Inman - Pagan and Christian Symbolism
Inman - Pagan and Christian Symbolism
Inman - Pagan and Christian Symbolism
MODERN CHRISTIAN
SYMBOLISM
THOMAS INMAN
PLATE I
ANCIENT PAGAN
AND
BY
SECOND EDITION
REVISED AND ENLARGED.
Celephaïs Press
Ulthar - Sarkomand - Inquanok – Leeds
2004
First published London, 1869
Expanded second edition, London: Trübner, 1874
This electronic edition prepared and issued
by Celephaïs Press, somewhere beyond
the Tanarian Hills, and manifested
in the waking world in Leeds,
Yorkshire, England
2004
———
THE woodcuts in the present volume originally appeared in a
large work, in two thick volumes, entitled Ancient Faiths
embodied in Ancient Names. It has been suggested to me by
many, that a collection of these Figures, and their explana-
tion, are more likely to be generally examined than a very
voluminous book. The one is, as it were, an alphabet;
the other, an essay. The one opens the eyes; the other
gives them opportunities to use their vision. The one
teaches to read; the other affords means for practice. As the
larger work endeavours to demonstrate the existence of a
state of things almost unknown to the British public, so it is
necessary to furnish overwhelming proof that the allegations
and accusations made against certain nations of antiquity,
and some doctrines of Christianity, are substantially true.
Consequently, the number of witnesses is greater than is
absolutely necessary to prove the point.
———
THE demand which has sprung up for this work has induced
the Author to make it more complete than it was originally.
But it could not be made more perfect without being expanded
into a volume whose size would be incompatible with cheap-
ness. When every Figure would supply a text for a long
discourse, a close attention is required lest a description
should be developed into a dissertation.
In this work, the Author is obliged to confine himself to
the explanation of symbols, and cannnot launch out into
ancient and modern faiths, except in so far as they are
typified by the use of certain conventional signs.
A great many who peruse a book like this for the first
time, and find how strange were the ideas which for some
thousands of years permeated the religious opinions of the
civilised world, might naturally consider that the Author is
a mere visionary—one who is possessed of a hobby that he
rides to death. Such a position is strengthened by finding
that there is scarcely any subject treated of except the one
which associates religion, a matter of the highest aim to
man, with ideas of the most intensely earthly kind. But
a thoughtful reader will readily discern that an essay on
Symbolism must be confinded to visible emblems. By no
fair means can an author who makes the crucifix his text
vi
introduce the subject of the Confessional, the Eucharist, or
Extreme Unction. Nor can one, who knows that the Buddha
and Jesus alike inaugurated a faith which was unmarked by
visible symbolism, bring into an interpretation of emblems a
comparison between the preaching of two such distinguished
men. In the like manner, the Author is obliged to pass over
the difference between Judaism, Christianity as propounded
by the son of Mary, and that which passes current for
Christianity in Rome and most countries of Europe.
All these points, and many more, have been somewhat
fully discussed in the Author’s larger work, so often referred
to in this, and to that he must refer the curious. The
following pages are simply a chapter taken from a book,
complete perhaps in itself, but only as a brick may be
perfect, without giving to an individual any idea of the size,
style, or architecture of the house from which it has been
taken. If the readers will regard these pages as a beam in a
building, the Author will be content.
8, VYVYAN TERRACE,
CLIFTON, BRISTOL.
August, 1874.
INTRODUCTION.
———
IT may, we think, be taken for granted, that nothing is,
or has ever been, adopted into the service of Religion,
without a definite purpose. If it be supoosed that a religion
is build upon the foundation of a distinct revelation from the
Almighty, as the Hebrew is said to be, there is a full belief
that every emblem, rite, ceremony, dress, symbol, etc., has a
special signification. Many earnest Christians, indeed, see
in Judaic ordinaances a reference to Jesus of Nazareth. I
have, for example, heard a pious man assert that “leprosy”
was only another word for “sin”; but he was greatly
staggered in this belief when I pointed out to him that if
a person’s whole body was affected he was no longer unclean
(Lev. xiii. 13), which seemed on the proposed hypothesis to
demonstrate that when a sinner was as black as hell he
was the equal of a saint. According to such an interpreter,
the paschal lamb is a type of Jesus, and consequently all
whom his blood sprinkles are blocks of wood, lintels, and
side-posts (Exod. xii. 22, 23). By the same style of meta-
phorical reasoning, Jesus was typified by the “scape-goat,”
and the proof is clear, for one was driven away into the
wilderness, and the other voluntarily went there—one to
be destroyed, the other to be tempted by the devil! Hence
we infer that there is nothing repugnant to the minds of the
pious in an examination respecting the use of symbols, and
into that which is shadowed forth by them. What has been
done for Judaism may be attempted for other forms of
religion.
viii
As the Hebrews and Christians believe their religion
to be God-given, so other nations, having a different
theology, regard their own peculiar tenets. Though we may,
with that unreasoning prejudice and blind bigotry which are
common to the Briton and the Spaniard, and pre-eminently
so to the mass of Irish and Scotchmen amongst ourselves,
and to the Carlists in the peninsula, disbelieve a heathen
pretension to a divine revelation, we cannot doubt that the
symbols, etc., of Paganism have a meaning, and that it is as
lawful to scritinise the mysteries which they enfold as it is
to speculate upon the Urim and Thummim of the Jews.
Yet, even this freedom has, by some, been denied; for there
are a few amongst us who adhere rigidly to the precept
addressed to the followers of Moses, viz., “Take heed that
thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these
nations serve their gods?” (Deut. xii. 80.) The intention
of the prohibition thus enunciated is well marked in the
following words,* which indicate that the writer believed
that the adoption of heathen gods would follow inquiry
respecting them. It is not now-a-days feared that we may
become Mahomedans if we read the Koran, or Buddhists if
we study the Dhammapada; but there are priests whom fear
than an inquiry into ecclesiastical matters may make their
followers Papists, Protestants, Wesleyans, Baptists,
Unitarians, or some other religion which the Presbytery
object to. The dislike of inquiry ever attends those who
profess a religion which is believed or known to be weak.
The philosopher of the present day, being freed from the
shackles once rivited around him by a dominant hierarchy,
may regard the precept in Deuteronomy in another light.
Seeing that the same symbolism is common to many forms of
religion, professed in countries widely apart both as regards
time and space, he thinks that the danger of inquiry into
* “even so will I do likewise.”
ix
faiths is not the adoption of foreign, but the relinquishment
of present methods of religious belief. When we see the
same ideas promulgated as divine truth, on the ancient banks
of the Ganges, and the modern shores of the Mediterranean,
we are constrained to admit that they have something com-
mon in their source. They may be the result of celestial
revelation, or they may all alike emanate from human
ingenuity. As men invent new forms of religion now, there
is a presumption that others may have done so formerly. As
all men are essentially human, so we may believe that their
inventions will be characterised by the virtues and the fail-
ings of humanity. Again, experience tells us that similarity
in thought involves similarity in action. Two sportsmen,
seeing a hare run off from between them, will fire at it
so simultaneously that each is unaware that the other shot.
So a resemblance in religious belief will eventuate in the
selection of analogous symbolism.
We search into emblems with an intention different from
that with which we inquire into ordinary language. The
last tells us of the relationship of nations upon Earth, the
first of the probable connections of mankind with Heaven.
The devout Christian believes that all who venerate the Cross
may hope for a happy eternity, without ever dreaming that
the sign of his faith is as ancient as Homeric Troy, and was
used by the Phœnicians probably before the Jews had any
existence as a people; whilst an equally pious Mahometan
regards the Crescent as the passport to the realms of bliss,
without a thought that the symbol was in use long before
the Prophet of Allah was born, and amongst those nations
which it was the Prophet’s mission to convert or to destroy.
Letters and words mark the ordinary current of man’s
thought, whilst religious symbols show the nature of his
aspirations. But all have this in common, viz., that they
may be mistunderstood. Many a Brahmin has uttered
x
prayers in a language to him unintelligible; and many I
a Christian uses words in his devotions of which he never
seeks to know the meaning. “Om manee pani,” “Om
manee padme houm,” “Amen,” and “Ave Maria purissima”
may fairly be placed in the same category. In like manner,
the signification of an emblem may be unknown. The
antiquary finds in Lycian coins, and in Aztec ruins, figures
for which he can frame no meaning; whilst the ordinary
church-goer also sees, in his place of worship, designs of
which none ean give him a rational explanation. Again, we
find that a language may find professed interpreters, whose
system of exposition is wholly wrong; and the same may be
said of symbols. I have seen, for example, three distinctly
different interpretations given to one Assyrian inscription,
and have heard as many opposite explanations of a particu-
lar figure, all of which have been incorrect.
In the interpretation of unkown languages and symbols,
the observer gladly allows that much may be wrong; but this
does not prevent him believing that some may be right. In
giving his judgment, he will examine as closely as he can
into the system adopted by each inquirer, the amount of
materials at his disposal, and generally, the acumen which
has been brought to the task. Perhaps, in an investigation
such as we describe, the most important ingredient is care
in collation and comparison. But a scholar can only collate
satisfactorily when he has sufficient means, and these
demand much time and research. The labour requires more
time than ordinary working folk can command, and more
patience than those who have leisure are generally disposed
to give. Unquestionably, we have as yet had few attempts in
England to classify and expIain ancient and modern symbols.
