Astarte, Ishtar, etc., replace the Jewish nekebah. The junction of these
+parts is spoken of as Ashtoreth, Baalim, Elohim, the trinity and unity,
+the androgyne deity, the arba, or mystic four, and the like.
+
+I will only add, that what I refer to has long been known to almost
+every scholar except English ones. Of these a few are learned; but for
+a long period they have systematically refrained from speaking plainly,
+and have written in such a manner as to be guilty not only of suppressio
+veri but of suggestio falsi.
+
+After reading thus far, I can imagine many a person saying with
+astonishment, "Are these things so?" and following up his thoughts by
+wondering what style of persons they were, or are, who could introduce
+into religion such matters as those of which we have treated.
+
+In reply, I can only say that I have nothing extenuated, and set
+down nought in malice. But the first clause of the assertion requires
+modification, for in this volume there are many things omitted which I
+have referred to at length in my larger work. In that I have shown, not
+only that religious fornication existed in ancient Babylon, but that
+there is reason to believe that it existed also in Palestine. The word
+[--Hebrew--] Kadesh, which signifies "pure, bright, young, to be holy,
+or to be consecrated," is also the root from which are formed the words
+Kadeshah and Kadeshim, which are used in the Hebrew writings, and are
+translated in our authorised version "whore" and "sodomite." See Bent,
+xxiii. 17.
+
+Athanasius tells us something of this as regards the Phoenicians, for
+he says, (Oratio Contr. Gent., part i., p. 24.) "Formerly, it is
+certain that Phoenician women prostituted themselves before their idols,
+offering their bodies to their gods in the place of first fruits, being
+persuaded that they pleased the goddess by that means, and made her
+propitious to them."
+
+Strabo mentions a similar occurrence at Comana, in Pontus, book xiii.,
+c. iii. p. 86--and notices that an enormous number of women were
+consecrated to the use of worshippers in the temple of Venus at Corinth.
+
+Such women exist in India, and the priests of certain temples do
+everything in their power to select the loveliest of the sex, and to
+educate them so highly as to be attractive.
+
+The customs which existed in other places seem to have been known in
+Jerusalem, as we find in 1 Kings xiv. 24., XV. 12, that Kadeshim
+were common in Judea, and in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, we discover that these
+"consecrated ones" were located "by the temple," and were associated
+with women whose business was "to make hangings for the grove." What
+these tissues were and what use was made of them will be seen in Ezekiel
+xvi. 16.
+
+Even David, when dancing before the ark, shamelessly exposed himself.
+Solomon erected two pillars in the porch of his temple, and called
+them Jachin and Boaz, and added pomegranate ornaments. We have seen how
+Abraham and Jacob ordered their inferiors to swear by putting the hand
+upon "the thigh"; and we have read of the atrocities which occurred in
+Jerusalem in the time of Ezekiel. Yet the Jews are still spoken of as
+God's chosen people, and the Psalmist as a man after God's own heart.
+
+But without going so far back, let us inquire into the conduct of the
+sensual Turks, and of the general run of the inhabitants of Hindostan.
+From everything that I can learn--and I have repeatedly conversed with
+those who have known the Turks and Hindoos familiarly--these are in
+every position in life as morally good as common Christians are.
+
+My readers must not now assert that I am either a partisan or a special
+pleader when I say this; they must consider that I am making the
+comparison as man by man. I do not, as missionaries do, compare the most
+vicious Mahomedan and Brahmin with the most exemplary Christian; nor do
+I, on the other hand, compare the best Ottoman and Indian with Christian
+criminals; but I take the whole in a mass, and assert that there is
+as large a percentage of good folks in India and Turkey as there is in
+Spain and France, England or America.
+
+The grossest form of worship is compatible with general purity of
+morals. The story of Lucretia is told of a Pagan woman, whilst those
+of Er and Onan, Tamar and Judah relate to Hebrews. David, who seduced
+Bathsheba, and killed her husband, was not execrated by "God's people,"
+nor was he consequently driven from his throne as Tarquin was by the
+Romans.
+
+In prowess and learning, the Babylonians, with their religious
+prostitution, were superior to the "chosen people." Of the wealth and
+enterprise of the Phoenicians, Ancient History tells us abundance.
+
+There are probably no three cities in ancient or modern times which
+contain so many vicious individuals as London, Paris, and New York. Yet
+there are none which history tells us of that were more powerful. No
+Babylonian army equalled in might or numbers the army of the Northern
+United States. Nineveh never wielded armies equal to those of the French
+Napoleon and the German William, and Rome never had an empire equal to
+that which is headed by London.
+
+The existence of personal vice does not ruin a nation in its collective
+capacity. Nor does the most sensual form of religion stunt the
+prosperity of a people, so long as the latter do not bow their necks to
+a priesthood.
+
+The greatest curse to a nation is not a bad religion, but a form of
+faith which prevents manly inquiry. I know of no nation of old that was
+priest-ridden which did not fall under the swords of those who did not
+care for hierarchs.
+
+The greatest danger is to be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at
+vice, and encourage it as a means whereby they can gain power over their
+votaries. So long as every man does to other men as he would that they
+should do to him, and allows no one to interfere between him and his
+Maker, all will go well with the world.
+
+Whilst the following sheets were going through the press, my friend Mr.
+Newton, who has not only assisted me in a variety of ways, but who has
+taken a great deal of interest in the subject of symbolism, gave me
+to understand that there were some matters in which he differed
+very strongly from me in opinion. One of these was as to the correct
+interpretation of the so-called Assyrian grove; another was the
+signification of one of Lajard's gems, Plate iv., Fig. 3; and the most
+conspicuous of our divergencies was respecting the fundamental, or basic
+idea, which prompted the use in religion of those organs of reproduction
+which have, from time immemorial, been venerated in Hindostan, and, as
+far as we can learn, in Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Tyre, Sidon,
+Carthage, Jerusalem, Etruria, Greece, and Rome, as well as in countries
+called uncivilised. I feel quite disposed to acquiesce in the opinions
+which my old friend has formed respecting the Assyrian grove, but I am
+not equally ready to assent to his other opinions.
+
+Where two individuals are working earnestly for the elucidation of
+truth, there ought, in my opinion, to be not only a tolerance of
+disagreement, but an honest effort to submit the subject to a jury of
+thoughtful readers.
+
+As I should not feel satisfied to allow any other person to express my
+opinions in his words, it seemed to me only fair to Mr. Newton to give
+him the facility of enunciating his views in his own language. It was
+intended, originally, that my friend's observations upon the
+"grove" should be followed by a dissertation upon other relics of
+antiquity--notably upon that known as Stonehenge--but circumstances have
+prevented this design being carried into execution.
+
+When two individuals who have much in common go over the same ground,
+it is natural, indeed almost necessary, that they should dwell upon
+identical topics. Hence it will be found that there are points which are
+referred to by us both, although possibly in differing relationship.
+
+As my own part of the following remarks were printed long before I saw
+Mr. Newton's manuscript, I hope to be pardoned for allowing them to
+stand. The bulk of the volume will not be increased to the extent of a
+full page.
+
+If I were to be asked the reason why I differ from Mr. Newton in his
+exalted idea about the adoption of certain bodily organs as types,
+tokens, or emblems of an unseen and an inscrutable Creator, my answer
+would be drawn from the observations made upon every known order of
+priesthood, from the most remote antiquity to the present time. No
+matter what the creed, whether Ancient or Modern, the main object of its
+exponents and supporters is to gain over the minds of the populace.
+This has never yet been done, and probably never will be attempted, by
+educating the mind of the multitude to think.
+
+In Great Britain we find three sets of hierarchs opposed to each other,
+and all equally, by every means in their power, prohibit independent
+inquiry.
+
+A young Romanist convert, as we have recently seen, is discouraged
+from persevering in the study of history and logic; a Presbyterian is
+persecuted, as far as the law of the land permits, if he should engage
+in an honest study of the Bible, of the God which it presents for our
+worship, and of the laws that it enforces. A bishop of the Church of
+England is visited by the puny and spiteful efforts of some of his
+nominal equals if he ventures to treat Jewish writings as other critics
+study the tomes of Livy or of Herodotus.
+
+One set of men have banded together to elect a god on earth, and
+endeavour to coerce their fellow-mortals to believe that a selection
+by a few old cardinals can make the one whom they choose to honour
+"infallible."
+
+Another set of men, who profess to eschew the idea of infallibility in a
+Pope, assume that they possess the quality themselves, and endeavour to
+blot out from the communion of the faithful those who differ from them
+"on points which God hath left at large."
+
+Surely, when with all our modern learning, thought, and scientific
+enquiry, hierarchs still set their faces against an advance in
+knowledge, and quell, if possible, every endeavour to search after
+truth, we are not far wrong when we assert, that the first priests of
+barbarism had no exalted views of such an abstract subject as life, in
+the higher and highest senses, if indeed in any sense of the word.
+
+Another small point of difference between my friend and me is,
+whether there has been at any time a figured representation of a
+kakodoemon--except since the beginning of Christianity--and if, by way
+of stretching a point, we call Typhon--Satan or the Devil--by this
+name, as being opposed to the Agathodoemon, whether we are justified
+in providing this evil genius with wings. As far as I can judge from
+Chaldean and Assyrian sculptures, wings were given to the lesser deities
+as our artists assign them to modern angels. The Babylonian Apollyon,
+by whatever name he went, was winged--but so were all the good gods. The
+Egyptians seem to have assigned wings only to the favourable divinities.
+The Jews had in their mythology a set of fiery flying serpents, but we
+must notice that their cherubim and seraphim were all winged, some with
+no less than three pairs--much as Hindoo gods have four heads and six,
+or any other number of arms.
+
+Mr. Newton assumes that the dragon mentioned in Rev. xii. was a winged
+creature, but it is clear from the context, especially from verses 14
+and 15, that he had no pinions, for he was unable to follow the woman to
+whom two aerial oars had been given.
+
+The dragon, as we know it, is, I believe, a mediaeval creation; such a
+creature is only spoken of in the Bible in the book of Revelation, and
+the author of that strange production drew his inspiration on this point
+from the Iliad, where a dragon is described as of huge size, coiled like
+a snake, of blood-red colour, shot with changeful hues, and having three
+heads. Homer, Liddell, and Scott add--used [--Greek--] indifferently for
+a serpent. So does the author of Rev. in ch. xx. 2. I have been unable
+to discover any gnostic gem with anything like a modern dragon on it.
+
+Holding these views, I cannot entertain the proposition that the winged
+creatures in the very remarkable gem already referred to are evil genii.
+
+In a question of this kind the mind is perhaps unconsciously biassed by
+comparing one antiquarian idea with another. A searcher amongst Etruscan
+vases will see not only that the angel of death is winged, but that
+Cupid, Eros, or by whatever other name "desire" or love goes, frequently
+hovers over the bridal or otherwise voluptuous couch, and attends beauty
+at her toilet. The Greeks also gave to Eros a pair of wings, intended,
+it is fancied, to represent the flutterings of the heart, produced when
+lovers meet or even think of each other. Such a subordinate deity would
+be in place amongst so many sexual emblems as Plate iv. Fig. 3 contains,
+whilst a koakdoemon would be a "spoil sport," and would make the erected
+serpents drop rather than remain in their glory.
+
+These matters are apparently of small importance, but when one is
+studying the signification of symbolical language, he has to pay as
+close an attention, and extend the net of observation over as wide a sea
+as a scholar does when endeavouring to decipher some language written
+in long-forgotten characters, and some divergence of opinion between
+independent observers sharpens the intellect more than it tries the
+temper.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+
+PLATE II.
+
+This is taken from a photograph of a small bronze image in the Mayer
+collection of the Free Museum, in Liverpool. The figure stands about
+nine inches high, and represents Isis, Horus, and the fish. It is an
+apt illustration of an ancient custom, still prevalent amongst certain
+Christians, of reverencing a woman, said to be a virgin, giving suck
+to her child, and of the association of Isis, Venus, and Mary with the
+fish. Friday, for example, is, with the Romanists, both "fish day," and
+"dies Veneris." Fish are known to be extraordinarily prolific. There was
+a belief that animals, noted for any peculiarity, imparted their virtues
+to those who ate them; consequently, tigers' flesh was supposed to give
+courage, and snails to give sexual power. The use of fish in connubial
+feasts is still common. Those who consider it pious or proper to eat
+fish on Venus' day, or Friday, proclaim themselves, unconsciously,
+adherents to those heathen ideas which deified parts about which no
+one now likes to talk. The fish has in one respect affinity with the
+mandrake.
+
+Since the first publication of this work, a friend has suggested to me
+another reason, besides its fertility, for the fish being emblematic of
+woman. From his extensive experience as a surgeon, and especially among
+the lower order of courtesans, he has repeatedly noticed during the hot
+months of the year that the parts which he had to examine have a very
+strong odour of fish. My own observations in the same department lead me
+to endorse his assertion. Consequently, I think that in warm climates,
+where the utmost cleanliness can scarcely keep a female free from odour,
+scent, as well as other attributes, has had to do with the selection of
+the fish as an emblem of woman.
+
+Still further, I have been informed by another friend that in Yorkshire,
+and I understand in other counties of England, the double entente
+connected with the fish is so marked that it is somewhat difficult to
+render it into decent phraseology. It will suffice to say that in the
+county mentioned, Lais or Phryne would be spoken of as "a choice bit
+of fish," and that a man who bore on his features the stamp which is
+imprinted by excessive indulgence, would be said to have indulged too
+much in "a fish diet." I do not suppose that in the Yorkshire Ridings
+the folks are unusually well acquainted with mythology, yet it is
+curious to find amongst their inhabitants a connection between Venus
+and the Fish, precisely similar to that which has obtained in the most
+remote ages and in far distant climes.
+
+It is clear from all these facts that the fish is a symbol not only of
+woman, but of the yoni.
+
+PLATE II.
+
+Is supposed to represent Oannes, Dagon, or some other fish god. It is
+copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, pl. xxii., 1, la, and is thus
+described, "Statuette inedite, de gres houiller ou micace, d'un brun
+verdatre. Elle porte par devant, sur une bande perpendiculaire, un
+legende en caracteres Syriaques tres anciens (Cabinet de M. Lambert, a
+Lyon)." I can find no clue to the signification of the inscription. It
+would seem paradoxical to say that there is something in common between
+the bull-headed deity and Oannes. It is so, nevertheless. One indicates,
+par excellence, physical, and the other sexual, power. That Oannes may,
+for the Assyrians, represent a man who played a part with them similar
+to that of Penn among the Indians of Pennsylvania, I do not deny; but,
+when we find a similar fish-god in Philistia and Hindostan, and know
+that Crishna once appeared as a fish, the explanation does not suffice.
+It is curious that Jesus of Nazareth should be called "a fish"; but
+this only proves that the religion of Christ has been adulterated by
+Paganism.
+
+Figs. 1 and 4 are illustrations of the antelope as a religious emblem
+amongst the Assyrians. The first is from Layard's Nineveh, and in it we
+see carried in one hand a triply branched lotus; the second, showing the
+regard for the spotted antelope, and for "the branch," is from Bonomi's
+Nineveh and its Palaces.
+
+Fig. 2 illustrates Bacchus, with a mystic branch in one hand, and a cup
+in the other; his robe is covered with spots arranged in threes. The
+branch is emblematic of the arbor vitae, or tree of life, and its powers
+of sprouting. Such a symbol is, by outsiders, figured on the houses of
+newly married couples amongst the Jews of Morocco, and seems to indicate
+the desire of friends that the man will show that he is vigorous, and
+able to have many sprouts from the tree of life. It will be noticed
+that on the fillet round the god's head are arranged many crosses. From
+Hislop's Two Babylons, and Smith's Dictionary, p. 208.
+
+Figs. 8 and 5 are intended to show the prevalence of the use of spots
+on priestly dresses; they are copied from Hislop's Two Babylons,
+and Wilkinson, vol. vi., pi. 88, and vol. iv., pp. 841, 858. For an
+explanation of the signification of spots, see Plate iv., Fig. 6, infra.
+
+Fig. 1 represents an Assyrian priest worshipping by presentation of the
+thumb, which had a peculiar signification. Sometimes the forefinger is
+pointed instead, and in both cases the male is symbolised. It is taken
+from a plate illustrating a paper by E. C. Ravenshaw, Esq., in Journal
+of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xvi., p. 114. Amongst the Hebrews,
+and probably all the Shemitic tribes, bohen, the thumb, and ezba, the
+finger, were euphemisms. They are so in some parts of Europe to the
+present day.* The hand thus presented to the grove resembles a part
+of the Buddhist cross, and the shank of a key, whose signification is
+described in a subsequent page.
+
+PLATE III.
+
+
+PLATE IV.
+
+
+Fig. 2 is a Buddhist emblem; the two fishes forming the circle represent
+the mystic yoni, the sacti of Mahadeva, while the triad above them
+represents the mystic trinity, the triune father, Siva, Bel, or Asher,
+united with Anu and Hea. From Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol.
+xviii., p. 892, plate ii.
+
+Fig. 3 is a very remarkable production. It originally belonged to
+Mons. Lajard, and is described by him in his second Memoire, entitled
+Recherches sur le Culte, les Symboles, les Attributs, et les Monumens
+Figures de Venus (Paris, 1837), in pages 32, et seq., and figured in
+plate I., fig. 1. The real age of the gem and its origin are not known,
+but the subject leads that author to believe it to be of late Babylonian
+workmanship. The stone is a white agate, shaped like a cone, and the
+cutting is on its lower face. The shape of this gem indicates its
+dedication to Venus. The central figures represent the androgyne
+deity, Baalim, Astaroth, Elohim, Jupiter genetrix, or the bearded Venus
+Mylitta. On the left side of the cutting we notice an erect serpent,
+whose rayed head makes us recognise the solar emblem, and its mundane
+representative, mentula arrecta; on a spot opposite to the centre of the
+male's body we find a lozenge, symbolic of the yoni, whilst opposite
+to his feet is the amphora, whose mystic signification may readily be
+recognised; it is meant for Ouranos, or the Sun fructifying Terra, or
+the earth, by pouring from himself into her.
+
+
+     * A friend has informed me, for example, that he happened,
+     whilst at Pesth, to look at a gorgeously dressed and
+     handsome young woman. To his astonishment she pointed her
+     thumb precisely in the manner adopted by the Assyrian
+     priests; this surprised the young man still farther, and
+     being, as it were, fascinated, he continued to gaze. The
+     damsel then grasped the thumb by the other hand; thus
+     indicating her profession. My friend, who was wholly
+     inexperienced in the ways of the world, only understood what
+     was meant when he saw my explanation of Fig. 1.
+
+The three stars over the head of the figure, and the inverted triangle
+on its head, are representations of the mythological four, equivalent to
+the Egyptian symbol of life (figs. 31, 82). Opposite to the female are
+the moon, and another serpent, which may be recognised by physiologists
+as symbolic of tensio clitoridis. In a part corresponding to the
+diamond, on the left side, is a six-rayed wheel, emblematic, apparently,
+of the sun. At the female's feet is placed a cup, which is intended to
+represent the passive element in creation. As such it is analogous to
+the crescent moon, and is associated in the Roman church with the round
+wafer, the symbol of the sun; the wafer and cup thus being synonymous
+with the sun and moon in conjunction. It will be observed that each
+serpent in the plate is apparently attacked by what we suppose is
+a dragon. There is some difficulty in understanding the exact idea
+intended to be conveyed by these; my own opinion is that they symbolise
+Satan, the old serpent that tempted Eve, viz., fierce lust, Eros,
+Cupid, or desire, which, both in the male and female, brings about the
+arrectation which the serpents figure. It is not to be passed by without
+notice, that the snake which represents the male has the tail so curved
+as to suggest the idea of the second and third elements of the trinity.
+Monsieur Lajard takes the dragons to indicate the bad principle in
+nature, i. e., darkness, night, Ahriman, etc. On the pyramidal portion
+of the gem the four sides are ornamented by figures--three represent
+animals remarkable for their salacity, and the fourth represents Bel and
+Ishtar in conjunction, in a fashion which can be more easily imagined
+than described in the mother tongue. The learned will find the position
+assumed in Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, book iv., lines 1256, seq.
+
+Fig. 4 is also copied from Lajard, plate i., fig. 10. It is the reverse
+of a bronze coin of Vespasian, struck in the island of Cyprus, and
+represents the conical stone, under whose form Venus was worshipped at
+Paphos, of which Tacitus remarks, Hist, ii., c. 8, "the statue bears
+no resemblance to the human form, but is round, broad at one end and
+gradually tapering at the other, like a goal. The reason of this is
+not ascertained." It is remarkable that a male emblem should be said to
+represent Venus, but the stone was an aerolite, like that which fell
+at Ephesus, and was said to represent Diana. It is clear that when a
+meteoric stone falls, the chief priests of the district can say that it
+is to be taken as a representative of their divinity.
+
+My very ingenious friend, Mr. Newton, suggests that the Venus in
+question was androgyne; that the cone is a male emblem, within a door,
+gateway, or delta, thus resembling the Assyrian grove. It is certain
+that the serpents, the two stars, and the two candelabra, or altars with
+flame, favour his idea.
+
+Fig. 5 represents the position of the hands assumed by Jewish priests
+when they give the benediction to their flock. It will be recognised
+that each hand separately indicates the trinity, whilst the junction
+of the two indicates the unit. The whole is symbolic of the mystic
+Arba--the four, i, e., the trinity and unity. One of my informants
+told me that, being a "cohen" or priest, he had often administered the
+blessing, and, whilst showing to me this method of benediction, placed
+his joined hands so that his nose entered the central aperture. On his
+doing so, I remarked "bene nasatus," and the expression did more to
+convince him of the probability of my views than anything else.
+
+Fig. 6, modified in one form or another, is the position assumed by the
+hand and fingers, when Homan and Anglican bishops or other hierarchs
+give benediction to their people. A similar disposition is to be met
+with in Indian mythology, when the Creator doubles himself into male and
+female, so as to be in a position to originate new beings. Whilst the
+right hand in Plate VII. symbolises the male, the left hand represents
+the mystic feminine circle. In another plate, which is to be found in
+Moor's Hindu Pantheon, there is a similar figure, but draped fully, and
+in that the dress worn by the celestial spouse is covered with groups
+of spots arranged in triads and groups of four. With regard to the
+signification of spots, we may notice that they indicated, either by
+their shape or by their name, the emblem of womankind. A story of Indra,
+the Hindoo god of the sky, confirms this. He is usually represented as
+bearing a robe covered with eyes; but the legend runs that, like David,
+he became enamoured of the wife of another man, who was very beautiful
+and seen by chance, but her spouse was one whose austere piety made him
+almost equal to Brahma. The evil design of Indra was both frustrated and
+punished. The woman escaped, but the god became covered with marks that
+recalled his offence to mind, for they were pictures of the yoni. These,
+by the strong intercession of Brahma with the Rishi, were changed by the
+latter into eyes. This story enables us to recognise clearly the hidden
+symbolism of the Hindoo and Egyptian eye, the oval representing the
+female, and the circle the male lodged therein--i.e., the androgyne
+creator.
+
+PLATE V.
+
+
+Is a copy of a mediaeval Virgin and Child, as painted in Della Robbia
+ware in the South Kensington Museum, a copy of which, was given to me
+by my friend, Mr. Newton, to whose kindness I am indebted for many
+illustrations of ancient Christian art. It represents the Virgin and
+Child precisely as she used to be represented in Egypt, in India, in
+Assyria, Babylonia, Phoenicia, and Etruria; the accident of dress being
+of no mythological consequence. In the framework around the group, we
+recognise the triformed leaf, emblematic of Asher; the grapes, typical
+of Dionysus; the wheat ears, symbolic of Ceres, l'abricot fendu, the
+mark of womankind, and the pomegranate rimmon, which characterises the
+teeming mother. The living group, moreover, are placed in an archway,
+delta, or door, which is symbolic of the female, like the vesica piscis,
+the oval or the circle. This door is, moreover, surmounted by what
+appear to be snails, whose supposed virtue we have spoken of under Plate
+i. This identification of Mary with the Sacti is strong; by-and-by we
+shall see that it is as complete as it is possible to be made.
+
+PLATE VI.
+
+
+Is a copy of figures given in Bryant's Ancient Mythology, plates xiii.,
+xxviii., third edition, 1807. The first two illustrate the story of
+Palemon and Getus, introducing the dolphin. That fish is symbolic of the
+female, in consequence of the assonance in Greek between its name and
+that of the womb, delphis and delphus. The tree symbolises the arbor
+vitae, the life-giving sprout; and the ark is a symbol of the womb. The
+third figure, where a man rests upon a rock and dolphin, and toys with
+a mother and child, is equally suggestive. The male is repeatedly
+characterised as a rock, hermes, menhir, tolmen, or upright stone, the
+female by the dolphin, or fish. The result of the junction of these
+elements appears in the child, whom both parents welcome. The fourth
+figure represents two emblems of the male creator, a man and trident,
+and two of the female, a dolphin and ship. The two last figures
+represent a coin of Apamea, representing Noah and the ark, called
+Cibotus. Bryant labours to prove that the group commemorates the story
+told in the Bible respecting the flood, but there is strong doubt
+whether the story was not of Babylonian origin. The city referred to
+was in Phrygia, and the coin appears to have been struck by Philip of
+Macedon. The inscription round the head is [--Greek inscription--]See
+Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol. ii.., pp. 128, and 885-892.
+
+The Supreme Spirit in the act of creation became two-fold; the RIGHT
+SIDE WAS MALE, THE LEFT WAS PRAKRITI, SHE IS OF ONE FORM WITH BRAMAH.
+
+She is Maya, eternal and imperishable, such as the Spirit, such is the
+inherent energy. (The Sacti) as the Faculty burning is inherent in pure.
+
+(Bramah Vaivartta Puranu, Professor Wilson.)
+
+
+
+ARDANARI-ISWARA.
+
+From an original drawing by Chrisna Swami, Punoit.
+
+PLATE VII.
+
+Is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindoo pundit for Wm.
+Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its mythology.
+It represents Brahma supreme, who in the act of creation made himself
+double, i.e. male and female. In the original the central part of the
+figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too grossly shown
+for reproduction here. They are replaced by the crux ansata. The reader
+will notice the triad and the serpent in the male hand, whilst in the
+female is to be seen a germinating seed, indicative of the relative
+duties of father and mother. The whole stands upon a lotus, the symbol
+of androgyneity. The technical word for this incarnation is "Arddha
+Nari."
+
+PLATE VIII.
+
+
+Is Devi, the same as Parvati, or Bhavani. It is copied from Moor's
+Pantheon, plate xxx. The goddess represents the feminine element in
+the universe. Her forehead is marked by one of the symbols of the four
+creators, the triad, and the unit. Her dress is covered with symbolic
+spots, and one foot peculiarly placed is marked by a circle having a
+dot in the interior. The two bear the same signification as the Egyptian
+eye. I am not able to define the symbolic import of the articles held
+in the lower hands. Moor considers that they represent scrolls of paper,
+but this I doubt. The raised hands bear the unopened lotus flower, and
+the goddess sits upon another.
+
+PLATE IX.
+
+
+Consists of six figures, copied from Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol.
+vi., p. 278, and two from Bryant's Mythology, vol. ii., third edition,
+pp. 203 and 409. All are symbolic of the idea of the male triad: a
+central figure, erect, and rising above the other two. In one an altar
+and fire indicate, mystically, the linga; in another, the same is
+pourtrayed as a man, as Madaheva always is; in another, there is a tree
+stump and serpent, to indicate the same idea. The two appendages of the
+linga are variously described; in two instances as serpents, in other
+two as tree and concha, and snake and shell. The two last seem to embody
+the idea that the right "egg" of the male germinates boys, whilst the
+left produces girls; a theory common amongst ancient physiologists. The
+figure of the tree encircled by the serpent, and supported by two stones
+resembling "tolmen," is very significant. The whole of these figures
+seem to point unmistakably to the origin of the very common belief that
+the male Creator is triune. In Assyrian theology the central figure is
+Bel, Baal, or Asher; the one on the right Ann, that on the left Hea. See
+Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol. i., pp. 88-85. *
+
+There are some authors who have treated of tree and serpent worship, and
+of its prevalence in ancient times, without having, so far as I can see,
+any idea of that which the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the
+tree of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man by his
+subtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise understand,
+but which to the vulgar are simply trees and snakes. In a fine old
+bas-relief over the door of the Cathedral at Berne, we see an ancient
+representation of the last judgment. An angel is dividing the sheep from
+the goats, and devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing
+hooks or pincers on the portions of the body whence their sins sprang.
+One fat priest, nude as our risen bodies must be, is being savagely
+pulled to hell by the part symbolised by tree and serpent, whilst she
+whom he has adored and vainly sought to disgrace, is rising to take her
+place amongst the blest. It is not those of the sex of Eve alone that
+are inveigled to destruction by the serpent.
+
+
+     * For those who have not an opportunity of consulting the
+     work referred to, I may observe that the Assyrian godhead
+     consisted of four persons, three being male and one female.
+     The principal god was Asher, the upright one, the equivalent
+     of the Hindoo Mahadeva, the great holy one, and of the more
+     modern Priapus. He was associated with Anu, lord of solids
+     and of the lower world, equivalent to the "testis," or egg
+     on the right side. Hea was lord of waters, and represented
+     the left "stone." The three formed the trinity or triad. The
+     female was named Ishtar or Astarte, and was equivalent to
+     the female organ, the yoni or vulva--the [Greek] of the
+     Greeks. The male god in Egypt was Osiris, the female Isis,
+     and these names are frequently used as being euphemistic,
+     and preferable to the names which are in vulgar use to
+     describe the male and female parts.
+
+PLATE X.
+
+
+Contains pagan symbols of the trinity or linga, with or without the
+unity or yoni.
+
+Fig. 1 represents a symbol frequently met with in ancient architecture,
+etc. It represents the male and female elements, the pillar and the half
+moon.
+
+Fig. 2 represents the mystic letters said to have been placed on the
+portal of the oracle of Delphi. By some it is proposed to read the two
+letters as signifying "he or she is;" by others the letters are taken to
+be symbolic of the triad and the unit. If they be, the pillar is a
+very unusual form for the yoni. An ingenious friend of mine regards the
+upright portion as a "slit," but I cannot wholly agree with him, for in
+Fig. 1 the pillar cannot be looked upon as an aperture.
+
+Fig. 3 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon,
+and is one out of many indicating the union of the male and female.
+
+Fig. 4 is emblematic of the virgin and child. It identifies the two with
+the crescent. It is singular that some designers should unite the moon
+with the solar symbol, and others with the virgin. We believe that the
+first indicate ideas like that associated with Baalim, and Ashtaroth in
+the plural, the second that of Astarte or Venus in the singular. Or, as
+we may otherwise express it, the married and the immaculate virgin.
+
+Fig. 5 is copied from Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology, p. 15. It represents
+one of the Egyptian trinities, and is highly symbolic, not only
+indicating the triad, here Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys, but its union
+with the female element. The central god Osiris is himself triune, as
+he bears the horns symbolic of the goddess Athor and the feathers of the
+god Ra.
+
+Fig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor's Hindu Pantheon. The
+lozenge indicates the yoni. For this assertion we not only have evidence
+in Babylonian gems, copied by Lajard, but in Indian and Etruscan
+designs. We find, for example, in vol. v., plate xlv., of Antiquites
+Etrusques, etc., par. F. A. David (Paris, 1785), a draped female,
+wearing on her breast a half moon and mural crown, holding her hands
+over the middle spot of the body, so as to form a "lozenge" with the
+forefingers and thumbs. The triad in this figure is very distinct; and
+we may add that a trinity expressed by three balls or three circles is
+to be met with in the remotest times and in most distant countries.
+
+Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are copied from Cabrera's account of an ancient
+city discovered near Palenque, in Guatemala, Spanish America (London,
+1822). Although they appear to have a sexual design, yet I doubt whether
+the similarity is not accidental. After a close examination of the
+plates given by Cabrera, I am inclined to think that nothing of
+the ling-yoni element prevailed in the mind of the ancient American
+sculptors. All the males are carefully draped in appropriate girdles,
+although in some a grotesque or other ornament, such as a human or
+bestial head, a flower, etc., is attached to the apron or "fall" of the
+girdle, resembling the sporran of the Highlander and the codpiece
+of mediaeval knights and others. I may, however, mention some very
+remarkable sculptures copied; one is a tree, whose trunk is surrounded
+by a serpent, and whose fruit is shaped like the vesica piscis; in
+another is seen a youth wholly unclothed, save by a cap and gaiters, who
+kneels before a similar tree, being threatened before and behind by some
+fierce animal. This figure is peculiar, differing from all the rest in
+having an European rather than an American head and face. Indeed, the
+features, etc., remind me of the late Mr. Cobden, and the cap is such as
+yachting sailors usually wear. There is also another remarkable group,
+consisting apparently of a man and woman standing before a cross,
+proportioned like the conventional one in use amongst Christians.
+Everything indicates American ideas, and there are ornaments or designs
+wholly unlike any that I have seen elsewhere. The man appears to offer
+to the cross a grotesque human figure, with a head not much unlike
+Punch, with a turned-up nose, and a short pipe shaped like a fig in his
+mouth. The body is well formed, but the arms and thighs are rounded off
+like "flippers" or "fins." Besting at the top of the cross is a bird,
+like a game cock, ornamented by a necklace. The male in this and the
+other sculptures is beardless, and that women are depicted, can only
+be guessed at by the inferior size of some of the figures. It would be
+unprofitable to carry the description farther.
+
+Figs. 11, 12 are from vol. i., plates xix. and xxiii. of a remarkably
+interesting work, Recherches sur l' origine, l' esprit, et les progres
+des Arts de la Grece, said to be written by D'Harcanville, published at
+London, 1785. The first represents a serpent, coiled so as to symbolise
+the male triad, and the crescent, the emblem of the yoni.
+
+Fig. 12 accompanies the bull on certain coins, and symbolises the sexual
+elements, le baton et l'anneau. They were used, as the horse-shoe is
+now, as a charm against bad luck, or vicious demons or fairies.
+
+Fig. 13 is, like figure 5, from Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology, p. 14, and
+is said to represent Isis, Nepthys, and Osiris; it is one of the many
+Mizraite triads. The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as
+surely a pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence
+of a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and
+virgins, intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms of
+faith which deface the greater part of modern religions.
+
+Figure 14 is a symbol frequently seen in Greek churches, but appears to
+be of pre-Christian origin.* The cross we have elsewhere described as
+being a compound male emblem, whilst the crescent symbolises the female
+element in creation.
+
+Figure 15 is from D'Harcanville, Op. Cit., vol. i., plate xxiii. It
+resembles Figure 11, supra, and enables us by the introduction of the
+sun and moon to verify the deduction drawn from the arrangement of the
+serpent's coils. If the snake's body, instead of being curved above the
+8 like tail, were straight, it would simply indicate the linga and the
+sun; the bend in its neck, however, indicates the yoni and the moon.
+
+Figure 16 is copied from plate xvi., fig. 2, of Recueil de Pierres
+Antiques Graves, folio, by J. M. Raponi (Rome, 1786). The gem represents
+a sacrifice to Priapus, indicated by the rock, pillar, figure, and
+branches given in our plate. A nude male sacrifices a goat; a draped
+female holds a kid ready for immolation; a second man, nude, plays the
+double pipe, and a second woman, draped, bears a vessel on her head,
+probably containing wine for a libation.
+
+Figure 17 is from vol. i. Recherches, etc., plate xxii. In this medal
+the triad is formed by a man and two coiled serpents on the one side of
+the medal, whilst on the reverse are seen a tree, surrounded by a snake,
+situated between two rounded stones, with a dog and a conch shell below.
+See supra, Plate ix., Fig. 6.
+
+PLATE XI.
+
+
+With two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,--exhibits Christian emblems of the
+trinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone or combined; the whole
+being copied from Pugin's Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament (London,
+1869).
+
+Fig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a double union
+of the trinity with the unity, here represented as a ring, Vanneau.
+
+
+     * There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the
+     Edinburgh Review--which almost exhausts the subject--but is
+     too long for quotation here.
+
+Figs. 2, 8, are from Pagin, plate xiv. In figare 2, the two covered
+balls at the base of each limb of the cross are extremely significant,
+and if the artist had not mystified the free end, the most obtuse
+worshipper must have recognised the symbol. We may add here that in the
+two forms of the Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed,
+and the egg-shaped bodies, with their cover, are at the free end of each
+limb, whilst the natural end of the organ is left unchanged. See figs.
+85 and 86. This form of cross is Etruscan. Fig. 8 is essentially the
+same as the preceding, and both may be compared with Fig. 4. The balls
+in this cross are uncovered, and the free end of each limb of the cross
+is but slightly modified.
+
+Fig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate xxxv., fig. 4, of Two
+Essays on the Worship of Priapus (London, 1865). It is thus described
+(page 147): "The object was found at St. Agati di Goti, near
+Naples.......It is a crux ansata formed by four phalli, with a circle
+of female organs round the centre; and appears by the look to have been
+intended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no doubt been
+made for some personage of rank, possibly an ecclesiastic." We see here
+very distinctly the design of the egg- and sistrum- shaped bodies. When
+we have such an unmistakable bi-sexual cross before our eyes, it is
+impossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 8, and Plate xii.,
+Figs. 4 and 7.
+
+Figs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and represent the
+trinity with the unity, the triune god and the virgin united in one.
+
+Fig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of a cross, figured
+plate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the Maltese cross is united with
+the symbol of the virgin, being essentially the same as Fig. 9, infra.
+It is a modified form of the crux ansata.
+
+Fig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each limb of an
+ornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.
+
+Fig. 9 is a well-known Egyptian symbol, borne in the hand of almost
+every divinity. It is a cross, with one limb made to represent the
+female element in creation. The name that it technically bears is crux
+ansata, or "the cross with a handle." A reference to Fig. 4 serves to
+verify the idea which it involves.
+
+Fig. 10 is from Pugin, plate xxxv. In this figure the cross is made by
+the intersection of two ovals, each a vesica piscis, an emblem of the
+yoni. Within each limb a symbol of the trinity is seen, each of which is
+associated with the central ring.
+
+Fig. 11 is from Pugin, plate xix., and represents the arbor vitae, the
+branch, or tree of life, as a triad, with which the ring is united.
+
+It has been said by some critics that the figures above referred to
+are mere architectural fancies, which never had pretensions to embody
+a mystery; and that any designer would pitch upon such a style of
+ornamentation although profoundly ignorant of the doctrine of the
+trinity and unity. But this assumption is not borne out by fact;
+the ornaments on Buddhist topes have nothing in common with those of
+Christian churches; whilst in the ruined temple of the sun at Marttand,
+India, the trefoil emblem of the trinity is common. Grecian temples
+were profusely ornamented therewith, and so are innumerable Etruscan
+sculptures, but they do not represent the trinity and unity. It has been
+reserved for Christian art to crowd our churches with the emblems of Bel
+and Astarte, Baalim and Ashtoreth, linga and yoni, and to elevate the
+phallus to the position of the supreme deity, and assign to him a virgin
+as a companion, who can cajole him by her blandishment, weary him
+by wailing, or induce him to change his mind by her intercessions.
+Christianity certainly requires to be purged of its heathenisms.
+
+PLATE XII.
+
+
+Contains both pagan and Christian emblems.
+
+Fig. 1 is from Pugin, plate xviii., and is a very common finial
+representing the trinity. Its shape is too significant to require an
+explanation; yet with such emblems our Christian churches abound, that
+the Trinity may never be absent from the minds of man or woman!
+
+Fig. 2 is from Pugin, plate xxi. It is a combination of ideas concealing
+the union patent in Fig. 4, Plate xi., supra.
+
+Fig. 3 is from Moor's Hindu Pantheon. It is an ornament borne by Devi,
+and symbolises the union of the triad with the unit.
+
+Fig. 4 is from Pugin, plate xxxii. It is a double cross made up of the
+male and female emblems. It is a conventionalised form of Fig. 4, Plate
+xi., supra. Such eight-rayed figures, made like stars, seem to have been
+very ancient, and to have been designed to indicate the junction of male
+and female.
+
+Fig. 5 is from Pugin, plate xvii., and represents the trinity and the
+unity.
+
+Fig. 6 is a Buddhist emblem from Birmah, Journal of Royal Asiatic
+Society, vol. xviii., p. 392, plate i., fig. 62. It represents the short
+sword, le bracquemard, a male symbol.
+
+Fig. 7. is from Pagin, plate xvii. See Plate xi., Fig. 3, supra.
+
+Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are Buddhist (see Fig. 6, supra), and symbolise
+the triad.
+
+Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are from Pugin, and simply represent the
+trinity.
+
+Figs. 18 and 19 are common Grecian emblems. The first is associated
+with Neptune and water, the second with Bacchus. With the one we see
+dolphins, emblems of the womb, the name of the two being assonant in
+Greek; with the other, the saying, sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus,
+must be coupled.
+
+PLATE XIII.
+
+
+Consists of varions emblems of the triad and the unit, drawn almost
+exclusively from Grecian, Etruscan, Roman, and Indian gems, figures,
+coins, or sculptures, Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate, Raponi's Recueil,
+and Moor's Hindu Pantheon, being the chief authorities.
+
+PLATE XIV.
+
+
+Is a copy of a small Hindoo statuette in the Mayer Collection in the
+Free Museum, Liverpool. It probably represents Parvati, the Hindoo
+virgin, and her child. The right hand of the figure makes the symbol
+of the yoni with the forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers
+typifying the triad. In the palm and on the navel is a lozenge,
+emblematic of woman. The child, perhaps Crishna, equivalent to the
+Egyptian Horus and the Christian Jesus, bears in its hand one of
+the many emblems of the linga, and stands upon a lotus. The monkey
+introduced into the group plays the same part as the cat, cow, lioness,
+and ape in the Egyptian mythology, being emblematic of that desire which
+eventuates in the production of offspring.
+
+Fig. 1, the cupola, is well known in modern Europe; it is equally so in
+Hindostan, where it is sometimes accompanied by pillars of a peculiar
+shape. In one such compound the design is that of a cupola, supported by
+closely placed pillars, each of which has a "capital," resembling "the
+glans" of physiologists; in the centre there is a door, wherein a nude
+female stands, resembling in all respects Figure 61, except in dress and
+the presence of the child. This was copied by the late Mr. Sellon, from
+a Buddhist Dagopa in the Jumnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, a tracing of
+his sketch having been given to me by William Simpson, Esq., London.
+
+The same emblem may be found amongst the ancient Italians. Whilst I
+was staying in Malta during the carnival time in 1872, I saw in all
+directions men and women selling cakes shaped like the yoni shown in
+Fig. 1. These sweetmeats had no special name, but they came in and went
+out with the carnival.
+
+Fig. 2 represents Venus standing on a tortoise, whose symbolic import
+will be seen by referring to Fig. 74, infra. It is copied from Lajard,
+Sur le Culte de Venus, plate iiia., fig. 5, and is stated by him to be
+a drawing of an Etruscan candelabrum, existing in the Royal Museum at
+Berlin. In his account of Greece, Pausanias mentions that he saw one
+figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and another upon a ram, but he
+declines to give the reason of the conjunction.
+
+Is a representation of Siva, taken from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate
+xiii. Siva is supposed to be the oldest of the Indian deities, and to
+have been worshipped by the aborigines of Hindostan, before the Aryans
+invaded that country. It is thought that the Vedic religion opposed this
+degrading conception at the first, but was powerless to eradicate it.
+Though he is yet the most popular of all the gods, Siva is venerated,
+I understand, chiefly by the vulgar. Though he personifies the male
+principle, there is not anything indecent in pictorial representations
+of him. In one of his hands is seen the trident, one of the emblems
+of the masculine triad; whilst in another is to be seen an oval
+sistram-shaped loop, a symbol of the feminine unit. On his forehead he
+bears an eye, symbolic of the Omniscient, the sun, and the union of the
+sexes.
+
+As it has been doubted by some readers, whether I am justified in
+regarding the sistrum as a female emblem, I append here a quotation from
+Socrates' Ecclesiastical History, Bohn's translation, p. 281, seq. In
+Rome, in the early time of Theodosius, "when a woman was detected in
+adultery.... they shut her up in a narrow brothel, and obliged her to
+prostitute herself in a most disgusting manner; causing little bells
+to be rang at the time.... As soon as the emperor was apprised of this
+indecent usage, he would by no means tolerate it; but having ordered the
+Sistra (for so these places of penal prostitution were denominated) to
+be pulled down," &c. One can as easily see why a female emblem should
+mark a brothel in Rome as a male symbol did at Pompeii.
+
+PLATE XVI.
+
+
+
+
+This Figure represents Assyrian priests offering in the presence of what
+is supposed to be Baal--or the representative of the sun god and of the
+grove. The first is typified by the eye, with wings and a tail, which
+make it symbolic of the male triad and the female unit. The eye, with
+the central pupil, is in itself emblematic of the same. The grove
+represents mystically le verger de Cypris. On the right stands the king;
+on the left are two priests, the foremost clothed with a fish's skin,
+the head forming the mitre, thus showing the origin of modern Christian
+bishops' peculiar head-dress. Arranged about the figures are, the sun;
+a bird, perhaps the sacred dove, whose note, coa or coo, has, in the
+Shemitic, some resemblance to an invitation to amorous gratification;
+in Latin coi, coite; the oval, symbol of the yoni; the basket, or bag,
+emblematic of the scrotum, and apparently the lotus. The trinity and
+unity are carried by the second priest.
+
+Figure 2 is copied from an ancient copper vase, covered with Egyptian
+hieroglyphic characters, found at Cairo, and figured in a book entitled
+Explication des divers monument singuliers, qui ont rapport a la
+religion des plus anciens peuples, par le R. P. Dom.......a Paris, 1739.
+
+
+
+The group of figures represents Isis and Horus in an unusual attitude.
+They are enclosed in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean,
+or of the lotus. This framework may be compared to the Assyrian "grove,"
+and another in which the Virgin Mary stands. The bell was of old a
+symbol of virginity, for Eastern maidens wore them until marriage (see
+Isa. iii. 16). The origin of this custom was the desire that every
+maiden should have at her marriage, or sale, that which is spoken of in
+the Pentateuch as "the token of virginity." It was supposed that this
+membrane, technically called "the hymen" might be broken by too long a
+stride in walking or running, or by clambering over a stile or wall.
+To prevent such a catastrophe, a light chain or cord was worn, under or
+over the dress, at the level of the knees or just above. Its length only
+permitted a short step and a mincing gait. Slight bells were used as a
+sort of ornament, and when the bearer was walking their tinkling was a
+sort of proclamation that the lady who bore them was in the market as a
+virgin. After "the flower" had been plucked, the bells were no longer of
+use. They were analogous to the virgin snood worn on the head of Scotch
+maidens. Isis bears the horns of a cow, because that animal is equally
+noted for its propensity to seek the male and its care to preserve the
+offspring. As the bull with a human head, so a human being with cow's
+horns, was made to represent a deity. The solar orb between the horns,
+and the serpent round the body, indicate the union with the male;
+an incongruous conjunction with the emblem of the sacred Virgin,
+nevertheless a very common one. In some of the coins pictured by E. P.
+Knight, in Worship of Priapus, etc., a cow caressing her sucking
+calf replaces Isis and Horus, just as a bull on other coins replaces
+Dionysus. The group is described in full in Ancient Faiths, second
+edition, Vol. i., pp. 53, 54.
+
+
+
+Figures 3, 4, are taken from Ginsburg's Kabbalah, and illustrate that in
+the arrangement of "potencies" two unite, like parents, to form a third.
+Sometimes we see also how three such male attributes as splendour,
+firmness, and solidity join with beauty to form the mystic arba, the
+trinity and unity.
+
+
+
+Figures 5, 6, are copies from figures found in Carthage and in Scotland,
+from Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, vol. i., plate vi., p. 46
+(London, 1866). This book is one to which the reader's attention should
+be directed. The amount of valuable information which it contains is
+very large, and it is classified in a philosophical, and, we may add,
+attractive manner. The figures represent the arbor vitae.
+
+Figure 7 is from Bonomi, page 292, Nineveh and its Palaces (London,
+1865). It apparently represents the mystic yoni, door, or delta; and it
+may be regarded as an earlier form of the framework in Plate iv. It will
+be remarked, by those learned in symbols, that the outline of the hands
+of the priests who are nearest to the figure is a suggestive one, being
+analogous to the figure of a key and its shank, whilst those who stand
+behind these officers present the pine cone and bag, symbolic of Ann,
+Hea, and their residence.
+
+
+
+It is to be noticed, and once for all let us assert our belief, that
+every detail in a sculpture relating to religion has a signification;
+that the first right hand figure carries a peculiarly shaped staff; and
+that the winged symbol above the yoni consists of a male archer in a
+winged circle, analagous to the symbolic bow, arrow, and target. The bow
+was an emblem amongst the Romans, and arcum tendere was equivalent to
+arrigere. In the Golden Ass of Apuleius we find the metaphor used in
+his account of his dealings with amorous frolicsome Fotis, "Ubi primam
+sagittam saevi cupidinis in ima procordia mea delapsam excepi, arcum,
+meum et ipse vigore tetendi."
+
+Again, we find in Petronius--
+
+
+     Astra igitur mea mens arcum dum tendit in ilia.
+     Ex imo ad summum viva sagitta volat.
+
+Figures 8 to 14 are representations of the goddess mother, the virgin
+and child, Ishtar or Astarte, Mylitta, Ceres, Rhea, Venus, Sacti, Mary,
+Yoni, Juno, Mama Ocello.
+
+Fig. 8 is a copy of the deified woman or celestial mother, from Idalium,
+in Cyprus. Fig. 9 is from Egypt, and is remarkable for the cow's horns
+(for whose signification see Vol. i., p. 54, Ancient Faiths, second
+edition), which here replace the lunar crescent, in conjunction with the
+sun, the two being symbolic of hermaphroditism, whilst above is a seat
+or throne, emblematic of royalty.
+
+
+
+The two figures are copied from Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii., p. 447,
+in an essay by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, wherein other illustrations of
+the celestial virgin are given. Fig. 10 is a copy of plate 59, Moor's
+Hindu Pantheon, wherein it is entitled, "Crishna nursed by Devaki, from
+a highly finished picture." In the account of Crishna's birth and early
+history, as given by Moor (Op. Cit., pp. 197, et seq.), there is
+as strong a resemblance to the story of Christ as the picture here
+described has to papal paintings of Mary and Jesus. Fig. 11 is an
+enlarged representation of Devaki. Fig. 12 is copied from Rawlinson's
+Ancient Monarchies, vol. iii., p. 899. Fig. 13 is a figure of the mother
+and child found in ancient Etruria at Volaterra; it is depicted in
+Fabretti's Italian Glossary, plate xxvi., figure 349.
