{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38485/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38485","id":"gutenberg_38485","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38485","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Ancient","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian art and symbolism","Symbolism"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nANCIENT PAGAN AND MODERN CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.\n\nBy Thomas Inman, M.D.\n\nConsulting Physician To The Royal Infirmary, Liverpool; Late Lecturer\nSuccessively On Botany, Medical Jurisprudence, Materia Medica And\nTherapeutics, And The Principles And Practice Of Medicine, Etc.; In The\nLiverpool School Of Medicine; Author Of \"Foundation For A New Theory And\nPractice Of Medicine;\" A \"Treatise On Myalgia;\" \"On The Real Nature Of\nInflammation,\" \"Atheroma In Arteries,\" \"The Preservation Of Health,\"\n\"The Restoration Of Health,\" \"Ancient Faiths Embodied In Ancient Names,\"\n\n\nSecond Edition,\n\nRevised And Enlarged,\n\nWITH AN ESSAY ON BAAL WORSHIP, ON THE ASSYRIAN SACRED \"GROVE,\" AND OTHER\nALLIED SYMBOLS.\n\nBy John Newton, M.R.C.S.E., Etc.\n\n\n\nThe woodcuts in the present volume originally appeared in a large work,\nin two thick volumes, entitled Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names.\nIt has been suggested to me by many, that a collection of these Figures,\nand their explanation, are more likely to be generally examined than a\nvery voluminous book. The one is, as it were, an alphabet; the other, an\nessay. The one opens the eyes; the other gives them opportunities to\nuse their vision. The one teaches to read; the other affords means for\npractice. As the larger work endeavours to demonstrate the existence\nof a state of things almost unknown to the British public, so it\nis necessary to furnish overwhelming proof that the allegations\nand accusations made against certain nations of antiquity, and some\ndoctrines of Christianity, are substantially true. Consequently, the\nnumber of witnesses is greater than is absolutely necessary to prove the\npoint.\n\n12, Rodney Street, Liverpool,\n\nJuly 1869.\n\nThe demand which has sprung up for this work has induced the Author to\nmake it more complete than it was originally. But it could not be\nmade perfect without being expanded into a volume whose size would be\nincompatible with cheapness. When every Figure would supply a text for a\nlong discourse, a close attention is required lest a description should\nbe developed into a dissertation.\n\nIn this work, the Author is obliged to confine himself to the\nexplanation of symbols, and cannot launch out into ancient and modern\nfaiths, except in so far as they are typified by the use of certain\nconventional signs.\n\nA great many who peruse a book like this for the first time, and find\nhow strange were the ideas which for some thousands of years permeated\nthe religious opinions of the civilised world, might naturally consider\nthat the Author is a mere visionary--one who is possessed of a hobby\nthat he rides to death. Such a notion is strengthened by finding that\nthere is scarcely any subject treated of except the one which associates\nreligion, a matter of the highest aim to man, with ideas of the most\nintensely earthly kind. But a thoughtful reader will readily discern\nthat an essay on Symbolism must be confined to visible emblems. By no\nfair means can an author who makes the crucifix his text introduce the\nsubject of the Confessional, the Eucharist, or Extreme Unction. Nor can\none, who knows that Buddha and Jesus alike inaugurated a faith which was\nunmarked by visible symbolism, bring into an interpretation of emblems a\ncomparison between the preaching of two such distinguished men. In\nlike manner, the Author is obliged to pass over the difference between\nJudaism, Christianity as propounded by the son of Mary, and that which\npasses current for Christianity in Rome and most countries of Europe.\n\nAll these points, and many more, have been somewhat fully discussed in\nthe Author's larger work, so often referred to in this, and to that he\nmust refer the curious. The following pages are simply a chapter taken\nfrom a book, complete perhaps in itself, but only as a brick may be\nperfect, without giving to an individual any idea of the size, style, or\narchitecture of the house from which it has been taken. If readers will\nregard these pages as a beam in a building, the Author will be content.\n\n8, Vyvyan Terrace,\n\nClifton, Bristol,\n\nAugust, 1874.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\nPAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.\n\nAPPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN \"GROVE\" AND OTHER EMBLEMS\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\nIt may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is, or has ever\nbeen, adopted into the service of Religion, without a definite purpose.\nIf it be supposed that a religion is built upon the foundation of a\ndistinct revelation from the Almighty, as the Hebrew is said to be,\nthere is a full belief that every emblem, rite, ceremony, dress, symbol,\netc., has a special signification. Many earnest Christians, indeed,\nsee in Judaic ordinances a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. I have, for\nexample, heard a pious man assert that \"leprosy\" was only another word\nfor \"sin\"; but he was greatly staggered in this belief when I pointed\nout to him that if a person's whole body was affected he was no longer\nunclean (Lev. xiii. 13), which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to\ndemonstrate that when a sinner was as black as hell he was the equal of\na saint. According to such an interpreter, the paschal lamb is a type of\nJesus, and consequently all whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of\nwood, lintels, and side-posts (Exod. xii. 22, 28). By the same style of\nmetaphorical reasoning, Jesus was typified by the \"scape-goat,\" and the\nproof is clear, for one was driven away into the wilderness, and the\nother voluntarily went there--one to be destroyed, the other to be\ntempted by the devil! Hence we infer that there is nothing repugnant to\nthe minds of the pious in an examination respecting the use of symbols,\nand into that which is shadowed forth by them. What has been done for\nJudaism may be attempted for other forms of religion.\n\nAs the Hebrews and Christians believe their religion to be God-given,\nso other nations, having a different theology, regard their own peculiar\ntenets. Though we may, with that unreasoning prejudice and blind bigotry\nwhich are common to the Briton and the Spaniard, and pre-eminently so to\nthe mass of Irish and Scotchmen amongst ourselves, and to the\nCarlists in the peninsula, disbelieve a heathen pretension to a divine\nrevelation, we cannot doubt that the symbols, etc., of Paganism have a\nmeaning, and that it is as lawful to scrutinise the mysteries which they\nenfold as it is to speculate upon the Urim and Thummim of the Jews. Yet,\neven this freedom has, by some, been denied; for there are a few amongst\nus who adhere rigidly to the precept addressed to the followers of\nMoses, viz., \"Take heed that thou enquire not after their gods, saying,\nHow did these nations serve their gods?\" (Deut. xii. 30.) The intention\nof the prohibition thus enunciated is well marked in the following\nwords, 1 which indicate that the writer believed that the adoption of\nheathen gods would follow inquiry respecting them. It is not now-a-days\nfeared that we may become Mahometans if we read the Koran, or Buddhists\nif we study the Dhammapada; but there are priests who fear that an\ninquiry into ecclesiastical matters may make their followers Papists,\nProtestants, Wesleyans, Baptists, Unitarians, or some other religion\nwhich the Presbytery object to. The dislike of inquiry ever attends\nthose who profess a religion which is believed or known to be weak.\n\n\n     * \"even so will I do likewise.\"\n\nThe philosopher of the present day, being freed from the shackles once\nriveted around him by a dominant hierarchy, may regard the precept in\nDeuteronomy in another light. Seeing that the same symbolism is common\nto many forms of religion, professed in countries widely apart both as\nregards time and space, he thinks that the danger of inquiry into\nfaiths is not the adoption of foreign, but the relinquishment of present\nmethods of religious belief. When we see the same ideas promulgated as\ndivine truth, on the ancient banks of the Ganges, and the modern\nshores of the Mediterranean, we are constrained to admit that they have\nsomething common in their source. They may be the result of celestial\nrevelation, or they may all alike emanate from human ingenuity. As men\ninvent new forms of religion now, there is a presumption that others\nmay have done so formerly. As all men are essentially human, so we may\nbelieve that their inventions will be characterised by the virtues and\nthe failings of humanity. Again, experience tells us that similarity in\nthought involves similarity in action. Two sportsmen, seeing a hare run\noff from between them, will fire at it so simultaneously that each is\nunaware that the other shot. So a resemblance in religious belief will\neventuate in the selection of analogous symbolism.\n\nWe search into emblems with an intention different from that with which\nwe inquire into ordinary language. The last tells us of the relationship\nof nations upon Earth, the first of the probable connections of mankind\nwith Heaven. The devout Christian believes that all who venerate the\nCross may hope for a happy eternity, without ever dreaming that the\nsign of his faith is as ancient as Homeric Troy, and was used by the\nPhoenicians probably before the Jews had any existence as a people;\nwhilst an equally pious Mahometan regards the Crescent as the passport\nto the realms of bliss, without a thought that the symbol was in use\nlong before the Prophet of Allah was born, and amongst those nations\nwhich it was the Prophet's mission to convert or to destroy. Letters\nand words mark the ordinary current of man's thought, whilst religious\nsymbols show the nature of his aspirations. But all have this in common,\nviz., that they may be misunderstood. Many a Brahmin has uttered prayers\nin a language to him unintelligible; and many a Christian uses words\nin his devotions of which he never seeks to know the meaning. \"Om manee\npani\" \"Om manee padme houm,\" \"Amen\" and \"Ave Maria purissima\" may fairly\nbe placed in the same category. In like manner, the signification of an\nemblem may be unknown. The antiquary finds in Lycian coins, and in Aztec\nruins, figures for which he can frame no meaning; whilst the ordinary\nchurch-goer also sees, in his place of worship, designs of which none\ncan give him a rational explanation. Again, we find that a language may\nfind professed interpreters, whose system of exposition is wholly wrong;\nand the same may be said of symbols. I have seen, for example, three\ndistinctly different interpretations given to one Assyrian inscription,\nand have heard as many opposite explanations of a particular figure, all\nof which have been incorrect.\n\nIn the interpretation of unknown languages and symbols, the observer\ngladly allows that much may be wrong; but this does not prevent him\nbelieving that some may be right. In giving his judgment, he will\nexamine as closely as he can into the system adopted by each inquirer,\nthe amount of materials at his disposal, and, generally, the acumen\nwhich has been brought to the task. Perhaps, in an investigation such\nas we describe, the most important ingredient is care in collation and\ncomparison. But a scholar can only collate satisfactorily when he has\nsufficient means, and these demand much time and research. The labour\nrequires more time than ordinary working folk can command, and more\npatience than those who have leisure are generally disposed to give.\nUnquestionably, we have as yet had few attempts in England to classify\nand explain ancient and modern symbols. It is perhaps not strictly true\nthat there has been so much a laxity in the research, of which we\nhere speak, as a dread of making public the results of inquiry.\nInvestigators, as a rule, have a respect for their own prejudices, and\ndislike to make known to others a knowledge which has brought pain to\ntheir own minds. Like the Brahmin of the story, they will destroy a fine\nmicroscope rather than permit their co-religionists to know that they\ndrink living creatures in their water, or eat mites in their fruit. The\nmotto of such people is, \"If truth is disagreeable, cling to error.\"\n\nThe following attempts to explain much of ancient and modern symbolism\ncan only be regarded as tentative. The various devices contained herein\nseem to me to support the views which I have been led to form from other\nsources, by a careful inquiry into the signification of ancient names,\nand the examination of ancient faiths. The figures were originally\nintended as corroborative of evidence drawn from numerous ancient and\nmodern writings; and the idea of collecting them, and, as it were,\nmaking them speak for themselves, has been an after-thought. In the\nfollowing pages I have simply reprinted the figures, etc., which appear\nin Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names (second edition). I make no\nattempt to exhaust the subject. There are hundreds of emblems which find\nherein no place; and there are explanations of symbols current to which\nI make no reference, for they are simply exoteric.\n\nFor the benefit of many of my readers, I must explain the meaning of the\nlast word italicised. In most, if not in all, forms of religion, there\nare tenets not generally imparted to the vulgar, and only given to a\nselect few under the seal of secrecy. A similar reticence exists in\ncommon life. There are secrets kept from children, for example, that are\ncommonly known to all parents; there are arcana, familiar to doctors, of\nwhich patients have no idea. For example, when a lad innocently asks the\nfamily surgeon, or his parent, where the last new baby came from, he is\nput off with a reply, wide of the mark, yet sufficient for him. When I\nput such a question to the maids in the kitchen, to which place for a\ntime I was relegated, the first answer was that the baby came from the\nparsley bed. On hearing this, I went into the garden, and, finding\nthe bed had been unmoved, came back and reproached my informant for\nfalsehood. Another then took up the word, and said it was the carrot bed\nwhich the baby came from. As a roar of laughter followed this remark, I\nfelt that I was being cheated, and asked no more questions. Then I could\nnot, now I can, understand the esoteric sense of the sayings. They had\nto the servants two distinct significations. The only one which I could\nthen comprehend was exoteric; that which was known to my elders was the\nesoteric meaning. In what is called \"religion\" there has been a similar\ndistinction. We see this, not only in the \"mysteries\" of Greece and\nRome, but amongst the Jews; Esdras stating the following as a command\nfrom God, \"Some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou\nshow secretly to the wise\" (2 Esdras xv. 26).\n\nWhen there exist two distinct explanations, or statements, about the\nsignification of an emblem, the one \"esoteric,\" true, and known only to\nthe few, the other \"exoteric,\" incorrect, and known to the many, it\nis clear that a time may come when the first may be lost, and the last\nalone remain. As an illustration, we can point to the original and\ncorrect pronunciation of the word [--Hebrew--], commonly pronounced\nJehovah. Known only to a select few, it became lost when these died\nwithout imparting it; yet what is considered to be the incorrect method\nof pronouncing the word survives until to-day.*\n\n\n     * It is supposed by some that Jahveh is the proper\n     pronunciation of this word, but as the first letter may\n     represent, ja, ya, or e, and the third u, v, or o, whilst\n     the second and fourth are the soft h, one may read the word\n     Jhuh, analogous to the Ju in Jupiter; Jehu, the name of a\n     king of Israel; Tahu as it is read on Assyrian inscriptions;\n     Jeho, as in Jehoshaphat; Ehoh, analogous to the Evoe or Ewe\n     associated with Bacchus; and Jaho, analogous to the J. A. O.\n     of the Gnostics. The Greek \"Fathers\" give the word as if\n     equivalent to yave, yaoh, yeho, and too.\n\nBut the question is not how the word may be pronounced, but how it was\nexpressed in sound when used in religion by the Hebrew and other Semitic\nnations, amongst whom it was a sacred secret, or ineffable name, not\nlightly to be \"taken in vain.\"------\n\nWe may fairly assume that, when two such meanings exist, they are not\nidentical, and that the one most commonly received is not the correct\none. But when one alone is known to exist, it becomes a question whether\nanother should be sought. If, it may be asked, the common people are\ncontented with a fable, believing it true, why seek to enlighten them\nupon its hidden meaning? To show the bearing of this subject, let us\nnotice what has always struck me as remarkable. The second commandment\ndeclares to the Jews, \"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,\nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the\nearth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not\nbow down thyself to them,\" etc. (Exod. xx. 4). Yet we find, in Numbers\nxxi., that Jehovah ordered Moses to frame a brazen serpent, whose power\nwas so miraculous that those who only looked at it were cured of the\nevils inflicted by thanatoid snakes.\n\nThen again, in the temple of the God who is reported to have thus\nspoken, and who is also said to have declared that He would dwell in\nthe house that Solomon made for Him, an ark, or box, was worshipped, and\nover it Cherubim were seen. These were likenesses of something, and the\nfirst was worshipped. We find it described as being so sacred that death\nonce followed a profane touching of it (2 Sam. vi. 6, 7), and no fewer\nthan 50,070 people were done to death at Bethshemesh because somebody\nhad ventured to look inside the box, and had tried to search into\nthe mystery contained therein (1 Sam. vi. 19). It is curious that\nthe Philistines, who must have touched the box to put their strange\nofferings beside it (see 1 Sam. vi. 8), were not particularly bothered.\nThey were \"profane\"; and priests only invent stories, which are\napplicable to the arcana which they use in worship, to blind the eyes\nof and give a holy horror to the people whom they govern. How David\nworshipped the ark as being the representative of God we see in 2 Sam.\nvi. 14, 16, 17, 21.\n\nThe ark of the covenant was indeed regarded by the Jews much as a\nsaint's toe-nail, a crucifix, an image of the Virgin, a bit of wood,\nor a rusty old nail is by the Roman Catholics. So flagrant an apparent\nbreach of the second commandment was covered for the common Hebrews by\nthe assertion that the mysterious box was a token of God's covenant with\nHis people; but that this statement was \"exoteric,\" we feel sure, when\nwe find a similar ark existing and used in \"the mysteries\" of Egypt and\nGreece, amongst people who probably never heard of Jews, and could by no\nchance know what passed in the Hebrew temple.\n\nWhen become dissatisfied with a statement, which is evidently intended\nto be a blind, some individuals naturally endeavour to ascertain what is\nbehind the curtain. In this they resemble the brave boy, who rushes upon\na sheet and turnip lantern, which has imposed upon his companions\nand passed for a ghost. What is a bugbear to the many is often a\ncontemptible reptile to the few. Yet there are a great number who would\nrather run from a phantom night after night than grapple with it once,\nand would dissuade others from being bold enough to encounter it.\nNevertheless, even the former rejoice when the cheat is exposed.\n\nAs when, by some courageous hand, that which has been mistaken by\nhundreds for a spectre has been demonstrated to be a crafty man, no one\nwould endeavour to demonstrate the reality of ghosts by referring to\nthe many scores of men of all ranks who had been duped by the apparition\nthus detected; so, in like manner, when the falsehood of an exoteric\nstory is exhibited, it is no argument in its favour that the vulgar in\nthousands and many a wise man have believed it. Speaking metaphorically,\nwe have many such ghosts amongst ourselves; phantoms, which pass for\npowerful giants, but are in reality perfect shams. Such we may describe\nby comparing them to the apocryphal vampires. It is to me a melancholy\nthing to contemplate the manner in which mankind have, in every age and\nnation, made for themselves bugbears, and then have felt fear at them.\nWe deride the African, who manufactures a Fetish, and then trembles at\nits power, but the learned know perfectly well that men made the devil,\nwhom the pious fear, just as a negro dreads Mumbo Jumbo.\n\nIn the fictitious narratives which passed for truth in the dark ages\nof Christianity, there were accounts of individuals who died and were\nburied, and who, after a brief repose in the tomb, rose again. Some\nimagined that the resuscitated being was the identical one who had been\ninterred. Others believed that some evil spirit had appropriated the\nbody, and restored to it apparent vitality. Whatever the fiction was,\nthe statement remained unchallenged, that some dead folk returned to\nearth, having the same guise as when they quitted it. We believe that a\nsimilar occurrence has taken place in religion. Heathendom died, and was\nburied; yet, after a brief interval, it rose again from its tomb. But,\nunlike the vampire, its garb was changed, and it was not recognised. It\nmoved through Christendom in a seductive dress. If it were a devil, yet\nits clothing was that of a sheep; if a wolf, it wore broadcloth. If it\nravened, the victims were not pitied. Heathenism, by which I mean the\nmanners, morals and rites prevalent in pagan times or countries, like\na resuscitated vampire, once bore rule throughout Christendom, in which\nterm is included all those parts where Christian baptism is used by all\nthe people, or the vast majority. In most parts it still reigns supreme.\n\nWhen vampires were discovered by the acumen of any observer, they were,\nwe are told, ignominiously killed, by a stake being driven through the\nbody; but experience showed them to have such tenacity of life that they\nrose again, and again, notwithstanding renewed impalement, and were\nnot ultimately laid to rest till wholly burnt. In like manner, the\nregenerated Heathendom, which dominates over the followers of Jesus\nof Nazareth, has risen again and again, after being transfixed. Still\ncherished by the many, it is denounced by the few. Amongst other\naccusers, I raise my voice against the Paganism which exists so\nextensively in ecclesiastical Christianity, and will do my utmost to\nexpose the imposture.\n\nIn a vampire story, told in Thalaba, by Southey, the resuscitated being\ntakes the form of a dearly beloved maiden, and the hero is obliged to\nkill her with his own hand. He does so; but, whilst he strikes the form\nof the loved one, he feels sure that he slays only a demon. In like\nmanner, when I endeavour to destroy the current Heathenism, which has\nassumed the garb of Christianity, I do not attack real religion. Few\nwould accuse a workman of malignancy who cleanses from filth the surface\nof a noble statue. There may be some who are too nice to touch a nasty\nsubject; yet even they will rejoice when some one else removes the dirt.\nSuch a scavenger is much wanted.\n\nIf I were to assert, as a general proposition, that religion does not\nrequire any symbolism, I should probably win assent from every true\nScotch Presbyterian, every Wesleyan, and every Independent. Yet I should\nbe opposed by every Papist, and by most Anglican Churchmen. But why?\nIs it not because their ecclesiastics have adopted symbolism into their\nchurches and into their ritual? They have broken the second commandment\nof Jehovah, and refuse to see anything wrong in their practice or gross\nin their imagery. But they adopt Jehovah rather than Elohim, and break\nthe commandments, said to be given upon Sinai, in good company.\n\nThe reader of the following pages will probably feel more interest\ntherein if he has some clue whereby he may guide himself through their\nlabyrinth.\n\nFrom the earliest known times there seems to have been in every\ncivilised nation the idea of an unseen power. In the speculations of\nthoughtful minds a necessity is recognised for the existence of a\nBeing who made all things--who is at times beneficent, sending rain and\nwarmth, and who at others sends storm, plague, famine, and war. After\nthe crude idea has taken possession of the thoughts, there has been a\ndesire to know something more of this Creator, and an examination into\nthe works of Nature has been made with the view to ascertain the will\nand designs of the Supreme. In every country this great One has been\nsupposed to inhabit the heaven above us, and consequently all celestial\nphenomena have been noticed carefully. But the mind soon got weary of\ncontemplating about an essence, and, contenting itself with the\nbelief that there was a Power, began to investigate the nature of His\nministers. These, amongst the Aryans, were the sun, fire, storm, wind,\nthe sky, the day, night, etc. An intoxicating drink, too, was regarded\nas an emanation from the Supreme. With this form of belief men lived as\nthey had done ere it existed, and in their relations with each other\nmay be compared to such high class animals as elephants. Men can live\npeaceably together without religion, just as do the bisons, buffaloes,\nantelopes, and even wolves. The assumption that some form of faith is\nabsolutely a necessity for man is only founded on the fancies of some\nreligious fanatics who know little of the world.*\n\n\n     * Whilst these sheets were passing through the press, there\n     appeared a work, published anonymously, but reported to be\n     by one of the most esteemed theologians who ever sat upon an\n     episcopal bench. It is entitled Supernatural Religion.\n     London: Longmans, 1874. From it we quote the following, vol.\n     ii., p. 489:--\n\n     \"We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief\n     in the reality of Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain pure\n     and unimpaired the treasure of Christian Morality, we\n     relinquish nothing but the debasing elements added to it by\n     human superstition. We are no longer bound to believe a\n     theology which outrages reason and moral sense. We are freed\n     from base anthropomorphic views of God and His government of\n     the universe; and from Jewish Mythology we rise to higher\n     conceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being,\n     hidden from our finite minds, it is true, in the\n     impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose Laws of wondrous\n     comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in\n     operation around us. We are no longer disturbed by visions\n     of fitful interference with the order of Nature, but we\n     recognise that the Being who regulates the universe is\n     without variableness or shadow of turning. It is singular\n     how little there is in the supposed Revelation of alleged\n     information, however incredible, regarding that which is\n     beyond the limits of human thought, but that little is of a\n     character which reason declares to be the wildest delusion.\n     Let no man whose belief in the reality of a Divine\n     Revelation may be destroyed by such an inquiry complain that\n     he has lost a precious possession, and that nothing is left\n     but a blank. The Revelation not being a reality, that which\n     he has lost was but an illusion, and that which is left is\n     the Truth. If he be content with illusions, he will speedily\n     be consoled; if he be a lover only of truth, instead of a\n     blank, he will recognise that the reality before him is full\n     of great peace.\n\n     \"If we know less than we have supposed of man's destiny, we\n     may at least rejoice that we are no longer compelled to\n     believe that which is unworthy. The limits of thought once\n     attained, we may well be unmoved in the assurance that all\n     that we do know of the regulation of the universe being so\n     perfect and wise, all that we do not know must be equally\n     so. Here enters the true and noble Faith--which is the child\n     of reason. If we have believed a system, the details of\n     which must at one time or another have shocked the mind of\n     every intelligent man, and believed it simply because it was\n     supposed to be revealed, we may equally believe in the\n     wisdom and goodness of what is not revealed. The mere act of\n     communication to us is nothing: Faith in the perfect\n     ordering of all things is independent of Revelation.\n\n     \"The argument so often employed by Theologians that Divine\n     Revelation is necessary for man, and that certain views\n     contained in that Revelation are required by our moral\n     consciousness, is purely imaginary, and derived from the\n     Revelation which it seeks to maintain. The only thing\n     absolutely necessary for man is Truth and to that, and that\n     alone, must our moral consciousness adapt itself.\"\n\nBut as there is variety in the workings of the human mind, so there were\ndifferences in the way wherein the religious idea was carried out.\nSome regarded the sun and moon, the constellations and the planets, as\nministers of the unseen One, and, reasoning from what was known to\nwhat was unknown, argued thus: \"Throughout nature there seems to be a\ndualism. In the sky there are a sun and moon; there are also sun and\nearth, earth and sea. In every set of animals there are males and\nfemales.\" An inquiry into the influence of the sun brought out the facts\nthat by themselves its beams were destructive; they were only beneficent\nwhen the earth was moist with rain. As the rain from heaven, then,\ncaused things on earth to grow, it was natural that the main source of\nlight and heat should be regarded as a male, and the earth as a female.\nAs a male, the sun was supposed to have the emblems of virility, and a\nspouse whom he impregnated, and who thereby became fertile.\n\nIn examining ancient Jewish, Phoenician, and other Shemitic cognomens,\nI found that they consisted of a divine name and some attribute of the\ndeity, and that the last was generally referable equally to the Supreme,\nto the Sun, as a god, and to the masculine emblem. If the deity was a\nfemale, the name of her votary contained a reference to the moon and\nthe beauties or functions of women. The higher ideas of the Creator were\nheld only by a few, the many adopted a lower and more debased view. In\nthis manner the sun became a chief god and the moon his partner, and\nthe former being supposed to be male and the latter female, both\nbecame associated with the ideas which all have of terrestrial animals.\nConsequently the solar deity was associated in symbolism with masculine\nand the moon with feminine emblems.