It is perhaps not strictly true that there has been so much a
laxity in the research, of which we here speak, as a dread of
making public the results of inquiry. Investigators, as a
xi
rule, have a respect for their own prejudices, and dislike
to make known to others a knowledge which has brought
pain to their own minds. Like the Brahmin of the story,
they will destroy a fine microscope rather than permit their
co-religionists to know that they drink living creatures in
their water, or eat mites in their fruit. The motto of such
people is, “If truth is disagreeable, cling to error.”
The following attempts to explain much of ancient and
modern symbolism can only be regarded as tentative. The
various devices contained herein seem to me to support the
views which I have been led to form from other sources, by
a careful inquiry into the signification of ancient names,
and the examination of ancient faiths. The figures were ori-
ginally intended as corroborative of evidenc:e drawn from
numerous ancient and modern writings; and the idea of
collecting them, and, as it were, making them speak for
themselves, has been an after-thought. In the following
pages I have simply reprinted the figures, etc., which appear
in Ancient Faiths embodied in Ancient Names (second
edition). I make no attempt to exhaust the subject. There
are hundreds of emblems which find herein no place; and
there are explanations of symbols current to which I make
no reference, for they are simply exoteric.
For the benefit of many of my readers, I must explain
the meanmg of the last word italicised. In most, if not in
all, forms of religion, there are tenets not generally imparted
to the vulgar, and only given to a select few under the seal
of secrecy. A similar reticence exists in common life.
There are secrets kept from children, for example, that are
commonly known to all parents; there are arcana, familiar
to doctors, of which patients have no idea. For example,
when a lad innocently asks the family surgeon, or his parent,
where the last new baby came from, he is put off with
a reply, wide of the mark, yet sufficient for him. When I
xii
put such a question to the maids in the kitchen, to which
place for a time I was relegated, the first answer was that the
baby came from the parsley bed. On hearing this, I went
into the garden, and, finding the bed had been unmoved,
came back and reproached my informant for falsehood.
Another then took up the word, and said it was the carrot
bed which the baby came from. As a roar of laughter
followed this remark, I felt that I was being cheated, and
asked no more questions. Then I could not, now I can,
understand the esoteric sense of the sayings. They had
to the servants two distinct signiftcations. The only one
which I could then comprehend was exoteric, that which
was known to my elders was the esoteric meaning. In
what is called “religion” there has been a similar distinc-
tion. We see this, not only in the “mysteries,” of Greece
and Rome, but amongst the Jews; Esdras stating the follow-
ing as a command from God, “Some things shalt thou pub-
lish, and somethings shalt thou show secretly to the wise.”
(2 Esdras xv, 26).
When there exist two distinct explanations, or state-
ments, about the signification. of an emblem, the one
“esoteric,” true, and known only to the few, the other
“exoteric,” incorrect, and known to the many, it is clear
that a time may come when the first may be lost, and
the last alone remain. As an illustration, we can point to
the original and correct pronunciation of the word hwhy,
commonly pronounced Jehovah. Known only to a select
few, it became lost when these died without imparting it;
yet what is considered to be the incorrect method of pro-
nouncing the word survives until to-day.*
the Evoe or Euoe associated with Bacchus; and Jaho, analogous to the J. A. O.
of the Gnostics. The Greek “Fathers” give the word as if equivalent to yave,
yaoh, yeho, and iao.
But the question is not how the word may be pronounced, but how it was
expressed in sound when used in religion by the Hebrew and other Semitic
nations, amongst whom it was a sacred sound, or ineffable name, not lightly
to be “taken in vain.”
xiv
that the Philistines, who much have touched the box to put
their strange offerings beside it (see 1 Sam. vi. 8), were not
particularly bothered. They were “profane”; and priests
only invent stories, which are applicable to the arcana which
they use in worship, to blind the eyes of and give a holy
horror to the people whom they govern. How David wor-
shipped the ark as being the representative of God we see in
2 Sam. vi., 14, 16, 17, 21.
The ark of the covenant was indeed regarded. by the Jews
much as a saint’s toe, a crucifix, an image of the Virgin,
a bit of wood, or a rusty old nail is by the Roman Catholics.
So flagrant an apparent breach of the second commandment
was covered for the common Hebrews by the asssertion that
the mysterious box was a token of God’s covenant with His
People; but that this statement was “exoteric,” we feel sure,
when we find a similar ark existing and used in “the myste-
ries” of Egypt and Greece, amongst people who probably
never heard of Jews and could by no chance know what
passed in the Hebrew temple.
When become dissatisfied with a statement which is
evidently intended to be a blind, some individuals naturally
endeavour to ascertain what is behind the curtain. In this
they resemble the brave boy, who rushes upon a sheet and
turnip lantern, which has imposed upon his companions and
passed for a ghost. What is a bugbear to the many is often
a contemptible reptile to the few. Yet there are a great
number who would rather run from a phantom night after
night than grapple with it once, and would dissuade others
from being bold enough to encounter it. Nevertheless, even
the former rejoice when the cheat is exposed.
As when, by some courageous hand, that which has been
mistaken by hundreds for a spectre has been demonstrated to
be a crafty man, no one would endeavour to demonstrate
the reality of ghosts by referring to the many scores of men
xv
of all ranks who had been duped by the apparition thus
detected; so, in like manner, when the falsehood of an
exoteric story is exhibited, it is no argument in its favour
that the vulgar in thousands and many a wise man have
believed it. Speaking metaphorically, we have many such
ghosts amongst ourselves; phantoms, which pass for power-
ful giants, but are in reality perfect shams. Such we may
describe by comparing them to the apocryphal vampires. It
is to me a melancholy thing to contemplate the manner
in which mankind have, in every age and nation made for
themselves bugbears, and then have felt fear at them. We
deride the African, who manufactures a Fetish, and then
trembles at its power, but the learned know perfectly well
that man made the devil, whom the pious fear, just as a
negro dreads Mumbo Jumbo.
In the fictitious narratives which passed truth in the
dark ages of Christianity, there were accounts of individuals
who died and were buried, and who, after a brief repose in
the tomb, rose again. Some imagined that the resusci-
tated being was the identical one who had been interred.
Others believed that some evil spirit had appropriated the
body, and restored to it apparent vitality. Whatever the fiction
was, the statement remained unchallenged, that some dead
folk returned to earth, having the same guise as when they
quitted it. We believe that a similar occurrence has taken
place in religion. Heathendom died, and was buried; yet,
after a brief interval, it rose again from its tomb. But,
unlike the vampire, its garb was changed, and it was
not recognised. It moved through Christendom in a seduc-
tive dress. If it were a devil, yet its clothing was that of a
sheep; if a wolf, it wore breadcloth. If it ravened, the
victims were not pitied. Heathenism, by which I mean the
manners, morals and rites prevalent in pagan times or
countries, like a resuscitated vampire, once bore rule through-
xvi
out Christendom, in which term is included all those parts
where Christian baptism is used by all the people, or the
vast majority. In most parts it still reigns supreme.
When vampires were discovered by the acumen of any
observer, they were, we are told, ignominiously killed, by a
stake being driven through the body; but experience showed
them to have such tenacity of life that they rose again,
and again, notwithstanding renewed impalement, and were
not ultimately laid to rest till wholly burnt. In like manner,
the regenerated Heathendom, which dominates over the fol-
lowers of Jesus of Nazareth, has risen again and again, after
being transfixed. Still cherished by the many, it is
denounced by the few. Amongst other accusers, I raise my
voice against the Paganism which exists so extensively
in ecclesiastical Christianity, and will do my utmost to
expose the imposture.
In a vampire story, told in Thalaba, by Southey, the
resuscitated being takes the form of a dearly beloved maiden,
and the hero is obliged to kill her with his own hand. He
does so; but, whilst he strikes the form of the loved one, he
feels sure that he slays only a demon. In like manner,
when I endeavour to destroy the current Heathenism,
which has assumed the garb of Christianity, I do not attack
real religion. Few would accuse a workman of malignancy
who cleanses from filth the surface or a noble statue. There
may be some who are too nice to touch a nasty subject;
yet even they will rejoice when some one else removes
the dirt. Such a scavenger is much wanted.
If I were to assert, as a general proposition that religion
does not require any symbolism, I should probably win
assent from every true Scotch Presbyterian, every Wesleyan,
and every Independent. Yet I should be opposed by every
Papist, and by most Anglican Churchmen. But why? Is
it not because their ecclesiastics have adopted symbolism into
xvii
their churches and into their ritual? They have broken the
second commandment of Jehovah, and refuse to see anything
wrong in their practice, or gross in their imagery. But they
adopt Jehovah rather than Elohim, and break the command-
ment, said to be given upon Sinai, in good company.