+
+
+
+It is described as a marble statue, now in the Guarnacci Museum. The
+letters, which are Etruscan, and read from right to left, may be thus
+rendered into the ordinary Latin characters from left to right, MI:
+GANA: LARTHIAS ZANL: VELKINEI: ME - SE.; the translation I take to
+be, "the votive offering of Larthias (a female) of Zanal, ( = Zancle
+= Messana in Sicily), (wife) of Velcinius, in the sixth month." It
+is uncertain whether we are to regard the statue as an effigy of the
+celestial mother and child, or as the representation of some devout lady
+who has been spared during her pregnancy, her parturition, or from some
+disease affecting herself and child. Analogy would lead us to infer that
+the Queen of Heaven is intended. Figure 14 is copied from Hislop's Two
+Babylons; it represents Indranee, the wife of Indra or Indur, and is to
+be found in Indur Subba, the south front of the Caves of Ellora, Asiatic
+Researches, vol. vi., p. 893.
+
+
+
+Indra is equivalent to Jupiter Tonans, and is represented as seated on
+an elephant; "the waterspout is the trunk of this elephant, and the iris
+is his bow, which it is not auspicious to point out," Moor's Pantheon,
+p. 260. He is represented very much as if he were a satyr, Moor's
+Pantheon, p. 264; but his wife is always spoken of as personified
+chastity and propriety. Indranee is seated on a lioness, which replaces
+the cow of Isis, the former resembling the latter in her feminine and
+maternal instincts.
+
+Figures 15, 16, are copies of Diana of the Ephesians; the first is from
+Hislop, who quotes Kitto's Illustrated Commentary, vol. v., p. 250; the
+second from Higgins' Anacalypsis, who quotes Montfaucon, plate 47. I
+remember to have seen a figure similar to these in the Royal Museum at
+Naples.
+
+
+
+The tower upon the head represents virginity (see Ancient Faiths, second
+edition, Vol. i., p. 144); the position of the hand forms a cross with
+the body: the numerous breasts indicate abundance; the black colour of
+Figure 16 indicates the ordinary tint of the feminine lanugo, the almost
+universal colour of the hair of the Orientals being black about the yoni
+as well as on the head; or, as some mythologists imagine, "Night,"
+who is said to be one of the mothers of creation. (See Ancient Faiths,
+second edition, Vol. n., p. 882.) The emblems upon the body indicate the
+attributes or symbols of the male and female creators.
+
+
+
+Figure 17 is a complicated sign of the yoni, delta, or door of life. It
+is copied from Bonomi's Palaces of Nineveh, p. 809.
+
+Figure 18 signifies the same thing; the priests adoring it present the
+pine cone and basket, symbolic of Ann, Hea, and their residence. Compare
+the object of the Assyrian priest's adoration with that adored by a
+Christian divine, in a subsequent figure. (See Ancient Faiths, second
+edition, Vol. I., p. 88, et seq., and Vol. n., p. 648.)
+
+
+
+Figure 19 is copied from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xxii., fig. 5. It is
+the impression of an ancient gem, and represents a man clothed with a
+fish, the head being the mitre; priests thus clothed, often bearing in
+their hand the mystic bag, are common in Mesopotamian sculptures; two
+such are figured on Figs. 63, 64, infra. In almost every instance it
+will be recognised that the fish's head is represented as of the same
+form as the modern bishop's mitre.
+
+
+
+Figure 20 represents two equilateral triangles, infolded so as to make
+a six-rayed star, the idea embodied being the androgyne nature of the
+deity, the pyramid with its apex upwards signifying the male, that with
+the apex downwards the female. The line at the central junction is
+not always seen, but the shape of the three parallel bars reappears in
+Hindoo frontlet signs in conjunction with a delta or door, shaped
+like the "grove" in Fig. 17; thus showing that the lines serve also to
+indicate the masculine triad. The two triangles are also understood
+as representing fire, which mounts upwards, and water, which flows
+downwards. Fire again is an emblem of the sun, and water of the passive
+or yielding element in nature. Fire also typifies Eros or Cupid. Hymen
+is always represented carrying a torch. It is also symbolic of love;
+e.g., Southey writes.
+
+
+     "But love is indestructible,
+     Its holy flame for ever burneth;
+     From heaven it came,
+     To heaven returneth."
+
+And again, Scott writes--
+
+
+     "It is not phantasy's hot fire
+     Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly," &amp;c.
+
+Figures 21, 22, are other indications of the same fundamental idea. The
+first represents Nebo, the Nahbi, or the navel, characterised by a ring
+with a central mound.
+
+
+
+The second represents the circular and upright stone so common in
+Oriental villages. The two indicate the male and female; and a medical
+friend resident in India has told me, that he has seen women mount upon
+the lower stone and seat themselves reverently upon the upright one,
+having first adjusted their dress so as to prevent it interfering with
+their perfect contact with the miniature obelisc. During the sitting, a
+short prayer seemed flitting over the worshippers' lips, but the whole
+affair was soon over.
+
+Whilst upon this subject, it is right to call attention to the fact that
+animate as well as inorganic representatives of the Creator have been
+used by women with the same definite purpose. The dominant idea is
+that contact with the emblem, a mundane representative of the deity, of
+itself gives a blessing. Just as many Hindoo females seek a benefaction
+by placing their own yoni upon the consecrated linga, so a few
+regard intercourse with certain high priests of the Maharajah sect as
+incarnations of Vishnu, and pay for the privilege of being spouses of
+the god. In Egypt, where the goat was a sacred animal, there were some
+religious women who sought good luck by uniting themselves therewith.
+We have heard of British professors of religion endeavouring to persuade
+their penitents to procure purity by what others would call defilement
+and disgrace. And the "cord of St. Francis" replaces the stone "linga."
+Sometimes with this "cord" the rod is associated; and those who have
+read the trial of Father Gerard, for his seduction of Miss Cadiere under
+a saintly guise, will know that Christianity does not always go hand in
+hand with propriety.
+
+With the Hindoo custom compare that which was done by Liber on the grave
+of Prosumnus (Arnobius adverma Gentes, translated by Bryce and Campbell,
+T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, pp. 252, 258), which is far too gross to
+be described here; and as regards the sanctity of a stone whose top had
+been anointed with oil, see first sentence of paragraph 89, ibid, page
+81. The whole book will well repay perusal.
+
+Figures 28, 24, are discs, circles, aureoles, and wheels, to represent
+the sun. Sometimes the emblem of this luminary is associated with rays,
+as in Plate iii., Fig. 8, and in another Figure elsewhere. Occasionally,
+as in some of the ancient temples in Egypt discovered in 1854, the sun's
+rays are represented by lines terminating in hands. Sometimes one or
+more of these contain objects as if they were gifts sent by the god;
+amongst other objects, the crux ansata is shown conspicuously. In a
+remarkable plate in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature
+(second series, vol. i., p. 140), the sun is identified with the
+serpent; its rays terminate in hands, some holding the handled cross or
+tau, and before it a queen, apparently, worships. She is offering what
+seems to be a lighted tobacco pipe, the bowl being of the same shape as
+that commonly used in Turkey; from this a wavy pyramid of flame rises.
+Behind her, two female slaves elevate the sistrum; whilst before her,
+and apparently between herself and her husband, are two altars occupied
+by round cakes and one crescent-shaped emblem.
+
+
+
+The aureole was used in ancient days by Babylonian artists or sculptors,
+when they wished to represent a being, apparently human, as a god. The
+same plan has been adopted by the moderns, who have varied the symbol by
+representing it now as a golden disc, now as a terrestrial orb, again as
+a rayed sphere. A writer, when describing a god as a man, can say that
+the object he sketches is divine; but a painter thinks too much of his
+art to put on any of his designs, "this woman is a goddess," or "this
+creature is a god"; he therefore adds an aureole round the head of his
+subject, and thus converts a very ordinary man, woman, or child into a
+deity to be reverenced; modern artists thus proving themselves to be
+far more skilful in depicting the Almighty than the carpenters and
+goldsmiths of the time of Isaiah (xl. 18, 19, xli. 6, 7, xliv. 9-19),
+who used no such contrivance.
+
+Figure 24 is another representation of the solar disc, in which it is
+marked with a cross. This probably originated in the wheel of a chariot
+having four spokes, and the sun being likened to a charioteer. The
+chariots of the sun are referred to in 2 Kings xxiii. 11 as idolatrous
+emblems. Of these the wheel was symbolic. The identification of this
+emblem with the sun is very easy, for it has repeatedly been found in
+Mesopotamian gems in conjunction with the moon. In a very remarkable one
+figured in Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii., p. 249, the cross
+is contrived as five circles. It is remarkable that in many papal
+pictures the wafer and the cup are depicted precisely as the sun and
+moon in conjunction. See Pugin's Architectural Glossary, plate iv., fig.
+5.
+
+
+
+Figures 25, 26, 27, are simply varieties of the solar wheel, intended to
+represent the idea of the sun and moon, the mystic triad and unit, the
+"arba," or four. In Figure 26, the mural ornament is introduced, that
+being symbolic of feminine virginity. For explanation of Figure 27, see
+Figures 85, 86.
+
+Figure 28 is copied from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate xiv. F. That author
+states that he has taken it from a drawing of an Egyptian stele, made by
+M. E. Prisse (Monum. Egypt., plate xxxvii.), and that the original is
+in the British Museum. There is an imperfect copy of it in Rawlinson's
+Herodotus, vol. ii.
+
+
+
+The original is too indelicate to be represented fully. Isis, the
+central figure, is wholly nude, with the exception of her head-dress,
+and neck and breast ornaments. In one hand she holds two blades of corn
+apparently, whilst in the other she has three lotus flowers, two being
+egg-shaped, but the central one fully expanded; with these, which
+evidently symbolise the mystic triad, is associated a circle emblematic
+of the yoni, thus indicating the fourfold creator. Isis stands upon a
+lioness; on one side of her stands a clothed male figure, holding in one
+hand the crux ansata, and in the other an upright spear. On the opposite
+side is a male figure wholly nude, like the goddess, save his head-dress
+and collar, the ends of which are arranged so as to form a cross. His
+hand points to a flagellum; behind him is a covert reference to the
+triad, whilst in front Osiris offers undisguised homage to Isis. The
+head-dress of the goddess appears to be a modified form of the crescent
+moon inverted. It is not exclusively Egyptian, as it has been found in
+conjunction with other emblems on an Assyrian obelisc of Phallic form.
+
+
+
+Figures 29, 30, 31, 32, represent the various triangles and their union,
+which have been adopted in worship. Figure 29 is said to represent fire,
+which amongst the ancient Persians was depicted as a cone, whilst the
+figure inverted represents water.
+
+
+
+Figure 33 is an ancient Hindoo emblem, called Sri Iantra. The circle
+represents the world, in which the living exist; the triangle pointing
+upwards shows the male creator; and the triangle with the apex downwards
+the female; distinct, yet united. These have a world within themselves,
+in which the male is uppermost. In the central circle the image to be
+worshipped is placed. When used, the figure is placed on the ground,
+with Brahma to the east, and Laksmi to the west. Then a relic of any
+saint, or image of Buddha, like a modern papal crucifix, is added, and
+the shrine for worship is complete. It has now been adopted in Christian
+churches and Freemasons' lodges.
+
+It will be noticed that the male emblem points to the rising sun, and
+the female triangle points to the setting sun, when the earth seems to
+receive the god into her couch.
+
+
+
+Figure 34 is a very ancient Hindoo emblem, whose real signification I am
+unable to divine. It is used in calculation; it forms the basis of some
+game, and it is a sign of vast import in sacti worship.
+
+A coin, bearing this figure upon it, and having a central cavity with
+the Etruscan letters SUPEN placed one between each two of the angles,
+was found in a fictile urn, at Volaterrae, and is depicted in Fabretti's
+Italian Glossary, plate xxvi., fig. 858, bis a. As the coin is round,
+the reader will see that these letters may be read as Supen, Upens,
+Pensu, Ensup, or Nsupe. A search through Fabretti's Lexicon affords no
+clue to any meaning except for the third. There seems, indeed, strong
+reason to believe that pensu was the Etruscan form of the Pali panca,
+the Sanscrit panch, the Bengalli panch, and the Greek penta, i. e.,
+five. Five, certainly, would be an appropriate word for the pentangle.
+It is almost impossible to avoid speculating upon the value of this
+fragment of archaeological evidence in support of the idea that the
+Greeks, Aryans, and Etruscans had something in common; but into the
+question it would be unprofitable to enter here.
+
+But, although declining to enter upon this wide field of inquiry, I
+would notice that whilst searching Fabretti's Glossary my eye fell upon
+the figure of an equilateral triangle with the apex upwards, depicted
+plate xliii., fig. 2440 ter. The triangle is of brass, and was found
+in the territory of the Falisci. It bears a rude representation of the
+outlines of the soles of two human feet, in this respect resembling a
+Buddhist emblem; and there is on its edge an inscription which may be
+rendered thus in Roman letters, KAYI: TERTINEI. POSTIKNU, which probably
+signifies "Gavia, the wife of Tertius, offered it." The occurrence
+of two Hindoo symbols in ancient Italy is very remarkable. It must,
+however, be noticed that similar symbols have been found on ancient
+sculptured stones in Ireland and Scotland. There may be no emblematic
+ideas whatever conveyed by the design; but when the marks appear
+on Gnostic gems, they are supposed to indicate death, i. e., the
+impressions left by the feet of the individual as he springs from earth
+to heaven.
+
+
+
+Figures 35, 36, are Maltese crosses. In a large book of Etrurian
+antiquities, which came casually under my notice about twenty years ago,
+when I was endeavouring to master the language, theology, etc., of the
+Etruscans, but whose name, and other particulars of which, I cannot
+now remember; I found depicted two crosses, made up of four masculine
+triads, each asher being erect, and united to its fellows by the gland,
+forming a central diamond, emblem of the yoni. In one instance, the
+limbs of the cross were of equal length; in the other, one asher was
+three times as long as the others. A somewhat similar cross, but one
+united with the circle, was found some time ago near Naples. It is made
+of gold, and has apparently been used as an amulet and suspended to
+the neck. It is figured in plate 35 of An Essay on the Worship of the
+Generative Powers during the Middle Ages (London, privately printed,
+1865). It may be thus described: the centre of the circle is occupied by
+four oblate spheres arranged like a square; from the salient curves of
+each of these springs a yoni (shaped as in Figure 59), with the point
+outwards, thus forming a cross, each ray of which is an egg and fig. At
+each junction of the ovoids a yoni is inserted with the apex inwards,
+whilst from the broad end arise four ashers, which project beyond the
+shield, each terminating in a few golden bead-like drops. The whole is
+a graphic natural representation of the intimate union of the male and
+female, sun and moon, cross and circle, Ouranos and Ge. The same idea is
+embodied in Figure 27, p. 86, but in that the mystery is deeply veiled,
+in that the long arms of the cross represent the sun, or male, indicated
+by the triad; the short ones, the moon, or the female (see Plate xi.
+Fig. 4).
+
+The Maltese cross, a Phoenician emblem, was discovered cut on a rock
+in the island from which it takes its name. Though cruciform, it had
+nothing Christian about it; for, like the Etruscan ones referred to
+above, it consisted of four lingas united together by the heads, the
+"eggs" being at the outside. It was an easy thing for an unscrupulous
+priesthood to represent this "invention" of the cross as a miracle,
+and to make it presentable to the eyes of the faithful by leaving the
+outlines of Anu and Hea incomplete. Sometimes this cross is figured
+as four triangles meeting at the points, which has the same meaning,
+Generally, however, the Church (as may be seen by a reference to Pugin's
+Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament) adopts the use of crosses where
+the inferior members of the trinity are more or less central, as in our
+Plate xi., Figs. 2, 8, and as in the Figures 40, 41, 42, infra. When
+once a person knows the true origin of the doctrine of the Trinity--one
+which is far too improper to have been adopted by the writers of the
+New Testament--it is impossible not to recognise in the signs which are
+symbolic of it the thing which is signified.
+
+It may readily be supposed that those who have knowledge of the
+heathenish origin of many of the cherished doctrines of the so-called
+Christian church, cannot remain enthusiastic members of her communion;
+and it is equally easy for the enlightened philosopher to understand why
+such persons are detested and abused by the ignorant, and charged with
+being freethinkers, sceptics, or atheists. Sciolism is ever intolerant,
+and theological hatred is generally to be measured by the mental
+incapacity of those who indulge in the luxury. But no amount of abuse
+can reduce the intrinsic value of facts. Nor will the most fiery
+persecution demonstrate that the religion of Christ, as it appears
+in our churches and cathedrals, especially if they are papal, is not
+tainted by a mass of paganism of disgusting origin.
+
+
+
+Figure 37 is copied from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol.
+xviii., p 898, plate 4. It is a Buddhist emblem, and represents the
+same idea under different aspects. Each limb of the cross represents
+the fascinum at right angles with the body, and presented towards a
+barleycorn, one of the symbols of the yoni. Each limb is marked by the
+same female emblem, and terminates with the triad triangle; beyond this
+again is seen the conjunction of the sun and moon. The whole therefore
+represents the mystic curba, the creative four, by some called Thor's
+hammer. Copies of a cross similar to this have been recently found by
+Dr. Schliemann in a very ancient city, buried under the remains of two
+others, which he identifies as the Troy of Homer's Iliad.
+
+
+
+Figures 38 to 42 are developments of the triad triangle, or trinity. If
+the horizontal limb on the free end of the arm were to be prolonged
+to twice its length, the most obtuse would recognise Asher, and the
+inferior or lower members of the "triune."
+
+Figure 43 is by Egyptologists called the 'symbol of life.'
+
+It is also called the 'handled cross,' or crux ansata. It represents
+the male triad and the female unit, under a decent form. There are
+few symbols more commonly met with in Egyptian art than this. In
+some remarkable sculptures, where the sun's rays are represented as
+terminating in hands, the offerings which these bring are many a crux
+ansata, emblematic of the truth that a fruitful union is a gift from the
+deity.
+
+Figures 44, 45, are ancient designs, in which the male and female
+elements are more disguised than is usual. In Fig. 44 the woman is
+indicated by the dolphin.
+
+
+
+Figures 48, 49, represent the trefoil which was used by the ancient
+Hindoos as emblematic of the celestial triad, and adopted by
+modern Christians. It will be seen that from one stem arise three
+curiously-shaped segments, each of which is supposed to resemble the
+male scrotum, "purse," "bag," or "basket.".
+
+Figure 50 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 2.
+He states that it is from a gem cylinder in the British Museum. It
+represents a male and female figure dancing before the mystic palm-tree,
+into whose signification we need not enter beyond saying that it is a
+symbol of Asher. Opposite to a particular part of the figures is to be
+seen a diamond, or oval, and a fleur de lys, or symbolic triad. This
+gem is peculiarly valuable, as it illustrates in a graphic manner the
+meaning of the emblems in question and how the "lillies of France" had a
+pagan origin.
+
+
+
+Figures 51 to 60 are varions representations of the union of the four,
+the arba, the androgyne, or the linga-yoni.
+
+Figure 61. In modern Christian art this symbol is called vesica piscis,
+and is sometimes surrounded with rays. It commonly serves as a sort
+of framework in which female saints are placed, who are generally
+the representatives of the older Juno, Ceres, Diana, Venus, or other
+impersonations of the feminine element in creation. We should not feel
+obliged to demonstrate the truth of this assertion if decency permitted
+us to reproduce here designs which naughty youths so frequently chalk
+upon walls to the disgust of the proper part of the community. We must,
+therefore, have resort to a religious book, and in a subsequent figure
+demonstrate the meaning of the symbol unequivocally.
+
+
+
+Figure 62 represents one of the forms assumed by the sistrum of Isis.
+Sometimes the instrument is oval, and occasionally it terminates below
+in a horizontal line, instead of in an acute angle. The inquirer can
+very readily recognise in the emblem the symbol of the female creator.
+If there should be any doubt in his mind, he will be satisfied after
+a reference to Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1707), vol. ii.,
+plate 61, wherein Diana of the Ephesians is depicted as having a body
+of the exact shape of the sistrum figured in Payne Knight's work on the
+remains of the worship of Priapus, etc. The bars across the sistrum show
+that it denotes a pure virgin (see Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol.
+n., pp. 743-746). On its handle is seen the figure of a cat--a sacred
+animal amongst the Egyptians, for the same reason that Isis was
+figured sometimes as a cow--viz., for its salacity and its love for its
+offspring.
+
+
+
+Figures 63 to 66 are all drawn from Assyrian sources.
+
+
+
+The central figure, which is probably the biblical "grove," represents
+the delta, or female "door." To it the attendant genii offer the pine
+cone and basket. The signification of these is explained subsequently. I
+was unable at first to quote any authority to demonstrate that the pine
+cone was a distinct masculine symbol, but now the reader may be referred
+to Maffei, Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1708), where, in vol. iii., he
+will see a Venus Tirsigera.
+
+The goddess in plate 8, is nude, and carries in her hand the tripliform
+arrow, emblem of the male triad, whilst in the other she bears a
+thyrsus, terminating in a pine or fir cone. Now this cone and stem are
+carried in the Bacchic festivities, and can be readily recognised as
+virga cum ovo. Sometimes the thyrsus is replaced by ivy leaves, which,
+like the fig, are symbolic of the triple creator. Occasionally the
+thyrsus was a lance or pike, round which vine leaves and berries were
+clustered; Bacchus cum vino being the companion of Venus cum cerere. But
+a stronger confirmation of my views may be found in a remarkable
+group (see Fig. 124 infra). This is entitled Sacrifizio di Priapo, and
+represents a female offering to Priapus. The figure of the god stands
+upon a pillar of three stones, and it bears a thyrsus from which depend
+two ribbons. The devotee is accompanied by a boy, who carries a pine-
+or fir- cone in his hand, and a basket on his head, in which may be
+recognised a male effigy. In Figure 64 the position of the advanced hand
+of each of the priests nearest to the grove is very suggestive to the
+physiologist. It resembles one limb of the Buddhist cross, Fig. 37,
+supra. The finger or thumb when thus pointed are figurative of Asher, in
+a horizontal position, with Anu or Hea hanging from one end. Figure
+65 is explained similarly. It is to be noticed that a door is adopted
+amongst modern Hindoos as an emblem of the sacti (see Figs. 152, 153,
+infra).
+
+
+
+My friend Mr. Newton, who has taken great interest in the subject of
+symbolism, regards these "groves" as not being simply emblems of the
+yoni, but of the union of that part with the lingam, or mystic palm
+tree. As his ideas are extremely ingenious, and his theory perfect, I
+have requested him to introduce them at the end of this work.
+
+Figures 67, 68, 69, are fancy sketches intended to represent the "sacred
+shields" spoken of in Jewish and other history. The last is drawn from
+memory, and represents a Templar's shield. According to the method in
+which the shield is viewed, it appears like the os tincae or the navel.
+Figures 70, 71, represent the shape of the sistrum of Isis, the fruit of
+the fig, and the yoni. When a garment of this shape is made and worn,
+it becomes the "pallium" donned alike by the male and female individuals
+consecrated to Roman worship.
+
+King, in his Ancient Gnostics, remarks: "The circle of the sun is the
+navel, which marks the natural position of the womb--the navel being
+considered in the microcosm as corresponding to the sun in the universe,
+an idea more fully exemplified in the famous hallucination of the Greek
+anchorites touching the mystical 'Light of Tabor,' which was revealed to
+the devotee after a fast of many days, all the time staring fixedly upon
+the region of the navel, whence at length this light streamed as from a
+focus." Pages 158, 154.
+
+
+
+Figures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop, and a modern
+nun wearing the emblem of the female sex. In the former, said (in Old
+England Pictorially Illustrated, by Knight) to be a drawing of St.
+Augustine, the amount of symbolism is great. The "nimbus" and the
+tonsure are solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded
+with phallic crosses; its lower end is the ancient T the mark of the
+masculine triad; the right hand has the forefinger extended, like the
+Assyrian priests whilst doing homage to the grove, and within it is the
+fruit, tappuach, which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons the
+pallium in worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the
+unity, the arba, or mystic four. See Ancient Faiths, second edition,
+Vol. n., pp. 915-918.
+
+I take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of King's Gnostics
+and their Remains, (Bell & Daldy, London, 1864). To this period belongs
+a beautiful sard in my collection representing Serapis,... whilst
+before him stands Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a
+wheatsheaf, with the legend... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the very
+terms applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form
+(the 'Black Virgins,' so highly reverenced in certain French Cathedrals
+during the middle ages, proved, when examined critically, basalt figures
+of Isis), her symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Her devotees carried
+into the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the
+obligation to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting,
+unfortunately, the frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed.
+The sacred image still moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at
+it, vi. 530.
+
+
+
+Escorted by the tonsured surpliced train. Her proper title, Domina, the
+exact translation of Sanscrit Isi, survives with slight change in the
+modern Madonna, Mater Domina.
+
+By a singular permutation the flower borne by each, the lotus--ancient
+emblem of the sun and fecundity--now re-named the lily, is interpreted
+as significant of the opposing quality. The tinkling sistrum... is
+replaced by... the bell, taken from Buddhist usages.... The erect oval
+symbol of the Female Principle of Nature became the Vesica Piscis, and
+the Crux Ansata, testifying the union of the male and female in the most
+obvious manner, is transformed into the orb surmounted by the cross, as
+an ensign of royalty. Pp. 71, 72.
+
+
+
+Figure 74 is a well known Christian emblem, called "a foul anchor." The
+anchor, as a symbol, is of great antiquity. It may be seen on an old
+Etruscan coin in the British Museum, depicted in Veterum Popvlorum et
+Regum Nummi, etc. (London, 1814), plate ii., fig. 1. On the reverse
+there is a chariot wheel. The foul anchor represents the crescent moon,
+the yoni, ark, navis, or boat; in this is placed the mast, round which
+the serpent, the emblem of life in the "verge," entwines itself. The
+cross beam completes the mystic four, symbolic alike of the sun and of
+androgeneity. The whole is a covert emblem of that union which results
+in fecundity. It is said by Christians to be the anchor of the soul,
+sure and steadfast. This it certainly cannot be, for a foul anchor will
+not hold the ground.
+
+Figures 75 to 79 are Asiatic and Egyptian emblems in use amongst
+ourselves, and receive their explanation similarly to preceding ones.
+
+Figure 80 is copied from Godfrey Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii., fig.
+27. It is drawn from Montfaucon, vol. ii., pi. cxxxii., fig. 6. In his
+text, Higgins refers to two similar groups, one which exists in the
+Egyptian temple of Ipsambal in Nubia, and is described by Wilson, On
+Buddhists and Jeynes, p. 127, another, found in a cave temple in the
+south of India, described by Col. Tod, in his History of Raj-pootanah.
+The group is not explained by Montfaucon. It is apparently Greek, and
+combines the story of Hercules with the seductiveness of Circe. The
+tree and serpent are common emblems, and have even been found in Indian
+temples in central America, grouped as in the woodcut.
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 81 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate xix., fig.
+11, The origin of this, which is a silver statuette in that author's
+possession, is unknown. The female represents Venus bearing in one hand
+an apple; her arm rests upon what seems to be a representative of the
+mystic triad (the two additions to the upright stem not being seen in
+a front view) round which a dolphin for 'womb' is entwined, from whose
+mouth comes the stream of life. The apple plays a strange part in Greek
+and Hebrew mythology. The story of "the apple of discord," awarded by
+Paris to Venus, seems to indicate that where beauty contends against
+majesty and wisdom for the love of youth, it is sure to win the day. We
+learn from Arnobius that a certain Nana conceived a son by an apple (Op,
+Cit., p. 286), although in another place the prolific fruit is said to
+have been a pomegranate. Mythologically, that writer sees no difficulty
+in the story, for those who affirm that rocks and hard stones have
+brought forth. In the Song of Solomon, apples and the tree that bears
+them are often referred to; and we have in Ch. ii. 5 the curious
+expression, "Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love." We are
+familiar with the account of Eve being tempted by the same fruit.
+Critics imagine that as the apple in Palestine is not good eating, the
+quince is meant; if so, we know that a leaf of that tree is to be
+seen in every amorous picture found in Pompeii, the plant having been
+supposed to increase virile power. Others imagine that the citron is
+intended, whose shape makes it an emblem of the testis. However this may
+be decided, it is tolerably clear, from all the tales and pictures
+in which a fruit like the apple figures, that the emblem symbolised
+a desire for an intimate union between the sexes. The reader will
+doubtless remember how, in Genesis xxx, Leah is represented as
+purchasing her husband's company for a night by means of mandrakes, the
+result being the birth of Issachar; and in the well-known story of the
+Creation we find that the apple gives birth to desire, as shown in the
+recognition for the first time of the respective nudity of the
+couple, which was followed immediately, or as soon as it was possible
+afterwards, by sexual intercourse and the conception of Cain.
+
+
+
+Figure 82 is from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xivb, fig. 3.
+
+The gem is of unknown origin, but is apparently Babylonish; it
+represents the male and female in conjunction: each appears to be
+holding the symbol of the triad in much respect, whilst the curious
+cross suggests a new reading to an ancient symbol.
+
+I have of late heard it asserted, by a man of considerable learning,
+though of a very narrow mind in everything which bears upon religious
+subjects, that there is no proof that the sun was commonly regarded as a
+male, or the moon as a female; and he based his strange assertion solely
+upon the ground that in German and some other languages the sun was
+represented by a feminine, and the moon by a masculine noun. The
+argument is of no value, for [--Greek--] and other Greek and Latin names
+of the yoni, are masculine nouns, and Virga and Mentula, the Roman words
+for the Linga, are feminine. In Hindostan, the sun is always represented
+as a God; the moon is occasionally a male, and sometimes a female deity.
+In ancient Gaulish and Scandinavian figures, the sun was always a male,
+and the moon a female. Their identification will be seen in Figure
+118--as their conjunction is in the one before us--in the position of
+the individuals, and in the fleur-de-lys and oval symbol.
+
+
+
+Figure 88 may be found in Fabretti's Corpus Inscriptionum Italicarum
+(Turin, 1867), plate xxv., fig. 808 f. The coins which bear the figures
+are of brass, and were found at Volaterrae. In one the double head is
+associated with a dolphin and crescent moon on the reverse, and the
+letters Velathri, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the one
+containing the club. The club, formed as in Figure 88, occurs frequently
+on Etruscan coins. For example, two clubs are joined with four balls on
+a Tudertine coin, having on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for
+fighting, and four balls arranged in a square. On other coins are to
+be seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripliform figures,
+associated with three balls in a triangle; sometimes two, and sometimes
+one. The double head with two balls is seen on a Telamonian coin, having
+on the reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned upwards. In
+a coin of Populonia the club is associated with a spear and two balls,
+whilst on the reverse is a single head. I must notice, too, that on
+other coins a hammer and pincers, or tongs, appear, as if the idea was
+to show that a maker, fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be
+symbolised. What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which
+a head appears thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two statuettes of
+silver have been found, representing a double-faced individual. A lion's
+head for a cap, a collar, and buskins are the sole articles of dress
+worn. One face appears to be feminine, and the other masculine, but
+neither is bearded. The pectorals and the general form indicate the
+male, but the usual marks of sex are absent. On these have been found
+Etruscan inscriptions (1) v. cvinti arntias CULPIANSI ALP AN TURCE; (2)
+V. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ alpan TUBCE. Which may be rendered (1)
+"V. Quintus of Aruntia, to Culpian pleasing, a gift"; (2) "V. Quintus
+of Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a gift," evidently showing that they
+were ex voto offerings.
+
+
+
+Col. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49 it is
+associated with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The design is spoken
+of as "the spectacle ornament," and it is very commonly associated with
+another figure closely resembling the letter Z. It is very natural for
+the inquirer to associate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or
+the sun common amongst the sculptured stones in Scotland. Four varieties
+may be seen in plate 48 of sun and moon. On one Scottish monument the
+circles represent wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot.
+As yet I have only been able to meet with the Z and "spectacle ornament"
+once out of Scotland; it is figured on apparently a Gnostic gem (The
+Gnostics and their Remains, by C. W. King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig.
+5). In that we see in a serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having
+the down stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating in
+a circle; besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray terminating in a
+circle, precisely resembling the star in Plate in., Fig. 8, supra. I can
+offer no satisfactory explanation of the emblem.
+
+
+
+Figures 85, 86, represent a Yorkshire and an Indian stone circle. The
+first is copied from Descriptions of Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and
+other Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian Monuments in the Dekkan, by Col.
+Meadows Taylor, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv.
+The mound exists at Twizell, Yorkshire, and the centre of the circle
+indicates an ancient tomb, very similar to those found by Taylor in the
+Dekkan; this contained only one single urn, but many of the Indian
+ones contained, besides the skeleton of the great man buried therein,
+skeletons of other individuals who had been slaughtered over his tomb,
+and buried above the kistvaen containing his bones; in one instance two
+bodies and three heads were found in the principal grave, and twenty
+other skeletons above and beside it. A perusal of this very interesting
+paper will well repay the study bestowed upon it. Figure 86 is copied
+from Forbes Leslie's book mentioned above, plate 59. It represents a
+modern stone circle in the Dekkan, of very recent construction. The
+dots upon the stones represent dabs of red paint, which again represent
+blood. The circles are similar to some which have been found in
+Palestine, and give evidence of the presence of the same religious ideas
+existing in ancient England and Hindostan, as well as in modern India.
+The name of the god worshipped in these recent shrines is Vetal, or
+Betal. It is worth mentioning, in passing, that there is a celebrated
+monolith in Scotland called the Newton Stone, on which are inscribed,
+evidently with a graving tool, an inscription in the Ogham, and another
+in some ancient Aryan character (see Moore's Ancient Pillar Stones of
+Scotland).
+
+
+
+Figure 87 indicates the solar wheel, emblem of the chariot of Apollo.
+This sign is a very common one upon ancient coins; sometimes the rays or
+spokes are four, at others they are more numerous. Occasionally the tire
+of the wheel is absent, and amongst the Etruscans the nave is omitted.
+The solar cross is very common in Ireland, and amongst the Romanists
+generally as a head dress for male saints.
+
+
+
+Figure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the authority of Col.
+Hamilton Smith, who copied it from the original collection made by
+the artists of the French Institute of Cairo. It is said to represent
+Osiris, but this is doubtful. There is much that is intensely mystical
+about the figure. The whip, or flagellum, placed over the tail, and the
+head passing through the yoni, the circular spots with their central
+dot, the horns with solar disc, and two curiously shaped feathers (?),
+the calf reclining upon a plinth, wherein a division into three is
+conspicuous, all have a meaning in reference to the mystic four.
+
+I have long had a doubt respecting the symbolic meaning of the scourge.
+Some inquirers have asserted that it is simply an emblem of power
+or superiority, inasmuch as he who can castigate must be in a higher
+position than the one who is punished. But of this view I can find no
+proof. On the other hand, any one who is familiar with the effect
+upon the male produced by flagellation, and who notices that the
+representations of Osiris and the scourge show evidence that the deity
+is in the same condition as one who has been subjected to the rod, will
+be disposed to believe that the flagellum is an indication or symbol
+of the god who gives to man the power to reproduce his like, or who can
+restore the faculty after it has faded. It is not for a moment to be
+supposed that a deity who was to be worshipped would be depicted as
+a task-master, whose hands are more familiar with punishment than
+blessing.
+
+
+
+Figure 89 is taken from Lajard's Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 14, and
+is an enlarged impression of a gem. A similar figure is to be found in
+Payne Knight's work On the Worship of Priapus. In both instances the
+female is fringed with male emblems. In the one before us a fish,
+apparently a dolphin, is borne in one hand. In the other the woman is
+bearded. These are representations of Ashtaroth--the androgyne deity in
+which the female predominates.
+
+Fig. 90 represents an ancient Italian form of the Indian Ling Yoni. It
+is copied from a part of the Frontispiece of Faber's Dissertation on the
+Cabiri, where it is stated that the plate is a copy of a picture of a
+nymphoeum found when excavating a foundation for the Barbarini Palace at
+Rome. It deserves notice, because the round mound of masonry surmounted
+by the short pillars is precisely similar to similar erections found
+in Hindostan on the East and America on the West, as well as in varions
+parts of Europe. The oval in the pediment and the solitary pillar
+have the same meaning as the Caaba and hole--the upright stone and pit
+revered at Mecca long before Mahomet's time--the tree serves to identify
+the pillar, and vice versa. Apertures were common in ancient sepulchral
+monuments, alike in Hindostan and England; one perforated stone is
+preserved as a relic in the precincts of an old church in modern Rome.
+The aperture is blackish with the grease of many hands, which have been
+put therein whilst their owners took a sacred oath. We have already
+remarked how ancient Abraham and a modern Arab have sworn by the Linga;
+it is therefore by no means remarkable that some of a different form of
+faith should swear by the Yoni.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 91 is stated by Higgins, Anacalypm, p. 217, to be a mark on the
+breast of an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of University College, London.
+It is essentially the same symbol as the crux ansata, and is emblematic
+of the male triad and the female unit.
+
+Figure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal tiara has not
+about it anything particularly Christian, a similar head-dress having
+been worn by gods or angels in ancient Assyria, where it appeared
+crowned by an emblem of "the trinity." We may mention, in passing, that
+as the Romanists adopted the mitre and the tiara from "the cursed brood
+of Ham," so they adopted the episcopalian crook from the augurs of
+Etruria, and the artistic form with which they clothe their angels from
+the painters and um-makers of Magna Gracia and Central Italy.
+
+
+
+Figure 98 is the Mithraic lion. It may be seen in Hyde's Religion of the
+Ancient Persians, second edition, plate i. It may also be seen in vol.
+ii., plates 10 and 11, of Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1707).
+In plate 10 the Mithraic lion has seven stars above it, around which
+are placed respectively, words written in Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician
+characters, ZEDCH. TELKAN. TELKON. TELKON. QIDEKH. UNEULK. LNKELLP.,
+apparently showing that the emblem was adopted by the Gnostics. It
+would be unprofitable to dwell upon the meaning of these letters. After
+puzzling over them, I fancy that "Bad spirits, pity us," "Just one, I
+call on thee," may be made out by considering the words to be very bad
+Greek, and the letters to be much transposed.
+
+
+
+Figure 94 is copied by Higgins, Anacalypsis, on the authority of Dubois,
+who states, vol. iii., p. 88, that it was found on a stone in a church
+in France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred years.
+Dubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no reference to
+the story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on the draped
+figures as representatives of Adam and Eve. We have introduced it to
+show how such tales are intermingled with Sabeanism.
+
+
+
+Figure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p.
+156), and represents Harpocrates seated on a lotus, adoring the mundane
+representative of the mother of creation. I have not yet met with any
+ancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify the yoni so completely
+with various goddesses.
+
+Compare this with Figure 138, infra, wherein the Figure 95. emblem is
+even more strikingly identified with woman, and with the virgin Mary.
+Those who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on
+hoardings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent
+certain ideas in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the
+mystic meaning of O ---- I have elsewhere called attention to the idea
+that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil
+spirits; however grotesque the idea may be, it has existed in all ages,
+and in civilised and savage nations alike. A rude image of a woman who
+shamelessly exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches
+in Ireland, and at Servatos, in Spain, where she is standing on one side
+of the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on the other. The same
+has been found in Mexico, Peru, and in North America. Nor must we forget
+how Baubo cured the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a
+strange fashion to the distressed goddess. Arnobius, Op. Cit., pp. 249,
+250.
+
+As I have already noticed modern notions on the influence produced
+by the exhibition of the yoni on those who are suffering, the legend
+referred to may be shortly described. The goddess, in the story, was
+miserable in consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen
+away by Pluto. In her agony, snatching two Etna-lighted torches, she
+wanders round the earth in search of the lost one, and in due course
+visits Eleusis. Baubo receives her hospitably; but nothing that the
+hostess does induces the guest to depose her grief for a moment. In
+despair the mortal bethinks her of a scheme, shaves off what is called
+in Isaiah "the hair of the feet" and then exposes herself to the
+goddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the denuded spot, is pleased with the
+strange form of consolation, consents to take food and is restored to
+comfort.
+
+
+
+Figure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 8, of Lajard's Culte de Venus.
+He states that it is an impression of a cornelian cylinder, in the
+collection of the late Sir William Ouseley, and is supposed to represent
+Oannes, or Bel and two fish gods, the authors of fecundity. It is
+thought that Dagon of the Philistines resembled the two figures
+supporting the central one.
+
+Figure 97 is a side view of plate 1. The idol represents a female.
+Dagon, the fish god, male above, piscine below, was one of the many
+symbols of an androgyne creator. In the first of the Avatars of Vishnu,
+he is represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish
+himself; the legend being that he was to be the saviour of the world in
+a deluge which was to follow. See Moor's Hindu Pantheon, and Coleman's
+Mythology of the Hindus.
+
+
+
+Figure 98 is a fancy sketch of the fleur-de-lys, the lily of France.
+It symbolises the male triad, whilst the ring around it represents
+the female. The identification of this emblem of the trinity with the
+tripliform Mahadeva, and of the ring with his sacti, may be seen in the
+next figure.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 99, which we have already given on page 46, is one of great value
+to the inquirer into the signification of certain symbols. It has been
+reintroduced here to show the identification of the eye, fish, or oval
+shape, with the yoni, and of the fleur-de-lys with the lingam, which
+is recognised by the respective positions of the emblems in front of
+particular parts of the mystic animals, who both, on their part, adore
+the symbolic palm tree, with its pistil and stamens. The rayed branches
+of the upper part of the tree, and the nearness to it of the crescent
+moon, seem to indicate that the palm was a solar as well as a sexual
+emblem.
+
+
+
+The great similarity of the palm tree to the ancient round towers
+in Ireland and elsewhere will naturally strike the observer. He will
+perhaps remember also that on certain occasions dancing, feasting, and
+debauchery were practised about a round tower in Wicklow, such as were
+practised round the English may-pole, the modern substitute of the
+mystic palm tree. We have now humanised our practice, but we have not
+purified our land of all its veiled symbols.
+
+In some parts, where probably the palm tree does not flourish, the pine
+takes its place as an emblem. It was sacred to the mother of the gods,
+whose names, Rhoea, Ceres, Cybele, are paraphrastic of the yoni. We
+learn from Araobius, Op. Cit., p. 239, that on fixed days that tree was
+introduced into the sanctuary of that august personage, being decorated
+by fleeces and violets. It does not require any recondite knowledge to
+understand the signification of the entrance of the pine into the temple
+of the divine mother, nor what the tree when buried in the midst of a
+fleece depicts. Those who have heard of the origin of the Spanish Royal
+Order of the Golden Fleece know that the word is an enphemism for the
+lanugo of the Romans. Parsley round a carrot root is a modern symbol,
+and the violet is as good an emblem of the lingam as the modern pistol.
+
+It has long been known that the ancient custom of erecting a may-pole,
+surrounding it with wreaths of flowers, and then dancing round it in
+wild orgy, was a relic of the ancient custom of reverencing the symbol
+of creation, invigorated by the returning spring time, without whose
+powers the flocks and herds would fail to increase. It will not fail to
+attract the notice of my readers, that a pine cone is constantly being
+offered to the sacred "grove" by the priests of Assyria.
+
+
+
+Figures 100, 101, represent the Buddhist cross and one of its arms.
+The first shows the union of four phalli. The single one being a
+conventional form of a well-known organ. This form of cross does not
+essentially differ from the Maltese cross. In the latter, Asher stands
+perpendicularly to Anu and Hea; in the former it is at right angles to
+them. "The pistol" is a well-known name amongst our soldiery, and
+four such joined together by the muzzle would form the Buddhist cross.
+Compare Figure 37, ante.
+
+Figures 102, 108, 104, indicate the union of the four creators, the
+trinity and the unity. Not having at hand any copy of an ancient key,
+I have used a modern one; but this makes no essential difference in the
+symbol.
+
+Figures 105, 106, are copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, plate
+ii. They represent ornaments held in the hands of a great female figure,
+sculptured in bas relief on a rock at Yazili Kaia, near to Boghaz Keni,
+in Anatolia, and described by M. C. Texier in 1834. The goddess is
+crowned with a tower, to indicate virginity; in her right hand she holds
+a staff, shown in Figure 106; in the other, that given in Figure 105,
+she stands upon a lioness, and is attended by an antelope. Figure 105 is
+a complicated emblem of the four.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figures 107, 108, 109, are copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate
+lxxxiii. They represent the lingam and then yoni, which amongst the
+Indians are regarded as holy emblems, much in the same way as a crucifix
+is esteemed by certain modern Christians.
+
+
+
+In worship, ghee, or oil, or water, is poured over the pillar, and
+allowed to run off by the spout. Sometimes the pillar is adorned by a
+necklace, and is associated with the serpent emblem. In Lucian's account
+of Alexander, the false prophet, which we have condensed in Ancient
+Faiths, second edition, there is a reference to one of his dupes, who
+was a distinguished Roman officer, but so very superstitious, or, as he
+would say of himself, so deeply imbued with religion, that at the sight
+of a stone he would fall prostrate and adore it for a considerable time,
+offering prayers and vows thereto. This may by some be thought quite
+as reasonable as the practice once enforced in Christian Rome, which
+obliged all persons in the street to kneel in reverence when an ugly
+black doll, called "the bambino," or a bit of bread, over which some
+cabalistic words had been muttered, was being carried in procession past
+them. Arnobins, Op, Cit., p. 81, says, "I worshipped images produced
+from the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of
+elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees; whenever I espied an
+anointed stone, and one bedaubed with olive oil, as if some person
+resided in it, I worshipped it, I addressed myself to it, and begged
+blessings from a senseless stock." Compare Gen. xxviii. 18, wherein we
+find that Jacob set up a stone and anointed it with oil, and called the
+place Bethel, and Is. xxvii. 19, xl. 20, xliv. 10-20.
+
+I copy the following remarks from a paper by Mr. Sellon, in Memoirs of
+the London Anthropological Society, for 1868-4. Speaking of Hindostan,
+he remarks, "As every village has its temple so every temple has its
+Lingam, and these parochial Lingams are usually from two to three feet
+in height, and rather broad at the base. Here the village girls, who are
+anxious for lovers or husbands, repair early in the morning. They make
+a lustration by sprinkling the god with water brought from the Ganges;
+they deck the Linga with garlands of the sweet-smelling bilwa flower;
+they perform the mudra, or gesticulation with the fingers, and, reciting
+the prescribed mantras, or incantations, they rub themselves against
+the emblem, and entreat the deity to make them fruitful mothers of
+pulee-pullum (i.e., child fruit).
+
+"This is the celebrated Linga puja, during the performance of which the
+panchaty, or five lamps, must be lighted, and the gantha, or bell, be
+frequently rung to scare away the evil demons. The mala, or rosary of a
+hundred and eight round beads, is also used in this puja."
+
+See also Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate xxii, pp. 68, 69, 70. Again, in
+the Dabistan, a work written in the Persian language, by a travelled
+Mahometan, about a. d. 1660, and translated by David Shea, for the
+Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland (8 vols., 8vo.,
+Allen and Co., Leadenhall Street, London), we read, vol. ii., pp.
+148-160, "The belief of the Saktian is that Siva, that is, Mahadeva, who
+with little exception is the highest of deities and the greatest of the
+spirits, has a spouse whom they call Maya Sakti.....With them the power
+of Mahadeva's wife, who is Bhavani, surpasses that of the husband. The
+zealous of this sect worship the Siva Linga, although other Hindoos also
+venerate it. Linga is called the virile organ, and they say, on
+behalf of this worship, that as men and all living beings derive their
+existence from it, adoration is duly bestowed upon it. As the linga of
+Mahadeva, so do they venerate the bhaga, that is, the female organ.
+A man very familiar with them gave the information that, according to
+their belief, the high altar, or principal place in a mosque of the
+Mussulmans, is an emblem of the bhaga. Another man among them said that
+as the just-named place emblems the bhaga, the minar or turret of the
+mosque represents the linga." The author then goes on to describe the
+practices of the sect, which may be summed up in the words--the most
+absolute freedom of love.
+
+Apropos of the Mahometan minaret and Christian church towers and spires,
+I may mention that Lucian describes the magnificent temple of the Syrian
+goddess as having two vast phalli before its main entrance, and how at
+certain seasons men ascended to their summit, and remained there some
+days, so as to utter from thence the prayers of the faithful.
+
+
+
+Figures 110, 111, both from Moor, plate lxxxvi., are forms of the argha,
+or sacred sacrificial cup, bowl, or basin, which represent the yoni, and
+some other things besides. See Moor, Hindu Pantheon, pp. 898, 894.
+
+Figure 112. Copied from Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. i., p. 176,
+symbolises Ishtar, the Assyrian representative of Devi, Parvati,
+Isis, Astarte, Venus, and Mary. The virgin and child are to be found
+everywhere, even in ancient Mexico.
+
+
+
+Figure 118 is copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, plate xix.,
+fig. 6, and represents the male and female as the sun and moon, thus
+identifying the symbolic sex of those luminaries. The legend in the
+Pehlevi characters has not been interpreted.
+
+Figure 114 is taken from a mediaeval woodcut, lent to me by my friend,
+Mr. John Newton, to whom I am indebted for the sight of, and the
+privilege to copy, many other figures. In it the virgin Mary is seen
+as the Queen of Heaven, nursing her infant, and identified with the
+crescent moon, the emblem of virginity. Being before the sun, she almost
+eclipses its light. Than this, nothing could more completely identify
+the Christian mother and child with Isis and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno,
+and a host of other pagan goddesses, who have been called 'Queen of
+Heaven,' 'Queen of the Universe' 'Mother of God,' 'Spouse of God,' the
+'Celestial Virgin,' the 'Heavenly Peace Maker,' etc.
+
+Figures 115, 116, are common devices in papal churches and pagan
+symbolism. They are intended to indicate the sun and moon in
+conjunction, the union of the triad with the unit. I may notice, in
+passing, that Mr. Newton has showed to me some mediaeval woodcuts, in
+which the young unmarried women in a mixed assemblage were indicated by
+wearing upon their foreheads a crescent moon.
+
+
+
+Figure 117 is a Buddhist symbol, or rather a copy of Maityna Bodhisatwa,
+from the monastery of Gopach, in the valley of Nepaul.
+
+
+
+It is taken from Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 894.
+The horse-shoe, like the vesica piscis of the Roman church, indicates
+the yoni; the last, taken from some cow, mare, or donkey, being used in
+eastern parts where we now use their shoes, to keep off the evil eye.
+It is remarkable that some nations should use the female organ, or an
+effigy thereof, as a charm against ill luck, whilst others adopt the
+male symbol. In Ireland, as we have previously remarked, a female
+shamelessly exhibiting herself, and called Shelah-na-gig, was to be seen
+in stone over the door of certain churches, within the last century.
+
+From the resemblance in the shape of the horse-shoe to the "grove" of
+the Assyrian worshippers, and from the man standing within it as the
+symbolic pine tree stands in the Mesopotamian, "Asherah," I think we may
+fairly conclude that the Indian, like the Shemitic emblem, typifies the
+union of the sexes--the androgyne creator.
+
+That some Buddhists have mingled sexuality with their ideas of religion,
+may be seen in plate ii. of Emil Schlagintweit's Atlas of Buddhism in
+Tibet, wherein Vajarsattva, "The God above all," is represented as a
+male and female conjoined. Rays, as of the sun, pass from the group;
+and all are enclosed in an ornate oval, or horse-shoe, like that in this
+figure. Few, however, but the initiated would recognise the nature of
+the group at first sight.