\n\nAn inquiry into antiquity, as represented by Babylonians, Assyrians,\nEgyptians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, and others,\nand into modern faiths still current, as represented in the peninsula of\nIndia, in the Lebanon, and elsewhere, shows that ideas of sex have been\nvery generally associated with that of creation. God has been described\nas a king, or as a queen, or as both united. As monarch, he is supposed\nto be man, or woman, or both. As man differs from woman in certain\npeculiarities, these very means of distinction have been incorporated\ninto the worship of god and goddess. Rival sects have been ranged in\nancient times under the symbol of the T and the O as in later times they\nare under the cross and the crescent. The worship of God the Father has\nrepeatedly clashed with that of God the Mother, and the votaries of each\nrespectively have worn badges characteristic of the sex of their deity.\nAn illustration of this is to be seen amongst ourselves; one sect of\nChristians adoring chiefly the Trinity, another reverencing the Virgin.\nThere is a well-known picture, indeed, of Mary worshipping her infant;\nand to the former is given the title Mater Creatoris, \"the mother of\nthe Creator.\" Our sexual sections are as well marked as those in ancient\nJerusalem, which swore by Jehovah and Ashtoreth respectively.\n\nThe idea of sexuality in religion is quite compatible with a ritual and\npractice of an elaborate character, and a depth of piety which prefers\nstarvation to impurity, or, as the Bible has it, to uncleanness. To eat\n\"with the blood\" was amongst the Hebrews a crime worthy of death; to eat\nwith unwashed hands was a dreadful offence in the eyes of the Pharisees\nof Jerusalem; and in the recent famine in Bengal, we have seen that\nindividuals would rather die of absolute hunger, and allow their\nchildren to perish too, than eat bread or rice which may have been\ntouched by profane hands, or drink milk that had been expressed by\nBritish milkmaids from cows' udders. Yet these same Hindoos, the very\nparticular sect of the Brahmins, have amongst themselves a form of\nworship which to our ideas is incompatible with real religion. The folks\nreferred to adore the Creator, and respect their ceremonial law even\nmore deeply, than did the Hebrews after the time of the Babylonish\ncaptivity; but they have a secret cult in which--and in the most,\nmatter-of-fact way--they pay a very practical homage to one or other of\nthe parts which is thought by the worshipper to be a mundane emblem of\nthe Creator.\n\nThe curious will find in Essays on the Religion of the Hindus, by H. H.\nWilson, in the Dabistan, translated by Shea and Troyer (Allen and Co.,\nLondon), 3 vols., 8vo., and in Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of\nLondon (Truebner and Co.), vols. 1 and 2, much information on the method\nof conducting the worship referred to. The first named author thinks it\nadvisable to leave the Brahminic \"rubric\" for the \"Sakti Sodhana,\" for\nthe most part under the veil of the original Sanscrit, and I am not\ndisposed wholly to withdraw it.\n\nBut Christians are not pure; some of my readers may have seen a work\nwritten by an Italian lady of high birth, who was in early life forced\ninto a nunnery, and who left it as soon as she had a chance. In her\naccount she tells us how the women in the monastery were seduced by\nreverend Fathers, who were at one time the instruments of vice, at\nanother the guides to penitence. Their practice was to instruct their\nvictims that whatever was said or done must be accompanied by a pious\nsentence. Thus, \"I love you dearly\" was a profane expression; but \"I\ndesire your company in the name of Jesus,\" and \"I embrace in you the\nHoly Virgin,\" were orthodox. In like manner, the Hindus have prayers\nprescribed for their use, when the parts are to be purified prior to\nproceeding to extremities, when they are introduced to each other,\nin the agitation which follows, and when the ceremony is completed.\nEverything is done, as Ritualists would say, decently and in order; and\na pious orgie, sanctified by prayers, cannot be worse than the penance\nordained by some \"confessors\" to those faithful damsels whose minds are\nplastic enough to believe that a priest is an embodiment of the Holy\nGhost, and that they become assimilated to the Blessed Virgin when they\nare overshadowed by the power of the Highest (Luke i. 85).\n\nThere being, then, in \"religion\" a strong sensual element, ingenuity\nhas been exercised to a wonderful extent in the contrivance of designs,\nnearly or remotely significant of this idea, or rather union of the\nconceptions to which we have referred. Jupiter is a Proteus in form;\nnow a man, now a bull, now a swan, now an androgyne. Juno, or her\nequivalent, is sometimes a woman, occasionally a lioness, and at times\na cow. All conceivable attributes of man and woman were symbolised; and\ngods were called by the names of power, love, anger, desire, revenge,\nfortune, etc. Everything in creation that resembled in any way the\npresumed Creator, whether in name, in character, or in shape, was\nsupposed to represent the deity. Hence a palm tree was a religious\nemblem, because it is long, erect, and round; an oak, for it is hard and\nfirm; a fig-tree, because its leaves resemble the male triad. The ivy\nwas sacred from a similar cause. A myrtle was also a type, but of the\nfemale, because its leaf is a close representation of the vesica piscis.\nEverything, indeed, which in any way resembles the characteristic organs\nof man and woman, became symbolic of the one or the other deity, Jupiter\nor Juno, Jehovah or Astarte, the Father or the Virgin. Sometimes, but\nvery rarely, the parts in question were depicted au naturel, and the\nmeans by which creation is effected became the mundane emblem of the\nAlmighty; and two huge phalli were seen before a temple, as we now\nsee towers or spires before our churches, and minarets before mosques.\n(Lucian, Dea Syria.)\n\nGenerally, however, it was considered the most correct plan to represent\nthe organs by some conventional form, understood by the initiated,\nbut not by the unlearned. Whatever was upright, and longer than broad,\nbecame symbolic of the father; whilst that which was hollow, cavernous,\noval, or circular, symbolised the mother. A sword, spear, arrow, dart,\nbattering ram, spade, ship's prow, anything indeed intended to pierce\ninto something else was emblematic of the male; whilst the female was\nsymbolised as a door, a hole, a sheath, a target, a shield, a field,\nanything indeed which was to be entered. The Hebrew names sufficiently\nindicate the plan upon which the sexes were distinguished; the one is a\nzachar, a perforator or digger, and the other nekebah, a hole or trench,\ni, e. male and female.\n\nThese symbols were not necessarily those of religious belief. They might\nindicate war, heroism, prowess, royalty, command, etc., or be nothing\nmore than they really were. They only symbolised the Creator when they\nwere adopted into religion. Again, there was a still farther refinement;\nand advantage was taken of the fact, that one symbol was tripliform, the\nother single; one of one shape, and the other different. Consequently,\na triangle, or three things, arranged so that one should stand above\nthe two, became emblematic of the Father, whilst an unit symbolised the\nMother.\n\nThese last three sentences deserve close attention, for some individuals\nhave, in somewhat of a senseless fashion, objected, that a person who\ncan see in a tortoise an emblem of the male, and in a horse-shoe an\neffigy of the female organ, must be quite too fantastical to deserve\nnotice. But to me, as to other inquirers, these things are simply what\nthey appear to be when they are seen in common life. Yet when the former\ncreature occupies a large space in mythology; when the Hindoo places it\nas the being upon which the world stands, and the Greeks represent one\nVenus as resting upon a tortoise and another on a goat; and when one\nknows that in days gone by, in which people were less refined, the\n[--Greek--] was displayed where the horse-shoe is now, and that some\ncuriously mysterious attributes were assigned to the part in question;\nwe cannot refuse to see the thing signified in the sign.\n\nAgain, inasmuch as what we may call the most prominent part of the\ntripliform organ was naturally changeable in character, being at one\ntime soft, small, and pendent, and at another hard, large, and upright,\nthose animals that resembled it in these respects became symbolical. Two\nserpents, therefore, one Indian, and the other Egyptian, both of which\nare able to distend their heads and necks, and to raise them up erect,\nwere emblematic, and each in its respective country typified the father,\nthe great Creator. In like manner, another portion of the triad was\nregarded as similar in shape and size to the common hen's egg. As the\ncelebrated physiologist, Haller, remarked, \"Omne vivum ex ovo\" every\nliving thing comes from an egg; so more ancient biologists recognised\nthat the dual part of the tripliform organ was as essential to the\ncreation of a new being as the central pillar. Hence an egg and a\nserpent became a characteristic of \"the Father,\" El, Ab, Ach, Baal,\nAsher, Melech, Adonai, Jahu, etc. When to this was added a half moon,\nas in certain Tyrian coins, the trinity and unity were symbolised, and\na faith expressed like the one held in modern Rome, that the mother of\ncreation is co-equal with the father; the one seduces by her charms, and\nthe other makes them fructify.\n\nTo the Englishman, who, as a rule, avoids talking upon the subject which\nforms the basis of many an ancient religion, it may seem incredible that\nany individual, or set of writers, could have exercised their ingenuity\nin finding circumlocutory euphemisms for things which, though natural,\nare rarely named. Yet the wonder ceases when we find, in the writings of\nour lively neighbours, the French, a host of words intended to describe\nthe parts referred to, which correspond wholly with the pictorial\nemblems adopted by the Greeks and others.\n\nAs English writers have, as a rule, systematically avoided making any\ndistinct reference to the sexual ideas embodied in ancient Paganism,\nso they have, by their silence, encouraged the formation of a school\nof theology which has no solid foundation, except a very animal one. As\neach individual finds out this for himself, it becomes a question with\nhim how far the information shall be imparted to others. So rarely has\nthe determination to accuse the vampire been taken, that we can point to\nvery few English books to which to refer our readers. We do not know one\nsuch that is easily accessible; K. Payne Knight's work, and the addition\nthereto, having been privately printed, is not often to be found in\nthe market. To give a list of the foreign works which the author has\nconsulted, prior to and during the composition of his book on Ancient\nFaiths, would be almost equivalent to giving a catalogue of part of\nhis library. He may, however, indicate the name of one work which is\nunusually valuable for reference, viz., Histoire abregee des Differens\nCultes, par J. A. Dulaure, 2 vols., small 8vo., Paris, 1825. Though\nout of print, copies can generally be procured through second-hand\nbooksellers. Another work, 'Recherches sur les Mysteres de Paganisme,\nby St. Croix, is equally valuable, but it is very difficult to procure a\ncopy.\n\nThe ancient Jews formed no exception to the general law of reverence\nfor the male emblem of the Creator; and though we would, from their\npretensions to be the chosen people of God, gladly find them exempt from\nwhat we consider to be impurities, we are constrained to believe that,\neven in the worship of Jehovah, more respect was given to the symbol\nthan we, living in modern times, think that it deserves. In their\nScriptures we read of Noah, whose infirm temper seems to have been on a\npar with his weakness for wine, cursing one of his three sons because,\nwhilst drunk, he had negligently exposed his person, and the young\nman had thought the sight an amusing one. Ham had no reverence for the\nsymbol of the Creator, but Shem and Japhet had, and covered it with a\nveil as respectfully as if it had been the ineffable framer of the world\n(Gen. ix. 21-27). As our feelings of propriety induce us to think that\nthe father was a far greater sinner than the son, we rejoice to know\nthat the causeless curse never fell, and that Ham, in the lands of\nCanaan, Assyria, and Babylonia, and subsequently in Carthaginian Spain,\nwere the masters of those Hebrews, whose main force, in old times,\nlay in impotent scoldings, such, as Shakespeare puts into the mouth of\nCaliban.\n\nOne of the best proofs of the strong sexual element which existed in the\nreligion of the Jews is the fact that Elohim, one of the names of the\nCreator amongst the Hebrews, is represented, Gen. xvii. 10-14, as making\ncircumcision a sign of his covenant with the seed of Abraham; and in\norder to ascertain whether a man was to be regarded as being in the\ncovenant, God is supposed to have looked at the state of the virile\norgan, or--as the Scripture has it--of the hill of the foreskin. We\nfind, indeed, that Jehovah was quite as particular, and examined a male\nquite as closely as Elohim: for when Moses and Zipporah were on their\nway from Midian to Egypt, Exod. iv. 24, Jehovah having looked at the\n\"trinity\" of Moses' son, and having found it as perfect as when the lad\nwas born, sought to slay him, and would have done so unless the mother\nhad mutilated the organ according to the sacred pattern. Again, we find\nin Josh. v. 2, and in the following verses, that Jehovah insisted\nupon all the Hebrew males having their virile member in the covenant\ncondition ere they went to attack the Canaanites. We cannot suppose that\nany scribe could dwell so much as almost every scriptural writer does\nupon the subject of circumcision, had not the masculine emblem been held\nin religious veneration amongst the Jewish nation.\n\nBut the David who leaped and danced, obscenely as we should say, before\nthe ark--an emblem of the female creator--who purchased his wife from\nher royal father by mutilating a hundred Philistines, and presenting the\nforeskins which he had cut off therefrom \"in full tale\" to the king (1\nSam. xviii. 27, 2 Sam. iii. 14), who was once the captain of a monarch\nwho thought it a shame beyond endurance to be abused, tortured, or slain\nby men whose persons were in a natural condition (1 Sam. xxxi. 4),\nand who imagined that he, although a stripling, could conquer a giant,\nbecause the one had a sanctified and the other a natural member--is the\nman whom we know as the author of Psalms with which Christians still\nrefresh their minds and comfort their souls. The king who, even in\nhis old age, was supposed to think so much of women that his courtiers\nsought a lovely damsel as a comfort for his dying bed, is believed to\nhave been the author of the noble nineteenth Psalm, and a number of\nothers full of holy aspirations. It is clear, then, that sexual ideas\non religion are not incompatible with a desire to be holy. The two were\nco-existent in Palestine; they are equally so in Bengal.\n\nWe next find that Abraham, the cherished man of God, the honoured\npatriarch of the Jews, makes his servant lay his hand upon the master's\nmember, whilst he takes an oath to do his bidding, precisely like a more\nmodern Palestinian might do; and Jacob does the same with Joseph. See\nGen. xxiv. 8, and xlvii. 29.\n\nAs it is not generally known that the expression, \"under my thigh,\" is\na euphemism for the words, \"upon the symbol of the Creator,\" I may point\nto two or three other passages in which the thigh (translated in the\nauthorised version loins) is used periphrastically: Genesis xxxv. 2,\nxlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5. See Ginsburg, in Kitto's Biblical Cyclopadia, vol.\n8, p. 848, 8. v. Oath.\n\nI have on two occasions read, although I failed to make a note of it,\nthat an Arab, during the Franco-Egyptian war, when accused by General\nKleber of treachery, not only vehemently denied it, but when he saw\nhimself still distrusted, he uncovered himself before the whole military\nstaff, and swore upon his trinity that he was guiltless. In the Lebanon,\nonce in each year, every female considers it her duty to salute with her\nlips the reverenced organ of the Old Sheik.\n\nAgain we learn, from Deut. xxiii. 1, that any unsanctified mutilation\nof this part positively entailed expulsion from the congregation of the\nLord. Even a priest of the house of Aaron could not minister, as such,\nif his masculinity had been in any way impaired (Lev. xxi. 20); and\nreport says that, in our Christian times, Popes have to be privately\nperfect; see also Deut. xxv. 11, 12. Moreover, the inquirer finds that\nthe Jewish Scriptures teem with promises of abundant offspring to those\nwho were the favourites of Jehovah; and Solomon, the most glorious\nof their monarchs, is described as if he were a Hercules amongst the\ndaughters of Thespius. Nothing can indicate the licentiousness of the\ninhabitants of Jerusalem more clearly than the writings of Ezekiel.* If,\nthen, in Hebrew law and practice, we find such a strong infusion of the\nsexual element, we cannot be surprised if it should be found elsewhere,\nand gradually influence Christianity.\n\n\n     * See Ezekiel xxii. 1-30, and compare Jerem. v. 7, 8.\n\nWe must next notice the fact, that what we call impurity in religious\ntenets does not necessarily involve indecency in practice. The ancient\nRomans, in the time of the early kings, seem to have been as proper as\nearly Christian maidens. It is true that, in the declining days of the\nempire, exhibitions that called forth the fierce denunciations of the\nfathers of the Church took place; but we find very similar occurrences\nin modern Christian capitals. In Spartan days, chastity and honesty\nwere not virtues, but drunkenness was a vice. In Christian England,\ndrunkenness is general, and we cannot pride ourselves upon universal\nhonesty and chastity. It is not the national belief, but the national\npractice, which evidences a people's worth. Spain and Ireland, called\nrespectively \"Catholic\" and \"the land of saints,\" cannot boast of\nequality with \"infidel\" France and \"free-thinking\" Prussia. England will\nbe as earnest, as upright, and as civilised, when she has abandoned the\nheathen elements in her religion, as when she hugs them as if necessary\nto her spiritual welfare. Attachment to the good parts of religion is\nwholly distinct from a close embrace of the bad ones; and we believe\nhe deserves best of his country who endeavours to remove every possible\nsource of discord. None can doubt the value of the order, \"Do to others\nas you would wish others to do to you.\" If all unite to carry this out,\nsmall differences of opinion may at once be sunk. How worthless are\nmany of the dogmas that people now fight about, the following pages will\nshow.\n\nIn our larger work we have endeavoured to show that there may be a deep\nsense of religion, a feeling of personal responsibility, so keen as to\ninfluence every act of life, without there being a single symbol used.\nThe earnest Sakya Muni, or Buddha, never used anything as a sacred\nemblem; nor did Jesus, who followed him, and perhaps unconsciously\npropagated the Indian's doctrine. When the Apostles were sent out to\nteach and preach, they were not told to carry out any form of ark or\ncrucifix. To them the doctrine of the Trinity was unknown, and not one\nof them had any particular reverence for her whom we call the Virgin\nMary, who, if she was 'virgo intacta' when Jesus was born, was certainly\ndifferent when she bore his brothers. Paul and Peter, though said to be\nthe fathers of the Roman Church, never used or recommended the faithful\nto procure for themselves \"a cross\" as an aid to memory. The early\nChristians recognised each other by their deeds, and never had, like\nthe Jews, to prove that they were in covenant with God, by putting a\nmutilated part of their body into full view. We, with the Society of\nFriends, prefer primitive to modern Christianity.\n\nIn the following pages the author has felt himself obliged to make use\nof words which are probably only known to those who are more or less\n\"scholars.\" He has to treat of parts of the human body, and acts which\noccur habitually in the world, which in modern times are never referred\nto in polite society, but which, in the period when the Old Testament\nwas written, were spoken of as freely as we now talk of our hands and\nfeet. In those days, everything which was common was spoken of without\nshame, and that which occurred throughout creation, and was seen\nby every one, was as much the subject of conversation as eating and\ndrinking is now. The Hebrew-writers were extremely coarse in their\ndiction, and although this has been softened down by subsequent\nredactors, much which is in our modern judgment improper still remains.\nFor example, where we simply indicate the sex, the Jewish historians\nused the word which was given to the symbol by which male and female\nare known; for example, in Gen. i. 27, and v. 2, and in a host of other\nplaces, the masculine and feminine are spoken of as zachar and nekebah,\nwhich is best translated as \"borers\" and \"bored.\" Another equally vulgar\nway of describing men is to be found in 1 Kings xiv. 10. But these\nobservations would not serve us much in symbolism did we not know that\nthey were associated with certain euphemisms by which when one thing is\nsaid another is intended; for an illustration let us take Isaiah vii.\n20, and ask what is meant by the phrase, \"the hair of the feet\"? It is\ncertain that the feet are never hairy, and consequently can never be\nshaved. Again, when we find in Gen. xlix. 10, \"the sceptre shall not\ndepart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet,\" and compare\nthis with Deut. xxviii. 57, and 2 Kings xviii. 27, where the words are,\nin the original, \"the water of their feet,\" it is clear that symbolic\nlanguage is used to express something which, if put into the vernacular,\nwould be objectionable to ears polite. Again, in Genesis xxiv. 2 and\nxlvii. 29, and in Heb. xi. 21, it is well known to scholars that the\nword \"thigh\" and \"staff\" are euphemisms to express that part which\nrepresents the male. In Deut. xxiii. 1, we have evidence, as in the last\nthree verses quoted, of the sanctity of the part referred to, but the\nlanguage is less refined. Now-a-days our ears are not attuned to the\nrough music which pleased our ancestors, and we have to use veiled\nlanguage to express certain matters. In the following pages, the words\nwhich I select are drawn from the Latin, Greek, Sanscrit, Shemitic, or\nEgyptian. Hea, Ann, and Asher replace the parts referred to in Deut.\nxxiii. 1; Osiris, Asher, Linga, Mahadeva, Siva, Priapus, Phallus,\netc., represent the Hebrew zachar ; whilst Isis, Parvati, Yoni, Sacti,\nAstarte, Ishtar, etc., replace the Jewish nekebah. The junction of these\nparts is spoken of as Ashtoreth, Baalim, Elohim, the trinity and unity,\nthe androgyne deity, the arba, or mystic four, and the like.\n\nI will only add, that what I refer to has long been known to almost\nevery scholar except English ones. Of these a few are learned; but for\na long period they have systematically refrained from speaking plainly,\nand have written in such a manner as to be guilty not only of suppressio\nveri but of suggestio falsi.\n\nAfter reading thus far, I can imagine many a person saying with\nastonishment, \"Are these things so?\" and following up his thoughts by\nwondering what style of persons they were, or are, who could introduce\ninto religion such matters as those of which we have treated.\n\nIn reply, I can only say that I have nothing extenuated, and set\ndown nought in malice. But the first clause of the assertion requires\nmodification, for in this volume there are many things omitted which I\nhave referred to at length in my larger work. In that I have shown, not\nonly that religious fornication existed in ancient Babylon, but that\nthere is reason to believe that it existed also in Palestine. The word\n[--Hebrew--] Kadesh, which signifies \"pure, bright, young, to be holy,\nor to be consecrated,\" is also the root from which are formed the words\nKadeshah and Kadeshim, which are used in the Hebrew writings, and are\ntranslated in our authorised version \"whore\" and \"sodomite.\" See Bent,\nxxiii. 17.\n\nAthanasius tells us something of this as regards the Phoenicians, for\nhe says, (Oratio Contr. Gent., part i., p. 24.) \"Formerly, it is\ncertain that Phoenician women prostituted themselves before their idols,\noffering their bodies to their gods in the place of first fruits, being\npersuaded that they pleased the goddess by that means, and made her\npropitious to them.\"\n\nStrabo mentions a similar occurrence at Comana, in Pontus, book xiii.,\nc. iii. p. 86--and notices that an enormous number of women were\nconsecrated to the use of worshippers in the temple of Venus at Corinth.\n\nSuch women exist in India, and the priests of certain temples do\neverything in their power to select the loveliest of the sex, and to\neducate them so highly as to be attractive.\n\nThe customs which existed in other places seem to have been known in\nJerusalem, as we find in 1 Kings xiv. 24., XV. 12, that Kadeshim\nwere common in Judea, and in 2 Kings xxiii. 7, we discover that these\n\"consecrated ones\" were located \"by the temple,\" and were associated\nwith women whose business was \"to make hangings for the grove.\" What\nthese tissues were and what use was made of them will be seen in Ezekiel\nxvi. 16.\n\nEven David, when dancing before the ark, shamelessly exposed himself.\nSolomon erected two pillars in the porch of his temple, and called\nthem Jachin and Boaz, and added pomegranate ornaments. We have seen how\nAbraham and Jacob ordered their inferiors to swear by putting the hand\nupon \"the thigh\"; and we have read of the atrocities which occurred in\nJerusalem in the time of Ezekiel. Yet the Jews are still spoken of as\nGod's chosen people, and the Psalmist as a man after God's own heart.\n\nBut without going so far back, let us inquire into the conduct of the\nsensual Turks, and of the general run of the inhabitants of Hindostan.\nFrom everything that I can learn--and I have repeatedly conversed with\nthose who have known the Turks and Hindoos familiarly--these are in\nevery position in life as morally good as common Christians are.\n\nMy readers must not now assert that I am either a partisan or a special\npleader when I say this; they must consider that I am making the\ncomparison as man by man. I do not, as missionaries do, compare the most\nvicious Mahomedan and Brahmin with the most exemplary Christian; nor do\nI, on the other hand, compare the best Ottoman and Indian with Christian\ncriminals; but I take the whole in a mass, and assert that there is\nas large a percentage of good folks in India and Turkey as there is in\nSpain and France, England or America.\n\nThe grossest form of worship is compatible with general purity of\nmorals. The story of Lucretia is told of a Pagan woman, whilst those\nof Er and Onan, Tamar and Judah relate to Hebrews. David, who seduced\nBathsheba, and killed her husband, was not execrated by \"God's people,\"\nnor was he consequently driven from his throne as Tarquin was by the\nRomans.\n\nIn prowess and learning, the Babylonians, with their religious\nprostitution, were superior to the \"chosen people.\" Of the wealth and\nenterprise of the Phoenicians, Ancient History tells us abundance.\n\nThere are probably no three cities in ancient or modern times which\ncontain so many vicious individuals as London, Paris, and New York. Yet\nthere are none which history tells us of that were more powerful. No\nBabylonian army equalled in might or numbers the army of the Northern\nUnited States. Nineveh never wielded armies equal to those of the French\nNapoleon and the German William, and Rome never had an empire equal to\nthat which is headed by London.\n\nThe existence of personal vice does not ruin a nation in its collective\ncapacity. Nor does the most sensual form of religion stunt the\nprosperity of a people, so long as the latter do not bow their necks to\na priesthood.\n\nThe greatest curse to a nation is not a bad religion, but a form of\nfaith which prevents manly inquiry. I know of no nation of old that was\npriest-ridden which did not fall under the swords of those who did not\ncare for hierarchs.\n\nThe greatest danger is to be feared from those ecclesiastics who wink at\nvice, and encourage it as a means whereby they can gain power over their\nvotaries. So long as every man does to other men as he would that they\nshould do to him, and allows no one to interfere between him and his\nMaker, all will go well with the world.\n\nWhilst the following sheets were going through the press, my friend Mr.\nNewton, who has not only assisted me in a variety of ways, but who has\ntaken a great deal of interest in the subject of symbolism, gave me\nto understand that there were some matters in which he differed\nvery strongly from me in opinion. One of these was as to the correct\ninterpretation of the so-called Assyrian grove; another was the\nsignification of one of Lajard's gems, Plate iv., Fig. 3; and the most\nconspicuous of our divergencies was respecting the fundamental, or basic\nidea, which prompted the use in religion of those organs of reproduction\nwhich have, from time immemorial, been venerated in Hindostan, and, as\nfar as we can learn, in Ancient Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, Tyre, Sidon,\nCarthage, Jerusalem, Etruria, Greece, and Rome, as well as in countries\ncalled uncivilised. I feel quite disposed to acquiesce in the opinions\nwhich my old friend has formed respecting the Assyrian grove, but I am\nnot equally ready to assent to his other opinions.\n\nWhere two individuals are working earnestly for the elucidation of\ntruth, there ought, in my opinion, to be not only a tolerance of\ndisagreement, but an honest effort to submit the subject to a jury of\nthoughtful readers.\n\nAs I should not feel satisfied to allow any other person to express my\nopinions in his words, it seemed to me only fair to Mr. Newton to give\nhim the facility of enunciating his views in his own language. It was\nintended, originally, that my friend's observations upon the\n\"grove\" should be followed by a dissertation upon other relics of\nantiquity--notably upon that known as Stonehenge--but circumstances have\nprevented this design being carried into execution.\n\nWhen two individuals who have much in common go over the same ground,\nit is natural, indeed almost necessary, that they should dwell upon\nidentical topics. Hence it will be found that there are points which are\nreferred to by us both, although possibly in differing relationship.\n\nAs my own part of the following remarks were printed long before I saw\nMr. Newton's manuscript, I hope to be pardoned for allowing them to\nstand. The bulk of the volume will not be increased to the extent of a\nfull page.\n\nIf I were to be asked the reason why I differ from Mr. Newton in his\nexalted idea about the adoption of certain bodily organs as types,\ntokens, or emblems of an unseen and an inscrutable Creator, my answer\nwould be drawn from the observations made upon every known order of\npriesthood, from the most remote antiquity to the present time. No\nmatter what the creed, whether Ancient or Modern, the main object of its\nexponents and supporters is to gain over the minds of the populace.\nThis has never yet been done, and probably never will be attempted, by\neducating the mind of the multitude to think.\n\nIn Great Britain we find three sets of hierarchs opposed to each other,\nand all equally, by every means in their power, prohibit independent\ninquiry.