{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_639/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_639","id":"gutenberg_639","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/639","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Gender & Sexuality Studies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Religion","Sex -- Religious aspects","Women and religion"],"text":"Produced by Charles Keller\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOD-IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS\n\nOR SEX IN RELIGION\n\nBy Eliza Burt Gamble\n\n\nAuthor of \"The Evolution of Woman\"\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nMuch of the material for this volume was collected during the time that\nI was preparing for the press the Evolution of Woman, or while searching\nfor data bearing on the subject of sex-specialization. While preparing\nthat book for publication, it was my intention to include within it this\nbranch of my investigation, but wishing to obtain certain facts relative\nto the foundations of religious belief and worship which were not\naccessible at that time, and knowing that considerable labor and\npatience would be required in securing these facts, I decided to publish\nthe first part of the work, withholding for the time being that portion\nof it pertaining especially to the development of the God-idea.\n\nAs mankind construct their own gods, or as the prevailing ideas of\nthe unknowable reflect the inner consciousness of human beings, a\ntrustworthy history of the growth of religions must correspond to the\nprocesses involved in the mental, moral, and social development of the\nindividual and the nation.\n\nBy means of data brought forward in these later times relative to the\ngrowth of the God-idea, it is observed that an independent chain of\nevidence has been produced in support of the facts recently set forth\nbearing upon the development of the two diverging lines of sexual\ndemarcation. In other words, it has been found that sex is the\nfundamental fact not only in the operations of Nature but in the\nconstruction of a god.\n\nIn the Evolution of Woman it has been shown that the peculiar\ninheritance of the two sexes, female and male, is the result of the bias\ngiven to these separate lines of development during the earliest periods\nof sex-differentiation; and, as this division of labor was a necessary\nstep in the evolutionary processes, the rate of progress depended\nlargely on the subsequent adjustment of these two primary elements or\nforces. A comprehensive study of prehistoric records shows that in\nan earlier age of existence upon the earth, at a time when woman's\ninfluence was in the ascendancy over that of man, human energy was\ndirected by the altruistic characters which originated in and have been\ntransmitted through the female; but after the decline of woman's power,\nall human institutions, customs, forms, and habits of thought are seen\nto reflect the egoistic qualities acquired by the male.\n\nNowhere is the influence of sex more plainly manifested than in the\nformulation of religious conceptions and creeds. With the rise of male\npower and dominion, and the corresponding repression of the natural\nfemale instincts, the principles which originally constituted the\nGod-idea gradually gave place to a Deity better suited to the peculiar\nbias which had been given to the male organism. An anthropomorphic god\nlike that of the Jews--a god whose chief attributes are power and virile\nmight--could have had its origin only under a system of masculine rule.\n\nReligion is especially liable to reflect the vagaries and weaknesses\nof human nature; and, as the forms and habits of thought connected with\nworship take a firmer hold on the mental constitution than do those\nbelonging to any other department of human experience, religious\nconceptions should be subjected to frequent and careful examination in\norder to perceive, if possible, the extent to which we are holding on to\nideas which are unsuited to existing conditions.\n\nIn an age when every branch of inquiry is being subjected to reasonable\ncriticism, it would seem that the origin and growth of religion should\nbe investigated from beneath the surface, and that all the facts bearing\nupon it should be brought forward as a contribution to our fund of\ngeneral information. As well might we hope to gain a complete knowledge\nof human history by studying only the present aspect of society, as\nto expect to reach reasonable conclusions respecting the prevailing\nGod-idea by investigating the various creeds and dogmas of existing\nfaiths.\n\nThe object of this volume is not only to furnish a brief outline of\nreligious growth, but to show the effect which each of the two forces,\nfemale and male, has had on the development of our present God-idea,\nwhich investigation serves to accentuate the conclusions arrived at in\nthe Evolution of Woman relative to the inheritance of each of the two\nlines of sexual demarcation.\n\n E.B.G.\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n INTRODUCTION\n\n I.--SEX THE FOUNDATION OF THE GOD-IDEA\n II.--TREE, PLANT, AND FRUIT WORSHIP\n III.--SUN WORSHIP--FEMALE AND MALE ENERGIES IN THE SUN\n IV.--THE DUAL GOD OF THE ANCIENTS A TRINITY ALSO\n V.--SEPARATION OF THE FEMALE AND MAKE ELEMENTS IN THE DEITY\n VI.--CIVILIZATION OF AN ANCIENT RACE\n VII.--CONCEALMENT OF THE EARLY DOCTRINES\n VIII.--THE ORIGINAL GOD-IDEA OF THE ISRAELITES\n IX.--THE PHOENICIAN AND HEBREW GOD SET OR SETH\n X.--ANCIENT SPECULATIONS CONCERNING CREATION\n XI.--FIRE AND PHALLIC WORSHIP\n XII.--AN ATTEMPT TO PURIFY THE SENSUALIZED FAITHS\n XIII.--CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM\n XIV.--CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM--(Continued)\n XV.--CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND\n XVI.--STONES OR COLUMNS AS THE DEITY\n XVII.--SACRIFICES\n XVIII.--THE CROSS AND A DYING SAVIOR\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE GOD-IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\nThrough a study of the primitive god-idea as manifested in monumental\nrecords in various parts of the world; through scientific investigation\ninto the early religious conceptions of mankind as expressed by symbols\nwhich appear in the architecture and decorations of sacred edifices and\nshrines; by means of a careful examination of ancient holy objects and\nplaces still extant in every quarter of the globe, and through the study\nof antique art, it is not unlikely that a line of investigation has\nbeen marked out whereby a tolerably correct knowledge of the processes\ninvolved in our present religious systems may be obtained. The\nnumberless figures and sacred emblems which appear carved in\nimperishable stone in the earliest cave temples; the huge towers,\nmonoliths, and rocking stones found in nearly every country of the\nglobe, and which are known to be closely connected with primitive belief\nand worship, and the records found on tablets which are being unearthed\nin various parts of the world, are, with the unravelling of extinct\ntongues, proving an almost inexhaustible source for obtaining\ninformation bearing upon the early history of the human race, and,\ntogether, furnish indisputable evidence of the origin, development, and\nunity of religious faiths.\n\nBy comparing the languages used by the earlier races to express their\nreligious conceptions; by observing the similarity in the mythoses\nand sacred appellations among all tribes and nations, and through the\ndiscovery of the fact that the legends extant in the various countries\nof the globe are identical, or have the same foundation, it is probable\nthat a clue has already been obtained whereby an outline of the\nreligious history of the human family from a period even as remote as\nthe \"first dispersion,\" or from a time when one race comprehended the\nentire population of the globe, maybe traced. Humboldt in his Researches\nobserves: \"In every part of the globe, on the ridge of the Cordilleras\nas well as in the Isle of Samothrace, in the Aegean Sea, fragments of\nprimitive languages are preserved in religious rites.\"\n\nRegarding the identity of the fundamental ideas contained in the various\nsystems of religion, both past and present, Hargrave Jennings, in\nreferring to a parallel drawn by Sir William Jones, between the deities\nof Meru and Olympus, observes:\n\n\"All our speculations tend to the same conclusions. One day it is a\ndiscovery of cinerary vases, the next, it is etymological research; yet\nagain it is ethnological investigation, and the day after, it is the\npublication of unsuspected tales from the Norse; but all go to heap\nup proof of our consanguinity with the peoples of history--and of an\noriginal general belief, we might add.\"\n\nThat the religious systems of India and Egypt were originally the same,\nthere can be at the present time no reasonable doubt. The fact noted\nby various writers, of the British Sepoys, who, on their overland route\nfrom India, upon beholding the ruins of Dendera, prostrated themselves\nbefore the remains of the ancient temples and offered adoration to\nthem, proves the identity of Indian and Egyptian deities. These foreign\ndevotees, being asked to explain the reason of their strange conduct\ndeclared that they \"saw sculptured before them the gods of their\ncountry.\"\n\nUpon the subject of the identity of Eastern religions, Wilford remarks\nthat one and the same code both of theology and of fabulous history, has\nbeen received through a range or belt about forty degrees broad across\nthe old continent, in a southeast and northwest direction from the\neastern shores of the Malaga peninsula to the western extremity of\nthe British Isles, that, through this immense range the same religious\nnotions reappear in various places under various modifications, as might\nbe expected; and that there is not a greater difference between the\ntenets and worship of the Hindoos and the Greeks than exists between the\nchurches of Home and Geneva.\n\nConcerning the universality of certain religious beliefs and opinions,\nFaber, commenting upon the above statement of Wilford, observes that,\nimmense as is this territorial range, it is by far too limited to\ninclude the entire phenomenon, that the observation\n\n\"applies with equal propriety to the entire habitable globe; for the\narbitrary rites and opinions of every pagan nation bear so close a\nresemblance to each other, that such a coincidence can only have been\nproduced by their having had a common origin. Barbarism itself has not\nbeen able to efface the strong primeval impression. Vestiges of the\nancient general system may be traced in the recently discovered islands\nin the Pacific Ocean; and, when the American world was first opened to\nthe hardy adventurers of Europe, its inhabitants from north to south\nvenerated, with kindred ceremonies and kindred notions, the gods of\nEgypt and Hindostan, of Greece and Italy, of Phoenicia and Britain.\"(1)\n\n\n 1) Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. i.\n\n\n\"Though each religion has its own peculiar growth, the seed from which\nthey spring is everywhere the same.\"(2)\n\n\n 2) Max Muller, Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 48.\n\n\nThe question as to whether the identity of conception and the similarity\nin detail observed in religious rites, ceremonies, and symbols in the\nvarious countries of the globe are due to the universal law of unity\nwhich governs human development, or whether, through the dispersion\nof one original people, the early conceptions of a Deity were spread\nbroadcast over the entire earth, is perhaps not settled; yet, from\nthe facts which have been brought forward during the last century, the\nlatter theory seems altogether probable, such divergence in religious\nideas as is observed among the various peoples of the earth being\nattributable to variations in temperament caused by changed conditions\nof life. In other words, the divergence in the course of religious\ndevelopment has doubtless been due to environment.\n\nIn an attempt to understand the history of the growth of the god-idea,\nthe fact should be borne in mind that, from the earliest conception of\na creative force in the animal and vegetable world to the latest\ndevelopment in theological speculation, there has never been what might\nconsistently be termed a new religion. On the contrary, religion like\neverything else is subject to the law of growth; therefore the faiths of\nto-day are the legitimate result, or outcome, of the primary idea of\na Deity developed in accordance with the laws governing the peculiar\ninstincts which have been in the ascendancy during the life of mankind\non the earth.\n\nThe erroneous impression which under a belief in the unknown has come\nto prevail, namely, that the moral law is the result of religion; or,\nin other words, that the human conscience is in some manner dependent\non supernaturalism for its origin and maintenance, is, with a better\nand clearer understanding of the past history of the development of the\nhuman race, being gradually dispelled. On one point we may reasonably\nrest assured that the knowledge of right and wrong and our sense of\njustice and right-living have been developed quite independently of all\nreligious beliefs. The moral law embodied in the golden rule is not an\noutgrowth of mysticism, or of man's notions of the unknowable; but,\non the contrary, is the result of experience, and was formulated in\nresponse to a recognized law of human necessity,--a law which involves\nthe fundamental principle of progress. The history of human development\nshows conclusively that mankind GREW into the recognition of the moral\nlaw, that through sympathy, or a desire for the welfare of others,--a\ncharacter which had its root in maternal affection,--conscience and the\nmoral sense were evolved.\n\nWhile the moral law and the conscience may not be accounted as in any\nsense the result of man's ideas concerning the unknowable, neither can\nthe errors and weaknesses developed in human nature be regarded as the\nresult of religion. Although the sexual excesses which during three or\nfour thousand years were practiced as sacred rites, and treated as\npart and parcel of religion in various parts of the world, have had the\neffect to stimulate and strengthen the animal nature in man, yet these\nrites may not be accounted as the primary cause of the supremacy of the\nlower nature over the higher faculties. On the contrary, the impulse\nwhich has been termed religion, with all the vagaries which its history\npresents, is to be regarded more as an effect than as a cause. The stage\nof a nation's development regulates its religion. Man creates his own\ngods; they are powerless to change him.\n\nAs written history records only those events in human experience which\nbelong to a comparatively recent period of man's existence, and as the\nprimitive conceptions of a Deity lie buried beneath ages of corruption,\nglimpses of the earlier faiths of mankind, as has already been stated,\nmust be looked for in the traditions, monuments, and languages of\nextinct races.\n\nIn reviewing this matter we shall doubtless observe the fact that if the\nstage of a nation's growth is indicated by its religious conceptions,\nand if remnants of religious beliefs are everywhere present in the\nlanguages, traditions, and monuments of the past through a careful\nstudy of these subjects we may expect to gain a tolerably correct\nunderstanding not alone of the growth of the god-idea but of the\nstage of development reached by the nations which existed prior to the\nbeginning of the historic age. We shall be enabled also to perceive\nwhether or not the course of human development during the intervening\nages has been continuous, or whether, for some cause hitherto\nunexplained, true progress throughout a portion of this time has been\narrested, thus producing a backward movement, or degeneracy.\n\nIf we would unravel the mysteries involved in present religious faiths,\nwe should begin not by attempting to analyze or explain any existing\nsystem or systems of belief and worship. Such a course is likely to end\nnot only in confusion and in a subsequent denial of the existence of the\nreligious nature in mankind, but is liable, also, to create an aversion\nfor and a distrust of the entire subject of religious experience. In\nview of this fact it would appear to be not only useless but exceedingly\nunwise to spend one's time in attempting to gain a knowledge of this\nsubject simply by studying the later developments in its history.\n\nIf we are really desirous of obtaining information regarding present\nreligious phenomena, it is plain that we should adopt the scientific\nmethod and turn our attention to the remote past, where, by careful\nand systematic investigation, we are enabled to perceive the earliest\nconception of a creative force and the fundamental basis of all\nreligious systems, from which may be traced the gradual development of\nthe god-idea.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I. SEX THE FOUNDATION OF THE GOD-IDEA.\n\nIn the study of primitive religion, the analogy existing between the\ngrowth of the god-idea and the development of the human race, and\nespecially of the two sex-principles, is everywhere clearly apparent.\n\n\"Religion is to be found alone with its justification and explanation in\nthe relations of the sexes. There and therein only.\"(3)\n\n\n 3) Hargrave Jennings, Phallicism.\n\n\nAs the conception of a deity originated in sex, or in the creative\nagencies female and male which animate Nature, we may reasonably expect\nto find, in the history of the development of the two sex-principles\nand in the notions entertained concerning them throughout past ages,\na tolerably correct account of the growth of the god-idea. We shall\nperceive that during an earlier age of human existence, not only were\nthe reproductive powers throughout Nature, and especially in human\nbeings and in animals, venerated as the Creator, but we shall find also\nthat the prevailing ideas relative to the importance of either sex in\nthe office of reproduction decided the sex of this universal creative\nforce. We shall observe also that the ideas of a god have always\ncorresponded with the current opinions regarding the importance of\neither sex in human society. In other words, so long as female power\nand influence were in the ascendency, the creative force was regarded\nas embodying the principles of the female nature; later, however, when\nwoman's power waned, and the supremacy of man was gained, the god-idea\nbegan gradually to assume the male characters and attributes.\n\nThrough scientific research the fact has been observed that, for ages\nafter life appeared on the earth, the male had no separate existence;\nthat the two sex-principles, the sperm and the germ, were contained\nwithin one and the same individual. Through the processes of\ndifferentiation, however, these elements became detached, and with the\nseparation of the male from the female, the reproductive functions were\nhenceforth confided to two separate individuals.\n\nAs originally, throughout Nature, the female was the visible organic\nunit within whom was contained the exclusive creative power, and as\nthroughout the earlier ages of life on the earth she comprehended the\nmale, it is not perhaps singular that, even after the appearance of\nmankind on the earth, the greater importance of the mother element in\nhuman society should have been recognized; nor, as the power to bring\nforth coupled with perceptive wisdom originally constituted the Creator,\nthat the god-idea should have been female instead of male.\n\nFrom the facts to be observed in relation to this subject, it is\naltogether probable that for ages the generating principle throughout\nNature was venerated as female; but with that increase of knowledge\nwhich was the result of observation and experience, juster or more\ncorrect ideas came to prevail, and subsequently the great fructifying\nenergy throughout the universe came to be regarded as a dual indivisible\nforce--female and male. This force, or agency, constituted one God,\nwhich, as woman's functions in those ages were accounted of more\nimportance than those of man, was oftener worshipped under the form of a\nfemale figure.\n\nNeith, Minerva, Athene, and Cybele, the most important deities of their\nrespective countries, were adored as Perceptive Wisdom, or Light,\nwhile Ceres and others represented Fertility. With the incoming of male\ndominion and supremacy, however, we observe the desire to annul the\nimportance of the female and to enthrone one all-powerful male god whose\nchief attributes were power and might.\n\nNotwithstanding the efforts which during the historic period have been\nput forward to magnify the importance of the male both in human affairs\nand in the god-idea, still, no one, I think, can study the mythologies\nand traditions of the nations of antiquity without being impressed with\nthe prominence given to the female element, and the deeper the study the\nstronger will this impression grow.\n\nDuring a certain stage of human development, religion was but a\nrecognition of and a reliance upon the vivifying or fructifying forces\nthroughout Nature, and in the earlier ages of man's career, worship\nconsisted for the most part in the celebration of festivals at\nstated seasons of the year, notably during seed-time and harvest, to\ncommemorate the benefits derived from the grain field and vineyard.\n\nDoubtless the first deified object was Gaia, the Earth. As within the\nbosom of the earth was supposed to reside the fructifying, life-giving\npower, and as from it were received all the bounties of life, it was\nfemale. It was the Universal Mother, and to her as to no other divinity\nworshipped by mankind, was offered a spontaneity of devotion and a\nwilling acknowledgment of dependence. Thus far in the history of mankind\nno temples dedicated to an undefined and undefinable God had been\nraised. The children of Mother Earth met in the open air, without the\nprecincts of any man-made shrine, and under the aerial canopy of heaven,\nacknowledged the bounties of the great Deity and their dependence upon\nher gifts. She was a beneficent and all-wise God, a tender and loving\nparent--a mother, who demanded no bleeding sacrifice to reconcile her to\nher children. The ceremonies observed at these festive seasons consisted\nfor the most part in merry-making and in general thanksgiving, in which\nthe gratitude of the worshippers found expression in song and dance, and\nin invocations to their Deity for a return or continuance of her gifts.\n\nSubsequently, through the awe and reverence inspired by the mysteries\ninvolved in birth and life, the adoration of the creative principles in\nvegetable existence became supplemented by the worship of the creative\nfunctions in human beings and in animals. The earth, including the power\ninherent in it by which the continuity of existence is maintained, and\nby which new forms are continuously called into life, embodied the idea\nof God; and, as this inner force was regarded as inherent in matter, or\nas a manifestation of it, in process of time earth and the heavens, body\nand spirit, came to be worshipped under the form of a mother and her\nchild, this figure being the highest expression of a Creator which the\nhuman mind was able to conceive. Not only did this emblem represent\nfertility, or the fecundating energies of Nature, but with the power\nto create were combined or correlated all the mental qualities and\nattributes of the two sexes. In fact the whole universe was contained in\nthe Mother idea--the child, which was sometimes female, sometimes male,\nbeing a scion or offshoot from the eternal or universal unit.\n\nUnderlying all ancient mythologies may be observed the idea that the\nearth, from which all things proceed, is female. Even in the mythology\nof the Finns, Lapps, and Esths, Mother Earth is the divinity adored.\nTylor calls attention to the same idea in the mythology of England,\n\n\"from the days when the Anglo-Saxon called upon the Earth, 'Hal wes thu\nfolde fira modor' (Hail, thou Earth, men's mother), to the time when\nmediaeval Englishmen made a riddle of her asking 'Who is Adam's mother?'\nand poetry continued what mythology was letting fall, when Milton's\nArchangel promised Adam a life to last\n\n '... till like ripe fruit thou drop\n Into thy Mother's lap.' \"(4)\n\n\n\n 4) Primitive Culture, vol. i., p. 295.\n\n\nIn the old religion the sky was the husband of the earth and the earth\nwas mother of all the gods.(5) In the traditions of past ages the fact\nis clearly perceived that there was a time when the mother was not only\nthe one recognized parent on earth, but that the female principle was\nworshipped as the more important creative force throughout Nature.\n\n\n 5) Max Muller, Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 279.\n\n\nDoubtless the worship of the female energy prevailed under the\nmatriarchal system, and was practised at a time when women were the\nrecognized heads of families and when they were regarded as the more\nimportant factors in human society. The fact has been shown in a\nprevious work that after women began to leave their homes at marriage,\nand after property, especially land, had fallen under the supervision\nand control of men, the latter, as they manipulated all the necessaries\nof life and the means of supplying them, began to regard themselves as\nsuperior beings, and later, to claim that as a factor in reproduction,\nor creation, the male was the more important. With this change the ideas\nof a Deity also began to undergo a modification. The dual principle\nnecessary to creation, and which had hitherto been worshipped as an\nindivisible unity, began gradually to separate into its individual\nelements, the male representing spirit, the moving or forming force\nin the generative processes, the female being matter--the instrument\nthrough which spirit works. Spirit which is eternal had produced matter\nwhich is destructible. The fact will be observed that this doctrine\nprevails to a greater or less extent in the theologies of the present\ntime.\n\nA little observation and reflection will show us that during this change\nin the ideas relative to a creative principle, or God, descent and the\nrights of succession which had hitherto been reckoned through the mother\nwere changed from the female to the male line, the father having in\nthe meantime become the only recognized parent. In the Eumenides of\nAeschylus, the plea of Orestes in extenuation of his crime is that he is\nnot of kin to his mother. Euripides, also, puts into the mouth of Apollo\nthe same physiological notion, that she who bears the child is only\nits nurse. The Hindoo Code of Menu, which, however, since its earliest\nconception, has undergone numberless mutilations to suit the purposes\nof the priests, declares that \"the mother is but the field which brings\nforth the plant according to whatsoever seed is sown.\"\n\nAlthough, through the accumulation of property in masses and the capture\nof women for wives, men had succeeded in gaining the ascendancy, and\nalthough the doctrine had been propounded that the father is the only\nparent, thereby reversing the established manner of reckoning descent,\nstill, as we shall hereafter observe, thousands of years were required\nto eliminate the female element from the god-idea.\n\nWe must not lose sight of the fact that human society was first\norganized and held together by means of the gens, at the head of which\nwas a woman. The several members of this organization were but parts of\none body cemented together by the pure principle of maternity, the chief\nduty of these members being to defend and protect each other if needs be\nwith their life blood. The fact has been observed, in an earlier work,\nthat only through the gens was the organization of society possible.\nWithout it mankind could have accomplished nothing toward its own\nadvancement.\n\nThus, throughout the earlier ages of human existence, at a time when\nmankind lived nearer to Nature and before individual wealth and the\nstimulation of evil passions had engendered superstition, selfishness,\nand distrust, the maternal element constituted not only the binding and\npreserving principle in human society, but, together with the power to\nbring forth, constituted also the god-idea, which idea, as has already\nbeen observed, at a certain stage in the history of the race was\nportrayed by a female figure with a child in her arms.\n\nFrom all sources of information at hand are to be derived evidences of\nthe fact that the earliest religion of which we have any account was\npure Nature-worship, that whatever at any given time might have been the\nobject adored, whether it were the earth, a tree, water, or the sun, it\nwas simply as an emblem of the great energizing agency in Nature. The\nmoving or forming force in the universe constituted the god-idea. The\nfigure of a mother with her child signified not only the power to bring\nforth, but Perceptive Wisdom, or Light, as well.\n\nAs through a study of Comparative Ethnology, or through an investigation\ninto the customs, traditions, and mythoses of extant races in the\nvarious stages of development, have been discovered the beginnings of\nthe religious idea and the mental qualities which among primitive races\nprompted worship, so, also, through extinct tongues and the symbolism\nused in religious rites and ceremonies, many of the processes have been\nunearthed whereby the original and beautiful conceptions of the Deity,\nand the worship inspired by the operations of Nature, and especially\nthe creative functions in human beings gradually became obscured by the\ngrossest ideas and the vilest practices. The symbols which appear in\nconnection with early religious rites and ceremonies, and under which\nare veiled the conceptions of a still earlier and purer age, when\ncompared with subsequently developed notions relative to the same\nobjects, indicate plainly the change which has been wrought in the\noriginal ideas relative to the creative functions, and furnish an index\nto the direction which human development, or growth, has taken.\n\nAs the human race constructs its own gods, and as by the conceptions\ninvolved in the deities worshipped at any given time in the history\nof mankind we are able to form a correct estimate of the character,\ntemperament, and aspirations of the worshippers, so the history of\nthe gods of the race, as revealed to us through the means of symbols,\nmonumental records, and the investigation of extinct tongues, proves\nthat from a stage of Nature worship and a pure and rational conception\nof the creative forces in the universe, mankind, in course of time,\ndegenerated into mere devotees of sensual pleasure. With the corruption\nof human nature and the decline of mental power which followed the\nsupremacy of the animal instincts, the earlier abstract idea of God was\ngradually lost sight of, and man himself in the form of a potentate\nor ruler, together with the various emblems of virility, came to\nbe worshipped as the Creator. From adorers of an abstract creative\nprinciple, mankind had lapsed into worshippers of the symbols under\nwhich this principle had been veiled.\n\nAlthough at certain stages in the history of the human race the evils,\nwhich as a result of the supremacy of the ruder elements developed in\nmankind had befallen the race were lamented and bewailed, they could not\nbe suppressed. Man had become a lost and ruined creature. The golden age\nhad passed away.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II. TREE, PLANT, AND FRUIT WORSHIP.\n\nWhen mankind first began to perceive the fact of an all-pervading agency\nthroughout Nature, by or through which everything is produced, and when\nthey began to speculate on the origin of life and the final cause\nand destiny of things, it is not in the least remarkable that various\nobjects and elements, such as fire, air, water, trees, etc., should in\ntheir turn have been venerated as in some special manner embodying the\ndivine essence. Neither is it surprising although this universal agency\nwas regarded as one, or as a dual entity, they should have recognized\nits manifold expressions or manifestations.\n\nTo primitive man, the visible sources whence proceeded his daily\nsustenance doubtless constituted the first objects of his regard and\nadoration. Hence, in addition to the homage paid to the earth, in due\ncourse of time would be added the worship of trees, upon which the\nearly race was directly dependent for food. At a time when the art of\nagriculture had not been attained, all such trees as yielded their\nfruit for the support of the human race, and which afforded to mankind\npleasant beverages or cooling shade, would come to be regarded as\nembodying the universal beneficent principle--the great creating\nand preserving agency of Nature, and therefore as proper objects of\nveneration.\n\nAccording to the Phoenician theogony, \"the first gods which were\nworshipped by oblations and sacrifices were the fruits of the earth, on\nwhich they and their descendants lived as their forefathers had done.\"\n\nAlthough, after the art of agriculture had been developed, mankind was\ngradually relieved from its past dependence on the tree as a means of\nsupport, it nevertheless continued to be regarded with veneration as an\nemblem of creative power or of productive energy.\n\nAmong the traditions and monuments of nearly every country of the globe\nare to be found traces of a sacred tree--a Tree of Life. In various\ncountries there appear two traditional trees, the one typical of the\ncontinuation of physical life, the other representing spiritual life, or\nthe life of the soul. After the age of pure Nature-worship had passed,\nhowever, and serpent, fire, and phallic faiths had been introduced, the\noriginal signification of the tree, like that of all other religious\nemblems, became considerably changed. Through its energies, or\nlife-giving properties, existence had long been maintained, and for this\nreason, as has already been observed, it became an object of veneration;\nbut, after the reproductive power in man had risen to the dignity of a\nsupreme God, the tree, to the masses of the people, became a symbol of\nthe physical, life-giving energy in mortals and in animals. In other\nwords, it became a phallic emblem representing the continuation of\nexistence, or the power to reproduce or continue life on the earth. As a\nreligious symbol it became the traditional Tree of Life.\n\nThe tree, like nearly every other object in nature, was and still is,\nin various parts of the world, either female or male, and all ideas\nconnected with it are sacred and closely interwoven with sex.\n\nThe extent to which trees have been venerated in past ages seems to be\nlittle understood, and there are doubtless few persons, at the present\ntime, who would willingly believe that all along the religious stream,\nfrom its source to its latest developed branches, are to be observed\ntraces of this ancient worship, which, in its earliest stages, was\nsimply a recognition of Nature's bounties.\n\nBarlow, in his work on Symbolism, says that \"the most generally received\nsymbol of life is a tree--as also the most appropriate.\"\n\nAgain the same writer observes: \"Besides the monumental evidence thus\nfurnished of a sacred tree, or Tree of Life, there is an historical and\ntraditional evidence of the same thing, found in the early literature\nof various nations, in the customs, and popular usages.\"(6) As tree-\nand sun-worship, or the adoration of Nature's processes, finally became\ninterwoven with phallic faiths, its history can be understood only after\nthese later developments in the religious stream have been examined, or\nafter the true significance of the serpent as a religious emblem, and\nthe various ideas connected with the traditional Tree of Life, have been\nexposed.\n\n\n 6) Essays on Symbolism, p. 84.\n\n\nThe palm, the pine, the oak, the banian, or bo, and many other species\nof trees, have, at different times, and by various nations, been\ninvested with divine honors; but, in oriental countries, by far the most\nsacred among them is the Ficus Religiosa, or the holy bo tree of India.\nSomething of the true significance of the traditional Tree of Life may\nbe observed in the ideas connected with the worship of this emblem. The\nfig, when planted with the palm, as it frequently is in the East, near\ntemples and holy shrines, is regarded as a peculiarly sacred object.\nWhen entwining the palm, which is male, it is always female; from\ntheir embrace Kalpia, or passion, is developed. This union causes the\ncontinuation of existence and the \"revolutions of time.\" The whole\nconstitutes the Tree of Life.\n\nIn Ceylon, there stands at the present time a tree which we are told\nis still worshipped by every follower of Buddha. It is a sacred bo, or\nFicus Religiosa, which stands adjacent to an ancient holy shrine known\nas the Brazen Monastery, now in ruins. Of this tree Forlong remarks:\n\n\"Though now amidst ruins and wild forests, and although having stood\nthus in solitary desolation for some 1500 years, yet there it still\ngrows, and is worshipped and deeply revered by more millions of our race\nthan any other god, prophet, or idol, which the world has ever seen.\"(7)\n\n\n 7) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 35.\n\n\nThis tree is sacred to Sakyu Mooni, is 2200 years old, and is said to be\na slip from a tree planted by Bood Gaya, one of the three former Buddhas\nwho, like Sakyu Mooni, visited Ceylon. Under the parent of this tree the\ngreat prophet reposed after he had attained perfect rest, or after he\nhad overcome the flesh and become Buddha. It was under a bo tree that\nMai, Queen of Heaven, brought him forth, and, in fact, very many of the\nmost important incidents of his life are closely connected with this\nsacred emblem.\n\nIn an allusion to the bo tree of Ceylon, a slip of which is said to have\nbeen carried from India to that island by a certain priestess in the\nyear 307 B.C., Forlong observes:\n\n\"This wonderful idol has furnished shoots to half Asia, and every shoot\nis trained as much as possible like the parent, and like it, also,\nenclosed and tended. Men watch and listen for signs and sounds from this\nholy tree just as the priests of Dodona did beneath their rustling oaks,\nand, as many people, even of these somewhat sceptical days, still do,\nbeneath the pulpits of their pope, priest, or other oracle.\"(8)\n\n\n 8) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p, 36.\n\n\nThe sacred Ficus is worshipped in India and in many of the Polynesian\nislands.\n\nRegarding the palm, Inman assures us that it is emblematical of the\nactive male energy, or the continuation of existence.(9)\n\n\n 9) Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii., p. 448.\n\n\nWithin the legends underlying the Jewish religion, it will be remembered\nthat the tree appears mysteriously connected with the beginning of life\nand is interwoven with the first ideas of human action and experience.\nThe literal sense, however, of the allegory in Genesis concerning the\nwoman, the tree, and the serpent, and its meaning as generally accepted\nby laymen and the uneducated among the priesthood, has little in common\nwith its true significance as understood by the initiated.\n\nIn Vedic times, the home tree was worshipped as a god, and to the\nexhilarating properties in its juice was ascribed that subtle quality\nwhich was regarded as the life-giving, or creative, energy supposed\nto reside in heat, and which was closely connected with passion or\nprocreative energy. This quality was their Bacchus, Dionysos, or\ngod-idea--the creator not alone of physical existence, but of good and\nevil as well. It was the Destroyer, yet the Regenerator, of life.\n\nOf the Zoroastrian home, or sacred tree, which by the Persians was\nworshipped for thousands of years, Layard remarks: \"The plant or its\nproduct was called the mystical body of God, the living water or food\nof eternal life, when duly consecrated and administered according to\nZoroastrian rites.\" It has been suggested, and not without reason, that\nto this idea of the ancients, respecting the sacred character of\nthe properties of the home juice, may be traced the \"origin of the\ncelebration of Jewish holy or paschal suppers and other eucharistic\nrites.\"\n\nAlthough by the ancients water was sometimes regarded as the original\nprinciple, later, wine, or the intoxicating quality within it, came to\nconstitute the god-idea. It was spirit, while water was matter; hence,\nin the sacraments, water and wine were commingled, wine representing\nthe essence or blood of God; water, at the same time, standing for the\npeople. Cyprian, the bishop martyr, while contending for the use of\nwine in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, makes use of the following\nargument:\n\n\"The Holy Spirit also is not silent in the Psalms on the sacrament\nof this thing, when He makes mention of the Lord's Cup, and says 'Thy\nintoxicating cup how excellent it is!' Now the cup which intoxicates is\nassuredly mingled with wine, for water cannot intoxicate anybody. And\nthe Cup of the Lord in such wise inebriates, as Noe also was intoxicated\ndrinking wine in Genesis. ... For because Christ bore us all, in that he\nalso bore our sins, we see that in the water is understood the people,\nbut in the wine is showed the blood of Christ.... Thus, therefore, in\nconsecrating the Cup of the Lord, water alone cannot be offered, even as\nwine alone cannot be offered. For if anyone offer wine only, the blood\nof Christ is dissociated from us; but if the water be alone, the people\nare dissociated from Christ.\"(10)\n\n\n 10) Epistles of Cyprian, vol. i., pp. 215-217.\n\n\nThe Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, at which wine is mysteriously\nconverted into the essence of Deity, or into the blood of Christ, is\nwithout doubt a relic of the idea once entertained regarding the homa\ntree. Certain writers entertain the opinion that from the use of the\nsacred homa juice have arisen various religious practices and rites,\nsuch for instance as offering oblations to the gods, anointing holy\nstones, and pouring wine on sacred hills, also the custom of pledging\noaths over glasses of wine.\n\nThe May pole, a decidedly phallic emblem, whose festivals until a very\nrecent time were celebrated in England by the old as well as the young,\nwas usually if not always sprinkled with wine. From the accounts which\nwe have of this sacred emblem and its festival, it seems that no royal\nedict nor priestly denunciation was sufficient to expel it from the\ncountry.\n\nAccording to Dr. Stevenson, the festival of Holi or the worship of\nHolika Devata, in the island of Ceylon, \"has a close resemblance to\nthe English festival of the May-pole, which originated in a religious\nceremony or festival of the Cushites (called Phoenicians) who anciently\noccupied Western Europe.\"(11)\n\n\n 11) Quoted by Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 223.\n\n\nThe ash is the Scandinavian Tree of Life, and, like the sacred trees of\nall nations, is emblematical of the continuation of existence. This tree\nhas a triple root, which peculiarity doubtless accounts for its sacred\ncharacter. It is both female and male, and is said to be regarded as a\n\"sort of Logos or Wisdom.\" It is the first emanation from the Deity, and\nyet a Trinity in Unity. To insult or injure this tree was sacrilege, to\ncut it down was an offense punishable with death.\n\nIn the old Egyptian and Zoroastrian story, appear the descriptions of\ntwo Trees of Life, also a Tree of Knowledge. In the accounts given of\nthese trees, the Ficus, the female Tree of Life, represents the life\nof the soul, while the palm, the male Tree of Life, is that which gives\nphysical life, which also is the true significance of the word \"lord.\"\nWhen, however, either of these trees stood alone, or unaccompanied by\nits counterpart, by it both of the creative principles were understood.\nBy these ideas is suggested the thought which among a certain school of\npsychologists of the present century seems to be gaining ground, namely:\nthat man is a dual entity, or, in other words, that he has a subjective\nmind and an objective self, which so long as this life endures must\nco-operate or work together.\n\nIn the following descriptions of Egyptian emblems, will be perceived\nsome of the changes which finally took place relative to the idea of sex\nin the god-idea.\n\nIn the museum of Egyptian antiquities in Berlin is a sepulchral tablet\nrepresenting the Tree of Life. This emblem figures the trunk of a tree,\nfrom the top of which emerges the bust of a woman--Netpe. She is the\ngoddess of heavenly existence, and is administering to the deceased the\nwater and the bread of life, the latter of which is represented by a\nsubstance in the form of cakes or rolls. The time at which this tablet\nwas found is not known, but it is supposed to belong to the period of\nthe XIXth dynasty, or about the time of Rameses II., 1400 years B.C.\n\nThere is also in the Berlin museum another representation of the\nEgyptian Tree of Life, in which the trunk has given place to the entire\nbody of a woman. This, also, is Netpe, who is still spiritual wisdom\nor the maternal principle. We are informed by Forlong that Diana was\nworshipped by the Amazons under a sacred tree.(12) From this symbol\nthe tree, which grew first into the figure of a divine woman, and later\nassumed the form of a divine man, arose the emblem of the cross.\n\n\n 12) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 70.\n\n\nOn the Nineveh tablets is pictured a Tree of Life which is surrounded\nby winged spirits, bearing in their hands the pine cone, a symbol\nindicating life, and which is said to have the same significance as the\ncrux-ansata, or cross, among the Egyptians.\n\nIn later ages, the Tree of Life, i. e., the divine man, or cross, or\nboth together, furnish immortal food to those who lay hold upon them,\nexactly in the same manner as did Netpe, the goddess of wisdom, or\nspiritual life, in former times. According to the testimony of Barlow,\nthis is the subject \"most frequently symbolized on early Christian\nsepulchral tablets and monuments.\"(13) Christ's body was the \"bread of\nlife,\" and his blood was the \"wine from the Tree of Life,\" of which\nto partake was life eternal. The cross, as in earlier religions,\nrepresented completeness of life. The jambu tree, the Buddhist god-tree,\nis in the shape of a cross.(14)\n\n\n 13) Essays on Symbolism, p. 74.\n\n\n 14) Wilford, Asiatic Researches.\n\n\nAmong the Kelti a tall oak was not only a symbol of the Deity, but it\nwas Jupiter himself, while the earth from which it sprang was the Great\nMother. Throughout Europe, in all ages, the oak has received divine\nhonors. The fact that under its branches Jew, Pagan, and Christian\nalike swore their most solemn oaths, shows that its veneration was not\nconfined to any particular nation or locality.\n\nThe sacredness of the oak among the Druids is well attested by all\nwriters who have dealt with this interesting people. In Rome its\nbranches formed the badge of victory worn by conquering heroes, this\nemblem being the highest mark of distinction which could be conferred\nupon them.\n\nForlong assures us that the oak was even more worshipped at the West\nthan was the sacred Ficus at the East. Like it, the wood of the oak must\nbe used\n\n\"to call down the sacred fire from Heaven and gladden in the yule (Suiel\nor Seul) log of Christmas-tide even Christian fires, as well as annually\nrenew with fire direct from Ba-al, on Beltine day, the sacred flame on\nevery public and private hearth, and this from the temples of Meroe\non the Nile, to the farthest icy forests and mountains of the\nSklavonian.\"(15)\n\n\n 15) Faiths of Man in All Lands, vol. i., p. 68.\n\n\nAmong the Druids, the mistletoe was also sacred especially when\nentwining the oak. Together they represented the Tree of Life, or the\ntwo generating agencies throughout Nature. Of the species of it which\ngrows on the oak, Borlaise says that they deified the mistletoe and were\nnot to look upon it but in the most devout and reverential manner: \"When\nthe end of the year approached, they marched with great solemnity to\ngather the mistletoe of the oak in order to present it to Jupiter,\ninviting all the world to assist in the ceremony.\"(16)\n\n\n 16) Borlaise.\n\n\nAccording to the Latin writer Pliny, the \"Druids have nothing more\nsacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows, provided it\nbe an oak.\" This plant, which is called All Heal, although sought after\nwith the greatest religious ardor, is seldom found, but should the\npeople who go forth at Christmas time in large numbers succeed in\nfinding it they immediately set about preparing feasts under the tree\nupon which it grows; at the same time, in the most solemn manner, two\nwhite bulls are brought forth to be sacrificed. After the feast has been\nprepared and the sacrifice made ready, the priest ascends the tree and\nwith a golden pruning-knife cuts the sacred branches of the mistletoe,\ndropping them into a white cloth prepared for the occasion. The bulls\nare then sacrificed and a prayer offered that \"God would render his own\ngift prosperous to those on whom he has bestowed it.\" They believed that\nadministered in a potion it would impart fecundity to any barren animal,\nand that it was a remedy against all kinds of poison. The branches of\nthe mistletoe were then distributed among the faithful, each cherishing\nthe token as the most sacred emblem of his faith. It is thought that the\nChristmas tree is a remnant of this custom.\n\nAlthough the Christbaum of the Germans, the Yggdrasill of the\nScandinavians, and the Christmas tree of the English speaking nations\nare still regarded as belonging exclusively to Christianity, their\nbirthplace was the far East, and their origin long anterior to our\npresent era. This subject will be referred to later in these pages. The\npalm, which in course of time became the most sacred tree of Egypt, is\nsaid to have put forth a shoot every month during the year. At Christmas\ntide, or at the winter solstice, a branch from this tree was used as a\nsymbol of the renewal of time or of the birth of the New Year.\n\nOn the Zodiac of Dendera, preserved in the National Library at Paris,\nare two trees, the one representing the East, or India and China, the\nother, the West, or Egypt. The former of these trees is putting forth\na pair of leaves and is topped by the emblems of Siva, emblems which\nindicate the fructifying powers of Nature, whilst the Egyptian sacred\ntree, which is surmounted by the ostrich plume, the emblem of truth,\nis indicative of Light, Intelligence, or the life of the soul. In a\ndiscourse delivered by Dr. Stukeley in 1760, attention was directed to\nthe grove of Abraham as \"that famous oak grove of Beersheba, planted\nby the illustrious prophet and first Druid--Abraham; and from whom\nour celebrated British Druids came, who were of the same patriarchal\nreformed religion, and brought the use of sacred groves to Britain.\"(17)\n\n\n 17) Barlow, Symbolism, p. 98.\n\n\nThe fact has been ascertained that in Arabia, in very ancient times,\nthere was a goddess named Azra who was worshipped under the form of a\ntree called Samurch, and that in Yemen tree-worship still prevails.\nTo the date is ascribed divine honors. This tree is said to have its\nregular priests, services, rites, and festivals, and is as zealously\nworshipped as are the gods of any other country. We are not informed as\nto whether the Jewish Tree of Life was borrowed from the Chaldeans or\nthe Egyptians, but, as the significance is the same in all countries,\nit is of little consequence which furnished a copy for the writer in\nGenesis.\n\nIn Dr. Inman's Ancient Faiths, is a drawing from the original, by\nColonel Coombs, of the \"Temptation,\" or of the ancient tree-and-serpent\nmyth in Genesis. This drawing, in which it is observed that the Jewish\nidea of woman as tempter is reversed, was copied from the inner walls\nof a cave in Southern India. The picture is said to be a faithful\nrepresentation of the version of the story as accepted in the East.\n\nOf the myrtle, Payne Knight says that it \"was a symbol both of Venus and\nNeptune, the male and female personifications of the productive powers\nof the waters, which appear to have been occasionally employed in the\nsame sense as the fig and fig leaf.\"\n\nThe same writer refers to the fact that instead of beads, wreaths of\nfoliage, generally of laurel, olive, myrtle, ivy, or oak, appear upon\ncoins; sometimes encircling the symbolical figures, and sometimes as\nchaplets on their heads. According to Strabo, each of these is sacred to\nsome particular personification of the Deity, and \"significant of some\nparticular attribute, and in general, all evergreens were Dionysiac\nplants, that is, symbols of the generative power, signifying perpetuity\nof youth and vigor.\" The crowns of laurel, olive, etc., with which\nthe victors in the Roman triumphs and Grecian games were honored, were\nemblems of immortality, and not merely transitory marks of occasional\ndistinction.(18)\n\n\n 18) Payne Knight, Symbolism of Ancient Art. We are informed that this\nbook was never sold, but only given away. Although a copy of it was\nformerly in the British Museum, care was taken by the trustees to keep\nit out of the catalogues.\n\n\nThe tree and serpent, according to Ferguson, are symbolized in all\nreligious systems which the world has ever known. The two together\nare typical of the processes of reproduction or generation. They also\nsymbolize good and evil and the cause which underlies the decline of\nvirtue.\n\nAmong the numberless fruits which from time to time have been regarded\nas divine emblems, the principal are perhaps the fig, the pomegranate,\nthe mandrake, the almond, and the olive. The peculiarly sacred character\nwhich we find attached to the fig ceases to be a mystery so soon as we\nremember that the organs of generation, male and female, had, in process\nof time, come to be objects of worship and that the fig was the emblem\nof the latter.\n\nA basket of this fruit is said to have been the most acceptable offering\nto the god Bacchus, and therefore, by his devotees, was regarded as the\nmost sacred symbol. The favorite material for phallic devices was the\nwood of the sacred fig, for it was by rubbing together pieces of it that\nholy fire was supposed to be drawn from heaven. By holy fire, however,\nwas meant not so much the natural visible element which was kindled, as\nthat subtle substance contained in fire or heat which was supposed\nto contain the life principle, and which was sent in response to the\ncravings of pious devotees for procreative energy, which blessing, among\nvarious peoples, notably the Jews, was indicative of special divine\nfavor.\n\nBy pagans, Jews, and Christians, the pomegranate has long been\nregarded as a sacred emblem. It is a symbol of reproductive energy.\nRepresentations of it were embroidered on the Ephod, and Solomon's\nTemple is reported as having been literally covered with decorations, in\nwhich, among the devices noticed, this particular fruit appears the most\nconspicuous. Its significance, as revealed by Inman and other writers,\nis too gross to be set forth in these pages.\n\nAmong the most sacred plants or flowers were the lotus and the fleur\nde lis, both of which were venerated because of some real or fancied\norganic sexual peculiarity. The lotus is adored as the female principle\nthroughout Nature, or as the \"womb of all creation,\" and is sacred\nthroughout oriental countries. It is said to be androgynous or\nhermaphrodite--hence its peculiarly sacred character.\n\nIt has long been thought that this lily is produced without the aid of\nthe male pollen, hence it would seem to be an appropriate emblem for\nthat ancient sect which worshipped the female as the more important\ncreative energy.\n\nOf the lotus, Inman remarks: \"Amongst fourteen kinds of food and flowers\npresented to the Sanskrit God Anata, the lotus only is indispensable.\"\nThis emblem, as we have seen, was the symbol of the Great Mother, and\nwe are assured that it was \"little less sacred than the Queen of Heaven\nherself.\"\n\nRegarding the lotus and its universal significance as a religious\nemblem, Payne Knight says:\n\n\"The lotus is the Nelumbo of Linnaeus. This plant grows in the water,\nand amongst its broad leaves puts forth a flower, in the center of which\nis formed the seed vessel, shaped like a bell or inverted cone, and\npunctured on the top with little cavities or cells, in which the seeds\ngrow. The orifices of these cells being too small to let the seeds drop\nout when ripe, they shoot forth into new plants, in the places where\nthey were formed, the bulb of the vessel serving as a matrix to nourish\nthem until they acquire such a degree of magnitude as to burst it open\nand release themselves, after which, like other aquatic weeds, they take\nroot wherever the current deposits them. This plant, therefore, being\nthus productive of itself, and vegetating from its own matrix, without\nbeing fostered in the earth, was naturally adopted as the symbol of the\nproductive power of the waters, upon which the creative spirit of the\nCreator operated in giving life and vegetation to matter. We accordingly\nfind it employed in every part of the Northern hemisphere, where the\nsymbolical religion improperly called idolatry does or did prevail.\nThe sacred images of the Tartars, Japanese, and Indians are almost all\nplaced upon it, of which numerous instances occur in the publication of\nKaempfer, Sonnerat, etc: The Brama of India is represented sitting upon\na lotus throne, and the figures upon the Isaic table hold the stem of\nthis plant, surmounted by the seed vessel in one hand, and the cross\nrepresenting the male organs in the other: thus signifying the universal\npower, both active and passive, attributed to that goddess.\"(19)\n\n\n 19) Symbolism of Ancient Art.\n\n\nThe lotus is the most sacred and the most significant symbol connected\nwith the sacred mysteries of the East. Upon this subject, Maurice\nobserves that there is no plant which has received such a degree of\nhonor as has the lotus. It was the consecrated symbol of the Great\nMother who had brought forth the fecundative energies, female and male.\nNot only throughout the Northern hemisphere was it everywhere held\nin profound veneration, but among the modern Egyptians it is still\nworshipped as symbolical of the Great First Cause. The lotus was the\nemblem venerated in the solemn celebration of the Mysteries of Eleusis\nin Greece and the Phiditia in Carthage.\n\nIn referring to the degree of homage paid to the lotus by the ancients,\nHiggins says: \"And we shall find in the sequel that it still continues\nto receive the respect, if not the adoration, of a great part of the\nChristian world, unconscious, perhaps, of the original reason of\ntheir conduct.\" It is a significant fact that in nearly all the\nsacred paintings of the Christians in the galleries throughout Europe,\nespecially those of the Annunciation, a lily is always to be observed.\nIn later ages as the original significance of the lotus was lost, any\nlily came to be substituted. Godfrey Higgins is sure that although the\npriests of the Romish Church are at the present time ignorant of the\ntrue meaning of the lotus, or lily, \"it is, like many other very\nodd things, probably understood at the Vatican, or the Crypt of St.\nPeter's.\"(20)\n\n\n 20) Anacalypsis, book vii., ch. xi.\n\n\nOf the lotus of the Hindoos Nimrod says:\n\n\"The lotus is a well-known allegory, of which the expanse calyx\nrepresents the ships of the gods floating on the surface of the water,\nand the erect flower arising out of it, the mast thereof... but as the\nship was Isis or Magna Mater, the female principle, and the mast in it\nthe male deity, these parts of the flower came to have certain other\nsignifications, which seem to have been as well known at Samosata as at\nBenares.\"(21)\n\n\n 21) Quoted in Anacalypsis.\n\n\nIn other words it was a phallic emblem and represented the creative\nprocesses throughout Nature. Susa, the name of the capital of the\nCushites, or ancient Ethiopians, meant \"the City of Lilies.\" In India\nthe lotus frequently appears among phallic devices in place of the\nsacred Yoni. From the foregoing pages the fact will be observed that the\nGod of the ancients embodied the two creative agencies throughout the\nuniverse, but as nothing could exist without a mother, the great Om who\nwas the indivisible God and the Creator of the sun was the mother\nof these two principles, while the Tree of Life was the original\nlife-giving energy upon the earth, represented in the creation myths of\nthe first man Adam, and the first woman Eve or Adama.\n\nThroughout the ages, this force, or creative agency has been symbolized\nin various ways, many of which have been noted in the foregoing pages.\nWe have observed that notwithstanding the fact that the supremacy of\nthe male had been established, the sacred Yoni and the lotus were\nstill reverenced as symbols of the most exalted God. Finally, when the\nmasculine energy began to be worshipped as the more important agency\nin reproduction, the female, although still necessary to complete the\ngod-idea, was veiled.\n\nAmong the sect known as Lingaites, those who adored the male creative\npower, Man, Phallus, and Creator in religious symbolism signified one\nand the same thing in the minds of the people. Each represented a Tree\nof Life, the beginning and end of all things.\n\nTree-worship was condemned by the councils of Tours, Nantes, and\nAuxerre, and in the XIth century it was forbidden in England by the laws\nof Canute, but these edicts seem to have had little effect. In referring\nto this subject, Barlow says: \"In the XVIIIth century it existed in\nLivonia, and traces of it may still be found in the British Isles.\"(22)\nThe vast area over which tree- and plant-worship once extended, and the\ntenacity with which it still clings to the human race, indicate the hold\nwhich, at an earlier age in the history of mankind, it had taken upon\nthe religious feelings of mankind.\n\n\n 22) Essays on Symbolism, p. 118.\n\n\nSo closely has this worship become entwined with that of serpent and\nphallic faiths, that it is impossible to consider it, even in a brief\nmanner, without anticipating these later developments; yet linked with\nearth- and sun-worship, it doubtless prevailed for many ages absolutely\nunconnected with the grosser ideas with which it subsequently became\nassociated.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III. SUN-WORSHIP--FEMALE AND MALE ENERGIES IN THE SUN.\n\n\"When we inquire into the worship of nations in the earliest periods to\nwhich we have access by writing or tradition, we find that the adoration\nof one God, without temples or images, universally prevailed.\"(23)\n\n\n 23) Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids.\n\n\nUnderlying all the ancient religions of which we have any account, may\nbe observed the great energizing force throughout Nature recognized\nand reverenced as the Deity. This force embraces not only the creative\nenergies in human beings, in animals, and in plants, but in the earlier\nages of human history it included also Wisdom, or Law--that \"power by\nwhich all things are discriminated or defined and held in their proper\nplaces.\" The most renowned writers who have dealt with this subject\nagree in the conclusion that, during thousands of years among all the\nnations of the earth, only one God was worshipped. This God was Light\nand Life, both of which proceeded from the sun, or more properly\nspeaking were symbolized by the sun.\n\nIn Egyptian hymns the Creator is invoked as the being who \"dwells\nconcealed in the sun\"; and Greek writers speak of this luminary as the\n\"generator and nourisher of all things, the ruler of the world.\" It is\nthought, however, that neither of these nations worshipped the corporeal\nsun. It was the \"centre or body from which the pervading spirit, the\noriginal producer of order, fertility, and organization, continued to\nemanate to preserve the mighty structure which it had formed.\"\n\nIt is evident that at an early age, both in Egypt and in India,\nspiritualized conceptions of sun-worship had already been formed.\n\nWe have seen that Netpe, the Goddess of Light, or Heavenly Wisdom,\nconferred spiritual life on all who would accept it. The Great Mother of\nthe Gods in India was not only the source whence all blessings flow, but\nshe was the Beginning and the End of all things.\n\nOf \"Aditi, the boundless, the yonder, the beyond all and everything,\"\nMax Muller says that in later times she \"may have become identified with\nthe sky, also with the earth, but originally she was far beyond the sky\nand the earth.\"(24) The same writer quotes the following, also from a\nhymn of the Rig-Veda:\n\n\n 24) Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 221.\n\n\n\"O Mitra and Varuna, you mount your chariot which, at the dawning of\nthe dawn is golden-colored and has iron poles at the setting of the sun;\nfrom thence you see Aditi and Diti--that is, what is yonder and what is\nhere, what is infinite and what is finite, what is mortal and what is\nimmortal.\"(25)\n\n\n 25) Ibid.\n\n\nAditi is the Great She that Is, the Everlasting. Muller refers to the\nfact that another Hindoo poet \"speaks of the dawn as the face of Aditi;\nthus indicating that Aditi is here not the dawn itself, but something\nbeyond the dawn.\" This Goddess, who is designated as the \"Oldest,\" is\nimplored \"not only to drive away darkness and enemies that lurk in\nthe dark, but likewise to deliver man from any sin which he may have\ncommitted.\" \"May Aditi by day protect our cattle, may she, who never\ndeceives, protect us from evil.\"\n\nIn the Egyptian as in the Indian and Hebrew religions, the two\ngenerating principles throughout Nature represent the Infinite, the\nHoly of Holies, the Elohim or Aleim--the Ieue. Within the records of\nthe earliest religions of Ethiopia or Arabia, Chaldea, Assyria, and\nBabylonia, is revealed the same monad principle in the Deity. This monad\nconception, or dual unity, this God of Light and Life, or of Wisdom and\ngenerative force, is the same source whence all mythologies have sprung,\nand, as has been stated, among all peoples the fact is observed that\nthe religious idea has followed substantially the same course of\ndevelopment, or growth. Within the sacred writings of the Hindoos there\nis but one Almighty Power, usually denominated as Brahm or Brahme--Om or\nAum. This word in India was regarded with the same degree of veneration\nas was the sacred Ieue of the Jews. In later ages, the fact is being\nproved that this God, into whom all the deities worshipped at a certain\nperiod in human history resolve themselves, is the sun, or if not\nthe actual corporeal sun, then the supreme agency within it which was\nacknowledged as the great creative or life-force--that dual principle\nwhich by the early races was recognized as Elohim, Om, Ormuzd, etc.,\nand from which the productive power in human beings, in plants, and in\nanimals was thought to emanate.