+
+
+
+I may also notice, in passing, that the goddess Doljang (a.d. 617-98)
+has the stigmata in her hands and feet, like those assigned to Jesus of
+Nazareth and Francis of Assisi.
+
+Figure 118 is a copy of the medal issued to pilgrims at the shrine of
+the virgin at Loretto. It was lent to me by Mr. Newton, but the engraver
+has omitted to make the face of the mother and child black, as the most
+ancient and renowned ones usually are.
+
+Instead of the explanation given in Ancient Faiths, Vol. ii., p. 262,
+of the adoption of a black skin for Mary and her son, D'Harcanville
+suggests that it represents night, the period during which the feminine
+creator is most propitious or attentive to her duties. It is unnecessary
+to contest the point, for almost every symbol has more interpretations
+given to it than one. I have sought in vain for even a plausible reason
+for the blackness of sacred virgins and children, in certain papal
+shrines, which is compatible with decency and Christianity. It is clear
+that the matter will not bear the light.
+
+
+
+Figure 119 is from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate iii., fig. 8. It represents
+the sun, moon, and a star, probably Venus.
+
+The legend is in Phoenician, and may be read LNBRB. Levy, in Siegel und
+Gemmen, Breslau, 1869, reads the legend [------], LKBRBO, but does not
+attempt to explain it.
+
+Figure 120 is also from Lajard, plate i., fig. 8. It represents an act
+of worship before the symbols of the male and female creators, arranged
+in three pairs. Above are the heavenly symbols of the sun and moon.
+Below are the male palm tree, and the barred [------], identical in
+meaning with the sistrum, i. e., virgo intacta. Next come the male
+emblem, the cone, and the female symbol, the lozenge or yoni.
+
+
+
+Figure 121 represents also a worshipper before the barred female symbol,
+surmounted by the seven-rayed star, emblem of the male potency, and
+of the sun or the heavens. It will be noticed--and the matter is
+significant--that the hand which is raised in adoration is exactly
+opposite the conjunction of the two. Compare this with Fig. 95, where
+the female alone is the object of reverence.
+
+Lajard and others state that homage, such as is here depicted, is
+actually paid in some parts of Palestine and India to the living symbol;
+the worshipper on bended knees offering to it, la bouche inferieure,
+with or without a silent prayer, his food before he eats it. A
+corresponding homage is paid by female devotees to the masculine emblem
+of any very peculiarly holy fakir, one of whose peculiarities is, that
+no amount of excitement stimulates the organ into what may be called
+creative energy. It has long been a problem how such a state of apathy
+is brought about, but modern observation has proved that it is by the
+habitual use of weights. Such homage is depicted in Picart's Religious
+Ceremonies of all the People in the World, original French edition,
+plate 71.
+
+
+
+Figure 122 is copied from Bryant's Ancient Mythology, third edition,
+vol. iii., p. 193. That author states that he copied it from Spanheim,
+but gives no other reference. It is apparently from a Greek medal, and
+has the word CAMIUN as an inscription. It is said to represent Juno,
+Sami, or Selenitis, with the sacred peplum. The figure is remarkable
+for showing the identity of the moon, the lozenge, and the female. It
+is doubtful whether the attitude of the goddess is intended to represent
+the cross.
+
+As in religious Symbolism every detail has a signification, we naturally
+speculate upon the meaning of the beads which fringe the lower part of
+the diamond-shaped garment. We have noticed in a previous article that
+the Linga when worshipped was sometimes adorned with beads, which were
+the fruit of a tree sacred to Mahadeva; in the original of fig. 4, plate
+xi. supra, the four arms of the cross have a series of beads depending
+from them. On a very ancient coin of Citium, a rosary of beads, with a
+cross, has been found arranged round a horse-shoe form; and beads
+are common ornaments on Hindoo Divinities. They may only be used for
+decoration and without religious signification; if they have the last, I
+have not been able to discover it.
+
+
+
+Figure 128 is a composition taken from Bryant, vol. iv., p. 286. The
+rock, the water, the crescent moon as an ark, and the dove hovering
+over it, are all symbolical; but though the author of it is right in his
+grouping, it is clear that he is not aware of its full signification.
+The reader will readily gather their true meaning from our articles upon
+the Ark and Water, and from our remarks upon the Dove in Ancient Faiths,
+second edition.
+
+Figure 124 is copied from Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate, vol. 8, plate
+xl. In the original, the figure upon the pillar is very conspicuously
+phallic, and the whole composition indicates what was associated with
+the worship of Priapus.
+
+
+
+This so-called god was regarded much in the same light as 'St. Cosmo and
+St. Damian were at Iseraia, and St. Foutin in Christian France. And it
+is not at all surprising that a church, which has deified or made saints
+of a spear and cloak, under the names Longinus and Amphibolus, should
+also adopt the "god of the gardens," and consecrate him as an object for
+Christian worship, and give him an appropriate name and emblem. But the
+patron saint of Lampsacus was not really a deity, only a sort of saint,
+whose business it was to attend to certain parts. The idea of guardian
+angels was once common, see Matt, xviii. 10, where we read, that each
+child has a guardian in heaven, who looks after his infantile charge. As
+the pagan Hymen and Lucina attended upon weddings and parturitions,
+so the Christian Cosmo and Damian attended to spouses, and assisted in
+making them fruitful. To the last two were offered, by sterile wives,
+wax effigies of the part left out from the nude figure in our plate.
+To the heathen saint, we see a female votary offer quince leaves,
+equivalent to la feuille de sage, egg-shaped bread, apparently a cake;
+also an ass's head; whilst her attendant offers a pine cone. This
+amongst the Greeks was sacred to Cybele, as it was in Assyria to Astarte
+or Ishtar, the name given there to 'the mother of all saints.' The
+basket contains apples and phalli, which may have been made of pastry.
+See Martial's Epigrams, b. xiv. 69. This gem is valuable, inasmuch as it
+assists us to understand the signification of the pine cone offered to
+the 'grove,' the equivalent of le Verger de Cypris. The pillar and its
+base are curiously significant, and demonstrate how completely an artist
+can appear innocent, whilst to the initiated he unveils a mystery.
+
+
+
+Figures 125, 126, 127, are various contrivances for indicating decently
+that which it was generally thought religious to conceal, la bequile, au
+les instrumens.
+
+Figure 128 represents the same subject; the cuts are grouped iso as to
+show how the knobbed stick, le baton, becomes converted either into a
+bent rod, la verge, or a priestly crook, le baton pastoral. There is
+no doubt that the episcopal crozier is a presentable effigy of a very
+private and once highly venerated portion of the human frame, which was
+used in long by-gone days by Etruscan augurs, when they mapped out
+the sky, prior to noticing the flight of birds. Perhaps we ought to be
+grateful to Popery for having consecrated to Christ what was so long
+used in that which divines call the service of the devil.
+
+
+
+Figures 129, 130, 131, are, like the preceding four, copied from various
+antique gems; Fig. 129 represents a steering oar, le timon, and is
+usually held in the hand of good fortune, or as moderns would say "Saint
+Luck," or bonnes fortunes; Fig. 180 is emblematic of Cupid, or Saint
+Desire; it is synonymous with le dard, or la pique; Fig. 131 is a form
+less common in gems; it represents the hammer, le marteau qui frappe
+l'enclume et forge les enfans. The ancients had as many pictorial
+euphemisms as ourselves, and when these are understood they enable us
+to comprehend many a legend otherwise dim; e. g., when Fortuna, or luck,
+always depicted as a woman, has for her characteristic le timon, and for
+her motto the proverb, "Fortune favours the bold." we readily understand
+the double entente. The steering oar indicates power, knowledge, skill,
+and bravery in him who wields it; without such a guide, few boats would
+attain a prosperous haven.
+
+
+
+Figure 132 is copied from plate xxix. of Pugin's Glossary of
+Ecclesiastical Ornament (Lond., 1868). The plate represents "a pattern
+for diapering," and is, I presume, thoroughly orthodox. It consists of
+the double triangle, see Figures 20, 80, 81, 82, pp. 82, 88, the emblems
+of Siva and Parvati, the male and female; of Rimmon the pomegranate, the
+emblem of the womb, which is seen to be full of seed through the "vesica
+piscis," la fente, or la porte de la vie. There are also two new
+moons, emblems of Venus, or la nature, introduced. The crown above the
+pomegranate represents the triad, and the number four; whilst in the
+original the group which we copy is surrounded by various forms of the
+triad, all of which are as characteristic of man as Rimmon is of woman.
+There are also circles enclosing the triad, analogous to other symbols
+common in Hindostan.
+
+
+
+Figure 133 is copied from Moor's Hindu, Pantheon, pi. ix., fig. 8. It
+represents Bhavhani, Maia, Devi, Lakshmi, or Kamala, one of the many
+forms given to female nature. She bears in one hand the lotus, emblem of
+self-fructification,--in other similar figures an effigy of the phallus
+is placed,--whilst in the other she holds her infant Krishna, Crishna,
+or Vishnu. Such groups are as common in India as in Italy, in pagan
+temples as in Christian churches. The idea of the mother and child is
+pictured in every ancient country of whose art any remains exist.
+
+
+
+Figure 184 is taken from plate xxiv., fig. 1, of Moor's Hindu Pantheon.
+It represents a subject often depicted by the Hindoos and the Greeks,
+viz., androgynism, the union of the male and female creators. The
+technical word is Arddha-Nari. The male on the right side bears the
+emblems of Siva or Mahadeva, the female on the left those of Parvati or
+Sacti. The bull and lioness are emblematic of the masculine and feminine
+powers. The mark on the temple indicates the union of the two; an
+aureole is seen around the head, as in modern pictures of saints. In
+this drawing the Ganges rises from the male, the idea being that the
+stream from Mahadeva is as copious and fertilising as that mighty river.
+The metaphor here depicted is common in the East, and is precisely the
+same as that quoted in Num. xxiv. 7, and also from some lost Hebrew
+book in John vii. 38. It will be noticed, that the Hindoos express
+androgyneity quite as conspicuously, but generally much less
+indelicately, than the Grecian artists.
+
+
+
+Figure 135 is a common Egyptian emblem, said to signify eternity, but
+in truth it has another meaning. The serpent and the ring indicate l'
+andouille and l' anneau. The tail of the animal, which the mouth appears
+to swallow, is la queue dans la bouche. The symbol resembles the crux
+ansata in its signification, and imports that life upon the earth
+is rendered perpetual by means of the union of the sexes. A ring, or
+circle, is one of the symbols of Venus, who carries indifferently this,
+or the triad emblem of the male. See Maffei's Gemme, vol. iii., page 1,
+plate viii.
+
+Figure 136 is the vesica piscis, or fish's bladder; the emblem of woman
+and of the virgin, as may be seen in the two following woodcuts.
+
+
+
+Figures 137, 138, are copied from an ancient Rosary of the Blessed
+Virgin Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a license from the
+Inquisition; the book being lent to me by my friend, Mr. Newton.
+The first represents the same part as the Assyrian "grove." It may
+appropriately be called the Holy Yoni. The book in question contains
+numerous figures, all resembling closely the Mesopotamian emblem of
+Ishtar. The presence of the woman therein identifies the two as symbolic
+of Isis, or la nature; and a man bowing down in adoration thereof shows
+the same idea as is depicted in Assyrian sculptures, where males offer
+to the goddess symbols of themselves. Compare Figs. 68, 64, 65, 66, pp.
+48 seq.
+
+If I had been able to search through the once celebrated Alexandrian
+library, it is doubtful whether I could have found any pictorial
+representation more illustrative of the relationship of certain symbolic
+forms to each other than is Figure 138. A circle of angelic heads,
+forming a sort of sun, having luminous rays outside, and a dove, the
+emblem of Venus, dart a spear (la pique) down upon the earth (la terre),
+or the virgin. This being received, fertility follows.
+
+
+
+In Grecian story, Ouranos and Ge, or heaven and earth, were the parents
+of creation; and Jupiter came from heaven to impregnate Alcmena. The
+same mythos prevailed throughout all civilised nations. Christianity
+adopted the idea, merely altering the names of the respective parents,
+and attributed the regeneration of the world to "holy breath" and Mary.
+Every individual, indeed, extraordinarily conspicuous for wisdom, power,
+goodness, etc., is said to have been begotten on a woman by a celestial
+father. Within the vesica piscis, artists usually represent the virgin
+herself, with or without the child; in the figure before us the child
+takes her place. It is difficult to believe that the ecclesiastics who
+sanctioned the publication of such a print could have been as ignorant
+as modern ritualists. It is equally difficult to believe that the
+latter, if they knew the real meaning of the symbols commonly used by
+the Roman church, would adopt them.
+
+The last two figures, symbolic of adoration before divine sexual
+emblems, afford me the opportunity to give a description of a similar
+worship existent in Hindostan at the present time. My authority is H.
+H. Wilson, in Essays on the Religion of the Hindoos, Truebner and Co.,
+London. "The worshippers," he remarks, vol. i., p. 240, "of the Sakti,
+the power or energy of the divine nature in action, are exceedingly
+numerous amongst all classes of Hindoos--about three-fourths are of this
+sect, while only a fifth are Vaishnavas and a sixteenth Saivas. This
+active energy is personified, and the form with which it is invested
+depends upon the bias of the individuals. The most favourite form is
+that of Parvati, Bhavani, or Durga, the wife of Siva, or Mahadeva."
+
+"The worship of the female principle, as distinct from the divinity,
+appears to have originated in the literal interpretation of the
+metaphorical language of the Vedas, in which the will or purpose to
+create the universe is represented as originating from the creator, and
+consistent with him as his bride." "The Samaveda for example, says, the
+creator felt not delight being alone; he wished another, and caused
+his own self to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He
+approached her, and thus were human beings produced." A sentiment
+or statement which we may notice in passing is very similar to that
+propounded in Genesis, ch. i. 27, and v. 1, 2, respecting Elohim--viz.,
+that he created man and woman in his own image, i.e., as male and
+female, bisexual but united--an androgyne.
+
+"This female principle goes by innumerable cognomens, inasmuch as every
+goddess, every nymph, and all women are identified with it. She--the
+principle personified--is the mother of all, as Mahadeva, the male
+principle, is the father of all."
+
+"The homage rendered to the Sakti may be done before an image of any
+goddess--Prakriti, Lakshmi, Bhavani, Durga, Maya, Parvati, or Devi--just
+in the same way as Romanists may pray to a local Mary, or any other.
+But in accordance with the weakness of human nature, there are many who
+consider it right to pay their devotions to the thing itself rather than
+to an abstraction. In this form of worship six elements are required,
+flesh, fish, wine, women, gesticulations and mantras which consist
+of various unmeaning monosyllabic combinations of letters of great
+imaginary efficacy."
+
+"The ceremonies are mostly gone through in a mixed society, the Sakti
+being personified by a naked female, to whom meat and wine are
+offered and then distributed amongst the company. These eat and drink
+alternately with gesticulations and mantras--and when the religious part
+of the business is over, the males and females rush together and
+indulge in a wild orgy. This ceremony is entitled the Sri Chakra or
+Purnabhisheka, the Ring or Full Initiation."
+
+In a note apparently by the editor, Dr. Rost, a full account is given
+in Sanscrit of the Sakti Sodhana, as they are prescribed in the Devi
+Rahasya, a section of the Rudra Yamala, so as to prove to his readers
+that the Sri Chakra is performed under a religious prescription.
+
+We learn that the woman should be an actress, dancing girl, a courtesan,
+washerwoman, barber's wife, flower-girl, milk-maid, or a female devotee.
+The ceremony is to take place at midnight with eight, nine, or eleven
+couples. At first there are sundry mantras said, then the female is
+disrobed, but richly ornamented, and is placed on the left of a circle
+(Chakra) described for the purpose, and after sundry gesticulations,
+mantras, and formulas she is purified by being sprinkled over with wine.
+If a novice, the girl has the radical mantra whispered thrice in her
+ear. Feasting then follows, lest Venus should languish in the absence of
+Ceres and Bacchus, and now, when the veins are full of rich blood, the
+actors are urged to do what desire dictates, but never to be so carried
+away by their zeal as to neglect the holy mantras appropriate to every
+act and to every stage thereof.*
+
+
+     * The above quotations from Wilson's work are selections
+     from his and his Editor's account. In the original the
+     observations extend over eighteen pages, and are too long to
+     be given in their entirety: the parts omitted are of no
+     consequence.
+
+
+It is natural that such a religion should be popular, especially amongst
+the young of both sexes.
+
+Figures 139 to 158 are copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon; they are
+sectarial marks in India, and are usually traced on the forehead. Many
+resemble what are known as "mason's marks," i. e., designs found on
+tooled stones, in various ancient edifices, like our own, "trade marks."
+They are introduced here to illustrate the various designs employed to
+indicate the union of the "trinity" with the "unity," and the numerous
+forms representative of "la nature" A priori, it appears absurd to
+suppose that the eye could ever have been symbolical of anything but
+sight; but the mythos of Indra, given in Ancient Faiths, second edition,
+Vol. n., p. 649, and p. 7 supra, proves that it has another and a hidden
+meaning. These figures are alike emblematic of the "trinity," "the
+virgin," and the "four." Figure 154 is from Pugin, plate v., figure 3.
+It is the outline of a pectoral ornament worn by some Roman ecclesiastic
+in Italy, a. d. 1400; it represents the Egyptian crux ansata under
+another form, the T signifying the triad.
+
+
+
+Figures 155, 156, are different forms of the sistrum, one of the emblems
+of Isis. In the latter, the triple bars have one signification, which
+will readily suggest itself to those who know the meaning of the triad.
+In the former, the emblem of the trinity, which we have been obliged to
+conventionalise, is shown in a distinct manner. The cross bars indicate
+that Isis is a virgin. The cat at the top of the instrument indicates
+"desire," Cupid, or Eros. Fig. 155 is copied from plate ix., R. P.
+Knight's Worship of Priapus.
+
+Figure 157 represents the cup and wafer, to be found in the hands of
+many effigies of papal bishops; they are alike symbolic of the sun and
+moon, and of the elements in the Eucharist. See Pugin, plate iv., figs.
+5, 6, represents a temple in a conventional form; whilst below, Ceres
+appears seated within a horse-shoe shaped ornament.
+
+
+
+
+
+This, amongst other symbols, tends to show what we have so frequently
+before observed, that the female in creation is characterised by a great
+variety of designs, of which the succeeding woodcuts give us additional
+evidence.
+
+Figure 159 represents the various forms symbolic of Juno, Isis, Parvati,
+Ishtar, Mary, or woman, or the virgin.
+
+Figures 160, 161, 162, are copied from Audsley's Christian Symbolism
+(London, 1868). They are ornaments worn by the Virgin Mary, and
+represent her as the crescent moon, conjoined with the cross (in
+Fig. 160), with the collar of Isis (in Fig. 161), and with the double
+triangle (in Fig. 162).
+
+
+
+Figure 163 represents a tortoise. When one sees a resemblance between
+this creature's head and neck and the linga, one can understand why both
+in India and in Greece the animal should be regarded as sacred to the
+goddess personifying the female creator, and why in Hindoo myths it is
+said to support the world.
+
+In the British Museum there are three Assyrian obeliscs, all of which
+represent, in the most conspicuous way, the phallus, one of which has
+been apparently circumcised. The body is occupied with an inscription
+recording the sale of land, and also a figure of the reigning king,
+whilst upon the part known as the glans penis are a number of symbols,
+which are intended apparently to designate the generative powers in
+creation. The male is indicated by a serpent, a spear head, a hare, a
+tiara, a cock, and a tortoise. The female appears under precisely the
+same form as is seen on the head of the Egyptian Isis, Fig. 28. The
+tortoise is to this day a masculine emblem in Japan. See Figs. 174, 175.
+
+But there is no necessity for the animal itself always to be depicted,
+inasmuch as I have discovered that both in Assyrian and Greek art the
+tortoise is pourtrayed under the figure which resembles somewhat the
+markings upon the segments into which the shell is divided. In symbolism
+it is a very common thing for a part to stand for the whole; thus an egg
+is made to do duty for the triad; and a man is sometimes represented by
+a spade. A woman is in like manner represented by a comb, or a mirror;
+and a golden fleece typifies in the first place the "grove," which it
+overshadows, and the female who possesses both.
+
+
+
+It has been stated on page 19 supra, that Pausanias mentions having seen
+at some place in Greece one figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and
+another upon a ram, but he leaves to the ingenious to discover why the
+association takes place.
+
+It was this intimation which led me to identify the tortoise as a male
+symbol. Any person who has ever watched this creature in repose, and
+seen the action of the head and neck when the quadruped is excited, will
+recognise why the animal is dear to the goddess of amorous delight, and
+that which it may remind her of. In like manner, those who are familiar
+with the ram will know that it is remarkable for persistent and
+excessive vigour. Like the cat, whose salacity caused it to be honoured
+in Egypt, the ram was in that country also sacred, as the bull was in
+Assyria and Hindostan.
+
+In fact, everything which in shape, habits, or sound could remind
+mankind of the creators and of the first part of creation was regarded
+with reverence. Thus tall stones or natural pinnacles of rock, the palm,
+pine, and oak trees, the fig tree and the ivy, with their tripliform
+leaves, the mandrake, with its strange human form, the thumb and finger,
+symbolised Bel, Baal, Asher, or Mahadeva. In like manner a hole in the
+ground, a crevice in a rock, a deep cave, the myrtle from the shape of
+its leaf, the fish from its scent, the dolphin and the mullet from their
+names, the dove from its note, and any umbrageous retreat surrounded
+with thick bushes, were symbolic of woman.
+
+So also the sword and sheath, the arrow and target, the spear and
+shield, the plough and furrow, the spade and trench, the pillar by a
+well, the thumb thrust between the two fore-fingers or grasped by the
+hand, and a host of other things were typical of the union which brings
+about the formation of a new being.
+
+I cannot help regarding the sexual element as the key which opens almost
+every lock of symbolism, and however much we may dislike the idea that
+modern religionists have adopted emblems of an obscene worship,
+we cannot deny the fact that it is so, and we may hope that with a
+knowledge of their impurity we shall cease to have a faith based upon a
+trinity and virgin--a lingam and a yoni. Some may cling still to such a
+doctrine, but to me it is simply horrible--blasphemous and heathenish.
+
+
+
+Figures 164, 165, represent a pagan and Christian cross and trinity. The
+first is copied from B. P. Knight (plate x., fig. 1), and represents a
+figure found on an ancient coin of Apollonia. The second may be seen in
+any of our churches to-day.
+
+Figure 166 is from an old papal book lent to me by Mr. Newton, Missale
+Romanum, illustrated by a monk (Venice, 1509). It represents a confessor
+of the Roman church, who wears the crux ansata, the Egyptian symbol
+of life, the emblem of the four creators, in the place of the usual
+pallium.
+
+
+
+It is remarkable that a Christian church should have adopted so many
+pagan symbols as Rome has done. Figure 167 is copied from a small
+bronze figure in the Mayer collection in the Free Museum, Liverpool.
+It represents the feminine creator holding a well marked lingam in her
+hand, and is this emblematic of the four, or the trinity and the virgin.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Figure 168 represents two Egyptian deities in worship before an emblem
+of the male, which closely resembles an Irish round tower.
+
+
+
+Figure 169 represents the modern pallium worn by Roman priests. It
+represents the ancient sistrum of Isis, and the yoni of the Hindoos. It
+is symbolic of the celestial virgin, and the unit in the creative
+four. When donned by a Christian priest, he resembles the pagan male
+worshippers, who wore a female dress when they ministered before the
+altar or shrine of a goddess. Possibly the Hebrew ephod was of this form
+and nature.
+
+Figure 170 is a copy of an ancient pallium, worn by papal ecclesiastics
+three or four centuries ago.. It is the old Egyptian symbol described
+above. Its common name is crux ansata, or the cross with a handle.
+
+Figure 171 is the albe worn by Roman and other ecclesiastics when
+officiating at mass, etc. It is simply a copy of the chemise ordinarily
+worn by women as an under garment.
+
+
+
+Figure 172 represents the chamble worn by papal hierarchs. It is copied
+from Pugin's Glossary, etc. Its form is that of the vesica piscis, one
+of the most common emblems of the yoni. It is adorned by the triad. When
+worn by the priest, he forms the male element, and with the chasuble
+completes the sacred four. When worshipping the ancient goddesses, whom
+Mary has displaced, the officiating ministers clothed themselves in
+feminine attire. Hence the use of the chemise, etc. Even the tonsured
+head, adopted from the priests of the Egyptian Isis, represents "l'
+anneau;" so that on head, shoulders, breast and body, we may see on
+Christian priests the relics of the worship of Venus, and the adoration
+of woman! How horrible all this would sound if, instead of using veiled
+language, we had employed vulgar words. The idea of a man adorning
+himself, when ministering before God and the people, with the effigies
+of those parts which nature as well as civilisation teaches us to
+conceal, would be simply disgusting, but when all is said to be
+mysterious and connected with hidden signification, almost everybody
+tolerates and many eulogise or admire it!
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+
+By John Newton, M.R.C.S.
+
+The study of sacred symbols is as yet in its infancy. It has hitherto
+been almost ignored by sacerdotal historians; and thus a rich mine of
+knowledge on the most interesting of all subjects--the history of the
+Religious Idea in man--remains comparatively unexplored. The topic has
+a two-fold interest, for it equally applies to the present and the past.
+As nothing on earth is more conservative than religion, we have still a
+world of symbolism existing amongst us which is far older than our sects
+and books, our creeds and articles, a relic of a forgotten, pre-historic
+past. Untold ages before writing was invented, it is believed that men
+attempted to express their ideas in visible forms. Yet how can a savage,
+who is unable to count his fingers up to five, and has no idea of
+abstract number, apart from things, whose habits and thoughts are of the
+earth, earthy, form a conception of the high and holy One who inhabiteth
+eternity? Even under the highest forms of ancient civilisation, abundant
+proofs exist that the imagination of men, brooding over the idea of the
+Unseen and the Infinite, were bounded by the things which were presented
+in their daily experience, and which most moved their passions, hopes
+and fears. Through these, then, they attempted to embody such religious
+ideas as they felt. They could not teach others without visible symbols
+to assist their conceptions; and emblems were rather crutches for the
+halting than wings to help the healthy to soar. Mankind in all ages
+has clung to the visible and tangible. The people care little for the
+abstract and unseen. The Israelites preferred a calf of gold to the
+invisible Jehovah; and sensuous forms of worship still fascinate the
+multitude.
+
+Whilst studying a collection of symbols, gathered from many climes and
+ages, such as this volume presents, I feel sure that every intelligent
+student will have asked himself more than once--Is there not some key
+which unlocks these enigmas, some grand idea which runs through them
+all, connecting them like a string of beads? I believe that there is,
+and that it is not far to seek. What do men desire and long for most?
+Life. "Skin for skin; all that a man hath will he give for his life," is
+a saying as true now as in the days of Job. "Give me back my youth, and
+I will give you all I possess," was said by the aged Voltaire to his
+physician. And our poet laureate has sung,
+
+
+     'Tis Life, whereof our nerves are scant,
+     O life, not death, for which we pant;
+     More life, and fuller, that I want.
+
+But we must add, as necessarily contained in the idea of Life in its
+highest sense, those things which make Life desirable.
+
+This fulness of life has been the summum bonum, the highest good, which
+mankind has sighed for in every age and clime. For this the alchemists
+toiled, not to advance chemistry, but to discover the Elixir of Life and
+the Philosopher's Stone. But what nature refused to science, the gods,
+it was believed, would surely give to the pious! and the glorious prize
+referred to has been promised by every religion. "I am come that they
+might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Life is
+the reward which has been promised under every system, including that of
+the founder of Christianity. A Tree of Life stood in the midst of that
+Paradise which is described in the book of Genesis; and when the first
+human couple disobeyed their Maker's command, they were punished by
+being cut off from the perennial fount of vitality, lest they should
+eat its fruit and thus live for ever; and in a second Paradise, which is
+promised to the blessed by the author of the book of Revelation, a tree
+of life shall stand once more "for the healing of the nations." To the
+good man is promised, in the Hebrew Scriptures, long life, prosperity,
+and a numerous offspring. "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."* Ps.
+ciii. 5.
+
+In the wondrous theology of Ancient Egypt, which at length is open to
+us, the "Ritual of the Dead" celebrates the mystical reconstruction of
+the body of the deceased, whose parts are to be reunited, as those of
+Osiris were by Isis; the trials are recorded through which the deceased
+passes, and by which all remaining stains of corruption are wiped away;
+and the record ends when the defunct is born again glorious, like that
+Sun which typified the Egyptian resurrection.**
+
+
+     * St. Paul points oat (Eph. vi. 2) that to only one of the
+     ten commandments is a promise added. And what is the
+     promise? "That thy days may be long." (Exod. xx. 12.) See
+     also Psalm cxxxiii. 3, "the blessing, even life for
+     evermore."
+
+     ** Apuleius, who had been initiated into the mysteries of
+     Isis, informs us that long life was the reward promised to
+     her votaries. (Metam. cap. xi.)
+
+In the ancient mythology of India, it is recounted that of old the gods
+in council united together to procure, by one supreme effort, the Amrita
+cup of immortality, which, after the success of their scheme, they
+partake of with their worshippers. Even for the Buddhist, his cold,
+atheistical creed promises a Nirvana, an escape from the horrors of
+metempsychosis, a haven of eternal calm, where "there shall be no more
+death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
+for the former things are passed away;" "there the weary be at rest."
+Rev. xxi. 4, Job iii. 17.
+
+This idea of tranquillity is in striking contrast to the heaven promised
+by the religion of the north of Europe, which was the one most congenial
+to a people whose delight was in conquest and battle. Those who had led
+a life of heroism, or perished bravely in fight, ascended to Valhalla;
+and the eternal manhood which awaited them there was to be passed in
+scenes that were rapture to the imagination of a Dane or a Saxon. Every
+day in that abode of bliss was to be spent in furious conflict, in
+the struggle of armies and the cleaving of shields; but at evening
+the conflict was to cease; every wound to be suddenly healed. Then the
+contending warriors were to sit down to a banquet, where, attended by
+lovely maidens, they could feast on the exhaustless flesh of the boar
+Saehrimnir, and drink huge draughts of mead from the skulls of those
+enemies who had not attained to the glories of Valhalla.
+
+The paradise promised to the faithful by Mahomet is full of sensuous
+delights. The Arabian prophet dwells with rapture on its gardens and
+palaces, its rivers and bowers. Seventy-two houris, or black-eyed girls,
+rejoicing in beauty and ever-blooming youth, will be created for the
+use of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to
+a thousand years, and his powers will be increased a hundred-fold to
+render him worthy of his felicity.
+
+Thus we see that in all these great historical faiths the prize held
+out to the true believer has this in common, viz., Life, overflowing,
+ever-renewed, with the addition of those things which make life
+desirable for men; whether they are sensuous pleasures, or those which,
+under the loftier ideal of Christianity, are summed up in Life, both
+temporal and eternal, in the light of God.
+
+Such being the case, we might anticipate that the symbols of every
+religion would reproduce, in some shape or other, the ideal which is
+common to all. The earliest and rudest faiths were content with gross
+and simple emblems of life. In the later and more refined forms of
+worship, the ruder types were highly conventionalised, and replaced by a
+more intricate and less obvious symbolism.
+
+We proceed now to investigate the more primitive emblems. The origin of
+life is, even to us, with all our lights, as great a mystery as it was
+to the ancients. To the primitive races of mankind the formation of a
+new being appeared to be a constant miracle, and men very naturally used
+as tokens of life, and even worshipped, those objects or organs by which
+the miracle appeared to be wrought. Thus, the glorious sun, that "god
+of this world," the source of life and light to our earth, was early
+adored, and an effigy thereof used as a symbol. Mankind watched with
+rapture its rays gain strength daily in the Spring, until the golden
+glories of Midsummer had arrived, when the earth was bathed during the
+longest days in his beams, which ripened the fruits that his returning
+course had started into life. When the sun once more began its course
+downwards to the Winter solstice, his votaries sorrowed, for he seemed
+to sicken and grow paler at the advent of December, when his rays
+scarcely reached the earth, and all nature, benumbed and cold, sunk into
+a death-like sleep. Hence feasts and fasts were instituted to mark
+the commencement of the various phases of the solar year, which have
+continued from the earliest known period, under various names, to our
+own times.
+
+The daily disappearance and the subsequent rise of the sun, appeared to
+many of the ancients as a true resurrection; thus, while the east came
+to be regarded as the source of light and warmth, happiness and glory,
+the west was associated with darkness and chill, decay and death. This
+led to the common custom of burying the dead so as to face the east when
+they rose again, and of building temples and shrines with an opening
+towards the east. To effect this, Vitruvius, two thousand years ago,
+gave precise rules, which are still followed by Christian architects.
+
+Sun-worship was spread all over the ancient world. It mingled with other
+faiths and assumed many forms.* Of the elements, fire was naturally
+chosen as its earthly symbol. A sacred fire, at first miraculously
+kindled, and subsequently kept up by the sedulous care of priests
+or priestesses, formed an important part of the religions of Judea,
+Babylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome, and the superstition lingers amongst
+us still.
+
+
+     * We may point out that, according to all the Gospels,
+     Christ expired towards sunset, and the sun became eclipsed
+     as he was dying. He rose again exactly at daybreak.
+
+So late as the advent of the Reformation, a sacred fire was kept ever
+burning on a shrine at Kildare, in Ireland, and attended by virgins of
+high rank, called "inghean au dagha," or daughters of fire. Every year
+is the ceremony repeated at Jerusalem of the miraculous kindling of the
+Holy Fire at the reputed sepulchre, and men and women crowd to light
+tapers at the sacred flame, which they pass through with a naked body.
+Indeed, solar myths form no unimportant part of ancient mythology. Thus
+the death of nature in the winter time, through the withdrawal of the
+sun, was supposed to be caused by the mourning of the earth-goddess
+over the sickness and disappearance into the realms of darkness of her
+husband and mate, the sun.
+
+Mr. Fox Talbot has lately given the translation of an Egyptian poem,
+more than three thousand years old, and having for its subject the
+descent of Ishtar into Hades. To this region of darkness and death the
+goddess goes in search of her beloved Osiris, or Tammuz. This Ishtar is
+identical with the Assyrian female in the celestial quartette, the
+later Phoenician Astarte, "The Queen of Heaven with crescent horns,"
+the moon-goddess, also with the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus; and the
+Egyptian legend reappears in the west as the mourning of Venus for the
+loss of Adonis.
+
+Again, the fable of Ceres mourning the death of her daughter Proserpine
+is another sun-myth. The Roman Ceres was the Greek [----------], Mother
+Earth, who through the winter time wanders inconsolable. Persephone,
+her daughter, is the vegetable world, whose seeds or roots lie concealed
+underground in the darkness of winter. These, when Spring comes with its
+brightness, bud forth and dwell in the realms of light during a part of
+the year, and provide ample nourishment for men and animals with their
+fruits. The sun, being the active fructifying cause in nature, was
+generally regarded as male. Thus, in the Jewish scriptures, he is
+compared to "a bridegroom coming out of his chamber" (Ps. xix. 5), i.e.,
+as a man full of generative, procreative vigour. The moon and the earth,
+being receptive were naturally regarded as female.
+
+At the vernal equinox, the ancients celebrated the bridal of the sun and
+the earth. Yet, inasmuch as the orbs of heaven and the face of nature
+remain the same from year to year, and perpetually renew light and life,
+themselves remaining fresh in vigour and unharmed by age, the ancients
+conceived the bride and mate of the sun-god as continuing ever virgin.
+Again, as the ancient month was always reckoned by the interval between
+one new moon and the next,--an interval which also marks a certain
+recurring event in women, that ceases at once on the occurrence of
+pregnancy,--the lunar crescent became a symbol of virginity, and as such
+adorns the brow of the Greek Artemis and Roman Diana. This was used as
+a talisman at a very remote period, and was fixed over the doors of the
+early lake-dwellers in Switzerland, like the horse-shoe is to modern
+side-posts. With the sun and moon were often associated the five visible
+planets, forming a sacred seven,--a figure which is continually cropping
+up in religious emblems.
+
+So much for the great cosmic symbols of Life. But the primitive races
+of mankind found others nearer home, and still more suggestive--the
+generative parts in the two sexes, by the union of which all animated
+life, and mankind, the most interesting of all to human beings,
+appeared to be created. This reverence for, or worship of, the organs of
+generation, has been traced to a very early period in the history of the
+human race. In a bone-cave recently excavated near Venice, and
+beneath its ten feet of stalagmite, were found bones of animals, flint
+implements, a bone needle, and a phallus in baked clay. And if we turn
+to those savage tribes who still reproduce for us the prehistoric past,
+this form of religious symbolism meets as everywhere. In Dahomey, beyond
+the Ashantees, it is, according to Captain Barton, most uncomfortably
+prominent. In every street of their settlements are priapic figures.
+The "Tree of Life" is anointed with palm oil, which drips into a pot or
+shard placed below it, and the would-be mother of children prays before
+the image that the great god Legba would make her fertile.
+
+Burton tells us that he peeped into an Egba temple or lodge, and found
+it a building with three courts, of which the innermost was a sort of
+holy of holies. Its doors had carvings on them of a leopard, a fish, a
+serpent, and a land tortoise. The first two of these are female symbols,
+the two latter emblems of the male. There were also two rude figures
+representing their god Obatala, the deity of life, who is worshipped
+under two forms, a male and a female. Opposite to these was the male
+symbol or phallus, conjoined in coitu with the female emblem. Du Chaillu
+met with some tribes in Africa who adore the female only. His guide,
+he informs us, carried a hideous little image of wood with him, and at
+every meal he would take the little fetish out of his pocket, and pour a
+libation over its feet before he would drink himself.
+
+We know that a similar superstition prevailed in Ireland long after
+the advent of Christianity. There a female, pointing to her symbol,
+was placed over the portal of many a church as a protector from evil
+spirits; and the elaborate though rude manner in which these figures
+were sculptured shows that they were considered as objects of great
+importance. It was the universal practice among the Arabs of Northern
+Africa to stick up over the door of their house or tent the genital
+parts of a cow, mare, or female camel, as a talisman to avert the
+influence of the evil eye. The figure of this organ being less definite
+than that of the male, it has assumed in symbolism very various forms.
+The commonest substitution for the part itself has been a horse-shoe,
+which is to this day fastened over many of the doors of stables and
+shippons in the country, and was formerly supposed to protect the cattle
+from witchcraft. From a lively story by Beroalde de Verville, we learn
+that in France a sight of the female organ was believed, as late as the
+sixteenth century, to be a powerful charm in curing any disease in, and
+for prolonging the life of, the fortunate beholder.
+
+As civilisation advanced, the gross symbols of creative power were cast
+aside, and priestly ingenuity was taxed to the utmost in inventing a
+crowd of less obvious emblems, which should represent the ancient ideas
+in a decorous manner. The old belief was retained, but in a mysterious
+or sublimated form. As symbols of the male, or active element in
+creation, the sun, light, fire, a torch, the phallus or linga, an erect
+serpent, a tall straight tree, especially the palm and the fir or pine,
+were adopted. Equally useful for symbolism were a tall upright stone
+(menhir), a cone, a pyramid, a thumb or finger pointed straight, a mast,
+a rod, a trident, a narrow bottle or amphora, a bow, an arrow, a
+lance, a horse, a bull, a lion, and many other animals conspicuous for
+masculine power. As symbols of the female, the passive though fruitful
+element in creation, the crescent moon, the earth, darkness, water, and
+its emblem a triangle with the apex downwards, "the yoni," a shallow
+vessel or cup for pouring fluid into (cratera), a ring or oval, a
+lozenge, any narrow cleft, either natural or artificial, an arch or
+doorway, were employed. In the same category of symbols came a ship or
+boat, the female date-palm bearing fruit, a cow with her calf by her
+side, the fish, fruits having many seeds, such as the pomegranate, a
+shell (concha), a cavern, a garden, a fountain, a bower, a rose, a fig,
+and other things of suggestive form, etc.
+
+These two great classes of conventional symbols were often represented
+in conjunction with each other, and thus symbolised in the highest
+degree the great source of life, ever originating, ever renewed. The
+Egyptian temple at Denderah has lately been explored by M. Mariette. In
+a niche of the Holy of Holies he discovered the sacred secret. This was
+simply a golden sistrum (see ante, pp. 44 and 70), an emblem formed by
+uniting the female oval O with the male sacred Tau T; and thus identical
+in meaning with the coarse emblem seen by Captain Burton in the African
+idol temple. A similar emblem is the linga standing in the centre of
+a yoni, the adoration of which is to this day characteristic of the
+leading dogma of Hindu religion. There is scarcely a temple in India
+which has not its lingam; and in numerous instances this symbol is the
+only form under which the great god Siva is worshipped. (See ante, pp.
+72, 78.)
+
+The linga is generally a tall, polished, cylindrical, black stone,
+apparently inserted into another stone formed like an elongated saucer,
+though in reality the whole is sculptured out of one block of basalt.
+The outline of the frame, which reminds us of a Jew's harp (the
+conventional form of the female member), is termed argha or yoni. The
+former, or round perpendicular stone, the type of the virile organ, is
+the linga. The entire symbol, to which the name lingyoni is given, is
+also occasionally called lingam. This representative of the union of the
+sexes typifies the divine sacti, or productive energy, in union with the
+procreative, generative power seen throughout nature. The earth was the
+primitive pudendum, or yoni, which is fecundated by the solar heat,
+the sun, the primitive linga, to whose vivifying rays man and animals,
+plants and the fruits of the earth, owe their being and continued
+existence. These "lingas" vary in size from the tiny amulets worn about
+the neck, to the great monoliths of the temples. Thus the lingam is an
+emblem of the Creator, the fountain of all life, who is represented in
+Hindu mythology as uniting in Himself the two sexes.
+
+Another symbol, the caduceus, older than Greek and Roman art, in which
+it is associated with Esculapius and Hermes, the gods of health and
+fertility, has precisely the same signification as the sistrum and the
+lingam. This is made clear enough in the following extract from a letter
+by Dr. C. E. Balfour, published in Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship,
+1878. "I have only once seen living snakes in the form of the Esculapian
+rod. It was at Ahmednuggar, in 1841, on a clear moonlight night. They
+dropped into the garden from the thatched roof of my house, and stood
+erect."
+
+"They were all cobras, and no one could have seen them without at once
+recognising that they were in congress. Natives of India consider that
+it is most fortunate to witness serpents so engaged, and believe that if
+a person can throw a cloth at the pair so as to touch them with it,
+the material becomes a representative form of Lakshmi,* of the highest
+virtue, and is preserved as such." The serpent, which casts its skin and
+seems to renew its youth every year, has been used from remotest times
+as a living symbol of generative energy, and of immortality; indeed,
+in the most ancient Eastern languages, the name for the serpent also
+signifies life.** It has been usually worshipped as the Agathodoemon,
+the god of good fortune, life, and health; though in the
+Hebrew scriptures, and elsewhere, we meet with a good and a bad
+serpent--Oriental dualism. The Kakodoemon, however, is usually
+represented as winged--the Dragon, as in the following example.
+
+
+     * The consort, or life-giving energy of Vishnu.
+
+     ** As in French, the name for the male organ and for life is
+     the same in sound, though not in spelling or gender.
+
+In the remarkable Babylonian seal, Plate iv., Fig. 8, the deity is
+represented as uniting in himself the male and the female. On each side
+is a serpent, as the emblem of the life flowing from the Creator; that
+on the male side, having round his head the solar glory, is compared
+to the sun-god, as the active principle in creation; that on the female
+side, over whose head is the lunar crescent, to the moon- and earth-
+goddess, the passive principle in creation. Both are attacked by a
+winged dragon, the kakodoemon, or the evil principle. This is according
+to the ancient Chaldean doctrine of two creations of living beings, the
+one good and the other malign. The Chinese still think that an eclipse
+is caused by the efforts of a furious dragon to destroy the sun and
+moon; and Apollo, the sun-god, destroying the serpent Python, has
+reappeared on our coin as St. George killing the dragon. Even Apollyon
+appears in old paintings with huge wings, like those of a bat.
+
+Having thus explained what appears to be the key to a wide range of
+religious symbolism, and shown its application in many cases, we shall
+further apply it to unlock the famous object of Assyrian worship.
+Soon after the discoveries of Botta and Layard were published, it was
+conjectured that this strange object, so continually represented as
+being adored, might be the asherah of the Hebrew scriptures, translated
+"grove" in the English version. How far the view was correct we shall
+now proceed to examine.
+
+The religion of the East at a very remote period appears to have been
+the worship of one God, under several names. The most primitive was
+El, Il, or Al, = the strong, the mighty one; or its plural Elohim, as
+expressing His many powers and manifestations. Another name was Baal or
+Bel,--the lord, which also had a plural form, Baalim. The first word is
+continually used in the Hebrew scriptures, and applied both to the true
+God and the gods of the nations. Baal is only once thus applied, Hosea
+ii. 16; yet Balaam, inspired by God, prophesies from the high places of
+Baal. This name, though so appropriate to the Almighty, became abhorrent
+to the Jews when it was so frequently associated with idolatry, and a
+new cognomen, or "the Supreme," was adopted by them, viz., Jehovah, =
+the Eternal, the Ever-Living One, the Creator; see Exod. iii. 14. "Baal"
+was the supreme god of all the great Syro-Phoenician nations, with the
+insignificant exception of the Jews; and when the latter migrated into
+Canaan they were surrounded on all sides by his worshippers. Towns,
+temples, men, including even a son of Saul, of David and of Jonathan,
+viz., Eshbaal, Meribbaal, and Beelida, were called after him. As the
+sun-god, Baal-Hammon, Song of Sol. viii. 11; 2 Kings xxiii. 5; he
+was worshipped on high places, Num. xxii. 41; and an image of the sun
+appeared over his altars, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4. As the generative and
+productive power, he was worshipped under the form of the phallus,
+Baal-Peor; and youths and maidens, even of high birth, prostituted
+themselves in his honour or service; Num. xxv.; 2 Kings xxiii. 7. As
+the creator, he was represented to be of either or of both sexes; and
+Arnobius tells us that his worshippers invoked him thus:
+
+
+     "Hear us, Baal! whether thou be a god or a goddess."
+
+Though he is of the masculine gender in the Hebrew, the lord, yet Baal
+is called [------], = the lady, in the Septuagint; Hos. ii. 8; Zeph. i.
+4; and in the New Testament, Romans xi. 4. At the licentious worship
+of this androgyne, or two-sexed god, the men on certain occasions wore
+female garments, whilst the women appeared in male attire, brandishing
+weapons. Each of this god's names had a female counterpart; and the
+feminine form of Baal was Beltis, Ishtar, and Ashtarte. As he was the
+sun-god, she was the moon-goddess. Now, whilst the masculine name (as
+Bel or Bal, Baal, Baalim,) appears nearly one hundred times in the
+Hebrew Old Testament, the feminine equivalent is only found three times
+in the singular Ashtoreth, and six times in the plural Ashtaroth;
+always in association with Baal-worship. Knowing, as we do, the immense
+diffusion of her worship amongst the Babylonians, Assyrians, and
+Phoenicians, this appears strange. There is a word of the feminine
+gender occurring in the Hebrew twenty-four times, viz., Asherah or
+Asharah; plural, Asharth translated in the Septuagint and Latin vulgate,
+a tree, or "grove," in which they have been followed by most modern
+versions, including the English. This supplies the void, for Asharah
+may be regarded as another name for the goddess Ashtoreth, as is plainly
+seen by the following passages: "They forsook Jehovah and served Baal
+and Ashtoreth;" Judges ii. 18; whilst in the following chapter we read,
+"They forgot Jehovah their God, and served the Baalim and the Asharoth;"
+iii. 7. What, then, was the Asharah? It was of wood, and of large size;
+the Jews were ordered to cut it down; Exod. xxxiv. 18, etc.; and Gideon
+offered a bullock as a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Asherah.
+Occasionally it was of stone. It was carved or graven as an image; 2
+Kings xxi. 7. It often stood close to the altar of Baal; Judges vi. 25
+and 80; 1 Kings xvi. 82, 88; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 8. Usually on high places
+and under shady trees; 1 Kings xiv. 28; Jer. xvii. 2; but one was
+erected in the temple of Jehovah by Manasseh; 2 Kings xxi. 7. It had
+priests; 1 Kings xviii. 19; and its worship was as popular as that of
+Baal; for whilst the priests of "the Baal" were four hundred and fifty,
+those of "the Asherah" were four hundred, who ate at the table of Queen
+Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon. It was sometimes surrounded
+with hangings, and was worshipped by both sexes with licentious rites; 2
+Kings xxiii. 7; Ezek. xvi. 16. As Baal was associated with sun-worship,
+so was the Asherah with that of the moon; 2 Kings xxi. 8; 2 Chron.
+xxxiv. 4.
+
+Besides these Asheroth, female emblems of Baal, there were Asherim,
+male emblems of Baal, "symbolising his generative power" (Furst, Hebrew
+Lexicon), which are mentioned sixteen times in the Hebrew scriptures.
+It is only found in the plural, and must have been a multiple
+representation of the singular, Asher, which means "to be firm, strong,
+straight, prosperous, happy," * and cognate with the Phoenician (Osir),
+"husband," "lord," an epithet of Baal.
+
+
+     * The lupanars at Pompeii were distinguished by a sign over
+     the street door, representing the erect phallus, painted or
+     carved, and having the words underneath, "Hie habitat
+     felicitas."
+
+Doubtless this was also identical with the Egyptian Osiris, = the sun,
+= the phallus. He was said to have suffered death like the sun; and
+Plutarch tells us that Isis, unable to discover all the remains of
+her husband, consecrated the phallus as his representative. Thus "the
+Asharim" were male symbols used in Baal-worship, and sometimes consisted
+of multiple phalli, of which the branch carried by an Assyrian
+priest, in Plate iii. Fig. 4, is a conventional form. They were then
+counterparts of the "multimammia" of Greek and Roman worship.* This is
+confirmed by a curious passage, 1 Kings xv. 13 (repeated 2 Chron. xv.
+16). We learn (xiv. 28) that the Jews, under Rehoboam, son of Solomon,
+having lapsed into idolatry, had "built them high places, images, and
+Asharim ("groves," A. V.) on every high hill, and under every green
+tree; and that there were also consecrated ones ("sodomites," A. V.) in
+the land." But Asa, his brother, on succeeding to the throne, swept
+away all these things, and (xv. 18) deposed the queen mother, Maachah,
+because she had made a miphletzeth to an Asherah ("an idol in a grove,"
+A. V.) miphletzeth, is rendered by the Vulgate "simulacrum Priapi."
+The word is derived from palatz, "to be broken," "terrified," or the
+cognate, phalash, palash, "to break or go through," "to open up a way;"
+a word or root found in the Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ethiopie.