\n\nA young Romanist convert, as we have recently seen, is discouraged\nfrom persevering in the study of history and logic; a Presbyterian is\npersecuted, as far as the law of the land permits, if he should engage\nin an honest study of the Bible, of the God which it presents for our\nworship, and of the laws that it enforces. A bishop of the Church of\nEngland is visited by the puny and spiteful efforts of some of his\nnominal equals if he ventures to treat Jewish writings as other critics\nstudy the tomes of Livy or of Herodotus.\n\nOne set of men have banded together to elect a god on earth, and\nendeavour to coerce their fellow-mortals to believe that a selection\nby a few old cardinals can make the one whom they choose to honour\n\"infallible.\"\n\nAnother set of men, who profess to eschew the idea of infallibility in a\nPope, assume that they possess the quality themselves, and endeavour to\nblot out from the communion of the faithful those who differ from them\n\"on points which God hath left at large.\"\n\nSurely, when with all our modern learning, thought, and scientific\nenquiry, hierarchs still set their faces against an advance in\nknowledge, and quell, if possible, every endeavour to search after\ntruth, we are not far wrong when we assert, that the first priests of\nbarbarism had no exalted views of such an abstract subject as life, in\nthe higher and highest senses, if indeed in any sense of the word.\n\nAnother small point of difference between my friend and me is,\nwhether there has been at any time a figured representation of a\nkakodoemon--except since the beginning of Christianity--and if, by way\nof stretching a point, we call Typhon--Satan or the Devil--by this\nname, as being opposed to the Agathodoemon, whether we are justified\nin providing this evil genius with wings. As far as I can judge from\nChaldean and Assyrian sculptures, wings were given to the lesser deities\nas our artists assign them to modern angels. The Babylonian Apollyon,\nby whatever name he went, was winged--but so were all the good gods. The\nEgyptians seem to have assigned wings only to the favourable divinities.\nThe Jews had in their mythology a set of fiery flying serpents, but we\nmust notice that their cherubim and seraphim were all winged, some with\nno less than three pairs--much as Hindoo gods have four heads and six,\nor any other number of arms.\n\nMr. Newton assumes that the dragon mentioned in Rev. xii. was a winged\ncreature, but it is clear from the context, especially from verses 14\nand 15, that he had no pinions, for he was unable to follow the woman to\nwhom two aerial oars had been given.\n\nThe dragon, as we know it, is, I believe, a mediaeval creation; such a\ncreature is only spoken of in the Bible in the book of Revelation, and\nthe author of that strange production drew his inspiration on this point\nfrom the Iliad, where a dragon is described as of huge size, coiled like\na snake, of blood-red colour, shot with changeful hues, and having three\nheads. Homer, Liddell, and Scott add--used [--Greek--] indifferently for\na serpent. So does the author of Rev. in ch. xx. 2. I have been unable\nto discover any gnostic gem with anything like a modern dragon on it.\n\nHolding these views, I cannot entertain the proposition that the winged\ncreatures in the very remarkable gem already referred to are evil genii.\n\nIn a question of this kind the mind is perhaps unconsciously biassed by\ncomparing one antiquarian idea with another. A searcher amongst Etruscan\nvases will see not only that the angel of death is winged, but that\nCupid, Eros, or by whatever other name \"desire\" or love goes, frequently\nhovers over the bridal or otherwise voluptuous couch, and attends beauty\nat her toilet. The Greeks also gave to Eros a pair of wings, intended,\nit is fancied, to represent the flutterings of the heart, produced when\nlovers meet or even think of each other. Such a subordinate deity would\nbe in place amongst so many sexual emblems as Plate iv. Fig. 3 contains,\nwhilst a koakdoemon would be a \"spoil sport,\" and would make the erected\nserpents drop rather than remain in their glory.\n\nThese matters are apparently of small importance, but when one is\nstudying the signification of symbolical language, he has to pay as\nclose an attention, and extend the net of observation over as wide a sea\nas a scholar does when endeavouring to decipher some language written\nin long-forgotten characters, and some divergence of opinion between\nindependent observers sharpens the intellect more than it tries the\ntemper.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPAGAN AND CHRISTIAN SYMBOLISM.\n\nPLATE II.\n\nThis is taken from a photograph of a small bronze image in the Mayer\ncollection of the Free Museum, in Liverpool. The figure stands about\nnine inches high, and represents Isis, Horus, and the fish. It is an\napt illustration of an ancient custom, still prevalent amongst certain\nChristians, of reverencing a woman, said to be a virgin, giving suck\nto her child, and of the association of Isis, Venus, and Mary with the\nfish. Friday, for example, is, with the Romanists, both \"fish day,\" and\n\"dies Veneris.\" Fish are known to be extraordinarily prolific. There was\na belief that animals, noted for any peculiarity, imparted their virtues\nto those who ate them; consequently, tigers' flesh was supposed to give\ncourage, and snails to give sexual power. The use of fish in connubial\nfeasts is still common. Those who consider it pious or proper to eat\nfish on Venus' day, or Friday, proclaim themselves, unconsciously,\nadherents to those heathen ideas which deified parts about which no\none now likes to talk. The fish has in one respect affinity with the\nmandrake.\n\nSince the first publication of this work, a friend has suggested to me\nanother reason, besides its fertility, for the fish being emblematic of\nwoman. From his extensive experience as a surgeon, and especially among\nthe lower order of courtesans, he has repeatedly noticed during the hot\nmonths of the year that the parts which he had to examine have a very\nstrong odour of fish. My own observations in the same department lead me\nto endorse his assertion. Consequently, I think that in warm climates,\nwhere the utmost cleanliness can scarcely keep a female free from odour,\nscent, as well as other attributes, has had to do with the selection of\nthe fish as an emblem of woman.\n\nStill further, I have been informed by another friend that in Yorkshire,\nand I understand in other counties of England, the double entente\nconnected with the fish is so marked that it is somewhat difficult to\nrender it into decent phraseology. It will suffice to say that in the\ncounty mentioned, Lais or Phryne would be spoken of as \"a choice bit\nof fish,\" and that a man who bore on his features the stamp which is\nimprinted by excessive indulgence, would be said to have indulged too\nmuch in \"a fish diet.\" I do not suppose that in the Yorkshire Ridings\nthe folks are unusually well acquainted with mythology, yet it is\ncurious to find amongst their inhabitants a connection between Venus\nand the Fish, precisely similar to that which has obtained in the most\nremote ages and in far distant climes.\n\nIt is clear from all these facts that the fish is a symbol not only of\nwoman, but of the yoni.\n\nPLATE II.\n\nIs supposed to represent Oannes, Dagon, or some other fish god. It is\ncopied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, pl. xxii., 1, la, and is thus\ndescribed, \"Statuette inedite, de gres houiller ou micace, d'un brun\nverdatre. Elle porte par devant, sur une bande perpendiculaire, un\nlegende en caracteres Syriaques tres anciens (Cabinet de M. Lambert, a\nLyon).\" I can find no clue to the signification of the inscription. It\nwould seem paradoxical to say that there is something in common between\nthe bull-headed deity and Oannes. It is so, nevertheless. One indicates,\npar excellence, physical, and the other sexual, power. That Oannes may,\nfor the Assyrians, represent a man who played a part with them similar\nto that of Penn among the Indians of Pennsylvania, I do not deny; but,\nwhen we find a similar fish-god in Philistia and Hindostan, and know\nthat Crishna once appeared as a fish, the explanation does not suffice.\nIt is curious that Jesus of Nazareth should be called \"a fish\"; but\nthis only proves that the religion of Christ has been adulterated by\nPaganism.\n\nFigs. 1 and 4 are illustrations of the antelope as a religious emblem\namongst the Assyrians. The first is from Layard's Nineveh, and in it we\nsee carried in one hand a triply branched lotus; the second, showing the\nregard for the spotted antelope, and for \"the branch,\" is from Bonomi's\nNineveh and its Palaces.\n\nFig. 2 illustrates Bacchus, with a mystic branch in one hand, and a cup\nin the other; his robe is covered with spots arranged in threes. The\nbranch is emblematic of the arbor vitae, or tree of life, and its powers\nof sprouting. Such a symbol is, by outsiders, figured on the houses of\nnewly married couples amongst the Jews of Morocco, and seems to indicate\nthe desire of friends that the man will show that he is vigorous, and\nable to have many sprouts from the tree of life. It will be noticed\nthat on the fillet round the god's head are arranged many crosses. From\nHislop's Two Babylons, and Smith's Dictionary, p. 208.\n\nFigs. 8 and 5 are intended to show the prevalence of the use of spots\non priestly dresses; they are copied from Hislop's Two Babylons,\nand Wilkinson, vol. vi., pi. 88, and vol. iv., pp. 841, 858. For an\nexplanation of the signification of spots, see Plate iv., Fig. 6, infra.\n\nFig. 1 represents an Assyrian priest worshipping by presentation of the\nthumb, which had a peculiar signification. Sometimes the forefinger is\npointed instead, and in both cases the male is symbolised. It is taken\nfrom a plate illustrating a paper by E. C. Ravenshaw, Esq., in Journal\nof Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xvi., p. 114. Amongst the Hebrews,\nand probably all the Shemitic tribes, bohen, the thumb, and ezba, the\nfinger, were euphemisms. They are so in some parts of Europe to the\npresent day.* The hand thus presented to the grove resembles a part\nof the Buddhist cross, and the shank of a key, whose signification is\ndescribed in a subsequent page.\n\nPLATE III.\n\n\nPLATE IV.\n\n\nFig. 2 is a Buddhist emblem; the two fishes forming the circle represent\nthe mystic yoni, the sacti of Mahadeva, while the triad above them\nrepresents the mystic trinity, the triune father, Siva, Bel, or Asher,\nunited with Anu and Hea. From Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol.\nxviii., p. 892, plate ii.\n\nFig. 3 is a very remarkable production. It originally belonged to\nMons. Lajard, and is described by him in his second Memoire, entitled\nRecherches sur le Culte, les Symboles, les Attributs, et les Monumens\nFigures de Venus (Paris, 1837), in pages 32, et seq., and figured in\nplate I., fig. 1. The real age of the gem and its origin are not known,\nbut the subject leads that author to believe it to be of late Babylonian\nworkmanship. The stone is a white agate, shaped like a cone, and the\ncutting is on its lower face. The shape of this gem indicates its\ndedication to Venus. The central figures represent the androgyne\ndeity, Baalim, Astaroth, Elohim, Jupiter genetrix, or the bearded Venus\nMylitta. On the left side of the cutting we notice an erect serpent,\nwhose rayed head makes us recognise the solar emblem, and its mundane\nrepresentative, mentula arrecta; on a spot opposite to the centre of the\nmale's body we find a lozenge, symbolic of the yoni, whilst opposite\nto his feet is the amphora, whose mystic signification may readily be\nrecognised; it is meant for Ouranos, or the Sun fructifying Terra, or\nthe earth, by pouring from himself into her.\n\n\n     * A friend has informed me, for example, that he happened,\n     whilst at Pesth, to look at a gorgeously dressed and\n     handsome young woman. To his astonishment she pointed her\n     thumb precisely in the manner adopted by the Assyrian\n     priests; this surprised the young man still farther, and\n     being, as it were, fascinated, he continued to gaze. The\n     damsel then grasped the thumb by the other hand; thus\n     indicating her profession. My friend, who was wholly\n     inexperienced in the ways of the world, only understood what\n     was meant when he saw my explanation of Fig. 1.\n\nThe three stars over the head of the figure, and the inverted triangle\non its head, are representations of the mythological four, equivalent to\nthe Egyptian symbol of life (figs. 31, 82). Opposite to the female are\nthe moon, and another serpent, which may be recognised by physiologists\nas symbolic of tensio clitoridis. In a part corresponding to the\ndiamond, on the left side, is a six-rayed wheel, emblematic, apparently,\nof the sun. At the female's feet is placed a cup, which is intended to\nrepresent the passive element in creation. As such it is analogous to\nthe crescent moon, and is associated in the Roman church with the round\nwafer, the symbol of the sun; the wafer and cup thus being synonymous\nwith the sun and moon in conjunction. It will be observed that each\nserpent in the plate is apparently attacked by what we suppose is\na dragon. There is some difficulty in understanding the exact idea\nintended to be conveyed by these; my own opinion is that they symbolise\nSatan, the old serpent that tempted Eve, viz., fierce lust, Eros,\nCupid, or desire, which, both in the male and female, brings about the\narrectation which the serpents figure. It is not to be passed by without\nnotice, that the snake which represents the male has the tail so curved\nas to suggest the idea of the second and third elements of the trinity.\nMonsieur Lajard takes the dragons to indicate the bad principle in\nnature, i. e., darkness, night, Ahriman, etc. On the pyramidal portion\nof the gem the four sides are ornamented by figures--three represent\nanimals remarkable for their salacity, and the fourth represents Bel and\nIshtar in conjunction, in a fashion which can be more easily imagined\nthan described in the mother tongue. The learned will find the position\nassumed in Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, book iv., lines 1256, seq.\n\nFig. 4 is also copied from Lajard, plate i., fig. 10. It is the reverse\nof a bronze coin of Vespasian, struck in the island of Cyprus, and\nrepresents the conical stone, under whose form Venus was worshipped at\nPaphos, of which Tacitus remarks, Hist, ii., c. 8, \"the statue bears\nno resemblance to the human form, but is round, broad at one end and\ngradually tapering at the other, like a goal. The reason of this is\nnot ascertained.\" It is remarkable that a male emblem should be said to\nrepresent Venus, but the stone was an aerolite, like that which fell\nat Ephesus, and was said to represent Diana. It is clear that when a\nmeteoric stone falls, the chief priests of the district can say that it\nis to be taken as a representative of their divinity.\n\nMy very ingenious friend, Mr. Newton, suggests that the Venus in\nquestion was androgyne; that the cone is a male emblem, within a door,\ngateway, or delta, thus resembling the Assyrian grove. It is certain\nthat the serpents, the two stars, and the two candelabra, or altars with\nflame, favour his idea.\n\nFig. 5 represents the position of the hands assumed by Jewish priests\nwhen they give the benediction to their flock. It will be recognised\nthat each hand separately indicates the trinity, whilst the junction\nof the two indicates the unit. The whole is symbolic of the mystic\nArba--the four, i, e., the trinity and unity. One of my informants\ntold me that, being a \"cohen\" or priest, he had often administered the\nblessing, and, whilst showing to me this method of benediction, placed\nhis joined hands so that his nose entered the central aperture. On his\ndoing so, I remarked \"bene nasatus,\" and the expression did more to\nconvince him of the probability of my views than anything else.\n\nFig. 6, modified in one form or another, is the position assumed by the\nhand and fingers, when Homan and Anglican bishops or other hierarchs\ngive benediction to their people. A similar disposition is to be met\nwith in Indian mythology, when the Creator doubles himself into male and\nfemale, so as to be in a position to originate new beings. Whilst the\nright hand in Plate VII. symbolises the male, the left hand represents\nthe mystic feminine circle. In another plate, which is to be found in\nMoor's Hindu Pantheon, there is a similar figure, but draped fully, and\nin that the dress worn by the celestial spouse is covered with groups\nof spots arranged in triads and groups of four. With regard to the\nsignification of spots, we may notice that they indicated, either by\ntheir shape or by their name, the emblem of womankind. A story of Indra,\nthe Hindoo god of the sky, confirms this. He is usually represented as\nbearing a robe covered with eyes; but the legend runs that, like David,\nhe became enamoured of the wife of another man, who was very beautiful\nand seen by chance, but her spouse was one whose austere piety made him\nalmost equal to Brahma. The evil design of Indra was both frustrated and\npunished. The woman escaped, but the god became covered with marks that\nrecalled his offence to mind, for they were pictures of the yoni. These,\nby the strong intercession of Brahma with the Rishi, were changed by the\nlatter into eyes. This story enables us to recognise clearly the hidden\nsymbolism of the Hindoo and Egyptian eye, the oval representing the\nfemale, and the circle the male lodged therein--i.e., the androgyne\ncreator.\n\nPLATE V.\n\n\nIs a copy of a mediaeval Virgin and Child, as painted in Della Robbia\nware in the South Kensington Museum, a copy of which, was given to me\nby my friend, Mr. Newton, to whose kindness I am indebted for many\nillustrations of ancient Christian art. It represents the Virgin and\nChild precisely as she used to be represented in Egypt, in India, in\nAssyria, Babylonia, Phoenicia, and Etruria; the accident of dress being\nof no mythological consequence. In the framework around the group, we\nrecognise the triformed leaf, emblematic of Asher; the grapes, typical\nof Dionysus; the wheat ears, symbolic of Ceres, l'abricot fendu, the\nmark of womankind, and the pomegranate rimmon, which characterises the\nteeming mother. The living group, moreover, are placed in an archway,\ndelta, or door, which is symbolic of the female, like the vesica piscis,\nthe oval or the circle. This door is, moreover, surmounted by what\nappear to be snails, whose supposed virtue we have spoken of under Plate\ni. This identification of Mary with the Sacti is strong; by-and-by we\nshall see that it is as complete as it is possible to be made.\n\nPLATE VI.\n\n\nIs a copy of figures given in Bryant's Ancient Mythology, plates xiii.,\nxxviii., third edition, 1807. The first two illustrate the story of\nPalemon and Getus, introducing the dolphin. That fish is symbolic of the\nfemale, in consequence of the assonance in Greek between its name and\nthat of the womb, delphis and delphus. The tree symbolises the arbor\nvitae, the life-giving sprout; and the ark is a symbol of the womb. The\nthird figure, where a man rests upon a rock and dolphin, and toys with\na mother and child, is equally suggestive. The male is repeatedly\ncharacterised as a rock, hermes, menhir, tolmen, or upright stone, the\nfemale by the dolphin, or fish. The result of the junction of these\nelements appears in the child, whom both parents welcome. The fourth\nfigure represents two emblems of the male creator, a man and trident,\nand two of the female, a dolphin and ship. The two last figures\nrepresent a coin of Apamea, representing Noah and the ark, called\nCibotus. Bryant labours to prove that the group commemorates the story\ntold in the Bible respecting the flood, but there is strong doubt\nwhether the story was not of Babylonian origin. The city referred to\nwas in Phrygia, and the coin appears to have been struck by Philip of\nMacedon. The inscription round the head is [--Greek inscription--]See\nAncient Faiths, second edition, Vol. ii.., pp. 128, and 885-892.\n\nThe Supreme Spirit in the act of creation became two-fold; the RIGHT\nSIDE WAS MALE, THE LEFT WAS PRAKRITI, SHE IS OF ONE FORM WITH BRAMAH.\n\nShe is Maya, eternal and imperishable, such as the Spirit, such is the\ninherent energy. (The Sacti) as the Faculty burning is inherent in pure.\n\n(Bramah Vaivartta Puranu, Professor Wilson.)\n\n\n\nARDANARI-ISWARA.\n\nFrom an original drawing by Chrisna Swami, Punoit.\n\nPLATE VII.\n\nIs a copy of an original drawing made by a learned Hindoo pundit for Wm.\nSimpson, Esq., of London, whilst he was in India studying its mythology.\nIt represents Brahma supreme, who in the act of creation made himself\ndouble, i.e. male and female. In the original the central part of the\nfigure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but far too grossly shown\nfor reproduction here. They are replaced by the crux ansata. The reader\nwill notice the triad and the serpent in the male hand, whilst in the\nfemale is to be seen a germinating seed, indicative of the relative\nduties of father and mother. The whole stands upon a lotus, the symbol\nof androgyneity. The technical word for this incarnation is \"Arddha\nNari.\"\n\nPLATE VIII.\n\n\nIs Devi, the same as Parvati, or Bhavani. It is copied from Moor's\nPantheon, plate xxx. The goddess represents the feminine element in\nthe universe. Her forehead is marked by one of the symbols of the four\ncreators, the triad, and the unit. Her dress is covered with symbolic\nspots, and one foot peculiarly placed is marked by a circle having a\ndot in the interior. The two bear the same signification as the Egyptian\neye. I am not able to define the symbolic import of the articles held\nin the lower hands. Moor considers that they represent scrolls of paper,\nbut this I doubt. The raised hands bear the unopened lotus flower, and\nthe goddess sits upon another.\n\nPLATE IX.\n\n\nConsists of six figures, copied from Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol.\nvi., p. 278, and two from Bryant's Mythology, vol. ii., third edition,\npp. 203 and 409. All are symbolic of the idea of the male triad: a\ncentral figure, erect, and rising above the other two. In one an altar\nand fire indicate, mystically, the linga; in another, the same is\npourtrayed as a man, as Madaheva always is; in another, there is a tree\nstump and serpent, to indicate the same idea. The two appendages of the\nlinga are variously described; in two instances as serpents, in other\ntwo as tree and concha, and snake and shell. The two last seem to embody\nthe idea that the right \"egg\" of the male germinates boys, whilst the\nleft produces girls; a theory common amongst ancient physiologists. The\nfigure of the tree encircled by the serpent, and supported by two stones\nresembling \"tolmen,\" is very significant. The whole of these figures\nseem to point unmistakably to the origin of the very common belief that\nthe male Creator is triune. In Assyrian theology the central figure is\nBel, Baal, or Asher; the one on the right Ann, that on the left Hea. See\nAncient Faiths, second edition, Vol. i., pp. 88-85. *\n\nThere are some authors who have treated of tree and serpent worship, and\nof its prevalence in ancient times, without having, so far as I can see,\nany idea of that which the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the\ntree of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man by his\nsubtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise understand,\nbut which to the vulgar are simply trees and snakes. In a fine old\nbas-relief over the door of the Cathedral at Berne, we see an ancient\nrepresentation of the last judgment. An angel is dividing the sheep from\nthe goats, and devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing\nhooks or pincers on the portions of the body whence their sins sprang.\nOne fat priest, nude as our risen bodies must be, is being savagely\npulled to hell by the part symbolised by tree and serpent, whilst she\nwhom he has adored and vainly sought to disgrace, is rising to take her\nplace amongst the blest. It is not those of the sex of Eve alone that\nare inveigled to destruction by the serpent.\n\n\n     * For those who have not an opportunity of consulting the\n     work referred to, I may observe that the Assyrian godhead\n     consisted of four persons, three being male and one female.\n     The principal god was Asher, the upright one, the equivalent\n     of the Hindoo Mahadeva, the great holy one, and of the more\n     modern Priapus. He was associated with Anu, lord of solids\n     and of the lower world, equivalent to the \"testis,\" or egg\n     on the right side. Hea was lord of waters, and represented\n     the left \"stone.\" The three formed the trinity or triad. The\n     female was named Ishtar or Astarte, and was equivalent to\n     the female organ, the yoni or vulva--the [Greek] of the\n     Greeks. The male god in Egypt was Osiris, the female Isis,\n     and these names are frequently used as being euphemistic,\n     and preferable to the names which are in vulgar use to\n     describe the male and female parts.\n\nPLATE X.\n\n\nContains pagan symbols of the trinity or linga, with or without the\nunity or yoni.\n\nFig. 1 represents a symbol frequently met with in ancient architecture,\netc. It represents the male and female elements, the pillar and the half\nmoon.\n\nFig. 2 represents the mystic letters said to have been placed on the\nportal of the oracle of Delphi. By some it is proposed to read the two\nletters as signifying \"he or she is;\" by others the letters are taken to\nbe symbolic of the triad and the unit. If they be, the pillar is a\nvery unusual form for the yoni. An ingenious friend of mine regards the\nupright portion as a \"slit,\" but I cannot wholly agree with him, for in\nFig. 1 the pillar cannot be looked upon as an aperture.\n\nFig. 3 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon,\nand is one out of many indicating the union of the male and female.\n\nFig. 4 is emblematic of the virgin and child. It identifies the two with\nthe crescent. It is singular that some designers should unite the moon\nwith the solar symbol, and others with the virgin. We believe that the\nfirst indicate ideas like that associated with Baalim, and Ashtaroth in\nthe plural, the second that of Astarte or Venus in the singular. Or, as\nwe may otherwise express it, the married and the immaculate virgin.\n\nFig. 5 is copied from Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology, p. 15. It represents\none of the Egyptian trinities, and is highly symbolic, not only\nindicating the triad, here Osiris, Isis, and Nepthys, but its union\nwith the female element. The central god Osiris is himself triune, as\nhe bears the horns symbolic of the goddess Athor and the feathers of the\ngod Ra.\n\nFig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor's Hindu Pantheon. The\nlozenge indicates the yoni. For this assertion we not only have evidence\nin Babylonian gems, copied by Lajard, but in Indian and Etruscan\ndesigns. We find, for example, in vol. v., plate xlv., of Antiquites\nEtrusques, etc., par. F. A. David (Paris, 1785), a draped female,\nwearing on her breast a half moon and mural crown, holding her hands\nover the middle spot of the body, so as to form a \"lozenge\" with the\nforefingers and thumbs. The triad in this figure is very distinct; and\nwe may add that a trinity expressed by three balls or three circles is\nto be met with in the remotest times and in most distant countries.\n\nFigs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are copied from Cabrera's account of an ancient\ncity discovered near Palenque, in Guatemala, Spanish America (London,\n1822). Although they appear to have a sexual design, yet I doubt whether\nthe similarity is not accidental. After a close examination of the\nplates given by Cabrera, I am inclined to think that nothing of\nthe ling-yoni element prevailed in the mind of the ancient American\nsculptors. All the males are carefully draped in appropriate girdles,\nalthough in some a grotesque or other ornament, such as a human or\nbestial head, a flower, etc., is attached to the apron or \"fall\" of the\ngirdle, resembling the sporran of the Highlander and the codpiece\nof mediaeval knights and others. I may, however, mention some very\nremarkable sculptures copied; one is a tree, whose trunk is surrounded\nby a serpent, and whose fruit is shaped like the vesica piscis; in\nanother is seen a youth wholly unclothed, save by a cap and gaiters, who\nkneels before a similar tree, being threatened before and behind by some\nfierce animal. This figure is peculiar, differing from all the rest in\nhaving an European rather than an American head and face. Indeed, the\nfeatures, etc., remind me of the late Mr. Cobden, and the cap is such as\nyachting sailors usually wear. There is also another remarkable group,\nconsisting apparently of a man and woman standing before a cross,\nproportioned like the conventional one in use amongst Christians.\nEverything indicates American ideas, and there are ornaments or designs\nwholly unlike any that I have seen elsewhere. The man appears to offer\nto the cross a grotesque human figure, with a head not much unlike\nPunch, with a turned-up nose, and a short pipe shaped like a fig in his\nmouth. The body is well formed, but the arms and thighs are rounded off\nlike \"flippers\" or \"fins.\" Besting at the top of the cross is a bird,\nlike a game cock, ornamented by a necklace. The male in this and the\nother sculptures is beardless, and that women are depicted, can only\nbe guessed at by the inferior size of some of the figures. It would be\nunprofitable to carry the description farther.\n\nFigs. 11, 12 are from vol. i., plates xix. and xxiii. of a remarkably\ninteresting work, Recherches sur l' origine, l' esprit, et les progres\ndes Arts de la Grece, said to be written by D'Harcanville, published at\nLondon, 1785. The first represents a serpent, coiled so as to symbolise\nthe male triad, and the crescent, the emblem of the yoni.\n\nFig. 12 accompanies the bull on certain coins, and symbolises the sexual\nelements, le baton et l'anneau. They were used, as the horse-shoe is\nnow, as a charm against bad luck, or vicious demons or fairies.\n\nFig. 13 is, like figure 5, from Sharpe's Egyptian Mythology, p. 14, and\nis said to represent Isis, Nepthys, and Osiris; it is one of the many\nMizraite triads. The Christian trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as\nsurely a pagan doctrine as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence\nof a devil, of archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs and\nvirgins, intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms of\nfaith which deface the greater part of modern religions.\n\nFigure 14 is a symbol frequently seen in Greek churches, but appears to\nbe of pre-Christian origin.* The cross we have elsewhere described as\nbeing a compound male emblem, whilst the crescent symbolises the female\nelement in creation.\n\nFigure 15 is from D'Harcanville, Op. Cit., vol. i., plate xxiii. It\nresembles Figure 11, supra, and enables us by the introduction of the\nsun and moon to verify the deduction drawn from the arrangement of the\nserpent's coils. If the snake's body, instead of being curved above the\n8 like tail, were straight, it would simply indicate the linga and the\nsun; the bend in its neck, however, indicates the yoni and the moon.