* Whilst these sheets were passing through the press, there appeared a work,
published anonymously, but reported to be by one of the most eminent theologians
who ever sat upon an episcopal bench. It is entitled Supernatural Religion.
London: Longmans, 1874. From it we quote the following, vol. ii. p. 489:—
“We gain infinitely more than we lose in abandoning belief in the reality of
Divine Revelation. Whilst we retain pure and unimpaired the treasure of Christian
Morality, we relinquish nothing but the debasing elements added to it by human
superstition. We are no longer bound to believe a theology which outrages reason
and moral sense. We are freesd from base anthropomorphic views of God and His
government of the universe; and from Jewish Mythology we rise to higher con-
ceptions of an infinitely wise and beneficent Being, hidden from our finite minds,
it is true, in the impenetrable glory of Divinity, but whose Laws of wondrous
comprehensiveness and perfection we ever perceive in operation around us. We are
no longer disturbed by visions of fitful interference with the order of Nature, but
we recognise that the Being who regulate the universe is without variableness or
shadow of turning. It is singular how little there is in the supposed Revelation of
alleged information, however incredible, regarding that which is beyond the limits of
human thought, but that little is of a character which reason declares to be the
wildest delusion. Let no man whose belief in the reality of a Divine Revelation
may be destroyed by such an inquity complain that he has lost a precious posses-
sion, and that nothing is left but a blank. The Revelation not being a reality, that
which he has lost was but an illusion, and that which is left is the Truth. If he be
content with illusions, he will equally be consoled; if he be a lover only of truth,
instead of a blank, he will recognise that the reality before him is full of great
peace.
“If we know less than we have supposed of man’s destiny, we may at least
rejoice that we are no longer compelled to believe that which is unworthy. The
limits of thought once attained, we may well be unmoved in the assurance that
all that we do know of the regulation of the universe being so perfect and wise, all
that we do not know must be equally so. Here enters the true and noble Faith—
which is the child of reason. If we have believed a system, the details of which
must at one time or another have shocked the mind of every intelligent man, and
believed it simply because it was supposed to be revealed, we may equally believe
in the wisdom and goodness of what is not revealed. The mere act of
communication to us is nothing: Faith in the perfect ordering of all things is
independent of Revelation.
“The argument so often employed by Theologians that Divine Revelation is
necessary for man, and that certain views contained in that Revelation are required
by our moral consciousness, is purely imaginary, and derived from the Revelation
which it seeks to maintain. The only thing absolutely necessary for man is Truth,
and to that, and that alone, must our moral consciousness adapt itself.”
xix
moon, the constellations and the planets, as ministers of the
unseen ONE, and, reasoning from what was known to what
was unknown, argued thus: “Throughout nature there
seems to be a dualism. In the sky there are a sun and moon;
there are also sun and earth, earth and sea. In every set of
animals there are males and females.” An inquiry into the
influence of the sun brought out the facts that by themselves
its beams were destructive; they were only beneficent when
the earth was moist with rain. As the rain from heaven,
then, caused things on earth to grow, it was natural that the
main source of light and heat should be regarded as a male,
and the earth as a female. As a male, the sun was supposed
to have the emblems of virllity, and a spouse whom he
impregnated, and who thereby became fertile.
In examining ancient Jewish, Phœnician, and other
Shemitic cognomens, I found that they consisted of a divine
name and some attribute of the deity, and that the last was
generally referrible, equally to THE SUPREME, to the Sun, as
a god, and to the masculine emblem. If the deity was a
female, the name of her votary contained a reference to the
moon and the beauties or functions of women. The higher
ideas of the Creator were held only by a few, the many
adopted a lower and more debased view. In this manner
the sun became a chief god and the moon his partner, and
the former being supposed to be male and the latter female,
both became associated with the ideas which all have of
terrestrial animals. Consequently the solar deity was asso-
ciated in symbolism with masculine and the moon with
feminine emblems.
An inquiry into antiquity, as represented by Babylonians;
Assyrians, Egyptians, Phœnicians, Hebrews, Greeks, Etrus-
cans, Romans, and others, and into modern faiths still cur-
rent, as represented in the peninsula of India, in the
Lebanon, and elsewhere, shows that ideas of sex have been
xx
very generally associated with that of creation. God has
been described as a king, or as a queen, or as both united.
As monarch, he is supposed to be man, or woman, or both.
As man differs from woman in certain peculiarities, these
very means of distinction have been incorporated into the
worship of god and goddess. Rival sects have been ranged
in ancient times under the symbol of the T and the O, as
in later times they are under the cross and the crescent.
The worship of God the Father has repeatedly clashed with
that of God the Mother, and the votaries of each respectively
have worn badges characteristic of the sex of their deity.
An illustration of this is to be seen amongst ourselves; one
sect of Christian adoring chiefly the Trinity, another reve-
rencing the Virgin. There is a well-known picture, indeed,
of Mary worshipping her infant; and to the former is given
the title Mater Creatoris, “the mother of the Creator.” Our
sexual sections are as well marked as those in ancient Jeru-
salem, which swore by Jehovah and Ashtoreth respectively.
The idea of sexuality in religion is quite compatible with
a ritual and practice of an elaborate character, and a depth
of piety which prefers starvation to impurity, or, as the
Bible has it, to uncleanness. To eat “with the blood” was
amongst the Hebrews a crime worthy of death; to eat with
unwashed hands was a dreadful offence in the eyes of the
Pharisees of Jerusalem; and in the recent famine in Bengal,
we have seen that individuals would rather die of absolute
hunger, and allow their children to perish too, than eat
bread or rice which may have been touched by profane
hands, or drink milk that had been expressed by British.
milkmaids from cows’ udders. Yet these same Hindoos, the
very particular sect of the Brahmins, have amongst them-
selves a form of worship which to our ideas is incompatible
with real religion. The folks referred to adore the Creator,
and respect their ceremonial law even more deeply, than did
xxi
the Hebrews after the time of the Babylonish captivity; but
they have a secret cult in which—and in the most matter-of-
fact way—they pay a very practical homage to one or
other of the parts which is thought by the worshipper to be
a mundane emblem of the creator.
The curious will find in Essays on the Religion of the
Hindus, by H. H. Wilson, in the Dabistan, translated by
Shea and Troyer (Allen and Co., London), 3 vols., 8vo., and
in Memoires of the Anthropological Society of London
(Trübner and Co.), vols. 1 and 2, much information on the
method of conducting the worship referred to. The first
named author thinks it advisible to leave the Brahinic
“rubric” for the “Sakti Sodhana,” for the most part under
the veil of the original Sanscrit, and I am not disposed wholly
to withdraw it.
But Christians are not pure; some of my readers may
have seen a work written by an Italian lady of high birth,
who was in early life forced into a nunnery, and who left it
as soon as she had a chance. In her account she tells
us how the women in the monastery were seduced by reve-
rend Fathers, who were at one time, the instruments of
vice, at another the guides to penitence. Their practice was
to instruct their victims that whatever .was said or done
must be accompanied by a pious sentence. Thus, “I love you
dearly” was a profane expression; but “I desire your
company in the name of Jesus,” and “I embrace in you the
Holy Virgin,” were orthodox. In like manner, the Hindus
have prayers prescribed for their use, when the parts are to
be purified before proceeding to extremities, when they are
introduced to each other, in the agitation which follows, and
when the ceremony is completed. Everything is done, as
Ritualists would say, decently and in order; and a pious
orgie, sanctified by prayers, cannot be worse than the
penance ordained by some “confessors” to those faithful
xxii
damsels whose minds are plastic enough to believe that
a priest is an embodiment of the Holy Ghost, and that they
become assimilated to the Blessed Virgin when they are over-
shadowed by the power of the Highest (Luke i. 35).
There being, then, in “religion” a strong sensual
element, ingenuity has been exercised to a wonderful extent
in the contrivance of designs, nearly or remotely significant
of this idea, or rather union of the conceptions to which we
have referred. Jupiter is a Proteus in form; now a man,
now a bull, now a swan, now an androgyne. Juno, or her
equivalent, is sometimes a woman, occasionally a lioness, and
at times a cow. All conceivable attributes of man and
woman were symbolised; and gods were called by the names
of power, love, anger, desire, revenge, fortune, etc. Every-
thing in creation that resembled in any way the presumed
Creator, whether in name, in character, or in shape, was
supposed to represent the deity. Hence a palm tree was a
religious emblem, because it is long, erect, and round; an
oak, for it is hard and firm; a fig-tree,. because its leaves
resemble the male triad. The ivy was sacred from a similar
cause. A myrtle was also a type, but of the female, because
its leaf is a close representation of the vesica piscis.
Everything, indeed, which in any way resembles the charac-
teristic organs of man and woman, became symbolic of the
one or the other deity, Jupiter or Juno, Jehovah of
Astarte, the Father or the Virgin. Sometimes, but very
rarely, the parts in question were depicted au naturel, and
the means by which creation is effected became the mundane
emblem of the Almighty; and two huge phalli were seen
before a temple, as we now see towers or spires before our
churches, and minarets before mosques. (Lucian, Dea
Syria.)