+Doubtless the Greek [------] phallus, was hence derived, since it has
+no independent meaning in Greek; and Herodotus and Diodorus expressly
+assert that the chief gods of Greece and their mysteries, especially
+the Dionysiac or Bacchic revels, in which the phallus was carried in
+procession, were derived from the east. Compare also the Latin pales,
+English pale, pole, = Maypole. A similar word, with a corresponding
+meaning, exists in the Sanscrit. Thus, then, according to the Hebrew
+scriptures, there were two chief symbols used in the worship of Baal,
+one male, the other female.
+
+See Figs. 15, 16.
+
+We can now look upon the very symbols themselves, which were so
+used--perhaps the most remarkable in existence. It is well known that
+the Chaldeans, from whom all other nations derived their religion,
+astronomy, and science, gave the name of Bel or Baal to their chief
+god. In the most ancient inscription yet deciphered, written in the
+Babylonian and Arcadian languages, a king rules by "the favour of Bel."
+Another name for Baal is Assur, or Asher, from whom Assyria is named.
+In the cuneiform inscriptions of Sennacherib, the great king of Assyria,
+Nineveh is called "the city of Bel," and "the city beloved by Ishtar."
+In another inscription he says of the king of Egypt:--"the terror of
+Ashur and Ishtar overcame him and he fled." Assurbanipal thus commences
+his annals "The great warrior, the delight of Assur and Ishtar, the
+royal offspring am I." In a cuneiform inscription of Nebobelzitri, we
+read:--"Nineveh the city, the delight of Ishtar, wife of Bel." Again,
+"Beltis, the consort of Bel." "Assur and Beltis, the gods of Assyria."
+Thus we see that Baal and Bel were identical with Assur, and Ashur.
+Doubtless, then, "Asherah" is the last name with the feminine
+termination (as Ish = man, Ishah=woman), and is identical with Ishtar,
+Ashteroth, Astarte and Beltis. The Septuagint has rendered "Asherah" by
+"Astarte," in 2 Chron. xv. 16, and the Vulgate by "Astaroth," in Judges
+iii. 7. Herodotus described (b.c. 450) the great temple of Belus at
+Babylon, and its seven stages dedicated to the sun, moon, and planets,
+on the top of which was the shrine. This contained no statue, but there
+was a golden couch, upon which a chosen female lay, and was nightly
+visited by the god. Now, therefore, that the palaces of the Assyrian
+kings, and their "chambers of imagery," have been by great good fortune
+laid open to us, we might expect to discover the long-lost symbolism of
+Baal-worship. And so we have.
+
+To commence with the simplest. The (Ashcrim) is seen as the mystic
+palm-tree, the tree of life, Fig. 99; the phallic pillar putting
+forth branches like flames, Fig. 65; and the tree with seven phalloid
+branches, so common on Assyrian and Babylonian seals, Plate xvii., Fig.
+4. See also the remarkable Syrian medals, Plate xvii., Fig. 2, on which
+is represented Baal as the sun-god, holding the bow, and surrounded by
+phalli.
+
+Or, least conventional of all, the simple phallus, of which there are
+two remarkable specimens in the British Museum. Each of these is about
+two and a half feet high, and once guarded the bounds of an estate.
+Among the Greeks and Romans, boundaries were also marked by a phallic
+statue of Hermes, the god of fertility. These Assyrian emblems have
+doubtless often been honoured with rural sacrifice. Themselves the most
+expressive symbol of life, they are also covered with its conventional
+emblems.
+
+
+
+A back view of one is given, Figure 174. The body is mainly occupied
+with a full length portrait of the great king. For as the Assyrians
+represented the Deity, the source of all life, by the phallus, so the
+monarch was the god of this lower world, the incarnation of God
+on earth. He was the source of life to the empire, and as such was
+addressed--"O king, live for ever" (Dan. v. 10). He, like the gods,
+never dies. "Le Roi est mort; Vive le Roi" The ensigns of royalty were
+also those of the creator-god. Accordingly, his garments and crown
+are embroidered with that sacred emblem, the Asherah. He bears the
+strung-bow and arrows, emblems of virile power, borne afterwards by the
+sun-god Apollo, and the western son of Venus. An erect serpent occupies
+the other side, and ends with forky tongue near the orifice. The glans
+is covered with symbols. On the summit is a triad of sun emblems;
+beneath are three altars, over two of which are the glans-shaped caps,
+covered with bulls' horns, always worn by the Assyrian guardian angels,
+and intense emblems of the male potency. For in ancient symbolism, a
+part of a symbol stands for the whole; as here, the horns represent the
+bull, and the glans the phallus. Above the third altar is a tortoise,
+whose protruded head and neck reminded the initiated of the phallus; and
+the altars are covered with a pattern drawn from the tortoise scales. We
+have, besides, a vase with a rod inserted, emblem of sexual union, and
+a cock, with wings and plumage ruffled, running after a hen in amorous
+heat. The glans only of the other is copied.
+
+
+
+Fig. 175. At the top are the sun-symbols, as before. Beneath is the
+horse-shoe-like head-dress of Isis, and there are two altars marked with
+the tortoise-emblem in front. Over both rises the erect serpent, and
+upon one lies the head of an arrow or a dart, both male symbols. The
+miphletzeth which Queen Maachah placed in or near the Asherah, probably
+resembled these Assyrian phalli, or the Asherim.
+
+And now we come to the Asherah, a much more complex and difficult
+symbol than any other which we have named. This object has long puzzled
+antiquarians, and though it is continually recurring in the sculptures
+from Nineveh, it has not yet been fully explained. In Fig. 176 we see it
+worshipped by human figures, with eagles' heads and wings, who present
+to it the pine-cone, = the testis, and the basket, =the scrotum (?),
+intense emblems of the male creator.
+
+
+
+Fig. 177 it is adored by the king and his son or successor, with their
+attendant genii. The kings present towards it a well-known symbol of
+life and good fortune, the fist with the forefinger extended, or
+"the phallic hand." Here, then, we have evidently the Asherah, or
+Ashtaroth-symbol, the female Baal, the life-producer, "the door" whence
+life issues to the world. As such the goddess is here symbolised as an
+arched door-way. In the Phonician alphabet, the fourth letter, daleth,
+= a door, has the shape of a tent-door, as on the Moabite stone, A, and
+also in the Greek [------] But another form, perhaps as ancient, is D,
+which, when placed in its proper position, would be [--], the very form
+of the Asherah.* In the plural, this word stands for the labia pudendi,
+[--------], "because it shut not up the doors of the womb," Job iii.
+10.** We infer from Numbers xxv. 6-8, that in the rites of Baal-peor,
+the Kadeshoth, or women devoted to the god, offered themselves to his
+worshippers each in a peculiar bower or small arched tent, called a
+qubbah. The part also through which Phinehas drove his spear (see Num.
+xxv. 8), the woman's vulva, is also called qobbah, the one word being
+derived from the other, according to Onkelos, Aquila, and others. Qubbah
+means, according to Fuerst, Heb. Lex., "something hollow and arched, an
+arched tent, like the Arabic El. Kubba, whence the Spanish Al-cova, and
+our Alcove." In the Latin also, the word fornix, a vault, an arch, meant
+a brothel, and from it was derived fornicatio. Qubbah is translated by
+the LXX., kaminos, "an oven or arched furnace" (Liddell and Scott); but
+it meant also the female parts. See Herodotus v. 92 (7). Thus, then, the
+Alcove was itself a symbol of woman, as though a place of entrance and
+emergence, and whence new life issues to the world. And when the male
+worshipper of Baal entered to the kadeshah, the living embodiment of
+the goddess, the analogy to the Asherah became complete, as we shall now
+show.
+
+
+     * The first letter, Aleph, = an ox, is, even on the Moabite
+     stone, written thus, and has become the modern A. In the
+     earlier hieroglyph it must have been thus V. The Egyptian
+     hieroglyph for ten is Compare the Greek [--] and Latin
+     Decem.
+
+     ** The first of the Orphic Hymns is addressed to the goddess
+     Artemisias (Prothnraia) or the Door-keeper, who presided
+     over childbirths, like the Roman Diana Lucina.
+
+The central object in the Assyrian "grove" is a male date-palm, which
+was well known as an emblem of Baal, the sun, the phallus, and life.
+This remarkable tree, Tamar in Phoenician and Hebrew, the phoenix in
+Greek, was formerly abundant in Palestine and the neighbouring regions.
+The word Phoenicia (Acts xi. 19, xv. 8) is derived from phoinix, as the
+country of palms; like the "Idumeo palmo" of Virgil. Palmyra, the
+city of the sun, was called in the Hebrew Tamar (1 Kings ix. 18). In
+Vespasian's famous coin, "Judoa capta," Judoa is represented as a female
+sitting under a palm-tree. The tree can at once be identified by its
+tall, straight, branchless stem, of equal thickness throughout, crowned
+at the top with a cluster of long, curved, feather-like branches, and
+by its singularly wrinkled bark. All these characteristics are readily
+recognised in the highly conventional forms of the religious emblem,
+even in the ornament on the king's robe, fig. 174. The date-palm is
+dioecious, the female trees, which are sometimes used as emblems, being
+always distinguished by the clusters of date fruit. "Thy stature is like
+to a palm-tree, thy breasts to clusters" (Cant. vii. 7). "The righteous
+shall flourish like the palm-tree" (Ps. xcii. 12), fruitful and ever
+green. "They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not" (Jer. x. 8-5).
+The prophet is evidently describing the making of an Asherah. There was
+a Canaanite city called Baal-Tamar, = Baal, the palm-tree, designated
+so, it is probable, from the worship of Baal there "under the form of
+a priapus-column," says Fuerst, Heb. Lex. The real form was doubtless an
+"Asherim," a modified palm-tree, as we have already shown. Palm-branches
+have been used in all ages as emblems of life, peace, and victory. They
+were strewn before Christ. Palm-Sunday, the feast of palms, is still
+kept. Even within the present century, on this festival, in many towns
+of France, women and children carried in procession at the end of their
+palm-branches a phallus made of bread, which they called, undisguisedly,
+"la pine," whence the festival was called "La Fete des Pinnes." The
+"pine" having been blest by the priest, the women carefully preserved
+it during the following year as an amulet. (Dulaure, Hist, des differens
+Cultes.)
+
+
+
+Again, the Greek name for the palm-tree, phoenix, was also the name
+of that mythical Egyptian bird, sacred to Osiris, and a symbol of
+the resurrection. With some early Christian writers, Christ was "the
+Phoenix." The date-palm is figured as a tree of life on an Egyptian
+sepulchral tablet, older than the Exodus, now preserved in the museum at
+Berlin. Two arms issue from the top of the tree; one of which presents
+a tray of dates to the deceased, whilst the other gives him water, "the
+water of life." The tree of life is represented by a date-palm on some
+of the earliest Christian mosaics at Rome. Something very like the
+Assyrian Asherah, or sacred emblem, was sculptured on the great doors of
+Solomon's temple, by Hiram, the Tyrian (1 Kings vii. 18-21). We read "he
+carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm-trees and open flowers,
+and spread gold upon the cherubims and palm-trees" (1 Kings vi. 82-35).
+He also erected two phallic pillars in front of the Temple, Jachin
+and Boaz, = It stands--In strength. No wonder Solomon fell to worship
+Astarte, Chemosh, and Milcom.
+
+Although to our modern ideas the mystical tree, symbol of life and
+immortality, seems out of place in Judaism, yet no sooner did the
+Jews possess a national coinage under the Maccabees than the palm-tree
+reappears, always with seven branches (like the golden candlestick, Ex.
+xxv.), as on the shekel represented Plate xvii., Fig. 4. The Assyrian
+tree has always the same number, and the tufts of foliage (symbolising
+the entire female tree) which deck the margins of the mystic D--apt
+emblems of fertility--have also invariably seven branches. This may
+remind us of the seven visible spheres that move around our earth "in
+mystic dance," and of Balak's offering, upon seven altars, seven bulls
+and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1; Rev. ii. 1) The mystic door is also
+barred, like the Egyptian sistrum carried by the priestesses of Isis,
+to represent the inviolable purity and eternal perfection which were
+associated with the idea of divinity. When Mary, the mother of Jesus,
+took the place in Christendom of "the great goddess," the dogmas which
+propounded her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity followed as
+a matter of course.
+
+Thus, then, we explain the greatest symbol in Eastern worship,--it is
+the "Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden," which has remained so
+long a mystery. To Dr. Inman belongs the distinguished merit of having
+first broken ground in the right direction. In his Ancient Faiths, vol.
+1, 1868, he identified the Assyrian "Asherah" with the female "door of
+life," and pointed out its analogy to the barred sistrum. We have
+seen that it is really much more complex, being precisely analogous in
+meaning to the famous crux ansata (Fig. 170), the central mystery of
+Egyptian worship; to the lingam or lingyoni of India (Fig. 109), the
+great emblem of Siva-worship; and to the caduceus of Greece and Rome. As
+represented on the Assyrian sculptures, it is always substantially
+the same. Probably this stereotyped form was the result of a gradual
+refinement upon some rude primitive type, perhaps as coarse as that seen
+by Captain Burton in the African idol-temple.
+
+To exhibit all the strange developments and modifications which this
+idea has assumed in the religious symbolism of Eastern and Western
+nations would require a large volume. But the subject is so rich in
+varied interest that we cannot conclude without taking a glance at it.
+First, the simple O, barred, is reproduced with a contraction towards
+the base, as in the Indian "yoni," and the Egyptian sistrum, used in
+the worship of Isis. Second, within the O was represented the goddess
+herself, as revealed within her own symbol. This is illustrated in
+Plate xvii., Fig. 5, where Demeter or Ceres is thus depicted, with
+her cornucopia, from a bronze coin of Damascus. Thirdly, but much more
+commonly, the goddess holds in her hands emblems of the male potency in
+creation, and thus completes the symbol. As in the coin figured Plate
+xvii., Fig. 8, the goddess, standing within the O, the portico of her
+temple, holds in her right hand the cross, that most ancient emblem of
+the male and of life. In the beautiful Greek coin of Sidon next
+figured, the goddess--evidently Astarte, the moon-goddess, the Queen of
+Heaven--stands on a ship, the mystic Argha or Ark, holding in one hand a
+crozier, in the other the cross. (Plate xvii., Fig. 7.)
+
+
+
+Under Christianity, the Virgin Mary, who, as Queen of Heaven, stands on
+the crescent moon, is pictured beneath the mystic doorway, with (the God
+as) a male child in her arms. See Plate xviii., copied from the woodcut
+title to the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, printed at Czenna, in old
+Prussia, 1492. Like Isis, she is the mother and yet the spouse of God,
+"clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet" (Rev. xii.
+1). The upper half of the picture is very like the Assyrian scenes.
+On either side is a king, Frederick III. and his son the Emperor
+Maximilian, at their devotions. The alcove is of roses, an emblem of
+virginity. The famous Mediaeval "Romaunt de la Rose" turns upon this.
+Among the many titles given to "the Virgin" in Mediaeval times, we find
+Santa Maria della Rosa, that flower being consecrated to her. Hence it
+is often represented in her hand. Dante writes
+
+
+     "Here is the Rose,
+     Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate."
+
+In Plate xviii., the Virgin goddess is seated with the God-child in
+a bower, exactly the shape of the Assyrian, composed of fruits highly
+significant of sex, as has already been explained. In some Hindoo
+pictures, the child is naked, having the member erect, and also making
+the phallic hand, with the right forefinger erected. (Plate xiv., Fig.
+14.)
+
+In other conventional forms we have male symbols only within the female
+O. This is a very numerous class. In the Fig. 3, Plate xvii., we see the
+fir-tree or pine take the place of the palm-tree, and in Fig. 6, Plate
+xvii., the cone. On this remarkable medal of Cyprus is a representation
+of the temple of Venus at Paphos, famous even in the days of Homer.
+(Odyss. viii. 862.) The worship of that divinity is said to have been
+imported into Cyprus from the East. The goddess united both sexes in her
+own person, and was served by castrated priests. We see here, within the
+innermost sanctum of the temple, a cone as emblem of the male; and the
+meaning is further pointed by the sun-emblem above, inserted within the
+crescent moon.
+
+Let us next examine how the cone came to be used as a masculine emblem.
+If we turn to Figs. 174 and 175, it will be seen that the "glans" was
+particularly honoured as the head of the phallus; it was also the part
+dedicated to God by effusion of blood in the rite of circumcision. This
+"acorn" is conical or dome-shaped, and thus--a part being taken for the
+whole--the cone or pyramid was used as a conventional symbol of the male
+creator. Placed on a stem it is frequently represented as worshipped on
+Assyrian bas reliefs. See Fig. 177. It was also a symbol of fire, the
+sun, and life; as such it formed a fitting monument for the Egyptian
+kings. Our word pyramid is from the Greek puramis, itself derived from
+pur, Jire, and puros, wheat, because pyramid-shaped cakes of wheat and
+honey were used in the Bacchic Fig. 177. rites. It played an important
+part in sun-worship. The emperor Heliogabalus (who, as his name implies,
+had been a priest of Baal, the sun-god, in Syria,) established the
+Syrian worship at Rome. He himself drove the golden chariot of the sun,
+drawn by six white horses, through the streets of Rome to a splendid
+new temple on the Palatine mount, the god being represented by a conical
+black stone, said to have fallen from heaven; and which the emperor
+removed from a temple of the sun, at Emesa, in Syria. At a subsequent
+period, an image of the moon-goddess, or Astarte, was brought by his
+orders from a celebrated fane at Carthage to Rome, and there solemnly
+married with licentious rites to the sun-god, amidst general rejoicing.*
+
+
+     * In Astrology, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was
+     considered the most fortunate of all; such as kings and
+     princes should be born under.
+
+A curious parallel to these mystic nuptials of the Assyrian god and
+goddess may be found in some of the religious ceremonies of the modern
+Hindoos. Fergusson tells us that "the most extraordinary buildings
+connected with Hindu temples are the vast pillared colonnades or
+choultries. By far their most important application is when used as
+nuptial halls, in which the mystic union of a male and female divinity
+is celebrated once a year."
+
+Again, in Indian mythology, the pyramid plays an important part. It
+belongs to Siva, = the sun, = fire, = the phallus, = life. By one
+complex symbol, very common on ancient Hindoo monuments in China and
+Thibet, the universe was thus represented. Notice the upward gradation.
+Earth + water = this globe. The creator-god, whose emblem, flame, mounts
+upwards, is the author and representative of all life upon it; he is the
+connecting link, united by the crescent moon with heaven. The arrow-
+or spear- head inserted within the crescent is an earth emblem of Siva;
+like the lingam it typified the divine source of life, and also the
+doctrine that perfect wisdom was to be found only in the combination of
+the male and female principles in nature. It decorates the roofs of the
+Buddhist monasteries in Thibet, and like the sacred lotus flower and the
+linga, both of which became emblems of Buddha, was derived from older
+faiths. Other interpretations may suggest themselves. This will enable
+us to understand the remarkable sculptures of the second or third
+century, from the Amravati Tope, Plate xix., which present so many
+points in common with the religious symbols of the Chaldeans. In Fig. 2
+we see a congregation of males and females, the sexes being separated,
+worshipping a linga, or stone conical pillar, on the front of which is
+sculptured the sacred tree, with branches like flames; three symbols of
+life in one. It rises from a throne, on the seat of which are placed
+the two emblems of earth and water. In the other figure, the sacred tree
+takes the place of the linga, rising above the throne, as if from the
+trisul or trident, male emblems of Siva. Winged figures, Garudas, attend
+it above, floating over the heads of the worshippers. An intrusion of
+the newer faith is also to be recognised, as the feet of Buddha are
+sculptured before the throne.
+
+In the mysteries of Mithra, the symbols in Fig. 178 were also employed.
+They represented the elements to which the soul ought to be successively
+united in passing through the new birth.
+
+
+
+We will add but two more emblems, culled from medieval heraldry, Figs.
+179 and 180, in both of which the Asherah, the "grove" of Baal-worship,
+will be at once recognised; the arrow and the cross, symbols of the male
+creator, taking the place of the mystic palm-tree.
+
+In all these, from the rudest to the most complex, we are thus able to
+trace a common idea, viz., a feeling after God, as the Life and Light of
+the Universe, and an attempt to express a common hope in visible forms.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
+Symbolism, by Thomas Inman and John Newton
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+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN AND MODERN SYMBOLISM ***
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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+<!DOCTYPE html
+   PUBLIC "-//w3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" >
+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, by Thomas Inman, M.D.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre     { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism, by
+Thomas Inman and John Newton
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism
+       With an Essay on Baal Worship, On The Assyrian Sacred "Grove," And Other
+
+Author: Thomas Inman
+        John Newton
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2012 [EBook #38485]
+Last Updated: November 17, 2012
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN AND MODERN SYMBOLISM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      ANCIENT PAGAN AND MODERN CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+    </h1>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      By Thomas Inman, M.D.
+    </h2>
+    <blockquote>
+      <p>
+        Consulting Physician To The Royal Infirmary, Liverpool; Late Lecturer
+        Successively On Botany, Medical Jurisprudence, Materia Medica And
+        Therapeutics, And The Principles And Practice Of Medicine, Etc.; In The
+        Liverpool School Of Medicine; Author Of "Foundation For A New Theory And
+        Practice Of Medicine;" A "Treatise On Myalgia;" "On The Real Nature Of
+        Inflammation," "Atheroma In Arteries," "The Preservation Of Health,"
+        "The Restoration Of Health," "Ancient Faiths Embodied In Ancient Names,"
+      </p>
+    </blockquote>
+    <h4>
+      Second Edition, <br /><br /> Revised And Enlarged, <br /><br />
+    </h4>
+    <h3>
+      WITH AN ESSAY ON BAAL WORSHIP, ON THE ASSYRIAN SACRED "GROVE," AND OTHER
+      ALLIED SYMBOLS.
+    </h3>
+    <h4>
+      By John Newton, M.R.C.S.E., Etc.
+    </h4>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img alt="titlepage (64K)" src="images/titlepage.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/Plate1-Frontispeice.jpg" alt="Frontispiece 009 "
+      width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The woodcuts in the present volume originally appeared in a large work, in
+      two thick volumes, entitled Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names. It
+      has been suggested to me by many, that a collection of these Figures, and
+      their explanation, are more likely to be generally examined than a very
+      voluminous book. The one is, as it were, an alphabet; the other, an essay.
+      The one opens the eyes; the other gives them opportunities to use their
+      vision. The one teaches to read; the other affords means for practice. As
+      the larger work endeavours to demonstrate the existence of a state of
+      things almost unknown to the British public, so it is necessary to furnish
+      overwhelming proof that the allegations and accusations made against
+      certain nations of antiquity, and some doctrines of Christianity, are
+      substantially true. Consequently, the number of witnesses is greater than
+      is absolutely necessary to prove the point.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      12, Rodney Street, Liverpool,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      July 1869.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The demand which has sprung up for this work has induced the Author to
+      make it more complete than it was originally. But it could not be made
+      perfect without being expanded into a volume whose size would be
+      incompatible with cheapness. When every Figure would supply a text for a
+      long discourse, a close attention is required lest a description should be
+      developed into a dissertation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In this work, the Author is obliged to confine himself to the explanation
+      of symbols, and cannot launch out into ancient and modern faiths, except
+      in so far as they are typified by the use of certain conventional signs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A great many who peruse a book like this for the first time, and find how
+      strange were the ideas which for some thousands of years permeated the
+      religious opinions of the civilised world, might naturally consider that
+      the Author is a mere visionary&mdash;one who is possessed of a hobby that
+      he rides to death. Such a notion is strengthened by finding that there is
+      scarcely any subject treated of except the one which associates religion,
+      a matter of the highest aim to man, with ideas of the most intensely
+      earthly kind. But a thoughtful reader will readily discern that an essay
+      on Symbolism must be confined to visible emblems. By no fair means can an
+      author who makes the crucifix his text introduce the subject of the
+      Confessional, the Eucharist, or Extreme Unction. Nor can one, who knows
+      that Buddha and Jesus alike inaugurated a faith which was unmarked by
+      visible symbolism, bring into an interpretation of emblems a comparison
+      between the preaching of two such distinguished men. In like manner, the
+      Author is obliged to pass over the difference between Judaism,
+      Christianity as propounded by the son of Mary, and that which passes
+      current for Christianity in Rome and most countries of Europe.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      All these points, and many more, have been somewhat fully discussed in the
+      Author's larger work, so often referred to in this, and to that he must
+      refer the curious. The following pages are simply a chapter taken from a
+      book, complete perhaps in itself, but only as a brick may be perfect,
+      without giving to an individual any idea of the size, style, or
+      architecture of the house from which it has been taken. If readers will
+      regard these pages as a beam in a building, the Author will be content.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      8, Vyvyan Terrace,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Clifton, Bristol,
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      August, 1874.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_INTR"> INTRODUCTION. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM. </a>
+    </p>
+    <p class="toc">
+      <a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+      </a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_INTR" id="link2H_INTR">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      INTRODUCTION.
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      It may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is, or has ever been,
+      adopted into the service of Religion, without a definite purpose. If it be
+      supposed that a religion is built upon the foundation of a distinct
+      revelation from the Almighty, as the Hebrew is said to be, there is a full
+      belief that every emblem, rite, ceremony, dress, symbol, etc., has a
+      special signification. Many earnest Christians, indeed, see in Judaic
+      ordinances a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. I have, for example, heard a
+      pious man assert that "leprosy" was only another word for "sin"; but he
+      was greatly staggered in this belief when I pointed out to him that if a
+      person's whole body was affected he was no longer unclean (Lev. xiii. 13),
+      which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to demonstrate that when a sinner
+      was as black as hell he was the equal of a saint. According to such an
+      interpreter, the paschal lamb is a type of Jesus, and consequently all
+      whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of wood, lintels, and side-posts
+      (Exod. xii. 22, 28). By the same style of metaphorical reasoning, Jesus
+      was typified by the "scape-goat," and the proof is clear, for one was
+      driven away into the wilderness, and the other voluntarily went there&mdash;one
+      to be destroyed, the other to be tempted by the devil! Hence we infer that
+      there is nothing repugnant to the minds of the pious in an examination
+      respecting the use of symbols, and into that which is shadowed forth by
+      them. What has been done for Judaism may be attempted for other forms of
+      religion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the Hebrews and Christians believe their religion to be God-given, so
+      other nations, having a different theology, regard their own peculiar
+      tenets. Though we may, with that unreasoning prejudice and blind bigotry
+      which are common to the Briton and the Spaniard, and pre-eminently so to
+      the mass of Irish and Scotchmen amongst ourselves, and to the Carlists in
+      the peninsula, disbelieve a heathen pretension to a divine revelation, we
+      cannot doubt that the symbols, etc., of Paganism have a meaning, and that
+      it is as lawful to scrutinise the mysteries which they enfold as it is to
+      speculate upon the Urim and Thummim of the Jews. Yet, even this freedom
+      has, by some, been denied; for there are a few amongst us who adhere
+      rigidly to the precept addressed to the followers of Moses, viz., "Take
+      heed that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations
+      serve their gods?" (Deut. xii. 30.) The intention of the prohibition thus
+      enunciated is well marked in the following words, 1 which
+      indicate that the writer believed that the adoption of heathen gods would
+      follow inquiry respecting them. It is not now-a-days feared that we may
+      become Mahometans if we read the Koran, or Buddhists if we study the
+      Dhammapada; but there are priests who fear that an inquiry into
+      ecclesiastical matters may make their followers Papists, Protestants,
+      Wesleyans, Baptists, Unitarians, or some other religion which the
+      Presbytery object to. The dislike of inquiry ever attends those who
+      profess a religion which is believed or known to be weak.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * "even so will I do likewise."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The philosopher of the present day, being freed from the shackles once
+      riveted around him by a dominant hierarchy, may regard the precept in
+      Deuteronomy in another light. Seeing that the same symbolism is common to
+      many forms of religion, professed in countries widely apart both as
+      regards time and space, he thinks that the danger of inquiry into faiths
+      is not the adoption of foreign, but the relinquishment of present methods
+      of religious belief. When we see the same ideas promulgated as divine
+      truth, on the ancient banks of the Ganges, and the modern shores of the
+      Mediterranean, we are constrained to admit that they have something common
+      in their source. They may be the result of celestial revelation, or they
+      may all alike emanate from human ingenuity. As men invent new forms of
+      religion now, there is a presumption that others may have done so
+      formerly. As all men are essentially human, so we may believe that their
+      inventions will be characterised by the virtues and the failings of
+      humanity. Again, experience tells us that similarity in thought involves
+      similarity in action. Two sportsmen, seeing a hare run off from between
+      them, will fire at it so simultaneously that each is unaware that the
+      other shot. So a resemblance in religious belief will eventuate in the
+      selection of analogous symbolism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We search into emblems with an intention different from that with which we
+      inquire into ordinary language. The last tells us of the relationship of
+      nations upon Earth, the first of the probable connections of mankind with
+      Heaven. The devout Christian believes that all who venerate the Cross may
+      hope for a happy eternity, without ever dreaming that the sign of his
+      faith is as ancient as Homeric Troy, and was used by the Phoenicians
+      probably before the Jews had any existence as a people; whilst an equally
+      pious Mahometan regards the Crescent as the passport to the realms of
+      bliss, without a thought that the symbol was in use long before the
+      Prophet of Allah was born, and amongst those nations which it was the
+      Prophet's mission to convert or to destroy. Letters and words mark the
+      ordinary current of man's thought, whilst religious symbols show the
+      nature of his aspirations. But all have this in common, viz., that they
+      may be misunderstood. Many a Brahmin has uttered prayers in a language to
+      him unintelligible; and many a Christian uses words in his devotions of
+      which he never seeks to know the meaning. "<i>Om manee pani" "Om manee
+      padme houm," "Amen" and "Ave Maria purissima</i>" may fairly be placed in
+      the same category. In like manner, the signification of an emblem may be
+      unknown. The antiquary finds in Lycian coins, and in Aztec ruins, figures
+      for which he can frame no meaning; whilst the ordinary church-goer also
+      sees, in his place of worship, designs of which none can give him a
+      rational explanation. Again, we find that a language may find professed
+      interpreters, whose system of exposition is wholly wrong; and the same may
+      be said of symbols. I have seen, for example, three distinctly different
+      interpretations given to one Assyrian inscription, and have heard as many
+      opposite explanations of a particular figure, all of which have been
+      incorrect.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the interpretation of unknown languages and symbols, the observer
+      gladly allows that much may be wrong; but this does not prevent him
+      believing that some may be right. In giving his judgment, he will examine
+      as closely as he can into the system adopted by each inquirer, the amount
+      of materials at his disposal, and, generally, the acumen which has been
+      brought to the task. Perhaps, in an investigation such as we describe, the
+      most important ingredient is care in collation and comparison. But a
+      scholar can only collate satisfactorily when he has sufficient means, and
+      these demand much time and research. The labour requires more time than
+      ordinary working folk can command, and more patience than those who have
+      leisure are generally disposed to give. Unquestionably, we have as yet had
+      few attempts in England to classify and explain ancient and modern
+      symbols. It is perhaps not strictly true that there has been so much a
+      laxity in the research, of which we here speak, as a dread of making
+      public the results of inquiry. Investigators, as a rule, have a respect
+      for their own prejudices, and dislike to make known to others a knowledge
+      which has brought pain to their own minds. Like the Brahmin of the story,
+      they will destroy a fine microscope rather than permit their
+      co-religionists to know that they drink living creatures in their water,
+      or eat mites in their fruit. The motto of such people is, "If truth is
+      disagreeable, cling to error."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The following attempts to explain much of ancient and modern symbolism can
+      only be regarded as tentative. The various devices contained herein seem
+      to me to support the views which I have been led to form from other
+      sources, by a careful inquiry into the signification of ancient names, and
+      the examination of ancient faiths. The figures were originally intended as
+      corroborative of evidence drawn from numerous ancient and modern writings;
+      and the idea of collecting them, and, as it were, making them speak for
+      themselves, has been an after-thought. In the following pages I have
+      simply reprinted the figures, etc., which appear in <i>Ancient Faiths
+      embodied in Ancient Names</i> (second edition). I make no attempt to
+      exhaust the subject. There are hundreds of emblems which find herein no
+      place; and there are explanations of symbols current to which I make no
+      reference, for they are simply <i>exoteric</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For the benefit of many of my readers, I must explain the meaning of the
+      last word italicised. In most, if not in all, forms of religion, there are
+      tenets not generally imparted to the vulgar, and only given to a select
+      few under the seal of secrecy. A similar reticence exists in common life.
+      There are secrets kept from children, for example, that are commonly known
+      to all parents; there are <i>arcana</i>, familiar to doctors, of which
+      patients have no idea. For example, when a lad innocently asks the family
+      surgeon, or his parent, where the last new baby came from, he is put off
+      with a reply, wide of the mark, yet sufficient for him. When I put such a
+      question to the maids in the kitchen, to which place for a time I was
+      relegated, the first answer was that the baby came from the parsley bed.
+      On hearing this, I went into the garden, and, finding the bed had been
+      unmoved, came back and reproached my informant for falsehood. Another then
+      took up the word, and said it was the carrot bed which the baby came from.
+      As a roar of laughter followed this remark, I felt that I was being
+      cheated, and asked no more questions. Then I could not, now I can,
+      understand the <i>esoteric</i> sense of the sayings. They had to the
+      servants two distinct significations. The only one which I could then
+      comprehend was <i>exoteric</i>; that which was known to my elders was the
+      <i>esoteric</i> meaning. In what is called "religion" there has been a
+      similar distinction. We see this, not only in the "mysteries" of Greece
+      and Rome, but amongst the Jews; Esdras stating the following as a command
+      from God, "Some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou show
+      secretly to the wise" (2 Esdras xv. 26).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When there exist two distinct explanations, or statements, about the
+      signification of an emblem, the one "esoteric," true, and known only to
+      the few, the other "exoteric," incorrect, and known to the many, it is
+      clear that a time may come when the first may be lost, and the last alone
+      remain. As an illustration, we can point to the original and correct
+      pronunciation of the word [&mdash;Hebrew&mdash;], commonly pronounced
+      Jehovah. Known only to a select few, it became lost when these died
+      without imparting it; yet what is considered to be the incorrect method of
+      pronouncing the word survives until to-day.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * It is supposed by some that Jahveh is the proper
+     pronunciation of this word, but as the first letter may
+     represent, ja, ya, or e, and the third u, v, or o, whilst
+     the second and fourth are the soft h, one may read the word
+     Jhuh, analogous to the Ju in Jupiter; Jehu, the name of a
+     king of Israel; Tahu as it is read on Assyrian inscriptions;
+     Jeho, as in Jehoshaphat; Ehoh, analogous to the Evoe or Ewe
+     associated with Bacchus; and Jaho, analogous to the J. A. O.
+     of the Gnostics. The Greek "Fathers" give the word as if
+     equivalent to yave, yaoh, yeho, and too.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But the question is not how the word may be pronounced, but how it was
+      expressed in sound when used in religion by the Hebrew and other Semitic
+      nations, amongst whom it was a sacred secret, or ineffable name, not
+      lightly to be "taken in vain."&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We may fairly assume that, when two such meanings exist, they are not
+      identical, and that the one most commonly received is not the correct one.
+      But when one alone is known to exist, it becomes a question whether
+      another should be sought. If, it may be asked, the common people are
+      contented with a fable, believing it true, why seek to enlighten them upon
+      its hidden meaning? To show the bearing of this subject, let us notice
+      what has always struck me as remarkable. The second commandment declares
+      to the Jews, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
+      likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth
+      beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down
+      thyself to them," etc. (Exod. xx. 4). Yet we find, in Numbers xxi., that
+      Jehovah ordered Moses to frame a brazen serpent, whose power was so
+      miraculous that those who only looked at it were cured of the evils
+      inflicted by thanatoid snakes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then again, in the temple of the God who is reported to have thus spoken,
+      and who is also said to have declared that He would dwell in the house
+      that Solomon made for Him, an ark, or box, was worshipped, and over it
+      Cherubim were seen. These were likenesses of something, and the first was
+      worshipped. We find it described as being so sacred that death once
+      followed a profane touching of it (2 Sam. vi. 6, 7), and no fewer than
+      50,070 people were done to death at Bethshemesh because somebody had
+      ventured to look inside the box, and had tried to search into the mystery
+      contained therein (1 Sam. vi. 19). It is curious that the Philistines, who
+      must have touched the box to put their strange offerings beside it (see 1
+      Sam. vi. 8), were not particularly bothered. They were "profane"; and
+      priests only invent stories, which are applicable to the arcana which they
+      use in worship, to blind the eyes of and give a holy horror to the people
+      whom they govern. How David worshipped the ark as being the representative
+      of God we see in 2 Sam. vi. 14, 16, 17, 21.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ark of the covenant was indeed regarded by the Jews much as a saint's
+      toe-nail, a crucifix, an image of the Virgin, a bit of wood, or a rusty
+      old nail is by the Roman Catholics. So flagrant an apparent breach of the
+      second commandment was covered for the common Hebrews by the assertion
+      that the mysterious box was a token of God's covenant with His people; but
+      that this statement was "exoteric," we feel sure, when we find a similar
+      ark existing and used in "the mysteries" of Egypt and Greece, amongst
+      people who probably never heard of Jews, and could by no chance know what
+      passed in the Hebrew temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When become dissatisfied with a statement, which is evidently intended to
+      be a blind, some individuals naturally endeavour to ascertain what is
+      behind the curtain. In this they resemble the brave boy, who rushes upon a
+      sheet and turnip lantern, which has imposed upon his companions and passed
+      for a ghost. What is a bugbear to the many is often a contemptible reptile
+      to the few. Yet there are a great number who would rather run from a
+      phantom night after night than grapple with it once, and would dissuade
+      others from being bold enough to encounter it. Nevertheless, even the
+      former rejoice when the cheat is exposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As when, by some courageous hand, that which has been mistaken by hundreds
+      for a spectre has been demonstrated to be a crafty man, no one would
+      endeavour to demonstrate the reality of ghosts by referring to the many
+      scores of men of all ranks who had been duped by the apparition thus
+      detected; so, in like manner, when the falsehood of an exoteric story is
+      exhibited, it is no argument in its favour that the vulgar in thousands
+      and many a wise man have believed it. Speaking metaphorically, we have
+      many such ghosts amongst ourselves; phantoms, which pass for powerful
+      giants, but are in reality perfect shams. Such we may describe by
+      comparing them to the apocryphal vampires. It is to me a melancholy thing
+      to contemplate the manner in which mankind have, in every age and nation,
+      made for themselves bugbears, and then have felt fear at them. We deride
+      the African, who manufactures a Fetish, and then trembles at its power,
+      but the learned know perfectly well that men made the devil, whom the
+      pious fear, just as a negro dreads Mumbo Jumbo.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the fictitious narratives which passed for truth in the dark ages of
+      Christianity, there were accounts of individuals who died and were buried,
+      and who, after a brief repose in the tomb, rose again. Some imagined that
+      the resuscitated being was the identical one who had been interred. Others
+      believed that some evil spirit had appropriated the body, and restored to
+      it apparent vitality. Whatever the fiction was, the statement remained
+      unchallenged, that some dead folk returned to earth, having the same guise
+      as when they quitted it. We believe that a similar occurrence has taken
+      place in religion. Heathendom died, and was buried; yet, after a brief
+      interval, it rose again from its tomb. But, unlike the vampire, its garb
+      was changed, and it was not recognised. It moved through Christendom in a
+      seductive dress. If it were a devil, yet its clothing was that of a sheep;
+      if a wolf, it wore broadcloth. If it ravened, the victims were not pitied.
+      Heathenism, by which I mean the manners, morals and rites prevalent in
+      pagan times or countries, like a resuscitated vampire, once bore rule
+      throughout Christendom, in which term is included all those parts where
+      Christian baptism is used by all the people, or the vast majority. In most
+      parts it still reigns supreme.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When vampires were discovered by the acumen of any observer, they were, we
+      are told, ignominiously killed, by a stake being driven through the body;
+      but experience showed them to have such tenacity of life that they rose
+      again, and again, notwithstanding renewed impalement, and were not
+      ultimately laid to rest till wholly burnt. In like manner, the regenerated
+      Heathendom, which dominates over the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, has
+      risen again and again, after being transfixed. Still cherished by the
+      many, it is denounced by the few. Amongst other accusers, I raise my voice
+      against the Paganism which exists so extensively in ecclesiastical
+      Christianity, and will do my utmost to expose the imposture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a vampire story, told in <i>Thalaba</i>, by Southey, the resuscitated
+      being takes the form of a dearly beloved maiden, and the hero is obliged
+      to kill her with his own hand. He does so; but, whilst he strikes the form
+      of the loved one, he feels sure that he slays only a demon. In like
+      manner, when I endeavour to destroy the current Heathenism, which has
+      assumed the garb of Christianity, I do not attack real religion. Few would
+      accuse a workman of malignancy who cleanses from filth the surface of a
+      noble statue. There may be some who are too nice to touch a nasty subject;
+      yet even they will rejoice when some one else removes the dirt. Such a
+      scavenger is much wanted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I were to assert, as a general proposition, that religion does not
+      require any symbolism, I should probably win assent from every true Scotch
+      Presbyterian, every Wesleyan, and every Independent. Yet I should be
+      opposed by every Papist, and by most Anglican Churchmen. But why? Is it
+      not because their ecclesiastics have adopted symbolism into their churches
+      and into their ritual? They have broken the second commandment of Jehovah,
+      and refuse to see anything wrong in their practice or gross in their
+      imagery. But they adopt Jehovah rather than Elohim, and break the
+      commandments, said to be given upon Sinai, in good company.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The reader of the following pages will probably feel more interest therein
+      if he has some clue whereby he may guide himself through their labyrinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the earliest known times there seems to have been in every civilised
+      nation the idea of an unseen power. In the speculations of thoughtful
+      minds a necessity is recognised for the existence of a Being who made all
+      things&mdash;who is at times beneficent, sending rain and warmth, and who
+      at others sends storm, plague, famine, and war. After the crude idea has
+      taken possession of the thoughts, there has been a desire to know
+      something more of this Creator, and an examination into the works of
+      Nature has been made with the view to ascertain the will and designs of
+      the Supreme. In every country this great One has been supposed to inhabit
+      the heaven above us, and consequently all celestial phenomena have been
+      noticed carefully. But the mind soon got weary of contemplating about an
+      essence, and, contenting itself with the belief that there was a Power,
+      began to investigate the nature of His ministers. These, amongst the
+      Aryans, were the sun, fire, storm, wind, the sky, the day, night, etc. An
+      intoxicating drink, too, was regarded as an emanation from the Supreme.
+      With this form of belief men lived as they had done ere it existed, and in
+      their relations with each other may be compared to such high class animals
+      as elephants. Men can live peaceably together without religion, just as do
+      the bisons, buffaloes, antelopes, and even wolves. The assumption that
+      some form of faith is absolutely a necessity for man is only founded on
+      the fancies of some religious fanatics who know little of the world.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * Whilst these sheets were passing through the press, there
+     appeared a work, published anonymously, but reported to be
+     by one of the most esteemed theologians who ever sat upon an
+     episcopal bench. It is entitled Supernatural Religion.
+     London: Longmans, 1874. From it we quote the following, vol.
+     ii., p. 489:&mdash;
+
+     "We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief
+     in the reality of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain pure
+     and unimpaired the treasure of Christian Morality, we
+     relinquish nothing but the debasing elements added to it by
+     human superstition. We are no longer bound to believe a
+     theology which outrages reason and moral sense. We are freed
+     from base anthropomorphic views of God and His government of
+     the universe; and from Jewish Mythology we rise to higher
+     conceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being,
+     hidden from our finite minds, it is true, in the
+     impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose Laws of wondrous
+     comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in
+     operation around us. We are no longer disturbed by visions
+     of fitful interference with the order of Nature, but we
+     recognise that the Being who regulates the universe is
+     without variableness or shadow of turning. It is singular
+     how little there is in the supposed Revelation of alleged
+     information, however incredible, regarding that which is
+     beyond the limits of human thought, but that little is of a
+     character which reason declares to be the wildest delusion.
+     Let no man whose belief in the reality of a Divine
+     Revelation may be destroyed by such an inquiry complain that
+     he has lost a precious possession, and that nothing is left
+     but a blank. The Revelation not being a reality, that which
+     he has lost was but an illusion, and that which is left is
+     the Truth. If he be content with illusions, he will speedily
+     be consoled; if he be a lover only of truth, instead of a
+     blank, he will recognise that the reality before him is full
+     of great peace.
+
+     "If we know less than we have supposed of man's destiny, we
+     may at least rejoice that we are no longer compelled to
+     believe that which is unworthy. The limits of thought once
+     attained, we may well be unmoved in the assurance that all
+     that we do know of the regulation of the universe being so
+     perfect and wise, all that we do not know must be equally
+     so. Here enters the true and noble Faith&mdash;which is the child
+     of reason. If we have believed a system, the details of
+     which must at one time or another have shocked the mind of
+     every intelligent man, and believed it simply because it was
+     supposed to be revealed, we may equally believe in the
+     wisdom and goodness of what is not revealed. The mere act of
+     communication to us is nothing: Faith in the perfect
+     ordering of all things is independent of Revelation.
+
+     "The argument so often employed by Theologians that Divine
+     Revelation is necessary for man, and that certain views
+     contained in that Revelation are required by our moral
+     consciousness, is purely imaginary, and derived from the
+     Revelation which it seeks to maintain. The only thing
+     absolutely necessary for man is Truth and to that, and that
+     alone, must our moral consciousness adapt itself."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But as there is variety in the workings of the human mind, so there were
+      differences in the way wherein the religious idea was carried out. Some
+      regarded the sun and moon, the constellations and the planets, as
+      ministers of the unseen One, and, reasoning from what was known to what
+      was unknown, argued thus: "Throughout nature there seems to be a dualism.