\n\nFigure 16 is copied from plate xvi., fig. 2, of Recueil de Pierres\nAntiques Graves, folio, by J. M. Raponi (Rome, 1786). The gem represents\na sacrifice to Priapus, indicated by the rock, pillar, figure, and\nbranches given in our plate. A nude male sacrifices a goat; a draped\nfemale holds a kid ready for immolation; a second man, nude, plays the\ndouble pipe, and a second woman, draped, bears a vessel on her head,\nprobably containing wine for a libation.\n\nFigure 17 is from vol. i. Recherches, etc., plate xxii. In this medal\nthe triad is formed by a man and two coiled serpents on the one side of\nthe medal, whilst on the reverse are seen a tree, surrounded by a snake,\nsituated between two rounded stones, with a dog and a conch shell below.\nSee supra, Plate ix., Fig. 6.\n\nPLATE XI.\n\n\nWith two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,--exhibits Christian emblems of the\ntrinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone or combined; the whole\nbeing copied from Pugin's Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament (London,\n1869).\n\nFig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a double union\nof the trinity with the unity, here represented as a ring, Vanneau.\n\n\n     * There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the\n     Edinburgh Review--which almost exhausts the subject--but is\n     too long for quotation here.\n\nFigs. 2, 8, are from Pagin, plate xiv. In figare 2, the two covered\nballs at the base of each limb of the cross are extremely significant,\nand if the artist had not mystified the free end, the most obtuse\nworshipper must have recognised the symbol. We may add here that in the\ntwo forms of the Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed,\nand the egg-shaped bodies, with their cover, are at the free end of each\nlimb, whilst the natural end of the organ is left unchanged. See figs.\n85 and 86. This form of cross is Etruscan. Fig. 8 is essentially the\nsame as the preceding, and both may be compared with Fig. 4. The balls\nin this cross are uncovered, and the free end of each limb of the cross\nis but slightly modified.\n\nFig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate xxxv., fig. 4, of Two\nEssays on the Worship of Priapus (London, 1865). It is thus described\n(page 147): \"The object was found at St. Agati di Goti, near\nNaples.......It is a crux ansata formed by four phalli, with a circle\nof female organs round the centre; and appears by the look to have been\nintended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no doubt been\nmade for some personage of rank, possibly an ecclesiastic.\" We see here\nvery distinctly the design of the egg- and sistrum- shaped bodies. When\nwe have such an unmistakable bi-sexual cross before our eyes, it is\nimpossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 8, and Plate xii.,\nFigs. 4 and 7.\n\nFigs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and represent the\ntrinity with the unity, the triune god and the virgin united in one.\n\nFig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of a cross, figured\nplate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the Maltese cross is united with\nthe symbol of the virgin, being essentially the same as Fig. 9, infra.\nIt is a modified form of the crux ansata.\n\nFig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each limb of an\nornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.\n\nFig. 9 is a well-known Egyptian symbol, borne in the hand of almost\nevery divinity. It is a cross, with one limb made to represent the\nfemale element in creation. The name that it technically bears is crux\nansata, or \"the cross with a handle.\" A reference to Fig. 4 serves to\nverify the idea which it involves.\n\nFig. 10 is from Pugin, plate xxxv. In this figure the cross is made by\nthe intersection of two ovals, each a vesica piscis, an emblem of the\nyoni. Within each limb a symbol of the trinity is seen, each of which is\nassociated with the central ring.\n\nFig. 11 is from Pugin, plate xix., and represents the arbor vitae, the\nbranch, or tree of life, as a triad, with which the ring is united.\n\nIt has been said by some critics that the figures above referred to\nare mere architectural fancies, which never had pretensions to embody\na mystery; and that any designer would pitch upon such a style of\nornamentation although profoundly ignorant of the doctrine of the\ntrinity and unity. But this assumption is not borne out by fact;\nthe ornaments on Buddhist topes have nothing in common with those of\nChristian churches; whilst in the ruined temple of the sun at Marttand,\nIndia, the trefoil emblem of the trinity is common. Grecian temples\nwere profusely ornamented therewith, and so are innumerable Etruscan\nsculptures, but they do not represent the trinity and unity. It has been\nreserved for Christian art to crowd our churches with the emblems of Bel\nand Astarte, Baalim and Ashtoreth, linga and yoni, and to elevate the\nphallus to the position of the supreme deity, and assign to him a virgin\nas a companion, who can cajole him by her blandishment, weary him\nby wailing, or induce him to change his mind by her intercessions.\nChristianity certainly requires to be purged of its heathenisms.\n\nPLATE XII.\n\n\nContains both pagan and Christian emblems.\n\nFig. 1 is from Pugin, plate xviii., and is a very common finial\nrepresenting the trinity. Its shape is too significant to require an\nexplanation; yet with such emblems our Christian churches abound, that\nthe Trinity may never be absent from the minds of man or woman!\n\nFig. 2 is from Pugin, plate xxi. It is a combination of ideas concealing\nthe union patent in Fig. 4, Plate xi., supra.\n\nFig. 3 is from Moor's Hindu Pantheon. It is an ornament borne by Devi,\nand symbolises the union of the triad with the unit.\n\nFig. 4 is from Pugin, plate xxxii. It is a double cross made up of the\nmale and female emblems. It is a conventionalised form of Fig. 4, Plate\nxi., supra. Such eight-rayed figures, made like stars, seem to have been\nvery ancient, and to have been designed to indicate the junction of male\nand female.\n\nFig. 5 is from Pugin, plate xvii., and represents the trinity and the\nunity.\n\nFig. 6 is a Buddhist emblem from Birmah, Journal of Royal Asiatic\nSociety, vol. xviii., p. 392, plate i., fig. 62. It represents the short\nsword, le bracquemard, a male symbol.\n\nFig. 7. is from Pagin, plate xvii. See Plate xi., Fig. 3, supra.\n\nFigs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are Buddhist (see Fig. 6, supra), and symbolise\nthe triad.\n\nFigs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are from Pugin, and simply represent the\ntrinity.\n\nFigs. 18 and 19 are common Grecian emblems. The first is associated\nwith Neptune and water, the second with Bacchus. With the one we see\ndolphins, emblems of the womb, the name of the two being assonant in\nGreek; with the other, the saying, sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus,\nmust be coupled.\n\nPLATE XIII.\n\n\nConsists of varions emblems of the triad and the unit, drawn almost\nexclusively from Grecian, Etruscan, Roman, and Indian gems, figures,\ncoins, or sculptures, Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate, Raponi's Recueil,\nand Moor's Hindu Pantheon, being the chief authorities.\n\nPLATE XIV.\n\n\nIs a copy of a small Hindoo statuette in the Mayer Collection in the\nFree Museum, Liverpool. It probably represents Parvati, the Hindoo\nvirgin, and her child. The right hand of the figure makes the symbol\nof the yoni with the forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers\ntypifying the triad. In the palm and on the navel is a lozenge,\nemblematic of woman. The child, perhaps Crishna, equivalent to the\nEgyptian Horus and the Christian Jesus, bears in its hand one of\nthe many emblems of the linga, and stands upon a lotus. The monkey\nintroduced into the group plays the same part as the cat, cow, lioness,\nand ape in the Egyptian mythology, being emblematic of that desire which\neventuates in the production of offspring.\n\nFig. 1, the cupola, is well known in modern Europe; it is equally so in\nHindostan, where it is sometimes accompanied by pillars of a peculiar\nshape. In one such compound the design is that of a cupola, supported by\nclosely placed pillars, each of which has a \"capital,\" resembling \"the\nglans\" of physiologists; in the centre there is a door, wherein a nude\nfemale stands, resembling in all respects Figure 61, except in dress and\nthe presence of the child. This was copied by the late Mr. Sellon, from\na Buddhist Dagopa in the Jumnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, a tracing of\nhis sketch having been given to me by William Simpson, Esq., London.\n\nThe same emblem may be found amongst the ancient Italians. Whilst I\nwas staying in Malta during the carnival time in 1872, I saw in all\ndirections men and women selling cakes shaped like the yoni shown in\nFig. 1. These sweetmeats had no special name, but they came in and went\nout with the carnival.\n\nFig. 2 represents Venus standing on a tortoise, whose symbolic import\nwill be seen by referring to Fig. 74, infra. It is copied from Lajard,\nSur le Culte de Venus, plate iiia., fig. 5, and is stated by him to be\na drawing of an Etruscan candelabrum, existing in the Royal Museum at\nBerlin. In his account of Greece, Pausanias mentions that he saw one\nfigure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and another upon a ram, but he\ndeclines to give the reason of the conjunction.\n\nIs a representation of Siva, taken from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate\nxiii. Siva is supposed to be the oldest of the Indian deities, and to\nhave been worshipped by the aborigines of Hindostan, before the Aryans\ninvaded that country. It is thought that the Vedic religion opposed this\ndegrading conception at the first, but was powerless to eradicate it.\nThough he is yet the most popular of all the gods, Siva is venerated,\nI understand, chiefly by the vulgar. Though he personifies the male\nprinciple, there is not anything indecent in pictorial representations\nof him. In one of his hands is seen the trident, one of the emblems\nof the masculine triad; whilst in another is to be seen an oval\nsistram-shaped loop, a symbol of the feminine unit. On his forehead he\nbears an eye, symbolic of the Omniscient, the sun, and the union of the\nsexes.\n\nAs it has been doubted by some readers, whether I am justified in\nregarding the sistrum as a female emblem, I append here a quotation from\nSocrates' Ecclesiastical History, Bohn's translation, p. 281, seq. In\nRome, in the early time of Theodosius, \"when a woman was detected in\nadultery.... they shut her up in a narrow brothel, and obliged her to\nprostitute herself in a most disgusting manner; causing little bells\nto be rang at the time.... As soon as the emperor was apprised of this\nindecent usage, he would by no means tolerate it; but having ordered the\nSistra (for so these places of penal prostitution were denominated) to\nbe pulled down,\" &c. One can as easily see why a female emblem should\nmark a brothel in Rome as a male symbol did at Pompeii.\n\nPLATE XVI.\n\n\n\n\nThis Figure represents Assyrian priests offering in the presence of what\nis supposed to be Baal--or the representative of the sun god and of the\ngrove. The first is typified by the eye, with wings and a tail, which\nmake it symbolic of the male triad and the female unit. The eye, with\nthe central pupil, is in itself emblematic of the same. The grove\nrepresents mystically le verger de Cypris. On the right stands the king;\non the left are two priests, the foremost clothed with a fish's skin,\nthe head forming the mitre, thus showing the origin of modern Christian\nbishops' peculiar head-dress. Arranged about the figures are, the sun;\na bird, perhaps the sacred dove, whose note, coa or coo, has, in the\nShemitic, some resemblance to an invitation to amorous gratification;\nin Latin coi, coite; the oval, symbol of the yoni; the basket, or bag,\nemblematic of the scrotum, and apparently the lotus. The trinity and\nunity are carried by the second priest.\n\nFigure 2 is copied from an ancient copper vase, covered with Egyptian\nhieroglyphic characters, found at Cairo, and figured in a book entitled\nExplication des divers monument singuliers, qui ont rapport a la\nreligion des plus anciens peuples, par le R. P. Dom.......a Paris, 1739.\n\n\n\nThe group of figures represents Isis and Horus in an unusual attitude.\nThey are enclosed in a framework of the flowers of the Egyptian bean,\nor of the lotus. This framework may be compared to the Assyrian \"grove,\"\nand another in which the Virgin Mary stands. The bell was of old a\nsymbol of virginity, for Eastern maidens wore them until marriage (see\nIsa. iii. 16). The origin of this custom was the desire that every\nmaiden should have at her marriage, or sale, that which is spoken of in\nthe Pentateuch as \"the token of virginity.\" It was supposed that this\nmembrane, technically called \"the hymen\" might be broken by too long a\nstride in walking or running, or by clambering over a stile or wall.\nTo prevent such a catastrophe, a light chain or cord was worn, under or\nover the dress, at the level of the knees or just above. Its length only\npermitted a short step and a mincing gait. Slight bells were used as a\nsort of ornament, and when the bearer was walking their tinkling was a\nsort of proclamation that the lady who bore them was in the market as a\nvirgin. After \"the flower\" had been plucked, the bells were no longer of\nuse. They were analogous to the virgin snood worn on the head of Scotch\nmaidens. Isis bears the horns of a cow, because that animal is equally\nnoted for its propensity to seek the male and its care to preserve the\noffspring. As the bull with a human head, so a human being with cow's\nhorns, was made to represent a deity. The solar orb between the horns,\nand the serpent round the body, indicate the union with the male;\nan incongruous conjunction with the emblem of the sacred Virgin,\nnevertheless a very common one. In some of the coins pictured by E. P.\nKnight, in Worship of Priapus, etc., a cow caressing her sucking\ncalf replaces Isis and Horus, just as a bull on other coins replaces\nDionysus. The group is described in full in Ancient Faiths, second\nedition, Vol. i., pp. 53, 54.\n\n\n\nFigures 3, 4, are taken from Ginsburg's Kabbalah, and illustrate that in\nthe arrangement of \"potencies\" two unite, like parents, to form a third.\nSometimes we see also how three such male attributes as splendour,\nfirmness, and solidity join with beauty to form the mystic arba, the\ntrinity and unity.\n\n\n\nFigures 5, 6, are copies from figures found in Carthage and in Scotland,\nfrom Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, vol. i., plate vi., p. 46\n(London, 1866). This book is one to which the reader's attention should\nbe directed. The amount of valuable information which it contains is\nvery large, and it is classified in a philosophical, and, we may add,\nattractive manner. The figures represent the arbor vitae.\n\nFigure 7 is from Bonomi, page 292, Nineveh and its Palaces (London,\n1865). It apparently represents the mystic yoni, door, or delta; and it\nmay be regarded as an earlier form of the framework in Plate iv. It will\nbe remarked, by those learned in symbols, that the outline of the hands\nof the priests who are nearest to the figure is a suggestive one, being\nanalogous to the figure of a key and its shank, whilst those who stand\nbehind these officers present the pine cone and bag, symbolic of Ann,\nHea, and their residence.\n\n\n\nIt is to be noticed, and once for all let us assert our belief, that\nevery detail in a sculpture relating to religion has a signification;\nthat the first right hand figure carries a peculiarly shaped staff; and\nthat the winged symbol above the yoni consists of a male archer in a\nwinged circle, analagous to the symbolic bow, arrow, and target. The bow\nwas an emblem amongst the Romans, and arcum tendere was equivalent to\narrigere. In the Golden Ass of Apuleius we find the metaphor used in\nhis account of his dealings with amorous frolicsome Fotis, \"Ubi primam\nsagittam saevi cupidinis in ima procordia mea delapsam excepi, arcum,\nmeum et ipse vigore tetendi.\"\n\nAgain, we find in Petronius--\n\n\n     Astra igitur mea mens arcum dum tendit in ilia.\n     Ex imo ad summum viva sagitta volat.\n\nFigures 8 to 14 are representations of the goddess mother, the virgin\nand child, Ishtar or Astarte, Mylitta, Ceres, Rhea, Venus, Sacti, Mary,\nYoni, Juno, Mama Ocello.\n\nFig. 8 is a copy of the deified woman or celestial mother, from Idalium,\nin Cyprus. Fig. 9 is from Egypt, and is remarkable for the cow's horns\n(for whose signification see Vol. i., p. 54, Ancient Faiths, second\nedition), which here replace the lunar crescent, in conjunction with the\nsun, the two being symbolic of hermaphroditism, whilst above is a seat\nor throne, emblematic of royalty.\n\n\n\nThe two figures are copied from Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii., p. 447,\nin an essay by Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, wherein other illustrations of\nthe celestial virgin are given. Fig. 10 is a copy of plate 59, Moor's\nHindu Pantheon, wherein it is entitled, \"Crishna nursed by Devaki, from\na highly finished picture.\" In the account of Crishna's birth and early\nhistory, as given by Moor (Op. Cit., pp. 197, et seq.), there is\nas strong a resemblance to the story of Christ as the picture here\ndescribed has to papal paintings of Mary and Jesus. Fig. 11 is an\nenlarged representation of Devaki. Fig. 12 is copied from Rawlinson's\nAncient Monarchies, vol. iii., p. 899. Fig. 13 is a figure of the mother\nand child found in ancient Etruria at Volaterra; it is depicted in\nFabretti's Italian Glossary, plate xxvi., figure 349.\n\n\n\nIt is described as a marble statue, now in the Guarnacci Museum. The\nletters, which are Etruscan, and read from right to left, may be thus\nrendered into the ordinary Latin characters from left to right, MI:\nGANA: LARTHIAS ZANL: VELKINEI: ME - SE.; the translation I take to\nbe, \"the votive offering of Larthias (a female) of Zanal, ( = Zancle\n= Messana in Sicily), (wife) of Velcinius, in the sixth month.\" It\nis uncertain whether we are to regard the statue as an effigy of the\ncelestial mother and child, or as the representation of some devout lady\nwho has been spared during her pregnancy, her parturition, or from some\ndisease affecting herself and child. Analogy would lead us to infer that\nthe Queen of Heaven is intended. Figure 14 is copied from Hislop's Two\nBabylons; it represents Indranee, the wife of Indra or Indur, and is to\nbe found in Indur Subba, the south front of the Caves of Ellora, Asiatic\nResearches, vol. vi., p. 893.\n\n\n\nIndra is equivalent to Jupiter Tonans, and is represented as seated on\nan elephant; \"the waterspout is the trunk of this elephant, and the iris\nis his bow, which it is not auspicious to point out,\" Moor's Pantheon,\np. 260. He is represented very much as if he were a satyr, Moor's\nPantheon, p. 264; but his wife is always spoken of as personified\nchastity and propriety. Indranee is seated on a lioness, which replaces\nthe cow of Isis, the former resembling the latter in her feminine and\nmaternal instincts.\n\nFigures 15, 16, are copies of Diana of the Ephesians; the first is from\nHislop, who quotes Kitto's Illustrated Commentary, vol. v., p. 250; the\nsecond from Higgins' Anacalypsis, who quotes Montfaucon, plate 47. I\nremember to have seen a figure similar to these in the Royal Museum at\nNaples.\n\n\n\nThe tower upon the head represents virginity (see Ancient Faiths, second\nedition, Vol. i., p. 144); the position of the hand forms a cross with\nthe body: the numerous breasts indicate abundance; the black colour of\nFigure 16 indicates the ordinary tint of the feminine lanugo, the almost\nuniversal colour of the hair of the Orientals being black about the yoni\nas well as on the head; or, as some mythologists imagine, \"Night,\"\nwho is said to be one of the mothers of creation. (See Ancient Faiths,\nsecond edition, Vol. n., p. 882.) The emblems upon the body indicate the\nattributes or symbols of the male and female creators.\n\n\n\nFigure 17 is a complicated sign of the yoni, delta, or door of life. It\nis copied from Bonomi's Palaces of Nineveh, p. 809.\n\nFigure 18 signifies the same thing; the priests adoring it present the\npine cone and basket, symbolic of Ann, Hea, and their residence. Compare\nthe object of the Assyrian priest's adoration with that adored by a\nChristian divine, in a subsequent figure. (See Ancient Faiths, second\nedition, Vol. I., p. 88, et seq., and Vol. n., p. 648.)\n\n\n\nFigure 19 is copied from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xxii., fig. 5. It is\nthe impression of an ancient gem, and represents a man clothed with a\nfish, the head being the mitre; priests thus clothed, often bearing in\ntheir hand the mystic bag, are common in Mesopotamian sculptures; two\nsuch are figured on Figs. 63, 64, infra. In almost every instance it\nwill be recognised that the fish's head is represented as of the same\nform as the modern bishop's mitre.\n\n\n\nFigure 20 represents two equilateral triangles, infolded so as to make\na six-rayed star, the idea embodied being the androgyne nature of the\ndeity, the pyramid with its apex upwards signifying the male, that with\nthe apex downwards the female. The line at the central junction is\nnot always seen, but the shape of the three parallel bars reappears in\nHindoo frontlet signs in conjunction with a delta or door, shaped\nlike the \"grove\" in Fig. 17; thus showing that the lines serve also to\nindicate the masculine triad. The two triangles are also understood\nas representing fire, which mounts upwards, and water, which flows\ndownwards. Fire again is an emblem of the sun, and water of the passive\nor yielding element in nature. Fire also typifies Eros or Cupid. Hymen\nis always represented carrying a torch. It is also symbolic of love;\ne.g., Southey writes.\n\n\n     \"But love is indestructible,\n     Its holy flame for ever burneth;\n     From heaven it came,\n     To heaven returneth.\"\n\nAnd again, Scott writes--\n\n\n     \"It is not phantasy's hot fire\n     Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly,\" &c.\n\nFigures 21, 22, are other indications of the same fundamental idea. The\nfirst represents Nebo, the Nahbi, or the navel, characterised by a ring\nwith a central mound.\n\n\n\nThe second represents the circular and upright stone so common in\nOriental villages. The two indicate the male and female; and a medical\nfriend resident in India has told me, that he has seen women mount upon\nthe lower stone and seat themselves reverently upon the upright one,\nhaving first adjusted their dress so as to prevent it interfering with\ntheir perfect contact with the miniature obelisc. During the sitting, a\nshort prayer seemed flitting over the worshippers' lips, but the whole\naffair was soon over.\n\nWhilst upon this subject, it is right to call attention to the fact that\nanimate as well as inorganic representatives of the Creator have been\nused by women with the same definite purpose. The dominant idea is\nthat contact with the emblem, a mundane representative of the deity, of\nitself gives a blessing. Just as many Hindoo females seek a benefaction\nby placing their own yoni upon the consecrated linga, so a few\nregard intercourse with certain high priests of the Maharajah sect as\nincarnations of Vishnu, and pay for the privilege of being spouses of\nthe god. In Egypt, where the goat was a sacred animal, there were some\nreligious women who sought good luck by uniting themselves therewith.\nWe have heard of British professors of religion endeavouring to persuade\ntheir penitents to procure purity by what others would call defilement\nand disgrace. And the \"cord of St. Francis\" replaces the stone \"linga.\"\nSometimes with this \"cord\" the rod is associated; and those who have\nread the trial of Father Gerard, for his seduction of Miss Cadiere under\na saintly guise, will know that Christianity does not always go hand in\nhand with propriety.\n\nWith the Hindoo custom compare that which was done by Liber on the grave\nof Prosumnus (Arnobius adverma Gentes, translated by Bryce and Campbell,\nT. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, pp. 252, 258), which is far too gross to\nbe described here; and as regards the sanctity of a stone whose top had\nbeen anointed with oil, see first sentence of paragraph 89, ibid, page\n81. The whole book will well repay perusal.\n\nFigures 28, 24, are discs, circles, aureoles, and wheels, to represent\nthe sun. Sometimes the emblem of this luminary is associated with rays,\nas in Plate iii., Fig. 8, and in another Figure elsewhere. Occasionally,\nas in some of the ancient temples in Egypt discovered in 1854, the sun's\nrays are represented by lines terminating in hands. Sometimes one or\nmore of these contain objects as if they were gifts sent by the god;\namongst other objects, the crux ansata is shown conspicuously. In a\nremarkable plate in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature\n(second series, vol. i., p. 140), the sun is identified with the\nserpent; its rays terminate in hands, some holding the handled cross or\ntau, and before it a queen, apparently, worships. She is offering what\nseems to be a lighted tobacco pipe, the bowl being of the same shape as\nthat commonly used in Turkey; from this a wavy pyramid of flame rises.\nBehind her, two female slaves elevate the sistrum; whilst before her,\nand apparently between herself and her husband, are two altars occupied\nby round cakes and one crescent-shaped emblem.\n\n\n\nThe aureole was used in ancient days by Babylonian artists or sculptors,\nwhen they wished to represent a being, apparently human, as a god. The\nsame plan has been adopted by the moderns, who have varied the symbol by\nrepresenting it now as a golden disc, now as a terrestrial orb, again as\na rayed sphere. A writer, when describing a god as a man, can say that\nthe object he sketches is divine; but a painter thinks too much of his\nart to put on any of his designs, \"this woman is a goddess,\" or \"this\ncreature is a god\"; he therefore adds an aureole round the head of his\nsubject, and thus converts a very ordinary man, woman, or child into a\ndeity to be reverenced; modern artists thus proving themselves to be\nfar more skilful in depicting the Almighty than the carpenters and\ngoldsmiths of the time of Isaiah (xl. 18, 19, xli. 6, 7, xliv. 9-19),\nwho used no such contrivance.\n\nFigure 24 is another representation of the solar disc, in which it is\nmarked with a cross. This probably originated in the wheel of a chariot\nhaving four spokes, and the sun being likened to a charioteer. The\nchariots of the sun are referred to in 2 Kings xxiii. 11 as idolatrous\nemblems. Of these the wheel was symbolic. The identification of this\nemblem with the sun is very easy, for it has repeatedly been found in\nMesopotamian gems in conjunction with the moon. In a very remarkable one\nfigured in Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii., p. 249, the cross\nis contrived as five circles. It is remarkable that in many papal\npictures the wafer and the cup are depicted precisely as the sun and\nmoon in conjunction. See Pugin's Architectural Glossary, plate iv., fig.\n5.\n\n\n\nFigures 25, 26, 27, are simply varieties of the solar wheel, intended to\nrepresent the idea of the sun and moon, the mystic triad and unit, the\n\"arba,\" or four. In Figure 26, the mural ornament is introduced, that\nbeing symbolic of feminine virginity. For explanation of Figure 27, see\nFigures 85, 86.\n\nFigure 28 is copied from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate xiv. F. That author\nstates that he has taken it from a drawing of an Egyptian stele, made by\nM. E. Prisse (Monum. Egypt., plate xxxvii.), and that the original is\nin the British Museum. There is an imperfect copy of it in Rawlinson's\nHerodotus, vol. ii.\n\n\n\nThe original is too indelicate to be represented fully. Isis, the\ncentral figure, is wholly nude, with the exception of her head-dress,\nand neck and breast ornaments. In one hand she holds two blades of corn\napparently, whilst in the other she has three lotus flowers, two being\negg-shaped, but the central one fully expanded; with these, which\nevidently symbolise the mystic triad, is associated a circle emblematic\nof the yoni, thus indicating the fourfold creator. Isis stands upon a\nlioness; on one side of her stands a clothed male figure, holding in one\nhand the crux ansata, and in the other an upright spear. On the opposite\nside is a male figure wholly nude, like the goddess, save his head-dress\nand collar, the ends of which are arranged so as to form a cross. His\nhand points to a flagellum; behind him is a covert reference to the\ntriad, whilst in front Osiris offers undisguised homage to Isis. The\nhead-dress of the goddess appears to be a modified form of the crescent\nmoon inverted. It is not exclusively Egyptian, as it has been found in\nconjunction with other emblems on an Assyrian obelisc of Phallic form.\n\n\n\nFigures 29, 30, 31, 32, represent the various triangles and their union,\nwhich have been adopted in worship. Figure 29 is said to represent fire,\nwhich amongst the ancient Persians was depicted as a cone, whilst the\nfigure inverted represents water.\n\n\n\nFigure 33 is an ancient Hindoo emblem, called Sri Iantra. The circle\nrepresents the world, in which the living exist; the triangle pointing\nupwards shows the male creator; and the triangle with the apex downwards\nthe female; distinct, yet united. These have a world within themselves,\nin which the male is uppermost. In the central circle the image to be\nworshipped is placed. When used, the figure is placed on the ground,\nwith Brahma to the east, and Laksmi to the west. Then a relic of any\nsaint, or image of Buddha, like a modern papal crucifix, is added, and\nthe shrine for worship is complete. It has now been adopted in Christian\nchurches and Freemasons' lodges.\n\nIt will be noticed that the male emblem points to the rising sun, and\nthe female triangle points to the setting sun, when the earth seems to\nreceive the god into her couch.\n\n\n\nFigure 34 is a very ancient Hindoo emblem, whose real signification I am\nunable to divine. It is used in calculation; it forms the basis of some\ngame, and it is a sign of vast import in sacti worship.\n\nA coin, bearing this figure upon it, and having a central cavity with\nthe Etruscan letters SUPEN placed one between each two of the angles,\nwas found in a fictile urn, at Volaterrae, and is depicted in Fabretti's\nItalian Glossary, plate xxvi., fig. 858, bis a. As the coin is round,\nthe reader will see that these letters may be read as Supen, Upens,\nPensu, Ensup, or Nsupe. A search through Fabretti's Lexicon affords no\nclue to any meaning except for the third. There seems, indeed, strong\nreason to believe that pensu was the Etruscan form of the Pali panca,\nthe Sanscrit panch, the Bengalli panch, and the Greek penta, i. e.,\nfive. Five, certainly, would be an appropriate word for the pentangle.\nIt is almost impossible to avoid speculating upon the value of this\nfragment of archaeological evidence in support of the idea that the\nGreeks, Aryans, and Etruscans had something in common; but into the\nquestion it would be unprofitable to enter here.