\n\nPrior to the development of either tree or phallic worship, the sun\nas an emblem of the Deity had doubtless become the principal object\nof veneration. Ages would probably elapse before primitive man would\nobserve that all life is dependent on the warmth of the sun's rays, or\nbefore from experience he would perceive the fact that to its agency as\nwell as to that of the earth he was indebted both for food and the power\nof motion. However, as soon as this knowledge had been gained, the great\norb of day would assume the most prominent place among the objects of\nhis regard and adoration. That such has been the case, that the sun,\neither as the actual Creator, or as an emblem of the great energizing\nforce in Nature, has been worshipped by every nation of the globe, there\nis no lack of evidence to prove; neither do we lack proof to establish\nthe fact that, since the adoption of the sun as a divine object, or\nperhaps I should say as the emblem of Wisdom and creative power, it has\nnever been wholly eliminated from the god-idea of mankind.\n\nBryant produces numberless etymological proofs to establish the fact\nthat all the early names of the Deity were derived or compounded from\nsome word which originally meant the sun.\n\nMax Muller says that Surya was the sun as shining in the sky. Savitri\nwas the sun as bringing light and life. Vishnu was the sun as striding\nwith three steps across the sky, etc.\n\nInman, whose etymological researches have given him considerable\nprominence as a Sanskrit and Hebrew scholar, says that Ra, Ilos,\nHelos, Bil, Baal, Al, Allah, and Elohim were names given to the sun as\nrepresentative of the Creator.\n\nWe are assured by Godfrey Higgins that Brahme is the sun the same\nas Surya. Brahma sprang from the navel of Brahme. Faber in his Pagan\nIdolatry says that all the gods of the ancients \"melt insensibly into\none, they are all equally the sun.\" The word Apollo signifies the\nauthor or generator of Light. In the Rig Veda, Surya, the sun, is called\nAditya. \"Truly, Surya, thou art great; truly Aditya, thou art great.\"\n\nSelden observes that whether the gods be called Osiris, or Omphis, or\nNilus, or any other name, they all center in the sun.\n\nAccording to Diodorus Siculus, it was the belief of the ancients that\nDionysos, Osiris, Serapis, Pan, Jupiter and Pluto were all one. They\nwere, the sun.\n\nMax Muller says that a very low race in India named the Santhals call\nthe sun Chandro, which means \"bright.\" These people declared to the\nmissionaries who settled among them, that Chandro had created the world;\nand when told that it would be absurd to say that the sun had created\nthe world, they replied: \"We do not mean the visible Chandro, but an\ninvisible one.\"\n\nNot only did Dionysos, and all the rest of the gods who in later ages\ncame to be regarded as men, represent the sun, but after the separation\nof the male and female elements in the originally indivisible God, Maut\nor Minerva, Demeter, Ceres, Isis, Juno, and others less important in the\npagan world were also the sun, or, in other words, they represented the\nfemale power throughout the universe which was supposed to reside in the\nsun.\n\nIn most groups of Babylonian and Assyrian divine emblems, there occur\ntwo distinct representations of the sun, \"one being figured with four\nrays or divisions within the orb, and the other, with eight.\" According\nto George Rawlinson, these figures represent a distinction between\nthe male and female powers residing within the sun, the quartered disk\nsignifying the male energy, and the eight-rayed orb appearing as the\nemblem of the female!(26)\n\n\n 26) Essay x.\n\n\nDuring an earlier age of human history, prior to the dissensions which\narose over the relative importance of the sexes in reproduction, and at\na time when a mother and her child represented the Deity, the sun was\nworshiped as the female Jove. Everything in the universe was a part of\nthis great God. At that time there had been no division in the god-idea.\nThe Creator constituted a dual but indivisible unity. Dionysos formerly\nrepresented this God, as did also Om, Jove, Mithras, and others. Jove\nwas the \"Great Virgin\" whence everything proceeds.\n\n \"Jove first exists, whose thunders roll above,\n Jove last, Jove midmost, all proceeds from Jove;\n Female is Jove, Immortal Jove is male;\n Jove the broad Earth, the heavens irradiate pale.\n Jove is the boundless Spirit, Jove the Fire,\n That warms the world with feeling and desire.\"\n\nIn a former work the fact has been mentioned that the first clue\nobtained by Herr Bachofen, author of Das Mutterrecht, to a former\ncondition of society under which gynaecocracy, or the social and\npolitical pre-eminence of women, prevailed, was the importance attached\nto the female principle in the Deity in all ancient mythologies.\n\nAccording to the testimony of various writers, Om, although\ncomprehending both elements of the Deity, was nevertheless female in\nsignification. Sir William Jones observes that Om means oracle--matrix\nor womb.(27) Upon this subject Godfrey Higgins, quoting from Drummond,\nremarks:\n\n\n 27) See Anacalypsis, book iii., ch. ii.\n\n\n\"The word Om or Am in the Hebrew not only signifies might, strength,\npower, firmness, solidity, truth, but it means also Mother, as in\nGenesis ii., 24, and Love, whence the Latin Amo, Mamma. If the word be\ntaken to mean strength, then Amon will mean (the first syllable being\nin regimine) the temple of the strength of the generative or creative\npower, or the temple of the mighty procreative power. If the word Am\nmeans Mother, then a still more recondite idea will be implied, viz.:\nthe mother generative power, or the maternal generative power: perhaps\nthe Urania of Persia or the Venus Aphrodite of Crete and Greece, or the\nJupiter Genetrix of the masculine and feminine gender, or the Brahme\nMai of India, or the Alma Venus of Lucretius. And the City of On or\nHeliopolis will be the City of the sun, or City of the procreative\npowers of nature of which the sun was always an emblem.\"\n\nAccording to Prof. W. R. Smith, Om means uniting or binding, a fact\nwhich is explained by the early significance of the mother element in\nearly society. The name of the great Deity Om or Aum scarcely passes the\nlips of its worshippers, and when it is pronounced is always reverently\nwhispered. Regarding the mystic word Om, we are told that it is the name\ngiven to Delphi, and that \"Delphi has the meaning of the female organs\nof generation called in India the Os Minxoe.\"\n\nAlthough the great God of India was female and male, yet we are assured\nby Forlong that the female energy Maya, Queen of Heaven, even at the\npresent time is more heard of than the male principle.\n\nAccording to Bryant, the worship of Ham is the most ancient as well as\nthe most universal of any in the world. This writer remarks that Ham,\ninstead of representing an individual, is but a Greek corruption of Om\nor Aum, the great androgynous God of India, a God which is identical in\nsignificance with Aleim, Vesta, and all the other representatives of\nthe early dual, universal power. \"In the old language God was called\nAl, Ale, Alue, and Aleim, more frequently Aleim than any other name.\"\nAccording to the testimony of Higgins, Aleim denotes the feminine\nplural. The heathen divinities Ashtaroth and Beelzebub were both called\nAleim, Ashtaroth being simply Astarte adorned with the horns of a ram.\nIshtar not unfrequently appears with the horns of a cow. We are informed\nby Inman that whenever a goddess is observed with horns--emblems which\nby the way always indicate masculine power--it is to denote the fact\nthat she is androgynous, or that within her is embodied the complete\nDeity--the dual reproductive energy throughout Nature. The \"figure\nbecomes the emblem of divinity and power.\"(28)\n\n\n 28) Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 311.\n\n\nMithras--the Savior, the great Persian Deity which was worshipped as the\n\"Preserver,\" was both female and male. Among the representations of this\ndivinity which appear in the Townley collection in the British Museum,\nis one in which it is figured in its female character, in the act of\nkilling the bull. The Divinity Baal was both female and male. The God of\nthe Jews in an early stage of their career was called Baal. The oriental\nOrmuzd was also dual or androgynous.\n\nOrpheus teaches that the divine nature is both female and male.\nAccording to Proclus, Jupiter was an immortal maid, \"the Queen of\nHeaven, and Mother of the Gods.\" All things were contained within the\nwomb of Jupiter. This Virgin within whom was embodied the male principle\n\"gave light and life to Eve.\" She was the life-giving, energizing power\nin Nature, and was identical with Aleim, Om, Astarte, and others. The\nGoddess Esta, or Vesta, or Hestia, whom Plato calls the \"soul of the\nbody of the universe,\" is believed by Beverly and others to be\nthe Self-Existent, the Great \"She that Is\" of the Hindoos, whose\nsignificance is identical with the Cushite or Phoenician Deity, Aleim.\n\nAccording to Marco Polo, the Chinese had but one supreme God of whom\nthey had no image, and to whom they prayed for only two things--\"a sound\nmind in a sound body.\" They had, however, a lesser god--probably the\nsame as the \"Lord\" (masculine) of the Jews, to whom they petitioned for\nrain, fair weather, and all the minor accessories of existence. Upon the\nwalls of the houses of the Chinese is a tablet to which they pay their\ndevotion. On this tablet is the name of the \"high, celestial, and\nsupreme God.\" The principal word which this tablet contains is \"Tien.\"\nOf this Chinese Deity Barlow says: \"The Chinese recognize in Tienhow,\nthe Queen of Heaven nursing her infant son.\" Connected with this figure\nis a lotus bud, symbol of the new birth.\n\nOriginally in Chaldea and in Egypt, only one supreme God was worshipped.\nThis Deity was figured by a mother and her child, as was the great\nChinese God. It comprehended the universe and all the attributes of the\nDeity. It was worshipped thousands of years prior to the birth of Mary,\nthe Mother of Christ, and representations of it are still extant, not\nonly in oriental lands, but in many countries of Europe. Within the\noldest temples of Egypt are still to be observed sacred apartments which\ncontain the \"Holy of Holies,\" and to which, in past ages, none might\ngain access but priests and priestesses of the highest order. Within\nthese apartments are pictured the mysteries of birth, together with the\nsymbols of generation emblems of procreation.\n\nOn the banks of the river Nile are observed the ruins of the temple of\nPhilae, which structure, it is said, represents the most ancient style\nof architecture. Within these ruins is to be seen an inner chamber in\nwhich are depicted the birth scenes of the child god Horus, and, indeed,\neverywhere among the monuments and ruins of Egypt, is plainly visible\nthe fact that the creative power and functions in human beings, in\nanimals, and in vegetable life, together with Wisdom, once constituted\nthe god-idea.\n\nBetween the ruins of the palace of Amunoph III. and the Nile are two\ncolossal statues, each hewn from a single block of stone. These figures,\nalthough in a sitting posture, are sixty feet high. It is thought that\nthey once formed the entrance to an avenue of similar figures leading\nup to the palace. It has been supposed that the most northern statue\nrepresents Ammon, and that its companion piece is his Mother. It is now\nbelieved by many writers, however, that these figures do not represent\ntwo persons at all, but that in a remote age of the world's history\nthey were worshipped as the two great principles, female and male, which\nanimate Nature. The fact has been observed that Am or Om was originally\na female Deity, within whom was contained the male principle; when,\nhowever, through the changes wrought in the relative positions of the\nsexes, the male element in the Divinity adored came to be represented\nas a man instead of as a child, he was Ammon. He was the sun, yet\nnotwithstanding the fact that he had drawn to himself the powers of the\nsun, he was still, himself, only a production of or emanation from the\nfemale Deity Om, Mother of the Gods and Queen of Heaven. She it was who\nhad created or brought forth the sun.\n\nThere is a tradition which asserts that every morning a melodious sound\nis emitted from the first named of these two colossal figures as he\nsalutes his rosy-fingered Mother whom he acknowledges as the source of\nall Light and Wisdom. The bodies are described as being \"without motion,\nthe faces without expression, the eyes looking straight forward, yet a\ncertain grand simplicity occasions them to be universally admired.\"\n\nThe Goddess Disa or Isa of the North, as delineated on the sacred drums\nof the Laplanders, was accompanied by a child similar to the Horus\nof the Egyptians.(29) It is observed also that the ancient Muscovites\nworshipped a sacred group composed of a mother and her children,\nprobably a representation of the Egyptian Isis and her offspring, or at\nleast of the once universal idea of the Deity.\n\n\n 29) Jennings, Phallicism.\n\n\nThe following is from Payne Knight:\n\n\"A female Pantheitic figure in silver, with the borders of the drapery\nplated with gold, and the whole finished in a manner surpassing almost\nanything extant, was among the things found at Macon on the Saone,\nin the year 1764, and published by Caylus. It represents Cybele, the\nuniversal mother, with the mural crown on her head, and the wings of\npervasion growing from her shoulders, mixing the productive elements of\nheat and moisture by making a libation upon the flames of an altar. On\neach side of her head is one of the Discouri, signifying the alternate\ninfluence of the diurnal and nocturnal Sun; and, upon a crescent\nsupported by the tips of her wings, are the seven planets, each\nsignified by a bust of its presiding deity resting upon a globe, and\nplaced in the order of the days of the week named after them.\n\n\"In her left hand she holds two cornucopiae, to signify the result of\nher operation on the two hemispheres of the Earth; and upon them are the\nbusts of Apollo and Diana, the presiding deities of these hemispheres,\nwith a golden disk, intersected by two transverse lines, such as is\nobserved on other pieces of ancient art, and such as the barbarians of\nthe North employed to represent the solar year, divided into four parts,\nat the back of each.\"(30)\n\n\n 30) Symbolism of Ancient Art.\n\n\nIt was doubtless at a time when woman constituted the head of the gens,\nand when the feminine element in the sun, in human beings, and in Nature\ngenerally was regarded as the more important, that Latona and her son\nApollo were worshipped together. Latona, Apollo, and Diana constituted\nthe triune God. The last two were the female and male energies, the\nformer being the source whence they sprang. As soon as one is divested\nof a belief in the popular but erroneous opinion that the gods of the\nearly Egyptians and Greeks were deified heroes of former ages, he is\nprepared to perceive the fact that, although to the uninitiated these\ngods appear numberless, in reality they all represent the same idea,\nnamely: the dual, moving force in Nature, together with Light or Wisdom.\n\nWe have seen that when among the nations of antiquity civilization had\nreached its height, the god-idea was represented by the figure of a\nwoman with her child; subsequently, however, as these nations began to\ndecline, the creative energy comprehended simply physical life, or the\npower to reproduce, and was represented by various emblems which will\nbe noticed farther on in this work. In still later ages, after male\nreproductive power had become God, and when, through superstition\nand sensuality, the masses of the people had descended to the rank of\nslaves, monarchs, representing themselves to their ignorant subjects\nas the source of all blessings, even of life itself, appropriated the\ntitles of the sun, and claimed for themselves the adoration which had\nformerly belonged to it. From this fact has doubtless arisen the opinion\nso tenaciously upheld in recent times, that the gods of the ancients\nwere only deified heroes of former times.\n\nIf, during the earlier ages of human existence, all the gods resolved\nthemselves into the sun, and if Light and Life, or Wisdom and the power\nto reproduce and sustain life, constituted the Deity, then of course God\nor the sun would be female or male, or both, according to the prevailing\nbelief in the comparative creative and sustaining forces of the sexes.\n\nFrom what appears in the foregoing pages the fact has doubtless been\nperceived that the worship of a Virgin and Child does not, as is usually\nsupposed, belong exclusively to the Romish Christian Church, but, on the\ncontrary, that it constitutes the most remote idea of a Creator extant.\nAs has been hinted, there is little doubt that the earliest worship of\nthe woman and child was much simpler than was that which came to prevail\nin later ages, at a time when every religious conception was closely\nveiled beneath a mixture of astrology and mythology. After the planets\ncame to be regarded as active agencies in reproduction, and powerful\nin directing all mundane affairs, the Virgin of the Sphere while she\nrepresented Nature was also the constellation which appeared above the\nhorizon at the winter solstice, or at the time when the sun had reached\nits lowest point and had begun to return. At this time, the 25th of\nDecember, and just as the days began to lengthen, this Virgin gave birth\nto the Sun-God. It is said that he issued forth from her side, hence the\nlegend that Gotama Buddha was produced from the side of Maya, and also\nthe story believed by the Gnostics and other Christian sects that Jesus\nwas taken from the side of Mary.(31)\n\n\n 31) The fact will doubtless be remembered that a similar belief was\nentertained concerning the birth of Julius Caesar.\n\n\nWithin the churches and in the streets of many cities of Germany are\nto be observed figures of this traditional Virgin. She is standing, one\nfoot upon a crescent and the other on a serpent's head, in the mouth of\nwhich is the sprig of an apple tree on which is an apple. The tail\nof the serpent is wound about a globe which is partially enveloped in\nclouds. On one arm of the Virgin is the Child, and in the hand of the\nother arm she carries the sacred lotus. Her head is encircled with a\nhalo of light similar to the rays of the sun.\n\nOne is frequently disposed to query: Do the initiated in the Romish\nChurch regard these images as legitimate representations of Mary, the\nwife of Joseph and Mother of Christ, or are they aware of their true\nsignificance? Certainly the various accessories attached to this figure\nbetray its ancient origin and reveal its identity with the Egyptian,\nChaldean, and Phoenician Virgin of the Sphere.\n\nThe fact has already been observed that in the original representation\nof the \"Temptation\" in the cave temple of India, it is not the woman\nbut the man who is the tempter, and a singular peculiarity observed in\nconnection with this ancient female Deity is that it is SHE and NOT HER\nSEED who is trampling on the serpent, thus proving that originally woman\nand not man was worshipped as the Savior. Another significant feature\nnoticed in connection with this subject is that the oldest figures\nwhich represent this Goddess are black, thus proving that she must have\nbelonged to a dark skinned race.\n\nThis image, although black, or dark skinned, had long hair, hence not a\nnegress. The most ancient statue of Ceres was black, and Pausanias says\nthat at a place called Melangea in Arcadia there was a black Venus. In\nthe Netherlands only a few years ago, was a church dedicated to a black\ngoddess. The Virgin of the Sphere who treads on the head of the serpent\nrepresents universal womanhood. She is the Virgin of the first book of\nGenesis and mother of all the Earth. She represents not only creative\npower but Perceptive Wisdom. Although this Goddess is usually seen with\nthe lotus in her hand, she sometimes carries ripe corn or wheat.\n\nThe mother of Gotama Buddha was called Mai or Maya, after the month in\nwhich the Earth is arrayed in her most beautiful attire.\n\nMaya is the parent of universal Nature. According to Davis, the mother\nof Mercury \"is the universal genius of Nature which discriminated all\nthings according to their various kinds of species,\" the same as was\nMuth of Egypt. Mai is said to mean \"one who begins to illuminate.\" She\nwas in fact the mother of the sun whence everything proceeds. She was\nmatter, within which was concealed spirit.\n\nIn the representations of Montfaucon appears the Goddess Isis sitting on\nthe lotus. Her head, upon which is a globe, is surrounded by a radiant\ncircle which evidently represents the sun. On the reverse side is Ieu,\nthe word \"which is the usual way of the ecclesiastical authors reading\nthe Hebrew word Jehovah.\" Referring to this from Montfaucon, Godfrey\nHiggins observes: \"Here Isis, whose veil no mortal shall ever\ndraw aside, the celestial Virgin of the Sphere, is seated on the\nself-generating sacred lotus and is called Ieu or Jove.\"(32) She has\nalso the mystic number 608 which stands for the Deity. Her breasts show\nplainly that it is a female representation, although connected with the\nfigure appears the male emblem to indicate that within her are contained\nboth elements, or that the universe is embodied within the female.\n\n\n 32) Anacalypsis, book v., ch. iv.\n\n\nHiggins thinks there is no subject on which more mistakes have been made\nthan on that of the Goddess Isis, both by ancients and moderns. He calls\nattention to the inconsistency of calling her the moon when in many\ncountries the moon is masculine. He is quite positive that if Isis is\nthe moon, Ceres, Proserpine, Venus, and all the other female gods were\nthe same, which in view of the facts everywhere at hand cannot be true.\nIt is true, however, that \"the planet called the moon was dedicated to\nher in judicial astrology, the same as a planet was dedicated to Venus\nor Mars. But Venus and Mars were not these planets themselves, though\nthese planets were sacred to them.\"(33) Higgins then calls attention to\nher temple at Sais in Egypt, and to the inscription which declares that\n\"she comprehends all that is and was and is to be,\" that she is \"parent\nof the sun,\" and he justly concludes that Isis can not be the moon.\n\n\n 33) Anacalypsis, book vi., ch. ii.\n\n\nApuleius makes Isis say:\n\n\"I am the parent of all things, the sovereign of the elements, the\nprimary progeny of time, the most exalted of the deities, the first\nof the heavenly gods and goddesses, whose single deity the whole world\nvenerates in many forms, with various rites and various names. The\nEgyptians worship me with proper ceremonies and call me by my true name,\nQueen Isis.\"\n\nIsis, we are told, is called Myrionymus, or goddess with 10,000 names.\nShe is the Persian Mithra, which is the same as Buddha, Minerva, Venus,\nand all the rest.\n\nFaber admits that the female principle was formerly regarded as the Soul\nof the World. He says:\n\n\"Isis was the same as Neith or Minerva; hence the inscription at Sais\nwas likewise applied to that goddess. Athenagoras informs us that\nNeith or the Athene of the Greeks was supposed to be Wisdom passing and\ndiffusing itself through all things. Hence it is manifest that she was\nthought to be the Soul of the World; for such is precisely the character\nsustained by that mythological personage.\"(34)\n\n\n 34) Pagan Idolatry, book i., p. 170.\n\n\nThe same writer says further:\n\n\"Ovid gives a similar character to Venus. He represents her as\nmoderating the whole world; as giving laws to Heaven, Earth, and Ocean,\nas the common parent both of gods and men, and as the productive\ncause both of corn and trees. She is celebrated in the same manner by\nLucretius, who ascribes to her that identical attribute of universality\nwhich the Hindoos give to their Goddess Isi or Devi.\"(35)\n\n\n 35) Ibid.\n\n\nIt seems to be the general belief of all writers whose object is\nto disclose rather than conceal the ancient mysteries, that until a\ncomparatively recent time the moon was never worshipped as Isis. Until\nthe origin and meaning of the ancient religion had been forgotten, and\nthe ideas underlying the worship of Nature had been lost, the moon was\nnever regarded as representing the female principle.\n\nWhen man began to regard himself as the only important factor in\nprocreation, and when the sun became masculine and heat or passion\nconstituted the god-idea, the moon was called Isis. The moon represented\nthe absence of heat, it therefore contained little of the recognized\ngod-element. It was, perhaps, under the circumstances, a fitting emblem\nfor woman.\n\nIn the sacred writings of the Hindoos there is an account of the moon,\nSoma, having been changed into a female called Chandra, \"the white or\nsilvery one.\"\n\nWhile speaking of the moon, Kalisch says: \"The whole ritual of the\nPhoenician Goddess Astarte with whom that Queen of Heaven is identical,\nand who was the goddess of fertility seems to have been transferred to\nher.\"(36)\n\n\n 36) Historical and Critical Commentary of the Old Testament.\n\n\nTo such an extent, in the earlier ages of the world had the female\nbeen regarded as the Creator, that in many countries where her worship\nsubsequently became identified with that of the moon, Luna was adored as\nthe producer of the sun. According to the Babylonian creation tablets,\nthe moon was the most important heavenly body. In later ages, the gender\nof the sun and the moon seems to be exceedingly variable. The Achts of\nVancouver's Island worship sun and moon--the sun as female, the moon\nas male.(37) In some of the countries of Africa the moon is adored as\nfemale and sun-worship is unknown. Among various peoples the sun and the\nmoon are regarded as husband and wife, and among others as brother and\nsister. In some countries, both are female. I can find no instance in\nwhich both are male. Hindoos and Aztecs alike, at one time, said that\nLuna was male and often that the sun was female.\n\n\n 37) Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 272.\n\n\nThe fact that among the Persians the moon as well as the sun was at\na certain period regarded as a source of procreative energy and as\ninfluencing the generative processes, is shown by various passages in\nthe Avestas. In the Khordah Avesta, praise is offered to \"the Moon which\ncontains the seed of cattle, to the only begotten Bull, to the Bull of\nmany kinds.\"\n\nPerhaps the most widely diffused and universally adored representation\nof the ancient female Deity in Egypt was the Virgin Neit or Neith, the\nAthene of the Greeks and the Minerva of the Romans. Her name signifies\n\"I came from myself.\" This Deity represents not only creative power,\nbut abstract intelligence, Wisdom or Light. Her temple at Sais was\nthe largest in Egypt. It was open at the top and bore the following\ninscription: \"I am all that was and is and is to be; no mortal has\nlifted up my veil, and the fruit which I brought forth was the sun.\"\nShe was called also Muth, the universal mother. Kings were especially\nhonored in the title \"Son of Neith.\"\n\nTo express the idea that the female energy in the Deity comprehended\nnot alone the power to bring forth, but that it involved all the natural\npowers, attributes, and possibilities of human nature, it was portrayed\nby a pure Virgin who was also a mother. According to Herodotus, the\nworship of Minerva was indigenous in Lybia, whence it travelled to Egypt\nand was carried from thence to Greece. Among the remnants of Egyptian\nmythology, the figure of a mother and child is everywhere observed. It\nis thought by various writers that the worship of the black virgin and\nchild found its way to Italy from Egypt.\n\nThe change noted in the growth of the religious idea by which the male\nprinciple assumes the more important position in the Deity may, by a\nclose investigation of the facts at hand, be easily traced, and, as has\nbefore been expressed, this change will be found to correspond with\nthat which in an earlier age of the world took place in the relative\npositions of the sexes. In all the earliest representations of the\nDeity, the fact is observed that within the mother element is contained\nthe divinity adored, while the male appears as a child and dependent on\nthe ministrations of the female for existence and support. Gradually,\nhowever, as the importance of man begins to be recognized in human\naffairs, we find that the male energy in the Deity, instead of appearing\nas a child in the arms of its mother, is represented as a man, and that\nhe is of equal importance with the woman; later he is identical with the\nsun, the woman, although still a necessary factor in the god-idea, being\nconcealed or absorbed within the male. It is no longer woman who is to\nbruise the serpent's head, but the seed of the woman, or the son. He is\nBacchus in Greece, Adonis in Syria, Christna in India. He is indeed the\nnew sun which is born on the 25th of December, or at the time when the\nsolar orb has reached its lowest position and begins to ascend. It is\nnot perhaps necessary to add that he is also the Christ of Bethlehem,\nthe son of the Virgin.\n\nNowhere, perhaps, is the growing importance of the male in the god-idea\nmore clearly traced than in the history of the Arabians. Among this\npeople are still to be found certain remnants of the matriarchal\nage--an age in which women were the recognized heads of families and the\neponymous leaders of the gentes or clans. Concerning the worship of\na man and woman as god by the early Arabians, Prof. Robertson Smith\nremarks:\n\n\"Except the comparatively modern Isaf and Naila in the sanctuary at\nMecca where there are traditions of Syrian influence, I am not aware\nthat the Arabs had pairs of gods represented as man and wife. In the\ntime of Mohammed the female deities, such as Al-lat, were regarded as\ndaughters of the supreme male God. But the older conception as we see\nfrom a Nabataean inscription in De Vogue, page 119, is that Al-lat\nis mother of the gods. At Petra the mother-goddess and her son were\nworshipped together, and there are sufficient traces of the same thing\nelsewhere to lead us to regard this as having been the general rule when\na god and goddess were worshipped in one sanctuary.\"(38)\n\n\n 38) Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, ch. vi., p. 179.\n\n\nAs the worship of the black virgin and child is connected with the\nearliest religion of which we may catch a glimpse, the exact locality\nin which it first appeared must be somewhat a matter of conjecture,\nbut that this idea constituted the Deity among the Ethiopian or early\nCushite race, the people who doubtless carried civilization to Egypt,\nIndia, and Chaldea, is quite probable.\n\nIf we bear in mind the fact that the gods of the ancients represented\nprinciples and powers, we shall not be surprised to find that Muth,\nNeith, or Isis, who was creator of the sun, was also the first emanation\nfrom the sun. Minerva is Wisdom--the Logos, the Word. She is Perception,\nLight, etc. At a later stage in the history of religion, all emanations\nfrom the Deity are males who are \"Saviors.\"\n\nThat the office of the male as a creative agency is dependent on the\nfemale, is a fact so patent that for ages the mother principle could\nnot be eliminated from the conception of a Deity, and the homage paid\nto Athene or Minerva, even after women had become only sexual slaves and\nhousehold tools, shows the extent to which the idea of female supremacy\nin Nature and in the Deity had taken root.\n\nNotwithstanding the efforts which during numberless ages were made to\ndethrone the female principle in the god-idea, the Great Mother, under\nsome one of her various appellations, continued, down to a late period\nin the history of the human race, to claim the homage and adoration of a\nlarge portion of the inhabitants of the globe. And so difficult was it,\neven after the male element had declared itself supreme, to conceive of\na creative force independently of the female principle, that oftentimes,\nduring the earlier ages of their attempted separation, great confusion\nand obscurity are observed in determining the positions of male deities.\nZeus who in later times came to be worshipped as male was formerly\nrepresented as \"the great dyke, the terrible virgin who breathes out on\ncrime, anger, and death.\" Grote refers to numerous writers as authority\nfor the statement that Dionysos, who usually appears in Greece as\nmasculine, and who was doubtless the Jehovah of the Jews, was indigenous\nin Thrace, Phrygia, and Lydia as the Great Mother Cybele. He was\nidentical with Bacchus, who although represented on various coins as\na \"bearded venerable figure\" appears with the limbs, features, and\ncharacter of a beautiful young woman. Sometimes this Deity is portrayed\nwith sprouting horns, and again with a crown of ivy. The Phrygian Attis\nand the Syrian Adonis, as represented in monuments of ancient art, are\nandrogynous personifications of the same attributes. According to\nthe testimony of the geographer Dionysius, the worship of Bacchus was\nformerly carried on in the British Islands in exactly the same manner as\nit had been in an earlier age in Thrace and on the banks of the Ganges.\n\nIn referring to the Idean Zeus in Crete, to Demeter at Eleusis, to\nthe Cabairi in Samothrace, and Dionysos at Delphi and Thebes, Grote\nobserves: \"That they were all to a great degree analogous, is shown by\nthe way in which they necessarily run together and become confused in\nthe minds of various authors.\"\n\nConcerning Sadi, Sadim, or Shaddai, Higgins remarks:\n\n\"Parkhurst tells us it means all-bountiful--the pourer forth of\nblessings; among the Heathen, the Dea Multimammia; in fact the Diana of\nEphesus, the Urania of Persia, the Jove of Greece, called by Orpheus the\nMother of the Gods, each male as well as female--the Venus Aphrodite; in\nshort, the genial powers of Nature.\"\n\nTo which Higgins adds: \"And I maintain that it means the figure which\nis often found in collections of ancient statues, most beautifully\nexecuted, and called the Hermaphrodite.\"\n\nAs in the old language there was no neuter gender, the gods must always\nappear either as female or male. For apparent reasons, in all the\ntranslations, through the pronouns and adjectives used, the more\nimportant ancient deities have all been made to appear as males.\n\nBy at least two ancient writers Jupiter is called the Mother of the\nGods. In reference to a certain Greek appellation, Bryant observes that\nit is a masculine name for a feminine deity--a name which is said to be\na corruption of Mai, the Hindoo Queen of Heaven.\n\nIn process of time, as the world became more and more masculinized, so\nimportant did it become that the male should occupy the more exalted\nplace in the Deity, that even the Great Mother of the Gods, as we have\nseen, is represented as male.\n\nThe androgynous or plural form of the ancient Phoenician God Aleim,\nthe Creator referred to in the opening chapter of Genesis, is clearly\napparent. This God, speaking to his counterpart, Wisdom, the female\nenergy, says: \"Let us make man in our own image, in our own likeness,\"\nand accordingly males and females are produced. By those whose duty\nit has been in the past to prove that the Deity here represented is\ncomposed only of the masculine attributes, we are given to understand\nthat God was really \"speaking to himself,\" and that in his divine\ncogitations excessive modesty dictated the \"polite form of speech\"; he\ndid not, therefore, say exactly what he meant, or at least did not mean\nprecisely what he said. We have to bear in mind, however, that as man\nhad not at that time been created, if there were no female element\npresent, this excess of politeness on the part of the \"Lord\" was wholly\nlost. Surely, in a matter involving such an enormous stretch of power\nas the creation of man independently of the female energy, we would\nscarcely expect to find the high and mighty male potentate which was\nsubsequently worshipped as the Lord of the Israelites laying aside his\nusual \"I the Lord,\" simply out of deference to the animals.\n\nIn Christian countries, during the past eighteen hundred years, the\ngreatest care has been exercised to conceal the fact that sun-worship\nunderlies all forms of religion, and under Protestant Christianity\nno pains has been spared in eliminating the female element from the\ngod-idea; hence the ignorance which prevails at the present time in\nrelation to the fact that the Creator once comprehended the forces of\nNature, which by an older race were worshipped as female.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV. THE DUAL GOD OF THE ANCIENTS A TRINITY ALSO.\n\nAlthough the God of the most ancient people was a dual Unity, in later\nages it came to be worshipped as a Trinity. When mankind began to\nspeculate on the origin of the life principle, they came to worship\ntheir Deity in its three capacities as Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer\nor Regenerator, each of which was female and male. We have observed\nthat, according to Higgins, when this Trinity was spoken of\ncollectively, it was called after the feminine plural.\n\nBy the various writers who have dealt with this subject during the last\ncentury, much surprise has been manifested over the fact that for untold\nages the people of the earth have worshipped a Trinity. Forster, in his\nSketches of Hindoo Mythology, says: \"One circumstance which forcibly\nstruck my attention was the Hindoo belief of a Trinity.\"\n\nMaurice, in his Indian Antiquities, observes that the idea of three\npersons in the Deity was diffused amongst all the nations of the\nearth, in regions as distant as Japan and Peru, that it was memorially\nacknowledged throughout the whole extent of Egypt and India,\n\"flourishing with equal vigor amidst the snowy mountains of Thibet, and\nthe vast deserts of Siberia.\" The idea of a Trinity is supposed to have\nbeen first elaborated on the banks of the Indus, whence it was carried\nto the Greek and Latin nations. Astrologically the triune Deity of the\nancients portrayed the processes of Nature.\n\nThis recondite doctrine as understood by the very ancient people\nwhich originated it, involved a knowledge of Nature far too deep to\nbe appreciated or understood by their degenerate descendants, except\nperhaps by a few philosophers and scholars who imbibed it in a modified\nform from original sources in the far East.\n\nAfter the establishment of the Trinity, the creative energy, which had\nformerly been represented by a mother and child, came to be figured\nby the mother, father, and the life derived therefrom. Sometimes the\nTrinity took the form of the two creative forces, female and male, and\nthe Great Mother.\n\nWhenever the two creative principles were considered separately, there\nalways appeared stationed over or above them, as their Creator, an\nindivisible unity. This Creator was the \"Beyond,\" the \"most High\nGod\"--Om or Aleim. It was the Mother of the Gods in whom were contained\nall the elements of the Deity. Among the representations of the god-idea\nwhich are to be observed on the monuments and in the temples of Egypt\nappear triads, each of which is composed of a woman stationed between\na male figure and that of a child. She is depicted as the Light of the\nsun, or Wisdom, while the male is manifested as the Heat of the orb\nof day. She is crowned and always bears the male symbol of life--the\ncrux-ansata.\n\nLater, it is observed that the worship of Light has in a measure given\nplace to the adoration of Heat, in other words Light is no longer\nadored as essence of the Deity, Heat or Passion having become the most\nimportant element in creative power.\n\nAfter the ancient worship of the Virgin and Child had become somewhat\nchanged or modified so as to better accommodate itself to the growing\nimportance of the male, the most exalted conception of the Deity in\nEgypt seems to have been that of a trinity composed of Mout the Mother,\nAmmon the Father, and Chons the Infant Life derived from the other two.\nMout is identical with Neith, but she has become the wife as well as the\nmother of Ammon. Directly below this conception of the Deity is a triad\nrepresenting less exalted attributes, or lower degrees of wisdom, under\nthe appellations of Sate, Kneph, and the child Anouk; and thus downward,\nthrough the varying spheres of celestial light and life involved in\ntheir theogony are observed the divine creative energies represented\nunder the figures of Mother, Father, and the Life proceeding therefrom,\nuntil, finally, when the earth is reached, Isis, Osiris, and Horus\nappear as the representation of the creative forces in human beings, and\ntherefore as the embodiment of the divine in the human.\n\nThe Deity invoked in all the earlier inscriptions is a triad, and we are\nassured that in Babylonia, where Beltis is associated with Belus, \"no\ngod appears without a goddess.\"\n\nThe supreme Deity of Assyria was Asshur, who was worshipped sometimes\nas female, sometimes as male. This God doubtless represents the dual or\ntriple creative principle observed in all the earlier forms of worship.\nAsshur had no distinct temple, but as her position was at the head of\nthe Pantheon, all the shrines throughout Assyria were supposed to have\nbeen open to her worship.\n\nAccording to Bunsen, in the Sidonian Tyrian district, there were\noriginally three great gods, at the head of which appears Astarte--a\nwoman who represents pure reason or intelligence; then follows Zeus,\nDemarius, and Adorus. Without doubt this triad represents a monad Deity\nsimilar in character to the one observed in Egypt and other countries.\n\nIn the minds of all well-informed persons, there is no longer any doubt\nthat in Abraham's time the Canaanites worshipped the same gods as did\nthe Persians and all the other nations about them--namely, Elohim,\nthe dual or triune creative force in Nature. As the Sun was the\nsource whence proceeded all light and life as well as reproductive or\ngenerative power, it had become the object of adoration, and as the\nemblem of the Deity, it was worshipped by all the nations of the\nearth in its three capacities as Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer or\nRegenerator each female and male.\n\nMelchizedek, who was a priest of the most high God, blessed Abraham, who\nwas a worshipper of the same Deity. On this subject Dr. Shuckford says:\n\n\"It is evident that Abraham and his descendants worshipped not only the\ntrue and living God, but they invoked him in the name of the Lord, and\nthey worshipped the Lord whose name they invoked, so that two persons\nwere the object of their worship, God and this Lord: and the Scriptures\nhave distinguished these two persons from one another by this\ncircumstance, that God no man hath seen at any time nor can see but\nthe Lord whom Abraham and his descendants worshipped was the person who\nappeared to them.\"\n\nWe are told that when chap. xxi., verse 33, of Genesis is correctly\ntranslated, Abraham is represented as having invoked Jehovah, the\neverlasting God.\n\nIn the Hebrew name Yod-He-Vau (Jehovah), was set forth the triune\ncharacter of the Creator; in other words, this name \"comprehended\nthe essential perfections of the great God,\" and was used in their\nScriptures as a \"kind of summary or revelation of the attributes of the\nDeity.\"\n\nAlthough Abraham, while in Egypt, was the worshipper of idols, we\nare assured that \"the peculiar privilege vouchsafed to him lay in the\nrevelation of God's holy name, Yod-He-Vau.\" There is indeed much evidence\ngoing to prove that the people represented by Abraham understood the\nearlier conception of a Deity, and that while the great universal\nprinciple whose name it was sacrilege to pronounce was still\nacknowledged, there was another God (the Lord), the same as in China,\nwhose worship they were beginning to adopt. \"And Jacob vowed a vow,\nsaying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go,\nand will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come\nagain to my Father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God.\"\n\nHe then declared that the pillar or stone which he had set up, and which\nwas the emblem of male procreative energy, should be God's house.\n\nAs at the time represented by Jacob there was evidently little or no\nspirituality among the Israelites, this Lord whom they worshipped was\nsimply a life-giver in the most material or practical sense.\n\nThe reproductive energy in man had become deified. It had, in other\nwords, come to possess all the attributes of a god, or of a powerful\nman, which in reality was the same thing. It is this god personified\nwhich is represented as appearing to Abraham and talking with him face\nto face. With this same god Jacob wrestled, while the real God--the dual\nor triune principle, the Jehovah or Iav, no man could behold and live.\n\nTo conceal the fact that the God of Abraham originally consisted of a\ndual or triple unity, and that the Deity was identical in significance\nwith that of contemporary peoples, the priests have, as usual, had\nrecourse to a trick to deceive the ignorant or uninitiated. In reference\nto this subject Godfrey Higgins says:\n\n\"In the second book of Genesis the creation is described not to have\nbeen made by Aleim, or the Aleim, but by a God of a double name Ieue\nAleim; which the priests have translated Lord God. By using the word\nLord, their object evidently is to conceal from their readers several\ndifficulties which afterward arise respecting the names of God and this\nword, and which show clearly that the books of the Pentateuch are the\nwritings of different persons.\"(39)\n\n\n 39) Anacalypsis, book ii., ch, i.\n\n\nUpon this subject Bishop Colenso observes:\n\n\"And it is especially to be noted that when the Elohistic passages\nare all extracted and copied one after another, they form a complete,\nconnected narrative; from which we infer that these must have composed\nthe original story, and that the other passages were afterwards inserted\nby another writer, who wished to enlarge or supplement the primary\nrecord. And he seems to have used the compound Jehovah Aleim in the\nfirst portion of his work in order to impress upon the reader that\nJehovah, of whom he goes on to speak in the later portions, is the same\nGreat Being who is called simply Elohim by the older writer, and notably\nin the first account of the creation.\"(40)\n\n\n 40) Lectures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone, p. 7.\n\n\nWe are informed by Bunsen that El, or Elohim, comprehends the true\nsignificance of the Deity among all the Aramaic or Canaanitish races,\nEl representing the abstract principle taken collectively, Elohim\npertaining to the separate elements as Creator, Preserver, and\nRegenerator. Each of these Canaanitish races had inherited these ideas\nfrom their fathers, and, although they had become grossly idolatrous,\n\"Moses knew, and educated Israelites remained a long time conscious,\nthat they used them not merely in their real but in their most ancient\nsense.\"(41) Maurice and other writers call attention to the fact that\nMoses himself uses this word Elohim with verbs and adjectives in the\nplural. That the God worshipped by the more ancient peoples, namely\nAleim, or Elohim, the same who said, \"Let us make man in our image,\" was\nnot the Lord adored at a later age by the Jews, is a fact which at the\npresent time seems to be clearly proven; that it constituted, however,\nthe dual or triune unity venerated by all the nations on the globe of\nwhich we have any record, appears to be well established.\n\n\n 41) Bunsen, History of Egypt, vol. iv., p. 421.\n\n\nWe have seen that although the two sex-principles which underlie Nature\nconstituted the Creator, the ancients thought of it only as one and\nindivisible. This indivisible aspect was the sacred Iav, the Holy\nof Holies. When it was contemplated in its individual aspect it was\nCreator, Preserver, and Destroyer, each of which was female and male.\n\nThe difficulty of the ancients in establishing a First Cause seems to\nhave been exactly the same as is ours at the present time. When we say\nthere must have been a God who created all things, the question at once\narises, Who created God? According to their theories, nothing could be\nbrought forth without the interaction of two creative principles, female\nand male; yet everything, even these principles, must proceed from an\nindivisible energy--an energy which, as the idea of the sex functions\nbecame more and more clearly defined, could not be contemplated except\nin its dual aspect. So soon, therefore, as the Great First Cause was\nseparated into its elements, a still higher power was immediately\nstationed above it as its Creator. This Creator was designated as\nfemale. It was the Mother idea Even gods could not be produced without a\nmother.\n\nIn referring to the doctrines contained in the Geeta, one of the sacred\nwritings of the Hindoos, Faber observes:\n\n\"In the single character of Brahm, all the three offices of Brahma,\nVishnu, and Siva are united. He is at once the Creator, the Preserver,\nand the Destroyer. He is the primeval Hermaphrodite, or the Great Father\nand the Great Mother blended together in one person.\"\n\nThe fact that a trinity in unity, representing the female and male\nenergies symbolized by the organs of generation, formerly constituted\nthe Deity throughout Asia is acknowledged by all those who have examined\neither the literature or monumental records of oriental countries. The\nRev. Mr. Maurice bears testimony to the character of Eastern religious\nideas in the following language:\n\n\"Whoever will read the Geeta with attention, will perceive in that small\ntract the outlines of all the various systems of theology in Asia. The\ncurious and ancient doctrine of the Creator being both male and female,\nmentioned on a preceding page, to be designated in Indian temples by\na very indecent exhibition of the masculine and feminine organs of\ngeneration in union, occurs in the following passage: 'I am the Father\nand Mother of this world; I plant myself upon my own nature and\ncreate again and again this assemblage of beings; I am generation\nand dissolution, the place where all things are deposited, and the\ninexhaustible seed of all Nature. I am the beginning, the middle, and\nthe end of all things.' \"(42)\n\n\n 42) Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. iv., p. 705.\n\n\nAccording to Sir W. Jones, the Brahme, Vishnu, and Siva coalesce to form\nthe mystic Om, which means the essence of life or divine fire. In the\nBhagavat Geeta the supreme God speaks thus concerning itself: \"I am the\nholy one worthy to be known\"; and immediately adds: \"I am the mystic\n(trilateral) figure Om; the Reig, the Yagush, and the Saman Vedas.\" It\nis a unity and still a trinity. This Om or Aum stands for the Creator,\nPreserver, and Destroyer or Regenerator, and represents the threefold\naspect of the force within the sun. The doctrine maintained throughout\nthe Geeta is not only that the great life-force represents a trinity in\nunity, but that it is both female and male. On this subject Maurice, in\nhis Indian Antiquities, says:\n\n\"This notion of three persons in the Deity was diffused amongst all the\nnations of the earth, established at once in regions so distant as Japan\nand Peru, immemorially acknowledged throughout the whole extent of Egypt\nand India, and flourishing with equal vigor amidst the snowy mountains\nof Thibet, and the vast deserts of Siberia.\"\n\nWe have observed that the idea of a trinity as conceived by the\nso-called ancients, although at all times founded on the same\nconception, viz., that of the reproductive powers of Nature and\nespecially of mankind, differed in expression according to its\napplication. Although in human beings this triune creative idea was\nexpressed by the mother, father, and child, as set forth in the temples\nand on the monuments of Egypt, when applied directly to the sun and\nthe planets, it appears as the Creator, Preserver, and Regenerator or\nDestroyer.\n\nDestruction, or the absence of the sun's heat, represented by winter,\nwas necessary to life, and therefore the Destroyer was also the\nRegenerator and equally with the Creator and Preserver constituted a\nbeneficent factor in the god-idea. In fact as this third element really\nembodied the substance of the other two, it finally became the supreme\nGod, little afterward being heard about the Creator and Preserver. The\nRegenerator or Destroyer was of course the sun, which in winter died\naway and rose again in the spring-time as a beneficent Savior or\nrenewer of life. The principle involved in these processes represented\nFertility, Life, reproductive energy. As applied to mortals, it\ncomprehended the power to create combined with perceptive Wisdom or\nKnowledge.\n\nThis idea, portrayed as it was by a mother and her child, linked woman\nwith the stars. It produced the \"Virgin of the Sphere,\" Queen of Heaven,\n\"Isiac Controller of the Zodiac,\" at the same time that it made her the\nmother of all mankind.\n\nEvery year this Virgin of the Sphere as she appeared above the horizon\nat the winter solstice gave birth to the sun. Astronomically this\nnew sun was the Regenerator, by which all Nature was renewed.\nMythologically, after the higher truths contained in these doctrines\nwere lost, it came to be the Savior, the Son of the Virgin, the seed of\nthe woman, which was to bruise the serpent's head.\n\nThat the religion of an ancient race comprehended a knowledge of the\nevolutionary processes of Nature may not be doubted. The myths still\nextant, and even the oldest Assyrian inscriptions which have been\ndeciphered, reveal the fact that the seeds of the visible universe were\nhidden in the \"great deep\"--that animal creation sprang from the earth\nand the sea through the influence of the sun's rays.\n\nIt is now known that the philosophy of an older race involved a belief\nin the Eternity of Matter. The abstruse doctrine of Reincarnation\nand the Renewal of Worlds seems to have formed the basis of their\nphilosophy. According to these speculations, a portion of the earth was\ndestroyed or resolved into its primary elements every six hundred years,\nwhile at the end of each Kalpia, or great Cycle of several thousand\nyears, the entire earth was renovated or absorbed into the two\nfecundating principles of the universe. These two indivisible forces\nrepresented by Vishnu rested in the water, or brooded on the face of the\ndeep. When stirred by love for each other they again became active, and\nfrom the germs of a former world, which had been absorbed by themselves,\ncreated again the earth and everything upon it. In other words, \"the\nearth sprang from the navel of Vishnu or Brahme.\" According to the\nBuddhists of Ceylon, the universe has perished ten different times,\nand each time has been renewed by the operations of Nature, or by the\npreservation of germs from a former world. In their mythology these\ngerms are represented by a parent and a triplicated offspring. It is\nperhaps unnecessary to add that this monad trinity is the Creator,\nPreserver, and Destroyer with their great parent, the Mother of the\nGods, which in process of time came to be regarded as male. According to\nWilford, Hindoo chronology presents fourteen different periods, six of\nwhich have already elapsed; we are in the seventh, which began with\nthe flood. Each of these periods is called a Manwantara, the presiding\ngenius or Deity of which is a Menu. At the close of each dynasty a total\ndestruction of the world takes place, everything being destroyed except\nthe ruler, or Menu, who \"escapes in a boat.\" Each new world is an exact\ncounterpart of the one destroyed, and each Menu is a representation of\nall preceding ones. Thus the history of one dynasty serves for all the\nrest. This doctrine of a triplicated Deity appearing at the beginning of\na new creation may be traced in nearly every country of the globe. Among\nthe Buddhists of China, Fo is mysteriously multiplied into three persons\nin the same manner as is Fo-hi, who is evidently Noah. Among the Hindoos\nis observed the triad Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva springing from the monad\nBrahm or Brahme. This triad appears on the earth at the beginning of\neach Manwantara in the human form of Menu and his three sons. We are\nassured that among the Tartars evident traces are found of a similar\nGod, who is seated on the lotus. It is also figured on a Siberian medal\nin the imperial collection at St. Petersburg. The Jakuthi Tartars,\nwho are said to be the most numerous people of Siberia, worship\na triplicated Deity under the three denominations of Artugon and\nSchugo-tangon and Tangara. Faber tells us that this Tartar God is the\nsame even in appellation with the Tanga-tanga of the Peruvians, who,\nlike other tribes of America, seem plainly to have crossed over from the\nNorth-eastern extremity of Siberia. Upon this subject the same writer\nremarks thus:\n\n\"Agreeably to the mystical notion so familiar to the Hindoos, that\nthe self-triplicated Great Father yet remained but one in essence, the\nPeruvians supposed their Tanga-tanga to be one in three, and three\nin one: and in consequence of the union of hero worship with the\nastronomical and material systems of idolatry they venerated the sun\nand the air, each under three images and three names. The same opinions\nequally prevailed throughout the nations which lie to the west of\nHindostan. Thus the Persians had their Ormuzd, Mithras, and Ahriman:\nor, as the matter was sometimes represented, their self-triplicating\nMithras. The Syrians had their Monimus, Aziz, and Ares. The Egyptians\nhad their Emeph, Eicton, and Phtha. The Greeks and Romans had their\nJupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; three in number, though one in essence, and\nall springing from Cronus, a fourth, yet older God. The Canaanites had\ntheir Baal-Spalisha or self-triplicated Baal. The Goths had their Odin,\nVile, and Ve, who are described as the three sons of Bura, the offspring\nof the mysterious cow, and the Celts had their three bulls, venerated as\nthe living symbols of the triple Hu or Menu. To the same class we must\nascribe the triads of the Orphic and Pythagorean and Platonic schools;\neach of which must again be identified with the imperial triad of the\nold Chaldaic or Babylonian philosophy.\"(43)\n\n\n 43) Faber, Pagan Idolatry, book vi., ch. ii., p. 470.\n\n\nThe history of the catastrophe known as the deluge, which, it is\nclaimed, took place either in Armenia, at Cashgar, or at some other\nplace in the East, is observed, in later ages, to furnish a covering\nbeneath which have been veiled the mythical doctrines of the priests. Of\nthe catastrophes which from time to time have visited our planet, and\nof the belief which has come to be entertained by ecclesiastics that the\nearth will be destroyed by fire, Celsus writes:\n\n\"The belief has spread among them, from a misunderstanding of the\naccounts of these occurrences, that after lengthened cycles of time, and\nthe returns and conjunctions of planets, conflagrations, and floods are\nwont to happen, and because after the last flood, which took place in\nthe time of Deucalion, the lapse of time, agreeably to the vicissitude\nof all things, requires a conflagration; and this made them give\nutterance to the erroneous opinion that God will descend, bringing fire\nlike a torturer.\"(44)\n\n\n 44) Origen against Celsus, book iv., ch. xi.\n\n\nThe mythologies of all nations are largely founded upon the \"religious\nhistory\" of a flood. The doctrine of a triplicated God saved from\ndestruction by a storm-tossed ark which rested on some local mountain\nanswering to Ararat, and which was filled with the natural elements of\nreproduction, is found amongst the traditions of every country of the\nglobe. In Egypt, the destructive agency drives the God into the ark--or\ninto the fish's belly, where he is obliged to remain until the flood\nsubsides. In other words, at the time of the destruction of the world,\nthe creative agency is forced within the womb of Nature, there to remain\nuntil it again comes forth to recreate the world; nor does the symbolism\nend here, for this God--the sun, or the reproductive power within it,\nwhich every year is put to death by the cold of winter, must for a\nseason remain lifeless, but, at the proper time, will come forth with\nhealing in his wings. This God must issue forth to life through female\nNature.\n\nThe god-man, Noah, who appears under one appellation or another in all\nextant mythologies, was slain, or shut up in a box, ark, or chest in\nwhich he or his seed was preserved from the ravages of a mighty flood,\nor from destruction by the calamity which had befallen the rest of\nmankind. In one sense he represents a Savior, in another sense he is\nthe saved, for he is the seed of a former world and is born again from\na boat, a symbol which always represents the female energy. Sometimes\nhe is shut up in a wooden cow, from which he issues forth to new life.\nAgain this storm tossed mariner is born from a cave, or the door of\na rocky cavern, within which he had been preserved from some terrible\ncatastrophe, caused either by water or fire.\n\nSir W. Jones, Faber, Higgins, and many others who have investigated this\nsubject are confident that the Noah of Genesis is identical with Menu,\nthe law-giver of India, and that both are Adam, a man who appears\nwith his three sons at the end of each cycle, or six hundred years, to\nrenovate the world. In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in\nthe first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up\nfrom the earth. The drying of the waters, and the beginning anew just at\nthe close of the six hundred years, are thought to refer to the end of\nthe cycle of the Neros. A year of Menu or Buddha had expired and a new\ndynasty or Mamwantara was to begin.\n\nRegarding this trinity, Faber remarks:\n\n\"Brahm then at the head of the Indian triad is Menu at the head of his\nthree sons. But that by the first Menu we are to understand Adam,\nis evident, both from the remarkable circumstance of himself and his\nconsort bearing the titles of Adima and Iva, and from the no less\nremarkable tradition that one of his three sons was murdered by his\nbrother at a sacrifice. Hence it will follow, that Brahm at the head of\nthe Indian triad is Adam at the head of his three sons, Cain, Abel, and\nSeth. Each Menu with his triple offspring is only the reappearance of a\nformer Menu with his triple offspring; for, in every such manifestation\nat the commencement of each Mamwantara, the Hindoo Trimurti, or triad,\nbecomes incarnate, by transmigrating from the human bodies occupied\nduring a former incarnation; Brahm or the Unity appearing as the\npaternal Menu of a new age, while the triad, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva,\nis exhibited in the person of his three sons.... But the ark-preserved\nMenu--Satyavrata and his three sons are certainly Noah and his three\nsons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet.\"\n\nHesiod teaches that, after the flood, Chaos, Night, and black Erebus\nfirst appeared.(45) At this time, when there was no Earth, no Heaven,\nand no Air, an egg floated on the face of the deep, which, being parted,\nbrought forth Love, or Cupid. Out of Chaos this God created or formed\nall things. Now Cupid is the same as the Greek Phanes, and Phanes\nis Noah, the egg being the ark or female principle from which he was\nproduced. The Greek God Phanes is the same as the Egyptian Osiris,\nwho was driven into the ark by the \"wind that blasts,\" or by the evil\nprinciple.\n\n\n 45) The Theogony.\n\n\n\"As Cupid is indifferently said to have been produced from an egg at\na time when the whole world was in disorder, and from the womb of the\nmarine goddess Venus, the egg and the womb of that goddess must denote\nthe same thing. Accordingly we shall find that, on the one hand, Venus\nis immediately connected with the symbolical egg; and, on the other\nhand, that she is identical with Derceto and Isis, and is declared to\nbe that general receptacle out of which all the hero-gods were produced.\nNow there can be little doubt in what sense we are to understand this\nexpression, when we are told that the peculiar symbol of Isis was a\nship; and when we learn that the form assumed at the period of the\ndeluge, by the Indian Isi or Bhavani, who is clearly the same as the\nEgyptian Isis, was the ship Argha, in which her consort Siva floated\nsecurely on the surface of the ocean. Venus, therefore, or the Great\nMother, the parent of Cupid from whom all mankind descended, must be the\nArk: consequently, the egg, with which she is connected, must be the Ark\nalso. Aristophanes informs us that the egg out of which Love was born,\nwas produced by Night in the bosom of Erebus. But the Goddess Night, as\nwe learn from the Orphic poet, was the very same person as Venus; and he\ncelebrates her as the parent of the Universe, and as the general mother\nboth of the hero-gods and of man. The egg therefore produced by Night\nwas produced by Venus: but Venus and the egg meant the same thing: even\nthat vast floating machine, which was esteemed an epitome of the world,\nand from which was born that Deity who is also literally said to\nhave been set afloat in an ark. Sometimes the order of production was\ninverted; and, instead of the egg being produced by Night or Venus,\nVenus herself was fabled to have been produced from the egg. There is a\nremarkable legend of this sort which ascribes Venus and her egg to the\nage of Typhon and Osiris, in other words, to the age in which Noah was\ncompelled by the deluge to enter into the ark.\"(46)\n\n\n 46) Origin of Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. iv.\n\n\nThe Preserver of the Persians, who is seated on a rainbow in front of\ntheir rock temples, is Mithras, who is identical with Noah. Sometimes\nthis ancient mariner is represented as riding on the back of a fish, and\nagain as floating in a boat. The God of Hindostan, like the classical\nDionysos, was enclosed in an ark and driven into the sea. According to\nthe Gothic traditions as recorded in the Eddas, there once existed\na beautiful world, which was destroyed by fire. Another was created,\nwhich, with all its inhabitants save a giant and his three sons, who\nwere saved in a ship, were destroyed by water. With this triad, which\noriginally sprang from a mysterious cow, the new world began. This new\nworld, which represents the present system, will in time be devoured by\nflames; but another earth will arise from the ocean,--an earth far more\nbeautiful than this, upon which all kinds of grain and delicious fruits\nwill grow without cultivation. Veda and Vile will be there, for the\nconflagration will have been powerless to destroy them. While the flames\nare devouring all things, two human beings, a female and a male, will\nbe concealed under a hill, where they will feed upon dew, and will\npropagate so abundantly that the earth will soon be peopled with a new\nrace of beings. During the catastrophe, the sun will be devoured by\na wolf, but before her death she will give birth to a daughter as\nresplendent as herself, who will go in the same path formerly trodden by\nher mother.\n\nThe doctrines of the Gothic philosophers, as they appear in the Eddas,\nconcerning the eternity of matter, the renewal or succession of worlds,\nand reincarnation are the same as those taught by Pythagoras, the\nStoics, and other Greek schools of thought.\n\nBrahme or Vishnu, resting on the bottom of the sea--a goddess who\nwas symbolized by the self-generating lotus--was in later ages the\nmysterious Cow of the Goths.