Generally, however, it was considered the most correct plan
to represent the organs by some conventional form, understood
xxiii
by the initiated, but not by the unlearned. Whatever was
upright, and longer than broad, became symbolic of the
father; whilst that which was hollow, cavernous, oval, or
circular, symbolised the mother. A sword, spear, arrow,
dart, battering ram, spade, ship’s prow, anything indeed
intended to pierce into something else was emblematic of
the male; whilt the female was symbolised as a door, a hole,
a sheath, a target, a shield, a field, anything indeed which
was to be entered. The Hebrew names sufficiently indicate
the plan upon which the sexes were distinguished; the one
is a rkz, zachar, a perforator or digger, and the other hbqn,
nekebah, a hole or trench, i.e. male and female.
These symbols were: not necessarily those of religious
belief. They might indicate, war, heroism, prowess, royalty,
command, etc., or be nothing more than they really were.
They only symbolised the Creator when they were adopted
into religion. Again, there was a still further refinement;
and advantage was taken of the fact that one symbol was
tripliform, the other single; one of one shape, and the other
different. Consequently, a triangle, or three things, arranged
so that one should stand above the two, became emblematic
of the Father, whilst an unit symbolised the Mother.
These last three sentences deserve close attention, for
some individuals have, in somewhat of a senseless fashion,
objected, that a person who can see in a tortoise an emblem
of the male, and in a horse-shoe an effigy of the female
organ, must be quite too fantastical to deserve notice. But
to me, as to other “inquirers” these things are simply what
they appear to be when they are seen in common life. Yet
when the former creature occupies a large space in mytho-
logy; when the Hindoo places it as the being upon which the
world stands, and the Greeks represent one Venus as resting
upon a tortoise and another on a goat; and when one know
that in days gone by, in which people were less refined, the
xxiv
kteˆj was displayed where the horse-shoe is now, and that
some curiously mysterious attributes were assigned to the
part in question; we cannot refuse to see the thing signified
in the sign.
Again, inasmuch as what we may call the most prominent
part of the tripliform organ was naturally changeable in
character, being at one time soft, small, and pendent, and at
another hard, large, and upright, those animals. that resem-
bled it in these respects became symbolical. Two serpents,
therefore, one Indian, and the other Egyptian, both of which
are able to distend their heads and necks, and to raise them
up erect, were emblematic, and each in its respective country
typified the father, the great Creator. In like manner,
another portion of the triad was regarded as similar in shape
and size to the common hen’s egg. As the celebrated physi-
ologist, Haller, remarked, “Omne vivum ex ovo,” every
living thing comes from an egg; so more ancient biologists
recognised that the dual part of the tripliform organ was as
essential to the creation of a new being, as the central pillar.
Hence an egg and a serpent became a characteristic of “the
Father,” El, Ab, Ach, Baal, Asher, Melech, Adonai, Jahu,
etc. When to this was added a half moon, as in certain
Tyrian coins, the trinity and unity were symbolised, and
a faith expressed like the one held in modem Rome, that the
mother of creation is co-equal with the father; the one
seduces by her charms, and the other makes them fructify.
To the Englishman, who, as a rule, avoids talking upon
the subject which forms the basis of many an ancient
religion, it seems incredible that any individual, or set of
writers, could have exercised their ingenuity in finding
circumlocutory euphemisms for things which, though
natural, are rarely named. Yet the wonder ceases when we
find, in the writings of our lively neighbours, the French, a
host of words intended to describe the parts referred to,
xxv
which correspond wholly with the pictorial emblems adopted
by the Greeks and others.
As English writers have, as a rule, systematically avoided
making any distinct reference to the sexual ideas embodied
in ancient Paganism, so they have, by their silence, encou-
raged the formation of a school of theology which has no
solid foundation, except a very animal one. As each indi-
vidual finds out this for himself, it becomes a question with
him how far the information shall be imparted to others. So
rarely has the determination to accuse the vampire been
taken, that we can point to very few English books to which
to refer our readers. We do not know one such that is
easily assessible; R. Payne Knight’s work, and the addition
thereto, having been privately printed, is not often to be
found in the market. To give a list of the foreign works
which the author has consulted, prior to and during the
composition of his book on Ancient Faiths, would be almost
equivalent to giving a catalogue of part of his library. He
may, however, indicate the name of one work which is
unusually valuable for reference, viz., Histoire abrégée des
Differens Cultes, par J. A. Dulaure, 2 vols., small 8vo.,
Paris, 1825. Though out of print, copies can generally be
procured through second-hand booksellers. Another work,
Récherches sur les Mystères de Paganisme, by St. Croix, is
equally valuable, but it is very difficult to procure a copy.
The ancient Jews formed no exception to the general law
of reverence for the male emblem of the Creator; and
though we would, from their pretensions to be the chosen
people of God, gladly find them exempt from what we
consider to be impurities, we are constrained to believe that,
even in the worship of Jehovah, more respect was given to
the symbol than we, living in modern times, think that it
deserves. In their Scriptures we read of Noah, whose infirm
temper seems to have bee on a par with his weakness for
xxvi
wine, cursing one of his three sons because, whilst drunk, he
had negligently exposed his person, and the young man had
thought the sight an amusing one. Ham had no reverence
for the symbol of the Creator, but Shem and Japhet had,
and covered it with a veil as respectfully as if it had been the
ineffable framer of the world (Gen. ix. 21-27). As our feel-
ings of propriety induce us to think that the father was a
far greater sinner than the son, we rejoice to know that the
causeless curse never fell, and that Ham, in the lands of
Canaan, Assyria, and Babylonia, and subsequently in Car-
thaginian Spain, were the masters of those Hebrews, whose
main force, in old times, lay in impotent scoldings, such as
Shakespeare puts in the mouth of Caliban.
One of the best proots of the strong sexual element
which existed in the religion of the Jews is the fact that
Elohim, one of the names of the Creator amongst the
Hebrews, is represented, Gen. xvii. 10-14, as making cir-
cumcision a sign of his covenant with the seed of Ahraham;
and in order to ascertain whether a man was to be regarded
as being in the covenant, God is supposed to have looked at
the state of the virile organ, or—as the Scripture has it—of
the hill of the foreskin. We find, indeed, that Jehovah was
quite as particular, and examined a male quite as closely as
Elohim: for when Moses and Zipporah were on their way
from Midian to Egypt, Exod. iv. 24, Jehovah, having looked
at the “trinity” of Moses’ son, and having found it as per-
fect as when the lad was born, sought to slay him, and would
have done so unless the mother had mutilated the organ
according to the sacred pattern. Again, we find in Josh. v. 2,
and in the following verses, that Jehovah insisted upon all
the Hebrew males having their virile member in the covenant
condition ere they went to attack the Canaanites. We cannot
suppose that any scribe could dwell so much as almost every
scriptural writer does upon the subject of circumcision, had
xxvii
not the masculine emblem been held in religious veneration
amongst the Jewish nation.
But the David who leaped and danced, obscenely as we
should say, before the ark—an emblem of the female
creator—who purchased his wife from her royal father by
mutilating a hundred Philistines, and presenting the foreskins
which he had cut off therefrom “in full tale” to the king
(1 Sam. xviii. 27, 2 Sam. iii, 14), who was once the captain
of a monarch who thought it a shame beyond endurance to
be abused, tortured, or slain by men whose. persons were in
a natural condition (1 Sam. xxxi. 4), and who imagined
that he, although a stripling, could conquer a giant, because
the one had a sanctified and the other a natural member—is
the man whom we know as the author of Psalms with which
Christians still refresh their minds and comfort their souls.
The king who, even in his old age, was supposed to think so
much of women that his courtiers sought a lovely damsel as
a comfort for his dying bed, is believed to have been the
author of the noble nineteenth Psalm, and a number of
others full of holy aspirations. It is clear, then, that sexual
ideas on religion are not incompatible with a desire to be
holy. The two were co-existent in Palestine; they are
equally so in Bengal.
We next find that Abraham, the cherished man of God,
the honoured patriarch of the Jews, makes his servant lay
his hand upon the master’s member, whilst he takes an
oath to do his bidding, precisely like a more modern
Palestinian might do; and Jacob does the same with Joseph.
See Gen. xxiv. 8, and xlvii. 29.
As it is not generally known that the expression, “under
my thigh,” is a euphemism for the words, “upon the symbol
of the Creator,” I may point to two or three other passages
in which the thigh (translated in the authorised version
loins) is used periphrastically: Genesis xxxv. 2, xlvi. 26;
xxviii
Exod. i. 5. See Ginsburg, in Kitto’s Biblical Cyclopedia,
vol. 3, p. 348, s.v. OATH.
I have on two occasions read, although I failed to make
a note of it, that an Arab, during the Franco-Egyptian war,
when accused by General Kleber of treachery, not only
vehemently denied it, but when he saw himself still dis-
trusted, he uncovered himself before the whole military staff,
and swore upon his trinity that he was guiltless. In the
Lebanon, once in each year, every female considers it her
duty to salute with her lips the reverenced organ of the Old
Sheik.