\n\nBut, although declining to enter upon this wide field of inquiry, I\nwould notice that whilst searching Fabretti's Glossary my eye fell upon\nthe figure of an equilateral triangle with the apex upwards, depicted\nplate xliii., fig. 2440 ter. The triangle is of brass, and was found\nin the territory of the Falisci. It bears a rude representation of the\noutlines of the soles of two human feet, in this respect resembling a\nBuddhist emblem; and there is on its edge an inscription which may be\nrendered thus in Roman letters, KAYI: TERTINEI. POSTIKNU, which probably\nsignifies \"Gavia, the wife of Tertius, offered it.\" The occurrence\nof two Hindoo symbols in ancient Italy is very remarkable. It must,\nhowever, be noticed that similar symbols have been found on ancient\nsculptured stones in Ireland and Scotland. There may be no emblematic\nideas whatever conveyed by the design; but when the marks appear\non Gnostic gems, they are supposed to indicate death, i. e., the\nimpressions left by the feet of the individual as he springs from earth\nto heaven.\n\n\n\nFigures 35, 36, are Maltese crosses. In a large book of Etrurian\nantiquities, which came casually under my notice about twenty years ago,\nwhen I was endeavouring to master the language, theology, etc., of the\nEtruscans, but whose name, and other particulars of which, I cannot\nnow remember; I found depicted two crosses, made up of four masculine\ntriads, each asher being erect, and united to its fellows by the gland,\nforming a central diamond, emblem of the yoni. In one instance, the\nlimbs of the cross were of equal length; in the other, one asher was\nthree times as long as the others. A somewhat similar cross, but one\nunited with the circle, was found some time ago near Naples. It is made\nof gold, and has apparently been used as an amulet and suspended to\nthe neck. It is figured in plate 35 of An Essay on the Worship of the\nGenerative Powers during the Middle Ages (London, privately printed,\n1865). It may be thus described: the centre of the circle is occupied by\nfour oblate spheres arranged like a square; from the salient curves of\neach of these springs a yoni (shaped as in Figure 59), with the point\noutwards, thus forming a cross, each ray of which is an egg and fig. At\neach junction of the ovoids a yoni is inserted with the apex inwards,\nwhilst from the broad end arise four ashers, which project beyond the\nshield, each terminating in a few golden bead-like drops. The whole is\na graphic natural representation of the intimate union of the male and\nfemale, sun and moon, cross and circle, Ouranos and Ge. The same idea is\nembodied in Figure 27, p. 86, but in that the mystery is deeply veiled,\nin that the long arms of the cross represent the sun, or male, indicated\nby the triad; the short ones, the moon, or the female (see Plate xi.\nFig. 4).\n\nThe Maltese cross, a Phoenician emblem, was discovered cut on a rock\nin the island from which it takes its name. Though cruciform, it had\nnothing Christian about it; for, like the Etruscan ones referred to\nabove, it consisted of four lingas united together by the heads, the\n\"eggs\" being at the outside. It was an easy thing for an unscrupulous\npriesthood to represent this \"invention\" of the cross as a miracle,\nand to make it presentable to the eyes of the faithful by leaving the\noutlines of Anu and Hea incomplete. Sometimes this cross is figured\nas four triangles meeting at the points, which has the same meaning,\nGenerally, however, the Church (as may be seen by a reference to Pugin's\nGlossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament) adopts the use of crosses where\nthe inferior members of the trinity are more or less central, as in our\nPlate xi., Figs. 2, 8, and as in the Figures 40, 41, 42, infra. When\nonce a person knows the true origin of the doctrine of the Trinity--one\nwhich is far too improper to have been adopted by the writers of the\nNew Testament--it is impossible not to recognise in the signs which are\nsymbolic of it the thing which is signified.\n\nIt may readily be supposed that those who have knowledge of the\nheathenish origin of many of the cherished doctrines of the so-called\nChristian church, cannot remain enthusiastic members of her communion;\nand it is equally easy for the enlightened philosopher to understand why\nsuch persons are detested and abused by the ignorant, and charged with\nbeing freethinkers, sceptics, or atheists. Sciolism is ever intolerant,\nand theological hatred is generally to be measured by the mental\nincapacity of those who indulge in the luxury. But no amount of abuse\ncan reduce the intrinsic value of facts. Nor will the most fiery\npersecution demonstrate that the religion of Christ, as it appears\nin our churches and cathedrals, especially if they are papal, is not\ntainted by a mass of paganism of disgusting origin.\n\n\n\nFigure 37 is copied from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol.\nxviii., p 898, plate 4. It is a Buddhist emblem, and represents the\nsame idea under different aspects. Each limb of the cross represents\nthe fascinum at right angles with the body, and presented towards a\nbarleycorn, one of the symbols of the yoni. Each limb is marked by the\nsame female emblem, and terminates with the triad triangle; beyond this\nagain is seen the conjunction of the sun and moon. The whole therefore\nrepresents the mystic curba, the creative four, by some called Thor's\nhammer. Copies of a cross similar to this have been recently found by\nDr. Schliemann in a very ancient city, buried under the remains of two\nothers, which he identifies as the Troy of Homer's Iliad.\n\n\n\nFigures 38 to 42 are developments of the triad triangle, or trinity. If\nthe horizontal limb on the free end of the arm were to be prolonged\nto twice its length, the most obtuse would recognise Asher, and the\ninferior or lower members of the \"triune.\"\n\nFigure 43 is by Egyptologists called the 'symbol of life.'\n\nIt is also called the 'handled cross,' or crux ansata. It represents\nthe male triad and the female unit, under a decent form. There are\nfew symbols more commonly met with in Egyptian art than this. In\nsome remarkable sculptures, where the sun's rays are represented as\nterminating in hands, the offerings which these bring are many a crux\nansata, emblematic of the truth that a fruitful union is a gift from the\ndeity.\n\nFigures 44, 45, are ancient designs, in which the male and female\nelements are more disguised than is usual. In Fig. 44 the woman is\nindicated by the dolphin.\n\n\n\nFigures 48, 49, represent the trefoil which was used by the ancient\nHindoos as emblematic of the celestial triad, and adopted by\nmodern Christians. It will be seen that from one stem arise three\ncuriously-shaped segments, each of which is supposed to resemble the\nmale scrotum, \"purse,\" \"bag,\" or \"basket.\".\n\nFigure 50 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 2.\nHe states that it is from a gem cylinder in the British Museum. It\nrepresents a male and female figure dancing before the mystic palm-tree,\ninto whose signification we need not enter beyond saying that it is a\nsymbol of Asher. Opposite to a particular part of the figures is to be\nseen a diamond, or oval, and a fleur de lys, or symbolic triad. This\ngem is peculiarly valuable, as it illustrates in a graphic manner the\nmeaning of the emblems in question and how the \"lillies of France\" had a\npagan origin.\n\n\n\nFigures 51 to 60 are varions representations of the union of the four,\nthe arba, the androgyne, or the linga-yoni.\n\nFigure 61. In modern Christian art this symbol is called vesica piscis,\nand is sometimes surrounded with rays. It commonly serves as a sort\nof framework in which female saints are placed, who are generally\nthe representatives of the older Juno, Ceres, Diana, Venus, or other\nimpersonations of the feminine element in creation. We should not feel\nobliged to demonstrate the truth of this assertion if decency permitted\nus to reproduce here designs which naughty youths so frequently chalk\nupon walls to the disgust of the proper part of the community. We must,\ntherefore, have resort to a religious book, and in a subsequent figure\ndemonstrate the meaning of the symbol unequivocally.\n\n\n\nFigure 62 represents one of the forms assumed by the sistrum of Isis.\nSometimes the instrument is oval, and occasionally it terminates below\nin a horizontal line, instead of in an acute angle. The inquirer can\nvery readily recognise in the emblem the symbol of the female creator.\nIf there should be any doubt in his mind, he will be satisfied after\na reference to Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1707), vol. ii.,\nplate 61, wherein Diana of the Ephesians is depicted as having a body\nof the exact shape of the sistrum figured in Payne Knight's work on the\nremains of the worship of Priapus, etc. The bars across the sistrum show\nthat it denotes a pure virgin (see Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol.\nn., pp. 743-746). On its handle is seen the figure of a cat--a sacred\nanimal amongst the Egyptians, for the same reason that Isis was\nfigured sometimes as a cow--viz., for its salacity and its love for its\noffspring.\n\n\n\nFigures 63 to 66 are all drawn from Assyrian sources.\n\n\n\nThe central figure, which is probably the biblical \"grove,\" represents\nthe delta, or female \"door.\" To it the attendant genii offer the pine\ncone and basket. The signification of these is explained subsequently. I\nwas unable at first to quote any authority to demonstrate that the pine\ncone was a distinct masculine symbol, but now the reader may be referred\nto Maffei, Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1708), where, in vol. iii., he\nwill see a Venus Tirsigera.\n\nThe goddess in plate 8, is nude, and carries in her hand the tripliform\narrow, emblem of the male triad, whilst in the other she bears a\nthyrsus, terminating in a pine or fir cone. Now this cone and stem are\ncarried in the Bacchic festivities, and can be readily recognised as\nvirga cum ovo. Sometimes the thyrsus is replaced by ivy leaves, which,\nlike the fig, are symbolic of the triple creator. Occasionally the\nthyrsus was a lance or pike, round which vine leaves and berries were\nclustered; Bacchus cum vino being the companion of Venus cum cerere. But\na stronger confirmation of my views may be found in a remarkable\ngroup (see Fig. 124 infra). This is entitled Sacrifizio di Priapo, and\nrepresents a female offering to Priapus. The figure of the god stands\nupon a pillar of three stones, and it bears a thyrsus from which depend\ntwo ribbons. The devotee is accompanied by a boy, who carries a pine-\nor fir- cone in his hand, and a basket on his head, in which may be\nrecognised a male effigy. In Figure 64 the position of the advanced hand\nof each of the priests nearest to the grove is very suggestive to the\nphysiologist. It resembles one limb of the Buddhist cross, Fig. 37,\nsupra. The finger or thumb when thus pointed are figurative of Asher, in\na horizontal position, with Anu or Hea hanging from one end. Figure\n65 is explained similarly. It is to be noticed that a door is adopted\namongst modern Hindoos as an emblem of the sacti (see Figs. 152, 153,\ninfra).\n\n\n\nMy friend Mr. Newton, who has taken great interest in the subject of\nsymbolism, regards these \"groves\" as not being simply emblems of the\nyoni, but of the union of that part with the lingam, or mystic palm\ntree. As his ideas are extremely ingenious, and his theory perfect, I\nhave requested him to introduce them at the end of this work.\n\nFigures 67, 68, 69, are fancy sketches intended to represent the \"sacred\nshields\" spoken of in Jewish and other history. The last is drawn from\nmemory, and represents a Templar's shield. According to the method in\nwhich the shield is viewed, it appears like the os tincae or the navel.\nFigures 70, 71, represent the shape of the sistrum of Isis, the fruit of\nthe fig, and the yoni. When a garment of this shape is made and worn,\nit becomes the \"pallium\" donned alike by the male and female individuals\nconsecrated to Roman worship.\n\nKing, in his Ancient Gnostics, remarks: \"The circle of the sun is the\nnavel, which marks the natural position of the womb--the navel being\nconsidered in the microcosm as corresponding to the sun in the universe,\nan idea more fully exemplified in the famous hallucination of the Greek\nanchorites touching the mystical 'Light of Tabor,' which was revealed to\nthe devotee after a fast of many days, all the time staring fixedly upon\nthe region of the navel, whence at length this light streamed as from a\nfocus.\" Pages 158, 154.\n\n\n\nFigures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop, and a modern\nnun wearing the emblem of the female sex. In the former, said (in Old\nEngland Pictorially Illustrated, by Knight) to be a drawing of St.\nAugustine, the amount of symbolism is great. The \"nimbus\" and the\ntonsure are solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded\nwith phallic crosses; its lower end is the ancient T the mark of the\nmasculine triad; the right hand has the forefinger extended, like the\nAssyrian priests whilst doing homage to the grove, and within it is the\nfruit, tappuach, which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons the\npallium in worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the\nunity, the arba, or mystic four. See Ancient Faiths, second edition,\nVol. n., pp. 915-918.\n\nI take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of King's Gnostics\nand their Remains, (Bell & Daldy, London, 1864). To this period belongs\na beautiful sard in my collection representing Serapis,... whilst\nbefore him stands Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a\nwheatsheaf, with the legend... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the very\nterms applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form\n(the 'Black Virgins,' so highly reverenced in certain French Cathedrals\nduring the middle ages, proved, when examined critically, basalt figures\nof Isis), her symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Her devotees carried\ninto the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the\nobligation to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting,\nunfortunately, the frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed.\nThe sacred image still moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at\nit, vi. 530.\n\n\n\nEscorted by the tonsured surpliced train. Her proper title, Domina, the\nexact translation of Sanscrit Isi, survives with slight change in the\nmodern Madonna, Mater Domina.\n\nBy a singular permutation the flower borne by each, the lotus--ancient\nemblem of the sun and fecundity--now re-named the lily, is interpreted\nas significant of the opposing quality. The tinkling sistrum... is\nreplaced by... the bell, taken from Buddhist usages.... The erect oval\nsymbol of the Female Principle of Nature became the Vesica Piscis, and\nthe Crux Ansata, testifying the union of the male and female in the most\nobvious manner, is transformed into the orb surmounted by the cross, as\nan ensign of royalty. Pp. 71, 72.\n\n\n\nFigure 74 is a well known Christian emblem, called \"a foul anchor.\" The\nanchor, as a symbol, is of great antiquity. It may be seen on an old\nEtruscan coin in the British Museum, depicted in Veterum Popvlorum et\nRegum Nummi, etc. (London, 1814), plate ii., fig. 1. On the reverse\nthere is a chariot wheel. The foul anchor represents the crescent moon,\nthe yoni, ark, navis, or boat; in this is placed the mast, round which\nthe serpent, the emblem of life in the \"verge,\" entwines itself. The\ncross beam completes the mystic four, symbolic alike of the sun and of\nandrogeneity. The whole is a covert emblem of that union which results\nin fecundity. It is said by Christians to be the anchor of the soul,\nsure and steadfast. This it certainly cannot be, for a foul anchor will\nnot hold the ground.\n\nFigures 75 to 79 are Asiatic and Egyptian emblems in use amongst\nourselves, and receive their explanation similarly to preceding ones.\n\nFigure 80 is copied from Godfrey Higgins' Anacalypsis, vol. ii., fig.\n27. It is drawn from Montfaucon, vol. ii., pi. cxxxii., fig. 6. In his\ntext, Higgins refers to two similar groups, one which exists in the\nEgyptian temple of Ipsambal in Nubia, and is described by Wilson, On\nBuddhists and Jeynes, p. 127, another, found in a cave temple in the\nsouth of India, described by Col. Tod, in his History of Raj-pootanah.\nThe group is not explained by Montfaucon. It is apparently Greek, and\ncombines the story of Hercules with the seductiveness of Circe. The\ntree and serpent are common emblems, and have even been found in Indian\ntemples in central America, grouped as in the woodcut.\n\n\n\n\n\nFigure 81 is copied from Lajard, Culte de Venus, plate xix., fig.\n11, The origin of this, which is a silver statuette in that author's\npossession, is unknown. The female represents Venus bearing in one hand\nan apple; her arm rests upon what seems to be a representative of the\nmystic triad (the two additions to the upright stem not being seen in\na front view) round which a dolphin for 'womb' is entwined, from whose\nmouth comes the stream of life. The apple plays a strange part in Greek\nand Hebrew mythology. The story of \"the apple of discord,\" awarded by\nParis to Venus, seems to indicate that where beauty contends against\nmajesty and wisdom for the love of youth, it is sure to win the day. We\nlearn from Arnobius that a certain Nana conceived a son by an apple (Op,\nCit., p. 286), although in another place the prolific fruit is said to\nhave been a pomegranate. Mythologically, that writer sees no difficulty\nin the story, for those who affirm that rocks and hard stones have\nbrought forth. In the Song of Solomon, apples and the tree that bears\nthem are often referred to; and we have in Ch. ii. 5 the curious\nexpression, \"Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.\" We are\nfamiliar with the account of Eve being tempted by the same fruit.\nCritics imagine that as the apple in Palestine is not good eating, the\nquince is meant; if so, we know that a leaf of that tree is to be\nseen in every amorous picture found in Pompeii, the plant having been\nsupposed to increase virile power. Others imagine that the citron is\nintended, whose shape makes it an emblem of the testis. However this may\nbe decided, it is tolerably clear, from all the tales and pictures\nin which a fruit like the apple figures, that the emblem symbolised\na desire for an intimate union between the sexes. The reader will\ndoubtless remember how, in Genesis xxx, Leah is represented as\npurchasing her husband's company for a night by means of mandrakes, the\nresult being the birth of Issachar; and in the well-known story of the\nCreation we find that the apple gives birth to desire, as shown in the\nrecognition for the first time of the respective nudity of the\ncouple, which was followed immediately, or as soon as it was possible\nafterwards, by sexual intercourse and the conception of Cain.\n\n\n\nFigure 82 is from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xivb, fig. 3.\n\nThe gem is of unknown origin, but is apparently Babylonish; it\nrepresents the male and female in conjunction: each appears to be\nholding the symbol of the triad in much respect, whilst the curious\ncross suggests a new reading to an ancient symbol.\n\nI have of late heard it asserted, by a man of considerable learning,\nthough of a very narrow mind in everything which bears upon religious\nsubjects, that there is no proof that the sun was commonly regarded as a\nmale, or the moon as a female; and he based his strange assertion solely\nupon the ground that in German and some other languages the sun was\nrepresented by a feminine, and the moon by a masculine noun. The\nargument is of no value, for [--Greek--] and other Greek and Latin names\nof the yoni, are masculine nouns, and Virga and Mentula, the Roman words\nfor the Linga, are feminine. In Hindostan, the sun is always represented\nas a God; the moon is occasionally a male, and sometimes a female deity.\nIn ancient Gaulish and Scandinavian figures, the sun was always a male,\nand the moon a female. Their identification will be seen in Figure\n118--as their conjunction is in the one before us--in the position of\nthe individuals, and in the fleur-de-lys and oval symbol.\n\n\n\nFigure 88 may be found in Fabretti's Corpus Inscriptionum Italicarum\n(Turin, 1867), plate xxv., fig. 808 f. The coins which bear the figures\nare of brass, and were found at Volaterrae. In one the double head is\nassociated with a dolphin and crescent moon on the reverse, and the\nletters Velathri, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the one\ncontaining the club. The club, formed as in Figure 88, occurs frequently\non Etruscan coins. For example, two clubs are joined with four balls on\na Tudertine coin, having on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for\nfighting, and four balls arranged in a square. On other coins are to\nbe seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripliform figures,\nassociated with three balls in a triangle; sometimes two, and sometimes\none. The double head with two balls is seen on a Telamonian coin, having\non the reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned upwards. In\na coin of Populonia the club is associated with a spear and two balls,\nwhilst on the reverse is a single head. I must notice, too, that on\nother coins a hammer and pincers, or tongs, appear, as if the idea was\nto show that a maker, fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be\nsymbolised. What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which\na head appears thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two statuettes of\nsilver have been found, representing a double-faced individual. A lion's\nhead for a cap, a collar, and buskins are the sole articles of dress\nworn. One face appears to be feminine, and the other masculine, but\nneither is bearded. The pectorals and the general form indicate the\nmale, but the usual marks of sex are absent. On these have been found\nEtruscan inscriptions (1) v. cvinti arntias CULPIANSI ALP AN TURCE; (2)\nV. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ alpan TUBCE. Which may be rendered (1)\n\"V. Quintus of Aruntia, to Culpian pleasing, a gift\"; (2) \"V. Quintus\nof Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a gift,\" evidently showing that they\nwere ex voto offerings.\n\n\n\nCol. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49 it is\nassociated with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The design is spoken\nof as \"the spectacle ornament,\" and it is very commonly associated with\nanother figure closely resembling the letter Z. It is very natural for\nthe inquirer to associate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or\nthe sun common amongst the sculptured stones in Scotland. Four varieties\nmay be seen in plate 48 of sun and moon. On one Scottish monument the\ncircles represent wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot.\nAs yet I have only been able to meet with the Z and \"spectacle ornament\"\nonce out of Scotland; it is figured on apparently a Gnostic gem (The\nGnostics and their Remains, by C. W. King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig.\n5). In that we see in a serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having\nthe down stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating in\na circle; besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray terminating in a\ncircle, precisely resembling the star in Plate in., Fig. 8, supra. I can\noffer no satisfactory explanation of the emblem.\n\n\n\nFigures 85, 86, represent a Yorkshire and an Indian stone circle. The\nfirst is copied from Descriptions of Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and\nother Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian Monuments in the Dekkan, by Col.\nMeadows Taylor, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv.\nThe mound exists at Twizell, Yorkshire, and the centre of the circle\nindicates an ancient tomb, very similar to those found by Taylor in the\nDekkan; this contained only one single urn, but many of the Indian\nones contained, besides the skeleton of the great man buried therein,\nskeletons of other individuals who had been slaughtered over his tomb,\nand buried above the kistvaen containing his bones; in one instance two\nbodies and three heads were found in the principal grave, and twenty\nother skeletons above and beside it. A perusal of this very interesting\npaper will well repay the study bestowed upon it. Figure 86 is copied\nfrom Forbes Leslie's book mentioned above, plate 59. It represents a\nmodern stone circle in the Dekkan, of very recent construction. The\ndots upon the stones represent dabs of red paint, which again represent\nblood. The circles are similar to some which have been found in\nPalestine, and give evidence of the presence of the same religious ideas\nexisting in ancient England and Hindostan, as well as in modern India.\nThe name of the god worshipped in these recent shrines is Vetal, or\nBetal. It is worth mentioning, in passing, that there is a celebrated\nmonolith in Scotland called the Newton Stone, on which are inscribed,\nevidently with a graving tool, an inscription in the Ogham, and another\nin some ancient Aryan character (see Moore's Ancient Pillar Stones of\nScotland).\n\n\n\nFigure 87 indicates the solar wheel, emblem of the chariot of Apollo.\nThis sign is a very common one upon ancient coins; sometimes the rays or\nspokes are four, at others they are more numerous. Occasionally the tire\nof the wheel is absent, and amongst the Etruscans the nave is omitted.\nThe solar cross is very common in Ireland, and amongst the Romanists\ngenerally as a head dress for male saints.\n\n\n\nFigure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the authority of Col.\nHamilton Smith, who copied it from the original collection made by\nthe artists of the French Institute of Cairo. It is said to represent\nOsiris, but this is doubtful. There is much that is intensely mystical\nabout the figure. The whip, or flagellum, placed over the tail, and the\nhead passing through the yoni, the circular spots with their central\ndot, the horns with solar disc, and two curiously shaped feathers (?),\nthe calf reclining upon a plinth, wherein a division into three is\nconspicuous, all have a meaning in reference to the mystic four.\n\nI have long had a doubt respecting the symbolic meaning of the scourge.\nSome inquirers have asserted that it is simply an emblem of power\nor superiority, inasmuch as he who can castigate must be in a higher\nposition than the one who is punished. But of this view I can find no\nproof. On the other hand, any one who is familiar with the effect\nupon the male produced by flagellation, and who notices that the\nrepresentations of Osiris and the scourge show evidence that the deity\nis in the same condition as one who has been subjected to the rod, will\nbe disposed to believe that the flagellum is an indication or symbol\nof the god who gives to man the power to reproduce his like, or who can\nrestore the faculty after it has faded. It is not for a moment to be\nsupposed that a deity who was to be worshipped would be depicted as\na task-master, whose hands are more familiar with punishment than\nblessing.\n\n\n\nFigure 89 is taken from Lajard's Culte de Venus, plate i., fig. 14, and\nis an enlarged impression of a gem. A similar figure is to be found in\nPayne Knight's work On the Worship of Priapus. In both instances the\nfemale is fringed with male emblems. In the one before us a fish,\napparently a dolphin, is borne in one hand. In the other the woman is\nbearded. These are representations of Ashtaroth--the androgyne deity in\nwhich the female predominates.\n\nFig. 90 represents an ancient Italian form of the Indian Ling Yoni. It\nis copied from a part of the Frontispiece of Faber's Dissertation on the\nCabiri, where it is stated that the plate is a copy of a picture of a\nnymphoeum found when excavating a foundation for the Barbarini Palace at\nRome. It deserves notice, because the round mound of masonry surmounted\nby the short pillars is precisely similar to similar erections found\nin Hindostan on the East and America on the West, as well as in varions\nparts of Europe. The oval in the pediment and the solitary pillar\nhave the same meaning as the Caaba and hole--the upright stone and pit\nrevered at Mecca long before Mahomet's time--the tree serves to identify\nthe pillar, and vice versa. Apertures were common in ancient sepulchral\nmonuments, alike in Hindostan and England; one perforated stone is\npreserved as a relic in the precincts of an old church in modern Rome.\nThe aperture is blackish with the grease of many hands, which have been\nput therein whilst their owners took a sacred oath. We have already\nremarked how ancient Abraham and a modern Arab have sworn by the Linga;\nit is therefore by no means remarkable that some of a different form of\nfaith should swear by the Yoni.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFigure 91 is stated by Higgins, Anacalypm, p. 217, to be a mark on the\nbreast of an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of University College, London.\nIt is essentially the same symbol as the crux ansata, and is emblematic\nof the male triad and the female unit.\n\nFigure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal tiara has not\nabout it anything particularly Christian, a similar head-dress having\nbeen worn by gods or angels in ancient Assyria, where it appeared\ncrowned by an emblem of \"the trinity.\" We may mention, in passing, that\nas the Romanists adopted the mitre and the tiara from \"the cursed brood\nof Ham,\" so they adopted the episcopalian crook from the augurs of\nEtruria, and the artistic form with which they clothe their angels from\nthe painters and um-makers of Magna Gracia and Central Italy.\n\n\n\nFigure 98 is the Mithraic lion. It may be seen in Hyde's Religion of the\nAncient Persians, second edition, plate i. It may also be seen in vol.\nii., plates 10 and 11, of Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate (Rome, 1707).\nIn plate 10 the Mithraic lion has seven stars above it, around which\nare placed respectively, words written in Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician\ncharacters, ZEDCH. TELKAN. TELKON. TELKON. QIDEKH. UNEULK. LNKELLP.,\napparently showing that the emblem was adopted by the Gnostics. It\nwould be unprofitable to dwell upon the meaning of these letters. After\npuzzling over them, I fancy that \"Bad spirits, pity us,\" \"Just one, I\ncall on thee,\" may be made out by considering the words to be very bad\nGreek, and the letters to be much transposed.\n\n\n\nFigure 94 is copied by Higgins, Anacalypsis, on the authority of Dubois,\nwho states, vol. iii., p. 88, that it was found on a stone in a church\nin France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred years.\nDubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no reference to\nthe story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on the draped\nfigures as representatives of Adam and Eve. We have introduced it to\nshow how such tales are intermingled with Sabeanism.\n\n\n\nFigure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p.\n156), and represents Harpocrates seated on a lotus, adoring the mundane\nrepresentative of the mother of creation. I have not yet met with any\nancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify the yoni so completely\nwith various goddesses.