\n\nAfter the natural truths concealed beneath their religious symbolism\nwere wholly forgotten, and human nature through the over-stimulation\nof the animal instincts had become corrupted, Adam and Eve, names which\ndoubtless for ages represented the two fecundating principles throughout\nNature, with their sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth, comprehended the\ngod-idea. The fact has been observed that just six hundred years from\nthe creation of Adam, or at the close of the cycle, Noah appears with\nhis three sons to save or perpetuate the race.\n\nIt is now believed that this account of Noah and his three sons is an\nallegory beneath which are concealed the religious doctrines, or perhaps\nI should say, the philosophical speculations of an older race. The God\nof the ancients was identified with the life of man individually and\nwith that of mankind collectively. As men die each day, and as every day\nmen are born, this Deity is said to die and to be renewed each day; and\nas he is the sun, or the incarnation of the sun, the rising and setting\nof this luminary depict the constantly dying and regenerating God of\nNature, the same as do the changing seasons. A similar idea reappears in\ntheir system of the renewal of worlds and reincarnation.\n\nRegarding the doctrine of the eternity of matter held by the ancients,\nOrigen mentions a belief of the Egyptians that the\n\n\"world or its substance was never produced, but that it has existed from\nall eternity. Neither is there any such thing as death. Those who perish\nabout us every day are simply changed, either they take on other forms\nor are removed to some other place. God cannot be destroyed, and as all\nthings are parts of the Deity everything lives and has always lived,\nseeming death being simply change. Remnants of these doctrines are found\nin every portion of the globe; among the Mexicans of the west as well as\namong the rude mountaineers of the Burman Empire.\"\n\nWhile contemplating the philosophical speculations of an ancient race\nBailly gave expression to the belief, that a \"profoundly learned race\nof people existed previous to the formation of any of our systems.\" The\nwiser among the Greek philosophers, those who, it is believed, borrowed\ntheir philosophical doctrines from the East, declare that \"there is no\nproduction of anything which was not before; no new substance made\nwhich did not really pre-exist.\" Equally with matter was spirit\nindestructible. \"Our soul,\" says Plato, \"was somewhere, before it came\nto exist in this present form; whence it appears to be immortal.... Who\nknows whether that which is demonstrated living, be not indeed rather\ndying, and whether that which is styled dying be not rather living?\"\n\nTo one who has given attention to the various legends relative to the\ndestruction of the world by a flood, and a storm-tossed mariner saved\nin an ark or boat, it is plain that they all have the same significance,\nall are but different versions of the same myth, which in an early age\nwas used to conceal the philosophical doctrines of an ancient people.\n\nThat the early historic nations understood little concerning the origin\nand true meaning of the legends which they had inherited from an\nolder race is quite evident. The ignorance of the Greeks regarding the\nsignificance of these legends is shown by the following: When Solon,\nwishing to acquaint himself with the history of the oldest times,\ninquired of an Egyptian priest concerning the time of the flood, and the\nage of Deucalion or Phroneous or Noah, this functionary replied:\n\n\"O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, nor is there an old\nman among you! Having no ancient traditions nor any acquaintance with\nchronology, you are as yet in a state of intellectual infancy. The true\norigin of such mutilated fables as you possess is this. There have\nbeen and shall again be in the course of many revolving ages, numerous\ndestructions of the human race; the greatest of them by fire and water,\nbut others in an almost endless succession of shorter intervals.\"(47)\n\n\n 47) Quoted by Plato; also by Clement of Alexandria.\n\n\nWe have observed that the symbol of the universe was an egg. The egg\nwas also the symbol of the earth and of the ark, which meant universal\nwomanhood. From the mundane egg the triplicated Deity sprang. There can\nbe little doubt at the present time that Adam, Noah, Menu, Osiris, and\nDionysos all represent the fructifying power of the sun. In process of\ntime they each came to figure as male reproductive energy, and during\ncertain periods of the earth's history they have each in turn been\nworshipped as the Deity. That not only the ark was female, but that the\ngod element or reproductive principle within the ark was both female and\nmale, is a fact which has been lost sight of during the historic period,\nor during those ages of the world in which the attempt has been made to\nprove Nature motherless.\n\nAll the germs and living creatures which were within the ark, and which\nwere to reanimate the earth, were in pairs, females and males; and,\nbesides, the Dove (female), the emblem of peace, was also present. Even\nNoah himself was produced from an egg, which, as we have seen, is\nthe symbol of Venus, or universal womanhood. In after ages the female\nprinciple was not mentioned, but, on the contrary, was concealed beneath\nconvenient symbols; and as the philosophical ideas underlying natural\nreligion were lost or forgotten, and mankind had become too ignorant to\nperceive that a dual force, female and male which was also a Trinity,\npervades Nature, the notion came gradually to prevail that the creative\nagency, which is spirit, is altogether male. Hence the formulation of\nthe inconceivable doctrine of a Trinity composed of a Father, Son, and\nHoly Ghost.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V. SEPARATION OF THE FEMALE AND MALE ELEMENTS IN THE DEITY.\n\nGlimpses of antiquity as far back as human ken can reach reveal the fact\nthat in early ages of human society the physiological question of sex\nwas a theme of the utmost importance, while various proofs are at hand\nshowing that throughout the past the question of the relative importance\nof the female and male elements in procreation has been a fruitful\nsource of religious contention and strife. These struggles, which from\ntime to time involved the entire habitable globe, were of long duration,\nsubsiding only after the adherents of the one sex or the other had\ngained sufficient ascendancy over the opposite party to successfully\nerect its altars and compel the worship of its own peculiar gods, which\nworship usually included a large share of the temporal power. Only since\nthe male sex has gained sufficient influence to control not only human\naction, but human thought as well, have these contentions subsided.(48)\n\n\n 48) At the present time, through causes which are not difficult to\nunderstand, the question of the relative importance of the two sexes is\nagain assuming a degree of importance indicative of the changes which\nare taking place in human thought, and for the reason that we are just\nwitnessing the dawn of an intellectual age, the problems to be solved\nwill admit of no answers other than those based upon a scientific\nfoundation.\n\n\nThat religious wars have not been confined to more modern times, and\nthat among an early race the attempt to exalt the male principle met\nwith obstinate resistance which involved mankind in a conflict,\nthe violence of which has never been exceeded, are facts which seem\naltogether probable. Indeed, there is much evidence going to show\nthat the cause of the original dispersion of a primitive race was the\ncontention which arose respecting their religious faith or regarding the\nphysiological question of the relative importance of the sexes in the\nfunction of reproduction; and that the general war indicated in the\nPuranas, which began in India and extended over the entire habitable\nglobe, and which was celebrated by the poets as \"the basis of Grecian\nmythology,\" originated in this conflict over the precedence of one or\nthe other of the sex-principles contained in the Deity. Although there\nare no records of these wars in extant history, accounts of them are\nstill preserved in the traditions and religious monuments of oriental\ncountries. In Egypt, in India, and to a greater or less extent in other\nEastern countries, these physiological contests have been disguised\nunder a veil of allegory, the true significance of which it is no longer\ndifficult to understand. With the light which more recent investigation\nhas thrown upon the subject of the separation of the original\nsex-elements contained in the Deity, the significance of the following\nlegend in the Servarasa is at once apparent.\n\nWhen Parvati (Devi) was united in marriage to Mahadeva (Siva), the\ndivine pair had once a dispute on the comparative influence of the sexes\nin producing animated beings, and each resolved by mutual agreement\nto create a new race of men. The race produced by Mahadeva were very\nnumerous, and devoted themselves exclusively to the worship of the male\nDeity, but their intellects were dull, their bodies feeble, their limbs\ndistorted, and their complexions of many different hues. Parvati had at\nthe same time created a multitude of human beings, who adored the\nfemale power only, and were well shaped, with sweet aspects and fine\ncomplexions. A furious contest ensued between the two nations, and the\nLingajas, or adorers of the male principle, were defeated in battle,\nbut Mahadeva, enraged against the Yonigas (the worshippers of the female\nelement), would have destroyed them with the fire of his eye if Parvati\nhad not interposed and appeased him, but he would spare them only on\ncondition that they should instantly leave the country with a promise to\nsee it no more, and from the Yoni, which they adored as the sole cause\nof their existence, they were named Yavanas.\n\nThe fact has been noticed in a previous work(49) that, according to\nWilford, the Greeks were the descendants of the Yavanas of India, and\nthat when the Ionians emigrated they adopted the name to distinguish\nthemselves as adorers of the female, in opposition to a strong sect of\nmale worshippers which had been driven from the mother country. We\nare taught by the Puranas that they settled partly on the borders of\nVaraha-Dwip, or Europe, where they became the progenitors of the Greeks;\nand partly in the two Dwipas of Cusha, Asiatic and African. In the\nAsiatic Cusha-Dwip they supported themselves by violence and rapine.\nParvati, however, or their tutelary goddess, Yoni, always protected\nthem; and at length, in the fine country which they occupied, they\nbecame a flourishing nation.(50) Wilford relates that there is a sect of\nHindoos who, attempting to reconcile the two systems, declare in their\nallegorical style that \"Parvati and Mahadeva found their concurrence\nessential to the perfection of their offspring, and that Vishnu, at the\nrequest of the goddess, effected a reconciliation between them.\"(51)\n\n\n 49) See The Evolution of Women, p. 303.\n\n\n 50) Asiatic Researches, vol. iii., pp. 125-132.\n\n\n 51) Asiatic Researches, \"Egypt and the Nile,\" vol. iii., pp. 361-363.\n\n\nThe people who were dominant in Asia long before the rise of the\nlate Assyrian monarchy, are said to be those whom scriptural writers\nrepresent as Cushim, and the Hindoos as Cushas. They were the\ndescendants of Cush, or Cuth, and were believed to have been the\narchitects of the Tower of Babel. Epiphanius, Eusebius, and others\nassert that at the time of the building of this tower there existed two\nrival beliefs, the one demonstrated as Scuthism, the other as Ionism, or\nHellenism, the latter of which embodied the worship of the Great Mother,\nor the female element, which was worshipped in the shape of the\nmystic \"Iona or Dove.\" The Scuths, on the other hand, believed in the\npre-eminence of a Great Father, or, perhaps I should say, in a Deity\ncomposed of a triad containing the elements of a male parent. Upon\nthis subject the learned Faber remarks: \"I am much mistaken if some\ndissension on these points did not prevail at Babel itself; and I think\nthere is reason for believing that the altercation between the rival\nsects aided the confusion of languages in producing the dispersion.\"(52)\n\n\n 52) Pagan Idolatry, book vi., ch. ii.\n\n\nThose who believed in the superiority of the male in the processes of\nreproduction, adored the male element in the Deity, while those who\nheld that the female is the more important, worshipped the female energy\nthroughout Nature under one or another of its symbols, sometimes as a\nwoman with her child and sometimes as a dove, but oftener as an ark,\nbox, or chest.\n\nIt is evident from the sacred writings of the Hindoos that in India,\nduring a period of several thousand years, there existed various sects,\nthose who worshipped the male as the only creative force, others who\nadored the female as the origin of life, and those who paid homage to\nboth, as alike important in the office of reproduction.\n\nIt would seem that the fierce wars which had devastated the land had\nceased prior to the beginning of the Tower of Babel. According to the\ntestimony of Moses, the Lord himself declared \"Behold the people is\none.\" This unanimity of belief, as is plainly shown, was of short\nduration, for the Tower arose \"upright and defiant,\" not, however, as an\nemblem of the primeval dual or triune God in which the female energy was\npredominant, but as a symbol of male creative power. It was the type of\nvirility which in the subsequent history of religion was to assume the\nposition of the \"one only and true God.\"\n\nIt is not improbable that idolatry began with the Tower of Babel.\n\nIndeed it has been confidently asserted by certain writers that the\nearliest idols set up as emblems of the Deity, or as expressions of the\npeculiar worship of the Lingajas, were obelisks, columns, or towers,\nthe first of which we have any account being the Tower of Babel, erected\nprobably at Nipur in Chaldea. Until a comparatively recent time,\nthe actual significance of this monument seems to have been little\nunderstood. Later research, however, points to the fact that it was a\nphallic device erected in opposition to a religion which recognized the\nfemale element throughout Nature as God. The length of time which the\nadherents of these two doctrines had contended for the mastery is not\nknown, but through the deciphered monuments of ancient nations, by\nfacts gathered from their sacred writings, and by the general voice\nof tradition, it has been ascertained with a considerable degree of\ncertainty that this great upheaval of society was the culmination of\na dispute which had long been waged between two contending powers, and\nwhich finally resulted in a separation of the people, and in the\nfinal success, for the time being, of the sect which refused longer to\nrecognize the superior importance of the female in the god-idea.\n\nAt what time in the history of mankind the Tower of Babel was erected\nhas not been ascertained, but the great antiquity of Chaldea is no\nlonger questioned. Sir Henry Rawlinson, in the Royal Geographical\nJournal says:\n\n\"When Chaldea was first colonized, or at any rate when the seat of\nempire was first established there, the emporium of trade seems to have\nbeen at Ur of the Chaldees, which is now 150 miles from the sea, the\nPersian Gulf having retired nearly that distance before the sediment\nbrought down by the Euphrates and Tigris.\"\n\nTo which Baldwin adds:\n\n\"A little reflection on the vast period of time required to effect\ngeological changes so great as this will enable us to see to what a\nremote age in the deeps of antiquity we must go to find the beginning of\ncivilization in the Mesopotamian Valley.\"(53)\n\n\n 53) Prehistoric Nations, p. 191.\n\n\nAlthough at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel the worship\nof a Deity in which the male principle was pre-eminent had not become\nuniversal, still the facts seem to indicate that the doctrine of male\nsuperiority which for ages had been steadily advancing had at length\ngained the ascendancy over the older religion. The new faith and worship\nhad corrupted the old, and through the conditions which had been imposed\nupon women, and the consequent stimulation of the lower nature in man,\neven the adherents of the older faith were losing sight of those higher\nprinciples which in preceding ages they had adored as God.\n\nWe have seen that in every country upon the earth there is a tradition\nrecounting the ravages of a flood. Whether or not this legend is to\nbe traced to an actual calamity by which a large portion of Asia was\ninundated, is not for a certainty known; but the fact that there was a\ndeluge of contention and strife, surpassing anything perhaps which the\nworld has ever witnessed, seems altogether probable.\n\nNot long after the catastrophe designated as the flood, emblems of\nthe Deity, representations of the male and female elements, appear in\nprofusion. Babylon, at which place was erected the Tower of Belus, and\nMemphis, which contained the Pyramids, were among the first cities which\nwere built. As the tower typified the Deity worshipped by those who\nclaimed superiority for the male, so the pyramids symbolized the\ncreative agency and peculiar qualities of the female, or of the dual\nDeity which was worshipped as female.\n\nAlthough the grosser elements in human nature were rapidly assuming a\nmore intensely aggressive attitude, and although the higher principles\ninvolved in an earlier religion were in a measure forgotten, it is\nevident that at this time humanity had not become wholly sensualized,\nand that the lower propensities and appetites had not assumed dominion\nover the reasoning faculties.\n\nThe Great Mother Cybele, who is represented by the Sphinx, had doubtless\nbeen adored as a pure abstraction, her worship being that of the\nuniversal female principle in Nature. She is pictured as the \"Eldest\nDaughter of the Mythologies,\" and as \"The Great First Cause.\" She\nrepresented the past and the future. She was the source whence all that\nwas and is had proceeded.\n\nIn its earliest representations, the Sphinx is figured with the head of\na woman and the body of a lion. By various writers it is stated that\nthe Sphinxes which were brought as spoils from Asia, the very cradle of\nreligion, were thus represented. The lion, which symbolizes royal power\nand intellectual strength, is always attached to the chariot of\nCybele. The Sphinx is supposed to typify not only Cybele, but the great\nandrogynous God of Africa as well. However, as Cybele and Muth portrayed\nthe same idea, namely, female power and wisdom, we are not surprised\nthat they should have been worshipped under the same emblem. Neither is\nit remarkable, when we recall the fact that the female was supposed to\ncomprehend both sexes, that in certain instances a beard appears as an\naccompanying feature of the Sphinx. We are told that the fourth avatar\nof Vishnu was a Sphinx, but a further search into the history of this\nDeity reveals the fact that her ninth avatar is Brahm (masculine). The\nfemale principle has at length succumbed to the predominance of male\npower, and Vishnu herself has become transformed into a male God.\n\nAlthough the rites connected with the worship of Cybele were phallic\nthey were absolutely pure. In an allusion to this worship, Hargrave\nJennings admits that the \"spirituality to which women in that age of the\nworld were observed to be more liable than men was peculiarly adverse to\nall sensual indulgence, and especially that of the sexes.\"\n\nAlthough the creative principle was adored under its representatives,\nthe Yoni and the Lingham, still the principal object seems to have been,\nwhen administering the rites pertaining to the worship of Cybele, to\nignore sex and the usual sex distinctions; hence we find that, in order\nto assume an androgynous appearance, the priestesses of this Goddess\nofficiated in the costumes of males, while priests appeared in the dress\npeculiar to females. However, that the sensuous element was to a certain\nextent already assuming dominion over the higher nature, and that\npriests were regarded as being incapable of self-control, is observed in\nthe fact that in the later ages of female worship one of the principal\nrequirements of a priest of Cybele was castration.\n\nIt is the opinion of Grote that the story which appears in the Hesiodic\nTheogony, of the castration of Saturn and Uranus by their sons with\nsickles forged by the mother, was borrowed from the Phrygians, or from\nthe worship of the Great Mother.\n\nIn India, the strictest chastity was prescribed to the priests of Siva,\na God which was worshipped as the Destroyer or Regenerator, and which\nin its earlier conception was the same as the Great Mother Cybele. These\npriests were frequently obliged to officiate in a nude state, and during\nthe ceremony should it appear that the symbols with which they came in\ncontact had appealed to other than their highest emotions, they were\nimmediately stoned by the people.(54)\n\n\n 54) Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes, i., 311.\n\n\nThe identity of the religions of India and Egypt has been noted in an\nearlier portion of this work. Wilford, in his dissertations upon Egypt\nand the Nile, says that in a conversation which he had with some learned\nBrahmins, upon describing to them the form and peculiarities of the\nGreat Pyramid, they told him that \"it was a temple appropriated to the\nworship of Padma Devi.\" The true Coptic name of these edifices is Pire\nHonc, which signifies a sunbeam. Padma Devi means the lotus, or the\nDeity of generation.\n\nIt is thought by many writers that these gigantic structures were\nerected by the Cushite conquerors of Egypt, who invaded and civilized\nthe country, as emblems of the female Deity whom they worshipped.\nCertainly the magnitude of these monuments and the ingenuity displayed\nin their construction indicate the intelligence of their builders and\nthe exalted character of the Deity adored. The Great Pyramid is in\nthe form of a square, each side of whose base is seven hundred and\nfifty-five feet, and covers an area of nearly fourteen acres. An able\nwriter in describing the pyramids says that the first thing which\nimpresses one is the uniform precision and systematic design apparent in\ntheir architecture. They all have their sides accurately adapted to the\nfour cardinal points.\n\n\"In six of them which have been opened, the principal passage preserves\nthe same inclination of 26 degrees to the horizon, being directed toward\nthe polar star.... Their obliquity being so adjusted as to make the\nnorth side coincide with the obliquity of the sun's rays at the summer's\nsolstice, has, combined with the former particulars, led some to suppose\nthey were solely intended for astronomical uses; and certainly, if not\naltogether true, it bespeaks, at all events, an intimate acquaintance\nwith astronomical rules, as well as a due regard to the principles of\ngeometry. Others have fancied them intended for sepulchres; and as the\nEgyptians, taught by their ancient Chaldean victors, connected astronomy\nwith their funereal and religious ceremonies, they seem in this to be\nnot far astray, if we but extend the application to their sacred bulls\nand other animals, and not merely to their kings, as Herodotus would\nhave us suppose.\"(55)\n\n\n 55) The Round Towers of Ireland, p. 159.\n\n\nAccording to the testimony of Inman, the pyramid is an emblem of the\nTrinity--three in one. The triangle typifies the flame of sacred fire\nemerging from the holy lamp. With its base upwards it typifies the\nDelta, or the door through which all come into the world. With its apex\nuppermost, it is an emblem of the phallic triad. The union of these\ntriangles typifies the male and female principles uniting with each\nother, thus producing a new figure, a star, while each retains its own\nidentity.(56)\n\n\n 56) Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 145.\n\n\nThus the primary significance of the pyramid was religious, and in\nits peculiar architectural construction was manifested the prevailing\nconception of the Deity worshipped; namely, the fructifying energies in\nthe sun. We are informed that \"all nations have at one time or another\npassed through violent stages of pyrolatry, a word which reminds us that\nfire and phallic cult flourished around the pyramids.... Every town in\nGreece had a Pyrtano.\"(57)\n\n\n 57) Forlong, Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in All Lands, vol. i., p.\n325.\n\n\nAs not alone the sun but the stars also had come to be venerated as\nagencies in reproduction, the worship of these objects was, as we\nhave seen, closely interwoven with that of the generative processes\nthroughout Nature. The attempt to solve the great problem of the\norigin of life on the earth led these people to contemplate with the\nprofoundest reverence all the visible objects which were believed to\naffect human destiny. Hence both the pyramid and the tower served a\ndouble purpose, first, as emblems of the Deity worshipped, and, second,\nas monuments for the study of the heavenly bodies with which their\nreligious ideas were so intimately connected.\n\nWhile comparing the early emblems which prefigure the primitive elements\nin the god-idea, Hargrave Jennings observes:\n\n\"In the conveyance of certain ideas to those who contemplate it, the\npyramid boasts of prouder significance, and impresses with a hint of\nstill more impenetrable mystery. We seem to gather dim supernatural\nideas of the mighty Mother of Nature... that almost two-sexed entity,\nwithout a name--She of the Veil which is never to be lifted, perhaps\nnot even by the angels, for their knowledge is limited. In short, this\ntremendous abstraction, Cybele, Ideae, Mater, Isiac controller of the\nZodiacs, whatever she may be, has her representative in the half-buried\nSphinx even to our own day, watching the stars although nearly swallowed\nup in the engulphing sands.\"(58)\n\n\n 58) Phallicism, p. 25.\n\n\nFrom the time when the two religious elements began to separate in the\nminds of the people, the prophets, seers, and priestesses of the old\nreligion, those who continued to worship the Virgin and Child, had\nprophesied that a mortal woman, a virgin, would, independently of the\nmale principle, bring forth a child, the fulfilment of which prophecy\nwould vindicate the ancient faith and forever settle the dispute\nrelative to the superiority of the female in the office of reproduction.\nThus would the woman \"bruise the serpent's head.\" In process of time not\nonly Yonigas, but Lingajas as well, came to accept the doctrine of the\nincarnation of the sun in the bodies of earthly virgins. By Lingaites,\nhowever, it was the seed of the woman and not the woman herself who was\nto conquer evil. Finally, with the increasing importance of the male in\nhuman society, it is observed that a reconciliation has been effected\nbetween the female worshippers and those of the male. Athene herself has\nacquiesced in the doctrine of male superiority.\n\nThalat, the great Chaldean Deity, who presided over Chaos prior to the\nexistence of organized matter, is finally transformed into a male God.\nThe Hindoo Vishnu, who as she slept on the bottom of the sea brought\nforth all creation, has changed her sex. Brahm, the Creator, is male,\nand appears as a triplicated Deity in the form of three sons within\nwhom is contained the essence of a Great Father, the female creative\nprinciple being closely veiled.\n\nHence we see that the God of the ancients, the universal dual force\nwhich resides in the sun and which creates all things, is no longer\nworshipped under the figure of a mother and her child. Although the\nfemale principle is still a necessary factor in the creative processes,\nand although it is capable of producing gods, the mother element\npossesses none of the essentials which constitute a Deity. In other\nwords, woman is not a Creator. From the father is derived the soul of\nthe child, while from the mother, or from matter, the body is formed.\nHence the prevalence at a certain stage of human history of divine\nfathers and earthly mothers; for instance, Alexander of Macedon, Julius\nCaesar, and later the mythical Christ who superseded Jesus, the Judean\nphilosopher and teacher of mankind.\n\nHenceforth, caves, wells, cows, boxes and chests, arks, etc., stand for\nor symbolize the female power. We are given to understand, however, that\nfor ages these symbols were as holy as the God himself, and among many\npeoples even more revered and worshipped.\n\nWe have seen that the ancients knew that matter and force were alike\nindestructible. According to their doctrine all Nature proceeded from\nthe sun. Hence the power back of the sun, which they worshipped as the\nDestroyer or Regenerator, or, in other words, as the mother of the sun,\nwas the Great Aum or Om, the Aleim or Elohim, who was the indivisible\nGod. The creative agency which proceeded from the sun was both male\nand female, yet one in essence. Later, the male appeared as spirit, the\nfemale as matter. Spirit was something above and independent of Nature.\n\nIt had indeed created matter from nothing. The fact will be remembered\nthat man claimed supremacy over woman on the ground that the male is\nspirit, while the female is only matter; in other words, that she was\nsimply a covering for the soul, which is divine.\n\nThus was the god-idea divorced from Nature, and a masculine principle,\noutside and independent of matter, set up as a personal potentate or\nruler over the universe.\n\nThe logic by which the great female principle in the Deity has been\neliminated, and the subterfuges which have been and still are employed\nto construct and sustain a Creator who of himself is powerless to\ncreate, is as amusing as it is suggestive, and forcibly recalls to mind\nla couvade, in which, among certain tribes, the father, assuming all the\nduties of procreation, goes to bed when a child is born.(59)\n\n\n 59) The Evolution of Woman, p. 127.\n\n\nAll mythologies prove conclusively that ages elapsed before human beings\nwere rash enough, or sufficiently blinded by falsehood and superstition,\nto attempt to construct a creative force unaided by the female\nprinciple. Just here it may not be out of place to refer to the fact\nthat in the attempt to divorce God from Nature have arisen all the\nsuperstitions and senseless religious theories with which, since the\nearliest ages of metaphysical speculation, the human mind has been\ncrowded.\n\nTo this separation of the two original elements in the Deity, and the\nconsequent exaltation of one of the factors in the creative processes,\nis to be traced the beginning of our present false, unnatural, and\nunphilosophical masculine system of religion--a system under which a\nfather appears as the sole parent of the universe.\n\nThe fact is tolerably well understood that mysticism and the\naccumulation of superstitious ideas are the result of the\nover-stimulation of the lower animal instincts. When the agencies which\nhad hitherto held the lower nature in check became inoperative--when man\nbegan to regard himself as a Creator and therefore as the superior of\nwoman--he had reached a point at which he was largely controlled by\nsupernatural or mystical influences.\n\nThe fact is observed that in course of time the governmental powers are\nno longer in the hands of the people; the masses have become enslaved.\nTheir rulers are priests--deified tyrants who are unable to maintain\ntheir authority except through the ignorance and credulity of the\nmasses. Hence one is not surprised to find that the change which took\nplace at a certain stage of human growth in respect to the manner of\nreckoning descent was instigated and enforced by religion. Apollo had\ndeclared that woman is but the nurse to her own offspring. Neither is\nit remarkable at this stage in the human career, as women had lost their\nposition as heads of families, and as they were no longer recognized as\nof kin to their children, that man should have attempted to lessen the\nimportance of the female element in the god-idea.\n\nWherever in the history of the human race we observe a change in the\nrelations of the sexes involving greater or more oppressive restrictions\non the natural rights of women, such change, whether it assume a legal,\nsocial, or religious form, will, if traced to its source, always be\nfound deeply rooted in the wiles of priestcraft. Since the decay of the\nearliest form of religion, namely, Nature-worship, the gods have never\nbeen found ranged on the side of women.\n\nLater investigations are proving that the primitive idea of a Deity had\nits foundation in actual physical facts and experiences; and, as the\nmaternal principle constituted the most important as well as the most\nobvious of the facts which entered into the conception of a Creator,\nand as it was the only natural bond capable of binding human society\ntogether, so long as reason was not wholly clouded by superstition and\nwarped by sensuality, it could not be eliminated. In other words,\na Creator in which the more essential element of creative force was\nwanting, was contrary to all human experience and observation. Indeed\nnothing could be plainer than that the deified male principle could of\nitself create nothing, and that it was dependent for its very existence\non the female element.\n\nBy this attempt to construct a masculine Deity, absurdities were\npresented to the human judgment and understanding which for ages could\nnot be overcome, and by it contradictions were necessitated which could\nnot be reconciled with human reason and with the ideas of Nature which\nhad hitherto been held by mankind. It was not, therefore, until reason\nhad been suspended in all matters pertaining to religion, and blind\nfaith in the machinations of priestcraft had been established, that a\nmale God was set up as the sole Creator of the universe.\n\nWhen women, who had become the legitimate plunder not only of\nindividuals but of bands of warriors whose avowed object was the capture\nof women for wives, had degenerated into mere tools or instruments for\nthe gratification and pleasure of men, Perceptive Wisdom or Light,\nand Maternal Affection the Preserver of the race, gradually became\neliminated from the god-idea of mankind. Passion became God. It was the\nCreator in the narrowest and most restricted sense.\n\nAlthough in an age of pure Nature-worship the ideas connected with\nreproduction, like those related to all other natural functions, were\nwholly unconnected with impurity either of thought or deed, still when\nan age arrived in which all checks to human passion had been withdrawn,\nand the lower propensities had gained dominion over the higher\nfaculties, the influence of fertility or passion-worship on human\ndevelopment or growth may in a degree be imagined.\n\nThe fact must be borne in mind that curing the later ages of\npassion-worship the creative processes and the reproductive organs were\ndeified, not as an expression or symbol of the operations of Nature, but\nas a means to the stimulation of the lower animal instincts in man.\n\nWith religion bestialized and its management regulated wholly with an\nidea to the gratification of man's sensuous desires, religious temples,\nunder the supervision of the priesthood, became brothels, in which were\nopenly practiced as part and parcel of religious rites and ceremonies\nthe most wanton profligacy and the most shameless self-abandonment.\nThe worship of Aphrodite or Venus, and also that of Bacchus, originally\nconsisted in homage paid to the reproductive principles contained in the\nearth, water, and sun, but, as is well known, this pure and beautiful\nworship, in later times, and especially after it was carried to Greece,\nbecame synonymous with the grossest practices and the most lawless\ndisregard of human decency.\n\nWith the light which in these later ages science and ethnological\nresearch are throwing upon the physiological and religious disputes\nof the ancients, the correctness of the primitive doctrines elaborated\nunder purer conditions at an age when human beings lived nearer to\nNature is being proved--namely, that matter like spirit is eternal\nand indestructible, and therefore that the one is as difficult of\ncomprehension as the other, and that Nature, instead of being separated\nfrom spirit, is filled with it and can not be divorced from it; also\nthat the female is the original organic unit of creation, without which\nnothing is or can be created.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI. CIVILIZATION OF AN ANCIENT RACE.\n\nThe profound doctrines of abstractions or emanations; of the absorption\nof the individual soul into the divine ether or essence; of the renewal\nof worlds and reincarnation, were doubtless elaborated after the\nseparation, in the human mind, of Spirit from matter, but before mankind\nhad lost the power to reason abstractly.\n\nAlthough Pythagoras understood and believed these doctrines, he did not,\nas is well known, receive them from his degenerate countrymen, but, on\nthe contrary, imbibed them from private sources among the orientals,\nwhere fragments of their remarkable learning were still extant. He said\nthat religion consists in knowing the truth and doing good, and his\nideas show the grandeur and beauty of the earlier conception of a Deity.\nHe declared that there is only one God who is not, \"as some are apt to\nimagine, seated above the world, beyond the orb of the universe,\" but\nthat this great power is diffused throughout Nature. It is \"the reason,\nthe life, and the motion of all things.\"\n\nPlato believed that human beings are possessed of two souls, the\none mortal, which perishes with the body, the other immortal, which\ncontinues to exist either in a state of happiness or misery; that the\nrighteous soul, freed from the limitations of matter, returns at death\nto the source whence it came, and that the wicked, after having been\ndetained for a while in a place prepared for their reception, are sent\nback to earth to reanimate other bodies.\n\nAristotle held the opinion that the souls of human beings are sparks\nfrom the divine flame, while Zeno, the founder of the Stoic philosophy,\ntaught that spirit acting upon matter produced the elements and the\nearth. There is plenty of evidence going to show that the early Fathers\nin the Christian church believed in the doctrines of reincarnation\nand the renewal of worlds. Neither is there any doubt but that this\nphilosophy came from the East, where it originated. It is thought that\nthe ancient philosophers who elaborated these doctrines were unable to\naccount for the existence of evil without a belief in the immortality of\nthe soul. Spirit was eternal, as was also matter.\n\nA soul, upon leaving the body, in course of time found its way back to\nearth, surrounded by conditions suited to its stage of growth. Here it\nmust reap all the consequences of its former life. It must also during\nits stay on earth make the conditions for its next appearance upon an\nearthly plane. So soon as through a succession of births and deaths\nit had perfected itself, it entered into a state of Nirvana. It was\nabsorbed into the great Universal Soul. Nothing is ever lost.\n\n \"Many a house of life\n Hath held me--seeking ever Him who wrought\n These prisons of the senses, sorrow fraught;\n Sore was my ceaseless strife!\n But now,\n Thou builder of this tabernacle--Thou!\n I know Thee.\n Never shalt Thou build again\n These walls of pain,\n Nor raise the roof-tree of deceits, nor lay\n Fresh rafters on the clay;\n Broken Thy house is, and the ridge-pole split!\n Delusion fashioned it!\n Safe pass I thence--deliverance to obtain.\"(60)\n\n\n 60) Edwin Arnold, The light of Asia.\n\n\nRegarding the opinions of the ancients on the subject of the eternity of\nmatter, Higgins, in his learned work on Celtic Druids, says:\n\n\"The eternity of matter is a well known tenet of the Pythagoreans, and\nwhether right or wrong there can be no doubt that it was the doctrine\nof the oriental school, whence Pythagoras drew his learning. It was a\nprinciple taken or mistaken from, or found amongst, the debris of that\nmighty mass of learning and science of a former period, of which, on\nlooking back as far as human ken can reach, the most learned men have\nthought that they could see a faint glimmering. Indeed, I think I may\nsay something more than a faint glimmering. For all the really valuable\nmoral and philosophical doctrines we possess, Dutens has shown to have\nexisted there.\"\n\nFrom what is known relative to the speculations of an ancient race, the\nfact is observed that creation was but a re-formation of matter. Wisdom,\nor Minerva, formed the earth and the planets; she did not create the\nheavens and the earth, as did the later Jewish God.\n\nOf the seven principles of the universe, matter was the first, and of\nthe seven principles of man, the physical body was the earliest. Through\nevolutionary processes, or through cyclic periods involving millions\nof years, mind was developed, and in course of time spirit was finally\nmanifested.\n\nMai, the Mother of Gotama Buddha, was simply matter, or illusion, from\nwhich its higher manifestation, mind or spirit, was emerging. She was\nalso the mother of Mercury. A clearer knowledge of the philosophical\ndoctrines which were elaborated at a time when Nature-worship was\nbeginning to decay, reveals the fact that the god-idea comprehended a\nprofound knowledge of Nature and her laws; that while this people did\nnot pretend to account for the existence of matter, they recognized a\nforce operating through it whose laws were unchanged and unchanging.\n\nWith these facts relative to the intelligence of an older race before\nus, the question naturally arises: What was the degree of civilization\nattained at a time when the Deity worshipped was an abstract principle\ninvolving the actual creative processes throughout Nature? and,\nnotwithstanding our prejudices, we are constrained to acknowledge that\nthese earlier conceptions are scarcely compatible with the barbarism\nwhich we have been taught to regard as the condition of all the peoples\nwhich existed prior to the first Greek Olympiad. On the contrary, the\norigin of the philosophical opinions entertained by the most ancient\noriental philosophers, and which must have arisen out of a profound\nknowledge or appreciation of Nature and her operations, point to a race\nfar superior to any of those peoples which appear in early historic\ntimes. Regarding these opinions, Godfrey Higgins remarks:\n\n\"From their philosophical truth and universal reception I am strongly\ninclined to refer them to the authors of the Neros, or to that\nenlightened race, supposed by Bailly to have formerly existed, and to\nhave been saved from a great catastrophe on the Himalaya Mountains. This\nis confirmed by an observation which the reader will make in the\nsequel, that these doctrines have been, like all the other doctrines\nof antiquity, gradually corrupted--incarnated, if I may be permitted to\ncompose a word for the occasion.\"\n\nOf this cycle, Bailly says: \"No person could have invented the Neros who\nhad not arrived at much greater perfection in astronomy than we know was\nthe state of the most ancient Assyrians, Egyptians, and Greeks.\"\n\nToward the close of the eighteenth century the celebrated astronomer,\nBailly, published a work entitled The History of Ancient Astronomy, in\nwhich he endeavored to prove that a nation possessed of profound wisdom\nand great genius, and of an antiquity far superior to the Hindoos or\nEgyptians, \"inhabited the country to the north of India, or about fifty\ndegrees north latitude.\" This writer has shown that \"the most celebrated\nastronomical observations and inventions, from their peculiar character,\ncould have taken place only in these latitudes, and that arts and\nimprovements gradually travelled thence to the equator.\"\n\nA colony of Brahmins settled near the Imans, and in Northern\nThibet, where in ancient times they established celebrated colleges,\nparticularly at Nagraent and Cashmere. In these institutions the\ntreasures of Sanskrit literature were supposed to be deposited. The\nRev. Mr. Maurice was informed that an immemorial tradition prevailed at\nBenares that all the learning of India came from a country situated in\nforty degrees of northern latitude. Other writers are of the opinion\nthat civilization proceeded from Arabia; that the old Cushite race\ncarried commerce, letters, and laws to all the nations of the East.\nWhich of these theories is true, if either, may not with certainty be\nproved at present; yet that in the far distant past a race of people\nexisted whose achievements exceeded those of any of the historic nations\nmay not be doubted.\n\nThat the length of the year was calculated with greater exactness by an\nancient and forgotten people than it was by early historic nations is\nproved by the cycle of the Neros. This cycle, which was formed of 7,421\nlunar revolutions of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 seconds, or\n219,146 days and a half, was equal to 600 solar years of 365 days, 5\nhours, 51 minutes, and 36 seconds, which time varies less than three\nminutes from the present observations of the year's length. The length\nof the year as calculated by the Egyptians and other early historic\nnations was 360 days, which fact would seem to indicate that a science\nof astronomy had been developed in an earlier age which by the most\nancient peoples of whom we have any historic records has been lost\nor forgotten. It has been said that if this cycle of the Neros \"were\ncorrect to the second, if on the first of January at noon a new moon\ntook place, it would take place again in exactly 600 years at the same\nmoment of the day, and under all the same circumstances.\"(61)\n\n\n 61) Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids, ch. ii., sec. 14.\n\n\nThe Varaha Calpa has the famous cycle of 4,320,000,000 years for its\nduration. This system makes the Cali Yug begin 3098 years B.C. A dodecan\nconsisted of 5 days, and 72 dodecans formed a natural year of 360 days.\nAccording to the earlier calculations, 360 solar diurnal revolutions\nconstituted a natural year. The doctrine of the ancients concerning\nthese cycles is thus set forth by Godfrey Higgins:\n\n\"The sun, or rather that higher principle of which the sun was the\nemblem or the shekinah, was considered to be incarnated every six\nhundred years. Whilst the sun was in Taurus, the different incarnations,\nunder whatever names they might go, were all considered but as\nincarnations of Buddha or Taurus. When he got into Aries, they were in\nlike manner considered but as incarnations of Cristna or Aries, and\neven Buddha and Cristna were originally considered the same, and had\na thousand names in common, constantly repeated in their litanies--a\nstriking proof of identity of origin. Of these Zodiacal divisions the\nHindoos formed another period, which consisted of ten ages or Calpas\nor Yugs, which they considered the duration of the world, at the end\nof which a general renovation of all things would take place. They also\nreckoned ten Neroses to form a period, each of them keeping a certain\nrelative location to the other, and together to form a cycle. To effect\nthis they doubled the precessional period for one sign--viz: 2160\nyears--thus making 4320, which was a tenth of 43,200, a year of the sun,\nanalogous to the 360 natural days, and produced in the same manner, by\nmultiplying the day of 600 by the dodecans 72 = 43,200. They then formed\nanother great year of 432,000 by again multiplying it by 10, which they\ncalled a Cali Yug, which was measurable both by the number 2160, the\nyears the equinox preceded in a sign, and by the number 600. They then\nhad the following scheme:\n\n A Cali Yug, or 600 (or a Neros) 432,000\n A Dwapar, or Duo-par Age....864,000\n A Treta, or tree-par Age... 1,296,000\n A Satya, or Satis Age....1,728,000\n ---------\n 4,320,000\n\naltogether 10 Ages, making a Maha Yug or Great Age. These were all\nequimultiples of the Cycle of the Neros 600, and of 2160, the twelfth\npart of the equinoctial precessional Cycle, and in all formed ten ages\nof 432,000 years each.\"(62)\n\n\n 62) Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 232.\n\n\nThe two great religious festivals of the ancients occurred the one in\nthe spring, at Easter, when all Nature was renewed, the other in the\nautumn, after the earth had yielded her bounties and the fruits were\ngarnered in. It was at these gatherings that the Great Mother Earth\nreceived the devout adoration of all her children.\n\nIt is supposed that the Neros, or cycle of 600, is closely connected\nwith this worship, and that it was invented to regulate the season for\nthese festivals. In process of time it was discovered that this cycle\nno longer answered, that the festival which had originally fallen on the\nfirst of May now occurred on the first of April. This, we are told,\n\n\"led ultimately to the discovery that the equinox preceded about 2160\nyears in each sign or 25,920 years in the 12 signs, and this induced\nthem to try if they could not form a cycle of the two. On examination,\nthey found that the 600 would not commensurate the 2160 years in a sign,\nor any number of sums of 2160 less than ten, but that it would with\nten, or that in ten times 2160, or in 21,600 years, the two cycles would\nagree; yet this artificial cycle would not be enough to include the\ncycle of 25,920. They, therefore, took two of the periods of 21,600, or\n43,200; and, multiplying both by ten--viz: 600 X 10 = 6000, and 43,200\nX 10 = 432,000--they formed a period with which the 600-year period and\nthe 6000-year period would terminate and form a cycle. Every 432,000\nyears the three periods would commence anew; thus the three formed a\nyear or cycle, 72 times 6000 making 432,000, and 720 times 600 making\n432,000.\"(63)\n\n\n 63) Higgins, Anacalypsis, p. 235.\n\n\nTo form a great year, which would include all the cyclical motions of\nthe sun and moon, and perhaps of the planets, they multiplied 432,000 by\nten; thus they had ten periods answering to ten signs. Concerning these\ncycles Godfrey Higgins observes:\n\n\"Persons of narrow minds will be astonished at such monstrous cycles;\nbut it is very certain that no period could properly be called the\ngreat year unless it embraced in its cycle every periodical movement\nor apparent aberration. But their vulgar wonder will perhaps cease\nwhen they are told that La Place has proved that, if the periodical\naberrations of the moon be correctly calculated, the great year must be\nextended to a greater length even than 4,320,000 years of the Maha Yug\nof the Hindoos, and certainly no period can be called a year of our\nplanetary system which does not take in all the periodical motions of\nthe planetary bodies.\"\n\nIt is thought that as soon as these ancient astronomers perceived that\nthe equinoxes preceded, they would at once attempt to determine the rate\nof precession in a given time; the precession, however, in one year\nwas so small that they were obliged to extend their observations over\nimmense periods. Jones informs us that the Hindoos first supposed that\nthe precession took place at the rate of 60 years in a degree, or 1800\nin a Zodiacal sign, and of 21,600 in a revolution of the entire circle.\nThey afterwards came to think that the precession was at the rate of 60\nyears and a fraction of a year, and thus that the precession for a sign\nwas in 1824 years, and for the circle in 21,888 years. Subsequently they\ndiscovered, or thought they had discovered, the Soli-Lunar period of 608\nyears, hence they attempted to make the two go together. Both, however,\nproved to be erroneous.\n\nIn referring to the fact that among the ancient Romans existed the story\nof the twelve vultures and the twelve ages of 120 years each, Higgins\nremarks:\n\n\"This arose from the following cause: They came from the East before the\nsupposition that the precession took place a degree in about 60 years,\nand 1824 years in a sign had been discovered to be erroneous; and as\nthey supposed the Neros made a correct cycle in 608 years, and believed\nthe precessional cycle to be completed in 21,888, they of course made\ntheir ages into twelve. As both numbers were erroneous, they would not\nlong answer their intended purpose, and their meaning was soon lost,\nthough the sacred periods of twelve ages and of 608 remained.\"\n\nAccording to Hipparchus and Ptolemy, the equinoxes preceded at the rate\nof a degree in 100 years, or 36,000 hundred years in 360 degrees. This\nconstituted a great year, at the end of which the regeneration of all\nthings takes place. This is thought to be a remnant of the most ancient\nHindoo speculations, and not the result of observation among the Greeks.\nSome time after the arrival of the sun in Aries,\n\n\"at the vernal equinox, the Indians probably discovered their mistake,\nin giving about 60 years to a degree; that they ought to give 50\" to a\nyear, about 72 years to a degree, and about 2160 years to a sign; and\nthat the Luni-Solar cycle, called the Neros, did not require 608 years,\nbut 600 years only, to complete its period. Hence arose the more perfect\nNeros.\"\n\nIt is thought by various writers that the knowledge of the ancient\nHindoos regarding the movements of the sun and moon in their cycles of\nnineteen and six hundred years--the Metonic cycle, and the Neros--proves\nthat long before the birth of Hipparchus the length of the year was\nknown with a degree of exactitude which that astronomer had not the\nmeans of determining. It is positively asserted by astronomers that\nat least twelve hundred years were required, \"during which time the\nobservations must have been taken with the greatest care and regularly\nrecorded,\" to arrive at the knowledge necessary for the invention of the\nNeros, and that such observations would have been impossible without the\naid of the telescope.\n\nOn the subject of the great learning of an ancient race, Sir W. Drummond\nsays:\n\n\"The fact, however, is certain, that at some remote period there were\nmathematicians and astronomers who knew that the sun is in the centre\nof the planetary system, and that the earth, itself a planet, revolves\nround the central fire;--who calculated, or like ourselves attempted to\ncalculate, the return of comets, and who knew that these bodies move\nin elliptic orbits, immensely elongated, having the sun in one of their\nfoci;--who indicated the number of the solar years contained in the\ngreat cycle, by multiplying a period (variously called in the Zend, the\nSanscrit, and the Chinese ven, van, and phen) of 180 years by another\nperiod of 144 years;--who reckoned the sun's distance from the earth at\n800,000,000 of Olympic stadia; and who must, therefore, have taken the\nparallax of that luminary by a method, not only much more perfect than\nthat said to be invented by Hipparchus, but little inferior in exactness\nto that now in use among the moderns;--who could scarcely have made a\nmere guess when they fixed the moon's distance from its primary planet\nat fifty-nine semi-diameters of the earth;--who had measured the\ncircumference of our globe with so much exactness that their\ncalculation only differed by a few feet from that made by our modern\ngeometricians;--who held that the moon and the other planets were worlds\nlike our own, and that the moon was diversified by mountains and valleys\nand seas;--who asserted that there was yet a planet which revolved round\nthe sun, beyond the orbit of Saturn;--who reckoned the planets to be\nsixteen in number;--and who reckoned the length of the tropical year\nwithin three minutes of the true time; nor, indeed, were they wrong at\nall, if a tradition mentioned by Plutarch be correct.\"(64)\n\n\n 64) Drummond, On the Zodiacs, p. 36.\n\n\nBailly, Sir W. Jones, Higgins, and Ledwich, as well as many modern\nwriters, agree in the conclusion that the Indians, the Egyptians,\nthe Assyrians, and the Chinese were simply the depositaries, not the\ninventors, of science. The spirit of inquiry which in later times is\ndirecting attention to the almost buried past is revealing the fact that\nnot merely the germs whence our present civilization has been developed\ndescended to us from the dim ages of antiquity, but that a great number\nof the actual benefits which go to make up our present state of material\nprogress have come to us from prehistoric times. The art of writing, of\nnavigation (including the use of the compass), the working of metals,\nastronomy, the telescope, gunpowder, mathematics, democracy, building,\nweaving, dyeing, and many of the appliances of civilized life, have been\nappropriated by later ages with no acknowledgment of the source\nwhence they were derived. When Pythagoras exhibited to the Greeks some\nbeautiful specimens of ancient architecture which he had brought from\nEgypt and Babylon, they simply claimed them as their own, giving no\ncredit to the people who originated them; and subsequent ages, copying\ntheir example, have refused to acknowledge that anything of value had\nbeen achieved prior to the first Greek Olympiad.\n\nWhen Philip of Macedon opened the gold mines of Thrace, a country in\nwhich it will be remembered the worship of the Great Mother Cybele was\nindigenous, he found that they had been previously worked \"at great\nexpense and with great ingenuity by a people well versed in mechanics,\nof whom no monuments whatever are extant.\"\n\nThe decorations on the breasts of some of the oldest mummies show that\nthe early Egyptians understood the art of making glass. It is now\nknown that the lens as a magnifying instrument was in use among them.\nAttention has been drawn to the fact that the astronomical observations\nof the ancients would have been impossible without the aid of the\ntelescope. Diodorus Siculus says there was an island west of the Celtae\nin which the Druids brought the sun and moon near them. An instrument\nhas recently been found in the sands of the Nile, the construction of\nwhich shows plainly that 6000 years ago the Egyptians were acquainted\nwith our modern ideas of the science of astronomy.\n\nWilliam Huntington, who has travelled widely in India, Borneo, the Malay\nPeninsula, and Egypt, says:\n\n\"I think, on the whole, the most interesting experience I ever had was\nin an ancient city on the Nile in Egypt.... When I was there a year ago,\nand men were digging among the ruined temples, some curious things were\nbrought to light, and these I regard as the strangest things seen in all\nmy wanderings. In an old tomb was found a curious iron and glass object,\nwhich on investigation proved to be a photographic camera. It was not\nsuch a camera as is used now, or has been since our photography was\ninvented, but something analogous to it, showing that the art which we\nthought we had discovered was really known 6000 years ago.\"\n\nThe same writer states that a plow constructed on the modern plan was\nalso found. \"It was not of steel but of iron, and it had the same shape,\nthe same form of point and bend of mold board as we have now.\"\n\nIt is reported that the dark continent possesses means of communication\nentirely unknown to Europe. Upon this subject a correspondent to the New\nYork Tribune writes:\n\n\"When Khartoum fell in 1885 I was in Egypt, and I well remember that the\nArabs settled in the neighborhood of the pyramids knew all about it, as\nwell as about Gen. Gordon's death, days and days before the news\nreached Cairo by telegraph from the Soudanese frontier. Yet Khartoum is\nthousands of miles distant from Cairo and the telegraph wires from the\nfrontier were monopolized by the government.\"\n\nThe same correspondent observes that these Arabs told him, months\npreviously, of the defeat of the Egyptian army under Baker Pasha at\nTokar--that they not only gave him the news, but several particulars\nconcerning the matter, two full days before intelligence was received\nfrom the Red Sea coast. In answer to the suggestion that such\ninformation might have been conveyed by means of signal fires, this\nwriter says that such fires would have attracted the attention of the\nEnglish and native scouts, and that the whole country is unpropitious\nto such methods; besides, no system of signal fires, no matter how\nelaborate, could have conveyed the news so quickly and in such detail.\nThe whole matter is summed up as follows:\n\n\"The Arabs, therefore, have, manifestly, some other means of rapid\ncommunication at their command. One is inclined to the presumption that\nthey, like the learned Pundits of Northern India, have a knowledge\nof the forces of Nature that are yet hidden from our most eminent\nscientists.\"\n\nCan it be that the Arabs are acquainted with the very recently\ndiscovered scientific principle, that it is possible to transmit\ntelegraphic communications without wires, and simply by means of\nmagnetic currents in earth and water?\n\nNor is this remarkable skill confined to the \"barbarians of the Old\nWorld.\" A correspondent from the far West to the New York Press wrote\nthat long before the news of the Custer massacre reached Fort Abraham\nLincoln the Sioux had communicated it to their brethren. The scouts in\nCrook's column to the south knew of it almost immediately, as did those\nwith Gibbon farther northwest. The same writer says that several years\nago a naval lieutenant ran short of provisions. He pushed on to a\nsettlement as rapidly as possible and upon arriving there found that\nthe inhabitants had provided for his coming and had a bounteous store\nawaiting him. The people in the village were of a different tribe from\nthose whose domain he had passed, and so far as could be learned were\nnot in communication with them.\n\nThe earliest accounts which we have of Egypt and Chaldea reveal the fact\nthat at a very remote period they were old and powerful civilizations,\nthat they had a settled government, a pure and philosophical religion,\nand a profound knowledge of science and art; yet, notwithstanding the\ngreat antiquity of these civilizations, that of the people which created\nthem must have been infinitely more remote.\n\nThe earliest historic nations recognized the greatness of these ancient\npeople and the extent of their dominion. In the oldest geographical\nwritings of the Sanskrit people, the ancient Ethiopia, or land of\nCush of Greek and Hebrew antiquity, is clearly described. Stephanus of\nByzantium, who is said to represent the opinions of the most ancient\nGreeks, says: \"Ethiopia was the first established country on the earth,\nand the Ethiopians were the first who introduced the worship of the Gods\nand who established laws.\"(65)\n\n\n 65) Quoted by John D. Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 62.\n\n\nHeeren in his researches says:\n\n\"From the remotest times to the present, the Ethiopians have been one\nof the most celebrated, and yet the most mysterious of nations. In\nthe earliest traditions of nearly all the more civilized nations of\nantiquity, the name of this distant people is found. The annals of the\nEgyptian priests are full of them, and the nations of inner Asia, on\nthe Euphrates and Tigris, have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians\nwith their traditions of the wars and conquests of their heroes; and,\nat a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. When the\nGreeks scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians were\ncelebrated in the verses of their poets, and when the faint gleam of\ntradition and fable gives way to the clear light of history, the lustre\nof the Ethiopians is not diminished.\"\n\nHomer says of them that they were a \"divided people dwelling at the\nends of the earth toward the setting and the rising Sun.\" Although it is\npossible at the present time to discover very many of the facts bearing\nupon the civilization of this ancient people, it is impossible in the\npresent condition of human knowledge to discover when civilized life\nbegan on the earth. Whether the ancient Arabians or Ethiopians who\nbelonged to the old Cushite race, and who are believed by many to be\nthe most ancient people of whom we have any trace, were the first\ncolonizers, or whether they were preceded by a still older civilization,\nhistory and tradition are alike silent; yet the fact seems to be\ntolerably well authenticated that this enlightened race, now nearly\nextinct, carried civilization to Chaldea more than seven thousand years\nB.C., that it colonized Egypt, engrafted its own institutions in India,\ncolonized Phoenicia, and by its maritime and commercial enterprise,\nintroduced civilized conditions into every quarter of the globe. Even\nin Peru, in Mexico, in Central America, and in the United States are\nevidences of the old Cushite religion and enterprise.\n\nBaldwin, commenting on the greatness of this remarkable people, says\nthat early in the period of its colonizing enterprise, commercial\ngreatness, and extensive empire, it established colonies in the valleys\nof the Nile and the Euphrates, which in later ages became Barbary,\nEgypt, and Chaldea. The ancient Cushite nation occupied Arabia and\nother extensive regions of Africa, India, and Western Asia to the\nMediterranean. While remarking upon the vastness and antiquity of this\nold Cushite race, Rawlinson says that they founded most of the towns of\nWestern Asia. The vast commercial system which formed a connecting link\nbetween the various countries of the globe, was created by this people,\nthe great manufacturing skill and unrivalled maritime activity of the\nPhoenicians which extended down to the time of the Hellenes and the\nRomans having been a result of the irgenius. It was doubtless during the\nsupremacy of the ancient Cushite race that a knowledge of astronomy was\ndeveloped and that the arts of life were carried to a high degree of\nperfection. However, through the peculiar influences which were brought\nto bear upon human experience, this knowledge, which was bequeathed\nto their descendants or to the nations which they had created, was\nsubsequently lost or practically obscured, only fragments of it having\nbeen preserved from the general ruin.\n\nWithin these fragments have been preserved in India certain evidences of\na profound knowledge of Nature, or of the at present unknown forces in\nthe universe, a demonstration of which, in our own time, would probably\nbe looked upon as a miraculous interposition of supernatural agencies.\n\nRegarding the refinements and luxuries of this ancient people, Diodorus\nSiculus declares that they flowed in streams of gold and silver, that\n\"the porticoes of their temples were overlaid with gold, and that the\nadornments of their buildings were in some parts of silver and gold,\nand in others of ivory and precious stones, and other things of great\nvalue.\"\n\nFrom various observations, it is plain that the Etrurians represented\na stage of civilization far in advance of the Pelasgians who founded\nRome--a race which, although superior in numbers, arms, and influence,\nwere, when compared with this more ancient people, little better than\nbarbarians.(66)\n\n\n 66) It is thought that as early as the nineteenth century B.C. the\nPelasgians or Pelargians went to Aenonia, or Ionia. It was a detachment\nof this people which, according to Herodotus, captured a number of\nAthenian women on the coast of Africa, lived with them as wives, and\nraised families by them, but, \"because they differed in manners from\nthemselves,\" they murdered them, which act was attended by a \"dreadful\npestilence.\" It is the opinion of certain writers that these women were\nof a different religious faith from their captors, and that so intense\nand bitter was the feeling upon the comparative importance of the sex\nfunctions in pro-creation, that their husbands, unable to change their\nviews, put an end to their existence.