Again we learn from Deut. xxiii. 1, that any unsanctified
mutilation of this part positively entailed expulsion from the
congregation of the Lord. Even a priest of the house of
Aaron could not minister, as such, if his masculinity had
been in any way impaired (Lev. xxi. 20); and report says
that, in our Christian times, Popes have to be privately
perfect; see also Deut. xxv. 11, 12. Moreover, the inquirer
finds that the Jewish Scriptures teem with promises of
abundant offspring to those who were favourites of
Jehovah; and Solomon; the most glorious: of their monarchs,
is described as if he were a Hercules amongst the daughters
of Thespius. Nothing can indicate the licentiousness of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem more clearly than the writings of
Ezekiel.* If, then, in Hebrew law and practice, we find
such a strong infusion of the sexual element, we cannot be
surprised if it should be found elsewhere, and gradually
influence Christianity.
We must next notice the fact, that what we call impurity
in religious tenets does not necessarily involve indecency in
practice. The ancient Romans, in the time of the early
kings, seem to bave been as proper as early Christian
maidens. It is true that, in the declining days of the empire
* See Ezekiel xxii. 1-30, and compare Jerem. v. 7, 8
xxix
city, exhibitions that called forth the fierce denunciations
of the fathers of Church took place; but we find very
similar occurrences in modern Christian capitals. In Spartan
days, chastity and honesty were not virtues, but drunkenness
was a vice. In Christian England, drunkenness is general,
and we cannot pride ourselves upon universal honesty and
chastity. It is not the national belief, but the national
practice, which evidences a people’s worth. Spain and Ire-
land, called respectively “Catholic” and “the land of
saints,” cannot boast of equality with “infidel” France and
“free-thinking” Prussia. England will be as earnest, as
upright, and as civilised, when she has abandoned the
heathen elements in her religion, as when she hugs them as
if necessary to her spiritual welfare. Attachment to the
good parts of religion is wholly distinct from a close embrace
of the bad ones; and we believe he deserves best of his
country who endeavours to remove every possible source of
discord. None can doubt the value of the order, “Do to
others as you would wish others to do to you.” If all unite
to carry this out, small differences of opinion may at once
be sunk. How worthless are many of the dogmas that
people now fight about, the following pages will show.
————
In our larger work we have endeavoured to show that
there may be a deep sense of religion, a feeling of personal
responsibility, so keen as to influence every act of life, with-
out there being a single symbol used. The earnest Sakya
Muni, or Buddha, never used anything as a sacred emblem;
nor did Jesus, who followed him, and perhaps unconsciously
propagated the Indian’s doctrine. When the Apostles were
sent out to teach and preach, they were not told to carry out
any form of ark of crucifix. To them the doctrine of the
Trinity was unknown, and not one of them had any parti-
xxx
cular reverence for her whom we call the Virgin Mary, who,
if she was ‘virgo intacta ’ when Jesus was born, was cer-
tainly different when she bore his brothers. Paul and Peter,
though said to be the fathers of the Roman Church, never
used or recommended the faithful to procure for themselves
“a cross” as an aid to memory. The early Christians
recognised each other by their deeds, and never had, like
the Jews, to prove that they were in covenant with God, by
putting a mutilated part of their body into full view. We,
with the Society of Friends, prefer primitive to modern
Christianity.
PLATE III.
Figs. 1 and 4 are illustrations of the antelope as a
religious emblem amongst the Assyrians. The first is from
Layard’s Nineveh, and in it we see carried in one hand a
triply branched lotus; the second, showing the regard for
the spotted antelope, and for “the branch,” is from
Bonomi’s Nineveh and its Palaces.
Fig. 2 illustrates Bacchus, with a mystic branch in one
hand, and a cup in the other; his robe is covered with stops,
arranged in threes. The branch is emblematic of the arbor
vitæ; or tree of life, and its powers of sprouting. Such a
symbol is, by outsiders, figured on the houses of newly
married couples amongst the Jews of Morocco, and se'ms to
indicate the desire of friends that the man will show that he
is vigorous, and able to have many sprouts from the tree of
life. It will be noticed that on the fillet round the god’s
head are arranged many crosses. From Hislop’s Two
Babylons, and Smith’s Dictionary, p. 208.
Figs. 3 and 5 are intended to show the prevalence of the
use of spots on priestly dresses; they are copied from
Hislop’s Two Babylons, and Wilkinson, vol. vi., pl. 83, and
vol. iv., pp. 314, 358. For an explanation of the significa-
tion of spots, see Plate iv., Fig. 6, infra.
PLATE IV.
Fig. 1 represents an Assyrian priest worshipping by
presentation of the thumb, which had a peculiar signifi-
cation. Sometimes the forefinger is pointed instead, and in
both cases the male is symbolised. It is taken from a plate
illustrating a paper by E. C. Ravenshaw, Esq., in Journal
of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xvi., p. 114. Amongst the
4
Hebrews, and probably all the Shemitic tribes, bohen, the
thumb, and ezba, the finger, were euphemisms. They are
so in some parts of Europe to the present day.* The hand
thus presented to the grove resembles a part of the Buddhist
cross, and the shank of a key, whose signification is described
in a subsequent page.
Fig. 2 is a Buddhist emblem; the two fishes forming the
circle represent the mystic yoni, the sacti of Mahadeva, while
the triad above them represents the mystie trinity, the
triune father, Siva, Bel, or Asher, united with Anu and Hea.
From Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 392,
plate ii.
Fig. 3 is a very remarkable production. It originally
belonged to Mons. Lajard, and is described by him in his
second Memoire, entitled Recherches sur le Culte, les Sym-
boles, les Attributs, et us Monumens Figurés de Vénus
(Paris, 1837), in pages 82, et seq., and figured in plate i.,
fig. 1. The real age of the gem and its origin are not
known, but the subject leads that author to believe it to be
of late Babylonian workmanship. The stone is a white
agate, shaped like a cone, and the cutting is on its lower
face. The shape of this gem indicates its dedication to
Venus. The central figures represent the androgyne deity,
Baalim, Astaroth, Elohim, Jupiter genetrix, or the bearded
Venus Mylitta. On the left side ot the cuttiug we notice an
erect serpent, whose rayed head makes us recognise the
solar emblem, and its mundane representative, mentula
arrecta; on a spot opposite to the centre of the male’s body
we find a lozenge, symbolic of the yoni, whilst opposite to
his feet, is the amphora, whose mystic signification may
* A friend has informed me, for example, that he happened, whilst at Perth,
to look at a gorgeously dressed and handsome young woman. To his astonishment
she pointed her thumb precisely in the manner adopted by the Assyrian priests;
this surprised the young man still farther, and being, as it were, fascinated, he
continued to gaze. The damsel then grasped the thumb by the other hand; thus
indicating her profession. My friend, who was wholly inexperienced in the ways of
the world, only understood what was meant when he saw my explanation of Fig. I.
5
readily be recognised; it is meant for Ouranos, or the Sun
fructifying Terra, or the earth, by pouring from himself into
her. The three stars over the head of the figure, and the
inverted triangle on its head, are representatives of the
mythological four, equivalent to the Egyptian symbol of
life (figs. 31, 32). Opposite to the female are the moon,
and another serpent, which may be recognised by physiologists
as symbolic of tensio clitoridis. In a part corresponding to
the diamond, on the left side, is a six-rayed wheel, emblem-
atic, apparently, of the sun. At the female’s feet is placed a
cup, which is intended to represent the passive element in
creation. As such it is analogous to the cresent moon, and
is associated in the Roman church with the round wafer, the
symbol of the sun; the wafer and cup thus being synony-
mous with the sun and moon in conjunction. It will be
observed that each serpent in the plate is apparently
attacked by what we suppose is a dragon. There is some
difficulty in understanding the exact idea intended to be
conveyed by these; my own opinion is that they symbolise
Satan, the old serpent that tempted Eve, viz., fierce lust,
Eros, Cupid, or desire, which, both in the male and female,
brings about the arrectation which the serpents figure. It
is not to be passed by without notice, that the snake which
represents the male has the tale curved as to suggest
the idea of the second and third elements of the trinity.
Monsieur Lajard takes the dragons to indicate the bad prin-
ciple in nature, i.e., darkness, night, Ahriman, etc. On the
pyramidal portion of the gem the four sides are ornamented
by figures—three represent animals remarkable for their
salacity, and the fourth represents Bel and Ishtar in con-
junction, in a fashion which can be more easily imagined
than described in the mother tongue. The learned will
find the position assumed in Lucretius, Dê Rerum Naturâ,
book iv., lines 1256, seq.
Fig 4. is also copied from Lajard, plate i., fig. 10. It is
the reverse of a bronze coin of Vespasian, struck in the
6
island of Cyprus, and represents the conical stone, under
whose form Venus was worshipped at Paphos, of which
Tacitus remarks, Hist. ii., c. 3, “the statue bears no resem-
blance to the human form, but is round, broad at one end
and gradually tapering at the other, like a goal. The reason
of this is not ascertained.” It is remarkable that a male
emblem should be said to represent Venus, but the stone
was an aërolite, like that which fell at Ephesus, and was
said to represent Diana. It is clear that when a meteoric
stone falls, the chief priests of the district can say that it
is to be taken as a representative of their divinity.