\n\nCompare this with Figure 138, infra, wherein the Figure 95. emblem is\neven more strikingly identified with woman, and with the virgin Mary.\nThose who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on\nhoardings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent\ncertain ideas in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the\nmystic meaning of O ---- I have elsewhere called attention to the idea\nthat a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil\nspirits; however grotesque the idea may be, it has existed in all ages,\nand in civilised and savage nations alike. A rude image of a woman who\nshamelessly exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches\nin Ireland, and at Servatos, in Spain, where she is standing on one side\nof the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on the other. The same\nhas been found in Mexico, Peru, and in North America. Nor must we forget\nhow Baubo cured the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a\nstrange fashion to the distressed goddess. Arnobius, Op. Cit., pp. 249,\n250.\n\nAs I have already noticed modern notions on the influence produced\nby the exhibition of the yoni on those who are suffering, the legend\nreferred to may be shortly described. The goddess, in the story, was\nmiserable in consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen\naway by Pluto. In her agony, snatching two Etna-lighted torches, she\nwanders round the earth in search of the lost one, and in due course\nvisits Eleusis. Baubo receives her hospitably; but nothing that the\nhostess does induces the guest to depose her grief for a moment. In\ndespair the mortal bethinks her of a scheme, shaves off what is called\nin Isaiah \"the hair of the feet\" and then exposes herself to the\ngoddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the denuded spot, is pleased with the\nstrange form of consolation, consents to take food and is restored to\ncomfort.\n\n\n\nFigure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 8, of Lajard's Culte de Venus.\nHe states that it is an impression of a cornelian cylinder, in the\ncollection of the late Sir William Ouseley, and is supposed to represent\nOannes, or Bel and two fish gods, the authors of fecundity. It is\nthought that Dagon of the Philistines resembled the two figures\nsupporting the central one.\n\nFigure 97 is a side view of plate 1. The idol represents a female.\nDagon, the fish god, male above, piscine below, was one of the many\nsymbols of an androgyne creator. In the first of the Avatars of Vishnu,\nhe is represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish\nhimself; the legend being that he was to be the saviour of the world in\na deluge which was to follow. See Moor's Hindu Pantheon, and Coleman's\nMythology of the Hindus.\n\n\n\nFigure 98 is a fancy sketch of the fleur-de-lys, the lily of France.\nIt symbolises the male triad, whilst the ring around it represents\nthe female. The identification of this emblem of the trinity with the\ntripliform Mahadeva, and of the ring with his sacti, may be seen in the\nnext figure.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFigure 99, which we have already given on page 46, is one of great value\nto the inquirer into the signification of certain symbols. It has been\nreintroduced here to show the identification of the eye, fish, or oval\nshape, with the yoni, and of the fleur-de-lys with the lingam, which\nis recognised by the respective positions of the emblems in front of\nparticular parts of the mystic animals, who both, on their part, adore\nthe symbolic palm tree, with its pistil and stamens. The rayed branches\nof the upper part of the tree, and the nearness to it of the crescent\nmoon, seem to indicate that the palm was a solar as well as a sexual\nemblem.\n\n\n\nThe great similarity of the palm tree to the ancient round towers\nin Ireland and elsewhere will naturally strike the observer. He will\nperhaps remember also that on certain occasions dancing, feasting, and\ndebauchery were practised about a round tower in Wicklow, such as were\npractised round the English may-pole, the modern substitute of the\nmystic palm tree. We have now humanised our practice, but we have not\npurified our land of all its veiled symbols.\n\nIn some parts, where probably the palm tree does not flourish, the pine\ntakes its place as an emblem. It was sacred to the mother of the gods,\nwhose names, Rhoea, Ceres, Cybele, are paraphrastic of the yoni. We\nlearn from Araobius, Op. Cit., p. 239, that on fixed days that tree was\nintroduced into the sanctuary of that august personage, being decorated\nby fleeces and violets. It does not require any recondite knowledge to\nunderstand the signification of the entrance of the pine into the temple\nof the divine mother, nor what the tree when buried in the midst of a\nfleece depicts. Those who have heard of the origin of the Spanish Royal\nOrder of the Golden Fleece know that the word is an enphemism for the\nlanugo of the Romans. Parsley round a carrot root is a modern symbol,\nand the violet is as good an emblem of the lingam as the modern pistol.\n\nIt has long been known that the ancient custom of erecting a may-pole,\nsurrounding it with wreaths of flowers, and then dancing round it in\nwild orgy, was a relic of the ancient custom of reverencing the symbol\nof creation, invigorated by the returning spring time, without whose\npowers the flocks and herds would fail to increase. It will not fail to\nattract the notice of my readers, that a pine cone is constantly being\noffered to the sacred \"grove\" by the priests of Assyria.\n\n\n\nFigures 100, 101, represent the Buddhist cross and one of its arms.\nThe first shows the union of four phalli. The single one being a\nconventional form of a well-known organ. This form of cross does not\nessentially differ from the Maltese cross. In the latter, Asher stands\nperpendicularly to Anu and Hea; in the former it is at right angles to\nthem. \"The pistol\" is a well-known name amongst our soldiery, and\nfour such joined together by the muzzle would form the Buddhist cross.\nCompare Figure 37, ante.\n\nFigures 102, 108, 104, indicate the union of the four creators, the\ntrinity and the unity. Not having at hand any copy of an ancient key,\nI have used a modern one; but this makes no essential difference in the\nsymbol.\n\nFigures 105, 106, are copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, plate\nii. They represent ornaments held in the hands of a great female figure,\nsculptured in bas relief on a rock at Yazili Kaia, near to Boghaz Keni,\nin Anatolia, and described by M. C. Texier in 1834. The goddess is\ncrowned with a tower, to indicate virginity; in her right hand she holds\na staff, shown in Figure 106; in the other, that given in Figure 105,\nshe stands upon a lioness, and is attended by an antelope. Figure 105 is\na complicated emblem of the four.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFigures 107, 108, 109, are copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate\nlxxxiii. They represent the lingam and then yoni, which amongst the\nIndians are regarded as holy emblems, much in the same way as a crucifix\nis esteemed by certain modern Christians.\n\n\n\nIn worship, ghee, or oil, or water, is poured over the pillar, and\nallowed to run off by the spout. Sometimes the pillar is adorned by a\nnecklace, and is associated with the serpent emblem. In Lucian's account\nof Alexander, the false prophet, which we have condensed in Ancient\nFaiths, second edition, there is a reference to one of his dupes, who\nwas a distinguished Roman officer, but so very superstitious, or, as he\nwould say of himself, so deeply imbued with religion, that at the sight\nof a stone he would fall prostrate and adore it for a considerable time,\noffering prayers and vows thereto. This may by some be thought quite\nas reasonable as the practice once enforced in Christian Rome, which\nobliged all persons in the street to kneel in reverence when an ugly\nblack doll, called \"the bambino,\" or a bit of bread, over which some\ncabalistic words had been muttered, was being carried in procession past\nthem. Arnobins, Op, Cit., p. 81, says, \"I worshipped images produced\nfrom the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of\nelephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees; whenever I espied an\nanointed stone, and one bedaubed with olive oil, as if some person\nresided in it, I worshipped it, I addressed myself to it, and begged\nblessings from a senseless stock.\" Compare Gen. xxviii. 18, wherein we\nfind that Jacob set up a stone and anointed it with oil, and called the\nplace Bethel, and Is. xxvii. 19, xl. 20, xliv. 10-20.\n\nI copy the following remarks from a paper by Mr. Sellon, in Memoirs of\nthe London Anthropological Society, for 1868-4. Speaking of Hindostan,\nhe remarks, \"As every village has its temple so every temple has its\nLingam, and these parochial Lingams are usually from two to three feet\nin height, and rather broad at the base. Here the village girls, who are\nanxious for lovers or husbands, repair early in the morning. They make\na lustration by sprinkling the god with water brought from the Ganges;\nthey deck the Linga with garlands of the sweet-smelling bilwa flower;\nthey perform the mudra, or gesticulation with the fingers, and, reciting\nthe prescribed mantras, or incantations, they rub themselves against\nthe emblem, and entreat the deity to make them fruitful mothers of\npulee-pullum (i.e., child fruit).\n\n\"This is the celebrated Linga puja, during the performance of which the\npanchaty, or five lamps, must be lighted, and the gantha, or bell, be\nfrequently rung to scare away the evil demons. The mala, or rosary of a\nhundred and eight round beads, is also used in this puja.\"\n\nSee also Moor's Hindu Pantheon, plate xxii, pp. 68, 69, 70. Again, in\nthe Dabistan, a work written in the Persian language, by a travelled\nMahometan, about a. d. 1660, and translated by David Shea, for the\nOriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland (8 vols., 8vo.,\nAllen and Co., Leadenhall Street, London), we read, vol. ii., pp.\n148-160, \"The belief of the Saktian is that Siva, that is, Mahadeva, who\nwith little exception is the highest of deities and the greatest of the\nspirits, has a spouse whom they call Maya Sakti.....With them the power\nof Mahadeva's wife, who is Bhavani, surpasses that of the husband. The\nzealous of this sect worship the Siva Linga, although other Hindoos also\nvenerate it. Linga is called the virile organ, and they say, on\nbehalf of this worship, that as men and all living beings derive their\nexistence from it, adoration is duly bestowed upon it. As the linga of\nMahadeva, so do they venerate the bhaga, that is, the female organ.\nA man very familiar with them gave the information that, according to\ntheir belief, the high altar, or principal place in a mosque of the\nMussulmans, is an emblem of the bhaga. Another man among them said that\nas the just-named place emblems the bhaga, the minar or turret of the\nmosque represents the linga.\" The author then goes on to describe the\npractices of the sect, which may be summed up in the words--the most\nabsolute freedom of love.\n\nApropos of the Mahometan minaret and Christian church towers and spires,\nI may mention that Lucian describes the magnificent temple of the Syrian\ngoddess as having two vast phalli before its main entrance, and how at\ncertain seasons men ascended to their summit, and remained there some\ndays, so as to utter from thence the prayers of the faithful.\n\n\n\nFigures 110, 111, both from Moor, plate lxxxvi., are forms of the argha,\nor sacred sacrificial cup, bowl, or basin, which represent the yoni, and\nsome other things besides. See Moor, Hindu Pantheon, pp. 898, 894.\n\nFigure 112. Copied from Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, vol. i., p. 176,\nsymbolises Ishtar, the Assyrian representative of Devi, Parvati,\nIsis, Astarte, Venus, and Mary. The virgin and child are to be found\neverywhere, even in ancient Mexico.\n\n\n\nFigure 118 is copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, plate xix.,\nfig. 6, and represents the male and female as the sun and moon, thus\nidentifying the symbolic sex of those luminaries. The legend in the\nPehlevi characters has not been interpreted.\n\nFigure 114 is taken from a mediaeval woodcut, lent to me by my friend,\nMr. John Newton, to whom I am indebted for the sight of, and the\nprivilege to copy, many other figures. In it the virgin Mary is seen\nas the Queen of Heaven, nursing her infant, and identified with the\ncrescent moon, the emblem of virginity. Being before the sun, she almost\neclipses its light. Than this, nothing could more completely identify\nthe Christian mother and child with Isis and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno,\nand a host of other pagan goddesses, who have been called 'Queen of\nHeaven,' 'Queen of the Universe' 'Mother of God,' 'Spouse of God,' the\n'Celestial Virgin,' the 'Heavenly Peace Maker,' etc.\n\nFigures 115, 116, are common devices in papal churches and pagan\nsymbolism. They are intended to indicate the sun and moon in\nconjunction, the union of the triad with the unit. I may notice, in\npassing, that Mr. Newton has showed to me some mediaeval woodcuts, in\nwhich the young unmarried women in a mixed assemblage were indicated by\nwearing upon their foreheads a crescent moon.\n\n\n\nFigure 117 is a Buddhist symbol, or rather a copy of Maityna Bodhisatwa,\nfrom the monastery of Gopach, in the valley of Nepaul.\n\n\n\nIt is taken from Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 894.\nThe horse-shoe, like the vesica piscis of the Roman church, indicates\nthe yoni; the last, taken from some cow, mare, or donkey, being used in\neastern parts where we now use their shoes, to keep off the evil eye.\nIt is remarkable that some nations should use the female organ, or an\neffigy thereof, as a charm against ill luck, whilst others adopt the\nmale symbol. In Ireland, as we have previously remarked, a female\nshamelessly exhibiting herself, and called Shelah-na-gig, was to be seen\nin stone over the door of certain churches, within the last century.\n\nFrom the resemblance in the shape of the horse-shoe to the \"grove\" of\nthe Assyrian worshippers, and from the man standing within it as the\nsymbolic pine tree stands in the Mesopotamian, \"Asherah,\" I think we may\nfairly conclude that the Indian, like the Shemitic emblem, typifies the\nunion of the sexes--the androgyne creator.\n\nThat some Buddhists have mingled sexuality with their ideas of religion,\nmay be seen in plate ii. of Emil Schlagintweit's Atlas of Buddhism in\nTibet, wherein Vajarsattva, \"The God above all,\" is represented as a\nmale and female conjoined. Rays, as of the sun, pass from the group;\nand all are enclosed in an ornate oval, or horse-shoe, like that in this\nfigure. Few, however, but the initiated would recognise the nature of\nthe group at first sight.\n\n\n\nI may also notice, in passing, that the goddess Doljang (a.d. 617-98)\nhas the stigmata in her hands and feet, like those assigned to Jesus of\nNazareth and Francis of Assisi.\n\nFigure 118 is a copy of the medal issued to pilgrims at the shrine of\nthe virgin at Loretto. It was lent to me by Mr. Newton, but the engraver\nhas omitted to make the face of the mother and child black, as the most\nancient and renowned ones usually are.\n\nInstead of the explanation given in Ancient Faiths, Vol. ii., p. 262,\nof the adoption of a black skin for Mary and her son, D'Harcanville\nsuggests that it represents night, the period during which the feminine\ncreator is most propitious or attentive to her duties. It is unnecessary\nto contest the point, for almost every symbol has more interpretations\ngiven to it than one. I have sought in vain for even a plausible reason\nfor the blackness of sacred virgins and children, in certain papal\nshrines, which is compatible with decency and Christianity. It is clear\nthat the matter will not bear the light.\n\n\n\nFigure 119 is from Lajard, Op. Cit., plate iii., fig. 8. It represents\nthe sun, moon, and a star, probably Venus.\n\nThe legend is in Phoenician, and may be read LNBRB. Levy, in Siegel und\nGemmen, Breslau, 1869, reads the legend [------], LKBRBO, but does not\nattempt to explain it.\n\nFigure 120 is also from Lajard, plate i., fig. 8. It represents an act\nof worship before the symbols of the male and female creators, arranged\nin three pairs. Above are the heavenly symbols of the sun and moon.\nBelow are the male palm tree, and the barred [------], identical in\nmeaning with the sistrum, i. e., virgo intacta. Next come the male\nemblem, the cone, and the female symbol, the lozenge or yoni.\n\n\n\nFigure 121 represents also a worshipper before the barred female symbol,\nsurmounted by the seven-rayed star, emblem of the male potency, and\nof the sun or the heavens. It will be noticed--and the matter is\nsignificant--that the hand which is raised in adoration is exactly\nopposite the conjunction of the two. Compare this with Fig. 95, where\nthe female alone is the object of reverence.\n\nLajard and others state that homage, such as is here depicted, is\nactually paid in some parts of Palestine and India to the living symbol;\nthe worshipper on bended knees offering to it, la bouche inferieure,\nwith or without a silent prayer, his food before he eats it. A\ncorresponding homage is paid by female devotees to the masculine emblem\nof any very peculiarly holy fakir, one of whose peculiarities is, that\nno amount of excitement stimulates the organ into what may be called\ncreative energy. It has long been a problem how such a state of apathy\nis brought about, but modern observation has proved that it is by the\nhabitual use of weights. Such homage is depicted in Picart's Religious\nCeremonies of all the People in the World, original French edition,\nplate 71.\n\n\n\nFigure 122 is copied from Bryant's Ancient Mythology, third edition,\nvol. iii., p. 193. That author states that he copied it from Spanheim,\nbut gives no other reference. It is apparently from a Greek medal, and\nhas the word CAMIUN as an inscription. It is said to represent Juno,\nSami, or Selenitis, with the sacred peplum. The figure is remarkable\nfor showing the identity of the moon, the lozenge, and the female. It\nis doubtful whether the attitude of the goddess is intended to represent\nthe cross.\n\nAs in religious Symbolism every detail has a signification, we naturally\nspeculate upon the meaning of the beads which fringe the lower part of\nthe diamond-shaped garment. We have noticed in a previous article that\nthe Linga when worshipped was sometimes adorned with beads, which were\nthe fruit of a tree sacred to Mahadeva; in the original of fig. 4, plate\nxi. supra, the four arms of the cross have a series of beads depending\nfrom them. On a very ancient coin of Citium, a rosary of beads, with a\ncross, has been found arranged round a horse-shoe form; and beads\nare common ornaments on Hindoo Divinities. They may only be used for\ndecoration and without religious signification; if they have the last, I\nhave not been able to discover it.\n\n\n\nFigure 128 is a composition taken from Bryant, vol. iv., p. 286. The\nrock, the water, the crescent moon as an ark, and the dove hovering\nover it, are all symbolical; but though the author of it is right in his\ngrouping, it is clear that he is not aware of its full signification.\nThe reader will readily gather their true meaning from our articles upon\nthe Ark and Water, and from our remarks upon the Dove in Ancient Faiths,\nsecond edition.\n\nFigure 124 is copied from Maffei's Gemme Antiche Figurate, vol. 8, plate\nxl. In the original, the figure upon the pillar is very conspicuously\nphallic, and the whole composition indicates what was associated with\nthe worship of Priapus.\n\n\n\nThis so-called god was regarded much in the same light as 'St. Cosmo and\nSt. Damian were at Iseraia, and St. Foutin in Christian France. And it\nis not at all surprising that a church, which has deified or made saints\nof a spear and cloak, under the names Longinus and Amphibolus, should\nalso adopt the \"god of the gardens,\" and consecrate him as an object for\nChristian worship, and give him an appropriate name and emblem. But the\npatron saint of Lampsacus was not really a deity, only a sort of saint,\nwhose business it was to attend to certain parts. The idea of guardian\nangels was once common, see Matt, xviii. 10, where we read, that each\nchild has a guardian in heaven, who looks after his infantile charge. As\nthe pagan Hymen and Lucina attended upon weddings and parturitions,\nso the Christian Cosmo and Damian attended to spouses, and assisted in\nmaking them fruitful. To the last two were offered, by sterile wives,\nwax effigies of the part left out from the nude figure in our plate.\nTo the heathen saint, we see a female votary offer quince leaves,\nequivalent to la feuille de sage, egg-shaped bread, apparently a cake;\nalso an ass's head; whilst her attendant offers a pine cone. This\namongst the Greeks was sacred to Cybele, as it was in Assyria to Astarte\nor Ishtar, the name given there to 'the mother of all saints.' The\nbasket contains apples and phalli, which may have been made of pastry.\nSee Martial's Epigrams, b. xiv. 69. This gem is valuable, inasmuch as it\nassists us to understand the signification of the pine cone offered to\nthe 'grove,' the equivalent of le Verger de Cypris. The pillar and its\nbase are curiously significant, and demonstrate how completely an artist\ncan appear innocent, whilst to the initiated he unveils a mystery.\n\n\n\nFigures 125, 126, 127, are various contrivances for indicating decently\nthat which it was generally thought religious to conceal, la bequile, au\nles instrumens.\n\nFigure 128 represents the same subject; the cuts are grouped iso as to\nshow how the knobbed stick, le baton, becomes converted either into a\nbent rod, la verge, or a priestly crook, le baton pastoral. There is\nno doubt that the episcopal crozier is a presentable effigy of a very\nprivate and once highly venerated portion of the human frame, which was\nused in long by-gone days by Etruscan augurs, when they mapped out\nthe sky, prior to noticing the flight of birds. Perhaps we ought to be\ngrateful to Popery for having consecrated to Christ what was so long\nused in that which divines call the service of the devil.\n\n\n\nFigures 129, 130, 131, are, like the preceding four, copied from various\nantique gems; Fig. 129 represents a steering oar, le timon, and is\nusually held in the hand of good fortune, or as moderns would say \"Saint\nLuck,\" or bonnes fortunes; Fig. 180 is emblematic of Cupid, or Saint\nDesire; it is synonymous with le dard, or la pique; Fig. 131 is a form\nless common in gems; it represents the hammer, le marteau qui frappe\nl'enclume et forge les enfans. The ancients had as many pictorial\neuphemisms as ourselves, and when these are understood they enable us\nto comprehend many a legend otherwise dim; e. g., when Fortuna, or luck,\nalways depicted as a woman, has for her characteristic le timon, and for\nher motto the proverb, \"Fortune favours the bold.\" we readily understand\nthe double entente. The steering oar indicates power, knowledge, skill,\nand bravery in him who wields it; without such a guide, few boats would\nattain a prosperous haven.\n\n\n\nFigure 132 is copied from plate xxix. of Pugin's Glossary of\nEcclesiastical Ornament (Lond., 1868). The plate represents \"a pattern\nfor diapering,\" and is, I presume, thoroughly orthodox. It consists of\nthe double triangle, see Figures 20, 80, 81, 82, pp. 82, 88, the emblems\nof Siva and Parvati, the male and female; of Rimmon the pomegranate, the\nemblem of the womb, which is seen to be full of seed through the \"vesica\npiscis,\" la fente, or la porte de la vie. There are also two new\nmoons, emblems of Venus, or la nature, introduced. The crown above the\npomegranate represents the triad, and the number four; whilst in the\noriginal the group which we copy is surrounded by various forms of the\ntriad, all of which are as characteristic of man as Rimmon is of woman.\nThere are also circles enclosing the triad, analogous to other symbols\ncommon in Hindostan.\n\n\n\nFigure 133 is copied from Moor's Hindu, Pantheon, pi. ix., fig. 8. It\nrepresents Bhavhani, Maia, Devi, Lakshmi, or Kamala, one of the many\nforms given to female nature. She bears in one hand the lotus, emblem of\nself-fructification,--in other similar figures an effigy of the phallus\nis placed,--whilst in the other she holds her infant Krishna, Crishna,\nor Vishnu. Such groups are as common in India as in Italy, in pagan\ntemples as in Christian churches. The idea of the mother and child is\npictured in every ancient country of whose art any remains exist.\n\n\n\nFigure 184 is taken from plate xxiv., fig. 1, of Moor's Hindu Pantheon.\nIt represents a subject often depicted by the Hindoos and the Greeks,\nviz., androgynism, the union of the male and female creators. The\ntechnical word is Arddha-Nari. The male on the right side bears the\nemblems of Siva or Mahadeva, the female on the left those of Parvati or\nSacti. The bull and lioness are emblematic of the masculine and feminine\npowers. The mark on the temple indicates the union of the two; an\naureole is seen around the head, as in modern pictures of saints. In\nthis drawing the Ganges rises from the male, the idea being that the\nstream from Mahadeva is as copious and fertilising as that mighty river.\nThe metaphor here depicted is common in the East, and is precisely the\nsame as that quoted in Num. xxiv. 7, and also from some lost Hebrew\nbook in John vii. 38. It will be noticed, that the Hindoos express\nandrogyneity quite as conspicuously, but generally much less\nindelicately, than the Grecian artists.\n\n\n\nFigure 135 is a common Egyptian emblem, said to signify eternity, but\nin truth it has another meaning. The serpent and the ring indicate l'\nandouille and l' anneau. The tail of the animal, which the mouth appears\nto swallow, is la queue dans la bouche. The symbol resembles the crux\nansata in its signification, and imports that life upon the earth\nis rendered perpetual by means of the union of the sexes. A ring, or\ncircle, is one of the symbols of Venus, who carries indifferently this,\nor the triad emblem of the male. See Maffei's Gemme, vol. iii., page 1,\nplate viii.\n\nFigure 136 is the vesica piscis, or fish's bladder; the emblem of woman\nand of the virgin, as may be seen in the two following woodcuts.\n\n\n\nFigures 137, 138, are copied from an ancient Rosary of the Blessed\nVirgin Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a license from the\nInquisition; the book being lent to me by my friend, Mr. Newton.\nThe first represents the same part as the Assyrian \"grove.\" It may\nappropriately be called the Holy Yoni. The book in question contains\nnumerous figures, all resembling closely the Mesopotamian emblem of\nIshtar. The presence of the woman therein identifies the two as symbolic\nof Isis, or la nature; and a man bowing down in adoration thereof shows\nthe same idea as is depicted in Assyrian sculptures, where males offer\nto the goddess symbols of themselves. Compare Figs. 68, 64, 65, 66, pp.\n48 seq.\n\nIf I had been able to search through the once celebrated Alexandrian\nlibrary, it is doubtful whether I could have found any pictorial\nrepresentation more illustrative of the relationship of certain symbolic\nforms to each other than is Figure 138. A circle of angelic heads,\nforming a sort of sun, having luminous rays outside, and a dove, the\nemblem of Venus, dart a spear (la pique) down upon the earth (la terre),\nor the virgin. This being received, fertility follows.\n\n\n\nIn Grecian story, Ouranos and Ge, or heaven and earth, were the parents\nof creation; and Jupiter came from heaven to impregnate Alcmena. The\nsame mythos prevailed throughout all civilised nations. Christianity\nadopted the idea, merely altering the names of the respective parents,\nand attributed the regeneration of the world to \"holy breath\" and Mary.\nEvery individual, indeed, extraordinarily conspicuous for wisdom, power,\ngoodness, etc., is said to have been begotten on a woman by a celestial\nfather. Within the vesica piscis, artists usually represent the virgin\nherself, with or without the child; in the figure before us the child\ntakes her place. It is difficult to believe that the ecclesiastics who\nsanctioned the publication of such a print could have been as ignorant\nas modern ritualists. It is equally difficult to believe that the\nlatter, if they knew the real meaning of the symbols commonly used by\nthe Roman church, would adopt them.\n\nThe last two figures, symbolic of adoration before divine sexual\nemblems, afford me the opportunity to give a description of a similar\nworship existent in Hindostan at the present time. My authority is H.\nH. Wilson, in Essays on the Religion of the Hindoos, Truebner and Co.,\nLondon. \"The worshippers,\" he remarks, vol. i., p. 240, \"of the Sakti,\nthe power or energy of the divine nature in action, are exceedingly\nnumerous amongst all classes of Hindoos--about three-fourths are of this\nsect, while only a fifth are Vaishnavas and a sixteenth Saivas. This\nactive energy is personified, and the form with which it is invested\ndepends upon the bias of the individuals. The most favourite form is\nthat of Parvati, Bhavani, or Durga, the wife of Siva, or Mahadeva.\"\n\n\"The worship of the female principle, as distinct from the divinity,\nappears to have originated in the literal interpretation of the\nmetaphorical language of the Vedas, in which the will or purpose to\ncreate the universe is represented as originating from the creator, and\nconsistent with him as his bride.\" \"The Samaveda for example, says, the\ncreator felt not delight being alone; he wished another, and caused\nhis own self to fall in twain, and thus became husband and wife. He\napproached her, and thus were human beings produced.\" A sentiment\nor statement which we may notice in passing is very similar to that\npropounded in Genesis, ch. i. 27, and v. 1, 2, respecting Elohim--viz.,\nthat he created man and woman in his own image, i.e., as male and\nfemale, bisexual but united--an androgyne.\n\n\"This female principle goes by innumerable cognomens, inasmuch as every\ngoddess, every nymph, and all women are identified with it. She--the\nprinciple personified--is the mother of all, as Mahadeva, the male\nprinciple, is the father of all.\"\n\n\"The homage rendered to the Sakti may be done before an image of any\ngoddess--Prakriti, Lakshmi, Bhavani, Durga, Maya, Parvati, or Devi--just\nin the same way as Romanists may pray to a local Mary, or any other.\nBut in accordance with the weakness of human nature, there are many who\nconsider it right to pay their devotions to the thing itself rather than\nto an abstraction. In this form of worship six elements are required,\nflesh, fish, wine, women, gesticulations and mantras which consist\nof various unmeaning monosyllabic combinations of letters of great\nimaginary efficacy.\"\n\n\"The ceremonies are mostly gone through in a mixed society, the Sakti\nbeing personified by a naked female, to whom meat and wine are\noffered and then distributed amongst the company. These eat and drink\nalternately with gesticulations and mantras--and when the religious part\nof the business is over, the males and females rush together and\nindulge in a wild orgy. This ceremony is entitled the Sri Chakra or\nPurnabhisheka, the Ring or Full Initiation.