\n\n\nNothing, perhaps, proclaims the degree of civilization attained by the\nancient Etrurians more plainly than the exquisite perfection which is\nobserved in the specimens of art found in their tumuli. Within the tombs\nof Etruscans buried long prior to the foundation of Rome, or the birth\nof the fine arts in Greece, have been found unmistakable evidence of the\nadvanced condition of this people. The exquisite coloring and grouping\nof the figures on their elegant vases, one of which, on exhibition in\nthe British Museum, portrays the birth of Minerva, or Wisdom, show the\ndelicacy of their taste, the purity of their conceptions, and their true\nartistic skill.\n\nAmong their mechanical arts, a few specimens of which have been\npreserved, is the potter's wheel, an invention which, so far as its\nutility is concerned, is declared to be absolutely perfect--the most\ncomplete of all the instruments of the world. \"It never has been\nimproved and admits of no improvement.\" In fact all that may be gathered\nconcerning the ancient Etrurians, a people who by the most able writers\nupon this subject is believed to have been one of the first to leave\nthe Asiatic hive, is in perfect accord with the facts already set forth\nregarding that mighty nation, perhaps of upper Asia, who carried the\nstudy of astronomy to a degree of perfection never again reached until\nafter the discovery of the Copernican system, who invented the Neros\nand the Metonic Cycle, who colonized Egypt and Chaldea, and who carried\ncivilization to the remotest ends of the earth.\n\nThe philosophy of the Etrurians corresponds with that of the most\nancient Hindoo system, and displays a degree of wisdom unparalleled by\nany of the peoples belonging to the early historic ages. According to\ntheir cosmogony, the evolutionary or creative processes involved twelve\nvast periods of time. At the end of the first period appeared the\nplanets and the earth, in the second the firmament was made, in the\nthird the waters were brought forth, in the fourth the sun, moon, and\nstars were placed in the heavens, in the fifth living creatures appeared\non the earth, and in the sixth man was produced. These six periods\ncomprehended one-half the duration of the cycle. After six more periods\nhad elapsed, or after the lapse of the entire cycle of twelve periods,\nall creation was dissolved or drawn to the source of all life.\nSubsequently a new creation was brought forth under which the same order\nof events will take place. The involution of life, or its return to the\ngreat source whence it sprang, did not, however, involve the destruction\nof matter. The seeds of returning life were preserved in an ark or\nboat--the female principle, within which all things are contained. This\nindrawing of life constituted \"the night of Brahme.\" It was represented\nby Vishnu sleeping on the bottom of the sea.\n\nFrom the facts adduced in relation to the Etrurians we are not surprised\nto find that their religion was that of the ancient Nature worshippers,\nand that a mother with her child stood for their god-idea. In referring\nto the religion of this people, and to the great antiquity of the\nworship of the Virgin and Child, Higgins remarks: \"Amongst the Gauls,\nmore than a hundred years before the Christian era, in the district of\nChartres, a festival was celebrated in honor of the Virgin,\" and in the\nyear 1747, a mithraic monument was found \"on which is exhibited a female\nnursing an infant--the Goddess of the year nursing the God day.\" To\nwhich he adds: \"The Protestant ought to recollect that his mode of\nkeeping Christmas Day is only a small part of the old festival as it yet\nexists amongst the followers of the Romish Church. Theirs is the remnant\nof the old Etruscan worship of the virgin and child.\" As a proof of the\nabove, Higgins cites Gorius's Tuscan Antiquities, where may be seen the\nfigure of an old Goddess with her child in her arms, the inscription\nbeing in Etruscan characters. \"No doubt the Romish Church would have\nclaimed her for a Madonna, but most unluckily she has her name, Nurtia,\nin Etruscan letters, on her arm, after the Etruscan practice.\"\n\nFrom the monuments of Etruria the fact is observed that descent and\nthe rights of succession were traced in the female line, a condition of\nsociety which indicates the high position which must have been occupied\nby the women of that country.\n\nIn Oman is said to exist a fragment of the government of the old\nEthiopian or Cushite race. If this is true, then we may be able to\nperceive at the present time something of the character of the political\ninstitutions of this ancient nation. As no people remains stationary,\nand as degeneracy has been the rule with surrounding countries, we may\nnot expect to find among the people of Oman a true representation of\nancient conditions, yet, as has been observed, we may still be able to\nnote some of the facts relative to the organization of society and their\ngovernmental institutions.\n\nIn a description furnished by Palgrave, Oman is termed a kingdom, yet it\nis plain from the observations of this writer that the existing form\nof government is that of a confederacy of nations under a democratical\nsystem, identical with that developed during the later status of\nbarbarism. This writer himself admits that Oman is less a kingdom than\nan aggregation of municipalities, and that each of these municipalities\nor towns has a separate existence and is controlled by its own local\nchief; but that all are joined together in one confederacy, and\nsubjected to the leadership of a grand chief whom the writer is pleased\nto term \"the crown,\" but why, as is evident from the description given,\nbears no resemblance to a modern monarch. The chiefs who direct the\ncouncils of the municipalities are limited in their powers by \"the\ntraditional immunities of the vassals,\" the decision of all criminal\ncases and the administration of justice being in the hands of the local\njudges. In the descriptions given of their governmental proceedings,\nit is stated that the whole course of law is considered apart from the\njurisdiction of the sovereign, who has no power to either change or\nannul the enactments of the people.\n\nHere, it is observed, exists almost the identical form of government\nwhich was in use among the early historic nations, before governments\ncame to be founded on wealth, or on a territorial basis(67); or, in\nother words, before the monied and aristocratic classes had drawn to\nthemselves all the powers which had formerly belonged to the people.\n\n\n 67) See The Evolution of Woman, p. 238.\n\n\nWe must bear in mind the fact that under these earlier democratical\ninstitutions, the term \"people\" included not only men but women, and as\nthe grand chief, the local rulers, and the judges held their positions\nby virtue of their descent from, or relationship to, some real or\ntraditional leader of the gens, who during all the earlier ages was a\nwoman, we may believe that the power of women to depose their political\nleaders so soon as their conduct became obnoxious to them was absolute\nand unquestioned.\n\nDoubtless, as we have seen, the government of Oman has undergone a\nconsiderable degree of modification since the days of Cushite splendor\nand supremacy; that, like all other nations which have come in\ncontact with the Aryan and Semitic races, the tendency has been\ntoward monarchial government; nevertheless, with its practically free\ninstitutions, representing as they do, in a measure, the political\nsystem of the grandest and oldest civilizations of which we have any\nknowledge, it furnishes an illustration of the degree of progress\npossible under gentile organization, at the same time that it points to\nthe source whence has proceeded the fierce democratic spirit observed\namong succeeding nations, notably the Greeks.\n\nModern writers agree in ascribing to the Touaricks, a people inhabiting\nthe Desert of Sahara, a considerable degree of civilization. We are\ninformed that in the Sahara, which, by the way, is far less a barren\nwaste than we have been taught to suppose it, \"the Touaricks have towns,\ncities, and an excellent condition of agriculture\"; that with them fruit\nis cultivated with great success and skill. Their method of\npolitical organization is democratic and similar in construction and\nadministration to the old Cushite municipalities. Baldwin, quoting from\nRichardson, says: \"Ghat, like all the Touarick countries, is a republic;\nall the people govern. The woman of the Touaricks is not the woman of\nthe Moors and Mussulmans generally. She has here great liberty, and\ntakes an active part in the affairs and transactions of life.\"(68)\n\n\n 68) Prehistoric Nations, p. 341.\n\n\nOne who is disposed to search for it, will find no lack of evidence\ngoing to prove that in an earlier age of the world, prior to the written\nrecords of extant history, the human race had attained to a stage of\ncivilization equal in all and superior in many respects to that of the\npresent time.\n\nThat this remarkable stage of progress, the actual extent of which\nhas not yet been fully realized, was attained during a period of pure\nNature-worship, or while the earth and the sun were venerated as emblems\nof the great creative energy throughout the universe, is a proposition\nwhich, when viewed by the light of more recently acquired facts, is\nperfectly reasonable, and exactly what might be expected.\n\nThat this high stage of civilization was reached while women were the\nrecognized heads of families and of the gentes, and at a time when\nPerceptive Wisdom, or the female energy in the Deity, was worshipped as\nthe supreme God, is a fact which in time will be proved beyond a doubt.\nIndeed, had not the judgment of man become warped by prejudice, and\nhis reason clogged by superstition and sensuality, the fact so plainly\napparent in all ancient mythologies, that in the early god-idea two\nprinciples were contained, the female being in the ascendancy, would\nlong ere this have been acknowledged, and our present religious systems,\nwhich are but outgrowths from these mythologies, would, with the partial\nreturn of civilized conditions, have been so modified or changed as to\nembrace some of the fundamental truths which formed the basis of early\nreligion.\n\nRegarding the religion of the ancient race which we have been\nconsidering, we are told that they worshipped a dual Deity, under the\nappellations of Ashtaroth and Baal, and that this God \"comprehended\nthe generative or reproductive powers in human beings and in the sun,\ntogether with Wisdom or Light.\" In other words, they adored the great\nmoving force throughout Nature, a force which they venerated as the\nGreat Mother.\n\nBefore the Zend and Sanskrit branches of the Aryan race had separated,\ntheir religion was doubtless that given them by their Cushite\ncivilizers. The worship of the sun and the planets, with which were\ninextricably interwoven the fructifying agencies in Nature, explains\ntheir devotion to the study of the heavenly bodies and their advanced\nknowledge of astronomy. The types of regeneration or reproduction which\nthey venerated were symbols of abstract principles, and, from facts\nconnected with their religious ceremonies as practiced by their\nimmediate successors, and from the pure significance attached to their\nemblems, we are justified in the conclusion before referred to, that\nthe sensuous element, which became so prominent in later religious\ndevelopments, constituted no part of their worship.\n\nThe number of ages during which the most primitive religion, namely,\nthat of pure Nature-worship, prevailed among the inhabitants of the\nearth may not be conjectured, and the exact length of time during which\nearth and sun adoration unalloyed by serpent and phallic faiths remained\nis not known. It is probable, however, that its duration is to be\nmeasured by that of the supremacy of the altruistic or mother element\nin human affairs, and that the gradual engrafting of the later-developed\nsensuous faiths upon their earlier god-idea, marks the change from\nfemale to male supremacy.\n\nWe have observed that whenever a remnant of the civilization of the\nancient Cushites appears, exactly as might be expected, women hold an\nexalted position in human affairs, at the same time that the female\nprinciple constitutes the essential element in the Deity.\n\nOf the ancient Persians who received their religion and their\ncivilization from this older race Malcolm observes:\n\n\"The great respect in which the female sex was held was, no doubt, the\nprincipal cause of the progress they made in civilization.... It would\nappear that in former days the women of Persia had an assigned and\nhonorable place in society; and we must conclude that an equal rank\nwith the male creation, which is secured to them by the ordinances of\nZoroaster, existed long before the time of that reformer, who paid too\ngreat attention to the habits and prejudices of his countrymen to have\nmade any serious alteration in so important an usage. We are told\nby Quintus Curtius, that Alexander would not sit in the presence of\nSisygambis, till told to do so by that matron, because it is not the\ncustom in Persia for sons to sit in the presence of their mothers.\nThere can be no stronger proof than this anecdote affords, of the great\nrespect in which the female sex were held in that country, at the time\nof this invasion.\"(69)\n\n\n 69) See History of Persia.\n\n\nNo one I think can study the sacred books of the Persians without\nobserving the emphasis which is there placed on purity of character\nand right living. Indeed, within no extant writings is the antithesis\nbetween good and evil more strongly marked, at the same time that their\nhatred of idolatry is clearly apparent. The same is observed in the\nearly writings of the Hindoos. Within the Vedas, although they have been\ncorrupted by later writers, may still be traced a purity of thought and\nlife which is not apparent in the writings of later ages. Not long ago\nI was informed by a learned native of India that the original writing of\nthe Vedas was largely the work of women.\n\nThat the early conceptions of a Deity in which women constituted the\ncentral and supreme figure were in Egypt correlated with the exercise of\ngreat temporal power, may not, in view of the facts at hand, longer\nbe doubted. By means of records revealed on ancient monuments, we\nare informed that in the age of Amunoph I. a considerable degree of\nsovereign power in Egypt was exercised by a woman, Amesnofre-are, who\nhad shared the throne with Ames. She occupied it also with Amunoph, and,\nnotwithstanding the statement of Herodotus, that women did not serve\nin the capacity of priests, this Queen is represented as pouring out\nlibations to Amon, an office which was doubtless the highest connected\nwith the priesthood.\n\nLess than forty years later, it is observed that another woman,\nAmun-nou-het, shared the throne with Thotmes I. and II. and that \"she\nappears to have enjoyed far greater consideration than either of them.\"\nNot alone are monuments raised in her name, but she appears dressed as\na man, and \"alone presenting offerings to the gods.\" So important a\npersonage was she that she is believed by many to be the princess who\nconquered the country, perhaps even Semiramis herself. Her title was the\n\"Shining Sun.\"(70)\n\n\n 70) Rawlinson, History of Herodotus, app., book ii., ch. viii.\n\n\nAs these women doubtless belonged to the old Arabian, Ethiopian, or\nCushite race, the people who had brought civilization to Egypt, we are\nnot surprised to find them holding positions which were connected with\nthe highest civil and religious offices. The Labyrinth, in the country\nof the Nile, is described by ancient writers as containing three\nthousand chambers. Strabo says of it that the enclosure contained as\nmany palaces as there formerly were homes, and that there the priests\nand priestesses of each department were wont to congregate to discuss\ndifficult and important questions of law.\n\nAccording to the Greeks, the Egyptian God Osiris corresponds to their\nJupiter; and Sate, the companion of Kneph, is identical with Juno. It\nis quite evident, however, that the Greeks understood little of the\ntrue significance of the gods which they had borrowed, or which they\nhad inherited from older nations. It would seem that as a people their\nconceit prevented them from acknowledging the dignity even of their\ngods, hence, they endowed them with the attributes best suited to their\nown depraved taste or pleasure, and then worshipped them as beings like\nthemselves.\n\nIt has been observed of the Egyptians that they were wont to ridicule\nthe Greeks for regarding their gods as actual beings, while in reality\n\"they were only the representations of the attributes and principles of\nNature.\" Unlike the religions which succeeded it, Egyptian mythology, as\nunderstood by the learned, was essentially philosophical, and dealt with\nabstractions and principles rather than with personalities.\n\nNotwithstanding the importance which in process of time came to be\nclaimed by males, and the consequent stimulation which was given to the\nanimal tendencies, it is evident, from certain historical and undeniable\nproofs in connection with this subject, that although woman's power in\nEgypt, as in all other countries, gradually became weakened, the\neffect of her influence on manners and social customs was never wholly\nextinguished.\n\nRegarding the existence of polygamy, it has been said that the high\nposition occupied in ancient Egypt by the mother of the family, the\nmistress of the household, is absolutely irreconcilable with the\nexistence of polygamy as a general practice, or of such an institution\nas the harem. Although the plurality of wives does not appear to have\nbeen contrary to law, it \"certainly was unusual,\" and although Egyptian\nkings frequently had many wives, \"they followed foreign rather than\nnative custom.\"(71)\n\n\n 71) Renouf, Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 81.\n\n\nHerodotus says of the women of Egypt: \"They attend the markets and trade\nwhile the men sit at home at the loom\"(72); and Diodorus informs us that\nin Egypt \"women control the men.\"\n\n\n 72) Book ii., ch. xxxv.\n\n\nWere we in possession of no direct historical evidence to prove that\ndown to a late period in the history of Egypt women had not lost\ntheir prestige, sufficient evidence would be found in the fact that,\nnotwithstanding the growing tendency of mankind in all the nations of\nthe globe to suppress the female instincts and to reject, conceal,\nor belittle the woman element in the Deity, still Isis, the gracious\nmother, retained a prominent place in the god-idea of that country.\n\nI am not unmindful of the remarks which a reference to a past age of\nintellectual and moral greatness will call forth; indeed, I can almost\nhear some devotee of the present time remark: \"So we are asked to regard\nas a sober fact the existence in the past of a golden age; also to\nbelieve that man was created pure and holy, and that he has since\nfallen from his high estate; in other words, we are to have faith in the\nancient tradition of the 'fall of man.'\" If by the fall of man we are to\nunderstand that a great and universal people, who in a remote age of\nthe world's history had reached a high stage of civilization, gradually\npassed out of human existence, and that a lower race, which\nwas incapable of attaining to their estate, and which, by the\nover-stimulation of the lower propensities, sank into a state of\nbarbarism, in which the original sublime conceptions of a Deity were\nobscured and the great learning of the past was lost, I can see no\nreason to disbelieve it, especially as all the facts, both of tradition\nand history, bearing upon this subject unite in proclaiming its truth.\n\nAfter stating that in Chaldea has been found rather the debris of\nscience than the elements of it, Bailly asks:\n\n\"When you see a house built of old capitals, columns, and other\nfragments of beautiful architecture, do you not conclude that a fine\nbuilding has once existed?... If the human mind can ever flatter itself\nwith having been successful in discovering the truth, it is when many\nfacts, and these facts of different kinds, unite in producing the same\nresults.\"\n\nThat the descendants of a once mighty nation lapsed into barbarism,\nforgetting the profound knowledge of the sciences possessed by their\nancestors, is a fact too well attested at the present time to be doubted\nby those who have taken the pains to acquaint themselves with the\nevidence at hand.\n\nRegarding the manner in which this ancient civilization was reached, or\nconcerning the way in which it was achieved, history and tradition\nare alike silent, although it is believed that the present methods\nof investigation will, at least in a measure, unravel the mystery. At\npresent we only know that, as far in the remote past as human ken can\nreach, evidences of a high stage of civilization exist which it must\nhave required thousands upon thousands of years to accomplish.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII. CONCEALMENT OF THE EARLY DOCTRINES.\n\nAfter the decline of Nature-worship, and when through the constantly\nincreasing power gained by the ruder elements in human society a\nknowledge of the scientific principles underlying ancient religion had\nbeen partially lost or forgotten, it became necessary for philosophers\nto conceal the original conception of the Deity and to clothe their\nsacred writings in allegory. Hence it is observed that every ancient\nform of religion has a cabala containing its secret doctrines--doctrines\nthe inner meaning of which was known only to the few. In order that\nthese truths might be preserved, they were inscribed on the leaves of\ntrees in characters or symbols understood only by the initiated. The\nallegories beneath which these higher truths were concealed were handed\ndown as traditions to succeeding generations--traditions in which\nhistory, astrology, and mythology are strangely combined.\n\nAfter long periods, through war, conquest, and the various changes\nincidental to shifting environment, these traditions were in the main\nforgotten. Fragments of them, however, were from time to time gathered\ntogether, and, intermingled with later doctrines, were used by the\npriests as a means of increased self-aggrandizement and power.\n\nIt is now thought that the Iliad (Rhapsodies) of Homer is only a number\nof \"detached songs\" which perhaps for centuries were delivered orally,\nand that they contain the secret doctrines of the priests. Porphyry\nsays that \"we ought not to doubt that Homer has secretly represented\nthe images of divine things under the concealment of fable.\" It has been\nsaid of Plato that he banished the poems of Homer from his imaginary\nrepublic for the reason that the people might not be able to distinguish\nwhat is from what is not allegorical. Hippolytus informs us that the\nSimonists declared that in Helen resided the principle of intelligence;\n\"and thus, when all the powers were for claiming her for themselves,\nsedition and war arose, during which this chief power was manifested to\nnations.\" These songs which were gathered together by Pisistratus and\nrevised by Aristotle for the use of Alexander, have generally been\nregarded merely as a bit of history recounting a severe and protracted\nstruggle between the Greeks and Trojans.\n\nWithin the earliest historical accounts which we have of the Egyptians,\nwe observe that their ceremonies and symbols have already become\nmultitudinous, the true meaning of the latter being concealed. The\nmasses of the people, who had grown too sensualized and ignorant to\nreceive the higher divine \"mysteries,\" and too gross to be entrusted\nwith their true significance, had become idolaters.\n\nNot only the Egyptian and Chaldean priests, but Moses and the Jewish\ndoctors were well versed in religious symbolism. The fact is observed,\nalso, that as late as medieval Christianity, the fathers in the Church,\nthe Christian painters, sculptors, and architects, still employed signs\nand symbols to set forth their religious doctrines. Even at the present\ntime, many of the emblems representing certain ideas connected with\nthe creative principles, and which were part and parcel of the pagan\nworship, are still in use. The masses of the people, however, are\nwithout a knowledge of their origin or early significance.\n\nEverywhere, throughout the early historic nations, were worshipped\nsymbols of the attributes or functions of the dual or triune God. Each\nsymbol represented a distinctive female or male quality. Animals, trees,\nthe sea, plants, the moon, and the heavens were, at a certain stage of\nreligious development, symbolized as parts of the Deity and worshipped\nas possessing certain female or male characteristics or attributes.\n\nIt is plain that, with the decline of female power, and the consequent\nstimulation of the animal instincts in man, the pure creative principles\ninvolved in Nature-worship gradually became unsuited to the sensualized\ncapacities and tastes of the masses; but in addition to this were other\nreasons why the female principle in the Deity should be concealed. Women\nwere already deposed from their former exalted position as heads of\nfamilies and as leaders of consanguine communities. All their rightful\nprerogatives had been usurped. The highest development in Nature had\nbecome the slave of man's appetites, and motherhood, which had hitherto\nbeen accepted as the most exalted function either in heaven or on the\nearth, trailed in the dust.\n\nUnder these conditions it is not perhaps singular that the capacity\nto bring forth, and the qualities and attributes of women which are\ncorrelated with it, namely, sympathy--a desire for the welfare of others\noutside of self, or altruism,--should no longer have been worshipped as\ndivine, or that in their place should have been substituted the leading\ncharacters developed in man. From the facts at hand it is plain that\nat a certain stage of human growth physical might and male reproductive\nenergy, or virility, became the recognized God. With passion as the\nhighest ideal of a Creator, the female element appeared only in a\nsensualized form and simply as an appendage to the god which was\ndependent upon her ministrations. Under the above conditions it is not\nin the least remarkable that by the priests it should have been deemed\nnecessary to conceal from women the facts bound up in their nature.\nWoman's importance as a creative agency and as a prime and most\nessential factor in the universe must be concealed. \"Isis must be\nveiled.\"\n\nThrough the appropriation of the titles of the original dual God by\nreigning monarchs, is perceived at least one of the processes by which\nthe great universal female Deity of the ancients has been transformed\ninto a male god. We are assured that the \"redundant nomenclature of the\ndeities of Babylon renders an interpretation of them impossible.\nEach divinity has many distinct names, by which he is indifferently\ndesignated.\" It is observed that each Deity has as many as forty or\nfifty titles, each of which represents a certain attribute.\n\nSince the invention of the cuneiform alphabet, by which pictures have\nbeen reduced to phonetic signs, the attempt has been made to arrange or\nclassify these gods according to their proper order in the Pantheon, but\nthus far much obscurity and doubt seem to pervade their history.\n\nIn Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian mythologies are observed much\nconfusion and no small degree of mystery surrounding the positions\noccupied by certain gods. \"Children not unfrequently change positions\nwith parents,\" but more frequently, we are told, \"women change places\nwith men,\" or, more properly speaking, the titles, attributes, and\nqualities ascribed to the Great Universal female God are now transferred\nto the reigning monarch. Thus not unfrequently a deity is observed which\nis composed of a male triad, the central figure of which is the king or\nmilitary chieftain, and to which is usually appended a straggling fourth\nmember, a female, who, shorn of her power, and with a doubtful and\nmysterious title, appears as wife or mistress to his greatness, while\nupon her is reflected, through him, a slight hint of that dignity and\nhonor which was originally recognized as belonging exclusively to the\nrecognized Deity.\n\nThe Goddess Vishnu, from whose navel as she slept on the bottom of the\nsea sprang all creation, after her transformation into a male God, is\nsupplemented by a wife--Lacksmir. Lacksmir means wisdom; but she has\nbecome only an appendage to her \"lord,\" upon whom is reflected all her\nformer glory.\n\nSo greedy did rulers become for the splendid titles belonging to the\nfemale divinities that we are told that \"the name of the Great Goddess\nAstarte not unfrequently appears as that of a man.\"\n\nAlthough man had usurped the titles of the female God and had denied\nher recognition as an active creative agency, still, as nothing could\nbe created without her, she was permitted, as we have seen, to remain\nas wife or mistress to the reigning monarch, in whom had come to reside\ninfinite wisdom and power. Her symbol was an ark, chest, boat, box, or\ncave. This woman, although dignified by the title \"Mother of the Gods,\"\nand even by that of \"Queen of Heaven,\" is utterly without power.\n\nNot only is it plain that the titles and attributes of female gods have\nbeen appropriated by males, but it is also true that the more ancient\ndeities, which are now known to have been female, have by later\ninvestigators been represented as male.\n\nThe interpretations which have hitherto been put upon the Babylonian\nand Assyrian deities by many of those who have attempted to unravel the\nmysteries of an earlier stage of religious worship, is doubtless due to\nthe fact that since the so-called historic period began, the qualities\nwhich have been considered godlike have all been masculine; it has\ntherefore never occurred to the minds of these writers that the ancients\nmay have entertained quite different notions from their own regarding\nthe attributes of a Deity; hence, whenever the sex of a god has appeared\ndoubtful, especially if it be in the least degree powerful or\nimportant, it has at once been denominated as masculine, and this, too,\nnotwithstanding the fact that such rendering has oftentimes involved\ninconsistencies, contradictions, and absurdities which it is impossible\nto reconcile either with established facts or with common sense.\n\nUnless the symbols representing religious belief and worship are viewed\nin the light of later developed facts in mythology, archaeology, and\nphilology, there occur many seeming absurdities and numberless facts\nwhich it is found difficult to reconcile with each other; especially\nis this true in regard to some of the symbols used to express the\ndistinctive female and male qualities. The serpent, for instance,\nalthough a male symbol, in certain ages of the world's history appears\nas a beautiful woman.\n\nThis is accounted for by the fact that a woman and a serpent once stood\nfor the god-idea. Together they constituted an indivisible entity--the\ncreating power in the universe. They therefore became interchangeable\nterms. The woman when appearing alone represented both, as did also the\nserpent.\n\n\"In most ancient languages, probably all, the name for the serpent\nsignifies Life, and the roots of these words generally also signify the\nmale and female organs, and sometimes these conjoined. In low French the\nwords for Phallus and life have the same sound, though, as is sometimes\nthe case, the spelling and gender differ\"; but this fact is thought to\nbe of no material importance, as \"Jove, Jehova, sun, and moon have all\nbeen male and female by turn.\"\n\nNo doubt many of the inconsistencies hitherto observed in the religion\nof the ancients will disappear so soon as we obtain a clearer knowledge\nof their chronology; and events which now seem contradictory will be\nsatisfactorily explained when placed in their proper order with regard\nto date. Religion, like everything else, is constantly shifting its\nposition to accommodate itself to the changed mental conditions of\nits adherents; hence, ideas which at any given time in the past were\nperfectly suited to a people, would, in the course of five hundred or\none thousand years, have become changed or greatly modified.\n\nDuring a certain stage in human history \"all great women and mythical\nladies were serpents\"; but when monumentally or pictorially represented,\nthey appeared \"with the head of a woman, while the body was that of a\nreptile.\" This figure represented Wisdom and Passion, or the spiritual\nand material planes of human existence. The mythical woman whom Hercules\nmet in Scythia, and who was doubtless the original eponymous leader\nof the Scythian people, had the head of a woman and the body of a\nserpent.(73) Even the Mexicans declare that \"he, the serpent, is the\nsun, Tonakatl-Koatl, who ever accompanies their first woman.\" Their\nprimitive mother, they said, was Kihua-Kohuatl, which signifies a\nserpent. In referring to this Mexican tradition, Forlong remarks: \"So\nthat the serpent here was represented as both Adam and Adama; and their\nEden, as in Jewish story, was a garden of love and pleasure.\"(74)\n\n\n 73) Herodotus, book iv., 9.\n\n\n 74) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 143.\n\n\nThe traditions extant among all peoples seem to connect the introduction\nof the serpent into religious symbolism, with a time in the history of\nmankind when they first began to recognize the fact, that through the\nabuse of the reproductive functions, evil, or human wretchedness, had\ngained the ascendency over the higher forces. The Deity represented by a\nwoman and a serpent involved the idea not alone of good, but of good and\nevil combined. Together they prefigured not only Wisdom and generative\npower, but evil as well. Mythologically they represented the cold of\nwinter and the heat of the sun's rays, both of which were necessary\nreproduction. From this conception sprang the Ormuzd and Ahryman of the\nPersians, the story of Adam, Eve, and the serpent in Genesis, and the\nlegend of Kihua-Kohuatl and Tonakatl-Koatl in Mexico.\n\n\"The serpent remained in the memory and affections of most early people\nas wisdom, life, goodness, and the source of knowledge and science,\nunder various names such as Toth, Hermes, Themis, the Kneph or Sophia of\nEgyptians and Gnostics, and Set, Shet, or Shem of the Jews.\"(75)\n\n\n 75) Forlong, Rivers of Life, etc., vol. i., p. 143.\n\n\nThe Serpent Goddess, although embracing evil as well as good, was still\nthe \"Giver of Life\" and the \"Teacher of Mankind.\" These were the titles\nwhich in later ages began to be coveted by monarchs, and then it\nwas that the attributes belonging to this Deity began to appear in\nconnection with royalty.\n\nThere is no ancient divinity about which there seems to be connected\nso much mystery as the Assyrian Hea. When referring to the \"great\nobscurity\" which surrounds this God we are assured that there is at\npresent \"no means of determining the precise meaning of the cuneiform\nHea, which is Babylonian rather than Assyrian,\" but that it is doubtless\nconnected with the Arabic Hya, which is said to mean \"life,\" or the\nfemale principle in creation. This Deity is the God of \"glory\" and\nof \"giving,\" titles which during the earlier ages of human existence\nbelonged to the Queen of Heaven, the Celestial Mother.\n\nThe representation of the god Amun or Amun-ra, which superseded the\ntriune Deity, Kneph, Sate, and Anouk at Thebes, and from which in\nAssyria doubtless proceeded the trinity, Amun, Bel-Nimrod, and Hea, is\nsupposed to be identical with the Greek Zeus, which means the sun. This\nGod is represented by a female figure seated on a throne. It is crowned\nwith two long feathers, and in the right hand is observed the cross,\nthe emblem of life. Manetho, the celebrated Egyptian historian, declares\nthat the name of this God signifies \"concealed.\"\n\nThere can be little doubt that the titles of the ancient Deity--the\nDestroyer or Regenerator, or, in other words, those of the God of life\nwhich embraced the idea of the moving force throughout Nature, were, in\ncourse of time, appropriated by the rulers of the people. It is stated\nthat the name of a certain Egyptian God appears first in connection with\nroyalty, that \"his name was substituted for some earlier divinity whose\nhieroglyphics were chiselled out of the monuments to make place for\nhis.\"\n\nAccording to the testimony of Rawlinson, the God Hea is represented\nby the great serpent, which occupies a conspicuous position among\nthe symbols of the gods on the black stones recording Babylonian\nbenefactions. Now these flat black stones are themselves said to\nsymbolize the female element in the Deity, in contradistinction to the\nobelisks, which prefigure the male, while the serpent, for reasons which\nhave already been explained, appeared for ages in connection with the\nfigure of a woman. In later inscriptions \"king\" is everywhere attached\nto the name of the God Hea, which fact shows that the titles ascribed\nto her were those particularly coveted by royalty. Hence we are not\nsurprised to find that in an inscription of Sardanapalus, in the British\nMuseum, there \"occurs a remarkable phrase in which the king takes the\ntitles of Hea.\"\n\nAmong the Assyrian inscriptions appear Bel-Nimrod, Hea, and Nin or\nBar. In view of the facts which have come to light regarding Hea, it is\naltogether probable that the triad Bel-Nimrod, Hea, and Nin represent\nthe trinity as figured by the father, mother, and child. That Nin\nwas the son or the child of Bel-Nimrod \"is constantly asserted in the\ninscriptions.\" He appears also as the son of Hea, yet the fact that\nHea should be represented as a woman, or as the mother of Nin, and the\ncentral figure in the trinity, seems not to have been observed by those\nwho thus far have been engaged in deciphering these inscriptions. By\nrepresenting Hea as male, Nin is made to appear as the offspring of\ntwo fathers while he is left absolutely motherless. To obviate this\ndifficulty an ingenious attempt has been made to account for his\nexistence by substituting his own wife as the author of his being.\nAlthough in the numerous accounts which I had read of Hea, in my search\nfor information concerning her, she had always been designated as male,\nstill I was satisfied from the descriptions given that originally this\nDeity was female. Therefore upon receiving a copy of Forlong's Rivers\nof Life and Faiths of Man in All Lands, I was not surprised to find the\nfollowing:\n\n\"Hoa or Hea, the Hu of our Keltic ancestors, whose symbol was the shield\nand the serpent, was worshipped near rivers and lakes, and if possible\non the sea-shore, where were offered to her such emblems as a golden\nvessel, boat, coffer, or fish, and she was then named Belat Ili (the\nmistress of the Gods).\"(76)\n\n\n 76) Vol. ii., p. 94.\n\n\nShe was the Goddess of Water. Of this Forlong says: \"Water, perhaps more\nthan fire, has always been used as a purifier... . Christians have but\nimitated the ancients, in the use of Lustral water--now-a-days called\nHoly Water, and into which salt should be freely put.\"\n\nAccording to Francis Vasques, the Cibola tribes of New Mexico pay no\nadoration to anything but water, believing it to be the chief support\nof all life. The Hindoo faith and the Greek Christian Church prescribe\n\"adorations, sacrifices, and other water rites, and hence we find all\northodox clergy and devotees have much to do with rivers, seas, and\nwells, especially at certain annual solar periods.\"\n\nThe extent to which these ancient rites are still practiced as part and\nparcel of modern religious observances is not realized by those who have\ngiven no special attention to the subject. As spring advances, all ranks\nof Russians from the Czar to the humblest peasant proceed with their\nclergy to the Neva, where with solemn pomp the ice is broken and the\nwater, which is held to be of virgin purity, is sprinkled upon the heads\nof Czar, nobles, and other dignitaries. The following is an account\ngiven of the worship of Hea not many years ago in the public press:\n\n\"An Imperial and Arch-episcopal procession was formed, consisting of,\nfirst, the High Priest of the empire in all his most gorgeous robes, the\ntwo masters of ceremonies walking backwards (probably because not of a\nholy enough order), long double files of white-and gold-robed bearers\nof sacred flambeaux or candles, for Fire must enter into every ceremony,\nwhether it is the male or female energy which is being worshipped.\nFollowing these Religieux came all the sacred relics and fetishes of the\nChurch, as Maya's holy cup for water, all holy books, crosses, banners,\nwith sacred emblems in their order, and finally the Czar, humbly, and,\nlike all his people, on foot, followed by courtly throngs. These all\nproceeded to a handsome pavilion or kiosk, erected close to the edge\nof the water, when the Metropolitan of the Church reverently made an\nincision in the ice, and took out a little water in a sacred golden cup\nbearing strange devices. The firing of guns accompanied these solemn\nacts in all their stages, and wherever the grave procession moved, it\nalways did so with measured tread, chanting sacred verses to the old,\nold Deity of our race, and surrounded with all the pomp of war; whilst\nat intervals, peals of Christian bells and the booming of near and\ndistant guns added to the solemnity of this water pageant. After the\nfilling of the golden cup, which, of course, represents the earth and\nits fulness, and, at this season, the now expected increase, the High\nPriest placed a golden crucifix on the virgin water and blessed its\nreturn from wintry death, invoking the precious fluid to vernal life and\nproductiveness, when lo! a holy child suddenly appears upon the scene,\nreminding us that this is everywhere the outcome of the 'wafers of life'\nin all animal as well as vegetable production. Boodha in the garden of\nLoobim through which flowed a holy stream, and Christ by the brook at\nBethlehem, nay, the first pair in the garden of the four rivers, are\nall the same idea--fertility and creation. The high Russian Pontiff\nnow slowly and solemnly stooped, and taking up some of the holy water,\nproceeded to sprinkle the vernal child--Jesus, whispered these crowds,\nbut the ancients said Horus. The sacred fluid was then sprinkled on\nthe clergy, the Czar, and all dignitaries, and finally on the sacred\nemblems, banners, guns, etc. Men and women, aye, wise as well as\nfoolish, of every rank, now crowded forward, and on bended knee besought\ntheir Patriarch to sprinkle and to bless them. Finally, the great Czar\nput the cup to his lips, humbly and reverently, and then filled it to\noverflowing with a wealth of golden pieces, for it is the still living\nrepresentative in the nineteenth century A.C. of 'the golden boat' of\nHea of the nineteenth century B.C.\"(77)\n\n\n 77) Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 95.\n\n\nThe symbol of Neith or Muth, Athene or Minerva, the great universal\nfemale principle of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, was the shield\nand serpent. In Celtic Druids I find that Nath, the Egyptian Neith, the\n\"goddess of wisdom and science whose symbol was the shield and serpent,\nwas worshipped among the ancient Irish.\" The male God associated with\nher was Naith, and according to Higgins represented \"the opposite of\nNeith.\"\n\nIn Rivers of Life is observed a reference to the Assyrian Goddess Hea by\nLucian. In a note Forlong says that no doubt Hea is the same as Haiya\nor Haya. In other words she represents the universal hermaphrodite--the\ncreative principle throughout Nature, which was originally worshipped as\nfemale. The actual signification of the word Haya is \"life.\" In ancient\nArabia it was applied to a group of kinsmen.\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Davis is of the opinion that Noe or Noah was the same as\nDeon and that both were Hu or Hea the mighty, whose chariot was drawn by\nsolar rays. This God was in fact the same as Zeus, Bacchus, and all the\nrest of the sun and water Deities. It has been observed that, according\nto the ancient cosmogonies, within water was contained the life\nprinciple, and as a woman presided over it, or was the only being or\nentity present, she must have been the self-existent Creator. From this\nwoman sprang all creation. According to the account in Genesis, the\nSpirit of God moved on the face of the deep and creation began.\n\nBy all nations water has been employed as a symbol of regeneration,\nand as it contained the beginning of things it was female. The Hindoos\nregard it as sacred, and in one of their most solemn prayers it is thus\ninvoked: Waters, mothers of worlds, purify us!(78)\n\n\n 78) Quoted by Inman from Colbrook, vol. i., p. 85.\n\n\nDoubtless it was from these ancient speculations regarding the\nbeginnings of things that Thales, the Milesian philosopher, received his\ndoctrine that water is the original principle. The ancient Egyptians\nand the Jewish people to this day have the custom of pouring out all the\nwater contained in any vessel in a house where a death has taken place,\nbecause of the idea that as the living being comes from water, so does\nit make its exit through water. Hence \"to drink or to use in any way a\nfluid which contains the life of human beings would be a foul offense.\"\n\nThe fact is noted by Inman that in all Assyrian mythology the water\nGod Hea is associated with life and with a serpent. Although Rawlinson\ndeclares that Hea is Babylonian rather than Assyrian, may she not, in\nview of the facts concerning her, be not only Babylonian, but Egyptian,\nIndian, Phrygian, Mexican, and all the rest?\n\nIt would seem that in this Deity, who is figured in connection with a\nshield and serpent, as is Minerva, and who is worshipped near water--an\nemblem which is sacred to her,--and whose titles correspond exactly\nto those of Neith or Cybele, might be traced the remnants of a once\nuniversal worship--a worship in which the female energy constituted the\nCreator.\n\nAlthough it is declared that \"great obscurity surrounds the God Hea,\" no\none, I think, whose mind is free from prejudice, and who understands the\nsignificance of the early god-idea, and the true meaning of the symbols\nused in later ages to express it, can study the myths connected with\nthis Deity without at once recognizing her identity with the great\nfemale God of Nature who was once worshipped by every people on the\nglobe, but whose worship had become sensualized to satisfy the corrupted\ntaste of a more depraved age--an age in which passion constituted the\nhighest idea of a God.\n\nAlthough the serpent Deity was originally portrayed with the head of a\nwoman and the body of a serpent or fish, after the change of sex in the\ngod-idea which has been noted in the foregoing pages had been completed,\nit is observed that this figure is represented by the head of a man\nand the body of a serpent. Hea, the great goddess to whom water, the\noriginal principle, is sacred, and who is suspiciously connected with\nNoah, the life-principle which appears at the close of a cycle, has\nchanged her sex. This god is now the \"Ruler of the Seas,\" \"Master of the\nLife-Boat\" (the ark), and \"Lord of the Earth.\" The earth is his and\nthe fulness thereof. He is the \"Life Giver,\" the \"Lord of Hosts,\" who\nsubsequently becomes the maker of heaven and earth.\n\nMinerva, who had been the first emanation from the Deity and the\ndaughter of the Great Mother of the Gods, now has a father but no\nmother. Jove, who in course of time came to be represented as a male\nCreator, brought her forth from his head. Later, woman is produced from\nthe side of man. The male principle, symbolized by a serpent, has become\n\"the one only and true God.\" It is Passion--the \"Healer of Nations\"--the\ngreat \"I Am.\"\n\nNo unprejudiced individual who carefully follows the results of later\ninvestigation, and who attempts to unravel the mysteries surrounding the\nancient gods and the significance of the symbols of worship belonging\nto the earliest historic times, will fail to note the attempt which has\nbeen made in later ages to conceal the fact that the Deity worshipped in\nvery ancient times was female. Neither will he fail to observe the modus\noperandi by which the attributes and prerogatives of this Deity have\nbeen shifted upon males--usually deified monarchs. After priestcraft\nand its counterpart, monarchial rule, had robbed the people of all their\nnatural rights, kings assumed not alone the governing functions, but\narrogated to themselves the symbols, titles, and attributes of the\ndual Deity. The reigning monarch became not only the temporal ruler\nand priest, but was actually God himself, the female principle being\nconcealed under convenient symbols.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII. THE ORIGINAL GOD-IDEA OF THE ISRAELITES.\n\nNot only were religious doctrines veiled beneath allegories and\nconvenient symbols, but names also had a religious significance.\n\nWe are given to understand that in Chaldea and Assyria every child was\nnamed by the oracle or priest, and that no one thought of changing the\nappellation which had come to him through this heavenly source.(79)\n\n\n 79) Inman, Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 3.\n\n\nInman, in his Ancient Faiths, calls attention to the fact that in the\nOld Testament kings, priests, captains, and other great men have\nhad names bestowed upon them, each of which has some religious\nsignification; that this name was given the individual \"at circumcision,\nor soon after birth.\"\n\nIn the ancient names of what are designated as the Shemitic races,\nchildren were called after the god alone, and sometimes in connection\nwith an attribute. Especially were these names applied to royalty or to\npersons of distinction; for instance, names were given signifying, God\nthe good, God the just or the merciful, God the strong, The Warrior God,\netc.\n\nAs the higher conception of a Creator was forgotten, and as human\nbeings, or perhaps I should say their power to control circumstances\ncoupled with the ability to reproduce or create, had become god, they\nassumed the titles or names of the Deity; hence, it is not perhaps\nsingular that in later times kings and heroes were invested with all the\nattributes of the gods.\n\nWe have seen that according to various writers Om or Amm was the holy\none whose name in India it was sacrilege to pronounce. It was the\neternal sun, or the Great Mother. As this word stands also for \"tribe or\npeople,\" it seems to mean, too, that which binds, holds, or endures.\n\nAs Om or Amm signifies the Great Mother, so An or On means the Great\nFather. Concerning the word Am-mon, Inman writes as follows:\n\n\"The association of the words signifying mother and father indicates\nthat it is to such conjunction we must refer creative power. With such\nan androgyne element the sun was associated by ancient mythologists.\nJupiter was himself sometimes represented as being female; and the word\nhermaphrodite is in itself a union between Hermes and Aphrodite, the\nmale and female creative powers. We may fairly conclude, from the\nexistence of names like the above, that there was at one time in Western\nas there was in Eastern Asia a strong feud between the adorers of On\nand Am, the Lingacitas and the Yonijas, and that they were at length\npartially united under Ammon, as they were elsewhere under Nebo or the\nNabhi of Vishnu.\"(80)\n\n\n 80) Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 237.\n\n\nInman relates that once when a friend of his was conversing with a very\nhigh-caste Hindoo he casually uttered this word Amm or Om, whereupon\nthe man was so awe struck that he could scarcely speak, and, in a voice\nalmost of terror, asked where his friend had learned the word. Of this\nword Inman says:\n\n\"To the Hindoos it was that incommunicable name of the Almighty, which\nno one ventured to pronounce except under the most religious solemnity.\nAnd here let me pause to remark that the Jews were equally reverent with\nthe name belonging to the Most High; and that the third commandment was\nvery literal in its signification.\"\n\nThe same writer remarks that in Thibet, too, where a worship very nearly\nidentical in ceremony and doctrine with that of the Roman papists exists\namongst the Lamas, the name of Om is still sacred.\n\nThe Iav of the Jews was equally revered, but in the later ages of their\ncareer they seem to have lost sight of its true meaning.\n\nAccording to Inman's testimony and that of other etymological students,\nthe true signification of the cognomen Jacob is the female principle.\n\nIt is believed by various writers that the story of Jacob and Esau as\nrelated in Genesis has an esoteric as well as an exoteric meaning--that\nJacob has reference to the female creative energy throughout Nature,\nor, rather, to the great mass of people who in an early age of the human\nrace believed in the superior importance of the female in the office of\nreproduction, and that Esau signifies the male. Attention is called to\nthe fact that Esau is represented as a \"hairy\" man, rough-voiced and\neasily beguiled, while Jacob, on the other hand, is smooth-faced,\nsoft-voiced, and the favorite of his mother.\n\nThere is indeed much in this myth which seems to indicate that it is\nan allegory beneath which are veiled certain facts connected with the\nstruggle between two early contending sects regarding the relative\nimportance of the sexes in reproduction. Of this Inman says:\n\n\"My own impression is that Esau, or Edom, and Jacob are mystic names for\na man and a woman, and that round these, historians wove a web of fancy;\nthat ultimately the cognomen Jacob was recognized, and that to allow the\nJewish people to trace their descent from a male rather than a female,\nthe appellation of Israel was substituted in later productions.\"(81)\n\n\n 81) Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 607.\n\n\nAs most of the myths or allegories in Genesis are now traced to a source\nfar more remote than the beginning of legitimate Jewish history, it is\nnot unreasonable to suppose that this story, too, was copied by the Jews\nfrom the traditions of earlier races; nor, when we remember the true\nmeaning of the cognomen Jacob, that the entire story should be regarded\nas an attempt to set forth certain facts connected with the great\nphysiological or religious conflict between the sexes.\n\nThe significance of the idols worshipped by Jacob and his family is not\nfor a certainty known, but it is believed by certain writers that the\nSeraphim and Teraphim were the usual images which were used to represent\nthe male and female energies. \"Then Jacob said unto his household and to\nall that were with him: Put away the strange gods that are among you.\"\nIn referring to this passage, Inman, in a note, says:\n\n\"The critic might fairly say, looking at Genesis xxxv., 2, 'Put away the\nstrange gods that are among you,' that there were images of God which\nwere not strange, and that in these early times there were orthodoxy and\nheterodoxy in images as there are now. In ancient times the emblem of\nlife-giving energy was an orthodox emblem; it is now a horror and its\nplace is taken by an image of death. We infer from the context that\nLaban's gods were orthodox.\"\n\nSo, also, must have been the stone pillar set up by Jacob at Bethel\n(place of the sun). From a study of similar stones, examples of which\nare to be found in nearly every country of the globe, it is known that\nthey represent the male energy, and from all the facts connected with\nthe story of Laban's gods it is probable that they were emblems of this\npower. We may suppose then that the \"strange gods,\" the unorthodox gods,\nwhich Jacob ordered put away, were those representing the female energy.\n\nIt seems strange that any person can study the history of the\nIsraelitish Exodus by the light of later developments in biblical\nresearch without recognizing the fact that the \"Lord\" which brought the\nchildren of Israel out from the bondage of Egypt was the male power,\nwhich by a certain sect had been proclaimed the only actual creative\nagency, and therefore the \"only one and true God.\"\n\nAlthough, at the time at which Abraham is said to have lived, the\nknowledge of an abstract dual or triune God still remained, yet, during\nthe five hundred years which elapsed until the time of Moses, the\ngrossest idolatry had come to prevail. Notwithstanding the fact that\nMoses had learned much from the Egyptians, he seems not to have risen\nabove a very gross conception of a deity. His god was by turns\nangry, jealous, revengeful, vacillating, and weak. He was in fact the\nembodiment of human passions and desires. We have seen that the third\nperson in the ancient Trinity had, in Egypt, India, and Persia, come\nto be recognized in place of the three principles originally\nworshipped--that, as it really embodied the essence of the other two,\nlittle was heard of the Creator and Preserver. Doubtless this God was\nthe one which Moses intended the Israelites to worship, but as they\nwere unable to conceive of an abstract principle he invested it with a\npersonality which, as we have seen, was burdened with the frailties and\nweaknesses common to themselves.\n\nAs the Regenerator or Destroyer represented the processes of\nNature,--the dying away of the sun's rays at night only to reappear on\nthe following day, and the withdrawal of its warmth in winter only to\nbe renewed in the spring,--so this God portrayed also the beneficent\nCreator and Preserver of all things, at the same time that it was the\nDestroyer. It embodied the fundamental idea in all religions, namely,\nlife and fertility. So also did the \"Lord\" of the Israelites represent\nreproductive energy, but as man being spirit had come to be a Creator of\noffspring, while woman being only matter furnished the body, this\n\"Lord\" was male. Connected with it was no hint of the female nature or\nprinciple, except the ark or chest in which it was carried about. To\nthose who have acquainted themselves with the significance of ancient\nreligious symbols, the fact is plain that the \"Lord\" of the Israelites,\nwhich in their journeyings toward Canaan they carried in an ark or\nchest, and which was symbolized by an upright stone, was none other\nthan a \"Life-giver\" in the most practical sense. It was the emblem of\nvirility, and from the facts at hand, at the present time, there is\nlittle doubt but that all the spirituality with which we find this\n\"Lord\" invested was an after-thought and comprehended no part of the\nbelief of the Jews until after their contact with the Persians during\nthe Babylonian captivity.\n\nDoubtless the story in which their journeyings toward Canaan are set\nforth contains an esoteric as well as an exoteric significance for ages\nknown only to the priests, and that within it is embodied not alone\nsomething of the true history of this people, but an account also of\ntheir struggle against an older religion. At this time the Israelites\nhad practically commenced the elimination of the female principle from\ntheir god-idea, and had begun the worship of the male element, the\nfemale being represented by an ark, chest, or box. This ark, as the\nreceptacle of the god, was still a holy thing.\n\nNot only among the Israelites, but among other nations of the East, we\nfind the devotees of the male god beginning to assume a position quite\nindependent of the beliefs of their fathers. At this time great towers\nor pillars begin to be erected in honor of this deity, which is figured\nas the \"God of Life,\" or as the \"Lord of Hosts.\" Notwithstanding the\nfact that the story of the Exodus contains much historical truth, it is\naltogether probable that the priests have used it, as they did that of\nthe flood, to conceal their religious doctrines.\n\nAt the time of the Exodus, the Israelites were ignorant tribes without\nlaws or letters, and while in Egypt were menials of the lowest order.\nHence, the laws written on the two tables of stone, and which it is\nclaimed were elaborated during their wanderings in the wilderness of\nSinai for the guidance of these unlettered slaves, show the desire\nof the priests of later times to invest the \"chosen people\" with the\ninsignia of enlightenment.\n\nRegarding the character of the god which they worshipped, we have\nample proof in the Old Testament. It is plain that at the time of their\nbondage in Egypt the Jews had become the grossest phallic worshippers,\nadoring the emblems of generation, with no thought of their earlier\nsignificance as pure symbols of creative force in mortals.\n\nThe fact will doubtless be remembered that, among the Jews, to be barren\nwas the greatest curse, and that the principal reward promised to the\nfaithful was fruitfulness of body. The essence of this deity was heat or\npassion, and his emblem was the serpent or an upright stone. It has\nbeen observed that when this \"Lord\" was invested with personality he\nwas subject to all the frailties of his followers. His chief and most\nemphatic characteristic, however, was jealousy of other gods, and most\nof the imprecations thundered against the chosen people were directed\nagainst the worship of the gods of surrounding nations, those which the\nIsraelites had originally worshipped.\n\nThat portion of the Decalogue relating to a jealous god is seen to\nbelong wholly to the Jews, or to the Israelites, who were descendants\nof Jacob. The older nations, among which was the ancient family of the\nHebrews, knew nothing of a jealous god. Notwithstanding the fact that\nthe God of the Jews appeared and talked face to face with Moses, that he\nexhibited portions of his body to him, and that he thundered his law to\nthis people from Mt. Sinai, still they were constantly lapsing into the\nworship of Baal and Ashtaroth, which fact shows how deeply rooted was\nthe belief in a dual or triune God. It is plain that this \"Lord,\" the\nfierce anger of whom was kindled because of their digressions, was none\nother than the jealous male god which had but recently been elevated to\nthe dignity of a supreme Creator.\n\nAlthough the angel of the Lord when he came down from Gilgal commanded\nhis followers to \"throw down the altars of the people of Bochim,\" they\nnevertheless continued to do evil in the sight of the Lord, and\n\n\"followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about\nthem, and bound themselves unto them and provoked the Lord to anger.\n\n\"And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger\nof the Lord was hot against Israel.\"(82)\n\n\n 82) Judges ii., 12, 13.\n\n\n\"And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return\nunto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and\nAshtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts unto the Lord,\nand serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the\nPhilistines.\n\n\"Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth and\nserved the Lord only.\"(83)\n\n\n 83) I Samuel vii., 3,4.\n\n\nThe extreme hatred of the schismatic faction for the opposite worship,\nand the punishments which were meted out to those who should dare to\nrebel against the chosen faith, are indicated by the language which\nthroughout the Old Testament is put into the mouth of their Lord--a\nDeity which rejoices in the title of a jealous God.\n\n\"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or\nthe wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice\nthee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast\nnot known thou nor thy fathers:\n\n\"Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto\nthee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the\nother end of the earth;\n\n\"Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall\nthine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal\nhim:\n\n\"But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to\nput him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.\n\n\"And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath\nsought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out\nof the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.\n\n\"And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such\nwickedness as this is among you.\"(84)\n\n\n 84) Deuteronomy xiii.\n\n\nThe constantly recurring faithlessness of the Jews, their restlessness\nand proneness to wander from their one-principled deity which had\nbeen set up by their priests for them to worship, was doubtless an\nunconscious effort on the part of the people to mitigate the outrage\nwhich had been committed against their Creator. It was but a reaching\nout for that lost or unrecognized element which comprehends the more\nessential force both in human beings and in the conception of a deity.\nIn other words, it was an attempt at recognition, in the objects\nworshipped, of that missing female element which had always been\nworshipped, and without which a Creator becomes a misnomer--a\nmeaningless, unexplained, and unexplainable monstrosity.\n\nWhen the Jews first make their appearance in history, they are sun\nworshippers, as are all the nations by which they are surrounded. They\nare worshippers of Seth the Destroyer and Regenerator; but when the\nphilosophical truths underlying the ancient universal religion were\nforgotten, or when through ignorance the language setting forth\nthese mysteries was taken literally, Seth became identified with the\nDestroyer, or the Evil Principle. In the meantime man had come to\nbelieve himself the sole creator of offspring. He is spirit, which is\neternal; woman is matter, which is not only destructible but altogether\nevil. He is heat or passion--the principle through which life is\nproduced. She represents the absence of heat. She is the simoom of the\ndesert and the chilly blast which destroys.\n\nThat it was no part of their plan to change their original form of\nworship for a spiritual conception of a Creator is apparent from their\nhistory. On the contrary, it is plain that they desired simply to\neliminate from the hitherto dual conception of a deity the female\nprinciple, which, in their arrogance, and because of the change\nwhich had been wrought in the relations of the sexes, they no longer\nacknowledged as important in the office of reproduction.\n\nIt is quite true they would worship only one god--the \"Lord,\"--but\nthat lord was, as we have seen, a deity of physical strength and virile\nmight, a \"Lord of Hosts,\" a god which was to be worshipped under the\nsymbol of an upright stone--an object which by every nation of the\nglobe down to a comparatively recent time has typified male pro-creative\nenergy. That the masses of the people, even as late as the time of\nJeremiah, had no higher conception of a God than that indicated by an\nupright stone, is shown by that prophet when he accuses the entire house\nof Israel, \"their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their\nprophets,\" of \"saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone,\nThou hast brought me forth.\"\n\nThat the people could not, or would not, be prevailed upon to renounce\nthe Queen of Heaven, the Celestial Mother, is seen in Jer. vii., 17, 18:\n\n\"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets\nof Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire,\nand the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven\nand to pour out drink offerings unto other gods.