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diff --git a/38485.txt b/38485.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..94ff2a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/38485.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4845 @@ +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," &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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAGAN AND MODERN SYMBOLISM *** + +***** This file should be named 38485.txt or 38485.zip ***** This +and all associated files of various formats will be found in: http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/4/8/38485/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be +renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one +owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and +you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission +and without paying copyright royalties. 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