My very ingenions friend, Mr. Newton, suggests that the
Venus in question was androgyne; that the cone is a male
emblem, within a door, gateway, or delta, thus resembling
the Assyrian grove. It is certain that the serpents, the two
stars, and the two candelabra, or altars with flame, favour his
idea.
Fig. 5 represents the position of the hands assumed by
Jewish priests wben they give the benediction to their flock.
It will be recognised that each hand separately indicates the
trinity, wbilst the junction of the two indicates the unit.
The whole is symbolic of the mystic Arba—the four, i.e.,
the trinity and unity. One of my informants told me that,
being a “cohen” or priest, he had often administered the
blessing, and, whilst showing to me this method of ben-
diction. place his joined hands so that his nose entered the
central aperture. On his doing so, I remarked “bene nasa-
tus,” and the expression did more to convince him of the
probability of my views than anything else.
Fig. 6., modified in one form or another, is the position
assumed by the hand and fingers, when Roman and Angli-
can bishops or other hierarchs give benediction to their
people. A similar disposition is to be met with in Indian
mythology, when the Creator doubles himself into male and
female, so as to be in a position to originate new beings.
Whilst the right hand in Plate VII. symbolises the male,
7
the left hand represents the mystic feminine circle. In
another plate, which is to be found in Moor’s Hindu Pan-
theon, there is a similar figure, but draped fully, and in that
the dress worn by the celestial spouse is covered with groups
of spots arranged in triads and groups of four. With regard
to the signification of spots, we may notice that they indi-
cated, either by their shape or by their name, the emblem of
womankind. A story of Indra, the Hindoo god of the sky,
confirms this. He is usually represented as bearing a robe
covered with eyes; but the legend runs that, live David, he
became enamoured of the wife of another man, who was
very beautiful and seen by chance, but her spouse was one
whose austere piety made him almost equal to Brahma.
The evil design of Indra was both frustrated and punished.
The woman escaped, but the god became covered with marks
that recalled his offence to mind for they were pictures of
the yoni. These, by the strong intercession of Brahma with
the Rishi, were changed by the latter into eyes. This story
enables us to recognise clearly the hidden symbolism of
the Hindoo and Egyptian eye, the oval representing the
female, and the circle the male lodged therein—i.e., the
androgyne creator.
PLATE V.
Is a copy of a mediæval Virgin and Child, as painted in
Della Robbia ware in the South Kensington Museum, a copy
of which was given to me by my friend, Mr. Newton, to
whose kindness I am indehted for many illustrations of
ancient Christian art. It represents the Virgin and Child
precisely as she used to be represented in Egypt, in India,
in Assyria, Babylonia, Phenicia, and Etruria; the accident
of dress being of no mythological consequence. In the
framework around the group, we recognise the triformed
leaf, emblematic of Asher; the grapes, typical of Dionysus;
the wheat ears, symbolic of Ceres, l’abricot fendu, the mark
of womankind, and the pomegranate rimmon, which charac-
8
terises the teeming mother. The living group, moreover,
are placed in an archway, delta, or door, which is symbolic
of the female, like the vesica piscis, the oval, or the circle.
This door is, moreover, surmounted by what appear to be
snails, whose supposed virtue we have spoken of under
Plate i. This identification of Mary with the Sacti is strong;
by-and-by we shall see that it is as compelte as it is possible
to be made.
PLATE VI.
Is a copy of figures given in Bryant’s Ancient Mythology,
plates xiii., xxviii., third edition, 1807. The first two illus-
trate the story of Palemon and Cetus, introducing the
dolphin. The fish is symbolic of the female, in conse-
quence of the assonance in Greek between its name and that
of the womb, delphis and delphus. The tree symbolises the
arbor vitæ, the life-giving sprout; and the ark is a symbol of
the womb. The third figure, where a man rests upon a rock
and dolphin, and toys with a mother and child, is equally
suggestive. The male is repeatedly characterised as a rock,
hermes, menhir, tolmen, or upright stone, the female by the
dolphin or fish. The result of the junction of these
elements appears in the child, whom both parents welcome.
The fourth figure represents two emblems of the male
creator, a man and trident, and two of the female, a dolphin
and ship. The two last figures represent a coin of Apames,
representing Noah and the ark, called Cibotus. Bryant
labours to prove that the group commemorates the story
told in the Bible, respecting the flood, but there is strong
doubt whether the story was not of Babylonian origin. The
city referred to was in Phrygia, and the coin appears to have
been struck by Philip of Macedon. The inscription round
the head is AΥΓ. K. IOVA ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟC. ΛΥΓ.; on the
reverse, ΕΠΜΑ. VΡ. ΑΛ. ΕΞΑΝ∆Ρ. ΟΥΒ. ΑΡΧΙ ΑΠΑ-
ΜΕΩΝ. See Ancient Faiths, second edition, Vol. II., pp.
123, and 385-392.
9
PLATE VII.
Is a copy of an original drawing. made by a learned Hindoo
pundit for Wm. Simpson, Esq., of London: whilst he was
in India studying its mythology. It represents Brahma
supreme, who in the act of creation made himself double,
i.e., male and female. In the original the central part
of the figure is occupied by the triad and the unit, but
far too grossly shown for reproduction here. They are
replaced by the crux ansata. The reader will notice the
triad and the serpent in the male hand, whilst in the female
is to be seen a germinating seed, indicative ot the relative
duties of father and mother. The whole stands upon a
lotus, the symbol of androgyneity. The technical word for
this incarnation is “Arddha Nari.”
PLATE VIII.
Is Devi, the same as Parvati, or Bhavani. It is copied from
Moor’s Pantheon, plate xxx. The goddess represents the
feminine element in the universe. Her forehead is marked
by one of the symbols of the four creators, the triad and
the unit. Her dress is covered with symbolic spots, and one
foot peculiarly placed, is marked by a circle having a dot
in the interior. The two bear the same signification as the
Egyptian eye. I am not able to determine the symbolic
import of the articles held in the lower hands. Moor
considers that they represent scrolls of paper, but this I
doubt. The raised hands bear the unopened lotus flower,
and the goddess sits upon another.
PLATE IX.
Consists of six figures, copied from Maurice’s Indian Anti-
quities, vol. vi., p. 273, and two from Bryant’s Mythology,
vol. ii., third edition, pp. 203 and 409. All are symbolic of
the idea of the male triad: a central figure, erect, and rising
above the other two. In one an altar and fire indicate,
mystically, the linga; in another, the same is pourtrayed as
10
a man, as Mahadeva always is; in another, there is a tree
stump and serpent, to indicate the same idea. The two
appendages of the linga are variously described; in two
instances as serpents, in other two as tree and concha, and
snake and shell. The two last seem to embody the idea
that the right “egg” of the male germinates boys, whilst
the left produces girls; a theory common amongst ancient
physiologists. The figure of the tree encircled by the ser-
pent, and supported by two stones resembling “tolmen,” is
very significant. The whole of these figures seem to point
unmistakably to the origin of the very common belief that
the male Creator is triune. In Assyrian theology the central
figure is Bel, Baal, or Asher; the one on the right Anu,
that on the left Hea. See Ancient Faiths, second edition,
Vol. I., pp. 83-85.*
There are some authors who have treated of tree and
serpent worship, and of its prevalence in ancient times,
without having, so far as I can see, any idea of that which
the two things typify. The tree of knowledge, the tree
of life, the serpent that tempted Eve, and still tempts man
by his subtlety, are so many figures of speech which the wise
understand, but which to the vulgar are simply trees and
snakes. In a fine old bas-relief over the door of the Cathe-
dral at Berne, we see an ancient representation of the last
judgement. An angel is dividing the sheep from the goats,
and devils are drawing men and women to perdition, by fixing
hooks or pincers on the portions of the body whence their
* For those who have not an opportunity of consulting the work referred to,
I may observe that the Assyrian godhead consisted of four persons, three being
male and one female. The pricipal god was Asher, the upright one, the equiva-
lent of the Hindoo Mahadeva, the great holy one, and of the more modern Priapus.
He was associated with Anu, lord of solids and the lower world, equivalent to
the “testis,” or egg right side. Hea was lord of waters, and represented
the left “stone.” The three formed the trinity or triad. The female was named
Ishtar or Astarte, and was equivalent to the female organ, the yoni or vulva—the
kte…j of the Greeks. The male god in Egypt was Osiris, the female Isis, and these
names are frequently used [i.e. by Inman] as being euphemistic, and preferable to
the names which are in vulgar use to describe the male and female parts.
11
sins sprung. One fat priest, nude as our risen bodies must
be, is being savagely pulled to hell by the part symbolised
by tree and serpent, whilst shee whom he has adored and
vainly sought to disgrace, is rising to take her place amongst
the blest. It is not those of the sex of Eve alone that are
inveigled to destruction by the serpent.
PLATE X.
Contains pagan symbols of the trinity or linga, with or
without the unity or yoni.