\"\n\nAlso in Jeremiah xliv:\n\n\"Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense unto\nother gods, and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even\nall the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered\nJeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the\nname of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee.\n\n\"But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own\nmouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour out drink\nofferings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings, and\nour princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem:\nfor then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.\n\n\"But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to\npour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have\nbeen consumed by the sword and by the famine.\n\n\"And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink\nofferings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her and pour out\ndrink offerings unto her without our men?\"\n\nThat the above represents a quarrel in which the women of Judah openly\nrebelled against the worship of the \"Lord,\" at the same time declaring\ntheir allegiance to the female Deity, the Celestial Mother, Queen of\nHeaven, is only too evident, the curse pronounced upon them by Jeremiah,\nin the name of the lord, having little effect upon them to change their\npurpose.\n\n\"Therefore, hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah that dwell in the\nland of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith the Lord,\nthat my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in\nall the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord God liveth.\n\n\"Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all\nthe men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the\nsword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX. THE PHOENICIAN AND HEBREW GOD SET OR SETH.\n\nThe name of one of the oldest deities of which we have any record is\nSet (Phoenician) or Seth (Hebrew). Traces of this God are found in\nall oriental countries; and in the most primitive religions, whose\ntraditions are still extant, he (or she) appears as the supreme God.\nAfter the subjection of Egypt by the stranger kings and the consequent\nintroduction into the country of Sabianism, the dual creative force\nresiding in the sun is represented by Seth. We are told that Seth\nsignifies \"appointed or put in the place of the murdered Abel.\"\n\nThat there is some deep mystery connected with this subject none who has\nstudied it carefully can help observing.\n\nAccording to the story of creation as set forth in the Jehovistic\naccount, on Saturday night, after God had finished his work, and\nimmediately after he had commanded Adam to \"be fruitful,\" he presents\nhim with a staff, which we observe is handed down to Enoch and all the\npatriarchs. Here the mystery deepens, for it is declared that this staff\nwas presented to Seth, and that it was a branch of the Tree of Life.\n\nThat beneath this allegory is veiled a contest, or perhaps a compromise,\nbetween the worshippers of two distinct sects, seems altogether\nprobable. That the handing down of this branch of the Tree of Life,\nfirst to Adam, or man, by Aleim, and its subsequent transference to\nSeth, the God of Nature, the Destroyer or Regenerator, seems to indicate\na victory for the adherents of a purer religion. The translator of\nKallimachus says: \"It is well known to the learned reader that the\ndescendants of Cain are distinguished in Scripture by the name of the\nsons of man or Adam; those of Seth by the name of the sons of God.\" Gen.\nvi., 2.(85) It is stated in Julius Africanus that all the righteous men\nand patriarchs down to the Saviour himself have sprung from Seth and\nhave been denominated as the sons of God in contradistinction to the\nsons of man.\n\n\n 85) Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 527.\n\n\nDoubtless at the time indicated by the transference of the creative\nagency from Aleim to Adam, the worship of an abstract principle, or of\na Trinity composed of the powers of Nature, was losing its hold on the\nminds of the people, and the creative power, or the reproductive energy\nin human beings, was rapidly taking the place of the older Deity. These\nhigher principles forgotten, Adam, or man, had become the Creator.\n\nIt is not improbable that the terms Adam, Cain, Abel, and Seth have\nan esoteric meaning which for ages was known only to the priests. From\nvarious facts which in later times are being brought forward regarding\nthe ancient myths of Genesis, it is believed that these names originally\nstood for races of men, and that subsequently certain religious\ndoctrines came to be attached to them. The offering of fruit by Cain,\nthe elder brother, who was a tiller of the ground, and that of flesh by\nAbel, who was a keeper of sheep, indicates a quarrel which ended in\nthe death of the latter. After the death of Abel, or after one of these\nprinciples or sects was subdued, the older religion was revived,\nand Seth, as the Aleim, or as the creative power within the sun, was\n\"appointed\" or again worshipped.\n\nIt would seem that Seth was appointed to represent the third person in\nthe ancient Trinity--the Destroyer or Regenerator which had previously\ncome to embody all the powers of the Creator and Preserver. The fact has\nbeen observed that the very ancient philosophers believed matter to be\neternal, hence, seeming death, or destruction, was necessary to renewed\nlife or regeneration. In other words, creation was but continuous change\nin the form of matter.\n\nOf the doctrines of the Sethians extant at the beginning of\nChristianity, Hippolytus says that their system \"is made up of tenets\nfrom natural philosophers. These tenets embrace a belief in the Eternal\nLogos--Darkness, Mist, and Tempest.\" These elements subsequently became\nidentified with the Evil Principle, or the Devil. The cold of winter,\nthe darkness of night, and water, were finally set forth as the Trinity.\nRegarding cold, darkness, and water, or darkness, mist, and tempest,\nHippolytus observes:\n\n\"These the Sethian says are the three principles of our system; or when\nhe states that three were born in paradise--Adam, Eve, the serpent; or\nwhen he speaks of three persons, namely, Cain, Abel, Seth, and again\nof three others, Shem, Ham, Japheth; or when he mentions three\npatriarchs--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; or when he speaks of three days\nbefore the sun, etc.\"\n\nThe same writer says that their entire system is derived from the\nancients; that, antecedent to the Eleusinian mysteries, were enacted by\nthem the ceremonies connected with the worship of the Great Mother.(86)\n\n\n 86) Hippolytus, Refutation of all Heresies, book v., ch. 15.\n\n\nWe have observed that through some process not thoroughly understood\nat the present time, the adherents of the older faith had succeeded in\nreinstating their Deity. The powers of Nature had come to be represented\nby Typhon Seth. It was the God of Death and of Life, of Destruction and\nRegeneration. The simoom of the desert and the cold of winter were Seth,\nas were also the genial powers of Spring. We are informed by various\nwriters that Typhon Seth was feminine. She was the early God of the\nJews. In other words, the Jews were formerly worshippers of a female\nDeity. Jehovah, Iav, was originally female.\n\nAlthough the secret meaning of all the allegories contained in the Old\nTestament is not fully understood, still the belief that Cain, Abel, and\nSeth represented the self-triplicated Deity at a time when the idea of\nman as a creator had been accepted, or when his power to reproduce was\nbecoming the highest idea of a creative force, is consistent with what\nis known of the Cabala of the Jews, or of the esoteric meaning of the\nJewish scriptures formerly known only to the priests. In other\nwords, the ancient doctrines, the true meaning of which was no longer\nunderstood by them, were patched together as a basis for the later\ndevelopments in Jewish religious experience.\n\nWe have seen that six hundred years after Adam appears Noah, another\nself-triplicated Saviour or preserver of man, with his ark or seed\nvessel, beneath which is veiled the female element. Afterward Abraham\nbecomes the Great Father or Saviour, and later Moses. That, in the time\nof the latter, the more ancient worship of a creative force in Nature\nrepresented by the Aleim, had, by the masses of the people, been wholly\nlost, is evident from the Old Testament writings. The worship of the\nFather, the male power, in opposition to that of the Mother, or the\nfemale power, constituted the religion of Moses. In the religion of the\nJews, Jehovah came to be regarded as wholly male and as spirit, while\nEdam (translated \"downward tending\"), the female principle, was matter,\nor woman, which finally became identified with the Devil.\n\nThe philosophical doctrine that spirit is evolved through matter, or\nthat matter must be raised to a certain dynamical power before spirit\ncan manifest itself through it, was no longer understood; only the husks\nof this doctrine--the myths and symbols of Nature-worship--remained;\nthese were taken literally, and thus man's religion was made to conform\nto his lowered estate.\n\nWhen man had so far gained the ascendancy over woman as to assert that\nhe is the sole Creator of their joint offspring, he was no longer of the\nearth earthy, but at once became the child of heaven. He was, however,\nbound to earth through his association with matter, or with woman, from\nwhom he was unable to free himself. The \"sons of God\" were united \"to\nthe daughters of man.\" Jahvah, the \"God of hosts,\" who was revengeful,\nweak, jealous, and cruel, was worshipped in the place of Aleim the\ngreat dual force throughout Nature. The ethereal, spiritual male essence\nresided somewhere in the heavens and created from afar, while the earth\n(female) furnished only the body or material substance.\n\nIn the history of the god Seth is to be found a clue to the way in which\nthe sublime and philosophical doctrines of the ancients, after their\ntrue meaning was forgotten, were finally changed so as to conform to the\nenforced humiliation and degradation of women.\n\nSeth or Typhon was for ages worshipped throughout Egypt, and as she\ncomprehended the powers of Nature, or the creative energy residing in\nthe sun and earth, little is heard of any other god. Strange it is,\nhowever, that Seth is worshipped more in her capacity as Destroyer than\nas Regenerator. So soon as we understand the origin and character of the\nDevil, and so soon as we divest ourselves of the false ideas which under\na state of ignorance and gross sensuality came to prevail relative to\nthe \"powers of darkness,\" we shall perceive that his (or her) Satanic\nmajesty was once a very respectable personage and a powerful Divinity--a\nDivinity which was worshipped by a people whose superior intelligence\ncan scarcely be questioned. Regarding this subject Higgins remarks:\n\n\"Persons who have not given much consideration to these subjects will be\napt to wonder that any people should be found to offer adoration to the\nevil principle; but they do not consider that, in all these recondite\nsystems, the evil principle, or the Destroyer, or Lord of Death, was at\nthe same time the Regenerator. He could not destroy but to reproduce,\nand it was probably not till this principle began to be forgotten, that\nthe evil being, per se, arose; for in some nations this effect seems to\nhave taken place. Thus Baal-Zebub is, in Iberno Celtic, Baal Lord, and\nZab Death, Lord of Death; but he is also called Aleim, the same as the\nGod of the Israelites; and this is right, because he was one of the\nTrimurti or Trinity.\n\n\"If I be correct respecting the word Aleim being feminine, we here see\nthe Lord of Death of the feminine gender; but the Goddess Ashtaroth or\nAstarte, the Eoster of the Germans, was also called Aleim. Here again\nAleim is feminine, which shows that I am right in making Aleim the\nplural feminine. Thus we have distinctly found Aleim the Creator (Gen.\ni., 1), Aleim the Preserver, and Aleim the Destroyer, and this not by\ninference, but literally expressed.\"(87)\n\n\n 87) Anacalypsis, ch. ii., p. 66.\n\n\nAt one period of their history the Hebrews worshipped Ashtaroth and\nBaal, they together representing the great Aleim, the indivisible God,\nbut after the Israelites had chosen the worship of the male principle\nas an independent deity, or as the only important agency in the creative\nprocesses, as Baal might not be represented aside from his counterpart\nAshtaroth, he was no longer adored but came to stand for something\n\"approaching the Devil.\" Forlong has observed the fact that, although in\nHebrew Baal is masculine, in the Greek translations he is feminine both\nin the Old and New Testaments.(88)\n\n\n 88) Forlong, Rivers of Life, p. 223.\n\n\nJehovah was originally female, so, also, was Netpe the Holy Spirit of\nthe Egyptian Tree of Life. We are given to understand that Netpe was the\nsame as Rhea, the partner of Sev or Saturn, and that her hieroglyphic\nname was \"Abyss of Heaven.\" Osiris was the son of this goddess who was\nreally a Mai or Mary, the Celestial Mother, he being the only God of\nthe Egyptians who was born upon this earth and lived among men. Of\nthis Forlong remarks: \"His birthplace was Mount Sinai; called by the\nEgyptians Nysa, hence his Greek name Dionysos.\"\n\nAs the Palm was the first offering of Mother Earth to her children,\nso Osiris was the first offspring of the Egyptian Celestial Virgin to\nmankind. He was the new sun which through the winter months had been\n\"buried,\" but which in process of time arose to gladden all the earth.\nHe was also the new Sun of Righteousness which was to renew the world,\nor redeem mankind from sin.\n\nThe female principle for the time being cast out of the Deity, Osiris,\nthe male element, now outwardly assumes the position of supreme God. It\nwas, however, reserved for a later and more sensuous age to permanently\nadopt an absurdity so opposed to all established ideas relative to\na creative force in Nature and in man. Seth, the Destroyer, had been\ndeposed, but, so deeply rooted in the human mind had become the idea\nof a female Creator, that Isis, the Queen of Heaven, a somewhat lower\nconception of Muth, or of universal womanhood, soon assumed the place\nof Seth beside Osiris. Later in the history of Egypt, when the gods have\nbecome greatly multiplied, and the original significance of the deity\nobscured, Horus, the child and the third member in the later Egyptian\ntriad, not unfrequently appears in her place as one of the eight great\ngods.\n\nThe fact is observed that the history of Osiris is not alone the\n\"history of the circle of the year, or of the sun dying away and\nresuscitating itself again, but that it is also the history of the\ncycle of 600.\" It has been said that of the component elements of his\nhieroglyphical name, Isis is the first, and that the name Osiris really\nsignifies the \"Eye of Isis.\"\n\nAccording to Plutarch, Isis and Muth are identical, but from the\nevidence at hand it is plain that Muth comprehends divine womanhood,\nor the female principle as it was regarded at an earlier stage of human\ngrowth. Muth is not only the parent of the sun, or the force which\nproduces the sun, but she is also Wisdom, the first emanation from the\nDeity, at the same time that she comprehends all the possibilities of\nNature. Isis seems to represent the Deity at a time when the higher\ntruths known to a more ancient people were beginning to lose their hold\nupon the race.\n\nRenouf informs us that the word Maat, or Muth, means Law, \"not in that\nforensic sense of command issued either by a human sovereign authority,\nor by a divine legislator, like the laws of the Hebrews, but in the\nsense of that unerring order which governs the universe, whether in its\nphysical or its moral aspect.\"(89) The same writer observes further that\nMaat \"is called mistress of Heaven, ruler of earth, and president of the\nnether world,\" and in a further description of the conception embodied\nin this Deity, refers to the fact that while she is the mother of the\nsun she is also the first emanation from God.\n\n\n 89) The Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 126.\n\n\nAlthough Typhon Seth was long worshipped as the sole Deity in Egypt,\nin later ages the god-idea came to be represented by Seth and Osiris.\nToward the close of Typhon Seth's reign, Horus, the child, the young\nsun, was represented \"as rising from his hiding-place, attracting\nbeneficent vapors to return them back as dews, which the Egyptians\ncalled the tears of Isis.\"\n\nSeth and Osiris represent a division of the Deity. Osiris, as the sun,\nrepresents heat; as man, or as god, he stands for desire. Seth or Typhon\nstands for the cold of winter, the simoom of the desert, or the \"wind\nthat blasts.\" Seth, Osiris, and Horus constitute a Trinity of which\nMuth is the Great Mother. Finally, with the gradual ascendancy of male\ninfluence and power, it is observed that Seth appears as the brother of\nOsiris.\n\nIt is the opinion of Bunsen that the fundamental idea of Osiris and Set\nwas \"not merely the glorification of the sun, but was also the worship\nof the primitive creative power.\"(90) But, as in Egypt the creative\nagency was regarded as both female and male, the former being in the\nascendancy, this fact of itself would seem to determine the sex and\nposition of Seth.\n\n\n 90) History of Egypt, vol. iv., p. 319.\n\n\nIn the ideas concerning Seth and Osiris may be observed something of the\nmanner in which the fructifying agencies of the sun and the reproductive\npower in human beings were blended and together worshipped as the Deity;\nwhile through the history of these gods are to be traced some of the\nprocesses by which the idea of the Creator was changed from female to\nmale.\n\nIn all countries, at a certain stage in the history of religion, the\ntransference of female deified power to mortal man may be observed.\nIn the attempt to change Seth or Typhon into a male God may be noted\nperhaps the first effort in Egypt to dethrone, or lessen the female\npower in the god-idea.\n\nThe fact seems plain that the Great Typhon Seth, or Set, who conferred\non the sovereigns of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties of Egypt\n\"the symbols of life and power,\" was none other than the primitive\nRegenerator or Destroyer, who was for ages worshipped as the God of\nNature the Aleim, or the life-giving energy throughout the universe.\n\nWe have observed that when the profound principles underlying the most\nancient doctrines had been lost or forgotten, and when through the\ndecay of philosophy, and through the stimulation of the sensual in human\nnature, mankind had lost the power to reason abstractly, Destruction,\nwhich was symbolized by darkness or the absence of the sun's rays,\nfinally became the evil principle, or the Devil. Darkness and cold,\nwhich had formerly been worshipped as the powers which brought forth the\nsun, or as mother of the sun, in process of time became the agency which\nis ever warring with good and which is constantly destroying that which\nthe latter brings forth.\n\nWe are informed by Forlong that \"some derive our term Devil from Niphl\nor Nevil, the wind that blasts or obstructs the growth of corn; and it\nused sometimes to be written th' evil, which is D'evil or Devil.\"\n\nIt was \"this Dualistic heresy which separated the Zend or Persian branch\nof the Aryans from their Vedic brethren, and compelled them to emigrate\nto the westward.\"(91)\n\n\n 91) See Rawlinson, Notes on the Early History of Babylon.\n\n\nThe ancient philosophical truth that matter is eternal, and that the\ndestruction of vegetable life through the agency of cold was one of\nthe necessary processes of re-generation, or the renewal of life, had\nevidently been lost sight of at the time when Seth was dethroned in\nEgypt. Wilkinson informs us that \"both Seth and Osiris were adored until\na change took place respecting Seth, brought about apparently by foreign\ninfluence.\" Sethi or Sethos, a ruler whose reign represents the Augustan\nage of Egyptian splendor, received his name from this Deity. It is said\nthat during the twentieth dynasty Seth is suddenly portrayed as the\nprinciple of evil \"with which is associated sin.\" Consequently all the\neffigies of this great Goddess were destroyed and all her names and\ninscriptions \"which could be reached\" were effaced.\n\nBunsen tells us that Schelling, who has made a study of Egyptian\nmythology, although totally ignorant of the later historical facts which\nby means of hieroglyphical monuments have been obtained, had arrived at\nthe conclusion that Seth had occupied an important position in the Deity\ndown to the fourteenth century B.C. \"Schelling had on mere speculative\ngrounds been brought to lay down as a postulate that Typhon, at some\nearly period, had been considered by the Egyptians as a beneficent and\npowerful God.\"\n\nWilkinson says that the character given to Seth, who was called\nBaal-Seth and the God of the Gentiles, \"is explained by his being the\ncause of evil.\" We are assured that formerly \"Sin the great serpent,\" or\nApophis the giant, was distinct from Seth who was a deity and a part\nof the divine system. But after the recondite principles underlying\nsun-worship were lost or forgotten; when cold and darkness, or the\nsinking away of the sun's rays, which are necessary to the reappearance\nof light and warmth, came to be regarded as the destructive element, or\nthe evil principle, woman became identified with this principle. She was\nthe producer of evil, and came to be represented in connection with\na serpent as the cause of all earthly or material things. She is\nDestruction, but not Regeneration. She is in fact matter. The cold of\nwinter and the darkness of night, which are necessary to the return\nof the sun's warmth and which were formerly set forth as a beneficent\nmother who brings forth the sun, became only the evil principle--that\nwhich obscures the light. In fact Darkness or absence of the sun's heat\nhas become the Devil. It is the \"cause of evil in the world.\"\n\nWith woman blinded by superstition, with every instinct of the female\nnature outraged, and with her position as the central figure in the\nDeity and in the family usurped, her temples were soon profaned,\nher images defiled, and the titles representing her former greatness\ntransferred to males.\n\nThere is no doubt but this doctrine was the legitimate outcome of the\ndecay of female influence. Through the further stimulation of the lower\nnature of man its absurdity gradually increased, until under the system\ncalling itself Christian it finally reached its height. This subject\nwill be referred to later in these pages.\n\nWhen we remember that the original representation of the Deity among the\nnations of the earth consisted of a female figure embracing a child,\nand when we observe that subsequently in the development of the god-idea\nwoman appears associated with a serpent as the cause of evil in the\nworld, the history of the God Seth, who, as we have seen, represented\nthe processes of Nature, namely Destruction and Regeneration, seems\nquite significant as indicating some of the actual processes involved in\nthis change.\n\nThere can be little doubt that the facts relating to this Deity indicate\nthe source whence has sprung the great theological dogma underlying\nChristianity, that woman is the cause of evil in the world.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X. ANCIENT SPECULATIONS CONCERNING CREATION.\n\n\"Daughters of Jove, All hail! but O inspire The lovely song! the sacred\nrace proclaim Of ever-living gods; who sprang from Earth, From the\nstarred Heaven, and from the gloomy Night, And whom the salt Deep\nnourished into life. Declare how first the gods and Earth became; The\nrivers and th' immeasurable sea High-raging in its foam; the glittering\nstars, The wide impending Heaven; and who from these Of deities arose,\ndispensing good; Say how their treasures, how their honors each Allotted\nshar'd: how first they held abode On many-caved Olympus:--this declare,\nYe Muses! dwellers of the heavenly mount From the beginning; say, who\nfirst arose? First Chaos was: next ample-bosomed Earth, Of deathless\ngods, who still the Olympian heights Snow-topt inhabit.... Her\nfirst-born Earth produced Of like immensity, the starry Heaven: That he\nmight sheltering compass her around On every side, and be forevermore To\nthe blest gods a mansion unremoved.\"(92)\n\n\n 92) Hesiod, The Theogony.\n\n\nSo long as human beings worshipped the abstract principle of creation,\nthe manifestations of which proceed from the earth and sun, they\ndoubtless reasoned little on the nature of its hitherto inseparable\nparts. They had not at that early period begun to look outside of Nature\nfor their god-idea, but when through the peculiar course of development\nwhich had been entered upon, the simple conception of a creative agency\noriginally entertained became obscured, mankind began to speculate on\nthe nature and attributes of the two principles by which everything is\nproduced, and to dispute over their relative importance in the office of\nreproduction. Much light has been thrown upon these speculations by\nthe Kosmogonies which have come down to us from the Phoenicians,\nBabylonians, and other peoples of past ages. In the Phoenician\nKosmogony, according to the Mokh doctrine as recorded by Philo, out\nof the kosmic egg Toleeleth (female) \"sprang all the impregnation of\ncreation and the beginning of the universe.\" In this exposition of the\nbeginnings of things, it is distinctly stated that the spirit which in\nafter ages came to be regarded as something outside or above Nature,\n\"had no consciousness of its own creation.\" Commenting on the above,\nBunsen is constrained to admit that it is usually understood as being\n\"decidedly pantheistic.\" He suggests, however, that the writer may\nHAVE INTENDED TO SAY (the italics are mine) that \"the spirit who was\nheretofore the Creator was the unconscious spirit.\"\n\nBerosus, the scholar of Babylon, who, until a comparatively recent\ntime has furnished all the information extant concerning Babylonian\nantiquities, in his account of the creation of man and of the universe,\nsays that in the beginning all was water and darkness; that in the water\nwere the beginnings of life; but as yet there was no order. Men were\nthere with the wings of birds and even with the feet of beasts. There\nwere also quadrupeds and men with fishes' tails, all of which had been\nproduced by a twofold principle. Over this incongruous mass a woman\npresided. This woman is called Omoroka by the Babylonians and by the\nChaldeans Thalatth. The latter name, signifies, \"bearing\" or \"egg\nproducing.\"\n\nIn the Babylonian Kosmogony, according to Endemus, the pupil of\nAristotle, the beginning of the universe was called Tauthe, which being\ninterpreted means \"Mother of the Gods.\" Associated with her sometimes\nappears the male principle--Apason. In the history of Berosus, there is\ngiven an account of Oaunes--a mythical teacher of Babylon, who appeared\nwith the head of a human being and the body of a fish or serpent.\nThis personage brought to the Babylonians all the knowledge which they\npossessed. Oaunes wrote \"concerning the generation of mankind, of their\ndifferent ways of life, and of their civil polity.\" He it was who\ngave the above account of creation. He says that finally Omoroka, or\nThalatth, the woman who existed before the creation, was divided, one\nhalf of her forming the heavens, \"the other half the earth.\" \"All this,\"\nBerosus declares, \"was an allegorical description of Nature.\"(93)\n\n\n 93) Prof. Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 34, 35.\n\n\nIn the following legend will be observed the groundwork for the story\nof the flood. Xisuthrus was a king of Chaldea. To him the deity, Kronos,\nappeared in a vision and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of\nthe month Daesius there would be a flood, by which mankind would\nbe destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the\nbeginning, progress, and conclusion of all things down to the present\ntime, and to bury it in Sippara, the City of the Sun. He was commanded\nalso to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and\nrelations, and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life,\ntogether with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and\ntrust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the deity whither he\nwas to sail, he was answered: \"To the gods\"; upon which he offered up\na prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition,\nand built a vessel five stadia in length and two in breadth. Into this\nhe put everything which he had prepared, and last of all conveyed into\nit his wife, his children, and his friends.\n\n\"After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated,\nXisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel, which not finding any food,\nnor any place whereupon they might rest their feet, returned to him\nagain. After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second time;\nand they now returned with their feet tinged with mud. He made a trial\na third time with these birds; but they returned to him no more: from\nwhich he judged that the surface of the earth had appeared above the\nwaters. He therefore made an opening in the vessel, end upon looking out\nfound that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain, upon which\nhe immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot.\nXisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth: and, having constructed\nan altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, with those who had come\nout of the vessel with him, disappeared. Him they saw no more, but they\ncould distinguish his voice in the air, and could hear him admonish them\nto pay due regard to the gods. He informed them that it was on account\nof his piety that he had been taken away to live with the gods, and that\nhis wife and daughter had obtained the same honor.\"\n\nIt is more than likely that this story, which as we have seen has\nextended to the remotest corners of the earth, has an esoteric\nmeaning, and that it embodies the doctrines of the ancients relative to\nre-incarnation and the renewal of worlds. Doubtless it portrays not only\nthe end of a cycle, but that by it is prefigured the fortunes of a human\nsoul, which in its ascent, is from time to time forced into a human\nbody.\n\nAll the early Kosmogonies are intermingled with the history of a great\nflood, from the ravages of which an ark which contained a man was saved.\nThe Gothic story of creation indicates that the Scythians belonged to\nthe same race as the Chaldeans. At the beginning of time when nothing\nhad been formed, and before the earth, the sea, or the heavens appeared,\nMuspelsheim existed. A breath of heat passing over the vapors, melted\nthem into water, and from this water was formed a cow named Aedumla,\nwho was the progenitor of Odin, Vile, and Ve, the Trinity of the Gothic\nnation.\n\nThere is also another tradition, probably a later, which asserts that\nfrom the drops of water produced by the primeval breath of heat, a man,\nYmer, was brought forth. The son of Ymer was preserved in a storm-tossed\nbark, his father being dragged into the middle of the abyss, where,\nfrom his body the earth was produced. The sea was made of his blood,\nthe mountains of his bones, and the rocks of his teeth. As three of his\ndescendants were walking on the shore one day, they found two pieces of\nwood which had been washed up by the waves. Of these they made a man and\na woman. The man they named Aske and the woman Emla. From this pair has\ndescended the human race.\n\nThe marked resemblance between the characters of the Gothic Ymer and the\nChaldean Omoroka, from each of whose bodies the universe is created,\nhas been observed by various writers. After referring to Mallet's\nconclusions upon this subject, Faber remarks:\n\n\"They are indeed evidently the same person, not only in point of\ncharacter, but, if I mistake not, in appellation: for Ymer or Umer is\nOmer-Oca expressed in a more simple form. The difference of sex does by\nno means invalidate this opinion, which rests upon the perfect identity\nof their characters: for the Great Mother, like the Great Father, was\nan hermaphrodite; or, rather, that person from whom all things were\nsupposed to be produced, was the Great Father and the Great Mother\nunited together in one compound being. Ymer and Omoroca are each the\nsame as that hermaphrodite Jupiter of the Orphic theology.\"\n\nWe have observed, however, that in all the older traditions this\nhermaphrodite conception is accounted as female, it is the Great\nMother within whom is contained the male; in later ages, however, it\nis represented as male, the female being concealed beneath convenient\nsymbols.\n\nThe Trinity of the Goths was male; yet as Odin could not create\nindependently of the female energy he is provided with a wife, Frigga,\nto whom \"all fair things belonged, and who had priestesses among the\nearly German tribes.\" Frigga when worshipped alone was both female\nand male. According to one German tradition, Tiw (Zeus), which in its\nearliest conception was female, was the parent of the first man. This\nman begat three sons who became the fathers of the three Deutsch tribes.\nIsh (or Ash) was the parent of the Franks and Allemans; Ing was the\nprogenitor of the Swedes, Angles, and Saxons; and Er, or Erman, was the\neponymous leader of the tribes called by the Romans Hermiones.\n\nThe Kosmogony of the Chinese is similar in all respects to that of other\ncountries. The first man, Puoncu, was born from an egg.\n\nThe Chinese say that this egg-born Puoncu, who is identical with Brahm,\nNoah, and Adam, is not the great Creator or God, but only the first man.\nTheir great God or Tien is a Unity which comprehends three, and their\nhuman triad--a triplicated being who is the parent of the human race--is\na lower expression of the same power, and to him has finally been\nascribed the office of Creator.\n\nThe Kosmogony of the Japanese begins with the opening of the sacred egg\nfrom which all things were produced. This egg is identical with the ark,\nand from it the diluvian patriarch was born. He was \"Baal-Peor or the\nlord of opening; and, from an idea that the Ark was an universal mother,\nhe was considered as the masculine principle of generation, and was\nadored by his apostate descendants with all the abominations of phallic\nworship.\"\n\nIn the Theogony of Hesiod, Uranus is represented as being the parent of\nthree sons, and the same legend repeated in the story of Cronus portrays\nhim also as a triplicated deity. According to the Peruvian Kosmogony all\nthings sprang from Viracocha who is said to be identical with the Greek\nAphrodite. Besides this superior God they venerated a triad which\nwas closely connected with the sun. These gods were called Chuquilla,\nCatuilla, and Intyllapa. They say that as their ancestors journeyed from\na remote country to the Northwest they bore the image of their god in a\ncoifer or box made of reeds. To the four priests who had charge of this\nbox or ark he communicated his oracles and directions. He not only gave\nthem laws but taught them the ceremonies and sacrifices which they were\nto observe. \"And even as the pillar of cloud and fire conducted the\nIsraelites in their passage through the wilderness, so this Spanish\ndevil gave them notice when to advance forward, and when to stay.\"(94)\n\n\n 94) Faber, Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. v.\n\n\nAccording to Marsden, the New Zealanders believe that three gods created\nthe first man, and that the first woman was made from one of his ribs.\n\nAmong the Otaheitans and various tribes of Indians, the belief prevails\nthat all created things have proceeded from a triplicated deity who was\nsaved from the ravages of a flood in an ark or ship.\n\nThe fact is observed that the Theogonies and Kosmogonies of all\npeoples have reference to a flood or to the renewal of life after the\ndestruction of the world, and that the Great Father who is preserved,\nand who comes forth from an ark or ship with the seeds of a former\nworld, represents the beginning of a new era. Adam with his three sons,\nCain, Abel, and Seth, Noah with his triad, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Menu\nand his triple offspring, and so on, all mean exactly the same thing,\nnamely, the renewal of life at the close of a cycle, or manwantara.\n\nFrom the traditions extant in nearly every quarter of the globe, it\nwould seem that, prior to the so-called flood in the time of Noah,\nman, as a Creator, had not to any extent been worshipped, but, on the\ncontrary, that the great universal dual principle which pervades Nature\nand which is back of matter and force, for instance Tien among the\nChinese, Iav among the Hebrews, and Aum among the Hindoos, had been the\nDeity adored; but with the decline of virtue and knowledge, this God\nwas gradually abandoned for a lesser one, a deity better suited to the\ncomprehension of \"fallen\" man.\n\nIn the Elohistic narrative of creation which appears in the first\nchapter of Genesis, a dual or triune God, female and male, says, Let\nus make man in our own image, and accordingly a male and a female are\ncreated. In the Jehovistic account, however, in the second chapter of\nthe same book, a document of much later date, man is made first and\nafterward woman. In fact, in the latter narrative she appears as an\nafterthought and is created simply for his use; she is taken from\nhis side and is wholly dependent upon him for existence. This fact is\nrecognized by Bishop Colenso in the following words:\n\n\"Thus in the second account of creation, the man is APPARENTLY created\nfirst, and the woman is CERTAINLY created the last, of all living\ncreatures; whereas, in the older story the man and woman are\ncreated last of all, as the crowning work of Elohim, and are created\ntogether--'and Elohim created man in His own image, in the image of\nElohim created He him; male and female created He them.' This ancient\nElohistic narrative, then, the Jehovist had before him; and he\nenlarged and enlivened it by introducing a number of passages recording\nadditional incidents in the lives of the patriarchs before and after the\nflood, and especially by inserting the second account of the creation,\nii., 4-25.\"\n\nColenso observes that verse four of chapter second belongs to the\nElohist, and that it was removed from its original position at\nthe beginning of Gen. i., in order to form the commencement of the\nJehovistic account of the creation.(95)\n\n\n 95) Lectures on the Pentateuch, p. 32.\n\n\nQuoting from Bishop Browne in the New Bible Commentary, the same writer\nremarks that in the Elohistic account of the creation \"we have that\nwhich was probably the ancient primeval record of the formation of the\nworld.\"(96)\n\n\n 96) Ibid. p. 16.\n\n\nThe oldest or Elohistic portion of Genesis is, at the present time, seen\nto conceal great wisdom and a knowledge of Nature far surpassing that of\nlater times.\n\nAccording to Higgins, the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis,\nif properly translated, would not declare that in the beginning God\ncreated the heavens and the earth, but that Wisdom \"formed\" the earth\nand the planets. In none of the ancient Kosmogonies can there be a word\nfound regarding the creation of matter. From the facts which have come\ndown to us respecting the speculations of the ancients, it is plain\nthat the original conception was, that within the primeval beginnings\ndescribed in their Kosmogonies, in chaos or unorganized matter, was\ncontained primeval force; no attempt, however, was made by them to\naccount for the creation of either motion or matter.\n\nAs soon as human beings began to speculate on the attributes of their\nDeity; when the two principles composing it began to separate, and the\nidea was gaining ground that the male was the only important factor in\nreproduction, the sun became male, the earth and sea female. Still, even\nthen the doctrine seems not to have been questioned, that the creative\nagency had proceeded from matter, or that it was developed in and\nthrough it. The belief that something can be made from nothing was\nreserved for a later age.\n\nIn the oldest Semitic Kosmogonies, we are assured that the\nself-conscious God who is manifested in the order of the universe,\nproceeded out of the great abyss, and out of unorganized, dark, primeval\nmatter. During the earlier historic period, however, by both Jew and\nGentile, the belief was entertained that spirit is material. It is the\nessence of fire--a substance akin to the galvanic or electric fluid.\nThis masculine element, the manifestation of which is desire, or heat,\nand which was finally set up as an eternal, self-existent, creative\nforce, or God, was originally regarded as a manifestation of matter, and\nas having no independent existence. In an earlier age, this so-called\ncreative agency is associated with a force far superior to itself,\nnamely, Light or Wisdom. Minerva, who is the first emanation from the\nDeity, \"formed\" all things. She it is who discriminates all things\nand gives laws to the universe. \"She represented to the Greeks that\nspiritual element which lifts knowledge into wisdom, and talent into\ngenius.\"(97) But with the importance which began to be assumed by man\nwhen he began to regard himself as a creator, and when through ignorance\nand sensuality the principles of a more enlightened race were forgotten,\ndesire, or heat, was separated from matter and came to be regarded as an\nindependent entity, which itself had created matter out of nothing.\nThus is noticed the extent to which the god-idea has been developed in\naccordance with the relative positions of the sexes.\n\n\n 97) L. T. Ives, Art Words.\n\n\nAccording to the Grecian mythology, much of which was a comparatively\nlate development, mortal woman was the handiwork of Vulcan the Firegod,\nwho, being commissioned by Jove to execute \"a snare for gods and man,\"\nmoulded the beauteous form of woman. This is a worthy example of the\ncontempt and scorn shown by the Greeks for women during the later period\nof their career as a nation. That such contempt was a later development\nis shown in the fact that woman was originally the gift of Pallas\nAthene, or Wisdom. When she first appeared on the scene she was crowned\nby the gods, in fact she was the first object honored with a crown.\nConcerning the conceptions regarding women as held at an earlier age,\nand those which came to prevail after she had become \"the cause of evil\nin the world,\" we have the following from Tertullian:\n\n\"If there was a Pandora, whom Hesiod mentions as the first woman, hers\nwas the first head the Graces crowned, for she received gifts from all\nthe gods, whence she got her name Pandora. But Moses, a prophet, not\na poet-shepherd, shows us the first woman Eve having her loins more\nnaturally girt about with leaves than her temples with flowers. Pandora\nthen is a myth.\"(98)\n\n\n 98) Tertullian, vol. i., p. 341.\n\n\nWoman, who was originally the gift of Wisdom, or Minerva, and who when\ncreated was garlanded with flowers as the crown of creation, became, in\ncourse of time, an accursed and wicked thing who must henceforth cover\nherself with leaves to hide her shame. Tertullian, who, with the rest\nof the early fathers in the Christian church, had imbibed the latter\ndoctrine concerning her, could not believe the tradition set forth by\nHesiod; therefore Pandora was a myth, while the corrupted fable, that\nof Eve as the tempter, was accepted as a natural representation of\nwomanhood.\n\nWhen woman was created, \"all the gods conferred a gifted grace.\"\n\n \"Round her fair brow the lovely-tressed Hours\n A garland twined of Spring's purpureal flowers:\n The whole attire Minerva's graceful art\n Disposed, adjusted, form'd to every part.\"(99)\n\n\n 99) Hesiod, Works and Days.\n\n\nLater, however, Pandora herself becomes the pourer forth of ills on the\nhead of defenceless man.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI. FIRE AND PHALLIC WORSHIP.\n\n \"Know, first a spirit with an active flame\n Fills, feeds, and animates the mighty frame;\n Runs through the watery worlds and fields of air,\n The ponderous Earth and depths of Heav'n and there\n Burns in the Sun and Moon, and every brilliant Star\n Thus mingling in the mass, the general soul\n Lives in its parts and agitates the whole.\"\n\nAlthough earth, air, water, and the sun were long venerated as objects\nof worship, as containing the life principle, in process of time it is\nobserved that fire attracted the highest regard of human beings, and on\ntheir altars the sacred flame, said to have been kindled from heaven,\nwas kept burning uninterruptedly from year to year, and from age to age,\nby bands of priests \"whose special duty it was to see that the sacred\nflame was never extinguished.\" The office of the vestal virgins in\nRome was to preserve the holy fire. The Egyptians, and in fact all the\nearlier civilized nations, knew that force proceeds from the sun, hence\nthe frequent appearance of this orb among their symbols of life. Indeed\nthere is not a country on the globe in which, at some time, divine\nhonors have not been paid to fire and to light.\n\nThe Hindoos, \"believing fire to be the essence of all active power in\nNature, kept perpetual lamps burning in the innermost recesses of\ntheir pagodas and temples, and in the sacred edifices of the Greeks and\nBarbarians fires were preserved for the same reason.\"\n\nThe festival of lamps, which was once universal throughout Egypt, still\nprevails in China. On the evening of the fifteenth day of the first\nmonth in the year, every person is compelled to place before his door a\nlantern or light, such lights differing in size and expense according to\nthe degree of wealth or poverty of those to whom they belong. Light\nwas the symbol of Muth (Perceptive Wisdom). Among the Persians, the\nEgyptians, the Mexicans, the Jews, the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the\nRomans, fire was venerated as the essence of the Deity; and, at the\npresent time, in Thibet, in China, in Japan, and in portions of Africa,\nit still forms an important part of worship. The Hebrew writings show\nconclusively that not only the Jews but all the surrounding nations were\nfire-worshippers, and that their sacrifices were not infrequently to the\nGod of Fire. Of this Forlong says:\n\n\"When Rome was rearing temples to the fame and worship of Fire, we find\nthe prophets of Israel occasionally denouncing the wickedness of its\nworship by their own and the nations around them; nevertheless, even to\nChrist's time Molok always had his offerings of children.\"(100)\n\n\n 100) Rivers of Life and Faiths of Man in an Lands, vol. i., p. 325.\n\n\nIt is believed that Abraham introduced fire-worship among the Jews from\nUr in Mesopotamia, a land in which lights are still venerated, and fire\naltars are worshipped as containing the Deity.\n\nThe real essence of fire which was identical with the life-principle was\nholy. The \"Lord\" of the Israelites was in the fire which descended on\nMt. Sinai, Exodus xix., 18. \"The bush burned with fire and the bush was\nnot consumed,\" Exodus iii., 2. Whether the signification of \"bush\" is\nthe same as \"grove,\" I know not, but Josephus assures us that the\nbush was holy before the flame appeared in it. Because of its sacred\ncharacter, it became the receptacle for the burning \"Lord\" of the Jews.\nThe ark, the religious emblem which Moses bore aloft, was simply a fire\naltar on which the fire must continually burn. The fact will doubtless\nbe observed that although the ark and the bush (female emblems) were\ninvested with a certain degree of sanctity, they were nevertheless only\nreceptacles for the substance within them.\n\nAt the same time that the Jews kept sacred or holy fires continually\nburning on their altars, they carried about a serpent on a pole\nrepresenting it to be the \"healer of nations.\" They also kept a phallic\nemblem in a box, chest, or ark which they worshipped as the \"God of\nHosts,\" the \"Life Giver,\" etc. It has been observed that although\nthe Jews frequently lost their ark, they were never without their\nserpent-pole. At a certain stage in the religious development of mankind\nall the temples in Africa and Western Asia were dedicated to Vulcan the\nfire god or the \"Lord of Fire,\" to whom all furnaces were sacred. The\nprincipal festivals in honor of this Deity took place in the spring, at\nthe Easter season, and on the 23d of August, when it is said that the\nlicentiousness practiced in the temples compared with those of the\n\"Harvest Homes\" of Europe when the sun was in Libra and the harvest had\nbeen garnered in. Vulcan was the \"God of fornication\" or of passion.\n\nThese excesses, which remained unchecked down to the fourth century\nbefore Christ, are said to have somewhat abated after the rise of the\nStoic philosophy.\n\nVarious philosophers of early historic times as well as many of the\nearly fathers in the Christian church believed that God was a corporeal\nsubstance which in some way is manifested through fire.\n\nIn Egypt, during the early ages of Christianity, \"a great dispute\ntook place among the monks on the question, whether God is corporeal.\"\nTertullian declared that \"God is fire\"; Origen, that \"he is a subtle\nfire\"; and various others that \"he is body.\"\n\nThere is little doubt that in early historic ages the Persians, who had\nundertaken to purify their religion, were the strongest and purest sect\nof this cult; they were in fact the genuine worshippers of the pure\ncreative principles which they believed resided in fire.\n\nWe have observed that force or spirit was originally regarded as a\npart of Nature, or in other words that it was a manifestation of, or\nan outflowing from matter, but so soon as it began to be considered\nas something apart from Nature, there at once arose a desire for some\ncorporeal object to represent this unseen and occult principle.\n\nDuring many of the ages of fire-worship, holy fire, although a material\nsubstance, seems to have been too subtle to clearly represent the\ngod-idea, hence everywhere the worship of the serpent is found to be\ninterwoven with it. In fact, so closely are serpent, fire, pillar, and\nother phallic faiths intermingled that it is impossible to separate\nthem.\n\nThe Persians are by some writers said to have been the earliest\nfire-worshippers: by others the truth of this statement is denied, while\nmany claim, and indeed the Maji themselves declared, that they never\nworshipped fire at all in any other manner than as an emblem of the\ndivine principle which they believed resided within it. It is probable,\nhowever, from the evidence at hand, that they, like all the other\nnations of the globe, prior to the reformation led by Zarathustra and\nhis daughter, had lost or nearly forgotten the profound ideas connected\nwith the worship of Nature.\n\nPassion, symbolized by fire, is declared by various writers to have\nbeen the first idol, but later research has proved the falsity of this\nassumption. It is true that at an early age of human experience the\ncreative processes were worshipped, but such worship involved scientific\nand, I might say, spiritualized conceptions of the operations of Nature\nwhich in time were altogether lost sight of. Gross phallicism is\nclearly the result of degeneration, and of a lapse into sensuality and\nsuperstition.\n\nI think no one can study the facts connected with fire and light as the\nDeity in the various countries in which this worship prevailed, without\nperceiving the change it gradually underwent during later ages, and the\ngrossness of the ideas which became connected with it as compared with\nan earlier age when mankind \"had no temples, but worshipped in the open\nair, on the tops of mountains.\"\n\nIn another portion of this work we have observed that in the rites\nconnected with the worship of Cybele (Light or Wisdom), although phallic\nsymbols were in use, the ceremonies were absolutely pure, and that\nthroughout all the earlier ages her worship remained free from the\nabominations which characterized the worship of later times.\n\nAt what time in the history of the human race the organs of generation\nfirst began to appear as emblems of the Deity is not known. Within\nthe earliest cave temples, those hewn from the solid rock, sculptured\nrepresentations of these objects are still to be observed. Although\nuntil a comparatively recent period their true significance has been\nunknown, there is little doubt at the present time that they were\noriginally used as symbols of fertility, or as emblems typifying the\nprocesses of Nature, and that at some remote period of the world's\nhistory they were worshipped as the Creator, or, at least, as\nrepresentations of the creative agencies in the universe.\n\nConcerning the origin and character of the people who executed them\nthere is scarcely a trace in written history. Through the unravelling of\nextinct tongues, however, the monumental records of the ancient nations\nof the globe have been deciphered, and the system of religious symbolism\nin use among them is now understood.\n\nA small volume by various writers, printed in London some years ago,\nentitled A Comparative View of the Ancient Monuments of India, says:\n\n\"Those who have penetrated into the abstruseness of Indian mythology,\nfind that in these temples was practiced a worship similar to that\npracticed by all the several nations of the world, in their earliest as\nwell as their most enlightened periods. It was paid to the Phallus\nby the Asiatics, to Priapus by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, to\nBaal-Peor by the Canaanites and idolatrous Jews. The figure is seen on\nthe fascia which runs round the circus of Nismes, and over the portal of\nthe Cathedral of Toulouse, and several churches of Bordeaux.\"\n\nOf the Lingham and Yoni and their universal acceptance as religious\nemblems, Barlow remarks that it was a \"worship which would appear to\nhave made the tour of the globe and to have left traces of its existence\nwhere we might least expect to find it.\" In referring to the \"sculptured\nindecencies\" connected with religious rites, which, being wrought in\nimperishable stone, have been preserved in India and other parts of the\nEast, Forlong says that when occurring in the temples or other sacred\nplaces they are at the present time evidently very puzzling to the pious\nIndians, and in their attempts to explain them they say they are placed\nthere \"in fulfilment of vows,\" or that they have been wrought there \"as\npunishments for sins of a sexual nature, committed by those who executed\nor paid for them.\" It is, however, the opinion of Forlong that they\nare simply connected with an older and purer worship--a worship which\ninvolved the union of the sex principles as the foundation of their\ngod-idea.\n\nRegarding the cause for the \"indecent\" sculptures of the Orissa temples,\nthe same writer quotes the following from Baboo Ragendralala Mitra, in\nhis work on the Antiquities of Orissa.\n\n\"A vitiated taste aided by general prevalence of immorality might at\nfirst sight appear to be the most likely one; but I can not believe that\nlibidiousness, however depraved, would ever think of selecting fanes\ndedicated to the worship of God, as the most appropriate for its\nmanifestations; for it is worthy of remark that they occur almost\nexclusively on temples and their attached porches, and never on\nenclosing walls, gateways, and other non-religious structures. Our ideas\nof propriety, according to Voltaire, lead us to suppose that a ceremony\n(like the worship of Priapus) which appears to us infamous, could only\nbe invented by licentiousness; but it is impossible to believe that\ndepravity of manners would ever have led among any people to the\nestablishment of religious ceremonies. It is probable, on the contrary,\nthat this custom was first introduced in times of simplicity--that the\nfirst thought was to honor the Deity in the symbol of life which it has\ngiven us; such a ceremony may have excited licentiousness among youths,\nand have appeared ridiculous to men of education in more refined, more\ncorrupt, and more enlightened times, but it never had its origin in\nsuch feelings.... It is out of the question therefore to suppose that\na general prevalence of vice would of itself, without the authority\nof priests and scriptures, suffice to lead to the defilement of holy\ntemples.\"(101)\n\n\n 101) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 275.\n\n\nOriginally the Ionians, as their name indicates, were Yoni worshippers,\ni. e., they belonged to the sect which was driven out of India because\nof their stubborn refusal to worship the male energy as the Creator.\nDuring the later ages of their history, at a time when their religion\nhad degenerated into a licensed system of vice and corruption, and after\ntheir temples had become brothels in which, in the name of religion,\nwere practiced the most debasing ceremonies, the Greeks became ashamed\nof their ancient worship, and, like the Jews, ashamed also of their\nname.\n\nIt is believed that the Greeks received from Egypt, or the East, their\nfirst theological conceptions of God and religion. These ideas\n\n\"were veiled in symbols, significant of a primitive monotheism; these,\nat a later period, being translated into symbolical or allegorical\nlanguage, were by the poets transformed into epic or narrative myths,\nin which the original subject symbolized was almost effaced, whilst\nthe allegorical expressions were received generally in a literal sense.\nHence, to the many, the meaning of the ancient doctrine was lost, and\nwas communicated only to the few, under the strictest secrecy in the\nmysteries of Eleusis and Samothrace. Thus there was a popular theology\nto suit the people, and a rational theology reserved for the educated,\nthe symbolical language in both being the same, but the meaning of it\nbeing taken differently. In course of time, as knowledge makes its way\namong the people, and religious enlightenment with it, much of what had\nbeen received literally will relapse into its original figurative or\nsymbolical meaning. Reason will resume her supremacy, and stereotyped\ndogmas will fall like pagan idols before advancing truth.\"(102)\n\n\n 102) Barlow, Essays on Symbolism, p. 121.\n\n\nAlthough, during the later ages of the human career, the higher truths\ntaught by an earlier race were lost, still a slight hint of the beauty\nand purity of the more ancient worship may be traced through most of the\nages of the history of religion. Even among the profligate Greeks, the\nmysteries of Eleusis, celebrated in the temple of Ceres, were always\nrespected. Care should be taken, however, not to confound these\nremnants of pure Nature-worship with that of the courtesan Venus, whose\nadoration, during the degenerate days of Greece, represented only the\nlowest and most corrupt conception of the female energy.\n\nDown to a late date in the annals of Athens there was celebrated a\nreligious festival called Thesmophoria. The name of this festival is\nderived from one of the cognomens of Ceres--the goddess \"who first\ngave laws and made life orderly.\" Ceres was the divinity adored by\nthe Amazons, and is essentially the same as the Egyptian Isis. She\nrepresents universal female Nature. The Thesmophorian rites, which are\nbelieved by most writers to have been introduced into Greece directly\nfrom Thrace, were performed by \"virgins distinguished for probity in\nlife, who carried about in procession sacred books upon their heads.\"\n\nInman, in his Ancient Faiths, quotes an oracle of Apollo, from Spencer,\nto the effect that \"Rhea the Mother of the Blessed, and the Queen of\nthe Gods, loved assemblages of women.\" As this festival is in honor\nof Female Nature, the various female attributes are adored as deities,\nDemeter being the first named by the worshippers. After a long season\nof fasting, and \"after solemn reflection on the mysteries of life, women\nsplendidly attired in white garments assemble and scatter flowers in\nhonor of the Great Mother.\"\n\nThe food partaken of by the devotees at these festivals was cakes, very\nsimilar in shape to those which were offered to the Queen of Heaven by\nthe women of Judah in the days of Jeremiah, an offering which it will be\nremembered so displeased that prophet that a curse was pronounced upon\nthe entire people.\n\nAs the strictest secrecy prevailed among the initiated respecting these\nrites, the exact nature of the symbols employed at the Thesmophorian\nfestivals is not known; it is believed, however, that it was the female\nemblem of generation, and that this festival was held in honor of that\nevent which from the earliest times had been prophesied by those who\nbelieved in the superior importance of the female, namely, that\nunaided by the male power, a woman would bring forth, and that this\nmanifestation of female sufficiency would forever settle the question of\nthe ascendancy of the female principle. Through a return of the\nancient ideas of purity and peace, mankind would be redeemed from the\nwretchedness and misery which had been the result of the decline of\nfemale power. The dual idea entertained in the Thesmophorian worship\nis observed in the fact that although Ceres, the Great Mother, was the\nprincipal Deity honored, Proserpine, the child, was also comprehended,\nand with its Mother worshipped as part of the Creator. Thus we observe\nthat down to a late date in the history of Grecian mythology the idea\nof a Holy Mother with her child had not altogether disappeared as a\nrepresentation of the god-idea.\n\nTo prove the worthiness of the ideas connected with the Eleusinian\nmysteries it is stated that \"there is not an instance on record that the\nhonor of initiation was ever obtained by a very bad man.\"\n\nIn Rome these mysteries took another name and were called \"the rites of\nBona Dea,\" which was but another name for Ceres. As evidence of their\npurity we have the following:\n\n\"All the distinguished Roman authors speak of these rites and in terms\nof profound respect. Horace denounces the wretch who should attempt to\nreveal the secrets of these rites; Virgil mentions these mysteries with\ngreat respect; and Cicero alludes to them with a greater reverence\nthan either of the poets we have named. Both the Greeks and the Romans\npunished any insult offered to these mysteries with the most persevering\nvindictiveness. Alcibiades was charged with insulting these religious\nrites, and although the proof of his offense was quite doubtful, yet he\nsuffered for it for years in exile and misery, and it must be allowed\nthat he was the most popular man of his age.\"(103)\n\n\n 103) Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.\n\n\nIn Greece, the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries was in the hands\nof the Emolpidae, one of the oldest and most respected families of\nantiquity. At Carthage, there were celebrated the Phiditia, religious\nsolemnities similar to those already described in Greece. During the two\nor three days upon which these festivals were celebrated, public feasts\nwere prepared at which the youth were instructed by their elders in the\nstate concerning the principles which were to govern their conduct\nin after life; truth, inward purity, and virtue being set forth as\nessentials to true manhood. In later times, after these festivals had\nfound their way to Rome, they gradually succumbed to the immorality\nwhich prevailed, and at last, when their former exalted significance\nhad been forgotten, they were finally sunk into \"the licentiousness of\nenjoyment, and the innocence of mirth was superseded by the uproar of\nriot and vice! Such were the Saturnalia.\"\n\nFrom the facts connected with the mysteries of Eleusis and the\nThesmophorian rites, it is evident that in its earlier stages\nNature-worship was absolutely free from the impurities which came to be\nassociated with it in later times. As the organs of generation had not\noriginally been wholly disgraced and outraged, it is not unlikely that\nwhen the so-called \"sculptured indecencies\" appeared on the walls of the\ntemples they were regarded as no more an offense against propriety and\ndecency than was the reappearance of the cross, the emblem of life, in\nlater times, among orthodox Christians.\n\nNeither is it probable, in an age in which nothing that is natural was\nconsidered indecent, and before the reproductive energies had become\ndegraded, that these symbols were any more suggestive of impurity than\nare the Easter offerings upon our church altars at the present time.\nWhatever may now be the significance of these offerings to those who\npresent them, sure it is that they once, together with other devices\nconnected with Nature-worship, were simply emblems of fertility--symbols\nof a risen and fructifying sun which by its gladdening rays re-creates\nand makes all things new again.\n\nIf we carefully study the religion of past ages we will discover\nsomething more than a hint of an age when the generative functions\nwere regarded as a sacred expression of creative power, and when the\nreproductive organs had not through over-stimulation and abuse been\ntabooed as objects altogether impure and unholy, and as things too\ndisgraceful to be mentioned above a whisper. Indeed there is much\nevidence going to show that in an earlier age of the world's history the\ndegradation of mankind, through the abuse of the creative functions, had\nnot been accomplished, and the ills of life resulting from such abuse\nwere unknown.\n\nWe may reasonably believe that those instincts in the female which are\ncorrelated with maternal affection and which were acquired by her as\na protection to the germ, or, in other words, those characters which\nNature has developed in the female to insure the safety and well-being\nof offspring, and which in a purer and more natural stage of human\nexistence acted as cheeks upon the energies of the male, were not easily\nor quickly subdued; but when through subjection to the animal nature\nof man these instincts or characters had been denied their natural\nexpression, and woman had become simply the instrument of man's\npleasure, the comparatively pure worship of the organs of generation\nas symbols of creative power began to give place to the deification of\nthese members simply as emblems of desire, or as instruments for the\nstimulation of passion.\n\nWe are assured that on the banks of the Ganges, the very cradle of\nreligion, are still to be found various remnants of the most ancient\nform of Nature-worship--that there are still to be observed \"certain\nhigh places sacred to more primitive ideas than those represented by\nVedic gods.\"\n\nHere devout worshippers believe that the androgynous God of fertility,\nor Nature, still manifests itself to the faithful. Close beside\nthese more ancient shrines are others representing a somewhat later\ndevelopment of religious faith--shrines, by means of which are indicated\nsome of the processes involved in the earlier growth of the god-idea.\nNot far removed from these are to be found, also, numerous temples or\nplaces of worship belonging to a still later faith--a faith in which are\nrevealed the \"awakening and stimulation of every sensuous feeling,\nand which has drowned in infamy every noble impulse developed in human\nnature.