+      In the sky there are a sun and moon; there are also sun and earth, earth
+      and sea. In every set of animals there are males and females." An inquiry
+      into the influence of the sun brought out the facts that by themselves its
+      beams were destructive; they were only beneficent when the earth was moist
+      with rain. As the rain from heaven, then, caused things on earth to grow,
+      it was natural that the main source of light and heat should be regarded
+      as a male, and the earth as a female. As a male, the sun was supposed to
+      have the emblems of virility, and a spouse whom he impregnated, and who
+      thereby became fertile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In examining ancient Jewish, Phoenician, and other Shemitic cognomens, I
+      found that they consisted of a divine name and some attribute of the
+      deity, and that the last was generally referable equally to the Supreme,
+      to the Sun, as a god, and to the masculine emblem. If the deity was a
+      female, the name of her votary contained a reference to the moon and the
+      beauties or functions of women. The higher ideas of the Creator were held
+      only by a few, the many adopted a lower and more debased view. In this
+      manner the sun became a chief god and the moon his partner, and the former
+      being supposed to be male and the latter female, both became associated
+      with the ideas which all have of terrestrial animals. Consequently the
+      solar deity was associated in symbolism with masculine and the moon with
+      feminine emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      An inquiry into antiquity, as represented by Babylonians, Assyrians,
+      Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, and others,
+      and into modern faiths still current, as represented in the peninsula of
+      India, in the Lebanon, and elsewhere, shows that ideas of sex have been
+      very generally associated with that of creation. God has been described as
+      a king, or as a queen, or as both united. As monarch, he is supposed to be
+      man, or woman, or both. As man differs from woman in certain
+      peculiarities, these very means of distinction have been incorporated into
+      the worship of god and goddess. Rival sects have been ranged in ancient
+      times under the symbol of the T and the O as in later times they are under the
+      cross and the crescent. The worship of God the Father has repeatedly
+      clashed with that of God the Mother, and the votaries of each respectively
+      have worn badges characteristic of the sex of their deity. An illustration
+      of this is to be seen amongst ourselves; one sect of Christians adoring
+      chiefly the Trinity, another reverencing the Virgin. There is a well-known
+      picture, indeed, of Mary worshipping her infant; and to the former is
+      given the title <i>Mater Creatoris</i>, "the mother of the Creator." Our
+      sexual sections are as well marked as those in ancient Jerusalem, which
+      swore by Jehovah and Ashtoreth respectively.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The idea of sexuality in religion is quite compatible with a ritual and
+      practice of an elaborate character, and a depth of piety which prefers
+      starvation to impurity, or, as the Bible has it, to uncleanness. To eat
+      "with the blood" was amongst the Hebrews a crime worthy of death; to eat
+      with unwashed hands was a dreadful offence in the eyes of the Pharisees of
+      Jerusalem; and in the recent famine in Bengal, we have seen that
+      individuals would rather die of absolute hunger, and allow their children
+      to perish too, than eat bread or rice which may have been touched by
+      profane hands, or drink milk that had been expressed by British milkmaids
+      from cows' udders. Yet these same Hindoos, the very particular sect of the
+      Brahmins, have amongst themselves a form of worship which to our ideas is
+      incompatible with real religion. The folks referred to adore the Creator,
+      and respect their ceremonial law even more deeply, than did the Hebrews
+      after the time of the Babylonish captivity; but they have a secret cult in
+      which&mdash;and in the most, matter-of-fact way&mdash;they pay a very
+      practical homage to one or other of the parts which is thought by the
+      worshipper to be a mundane emblem of the Creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The curious will find in <i>Essays on the Religion of the Hindus</i>, by
+      H. H. Wilson, in the <i>Dabistan</i>, translated by Shea and Troyer (Allen
+      and Co., London), 3 vols., 8vo., and in <i>Memoirs of the Anthropological
+      Society of London</i> (Trübner and Co.), vols. 1 and 2, much information
+      on the method of conducting the worship referred to. The first named
+      author thinks it advisable to leave the Brahminic "rubric" for the "Sakti
+      Sodhana," for the most part under the veil of the original Sanscrit, and I
+      am not disposed wholly to withdraw it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But Christians are not pure; some of my readers may have seen a work
+      written by an Italian lady of high birth, who was in early life forced
+      into a nunnery, and who left it as soon as she had a chance. In her
+      account she tells us how the women in the monastery were seduced by
+      reverend Fathers, who were at one time the instruments of vice, at another
+      the guides to penitence. Their practice was to instruct their victims that
+      whatever was said or done must be accompanied by a pious sentence. Thus,
+      "I love you dearly" was a profane expression; but "I desire your company
+      in the name of Jesus," and "I embrace in you the Holy Virgin," were
+      orthodox. In like manner, the Hindus have prayers prescribed for their
+      use, when the parts are to be purified prior to proceeding to extremities,
+      when they are introduced to each other, in the agitation which follows,
+      and when the ceremony is completed. Everything is done, as Ritualists
+      would say, decently and in order; and a pious orgie, sanctified by
+      prayers, cannot be worse than the penance ordained by some "confessors" to
+      those faithful damsels whose minds are plastic enough to believe that a
+      priest is an embodiment of the Holy Ghost, and that they become
+      assimilated to the Blessed Virgin when they are overshadowed by the power
+      of the Highest (Luke i. 85).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There being, then, in "religion" a strong sensual element, ingenuity has
+      been exercised to a wonderful extent in the contrivance of designs, nearly
+      or remotely significant of this idea, or rather union of the conceptions
+      to which we have referred. Jupiter is a Proteus in form; now a man, now a
+      bull, now a swan, now an androgyne. Juno, or her equivalent, is sometimes
+      a woman, occasionally a lioness, and at times a cow. All conceivable
+      attributes of man and woman were symbolised; and gods were called by the
+      names of power, love, anger, desire, revenge, fortune, etc. Everything in
+      creation that resembled in any way the presumed Creator, whether in name,
+      in character, or in shape, was supposed to represent the deity. Hence a
+      palm tree was a religious emblem, because it is long, erect, and round; an
+      oak, for it is hard and firm; a fig-tree, because its leaves resemble the
+      male triad. The ivy was sacred from a similar cause. A myrtle was also a
+      type, but of the female, because its leaf is a close representation of the
+      <i>vesica piscis</i>. Everything, indeed, which in any way resembles the
+      characteristic organs of man and woman, became symbolic of the one or the
+      other deity, Jupiter or Juno, Jehovah or Astarte, the Father or the
+      Virgin. Sometimes, but very rarely, the parts in question were depicted <i>au
+      naturel</i>, and the means by which creation is effected became the
+      mundane emblem of the Almighty; and two huge phalli were seen before a
+      temple, as we now see towers or spires before our churches, and minarets
+      before mosques. (Lucian, <i>Dea Syria</i>.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Generally, however, it was considered the most correct plan to represent
+      the organs by some conventional form, understood by the initiated, but not
+      by the unlearned. Whatever was upright, and longer than broad, became
+      symbolic of the father; whilst that which was hollow, cavernous, oval, or
+      circular, symbolised the mother. A sword, spear, arrow, dart, battering
+      ram, spade, ship's prow, anything indeed intended to pierce into something
+      else was emblematic of the male; whilst the female was symbolised as a
+      door, a hole, a sheath, a target, a shield, a field, anything indeed which
+      was to be entered. The Hebrew names sufficiently indicate the plan upon
+      which the sexes were distinguished; the one is a <i>zachar</i>, a
+      perforator or digger, and the other <i>nekebah</i>, a hole or trench, i,
+      e. male and female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These symbols were not necessarily those of religious belief. They might
+      indicate war, heroism, prowess, royalty, command, etc., or be nothing more
+      than they really were. They only symbolised the Creator when they were
+      adopted into religion. Again, there was a still farther refinement; and
+      advantage was taken of the fact, that one symbol was tripliform, the other
+      single; one of one shape, and the other different. Consequently, a
+      triangle, or three things, arranged so that one should stand above the
+      two, became emblematic of the Father, whilst an unit symbolised the
+      Mother.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These last three sentences deserve close attention, for some individuals
+      have, in somewhat of a senseless fashion, objected, that a person who can
+      see in a tortoise an emblem of the male, and in a horse-shoe an effigy of
+      the female organ, must be quite too fantastical to deserve notice. But to
+      me, as to other inquirers, these things are simply what they appear to be
+      when they are seen in common life. Yet when the former creature occupies a
+      large space in mythology; when the Hindoo places it as the being upon
+      which the world stands, and the Greeks represent one Venus as resting upon
+      a tortoise and another on a goat; and when one knows that in days gone by,
+      in which people were less refined, the [&mdash;Greek&mdash;] was displayed
+      where the horse-shoe is now, and that some curiously mysterious attributes
+      were assigned to the part in question; we cannot refuse to see the thing
+      signified in the sign.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, inasmuch as what we may call the most prominent part of the
+      tripliform organ was naturally changeable in character, being at one time
+      soft, small, and pendent, and at another hard, large, and upright, those
+      animals that resembled it in these respects became symbolical. Two
+      serpents, therefore, one Indian, and the other Egyptian, both of which are
+      able to distend their heads and necks, and to raise them up erect, were
+      emblematic, and each in its respective country typified the father, the
+      great Creator. In like manner, another portion of the triad was regarded
+      as similar in shape and size to the common hen's egg. As the celebrated
+      physiologist, Haller, remarked, "<i>Omne vivum ex ovo</i>" every living
+      thing comes from an egg; so more ancient biologists recognised that the
+      dual part of the tripliform organ was as essential to the creation of a
+      new being as the central pillar. Hence an egg and a serpent became a
+      characteristic of "the Father," El, Ab, Ach, Baal, Asher, Melech, Adonai,
+      Jahu, etc. When to this was added a half moon, as in certain Tyrian coins,
+      the trinity and unity were symbolised, and a faith expressed like the one
+      held in modern Rome, that the mother of creation is co-equal with the
+      father; the one seduces by her charms, and the other makes them fructify.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To the Englishman, who, as a rule, avoids talking upon the subject which
+      forms the basis of many an ancient religion, it may seem incredible that
+      any individual, or set of writers, could have exercised their ingenuity in
+      finding circumlocutory euphemisms for things which, though natural, are
+      rarely named. Yet the wonder ceases when we find, in the writings of our
+      lively neighbours, the French, a host of words intended to describe the
+      parts referred to, which correspond wholly with the pictorial emblems
+      adopted by the Greeks and others.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As English writers have, as a rule, systematically avoided making any
+      distinct reference to the sexual ideas embodied in ancient Paganism, so
+      they have, by their silence, encouraged the formation of a school of
+      theology which has no solid foundation, except a very animal one. As each
+      individual finds out this for himself, it becomes a question with him how
+      far the information shall be imparted to others. So rarely has the
+      determination to accuse the vampire been taken, that we can point to very
+      few English books to which to refer our readers. We do not know one such
+      that is easily accessible; K. Payne Knight's work, and the addition
+      thereto, having been privately printed, is not often to be found in the
+      market. To give a list of the foreign works which the author has
+      consulted, prior to and during the composition of his book on Ancient
+      Faiths, would be almost equivalent to giving a catalogue of part of his
+      library. He may, however, indicate the name of one work which is unusually
+      valuable for reference, viz., <i>Histoire abrégée des Differens Cultes</i>,
+      par J. A. Dulaure, 2 vols., small 8vo., Paris, 1825. Though out of print,
+      copies can generally be procured through second-hand booksellers. Another
+      work, <i>'Récherches sur les Mystères de Paganisme</i>, by St. Croix, is
+      equally valuable, but it is very difficult to procure a copy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The ancient Jews formed no exception to the general law of reverence for
+      the male emblem of the Creator; and though we would, from their
+      pretensions to be the chosen people of God, gladly find them exempt from
+      what we consider to be impurities, we are constrained to believe that,
+      even in the worship of Jehovah, more respect was given to the symbol than
+      we, living in modern times, think that it deserves. In their Scriptures we
+      read of Noah, whose infirm temper seems to have been on a par with his
+      weakness for wine, cursing one of his three sons because, whilst drunk, he
+      had negligently exposed his person, and the young man had thought the
+      sight an amusing one. Ham had no reverence for the symbol of the Creator,
+      but Shem and Japhet had, and covered it with a veil as respectfully as if
+      it had been the ineffable framer of the world (Gen. ix. 21-27). As our
+      feelings of propriety induce us to think that the father was a far greater
+      sinner than the son, we rejoice to know that the causeless curse never
+      fell, and that Ham, in the lands of Canaan, Assyria, and Babylonia, and
+      subsequently in Carthaginian Spain, were the masters of those Hebrews,
+      whose main force, in old times, lay in impotent scoldings, such, as
+      Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Caliban.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One of the best proofs of the strong sexual element which existed in the
+      religion of the Jews is the fact that Elohim, one of the names of the
+      Creator amongst the Hebrews, is represented, Gen. xvii. 10-14, as making
+      circumcision a sign of his covenant with the seed of Abraham; and in order
+      to ascertain whether a man was to be regarded as being in the covenant,
+      God is supposed to have looked at the state of the virile organ, or&mdash;as
+      the Scripture has it&mdash;of the hill of the foreskin. We find, indeed,
+      that Jehovah was quite as particular, and examined a male quite as closely
+      as Elohim: for when Moses and Zipporah were on their way from Midian to
+      Egypt, Exod. iv. 24, Jehovah having looked at the "trinity" of Moses' son,
+      and having found it as perfect as when the lad was born, sought to slay
+      him, and would have done so unless the mother had mutilated the organ
+      according to the sacred pattern. Again, we find in Josh. v. 2, and in the
+      following verses, that Jehovah insisted upon all the Hebrew males having
+      their virile member in the covenant condition ere they went to attack the
+      Canaanites. We cannot suppose that any scribe could dwell so much as
+      almost every scriptural writer does upon the subject of circumcision, had
+      not the masculine emblem been held in religious veneration amongst the
+      Jewish nation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But the David who leaped and danced, obscenely as we should say, before
+      the ark&mdash;an emblem of the female creator&mdash;who purchased his wife
+      from her royal father by mutilating a hundred Philistines, and presenting
+      the foreskins which he had cut off therefrom "in full tale" to the king (1
+      Sam. xviii. 27, 2 Sam. iii. 14), who was once the captain of a monarch who
+      thought it a shame beyond endurance to be abused, tortured, or slain by
+      men whose persons were in a natural condition (1 Sam. xxxi. 4), and who
+      imagined that he, although a stripling, could conquer a giant, because the
+      one had a sanctified and the other a natural member&mdash;is the man whom
+      we know as the author of Psalms with which Christians still refresh their
+      minds and comfort their souls. The king who, even in his old age, was
+      supposed to think so much of women that his courtiers sought a lovely
+      damsel as a comfort for his dying bed, is believed to have been the author
+      of the noble nineteenth Psalm, and a number of others full of holy
+      aspirations. It is clear, then, that sexual ideas on religion are not
+      incompatible with a desire to be holy. The two were co-existent in
+      Palestine; they are equally so in Bengal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We next find that Abraham, the cherished man of God, the honoured
+      patriarch of the Jews, makes his servant lay his hand upon the master's
+      member, whilst he takes an oath to do his bidding, precisely like a more
+      modern Palestinian might do; and Jacob does the same with Joseph. See Gen.
+      xxiv. 8, and xlvii. 29.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it is not generally known that the expression, "under my thigh," is a
+      euphemism for the words, "upon the symbol of the Creator," I may point to
+      two or three other passages in which the <i>thigh</i> (translated in the
+      authorised version <i>loins</i>) is used periphrastically: Genesis xxxv.
+      2, xlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5. See Ginsburg, in Kitto's <i>Biblical Cyclopadia</i>,
+      vol. 8, p. 848, 8. v. Oath.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have on two occasions read, although I failed to make a note of it, that
+      an Arab, during the Franco-Egyptian war, when accused by General Kleber of
+      treachery, not only vehemently denied it, but when he saw himself still
+      distrusted, he uncovered himself before the whole military staff, and
+      swore upon his trinity that he was guiltless. In the Lebanon, once in each
+      year, every female considers it her duty to salute with her lips the
+      reverenced organ of the Old Sheik.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again we learn, from Deut. xxiii. 1, that any unsanctified mutilation of
+      this part positively entailed expulsion from the congregation of the Lord.
+      Even a priest of the house of Aaron could not minister, as such, if his
+      masculinity had been in any way impaired (Lev. xxi. 20); and report says
+      that, in our Christian times, Popes have to be privately perfect; see also
+      Deut. xxv. 11, 12. Moreover, the inquirer finds that the Jewish Scriptures
+      teem with promises of abundant offspring to those who were the favourites
+      of Jehovah; and Solomon, the most glorious of their monarchs, is described
+      as if he were a Hercules amongst the daughters of Thespius. Nothing can
+      indicate the licentiousness of the inhabitants of Jerusalem more clearly
+      than the writings of Ezekiel.* If, then, in Hebrew law and practice, we
+      find such a strong infusion of the sexual element, we cannot be surprised
+      if it should be found elsewhere, and gradually influence Christianity.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * See Ezekiel xxii. 1-30, and compare Jerem. v. 7, 8.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      We must next notice the fact, that what we call impurity in religious
+      tenets does not necessarily involve indecency in practice. The ancient
+      Romans, in the time of the early kings, seem to have been as proper as
+      early Christian maidens. It is true that, in the declining days of the
+      empire, exhibitions that called forth the fierce denunciations of the
+      fathers of the Church took place; but we find very similar occurrences in
+      modern Christian capitals. In Spartan days, chastity and honesty were not
+      virtues, but drunkenness was a vice. In Christian England, drunkenness is
+      general, and we cannot pride ourselves upon universal honesty and
+      chastity. It is not the national belief, but the national practice, which
+      evidences a people's worth. Spain and Ireland, called respectively
+      "Catholic" and "the land of saints," cannot boast of equality with
+      "infidel" France and "free-thinking" Prussia. England will be as earnest,
+      as upright, and as civilised, when she has abandoned the heathen elements
+      in her religion, as when she hugs them as if necessary to her spiritual
+      welfare. Attachment to the good parts of religion is wholly distinct from
+      a close embrace of the bad ones; and we believe he deserves best of his
+      country who endeavours to remove every possible source of discord. None
+      can doubt the value of the order, "Do to others as you would wish others
+      to do to you." If all unite to carry this out, small differences of
+      opinion may at once be sunk. How worthless are many of the dogmas that
+      people now fight about, the following pages will show.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In our larger work we have endeavoured to show that there may be a deep
+      sense of religion, a feeling of personal responsibility, so keen as to
+      influence every act of life, without there being a single symbol used. The
+      earnest Sakya Muni, or Buddha, never used anything as a sacred emblem; nor
+      did Jesus, who followed him, and perhaps unconsciously propagated the
+      Indian's doctrine. When the Apostles were sent out to teach and preach,
+      they were not told to carry out any form of ark or crucifix. To them the
+      doctrine of the Trinity was unknown, and not one of them had any
+      particular reverence for her whom we call the Virgin Mary, who, if she was
+      '<i>virgo intacta</i>' when Jesus was born, was certainly different when
+      she bore his brothers. Paul and Peter, though said to be the fathers of
+      the Roman Church, never used or recommended the faithful to procure for
+      themselves "a cross" as an aid to memory. The early Christians recognised
+      each other by their deeds, and never had, like the Jews, to prove that
+      they were in covenant with God, by putting a mutilated part of their body
+      into full view. We, with the Society of Friends, prefer primitive to
+      modern Christianity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the following pages the author has felt himself obliged to make use of
+      words which are probably only known to those who are more or less
+      "scholars." He has to treat of parts of the human body, and acts which
+      occur habitually in the world, which in modern times are never referred to
+      in polite society, but which, in the period when the Old Testament was
+      written, were spoken of as freely as we now talk of our hands and feet. In
+      those days, everything which was common was spoken of without shame, and
+      that which occurred throughout creation, and was seen by every one, was as
+      much the subject of conversation as eating and drinking is now. The
+      Hebrew-writers were extremely coarse in their diction, and although this
+      has been softened down by subsequent redactors, much which is in our
+      modern judgment improper still remains. For example, where we simply
+      indicate the sex, the Jewish historians used the word which was given to
+      the symbol by which male and female are known; for example, in Gen. i. 27,
+      and v. 2, and in a host of other places, the masculine and feminine are
+      spoken of as <i>zachar</i> and <i>nekebah</i>, which is best translated as
+      "borers" and "bored." Another equally vulgar way of describing men is to
+      be found in 1 Kings xiv. 10. But these observations would not serve us
+      much in symbolism did we not know that they were associated with certain
+      euphemisms by which when one thing is said another is intended; for an
+      illustration let us take Isaiah vii. 20, and ask what is meant by the
+      phrase, "the hair of the feet"? It is certain that the feet are never
+      hairy, and consequently can never be shaved. Again, when we find in Gen.
+      xlix. 10, "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
+      between his feet," and compare this with Deut. xxviii. 57, and 2 Kings
+      xviii. 27, where the words are, in the original, "the water of their
+      feet," it is clear that symbolic language is used to express something
+      which, if put into the vernacular, would be objectionable to ears polite.
+      Again, in Genesis xxiv. 2 and xlvii. 29, and in Heb. xi. 21, it is well
+      known to scholars that the word "thigh" and "staff" are euphemisms to
+      express that part which represents the male. In Deut. xxiii. 1, we have
+      evidence, as in the last three verses quoted, of the sanctity of the part
+      referred to, but the language is less refined. Now-a-days our ears are not
+      attuned to the rough music which pleased our ancestors, and we have to use
+      veiled language to express certain matters. In the following pages, the
+      words which I select are drawn from the Latin, Greek, Sanscrit, Shemitic,
+      or Egyptian. Hea, Ann, and Asher replace the parts referred to in Deut.
+      xxiii. 1; Osiris, Asher, Linga, Mahadeva, Siva, Priapus, Phallus, etc.,
+      represent the Hebrew <i>zachar </i>; whilst Isis, Parvati, Yoni, Sacti,
+      Astarte, Ishtar, etc., replace the Jewish <i>nekebah</i>. The junction of
+      these parts is spoken of as Ashtoreth, Baalim, Elohim, the trinity and
+      unity, the androgyne deity, the arba, or mystic four, and the like.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I will only add, that what I refer to has long been known to almost every
+      scholar except English ones. Of these a few are learned; but for a long
+      period they have systematically refrained from speaking plainly, and have
+      written in such a manner as to be guilty not only of <i>suppressio veri</i>
+      but of <i>suggestio falsi</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      After reading thus far, I can imagine many a person saying with
+      astonishment, "Are these things so?" and following up his thoughts by
+      wondering what style of persons they were, or are, who could introduce
+      into religion such matters as those of which we have treated.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In reply, I can only say that I have nothing extenuated, and set down
+      nought in malice. But the first clause of the assertion requires
+      modification, for in this volume there are many things omitted which I
+      have referred to at length in my larger work. In that I have shown, not
+      only that religious fornication existed in ancient Babylon, but that there
+      is reason to believe that it existed also in Palestine. The word [&mdash;Hebrew&mdash;]
+      <i>Kadesh</i>, which signifies "pure, bright, young, to be holy, or to be
+      consecrated," is also the root from which are formed the words <i>Kadeshah</i>
+      and <i>Kadeshim</i>, which are used in the Hebrew writings, and are
+      translated in our authorised version "whore" and "sodomite." See Bent,
+      xxiii. 17.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Athanasius tells us something of this as regards the Phoenicians, for he
+      says, (<i>Oratio Contr. Gent</i>., part i., p. 24.) "Formerly, it is
+      certain that Phoenician women prostituted themselves before their idols,
+      offering their bodies to their gods in the place of first fruits, being
+      persuaded that they pleased the goddess by that means, and made her
+      propitious to them."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Strabo mentions a similar occurrence at Comana, in Pontus, book xiii., c.
+      iii. p. 86&mdash;and notices that an enormous number of women were
+      consecrated to the use of worshippers in the temple of Venus at Corinth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such women exist in India, and the priests of certain temples do
+      everything in their power to select the loveliest of the sex, and to
+      educate them so highly as to be attractive.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The customs which existed in other places seem to have been known in
+      Jerusalem, as we find in 1 Kings xiv. 24., XV. 12, that <i>Kadeshim</i>
+      were common in Judea, and in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, we discover that these
+      "consecrated ones" were located "by the temple," and were associated with
+      women whose business was "to make hangings for the grove." What these
+      tissues were and what use was made of them will be seen in Ezekiel xvi.
+      16.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even David, when dancing before the ark, shamelessly exposed himself.
+      Solomon erected two pillars in the porch of his temple, and called them
+      Jachin and Boaz, and added pomegranate ornaments. We have seen how Abraham
+      and Jacob ordered their inferiors to swear by putting the hand upon "the
+      thigh"; and we have read of the atrocities which occurred in Jerusalem in
+      the time of Ezekiel. Yet the Jews are still spoken of as God's chosen
+      people, and the Psalmist as a man after God's own heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But without going so far back, let us inquire into the conduct of the
+      sensual Turks, and of the general run of the inhabitants of Hindostan.
+      From everything that I can learn&mdash;and I have repeatedly conversed
+      with those who have known the Turks and Hindoos familiarly&mdash;these are
+      in every position in life as morally good as common Christians are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My readers must not now assert that I am either a partisan or a special
+      pleader when I say this; they must consider that I am making the
+      comparison as man by man. I do not, as missionaries do, compare the most
+      vicious Mahomedan and Brahmin with the most exemplary Christian; nor do I,
+      on the other hand, compare the best Ottoman and Indian with Christian
+      criminals; but I take the whole in a mass, and assert that there is as
+      large a percentage of good folks in India and Turkey as there is in Spain
+      and France, England or America.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grossest form of worship is compatible with general purity of morals.
+      The story of Lucretia is told of a Pagan woman, whilst those of Er and
+      Onan, Tamar and Judah relate to Hebrews. David, who seduced Bathsheba, and
+      killed her husband, was not execrated by "God's people," nor was he
+      consequently driven from his throne as Tarquin was by the Romans.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In prowess and learning, the Babylonians, with their religious
+      prostitution, were superior to the "chosen people." Of the wealth and
+      enterprise of the Phoenicians, Ancient History tells us abundance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are probably no three cities in ancient or modern times which
+      contain so many vicious individuals as London, Paris, and New York. Yet
+      there are none which history tells us of that were more powerful. No
+      Babylonian army equalled in might or numbers the army of the Northern
+      United States. Nineveh never wielded armies equal to those of the French
+      Napoleon and the German William, and Rome never had an empire equal to
+      that which is headed by London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The existence of personal vice does not ruin a nation in its collective
+      capacity. Nor does the most sensual form of religion stunt the prosperity
+      of a people, so long as the latter do not bow their necks to a priesthood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest curse to a nation is not a bad religion, but a form of faith
+      which prevents manly inquiry. I know of no nation of old that was
+      priest-ridden which did not fall under the swords of those who did not
+      care for hierarchs.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The greatest danger is to be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at
+      vice, and encourage it as a means whereby they can gain power over their
+      votaries. So long as every man does to other men as he would that they
+      should do to him, and allows no one to interfere between him and his
+      Maker, all will go well with the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst the following sheets were going through the press, my friend Mr.
+      Newton, who has not only assisted me in a variety of ways, but who has
+      taken a great deal of interest in the subject of symbolism, gave me to
+      understand that there were some matters in which he differed very strongly
+      from me in opinion. One of these was as to the correct interpretation of
+      the so-called Assyrian grove; another was the signification of one of
+      Lajard's gems, Plate iv., Fig. 3; and the most conspicuous of our
+      divergencies was respecting the fundamental, or basic idea, which prompted
+      the use in religion of those organs of reproduction which have, from time
+      immemorial, been venerated in Hindostan, and, as far as we can learn, in
+      Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, Jerusalem,
+      Etruria, Greece, and Rome, as well as in countries called uncivilised. I
+      feel quite disposed to acquiesce in the opinions which my old friend has
+      formed respecting the Assyrian grove, but I am not equally ready to assent
+      to his other opinions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Where two individuals are working earnestly for the elucidation of truth,
+      there ought, in my opinion, to be not only a tolerance of disagreement,
+      but an honest effort to submit the subject to a jury of thoughtful
+      readers.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I should not feel satisfied to allow any other person to express my
+      opinions in his words, it seemed to me only fair to Mr. Newton to give him
+      the facility of enunciating his views in his own language. It was
+      intended, originally, that my friend's observations upon the "grove"
+      should be followed by a dissertation upon other relics of antiquity&mdash;notably
+      upon that known as Stonehenge&mdash;but circumstances have prevented this
+      design being carried into execution.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When two individuals who have much in common go over the same ground, it
+      is natural, indeed almost necessary, that they should dwell upon identical
+      topics. Hence it will be found that there are points which are referred to
+      by us both, although possibly in differing relationship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As my own part of the following remarks were printed long before I saw Mr.
+      Newton's manuscript, I hope to be pardoned for allowing them to stand. The
+      bulk of the volume will not be increased to the extent of a full page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I were to be asked the reason why I differ from Mr. Newton in his
+      exalted idea about the adoption of certain bodily organs as types, tokens,
+      or emblems of an unseen and an inscrutable Creator, my answer would be
+      drawn from the observations made upon every known order of priesthood,
+      from the most remote antiquity to the present time. No matter what the
+      creed, whether Ancient or Modern, the main object of its exponents and
+      supporters is to gain over the minds of the populace. This has never yet
+      been done, and probably never will be attempted, by educating the mind of
+      the multitude to think.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In Great Britain we find three sets of hierarchs opposed to each other,
+      and all equally, by every means in their power, prohibit independent
+      inquiry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A young Romanist convert, as we have recently seen, is discouraged from
+      persevering in the study of history and logic; a Presbyterian is
+      persecuted, as far as the law of the land permits, if he should engage in
+      an honest study of the Bible, of the God which it presents for our
+      worship, and of the laws that it enforces. A bishop of the Church of
+      England is visited by the puny and spiteful efforts of some of his nominal
+      equals if he ventures to treat Jewish writings as other critics study the
+      tomes of Livy or of Herodotus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      One set of men have banded together to elect a god on earth, and endeavour
+      to coerce their fellow-mortals to believe that a selection by a few old
+      cardinals can make the one whom they choose to honour "infallible."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another set of men, who profess to eschew the idea of infallibility in a
+      Pope, assume that they possess the quality themselves, and endeavour to
+      blot out from the communion of the faithful those who differ from them "on
+      points which God hath left at large."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Surely, when with all our modern learning, thought, and scientific
+      enquiry, hierarchs still set their faces against an advance in knowledge,
+      and quell, if possible, every endeavour to search after truth, we are not
+      far wrong when we assert, that the first priests of barbarism had no
+      exalted views of such an abstract subject as life, in the higher and
+      highest senses, if indeed in any sense of the word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another small point of difference between my friend and me is, whether
+      there has been at any time a figured representation of a <i>kakodoemon</i>&mdash;except
+      since the beginning of Christianity&mdash;and if, by way of stretching a
+      point, we call Typhon&mdash;Satan or the Devil&mdash;by this name, as
+      being opposed to the <i>Agathodoemon</i>, whether we are justified in
+      providing this evil genius with wings. As far as I can judge from Chaldean
+      and Assyrian sculptures, wings were given to the lesser deities as our
+      artists assign them to modern angels. The Babylonian Apollyon, by whatever
+      name he went, was winged&mdash;but so were all the good gods. The
+      Egyptians seem to have assigned wings only to the favourable divinities.
+      The Jews had in their mythology a set of fiery flying serpents, but we
+      must notice that their cherubim and seraphim were all winged, some with no
+      less than three pairs&mdash;much as Hindoo gods have four heads and six,
+      or any other number of arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Newton assumes that the dragon mentioned in Rev. xii. was a winged
+      creature, but it is clear from the context, especially from verses 14 and
+      15, that he had no pinions, for he was unable to follow the woman to whom
+      two aerial oars had been given.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The dragon, as we know it, is, I believe, a mediæval creation; such a
+      creature is only spoken of in the Bible in the book of Revelation, and the
+      author of that strange production drew his inspiration on this point from
+      the Iliad, where a dragon is described as of huge size, coiled like a
+      snake, of blood-red colour, shot with changeful hues, and having three
+      heads. Homer, Liddell, and Scott add&mdash;used [&mdash;Greek&mdash;]
+      indifferently for a serpent. So does the author of Rev. in ch. xx. 2. I
+      have been unable to discover any gnostic gem with anything like a modern
+      dragon on it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Holding these views, I cannot entertain the proposition that the winged
+      creatures in the very remarkable gem already referred to are evil genii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a question of this kind the mind is perhaps unconsciously biassed by
+      comparing one antiquarian idea with another. A searcher amongst Etruscan
+      vases will see not only that the angel of death is winged, but that Cupid,
+      Eros, or by whatever other name "desire" or love goes, frequently hovers
+      over the bridal or otherwise voluptuous couch, and attends beauty at her
+      toilet. The Greeks also gave to Eros a pair of wings, intended, it is
+      fancied, to represent the flutterings of the heart, produced when lovers
+      meet or even think of each other. Such a subordinate deity would be in
+      place amongst so many sexual emblems as Plate iv. Fig. 3 contains, whilst
+      a <i>koakdoemon</i> would be a "spoil sport," and would make the erected
+      serpents drop rather than remain in their glory.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These matters are apparently of small importance, but when one is studying
+      the signification of symbolical language, he has to pay as close an
+      attention, and extend the net of observation over as wide a sea as a
+      scholar does when endeavouring to decipher some language written in
+      long-forgotten characters, and some divergence of opinion between
+      independent observers sharpens the intellect more than it tries the
+      temper.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      PAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      PLATE II.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/054.jpg" alt="Plate II 054 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This is taken from a photograph of a small bronze image in the Mayer
+      collection of the Free Museum, in Liverpool. The figure stands about nine
+      inches high, and represents Isis, Horus, and the fish. It is an apt
+      illustration of an ancient custom, still prevalent amongst certain
+      Christians, of reverencing a woman, said to be a virgin, giving suck to
+      her child, and of the association of Isis, Venus, and Mary with the fish.
+      Friday, for example, is, with the Romanists, both "fish day," and "dies
+      Veneris." Fish are known to be extraordinarily prolific. There was a
+      belief that animals, noted for any peculiarity, imparted their virtues to
+      those who ate them; consequently, tigers' flesh was supposed to give
+      courage, and snails to give sexual power. The use of fish in connubial
+      feasts is still common. Those who consider it pious or proper to eat fish
+      on Venus' day, or Friday, proclaim themselves, unconsciously, adherents to
+      those heathen ideas which deified parts about which no one now likes to
+      talk. The fish has in one respect affinity with the mandrake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Since the first publication of this work, a friend has suggested to me
+      another reason, besides its fertility, for the fish being emblematic of
+      woman. From his extensive experience as a surgeon, and especially among
+      the lower order of courtesans, he has repeatedly noticed during the hot
+      months of the year that the parts which he had to examine have a very
+      strong odour of fish. My own observations in the same department lead me
+      to endorse his assertion. Consequently, I think that in warm climates,
+      where the utmost cleanliness can scarcely keep a female free from odour,
+      scent, as well as other attributes, has had to do with the selection of
+      the fish as an emblem of woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Still further, I have been informed by another friend that in Yorkshire,
+      and I understand in other counties of England, the <i>double entente</i>
+      connected with the fish is so marked that it is somewhat difficult to
+      render it into decent phraseology. It will suffice to say that in the
+      county mentioned, Lais or Phryne would be spoken of as "a choice bit of
+      fish," and that a man who bore on his features the stamp which is
+      imprinted by excessive indulgence, would be said to have indulged too much
+      in "a fish diet." I do not suppose that in the Yorkshire Ridings the folks
+      are unusually well acquainted with mythology, yet it is curious to find
+      amongst their inhabitants a connection between Venus and the Fish,
+      precisely similar to that which has obtained in the most remote ages and
+      in far distant climes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is clear from all these facts that the fish is a symbol not only of
+      woman, but of the yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE II.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is supposed to represent Oannes, Dagon, or some other fish god. It is
+      copied from Lajard, <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>, pl. xxii., 1, la, and is
+      thus described, "Statuette inédite, de grès houiller ou micacé, d'un brun
+      verdâtre. Elle porte par devant, sur une bande perpendiculaire, un légende
+      en caractères Syriaques très anciens (<i>Cabinet de M. Lambert, à Lyon</i>)."
+      I can find no clue to the signification of the inscription. It would seem
+      paradoxical to say that there is something in common between the
+      bull-headed deity and Oannes. It is so, nevertheless. One indicates, <i>par
+      excellence</i>, physical, and the other sexual, power. That Oannes may,
+      for the Assyrians, represent a man who played a part with them similar to
+      that of Penn among the Indians of Pennsylvania, I do not deny; but, when
+      we find a similar fish-god in Philistia and Hindostan, and know that
+      Crishna once appeared as a fish, the explanation does not suffice. It is
+      curious that Jesus of Nazareth should be called "a fish"; but this only
+      proves that the religion of Christ has been adulterated by Paganism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 1 and 4 are illustrations of the antelope as a religious emblem
+      amongst the Assyrians. The first is from Layard's <i>Nineveh</i>, and in
+      it we see carried in one hand a triply branched lotus; the second, showing
+      the regard for the spotted antelope, and for "the branch," is from
+      Bonomi's <i>Nineveh and its Palaces</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 illustrates Bacchus, with a mystic branch in one hand, and a cup in
+      the other; his robe is covered with spots arranged in threes. The branch
+      is emblematic of the <i>arbor vitæ</i>, or tree of life, and its powers of
+      sprouting. Such a symbol is, by outsiders, figured on the houses of newly
+      married couples amongst the Jews of Morocco, and seems to indicate the
+      desire of friends that the man will show that he is vigorous, and able to
+      have many sprouts from the tree of life. It will be noticed that on the
+      fillet round the god's head are arranged many crosses. From Hislop's <i>Two
+      Babylons</i>, and Smith's <i>Dictionary</i>, p. 208.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 8 and 5 are intended to show the prevalence of the use of spots on
+      priestly dresses; they are copied from Hislop's <i>Two Babylons</i>, and
+      Wilkinson, vol. vi., pi. 88, and vol. iv., pp. 841, 858. For an
+      explanation of the signification of spots, see Plate iv., Fig. 6, infra.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 represents an Assyrian priest worshipping by presentation of the
+      thumb, which had a peculiar signification. Sometimes the forefinger is
+      pointed instead, and in both cases the male is symbolised. It is taken
+      from a plate illustrating a paper by E. C. Ravenshaw, Esq., in <i>Journal
+      of Royal Asiatic Society</i>, vol. xvi., p. 114. Amongst the Hebrews, and
+      probably all the Shemitic tribes, <i>bohen</i>, the thumb, and <i>ezba</i>,
+      the finger, were euphemisms. They are so in some parts of Europe to the
+      present day.* The hand thus presented to the grove resembles a part of the
+      Buddhist cross, and the shank of a key, whose signification is described
+      in a subsequent page.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE III. <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/059.jpg" alt="Plate Iii. 059 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      PLATE IV. <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/062.jpg" alt="Plate Iv. 062 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 is a Buddhist emblem; the two fishes forming the circle represent
+      the mystic yoni, the sacti of Mahadeva, while the triad above them
+      represents the mystic trinity, the triune father, Siva, Bel, or Asher,
+      united with Anu and Hea. From <i>Journal of Royal Asiatic Society</i>,
+      vol. xviii., p. 892, plate ii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 3 is a very remarkable production. It originally belonged to Mons.
+      Lajard, and is described by him in his second <i>Memoire</i>, entitled <i>Recherches
+      sur le Culte, les Symboles, les Attributs, et les Monumens Figurés de
+      Vénus</i> (Paris, 1837), in pages 32, <i>et seq</i>., and figured in plate
+      I., fig. 1. The real age of the gem and its origin are not known, but the
+      subject leads that author to believe it to be of late Babylonian
+      workmanship. The stone is a white agate, shaped like a cone, and the
+      cutting is on its lower face. The shape of this gem indicates its
+      dedication to Venus. The central figures represent the androgyne deity,
+      Baalim, Astaroth, Elohim, Jupiter genetrix, or the bearded Venus Mylitta.
+      On the left side of the cutting we notice an erect serpent, whose rayed
+      head makes us recognise the solar emblem, and its mundane representative,
+      <i>mentula arrecta</i>; on a spot opposite to the centre of the male's
+      body we find a lozenge, symbolic of the yoni, whilst opposite to his feet
+      is the amphora, whose mystic signification may readily be recognised; it
+      is meant for Ouranos, or the Sun fructifying Terra, or the earth, by
+      pouring from himself into her.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * A friend has informed me, for example, that he happened,
+     whilst at Pesth, to look at a gorgeously dressed and
+     handsome young woman. To his astonishment she pointed her
+     thumb precisely in the manner adopted by the Assyrian
+     priests; this surprised the young man still farther, and
+     being, as it were, fascinated, he continued to gaze. The
+     damsel then grasped the thumb by the other hand; thus
+     indicating her profession. My friend, who was wholly
+     inexperienced in the ways of the world, only understood what
+     was meant when he saw my explanation of Fig. 1.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The three stars over the head of the figure, and the inverted triangle on
+      its head, are representations of the mythological four, equivalent to the
+      Egyptian symbol of life (figs. 31, 82). Opposite to the female are the
+      moon, and another serpent, which may be recognised by physiologists as
+      symbolic of <i>tensio clitoridis</i>. In a part corresponding to the
+      diamond, on the left side, is a six-rayed wheel, emblematic, apparently,
+      of the sun. At the female's feet is placed a cup, which is intended to
+      represent the passive element in creation. As such it is analogous to the
+      crescent moon, and is associated in the Roman church with the round wafer,
+      the symbol of the sun; the wafer and cup thus being synonymous with the
+      sun and moon in conjunction. It will be observed that each serpent in the
+      plate is apparently attacked by what we suppose is a dragon. There is some
+      difficulty in understanding the exact idea intended to be conveyed by
+      these; my own opinion is that they symbolise Satan, the old serpent that
+      tempted Eve, viz., fierce lust, Eros, Cupid, or desire, which, both in the
+      male and female, brings about the arrectation which the serpents figure.
+      It is not to be passed by without notice, that the snake which represents
+      the male has the tail so curved as to suggest the idea of the second and
+      third elements of the trinity. Monsieur Lajard takes the dragons to
+      indicate the bad principle in nature, i. e., darkness, night, Ahriman,
+      etc. On the pyramidal portion of the gem the four sides are ornamented by
+      figures&mdash;three represent animals remarkable for their salacity, and
+      the fourth represents Bel and Ishtar in conjunction, in a fashion which
+      can be more easily imagined than described in the mother tongue. The
+      learned will find the position assumed in Lucretius, <i>Dê Rerum Naturâ</i>,
+      book iv., lines 1256, seq.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is also copied from Lajard, plate i., fig. 10. It is the reverse of
+      a bronze coin of Vespasian, struck in the island of Cyprus, and represents
+      the conical stone, under whose form Venus was worshipped at Paphos, of
+      which Tacitus remarks, Hist, ii., c. 8, "the statue bears no resemblance
+      to the human form, but is round, broad at one end and gradually tapering
+      at the other, like a goal. The reason of this is not ascertained." It is
+      remarkable that a male emblem should be said to represent Venus, but the
+      stone was an aerolite, like that which fell at Ephesus, and was said to
+      represent Diana. It is clear that when a meteoric stone falls, the chief
+      priests of the district can say that it is to be taken as a representative
+      of their divinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      My very ingenious friend, Mr. Newton, suggests that the Venus in question
+      was androgyne; that the cone is a male emblem, within a door, gateway, or
+      delta, thus resembling the Assyrian grove. It is certain that the
+      serpents, the two stars, and the two candelabra, or altars with flame,
+      favour his idea.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 5 represents the position of the hands assumed by Jewish priests when
+      they give the benediction to their flock. It will be recognised that each
+      hand separately indicates the trinity, whilst the junction of the two
+      indicates the unit. The whole is symbolic of the mystic Arba&mdash;the
+      four, i, e., the trinity and unity. One of my informants told me that,
+      being a "cohen" or priest, he had often administered the blessing, and,
+      whilst showing to me this method of benediction, placed his joined hands
+      so that his nose entered the central aperture. On his doing so, I remarked
+      "<i>bene nasatus</i>," and the expression did more to convince him of the
+      probability of my views than anything else.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 6, modified in one form or another, is the position assumed by the
+      hand and fingers, when Homan and Anglican bishops or other hierarchs give
+      benediction to their people. A similar disposition is to be met with in
+      Indian mythology, when the Creator doubles himself into male and female,
+      so as to be in a position to originate new beings. Whilst the right hand
+      in Plate VII. symbolises the male, the left hand represents the mystic
+      feminine circle. In another plate, which is to be found in Moor's <i>Hindu
+      Pantheon</i>, there is a similar figure, but draped fully, and in that the
+      dress worn by the celestial spouse is covered with groups of spots
+      arranged in triads and groups of four. With regard to the signification of
+      spots, we may notice that they indicated, either by their shape or by
+      their name, the emblem of womankind. A story of Indra, the Hindoo god of
+      the sky, confirms this. He is usually represented as bearing a robe
+      covered with eyes; but the legend runs that, like David, he became
+      enamoured of the wife of another man, who was very beautiful and seen by
+      chance, but her spouse was one whose austere piety made him almost equal
+      to Brahma. The evil design of Indra was both frustrated and punished. The
+      woman escaped, but the god became covered with marks that recalled his
+      offence to mind, for they were pictures of the yoni. These, by the strong
+      intercession of Brahma with the Rishi, were changed by the latter into
+      eyes. This story enables us to recognise clearly the hidden symbolism of
+      the Hindoo and Egyptian eye, the oval representing the female, and the
+      circle the male lodged therein&mdash;i.e., the androgyne creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE V. <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/067.jpg" alt="Plate V. 067 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of a mediæval Virgin and Child, as painted in Della Robbia ware
+      in the South Kensington Museum, a copy of which, was given to me by my
+      friend, Mr. Newton, to whose kindness I am indebted for many illustrations
+      of ancient Christian art. It represents the Virgin and Child precisely as
+      she used to be represented in Egypt, in India, in Assyria, Babylonia,
+      Phoenicia, and Etruria; the accident of dress being of no mythological
+      consequence. In the framework around the group, we recognise the triformed
+      leaf, emblematic of Asher; the grapes, typical of Dionysus; the wheat
+      ears, symbolic of Ceres, <i>l'abricot fendu</i>, the mark of womankind,
+      and the pomegranate <i>rimmon</i>, which characterises the teeming mother.
+      The living group, moreover, are placed in an archway, <i>delta</i>, or
+      door, which is symbolic of the female, like the <i>vesica piscis</i>, the
+      oval or the circle. This door is, moreover, surmounted by what appear to
+      be snails, whose supposed virtue we have spoken of under Plate i. This
+      identification of Mary with the Sacti is strong; by-and-by we shall see
+      that it is as complete as it is possible to be made.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE VI. <a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/070.jpg" alt="Plate Vi. 070 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of figures given in Bryant's <i>Ancient Mythology</i>, plates
+      xiii., xxviii., third edition, 1807. The first two illustrate the story of
+      Palemon and Getus, introducing the dolphin. That fish is symbolic of the
+      female, in consequence of the assonance in Greek between its name and that
+      of the womb, <i>delphis and delphus</i>. The tree symbolises the <i>arbor
+      vitæ</i>, the life-giving sprout; and the ark is a symbol of the womb. The
+      third figure, where a man rests upon a rock and dolphin, and toys with a
+      mother and child, is equally suggestive. The male is repeatedly
+      characterised as a rock, hermes, menhir, tolmen, or upright stone, the
+      female by the dolphin, or fish. The result of the junction of these
+      elements appears in the child, whom both parents welcome. The fourth
+      figure represents two emblems of the male creator, a man and trident, and
+      two of the female, a dolphin and ship. The two last figures represent a
+      coin of Apamea, representing Noah and the ark, called <i>Cibotus</i>.
+      Bryant labours to prove that the group commemorates the story told in the
+      Bible respecting the flood, but there is strong doubt whether the story
+      was not of Babylonian origin. The city referred to was in Phrygia, and the
+      coin appears to have been struck by Philip of Macedon. The inscription
+      round the head is [&mdash;Greek inscription&mdash;]See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>,
+      second edition, Vol. ii.., pp. 128, and 885-892.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Supreme Spirit in the act of creation became two-fold; the RIGHT SIDE
+      WAS MALE, THE LEFT WAS PRAKRITI, SHE IS OF ONE FORM WITH BRAMAH.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      She is Maya, eternal and imperishable, such as the Spirit, such is the
+      inherent energy. (The Sacti) as the Faculty burning is inherent in pure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      (Bramah Vaivartta Puranu, Professor Wilson.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/073.jpg" alt="073 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      ARDANARI-ISWARA.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From an original drawing by Chrisna Swami, Punoit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE VII.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindoo pundit for Wm.
+      Simpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its mythology.
+      It represents Brahma supreme, who in the act of creation made himself
+      double, i.e. male and female. In the original the central part of the
+      figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too grossly shown
+      for reproduction here. They are replaced by the <i>crux ansata</i>. The
+      reader will notice the triad and the serpent in the male hand, whilst in
+      the female is to be seen a germinating seed, indicative of the relative
+      duties of father and mother. The whole stands upon a lotus, the symbol of
+      androgyneity. The technical word for this incarnation is "Arddha Nari."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE VIII. <a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/075.jpg" alt="Plate Iii. 075 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is Devi, the same as Parvati, or Bhavani. It is copied from Moor's <i>Pantheon</i>,
+      plate xxx. The goddess represents the feminine element in the universe.
+      Her forehead is marked by one of the symbols of the four creators, the
+      triad, and the unit. Her dress is covered with symbolic spots, and one
+      foot peculiarly placed is marked by a circle having a dot in the interior.
+      The two bear the same signification as the Egyptian eye. I am not able to
+      define the symbolic import of the articles held in the lower hands. Moor
+      considers that they represent scrolls of paper, but this I doubt. The
+      raised hands bear the unopened lotus flower, and the goddess sits upon
+      another.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE IX. <a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/078.jpg" alt="Plate Ix. 078 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Consists of six figures, copied from Maurice's <i>Indian Antiquities</i>,
+      vol. vi., p. 278, and two from Bryant's <i>Mythology</i>, vol. ii., third
+      edition, pp. 203 and 409. All are symbolic of the idea of the male triad:
+      a central figure, erect, and rising above the other two. In one an altar
+      and fire indicate, mystically, the linga; in another, the same is
+      pourtrayed as a man, as Madaheva always is; in another, there is a tree
+      stump and serpent, to indicate the same idea. The two appendages of the
+      linga are variously described; in two instances as serpents, in other two
+      as tree and <i>concha</i>, and snake and shell. The two last seem to
+      embody the idea that the right "egg" of the male germinates boys, whilst
+      the left produces girls; a theory common amongst ancient physiologists.
+      The figure of the tree encircled by the serpent, and supported by two
+      stones resembling "tolmen," is very significant. The whole of these
+      figures seem to point unmistakably to the origin of the very common belief
+      that the male Creator is triune. In Assyrian theology the central figure
+      is Bel, Baal, or Asher; the one on the right Ann, that on the left Hea.
+      See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. i., pp. 88-85. *
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There are some authors who have treated of tree and serpent worship, and
+      of its prevalence in ancient times, without having, so far as I can see,
+      any idea of that which the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the
+      tree of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man by his
+      subtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise understand, but
+      which to the vulgar are simply trees and snakes. In a fine old bas-relief
+      over the door of the Cathedral at Berne, we see an ancient representation
+      of the last judgment. An angel is dividing the sheep from the goats, and
+      devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing hooks or pincers
+      on the portions of the body whence their sins sprang. One fat priest, nude
+      as our risen bodies must be, is being savagely pulled to hell by the part
+      symbolised by tree and serpent, whilst she whom he has adored and vainly
+      sought to disgrace, is rising to take her place amongst the blest. It is
+      not those of the sex of Eve alone that are inveigled to destruction by the
+      serpent.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * For those who have not an opportunity of consulting the
+     work referred to, I may observe that the Assyrian godhead
+     consisted of four persons, three being male and one female.
+     The principal god was Asher, the upright one, the equivalent
+     of the Hindoo Mahadeva, the great holy one, and of the more
+     modern Priapus. He was associated with Anu, lord of solids
+     and of the lower world, equivalent to the "testis," or egg
+     on the right side. Hea was lord of waters, and represented
+     the left "stone." The three formed the trinity or triad. The
+     female was named Ishtar or Astarte, and was equivalent to
+     the female organ, the yoni or vulva&mdash;the [Greek] of the
+     Greeks. The male god in Egypt was Osiris, the female Isis,
+     and these names are frequently used as being euphemistic,
+     and preferable to the names which are in vulgar use to
+     describe the male and female parts.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      PLATE X. <a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/081.jpg" alt="Plate X. 081 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Contains pagan symbols of the trinity or linga, with or without the unity
+      or yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 represents a symbol frequently met with in ancient architecture,
+      etc. It represents the male and female elements, the pillar and the half
+      moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 represents the mystic letters said to have been placed on the
+      portal of the oracle of Delphi. By some it is proposed to read the two
+      letters as signifying "he or she is;" by others the letters are taken to
+      be symbolic of the triad and the unit. If they be, the pillar is a very
+      unusual form for the yoni. An ingenious friend of mine regards the upright
+      portion as a "slit," but I cannot wholly agree with him, for in Fig. 1 the
+      pillar cannot be looked upon as an aperture.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 3 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, copied from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>,
+      and is one out of many indicating the union of the male and female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is emblematic of the virgin and child. It identifies the two with
+      the crescent. It is singular that some designers should unite the moon
+      with the solar symbol, and others with the virgin. We believe that the
+      first indicate ideas like that associated with Baalim, and Ashtaroth in
+      the plural, the second that of Astarte or Venus in the singular. Or, as we
+      may otherwise express it, the married and the immaculate virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 5 is copied from Sharpe's <i>Egyptian Mythology</i>, p. 15. It
+      represents one of the Egyptian trinities, and is highly symbolic, not only
+      indicating the triad, here Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys, but its union with
+      the female element. The central god Osiris is himself triune, as he bears
+      the horns symbolic of the goddess Athor and the feathers of the god Ra.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>. The
+      lozenge indicates the yoni. For this assertion we not only have evidence
+      in Babylonian gems, copied by Lajard, but in Indian and Etruscan designs.
+      We find, for example, in vol. v., plate xlv., of <i>Antiquités Etrusques</i>,
+      etc., par. F. A. David (Paris, 1785), a draped female, wearing on her
+      breast a half moon and mural crown, holding her hands over the middle spot
+      of the body, so as to form a "lozenge" with the forefingers and thumbs.
+      The triad in this figure is very distinct; and we may add that a trinity
+      expressed by three balls or three circles is to be met with in the
+      remotest times and in most distant countries.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are copied from Cabrera's account of an ancient city
+      discovered near Palenque, in Guatemala, Spanish America (London, 1822).
+      Although they appear to have a sexual design, yet I doubt whether the
+      similarity is not accidental. After a close examination of the plates
+      given by Cabrera, I am inclined to think that nothing of the ling-yoni
+      element prevailed in the mind of the ancient American sculptors. All the
+      males are carefully draped in appropriate girdles, although in some a
+      grotesque or other ornament, such as a human or bestial head, a flower,
+      etc., is attached to the apron or "fall" of the girdle, resembling the
+      sporran of the Highlander and the codpiece of mediæval knights and others.