\"\n\nIn a note apparently by the editor, Dr. Rost, a full account is given\nin Sanscrit of the Sakti Sodhana, as they are prescribed in the Devi\nRahasya, a section of the Rudra Yamala, so as to prove to his readers\nthat the Sri Chakra is performed under a religious prescription.\n\nWe learn that the woman should be an actress, dancing girl, a courtesan,\nwasherwoman, barber's wife, flower-girl, milk-maid, or a female devotee.\nThe ceremony is to take place at midnight with eight, nine, or eleven\ncouples. At first there are sundry mantras said, then the female is\ndisrobed, but richly ornamented, and is placed on the left of a circle\n(Chakra) described for the purpose, and after sundry gesticulations,\nmantras, and formulas she is purified by being sprinkled over with wine.\nIf a novice, the girl has the radical mantra whispered thrice in her\near. Feasting then follows, lest Venus should languish in the absence of\nCeres and Bacchus, and now, when the veins are full of rich blood, the\nactors are urged to do what desire dictates, but never to be so carried\naway by their zeal as to neglect the holy mantras appropriate to every\nact and to every stage thereof.*\n\n\n     * The above quotations from Wilson's work are selections\n     from his and his Editor's account. In the original the\n     observations extend over eighteen pages, and are too long to\n     be given in their entirety: the parts omitted are of no\n     consequence.\n\n\nIt is natural that such a religion should be popular, especially amongst\nthe young of both sexes.\n\nFigures 139 to 158 are copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon; they are\nsectarial marks in India, and are usually traced on the forehead. Many\nresemble what are known as \"mason's marks,\" i. e., designs found on\ntooled stones, in various ancient edifices, like our own, \"trade marks.\"\nThey are introduced here to illustrate the various designs employed to\nindicate the union of the \"trinity\" with the \"unity,\" and the numerous\nforms representative of \"la nature\" A priori, it appears absurd to\nsuppose that the eye could ever have been symbolical of anything but\nsight; but the mythos of Indra, given in Ancient Faiths, second edition,\nVol. n., p. 649, and p. 7 supra, proves that it has another and a hidden\nmeaning. These figures are alike emblematic of the \"trinity,\" \"the\nvirgin,\" and the \"four.\" Figure 154 is from Pugin, plate v., figure 3.\nIt is the outline of a pectoral ornament worn by some Roman ecclesiastic\nin Italy, a. d. 1400; it represents the Egyptian crux ansata under\nanother form, the T signifying the triad.\n\n\n\nFigures 155, 156, are different forms of the sistrum, one of the emblems\nof Isis. In the latter, the triple bars have one signification, which\nwill readily suggest itself to those who know the meaning of the triad.\nIn the former, the emblem of the trinity, which we have been obliged to\nconventionalise, is shown in a distinct manner. The cross bars indicate\nthat Isis is a virgin. The cat at the top of the instrument indicates\n\"desire,\" Cupid, or Eros. Fig. 155 is copied from plate ix., R. P.\nKnight's Worship of Priapus.\n\nFigure 157 represents the cup and wafer, to be found in the hands of\nmany effigies of papal bishops; they are alike symbolic of the sun and\nmoon, and of the elements in the Eucharist. See Pugin, plate iv., figs.\n5, 6, represents a temple in a conventional form; whilst below, Ceres\nappears seated within a horse-shoe shaped ornament.\n\n\n\n\n\nThis, amongst other symbols, tends to show what we have so frequently\nbefore observed, that the female in creation is characterised by a great\nvariety of designs, of which the succeeding woodcuts give us additional\nevidence.\n\nFigure 159 represents the various forms symbolic of Juno, Isis, Parvati,\nIshtar, Mary, or woman, or the virgin.\n\nFigures 160, 161, 162, are copied from Audsley's Christian Symbolism\n(London, 1868). They are ornaments worn by the Virgin Mary, and\nrepresent her as the crescent moon, conjoined with the cross (in\nFig. 160), with the collar of Isis (in Fig. 161), and with the double\ntriangle (in Fig. 162).\n\n\n\nFigure 163 represents a tortoise. When one sees a resemblance between\nthis creature's head and neck and the linga, one can understand why both\nin India and in Greece the animal should be regarded as sacred to the\ngoddess personifying the female creator, and why in Hindoo myths it is\nsaid to support the world.\n\nIn the British Museum there are three Assyrian obeliscs, all of which\nrepresent, in the most conspicuous way, the phallus, one of which has\nbeen apparently circumcised. The body is occupied with an inscription\nrecording the sale of land, and also a figure of the reigning king,\nwhilst upon the part known as the glans penis are a number of symbols,\nwhich are intended apparently to designate the generative powers in\ncreation. The male is indicated by a serpent, a spear head, a hare, a\ntiara, a cock, and a tortoise. The female appears under precisely the\nsame form as is seen on the head of the Egyptian Isis, Fig. 28. The\ntortoise is to this day a masculine emblem in Japan. See Figs. 174, 175.\n\nBut there is no necessity for the animal itself always to be depicted,\ninasmuch as I have discovered that both in Assyrian and Greek art the\ntortoise is pourtrayed under the figure which resembles somewhat the\nmarkings upon the segments into which the shell is divided. In symbolism\nit is a very common thing for a part to stand for the whole; thus an egg\nis made to do duty for the triad; and a man is sometimes represented by\na spade. A woman is in like manner represented by a comb, or a mirror;\nand a golden fleece typifies in the first place the \"grove,\" which it\novershadows, and the female who possesses both.\n\n\n\nIt has been stated on page 19 supra, that Pausanias mentions having seen\nat some place in Greece one figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and\nanother upon a ram, but he leaves to the ingenious to discover why the\nassociation takes place.\n\nIt was this intimation which led me to identify the tortoise as a male\nsymbol. Any person who has ever watched this creature in repose, and\nseen the action of the head and neck when the quadruped is excited, will\nrecognise why the animal is dear to the goddess of amorous delight, and\nthat which it may remind her of. In like manner, those who are familiar\nwith the ram will know that it is remarkable for persistent and\nexcessive vigour. Like the cat, whose salacity caused it to be honoured\nin Egypt, the ram was in that country also sacred, as the bull was in\nAssyria and Hindostan.\n\nIn fact, everything which in shape, habits, or sound could remind\nmankind of the creators and of the first part of creation was regarded\nwith reverence. Thus tall stones or natural pinnacles of rock, the palm,\npine, and oak trees, the fig tree and the ivy, with their tripliform\nleaves, the mandrake, with its strange human form, the thumb and finger,\nsymbolised Bel, Baal, Asher, or Mahadeva. In like manner a hole in the\nground, a crevice in a rock, a deep cave, the myrtle from the shape of\nits leaf, the fish from its scent, the dolphin and the mullet from their\nnames, the dove from its note, and any umbrageous retreat surrounded\nwith thick bushes, were symbolic of woman.\n\nSo also the sword and sheath, the arrow and target, the spear and\nshield, the plough and furrow, the spade and trench, the pillar by a\nwell, the thumb thrust between the two fore-fingers or grasped by the\nhand, and a host of other things were typical of the union which brings\nabout the formation of a new being.\n\nI cannot help regarding the sexual element as the key which opens almost\nevery lock of symbolism, and however much we may dislike the idea that\nmodern religionists have adopted emblems of an obscene worship,\nwe cannot deny the fact that it is so, and we may hope that with a\nknowledge of their impurity we shall cease to have a faith based upon a\ntrinity and virgin--a lingam and a yoni. Some may cling still to such a\ndoctrine, but to me it is simply horrible--blasphemous and heathenish.\n\n\n\nFigures 164, 165, represent a pagan and Christian cross and trinity. The\nfirst is copied from B. P. Knight (plate x., fig. 1), and represents a\nfigure found on an ancient coin of Apollonia. The second may be seen in\nany of our churches to-day.\n\nFigure 166 is from an old papal book lent to me by Mr. Newton, Missale\nRomanum, illustrated by a monk (Venice, 1509). It represents a confessor\nof the Roman church, who wears the crux ansata, the Egyptian symbol\nof life, the emblem of the four creators, in the place of the usual\npallium.\n\n\n\nIt is remarkable that a Christian church should have adopted so many\npagan symbols as Rome has done. Figure 167 is copied from a small\nbronze figure in the Mayer collection in the Free Museum, Liverpool.\nIt represents the feminine creator holding a well marked lingam in her\nhand, and is this emblematic of the four, or the trinity and the virgin.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFigure 168 represents two Egyptian deities in worship before an emblem\nof the male, which closely resembles an Irish round tower.\n\n\n\nFigure 169 represents the modern pallium worn by Roman priests. It\nrepresents the ancient sistrum of Isis, and the yoni of the Hindoos. It\nis symbolic of the celestial virgin, and the unit in the creative\nfour. When donned by a Christian priest, he resembles the pagan male\nworshippers, who wore a female dress when they ministered before the\naltar or shrine of a goddess. Possibly the Hebrew ephod was of this form\nand nature.\n\nFigure 170 is a copy of an ancient pallium, worn by papal ecclesiastics\nthree or four centuries ago.. It is the old Egyptian symbol described\nabove. Its common name is crux ansata, or the cross with a handle.\n\nFigure 171 is the albe worn by Roman and other ecclesiastics when\nofficiating at mass, etc. It is simply a copy of the chemise ordinarily\nworn by women as an under garment.\n\n\n\nFigure 172 represents the chamble worn by papal hierarchs. It is copied\nfrom Pugin's Glossary, etc. Its form is that of the vesica piscis, one\nof the most common emblems of the yoni. It is adorned by the triad. When\nworn by the priest, he forms the male element, and with the chasuble\ncompletes the sacred four. When worshipping the ancient goddesses, whom\nMary has displaced, the officiating ministers clothed themselves in\nfeminine attire. Hence the use of the chemise, etc. Even the tonsured\nhead, adopted from the priests of the Egyptian Isis, represents \"l'\nanneau;\" so that on head, shoulders, breast and body, we may see on\nChristian priests the relics of the worship of Venus, and the adoration\nof woman! How horrible all this would sound if, instead of using veiled\nlanguage, we had employed vulgar words. The idea of a man adorning\nhimself, when ministering before God and the people, with the effigies\nof those parts which nature as well as civilisation teaches us to\nconceal, would be simply disgusting, but when all is said to be\nmysterious and connected with hidden signification, almost everybody\ntolerates and many eulogise or admire it!\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX: THE ASSYRIAN \"GROVE\" AND OTHER EMBLEMS\n\nBy John Newton, M.R.C.S.\n\nThe study of sacred symbols is as yet in its infancy. It has hitherto\nbeen almost ignored by sacerdotal historians; and thus a rich mine of\nknowledge on the most interesting of all subjects--the history of the\nReligious Idea in man--remains comparatively unexplored. The topic has\na two-fold interest, for it equally applies to the present and the past.\nAs nothing on earth is more conservative than religion, we have still a\nworld of symbolism existing amongst us which is far older than our sects\nand books, our creeds and articles, a relic of a forgotten, pre-historic\npast. Untold ages before writing was invented, it is believed that men\nattempted to express their ideas in visible forms. Yet how can a savage,\nwho is unable to count his fingers up to five, and has no idea of\nabstract number, apart from things, whose habits and thoughts are of the\nearth, earthy, form a conception of the high and holy One who inhabiteth\neternity? Even under the highest forms of ancient civilisation, abundant\nproofs exist that the imagination of men, brooding over the idea of the\nUnseen and the Infinite, were bounded by the things which were presented\nin their daily experience, and which most moved their passions, hopes\nand fears. Through these, then, they attempted to embody such religious\nideas as they felt. They could not teach others without visible symbols\nto assist their conceptions; and emblems were rather crutches for the\nhalting than wings to help the healthy to soar. Mankind in all ages\nhas clung to the visible and tangible. The people care little for the\nabstract and unseen. The Israelites preferred a calf of gold to the\ninvisible Jehovah; and sensuous forms of worship still fascinate the\nmultitude.\n\nWhilst studying a collection of symbols, gathered from many climes and\nages, such as this volume presents, I feel sure that every intelligent\nstudent will have asked himself more than once--Is there not some key\nwhich unlocks these enigmas, some grand idea which runs through them\nall, connecting them like a string of beads? I believe that there is,\nand that it is not far to seek. What do men desire and long for most?\nLife. \"Skin for skin; all that a man hath will he give for his life,\" is\na saying as true now as in the days of Job. \"Give me back my youth, and\nI will give you all I possess,\" was said by the aged Voltaire to his\nphysician. And our poet laureate has sung,\n\n\n     'Tis Life, whereof our nerves are scant,\n     O life, not death, for which we pant;\n     More life, and fuller, that I want.\n\nBut we must add, as necessarily contained in the idea of Life in its\nhighest sense, those things which make Life desirable.\n\nThis fulness of life has been the summum bonum, the highest good, which\nmankind has sighed for in every age and clime. For this the alchemists\ntoiled, not to advance chemistry, but to discover the Elixir of Life and\nthe Philosopher's Stone. But what nature refused to science, the gods,\nit was believed, would surely give to the pious! and the glorious prize\nreferred to has been promised by every religion. \"I am come that they\nmight have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly.\" Life is\nthe reward which has been promised under every system, including that of\nthe founder of Christianity. A Tree of Life stood in the midst of that\nParadise which is described in the book of Genesis; and when the first\nhuman couple disobeyed their Maker's command, they were punished by\nbeing cut off from the perennial fount of vitality, lest they should\neat its fruit and thus live for ever; and in a second Paradise, which is\npromised to the blessed by the author of the book of Revelation, a tree\nof life shall stand once more \"for the healing of the nations.\" To the\ngood man is promised, in the Hebrew Scriptures, long life, prosperity,\nand a numerous offspring. \"Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.\"* Ps.\nciii. 5.\n\nIn the wondrous theology of Ancient Egypt, which at length is open to\nus, the \"Ritual of the Dead\" celebrates the mystical reconstruction of\nthe body of the deceased, whose parts are to be reunited, as those of\nOsiris were by Isis; the trials are recorded through which the deceased\npasses, and by which all remaining stains of corruption are wiped away;\nand the record ends when the defunct is born again glorious, like that\nSun which typified the Egyptian resurrection.**\n\n\n     * St. Paul points oat (Eph. vi. 2) that to only one of the\n     ten commandments is a promise added. And what is the\n     promise? \"That thy days may be long.\" (Exod. xx. 12.) See\n     also Psalm cxxxiii. 3, \"the blessing, even life for\n     evermore.\"\n\n     ** Apuleius, who had been initiated into the mysteries of\n     Isis, informs us that long life was the reward promised to\n     her votaries. (Metam. cap. xi.)\n\nIn the ancient mythology of India, it is recounted that of old the gods\nin council united together to procure, by one supreme effort, the Amrita\ncup of immortality, which, after the success of their scheme, they\npartake of with their worshippers. Even for the Buddhist, his cold,\natheistical creed promises a Nirvana, an escape from the horrors of\nmetempsychosis, a haven of eternal calm, where \"there shall be no more\ndeath, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,\nfor the former things are passed away;\" \"there the weary be at rest.\"\nRev. xxi. 4, Job iii. 17.\n\nThis idea of tranquillity is in striking contrast to the heaven promised\nby the religion of the north of Europe, which was the one most congenial\nto a people whose delight was in conquest and battle. Those who had led\na life of heroism, or perished bravely in fight, ascended to Valhalla;\nand the eternal manhood which awaited them there was to be passed in\nscenes that were rapture to the imagination of a Dane or a Saxon. Every\nday in that abode of bliss was to be spent in furious conflict, in\nthe struggle of armies and the cleaving of shields; but at evening\nthe conflict was to cease; every wound to be suddenly healed. Then the\ncontending warriors were to sit down to a banquet, where, attended by\nlovely maidens, they could feast on the exhaustless flesh of the boar\nSaehrimnir, and drink huge draughts of mead from the skulls of those\nenemies who had not attained to the glories of Valhalla.\n\nThe paradise promised to the faithful by Mahomet is full of sensuous\ndelights. The Arabian prophet dwells with rapture on its gardens and\npalaces, its rivers and bowers. Seventy-two houris, or black-eyed girls,\nrejoicing in beauty and ever-blooming youth, will be created for the\nuse of the meanest believer; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to\na thousand years, and his powers will be increased a hundred-fold to\nrender him worthy of his felicity.\n\nThus we see that in all these great historical faiths the prize held\nout to the true believer has this in common, viz., Life, overflowing,\never-renewed, with the addition of those things which make life\ndesirable for men; whether they are sensuous pleasures, or those which,\nunder the loftier ideal of Christianity, are summed up in Life, both\ntemporal and eternal, in the light of God.\n\nSuch being the case, we might anticipate that the symbols of every\nreligion would reproduce, in some shape or other, the ideal which is\ncommon to all. The earliest and rudest faiths were content with gross\nand simple emblems of life. In the later and more refined forms of\nworship, the ruder types were highly conventionalised, and replaced by a\nmore intricate and less obvious symbolism.\n\nWe proceed now to investigate the more primitive emblems. The origin of\nlife is, even to us, with all our lights, as great a mystery as it was\nto the ancients. To the primitive races of mankind the formation of a\nnew being appeared to be a constant miracle, and men very naturally used\nas tokens of life, and even worshipped, those objects or organs by which\nthe miracle appeared to be wrought. Thus, the glorious sun, that \"god\nof this world,\" the source of life and light to our earth, was early\nadored, and an effigy thereof used as a symbol. Mankind watched with\nrapture its rays gain strength daily in the Spring, until the golden\nglories of Midsummer had arrived, when the earth was bathed during the\nlongest days in his beams, which ripened the fruits that his returning\ncourse had started into life. When the sun once more began its course\ndownwards to the Winter solstice, his votaries sorrowed, for he seemed\nto sicken and grow paler at the advent of December, when his rays\nscarcely reached the earth, and all nature, benumbed and cold, sunk into\na death-like sleep. Hence feasts and fasts were instituted to mark\nthe commencement of the various phases of the solar year, which have\ncontinued from the earliest known period, under various names, to our\nown times.\n\nThe daily disappearance and the subsequent rise of the sun, appeared to\nmany of the ancients as a true resurrection; thus, while the east came\nto be regarded as the source of light and warmth, happiness and glory,\nthe west was associated with darkness and chill, decay and death. This\nled to the common custom of burying the dead so as to face the east when\nthey rose again, and of building temples and shrines with an opening\ntowards the east. To effect this, Vitruvius, two thousand years ago,\ngave precise rules, which are still followed by Christian architects.\n\nSun-worship was spread all over the ancient world. It mingled with other\nfaiths and assumed many forms.* Of the elements, fire was naturally\nchosen as its earthly symbol. A sacred fire, at first miraculously\nkindled, and subsequently kept up by the sedulous care of priests\nor priestesses, formed an important part of the religions of Judea,\nBabylonia, Persia, Greece and Rome, and the superstition lingers amongst\nus still.\n\n\n     * We may point out that, according to all the Gospels,\n     Christ expired towards sunset, and the sun became eclipsed\n     as he was dying. He rose again exactly at daybreak.\n\nSo late as the advent of the Reformation, a sacred fire was kept ever\nburning on a shrine at Kildare, in Ireland, and attended by virgins of\nhigh rank, called \"inghean au dagha,\" or daughters of fire. Every year\nis the ceremony repeated at Jerusalem of the miraculous kindling of the\nHoly Fire at the reputed sepulchre, and men and women crowd to light\ntapers at the sacred flame, which they pass through with a naked body.\nIndeed, solar myths form no unimportant part of ancient mythology. Thus\nthe death of nature in the winter time, through the withdrawal of the\nsun, was supposed to be caused by the mourning of the earth-goddess\nover the sickness and disappearance into the realms of darkness of her\nhusband and mate, the sun.\n\nMr. Fox Talbot has lately given the translation of an Egyptian poem,\nmore than three thousand years old, and having for its subject the\ndescent of Ishtar into Hades. To this region of darkness and death the\ngoddess goes in search of her beloved Osiris, or Tammuz. This Ishtar is\nidentical with the Assyrian female in the celestial quartette, the\nlater Phoenician Astarte, \"The Queen of Heaven with crescent horns,\"\nthe moon-goddess, also with the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus; and the\nEgyptian legend reappears in the west as the mourning of Venus for the\nloss of Adonis.\n\nAgain, the fable of Ceres mourning the death of her daughter Proserpine\nis another sun-myth. The Roman Ceres was the Greek [----------], Mother\nEarth, who through the winter time wanders inconsolable. Persephone,\nher daughter, is the vegetable world, whose seeds or roots lie concealed\nunderground in the darkness of winter. These, when Spring comes with its\nbrightness, bud forth and dwell in the realms of light during a part of\nthe year, and provide ample nourishment for men and animals with their\nfruits. The sun, being the active fructifying cause in nature, was\ngenerally regarded as male. Thus, in the Jewish scriptures, he is\ncompared to \"a bridegroom coming out of his chamber\" (Ps. xix. 5), i.e.,\nas a man full of generative, procreative vigour. The moon and the earth,\nbeing receptive were naturally regarded as female.\n\nAt the vernal equinox, the ancients celebrated the bridal of the sun and\nthe earth. Yet, inasmuch as the orbs of heaven and the face of nature\nremain the same from year to year, and perpetually renew light and life,\nthemselves remaining fresh in vigour and unharmed by age, the ancients\nconceived the bride and mate of the sun-god as continuing ever virgin.\nAgain, as the ancient month was always reckoned by the interval between\none new moon and the next,--an interval which also marks a certain\nrecurring event in women, that ceases at once on the occurrence of\npregnancy,--the lunar crescent became a symbol of virginity, and as such\nadorns the brow of the Greek Artemis and Roman Diana. This was used as\na talisman at a very remote period, and was fixed over the doors of the\nearly lake-dwellers in Switzerland, like the horse-shoe is to modern\nside-posts. With the sun and moon were often associated the five visible\nplanets, forming a sacred seven,--a figure which is continually cropping\nup in religious emblems.\n\nSo much for the great cosmic symbols of Life. But the primitive races\nof mankind found others nearer home, and still more suggestive--the\ngenerative parts in the two sexes, by the union of which all animated\nlife, and mankind, the most interesting of all to human beings,\nappeared to be created. This reverence for, or worship of, the organs of\ngeneration, has been traced to a very early period in the history of the\nhuman race. In a bone-cave recently excavated near Venice, and\nbeneath its ten feet of stalagmite, were found bones of animals, flint\nimplements, a bone needle, and a phallus in baked clay. And if we turn\nto those savage tribes who still reproduce for us the prehistoric past,\nthis form of religious symbolism meets as everywhere. In Dahomey, beyond\nthe Ashantees, it is, according to Captain Barton, most uncomfortably\nprominent. In every street of their settlements are priapic figures.\nThe \"Tree of Life\" is anointed with palm oil, which drips into a pot or\nshard placed below it, and the would-be mother of children prays before\nthe image that the great god Legba would make her fertile.\n\nBurton tells us that he peeped into an Egba temple or lodge, and found\nit a building with three courts, of which the innermost was a sort of\nholy of holies. Its doors had carvings on them of a leopard, a fish, a\nserpent, and a land tortoise. The first two of these are female symbols,\nthe two latter emblems of the male. There were also two rude figures\nrepresenting their god Obatala, the deity of life, who is worshipped\nunder two forms, a male and a female. Opposite to these was the male\nsymbol or phallus, conjoined in coitu with the female emblem. Du Chaillu\nmet with some tribes in Africa who adore the female only. His guide,\nhe informs us, carried a hideous little image of wood with him, and at\nevery meal he would take the little fetish out of his pocket, and pour a\nlibation over its feet before he would drink himself.\n\nWe know that a similar superstition prevailed in Ireland long after\nthe advent of Christianity. There a female, pointing to her symbol,\nwas placed over the portal of many a church as a protector from evil\nspirits; and the elaborate though rude manner in which these figures\nwere sculptured shows that they were considered as objects of great\nimportance. It was the universal practice among the Arabs of Northern\nAfrica to stick up over the door of their house or tent the genital\nparts of a cow, mare, or female camel, as a talisman to avert the\ninfluence of the evil eye. The figure of this organ being less definite\nthan that of the male, it has assumed in symbolism very various forms.\nThe commonest substitution for the part itself has been a horse-shoe,\nwhich is to this day fastened over many of the doors of stables and\nshippons in the country, and was formerly supposed to protect the cattle\nfrom witchcraft. From a lively story by Beroalde de Verville, we learn\nthat in France a sight of the female organ was believed, as late as the\nsixteenth century, to be a powerful charm in curing any disease in, and\nfor prolonging the life of, the fortunate beholder.\n\nAs civilisation advanced, the gross symbols of creative power were cast\naside, and priestly ingenuity was taxed to the utmost in inventing a\ncrowd of less obvious emblems, which should represent the ancient ideas\nin a decorous manner. The old belief was retained, but in a mysterious\nor sublimated form. As symbols of the male, or active element in\ncreation, the sun, light, fire, a torch, the phallus or linga, an erect\nserpent, a tall straight tree, especially the palm and the fir or pine,\nwere adopted. Equally useful for symbolism were a tall upright stone\n(menhir), a cone, a pyramid, a thumb or finger pointed straight, a mast,\na rod, a trident, a narrow bottle or amphora, a bow, an arrow, a\nlance, a horse, a bull, a lion, and many other animals conspicuous for\nmasculine power. As symbols of the female, the passive though fruitful\nelement in creation, the crescent moon, the earth, darkness, water, and\nits emblem a triangle with the apex downwards, \"the yoni,\" a shallow\nvessel or cup for pouring fluid into (cratera), a ring or oval, a\nlozenge, any narrow cleft, either natural or artificial, an arch or\ndoorway, were employed. In the same category of symbols came a ship or\nboat, the female date-palm bearing fruit, a cow with her calf by her\nside, the fish, fruits having many seeds, such as the pomegranate, a\nshell (concha), a cavern, a garden, a fountain, a bower, a rose, a fig,\nand other things of suggestive form, etc.\n\nThese two great classes of conventional symbols were often represented\nin conjunction with each other, and thus symbolised in the highest\ndegree the great source of life, ever originating, ever renewed. The\nEgyptian temple at Denderah has lately been explored by M. Mariette. In\na niche of the Holy of Holies he discovered the sacred secret. This was\nsimply a golden sistrum (see ante, pp. 44 and 70), an emblem formed by\nuniting the female oval O with the male sacred Tau T; and thus identical\nin meaning with the coarse emblem seen by Captain Burton in the African\nidol temple. A similar emblem is the linga standing in the centre of\na yoni, the adoration of which is to this day characteristic of the\nleading dogma of Hindu religion. There is scarcely a temple in India\nwhich has not its lingam; and in numerous instances this symbol is the\nonly form under which the great god Siva is worshipped. (See ante, pp.\n72, 78.)\n\nThe linga is generally a tall, polished, cylindrical, black stone,\napparently inserted into another stone formed like an elongated saucer,\nthough in reality the whole is sculptured out of one block of basalt.\nThe outline of the frame, which reminds us of a Jew's harp (the\nconventional form of the female member), is termed argha or yoni. The\nformer, or round perpendicular stone, the type of the virile organ, is\nthe linga. The entire symbol, to which the name lingyoni is given, is\nalso occasionally called lingam. This representative of the union of the\nsexes typifies the divine sacti, or productive energy, in union with the\nprocreative, generative power seen throughout nature. The earth was the\nprimitive pudendum, or yoni, which is fecundated by the solar heat,\nthe sun, the primitive linga, to whose vivifying rays man and animals,\nplants and the fruits of the earth, owe their being and continued\nexistence. These \"lingas\" vary in size from the tiny amulets worn about\nthe neck, to the great monoliths of the temples. Thus the lingam is an\nemblem of the Creator, the fountain of all life, who is represented in\nHindu mythology as uniting in Himself the two sexes.\n\nAnother symbol, the caduceus, older than Greek and Roman art, in which\nit is associated with Esculapius and Hermes, the gods of health and\nfertility, has precisely the same signification as the sistrum and the\nlingam. This is made clear enough in the following extract from a letter\nby Dr. C. E. Balfour, published in Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship,\n1878. \"I have only once seen living snakes in the form of the Esculapian\nrod. It was at Ahmednuggar, in 1841, on a clear moonlight night. They\ndropped into the garden from the thatched roof of my house, and stood\nerect.