\"\n\nOf the depravity of the Jews and the immorality practiced in their\nreligious rites, Forlong says:\n\n\"No one can study their history, liberated from the blindness which our\nChristian up-bringing and associations cast over us, without seeing\nthat the Jews were probably the grossest worshippers among all those\nOphi--Phallo--Solar devotees who then covered every land and sea, from\nthe sources of the Nile and Euphrates to all over the Mediterranean\ncoasts and isles. These impure faiths seem to have been very strictly\nmaintained by Jews up to Hezekiah's days, and by none more so than\nby dissolute Solomon and his cruel, lascivious bandit-father, the\nbrazen-faced adulterer and murderer, who broke his freely volunteered\noath, and sacrificed six innocent sons of his king to his Javah.\"\n\nOf Solomon he says that he devoted his energies and some little wealth\n\"to rearing phallic and Solophallic shrines over all the high places\naround him, and especially in front of Jerusalem, and on and around the\nMount of Olives.\" On each side of the entrance to his celebrated\ntemple, under the great phallic spire which formed the portico, were two\nhandsome columns over fifty feet high, by the side of which were the sun\nGod Belus and his chariots.\n\nIn a description of this temple it is represented as being one hundred\nand twenty feet long and forty feet broad, while the porch, a phallic\nemblem, \"was a huge tower, forty feet long, twenty feet broad, and two\nhundred and forty feet high.\" We are assured by Forlong that Solomon's\ntemple was like hundreds observed in the East, except that its walls\nwere a little higher than those usually seen, and the phallic spire out\nof proportion to the size of the structure. \"The Jewish porch is but\nthe obelisk which the Egyptian placed beside his temple; the Boodhist\npillars which stood all around their Dagobas; the pillars of Hercules,\nwhich stood near the Phoenician temple; and the spire which stands\nbeside the Christian Church.\"(104)\n\n\n 104) Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 219.\n\n\nThe rites and ceremonies observed in the worship of Baal-Peor are not of\na character to be described in these pages: it is perhaps sufficient\nto state that by them the fact is clearly established that profligacy,\nregulated and controlled by the priestly order as part and parcel of\nreligion, was not confined to the Gentiles; but, on the contrary, that\nthe religious observances of the Jews prior to the Babylonian captivity\nwere even more gross than were those of the Assyrians or the Hindoos.\n\nThese impure faiths arose at a time when man as the sole creator of\noffspring became god, when the natural instincts of woman were subdued,\nand when passion as the highest expression of the divine force came to\nbe worshipped as the most important attribute of humanity.\n\nThe extent to which these faiths have influenced later religious belief\nand observances is scarcely realized by those who have not given special\nattention to this subject.\n\nIt has been stated that in the time of Solon, law-giver of Athens, there\nwere twenty temples in the various cities of Greece dedicated to Venus\nthe courtesan, within which were practiced, in the name of religion, the\nmost infamous rites and the most shameless self-abandonment; and that\nthroughout Europe, down to a late period in the history of the race,\nreligious festivals were celebrated at certain seasons of the year, at\nwhich the ceremonies performed in honor of the god of fornication were\nof the grossest nature, and at which the Bacchanalian orgies were only\nequalled by those practiced in the religious temples of Babylon.\n\nIt is impossible longer to conceal the fact that passion, symbolized\nby a serpent, an upright stone, and by the male and female organs of\ngeneration, the male appearing as the \"giver of life,\" the female as a\nnecessary appendage to it, constituted the god-idea of mankind for at\nleast four thousand years; and, instead of being confined to the earlier\nages of that period, we shall presently see that phallic worship had\nnot disappeared, under Christianity, as late and even later than the\nsixteenth century.\n\nSuch has been the result of the ascendancy gained by the grosser\nelements in human nature: the highest idea of the Infinite passion\nsymbolized by the organs of generation, while the principal rites\nconnected with its worship are scenes of debauchery and self-abasement.\n\nAt the present time it is by no means difficult to trace the growth of\nthe god-idea. First, as we have seen, a system of pure Nature-worship\nappeared under the symbol of a Mother and child. In process of time this\nparticular form of worship was supplanted by a religion under which the\nmale principle is seen to be in the ascendancy over the female. Later\na more complicated system of Nature-worship is observed in which the\nunderlying principles are concealed, or are understood only by the\ninitiated. Lastly, these philosophical and recondite principles are\nforgotten and the symbols themselves receive the adoration which once\nbelonged to the Creator. The change which the ideas concerning womanhood\nunderwent from the time when the natural feminine characters and\nqualities were worshipped as God, to the days of Solon the Grecian\nlaw-giver, when women had become merely tools or slaves for the use\nand pleasure of men, is forcibly shown by a comparison of the character\nascribed to the female deities at the two epochs mentioned. Athene\nwho in an earlier age had represented Wisdom had in the age of Solon\ndegenerated into a patroness of heroes; but even as a Goddess of war her\npatronage was as nought compared with that of the courtesan Venus, at\nwhose shrine \"every man in Greece worshipped.\"\n\nThe extent to which women, in the name of religion, have been degraded,\nand the part which in the past they have been compelled to assume in the\nworship of passion may not at the present time be disguised, as facts\nconcerning this subject are well authenticated. In a former work,(105)\nattention has been directed to the religious rites of Babylon, the city\nin which it will be remembered the Tower of Belus was situated. Here\nwomen of all conditions and ranks were obliged, once in their life, to\nprostitute themselves in the temple for hire to any stranger who might\ndemand such service, which revenue was appropriated by the priests to be\napplied to sacred uses. This act it will be remembered was a religious\nobligation imposed by religious teachers and enforced by priestly rule.\nIt was a sacrifice to the god of passion. A similar custom prevailed in\nCyprus.\n\n\n 105) See Evolution of Woman, p. 228.\n\n\nMost of the temples of the later Hindoos had bands of consecrated\nwomen called the \"Women of the Idol.\" These victims of the priests were\nselected in their infancy by Brahmins for the beauty of their persons,\nand were trained to every elegant accomplishment that could render them\nattractive and which would insure success in the profession which they\nexercised at once for the pleasure and profit of the priesthood. They\nwere never allowed to desert the temple; and the offspring of their\npromiscuous embraces were, if males, consecrated to the service of the\nDeity in the ceremonies of this worship, and, if females, educated in\nthe profession of their mothers.(106)\n\n\n 106) Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. i.\n\n\nThat prostitution was a religious observance, which was practiced in\nEastern temples, cannot in the face of accessible facts be doubted.\nRegarding this subject, Inman says:\n\n\"To us it is inconceivable, that the indulgence of passion could\nbe associated with religion, but so it was. The words expressive\nof 'sanctuary,' 'consecrated,' and 'sodomites' are in the Hebrew\nessentially the same. It is amongst the Hindoos of to-day as it was in\nthe Greece and Italy of classic times; and we find that 'holy woman'\nis a title given to those who devote their bodies to be used for hire,\nwhich goes to the service of the temple.\"\n\nThe extent to which ages of corruption have vitiated the purer instincts\nof human nature, and the degree to which centuries of sensuality and\nsuperstition have degraded the nature of man, may be noticed at the\npresent time in the admissions which are frequently made by male writers\nregarding the change which during the history of the race has taken\nplace in the god-idea. None of the attributes of women, not even that\nholy instinct--maternal love, can by many of them be contemplated apart\nfrom the ideas of grossness which have attended the sex-functions during\nthe ages since women first became enslaved. As an illustration of this\nwe have the following from an eminent philologist of recent times, a\nwriter whose able efforts in unravelling religious myths bear testimony\nto his mental strength and literary ability.\n\n\"The Chaldees believed in a celestial virgin who had purity of body,\nloveliness of person, and tenderness of affection, and she was one to\nwhom the erring sinner could appeal with more chance of success than to\na stern father. She was portrayed as a mother with a child in her arms,\nand every attribute ascribed to her showing that she was supposed to be\nas fond as any earthly female ever was.\"(107)\n\n\n 107) Inman, Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 59.\n\n\nAfter thus describing the early Chaldean Deity, who, although a pure\nand spotless virgin, was nevertheless worshipped as a mother, or as\nthe embodiment of the altruistic principles developed in mankind, this\nwriter goes on to say: \"The worship of the woman by man naturally led to\ndevelopments which our COMPARATIVELY SENSITIVE NATURES (the italics are\nmine) shun as being opposed to all religious feeling,\" which sentiment\nclearly reveals the inability of this writer to estimate womanhood, or\neven motherhood, apart from the sensualized ideas which during the ages\nin which passion has been the recognized god have gathered about it.\n\nThe purity of life and the high stage of civilization reached by an\nancient people, and the fact that these conditions were reached under\npure Nature-worship, or when the natural attributes of the female were\nregarded as the highest expression of the divine in the human, prove\nthat it was neither the appreciation nor the deification of womanhood\nwhich \"led to developments which sensitive natures shun as being opposed\nto all religious feeling,\" but, on the contrary, that it was the lack\nof such appreciation which stimulated the lower nature of man and\nencouraged every form of sensuality and superstition. In other words, it\nwas the subjection of the natural female instincts and the deification\nof brute passion during the later ages of human history which have\ndegraded religion and corrupted human nature.\n\nAlthough at the present time it is quite impossible for scholars to veil\nthe fact that the god-idea was originally worshipped as female, still,\nmost modern writers who deal with this subject seem unable to understand\nthe state of human society which must have existed when the instincts,\nqualities, and characters peculiar to the female constitution were\nworshipped as divine. So corrupt has human nature become through\nover-stimulation and indulgence of the lower propensities, that it\nseems impossible for those who have thus far dealt with this subject to\nperceive in the earlier conceptions of a Deity any higher idea than that\nconveyed to their minds at the present time by the sexual attributes and\nphysical functions of females--namely, their capacity to bring forth,\ncoupled with the power to gratify the animal instincts of males,\nfunctions which women share with the lower orders of life.\n\nThe fact that by an ancient race woman was regarded as the head or crown\nof creation, that she was the first emanation from the Deity, or, more\nproperly speaking, that she represented Perceptive Wisdom, seems at the\npresent time not to be comprehended, or at least not acknowledged. The\nmore recently developed idea, that she was designed as an appendage to\nman, and created specially for his use and pleasure,--a conception which\nis the direct result of the supremacy of the lower instincts over the\nhigher faculties,--has for ages been taught as a religious doctrine\nwhich to doubt involves the rankest heresy.\n\nThe androgynous Venus of the earlier ages, a deity which although female\nwas figured with a beard to denote that within her were embraced the\nmasculine powers, embodied a conception of universal womanhood and\nthe Deity widely different from that entertained in the later ages of\nGreece, at a time when Venus the courtesan represented all the powers\nand capacities of woman considered worthy of deification.\n\nTo such an extent, in later ages, have all our ideas of the Infinite\nbecome masculinized that in extant history little except occasional\nhints is to be found of the fact that during numberless ages of human\nexistence the Supreme Creator was worshipped as female.\n\nOne has only to study the Greek character to anticipate the manner in\nwhich any subject pertaining to women would be treated by that arrogant\nand conceited race; and, as until recently most of our information\nconcerning the past has come through Greek sources, the distorted and\none-sided view taken of human events, and the contempt with which the\nfeminine half of society has been regarded, are in no wise surprising.\nWe must bear in mind the fact, however, that the Greeks were but the\ndegenerate descendants of the highly civilized peoples whom they were\npleased to term \"barbarians,\" and that they knew less of the origin and\ncharacter of the gods which they worshipped, and which they had borrowed\nfrom other countries, than is known of them at the present time.\n\nAbout 600 years B.C., we may believe that mankind had sunk to the lowest\ndepth of human degradation, since which time humanity has been slowly\nretracting its course; not, however, with any degree of continuity or\nregularity, nor without lapses, during which for hundreds of years the\ncurrent seemed to roll backward. Indeed when we review the history of\nthe intervening ages, and note the extent to which passion, prejudice,\nand superstition have been in the ascendancy over reason and judgment,\nwe may truly say: \"The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's\nteeth have been set on edge.\"\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII. AN ATTEMPT TO PURIFY THE SENSUALIZED FAITHS.\n\nIt has been said of the Persians that in their zeal to purify the\nsensualized faiths which everywhere prevailed they manifested a decided\n\"repugnance to the worship of images, beasts, or symbols, while they\nsought to establish the worship of the only true creative force, or\nGod--Holy Fire.\"\n\nFrom the facts to be gleaned concerning this people during the seventh\nand eighth centuries B.C., it is quite probable that they still had a\nfaint knowledge of a former age of intellectual and moral greatness,\nand that it was their object, at that time, to return to the purer\nprinciples which characterized it. That their efforts were subsequently\ncopied by surrounding nations is shown in the facts connected with their\nhistory.\n\nSoon leading Syrians and Jews began to learn from their Eastern neighbor\nthat the worship of images could scarcely be acceptable to a god which\nthey were beginning to invest with a certain degree of spirituality.\nThere is little doubt, at the present time, that the attempt to\nspiritualize the religion of the Jews was due to the influence of the\nPersians. However, the length of time required to effect any appreciable\nimprovement in an established form of worship is shown by the fact that,\ntwo hundred years later, little change for the better was observed in\nthe temples, in which licentiousness had become a recognized religious\nrite. Even at the present time, it is reported that in many places of\nworship in the East there still reside \"holy women--god's women,\" who,\nlike those in Babylon, described by various writers, are devoted to the\n\"god of fire.\"\n\nIn a comparison made between the religion of Persia and the doctrines\nsaid to have been taught by Moses, Inman remarks:\n\n\"The religion of Persia as reformed by Zoroaster so closely resembles\nthe Mosaic, that it would be almost impossible to decide which has the\nprecedence of the other, unless we knew how ancient was the teaching of\nZoroaster, and how very recent was that said to be from Moses. Be this\nas it may, we find the ancient Persians resemble the Jews in sacrificing\nupon high places, in paying divine honor to fire, in keeping up a sacred\nflame, in certain ceremonial cleansings, in possessing an hereditary\npriesthood who alone were allowed to offer sacrifices, and in making\ntheir summum bonum the possession of a numerous offspring.\"(108)\n\n\n 108) Ancient Faiths, vol. ii., p. 64.\n\n\nIt is quite plain that by both these nations the wisdom of an earlier\nrace was nearly forgotten. Seven hundred years B.C. the Persians\nhad doubtless already adopted the worship of \"One God\" who was the\nRegenerator or Destroyer, a Deity which, as we have seen, originally\ncomprehended the powers of Nature--namely the sun's heat and the cold\nof winter. That at this time, however, they had lost the higher truths\ninvolved in the conception of this Deity, is evident. They had become\nworshippers of fire, or of that subtle igneous fluid residing in fire\nwhich they believed to be creative force. Although the Persiaus like all\nthe other nations of the globe had lost or forgotten the higher truths\nenunciated by an older race, there is no evidence going to show that\nthey ever became gross phallic worshippers like the Jews; that they were\nnot such is shown in the fact that down to the time of Alexander the\nwomen of Persia still held a high and honorable position, and that the\nfemale attributes had not become wholly subject to male power.\n\nHad we no other evidence of the comparatively exalted character of the\nreligion of the Persians than the history of the lives of such men\nas Darius, Cyrus, Artaxerxes, and others, we should conclude,\nnotwithstanding the similarity in the ceremonials of these two\nreligions, that some influence had been at work to preserve them from\nthe cruelty and licentiousness which prevailed among the Jews. It is\nrelated of Cyrus that he used to wish that he might live long enough to\nrepay all the kindness which he had received. It is also stated that on\naccount of the justice and equity shown in his character, a great number\nof persons were desirous of committing to his care and wisdom \"the\ndisposal of their property, their cities, and their own persons.\"\n\nIn striking contrast to the mild and humane character of Cyrus stands\nthat of the licentious and revengeful David, a \"man after God's own\nheart.\"\n\n\"As for the heads of those that compass me about, let the mischief of\ntheir own lips cover them.\"\n\n\"Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into\ndeep pits, that they rise not up again.\"(109)\n\n\"Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the\nstones.\"(110)\n\n\n 109) Psalms cxl.\n\n\n 110) Ibid., cxxxvii.\n\n\nNo one I think can read the Avestas without being impressed by the\nprominence there given to the subjects of temperance and virtue. In\ntheir efforts to purify religion, and in the attempts to return to\ntheir more ancient faith, the disciples of Zoroaster, as early as\neight hundred years before Christ, had adopted a highly spiritualized\nconception of the Deity. They had taught in various portions of Asia\nMinor the doctrine of one God, a dual entity by means of which all\nthings were created. They taught also the doctrine of a resurrection\nand that of the immortality of the soul. It was at this time that they\noriginated, or at least propounded, the doctrine of hell and the\ndevil, a belief exactly suited to the then weakened mental condition\nof mankind, and from which humanity has not yet gained sufficient\nintellectual and moral strength to free itself. This Persian devil,\nwhich had become identified with winter or with the absence of the sun's\nrays, was now Aryhman, or the \"powers of darkness,\" and was doubtless\nthe source whence sprang the personal devil elaborated at a later age by\nLaotse in China.\n\nAs the Jews had no writings prior to the time of Ezra or Jeremiah, it\nis now believed that many of the doctrines incorporated in their\nsacred books were borrowed from Persian, Indian, and Egyptian sources.\nResurrection from the dead, or the resurrection of the body, was for\nhundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ an established article of\nEgyptian and Persian faith, while spiritual regeneration, symbolized by\nthe outward typification of \"being born again,\" was the beginning of a\nnew life and an admission to the heavenly state.\n\nIn the Khordah Avesta we have the following concerning the doctrine of\nthe resurrection and that of future rewards and punishments.\n\n\"I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the good Mazdaycinian\nfaith, in the coming of the resurrection and the later body, in the\nstepping over the bridge Chinvat, in an invariable recompense of good\ndeeds and their reward, and of bad deeds and their punishment.\"\n\nThe Zoroastrians, who led the way in the great intellectual and\nreligious awakening which took place during the intervening years from\n700 B.C. to 400 B.C., sought to purify all things by fire and water, the\ntwo principles which had come to be regarded as the original elements,\nfrom which, or by which, all things are produced.\n\nPrior to this time, in Persia, and long afterwards by various other\nnations, baptism, a rite performed at puberty, was connected only with\nthe sexual obligations of the person receiving it, but in the age which\nwe are considering it became especially a cleansing or regenerating\nprocess, and was the means by which the pious devotee became initiated\ninto the mysteries of holy living, or by which she or he was \"born\nagain.\"\n\nAs in their religious procedure every act was performed in connection\nwith symbols, so in the matter of baptism they were not satisfied\nwith the inner consciousness of regeneration, but must go through\nwith certain processes which typified the new life upon which they had\nentered. According to Wilford, the outward symbolization of the \"new\nbirth\" in the East is manifested in the following manner:\n\n\"For the purpose of regeneration it is directed to make an image of pure\ngold of the female power of nature, either in the shape of a woman or\nof a cow. In this statue, the person to be regenerated is inclosed, and\ndragged out through the natural channel. As a statue of pure gold and\nof proper dimensions would be too expensive, it is sufficient to make an\nimage of the sacred Yoni, through which the person to be regenerated is\nto pass.\"\n\nThus at the time Nicodemus is said to have queried concerning the\nmysteries of the new birth, it is observed that the outward forms\nof regeneration had long been in use among the pagans. In passing\nthemselves through these apertures, the applicant for regeneration was\nsupposed to represent the condition of one \"issuing from the womb to a\nnew scope of life.\"\n\nAccording to the testimony of various writers upon this subject, there\nare still extant, not alone in oriental countries, but in Ireland and\nScotland as well, numerous excavations or apertures in the rocks\nwhich by an early race were used for the same purpose. Through the\nmisconception, bigotry, and ignorance of the Roman Catholic missionaries\nin Ireland, these openings were designated as the \"Devil's Yonies.\"\nAlthough these emblems typified the original conception of one of their\nmost sacred beliefs, namely, the \"new birth,\" still they were \"heathen\nabominations\" with which the devotees of the new (?) faith must not\nbecome defiled.\n\nThe people who executed these imperishable designs, and who have left in\nthe British Isles innumerable evidences of their religious beliefs,\nare supposed by some writers to belong to a colony which, having been\nexpelled from Persia on account of their peculiar religious beliefs,\nsettled in the \"White Island,\" the \"Island of the Blessed.\" This subject\nwill, however, be referred to later in this work.\n\nWhen we closely examine the facts connected with the evolution\nof religion, there can be little doubt that the Persians laid the\nfoundation for that great moral and intellectual awakening which a\ncentury or two later is represented by Confucious, Gotama Buddha, and\nPythagoras. From the Persians, doubtless Jew and Gentile alike received\nthe little leaven of spirituality which in later ages crept into their\ngross conception of a Deity.\n\nBy the Persians, the Hindoos, and other nations of the East, it was\nbelieved that the end of each cycle of six hundred years, at which\ntime a new sun or savior was to come, would mark a new era of religious\ndevelopment. At the close of each of these cycles it was devoutly\nexpected that the \"golden age\" of the past would be restored, and that\nmankind would again be freed from the ills which had overtaken them. As\nmany of these cycles had passed, numerous deliverers, saviors, or solar\nincarnations had appeared in India, Gotama Buddha having been the\nninth. In the East, about six or seven hundred years before the birth\nof Christ, not only one savior or prophet but three or four of them\nappeared.\n\nConcerning the leader of the reform in Persia there seem to be many\nconflicting accounts. The learned Faber concludes that there were two\nZarathustras or Zoroasters, the former being identical with Menu, the\nlaw giver and triplicated deity of India, and who by various writers is\nrecognized as the Noah of the Hebrews. According to Pliny, the former\nlived thousands of years before Christ. Several writers concur in\nplacing him five thousand years before the siege of Troy. According\nto Sir Wm. Jones, the latter Zoroaster lived in the time of Darius\nHystaspes. It is now claimed that in the Dabistan, one of the sacred\nbooks of Persia, thirteen Zoroasters appear. The name of the last great\nleader, together with a few of his doctrines, and various scattered\nfragments in the Gathas, are all that remain on record of a man whose\npersonality stands connected with the earliest attempt to reform a\ndegraded and sensualized religion.\n\nThat this prophet was without honor in his own country is shown by the\nfollowing lamentation:\n\n\"To what country shall I go? Where shall I take refuge? What country\ngives shelter to the master, Zarathustra, and his companion? None of the\nservants pay reverence to me, nor do the wicked rulers of the country.\nHow shall I worship thee further, living Wise One? What help did\nZarathustra receive when he proclaimed the truths? What did he obtain\nthrough the good mind? ... Why has the truthful one so few adherents,\nwhile all the mighty, who are unbelievers, follow the liar in great\nnumbers?\"(111)\n\n\n 111) Quoted by Viscount Amberley from Haug's Translations.\n\n\nAlthough the prophet Zarathustra and his companion were first rejected,\nthe fact seems plain that the monotheistic doctrines which they set\nforth were subsequently accepted as the groundwork of the religion of\nPersia.\n\nIn the opening verses of the 5th Gatha appears the following:\n\n\"It is reported that Zarathustra Spitama possessed the best good, for\nAhura Mazda granted him all that may be obtained by means of a sincere\nworship, forever, all that promotes the good life, and he gives the same\nto all who keep the words and perform the actions enjoined by the good\nreligion....\n\n\"Pourutschista, the Hetchataspadin, the most holy one, the most\ndistinguished of the daughters of Zarathustra, formed this doctrine, as\na reflection of the good mind, the true and wise one.\"\n\nThe fact will doubtless be observed that Pourutschista was not merely\na disciple of Zarathustra, but that she FORMED the doctrine which was\naccepted as a \"reflection of the good mind.\"\n\nIn the 5th Gatha it is stated that among those who \"know the right\npaths, the law which Ahura gave to the Profitable,\" is Pourutschista the\n\"Holy worthy of adoration among the daughters of Zarathustra.... wise\nfemale worker of Wisdom.\"(112)\n\n\n 112) Spiegel's Translation.\n\n\nOrmuzd, or Ahura Mazda, which was the essence of heat or light, was the\nprinciple adored by the followers of the reformed religion in Persia.\nThroughout the Avesta the most desirable possession, and that which is\nmost praised, is purity of life.\n\n \"We praise the pure man.\n \"The best purity praise we.\n \"The best wish praise we of the best purity. The best place\nof purity praise we, the shining, endued with all brightness.\"(113)\n\n \"This Earth, together with the women, we praise\n Which bears us, which are the women, Ahura Mazda\n Whose wishes arise from purity, these we praise--\n Fullness, readiness, questioning, wisdom.\"(114)\n\n\n 113) Vespered xxvi. Spiegel's Translation.\n\n\n 114) Yacna xxxviii.\n\n\nPraise is offered to the \"everlasting female companion, the\ninstructing.\"\n\nThe following is a part of the marriage ceremony of the Persians as it\nis found in the Khorda-Avesta:\n\n\"Do you both accept the contract for life with honorable mind? In the\nname and friendship of Ormuzd be ever shining, be very enlarged. Be\nincreasing. Be victorious. Learn purity. Be worthy of good praise. May\nthe mind think good thoughts, the words speak good, the works do good.\nMay all wicked thoughts hasten away, all wicked words be diminished, all\nwicked works be burnt up.... Win for thyself property by right-dealing.\nSpeak truth with the rulers and be obedient. Be modest with friends,\nclever, and well wishing. Be not cruel, be not covetous.... Combat\nadversaries with right. Before an assembly speak only pure words. In no\nwise displease thy mother. Keep thine own body pure in justice.\"\n\nConfucius, the great Chinese teacher and philosopher, who lived probably\nin the sixth century B.C., may be said to have been a humanitarian or\nmoralist instead of a mystic. Although he believed in a great first\nprinciple, or cause, which he termed Heaven, we are given to understand\nthat in his philosophizing little mention was made of it.\n\nThe system known as Confucianism was not originated by Confucius.\n\nIn referring to this subject Legge remarks:\n\n\"He said of himself (Analects, vii., I), that he was a transmitter and\nnot a maker, one who believed in and loved the ancients; and hence it is\nsaid in the thirtieth chapter of the doctrine of the Mean, ascribed to\nhis grandson, that he handed down the doctrines of Yao and Shun, as if\nthey had been his ancestors, and elegantly displayed the regulations of\nWan and Wu, taking them as his models.\"(115)\n\n\n 115) Legge, Preface to vol. iii. of Shu King.\n\n\nThe ancient books which Confucius interpreted or rewrote laid no claim\nto being sacred in the sense of being inspired; but, on the contrary,\nwere works of wisdom put forth by historians, poets, and others \"as they\nwere moved in their own minds.\" The most ancient of these doctrines was\nthe Shu, a work which since the period of the Han dynasty, 202 years\nB.C., has been called the Shu King.\n\nA number of documents contained in this work date back to the\ntwenty-fourth century B.C., and as they are regarded as historical are\nconsidered to be of greater importance than are any others of their\nancient writings.\n\nSecond in antiquity and importance is the Shih or the Book of Poetry.\nThis work contains the religious views of its writers, also an account\nof the manners, customs, and events of the times to which they belong.\nFor 5000 years, in China, Tien or Ti has expressed the moving or\ncreating force in the universe. In later ages it is observed that this\nname has been attached to royalty. Hwang Ti is the present title of the\nEmperor of China.\n\nFrom some of the texts found in the Shu King, it would seem that the\nChinese had in the remote past caught sight of the scientific fact\nthat virtue is its own reward. \"Heaven graciously distinguishes the\nvirtuous.... Heaven punishes the guilty.\"(116)\n\n\n 116) Max Muller, Sacred Books of the East, book iv.\n\n\nThe principal object of Confucius seems to have been to inculcate those\ndoctrines of his ancestors which, taking root, would in time bring about\na return to those principles of former virtue, a faint knowledge of\nwhich seems still to have survived in China. The following precepts are\nfound among his teachings:\n\n\"Knowledge, magnanimity, and energy are the virtues universally binding.\nGravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness\nconstitute perfect virtue. Sincerity is the very way to Heaven. My\ndoctrine is that of an all-pervading unity. The superior man is catholic\nand not partisan. The mean is partisan and not catholic. The superior\nman is affable but not adulatory, the mean is adulatory but not\naffable.\"\n\nWhen asked for a word which should serve as a rule of practice for all\nour life he replied: \"Is not Reciprocity such a word? What you do\nnot want done to yourself, do not do to others.\" On one occasion the\nquestion was asked him: \"What do you say concerning the principle\nthat injury shall be recompensed with kindness?\" To which he replied:\n\"Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with\nkindness.\"(117)\n\n\n 117) Lun Yu, xiv., 26.\n\n\nIt is recorded by his disciples that there are four things from which\nthe master was entirely free. \"He had no foregone conclusions, no\narbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egoism.\" Contrary to\nthe rule of most reformers or leaders of opinion, he always regarded\nhimself as a learner as well as teacher. It is related of Confucius that\nhe at one time desired a governmental position, thinking that through\nits occupancy he might the better disseminate the ancient doctrines of\nrectitude and virtue. Offers of individual advantage could not swerve\nhim from his well-grounded principles of honor. On one occasion one of\nthe rulers of the country proposed to confer upon him a city and its\nrevenues, but Confucius replied: \"A superior man will only receive\nreward for services which he has rendered. I have given advice to the\nduke-king, but he has not obeyed it, and now he would endow me with this\nplace! very far is he from understanding me.\"(118)\n\n\n 118) Quoted by Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i., p. 197.\n\n\nThe fact seems evident that Confucius had not sufficient strength of\ncharacter to attempt a change in the social conditions of his time. He\nhad not that grandeur of soul which enabled him to strike the key-note\nof reform. Monarchical institutions and social distinctions he did not\nrebuke. The brotherhood of man and the levelling processes in human\nsociety were probably never thought of by him; certainly they were never\nattempted.\n\nBy certain writers Confucius has been accused of insincerity in a few\nminor matters; still, the wisdom contained in his religious doctrines,\nthe philosophical value of his teachings relative to the regulation of\nhuman conduct, and, above all, his purity of purpose, justly entitles\nhis name to be enrolled among the great reformers of the world.\n\nThe lasting influence which this man exerted upon the minds of his\ncountrymen, and the appreciation in which his name and works are still\nheld, are shown by the fact that his descendants constitute the only\norder of hereditary nobility in China.\n\n\"He lived five hundred years before Christ; and yet to this day, through\nall the changes and chances of time and of dynasties, the descendants of\nConfucius remain the only hereditary noblemen and national pensioners\nin the empire. Even the imperial blood becomes diluted, degraded, and\nabsorbed into the body politic after the seventh generation; but the\ndescendants of Confucius remain separate, through all the mutations of\ntime and of government.\"(119)\n\n\n 119) Thomas Magee, in the Forum, vol. x., p. 204.\n\n\nLaotse, the founder of the smallest of the three sects in China, namely,\nConfucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, was an old man when Confucius was in\nhis prime. The word Taou signifies reason, but the doctrines believed\nby the Taoists prove their system to be the most irrational of all the\nreligions of the East. In an article on The Taouist Religion, Warren\nBenton says:\n\n\"The tendency in rationalism is toward the utter destruction of a belief\nin the existence of unseen spirits of evil. Enlightened reason dethrones\ndevils; but Laotse created devils innumerable, and the chief concern of\nthe Taouist sect has always been to manipulate these emissaries of evil.\nModern rationalists deny the existence of devils, and relegate them to\nthe category of myths and to personified ideas. Not so the rationalist\nof the Orient. He finds his greatest pleasure in contemplating the very\natmosphere he breathes as filled with spirits constantly seeking\nhis injury; and to outwit his satanic majesty is the chief end of\nlife.\"(120)\n\n\n 120) Pop. Science, Jan. 1890.\n\n\nAt a time when a personal devil was gradually assuming shape, it would\nhave been singular, indeed, if there had not arisen one who, by his\npeculiar temperament and natural disposition, was exactly suited to the\ntask of elaborating this doctrine in all its grim seriousness. That such\nan one did arise in the person of Laotse is evident from what is known\nregarding his history and teachings.\n\nThe growth of religious faith had long tended in this direction.\nTyphon, \"the wind that blasts,\" \"Darkness,\" and the \"cold of winter,\"\nconstituted the foundation of a belief in a personal Devil; and, when\nthe time was ripe for the appearance of his satanic majesty, it required\nonly a hypochondriac--a disordered mental organization--to formulate and\nproject this gloomy and unwholesome doctrine.\n\nThere is little known of the life and character of Laotse except that\nhe labored assiduously through a long life-time for the establishment\nof certain principles or tenets which he believed to be essential to the\nwell-being of humanity. In the twentieth chapter of his work are found\nto be some hints of his personality and of the gloomy cast of his\ncharacter. He complains that while other men are joyous and gay, he\nalone is despondent. He is \"calm like a child that does not yet smile.\"\nHe is \"like a stupid fellow, so confused does he feel. Ordinary men are\nenlightened; he is obscure and troubled in mind. Like the sea, he is\nforgotten and driven about like one who has no certain resting place.\nAll other men are of use; he alone is clownish like a peasant. He alone\nis unlike other men, but he honors the nursing mother.\"\n\nOf all the various teachers which arose during the fifth, sixth, and\nseventh centuries B.C., none of them were able to rise to the position\nof moral grandeur occupied by Gotama Buddha. The efforts put forth by\nthis great teacher seem to have been humane rather than religious. In\nhis time, especially in India, society had become encysted beneath\na crust of seemingly impenetrable conservatism, while religion, or\npriestcraft, riveted the chains by which the masses of the people were\nenslaved.\n\nThe mission of Buddha was to burst asunder the bonds of the oppressed\nand to abolish all distinctions of caste. This was to be accomplished\nthrough the awakening of the divine life in each individual. The leading\nprocesses by which the lines of caste were weakened were in direct\nopposition to the established order of society. It was a blow at the old\nBrahminical social and religious code which had grown up under the reign\nof priest-craft.\n\nNotwithstanding the sex prejudice which had come to prevail in India,\nit was directly stated by Buddha that any man or woman who became his\ndisciple, who renounced the world and by abstinence from the lower\nindulgences of sense proclaimed her or his adherence to the higher\nprinciples of life, \"at once lost either the privilege of a high caste\nor the degradation of a low one.\" Earthly distinctions were of no\nconsequence. Rank depended not on the outward circumstance of birth, but\non the ability of the individual to resist evil, or, upon his\ncapacity to receive the higher truths enunciated by the new sun or\nsavior--Buddha.\n\nIn one of the canonical books he is represented as saying:\n\n\"Since the doctrine which I teach is completely pure, it makes no\ndistinction between noble and common, between rich and poor. It is, for\nexample, like water, which washes both noblemen and common people, both\nrich and poor, both good and bad, and purifies all without distinction.\nIt may, to take another illustration, be compared to fire, which\nconsumes mountains, rocks, and all great and small objects between\nheaven and earth. Again, my doctrine is like heaven, inasmuch as there\nis room within it without exception, for whomsoever it may be; for men\nand women, for boys and girls, for rich and poor.\"(121)\n\n\n 121) Viscount Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i., p. 216.\n\n\nThere is little doubt that the religion of Buddha was an attempt to\nreturn to the almost forgotten principles of a past age of spiritual and\nmoral greatness. According to this ancient wisdom, man is an immortal\nsoul struggling for perfection. The growth of the real man is a natural\nunfolding of the divine principle within, such process of evolution\nbeing accomplished through the power of the will. As every individual\nmust work out his own salvation, this will-force must ever be directed\ntoward the complete mastery of the body, or the lower self. In other\nwords, the development of the higher life depends upon the power of the\nindividual to overcome or conquer evil. The effect of every thought,\nword, and deed is woven into the soul, and no one can evade the\nconsequences of his own acts. All sin is the result of selfishness, so\nthat only when one renounces self and begins to live for others does the\nsoul-life begin. No one who has arrived at a state of soul-consciousness\nwill lead a selfish or impure life. On the contrary, every impulse of\nthe devout Buddhist goes out toward humanity and God, of whom he is a\nconscious part.\n\nGotama Buddha was not a \"savior\" in the sense of bloody sacrifice for\nthe sins of the people. On the contrary, he was an example to mankind--a\nman who through moral purification and a life of self-abnegation\nhad prepared himself for this holy office. Mythologically, or\nastrologically, he was the new sun born at the close of the cycle. He\nwas the great Light which revealed the way to eternal repose--Nirvana.\nThe mythical Buddha was the prototype of the mythical Christ. His mother\nwas Mai or Mary, Queen of Heaven, or the Vernal Spring. He was a new\nincarnation of the Sun--the Savior of the world. In process of time his\nmany miracles were offered as proof of his divine character. Although he\ntaught the existence of a great and universal Power, he made no attempt\nto explain the unknowable. The Infinite is to be contemplated only\nthrough its manifestations. Nirvana is not annihilation, as has been\nerroneously taught by Christian missionaries. As explained by Buddhists\nthemselves, it comprehends a state of absolute rest from human strife\nand wretchedness. It is the absorption or relapsing into the great First\nPrinciple, whence all life is derived--a state so pure that the human is\nlost in the divine.\n\n \"Lamp of the law!\n I take my refuge in thy name and Thee!\n I take my refuge in thy Law of Good!\n I take my refuge in thy Order! Om!\n The dew is on the Lotus!--rise, Great Sun!\n And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave.\n Om Mani Padme Hum, the Sunrise comes!\n The Dewdrop slips into the shining Sea!\"(122)\n\n\n 122) Arnold, Light of Asia.\n\n\nFrom the Buddhist colleges at Nolanda went forth teachers who, inspired\nwith enthusiasm in the cause of human justice and individual liberty,\nendeavored to abolish the abominations which had grown up under\nBrahminical rule. The masses of the people, however, were too deeply\nsunken in infamy, wretchedness, and ignorance to accept, or even\nunderstand, the pure doctrines of the great teacher, and, as might have\nbeen anticipated, priest-craft soon assumed its wonted arrogance, and\neventually the whole paraphernalia of antiquated dogmas were tacked upon\nthe new system.\n\nThrough the various efforts put forth for the elevation of mankind\nduring the six or seven hundred years which preceded the advent of\nChristianity, sufficient strength had been given to the moral impetus of\nhumanity to create in many portions of the world a strong desire for a\nreturn to purer principles, and to make the appearance of a spiritual\nteacher like Christ possible. The effects, however, of ages of moral\nand intellectual degradation, in which the lowest faculties have been\nstimulated to the highest degree, are not wiped out in a few centuries\nof struggle by the few among the people who desire reform. As\ntrue reform means growth, those who have reached a higher stage of\ndevelopment can only point the way to others--they are powerless to\neffect changes for which the masses are unprepared.\n\nAlthough through a partial revival of the ideas entertained by an\nancient people the attempt was made by Zoroaster, Confucius, Gotama\nBuddha, Pythagoras, the Stoics, and other schools of philosophy, to\nelevate the masses of the people, and, although the unadulterated\nteachings of the man called Christ were doubtless an outgrowth of this\nmovement, yet the human mind had not, even as late as the appearance of\nthis last-named reformer, sufficiently recovered from its thraldom\nto enable the masses to grasp those higher truths which had been\nentertained by an earlier civilized people.\n\nWhile there are doubtless many points of similarity between the\nreligious system elaborated by Gotama Buddha and that enunciated by\nChrist, there is little likeness between the teachings of the former and\nthose set forth by the Romish Church, or by Paul. Seven hundred years\nB.C., the Persians had grasped the idea that virtue is its own reward,\nand that every soul is responsible for its own growth. The fundamental\ndoctrine of the Christian Church to-day is that of a vicarious\natonement--a belief which takes away man's responsibility for his own\nmisdeeds.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII. CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM.\n\nBy comparing the sacred writings of the Persians with the history of the\nevents connected with the conception and birth of the mythical Christ\nas recorded in the New Testament, the fact is observed that the latter\nappears to be closely connected with the central figure of Persian\nmythology. It has been found that the visit of the Magi, who, following\na star, were guided to the spot where the young child lay, was the\nfulfilment of a Persian prophecy, which is to be found in the life of\nZarathustra as recorded in the Zendavesta, while the subsequent history\nof the same personage is seen to be almost identical with that of the\nHindoo Sun-god Chrishna.\n\nAccording to the sacred books of the Persians, three sons of the great\nZarathustra were to appear at three successive periods of time. These\nsons were to be incarnations of the sun, and the result of immaculate\nconceptions.\n\n\"The first is named Oschederbami. He will appear in the last millennium\nof the world. He will stop the sun for ten days and ten nights, and the\nsecond part of the human race will embrace the law, of which he will\nbring the 22d portion.\n\n\"The second posthumous son of Zoroaster is Oschedermah. He will appear\nfour hundred years after Oschederbami. He will stop the sun twenty days\nand twenty nights, and he will bring the 23d part of the law, and the\nthird part of the world will be converted.\n\n\"The third is named Sosiosch. He will be born at the end of the ages.\nHe will bring the 24th part of the law; he will stay the sun thirty\ndays and thirty nights, and the whole earth will embrace the law of\nZoroaster. After him will be the resurrection.\"(123) This last named\nson was to be born of a pure and spotless virgin, whereupon a star would\nappear blazing even at noonday with undiminished lustre.\n\n\n 123) Quoted by Waite, History of the Christian Religion, p. 168.\n\n\n\"You, my sons,\" exclaimed the seer, \"will perceive its rising before any\nother nation. As soon, therefore, as you shall behold the star, follow\nit, withersoever it shall lead you; and adore that mysterious child,\noffering your gifts to him, with profound humility. He is the Almighty\nWord, which created the heavens.\"(124)\n\n\n 124) Ibid., 169.\n\n\nWaite notices the conclusion of Faber that this prediction was long\nbefore the birth of Christ, and states that one of the reasons for\nsuch a conclusion was, that in the old Irish history a similar prophecy\nappears--a prophecy which was delivered by a \"Druid of Bokhara.\" The\nidentity of this Irish prophecy with the one in the East ascribed to\nZarathustra or Zoroaster, is so singular that Faber thinks it can be\naccounted for only on the hypothesis \"of an ancient emigration from\nPersia to Ireland by the northwest passage, which carried the legend\nwith it.\"\n\nBy those who have investigated the origin of the early gospels, it is\nstated that the story of the Magi and the star appeared in the Gospel\nof the Infancy early in the second century, and was subsequently\nincorporated into the preparatory chapters of Luke and Matthew.\nAccording to Waite, there was a sect of Christians called Prodiceans\nwhose leader, Prodicus, about A.D. 120, boasted that they had the sacred\nbooks of Zoroaster. From an extant fragment of the Chronography of\nAfricanus is the following:\n\n\"Christ first of all became known from Persia. For nothing escapes the\nlearned jurists of that country, who investigated all things with the\nutmost care. The facts, therefore, which are inscribed upon the golden\nplates, and laid up in the royal temples, I shall record; for it is from\nthe temples there, and the priests connected with them, that the name\nof Christ has been heard of. Now, there is a temple there to Juno,\nsurpassing the royal palace, which temple Cyrus, that prince instructed\nin all piety, built, and in which he dedicated, in honor of the gods,\ngolden and silver statues, and adorned them with precious stones. ...\nNow about that time (as the records on the plates testify), the king\nhaving entered the temple, with the view of getting an interpretation\nof certain dreams, was addressed by the priest Prupupius thus: 'I\ncongratulate thee, master: Juno has conceived.' 'And the king, smiling,\nsaid to him: 'Has she who is dead conceived?' And he said: 'Yes, she who\nwas dead has come to life again, and begets life.' And the king said:\n'What is this? explain it to me.' And he replied: 'In truth, master, the\ntime for these things is at hand. For during the whole night the images,\nboth of gods and goddesses, continued beating the ground, saying to each\nother, Come, let us congratulate Juno. And they say to me, Prophet, come\nforward, congratulate Juno, for she has been embraced. And I said, How\ncan she be embraced who no longer exists? To which they reply, She has\ncome to life again, and is no longer called Juno, but Urama. For the\nmighty Sol has embraced her.' \"(125)\n\n\n 125) Hyppolytus, vol. ii., p. 196.\n\n\nThere is a tradition which asserts that during the early part of the\nsecond century, St. Thomas went as a missionary to Parthia; that after\nhe had visited the various countries of the Parthian Empire, tarrying\nfor a time at Balkh, the capital of Bactria, and the ancient residence\nof the Magi, he went to India. Soon after the visit of Thomas to Persia\nand India, there appeared in Palestine and the adjacent countries\na gospel of Thomas, in which were set forth various stories closely\nresembling the legends found in the Hindoo sacred writings. After\ncomparing various passages of the Bhagavat Purana with those of the\nInfancy, and after furnishing conclusive evidence that the latter must\nhave been copied from the former, Waite says:\n\n\"The conclusion must be, that while for some of the salient points of\nthe Gospels of the Infancy, the authors were indebted to Zoroaster, and\nthe legends of Persia, the outline of the story was largely filled up\nfrom the history of Crishna, as sent back to Palestine, by the Apostle\nThomas, from the land of the Brahmins.\"\n\nConcerning the story of Herod and his order to slay all the male\ninfants, there has been discovered in a cavern at Elephanta, in India,\na sculptured representation of a huge and ferocious figure, bearing a\ndrawn sword and surrounded by slaughtered children, while mothers appear\nweeping for their slain. This figure is said to be of great antiquity.\n\nMary, the Mother of Jesus, like Mai, the Mother of Gatama Buddha, was\nregarded by certain sects in the earlier ages of Christianity as an\nImmortal Virgin whose birth had been announced by an angel.(126) She was\nin fact the ancient Virgin of the Sphere--the Mother of the Gods--the\nQueen of Heaven.\n\n\n 126) See Gospels of Mary and the Protovangelion.\n\n\nAs soon as Christ was born he conversed with Mary, as did also Crishna\nwith his mother, informing her of his divine mission.\n\nCrishna was cradled among shepherds, so was Christ. Cansa, fearing the\nloss of his kingdom, sought to destroy the life of the divine infant in\nthe same manner as did Herod in the case of Christ. Both children are\ncarried away by night, after which an order is issued by the ruler\nof the country that all the young children throughout the kingdom be\nslaughtered.\n\nWhen Joseph and Mary arrived in Egypt, they visited the temple of\nSerapis, where \"all the magistrates and priests of the idols\nwere assembled.\" Upon the image being interrogated concerning the\n\"consternation and dread which had fallen upon all our country,\" it\nanswered them as follows: \"The unknown god has come hither, who is truly\nGod; nor is there anyone besides him, who is worthy of divine worship;\nfor he is truly the son of God.\" And at the same instant this idol fell\ndown, and at his fall all the inhabitants of Egypt, besides others, ran\ntogether.(127) A similar story is related of Crishna. This Indian god,\nthe same as Christ, cured a leper. A woman, after having poured a box\nof precious ointment on the head of Crishna, was healed; so also a woman\nanointed the head of Jesus. Crishna when but a lad displayed remarkable\nmental powers and the most profound wisdom before the tutor who was sent\nto instruct him. Christ astonished the school-master Zaccheus with his\ngreat learning.(128)\n\n\n 127) Gospel of the Infancy, ch. iv.\n\n\n 128) Gospel of the Infancy, ch. xx.\n\n\nCrishna had a terrible encounter with the serpent Calinaga; the infant\nChrist had also a dreadful adventure with a serpent. Now this Calinaga\nwhich Crishna encountered was a serpent goddess who was worshipped\nby the sect in India which was opposed to the adoration of the male\nprinciple. The early Christians, however, being ignorant of the\nallegorical meaning of the legend, transferred it to Christ literally.\n\nThe mother of Crishna looked in his mouth and beheld all the nations of\nthe earth. The same story is reported of Christ and his mother. Finally\nChrist, like Crishna, was crucified, and like him was buried. He\ndescended into hell and on the third day arose and ascended into\nheaven.(129)\n\n\n 129) It will doubtless be urged that I am quoting from the Apocryphal\nGospels--that the genuine books of the New Testament are silent\nconcerning many of these Eastern legends. We must bear in mind, however,\nthat during the earlier ages of Christianity, these finally rejected\ngospels were, equally with the canonical books, considered as the word\nof God. The Infancy is thought to be one of the earliest gospels. Justin\nMartyr was acquainted with it, A.D. 150 to 160. It is referred to by\nIrenaeus, A.D. 190.\n\n\nIn the poetical myths of the ancients the sun is yearly overpowered\nby cold or by the destructive agencies in Nature. Astronomically, or\nastrologically, it wanders in darkness and desolation during the winter\nmonths; in fact dies, and descends into hell in order that he may\nrise at the Easter season to gladden and make all things new again.\nMythologically, this new sun becomes incarnate; enters again his\nmother's womb, and is born into the world in the form of a man whose\nmission is to renew human life. Hence we have an explanation of the\nEastern Buddhas and Crishnas, all of which were born of virgins at the\nwinter solstice.\n\nThe new sun which at the close of each cycle was believed by the more\nancient people of the globe to \"issue forth from the womb of Nature to\nrenew the world,\" now that the truths underlying Nature-worship were\nlost, became a redeemer or mediator between earth and heaven, or between\nspirit and matter. It is stated that at the time of the appearance of\nChrist not alone the Jews, but the Persians, the Romans, the ancient\nIrish, and in fact all the nations of the globe, were anxiously awaiting\nthe event of another incarnation of the solar Deity; and that maidens\nof all classes and conditions were in a state of eager expectation, the\nmore pious, or at least the more ambitious among them, being in almost\nconstant attendance at the temples and sacred shrines, whither they went\nto pay homage to the male emblem of generation, thereby hoping to be\nhonored as a Mai or Mary.\n\nOn the wall of the temple at Luxor are a series of sculptures,\n\n\"in which the miraculous annunciation, conception, birth, and adoration\nof Amunoph III., the son of the Virgin Queen Mautmes, is represented in\na manner similar to what is described in St. Luke's Gospel (ch. 1 and 2)\nof Jesus Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary, and which is found also\nin the Gospel of St. Matthew (ch. 1) as an addition not met with in the\nearliest manuscripts,\"(130) which fact has caused Sharpe, from whom the\nabove is quoted, to suggest that both accounts may have been of Egyptian\norigin.\n\n\n 130) Barlow, Symbolism, p. 127.\n\n\nThe titles \"lamb,\" \"anointed,\" etc., which were applied to Christ, all\nappear attached to former incarnations of the sun, the first named\nstanding for the sun in Aries. The effigies of a crucified savior found\nin Ireland and Scotland in connection with the figure of a lamb, a bull,\nor an elephant, the latter of which is not a native of those countries,\nshows that they do not represent Christ, but a crucified sun-god\nworshipped by the inhabitants of the British Islands ages before the\nbirth of the great Judean philosopher and teacher.\n\nIt is plain that Crishna of India and the Persian Mithra furnished the\ncopy for the Jesus of the Romish Church, all of whom mean one and the\nsame thing--the second person in the Solar Trinity. By the Jews, who\nattempted to ignore the female principle, this God is called the \"Lord\nof Hosts\" and \"God of Sabaoth,\" which astronomically means God of the\nstars and constellations, and astrologically the creator or producer of\nthe multitudes. Of this God, ieue, I H S, the author of Anacalypsis says\nthat he was the son of the celestial virgin, which she carries in her\narms; the Horus, Lux, of the Egyptians, the Lux of St. John.\n\n\"It is from this infant that Jesus took his origin; or at least it is\nfrom the ceremonies and worship of this infant that this religion came\nto be corrupted into what we have of it. This infant is the seed of the\nwoman who, according to Genesis, was to bruise the head of the serpent,\nwhich, in return, was to bruise his foot or heel, or the foot or heel\nof her seed as the figure of the Hindoo Crishna proves. From the\ntraditionary stories of this god Iao, which was figured annually to be\nborn at the winter solstice, and to be put to death and raised to life\non the third day at the vernal equinox, the Roman searchers after the\nevangelion or gospel made out their Jesus. The total destruction\nof everything at Jerusalem and in Judea--buildings, records,\neverything--prevented them from coming to any absolute certainty\nrespecting this person who, they were told by tradition, had come to\npreach the gospel of peace, to be their savior, in fulfilment of the\nprophecy which their sect of Israelites found in their writings, and who\nhad been put to death by the Jews. From all these circumstances he came\nto have applied to him the monogram of I H S.... and to him at last all\nthe legendary stories related of the god Iao were attributed.\"(131)\n\n\n 131) Godfrey Higgins, Anacalypsis, book vi., ch. iv., p. 455.\n\n\nAccording to Faber, Jesus was not originally called Jesus Christ, but\nJescua Hammassiah--Jescua meaning Joshua, and Jesus, Savior. Ham is\nthe Om of India, and Messiah, the anointed. Commenting on this Higgins\nremarks: \"It will then be, The Savior Om the Anointed, precisely as\nIsaiah had literally foretold; or reading in the Hebrew made, The\nAnointed Om the Savior. This was the name of Jesus of Bethlehem.\"\n\nWe have observed the fact that at the time of the birth of Christ the\nentire world was expecting a Savior--a new incarnation of the sun. The\nend of a cycle had come and the entire earth was to undergo a process of\nrenovation.\n\nIn a poem by Virgil, who was a Druid, the birth of a wonderful child is\ncelebrated, and the prophecy of a heathen Sibyl is seen to be identical\nwith that of Isaiah.\n\n\"The last period sung by the Sibylline prophetess is now arrived; and\nthe grand series of ages. That Series which recurs again and again\nin the course of our mundane revolution begins afresh. Now the\nVirgin Astrea returns from heaven; and the primeval reign of Saturn\nrecommences; now a new race descends from the celestial realms of\nholiness. Do thou, Lucina, smile propitious on the birth of a boy who\nwill bring to a close the present age of iron and introduce throughout\nthe whole world, a new age of gold. Then shall the herds no longer dread\nthe fury of the lion, nor shall the poison of the serpent any longer\nbe formidable. Every venomous animal and every deleterious plant shell\nperish together. The fields shall be yellow with corn, the grape\nshall hang its ruddy clusters from the bramble, and honey shall distil\nspontaneously from the rugged oak. The universal globe shall enjoy the\nblessings of peace, secure under the mild sway of its new and divine\nsovereign.\"\n\nThere is no lack of evidence to prove that for several centuries great\nnumbers of Christians regarded Christ as a solar incarnation similar to\nthose which from time to time were born in the valleys of the Nile and\nthe Ganges. By the fathers in the church Jesus Christ was named the New\nSun, and in the early days of Christianity the Egyptians struck a coin\nrepresenting O. B. or the holy Basilisk, with rays of light darting from\nhis head, on the reverse side of which was figured \"Jesus Christ as the\nNew Solar Deity.\"\n\nThe similarity if not the actual identity of the religion of Christ and\nthat of the pagans in the second century is shown by various writers.\nThe Emperor Hadrian writing to his friend Servianus says:\n\n\"Those who worship Serapis are also Christians; even those who style\nthemselves the Bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis.. .. There is\nbut one God for them all; him do the Christians, him do the Jews, him do\nall the Gentiles also worship.\"\n\nIt has been said that the head of Serapis supplied the first idea of the\nportrait of Christ. Before the figure of Serapis, in his temple, used\nto stand Isis, the Celestial Virgin, with the inscription \"Immaculate is\nour Lady Isis.\" In her hand she bore a sheaf of grain.\n\nAs Serapis, or Pan, finally became Christ, so Isis, or the Queen of\nHeaven, became his mother, and to the latter were transferred all the\ntitles, ceremonies, festivals, and seasons which from the earliest time\nhad belonged to the great Goddess of Nature. Subsequently, probably\nabout the close of the second century, Christianity began slowly to\nemerge from the worship of Mithras and Serapis, \"changing the names but\nnot the substance.\"\n\nUpon the coinage of Constantine appears Soli Invicto Comita--\"To the\ninvincible sun my companion or guardian,\" and when the Greek and Roman\nChristians finally separated themselves from the great body of pagan\nworshippers they apologized for celebrating the birthday of their Savior\non the 25th of December, saying that \"they could better perform their\nrites when the heathen were busy with theirs.\" We are assured that the\nearly Christians no less than the Maji acknowledged Mithras as the first\nemanation from Ormuzd, or the God of Light. He was the Savior which in\nan earlier age had represented returning life--that which follows the\ncold of winter. It was doubtless while they worshipped the Persian\nMithras that many of the so-called Christians gathered their first\nideas concerning the immortality of the soul and of future rewards and\npunishments.\n\nThe analogy existing between the festivals, seasons, mythoses, etc., of\nthe various incarnations of the sun which were worshipped by the early\nhistoric nations and those belonging to Christianity is too striking to\nbe the result of chance.\n\nBuddha originally represented the sun in Taurus. Crishna was the sun\nin Aries. The laborings and sufferings of Hercules, a god who was an\nincarnation of the latter, portrays the history of the passage of the\nsun through the signs of the Zodiac.\n\nAll the principal events of Christ's life correspond to certain solar\nphases; or, in other words, all ecclesiastical calendars are arranged\nwith reference to the festivals which commemorate the important events\nof his life from his conception and birth to his ascension and reception\nin heaven. Each and every one of the solar deities has been born at\nmidnight, on the 25th of December, at the time when the sun has reached\nits lowest position and begins to ascend. Macrobius, a learned Roman\nwriter, observes that the early historic nations \"believed that the sun\ncomes forth as a babe from its cradle at the winter solstice.\" Neith is\nmade to say, \"The sun is the fruit of my womb.\"\n\nThe 15th of August, assumption day, the time when Mary, the mother of\nJesus, ascends to heaven is the day when the Zodiacal constellation\nVirgo, \"the Greek Astrea, leaves the European horizon,\" and the \"8th of\nSeptember, when Virgo emerges from the sun's rays, is held sacred as the\nNativity of the Queen of Heaven.\"\n\nOf the mid-winter festival, Bede says: \"The Pagans of these isles began\ntheir year on the eighth of the Kalends of January, which is now our\nChristmas Day. The night before that (24th Dec. eve) was called by them\nthe Medre-Nak, or Night of Mothers, because of the ceremonies which were\nperformed on that night.\"(132)\n\n\n 132) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 430.\n\n\nAmong Christians as among Pagans the Christmas season was in honor of\n\"returning light,\" the vernal equinox of \"growing light\" and St. John's\nday of \"perfected light.\"\n\nIn England, among pagan Saxons, the midwinter festival lasted twelve\ndays, during which time light, fire, the sun, huge stones and other\nsimilar manifestations of the Deity were adored. Christian and pagan\nalike worshipped these objects. They called Christmas \"the birthday of\nthe god who is light.\" The Savior, or the New Sun, was the true light\nwhich lighteth every man who cometh into the world. According to\nthe testimony of various writers, the festival held by Christians on\nChristmas eve used to resemble the Feast of Lights, celebrated in Egypt\nin honor of Neith. The tokens distributed among friends were cakes made\nof paste in the form of babies. These cakes were called yuledows. Dow\nmeans to \"grow bigger,\" or, \"to increase.