+      I may, however, mention some very remarkable sculptures copied; one is a
+      tree, whose trunk is surrounded by a serpent, and whose fruit is shaped
+      like the <i>vesica piscis</i>; in another is seen a youth wholly
+      unclothed, save by a cap and gaiters, who kneels before a similar tree,
+      being threatened before and behind by some fierce animal. This figure is
+      peculiar, differing from all the rest in having an European rather than an
+      American head and face. Indeed, the features, etc., remind me of the late
+      Mr. Cobden, and the cap is such as yachting sailors usually wear. There is
+      also another remarkable group, consisting apparently of a man and woman
+      standing before a cross, proportioned like the conventional one in use
+      amongst Christians. Everything indicates American ideas, and there are
+      ornaments or designs wholly unlike any that I have seen elsewhere. The man
+      appears to offer to the cross a grotesque human figure, with a head not
+      much unlike Punch, with a turned-up nose, and a short pipe shaped like a
+      fig in his mouth. The body is well formed, but the arms and thighs are
+      rounded off like "flippers" or "fins." Besting at the top of the cross is
+      a bird, like a game cock, ornamented by a necklace. The male in this and
+      the other sculptures is beardless, and that women are depicted, can only
+      be guessed at by the inferior size of some of the figures. It would be
+      unprofitable to carry the description farther.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 11, 12 are from vol. i., plates xix. and xxiii. of a remarkably
+      interesting work, <i>Recherches sur l' origine, l' esprit, et les progrès
+      des Arts de la Grèce</i>, said to be written by D'Harcanville, published
+      at London, 1785. The first represents a serpent, coiled so as to symbolise
+      the male triad, and the crescent, the emblem of the yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 12 accompanies the bull on certain coins, and symbolises the sexual
+      elements, <i>le baton et l'anneau</i>. They were used, as the horse-shoe
+      is now, as a charm against bad luck, or vicious demons or fairies.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 13 is, like figure 5, from Sharpe's <i>Egyptian Mythology</i>, p. 14,
+      and is said to represent Isis, Nepthys, and Osiris; it is one of the many
+      Mizraite triads. The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as
+      surely a pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence of
+      a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and virgins,
+      intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms of faith which
+      deface the greater part of modern religions.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 14 is a symbol frequently seen in Greek churches, but appears to be
+      of pre-Christian origin.* The cross we have elsewhere described as being a
+      compound male emblem, whilst the crescent symbolises the female element in
+      creation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 15 is from D'Harcanville, <i>Op. Cit</i>., vol. i., plate xxiii. It
+      resembles Figure 11, <i>supra</i>, and enables us by the introduction of
+      the sun and moon to verify the deduction drawn from the arrangement of the
+      serpent's coils. If the snake's body, instead of being curved above the 8
+      like tail, were straight, it would simply indicate the linga and the sun;
+      the bend in its neck, however, indicates the yoni and the moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 16 is copied from plate xvi., fig. 2, of <i>Recueil de Pierres
+      Antiques Gravés</i>, folio, by J. M. Raponi (Rome, 1786). The gem
+      represents a sacrifice to Priapus, indicated by the rock, pillar, figure,
+      and branches given in our plate. A nude male sacrifices a goat; a draped
+      female holds a kid ready for immolation; a second man, nude, plays the
+      double pipe, and a second woman, draped, bears a vessel on her head,
+      probably containing wine for a libation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 17 is from vol. i. <i>Récherches</i>, etc., plate xxii. In this
+      medal the triad is formed by a man and two coiled serpents on the one side
+      of the medal, whilst on the reverse are seen a tree, surrounded by a
+      snake, situated between two rounded stones, with a dog and a conch shell
+      below. See <i>supra</i>, Plate ix., Fig. 6.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XI. <a name="linkimage-0011" id="linkimage-0011">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/087.jpg" alt="Plate Xi. 087 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      With two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,&mdash;exhibits Christian emblems of
+      the trinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone or combined; the whole
+      being copied from Pugin's <i>Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament</i>
+      (London, 1869).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a double union of
+      the trinity with the unity, here represented as a ring, <i>Vanneau</i>.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the
+     Edinburgh Review&mdash;which almost exhausts the subject&mdash;but is
+     too long for quotation here.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 2, 8, are from Pagin, plate xiv. In figare 2, the two covered balls
+      at the base of each limb of the cross are extremely significant, and if
+      the artist had not mystified the free end, the most obtuse worshipper must
+      have recognised the symbol. We may add here that in the two forms of the
+      Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed, and the egg-shaped
+      bodies, with their cover, are at the free end of each limb, whilst the
+      natural end of the organ is left unchanged. See figs. 85 and 86. This form
+      of cross is Etruscan. Fig. 8 is essentially the same as the preceding, and
+      both may be compared with Fig. 4. The balls in this cross are uncovered,
+      and the free end of each limb of the cross is but slightly modified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate xxxv., fig. 4, of <i>Two
+      Essays on the Worship of Priapus</i> (London, 1865). It is thus described
+      (page 147): "The object was found at St. Agati di Goti, near
+      Naples.......It is a <i>crux ansata</i> formed by four phalli, with a
+      circle of female organs round the centre; and appears by the look to have
+      been intended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no doubt
+      been made for some personage of rank, possibly an ecclesiastic." We see
+      here very distinctly the design of the egg- and sistrum- shaped bodies.
+      When we have such an unmistakable bi-sexual cross before our eyes, it is
+      impossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 8, and Plate xii.,
+      Figs. 4 and 7.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and represent the trinity
+      with the unity, the triune god and the virgin united in one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of a cross, figured
+      plate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the Maltese cross is united with the
+      symbol of the virgin, being essentially the same as Fig. 9, <i>infra</i>.
+      It is a modified form of the <i>crux ansata</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each limb of an
+      ornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 9 is a well-known Egyptian symbol, borne in the hand of almost every
+      divinity. It is a cross, with one limb made to represent the female
+      element in creation. The name that it technically bears is <i>crux ansata</i>,
+      or "the cross with a handle." A reference to Fig. 4 serves to verify the
+      idea which it involves.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 10 is from Pugin, plate xxxv. In this figure the cross is made by the
+      intersection of two ovals, each a <i>vesica piscis</i>, an emblem of the
+      yoni. Within each limb a symbol of the trinity is seen, each of which is
+      associated with the central ring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 11 is from Pugin, plate xix., and represents the <i>arbor vitæ</i>,
+      the <i>branch</i>, or tree of life, as a triad, with which the ring is
+      united.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has been said by some critics that the figures above referred to are
+      mere architectural fancies, which never had pretensions to embody a
+      mystery; and that any designer would pitch upon such a style of
+      ornamentation although profoundly ignorant of the doctrine of the trinity
+      and unity. But this assumption is not borne out by fact; the ornaments on
+      Buddhist topes have nothing in common with those of Christian churches;
+      whilst in the ruined temple of the sun at Marttand, India, the trefoil
+      emblem of the trinity is common. Grecian temples were profusely ornamented
+      therewith, and so are innumerable Etruscan sculptures, but they do not
+      represent the trinity and unity. It has been reserved for Christian art to
+      crowd our churches with the emblems of Bel and Astarte, Baalim and
+      Ashtoreth, linga and yoni, and to elevate the phallus to the position of
+      the supreme deity, and assign to him a virgin as a companion, who can
+      cajole him by her blandishment, weary him by wailing, or induce him to
+      change his mind by her intercessions. Christianity certainly requires to
+      be purged of its heathenisms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XII. <a name="linkimage-0012" id="linkimage-0012">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/091.jpg" alt="Plate Xii. 091 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Contains both pagan and Christian emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1 is from Pugin, plate xviii., and is a very common finial
+      representing the trinity. Its shape is too significant to require an
+      explanation; yet with such emblems our Christian churches abound, that the
+      Trinity may never be absent from the minds of man or woman!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 is from Pugin, plate xxi. It is a combination of ideas concealing
+      the union patent in Fig. 4, Plate xi., <i>supra</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 3 is from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>. It is an ornament borne by
+      Devi, and symbolises the union of the triad with the unit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 4 is from Pugin, plate xxxii. It is a double cross made up of the
+      male and female emblems. It is a conventionalised form of Fig. 4, Plate
+      xi., <i>supra</i>. Such eight-rayed figures, made like stars, seem to have
+      been very ancient, and to have been designed to indicate the junction of
+      male and female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 5 is from Pugin, plate xvii., and represents the trinity and the
+      unity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 6 is a Buddhist emblem from Birmah, <i>Journal of Royal Asiatic
+      Society</i>, vol. xviii., p. 392, plate i., fig. 62. It represents the
+      short sword, <i>le bracquemard</i>, a male symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 7. is from Pagin, plate xvii. See Plate xi., Fig. 3, <i>supra</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are Buddhist (see Fig. 6, supra), and symbolise the
+      triad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are from Pugin, and simply represent the trinity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figs. 18 and 19 are common Grecian emblems. The first is associated with
+      Neptune and water, the second with Bacchus. With the one we see dolphins,
+      emblems of the womb, the name of the two being assonant in Greek; with the
+      other, the saying, <i>sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus</i>, must be
+      coupled.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XIII. <a name="linkimage-0013" id="linkimage-0013">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/094.jpg" alt="Plate Xiii. 094 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Consists of varions emblems of the triad and the unit, drawn almost
+      exclusively from Grecian, Etruscan, Roman, and Indian gems, figures,
+      coins, or sculptures, Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i>, Raponi's <i>Recueil</i>,
+      and Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, being the chief authorities.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XIV. <a name="linkimage-0014" id="linkimage-0014">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/096.jpg" alt="Plate Xiv. 096 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Is a copy of a small Hindoo statuette in the Mayer Collection in the Free
+      Museum, Liverpool. It probably represents Parvati, the Hindoo virgin, and
+      her child. The right hand of the figure makes the symbol of the yoni with
+      the forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers typifying the triad. In
+      the palm and on the navel is a lozenge, emblematic of woman. The child,
+      perhaps Crishna, equivalent to the Egyptian Horus and the Christian Jesus,
+      bears in its hand one of the many emblems of the linga, and stands upon a
+      lotus. The monkey introduced into the group plays the same part as the
+      cat, cow, lioness, and ape in the Egyptian mythology, being emblematic of
+      that desire which eventuates in the production of offspring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 1, the cupola, is well known in modern Europe; it is equally so in
+      Hindostan, where it is sometimes accompanied by pillars of a peculiar
+      shape. In one such compound the design is that of a cupola, supported by
+      closely placed pillars, each of which has a "capital," resembling "the
+      glans" of physiologists; in the centre there is a door, wherein a nude
+      female stands, resembling in all respects Figure 61, except in dress and
+      the presence of the child. This was copied by the late Mr. Sellon, from a
+      Buddhist Dagopa in the Jumnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, a tracing of his
+      sketch having been given to me by William Simpson, Esq., London.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The same emblem may be found amongst the ancient Italians. Whilst I was
+      staying in Malta during the carnival time in 1872, I saw in all directions
+      men and women selling cakes shaped like the yoni shown in Fig. 1. These
+      sweetmeats had no special name, but they came in and went out with the
+      carnival.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 2 represents Venus standing on a tortoise, whose symbolic import will
+      be seen by referring to Fig. 74, <i>infra</i>. It is copied from Lajard,
+      <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>, plate iiia., fig. 5, and is stated by him to
+      be a drawing of an Etruscan candelabrum, existing in the Royal Museum at
+      Berlin. In his account of Greece, Pausanias mentions that he saw one
+      figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and another upon a ram, but he
+      declines to give the reason of the conjunction.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Is a representation of Siva, taken from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>,
+      plate xiii. Siva is supposed to be the oldest of the Indian deities, and
+      to have been worshipped by the aborigines of Hindostan, before the Aryans
+      invaded that country. It is thought that the Vedic religion opposed this
+      degrading conception at the first, but was powerless to eradicate it.
+      Though he is yet the most popular of all the gods, Siva is venerated, I
+      understand, chiefly by the vulgar. Though he personifies the male
+      principle, there is not anything indecent in pictorial representations of
+      him. In one of his hands is seen the trident, one of the emblems of the
+      masculine triad; whilst in another is to be seen an oval sistram-shaped
+      loop, a symbol of the feminine unit. On his forehead he bears an eye,
+      symbolic of the Omniscient, the sun, and the union of the sexes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As it has been doubted by some readers, whether I am justified in
+      regarding the sistrum as a female emblem, I append here a quotation from
+      Socrates' <i>Ecclesiastical History</i>, Bohn's translation, p. 281, seq.
+      In Rome, in the early time of Theodosius, "when a woman was detected in
+      adultery.... they shut her up in a narrow brothel, and obliged her to
+      prostitute herself in a most disgusting manner; causing little bells to be
+      rang at the time.... As soon as the emperor was apprised of this indecent
+      usage, he would by no means tolerate it; but having ordered the <i>Sistra</i>
+      (for so these places of penal prostitution were denominated) to be pulled
+      down," &amp;c. One can as easily see why a female emblem should mark a
+      brothel in Rome as a male symbol did at Pompeii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      PLATE XVI. <a name="linkimage-0016" id="linkimage-0016">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/101.jpg" alt="Plate Xvi. 101 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0017" id="linkimage-0017">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/104.jpg" alt="104 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This Figure represents Assyrian priests offering in the presence of what
+      is supposed to be Baal&mdash;or the representative of the sun god and of
+      the grove. The first is typified by the eye, with wings and a tail, which
+      make it symbolic of the male triad and the female unit. The eye, with the
+      central pupil, is in itself emblematic of the same. The grove represents
+      mystically <i>le verger de Cypris</i>. On the right stands the king; on
+      the left are two priests, the foremost clothed with a fish's skin, the
+      head forming the mitre, thus showing the origin of modern Christian
+      bishops' peculiar head-dress. Arranged about the figures are, the sun; a
+      bird, perhaps the sacred dove, whose note, <i>coa</i> or <i>coo</i>, has,
+      in the Shemitic, some resemblance to an invitation to amorous
+      gratification; in Latin <i>coi</i>, <i>coite</i>; the oval, symbol of the
+      yoni; the basket, or bag, emblematic of the scrotum, and apparently the
+      lotus. The trinity and unity are carried by the second priest.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 2 is copied from an ancient copper vase, covered with Egyptian
+      hieroglyphic characters, found at Cairo, and figured in a book entitled <i>Explication
+      des divers monument singuliers, qui ont rapport à la religion des plus
+      anciens peuples</i>, par le R. P. Dom.......á Paris, 1739.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0018" id="linkimage-0018">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/105.jpg" alt="105 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The group of figures represents Isis and Horus in an unusual attitude.
+      They are enclosed in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean, or
+      of the lotus. This framework may be compared to the Assyrian "grove," and
+      another in which the Virgin Mary stands. The bell was of old a symbol of
+      virginity, for Eastern maidens wore them until marriage (see Isa. iii.
+      16). The origin of this custom was the desire that every maiden should
+      have at her marriage, or sale, that which is spoken of in the Pentateuch
+      as "the token of virginity." It was supposed that this membrane,
+      technically called "the <i>hymen</i>" might be broken by too long a stride
+      in walking or running, or by clambering over a stile or wall. To prevent
+      such a catastrophe, a light chain or cord was worn, under or over the
+      dress, at the level of the knees or just above. Its length only permitted
+      a short step and a mincing gait. Slight bells were used as a sort of
+      ornament, and when the bearer was walking their tinkling was a sort of
+      proclamation that the lady who bore them was in the market as a virgin.
+      After "the flower" had been plucked, the bells were no longer of use. They
+      were analogous to the virgin snood worn on the head of Scotch maidens.
+      Isis bears the horns of a cow, because that animal is equally noted for
+      its propensity to seek the male and its care to preserve the offspring. As
+      the bull with a human head, so a human being with cow's horns, was made to
+      represent a deity. The solar orb between the horns, and the serpent round
+      the body, indicate the union with the male; an incongruous conjunction
+      with the emblem of the sacred Virgin, nevertheless a very common one. In
+      some of the coins pictured by E. P. Knight, in <i>Worship of Priapus</i>,
+      etc., a cow caressing her sucking calf replaces Isis and Horus, just as a
+      bull on other coins replaces Dionysus. The group is described in full in
+      <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. i., pp. 53, 54.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0019" id="linkimage-0019">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/106.jpg" alt="106 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 3, 4, are taken from Ginsburg's <i>Kabbalah</i>, and illustrate
+      that in the arrangement of "potencies" two unite, like parents, to form a
+      third. Sometimes we see also how three such male attributes as splendour,
+      firmness, and solidity join with beauty to form the mystic <i>arba</i>,
+      the trinity and unity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0020" id="linkimage-0020">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/107.jpg" alt="107 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 5, 6, are copies from figures found in Carthage and in Scotland,
+      from Forbes Leslie's Early <i>Races of Scotland</i>, vol. i., plate vi.,
+      p. 46 (London, 1866). This book is one to which the reader's attention
+      should be directed. The amount of valuable information which it contains
+      is very large, and it is classified in a philosophical, and, we may add,
+      attractive manner. The figures represent the <i>arbor vitæ</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 7 is from Bonomi, page 292, <i>Nineveh and its Palaces</i> (London,
+      1865). It apparently represents the mystic yoni, door, or delta; and it
+      may be regarded as an earlier form of the framework in Plate iv. It will
+      be remarked, by those learned in symbols, that the outline of the hands of
+      the priests who are nearest to the figure is a suggestive one, being
+      analogous to the figure of a key and its shank, whilst those who stand
+      behind these officers present the pine cone and bag, symbolic of Ann, Hea,
+      and their residence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0021" id="linkimage-0021">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/108.jpg" alt="108 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is to be noticed, and once for all let us assert our belief, that every
+      detail in a sculpture relating to religion has a signification; that the
+      first right hand figure carries a peculiarly shaped staff; and that the
+      winged symbol above the yoni consists of a male archer in a winged circle,
+      analagous to the symbolic bow, arrow, and target. The bow was an emblem
+      amongst the Romans, and <i>arcum tendere</i> was equivalent to <i>arrigere</i>.
+      In the <i>Golden Ass</i> of Apuleius we find the metaphor used in his
+      account of his dealings with amorous frolicsome Fotis, "Ubi primam
+      sagittam sævi cupidinis in ima procordia mea delapsam excepi, arcum, meum
+      et ipse vigore tetendi."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, we find in Petronius&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     Astra igitur mea mens arcum dum tendit in ilia.
+     Ex imo ad summum viva sagitta volat.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Figures 8 to 14 are representations of the goddess mother, the virgin and
+      child, Ishtar or Astarte, Mylitta, Ceres, Rhea, Venus, Sacti, Mary, Yoni,
+      Juno, Mama Ocello.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 8 is a copy of the deified woman or celestial mother, from Idalium,
+      in Cyprus. Fig. 9 is from Egypt, and is remarkable for the cow's horns
+      (for whose signification see Vol. i., p. 54, Ancient Faiths, second
+      edition), which here replace the lunar crescent, in conjunction with the
+      sun, the two being symbolic of hermaphroditism, whilst above is a seat or
+      throne, emblematic of royalty.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0022" id="linkimage-0022">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/109.jpg" alt="109 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The two figures are copied from Rawlinson's <i>Herodotus</i>, vol. ii., p.
+      447, in an essay by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, wherein other illustrations of
+      the celestial virgin are given. Fig. 10 is a copy of plate 59, Moor's
+      Hindu Pantheon, wherein it is entitled, "Crishna nursed by Devaki, from a
+      highly finished picture." In the account of Crishna's birth and early
+      history, as given by Moor (Op. Cit., pp. 197, et seq.), there is as strong
+      a resemblance to the story of Christ as the picture here described has to
+      papal paintings of Mary and Jesus. Fig. 11 is an enlarged representation
+      of Devaki. Fig. 12 is copied from Rawlinson's <i>Ancient Monarchies</i>,
+      vol. iii., p. 899. Fig. 13 is a figure of the mother and child found in
+      ancient Etruria at Volaterra; it is depicted in Fabretti's Italian
+      Glossary, plate xxvi., figure 349.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0023" id="linkimage-0023">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/110.jpg" alt="110 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is described as a marble statue, now in the Guarnacci Museum. The
+      letters, which are Etruscan, and read from right to left, may be thus
+      rendered into the ordinary Latin characters from left to right, MI: GANA:
+      LARTHIAS ZANL: VELKINEI: ME - SE.; the translation I take to be, "the
+      votive offering of Larthias (a female) of Zanal, ( = Zancle = Messana in
+      Sicily), (wife) of Velcinius, in the sixth month." It is uncertain whether
+      we are to regard the statue as an effigy of the celestial mother and
+      child, or as the representation of some devout lady who has been spared
+      during her pregnancy, her parturition, or from some disease affecting
+      herself and child. Analogy would lead us to infer that the Queen of Heaven
+      is intended. Figure 14 is copied from Hislop's <i>Two Babylons</i>; it
+      represents Indranee, the wife of Indra or Indur, and is to be found in
+      Indur Subba, the south front of the Caves of Ellora, Asiatic Researches,
+      vol. vi., p. 893.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0024" id="linkimage-0024">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/111.jpg" alt="111 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Indra is equivalent to Jupiter Tonans, and is represented as seated on an
+      elephant; "the waterspout is the trunk of this elephant, and the iris is
+      his bow, which it is not auspicious to point out," Moor's <i>Pantheon</i>,
+      p. 260. He is represented very much as if he were a satyr, Moor's <i>Pantheon</i>,
+      p. 264; but his wife is always spoken of as personified chastity and
+      propriety. Indranee is seated on a lioness, which replaces the cow of
+      Isis, the former resembling the latter in her feminine and maternal
+      instincts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 15, 16, are copies of Diana of the Ephesians; the first is from
+      Hislop, who quotes Kitto's <i>Illustrated Commentary</i>, vol. v., p. 250;
+      the second from Higgins' <i>Anacalypsis</i>, who quotes Montfauçon, plate
+      47. I remember to have seen a figure similar to these in the Royal Museum
+      at Naples.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0025" id="linkimage-0025">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/112.jpg" alt="112 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The tower upon the head represents virginity (see <i>Ancient Faiths</i>,
+      second edition, Vol. i., p. 144); the position of the hand forms a cross
+      with the body: the numerous breasts indicate abundance; the black colour
+      of Figure 16 indicates the ordinary tint of the feminine <i>lanugo</i>,
+      the almost universal colour of the hair of the Orientals being black about
+      the yoni as well as on the head; or, as some mythologists imagine,
+      "Night," who is said to be one of the mothers of creation. (See <i>Ancient
+      Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. n., p. 882.) The emblems upon the body
+      indicate the attributes or symbols of the male and female creators.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0026" id="linkimage-0026">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/113.jpg" alt="113 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 17 is a complicated sign of the yoni, delta, or door of life. It is
+      copied from Bonomi's <i>Palaces of Nineveh</i>, p. 809.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 18 signifies the same thing; the priests adoring it present the
+      pine cone and basket, symbolic of Ann, Hea, and their residence. Compare
+      the object of the Assyrian priest's adoration with that adored by a
+      Christian divine, in a subsequent figure. (See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>,
+      second edition, Vol. I., p. 88, et seq., and Vol. n., p. 648.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0027" id="linkimage-0027">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/114.jpg" alt="114 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 19 is copied from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xxii., fig. 5. It is the
+      impression of an ancient gem, and represents a man clothed with a fish,
+      the head being the mitre; priests thus clothed, often bearing in their
+      hand the mystic bag, are common in Mesopotamian sculptures; two such are
+      figured on Figs. 63, 64, infra. In almost every instance it will be
+      recognised that the fish's head is represented as of the same form as the
+      modern bishop's mitre.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0028" id="linkimage-0028">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/115.jpg" alt="115 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 20 represents two equilateral triangles, infolded so as to make a
+      six-rayed star, the idea embodied being the androgyne nature of the deity,
+      the pyramid with its apex upwards signifying the male, that with the apex
+      downwards the female. The line at the central junction is not always seen,
+      but the shape of the three parallel bars reappears in Hindoo frontlet
+      signs in conjunction with a delta or door, shaped like the "grove" in Fig.
+      17; thus showing that the lines serve also to indicate the masculine
+      triad. The two triangles are also understood as representing fire, which
+      mounts upwards, and water, which flows downwards. Fire again is an emblem
+      of the sun, and water of the passive or yielding element in nature. Fire
+      also typifies Eros or Cupid. Hymen is always represented carrying a torch.
+      It is also symbolic of love; e.g., Southey writes.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "But love is indestructible,
+     Its holy flame for ever burneth;
+     From heaven it came,
+     To heaven returneth."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      And again, Scott writes&mdash;
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "It is not phantasy's hot fire
+     Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly," &amp;c.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Figures 21, 22, are other indications of the same fundamental idea. The
+      first represents Nebo, the Nahbi, or the navel, characterised by a ring
+      with a central mound.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0029" id="linkimage-0029">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/116.jpg" alt="116 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The second represents the circular and upright stone so common in Oriental
+      villages. The two indicate the male and female; and a medical friend
+      resident in India has told me, that he has seen women mount upon the lower
+      stone and seat themselves reverently upon the upright one, having first
+      adjusted their dress so as to prevent it interfering with their perfect
+      contact with the miniature obelisc. During the sitting, a short prayer
+      seemed flitting over the worshippers' lips, but the whole affair was soon
+      over.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst upon this subject, it is right to call attention to the fact that
+      animate as well as inorganic representatives of the Creator have been used
+      by women with the same definite purpose. The dominant idea is that contact
+      with the emblem, a mundane representative of the deity, of itself gives a
+      blessing. Just as many Hindoo females seek a benefaction by placing their
+      own yoni upon the consecrated linga, so a few regard intercourse with
+      certain high priests of the Maharajah sect as incarnations of Vishnu, and
+      pay for the privilege of being spouses of the god. In Egypt, where the
+      goat was a sacred animal, there were some religious women who sought good
+      luck by uniting themselves therewith. We have heard of British professors
+      of religion endeavouring to persuade their penitents to procure purity by
+      what others would call defilement and disgrace. And the "cord of St.
+      Francis" replaces the stone "linga." Sometimes with this "cord" the rod is
+      associated; and those who have read the trial of Father Gerard, for his
+      seduction of Miss Cadiére under a saintly guise, will know that
+      Christianity does not always go hand in hand with propriety.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With the Hindoo custom compare that which was done by Liber on the grave
+      of Prosumnus (<i>Arnobius adverma Gentes</i>, translated by Bryce and
+      Campbell, T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, pp. 252, 258), which is far too
+      gross to be described here; and as regards the sanctity of a stone whose
+      top had been anointed with oil, see first sentence of paragraph 89, ibid,
+      page 81. The whole book will well repay perusal.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 28, 24, are discs, circles, aureoles, and wheels, to represent the
+      sun. Sometimes the emblem of this luminary is associated with rays, as in
+      Plate iii., Fig. 8, and in another Figure elsewhere. Occasionally, as in
+      some of the ancient temples in Egypt discovered in 1854, the sun's rays
+      are represented by lines terminating in hands. Sometimes one or more of
+      these contain objects as if they were gifts sent by the god; amongst other
+      objects, the <i>crux ansata</i> is shown conspicuously. In a remarkable
+      plate in the Transactions of the <i>Royal Society of Literature</i>
+      (second series, vol. i., p. 140), the sun is identified with the serpent;
+      its rays terminate in hands, some holding the handled cross or <i>tau</i>,
+      and before it a queen, apparently, worships. She is offering what seems to
+      be a lighted tobacco pipe, the bowl being of the same shape as that
+      commonly used in Turkey; from this a wavy pyramid of flame rises. Behind
+      her, two female slaves elevate the sistrum; whilst before her, and
+      apparently between herself and her husband, are two altars occupied by
+      round cakes and one crescent-shaped emblem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0030" id="linkimage-0030">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/118.jpg" alt="118 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The aureole was used in ancient days by Babylonian artists or sculptors,
+      when they wished to represent a being, apparently human, as a god. The
+      same plan has been adopted by the moderns, who have varied the symbol by
+      representing it now as a golden disc, now as a terrestrial orb, again as a
+      rayed sphere. A writer, when describing a god as a man, can say that the
+      object he sketches is divine; but a painter thinks too much of his art to
+      put on any of his designs, "this woman is a goddess," or "this creature is
+      a god"; he therefore adds an aureole round the head of his subject, and
+      thus converts a very ordinary man, woman, or child into a deity to be
+      reverenced; modern artists thus proving themselves to be far more skilful
+      in depicting the Almighty than the carpenters and goldsmiths of the time
+      of Isaiah (xl. 18, 19, xli. 6, 7, xliv. 9-19), who used no such
+      contrivance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 24 is another representation of the solar disc, in which it is
+      marked with a cross. This probably originated in the wheel of a chariot
+      having four spokes, and the sun being likened to a charioteer. The
+      chariots of the sun are referred to in 2 Kings xxiii. 11 as idolatrous
+      emblems. Of these the wheel was symbolic. The identification of this
+      emblem with the sun is very easy, for it has repeatedly been found in
+      Mesopotamian gems in conjunction with the moon. In a very remarkable one
+      figured in Rawlinson's <i>Ancient Monarchies</i>, vol. ii., p. 249, the
+      cross is contrived as five circles. It is remarkable that in many papal
+      pictures the wafer and the cup are depicted precisely as the sun and moon
+      in conjunction. See Pugin's Architectural Glossary, plate iv., fig. 5.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0031" id="linkimage-0031">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/119.jpg" alt="119 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 25, 26, 27, are simply varieties of the solar wheel, intended to
+      represent the idea of the sun and moon, the mystic triad and unit, the
+      "arba," or four. In Figure 26, the mural ornament is introduced, that
+      being symbolic of feminine virginity. For explanation of Figure 27, see
+      Figures 85, 86.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 28 is copied from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate xiv. F. That author
+      states that he has taken it from a drawing of an Egyptian stèle, made by
+      M. E. Prisse (<i>Monum. Egypt</i>., plate xxxvii.), and that the original
+      is in the British Museum. There is an imperfect copy of it in Rawlinson's
+      <i>Herodotus</i>, vol. ii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0032" id="linkimage-0032">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/120.jpg" alt="120 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The original is too indelicate to be represented fully. Isis, the central
+      figure, is wholly nude, with the exception of her head-dress, and neck and
+      breast ornaments. In one hand she holds two blades of corn apparently,
+      whilst in the other she has three lotus flowers, two being egg-shaped, but
+      the central one fully expanded; with these, which evidently symbolise the
+      mystic triad, is associated a circle emblematic of the yoni, thus
+      indicating the fourfold creator. Isis stands upon a lioness; on one side
+      of her stands a clothed male figure, holding in one hand the <i>crux
+      ansata</i>, and in the other an upright spear. On the opposite side is a
+      male figure wholly nude, like the goddess, save his head-dress and collar,
+      the ends of which are arranged so as to form a cross. His hand points to a
+      flagellum; behind him is a covert reference to the triad, whilst in front
+      Osiris offers undisguised homage to Isis. The head-dress of the goddess
+      appears to be a modified form of the crescent moon inverted. It is not
+      exclusively Egyptian, as it has been found in conjunction with other
+      emblems on an Assyrian obelisc of Phallic form.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0033" id="linkimage-0033">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/121.jpg" alt="121 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 29, 30, 31, 32, represent the various triangles and their union,
+      which have been adopted in worship. Figure 29 is said to represent fire,
+      which amongst the ancient Persians was depicted as a cone, whilst the
+      figure inverted represents water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0034" id="linkimage-0034">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/122.jpg" alt="122 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 33 is an ancient Hindoo emblem, called Sri Iantra. The circle
+      represents the world, in which the living exist; the triangle pointing
+      upwards shows the male creator; and the triangle with the apex downwards
+      the female; distinct, yet united. These have a world within themselves, in
+      which the male is uppermost. In the central circle the image to be
+      worshipped is placed. When used, the figure is placed on the ground, with
+      Brahma to the east, and Laksmi to the west. Then a relic of any saint, or
+      image of Buddha, like a modern papal crucifix, is added, and the shrine
+      for worship is complete. It has now been adopted in Christian churches and
+      Freemasons' lodges.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It will be noticed that the male emblem points to the rising sun, and the
+      female triangle points to the setting sun, when the earth seems to receive
+      the god into her couch.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0035" id="linkimage-0035">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/123.jpg" alt="123 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 34 is a very ancient Hindoo emblem, whose real signification I am
+      unable to divine. It is used in calculation; it forms the basis of some
+      game, and it is a sign of vast import in sacti worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A coin, bearing this figure upon it, and having a central cavity with the
+      Etruscan letters SUPEN placed one between each two of the angles, was
+      found in a fictile urn, at Volaterræ, and is depicted in Fabretti's <i>Italian
+      Glossary</i>, plate xxvi., fig. 858, bis a. As the coin is round, the
+      reader will see that these letters may be read as Supen, Upens, Pensu,
+      Ensup, or Nsupe. A search through Fabretti's <i>Lexicon</i> affords no
+      clue to any meaning except for the third. There seems, indeed, strong
+      reason to believe that <i>pensu</i> was the Etruscan form of the Pali <i>panca</i>,
+      the Sanscrit <i>pânch</i>, the Bengalli <i>pânch</i>, and the Greek <i>penta</i>,
+      i. e., five. Five, certainly, would be an appropriate word for the
+      pentangle. It is almost impossible to avoid speculating upon the value of
+      this fragment of archæological evidence in support of the idea that the
+      Greeks, Aryans, and Etruscans had something in common; but into the
+      question it would be unprofitable to enter here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But, although declining to enter upon this wide field of inquiry, I would
+      notice that whilst searching Fabretti's <i>Glossary</i> my eye fell upon
+      the figure of an equilateral triangle with the apex upwards, depicted
+      plate xliii., fig. 2440 ter. The triangle is of brass, and was found in
+      the territory of the Falisci. It bears a rude representation of the
+      outlines of the soles of two human feet, in this respect resembling a
+      Buddhist emblem; and there is on its edge an inscription which may be
+      rendered thus in Roman letters, KAYI: TERTINEI. POSTIKNU, which probably
+      signifies "Gavia, the wife of Tertius, offered it." The occurrence of two
+      Hindoo symbols in ancient Italy is very remarkable. It must, however, be
+      noticed that similar symbols have been found on ancient sculptured stones
+      in Ireland and Scotland. There may be no emblematic ideas whatever
+      conveyed by the design; but when the marks appear on Gnostic gems, they
+      are supposed to indicate death, i. e., the impressions left by the feet of
+      the individual as he springs from earth to heaven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0036" id="linkimage-0036">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/124.jpg" alt="124 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 35, 36, are Maltese crosses. In a large book of Etrurian
+      antiquities, which came casually under my notice about twenty years ago,
+      when I was endeavouring to master the language, theology, etc., of the
+      Etruscans, but whose name, and other particulars of which, I cannot now
+      remember; I found depicted two crosses, made up of four masculine triads,
+      each <i>asher</i> being erect, and united to its fellows by the gland,
+      forming a central diamond, emblem of the yoni. In one instance, the limbs
+      of the cross were of equal length; in the other, one <i>asher</i> was
+      three times as long as the others. A somewhat similar cross, but one
+      united with the circle, was found some time ago near Naples. It is made of
+      gold, and has apparently been used as an amulet and suspended to the neck.
+      It is figured in plate 35 of <i>An Essay on the Worship of the Generative
+      Powers during the Middle Ages</i> (London, privately printed, 1865). It
+      may be thus described: the centre of the circle is occupied by four oblate
+      spheres arranged like a square; from the salient curves of each of these
+      springs a yoni (shaped as in Figure 59), with the point outwards, thus
+      forming a cross, each ray of which is an egg and fig. At each junction of
+      the ovoids a yoni is inserted with the apex inwards, whilst from the broad
+      end arise four ashers, which project beyond the shield, each terminating
+      in a few golden bead-like drops. The whole is a graphic natural
+      representation of the intimate union of the male and female, sun and moon,
+      cross and circle, Ouranos and Ge. The same idea is embodied in Figure 27,
+      p. 86, but in that the mystery is deeply veiled, in that the long arms of
+      the cross represent the sun, or male, indicated by the triad; the short
+      ones, the moon, or the female (see Plate xi. Fig. 4).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Maltese cross, a Phoenician emblem, was discovered cut on a rock in
+      the island from which it takes its name. Though cruciform, it had nothing
+      Christian about it; for, like the Etruscan ones referred to above, it
+      consisted of four lingas united together by the heads, the "eggs" being at
+      the outside. It was an easy thing for an unscrupulous priesthood to
+      represent this "invention" of the cross as a miracle, and to make it
+      presentable to the eyes of the faithful by leaving the outlines of Anu and
+      Hea incomplete. Sometimes this cross is figured as four triangles meeting
+      at the points, which has the same meaning, Generally, however, the Church
+      (as may be seen by a reference to Pugin's <i>Glossary of Ecclesiastical
+      Ornament</i>) adopts the use of crosses where the inferior members of the
+      trinity are more or less central, as in our Plate xi., Figs. 2, 8, and as
+      in the Figures 40, 41, 42, <i>infra</i>. When once a person knows the true
+      origin of the doctrine of the Trinity&mdash;one which is far too improper
+      to have been adopted by the writers of the New Testament&mdash;it is
+      impossible not to recognise in the signs which are symbolic of it the
+      thing which is signified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It may readily be supposed that those who have knowledge of the heathenish
+      origin of many of the cherished doctrines of the so-called Christian
+      church, cannot remain enthusiastic members of her communion; and it is
+      equally easy for the enlightened philosopher to understand why such
+      persons are detested and abused by the ignorant, and charged with being
+      freethinkers, sceptics, or atheists. Sciolism is ever intolerant, and
+      theological hatred is generally to be measured by the mental incapacity of
+      those who indulge in the luxury. But no amount of abuse can reduce the
+      intrinsic value of facts. Nor will the most fiery persecution demonstrate
+      that the religion of Christ, as it appears in our churches and cathedrals,
+      especially if they are papal, is not tainted by a mass of paganism of
+      disgusting origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0037" id="linkimage-0037">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/126.jpg" alt="126 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 37 is copied from the <i>Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society</i>,
+      vol. xviii., p 898, plate 4. It is a Buddhist emblem, and represents the
+      same idea under different aspects. Each limb of the cross represents the
+      <i>fascinum</i> at right angles with the body, and presented towards a
+      barleycorn, one of the symbols of the yoni. Each limb is marked by the
+      same female emblem, and terminates with the triad triangle; beyond this
+      again is seen the conjunction of the sun and moon. The whole therefore
+      represents the mystic curba, the creative four, by some called Thor's
+      hammer. Copies of a cross similar to this have been recently found by Dr.
+      Schliemann in a very ancient city, buried under the remains of two others,
+      which he identifies as the Troy of Homer's Iliad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0038" id="linkimage-0038">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/127.jpg" alt="127 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 38 to 42 are developments of the triad triangle, or trinity. If
+      the horizontal limb on the free end of the arm were to be prolonged to
+      twice its length, the most obtuse would recognise <i>Asher</i>, and the
+      inferior or lower members of the "triune."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 43 is by Egyptologists called the 'symbol of life.'
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is also called the 'handled cross,' or <i>crux ansata</i>. It
+      represents the male triad and the female unit, under a decent form. There
+      are few symbols more commonly met with in Egyptian art than this. In some
+      remarkable sculptures, where the sun's rays are represented as terminating
+      in hands, the offerings which these bring are many a <i>crux ansata</i>,
+      emblematic of the truth that a fruitful union is a gift from the deity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 44, 45, are ancient designs, in which the male and female elements
+      are more disguised than is usual. In Fig. 44 the woman is indicated by the
+      dolphin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0039" id="linkimage-0039">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/128.jpg" alt="128 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 48, 49, represent the trefoil which was used by the ancient
+      Hindoos as emblematic of the celestial triad, and adopted by modern
+      Christians. It will be seen that from one stem arise three
+      curiously-shaped segments, each of which is supposed to resemble the male
+      <i>scrotum, "purse," "bag," or "basket</i>.".
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 50 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 2. He
+      states that it is from a gem cylinder in the British Museum. It represents
+      a male and female figure dancing before the mystic palm-tree, into whose
+      signification we need not enter beyond saying that it is a symbol of
+      Asher. Opposite to a particular part of the figures is to be seen a
+      diamond, or oval, and a <i>fleur de lys</i>, or symbolic triad. This gem
+      is peculiarly valuable, as it illustrates in a graphic manner the meaning
+      of the emblems in question and how the "lillies of France" had a pagan
+      origin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0040" id="linkimage-0040">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/129.jpg" alt="129 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 51 to 60 are varions representations of the union of the four, the
+      arba, the androgyne, or the linga-yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 61. In modern Christian art this symbol is called <i>vesica piscis</i>,
+      and is sometimes surrounded with rays. It commonly serves as a sort of
+      framework in which female saints are placed, who are generally the
+      representatives of the older Juno, Ceres, Diana, Venus, or other
+      impersonations of the feminine element in creation. We should not feel
+      obliged to demonstrate the truth of this assertion if decency permitted us
+      to reproduce here designs which naughty youths so frequently chalk upon
+      walls to the disgust of the proper part of the community. We must,
+      therefore, have resort to a religious book, and in a subsequent figure
+      demonstrate the meaning of the symbol unequivocally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0041" id="linkimage-0041">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/130.jpg" alt="130 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 62 represents one of the forms assumed by the sistrum of Isis.
+      Sometimes the instrument is oval, and occasionally it terminates below in
+      a horizontal line, instead of in an acute angle. The inquirer can very
+      readily recognise in the emblem the symbol of the female creator. If there
+      should be any doubt in his mind, he will be satisfied after a reference to
+      Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i> (Rome, 1707), vol. ii., plate 61,
+      wherein Diana of the Ephesians is depicted as having a body of the exact
+      shape of the sistrum figured in Payne Knight's work on the remains of the
+      worship of Priapus, etc. The bars across the sistrum show that it denotes
+      a pure virgin (see <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. n., pp.
+      743-746). On its handle is seen the figure of a cat&mdash;a sacred animal
+      amongst the Egyptians, for the same reason that Isis was figured sometimes
+      as a cow&mdash;viz., for its salacity and its love for its offspring.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0042" id="linkimage-0042">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/131.jpg" alt="131 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 63 to 66 are all drawn from Assyrian sources.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0043" id="linkimage-0043">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/132.jpg" alt="132 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The central figure, which is probably the biblical "grove," represents the
+      delta, or female "door." To it the attendant genii offer the pine cone and
+      basket. The signification of these is explained subsequently. I was unable
+      at first to quote any authority to demonstrate that the pine cone was a
+      distinct masculine symbol, but now the reader may be referred to Maffei,
+      <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i> (Rome, 1708), where, in vol. iii., he will
+      see a Venus Tirsigera.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The goddess in plate 8, is nude, and carries in her hand the tripliform
+      arrow, emblem of the male triad, whilst in the other she bears a thyrsus,
+      terminating in a pine or fir cone. Now this cone and stem are carried in
+      the Bacchic festivities, and can be readily recognised as <i>virga cum ovo</i>.
+      Sometimes the thyrsus is replaced by ivy leaves, which, like the fig, are
+      symbolic of the triple creator. Occasionally the thyrsus was a lance or
+      pike, round which vine leaves and berries were clustered; Bacchus <i>cum
+      vino</i> being the companion of Venus <i>cum cerere</i>. But a stronger
+      confirmation of my views may be found in a remarkable group (see Fig. 124
+      infra). This is entitled <i>Sacrifizio di Priapo</i>, and represents a
+      female offering to Priapus. The figure of the god stands upon a pillar of
+      three stones, and it bears a thyrsus from which depend two ribbons. The
+      devotee is accompanied by a boy, who carries a pine- or fir- cone in his
+      hand, and a basket on his head, in which may be recognised a male effigy.
+      In Figure 64 the position of the advanced hand of each of the priests
+      nearest to the grove is very suggestive to the physiologist. It resembles
+      one limb of the Buddhist cross, Fig. 37, <i>supra</i>. The finger or thumb
+      when thus pointed are figurative of Asher, in a horizontal position, with
+      Anu or Hea hanging from one end. Figure 65 is explained similarly. It is
+      to be noticed that a door is adopted amongst modern Hindoos as an emblem
+      of the sacti (see Figs. 152, 153, <i>infra</i>).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0044" id="linkimage-0044">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/133.jpg" alt="133 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      My friend Mr. Newton, who has taken great interest in the subject of
+      symbolism, regards these "groves" as not being simply emblems of the yoni,
+      but of the union of that part with the lingam, or mystic palm tree. As his
+      ideas are extremely ingenious, and his theory perfect, I have requested
+      him to introduce them at the end of this work.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 67, 68, 69, are fancy sketches intended to represent the "sacred
+      shields" spoken of in Jewish and other history. The last is drawn from
+      memory, and represents a Templar's shield. According to the method in
+      which the shield is viewed, it appears like the <i>os tincæ</i> or the
+      navel. Figures 70, 71, represent the shape of the sistrum of Isis, the
+      fruit of the fig, and the yoni. When a garment of this shape is made and
+      worn, it becomes the "pallium" donned alike by the male and female
+      individuals consecrated to Roman worship.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      King, in his <i>Ancient Gnostics</i>, remarks: "The circle of the sun is
+      the navel, which marks the natural position of the womb&mdash;the navel
+      being considered in the microcosm as corresponding to the sun in the
+      universe, an idea more fully exemplified in the famous hallucination of
+      the Greek anchorites touching the mystical 'Light of Tabor,' which was
+      revealed to the dèvotee after a fast of many days, all the time staring
+      fixedly upon the region of the navel, whence at length this light streamed
+      as from a focus." Pages 158, 154.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0045" id="linkimage-0045">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/134.jpg" alt="134 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop, and a modern nun
+      wearing the emblem of the female sex. In the former, said (in <i>Old
+      England Pictorially Illustrated</i>, by Knight) to be a drawing of St.
+      Augustine, the amount of symbolism is great. The "nimbus" and the tonsure
+      are solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded with phallic
+      crosses; its lower end is the ancient T the mark of the masculine triad;
+      the right hand has the forefinger extended, like the Assyrian priests
+      whilst doing homage to the grove, and within it is the fruit, <i>tappuach</i>,
+      which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons the pallium in
+      worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the unity, the <i>arba</i>,
+      or mystic four. See <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second edition, Vol. n., pp.
+      915-918.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of King's <i>Gnostics
+      and their Remains</i>, (Bell &amp; Daldy, London, 1864). To this period
+      belongs a beautiful sard in my collection representing Serapis,... whilst
+      before him <i>stands</i> Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the
+      other a wheatsheaf, with the legend... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the
+      very terms applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form
+      (the 'Black Virgins,' so highly reverenced in certain French Cathedrals
+      during the middle ages, proved, when examined critically, basalt figures
+      of Isis), her symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Her devotees carried into
+      the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the obligation
+      to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting, unfortunately, the
+      frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed. The sacred image still
+      moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at it, vi. 530.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0046" id="linkimage-0046">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/135.jpg" alt="135 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Escorted by the tonsured surpliced train. Her proper title, Domina, the
+      exact translation of Sanscrit Isi, survives with slight change in the
+      modern Madonna, Mater Domina.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      By a singular permutation the flower borne by each, the lotus&mdash;ancient
+      emblem of the sun and fecundity&mdash;now re-named the lily, is
+      interpreted as significant of the opposing quality. The tinkling
+      sistrum... is replaced by... the bell, taken from Buddhist usages.... The
+      erect oval symbol of the Female Principle of Nature became the Vesica
+      Piscis, and the Crux Ansata, testifying the union of the male and female
+      in the most obvious manner, is transformed into the orb surmounted by the
+      cross, as an ensign of royalty. Pp. 71, 72.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0047" id="linkimage-0047">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/136.jpg" alt="136 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 74 is a well known Christian emblem, called "a foul anchor." The
+      anchor, as a symbol, is of great antiquity. It may be seen on an old
+      Etruscan coin in the British Museum, depicted in <i>Veterum Popvlorum et
+      Regum Nummi</i>, etc. (London, 1814), plate ii., fig. 1. On the reverse
+      there is a chariot wheel. The foul anchor represents the crescent moon,
+      the yoni, ark, navis, or boat; in this is placed the mast, round which the
+      serpent, the emblem of life in the "verge," entwines itself. The cross
+      beam completes the mystic four, symbolic alike of the sun and of
+      androgeneity. The whole is a covert emblem of that union which results in
+      fecundity. It is said by Christians to be the anchor of the soul, sure and
+      steadfast. This it certainly cannot be, for a foul anchor will not hold
+      the ground.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 75 to 79 are Asiatic and Egyptian emblems in use amongst
+      ourselves, and receive their explanation similarly to preceding ones.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 80 is copied from Godfrey Higgins' <i>Anacalypsis</i>, vol. ii.,
+      fig. 27. It is drawn from Montfauçon, vol. ii., pi. cxxxii., fig. 6. In
+      his text, Higgins refers to two similar groups, one which exists in the
+      Egyptian temple of Ipsambal in Nubia, and is described by Wilson, <i>On
+      Buddhists and Jeynes</i>, p. 127, another, found in a cave temple in the
+      south of India, described by Col. Tod, in his <i>History of Raj-pootanah</i>.
+      The group is not explained by Montfauçon. It is apparently Greek, and
+      combines the story of Hercules with the seductiveness of Circe. The tree
+      and serpent are common emblems, and have even been found in Indian temples
+      in central America, grouped as in the woodcut.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0048" id="linkimage-0048">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/137.jpg" alt="137 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0049" id="linkimage-0049">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/138.jpg" alt="138 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 81 is copied from Lajard, <i>Culte de Venus</i>, plate xix., fig.
+      11, The origin of this, which is a silver statuette in that author's
+      possession, is unknown. The female represents Venus bearing in one hand an
+      apple; her arm rests upon what seems to be a representative of the mystic
+      triad (the two additions to the upright stem not being seen in a front
+      view) round which a dolphin for 'womb' is entwined, from whose mouth comes
+      the stream of life. The apple plays a strange part in Greek and Hebrew
+      mythology. The story of "the apple of discord," awarded by Paris to Venus,
+      seems to indicate that where beauty contends against majesty and wisdom
+      for the love of youth, it is sure to win the day. We learn from Arnobius
+      that a certain Nana conceived a son by an apple (Op, Cit., p. 286),
+      although in another place the prolific fruit is said to have been a
+      pomegranate. Mythologically, that writer sees no difficulty in the story,
+      for those who affirm that rocks and hard stones have brought forth. In the
+      Song of Solomon, apples and the tree that bears them are often referred
+      to; and we have in Ch. ii. 5 the curious expression, "Comfort me with
+      apples, for I am sick of love." We are familiar with the account of Eve
+      being tempted by the same fruit. Critics imagine that as the apple in
+      Palestine is not good eating, the quince is meant; if so, we know that a
+      leaf of that tree is to be seen in every amorous picture found in Pompeii,
+      the plant having been supposed to increase virile power. Others imagine
+      that the citron is intended, whose shape makes it an emblem of the testis.