\"\n\n\"They were all cobras, and no one could have seen them without at once\nrecognising that they were in congress. Natives of India consider that\nit is most fortunate to witness serpents so engaged, and believe that if\na person can throw a cloth at the pair so as to touch them with it,\nthe material becomes a representative form of Lakshmi,* of the highest\nvirtue, and is preserved as such.\" The serpent, which casts its skin and\nseems to renew its youth every year, has been used from remotest times\nas a living symbol of generative energy, and of immortality; indeed,\nin the most ancient Eastern languages, the name for the serpent also\nsignifies life.** It has been usually worshipped as the Agathodoemon,\nthe god of good fortune, life, and health; though in the\nHebrew scriptures, and elsewhere, we meet with a good and a bad\nserpent--Oriental dualism. The Kakodoemon, however, is usually\nrepresented as winged--the Dragon, as in the following example.\n\n\n     * The consort, or life-giving energy of Vishnu.\n\n     ** As in French, the name for the male organ and for life is\n     the same in sound, though not in spelling or gender.\n\nIn the remarkable Babylonian seal, Plate iv., Fig. 8, the deity is\nrepresented as uniting in himself the male and the female. On each side\nis a serpent, as the emblem of the life flowing from the Creator; that\non the male side, having round his head the solar glory, is compared\nto the sun-god, as the active principle in creation; that on the female\nside, over whose head is the lunar crescent, to the moon- and earth-\ngoddess, the passive principle in creation. Both are attacked by a\nwinged dragon, the kakodoemon, or the evil principle. This is according\nto the ancient Chaldean doctrine of two creations of living beings, the\none good and the other malign. The Chinese still think that an eclipse\nis caused by the efforts of a furious dragon to destroy the sun and\nmoon; and Apollo, the sun-god, destroying the serpent Python, has\nreappeared on our coin as St. George killing the dragon. Even Apollyon\nappears in old paintings with huge wings, like those of a bat.\n\nHaving thus explained what appears to be the key to a wide range of\nreligious symbolism, and shown its application in many cases, we shall\nfurther apply it to unlock the famous object of Assyrian worship.\nSoon after the discoveries of Botta and Layard were published, it was\nconjectured that this strange object, so continually represented as\nbeing adored, might be the asherah of the Hebrew scriptures, translated\n\"grove\" in the English version. How far the view was correct we shall\nnow proceed to examine.\n\nThe religion of the East at a very remote period appears to have been\nthe worship of one God, under several names. The most primitive was\nEl, Il, or Al, = the strong, the mighty one; or its plural Elohim, as\nexpressing His many powers and manifestations. Another name was Baal or\nBel,--the lord, which also had a plural form, Baalim. The first word is\ncontinually used in the Hebrew scriptures, and applied both to the true\nGod and the gods of the nations. Baal is only once thus applied, Hosea\nii. 16; yet Balaam, inspired by God, prophesies from the high places of\nBaal. This name, though so appropriate to the Almighty, became abhorrent\nto the Jews when it was so frequently associated with idolatry, and a\nnew cognomen, or \"the Supreme,\" was adopted by them, viz., Jehovah, =\nthe Eternal, the Ever-Living One, the Creator; see Exod. iii. 14. \"Baal\"\nwas the supreme god of all the great Syro-Phoenician nations, with the\ninsignificant exception of the Jews; and when the latter migrated into\nCanaan they were surrounded on all sides by his worshippers. Towns,\ntemples, men, including even a son of Saul, of David and of Jonathan,\nviz., Eshbaal, Meribbaal, and Beelida, were called after him. As the\nsun-god, Baal-Hammon, Song of Sol. viii. 11; 2 Kings xxiii. 5; he\nwas worshipped on high places, Num. xxii. 41; and an image of the sun\nappeared over his altars, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4. As the generative and\nproductive power, he was worshipped under the form of the phallus,\nBaal-Peor; and youths and maidens, even of high birth, prostituted\nthemselves in his honour or service; Num. xxv.; 2 Kings xxiii. 7. As\nthe creator, he was represented to be of either or of both sexes; and\nArnobius tells us that his worshippers invoked him thus:\n\n\n     \"Hear us, Baal! whether thou be a god or a goddess.\"\n\nThough he is of the masculine gender in the Hebrew, the lord, yet Baal\nis called [------], = the lady, in the Septuagint; Hos. ii. 8; Zeph. i.\n4; and in the New Testament, Romans xi. 4. At the licentious worship\nof this androgyne, or two-sexed god, the men on certain occasions wore\nfemale garments, whilst the women appeared in male attire, brandishing\nweapons. Each of this god's names had a female counterpart; and the\nfeminine form of Baal was Beltis, Ishtar, and Ashtarte. As he was the\nsun-god, she was the moon-goddess. Now, whilst the masculine name (as\nBel or Bal, Baal, Baalim,) appears nearly one hundred times in the\nHebrew Old Testament, the feminine equivalent is only found three times\nin the singular Ashtoreth, and six times in the plural Ashtaroth;\nalways in association with Baal-worship. Knowing, as we do, the immense\ndiffusion of her worship amongst the Babylonians, Assyrians, and\nPhoenicians, this appears strange. There is a word of the feminine\ngender occurring in the Hebrew twenty-four times, viz., Asherah or\nAsharah; plural, Asharth translated in the Septuagint and Latin vulgate,\na tree, or \"grove,\" in which they have been followed by most modern\nversions, including the English. This supplies the void, for Asharah\nmay be regarded as another name for the goddess Ashtoreth, as is plainly\nseen by the following passages: \"They forsook Jehovah and served Baal\nand Ashtoreth;\" Judges ii. 18; whilst in the following chapter we read,\n\"They forgot Jehovah their God, and served the Baalim and the Asharoth;\"\niii. 7. What, then, was the Asharah? It was of wood, and of large size;\nthe Jews were ordered to cut it down; Exod. xxxiv. 18, etc.; and Gideon\noffered a bullock as a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the Asherah.\nOccasionally it was of stone. It was carved or graven as an image; 2\nKings xxi. 7. It often stood close to the altar of Baal; Judges vi. 25\nand 80; 1 Kings xvi. 82, 88; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 8. Usually on high places\nand under shady trees; 1 Kings xiv. 28; Jer. xvii. 2; but one was\nerected in the temple of Jehovah by Manasseh; 2 Kings xxi. 7. It had\npriests; 1 Kings xviii. 19; and its worship was as popular as that of\nBaal; for whilst the priests of \"the Baal\" were four hundred and fifty,\nthose of \"the Asherah\" were four hundred, who ate at the table of Queen\nJezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of Sidon. It was sometimes surrounded\nwith hangings, and was worshipped by both sexes with licentious rites; 2\nKings xxiii. 7; Ezek. xvi. 16. As Baal was associated with sun-worship,\nso was the Asherah with that of the moon; 2 Kings xxi. 8; 2 Chron.\nxxxiv. 4.\n\nBesides these Asheroth, female emblems of Baal, there were Asherim,\nmale emblems of Baal, \"symbolising his generative power\" (Furst, Hebrew\nLexicon), which are mentioned sixteen times in the Hebrew scriptures.\nIt is only found in the plural, and must have been a multiple\nrepresentation of the singular, Asher, which means \"to be firm, strong,\nstraight, prosperous, happy,\" * and cognate with the Phoenician (Osir),\n\"husband,\" \"lord,\" an epithet of Baal.\n\n\n     * The lupanars at Pompeii were distinguished by a sign over\n     the street door, representing the erect phallus, painted or\n     carved, and having the words underneath, \"Hie habitat\n     felicitas.\"\n\nDoubtless this was also identical with the Egyptian Osiris, = the sun,\n= the phallus. He was said to have suffered death like the sun; and\nPlutarch tells us that Isis, unable to discover all the remains of\nher husband, consecrated the phallus as his representative. Thus \"the\nAsharim\" were male symbols used in Baal-worship, and sometimes consisted\nof multiple phalli, of which the branch carried by an Assyrian\npriest, in Plate iii. Fig. 4, is a conventional form. They were then\ncounterparts of the \"multimammia\" of Greek and Roman worship.* This is\nconfirmed by a curious passage, 1 Kings xv. 13 (repeated 2 Chron. xv.\n16). We learn (xiv. 28) that the Jews, under Rehoboam, son of Solomon,\nhaving lapsed into idolatry, had \"built them high places, images, and\nAsharim (\"groves,\" A. V.) on every high hill, and under every green\ntree; and that there were also consecrated ones (\"sodomites,\" A. V.) in\nthe land.\" But Asa, his brother, on succeeding to the throne, swept\naway all these things, and (xv. 18) deposed the queen mother, Maachah,\nbecause she had made a miphletzeth to an Asherah (\"an idol in a grove,\"\nA. V.) miphletzeth, is rendered by the Vulgate \"simulacrum Priapi.\"\nThe word is derived from palatz, \"to be broken,\" \"terrified,\" or the\ncognate, phalash, palash, \"to break or go through,\" \"to open up a way;\"\na word or root found in the Hebrew, Phoenician, Syriac, and Ethiopie.\nDoubtless the Greek [------] phallus, was hence derived, since it has\nno independent meaning in Greek; and Herodotus and Diodorus expressly\nassert that the chief gods of Greece and their mysteries, especially\nthe Dionysiac or Bacchic revels, in which the phallus was carried in\nprocession, were derived from the east. Compare also the Latin pales,\nEnglish pale, pole, = Maypole. A similar word, with a corresponding\nmeaning, exists in the Sanscrit. Thus, then, according to the Hebrew\nscriptures, there were two chief symbols used in the worship of Baal,\none male, the other female.\n\nSee Figs. 15, 16.\n\nWe can now look upon the very symbols themselves, which were so\nused--perhaps the most remarkable in existence. It is well known that\nthe Chaldeans, from whom all other nations derived their religion,\nastronomy, and science, gave the name of Bel or Baal to their chief\ngod. In the most ancient inscription yet deciphered, written in the\nBabylonian and Arcadian languages, a king rules by \"the favour of Bel.\"\nAnother name for Baal is Assur, or Asher, from whom Assyria is named.\nIn the cuneiform inscriptions of Sennacherib, the great king of Assyria,\nNineveh is called \"the city of Bel,\" and \"the city beloved by Ishtar.\"\nIn another inscription he says of the king of Egypt:--\"the terror of\nAshur and Ishtar overcame him and he fled.\" Assurbanipal thus commences\nhis annals \"The great warrior, the delight of Assur and Ishtar, the\nroyal offspring am I.\" In a cuneiform inscription of Nebobelzitri, we\nread:--\"Nineveh the city, the delight of Ishtar, wife of Bel.\" Again,\n\"Beltis, the consort of Bel.\" \"Assur and Beltis, the gods of Assyria.\"\nThus we see that Baal and Bel were identical with Assur, and Ashur.\nDoubtless, then, \"Asherah\" is the last name with the feminine\ntermination (as Ish = man, Ishah=woman), and is identical with Ishtar,\nAshteroth, Astarte and Beltis. The Septuagint has rendered \"Asherah\" by\n\"Astarte,\" in 2 Chron. xv. 16, and the Vulgate by \"Astaroth,\" in Judges\niii. 7. Herodotus described (b.c. 450) the great temple of Belus at\nBabylon, and its seven stages dedicated to the sun, moon, and planets,\non the top of which was the shrine. This contained no statue, but there\nwas a golden couch, upon which a chosen female lay, and was nightly\nvisited by the god. Now, therefore, that the palaces of the Assyrian\nkings, and their \"chambers of imagery,\" have been by great good fortune\nlaid open to us, we might expect to discover the long-lost symbolism of\nBaal-worship. And so we have.\n\nTo commence with the simplest. The (Ashcrim) is seen as the mystic\npalm-tree, the tree of life, Fig. 99; the phallic pillar putting\nforth branches like flames, Fig. 65; and the tree with seven phalloid\nbranches, so common on Assyrian and Babylonian seals, Plate xvii., Fig.\n4. See also the remarkable Syrian medals, Plate xvii., Fig. 2, on which\nis represented Baal as the sun-god, holding the bow, and surrounded by\nphalli.\n\nOr, least conventional of all, the simple phallus, of which there are\ntwo remarkable specimens in the British Museum. Each of these is about\ntwo and a half feet high, and once guarded the bounds of an estate.\nAmong the Greeks and Romans, boundaries were also marked by a phallic\nstatue of Hermes, the god of fertility. These Assyrian emblems have\ndoubtless often been honoured with rural sacrifice. Themselves the most\nexpressive symbol of life, they are also covered with its conventional\nemblems.\n\n\n\nA back view of one is given, Figure 174. The body is mainly occupied\nwith a full length portrait of the great king. For as the Assyrians\nrepresented the Deity, the source of all life, by the phallus, so the\nmonarch was the god of this lower world, the incarnation of God\non earth. He was the source of life to the empire, and as such was\naddressed--\"O king, live for ever\" (Dan. v. 10). He, like the gods,\nnever dies. \"Le Roi est mort; Vive le Roi\" The ensigns of royalty were\nalso those of the creator-god. Accordingly, his garments and crown\nare embroidered with that sacred emblem, the Asherah. He bears the\nstrung-bow and arrows, emblems of virile power, borne afterwards by the\nsun-god Apollo, and the western son of Venus. An erect serpent occupies\nthe other side, and ends with forky tongue near the orifice. The glans\nis covered with symbols. On the summit is a triad of sun emblems;\nbeneath are three altars, over two of which are the glans-shaped caps,\ncovered with bulls' horns, always worn by the Assyrian guardian angels,\nand intense emblems of the male potency. For in ancient symbolism, a\npart of a symbol stands for the whole; as here, the horns represent the\nbull, and the glans the phallus. Above the third altar is a tortoise,\nwhose protruded head and neck reminded the initiated of the phallus; and\nthe altars are covered with a pattern drawn from the tortoise scales. We\nhave, besides, a vase with a rod inserted, emblem of sexual union, and\na cock, with wings and plumage ruffled, running after a hen in amorous\nheat. The glans only of the other is copied.\n\n\n\nFig. 175. At the top are the sun-symbols, as before. Beneath is the\nhorse-shoe-like head-dress of Isis, and there are two altars marked with\nthe tortoise-emblem in front. Over both rises the erect serpent, and\nupon one lies the head of an arrow or a dart, both male symbols. The\nmiphletzeth which Queen Maachah placed in or near the Asherah, probably\nresembled these Assyrian phalli, or the Asherim.\n\nAnd now we come to the Asherah, a much more complex and difficult\nsymbol than any other which we have named. This object has long puzzled\nantiquarians, and though it is continually recurring in the sculptures\nfrom Nineveh, it has not yet been fully explained. In Fig. 176 we see it\nworshipped by human figures, with eagles' heads and wings, who present\nto it the pine-cone, = the testis, and the basket, =the scrotum (?),\nintense emblems of the male creator.\n\n\n\nFig. 177 it is adored by the king and his son or successor, with their\nattendant genii. The kings present towards it a well-known symbol of\nlife and good fortune, the fist with the forefinger extended, or\n\"the phallic hand.\" Here, then, we have evidently the Asherah, or\nAshtaroth-symbol, the female Baal, the life-producer, \"the door\" whence\nlife issues to the world. As such the goddess is here symbolised as an\narched door-way. In the Phonician alphabet, the fourth letter, daleth,\n= a door, has the shape of a tent-door, as on the Moabite stone, A, and\nalso in the Greek [------] But another form, perhaps as ancient, is D,\nwhich, when placed in its proper position, would be [--], the very form\nof the Asherah.* In the plural, this word stands for the labia pudendi,\n[--------], \"because it shut not up the doors of the womb,\" Job iii.\n10.** We infer from Numbers xxv. 6-8, that in the rites of Baal-peor,\nthe Kadeshoth, or women devoted to the god, offered themselves to his\nworshippers each in a peculiar bower or small arched tent, called a\nqubbah. The part also through which Phinehas drove his spear (see Num.\nxxv. 8), the woman's vulva, is also called qobbah, the one word being\nderived from the other, according to Onkelos, Aquila, and others. Qubbah\nmeans, according to Fuerst, Heb. Lex., \"something hollow and arched, an\narched tent, like the Arabic El. Kubba, whence the Spanish Al-cova, and\nour Alcove.\" In the Latin also, the word fornix, a vault, an arch, meant\na brothel, and from it was derived fornicatio. Qubbah is translated by\nthe LXX., kaminos, \"an oven or arched furnace\" (Liddell and Scott); but\nit meant also the female parts. See Herodotus v. 92 (7). Thus, then, the\nAlcove was itself a symbol of woman, as though a place of entrance and\nemergence, and whence new life issues to the world. And when the male\nworshipper of Baal entered to the kadeshah, the living embodiment of\nthe goddess, the analogy to the Asherah became complete, as we shall now\nshow.\n\n\n     * The first letter, Aleph, = an ox, is, even on the Moabite\n     stone, written thus, and has become the modern A. In the\n     earlier hieroglyph it must have been thus V. The Egyptian\n     hieroglyph for ten is Compare the Greek [--] and Latin\n     Decem.\n\n     ** The first of the Orphic Hymns is addressed to the goddess\n     Artemisias (Prothnraia) or the Door-keeper, who presided\n     over childbirths, like the Roman Diana Lucina.\n\nThe central object in the Assyrian \"grove\" is a male date-palm, which\nwas well known as an emblem of Baal, the sun, the phallus, and life.\nThis remarkable tree, Tamar in Phoenician and Hebrew, the phoenix in\nGreek, was formerly abundant in Palestine and the neighbouring regions.\nThe word Phoenicia (Acts xi. 19, xv. 8) is derived from phoinix, as the\ncountry of palms; like the \"Idumeo palmo\" of Virgil. Palmyra, the\ncity of the sun, was called in the Hebrew Tamar (1 Kings ix. 18). In\nVespasian's famous coin, \"Judoa capta,\" Judoa is represented as a female\nsitting under a palm-tree. The tree can at once be identified by its\ntall, straight, branchless stem, of equal thickness throughout, crowned\nat the top with a cluster of long, curved, feather-like branches, and\nby its singularly wrinkled bark. All these characteristics are readily\nrecognised in the highly conventional forms of the religious emblem,\neven in the ornament on the king's robe, fig. 174. The date-palm is\ndioecious, the female trees, which are sometimes used as emblems, being\nalways distinguished by the clusters of date fruit. \"Thy stature is like\nto a palm-tree, thy breasts to clusters\" (Cant. vii. 7). \"The righteous\nshall flourish like the palm-tree\" (Ps. xcii. 12), fruitful and ever\ngreen. \"They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not\" (Jer. x. 8-5).\nThe prophet is evidently describing the making of an Asherah. There was\na Canaanite city called Baal-Tamar, = Baal, the palm-tree, designated\nso, it is probable, from the worship of Baal there \"under the form of\na priapus-column,\" says Fuerst, Heb. Lex. The real form was doubtless an\n\"Asherim,\" a modified palm-tree, as we have already shown. Palm-branches\nhave been used in all ages as emblems of life, peace, and victory. They\nwere strewn before Christ. Palm-Sunday, the feast of palms, is still\nkept. Even within the present century, on this festival, in many towns\nof France, women and children carried in procession at the end of their\npalm-branches a phallus made of bread, which they called, undisguisedly,\n\"la pine,\" whence the festival was called \"La Fete des Pinnes.\" The\n\"pine\" having been blest by the priest, the women carefully preserved\nit during the following year as an amulet. (Dulaure, Hist, des differens\nCultes.)\n\n\n\nAgain, the Greek name for the palm-tree, phoenix, was also the name\nof that mythical Egyptian bird, sacred to Osiris, and a symbol of\nthe resurrection. With some early Christian writers, Christ was \"the\nPhoenix.\" The date-palm is figured as a tree of life on an Egyptian\nsepulchral tablet, older than the Exodus, now preserved in the museum at\nBerlin. Two arms issue from the top of the tree; one of which presents\na tray of dates to the deceased, whilst the other gives him water, \"the\nwater of life.\" The tree of life is represented by a date-palm on some\nof the earliest Christian mosaics at Rome. Something very like the\nAssyrian Asherah, or sacred emblem, was sculptured on the great doors of\nSolomon's temple, by Hiram, the Tyrian (1 Kings vii. 18-21). We read \"he\ncarved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm-trees and open flowers,\nand spread gold upon the cherubims and palm-trees\" (1 Kings vi. 82-35).\nHe also erected two phallic pillars in front of the Temple, Jachin\nand Boaz, = It stands--In strength. No wonder Solomon fell to worship\nAstarte, Chemosh, and Milcom.\n\nAlthough to our modern ideas the mystical tree, symbol of life and\nimmortality, seems out of place in Judaism, yet no sooner did the\nJews possess a national coinage under the Maccabees than the palm-tree\nreappears, always with seven branches (like the golden candlestick, Ex.\nxxv.), as on the shekel represented Plate xvii., Fig. 4. The Assyrian\ntree has always the same number, and the tufts of foliage (symbolising\nthe entire female tree) which deck the margins of the mystic D--apt\nemblems of fertility--have also invariably seven branches. This may\nremind us of the seven visible spheres that move around our earth \"in\nmystic dance,\" and of Balak's offering, upon seven altars, seven bulls\nand seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1; Rev. ii. 1) The mystic door is also\nbarred, like the Egyptian sistrum carried by the priestesses of Isis,\nto represent the inviolable purity and eternal perfection which were\nassociated with the idea of divinity. When Mary, the mother of Jesus,\ntook the place in Christendom of \"the great goddess,\" the dogmas which\npropounded her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity followed as\na matter of course.\n\nThus, then, we explain the greatest symbol in Eastern worship,--it is\nthe \"Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden,\" which has remained so\nlong a mystery. To Dr. Inman belongs the distinguished merit of having\nfirst broken ground in the right direction. In his Ancient Faiths, vol.\n1, 1868, he identified the Assyrian \"Asherah\" with the female \"door of\nlife,\" and pointed out its analogy to the barred sistrum. We have\nseen that it is really much more complex, being precisely analogous in\nmeaning to the famous crux ansata (Fig. 170), the central mystery of\nEgyptian worship; to the lingam or lingyoni of India (Fig. 109), the\ngreat emblem of Siva-worship; and to the caduceus of Greece and Rome. As\nrepresented on the Assyrian sculptures, it is always substantially\nthe same. Probably this stereotyped form was the result of a gradual\nrefinement upon some rude primitive type, perhaps as coarse as that seen\nby Captain Burton in the African idol-temple.\n\nTo exhibit all the strange developments and modifications which this\nidea has assumed in the religious symbolism of Eastern and Western\nnations would require a large volume. But the subject is so rich in\nvaried interest that we cannot conclude without taking a glance at it.\nFirst, the simple O, barred, is reproduced with a contraction towards\nthe base, as in the Indian \"yoni,\" and the Egyptian sistrum, used in\nthe worship of Isis. Second, within the O was represented the goddess\nherself, as revealed within her own symbol. This is illustrated in\nPlate xvii., Fig. 5, where Demeter or Ceres is thus depicted, with\nher cornucopia, from a bronze coin of Damascus. Thirdly, but much more\ncommonly, the goddess holds in her hands emblems of the male potency in\ncreation, and thus completes the symbol. As in the coin figured Plate\nxvii., Fig. 8, the goddess, standing within the O, the portico of her\ntemple, holds in her right hand the cross, that most ancient emblem of\nthe male and of life. In the beautiful Greek coin of Sidon next\nfigured, the goddess--evidently Astarte, the moon-goddess, the Queen of\nHeaven--stands on a ship, the mystic Argha or Ark, holding in one hand a\ncrozier, in the other the cross. (Plate xvii., Fig. 7.)\n\n\n\nUnder Christianity, the Virgin Mary, who, as Queen of Heaven, stands on\nthe crescent moon, is pictured beneath the mystic doorway, with (the God\nas) a male child in her arms. See Plate xviii., copied from the woodcut\ntitle to the Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, printed at Czenna, in old\nPrussia, 1492. Like Isis, she is the mother and yet the spouse of God,\n\"clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet\" (Rev. xii.\n1). The upper half of the picture is very like the Assyrian scenes.\nOn either side is a king, Frederick III. and his son the Emperor\nMaximilian, at their devotions. The alcove is of roses, an emblem of\nvirginity. The famous Mediaeval \"Romaunt de la Rose\" turns upon this.\nAmong the many titles given to \"the Virgin\" in Mediaeval times, we find\nSanta Maria della Rosa, that flower being consecrated to her. Hence it\nis often represented in her hand. Dante writes\n\n\n     \"Here is the Rose,\n     Wherein the Word Divine was made incarnate.\"\n\nIn Plate xviii., the Virgin goddess is seated with the God-child in\na bower, exactly the shape of the Assyrian, composed of fruits highly\nsignificant of sex, as has already been explained. In some Hindoo\npictures, the child is naked, having the member erect, and also making\nthe phallic hand, with the right forefinger erected. (Plate xiv., Fig.\n14.)\n\nIn other conventional forms we have male symbols only within the female\nO. This is a very numerous class. In the Fig. 3, Plate xvii., we see the\nfir-tree or pine take the place of the palm-tree, and in Fig. 6, Plate\nxvii., the cone. On this remarkable medal of Cyprus is a representation\nof the temple of Venus at Paphos, famous even in the days of Homer.\n(Odyss. viii. 862.) The worship of that divinity is said to have been\nimported into Cyprus from the East. The goddess united both sexes in her\nown person, and was served by castrated priests. We see here, within the\ninnermost sanctum of the temple, a cone as emblem of the male; and the\nmeaning is further pointed by the sun-emblem above, inserted within the\ncrescent moon.\n\nLet us next examine how the cone came to be used as a masculine emblem.\nIf we turn to Figs. 174 and 175, it will be seen that the \"glans\" was\nparticularly honoured as the head of the phallus; it was also the part\ndedicated to God by effusion of blood in the rite of circumcision. This\n\"acorn\" is conical or dome-shaped, and thus--a part being taken for the\nwhole--the cone or pyramid was used as a conventional symbol of the male\ncreator. Placed on a stem it is frequently represented as worshipped on\nAssyrian bas reliefs. See Fig. 177. It was also a symbol of fire, the\nsun, and life; as such it formed a fitting monument for the Egyptian\nkings. Our word pyramid is from the Greek puramis, itself derived from\npur, Jire, and puros, wheat, because pyramid-shaped cakes of wheat and\nhoney were used in the Bacchic Fig. 177. rites. It played an important\npart in sun-worship. The emperor Heliogabalus (who, as his name implies,\nhad been a priest of Baal, the sun-god, in Syria,) established the\nSyrian worship at Rome. He himself drove the golden chariot of the sun,\ndrawn by six white horses, through the streets of Rome to a splendid\nnew temple on the Palatine mount, the god being represented by a conical\nblack stone, said to have fallen from heaven; and which the emperor\nremoved from a temple of the sun, at Emesa, in Syria. At a subsequent\nperiod, an image of the moon-goddess, or Astarte, was brought by his\norders from a celebrated fane at Carthage to Rome, and there solemnly\nmarried with licentious rites to the sun-god, amidst general rejoicing.*\n\n\n     * In Astrology, the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus was\n     considered the most fortunate of all; such as kings and\n     princes should be born under.\n\nA curious parallel to these mystic nuptials of the Assyrian god and\ngoddess may be found in some of the religious ceremonies of the modern\nHindoos. Fergusson tells us that \"the most extraordinary buildings\nconnected with Hindu temples are the vast pillared colonnades or\nchoultries. By far their most important application is when used as\nnuptial halls, in which the mystic union of a male and female divinity\nis celebrated once a year.\"\n\nAgain, in Indian mythology, the pyramid plays an important part. It\nbelongs to Siva, = the sun, = fire, = the phallus, = life. By one\ncomplex symbol, very common on ancient Hindoo monuments in China and\nThibet, the universe was thus represented. Notice the upward gradation.\nEarth + water = this globe. The creator-god, whose emblem, flame, mounts\nupwards, is the author and representative of all life upon it; he is the\nconnecting link, united by the crescent moon with heaven. The arrow-\nor spear- head inserted within the crescent is an earth emblem of Siva;\nlike the lingam it typified the divine source of life, and also the\ndoctrine that perfect wisdom was to be found only in the combination of\nthe male and female principles in nature. It decorates the roofs of the\nBuddhist monasteries in Thibet, and like the sacred lotus flower and the\nlinga, both of which became emblems of Buddha, was derived from older\nfaiths. Other interpretations may suggest themselves. This will enable\nus to understand the remarkable sculptures of the second or third\ncentury, from the Amravati Tope, Plate xix., which present so many\npoints in common with the religious symbols of the Chaldeans. In Fig. 2\nwe see a congregation of males and females, the sexes being separated,\nworshipping a linga, or stone conical pillar, on the front of which is\nsculptured the sacred tree, with branches like flames; three symbols of\nlife in one. It rises from a throne, on the seat of which are placed\nthe two emblems of earth and water. In the other figure, the sacred tree\ntakes the place of the linga, rising above the throne, as if from the\ntrisul or trident, male emblems of Siva. Winged figures, Garudas, attend\nit above, floating over the heads of the worshippers. An intrusion of\nthe newer faith is also to be recognised, as the feet of Buddha are\nsculptured before the throne.\n\nIn the mysteries of Mithra, the symbols in Fig. 178 were also employed.\nThey represented the elements to which the soul ought to be successively\nunited in passing through the new birth.\n\n\n\nWe will add but two more emblems, culled from medieval heraldry, Figs.\n179 and 180, in both of which the Asherah, the \"grove\" of Baal-worship,\nwill be at once recognised; the arrow and the cross, symbols of the male\ncreator, taking the place of the mystic palm-tree.\n\nIn all these, from the rudest to the most complex, we are thus able to\ntrace a common idea, viz., a feeling after God, as the Life and Light of\nthe Universe, and an attempt to express a common hope in visible forms.","title":"Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism: With an Essay on Baal Worship, on the Assyrian Sacred \"Grove,\" and Other Allied Symbols","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":43256}