\"\n\nThe Kalends of January at Rome were sacred to Janus and Juno to whom\nsacrifices were offered. The Etruscans also worshipped Janus who was the\ngod (or goddess) of the year. Although this Deity does not appear\namong the twelve gods it is said to be the parent of them all. It was\nrepresented as having two faces. Upon one were the letters representing\n365, and upon the other were the keys of life and death. According to\nBryant this Deity was called Junonius, from the goddess Juno, whose name\nresolves itself into Juneh, a dove. In the Hebrew this name is identical\nwith Yoni or Yuni--the female principle. On the coins of this god (which\nwas subsequently regarded as male) is usually figured a boat, although a\ndove with an olive branch is sometimes observed.(133)\n\n\n 133) See Faber, Pagan Idolatry.\n\n\nJuno is thought to be the same as Jana, which came from Jah of the\nHebrews. Diana was Diva Jana or \"Dea Jana who is the same as Astarte or\nAshtaroth of the Sidonians.\"\n\nRegarding the transference of the mid-winter festival of the pagans to\nthe Christian calendar, Forlong says:\n\n\"The early Christians undoubtedly selected this Roman Saturnalia as an\nimportant period in the life of Christ, at first calling it the time of\nhis conception, and later of his birth, this last best suiting the views\nand feelings of their Solo-Christian flocks. The Jews called the day\nof the Winter Solstice The Fast of Tebet. The previous time was one of\ndarkness, and on the 28th began their Feast of Lights.\"(134)\n\n\n 134) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 430.\n\n\nIn France the ancient name for Christmas is Noel, a term which until\nrecently has baffled all antiquarian research. It is now thought that it\nis formed from Nuadh and Vile which together mean All Heal.\n\nAlthough every possible effort has been put forward to give to this date\n(the 25th of December) the appearance of authenticity as the birth of\nChrist, still, so far as I am able to find, no one accredited with\nany degree of trustworthiness has ever been rash enough to attempt its\nratification as a matter of history.\n\nTylor calls attention to the fact that in the religious symbolism of the\nmaterial and spiritual sun Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa discourse on\nthe \"growing light and dwindling darkness that follow the nativity,\"\nand cites the instance of Leo the Great who, in a sermon, rebukes the\n\"pestiferous persuasion, that this solemn day is to be honored not for\nthe birth of Christ, but for the rising of the New Sun.\"\n\nOn the authority of this same prelate it is found that in the fifth\ncentury, the faithful, before entering the Basilica of St. Peter, were\nwont to turn and salute the shining orb of day.\n\nThe Roman winter solstice which was connected with the worship of\nMithra, and which was named the \"Birthday of the Unconquered Om,\" was\nadopted by the western churches some time during the fourth century.\nFrom the west it passed to the eastern churches, where it finally became\n\"the solemn anniversary of the birth of Christ.\"\n\nIn Ireland the ceremonies attending the mid-winter festival were\nformerly regarded as exceedingly important. A short time before the\napproach of the winter solstice, voices were heard throughout the\nisland proclaiming: \"The New Year is at hand! Gather the Mistletoe!\"\nThe mistletoe wreaths which formed the principal decorations of Venus'\ntemple were at first proscribed by the Christian preachers, but, in\nprocess of time they not only found their way into the sanctuary, but\nwere given a place over the altars, their final signification being\n\"good will to men.\"(135)\n\n\n 135) Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 81.\n\n\nAlthough the tokens of friendship which were distributed by the pagans\nat the season of the mid-winter festival differed somewhat from those\nwhich at the present time are exchanged among Christians at the same\nseason of the year, still, there can be no doubt that the Christmas\ntree, loaded with gifts, is a remnant of that worship under which the\nsun was recognized as the source whence all blessings flow. Down to a\nlate date, fire was a conspicuous element at the festival of the winter\nsolstice. As the yule-log blazed upon the hearth, our ancestors set\nup huge stones and danced round them, thus worshipping the god of\nfertility.\n\nOn the 20th and 21st of March the sun illumines exactly half the earth.\nAt this time the Day has conquered the Night. Light has dethroned\nDarkness, a complete victory has been gained over Typhon and the new\ngod comes forth \"with healing in his wings.\" On Lady's day, the 25th of\nMarch, the Virgin conceives. In Phoenicia numerous fetes were instituted\nto rejoice with Astarte in her conception. During the months preceding\nthe birth of the young sun-god the Queen of Heaven receives marked\nhomage.\n\nIn a former portion of this work we have observed that the festival\nwhich celebrated the return of spring was instituted by the inventors\nof the Neros thousands of years prior to the beginning of the Christian\nera, to celebrate the vernal equinox and to commemorate a return of\nNature's bounties; but, after male reproductive power began to be\nregarded as the creator, when passion came to be considered as the\nmoving force in the universe, and when the operations of Nature began to\nbe typified by a dead man on a cross who was to rise again, Easter was\ncelebrated in commemoration of a risen savior or sun-god.\n\nThe following is an account given in Ramsay's Travels of Cyrus,\nconcerning the vernal equinox festivals in the East. When Cyrus entered\nthe temples he found the public clad in mourning. In a cavern lay\nthe image of a young man (the dying savior) on a bed of flowers\nand odoriferous herbs Nine days were spent in fasting, prayers, and\nlamentations, after which the public sorrow ceased and was changed into\ngladness. Songs of joy succeeded weeping (for Tamuz), the whole assembly\nsinging hymns: \"Adonis is returned to life, Urania weeps no more, he has\nascended to heaven, he will soon return to earth and banish hence all\ncrimes and miseries forever.\" This scene, it will be remembered, was\npresented 500 years prior to the birth of Christ. In Rome, throughout\nthe months preceding the winter solstice, Hilaria or Ceres, was\nespecially honored. Apollo and Diana rose on the 7th of the Julian April\nand on the 10th their religious festivals began.\n\nOn Easter morn, during the earlier ages of the church, the observances\nof Christians were exactly the same as were those of the so called\npagans, all together hurried out long before the break of day that they\nmight behold the sun ascend, or \"dance\" as they called it, for on this\nmorning he was to \"make the earth laugh and sing.\" Pagan and Christian\nalike greeted each other with the salutation \"The Lord is risen,\" and\nthe reply was \"The Lord is risen indeed.\" On Easter morning the peasants\nof Saxony and Brandenburg still climb to the hilltops \"to see the sun\ngive his three joyful leaps.\"\n\nIn Buckland's Land and Water it is stated that on the first of May all\nthe choristers of Magdalene College, Oxford, still meet on the summit\nof their tower, 150 feet high, and sing a Latin hymn as the sun rises,\nduring which time ten bells are rung \"to welcome the gracious Apollo.\"\nFormerly, high mass was celebrated here and early mass for Sol was\nheld in the College chapel, but, as at the time of the Reformation this\nservice was forbidden, \"it has since been performed on the top of the\ntower.\" After the hymn is sung \"boys blow loud blasts to Sol through\nbright new tin horns.\"\n\nPerhaps none of the ideas which enter into present religious rites and\nceremonies proclaims its eastern origin more forcibly than do those\nconnected with the veneration of fire. The testimony of all writers upon\nthis subject agrees that in Europe, down to a late date in the Christian\nera, fire was still adored, and in some mysterious manner was connected\nwith the Creator.\n\nUpon the subject of the continuation of sun and fire worship to modern\ntimes, it is stated that the ancient bonfires with which the North\nGerman hills used to be ablaze mile after mile are not altogether given\nup by local custom. In Ireland as late as the year 1829, the ancient\nCanaanitish and Jewish rite of passing children through fire as a\ncleansing or regenerating process was still in operation. It is related\nthat at stated seasons great fires were lighted in public places, on\nwhich occasions, fathers, taking their children in their arms, would\nleap and run through the flames. At the same time, two large fires were\nkindled a short distance from each other through which the cattle were\ndriven. It was believed that by means of this ceremony, fecundity is\nimparted both to man and beast. May, the month in which all Nature\nrevives, and in which life starts anew, is the time selected for the\nlighting of those sacred fires. May is the month of the fires of Baal.\nAccording to Maurice in his work on the Antiquities of India, the\nfestival and the May-pole of Great Britain are the remnants of a\nreligious ceremony once common in Egypt, India, and Phoenicia, which\nnations all worshipping the same Deity, celebrated the entrance of\nthe sun into the sign of Taurus at the vernal equinox, but which in\nconsequence of the precession of the equinoxes is removed far in the\nyear from its original situation. This festival is thought to be coeval\nwith a time when the equinox actually took place at that time. It was\nformerly in honor of the goddess Bhavania, who, under various names, was\nonce worshipped in every country of the globe. \"She is identical with\nthe Dea Syria of Chaldea, and the Venus Urania of Persia.\"\n\nAt the present time there is direct and indisputable evidence that\nsacred fires once flamed over the whole of Britain. A few days prior to\nBealtine season, every flame was ordered extinguished, to be relighted\non the first of May by holy fire drawn directly from the sun. Of\nfire-worship Toland observes:\n\n\"On May-day the Druids made prodigious fires on these cairns, which\nbeing every one in sight of some other could not but afford a glorious\nshow over a whole nation. These fires were in honor of Beal, or Bealan,\nLatinized by the Roman writers into Belanus, by which name the Gauls\nand their colonies understood the sun, and therefore, to this hour, the\nfirst of May is, by the aboriginal Irish, called la Bealtine, or the\nday of Belan's fires. May-day is likewise called la Bealtine by the\nHighlanders of Scotland, who are no contemptible part of the Celtic\noffspring. So it is with the Isle of Man: and in Armorica a priest is\ncalled Belee, or the servant of Bel, and the priesthood Belegieth.\"(136)\n\n\n 136) Quoted by Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids, ch. v., p. 181.\n\n\nDown to a comparatively recent time, in the British Isles, the youth of\nboth sexes used to arise long before daybreak on May-day, and in large\ncompanies set out for the woods, there to gather flowers, boughs, and\nbranches, which, on returning at night, were used to decorate their\nhomes. This festival is said to be the most ancient of any known, and\nduring the earlier and purer ages of human faith was celebrated in honor\nof returning spring. In later ages, however, after passion had become\nthe only recognized god, May-day was celebrated with \"all manner of\nobscenity and lewdness.\"\n\nAlthough the uneducated masses among the Gauls worshipped Apollo,\nMercury, and Mars without understanding their true significance, the\nDruids, who are thought to be Pythagorians, invoked one great power, the\nanimating force which pervades the universe, the essence of which they\nbelieved resides in fire.\n\nIt is related that although after the introduction of Romish\nChristianity, May fires still continued to be lighted on Bealtine day,\nthe more impressive ceremonies took place on the 23d of June, on the eve\nof the nativity of St. John. The early preachers, wishing to defer to\nthe prejudices and usages of the people, \"yet not so as to interfere\nwith the celebration of Easter at the vernal equinox, retained the\nBealtine ceremonial, only transferring it to the saint's day.\" Of these\nfire festivals and their adoption by the Christian church Tylor says:\n\n\"The solar Christmas festival has its pendant at mid-summer. The summer\nsolstice was the great season of fire festivals throughout Europe on\nthe heights, of dancing round and leaping through the fires, of sending\nblazing fire-wheels to roll down from the hills into the valleys,\nin sign of the sun's descending course. These ancient rites attached\nthemselves in Christendom to St. John's Eve.\n\n\"It seems as though the same train of symbolism which had adapted the\nmid-winter festival to the Nativity, may have suggested the dedication\nof the mid-summer festival to John the Baptist, in clear allusion to his\nwords 'He must increase but I must decrease.' \"(137)\n\n\n 137) Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 271.\n\n\nIn a description recently given of the \"moral, religious, and social\ndisease\" which broke out A.D. 1374, in the lower Rhine region, and which\nwas denominated as the \"greatest, perhaps, of all manifestations of\npossession,\" Andrew D. White says: \"The immediate origin of these\nmanifestations seems to have been the wild revels of St. John's\nDay.\"(138)\n\n\n 138) Pop. Science, vol. xxxv., p. 3.\n\n\nUpon this subject Toland observes that he has seen the people of Ireland\nrunning and leaping through the St. John's fire proud of passing through\nit unsinged. Although ignorant of the origin of this ceremony, they\nnevertheless regarded it as some kind of a lustration by means of which\nthey were to be specially blessed.\n\nTo every domestic hearth was carried the seed of Bealtine, or St. John's\nfire, which during the year was not permitted to go out.(139)\n\n\n 139) Although the preservation of holy fire upon every hearth was\nclearly a religious observance, still, as in those days there were\nno matches, the material benefit to be derived from this precaution\ndoubtless had a significance apart from that connected with worship.\n\n\nAccording to the testimony of Tylor, the festival of John the Baptist\nwas celebrated in Germany down to a late date. This writer quoting from\na low German book of the year 1859, refers to the \"nod fire\" which was\nsawed out of wood to light the St. John's bonfire \"through which the\npeople leapt and ran and drove their cattle.\"\n\nWith regard to the worship of Fire and Light it is related that in\nJerusalem, at the present time, the Easter service is performed by the\nbishop of the church emerging from a tomb with lighted tapers \"from\nwhich all crave lights.\"\n\nOn the authority of Peter Martyr, Bishop of Alexandria in the third\ncentury, we are informed that the place in Egypt where Christ was\nbanished, which is called Maturea, a lamp is kept constantly burning\nin remembrance of this event. Although the story of this banishment is\ndoubtless borrowed from the life of the Hindoo god Crishna, the fact is\nevident that those who appropriated it, and used it in furbishing the\nmythical history of Christ, had no scruples against fire worship--a\nreligion which we have been taught to regard as belonging exclusively to\nthe pagans.\n\nIn the ecclesiastical processions of the Church of Rome is frequently\nto be observed the figure of a dragon, in the mouth of which \"holy\nand everlasting fire\" is observed to be burning. A boy follows\nthe procession with a lighted taper, so that in case the fire is\nextinguished it may be relighted. In referring to this subject the Rev.\nJ. B. Deane says:\n\n\"The whole ceremony may be considered as a lively representation of\nan ophite procession as it advanced through the sinuous paralleiths\nof Karnak. So that no wonder the illiterate races were deceived into\nthinking that there was no harm in calling themselves Christians, for\nall their dear old faiths are here--fire, arks, poles, and fire in an\nark.\"\n\nAlmost innumerable instances are given by various writers upon this\nsubject, showing that the sun worship of the ancients has been continued\nto the present time by the so called followers of Christ, in the shrines\nof the East, with no change even of names to distinguish it from that of\nthe Christian faith. By those who have spent much time in investigating\nthe Holy Land, it is related that nearly all the spots in and about\nJerusalem, sacred to Greek and Romish Christians as connected with the\nlife and death of their risen Lord, are equally sacred to the pagans\nas commemorating the life and death of their Savior--the New Sun. Even\nGethsemane is marked by characteristics which prove that it is no\nless interesting to pagans, or, more properly speaking, to the pagan\nfollowers of Christ, than it is to those of the Greek and Romish\nchurches. Here is a holy tree, and not far distant is a cave of Mithras.\nThere is also to be seen a trinity of stones \"those of Janus (Chemosh),\nPetros and Ion, all solar terms and connected with the sitting or\nsinking down to rest of the Kuros.\"\n\nMessrs. Maundrell and Sandys, who in 1697 visited all the holy places\nin and around Jerusalem, state that the entire city, but especially\nthe sites of Moriah, Zion, and suburbs were hotbeds of fire and phallic\nworship as usually developed still in the East.\n\nThe topography of ancient Delphi, on the site of which was built the\nvillage of Kastri, and at which place excavations are now being made\nunder the direction of the American School of Archaeology, has ever been\na place of peculiar interest to the mystic. Here are to be found all the\nnatural features and objects which gladden the heart and stimulate the\nimagination of a solo-phallic worshipper. The holy Mt. Parnassus, the\nfountain of Kastali, the deep cave said to be Pythian, and the remnants\nof huge sepulchres hewn in the rocks all conspire to make of this spot\na perfect abode for the god, or goddess, of fertility. Here, too, is a\nbeautiful lake and near it a sacred fig-tree which has been struck by\nlightning, or, \"touched by holy fire.\" Of this sacred place Forlong\nwrites:\n\n\"Christianity has never neglected this so-called Pagan shrine, nor yet\nmisunderstood it, if we may judge by the saint she has located here, for\nMr. Hobhouse found in the rocky chasm dipped in the dews of Castaly, but\nsafe in a rocky niche, a Christian shrine; and close by a hut called the\nchurch of St. John; yea verily of Ione, she who had once reigned here\nsupreme; whilst on a green plot a few yards below the basin, in a little\ngrove of olive trees, stood the monastery of Panhagia or Holy Virgin, so\nthat here we still have and beside her sacred form in the cleft, men who\nhave consecrated their manhood to the old Mother and Queen of Heaven,\njust as if she of Syria had never been heard of.\n\n\"Doubtless they knew little of what civilized Europe calls Christianity,\nfor I have spent many days conversing with such men, and seen\nlittle difference between them and those similarly placed in the far\nEast--fervid Christians though Greeks and Syrians are.\"\n\nPerhaps nothing shows the extent to which the religion of the pagans has\nbeen retained by Christianity more than does the worship of the serpent.\nIt has been said that this reptile enters into every mythology extant.\nFerguson is authority for the statement that \"he is to be found in the\nwilderness of Sinai, the groves of Epidaurus, and in Samothracian huts.\"\nHe constitutes a prominent factor in the religious worship of India,\nAssyria, Palestine, and Egypt, and, notwithstanding the fact that he is\nnot a native of Ireland, in an earlier age representations of him appear\nin profusion among the symbols of that country. It has been said that\nthere is scarcely an Egyptian sculpture known in which this reptile does\nnot figure. The serpent whenever it appears as a religious emblem always\ntypifies desire--creative energy--which, proceeding from the sun, is\nmanifested in man and in animals. Whether it be a veritable snake in\na box, a serpent connected with the figure of a woman, or as a carved\nrepresentation on monuments or stones, or as chains or wreaths on\ncolumns, bas-reliefs or friezes, the signification is the same.\n\nThe sacred character of this reptile among the Gnostics is shown by the\naccounts given of their religious rites and ceremonies. By many of these\nsects this holy creature was kept in a box, ark, or chest, and when the\neucharistic service was to be performed, he was enticed forth from\nhis resting-place by a bit of bread. So soon as his holiness had wound\nhimself about the offering, the sacrifice was complete and the service\nwas concluded by \"singing a hymn to Almighty God, and praying for\nacceptance in and through the serpent.\"\n\nIn later ages when the attempt was made to abolish serpent worship from\nthe Christian church, it was declared by the leaders in the movement\nthat Ophiolatry had been imported from Persia--that it had been brought\nin by ignorant devotees who were too weak to renounce their former\nfaith.(140)\n\n\n 140) Forlong, Rivers of Life.\n\n\nThe extent to which the symbols representing Serpent, Sun, Tree, and\nPlant worship are still retained as part and parcel of the symbolism of\nChristianity is shown by the following report regarding the adoption of\na seal by the Presbyterian Church which appeared in the daily press only\na few years ago.\n\n\"After the assembly opened, the committee for the selection of a seal\nmade a report recommending: That the general assembly hereby adopts\nas its official seal the device of a serpent suspended upon a cross,\nuplifted within a wilderness, in form as represented upon the official\nseal of the trustees of the general assembly, and displayed upon a\ncircular field of the same proportions. In addition thereto the figure\nof a rising sun appearing above the margin of the wilderness, whose\nout-shooting beams shall occupy the centre of the field. Further, the\ndecoration of a demi-wreath of two palm branches (in the form of the\nwreath upon the seal of the Westminster assembly of divines), placed\naround the margin of the upper hemisphere of the field; and on the lower\nhemisphere of the field a demi-wreath composed of a branch of oak united\nwith an olive branch. Further, that the words of the motto, 'Christus\nExaltus Salvatar,' shall be displayed in a semi-circle upon the upper\npart of the field, on either side of the standard of the cross, and,\nencompassing the whole in a bordure, the following words, in full or in\nproper abbreviation thereof, 'The Seal of the General Assembly of the\nPresbyterian Church in the United States of America.'\"\n\nThe origin of the rite of Baptism as performed at the present time in\nChristian churches, may be traced directly to the worship of the sun,\nwithin which were supposed to reside the reproductive powers of Nature.\nAll nations have had ceremonies corresponding to our baptism and\nconfirmation rites, such baptism being either by fire or water. When we\nremember that for ages fertility, or the power to reproduce, constituted\nthe idea of the Deity, we are not surprised to find that the original\nsignification of the rite of baptism had, and still has, in some of the\noriental countries, special reference to the child's sexual obligations.\n\nIn India, the religious rites performed upon the individual occur at\nbirth or soon after; at betrothal, which takes place in childhood; at\npuberty; at marriage, and at death. The fact will be noticed that all\nsexual (spiritual) obligations and seasons fall within the domain of\npriestly supervision and surveillance. The child at baptism is dedicated\nto Vesta, or Hestia, the Queen of Hearths and Homes, a divinity who is\nsupposed to assist him in securing the special evidence of divine favor,\nnamely, fruitfulness of body.\n\nAmong Hindoos and Jews, excessive reproduction was the Lord's mark of\nfavor. In India there has been a special hell provided for childless\nwomen, and with Jewesses no curse was equal to barrenness.\n\nBaptism, or the ceremony connected with the naming of children in\nChristian countries, is seen to be identical with that performed in\nMexico among the Aztecs. After the lips and bosom of the infant had been\nsprinkled with water, the Lord was implored to \"permit the holy drops\nto wash away the sin that was given to it before the foundation of the\nworld, so that the child might be born anew.\"\n\nAmong the petitions which are offered to the Deity is the following:\n\"Impart to us, out of thy great mercy, thy gifts which we are not worthy\nto receive through our own merit.\" In their moral code appear these\nmaxims: \"Keep peace with all; bear injuries with humility; God who\nsees, will avenge you.\" \"He who looks too curiously on a woman, commits\nadultery with his eyes.\"(141)\n\n\n 141) Quoted by Prescott from Sahagun. Conquest of Mexico, book i., chap\n3.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV. CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM--(Continued).\n\nFrom the facts recorded in the foregoing pages, we have seen that true\nChristianity was but a continuation of that great movement which was\nbegun in Persia seven or eight centuries before, and whose gathering\nstrength had been emphasized by the humane doctrines set forth in the\nvarious schools of Greek philosophy.\n\nIn the first century of the Christian era may be observed among various\nsects, notably the Gnostics, a desire to popularize the teachings of an\nancient race, and to accentuate those principles which had been taught\nby Buddha, Pythagoras, the Stoic philosophers, the Roman jurisconsults\nand others. In other words the object of the new religion was to\nstimulate the altruistic characters which had been developed during\nthe evolutionary processes, and to strengthen and encourage the almost\nforgotten principles of justice and personal liberty upon which\nearly society was founded, but which through ages of sensuality and\nselfishness had been denied expression.\n\nWhen we remember the tenacity with which the human mind clings to\nestablished beliefs and forms, it is not perhaps singular that in a\ncomparatively short time these principles were lost sight of, and that\nthe entire system of corrupt paganism, with Christ as the New Solar\nDeity, was reinstated; neither is it remarkable, when we reflect upon\nthe length of time required to bring about any appreciable change in\nhuman thought and action, that the principles which this Great Teacher\nenunciated are at the present time only just beginning to be understood.\n\nTo one who carefully studies the history of Christianity by the light\nof recently developed truths, the fact will doubtless be discovered\nthat the fundamental difference existing between Catholic and Protestant\nsects is grounded in the old feud arising out of the relative importance\nof the sex-principles. From the days of Zoroaster to the final\nestablishment of Christianity by Paul, the tendency--although\nslight--had been toward the elevation of woman, and consequently\ntoward a greater acknowledgment of the female element in the god-idea.\nConsiderable impetus was given to the cause of woman's advancement\nthrough the doctrines of the various schools of philosophy in Greece,\nand subsequently by the efforts put forth by the Roman lawyers to\nestablish their equality with men before the law; hence, during the\nfirst hundred years of the Christian era the \"new religion\" seems to\nhave contained much of the spirit of the ancient philosophy.\n\nBy several of the early Christian sects, the second person in the\ntrinity was female, as was also the Holy Ghost.\n\nIn a \"fragment of a gospel preserved by St. Jerome, and believed to have\nbeen from the original Aramaean Gospel of St. Matthew, with additions,\nthe Holy Ghost (ruach), which in Hebrew is feminine, is called by the\ninfant Savior, 'My Mother, the Holy Ghost.' \"(142)\n\n\n 142) Barlow, Essays on Symbolism, p. 135.\n\n\nThe mission of Christ was that of a Regenerator of mankind, an office\nwhich had been symbolized by the powers of the sun. He was to restore\nthat which was lost. He attempted to teach to the masses of the people\nthe long neglected principles of purity and peace. He did not condemn\nwoman. He was baptized by John (Ion or Yon) in water, the original\nsymbol for the female element, and while in the water; the Holy Ghost\nin form of a dove (female) descended upon him. To those who have given\nattention to the symbolism of the pagan worship these facts are not\nwithout signification.\n\nBecause of the peculiar tendency of Christ's teachings women soon became\nactive factors in their promulgation. If there were no other evidence to\nshow that they publicly taught the new doctrines, the injunction of St.\nPaul, \"I suffer not a woman to teach,\" would seem to imply that they\nwere not silent.\n\nThe doctrines of the Gnostics were particularly favorable to women.\nMarcellina, who belonged to this order, was the founder of a sect called\nMarcelliens. Of her works Waite observes: \"It would scarcely be expected\nthat the heretical writings of a woman would be preserved amid such\nwholesale slaughter of the obnoxious works of the opposite sex. The\nwritings of Marcellina have perished.\"(143) Not only did women teach\npublicly, and write, but according to Bunsen they claimed the privilege\nof baptizing their own sex. The reason for this is evident. Before\nbaptism it was customary for the newly-made converts to strip and be\nanointed with oil. After the establishment of Paul's doctrines, however,\n\"the bishops and presbyters did not care to be relieved from the\npleasant duty of baptizing the female converts.\"(144)\n\n\n 143) History of the Christian Religion, p. 405.\n\n\n 144) Ibid., p. 23.\n\n\nAlthough the utmost care has been exercised to conceal the fact that\nwomen equally with men, performed the offices connected with the early\nchurch, yet by those who have paid attention to the true history of this\nmovement, there can be no doubt about the matter. Notwithstanding the\nearly tendencies of the \"new religion\" toward the recognition of women,\nand toward the restoration of the female principle in the Deity, the\npolicy to be pursued by the church was soon apparent, for Paul, the real\nfounder of the system calling itself Christian, and a man imbued with\nAsiatic prejudices concerning women, arrogantly declared that \"man\nis the head of woman as Christ is the head of the Church.\" Women were\ncommanded to be under obedience. Neither was the man created for the\nwoman, but the woman for the man; thus was re-established and emphasized\nthe absurd doctrine of the Lingaites, that the male is an independent\nentity, that he is spirit and superior to the female which is matter.\nAfter this indication of the policy to be pursued under the new regime,\nit would scarcely be expected that the efforts put forth by the various\nsects among the Gnostics to reinstate the female element either on the\nearth or in heaven would be successful, and as might be anticipated from\nthe facts already adduced, as early as the year 325, at the council of\nNice, a male trinity was formally established, and soon thereafter, the\nCollylidians, a sect which rigorously persisted in the adoration of the\nfemale principle, were condemned. At the council of Laodicea, A.D. 365,\nthe 11th canon forbade the ordination of women for the ministry and the\n44th canon prohibited them from entering the altar.\n\nThe devotees of female worship, although for a time silenced, were\nevidently not convinced, and to force their understanding into\nconformity with the newly established order, the Nestorians, in the year\n430 A. D., reopened the old dispute, and formally denied to Mary the\ntitle of Mother of God. Their efforts, however, were of little avail,\nfor in the year 451, at the council of Ephesus, the third general\ncouncil, the decision of the Nestorians was reversed and the Virgin\nMother reinstated. Upon this subject Barlow remarks: \"Well might those\nwho made this symbolical doctrine what it now is, at length desire to\ndo tardy justice to the female element, by promoting the mother to the\nplace once occupied by the Egyptian Neith, and crowning her Queen of\nHeaven.\"(145) The fact will doubtless be observed, however, that by the\nRomish Church the idea of the god-mother differs widely from the Queen\nof Heaven--the original God of the ancients. Mary the Mother of Jesus\nis not a Creator, but simply a mediator between her Son and His earthly\ndevotees--a doctrine only a trifle less masculine in texture than that\nof an Almighty Father and his victimized son. The worship of Mary was\nadopted by the so-called Christians in response to a craving in the\nhuman heart for a recognition of those characters developed in mankind\nwhich may be said to contain the germ of the divine. The masculine god\nof the Jews was feared not loved, and his son had already been invested\nwith his attributes. He was all powerful, hence a mediator, a mother,\nwas necessary to intercede in behalf of fallen man, and this, too,\nnotwithstanding the fact that woman had become the \"cause of evil in the\nworld.\"\n\n\n 145) Essays on Symbolism, p. 134.\n\n\nThe Great Goddess of the ancients, Perceptive Wisdom, the Deity of\ngiving, she who represented the purely altruistic characters developed\nin mankind, and whose worship involved a scientific knowledge of the\nprocesses of Nature, when engrafted upon the so-called Christian system,\nalthough indicating an important step toward the recognition of the\ngenuine creative principles, was not understood. Although her effigies\nwere brought from the East and made to do duty as representations of\nMary, the Mother of Christ, a knowledge of her true significance lay\nhurled beneath ages of sensuality and selfishness.\n\nBy those who have made it their business to investigate this subject, it\nis observed that there is scarcely an old church in Italy in which there\nis not to be found a remnant of a black virgin and child. In very many\ninstances these black virgins have been replaced by white ones, the\nolder figures having been retired to some secluded niche in the church\nwhere they are held especially sacred by the ignorant devotees who know\nabsolutely nothing of their original significance. We are assured that\nmany of these images have been painted over, ostensibly in imitation of\nbronze, but the whites of the eyes, the teeth, and colored lips reveal\nthe fact that they are really not intended to represent bronze, but\nfigures of a black virgin goddess and child whose worship has been\nimported into Europe from the East. I had been told that one of the\noldest of these images extant was to be found in Augsburg; a thorough\nsearch, however, in all the churches and cathedrals of that city failed\nto reveal it, but in the museum at Munich such a figure is to be seen.\nIt is in a state of decay, one arm of the mother and a portion of\nthe child's figure being worn away. Upon this subject Godfrey Higgins\nremarks:\n\n\"If the author had wished to invent a circumstance to corroborate the\nassertion that the Romish Christ of Europe is the Crishna of India, how\ncould he have desired anything more striking than the fact of the black\nvirgin and child being so common in the Romish countries of Europe?\nA black virgin and child among the white Germans, Swiss, French, and\nItalians!!!\"(146)\n\n\n 146) Anacalypsis, book iv., ch. i., p. 175.\n\n\nWe have observed that during an earlier age in the history of religious\nworship, as the female was supposed to comprehend both the female and\nmale elements in creation, a belief in the possible creative power of\nthe female independently of the male was everywhere entertained, and\nthat after the schismatic faction arose which endeavored to exalt the\nmale, the production of a son by a woman unaided by man, was among the\nYonigas to be the sign which would forever settle the question of\nthe superior importance of the female functions in the processes\nof reproduction, and consequently, also, her claim to the greater\nimportance in the deity.\n\nThe sacred books of India show that from a former belief in one or\nthe other of the two creative principles throughout Nature as God, the\npeople had come to accept both female and male as necessary elements\nin reproduction, the latter being the more important. In course of time\nthis change seems to have been universal and to have extended to all the\ncountries of the globe.\n\nAs the male could not create independently of the female, or, as spirit\nwas dependent on matter for its manifestations, there arose a necessity\nfor a Savior to redeem man from the evil effects arising from his\nrelations with woman who was regarded as matter, and who in course of\ntime became the cause of evil.\n\nConcerning the doctrines which prevailed in the earlier ages of\nChristianity relative to the ancient dual principle in creation, and\nregarding the offices which were performed by the two elements, male and\nfemale, in the deity, we have the following from Justinus, who is said\nto have been contemporary with Peter and Paul:\n\n\"When Elohim had prepared and created the world as a result from joint\npleasure, He wished to ascend up to the elevated parts of heaven, and to\nsee that not anything of what pertained to the creation laboured under\ndeficiency. And He took His Own angels with Him, for His nature was to\nmount aloft, leaving Edem below; for inasmuch as she was earth, she was\nnot disposed to follow upward her spouse. Elohim, then, coming to the\nhighest part of heaven above and beholding a light superior to that\nwhich He himself had created, exclaimed: 'Open me the gates, that\nentering in I may acknowledge the Lord.'\"\n\nAs he enters the Good One addresses him in the following manner: \"Sit\nthou on my right hand.\" Then the soaring male principle says to the\nGood One \"permit me Lord to overturn the world which I have made, for my\nspirit is bound to men.\" To which the Good One replies: \"No evil canst\nthou do while thou art with me, for both thou and Edem made the world\nas a result of conjugal joy. Permit Edem then, to hold possession of the\nworld as long as she wishes; but you remain with me.\" While the father\nis drawn away from earth to Heaven, Edem, in the meantime is bringing\nwoes innumerable upon man. Naas, who has received his evil nature from\nher, and who is a child of the Devil, has debauched Eve, \"Henceforward\nvice and virtue are prevalent among men.\" The Father seeing these things\ndispatches Baruch his third angel to Moses, and through him spake to the\nchildren of Israel, that they might be converted unto the Good One. But\nthe third angel, Naas, by the soul of which came from Edem upon Moses,\nas also upon all men, observed the precepts of Baruch, and caused his\nown peculiar injunctions to be hearkened unto.\n\nAgain, after these occurrences Baruch, the angel of the Good One, was\nsent to the prophets to warn them against the wiles of Edem, but in the\nsame manner Nass, the Devil, enticed them away, they being allured\nby him to their own destruction. Again Elohim selected Hercules, an\nuncircumcised prophet, and sent him to quell the disturbance caused by\nNaas or Edem and to release the Father from their power.\n\n\"These are the twelve conflicts of Hercules which He underwent, in\norder, from first to last, viz.: Lion, and Hydra, and Boar, and the\nothers successively. For they say that these are the names of them among\nthe Gentiles, and they have been derived, with altered denomination,\nfrom the energy of the maternal angels. When he seemed to have\nvanquished his antagonists, Omphale (now she is Venus) clings to him and\nentices away Hercules, and divests him of his power, viz.: the commands\nof Baruch which Elohim issued. And in place of this power Babel, or\nVenus, envelops him in her own peculiar robe, that is, in the power of\nEdem, who is the power below; and in this way the prophecy of Hercules\nremained unfulfilled and his work.\"\n\nAs men were still bound by the power of Edem, or the Devil, in the days\nof Herod the king, Baruch was again dispatched by Elohim, and coming to\nNazareth delivered his message to Jesus, son of Joseph and Mary. Nass,\nwho, as we have seen, was the evil spirit in Edem, wished to entice\naway Jesus also. He was not, however, disposed to listen but remained\nfaithful to Baruch. Naas, overcome by anger at not being able to seduce\nhim, caused him to be crucified.\n\n\"He, leaving the body of Edem on the accursed tree, ascended to the\nGood One; saying to Edem, 'Woman, thou retainest thy Son,' that is, the\nnatural and the earthly man. But Jesus himself commending his spirit\ninto the hands of the Father, ascended to the Good One. Now the Good\nOne is Priapus, and he it is who antecedently caused the production of\neverything that exists. On this account he is styled Priapus, because\nhe previously fashioned all things according to his design. For this\nreason, he says, in every temple is preserved his statue, which is\nrevered by every creature; and there are images of him in the highways\ncarrying over his head ripened fruits, that is, the produce of the\ncreation, of which he is the cause, having in the first instance\nformed, according to his design, the creation, when as yet it had no\nexistence.\"(147)\n\n\n 147) Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, book v., p. 188.\n\n\nThus the fact is observed not only that in the time of Paul, phallic\nworship still existed, but by the writings of Justinus and others is\nshown the manner in which the doctrine that woman is the cause of evil\nin the world became formulated and adopted as part and parcel of the\nChristian belief.\n\nStaniland Wake, director of the anthropological society of London, when\ncommenting on the obscene myths upon which the Christian religion rests,\nremarks:\n\n\"The fundamental basis of Christianity is more purely phallic than that\nof any other religion now existing, and its emotional nature... shows\nhow intimately it was related to the older faiths which had a phallic\nbasis.\"\n\nAfter stating that the myth of creation and that of the flood have their\nexact counterpart in India, the Rev. Mr. Faber remarks that \"there is\nno rite or ceremony directed in the Pentateuch of which there is not an\nexact copy in the rites of the pagans.\"\n\nThe Christian doctrines as established by Paul, and afterwards\nformulated into a system by the Romish Church, were adopted by the\nignorant multitude who, being incapable of understanding the higher\nprinciples involved, accepted the allegories beneath which were veiled\nthe ancient mysteries literally, and as the highest expression of\ndivine wisdom. Hence the comparatively recent observation that the \"new\nreligion was eventually but the gathering in of the superstitions of\npaganism\" is a matter of little surprise to those who have carefully\nexamined the facts connected with the growth of religious faith.\n\nUnder the new regime Christ became the New Solar Deity and round him\nwere finally ranged all the myths of Solo-phallic worship which had\nprevailed under the adoration of Crishna at a time when the higher\ntruths underlying pure Nature-worship had been forgotten.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV. CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND.\n\nAccording to the accounts in the New Testament, the wise men of the\nEast, meaning Persia, had foretold the coming of Christ. The fulfilment\nof the ancient Persian prophecy as applied to Jesus, together with the\nreference to the \"star\" which the Maji saw, and which went before them\ntill it came and stood over where the young child lay, furnishes a\nstriking illustration of the manner in which Eastern legends and\nancient sacred writings are interwoven with the doctrines relating to\nChristianity.\n\nIn the sacred books of the East it is prophesied that \"after three\nthousand and one hundred years of the Caligula are elapsed, will appear\nKing Saca to remove wretchedness from the world.\" We have seen that at\nthe birth of Christ the time had arrived for a new solar incarnation.\n\nRegarding the introduction of Christianity into Ireland it is claimed by\ncertain writers that the Irish did not receive the \"new religion\" from\nGreek missionaries; but when at the close of the cycle, a new\nsolar deity, an avatar of Vishnu or Crishna was announced, and when\nmissionaries from the East proclaimed the glad tidings of a risen\nSavior, the Irish people gladly accepted their teachings, not, however,\nas a new system, but as the fulfilment to them of the prophecy of the\nmost ancient seers of the East, and as part and parcel of the religion\nof their forefathers. Therefore when the devotees of the Romish faith,\nprobably about the close of the fifth century of the Christian era,\nattempted to \"convert\" Ireland, they found a religion differing from\ntheir own only in the fact that it was not subject to Rome, and was free\nfrom the many corruptions and superstitions which through the extreme\nignorance and misapprehension of its Western adherents had been\nengrafted upon it.\n\nConcerning the form of religious worship in Great Britain, and the fact\nthat phallic worship prevailed there, Forlong writes: \"The generality of\nour countrymen have no conception of the overruling prevalence of this\nfaith, and the number of its lingham gods throughout our Islands.\"\nThese symbols were always in the form of an obelisk or tower, thereby\nindicating the worship of the male energy. Although emblems of the\nfemale element in the deity were present, they were less pronounced and\nof far less importance than those of the male.\n\nThese monuments were erected on knolls, at crossroads and centers of\nmarts or villages, and were placed on platforms which were usually\nraised from five to seven steps. A few years ago the shires of\nGloucester, Wilts, and Somerset still claimed over two hundred of these\ncrosses, though all of them were not at that time in a perfect state of\npreservation.\n\nIt would seem that in Britain and Ireland the seed of the \"new\"\ndoctrine, that which involved a recognition of the mother element in the\ngod-idea, had fallen on more congenial soil, for within three centuries\nafter the birth of Christ, the various original monuments typifying the\nmale principle had all been ornamented with the symbols representing the\nfemale in the deity. The ancient religious structures of the Lingaites\nstill continued as recognized faith shrines, changed only by the emblems\nof the new religion which had been engrafted upon them.\n\nThe earliest Greek and Roman missionaries knew full well the\nsignificance of these symbols, and we are given to understand that \"a\nfew of the more spiritual of the Christian sects made war upon them\nand all their ephemeral substitutes, such as Maypoles, holy-trees, real\ncrosses, etc.\" It is declared also that, as \"later\" Christians were\nunacquainted with the significance of these emblems, \"they adopted them\nas their own, employing them as the mystic signs of their own faith.\"\n\nAlthough the earliest Greek and Roman missionaries understood the\nsignification of these faith shrines, the complaints against them seem\nsoon to have ceased, and the \"fierce wars\" waged over them appear to\nhave left little trace of their ravages, except that the female emblems\nwith which these monuments had been supplied by those who had received\nthe new faith direct from the East, were all removed. As the male\nmonuments and symbols were all permitted to remain undisturbed, this\nfact of itself would seem to indicate that the \"pagan abominations\"\nagainst which these pious devotees of a \"spiritual religion\" thundered\ntheir denunciations, included only the female emblems.\n\nThe fact must be borne in mind that the Western Church, which was\nrapidly usurping the ecclesiastical authority of Britain and Ireland,\nhad not itself at this time adopted the worship of the Virgin Mary.\n\nA set of iconoclastic monks whom the Christian world is pleased to\ndesignate as St. Patrick, and who probably early in the fifth century of\nour era amused themselves by chiseling from the Irish monuments many of\nthe symbols of the female power, removed also the figures of serpents\nwhich had for ages appeared in connection with the emblems of woman, and\nby this act won the plaudits of an admiring Christian world; chiefly,\nhowever, for the skill manifested in \"banishing snakes from Ireland.\"\nIn addition to this dignified amusement, we find that the same person or\nset of persons ordered to be burned hundreds of volumes of the choicest\nIrish literature, volumes which contained the annals of the ancient\nIrish nation, and in which, it is believed, was stored much actual\ninformation concerning the remote antiquity of the human race.\n\nThe extent to which the worship of the male emblems of generation\nprevailed in the Christian Church even as late as the 16th century,\nproves that it was not the particular symbols connected with the worship\nof fertility upon which the Western Christian missionaries made war,\nbut, on the contrary, that it was the recognition by them of that\ndetested female element against which, even before the erection of the\nTower of Babel, there had been almost a constant warfare. The rites\nof Potin, or Photin, Bishop of Lyons, who was honored in Provence,\nLanguedoc and the Lyonais as St. Fontin, also the rites performed in\nmany of the Christian Churches as late as the 16th century, prove that\nthe devotees of the Christian system were not at this time a whit behind\ntheir Pagan predecessors in their zeal for \"heathen abominations.\" The\nonly difference being that the Druids, a people who still retained a\nfaint conception of ancient Nature worship, had not become entirely\ndivested of the purer ideas which in an earlier age of the race had\nconstituted a creative force.\n\nThat the war of the sexes was revived, and that for many centuries much\nstrife was engendered over the exact importance which should be ascribed\nto the female element in the Deity may not be doubted.\n\nAn ancient homily on Trinity Sunday has the following: \"At the deth of\na manne, three bells should be ronge as his kuyl in worship of the\nTrinitie, and for a woman, who was the Second Person of the Trinitie\ntwo bells should be ronge.\" Upon this subject Hargrave Jennings remarks:\n\"Here we have the source of the emblematic difficulty among the master\nmasons who constructed the earlier cathedrals, as to the addition, and\nas to the precise value of the second (or feminine) tower of the Western\nend or Galilee of the Church.\"(148)\n\n\n 148) Rosicrucians, vol. i., p. 206.\n\n\nThe fact that the religion of the ancient Irish, who, were phallic\nworshippers, was modified but not radically changed by the introduction\nof Christianity, is believed by at least one of the Irish historians of\nthat country. He says:\n\n\"The church festivals themselves, in our Christian calendar, are but the\ndirect transfers from the Tuath-de-danaans' ritual. Their very names in\nIrish are identically the same as those by which they were distinguished\nby that early race. If, therefore, surprise has heretofore been excited\nat the conformity observable between our church institutions and those\nof the East, let it in future subside at the explicit announcement that\nChristianity, with us, was the revival of a religion imported amongst us\nmany ages before by the Tuath-de-danaans from the East, and not from any\nchimerical inundation of Greek missionaries--a revival upon which their\nhearts were lovingly riveted, and which Fiech, the Bishop of Sletty,\nunconsciously registers in the following couplet, viz.:\n\n \"The Buddhists of Irin prophesied\n That new times of peace would come.\"(149)\n\n\n 149) The Round Towers of Ireland, p. 493.\n\n\nThe conditions surrounding the ancient inhabitants of the \"White\nIsland,\" or Ireland, a remnant of which people may be observed in the\nHighlanders of Scotland, furnish an example of the fact that a much\nhigher standard of life had been preserved among them than is known to\nhave prevailed either among the Jews or the Greeks. The comparatively\nadvanced stage of progress which is now known to have existed in\nIreland at the beginning of the present era, which even the bigotry and\nfalsehood of Roman priestcraft have not been able wholly to conceal, is\nseen to have been a somewhat corrupted remnant of a civilization which\nfollowed closely on ancient Nature worship.(150)\n\n\n 150) It is thought by certain writers that when the Tuath-de-danaans\nemigrated from Persia to the \"White Island\" they found it inhabited\nby the Fir-Bolgs, a colony of Celts. After conquering the island they\nengrafted upon it the religion, laws, learning and culture of the mother\ncountry. In a later age the Scythians, whose religion was similar\nto that of the Fir-Bolgs, united with them and succeeded in making\nthemselves masters of the situation.\n\nHence the intermingling of races and tongues among the ancient Irish.\nThe Druids adopted, or appropriated, the religion and culture of the\nTuath-de-danaans, who, it is claimed, were the real Hibernians. The\nScythians changed the name of Irin to Scotia--the latter being retained\nuntil the 11th century. According to the annals of the ancient Irish,\nScotland was formerly called Scotia Minor to distinguish it from Scotia\nMajor, or Ireland.\n\n\nBecause of their isolated position, or for some cause at present\nunknown, these people do not seem to have degenerated into a nation of\nsensualists. It is true they had departed a long distance from the early\nconditions of mankind under which altruism and the abstract principle\nof Light or Wisdom were worshipped under the form of a Virgin Mother and\nher child, but they never wholly rejected the female element in their\ngod-idea, nor never, so far as known, attempted to degrade womanhood.\nWomen were numbered among their legislators, at the same time that they\nofficiated as educators and priestesses. In fact wherever the Druidical\norder prevailed women exerted a powerful influence in all departments\nof human activity. Among the Germans, Valleda, a Druidess, was for ages\nworshipped as a deity.\n\nIt is recorded that St. Bridget planted a monastery for women at Kildare\nand entrusted to its inmates the keeping of the sacred fire, and that\nin later times the Asiatic missionaries founded there a female monkish\norder. After the establishment of Western Christianity, however, no\nwoman was permitted to enter into the monasteries, and we are assured\nthat this ridiculous affectation of purity was extended even to the\ngrave. During the earlier ages of Christianity, in many portions of\nIreland there were cemeteries for men and women distinct from each\nother. \"It had been a breach of chastity for monks and nuns to be\ninterred within the same enclosure. They should fly from temptations\nwhich they could not resist.\"\n\nAlthough volumes have been written to prove that Christianity was\ncarried to Britain by Paul, and although the energies of scores of\nRomish writers have been employed in attempting to prove that Ireland\nwas in heathen darkness prior to its conversion by the priests of the\nRomish Church, yet these efforts so vigorously put forward seem only\nto strengthen the evidence going to show that the Christianity of the\nBritish Isles antedates that of either Paul or Rome.\n\nAccording to Scripture, Claudia, the wife of the Senator Pudens of\nBritain, was a Christian,(151) as was also Graecina, the wife of\nPlautus, who was governor of Britain in the first century. The latter,\nit is related, was accused before the Roman senate of \"practicing some\nforeign superstition.\" Although Lingard, in his History and Antiquities\nof the Anglo-Saxon Church, has endeavored to annul the force of the\nevidence which places two Christian women from Britain in Rome during\nthe first century of our era, he is nevertheless constrained to use the\nfollowing language: \"We are, indeed, told that history has preserved\nthe names of two British females, Claudia and Pomponia Graecina, both of\nthem Christians, and both living in the first century of our era.\"(152)\n\n\n 151) 2 Timothy, iv., 21.\n\n\n 152) Vol. i., p. 1.\n\n\n\nAccording to the Romanists, between the years 177-181 of the Christian\nera, a British king named Lucius sent a messenger to the authorities at\nRome, with a request that he with his people be admitted into the bosom\nof the \"Holy Catholic Church.\" By those not prejudiced in favor of\nthe Romish hierarchy, this bit of amusing \"evidence\" shows the anxiety\nmanifested lest the facts concerning the religious history of the\nBritish Isles become known. Regarding this embassy of King Lucius there\nis an extant version which is far more in accordance with reason and\nwith the known facts concerning this people.\n\nWhen we remember the advanced stage of civilization which existed in\nIreland prior to the Christian era, and when we bear in mind the fact\nthat, as in the case of Abarras mentioned by various Greek writers, the\npeople of the British Isles were wont to send emissaries abroad for the\nsole purpose of gathering information relative to foreign laws, customs,\nusages, manners, and modes of instruction, we are not surprised to learn\nthat the message to Rome sent by Lucius, instead of containing a\nrequest for admission to a foreign church, embodied an enquiry into the\nfundamental principles underlying Roman jurisprudence; and especially\ndoes this appear reasonable when we remember that the remodeling of the\nRoman code on principles of equity and justice had for several centuries\nemployed the energies of the best minds in Rome.\n\nConcerning the planting of Christianity in Ireland, we have the\nfollowing from Ledwich:\n\n\"Thus Bishop Lawrence in Bede tells us Pope Gregory sent him and Austin\nto preach the Gospel in Britain, as if it never before had been heard,\nwhereas the latter met seven British Bishops who nobly opposed him. In\nlike manner Pope Adrian commissioned Henry II. to enlarge the bounds\nof the church, and plant the faith in Ireland, when it had already been\nevangelized for eight hundred years. The faith to be planted was blind\nsubmission to Rome and the annual payment of Peter's pence.\"(153)\n\n\n 153) Antiquities of Ireland, p. 78.\n\n\nOf the exact time at which Romish and Greek missionaries first went to\nIreland we are not informed, but there is ample evidence going to prove\nthat a regular hierarchy had been established in that island before the\nbeginning of the fifth century, and that this religion which had been\nbrought in through the efforts of missionaries from the East was, by\nthe legendary writers of the later Christian Church, ascribed to Romish\nmonks.\n\nThe Jealousy of the Romish priests, and the means employed by them to\nusurp the ecclesiastical authority of the Irish people, is shown in the\nhistory of their councils. The 5th canon of the Council of Ceale-hythe\nrequires\n\n\"that none of Irish extraction be permitted to usurp to himself the\nsacred ministry in any one's diocese, nor let it be allowed such an one\nto touch anything which belongs to those of the holy order....; neither\nmust he administer the eucharist to the people because we are not\ncertain how or by whom he was ordained.\"\n\nAfter quoting the above Ledwich queries thus: If St. Patrick had been\na missionary of the Romish Church, would the Anglo-Saxon clergy have\nabjured the spiritual children of that see? In the year 670 Theodoret,\nArchbishop of Canterbury, decreed that they who were consecrated by\nIrish or British Bishops should be confirmed anew by Catholic ones.(154)\n\n\n 154) Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland, p. 81.\n\n\nIt is observed that as early as the fourth century A.D. there were three\nhundred bishops in Ireland, and to account for so large a number, it is\ndeclared that ignorant legendary writers had recourse to the fable of\nSt. Patrick.\n\nThe remarkable \"conversion\" of the Irish to Romish Christianity, which\nit is said took place in the latter part of the fourth century or the\nbeginning of the fifth, is to be explained by the fact that a number of\nRomish priests or monks which in later ages came to be designated as St.\nPatrick, claimed all the monasteries, bishops, and priests already\nthere as a result of the remarkable power and pious zeal of this\nmiracle-working saint. It is claimed that St. Patrick founded over three\nthousand monasteries, consecrated three hundred bishops, and ordained\nthree thousand priests.\n\nAccording to Ledwich and other writers, this St. Patrick was not heard\nof earlier than the ninth century A.D., and the legend concerning him\n\"was not accepted until the twelfth century, at which time his miracles\nare set forth with great gusto.\"\n\nNothing, perhaps, which is recorded of this monk will go farther toward\nproving him a myth than the miracles ascribed to his saintship.\n\nWhile yet an infant he raised the dead, brought forth fire from ice,\nexpelled a devil from a heifer, caused a new river to appear from the\nearth, and changed water into honey.\n\n\"These were but the infant sports of this wonder-working saint. The\nmiracles recorded in holy writ, even that of creation itself, are\nparalleled, and, if possible, surpassed by those of our spiritual\nhero.\"(155)\n\n\n 155) Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland.\n\n\nConcerning St. Patrick, Forlong writes:\n\n\"Various Patricks followed from Britain and Armorika, but even the\nCatholic priest, J. F. Shearman, writes that he is forced to give up\nthe idea that there ever was a real St. Patrick. Thus the name must\nbe accepted only in its Fatherly sense, and with the fall of the man\nPatrick all the miraculous and sudden conversions of the kings, lords,\nand commons of Ireland must vanish.\"(156)\n\n\n 156) Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 417.\n\n\nThe Irish Church bishoprics differed from the Romish in that they were\nheld by hereditary succession, after the custom of ancient nations. All\nbishops were married.\n\nPrior to the introduction of the Christian system in Ireland the Sabian\nceremonial had been succeeded by the Druidical, upon which had been\nengrafted that of the Culdees, and notwithstanding the fact that the\nRomish Church gradually usurped the ecclesiastical functions in Ireland,\nthe last named people who for ages had been regarded as the depositaries\nof the ancient faith and the ancient system of laws, were highly\nrespected by the people for their sanctity and learning. Many of the\nGreek and Roman writers who have dealt with this subject agree in\nascribing to the Druids a high degree of scientific knowledge and\nmechanical skill. The principles of justice set forth in their judicial\nsystem, their love of learning, and the standard attained in the\nsciences and arts, prove the early people of Ireland to have been equal\nif not superior to any of the early historic nations.\n\nIn referring to the number and magnitude of the monumental remains in\nIreland, and while commenting on the mechanical skill of the Druids, the\nRev. Smedley says:\n\n\"I was present at the erection of the Luxor Obelisk in Paris, and yet\nI think that I would have felt greater emotion if I had witnessed the\nsuccessful performance of the old Celtic engineer who placed on its\nthree pedestals of stone the enormous rock which constitutes the\nDruidical altar here at Castle May.\"\n\nIt is believed that this people understood the art of mining and that\nthey were acquainted with the use of iron. The following is an extract\nfrom one of Hamilton's letters on the Antrim coast:\n\n\"About the year 1770 the miners, in pushing forward an adit toward\nthe bed of coal, at an unexplored part of the Ballycastle cliff,\nunexpectedly broke through the rock into a narrow passage, so much\ncontracted and choked up with various drippings and deposits on its\nsides and bottom, as rendered it impossible for any of the workmen\nto force through, that they might examine it farther. Two lads were,\ntherefore, made to creep in with candles, for the purpose of exploring\nthis subterranean avenue. They accordingly pressed forward for a\nconsiderable time, with much labor and difficulty, and at length entered\ninto an extensive labyrinth branching off into numerous apartments,\nin the mazes and windings of which they were completely bewildered\nand lost. After various vain attempts to return, their lights were\nextinguished, their voices became hoarse, and, becoming wearied and\nspiritless, they sat down together, in utter despair of an escape from\nthis miserable dungeon. In the meanwhile, the workmen in the adit became\nalarmed for their safety, fresh hands were incessantly employed, and, in\nthe course of twenty-four hours, the passage was so open as to admit the\nmost active among the miners... On examining this subterranean wonder,\nit was found to be a complete gallery, which had been driven forward\nmany hundred yards to the bed of coal: that it branched off into\nnumerous chambers, where miners had carried on their different works:\nthat these chambers were dressed in a workmanlike manner: that pillars\nwere left at proper intervals to support the roof. In short it was found\nto be an extensive mine, wrought by people at least as expert in the\nbusiness as the present generation. Some remains of the tools, and even\nof the baskets used in the works, were discovered, but in such a decayed\nstate that, on being touched, they immediately crumbled to pieces. From\nthe remains which were found, there is reason to believe that the people\nwho wrought these collieries anciently, were acquainted with the use of\niron, some small pieces of which were found; it appeared as if some of\ntheir instruments had been thinly shod with that metal.\"\n\nThrough various means the fact has been ascertained that although in\nthe sixth century the buildings in Ireland were mean and wholly\nwithout artistic merit or skilful design, in an earlier age they were\nmagnificent. Of the causes which produced the decay of architecture, the\nextinction of the arts and sciences, and the general degradation of the\npeople of this island the devotees of St. Paul and of the Romish Church\nare alike silent.\n\nFor ages after the subjection of Ireland, in open defiance of the\nEnglish, the people continued to dispense justice, and to enforce the\nold Brehon laws of the country.\n\nThe lack of regard shown for English law in Ireland, even as late as the\nsixteenth century, is set forth by Baron Fingles, who wrote in the time\nof Henry VIII. He says:\n\n\"It is a great abuse and reproach that the laws and statutes made in\nthis land are not observed nor kept after the making of them eight days,\nwhile diverse Irishmen cloth abuse and keep such laws and statutes which\nthey make upon hills in this country, firm and stable, without breaking\nthem for any favor or reward.\"\n\nBy a statute of Parliament enacted at Kilkenny, it was made high treason\nto administer or observe these old Brehon laws. The two enactments\nespecially obnoxious to the English were Gahail Cinne, and Eiric. The\nformer of these enactments was that which in opposition to the English\nlaw of primogeniture declared that the estate of a parent should descend\nin equal proportion to all members of the family. There was another law,\nor custom, among this people, which provided that the chief of the tribe\nor people should be elected by general suffrage.