+      However this may be decided, it is tolerably clear, from all the tales and
+      pictures in which a fruit like the apple figures, that the emblem
+      symbolised a desire for an intimate union between the sexes. The reader
+      will doubtless remember how, in Genesis xxx, Leah is represented as
+      purchasing her husband's company for a night by means of mandrakes, the
+      result being the birth of Issachar; and in the well-known story of the
+      Creation we find that the apple gives birth to desire, as shown in the
+      recognition for the first time of the respective nudity of the couple,
+      which was followed immediately, or as soon as it was possible afterwards,
+      by sexual intercourse and the conception of Cain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0050" id="linkimage-0050">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/139.jpg" alt="139 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 82 is from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xivb, fig. 3.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The gem is of unknown origin, but is apparently Babylonish; it represents
+      the male and female in conjunction: each appears to be holding the symbol
+      of the triad in much respect, whilst the curious cross suggests a new
+      reading to an ancient symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have of late heard it asserted, by a man of considerable learning,
+      though of a very narrow mind in everything which bears upon religious
+      subjects, that there is no proof that the sun was commonly regarded as a
+      male, or the moon as a female; and he based his strange assertion solely
+      upon the ground that in German and some other languages the sun was
+      represented by a feminine, and the moon by a masculine noun. The argument
+      is of no value, for [&mdash;Greek&mdash;] and other Greek and Latin names
+      of the yoni, are masculine nouns, and Virga and Mentula, the Roman words
+      for the Linga, are feminine. In Hindostan, the sun is always represented
+      as a God; the moon is occasionally a male, and sometimes a female deity.
+      In ancient Gaulish and Scandinavian figures, the sun was always a male,
+      and the moon a female. Their identification will be seen in Figure 118&mdash;as
+      their conjunction is in the one before us&mdash;in the position of the
+      individuals, and in the <i>fleur-de-lys</i> and oval symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0051" id="linkimage-0051">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/140.jpg" alt="140 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 88 may be found in Fabretti's <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Italicarum</i>
+      (Turin, 1867), plate xxv., fig. 808 f. The coins which bear the figures
+      are of brass, and were found at Volaterræ. In one the double head is
+      associated with a dolphin and crescent moon on the reverse, and the
+      letters Velathri, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the one
+      containing the club. The club, formed as in Figure 88, occurs frequently
+      on Etruscan coins. For example, two clubs are joined with four balls on a
+      Tudertine coin, having on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for
+      fighting, and four balls arranged in a square. On other coins are to be
+      seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripliform figures,
+      associated with three balls in a triangle; sometimes two, and sometimes
+      one. The double head with two balls is seen on a Telamonian coin, having
+      on the reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned upwards. In a
+      coin of Populonia the club is associated with a spear and two balls,
+      whilst on the reverse is a single head. I must notice, too, that on other
+      coins a hammer and pincers, or tongs, appear, as if the idea was to show
+      that a maker, fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be symbolised.
+      What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which a head appears
+      thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two statuettes of silver have been
+      found, representing a double-faced individual. A lion's head for a cap, a
+      collar, and buskins are the sole articles of dress worn. One face appears
+      to be feminine, and the other masculine, but neither is bearded. The
+      pectorals and the general form indicate the male, but the usual marks of
+      sex are absent. On these have been found Etruscan inscriptions (1) v.
+      cvinti arntias CULPIANSI ALP AN TURCE; (2) V. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ
+      alpan TUBCE. Which may be rendered (1) "V. Quintus of Aruntia, to Culpian
+      pleasing, a gift"; (2) "V. Quintus of Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a
+      gift," evidently showing that they were ex voto offerings.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0052" id="linkimage-0052">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/141.jpg" alt="141 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Col. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49 it is associated
+      with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The design is spoken of as "the
+      spectacle ornament," and it is very commonly associated with another
+      figure closely resembling the letter Z. It is very natural for the
+      inquirer to associate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or the sun
+      common amongst the sculptured stones in Scotland. Four varieties may be
+      seen in plate 48 of sun and moon. On one Scottish monument the circles
+      represent wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot. As yet I
+      have only been able to meet with the Z and "spectacle ornament" once out
+      of Scotland; it is figured on apparently a Gnostic gem (<i>The Gnostics
+      and their Remains</i>, by C. W. King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig. 5). In
+      that we see in a serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having the down
+      stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating in a circle;
+      besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray terminating in a circle,
+      precisely resembling the star in Plate in., Fig. 8, supra. I can offer no
+      satisfactory explanation of the emblem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0053" id="linkimage-0053">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/142.jpg" alt="142 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 85, 86, represent a Yorkshire and an Indian stone circle. The
+      first is copied from <i>Descriptions of Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and
+      other Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian Monuments in the Dekkan</i>, by Col.
+      Meadows Taylor, <i>Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy</i>, vol. xxiv.
+      The mound exists at Twizell, Yorkshire, and the centre of the circle
+      indicates an ancient tomb, very similar to those found by Taylor in the
+      Dekkan; this contained only one single urn, but many of the Indian ones
+      contained, besides the skeleton of the great man buried therein, skeletons
+      of other individuals who had been slaughtered over his tomb, and buried
+      above the kistvaen containing his bones; in one instance two bodies and
+      three heads were found in the principal grave, and twenty other skeletons
+      above and beside it. A perusal of this very interesting paper will well
+      repay the study bestowed upon it. Figure 86 is copied from Forbes Leslie's
+      book mentioned above, plate 59. It represents a modern stone circle in the
+      Dekkan, of very recent construction. The dots upon the stones represent
+      dabs of red paint, which again represent blood. The circles are similar to
+      some which have been found in Palestine, and give evidence of the presence
+      of the same religious ideas existing in ancient England and Hindostan, as
+      well as in modern India. The name of the god worshipped in these recent
+      shrines is Vetal, or Betal. It is worth mentioning, in passing, that there
+      is a celebrated monolith in Scotland called the Newton Stone, on which are
+      inscribed, evidently with a graving tool, an inscription in the Ogham, and
+      another in some ancient Aryan character (see Moore's Ancient Pillar Stones
+      of Scotland).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0054" id="linkimage-0054">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/143.jpg" alt="143 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 87 indicates the solar wheel, emblem of the chariot of Apollo. This
+      sign is a very common one upon ancient coins; sometimes the rays or spokes
+      are four, at others they are more numerous. Occasionally the tire of the
+      wheel is absent, and amongst the Etruscans the nave is omitted. The solar
+      cross is very common in Ireland, and amongst the Romanists generally as a
+      head dress for male saints.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0055" id="linkimage-0055">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/144.jpg" alt="144 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the authority of Col.
+      Hamilton Smith, who copied it from the original collection made by the
+      artists of the French Institute of Cairo. It is said to represent Osiris,
+      but this is doubtful. There is much that is intensely mystical about the
+      figure. The whip, or flagellum, placed over the tail, and the head passing
+      through the yoni, the circular spots with their central dot, the horns
+      with solar disc, and two curiously shaped feathers (?), the calf reclining
+      upon a plinth, wherein a division into three is conspicuous, all have a
+      meaning in reference to the mystic four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I have long had a doubt respecting the symbolic meaning of the scourge.
+      Some inquirers have asserted that it is simply an emblem of power or
+      superiority, inasmuch as he who can castigate must be in a higher position
+      than the one who is punished. But of this view I can find no proof. On the
+      other hand, any one who is familiar with the effect upon the male produced
+      by flagellation, and who notices that the representations of Osiris and
+      the scourge show evidence that the deity is in the same condition as one
+      who has been subjected to the rod, will be disposed to believe that the
+      flagellum is an indication or symbol of the god who gives to man the power
+      to reproduce his like, or who can restore the faculty after it has faded.
+      It is not for a moment to be supposed that a deity who was to be
+      worshipped would be depicted as a task-master, whose hands are more
+      familiar with punishment than blessing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0056" id="linkimage-0056">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/145.jpg" alt="145 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 89 is taken from Lajard's <i>Culte de Venus</i>, plate i., fig. 14,
+      and is an enlarged impression of a gem. A similar figure is to be found in
+      Payne Knight's work <i>On the Worship of Priapus</i>. In both instances
+      the female is fringed with male emblems. In the one before us a fish,
+      apparently a dolphin, is borne in one hand. In the other the woman is
+      bearded. These are representations of Ashtaroth&mdash;the androgyne deity
+      in which the female predominates.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 90 represents an ancient Italian form of the Indian Ling Yoni. It is
+      copied from a part of the Frontispiece of Faber's <i>Dissertation on the
+      Cabiri</i>, where it is stated that the plate is a copy of a picture of a
+      nymphoeum found when excavating a foundation for the Barbarini Palace at
+      Rome. It deserves notice, because the round mound of masonry surmounted by
+      the short pillars is precisely similar to similar erections found in
+      Hindostan on the East and America on the West, as well as in varions parts
+      of Europe. The oval in the pediment and the solitary pillar have the same
+      meaning as the Caaba and hole&mdash;the upright stone and pit revered at
+      Mecca long before Mahomet's time&mdash;the tree serves to identify the
+      pillar, and <i>vice versa</i>. Apertures were common in ancient sepulchral
+      monuments, alike in Hindostan and England; one perforated stone is
+      preserved as a relic in the precincts of an old church in modern Rome. The
+      aperture is blackish with the grease of many hands, which have been put
+      therein whilst their owners took a sacred oath. We have already remarked
+      how ancient Abraham and a modern Arab have sworn by the Linga; it is
+      therefore by no means remarkable that some of a different form of faith
+      should swear by the Yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0057" id="linkimage-0057">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/146a.jpg" alt="146 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img alt="146b (16K)" src="images/146b.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 91 is stated by Higgins, Anacalypm, p. 217, to be a mark on the
+      breast of an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of University College, London.
+      It is essentially the same symbol as the <i>crux ansata</i>, and is
+      emblematic of the male triad and the female unit.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal tiara has not about
+      it anything particularly Christian, a similar head-dress having been worn
+      by gods or angels in ancient Assyria, where it appeared crowned by an
+      emblem of "the trinity." We may mention, in passing, that as the Romanists
+      adopted the mitre and the tiara from "the cursed brood of Ham," so they
+      adopted the episcopalian crook from the augurs of Etruria, and the
+      artistic form with which they clothe their angels from the painters and
+      um-makers of Magna Gracia and Central Italy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0058" id="linkimage-0058">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/147.jpg" alt="147 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 98 is the Mithraic lion. It may be seen in Hyde's <i>Religion of
+      the Ancient Persians</i>, second edition, plate i. It may also be seen in
+      vol. ii., plates 10 and 11, of Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i>
+      (Rome, 1707). In plate 10 the Mithraic lion has seven stars above it,
+      around which are placed respectively, words written in Greek, Etruscan and
+      Phoenician characters, ZEDCH. TELKAN. TELKON. TELKON. QIDEKH. UNEULK.
+      LNKELLP., apparently showing that the emblem was adopted by the Gnostics.
+      It would be unprofitable to dwell upon the meaning of these letters. After
+      puzzling over them, I fancy that "Bad spirits, pity us," "Just one, I call
+      on thee," may be made out by considering the words to be very bad Greek,
+      and the letters to be much transposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0059" id="linkimage-0059">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/148.jpg" alt="148 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 94 is copied by Higgins, <i>Anacalypsis</i>, on the authority of
+      Dubois, who states, vol. iii., p. 88, that it was found on a stone in a
+      church in France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred
+      years. Dubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no
+      reference to the story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on
+      the draped figures as representatives of Adam and Eve. We have introduced
+      it to show how such tales are intermingled with Sabeanism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0060" id="linkimage-0060">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/149.jpg" alt="149 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (<i>Nineveh and Babylon</i>,
+      p. 156), and represents Harpocrates seated on a lotus, adoring the mundane
+      representative of the mother of creation. I have not yet met with any
+      ancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify the yoni so completely
+      with various goddesses.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Compare this with Figure 138, <i>infra</i>, wherein the Figure 95. emblem
+      is even more strikingly identified with woman, and with the virgin Mary.
+      Those who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on
+      hoardings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent
+      certain ideas in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the mystic
+      meaning of O &mdash;&mdash; I have elsewhere called attention to the idea
+      that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil
+      spirits; however grotesque the idea may be, it has existed in all ages,
+      and in civilised and savage nations alike. A rude image of a woman who
+      shamelessly exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches in
+      Ireland, and at Servatos, in Spain, where she is standing on one side of
+      the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on the other. The same has
+      been found in Mexico, Peru, and in North America. Nor must we forget how
+      Baubo cured the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a strange
+      fashion to the distressed goddess. Arnobius, <i>Op. Cit</i>., pp. 249,
+      250.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As I have already noticed modern notions on the influence produced by the
+      exhibition of the yoni on those who are suffering, the legend referred to
+      may be shortly described. The goddess, in the story, was miserable in
+      consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen away by Pluto.
+      In her agony, snatching two Etna-lighted torches, she wanders round the
+      earth in search of the lost one, and in due course visits Eleusis. Baubo
+      receives her hospitably; but nothing that the hostess does induces the
+      guest to depose her grief for a moment. In despair the mortal bethinks her
+      of a scheme, shaves off what is called in Isaiah "the hair of the feet"
+      and then exposes herself to the goddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the
+      denuded spot, is pleased with the strange form of consolation, consents to
+      take food and is restored to comfort.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0061" id="linkimage-0061">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/150.jpg" alt="150 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 8, of Lajard's <i>Culte de Venus</i>.
+      He states that it is an impression of a cornelian cylinder, in the
+      collection of the late Sir William Ouseley, and is supposed to represent
+      Oannes, or Bel and two fish gods, the authors of fecundity. It is thought
+      that Dagon of the Philistines resembled the two figures supporting the
+      central one.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 97 is a side view of plate 1. The idol represents a female. Dagon,
+      the fish god, male above, piscine below, was one of the many symbols of an
+      androgyne creator. In the first of the Avatars of Vishnu, he is
+      represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish
+      himself; the legend being that he was to be the saviour of the world in a
+      deluge which was to follow. See Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, and
+      Coleman's <i>Mythology of the Hindus</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0062" id="linkimage-0062">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/151a.jpg" alt="151 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 98 is a fancy sketch of the <i>fleur-de-lys</i>, the lily of
+      France. It symbolises the male triad, whilst the ring around it represents
+      the female. The identification of this emblem of the trinity with the
+      tripliform Mahadeva, and of the ring with his sacti, may be seen in the
+      next figure.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img alt="151b (4K)" src="images/151b.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 99, which we have already given on page 46, is one of great value
+      to the inquirer into the signification of certain symbols. It has been
+      reintroduced here to show the identification of the eye, fish, or oval
+      shape, with the yoni, and of the <i>fleur-de-lys</i> with the lingam,
+      which is recognised by the respective positions of the emblems in front of
+      particular parts of the mystic animals, who both, on their part, adore the
+      symbolic palm tree, with its pistil and stamens. The rayed branches of the
+      upper part of the tree, and the nearness to it of the crescent moon, seem
+      to indicate that the palm was a solar as well as a sexual emblem.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0063" id="linkimage-0063">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/152.jpg" alt="152 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      The great similarity of the palm tree to the ancient round towers in
+      Ireland and elsewhere will naturally strike the observer. He will perhaps
+      remember also that on certain occasions dancing, feasting, and debauchery
+      were practised about a round tower in Wicklow, such as were practised
+      round the English may-pole, the modern substitute of the mystic palm tree.
+      We have now humanised our practice, but we have not purified our land of
+      all its veiled symbols.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In some parts, where probably the palm tree does not flourish, the pine
+      takes its place as an emblem. It was sacred to the mother of the gods,
+      whose names, Rhoea, Ceres, Cybele, are paraphrastic of the yoni. We learn
+      from Araobius, <i>Op. Cit.</i>, p. 239, that on fixed days that tree was
+      introduced into the sanctuary of that august personage, being decorated by
+      fleeces and violets. It does not require any recondite knowledge to
+      understand the signification of the entrance of the pine into the temple
+      of the divine mother, nor what the tree when buried in the midst of a
+      fleece depicts. Those who have heard of the origin of the Spanish Royal
+      Order of the Golden Fleece know that the word is an enphemism for the <i>lanugo</i>
+      of the Romans. Parsley round a carrot root is a modern symbol, and the
+      violet is as good an emblem of the lingam as the modern pistol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It has long been known that the ancient custom of erecting a may-pole,
+      surrounding it with wreaths of flowers, and then dancing round it in wild
+      orgy, was a relic of the ancient custom of reverencing the symbol of
+      creation, invigorated by the returning spring time, without whose powers
+      the flocks and herds would fail to increase. It will not fail to attract
+      the notice of my readers, that a pine cone is constantly being offered to
+      the sacred "grove" by the priests of Assyria.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0064" id="linkimage-0064">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/153.jpg" alt="153 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 100, 101, represent the Buddhist cross and one of its arms. The
+      first shows the union of four phalli. The single one being a conventional
+      form of a well-known organ. This form of cross does not essentially differ
+      from the Maltese cross. In the latter, Asher stands perpendicularly to Anu
+      and Hea; in the former it is at right angles to them. "The pistol" is a
+      well-known name amongst our soldiery, and four such joined together by the
+      muzzle would form the Buddhist cross. Compare Figure 37, <i>ante</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 102, 108, 104, indicate the union of the four creators, the
+      trinity and the unity. Not having at hand any copy of an ancient key, I
+      have used a modern one; but this makes no essential difference in the
+      symbol.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 105, 106, are copied from Lajard, <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>,
+      plate ii. They represent ornaments held in the hands of a great female
+      figure, sculptured in bas relief on a rock at Yazili Kaia, near to Boghaz
+      Keni, in Anatolia, and described by M. C. Texier in 1834. The goddess is
+      crowned with a tower, to indicate virginity; in her right hand she holds a
+      staff, shown in Figure 106; in the other, that given in Figure 105, she
+      stands upon a lioness, and is attended by an antelope. Figure 105 is a
+      complicated emblem of the four.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0065" id="linkimage-0065">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img alt="154a (27K)" src="images/154a.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img alt="154b (63K)" src="images/154b.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 107, 108, 109, are copied from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, plate
+      lxxxiii. They represent the lingam and then yoni, which amongst the Indians
+      are regarded as holy emblems, much in the same way as a crucifix is
+      esteemed by certain modern Christians.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0066" id="linkimage-0066">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/155.jpg" alt="155 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In worship, <i>ghee</i>, or oil, or water, is poured over the pillar, and
+      allowed to run off by the spout. Sometimes the pillar is adorned by a
+      necklace, and is associated with the serpent emblem. In Lucian's account
+      of Alexander, the false prophet, which we have condensed in <i>Ancient
+      Faiths</i>, second edition, there is a reference to one of his dupes, who
+      was a distinguished Roman officer, but so very superstitious, or, as he
+      would say of himself, so deeply imbued with religion, that at the sight of
+      a stone he would fall prostrate and adore it for a considerable time,
+      offering prayers and vows thereto. This may by some be thought quite as
+      reasonable as the practice once enforced in Christian Rome, which obliged
+      all persons in the street to kneel in reverence when an ugly black doll,
+      called "the bambino," or a bit of bread, over which some cabalistic words
+      had been muttered, was being carried in procession past them. Arnobins, <i>Op,
+      Cit</i>., p. 81, says, "I worshipped images produced from the furnace,
+      gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of elephants, paintings,
+      wreaths on aged trees; whenever I espied an anointed stone, and one
+      bedaubed with olive oil, as if some person resided in it, I worshipped it,
+      I addressed myself to it, and begged blessings from a senseless stock."
+      Compare Gen. xxviii. 18, wherein we find that Jacob set up a stone and
+      anointed it with oil, and called the place Bethel, and Is. xxvii. 19, xl.
+      20, xliv. 10-20.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I copy the following remarks from a paper by Mr. Sellon, in <i>Memoirs of
+      the London Anthropological Society</i>, for 1868-4. Speaking of Hindostan,
+      he remarks, "As every village has its temple so every temple has its
+      Lingam, and these parochial Lingams are usually from two to three feet in
+      height, and rather broad at the base. Here the village girls, who are
+      anxious for lovers or husbands, repair early in the morning. They make a
+      lustration by sprinkling the god with water brought from the Ganges; they
+      deck the Linga with garlands of the sweet-smelling bilwa flower; they
+      perform the <i>mudra</i>, or gesticulation with the fingers, and, reciting
+      the prescribed <i>mantras</i>, or incantations, they rub themselves
+      against the emblem, and entreat the deity to make them fruitful mothers of
+      <i>pulee-pullum</i> (i.e., child fruit).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This is the celebrated Linga puja, during the performance of which the <i>panchaty</i>,
+      or five lamps, must be lighted, and the <i>gantha</i>, or bell, be
+      frequently rung to scare away the evil demons. The <i>mala</i>, or rosary
+      of a hundred and eight round beads, is also used in this puja."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      See also Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, plate xxii, pp. 68, 69, 70. Again,
+      in the <i>Dabistan</i>, a work written in the Persian language, by a
+      travelled Mahometan, about a. d. 1660, and translated by David Shea, for
+      the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland (8 vols., 8vo.,
+      Allen and Co., Leadenhall Street, London), we read, vol. ii., pp. 148-160,
+      "The belief of the Saktian is that Siva, that is, Mahadeva, who with
+      little exception is the highest of deities and the greatest of the
+      spirits, has a spouse whom they call <i>Maya</i> Sakti.....With them the
+      power of Mahadeva's wife, who is Bhavani, surpasses that of the husband.
+      The zealous of this sect worship the <i>Siva Linga</i>, although other
+      Hindoos also venerate it. <i>Linga</i> is called the virile organ, and
+      they say, on behalf of this worship, that as men and all living beings
+      derive their existence from it, adoration is duly bestowed upon it. As the
+      linga of Mahadeva, so do they venerate the <i>bhaga</i>, that is, the
+      female organ. A man very familiar with them gave the information that,
+      according to their belief, the high altar, or principal place in a mosque
+      of the Mussulmans, is an emblem of the <i>bhaga</i>. Another man among
+      them said that as the just-named place emblems the bhaga, the minar or
+      turret of the mosque represents the linga." The author then goes on to
+      describe the practices of the sect, which may be summed up in the words&mdash;the
+      most absolute freedom of love.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <i>Apropos</i> of the Mahometan minaret and Christian church towers and
+      spires, I may mention that Lucian describes the magnificent temple of the
+      Syrian goddess as having two vast phalli before its main entrance, and how
+      at certain seasons men ascended to their summit, and remained there some
+      days, so as to utter from thence the prayers of the faithful.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0067" id="linkimage-0067">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/158.jpg" alt="158 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 110, 111, both from Moor, plate lxxxvi., are forms of the <i>argha</i>,
+      or sacred sacrificial cup, bowl, or basin, which represent the yoni, and
+      some other things besides. See Moor, <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>, pp. 898, 894.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 112. Copied from Rawlinson's <i>Ancient Monarchies</i>, vol. i., p.
+      176, symbolises Ishtar, the Assyrian representative of Devi, Parvati,
+      Isis, Astarte, Venus, and Mary. The virgin and child are to be found
+      everywhere, even in ancient Mexico.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0068" id="linkimage-0068">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/159.jpg" alt="159 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 118 is copied from Lajard, <i>Sur le Culte de Venus</i>, plate
+      xix., fig. 6, and represents the male and female as the sun and moon, thus
+      identifying the symbolic sex of those luminaries. The legend in the
+      Pehlevi characters has not been interpreted.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 114 is taken from a mediæval woodcut, lent to me by my friend, Mr.
+      John Newton, to whom I am indebted for the sight of, and the privilege to
+      copy, many other figures. In it the virgin Mary is seen as the Queen of
+      Heaven, nursing her infant, and identified with the crescent moon, the
+      emblem of virginity. Being before the sun, she almost eclipses its light.
+      Than this, nothing could more completely identify the Christian mother and
+      child with Isis and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno, and a host of other pagan
+      goddesses, who have been called 'Queen of Heaven,' 'Queen of the Universe'
+      'Mother of God,' 'Spouse of God,' the 'Celestial Virgin,' the 'Heavenly
+      Peace Maker,' etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 115, 116, are common devices in papal churches and pagan
+      symbolism. They are intended to indicate the sun and moon in conjunction,
+      the union of the triad with the unit. I may notice, in passing, that Mr.
+      Newton has showed to me some mediæval woodcuts, in which the young
+      unmarried women in a mixed assemblage were indicated by wearing upon their
+      foreheads a crescent moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0070" id="linkimage-0070">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/160.jpg" alt="160 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 117 is a Buddhist symbol, or rather a copy of Maityna Bodhisatwa,
+      from the monastery of Gopach, in the valley of Nepaul.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0071" id="linkimage-0071">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/161.jpg" alt="161 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is taken from Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 894.
+      The horse-shoe, like the <i>vesica piscis</i> of the Roman church,
+      indicates the yoni; the last, taken from some cow, mare, or donkey, being
+      used in eastern parts where we now use their shoes, to keep off the evil
+      eye. It is remarkable that some nations should use the female organ, or an
+      effigy thereof, as a charm against ill luck, whilst others adopt the male
+      symbol. In Ireland, as we have previously remarked, a female shamelessly
+      exhibiting herself, and called Shelah-na-gig, was to be seen in stone over
+      the door of certain churches, within the last century.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      From the resemblance in the shape of the horse-shoe to the "grove" of the
+      Assyrian worshippers, and from the man standing within it as the symbolic
+      pine tree stands in the Mesopotamian, "Asherah," I think we may fairly
+      conclude that the Indian, like the Shemitic emblem, typifies the union of
+      the sexes&mdash;the androgyne creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That some Buddhists have mingled sexuality with their ideas of religion,
+      may be seen in plate ii. of Emil Schlagintweit's <i>Atlas of Buddhism in
+      Tibet</i>, wherein Vajarsattva, "The God above all," is represented as a
+      male and female conjoined. Rays, as of the sun, pass from the group; and
+      all are enclosed in an ornate oval, or horse-shoe, like that in this
+      figure. Few, however, but the initiated would recognise the nature of the
+      group at first sight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0072" id="linkimage-0072">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/162.jpg" alt="162 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      I may also notice, in passing, that the goddess Doljang (a.d. 617-98) has
+      the stigmata in her hands and feet, like those assigned to Jesus of
+      Nazareth and Francis of Assisi.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 118 is a copy of the medal issued to pilgrims at the shrine of the
+      virgin at Loretto. It was lent to me by Mr. Newton, but the engraver has
+      omitted to make the face of the mother and child black, as the most
+      ancient and renowned ones usually are.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Instead of the explanation given in <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, Vol. ii., p.
+      262, of the adoption of a black skin for Mary and her son, D'Harcanville
+      suggests that it represents night, the period during which the feminine
+      creator is most propitious or attentive to her duties. It is unnecessary
+      to contest the point, for almost every symbol has more interpretations
+      given to it than one. I have sought in vain for even a plausible reason
+      for the blackness of sacred virgins and children, in certain papal
+      shrines, which is compatible with decency and Christianity. It is clear
+      that the matter will not bear the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0073" id="linkimage-0073">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/163.jpg" alt="163 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 119 is from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate iii., fig. 8. It represents the
+      sun, moon, and a star, probably Venus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The legend is in Phoenician, and may be read LNBRB. Levy, in Siegel und
+      Gemmen, Breslau, 1869, reads the legend [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], LKBRBO,
+      but does not attempt to explain it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 120 is also from Lajard, plate i., fig. 8. It represents an act of
+      worship before the symbols of the male and female creators, arranged in
+      three pairs. Above are the heavenly symbols of the sun and moon. Below are
+      the male palm tree, and the barred [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], identical in
+      meaning with the sistrum, i. e., <i>virgo intacta</i>. Next come the male
+      emblem, the cone, and the female symbol, the lozenge or yoni.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0074" id="linkimage-0074">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/164.jpg" alt="164 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 121 represents also a worshipper before the barred female symbol,
+      surmounted by the seven-rayed star, emblem of the male potency, and of the
+      sun or the heavens. It will be noticed&mdash;and the matter is significant&mdash;that
+      the hand which is raised in adoration is exactly opposite the conjunction
+      of the two. Compare this with Fig. 95, where the female alone is the
+      object of reverence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lajard and others state that homage, such as is here depicted, is actually
+      paid in some parts of Palestine and India to the living symbol; the
+      worshipper on bended knees offering to it, <i>la bouche inférieure</i>,
+      with or without a silent prayer, his food before he eats it. A
+      corresponding homage is paid by female devotees to the masculine emblem of
+      any very peculiarly holy fakir, one of whose peculiarities is, that no
+      amount of excitement stimulates the organ into what may be called creative
+      energy. It has long been a problem how such a state of apathy is brought
+      about, but modern observation has proved that it is by the habitual use of
+      weights. Such homage is depicted in Picart's <i>Religious Ceremonies of
+      all the People in the World</i>, original French edition, plate 71.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0075" id="linkimage-0075">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/165.jpg" alt="165 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 122 is copied from Bryant's <i>Ancient Mythology</i>, third
+      edition, vol. iii., p. 193. That author states that he copied it from
+      Spanheim, but gives no other reference. It is apparently from a Greek
+      medal, and has the word CAMIÛN as an inscription. It is said to represent
+      Juno, Sami, or Selenitis, with the sacred peplum. The figure is remarkable
+      for showing the identity of the moon, the lozenge, and the female. It is
+      doubtful whether the attitude of the goddess is intended to represent the
+      cross.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As in religious Symbolism every detail has a signification, we naturally
+      speculate upon the meaning of the beads which fringe the lower part of the
+      diamond-shaped garment. We have noticed in a previous article that the
+      Linga when worshipped was sometimes adorned with beads, which were the
+      fruit of a tree sacred to Mahadeva; in the original of fig. 4, plate xi.
+      <i>supra</i>, the four arms of the cross have a series of beads depending
+      from them. On a very ancient coin of Citium, a rosary of beads, with a
+      cross, has been found arranged round a horse-shoe form; and beads are
+      common ornaments on Hindoo Divinities. They may only be used for
+      decoration and without religious signification; if they have the last, I
+      have not been able to discover it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0076" id="linkimage-0076">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/166.jpg" alt="166 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 128 is a composition taken from Bryant, vol. iv., p. 286. The rock,
+      the water, the crescent moon as an ark, and the dove hovering over it, are
+      all symbolical; but though the author of it is right in his grouping, it
+      is clear that he is not aware of its full signification. The reader will
+      readily gather their true meaning from our articles upon the Ark and
+      Water, and from our remarks upon the Dove in <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second
+      edition.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 124 is copied from Maffei's <i>Gemme Antiche Figurate</i>, vol. 8,
+      plate xl. In the original, the figure upon the pillar is very
+      conspicuously phallic, and the whole composition indicates what was
+      associated with the worship of Priapus.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0077" id="linkimage-0077">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/167.jpg" alt="167 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This so-called god was regarded much in the same light as 'St. Cosmo and
+      St. Damian were at Iseraia, and St. Foutin in Christian France. And it is
+      not at all surprising that a church, which has deified or made saints of a
+      spear and cloak, under the names Longinus and Amphibolus, should also
+      adopt the "god of the gardens," and consecrate him as an object for
+      Christian worship, and give him an appropriate name and emblem. But the
+      patron saint of Lampsacus was not really a deity, only a sort of saint,
+      whose business it was to attend to certain parts. The idea of guardian
+      angels was once common, see Matt, xviii. 10, where we read, that each
+      child has a guardian in heaven, who looks after his infantile charge. As
+      the pagan Hymen and Lucina attended upon weddings and parturitions, so the
+      Christian Cosmo and Damian attended to spouses, and assisted in making
+      them fruitful. To the last two were offered, by sterile wives, wax
+      effigies of the part left out from the nude figure in our plate. To the
+      heathen saint, we see a female votary offer quince leaves, equivalent to
+      <i>la feuille de sage</i>, egg-shaped bread, apparently a cake; also an
+      ass's head; whilst her attendant offers a pine cone. This amongst the
+      Greeks was sacred to Cybele, as it was in Assyria to Astarte or Ishtar,
+      the name given there to 'the mother of all saints.' The basket contains
+      apples and phalli, which may have been made of pastry. See Martial's <i>Epigrams</i>,
+      b. xiv. 69. This gem is valuable, inasmuch as it assists us to understand
+      the signification of the pine cone offered to the 'grove,' the equivalent
+      of <i>le Verger de Cypris</i>. The pillar and its base are curiously
+      significant, and demonstrate how completely an artist can appear innocent,
+      whilst to the initiated he unveils a mystery.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0078" id="linkimage-0078">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/168.jpg" alt="168 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 125, 126, 127, are various contrivances for indicating decently
+      that which it was generally thought religious to conceal, <i>la bequile,
+      au les instrumens</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 128 represents the same subject; the cuts are grouped iso as to
+      show how the knobbed stick, <i>le bâton</i>, becomes converted either into
+      a bent rod, <i>la verge</i>, or a priestly crook, <i>le bâton pastoral</i>.
+      There is no doubt that the episcopal crozier is a presentable effigy of a
+      very private and once highly venerated portion of the human frame, which
+      was used in long by-gone days by Etruscan augurs, when they mapped out the
+      sky, prior to noticing the flight of birds. Perhaps we ought to be
+      grateful to Popery for having consecrated to Christ what was so long used
+      in that which divines call the service of the devil.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0079" id="linkimage-0079">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/169.jpg" alt="169 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 129, 130, 131, are, like the preceding four, copied from various
+      antique gems; Fig. 129 represents a steering oar, <i>le timon</i>, and is
+      usually held in the hand of good fortune, or as moderns would say "Saint
+      Luck," or <i>bonnes fortunes</i>; Fig. 180 is emblematic of Cupid, or
+      Saint Desire; it is synonymous with <i>le dard, or la pique</i>; Fig. 131
+      is a form less common in gems; it represents the hammer, <i>le marteau qui
+      frappe l'enclume et forge les enfans</i>. The ancients had as many
+      pictorial euphemisms as ourselves, and when these are understood they
+      enable us to comprehend many a legend otherwise dim; e. g., when Fortuna,
+      or luck, always depicted as a woman, has for her characteristic <i>le
+      timon</i>, and for her motto the proverb, "Fortune favours the bold." we
+      readily understand the <i>double entente</i>. The steering oar indicates
+      power, knowledge, skill, and bravery in him who wields it; without such a
+      guide, few boats would attain a prosperous haven.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0080" id="linkimage-0080">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/170.jpg" alt="170 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 132 is copied from plate xxix. of Pugin's Glossary of
+      Ecclesiastical Ornament (Lond., 1868). The plate represents "a pattern for
+      diapering," and is, I presume, thoroughly orthodox. It consists of the
+      double triangle, see Figures 20, 80, 81, 82, pp. 82, 88, the emblems of
+      Siva and Parvati, the male and female; of Rimmon the pomegranate, the
+      emblem of the womb, which is seen to be full of seed through the "<i>vesica
+      piscis," la fente, or la porte de la vie</i>. There are also two new
+      moons, emblems of Venus, or <i>la nature</i>, introduced. The crown above
+      the pomegranate represents the triad, and the number four; whilst in the
+      original the group which we copy is surrounded by various forms of the
+      triad, all of which are as characteristic of man as Rimmon is of woman.
+      There are also circles enclosing the triad, analogous to other symbols
+      common in Hindostan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0081" id="linkimage-0081">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/171.jpg" alt="171 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 133 is copied from Moor's <i>Hindu, Pantheon</i>, pi. ix., fig. 8.
+      It represents Bhavhani, Maia, Devi, Lakshmi, or Kamala, one of the many
+      forms given to female nature. She bears in one hand the lotus, emblem of
+      self-fructification,&mdash;in other similar figures an effigy of the
+      phallus is placed,&mdash;whilst in the other she holds her infant Krishna,
+      Crishna, or Vishnu. Such groups are as common in India as in Italy, in
+      pagan temples as in Christian churches. The idea of the mother and child
+      is pictured in every ancient country of whose art any remains exist.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0082" id="linkimage-0082">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/172.jpg" alt="172 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 184 is taken from plate xxiv., fig. 1, of Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>.
+      It represents a subject often depicted by the Hindoos and the Greeks,
+      viz., androgynism, the union of the male and female creators. The
+      technical word is Arddha-Nari. The male on the right side bears the
+      emblems of Siva or Mahadeva, the female on the left those of Parvati or
+      Sacti. The bull and lioness are emblematic of the masculine and feminine
+      powers. The mark on the temple indicates the union of the two; an aureole
+      is seen around the head, as in modern pictures of saints. In this drawing
+      the Ganges rises from the male, the idea being that the stream from
+      Mahadeva is as copious and fertilising as that mighty river. The metaphor
+      here depicted is common in the East, and is precisely the same as that
+      quoted in Num. xxiv. 7, and also from some lost Hebrew book in John vii.
+      38. It will be noticed, that the Hindoos express androgyneity quite as
+      conspicuously, but generally much less indelicately, than the Grecian
+      artists.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0083" id="linkimage-0083">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/173.jpg" alt="173 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 135 is a common Egyptian emblem, said to signify eternity, but in
+      truth it has another meaning. The serpent and the ring indicate <i>l'
+      andouille and l' anneau</i>. The tail of the animal, which the mouth
+      appears to swallow, is <i>la queue dans la bouche</i>. The symbol
+      resembles the <i>crux ansata</i> in its signification, and imports that
+      life upon the earth is rendered perpetual by means of the union of the
+      sexes. A ring, or circle, is one of the symbols of Venus, who carries
+      indifferently this, or the triad emblem of the male. See Maffei's <i>Gemme</i>,
+      vol. iii., page 1, plate viii.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 136 is the <i>vesica piscis</i>, or fish's bladder; the emblem of
+      woman and of the virgin, as may be seen in the two following woodcuts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0084" id="linkimage-0084">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/174.jpg" alt="174 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 137, 138, are copied from an ancient Rosary of the Blessed Virgin
+      Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a license from the Inquisition; the
+      book being lent to me by my friend, Mr. Newton. The first represents the
+      same part as the Assyrian "grove." It may appropriately be called the Holy
+      Yoni. The book in question contains numerous figures, all resembling
+      closely the Mesopotamian emblem of Ishtar. The presence of the woman
+      therein identifies the two as symbolic of Isis, or <i>la nature</i>; and a
+      man bowing down in adoration thereof shows the same idea as is depicted in
+      Assyrian sculptures, where males offer to the goddess symbols of
+      themselves. Compare Figs. 68, 64, 65, 66, pp. 48 seq.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If I had been able to search through the once celebrated Alexandrian
+      library, it is doubtful whether I could have found any pictorial
+      representation more illustrative of the relationship of certain symbolic
+      forms to each other than is Figure 138. A circle of angelic heads, forming
+      a sort of sun, having luminous rays outside, and a dove, the emblem of
+      Venus, dart a spear (<i>la pique</i>) down upon the earth (<i>la terré</i>),
+      or the virgin. This being received, fertility follows.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0085" id="linkimage-0085">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/175.jpg" alt="175 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      In Grecian story, Ouranos and Ge, or heaven and earth, were the parents of
+      creation; and Jupiter came from heaven to impregnate Alcmena. The same
+      mythos prevailed throughout all civilised nations. Christianity adopted
+      the idea, merely altering the names of the respective parents, and
+      attributed the regeneration of the world to "holy breath" and Mary. Every
+      individual, indeed, extraordinarily conspicuous for wisdom, power,
+      goodness, etc., is said to have been begotten on a woman by a celestial
+      father. Within the <i>vesica piscis</i>, artists usually represent the
+      virgin herself, with or without the child; in the figure before us the
+      child takes her place. It is difficult to believe that the ecclesiastics
+      who sanctioned the publication of such a print could have been as ignorant
+      as modern ritualists. It is equally difficult to believe that the latter,
+      if they knew the real meaning of the symbols commonly used by the Roman
+      church, would adopt them.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The last two figures, symbolic of adoration before divine sexual emblems,
+      afford me the opportunity to give a description of a similar worship
+      existent in Hindostan at the present time. My authority is H. H. Wilson,
+      in <i>Essays on the Religion of the Hindoos</i>, Trübner and Co., London.
+      "The worshippers," he remarks, vol. i., p. 240, "of the Sakti, the power
+      or energy of the divine nature in action, are exceedingly numerous amongst
+      all classes of Hindoos&mdash;about three-fourths are of this sect, while
+      only a fifth are Vaishnavas and a sixteenth Saivas. This active energy is
+      personified, and the form with which it is invested depends upon the bias
+      of the individuals. The most favourite form is that of Parvati, Bhavani,
+      or Durga, the wife of Siva, or Mahadeva."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The worship of the female principle, as distinct from the divinity,
+      appears to have originated in the literal interpretation of the
+      metaphorical language of the Vedas, in which the <i>will or purpose to
+      create</i> the universe is represented as originating from the creator,
+      and consistent with him as his bride." "The Samaveda for example, says,
+      the creator felt not delight being alone; he wished another, and caused
+      his own self to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He
+      approached her, and thus were human beings produced." A sentiment or
+      statement which we may notice in passing is very similar to that
+      propounded in Genesis, ch. i. 27, and v. 1, 2, respecting Elohim&mdash;viz.,
+      that he created man and woman in his own image, i.e., as male and female,
+      bisexual but united&mdash;an androgyne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "This female principle goes by innumerable cognomens, inasmuch as every
+      goddess, every nymph, and all women are identified with it. She&mdash;the
+      principle personified&mdash;is the mother of all, as Mahadeva, the male
+      principle, is the father of all."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The homage rendered to the Sakti may be done before an image of any
+      goddess&mdash;Prakriti, Lakshmi, Bhavani, Durga, Maya, Parvati, or Devi&mdash;just
+      in the same way as Romanists may pray to a local Mary, or any other. But
+      in accordance with the weakness of human nature, there are many who
+      consider it right to pay their devotions to the thing itself rather than
+      to an abstraction. In this form of worship six elements are required,
+      flesh, fish, wine, women, gesticulations and <i>mantras</i> which consist
+      of various unmeaning monosyllabic combinations of letters of great
+      imaginary efficacy."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "The ceremonies are mostly gone through in a mixed society, the Sakti
+      being personified by a naked female, to whom meat and wine are offered and
+      then distributed amongst the company. These eat and drink alternately with
+      gesticulations and mantras&mdash;and when the religious part of the
+      business is over, the males and females rush together and indulge in a
+      wild orgy. This ceremony is entitled the <i>Sri Chakra or Purnabhisheka</i>,
+      the Ring or Full Initiation."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In a note apparently by the editor, Dr. Rost, a full account is given in
+      Sanscrit of the <i>Sakti Sodhana</i>, as they are prescribed in the <i>Devi
+      Rahasya</i>, a section of the <i>Rudra Yâmala</i>, so as to prove to his
+      readers that the <i>Sri Chakra</i> is performed under a religious
+      prescription.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We learn that the woman should be an actress, dancing girl, a courtesan,
+      washerwoman, barber's wife, flower-girl, milk-maid, or a female devotee.
+      The ceremony is to take place at midnight with eight, nine, or eleven
+      couples. At first there are sundry mantras said, then the female is
+      disrobed, but richly ornamented, and is placed on the left of a circle
+      (Chakra) described for the purpose, and after sundry gesticulations,
+      mantras, and formulas she is purified by being sprinkled over with wine.
+      If a novice, the girl has the radical mantra whispered thrice in her ear.
+      Feasting then follows, lest Venus should languish in the absence of Ceres
+      and Bacchus, and now, when the veins are full of rich blood, the actors
+      are urged to do what desire dictates, but never to be so carried away by
+      their zeal as to neglect the holy mantras appropriate to every act and to
+      every stage thereof.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The above quotations from Wilson's work are selections
+     from his and his Editor's account. In the original the
+     observations extend over eighteen pages, and are too long to
+     be given in their entirety: the parts omitted are of no
+     consequence.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0086" id="linkimage-0086">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/178.jpg" alt="178 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is natural that such a religion should be popular, especially amongst
+      the young of both sexes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 139 to 158 are copied from Moor's <i>Hindu Pantheon</i>; they are
+      sectarial marks in India, and are usually traced on the forehead. Many
+      resemble what are known as "mason's marks," i. e., designs found on tooled
+      stones, in various ancient edifices, like our own, "trade marks." They are
+      introduced here to illustrate the various designs employed to indicate the
+      union of the "trinity" with the "unity," and the numerous forms
+      representative of "<i>la nature" A priori</i>, it appears absurd to
+      suppose that the eye could ever have been symbolical of anything but
+      sight; but the mythos of Indra, given in <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, second
+      edition, Vol. n., p. 649, and p. 7 <i>supra</i>, proves that it has
+      another and a hidden meaning. These figures are alike emblematic of the
+      "trinity," "the virgin," and the "four." Figure 154 is from Pugin, plate
+      v., figure 3. It is the outline of a pectoral ornament worn by some Roman
+      ecclesiastic in Italy, a. d. 1400; it represents the Egyptian crux ansata
+      under another form, the T signifying the triad.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0087" id="linkimage-0087">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/179.jpg" alt="179 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 155, 156, are different forms of the sistrum, one of the emblems
+      of Isis. In the latter, the triple bars have one signification, which will
+      readily suggest itself to those who know the meaning of the triad. In the
+      former, the emblem of the trinity, which we have been obliged to
+      conventionalise, is shown in a distinct manner. The cross bars indicate
+      that Isis is a virgin. The cat at the top of the instrument indicates
+      "desire," Cupid, or Eros. Fig. 155 is copied from plate ix., R. P.
+      Knight's <i>Worship of Priapus</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 157 represents the cup and wafer, to be found in the hands of many
+      effigies of papal bishops; they are alike symbolic of the sun and moon,
+      and of the elements in the Eucharist. See Pugin, plate iv., figs. 5, 6,
+      represents a temple in a conventional form; whilst below, Ceres appears
+      seated within a horse-shoe shaped ornament.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0088" id="linkimage-0088">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/180.jpg" alt="180 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0089" id="linkimage-0089">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/181.jpg" alt="181 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      This, amongst other symbols, tends to show what we have so frequently
+      before observed, that the female in creation is characterised by a great
+      variety of designs, of which the succeeding woodcuts give us additional
+      evidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 159 represents the various forms symbolic of Juno, Isis, Parvati,
+      Ishtar, Mary, or woman, or the virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figures 160, 161, 162, are copied from Audsley's <i>Christian Symbolism</i>
+      (London, 1868). They are ornaments worn by the Virgin Mary, and represent
+      her as the crescent moon, conjoined with the cross (in Fig. 160), with the
+      collar of Isis (in Fig. 161), and with the double triangle (in Fig. 162).
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0090" id="linkimage-0090">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/182.jpg" alt="182 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 163 represents a tortoise. When one sees a resemblance between this
+      creature's head and neck and the linga, one can understand why both in
+      India and in Greece the animal should be regarded as sacred to the goddess
+      personifying the female creator, and why in Hindoo myths it is said to
+      support the world.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the British Museum there are three Assyrian obeliscs, all of which
+      represent, in the most conspicuous way, the phallus, one of which has been
+      apparently circumcised. The body is occupied with an inscription recording
+      the sale of land, and also a figure of the reigning king, whilst upon the
+      part known as the <i>glans penis</i> are a number of symbols, which are
+      intended apparently to designate the generative powers in creation. The
+      male is indicated by a serpent, a spear head, a hare, a tiara, a cock, and
+      a tortoise. The female appears under precisely the same form as is seen on
+      the head of the Egyptian Isis, Fig. 28. The tortoise is to this day a
+      masculine emblem in Japan. See Figs. 174, 175.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But there is no necessity for the animal itself always to be depicted,
+      inasmuch as I have discovered that both in Assyrian and Greek art the
+      tortoise is pourtrayed under the figure which resembles somewhat the
+      markings upon the segments into which the shell is divided. In symbolism
+      it is a very common thing for a part to stand for the whole; thus an egg
+      is made to do duty for the triad; and a man is sometimes represented by a
+      spade. A woman is in like manner represented by a comb, or a mirror; and a
+      golden fleece typifies in the first place the "grove," which it
+      overshadows, and the female who possesses both.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0091" id="linkimage-0091">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/183.jpg" height="82" width="91" alt="183 " /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It has been stated on page 19 <i>supra</i>, that Pausanias mentions having
+      seen at some place in Greece one figure of Venus standing on a tortoise,
+      and another upon a ram, but he leaves to the ingenious to discover why the
+      association takes place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was this intimation which led me to identify the tortoise as a male
+      symbol. Any person who has ever watched this creature in repose, and seen
+      the action of the head and neck when the quadruped is excited, will
+      recognise why the animal is dear to the goddess of amorous delight, and
+      that which it may remind her of. In like manner, those who are familiar
+      with the ram will know that it is remarkable for persistent and excessive
+      vigour. Like the cat, whose salacity caused it to be honoured in Egypt,
+      the ram was in that country also sacred, as the bull was in Assyria and
+      Hindostan.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In fact, everything which in shape, habits, or sound could remind mankind
+      of the creators and of the first part of creation was regarded with
+      reverence. Thus tall stones or natural pinnacles of rock, the palm, pine,
+      and oak trees, the fig tree and the ivy, with their tripliform leaves, the
+      mandrake, with its strange human form, the thumb and finger, symbolised
+      Bel, Baal, Asher, or Mahadeva. In like manner a hole in the ground, a
+      crevice in a rock, a deep cave, the myrtle from the shape of its leaf, the
+      fish from its scent, the dolphin and the mullet from their names, the dove
+      from its note, and any umbrageous retreat surrounded with thick bushes,
+      were symbolic of woman.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So also the sword and sheath, the arrow and target, the spear and shield,
+      the plough and furrow, the spade and trench, the pillar by a well, the
+      thumb thrust between the two fore-fingers or grasped by the hand, and a
+      host of other things were typical of the union which brings about the
+      formation of a new being.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      I cannot help regarding the sexual element as the key which opens almost
+      every lock of symbolism, and however much we may dislike the idea that
+      modern religionists have adopted emblems of an obscene worship, we cannot
+      deny the fact that it is so, and we may hope that with a knowledge of
+      their impurity we shall cease to have a faith based upon a trinity and
+      virgin&mdash;a lingam and a yoni. Some may cling still to such a doctrine,
+      but to me it is simply horrible&mdash;blasphemous and heathenish.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0092" id="linkimage-0092">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/184.jpg" alt="184 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figures 164, 165, represent a pagan and Christian cross and trinity. The
+      first is copied from B. P. Knight (plate x., fig. 1), and represents a
+      figure found on an ancient coin of Apollonia. The second may be seen in
+      any of our churches to-day.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 166 is from an old papal book lent to me by Mr. Newton, <i>Missale
+      Romanum</i>, illustrated by a monk (Venice, 1509). It represents a
+      confessor of the Roman church, who wears the <i>crux ansata</i>, the
+      Egyptian symbol of life, the emblem of the four creators, in the place of
+      the usual <i>pallium</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0093" id="linkimage-0093">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/185a.jpg" alt="185 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      It is remarkable that a Christian church should have adopted so many pagan
+      symbols as Rome has done. Figure 167 is copied from a small bronze figure
+      in the Mayer collection in the Free Museum, Liverpool. It represents the
+      feminine creator holding a well marked lingam in her hand, and is this
+      emblematic of the four, or the trinity and the virgin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img alt="185b (61K)" src="images/185b.jpg" width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <br />
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 168 represents two Egyptian deities in worship before an emblem of
+      the male, which closely resembles an Irish round tower.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0094" id="linkimage-0094">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/186.jpg" alt="186 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 169 represents the modern <i>pallium</i> worn by Roman priests. It
+      represents the ancient sistrum of Isis, and the yoni of the Hindoos. It is
+      symbolic of the celestial virgin, and the unit in the creative four. When
+      donned by a Christian priest, he resembles the pagan male worshippers, who
+      wore a female dress when they ministered before the altar or shrine of a
+      goddess. Possibly the Hebrew ephod was of this form and nature.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 170 is a copy of an ancient <i>pallium</i>, worn by papal
+      ecclesiastics three or four centuries ago.. It is the old Egyptian symbol
+      described above. Its common name is <i>crux ansata</i>, or the cross with
+      a handle.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Figure 171 is the albe worn by Roman and other ecclesiastics when
+      officiating at mass, etc. It is simply a copy of the chemise ordinarily
+      worn by women as an under garment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0095" id="linkimage-0095">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/187.jpg" alt="187 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Figure 172 represents the <i>chamble</i> worn by papal hierarchs. It is
+      copied from Pugin's <i>Glossary</i>, etc. Its form is that of the <i>vesica
+      piscis</i>, one of the most common emblems of the yoni. It is adorned by
+      the triad. When worn by the priest, he forms the male element, and with
+      the chasuble completes the sacred four. When worshipping the ancient
+      goddesses, whom Mary has displaced, the officiating ministers clothed
+      themselves in feminine attire. Hence the use of the chemise, etc. Even the
+      tonsured head, adopted from the priests of the Egyptian Isis, represents
+      "l' anneau;" so that on head, shoulders, breast and body, we may see on
+      Christian priests the relics of the worship of Venus, and the adoration of
+      woman! How horrible all this would sound if, instead of using veiled
+      language, we had employed vulgar words. The idea of a man adorning
+      himself, when ministering before God and the people, with the effigies of
+      those parts which nature as well as civilisation teaches us to conceal,
+      would be simply disgusting, but when all is said to be mysterious and
+      connected with hidden signification, almost everybody tolerates and many
+      eulogise or admire it!