Fig. 1 represents a symbol frequently met with in ancient
architecture, etc. It represents the male and female ele-
ments, the pillar and the half moon.
Fig. 2 represents the mystic letters said to have been
placed on the portaI of the oracle of Delphi. By some it is
proposed to read the two letters as signifying “he or she is;”
by others the letters are taken to be symbolic of the triad
and the unit. If they be, the pillar is very unusual form
for the yoni. An ingeniouos friend of mine regards the
upright portion as a “slit,” but I cannot wholly agree with
him. for in Fig. 1 the pillar cannot be looked upon as an
aparture.
Fig. 3 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, copied from. Moor’s
Hindu Pantheon, and is one out of many. indicating the
union of the male and female.
Fig. 4 is emblematic of the virgin and child. It
identifies the two with the crescent. It is singular that
some designers should unite the moon with the solar symbol,
and others with the virgin. We believe that the first indi-
cate ideas like that associated with Baalim, and Ashtaroth
in the plural, the second that of Astarte or Venus in the
singular. Or, as we may otherwise express it, the married
and the immaculate virgin.
Fig. 5 is copied from Sharpe’s Egyptian Mythology,
p. 15. It represents one of the Egyptian trinities, and
is highly symbolic, not only indicating the triad, here
12
Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, but its union with the female
element. The central god Osiris is himself triune, as he
bears the horns symbolic of the goddess Athor and the
feathers of the god Ra.
Fig. 6 is a Hindoo sectarial mark, from Moor’s Hindu
Pantheon. The lozenge indicates the yoni. For this asser-
tion we not only have evidence in Babylonian gems, copied by
Lajard, but in Indian and Etruscan designs. We find, for
example, in vol. v., plate xlv., of Antiquités Etrusques, etc.,
par. F. A. David (Paris, 1785), draped female, wearing on
her breast a half moon and mural crown, holding her hands
over the middle spot of the body, so as to form a “lozenge”
with the forefingers and thumbs. The triad in this figure is
very distinct; and we may add that a trinity expressed by
three balls or three circles is to be met with in the remotest
times and in most distant countries.
Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are copied from Cabrera’s account of
an ancient city discovered near Palernue, in Guatemala,
Spanish America (London, 1822). Although they appear to
have a sexual design, yet I doubt whether the similarity is
not accidental. After a close examination of the plates
given by Cabrera, I am inclined to think that nothing of the
ling-yoni element prevailed in the mind of ancient
American sculptors. All the males are carefully draped in
appropriate girdles, although in some a grotesque or other
ornament, such as a human or bestial head, a flower, etc., is
attached to the apron or “fall” of the girdle, resembling the
sporran of the Highlander and the codpiece of mediæval
knights and others. I may, however, mention some very
remarkable sculptures copied; one is a tree, whose trunk is
surrounded by a serpent, and whose fruit is shaped like
the vesica piscis; in another is seen a youth wholly
unclothed, save by a cap and gaiters, who kneels before a
similar tree, being threatened before and behind by some
fierce animal. This figure is peculiar, differing from all the
rest in having a European rather than an American head
13
and face. Indeed, the features, etc., remind me of the late
Mr. Cobden, and the cap is such as yachting sailors usually
wear. There is also another remarkable group, consisting
apparently of a man and woman standing before a cross,
proportioned like the conventional one in use amongst
Christians. Everything indicates American ideas, and there
are ornaments or designs wholly unlike any that I have seen
elsewhere. The man appears to offer to the cross a gro-
tesque human figure, with a head not much unlike Punch,
with a turned-up nose, and a short pipe shaped like a fig in
his mouth. The body is well formed, but the arms and
thighs are rounded off like “flippers” or “fins.” Resting
at the top of the cross is a bird, like a game cock, orna-
mented by a necklace. The male in this and the other
sculptures is beardless, and that women are depicted, can
only be guessed at by the inferior size of some of the
figures. It would be unprofitable to carry the description
further.
Figs. 11, 12 are from vol. i., plates xix. and xxiii. of a
remarkably interesting work, Récherches sur l’origine,
l’esprit, et les progès des Arts de la Grèce, said to be written
by D’Harcanville, published at London, 1785. The first
represents a serpent. coiled so as to symbolise the male
triad, and the crescent, the emblem of the yoni.
Fig. 12 accompanies the bull on certain coins, and sym-
bolises the sexual elements, le baton et l’anneau. They
were used, as the horse-shoe is now, as a charm against
bad luck, or vicious demons or fairies.
Fig. 13 is, like figure 5, from Sharpe’s Egyptian Mytho-
logy, p. 14, and is said to represent Isis, Nepthys, and
Osiris; it is one of the many Mizraite triads. The Christian
trinity is of Egyptian origin, and is as surely a pagan doctrine
as the belief in heaven and hell, the existence of a devil, of
archangels, angels, spirits and saints, martyrs sud virgins,
intercessors in heaven, gods and demigods, and other forms
of faith which deface the greater part of modem religions.
14
Figure 14 is a symbol frequently seen in Greek churches,
but appears to be of pre-christian origin.* The cross
we have elsewhere described as being a compound male
emblem, whilst the crescent symbolises the female element
in creation.
Figure 15 is from D’Harcanville, op. cit., vol. i., plate
xxiii. It resembles Figure 11, supra, and enables us by the
introduction, of the sun and moon to verify the deduction
drawn from the arrangement of the serpent’s coils. If the
snake’s body, instead of being curved above the 8 like
tail, were straight, it would simply indicate the linga and
the sun; the bend in its neck, however, indicates the yoni
and the moon.
Figure 16 is copied from plate xvi., fig. 2, of Recueil des
Pierres Antiques Gravés, folio, by J. M. Raponi (Rome,
1786). The gem represants a sacrifice to Priapus, indicated
by the rock, pillar, figure, and branches given in our plate.
A nude male sacrifices a goat; a draped female holds a kid
ready for immolation; a second man, nude, plays the double
pipe, and a second woman, draped, bears a vessel on her
head, probably containing wine for a libation.
Figure 17 is from vol. i. Récherches, etc., plate xxii. In
this medal the triad is formed by a man and two coiled
serpents on the one side of the medal, whilst on the reverse
are seen a tree, surronnded by a snake, situated between two
rounded stones, with a dog and a conch shell below, See
supra, Plate ix., Fig. 6.
PLATE XI.
—With two exceptions, Figs. 4 and 9,—exhibits Christan
emblems of the trinity or linga, and the unity or yoni, alone
or combined; the whole being copied from Pugin’s Glossary
of Ecclesiastical Ornament (London, 1869).
Fig. 1 is copied from Pugin, plate xvii., and indicates a
* There is an able essay on this subject in No. 267 of the Edinburgh Review—
which almost exhausts the subject—but is too long for quotation here.
15
double union of the trinity with the unity, here represented
as a ring, l’anneau.
Figs. 2, 3, are from Pugin, plate xiv. In figure 2, the
two covered balls at the base of each limb of the cross are
extremely significant, and if the artist had not mystified
the free end, the most obtuse worshipper must have recog-
nised the symbol. We may add here that in the two forms
of the Maltese cross, the position of the lingam is reversed,
and the egg-shaped bodies, with their cover, are at the free
end of each limb, whilst the natural end of the organ is left
unchanged. See figs. 35 and 36. This form of cross is
Etruscan. Fig. 3 is essentially the same as the preceding,
and both may be compared with Fig. 4. The balls in this
cross are uncovered, and the free end of each limb of the
cross is but slightly modified.
Fig. 4 is copied in a conventional form from plate xxxv.,
fig. 4. of Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus (London,
1865). It is thus described (page 147): “The object was
found at St. Agnti di Goti, near Naples. …… It is a curx
ansata formed by four phalli, with a circle of female organs
round the centre; and appears by the look to have been
intended for suspension. As this cross is of gold, it had no
doubt been made for some personage of rank, possibly an
ecclesiastic.” We see here very distinctly the design of the
egg and sistrum-shaped bodies. When we have such an
unmistakable bi-sexual cross before our eyes, it is
impossible to ignore the signification of Figs. 2 and 3, and
Plate xii., Figs. 4 and 7.
Figs. 5, 6 are from Pugin, plates xiv. and xv., and repre-
sent the trinity with the unity, the triune god and the virgin
united in one.
Fig. 7 represents the central lozenge and one limb of
a cross, figured plate xiv. of Pugin. In this instance the
Maltese cross is united with the symbol of the Virgin; being
essentially the same as Fig. 9, infra. It is a modified form
of the crux ansata.
16
Fig. 8 is a compound trinity, being the finial of each
limb of an ornamental cross. Pugin, plate xv.
Fig. 9 is a well-known Egyptian symbol, borne in the
hand of almost every divinity. It is a cross, with one limb
made to represent the female element in creation. The
name that it technically bears is crux ansata, or “the cross
with a handle.” A reference to Fig. 4 serves to verify the
idea which it involves.
Fig. 10 is from Pugin, plate xxxv. In this figure
the cross is made by the intersection of two ovals, each
a vesica piscis, an emblem of the yoni. Within each limb a
symbol of the trinity is seen, each of which is associated
with the central ring.