\n\nWe have something more than a hint of the condition of ancient Ireland\nand its people in a description given by the Greeks of one of its\ninhabitants. Abarras, who visited Greece about six hundred years before\nChrist, and who was called by the Greeks a Hyperborean, was a priest of\nthe Sun, who went abroad for the purpose of study and observation, and\nto renew by his presence and his gifts the old friendship which had\nlong existed between the Celts and the Greeks. Strabo remarks concerning\nAbarras that he was much admired by the learned men of Greece. Himerius\nsays of him that he came\n\n\"not clad in skins like a Scythian, but with a bow in his hand, and a\nquiver on his shoulders and a plaid wrapped about his body, a gilded\nbelt encircled his loins, and trousers reaching from his waist downward\nto the soles of his feet. He was easy in his address, agreeable in\nconversation, active in dispatch and secret in the management of great\naffairs; quick in judging of present occurrences, and ready to take his\npart in any sudden emergency; provident, withal, in guarding against\nfuturity; diligent in quest of wisdom, fond of friendship; trusting\nvery little to fortune; yet having the entire confidence of others, and\ntrusted with everything for his prudence. He spoke Greek with so much\nfluency that you would have thought that he had been bred or brought up\nin the Lyceum and had conversed all his life with the Academy of Athens.\nHe had frequent intercourse with Pythagoras whom he astonished by the\nvariety and extent of his knowledge.\"\n\nFrom the descriptions given of the native country of Abarras by the\nGreeks, it is evident that it could have been none other than Ireland.\n\nAlthough at this time in their history, Apollo the sun-god was the Deity\nworshipped in Greece and in Ireland, still both nations honored Latona\nhis mother. The same as in the mother country (Persia, or Phoenicia),\nthe oracles, or sybils of Ireland, had prophesied a \"Savior,\" and three\nhundred years before Greek emissaries visited that country, its people,\nthrough the preaching of Eastern missionaries, had substituted for the\nworship of Latona and Apollo that of the new solar incarnation--the\nthird son of Zarathustra, whose appearance had been heralded by a star.\n\nThe identity of the symbols used by the early people of Ireland who were\nsun worshippers, and those employed in that country for ages after\nthe Romish Church had usurped the ecclesiastical authority, has been\na subject for much comment. After describing the peculiar form of the\nearly Christian Churches and the attention paid to the placing of\nthe windows which were to admit the sun's rays, Smedley says: \"It\nis possible, in an age of allegory and figures, this combination and\nvariety expressed some sacred meaning with which we are unacquainted at\npresent.\"\n\nThe similarity observed in the sacred festivals and religious seasons\nof the ancient inhabitants of Ireland and those of the early Christians,\nthe extent to which large stone crosses, lighted candles, the yule log\nand the various other symbols belonging to fertility, or sun worship,\nwere retained by Christianity, furnish strong evidence of the fact that\nthe latter system is but part and parcel of the former.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI. STONES OR COLUMNS AS THE DEITY.\n\n\"Throughout all the world, the first object of idolatry seems to have\nbeen a plain unwrought stone, placed in the ground as an emblem of the\ngenerative or procreative powers of Nature.\"(157)\n\n\n 157) Celtic Druids, ch. vi., p. 209.\n\n\nIn the language of symbolism the upright stone prefigures either a man,\nreproductive energy, or a god, all of which at a certain stage in\nthe human career had come to mean one and the same thing; namely, the\nCreator.\n\nIn the earlier ages of male worship, upright stones as emblems of the\nDeity were plain unwrought shafts, but in process of time they began\nto be carved into the form of a man--a man who usually represented the\nruler or chief of the people, and who, as he was the source of all power\nand wisdom, was supposed by the ignorant masses to be an incarnation\nof the sun. Thus arose the spiritual power of monarchs, or the \"divine\nright of kings.\"\n\nWherever obelisks, columns, pillars, attenuated spires, upright stones\nor crosses at the intersection of roads are found, they always appear as\nsacred monuments, or as symbols of the Lingham god.\n\nThe Chaldean Tower of which there are extant traditions in Mexico and in\nthe South Sea Islands; the Round Towers of Ireland; the remarkable group\nof stones known as Stonehenge, in England; the wonderful circle at Abury\nthrough which the figure of a huge serpent was passed; the monuments\nwhich throughout the nations of the East were set up at the intersection\nof roads in the center of market-places, and the bowing stones\nemployed as oracles in various portions of the world, have all the same\nsignification, and proclaim the peculiar religion of the people who\nworshipped them.\n\nWhether as among the Jews in Egypt, a pillar is set up as a \"sign\" and a\n\"witness\" to the Lord, or whether as with the Mohammedans these figures\nappear as minarets with egg shaped summits, or as among the Irish they\nstand forth as stately towers defying time and the elements, or as among\nthe Christians they appear as the steeple which points towards heaven,\nthe symbol remains, and the original significance is the same.\n\nThe Lord of the Israelites who was wont to manifest himself to his\nchosen people in a \"pillar of smoke by day\" and a \"pillar of fire by\nnight\" is said to be none other than a reproductive emblem, as was also\nthe \"Lord\" which \"reposed in the ark of the covenant.\" Monuments set up\nto symbolize the religion of the Parsees or fire-worshippers after they\nhad succumbed to the pressure brought to bear upon them by the adorers\nof the male principle were each and all of them, like their great\nprototype the tower of Babel, typical of the universal creative power\nwhich was worshipped as male.\n\nNotwithstanding the fact that the male energy had come to be recognized\nas the principal factor in reproduction, it is observed that wherever\nthese monuments or other symbols of fertility appear, there is always to\nbe found in close connection with them certain emblems symbolical of the\nfemale power; thus showing that although the people by whom they were\nerected had become worshippers of the masculine principle, and although\nthey had persuaded themselves that it was the more important element in\nthe deity, they had not become so regardless of the truths of Nature as\nto attempt to construct a Creator independently of its most essential\nfactor.\n\nProtestant Christianity, probably the most intensely masculine of all\nreligious schemes which have claimed the attention of man, has not\nwittingly retained any of the detested female emblems, yet so deeply\nhas the older symbolism taken root, that even in the architecture of the\nmodern Protestant church with its ark-shaped nave and its window toward\nthe rising sun, may be detected the remnants of that early worship which\nthe devotees of this more recently developed form of religious faith so\npiously ignore.\n\nThe large number of upright columns, circles of stone, cromlechs\nand cairns still extant in the British Isles, bears testimony to the\npeculiar character of the religious worship which once prevailed in\nthem. Of these shrines perhaps none is more remarkable than that of\nStonehenge, in England. Although during the numberless ages which have\npassed since this temple was erected many of the stones have fallen from\ntheir original places, still by the light of more recently established\nfacts concerning religious symbolism, it has been possible, even under\nits present condition of decay, for scholars to unravel the hitherto\nmysterious significance of this remarkable structure. Stonehenge is\ncomposed of four circles of mammoth upright shafts twenty feet high, the\none circle within the other, with immense stones placed across them like\narchitraves.\n\nIn ancient symbolism the circle was the emblem of eternity, or of the\neternal female principle. Mountains were also sacred to the gods. It has\nbeen said that a ring of mountains gave rise to these circular temples.\nFaber assures us that a circular stone temple was called the circle\nof the world or the circle of the ark, that it represented at once the\ninclosure of the Noetic Ship; the egg from which creation was produced;\nthe earth, and the zodiacal circle of the universe in which the sun\nperforms its annual revolutions through the signs. Stonehenge is said\nto be the temple of the water god Noah, who, as we have seen, was first\nworshipped as half woman and half fish or serpent, but who finally came\nto be regarded as a man serpent (or fish) Deity.\n\nOn approaching Stonehenge from the Northeast, the first object which\nengages the attention is a rude boulder, sixteen feet high, in a leaning\nposture. This stone has been named the Friar's Heel, but until recently\nits signification has been wholly unknown.\n\nRegarding the upright shaft which stands sentinel over the mysterious\ncircles of mammoth stones called Stonehenge, Forlong says that it is\nno Friar's Heel, but an emblem of fertility dedicated to the Friday\ndivinity. It is represented as the \"Genius of Fire,\" not the genius of\nordinary fire, \"but of the super-sensual Divinity, celestial fire.\"\n\nRegarding these remarkable stones to which the Lingham god is a mere\nintroduction, Forlong says:\n\n\"No one who has studied phallic and solar worship in the East could make\nany mistake as to the purport of the shrine at Stonehenge... yet the\nindelicacy of the whole subject often so shocks the ordinary reader,\nthat, in spite of facts, he cannot grant what he thinks shows so much\ndebasement of the religious mind; facts are facts, however, and it only\nremains for us to account for them. Perhaps indeed in these later times\nan artificial and lower phase of sensuality has taken the place of the\nmore natural indulgence of the passions, for procreative purposes, which\nprincipally engrossed the thoughts of early worshippers.\"(158)\n\n\n 158) Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 233.\n\n\nHiggins is of the opinion that Stonehenge is the work of the same era\nwith the caves of India, the pyramids of Egypt, and the stupendous\nmonument at Carnac--a structure which, it is claimed, must have required\nfor its construction an amount of labor equal to that of the pyramids.\n\nUndoubtedly there has never been a religious shrine which has excited\nmore curiosity than has Abury, of which, unfortunately, nothing now\nremains, although in the early part of the eighteenth century enough\nhad been preserved to prove the identity of its signification with\nother ancient religious monuments both in the British Isles and in the\ncountries of the East. Perhaps there is no way by which this shrine can\nbe better understood than by quoting the exact language of those who\nhave written upon the subject. Especially is this true concerning the\ntestimony of those who, after personal investigation, have given to the\npublic the results of their research.\n\nIn the History of Wiltshisre, published by Sir R. Colt Hoare, Bart.,\nappears the following from Dr. Stukeley:\n\n\"The situation of Abury is finely chosen for the purpose it was destined\nto, being the more elevated part of a plain, from whence there is almost\nan imperceptible descent every way. But as the religious work in\nAbury, though great in itself, is but a part of the whole (the avenues\nstretching above a mile from it each way), the situation of the whole\ndesign is projected with great judgment, in a kind of large, separate\nplain, four or five miles in diameter. Into this you descend on all\nsides from higher ground. The whole Temple of Abury may be considered as\na picture, and it really is so. Therefore the founders wisely contrived\nthat a spectator have an advantageous prospect of it as he appeared\nwithin view. When I frequented this place, which I did for some years\ntogether, to take an exact account of it, staying a fortnight at a time,\nI found out the entire work by degrees. The second time I was here, an\navenue was a new amusement; the third year another. So that at length\nI discovered the mystery of it, properly speaking, which was, that the\nwhole figure represented a snake transmitted through a circle. This is\nan hieroglyphic or symbol of highest note and antiquity.\n\n\"In order to put this design in execution, the founders well studied\ntheir ground; and to make their representation more natural, they\nartfully carried it over a variety of elevations and depressions, which,\nwith the curvature of the avenues, produces sufficiently the desired\neffect. To make it still more elegant and picture-like, the head of the\nsnake is carried up the southern promontory of Hackpen Hill, toward the\nvillage of West Kennet; nay, the very name of the hill is derived from\nthe circumstance.... Thus our antiquity divides itself into three great\nparts, which will be our rule in describing this work. The circle at\nAbury, the forepart of the snake leading toward Kennet, which I call\nKennet Avenue; the hinder part of the snake leading toward Beckhampton,\nwhich I call Beckhampton Avenue; for they may be well looked on as\navenues to the great temple at Abury, which part must be most eminently\ncalled the Temple.\n\n\"The plan on which Abury was built, is that sacred hierogram of the\nEgyptians and other ancient nations, the circle and snake. The whole\nfigure is the circle, snake, and wings. By this they meant to picture\nout, as well as they could, the nature of the Divinity.\"\n\nThe temple which represents the body of the snake is formed by a\ncircular agger of earth having its ditch withinside. As this is contrary\nto the mode adopted in works of defence, it is thought to prove the\nreligious character of Abury. In a description given of this shrine by\nHiggins is the following:\n\n\"These ramparts inclose an area of 1400 feet in diameter, which on the\nedge nearest the ditch was set round with a row of rough, unhewn stones,\nand in the center was ornamented with two circular temples, composed of\nthe same native stones.\"(159)\n\n\n 159) Celtic Druids. Description of plates, p. xx.\n\n\nThe space of ground included within the vellum has been estimated at\ntwenty-two acres, and the outward circumvallation was computed at 4800\nfeet. The number of stones that formed this outer circle was originally\none hundred, of which, in the year 1722, there were eighteen standing,\nand twenty-seven thrown down.\n\nIn the village of Rudstone in Yorkshire there stands a huge stone,\nthe significance of which, at the present time, is by scholars clearly\nunderstood. Its depth below the surface of the ground is said to be\nequal to its height above, which is twenty-four feet. It is five feet\nten inches broad, and two feet thick, its weight being upwards of forty\ntons.(160)\n\n\n 160) See Rivers of Life.\n\n\nThe gigantic rocking stones found in nearly every quarter of the globe\nare now known to be religious monuments of remote antiquity. Not long\nago I saw a description of one of these oracles in Buenos-Ayres, South\nAmerica, and a few months later there appeared the following account of\na similar stone found in Sullivan Co., N. Y.:\n\n\"At first sight it would scarcely attract attention, but a closer\nobservation reveals the remarkable position which it occupies. The total\nweight of the immense boulder has been variously estimated at from forty\nto fifty tons, and its bulk at from 500 to 700 cubic feet. It is almost\nperfectly round, much resembling a huge orange, and so nicely balanced\non a table of stone as to be easily set in motion by a single man,\nproviding the operator exerts his strength on the north or south sides.\nOn either of the other sides the combined strength of forty elephants\nwould not be sufficient to cause the least oscillation. Although it\nis easily rocked, we are assured that as many men as could surround it\nwould be unable to dislodge it from the pivot on which it rests.\"(161)\n\n\n 161) The St. Louis (Mo.) Republican.\n\n\nThe writer of the above, who was evidently ignorant of the extent to\nwhich these monuments are scattered over the earth, seemed to regard it\nas a singular freak of Nature with no significance other than that of a\nnatural curiosity.\n\nThe round towers of Ireland, over the origin of which there has in the\npast been so much controversy, are now pretty generally admitted to be\nanalogous in their use and design to Stonehenge, Abury, and other extant\nmonolithic structures.\n\nMany writers have endeavored to prove that these towers were belfries\nused in connection with Christian churches; others that they were\npurgatorial columns or penitential heights, similar in design to the\npillar of St. Simeon Stylites. Others again have argued that they were\nused as beacons and others that they were intended simply as receptacles\nfor the sacred fire known to have formerly been in use in the British\nIsles. Although numberless arguments have been brought forward to refute\nthese theories, it is thought that the expensive architecture alone of\nthe elegant and stately columns known as Round Towers contradicts\nall these \"guesses,\" and that their grandeur and almost absolute\nindestructibility proclaim for them a different origin from that of the\nlowly and miserable huts which in a later age were erected beside them\nfor purposes of worship by the Romish Christians. The same objection is\nmade also against the theory that these monuments were erected in memory\nof the several defeats of the Danes. As an answer to the argument that\nthey were erected by the Danes to celebrate their victories, it is\ndeclared that such is the character of the hieroglyphics upon them as to\nmake this theory worthless. Besides, throughout the country of the Danes\nand Ostmen, there is nowhere to be found an example of architectural\nsplendor such as is displayed in the construction of these columns.\nIn the north of Scotland was one of these monuments upon which were\ndepicted war-like scenes, horses and their riders, warriors brandishing\ntheir weapons, and troops shouting for victory, while on the other side\nwas a sumptuous cross, beneath which were two figures, the one evidently\nfemale, the other male.\n\nIn Cordiner's Antiquities of Scotland is a description of an elaborately\ncarved obelisk. On one side of this column appears a mammoth cross, and\nunderneath it are figures of uncouth animals. Among these carvings are\nto be seen the Bulbul of Iran, the Boar of Vishnu, the elk, the fox,\nthe lamb, and a number of dancing human figures. In fact all the\nconfigurations are not only in their nature and import essentially\nEastern, but are actually the symbols of the various animal forms\nunder which \"the people of the East contemplated the properties of the\nGodhead.\"\n\nCarnac, in upper Egypt, is a monolith of the same symbolic character. It\nis hewn from a solid block of black granite and is eighty feet high.\n\nHenry O'Brien, a cultured Irishman, who when in London became, in his\nown line of investigation, one of the chief contributors to Fraser's\nMagazine while at its best, in response to a call by the Royal Irish\nAcademy for productions relating to the origin and use of the Round\nTowers, declared that they were erected by a colony of Tuath-de-danaans,\nor Lingham worshippers from Persia, who had left their native land\nbecause of the victories gained over them by their rivals--the Pish\nde-danaans--a sect of Yoni worshippers; in other words, the sect which\nrecognized the female element as the superior agency in reproduction,\nand who, therefore, worshipped it as divine. In the devastating wars\nwhich swept over Persia and the other countries of antiquity prior to\nthe age of the later Zoroaster, the Pish-de danaans were victorious,\nand, driving from the country the Tuath-de danaans, or male worshippers,\nsucceeded in re-establishing, and for a time maintaining, the old form\nof worship. O'Brien claims that the Tuath-de-danaans who were expelled\nfrom Persia emigrated to Ireland, and there continued or preserved their\nfavorite form of worship, the Round Towers having been erected by them\nin conformity to their peculiar religious views. This writer assures us\nthat the old Irish tongue bears unmistakable evidence of the relation\nexisting between these countries. In addition to the similarity of\nlanguage which is found to exist between ancient Ireland or Iren, and\nPersia or Iran, the same writer observes that in all their customs,\nreligious observances, and emblems, the resemblance is preserved.\n\nMuch regret has been expressed by all the writers who have dealt with\nthis subject that at an earlier age when Stonehenge, Abury, and various\nother of the ancient monumental shrines of the British Isles were in a\nbetter state of preservation, and before bigotry and religious hatred\nhad been aroused against them, more minute observations of their\ncharacter and of all the details surrounding them could not have been\nmade; yet, notwithstanding the late date at which these investigations\nwere begun, it is believed that a fair amount of success has crowned the\nefforts which have been put forth to unravel the mysteries bound up in\nthem.\n\nWhen we remember that every detail connected with the sacred monuments\nof the ancients was full of significance that their religious ideas\nwere all portrayed by means of symbols which appeared in connection with\ntheir sacred edifices--the extent to which a thorough understanding of\nthese details would assist in revealing the mysteries involved in the\nuniversal religious conceptions may in a measure be realized.\n\nThe identity of the symbols used to express religious ideas, and the\nextent to which the conceptions of a creative force have been connected\nin all portions of the globe, are set forth in the following from\nBarlow:\n\n\"A complete history of religious symbolism should embrace all the\nreligions of antiquity no less than the Christian, and it would require\nas thorough a knowledge of their tenets as of our own to explain\nsatisfactorily its influence in regulating the practice of art.\"(162)\n\n\n 162) Symbolism, p. 10.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII. SACRIFICES.\n\nAlthough the sun was formerly worshipped as the source of all good, at a\ncertain stage in the human career it came to be regarded as the cause\nof all evil. When Typhon Seth comprehended the powers of Nature, as the\nDestroyer and Regenerator she was the author of all good; but later,\nafter the truths underlying Nature worship were lost, Typhon, the hot\nwind of the desert, was feared rather than worshipped.\n\nIn the history of an earlier age of existence, there is not to be found\nthe slightest trace of human sacrifice to atone for the sins of the\npeople, or to appease the wrath of an offended God. On the contrary,\nthroughout the traditions and monumental records of the most ancient\nnations, sacrifices to the Deity--the God of Nature--consisted simply in\nthe acknowledgment of earth's benefits by means of a free-will offering\nof the bounties which she had brought forth.\n\nThat the sacrifice either of human beings or of animals was not offered\nin an earlier age of religious faith is confidently asserted and, I\nthink, proved by various writers. Of this Higgins says: \"I think a time\nmay be perceived when it did not exist even among the Western nations.\"\nThis writer states also that it was not always practiced at Delphi.\nMention is made of the fact that among the Buddhists, to whom belongs\nthe first book of Genesis, no bloody sacrifices were ever offered.\n\nIt was doubtless under the worship of Muth, Neith, or Minerva, the first\nemanation from the deity and the original Buddha, that the first book\nof Genesis or Wisdom was written. In this book may be observed the fact\nthat the slaughter of animals is forbidden. It is thought that with\nCrishna, Hercules, and the worshippers of the sun in Aries, the\nsacrifice of human beings and animals began. In the second book of\nGenesis, which is said to be a Brahmin work, animals are first used\nfor sacrifice, and in the third book, or the book of Generations or\nRe-generations of the race of man or the Adam, which was written\nafter the pure doctrines connected with the worship of Wisdom had been\ncorrupted, they are first allowed to be eaten as food.\n\nIt is supposed that the practice of sacrificing human beings and animals\ntook its rise in the western parts of the world after the sun entered\nAries, and that it subsequently extended even to the followers of the\nTauric worship, among whom it was carried to a frightful extent. It is\nalso thought that the history of Cain and Abel is an allegory of the\nfollowers of Crishna to justify their sacrifice of the yajna or lamb \"in\nopposition to the Buddhist offering of bread and wine, or water, made by\nCain and practiced by Melchizedek.\"(163)\n\n\n 163) Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 101.\n\n\nIt is now positively known that all over the world, during a certain\nstage of religious belief, either human beings or animals were, at\nstated seasons, sacrificed to the Deity. Of the universality of this\npractice Faber says:\n\n\"Throughout the whole world we find a notion prevalent that the gods\ncould be appeased only by bloody sacrifices. Now this idea is so\nthoroughly arbitrary, there being no obvious and necessary connection,\nin the way of cause and effect, between slaughtering a man or a beast,\nand recovering of the divine favor by the slaughterers, that its very\nuniversality involves the necessity of concluding that all nations have\nborrowed it from some common source.\"(164)\n\n\n 164) The Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. i., book 2, p. 465.\n\n\nDr. Shuckford is constrained to admit that the sacrifices and ceremonies\nof purification practiced by Abraham and his descendants and those of\nsurrounding peoples, were identical, with only \"such trifling changes as\ndistance of countries and length of time might be expected to produce.\"\nThe substitution of a lamb in the place of Isaac would seem to indicate\na change from child-slaughter to that of animals.\n\nSacrifices were offerings to the god of pro-creation. Certain\nrepresentatives of the life which he had bestowed must be returned to\nhim as a free-will gift. In many countries, the victims offered to the\ndeity were captives taken in war; but, as prisoners of war and slaves\nwere not permitted to join in the battles of their captors, their lives\nwere of little value; hence, later, it is observed that the sacrificial\nvictim must be a prince or an individual whose life was of great\nimportance to the tribe.\n\nAs in all hot countries the heat of the sun is the most destructive\nagency against which mankind have to contend, it is not perhaps\nsingular, at a time when superstition had usurped the functions of the\nreasoning powers, that the sun-god should have been invested with the\nattributes inspired by terror, and that so far as possible, mankind\nshould have deemed it necessary to propitiate its wrath, and, by\nrendering to it suitable offerings and sacrifices, they should have\nhoped to avert the calamities incident to its displeasure. Neither is it\nremarkable when we remember the peculiar circumstances surrounding the\nJews, and the fact that the offerings demanded by their god was the life\nwhich he had bestowed, that the sacrifices offered to Moloch, the fire\ngod, should have been the members of their own household--namely, their\nchildren.\n\nWe must not forget that the reward promised this people by prophet,\npriest, and diviner for godliness was extreme fruitfulness of body. We\nhave seen that to obtain this mark of godly favor, or, under pretense of\nserving their god, the form of worship prescribed by their priests, and\nadopted both in their households and in their temples was pre-eminently\nsensual, and calculated to stimulate and encourage to the highest extent\ntheir lower or animal nature.\n\nAs the size of a man's family, or his power to reproduce, was an index\nto his favor with the Almighty the pleasure of the \"Lord\" in this\nmatter being but the reflection of his own desires, the result as might\nreasonably be expected was overpopulation to such an extent that the\nmeans of subsistence within the small boundary of Judea was\ninadequate to supply the demands of the swarming masses of \"God's\nchildren\"--children which had been created for his honor and glory.\nSurely some plan must be devised whereby these difficulties might be\nadjusted, and that, too, to use a modern expression, without flying in\nthe face of Providence. As the Lord had been honored and man blessed\nin the mere bringing forth of offspring, what better scheme, so soon as\nsuch blessings became too numerous, than to return a certain number of\nthem to the giver, the god of Moloch? It is true that by this process\nchildren were born only to be delivered over to the ravages of the\nfire-god, but by it, was not their deity both served and appeased at\nthe same time that population was kept within the bounds of subsistence?\nThat great numbers were thus sacrificed is only too apparent from the\naccounts in the Jewish scriptures--Abraham's acts and those of Jephtha\nbeing examples of the manner in which this god was propitiated.\n\nIn Micah, vi. chap., 7th verse, occurs an interrogation which furnishes\nsomething more than a hint of the practice among the Jews of child\nsacrifice. \"Shall I give my first born for my transgressions, the fruit\nof my body for the sin of my soul?\"\n\nAlthough there is sufficient evidence to prove the enormous extent to\nwhich the practice of child sacrifice prevailed among the Jews, it\nis believed that much more proof would be found, had it not, in later\ntimes, with a view to concealing the extent of this practice, been\nexpunged from their sacred writings. Moloch was to the Jews what Siva\ncame to be to the Hindoos, namely, the Terrible. It is plain, however,\nthat Siva was not formerly feared in India, but next to Vishnu was the\nbest beloved of all their gods. Siva was originally the androgyne god\nwho was not only the Destroyer, but the beneficent Regenerator and\npurifier. It was the cold of winter and the heat of the sun. It was a\nconception which was a direct outgrowth of Nature worship or of that\nreligious idea which was portrayed by a mother and her child.\n\nThe conception involved in sacrifice seems to be that of a payment\nfor services rendered, or desired. The Amazulus, when going to battle,\nsacrifice to the manes of their ancestors, who, as older branches of\nthe tree of life, appear to constitute their god-idea. This is done\nthat their gods \"may have no cause of complaint, because they have made\namends to them and made them bright.\" On appearing before the enemy they\nsay: \"Can it be, since we have made amends to the Amadhlozi, that they\nwill say we have wronged them by anything?\"(165)\n\n\n 165) Viscount Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i., p. 32.\n\n\nAt a certain stage in human history the various peoples of the globe\ndepended upon excessive numbers for their prosperity, hence the most\nprecious offering to the god of pro-creation was that of human victims.\n\nIn India, when a new colony or city was founded, in order to insure its\nprosperity, large numbers of children were delivered over as a bribe or\noffering of reconciliation to the god of virility. The enormous extent\nto which human sacrifice has prevailed in India, in Egypt, in Mexico,\namong the Carthaginians, the Jews, the Druids, and even among the Greeks\nand Romans, is well attested.\n\nFrom the records of extant history, it would seem that human sacrifice\nusually accompanies a certain stage of sun-worship. Among the Aztecs in\nMexico, a country in which the sun was a universal object of reverence\nand in which one of the prescribed duties of the boys trained in the\ntemple was that of keeping alive the sacred fires, the immolation of\nvictims became the most prominent feature of their public worship. We\nare distinctly told, however, that human sacrifice was not formerly\npracticed in Mexico, but that finally here as elsewhere, the idea became\nprevalent that by sacrificing human victims to the god of Destruction,\nhis wrath might be appeased and the people saved from his vengeance. It\nis stated that human sacrifices were adopted by the Aztecs early in the\nfourteenth century, about two hundred years before the conquest. \"Rare\nat first, they became more frequent with the wider extent of their\nempire; till, at length, almost every festival was closed with this\ncruel abomination.\"\n\nNotwithstanding these atrocities, in their conceptions of a future state\nof existence, and especially in their disposition of the unregenerate\nafter death, are to be observed certain traces of human feeling and\nrefined sensibility which are difficult to reconcile with the cruelty\npracticed in their religious rites, and which bear a striking contrast\nto the physical torture, to which after death the wicked are subjected\nnot only in Mexico, but in countries professing a high stage of\ncivilization and culture.\n\nOf their religious observances, those which had doubtless been inherited\nfrom an older civilization, Prescott, quoting from Torquemada and\nSahagun, says:\n\n\"Many of their ceremonies were of a light and cheerful complexion,\nconsisting of the national songs and dances, in which both sexes joined.\nProcessions were made of women and children crowned with garlands and\nbearing offerings of fruits, the ripened maize, or the sweet incense\nof copal and other odoriferous gums, while the altars of the deity were\nstained with no blood save that of animals. These were the peaceful\nrites derived from their Toltec predecessors.\"(166)\n\n\n 166) See Conquest of Mexico, book I, chap. iii., p. 74.\n\n\nPrior to the days of Montezuma, the Aztec priests had engrafted\nupon these simple ceremonies not only a burdensome ceremonial, and a\npolytheism similar to that of Eastern nations, but, as we have seen,\nhuman sacrifices and even cannibalism had become prominent features\nin religious worship. Throughout the entire ceremonial and religious\nconceptions of the Aztecs may be observed a display of the savage and\nbrutal elements in human nature, in close connection with unmistakable\nevidence of a once higher stage of culture and refinement.\n\nIn the later ages of Aztec history their most exalted deity was\nHuitzilopotchi, the Mexican Moses, the god of war. His temples were the\nmost costly and magnificent among the public edifices in the country,\nand his image bedecked with ornaments was an universal object of\nadoration. At the dedication of his temple in the year 1486 more than\nseventy thousand captives are said to have perished.(167)\n\n\n 167) Torquemada.\n\n\nA Deity which occupied a conspicuous place in the mythology, and which\nwas probably an inheritance from more ancient times, was Quetzalcoatl,\ndoubtless the same as the Eastern Goddess of Nature, or Wisdom. She was\nthe \"grain goddess,\" and \"received offerings of fruit and flowers\" at her\ntwo great festivals. She also took care of the growth of corn. She was\ndoubtless the same as the Earth Mother of the Finns and Esths, she who\n\"undertakes the task of bringing forth the fruits.\" She is evidently\nthe Demeter of the Greeks, the Ceres of the Romans, etc. She is also\nthe goddess of Wisdom, for she had \"instructed the nations in the use of\nmetals, in agriculture, and in the art of government.\" Under this Deity\nthe\n\n\"Earth had teemed with fruits and flowers without the pains of culture.\nAn ear of Indian corn was as much as a single man could carry. The\ncotton, as it grew, took, of its own accord, the rich dies of human art.\nThe air was filled with intoxicating perfumes and the sweet melody of\nbirds. In short, these were the halcyon days, which find a place in\nthe mythic systems of so many nations throughout the world. It was the\ngolden age of Anuhuac.\"\n\nWe are given to understand that for some cause not explained the\nbeneficent god Quetzalcoatl was banished, that he (or she) was deposed\nthrough the influence of some deity which had become more popular, or,\nat least, more powerful; but that when Quetzalcoatl departed from the\ncountry \"in a winged skiff made of serpent skins,\" it was with a promise\nto return to the faithful, which promise was sacredly cherished down to\nthe time of the Spanish invasion.\n\nThe Mexican Mars, Huitzilopotchi, was born of a virgin. His mother, a\ndevout person, while at her devotions in the temple saw floating before\nher a bright colored feather ball, which she seized and placed in her\nbosom. She soon became pregnant, her offspring being a god, who like\nMinerva appeared full armed with spear and helmet.\n\nAlthough the exact manner in which the Mexicans sacrificed to their\nDeity to atone for the sins of the people differs somewhat from the\nmodus operandi employed in the Christian vicarious atonement, still the\nlikeness existing between them is sufficient to indicate the fact of\ntheir common origin and the similar manner of their development.\n\nThe Mexicans were wont to select a young and handsome man from their\nmidst, whom they invested with the dignity of a god. After having\nsurrounded him with every luxury, and when they had showered upon him\nevery attention, crowning him with flowers and worshipping him for a\nyear or more as a Savior, they killed him, offering him as an atonement\nor sacrifice, in order that the rest of the people might escape the\nvengeance of their great Deity, who, it was claimed, is pleased with\nsuch offerings, and who demands sacrifices of this kind at the hands of\nhis children. Within blood was contained life, hence the offering of a\nbloody victim was but the returning to their god, as a free-will gift\nthat which he had bestowed, such sacrifice being regarded as the only\nacceptable means of grace or reconciliation.\n\nThat the offering of a victim to the Jewish God was deemed necessary to\nthe fulfilment of Christian doctrine is a fact which is clearly shown by\nnumerous passages in the New Testament. \"We are sanctified through the\noffering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.\" \"By one offering he\nhath perfected forever them that are sanctified.\"(168) \"Christ was once\noffered to bear the sins of many.\"(169)\n\n\n 168) Hebrews, x., 10, 14.\n\n\n 169) Ibid., ix., 28.\n\n\nThat the Jewish Paschal feasts and the Eucharistic rites of Christians\nhad their counterpart among the Mexicans is observed in the fact that\nshortly after the death of their god, cakes which had been prepared and\nblessed by the priests were offered by them to the people to be eaten as\nthe veritable body of their sacrificed lord.\n\nThe source whence the doctrine of an atonement--a bloody sacrifice which\nlies at the foundation of Christian theology--has proceeded is not at\nthe present time difficult to determine, for we shall presently see that\nit, like all the leading doctrines contained in this later system,\nand which are regarded as exclusively Christian, had its origin in the\nreligion of past ages, a religion which although originally pure, in\ncourse of time degenerated into the grossest phallicism and even into\nhuman sacrifice and cannibalism.\n\nAlthough among the Mexicans as among the Jews, human sacrifices were\noffered to the Deity, no hint of gross and sensual rites practiced in\nthe temples of the latter is recorded. Hence, as the Mexicans had not\narrived at that stage of religious progress (?) at which sensuality\ninculcated as a sacred duty, and at which moral and physical debasement\nwas encouraged both in public and private life, we may reasonably\nconclude that their faith represents a somewhat earlier stage of\ndevelopment than does that of either Jew or Greek. In point of morality,\nas judged by the most ancient standards, or by the more modern, the\nMexicans compare favorably with either of these nationalities. Indeed\nwhen we compare the social, religious, and civil conditions of Mexico\nas we find them under Montezuma with those of the Jews under David or\nSolomon, or with those of the Greeks under Solon, or even with those\nof the Christians during the Spanish Inquisition when thousands upon\nthousands, not of captives taken in war, but of the noblest and best of\nthe land, were yearly slaughtered for \"the glory of God,\" there is quite\nas much to meet the approval of an enlightened conscience under the\nfirst named system as under that of any one of the other three.\n\nBy priests the fact has long been understood that effects may be\nproduced through appeals to the religious or emotional nature which\nunder other circumstances would be impossible; and as, for thousands\nof years, it has been the special business of this class to formulate\ncreeds for the ignorant masses, religious belief and the ceremonies\nconnected with \"sacred\" worship, during certain periods of the world's\nhistory, have assumed a grotesqueness in design unsurpassed by the most\nfanciful fairy tales which the imagination has ever been able to create,\nat the same time that they have portrayed a depth of sensual degradation\ncapable of being reached only by that order of creation which alone has\nbeen able to develop a religion.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII. THE CROSS AND A DYING SAVIOR.\n\nIn Egypt, the cross when unaccompanied by any other symbol signified\nsimply creative energy both female and male, but whenever a\ndistinctively female emblem was present it denoted the male power alone.\nThe Ibis, which is represented with human hands and feet, bears the\nstaff of Isis in one hand and the cross in the other. There is scarcely\nan obelisk or monument in Egypt upon which this figure does not appear.\nThe symbol or monogram of Venus was a circle and a cross, that of Saturn\nwas a cross and a ram's horn.\n\nPlato declared that the son of God was expressed upon the universe in\nthe form of the letter X, and that the second power of the supreme God\nwas figured on the universe in the shape of a cross.\n\nThere is little doubt that the early Christians understood full well the\ntrue meaning of the cross, and that it was no new device. In later ages,\nhowever, every monument of antiquity marked with this symbol was claimed\nby the Church and by it believed to be of Christian origin.\n\nIt is related that when the temple of Serapis at Alexandria was\noverthrown by one of the Christian Emperors, beneath its foundation\nwas discovered the monogram of Christ. The Christians made use of this\ncircumstance to prove the divine origin of their religion, \"thereby\nmaking many converts.\" The Pagans, on the contrary, were of the opinion\nthat \"it should forever silence the claim put forward by the devotees of\nChristianity.\" It is plain, however, that the Christians had the better\nof the argument for \"the cross being uneasy under the weight of the\ntemple overthrew it.\"\n\nOn the coins of Decius, the great persecutor of the Christians, is to be\nobserved the monogram of Christ which is also the monogram of Osiris and\nJupiter Ammon. On a medal proved to be Phoenician appear the cross, the\nrosary, and the lamb. There is another form of the same monogram which\nsignifies DCVIII. These devices although in use hundreds of years prior\nto the Christian era are all said to be monograms of Christ. At the\npresent time they may be seen in almost every church in Italy.\n\nIn the cave of Elephanta, in India, appears the cross in connection with\nthe figure which represents male reproductive power. Inman relates that\na cross with a rosary attached has been found in use among the religious\nemblems of the Japanese Buddhists and the lamas of Thibet, and that in\none of the frescoes of Pompeii, published at Paris, 1840, is to be seen,\nvol. v., plate 28, the representation of a phallic cross in connection\nwith two small figures of Hermes.(170)\n\n\n 170) Inman, Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 408.\n\n\nThe Rev. Mr. Maurice adds his testimony to that of other investigators\nto show the universality of this emblem. He says that the principal\npagodas in India, viz., those of Bernares and Mathura, are built in the\nform of a cross.\n\nIn the museum of the London University is a mummy upon whose breast is a\ncross \"exactly in the shape of a cross upon Calvary.\"\n\nThe true significance of this emblem, and the reason for its adoration\nare not, at the present time, difficult to understand; but whence comes\nthe symbol of a dead man on a cross, and what is its true meaning?\n\nPerhaps there is no problem connected with ancient symbolism, or\nwith mythical religion, which is more difficult to solve, than is the\nrepresentation of a dying Savior on a cross. It is stated by those\nwho have investigated this subject, that although the sun, or the\nfructifying power within it, was adored by all the historic nations,\nno hint of a cross is to be found amongst the most ancient Nature\nworshippers. We must then look for a solution of this problem to\nthose ages in which the higher truths of an older race were partially\nforgotten, and to a time when phallic worship had supplanted the\nadoration of Light or Wisdom. The cross doubtless came into use as a\nreligious emblem at a time when the sexes in union began to stand for\nthe god-idea, the lower end of the upright shaft being transfixed to the\nhorizontal bar.\n\nAs soon as the male energy became god, the cross gradually grew into the\nfigure of a man with arms extended. It became the original \"life\ngiver,\" it was Adam, the creator of the race. Doubtless for ages Adam\nrepresented the god-man-phallus-Tree of Life, or cross idea. He was the\nprogenitor of the race. From this same idea sprang ancestor worship, or\nthe deification of the past vital spark. The adoration paid to the Lares\nand Penates, the household gods of the Romans, on the first of May, is\nan example of this worship, as is also the homage paid by the Chinese to\ntheir progenitors.\n\nOf religious emblems R. P. Knight says that one of the most remarkable\namong them is a cross in the form of the letter T which was used as an\nemblem of creation and generation before the church adopted it as a sign\nof salvation. To this representation of male reproductive power \"was\nsometimes added a human head, which gives it the appearance of a\ncrucifix, as it has on the medal of Cyzicus.\"\n\nOriginally the figure of a dead man on a cross typified creation\nand destruction or the operations of the creative forces in Nature.\nEverything dies only to live again. Although man dies, and although the\nindividual man becomes but a dead branch on the tree of life, still the\ntree lives. Through the cross-phallus idea, or through man's power\nto create, existence on the earth continues. Although the sun dies in\nwinter, in spring it revives again to quicken and enliven Nature and\nmake all things new.\n\nThere is much evidence to show that a dying figure on a cross was no new\nconception at the advent of Christianity. Crishna, whose history as we\nhave seen is almost identical with that of Christ, and Ballaji, from\nwhom the thorn-crowned figures of Jesus have doubtless been copied, are\nillustrations of this mythical figure of a crucified savior in India.\n\nIt seems altogether probable from the facts at hand that the Romans\nworshipped a cross with a dying figure of a man upon it. Minucius\nFelix, a Christian father, in defense of his religion, has the following\npassage:\n\n\"You certainly, who worship wooden gods, are the most likely people to\nadore wooden crosses, as being parts with the same substance as your\ndeities. For what else are your ensigns, flags, and standards but\ncrosses gilt and purified? Your victorious trophies not only represent\na simple cross, but a cross with a man upon it. When a pure worshipper\nadores the true God with hands extended, he makes the figure of a cross.\nThus you see that the sign of the cross has either some foundation\nin Nature, or in your own religion, and therefore not to be objected\nagainst Christians.\"\n\nHiggins says that it is proved as completely as it is possible to prove\na fact of this kind that the Romans had a crucified object of adoration,\nand that this could be no other than an incarnation of the God Sol,\nrepresented in some way to have been crucified.\n\nAn ancient medal found in Cyprus has upon one of its sides the figure of\na crucified man with the chaplet or rosary, the same as those now in\nuse by Romanists. From the style of workmanship it is thought that this\nmedal must have been anterior to the Macedonian conquest.\n\nThere is little doubt that the early fathers and the bishops in\nthe Christian church recognized in the cross the ancient emblem of\nfertility, but as the idea of a spiritual life had begun to take root,\nit was deemed proper to conceal its real significance; hence from a\nsymbol representing the continuity of existence on the earth the cross\nnow prefigured eternal life or existence after death. Henceforward\nalthough man was dead in transgressions, through the cross, or through\nthe crucified Christ, he received eternal life.\n\nThat the original signification of this symbol was understood by early\nChristians is apparent from the fact that the Emperor Theodosius,\nbetween the years 378 and 395, issued a decree prohibiting the sign\nof the cross being sculptured or painted on the pavements of churches.\nTertullian also, after declaring that the devil made the sign of the\ncross on the foreheads of the followers of the Persian Mithra, accused\nthe Christians of adoring the same emblem.\n\nIn 280, A. C. Porphyry, referring to crosses, asked why theologists give\npassions to the gods, erect Phalli and use shameful language; to which\nthe Christian Iamblichus in the year 336 replied: \"Because Phalli and\ncrosses are signs of productive energy, and provocative to a continuance\nof the world.\"\n\nIt was not until the second century, or until after the days of Justin\nMartyr, that the instrument upon which Jesus was executed was called\na cross. But whatever may have been its form, as soon as the myths of\nformer religious worship began to attach themselves to his history, he\nbecame the symbolical dead man on a cross, the original sacrifice to\nMahadeva. He portrayed the same idea as did Crishna, Ballaji, the dying\nOsiris, and all the other sun-gods. He, like each of these, represented\na new sun at the beginning of a new cycle. He was a risen savior, and\nto him were finally transferred all the festivals, seasons, symbols, and\nmonograms of former solar deities. That the figure of a dead man on\na cross was a familiar emblem throughout Asia and various portions\nof Europe, and that numberless crucified gods--incarnations of the\nsun--have been worshipped throughout the East, is a fact which it has\nbeen the aim of the initiated among the Christian clergy to conceal,\nbut one which no one who has examined the evidence with a mind free from\nprejudice attempts to deny.\n\nIn Italy, on many of the earlier pictures of Christ, may be observed the\nwords Deo Soli, which inscription signifies either \"to the only God,\" or\n\"to the God Sol.\"\n\nOf the various so-called Christian antiquities which cover the walls of\nthe Vatican, we are assured by those who have acquainted themselves with\nthe signification of pagan symbolism that \"they have no more reference\nto Christianity than they have to the Emperor of China.\" The same may\nbe said with reference to the representations on the walls of the\nCatacombs.\n\nCrishna, who was the equinoctial sun in Aries, appeared 2160 years after\nthe first Buddha, who was the equinoctial sun in Taurus. According to\nPlutarch they were both modern gods when compared with the deities which\ngave names to the planets. Buddha, or the sun in Taurus, was worshipped\nin the form of a bull. Crishna, or the sun in Aries, was adored under\nthe figure of a ram with a man's head. The true significance of these\nfigures was the fructifying sun or reproductive energy as manifested in\nanimal life, and this meaning to those who worshipped them was identical\nwith the carved figures on the caves of India, the Lares and Penates of\nthe Romans, and the stone pillars or crosses in the market-places and at\nthe intersection of roads in Brittany.\n\nEusebius says that at Elephanta they adored a Deity in the figure of a\nman in a sitting posture painted blue, having the head of a ram with the\nhorns of a goat encircling a disk. The Deity thus described is said to\nbe of astronomical origin, denoting the power of the sun in Aries.\n\nThis figure, which was one of the representations of the sun-god\nCrishna, was worshipped both in India and in Egypt. In various of the\nmanifestations of this Deity he appears in the act of killing a\nserpent. He was the dead man on a cross and also the sun, which\nalthough continually dying is constantly being revived again. Various\nincarnations of this God have appeared as crucified saviors.\n\nOf the avatar of Crishna known as Ballaji or Baal-Jah little is\npositively known. Indeed there seems to be some impenetrable mystery\nsurrounding this figure, which makes it impossible for scholars to\nabsolutely prove that which by means of the evidence at hand amounts\nalmost to a certainty.\n\nA print by Moore of this god represents him in the shape of a Romish\ncrucifix, but although there is a nail hole in his foot he is not\ntransfixed to a wooden cross. Instead of a crown of thorns a Parthian\ncoronet encircles his head. As all the avatars of Crishna are\nrepresented with coronets, this fact has caused several writers to\nobserve that the effigies of Ballaji have furnished the copies for the\nthorn-crowned Jesus. Through the ignorance of the early Christians\nwho in the second century adopted the religion of Crishna, the true\nsignificance of this coronet was not understood, hence the thorns upon\nthe head of Christ. In referring to the effigy of a crucified savior\nfound in Ireland the author of The Round Towers says that it was not\nintended for our Savior for the reason that it wore the Iranian regal\ncrown, instead of the Jewish crown of thorns.(171)\n\n\n 171) The Round Towers of Ireland, p. 298.\n\n\nRegarding this effigy, Higgins remarks that the crucified body without\nthe cross reminds one that \"some of the ancient sects of heretics held\nJesus to have been crucified in the clouds.\"\n\nMoore, who has produced several prints of Ballaji, says he is unable\nto account for the pierced foot of a crucified figure in India. He\nendeavors to prove, however, that this crucifix cannot be Hindoo\n\"because there are duplicates of it from the same model.\" As the mould\nis made of clay, he contends that only one cast may be made from it.\nThis argument falls to the ground, however, so soon as it is found\nthat duplicates, or copies of these brass idols which may not be\ndistinguished from the originals, are seen in the museum at the India\nHouse, and also in that of the Asiatic Society.\n\nThe admission of Moore that \"great influence was brought to bear upon\nhim to induce him not to publish the prints of Ballaji for fear of\ngiving offense,\" serves as a hint in determining the cause for the lack\nof information respecting this god.\n\nIt is believed that, were the development of truth upon this subject\nrather than its concealment the object of Christian missionaries, the\ntemples of Ballaji would have furnished more important information to\nthe Christian world than would those of any other of the Hindoo gods;\nbut while numberless pilgrimages have been made to Juggernaut and\nother shrines devoid of interest to the student, we have heard little\nconcerning the shrines of this deity, although at the time Moore wrote,\nTerputty was in the possession of the English who made a profit of\nL15,000 a year from the temple.\n\nOn the Brechin Tower in Ireland are two arches one within the other in\nrelief. At the top of the arch is a crucifix, and about midway from top\nto bottom on either side are two figures which, according to Romanist\nChristians, represent the Virgin Mary and St. John. At the bottom of the\nouter arch are two couchant beasts, the one an elephant and the other a\nbull. The figure on the cross has a Parthian coronet. The appearance of\na crucifix on the towers of Britain and Ireland has in the past led many\nwriters to ascribe to these singular structures a Christian origin. To\nthe critical observer, however, the first question which presents\nitself is whence comes the elephant--an animal not found within these\ncountries?--and again why should these beasts have been placed here as\nChristian emblems? The facts in the case as revealed by unprejudiced\ninvestigators are, that the towers in Ireland are not Christian\nmonuments, and that the crucifix found on them is not that of Christ but\nof Ballaji, or of some one of the avatars of Crishna.\n\nThe fact that the figure of Crishna as a crucified god was found in\nthe ruins of a temple at Thebes in Egypt, is sufficient to prove his\nantiquity; still, as we have seen, he represents the god-idea at a much\nlater date than did Buddha. Regarding the evidence furnished by the Rev.\nMr. Maurice of the ten avatars of the Indian sun-god, Higgins observes:\n\n\"The only fact worthy of notice here is, that Buddha was universally\nallowed to be the first of the incarnations; that Crishna was of\nlater date; that, at the era of the birth of Christ, eight of them had\nappeared on the earth, and that the other two were expected to follow\nbefore the end of the Caliyug, or of the present age.\"\n\nWith reference to the fact that the Hindoo God originally represented\nWisdom or the Logos, the same writer says:\n\n\"Then here is DIVINE WISDOM incarnate, of whom the Bull of the Zodiac\nwas the emblem. HERE he is the Protagonos, or first begotten, the God\nor Goddess Mhtis of the Greeks, being, perhaps, both male and female.\nBuddha, or the wise, if the word were not merely the name of a doctrine,\nseems to have been an appellation taken by several persons, or one\nperson incarnate at several periods, and from this circumstance much\nconfusion has arisen.\"(172)\n\n\n 172) Anacalypsis, book v., p. 201.\n\n\nConcerning the religion of an ancient race the following facts have been\nascertained, namely:\n\nThe first of the Buddhas or Incarnations of the Deity was Minerva, and\nher mother, who was the sun, was the mother of all the Buddhas. She was\nMhtis, Mubt or Mai, \"the universal genius of Nature, who discriminated\nall things according to their various kinds of species.\"\n\nIn the earliest ages she comprehended not only matter but the moving\nforce in the universe. She was the Deity which by a very ancient race\nwas represented by the mother idea--Perceptive Wisdom. She was the\nsun and the first emanation from the sun. She was the Divine Word, the\nLogos, the Holy Ghost which in the time of Christ was again by various\nsects recognized as female. The allegory of the Greeks concerning\nJupiter taking Mhtis (Wisdom) to wife and from this union with her\nproducing Minerva from his head, is seen to be closely connected with\nthe doctrine of Buddha (Wisdom) or of the Rasit of Genesis. According\nto Faber, the import of the Greek word Nous and of the Sanscrit Menu is\nprecisely the same: each denotes mind or intelligence, and to the latter\nof them the Latin Mens is nearly allied. \"Mens, Menu, and perhaps our\nEnglish mind are fundamentally one and the same word.\" All these terms\nin an earlier age meant Buddha, Wisdom, or Minerva.\n\nLater, with the worship of the sun in Aries, appeared a crucified\nsavior. During the earlier ages of Crishnaism, the ideas typified by\na dying savior were still those pertaining to the processes of Nature.\nMatter was still believed to be indestructible and seeming death but\na preparation for renewed life, or for birth into another state of\nexistence Subsequently this dying sun-god, which disappeared in winter\nonly to return again to re-animate Nature, became a veritable man--a\nman on a cross who must be sacrificed to Mahadeva in order that humanity\nmight be saved. Here we have the origin of the doctrine of a Vicarious\nAtonement. Later, under the system called Christianity, woman, who\nhad previously become identified with the evil principle, became the\nTempter. She was the cause of sin in the world and wholly responsible\nfor the evil results arising from desire. Indeed, according to the\ndoctrines annunciated by the Christian Church, had woman, who was an\nafter thought of the Almighty, never been created, man would have lived\nforever in a state of purity and bliss, free alike from the toils,\npains, and temptations of life, and from the crafts and assaults of the\nDevil.\n\nThrough the over-stimulation of the animal instincts man had become\nwholly unable to overcome the evil in his constitution, hence the\nadoption of the doctrine of Original Sin and the necessity for an\nAtonement, or for a crucified savior, who would take upon himself the\nsins of poor, weak human nature. By simply believing on this crucified\nredeemer, man would be saved, not from sin itself, but from the penalty\nof sin. To bolster up the belief in original sin and the necessity for\nan atonement, the allegory of the fruit tree and the serpent in Genesis\nwas taken literally.\n\nThe more the religion of the past is studied the more plainly will the\nfact appear, that not only have the ceremonies, symbols, festivals, and\nseasons adopted by Christianity been copied from India and Persia, but\nalso that all the leading doctrines of the so-called Christian Church\noriginated in those countries. The belief in a Trinity, the Incarnation\nof the Deity, a Crucified Savior, Original Sin and a Vicarious\nAtonement, the last three having been elaborated after the ancient\nnatural truths underlying sun worship had been forgotten, are all to be\nfound in the East.\n\nThe doctrine of a Trinity is supposed to have been received directly\nfrom the Platonists, who had learned it from the Persians; while that of\na Crucified Savior, and also that of the seed of the woman bruising the\nserpent's head, belong, as we have seen, to the religion of Crishna.\n\nConcerning Original Sin, which is the foundation of the doctrine of the\n\"Atonement,\" it is plain that it was not known to the earlier followers\nof Christ, but that it was subsequently copied from the corrupted\nreligion of the Hindoos.\n\nThe symbolical meaning of the serpent and the Tree of Life was doubtless\nunderstood by the earliest adherents to the Christian faith; it is not\nsurprising, therefore, that by them there is no mention of the doctrine\nof Original Sin. Their theory to account for evil in the world was the\nsame as that of an ancient and almost forgotten race. The belief that\nthe soul of man is a spark from, or a part of the universal soul, that\nat the death of the body it returns to its source, and in process of\ntime appears as the animating principle in other bodies, was believed by\nPythagoras, Aspasia, Socrates, and Plato and, in fact, for thousands of\nyears it was entertained by the best and wisest of the human race. It\nwas a part of the early Christian doctrine and is still believed by the\nfollowers of Buddha and by the Theosophists of Europe and America.\n\nDoubtless the doctrines of Re-incarnation and Karma were set forth by\nthose very ancient philosophers who were the near descendants of the\ninventors of the Neros and the Metonic cycle--those who believed in the\nindestructibility of matter, and that spirit proceeds from or is evolved\nthrough it. It was an effort on their part to solve the problem of the\nexistence of evil, and was far more satisfactory to the reasoning\nmind than was the literal translation of the story of the woman, the\nforbidden apple, and the talking serpent in Genesis.\n\nOriginal sin of which woman is said to be the cause, and the necessity\nfor a spiritual (male) savior to deliver man from the wretchedness which\nshe had produced, are doctrines which took their rise in the grossest\nignorance, and in an entire misconception of the natural truths which\nhad previously been set forth by the figure of a dying sun-god. Original\nSin and a Vicarious Atonement--doctrines by means of which man has\nattempted to evade moral responsibility and the legitimate results of\nevil-doing--have, by weakening his moral sense, and by shifting the\nresponsibility of his deeds upon another, resulted in greatly lowering\nthe standard of human conduct.\n\nScience teaches that the penalty for sin is inherent in it, and that\nvirtue is its own reward; the so-called Christian doctrines assert that\nalthough a man's sins be as scarlet, they may, simply through a certain\nbelief, become white as wool. It has been claimed that a belief in\noriginal sin caused all the human sacrifices in ancient times and that\nit \"converted the Jews into a nation of cannibals.\"\n\nThat the system which has borne the name of Christianity is an outgrowth\nof Sun, Serpent, and Phallic faiths is so plainly proven by the facts\nbrought out by later research as no longer to be a matter of reasonable\ndoubt to those who have given any considerable degree of attention to\nthis subject. The more exalted ideas which from the time of Zoroaster\nto that of Jesus had been struggling for existence, and which through\nvarious means had been gradually gaining a foothold, were, by the influx\nof Crishnaism, soon choked out, and mythical Christianity, which was\nbut a gathering in of the grosser forms of the prevailing Hindoo faith,\nmounted the throne of the Roman Empire.\n\nDuring the nineteen hundred years that have elapsed since the\ninauguration of this system, little has been understood concerning the\nreal philosophy of Christ--a philosophy which is seen to be simply a\nrecognition of those higher scientific truths enunciated by an ancient\nrace.\n\nThe fact is observed in these later times that the altruistic principles\ninvolved in these teachings contain the highest wisdom--that they\nform the basis of a true social science, and that a high stage of\ncivilization will never be reached until these principles are recognized\nas the foundation of human conduct. Unselfishness, purity of life, and\nthe brotherhood of man will never be realized so long as man shifts the\nresponsibility of his wrong-doing upon another.\n\nQuite recently the fact has been proved that the progressive principle\noriginated in the female constitution; that in sympathy, a character\nwhich has its root in maternal affection, lies the key to human\nprogress. Conscience and the moral sense are outgrowths of sympathy;\ntherefore, that which distinguishes man from the lower orders of life\noriginated in and has been developed through the female organization.\n\nWhen these plain scientific truths, which are so simple as scarcely to\nneed demonstration, become popularized, doubtless our present god-idea\nwill undergo a process of reconstruction, and the later development\nwill probably involve conceptions more in keeping with science and human\nreason. Surely a scientific age will tolerate no religious conception\nwhose principles are not founded on truth. The worship of a male god as\nthe sole creator and sustainer of the universe is as unphilosophical as\nit is unreasonable and unscientific.\n\nAs in many ways at the present time, mankind seems inclined to retrace\nits steps, and as upon its onward march humanity is beginning to\nmanifest a willingness to return to truer and more primitive methods of\nthought and action, it is not impossible that in the not distant future,\nPerceptive Wisdom and the altruistic principles, together with the\npower to give life, may again be divinely enthroned in the place so long\nusurped by physical force and virile might.","title":"The God-Idea of the Ancients; Or, Sex in Religion","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":91227}