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0096" id="linkimage-0096">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/188.jpg" alt="188 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      APPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN "GROVE" AND OTHER EMBLEMS
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      By John Newton, M.R.C.S.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      The study of sacred symbols is as yet in its infancy. It has hitherto been
+      almost ignored by sacerdotal historians; and thus a rich mine of knowledge
+      on the most interesting of all subjects&mdash;the history of the Religious
+      Idea in man&mdash;remains comparatively unexplored. The topic has a
+      two-fold interest, for it equally applies to the present and the past. As
+      nothing on earth is more conservative than religion, we have still a world
+      of symbolism existing amongst us which is far older than our sects and
+      books, our creeds and articles, a relic of a forgotten, pre-historic past.
+      Untold ages before writing was invented, it is believed that men attempted
+      to express their ideas in visible forms. Yet how can a savage, who is
+      unable to count his fingers up to five, and has no idea of abstract
+      number, apart from things, whose habits and thoughts are of the earth,
+      earthy, form a conception of the high and holy One who inhabiteth
+      eternity? Even under the highest forms of ancient civilisation, abundant
+      proofs exist that the imagination of men, brooding over the idea of the
+      Unseen and the Infinite, were bounded by the things which were presented
+      in their daily experience, and which most moved their passions, hopes and
+      fears. Through these, then, they attempted to embody such religious ideas
+      as they felt. They could not teach others without visible symbols to
+      assist their conceptions; and emblems were rather crutches for the halting
+      than wings to help the healthy to soar. Mankind in all ages has clung to
+      the visible and tangible. The people care little for the abstract and
+      unseen. The Israelites preferred a calf of gold to the invisible Jehovah;
+      and sensuous forms of worship still fascinate the multitude.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Whilst studying a collection of symbols, gathered from many climes and
+      ages, such as this volume presents, I feel sure that every intelligent
+      student will have asked himself more than once&mdash;Is there not some key
+      which unlocks these enigmas, some grand idea which runs through them all,
+      connecting them like a string of beads? I believe that there is, and that
+      it is not far to seek. What do men desire and long for most? <i>Life</i>.
+      "Skin for skin; all that a man hath will he give for his life," is a
+      saying as true now as in the days of Job. "Give me back my youth, and I
+      will give you all I possess," was said by the aged Voltaire to his
+      physician. And our poet laureate has sung,
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     'Tis Life, whereof our nerves are scant,
+     O life, not death, for which we pant;
+     More life, and fuller, that I want.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      But we must add, as necessarily contained in the idea of Life in its
+      highest sense, <i>those things which make Life desirable</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This fulness of life has been the <i>summum bonum</i>, the highest good,
+      which mankind has sighed for in every age and clime. For this the
+      alchemists toiled, not to advance chemistry, but to discover the Elixir of
+      Life and the Philosopher's Stone. But what nature refused to science, the
+      gods, it was believed, would surely give to the pious! and the glorious
+      prize referred to has been promised by every religion. "I am come that
+      they might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly." Life
+      is the reward which has been promised under every system, including that
+      of the founder of Christianity. A Tree of Life stood in the midst of that
+      Paradise which is described in the book of Genesis; and when the first
+      human couple disobeyed their Maker's command, they were punished by being
+      cut off from the perennial fount of vitality, lest they should eat its
+      fruit and thus live for ever; and in a second Paradise, which is promised
+      to the blessed by the author of the book of Revelation, a tree of life
+      shall stand once more "for the healing of the nations." To the good man is
+      promised, in the Hebrew Scriptures, long life, prosperity, and a numerous
+      offspring. "Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."* Ps. ciii. 5.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the wondrous theology of Ancient Egypt, which at length is open to us,
+      the "Ritual of the Dead" celebrates the mystical reconstruction of the
+      body of the deceased, whose parts are to be reunited, as those of Osiris
+      were by Isis; the trials are recorded through which the deceased passes,
+      and by which all remaining stains of corruption are wiped away; and the
+      record ends when the defunct is born again glorious, like that Sun which
+      typified the Egyptian resurrection.**
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * St. Paul points oat (Eph. vi. 2) that to only one of the
+     ten commandments is a promise added. And what is the
+     promise? "That thy days may be long." (Exod. xx. 12.) See
+     also Psalm cxxxiii. 3, "the blessing, even life for
+     evermore."
+
+     ** Apuleius, who had been initiated into the mysteries of
+     Isis, informs us that long life was the reward promised to
+     her votaries. (Metam. cap. xi.)
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the ancient mythology of India, it is recounted that of old the gods in
+      council united together to procure, by one supreme effort, the Amrita cup
+      of immortality, which, after the success of their scheme, they partake of
+      with their worshippers. Even for the Buddhist, his cold, atheistical creed
+      promises a Nirvana, an escape from the horrors of metempsychosis, a haven
+      of eternal calm, where "there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor
+      crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are
+      passed away;" "there the weary be at rest." Rev. xxi. 4, Job iii. 17.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      This idea of tranquillity is in striking contrast to the heaven promised
+      by the religion of the north of Europe, which was the one most congenial
+      to a people whose delight was in conquest and battle. Those who had led a
+      life of heroism, or perished bravely in fight, ascended to Valhalla; and
+      the eternal manhood which awaited them there was to be passed in scenes
+      that were rapture to the imagination of a Dane or a Saxon. Every day in
+      that abode of bliss was to be spent in furious conflict, in the struggle
+      of armies and the cleaving of shields; but at evening the conflict was to
+      cease; every wound to be suddenly healed. Then the contending warriors
+      were to sit down to a banquet, where, attended by lovely maidens, they
+      could feast on the exhaustless flesh of the boar Sæhrimnir, and drink huge
+      draughts of mead from the skulls of those enemies who had not attained to
+      the glories of Valhalla.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The paradise promised to the faithful by Mahomet is full of sensuous
+      delights. The Arabian prophet dwells with rapture on its gardens and
+      palaces, its rivers and bowers. Seventy-two houris, or black-eyed girls,
+      rejoicing in beauty and ever-blooming youth, will be created for the use
+      of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a
+      thousand years, and his powers will be increased a hundred-fold to render
+      him worthy of his felicity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus we see that in all these great historical faiths the prize held out
+      to the true believer has this in common, viz., <i>Life, overflowing,
+      ever-renewed, with the addition of those things which make life desirable
+      for men</i>; whether they are sensuous pleasures, or those which, under
+      the loftier ideal of Christianity, are summed up in <i>Life, both temporal
+      and eternal, in the light of God</i>.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Such being the case, we might anticipate that the symbols of every
+      religion would reproduce, in some shape or other, the ideal which is
+      common to all. The earliest and rudest faiths were content with gross and
+      simple emblems of life. In the later and more refined forms of worship,
+      the ruder types were highly conventionalised, and replaced by a more
+      intricate and less obvious symbolism.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We proceed now to investigate the more primitive emblems. The origin of
+      life is, even to us, with all our lights, as great a mystery as it was to
+      the ancients. To the primitive races of mankind the formation of a new
+      being appeared to be a constant miracle, and men very naturally used as
+      tokens of life, and even worshipped, those objects or organs by which the
+      miracle appeared to be wrought. Thus, the glorious sun, that "god of this
+      world," the source of life and light to our earth, was early adored, and
+      an effigy thereof used as a symbol. Mankind watched with rapture its rays
+      gain strength daily in the Spring, until the golden glories of Midsummer
+      had arrived, when the earth was bathed during the longest days in his
+      beams, which ripened the fruits that his returning course had started into
+      life. When the sun once more began its course downwards to the Winter
+      solstice, his votaries sorrowed, for he seemed to sicken and grow paler at
+      the advent of December, when his rays scarcely reached the earth, and all
+      nature, benumbed and cold, sunk into a death-like sleep. Hence feasts and
+      fasts were instituted to mark the commencement of the various phases of
+      the solar year, which have continued from the earliest known period, under
+      various names, to our own times.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The daily disappearance and the subsequent rise of the sun, appeared to
+      many of the ancients as a true resurrection; thus, while the east came to
+      be regarded as the source of light and warmth, happiness and glory, the
+      west was associated with darkness and chill, decay and death. This led to
+      the common custom of burying the dead so as to face the east when they
+      rose again, and of building temples and shrines with an opening towards
+      the east. To effect this, Vitruvius, two thousand years ago, gave precise
+      rules, which are still followed by Christian architects.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Sun-worship was spread all over the ancient world. It mingled with other
+      faiths and assumed many forms.* Of the elements, fire was naturally chosen
+      as its earthly symbol. A sacred fire, at first miraculously kindled, and
+      subsequently kept up by the sedulous care of priests or priestesses,
+      formed an important part of the religions of Judea, Babylonia, Persia,
+      Greece and Rome, and the superstition lingers amongst us still.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * We may point out that, according to all the Gospels,
+     Christ expired towards sunset, and the sun became eclipsed
+     as he was dying. He rose again exactly at daybreak.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      So late as the advent of the Reformation, a sacred fire was kept ever
+      burning on a shrine at Kildare, in Ireland, and attended by virgins of
+      high rank, called "<i>inghean au dagha</i>," or daughters of fire. Every
+      year is the ceremony repeated at Jerusalem of the miraculous kindling of
+      the Holy Fire at the reputed sepulchre, and men and women crowd to light
+      tapers at the sacred flame, which they pass through with a naked body.
+      Indeed, solar myths form no unimportant part of ancient mythology. Thus
+      the death of nature in the winter time, through the withdrawal of the sun,
+      was supposed to be caused by the mourning of the earth-goddess over the
+      sickness and disappearance into the realms of darkness of her husband and
+      mate, the sun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Fox Talbot has lately given the translation of an Egyptian poem, more
+      than three thousand years old, and having for its subject the descent of
+      Ishtar into Hades. To this region of darkness and death the goddess goes
+      in search of her beloved Osiris, or Tammuz. This Ishtar is identical with
+      the Assyrian female in the celestial quartette, the later Phoenician
+      Astarte, "The Queen of Heaven with crescent horns," the moon-goddess, also
+      with the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus; and the Egyptian legend
+      reappears in the west as the mourning of Venus for the loss of Adonis.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, the fable of Ceres mourning the death of her daughter Proserpine is
+      another sun-myth. The Roman Ceres was the Greek [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;],
+      Mother Earth, who through the winter time wanders inconsolable.
+      Persephone, her daughter, is the vegetable world, whose seeds or roots lie
+      concealed underground in the darkness of winter. These, when Spring comes
+      with its brightness, bud forth and dwell in the realms of light during a
+      part of the year, and provide ample nourishment for men and animals with
+      their fruits. The sun, being the active fructifying cause in nature, was
+      generally regarded as male. Thus, in the Jewish scriptures, he is compared
+      to "a bridegroom coming out of his chamber" (Ps. xix. 5), i.e., as a man
+      full of generative, procreative vigour. The moon and the earth, being
+      receptive were naturally regarded as female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the vernal equinox, the ancients celebrated the bridal of the sun and
+      the earth. Yet, inasmuch as the orbs of heaven and the face of nature
+      remain the same from year to year, and perpetually renew light and life,
+      themselves remaining fresh in vigour and unharmed by age, the ancients
+      conceived the bride and mate of the sun-god as continuing ever virgin.
+      Again, as the ancient month was always reckoned by the interval between
+      one new moon and the next,&mdash;an interval which also marks a certain
+      recurring event in women, that ceases at once on the occurrence of
+      pregnancy,&mdash;the lunar crescent became a symbol of virginity, and as
+      such adorns the brow of the Greek Artemis and Roman Diana. This was used
+      as a talisman at a very remote period, and was fixed over the doors of the
+      early lake-dwellers in Switzerland, like the horse-shoe is to modern
+      side-posts. With the sun and moon were often associated the five visible
+      planets, forming a sacred seven,&mdash;a figure which is continually
+      cropping up in religious emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So much for the great cosmic symbols of Life. But the primitive races of
+      mankind found others nearer home, and still more suggestive&mdash;the
+      generative parts in the two sexes, by the union of which all animated
+      life, and mankind, the most interesting of all to human beings, appeared
+      to be created. This reverence for, or worship of, the organs of
+      generation, has been traced to a very early period in the history of the
+      human race. In a bone-cave recently excavated near Venice, and beneath its
+      ten feet of stalagmite, were found bones of animals, flint implements, a
+      bone needle, and a phallus in baked clay. And if we turn to those savage
+      tribes who still reproduce for us the prehistoric past, this form of
+      religious symbolism meets as everywhere. In Dahomey, beyond the Ashantees,
+      it is, according to Captain Barton, most uncomfortably prominent. In every
+      street of their settlements are priapic figures. The "Tree of Life" is
+      anointed with palm oil, which drips into a pot or shard placed below it,
+      and the would-be mother of children prays before the image that the great
+      god Legba would make her fertile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Burton tells us that he peeped into an Egba temple or lodge, and found it
+      a building with three courts, of which the innermost was a sort of holy of
+      holies. Its doors had carvings on them of a leopard, a fish, a serpent,
+      and a land tortoise. The first two of these are female symbols, the two
+      latter emblems of the male. There were also two rude figures representing
+      their god Obatala, the deity of life, who is worshipped under two forms, a
+      male and a female. Opposite to these was the male symbol or phallus,
+      conjoined <i>in coitu</i> with the female emblem. Du Chaillu met with some
+      tribes in Africa who adore the female only. His guide, he informs us,
+      carried a hideous little image of wood with him, and at every meal he
+      would take the little fetish out of his pocket, and pour a libation over
+      its <i>feet</i> before he would drink himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We know that a similar superstition prevailed in Ireland long after the
+      advent of Christianity. There a female, pointing to her symbol, was placed
+      over the portal of many a church as a protector from evil spirits; and the
+      elaborate though rude manner in which these figures were sculptured shows
+      that they were considered as objects of great importance. It was the
+      universal practice among the Arabs of Northern Africa to stick up over the
+      door of their house or tent the genital parts of a cow, mare, or female
+      camel, as a talisman to avert the influence of the evil eye. The figure of
+      this organ being less definite than that of the male, it has assumed in
+      symbolism very various forms. The commonest substitution for the part
+      itself has been a horse-shoe, which is to this day fastened over many of
+      the doors of stables and shippons in the country, and was formerly
+      supposed to protect the cattle from witchcraft. From a lively story by
+      Beroalde de Verville, we learn that in France a sight of the female organ
+      was believed, as late as the sixteenth century, to be a powerful charm in
+      curing any disease in, and for prolonging the life of, the fortunate
+      beholder.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As civilisation advanced, the gross symbols of creative power were cast
+      aside, and priestly ingenuity was taxed to the utmost in inventing a crowd
+      of less obvious emblems, which should represent the ancient ideas in a
+      decorous manner. The old belief was retained, but in a mysterious or
+      sublimated form. As symbols of the male, or active element in creation,
+      the sun, light, fire, a torch, the phallus or linga, an erect serpent, a
+      tall straight tree, especially the palm and the fir or pine, were adopted.
+      Equally useful for symbolism were a tall upright stone (menhir), a cone, a
+      pyramid, a thumb or finger pointed straight, a mast, a rod, a trident, a
+      narrow bottle or amphora, a bow, an arrow, a lance, a horse, a bull, a
+      lion, and many other animals conspicuous for masculine power. As symbols
+      of the female, the passive though fruitful element in creation, the
+      crescent moon, the earth, darkness, water, and its emblem a triangle with
+      the apex downwards, "the yoni," a shallow vessel or cup for pouring fluid
+      into (<i>cratera</i>), a ring or oval, a lozenge, any narrow cleft, either
+      natural or artificial, an arch or doorway, were employed. In the same
+      category of symbols came a ship or boat, the female date-palm bearing
+      fruit, a cow with her calf by her side, the fish, fruits having many
+      seeds, such as the pomegranate, a shell (<i>concha</i>), a cavern, a
+      garden, a fountain, a bower, a rose, a fig, and other things of suggestive
+      form, etc.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      These two great classes of conventional symbols were often represented <i>in
+      conjunction with</i> each other, and thus symbolised in the highest degree
+      the great source of life, ever originating, ever renewed. The Egyptian
+      temple at Denderah has lately been explored by M. Mariette. In a niche of
+      the Holy of Holies he discovered the sacred secret. This was simply a
+      golden sistrum (see <i>ante</i>, pp. 44 and 70), an emblem formed by
+      uniting the female oval O with the male sacred Tau T; and thus identical
+      in meaning with the coarse emblem seen by Captain Burton in the African
+      idol temple. A similar emblem is the linga standing in the centre of a
+      yoni, the adoration of which is to this day characteristic of the leading
+      dogma of Hindu religion. There is scarcely a temple in India which has not
+      its lingam; and in numerous instances this symbol is the only form under
+      which the great god Siva is worshipped. (See <i>ante</i>, pp. 72, 78.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The linga is generally a tall, polished, cylindrical, black stone,
+      apparently inserted into another stone formed like an elongated saucer,
+      though in reality the whole is sculptured out of one block of basalt. The
+      outline of the frame, which reminds us of a Jew's harp (the conventional
+      form of the female member), is termed <i>argha or yoni</i>. The former, or
+      round perpendicular stone, the type of the virile organ, is the <i>linga</i>.
+      The entire symbol, to which the name <i>lingyoni</i> is given, is also
+      occasionally called <i>lingam</i>. This representative of the union of the
+      sexes typifies the divine <i>sacti</i>, or productive energy, in union
+      with the procreative, generative power seen throughout nature. The earth
+      was the primitive <i>pudendum, or yoni</i>, which is fecundated by the
+      solar heat, the sun, the primitive <i>linga</i>, to whose vivifying rays
+      man and animals, plants and the fruits of the earth, owe their being and
+      continued existence. These "lingas" vary in size from the tiny amulets
+      worn about the neck, to the great monoliths of the temples. Thus the
+      lingam is an emblem of the Creator, the fountain of all life, who is
+      represented in Hindu mythology as uniting in Himself the two sexes.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Another symbol, the <i>caduceus</i>, older than Greek and Roman art, in
+      which it is associated with Esculapius and Hermes, the gods of health and
+      fertility, has precisely the same signification as the sistrum and the
+      lingam. This is made clear enough in the following extract from a letter
+      by Dr. C. E. Balfour, published in Fergusson's <i>Tree and Serpent Worship</i>,
+      1878. "I have only once seen living snakes in the form of the Esculapian
+      rod. It was at Ahmednuggar, in 1841, on a clear moonlight night. They
+      dropped into the garden from the thatched roof of my house, <i>and stood
+      erect</i>."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      "They were all cobras, and <i>no one could have seen them without at once
+      recognising that they were in congress</i>. Natives of India consider that
+      it is most fortunate to witness serpents so engaged, and believe that if a
+      person can throw a cloth at the pair so as to touch them with it, the
+      material becomes a representative form of Lakshmi,* of the highest virtue,
+      and is preserved as such." The serpent, which casts its skin and seems to
+      renew its youth every year, has been used from remotest times as a living
+      symbol of generative energy, and of immortality; indeed, in the most
+      ancient Eastern languages, the name for the serpent also signifies life.**
+      It has been usually worshipped as the <i>Agathodoemon</i>, the god of good
+      fortune, life, and health; though in the Hebrew scriptures, and elsewhere,
+      we meet with a good and a bad serpent&mdash;Oriental dualism. The <i>Kakodoemon</i>,
+      however, is usually represented as winged&mdash;the Dragon, as in the
+      following example.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The consort, or life-giving energy of Vishnu.
+
+     ** As in French, the name for the male organ and for life is
+     the same in sound, though not in spelling or gender.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In the remarkable Babylonian seal, Plate iv., Fig. 8, the deity is
+      represented as uniting in himself the male and the female. On each side is
+      a serpent, as the emblem of the life flowing from the Creator; that on the
+      male side, having round his head the solar glory, is compared to the
+      sun-god, as the active principle in creation; that on the female side,
+      over whose head is the lunar crescent, to the moon- and earth- goddess,
+      the passive principle in creation. Both are attacked by a winged dragon,
+      the kakodoemon, or the evil principle. This is according to the ancient
+      Chaldean doctrine of two creations of living beings, the one good and the
+      other malign. The Chinese still think that an eclipse is caused by the
+      efforts of a furious dragon to destroy the sun and moon; and Apollo, the
+      sun-god, destroying the serpent Python, has reappeared on our coin as St.
+      George killing the dragon. Even Apollyon appears in old paintings with
+      huge wings, like those of a bat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Having thus explained what appears to be the key to a wide range of
+      religious symbolism, and shown its application in many cases, we shall
+      further apply it to unlock the famous object of Assyrian worship. Soon
+      after the discoveries of Botta and Layard were published, it was
+      conjectured that this strange object, so continually represented as being
+      adored, might be the <i>asherah</i> of the Hebrew scriptures, translated
+      "grove" in the English version. How far the view was correct we shall now
+      proceed to examine.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The religion of the East at a very remote period appears to have been the
+      worship of one God, under several names. The most primitive was <i>El, Il,
+      or Al</i>, = the strong, the mighty one; or its plural <i>Elohim</i>, as
+      expressing His many powers and manifestations. Another name was <i>Baal or
+      Bel</i>,&mdash;the lord, which also had a plural form, <i>Baalim</i>. The
+      first word is continually used in the Hebrew scriptures, and applied both
+      to the true God and the gods of the nations. Baal is only once thus
+      applied, Hosea ii. 16; yet Balaam, inspired by God, prophesies from the
+      high places of Baal. This name, though so appropriate to the Almighty,
+      became abhorrent to the Jews when it was so frequently associated with
+      idolatry, and a new cognomen, or "the Supreme," was adopted by them, viz.,
+      Jehovah, = the Eternal, the Ever-Living One, the Creator; see Exod. iii.
+      14. "Baal" was the supreme god of all the great Syro-Phoenician nations,
+      with the insignificant exception of the Jews; and when the latter migrated
+      into Canaan they were surrounded on all sides by his worshippers. Towns,
+      temples, men, including even a son of Saul, of David and of Jonathan,
+      viz., Eshbaal, Meribbaal, and Beelida, were called after him. As the
+      sun-god, Baal-Hammon, Song of Sol. viii. 11; 2 Kings xxiii. 5; he was
+      worshipped on high places, Num. xxii. 41; and an image of the sun appeared
+      over his altars, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4. As the generative and productive
+      power, he was worshipped under the form of the phallus, Baal-Peor; and
+      youths and maidens, even of high birth, prostituted themselves in his
+      honour or service; Num. xxv.; 2 Kings xxiii. 7. As the creator, he was
+      represented to be of either or of both sexes; and Arnobius tells us that
+      his worshippers invoked him thus:
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Hear us, Baal! whether thou be a god or a goddess."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Though he is of the masculine gender in the Hebrew, the lord, yet Baal is
+      called [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], = the lady, in the Septuagint; Hos. ii. 8;
+      Zeph. i. 4; and in the New Testament, Romans xi. 4. At the licentious
+      worship of this androgyne, or two-sexed god, the men on certain occasions
+      wore female garments, whilst the women appeared in male attire,
+      brandishing weapons. Each of this god's names had a female counterpart;
+      and the feminine form of <i>Baal was Beltis, Ishtar, and Ashtarte</i>. As
+      he was the sun-god, she was the moon-goddess. Now, whilst the masculine
+      name (as Bël or Bâl, Baal, Baalim,) appears nearly one hundred times in
+      the Hebrew Old Testament, the feminine equivalent is only found three
+      times in the singular Ashtoreth, and six times in the plural Ashtaroth;
+      always in association with Baal-worship. Knowing, as we do, the immense
+      diffusion of her worship amongst the Babylonians, Assyrians, and
+      Phoenicians, this appears strange. There is a word of the feminine gender
+      occurring in the Hebrew twenty-four times, viz., Asherah or <i>Asharah</i>;
+      plural, <i>Asharth</i> translated in the Septuagint and Latin vulgate, a
+      tree, or "grove," in which they have been followed by most modern
+      versions, including the English. This supplies the void, for <i>Asharah</i>
+      may be regarded as another name for the goddess <i>Ashtoreth</i>, as is
+      plainly seen by the following passages: "They forsook Jehovah and served
+      Baal and Ashtoreth;" Judges ii. 18; whilst in the following chapter we
+      read, "They forgot Jehovah their God, and served the Baalim and the
+      Asharoth;" iii. 7. What, then, was the <i>Asharah</i>? It was of wood, and
+      of large size; the Jews were ordered to cut it down; Exod. xxxiv. 18,
+      etc.; and Gideon offered a bullock as a burnt sacrifice with the wood of
+      the Asherah. Occasionally it was of stone. It was carved or graven as an
+      image; 2 Kings xxi. 7. It often stood close to the altar of Baal; Judges
+      vi. 25 and 80; 1 Kings xvi. 82, 88; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 8. Usually on high
+      places and under shady trees; 1 Kings xiv. 28; Jer. xvii. 2; but one was
+      erected in the temple of Jehovah by Manasseh; 2 Kings xxi. 7. It had
+      priests; 1 Kings xviii. 19; and its worship was as popular as that of
+      Baal; for whilst the priests of "the Baal" were four hundred and fifty,
+      those of "the Asherah" were four hundred, who ate at the table of Queen
+      Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon. It was sometimes surrounded
+      with hangings, and was worshipped by both sexes with licentious rites; 2
+      Kings xxiii. 7; Ezek. xvi. 16. As Baal was associated with sun-worship, so
+      was the Asherah with that of the moon; 2 Kings xxi. 8; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Besides these Asheroth, female emblems of Baal, there were Asherim, male
+      emblems of Baal, "symbolising his generative power" (Furst, Hebrew
+      Lexicon), which are mentioned sixteen times in the Hebrew scriptures. It
+      is only found in the plural, and must have been a multiple representation
+      of the singular, Asher, which means "to be firm, strong, straight,
+      prosperous, happy," * and cognate with the Phoenician (Osir), "husband,"
+      "lord," an epithet of Baal.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The lupanars at Pompeii were distinguished by a sign over
+     the street door, representing the erect phallus, painted or
+     carved, and having the words underneath, "Hie habitat
+     félicitas."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      Doubtless this was also identical with the Egyptian Osiris, = the sun, =
+      the phallus. He was said to have suffered death like the sun; and Plutarch
+      tells us that Isis, unable to discover all the remains of her husband,
+      consecrated the phallus as his representative. Thus "the Asharim" were
+      male symbols used in Baal-worship, and sometimes consisted of multiple
+      phalli, of which the branch carried by an Assyrian priest, in Plate iii.
+      Fig. 4, is a conventional form. They were then counterparts of the "<i>multimammia</i>"
+      of Greek and Roman worship.* This is confirmed by a curious passage, 1
+      Kings xv. 13 (repeated 2 Chron. xv. 16). We learn (xiv. 28) that the Jews,
+      under Rehoboam, son of Solomon, having lapsed into idolatry, had "built
+      them high places, images, and Asharim ("groves," A. V.) on every high
+      hill, and under every green tree; and that there were also consecrated
+      ones ("sodomites," A. V.) in the land." But Asa, his brother, on
+      succeeding to the throne, swept away all these things, and (xv. 18)
+      deposed the queen mother, Maachah, because she had made a <i>miphletzeth</i>
+      to an Asherah ("an idol in a grove," A. V.) <i>miphletzeth</i>, is
+      rendered by the Vulgate "simulacrum Priapi." The word is derived from <i>palatz</i>,
+      "to be broken," "terrified," or the cognate, <i>phalash, palash</i>, "to
+      break or go through," "to open up a way;" a word or root found in the
+      Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ethiopie. Doubtless the Greek [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;]
+      <i>phallus</i>, was hence derived, since it has no independent meaning in
+      Greek; and Herodotus and Diodorus expressly assert that the chief gods of
+      Greece and their mysteries, especially the Dionysiac or Bacchic revels, in
+      which the <i>phallus</i> was carried in procession, were derived from the
+      east. Compare also the Latin <i>pales</i>, English <i>pale, pole</i>, =
+      May<i>pole</i>. A similar word, with a corresponding meaning, exists in
+      the Sanscrit. Thus, then, according to the Hebrew scriptures, there were
+      two chief symbols used in the worship of Baal, one male, the other female.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      See Figs. 15, 16.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      We can now look upon the very symbols themselves, which were so used&mdash;perhaps
+      the most remarkable in existence. It is well known that the Chaldeans,
+      from whom all other nations derived their religion, astronomy, and
+      science, gave the name of Bel or Baal to their chief god. In the most
+      ancient inscription yet deciphered, written in the Babylonian and Arcadian
+      languages, a king rules by "the favour of Bel." Another name for Baal is
+      Assur, or Asher, from whom Assyria is named. In the cuneiform inscriptions
+      of Sennacherib, the great king of Assyria, Nineveh is called "the city of
+      Bel," and "the city beloved by Ishtar." In another inscription he says of
+      the king of Egypt:&mdash;"the terror of Ashur and Ishtar overcame him and
+      he fled." Assurbanipal thus commences his annals "The great warrior, the
+      delight of Assur and Ishtar, the royal offspring am I." In a cuneiform
+      inscription of Nebobelzitri, we read:&mdash;"Nineveh the city, the delight
+      of Ishtar, wife of Bel." Again, "Beltis, the consort of Bel." "Assur and
+      Beltis, the gods of Assyria." Thus we see that Baal and Bel were identical
+      with Assur, and Ashur. Doubtless, then, "<i>Asherah</i>" is the last name
+      with the feminine termination (as Ish = man, Ishah=woman), and is
+      identical with Ishtar, Ashteroth, Astarte and Beltis. The Septuagint has
+      rendered "Asherah" by "Astarte," in 2 Chron. xv. 16, and the Vulgate by
+      "Astaroth," in Judges iii. 7. Herodotus described (b.c. 450) the great
+      temple of Belus at Babylon, and its seven stages dedicated to the sun,
+      moon, and planets, on the top of which was the shrine. This contained no
+      statue, but there was a golden couch, upon which a chosen female lay, and
+      was nightly visited by the god. Now, therefore, that the palaces of the
+      Assyrian kings, and their "chambers of imagery," have been by great good
+      fortune laid open to us, we might expect to discover the long-lost
+      symbolism of Baal-worship. And so we have.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To commence with the simplest. The (Ashcrim) is seen as the mystic
+      palm-tree, the tree of life, Fig. 99; the phallic pillar putting forth
+      branches like flames, Fig. 65; and the tree with seven phalloid branches,
+      so common on Assyrian and Babylonian seals, Plate xvii., Fig. 4. See also
+      the remarkable Syrian medals, Plate xvii., Fig. 2, on which is represented
+      Baal as the sun-god, holding the bow, and surrounded by phalli.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Or, least conventional of all, the simple phallus, of which there are two
+      remarkable specimens in the British Museum. Each of these is about two and
+      a half feet high, and once guarded the bounds of an estate. Among the
+      Greeks and Romans, boundaries were also marked by a phallic statue of
+      Hermes, the god of fertility. These Assyrian emblems have doubtless often
+      been honoured with rural sacrifice. Themselves the most expressive symbol
+      of life, they are also covered with its conventional emblems.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0098" id="linkimage-0098">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/207.jpg" alt="207 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      A back view of one is given, Figure 174. The body is mainly occupied with
+      a full length portrait of the great king. For as the Assyrians represented
+      the Deity, the source of all life, by the phallus, so the monarch was the
+      god of this lower world, the incarnation of God on earth. He was the
+      source of life to the empire, and as such was addressed&mdash;"O king,
+      live for ever" (Dan. v. 10). He, like the gods, never dies. "<i>Le Roi est
+      mort; Vive le Roi</i>" The ensigns of royalty were also those of the
+      creator-god. Accordingly, his garments and crown are embroidered with that
+      sacred emblem, the Asherah. He bears the strung-bow and arrows, emblems of
+      virile power, borne afterwards by the sun-god Apollo, and the western son
+      of Venus. An erect serpent occupies the other side, and ends with forky
+      tongue near the orifice. The <i>glans</i> is covered with symbols. On the
+      summit is a triad of sun emblems; beneath are three altars, over two of
+      which are the glans-shaped caps, covered with bulls' horns, always worn by
+      the Assyrian guardian angels, and intense emblems of the male potency. For
+      in ancient symbolism, <i>a part of a symbol stands for the whole</i>; as
+      here, the horns represent the bull, and the glans the phallus. Above the
+      third altar is a tortoise, whose protruded head and neck reminded the
+      initiated of the phallus; and the altars are covered with a pattern drawn
+      from the tortoise scales. We have, besides, a vase with a rod inserted,
+      emblem of sexual union, and a cock, with wings and plumage ruffled,
+      running after a hen in amorous heat. The glans only of the other is
+      copied.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0099" id="linkimage-0099">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/208.jpg" alt="208 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 175. At the top are the sun-symbols, as before. Beneath is the
+      horse-shoe-like head-dress of Isis, and there are two altars marked with
+      the tortoise-emblem in front. Over both rises the erect serpent, and upon
+      one lies the head of an arrow or a dart, both male symbols. The <i>miphletzeth</i>
+      which Queen Maachah placed in or near the Asherah, probably resembled
+      these Assyrian phalli, or the Asherim.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      And now we come to the Asherah, a much more complex and difficult symbol
+      than any other which we have named. This object has long puzzled
+      antiquarians, and though it is continually recurring in the sculptures
+      from Nineveh, it has not yet been fully explained. In Fig. 176 we see it
+      worshipped by human figures, with eagles' heads and wings, who present to
+      it the pine-cone, = the testis, and the basket, =the scrotum (?), intense
+      emblems of the male creator.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0100" id="linkimage-0100">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/209.jpg" alt="209 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Fig. 177 it is adored by the king and his son or successor, with their
+      attendant genii. The kings present towards it a well-known symbol of life
+      and good fortune, the fist with the forefinger extended, or "the phallic
+      hand." Here, then, we have evidently the Asherah, or Ashtaroth-symbol, the
+      female Baal, the life-producer, "the door" whence life issues to the
+      world. As such the goddess is here symbolised as an arched door-way. In
+      the Phonician alphabet, the fourth letter, <i>daleth</i>, = a door, has
+      the shape of a tent-door, as on the Moabite stone, A, and also in the
+      Greek [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;] But another form, perhaps as ancient, is D,
+      which, when placed in its proper position, would be [&mdash;], the very
+      form of the Asherah.* In the plural, this word stands for the <i>labia
+      pudendi</i>, [&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;&mdash;], "because it shut not up the
+      <i>doors</i> of the womb," Job iii. 10.** We infer from Numbers xxv. 6-8,
+      that in the rites of Baal-peor, the <i>Kadeshoth</i>, or women devoted to
+      the god, offered themselves to his worshippers each in a peculiar bower or
+      small arched tent, called a <i>qubbah</i>. The part also through which
+      Phinehas drove his spear (see Num. xxv. 8), the woman's vulva, is also
+      called <i>qobbah</i>, the one word being derived from the other, according
+      to Onkelos, Aquila, and others. Qubbah means, according to Fürst, Heb.
+      Lex., "something hollow and arched, an arched tent, like the Arabic El.
+      Kubba, whence the Spanish <i>Al-cova</i>, and our <i>Alcove</i>." In the
+      Latin also, the word <i>fornix</i>, a vault, an arch, meant a brothel, and
+      from it was derived <i>fornicatio</i>. Qubbah is translated by the LXX.,
+      kaminos, "an oven or arched furnace" (Liddell and Scott); but it meant
+      also the female parts. See Herodotus v. 92 (7). Thus, then, the Alcove was
+      itself a symbol of woman, as though a place of entrance and emergence, and
+      whence new life issues to the world. And when the male worshipper of Baal
+      entered to the <i>kadeshah</i>, the living embodiment of the goddess, the
+      analogy to the Asherah became complete, as we shall now show.
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * The first letter, Aleph, = an ox, is, even on the Moabite
+     stone, written thus, and has become the modern A. In the
+     earlier hieroglyph it must have been thus V. The Egyptian
+     hieroglyph for ten is Compare the Greek [&mdash;] and Latin
+     Decem.
+
+     ** The first of the Orphic Hymns is addressed to the goddess
+     Artemisias (Prothnraia) or the Door-keeper, who presided
+     over childbirths, like the Roman Diana Lucina.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      The central object in the Assyrian "grove" is a male date-palm, which was
+      well known as an emblem of Baal, the sun, the phallus, and life. This
+      remarkable tree, <i>Tamar</i> in Phoenician and Hebrew, the <i>phoenix</i>
+      in Greek, was formerly abundant in Palestine and the neighbouring regions.
+      The word <i>Phoenicia</i> (Acts xi. 19, xv. 8) is derived from <i>phoinix</i>,
+      as the country of palms; like the "<i>Idumeo palmo</i>" of Virgil.
+      Palmyra, the city of the sun, was called in the Hebrew <i>Tamar</i> (1
+      Kings ix. 18). In Vespasian's famous coin, "<i>Judoa capta</i>," Judoa is
+      represented as a female sitting under a palm-tree. The tree can at once be
+      identified by its tall, straight, branchless stem, of equal thickness
+      throughout, crowned at the top with a cluster of long, curved,
+      feather-like branches, and by its singularly wrinkled bark. All these
+      characteristics are readily recognised in the highly conventional forms of
+      the religious emblem, even in the ornament on the king's robe, fig. 174.
+      The date-palm is dioecious, the female trees, which are sometimes used as
+      emblems, being always distinguished by the clusters of date fruit. "Thy
+      stature is like to a palm-tree, thy breasts to clusters" (Cant. vii. 7).
+      "The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree" (Ps. xcii. 12), fruitful
+      and ever green. "They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not" (Jer.
+      x. 8-5). The prophet is evidently describing the making of an Asherah.
+      There was a Canaanite city called Baal-Tamar, = Baal, the palm-tree,
+      designated so, it is probable, from the worship of Baal there "under the
+      form of a priapus-column," says Fürst, Heb. Lex. The real form was
+      doubtless an "Asherim," a modified palm-tree, as we have already shown.
+      Palm-branches have been used in all ages as emblems of life, peace, and
+      victory. They were strewn before Christ. Palm-Sunday, the feast of palms,
+      is still kept. Even within the present century, on this festival, in many
+      towns of France, women and children carried in procession at the end of
+      their palm-branches a phallus made of bread, which they called,
+      undisguisedly, "la pine," whence the festival was called "La Fête des
+      Pinnes." The "pine" having been blest by the priest, the women carefully
+      preserved it during the following year as an amulet. (Dulaure, <i>Hist,
+      des differens Cultes.</i>)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0101" id="linkimage-0101">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/213.jpg" alt="213 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Again, the Greek name for the palm-tree, <i>phoenix</i>, was also the name
+      of that mythical Egyptian bird, sacred to Osiris, and a symbol of the
+      resurrection. With some early Christian writers, Christ was "the Phoenix."
+      The date-palm is figured as a tree of life on an Egyptian sepulchral
+      tablet, older than the Exodus, now preserved in the museum at Berlin. Two
+      arms issue from the top of the tree; one of which presents a tray of dates
+      to the deceased, whilst the other gives him water, "the water of life."
+      The tree of life is represented by a date-palm on some of the earliest
+      Christian mosaics at Rome. Something very like the Assyrian Asherah, or
+      sacred emblem, was sculptured on the great doors of Solomon's temple, by
+      Hiram, the Tyrian (1 Kings vii. 18-21). We read "he carved upon them
+      carvings of cherubims and palm-trees and open flowers, and spread gold
+      upon the cherubims and palm-trees" (1 Kings vi. 82-35). He also erected
+      two phallic pillars in front of the Temple, Jachin and Boaz, = It stands&mdash;In
+      strength. No wonder Solomon fell to worship Astarte, Chemosh, and Milcom.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Although to our modern ideas the mystical tree, symbol of life and
+      immortality, seems out of place in Judaism, yet no sooner did the Jews
+      possess a national coinage under the Maccabees than the palm-tree
+      reappears, <i>always with seven branches</i> (like the golden candlestick,
+      Ex. xxv.), as on the shekel represented Plate xvii., Fig. 4. The Assyrian
+      tree has <i>always</i> the same number, and the tufts of foliage
+      (symbolising the entire female tree) which deck the margins of the mystic
+      D&mdash;apt emblems of fertility&mdash;have also invariably seven
+      branches. This may remind us of the seven visible spheres that move around
+      our earth "in mystic dance," and of Balak's offering, upon seven altars,
+      seven bulls and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1; Rev. ii. 1) The mystic door is
+      also barred, like the Egyptian sistrum carried by the priestesses of Isis,
+      to represent the inviolable purity and eternal perfection which were
+      associated with the idea of divinity. When Mary, the mother of Jesus, took
+      the place in Christendom of "the great goddess," the dogmas which
+      propounded her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity followed as a
+      matter of course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, then, we explain the greatest symbol in Eastern worship,&mdash;it is
+      the "Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden," which has remained so long
+      a mystery. To Dr. Inman belongs the distinguished merit of having first
+      broken ground in the right direction. In his <i>Ancient Faiths</i>, vol.
+      1, 1868, he identified the Assyrian "Asherah" with the female "door of
+      life," and pointed out its analogy to the barred sistrum. We have seen
+      that it is really much more complex, being precisely analogous in meaning
+      to the famous <i>crux ansata</i> (Fig. 170), the central mystery of
+      Egyptian worship; to the lingam or lingyoni of India (Fig. 109), the great
+      emblem of Siva-worship; and to the caduceus of Greece and Rome. As
+      represented on the Assyrian sculptures, it is always substantially the
+      same. Probably this stereotyped form was the result of a gradual
+      refinement upon some rude primitive type, perhaps as coarse as that seen
+      by Captain Burton in the African idol-temple.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      To exhibit all the strange developments and modifications which this idea
+      has assumed in the religious symbolism of Eastern and Western nations
+      would require a large volume. But the subject is so rich in varied
+      interest that we cannot conclude without taking a glance at it. First, the
+      simple O, barred, is reproduced with a contraction towards the base, as in
+      the Indian "yoni," and the Egyptian sistrum, used in the worship of Isis.
+      Second, within the O was represented the goddess herself, as revealed
+      within her own symbol. This is illustrated in Plate xvii., Fig. 5, where
+      Demeter or Ceres is thus depicted, with her cornucopia, from a bronze coin
+      of Damascus. Thirdly, but much more commonly, the goddess holds in her
+      hands emblems of the male potency in creation, and thus completes the
+      symbol. As in the coin figured Plate xvii., Fig. 8, the goddess, standing
+      within the O, the portico of her temple, holds in her right hand the
+      cross, that most ancient emblem of the male and of life. In the beautiful
+      Greek coin of Sidon next figured, the goddess&mdash;evidently Astarte, the
+      moon-goddess, the Queen of Heaven&mdash;stands on a ship, the mystic Argha
+      or Ark, holding in one hand a crozier, in the other the cross. (Plate
+      xvii., Fig. 7.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0102" id="linkimage-0102">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/217.jpg" alt="217 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      Under Christianity, the Virgin Mary, who, as Queen of Heaven, stands on
+      the crescent moon, is pictured beneath the mystic doorway, with (the God
+      as) a male child in her arms. See Plate xviii., copied from the woodcut
+      title to the <i>Psalter of the Blessed Virgin</i>, printed at Czenna, in
+      old Prussia, 1492. Like Isis, she is the mother and yet the spouse of God,
+      "clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet" (Rev. xii. 1).
+      The upper half of the picture is very like the Assyrian scenes. On either
+      side is a king, Frederick III. and his son the Emperor Maximilian, at
+      their devotions. The alcove is of roses, an emblem of virginity. The
+      famous Mediæval "Romaunt de la Rose" turns upon this. Among the many
+      titles given to "the Virgin" in Mediæval times, we find <i>Santa Maria
+      della Rosa</i>, that flower being consecrated to her. Hence it is often
+      represented in her hand. Dante writes
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     "Here is the Rose,
+     Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate."
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      In Plate xviii., the Virgin goddess is seated with the God-child in a
+      bower, exactly the shape of the Assyrian, composed of fruits highly
+      significant of sex, as has already been explained. In some Hindoo
+      pictures, the child is naked, having the member erect, and also making the
+      phallic hand, with the right forefinger erected. (Plate xiv., Fig. 14.)
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In other conventional forms we have male symbols only within the female O.
+      This is a very numerous class. In the Fig. 3, Plate xvii., we see the
+      fir-tree or pine take the place of the palm-tree, and in Fig. 6, Plate
+      xvii., the cone. On this remarkable medal of Cyprus is a representation of
+      the temple of Venus at Paphos, famous even in the days of Homer. (Odyss.
+      viii. 862.) The worship of that divinity is said to have been imported
+      into Cyprus from the East. The goddess united both sexes in her own
+      person, and was served by castrated priests. We see here, within the
+      innermost sanctum of the temple, a cone as emblem of the male; and the
+      meaning is further pointed by the sun-emblem above, inserted within the
+      crescent moon.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Let us next examine how the cone came to be used as a masculine emblem. If
+      we turn to Figs. 174 and 175, it will be seen that the "glans" was
+      particularly honoured as the head of the phallus; it was also the part
+      dedicated to God by effusion of blood in the rite of circumcision. This
+      "acorn" is conical or dome-shaped, and thus&mdash;a part being taken for
+      the whole&mdash;the cone or pyramid was used as a conventional symbol of
+      the male creator. Placed on a stem it is frequently represented as
+      worshipped on Assyrian bas reliefs. See Fig. 177. It was also a symbol of
+      fire, the sun, and life; as such it formed a fitting monument for the
+      Egyptian kings. Our word pyramid is from the Greek <i>puramis</i>, itself
+      derived from pur, Jire, and puros, wheat, because pyramid-shaped cakes of
+      wheat and honey were used in the Bacchic Fig. 177. rites. It played an
+      important part in sun-worship. The emperor Heliogabalus (who, as his name
+      implies, had been a priest of Baal, the sun-god, in Syria,) established
+      the Syrian worship at Rome. He himself drove the golden chariot of the
+      sun, drawn by six white horses, through the streets of Rome to a splendid
+      new temple on the Palatine mount, the god being represented by a conical
+      black stone, said to have fallen from heaven; and which the emperor
+      removed from a temple of the sun, at Emesa, in Syria. At a subsequent
+      period, an image of the moon-goddess, or Astarte, was brought by his
+      orders from a celebrated fane at Carthage to Rome, and there solemnly
+      married with licentious rites to the sun-god, amidst general rejoicing.*
+    </p>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+     * In Astrology, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was
+     considered the most fortunate of all; such as kings and
+     princes should be born under.
+</pre>
+    <p>
+      A curious parallel to these mystic nuptials of the Assyrian god and
+      goddess may be found in some of the religious ceremonies of the modern
+      Hindoos. Fergusson tells us that "the most extraordinary buildings
+      connected with Hindu temples are the vast pillared colonnades or
+      choultries. By far their most important application is when used as
+      nuptial halls, in which the mystic union of a male and female divinity is
+      celebrated once a year."
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Again, in Indian mythology, the pyramid plays an important part. It
+      belongs to Siva, = the sun, = fire, = the phallus, = life. By one complex
+      symbol, very common on ancient Hindoo monuments in China and Thibet, the
+      universe was thus represented. Notice the upward gradation. Earth + water
+      = this globe. The creator-god, whose emblem, flame, mounts upwards, is the
+      author and representative of all life upon it; he is the connecting link,
+      united by the crescent moon with heaven. The arrow- or spear- head
+      inserted within the crescent is an earth emblem of Siva; like the lingam
+      it typified the divine source of life, and also the doctrine that perfect
+      wisdom was to be found only in the combination of the male and female
+      principles in nature. It decorates the roofs of the Buddhist monasteries
+      in Thibet, and like the sacred lotus flower and the linga, both of which
+      became emblems of Buddha, was derived from older faiths. Other
+      interpretations may suggest themselves. This will enable us to understand
+      the remarkable sculptures of the second or third century, from the
+      Amravati Tope, Plate xix., which present so many points in common with the
+      religious symbols of the Chaldeans. In Fig. 2 we see a congregation of
+      males and females, the sexes being separated, worshipping a linga, or
+      stone conical pillar, on the front of which is sculptured the sacred tree,
+      with branches like flames; three symbols of life in one. It rises from a
+      throne, on the seat of which are placed the two emblems of earth and
+      water. In the other figure, the sacred tree takes the place of the linga,
+      rising above the throne, as if from the trisul or trident, male emblems of
+      Siva. Winged figures, Garudas, attend it above, floating over the heads of
+      the worshippers. An intrusion of the newer faith is also to be recognised,
+      as the feet of Buddha are sculptured before the throne.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the mysteries of Mithra, the symbols in Fig. 178 were also employed.
+      They represented the elements to which the soul ought to be successively
+      united in passing through the new birth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0105" id="linkimage-0105">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/221.jpg" alt="221 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <p>
+      We will add but two more emblems, culled from medieval heraldry, Figs. 179
+      and 180, in both of which the Asherah, the "grove" of Baal-worship, will
+      be at once recognised; the arrow and the cross, symbols of the male
+      creator, taking the place of the mystic palm-tree.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In all these, from the rudest to the most complex, we are thus able to
+      trace a common idea, viz., a feeling after God, as the Life and Light of
+      the Universe, and an attempt to express a common hope in visible forms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="linkimage-0106" id="linkimage-0106">
+      <!-- IMG --></a>
+    </p>
+    <div class="fig" style="width:80%">
+      <img src="images/222.jpg" alt="222 " width="100%" /><br />
+    </div>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian
+Symbolism, by Thomas Inman and John Newton
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>