Fig. 11 is from Pugin, plate xix., and represents the arbor
vitæ, the branch, or tree of life, as a triad, with which the
ring is united.
It has been said by some critics that the figures above
referred to are mere architectural fancies, which never had
pretensions to embody a mystery; and that any designer
would pitch upon such a style of ornamentation although
profoundly ignorant of the doctrine of the trinity and unity.
But this assumption is not borne out by fact; the ornaments
on Buddhist topes have nothing in common with those of
Christian churches; whilst in the ruined temple of the
sun at Marttand, India, the trefoil emblem of the trinity is
common. Grecian temples were profusely ornamented there-
with, and so are innumerable Etruscan sculptures, but they
do not represent the trinity and unity. It has been reserved
for Christian art to crowd our churches with the emblems of
Bel and Astarte, Baalim and Ashtoreth, linga and yoni,
and to elevate the phallus to the position of the supreme
deity, and assign to him a virgin as a companion, who
can cajole him by her blandishment, weary him by wail-
ing, or induce him to change his mind by her interces-
sions. Christianity certainly requires to be purged of its
heathenisms.
17
PLATE XII.
Contains both pagan and Christian emblems.
Fig. 1 is from Pugin, plate xviii., and is a very common
finial representing the trinity. Its shape is too significant to
require an explanation; yet with such emblems our
Christian churches abound, that the Trinity may never be
absent from the minds of man or woman!
Fig. 2 is from Pugin, plate xxi. It is a combination
of ideas concealing the union patent in Fig. 4, Plate xi., supra.
Fig. 3 is from Moor’s Hindu Pantheon. It is an orna-
ment borne by Devi, and symbolises the union of the triad
with the unit.
Fig. 4 is from Pugin, plate xxxii. It is a double
cross made up of the male and female emblems. It is
a conventionalised form of Fig. 4, Plate xi., supra. Such
eight-rayed figures, made like stars, seem to have been very
ancient, and to havc been designed to indicate the junction
of male and female.
Fig. 5 is from Pugin, plate xvii., and represents the
trinity and the unity.
Fig. 6 is a Buddhist emblem from Birmah, Journal
of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 392, plate i., fig.
52. It represents the short sword. le bracquemard, a male
symbol.
Fig. 7 is from Pugin, plate xvii. See Plate xi., Fig. 3,
supra.
Figs. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 are Buddhist (see Fig. 6, supra),
and symbolise the triad.
Figs. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are from Pugin, and simply
represent the trinity.
Figs. 18 and 19 are common Grecian emblems. The
first is associated with Neptune and water, the second with
Bacchus. With the one we see dolphins, emblems of the
womb, the name of the two being assonant in Greek; with
the other, the saying sine Baccho et Cerere friget Venus,
must be coupled.
18
PLATE XIII.
Consists of various emblems of the triad and the unit,
drawn almost exclusively from Grecian, Etruscan, Roman,
and Indian gems, figures, coins, or sculptures, Maffei’s
Gemme Antiche Figurate, Raponi’s Recueil, and Moor’s
Hindu Pantheon, being the chief authorities.
PLATE XIV.
Is a copy of a small Hindoo statuette in the Mayer Collec-
tion in the Free Museum, Liverpool. It probably repre-
sents, Parvati, the Hindoo virgin, and her child. The right
hand of the figure makes the symbol of the yoni with the
forefinger and thumb, the rest of the fingers typifying the
triad. In the palm and on the navel is a lozenge,
emblematic of woman. The child, perhaps Crishna, equi-
valent to the Egyptian Horus and the Christian Jesus,
bears in its hand one of the many emblems of the linga, and
stands upon a lotus. The monkey introduced into the group
plays the same part as the cat, cow, lioness, and ape in the
Egyptian mythology, being emblematic of that desire which
eventuates in the production of offspring.
PLATE XV.
Fig. 1, the cupola, is well known in modern Europe; it is
equally so in Hindostan, where it is sometimes accompanied,
by pillars of a peculiar shape. In one such compound the
design is that of a cupola, supported by closesly placed pillars,
each of which has a “capital,” resembling the “glans” of
physiologists; in the centre there is a door, wherein a nude
female stands, resembling in all respects Figure 61, except in
dress and the presence: of the child. This was copied
by the late Mr. Sellon, from a Buddhist Dagopa in the
Jumnar Cave, Bombay Presidency, a tracing of his sketch
having beeen given to me by William Simpson, Esq., London.
The same emblem may be found amongst the ancient
Italians. Whilst I was staying in Malta during the carnival
19
time in 1872, I saw in all directions men and women selling
cakes shaped like the yoni shown in Fig. 1. These sweet-
meats had no special name, but they came in and went out
with the carnival.
Fig. 2 represents Venus standing on a tortoise, whose
symbolic import will be seen by referring to Fig. 74, infra.
It is copied from Lajard, Sur le Culte de Venus, plate iiia,
fig. 5, and is stated by him to be a drawing of an Etruscan
candelabrum, existing in the Royal Museum at Berlin. In
his account of Greece, Pausanias mentions that he saw one
figure of Venus standing on a tortoise, and another upon
a ram, but he declines to give the reason of the conjunction.
PLATE XVI.
Is a representation of Siva, taken from Moor’s Hindu Pan-
theon, plate xiii. Siva is supposed to be the oldest of the
Indian deities, and to have been worshipped by the abori-
gines of Hindostan, before the Aryans invaded that country.
It is thought that the Vedic religion opposed this degrading
conception at the first, but was powerless to eradicate it.
Though he is yet the most popular of all the gods, Siva is
venerated, I understand, chiefly by the vulgar. Though he
personifies the male principle, there is not anything indecent
in pictorial representations of him. In one of his hands
is seen the trident, one of the emblems of the masculine
triad; whilst in another is to be seen an oval sistrum-shaped
loop, a symbol of the feminine unit. On his forehead he
bears an eye, symbolic of the Omniscient, the sun, and the
union of the sexes.
As it has been doubted by some readers, whether I am
justified in regarding the sistrum as a female emblem, I
append here a quotation from Socrates’ Ecclesiastical History,
Bohn’s translation, p. 281, seq. In Rome, in the early time
of Theodosius, “when a woman was detected in adultery
. . . they shut her up in a narrow brothel, and obliged
her to prostitute herself in a most disgusting manner;
20
causing little bells to be rang at the time . . . As soon as the
emperor was apprised of this indecent usage, he would by
no means tolerate it; but having ordered the Sistra (for so
these places of penal prostitution were denominated) to be
pulled down,” &c. One can as easily see why a female
emblem should mark a brothel in Rome as a male symbol
did at Pompeii.
Figure 1.
Figure 2.
[ws }ya
THE E NDLESS.
rtk 1 rtk
Crown. Crown
1
hmkh hmkh
3 hnyb hmkj 2 Intelligence. Wisdom.
Intelligence. Wisdom. 3 2
5 dhp dsj 4
Justice. :Love. djd dsj
Justice Love.
5 4
trapt 6
Beauty.
trapt
Beauty.
6
8 dwh jxn 7
Splendour. Firmness. dvh jxn
Splendour. Firmness.
dwsy 9 8 7
Foundation.
dwsy
Foundation.
9
twklm 10
Kingdom .
Figure 3. twklm
Kingdom.
10
Figure 4.
24
Figures 3, 4, are taken from Ginsburg’s Kabbalah, and
illustrates that in the arrangement of “potencies” two unite,
like parents, to form a third. Sometimes we see also how
three such male attributes as splendour, firmness, and
solidity join with beauty to form the mystic arba, the trinity
and unity.
Figure 5. Figure 6.
Figure 7.
Figure 8. Figure 9.
Figure 10.
Figure 17.
Figure 18.
Figure 19.
Figure 20.
Figure 25.
Figure 28.
Figure 29.
Figure 30.
Figure 32.
Figure 31.
EAST
BR AH MA
NE SARAISWATI VISHNU SE
SIVA PARVATI
NW SW
LA KS MI
WEST
Figure 33.
Figure 37.
Figure 44.
Figure 45.
Figure 49.
Figure 48.
Figure 50.
graphic manner the meaning of the symbols in question,
and how “the lilies of France” had a Pagan origin.
Fig. 52.
Fig. 51. Figure 53. Figure 54. Figure 55.
Fig. 57.
Figure 56.
Figure 58.
Figure 59.
Figure 60.
47
Figures 51 to 60 are various representaitons of the union
of the four, the arba, the androgyne, or the linga-yoni.
Figure 61. In modern Christian art this
symbol is called vesica piscis, and is sometimes
surrounded with rays. It commonly serves as a
sort of framework in which female saints are
placed, who are generally the representative of
the older Juno, Ceres, Diana, Venus, or other
Figure 61.
impersonations of the feminine element in crea-
tion. We should not feel obliged to demonstrate
the truth of this assertion if decency permitted us to
reproduce here designs which naughty youths so frequently
chalk upon walls to the disgust of the proper part of the
community. We must, therefore, have resort to a religious
book, and in a subsequent figure demonstrate the meaning
of the symbol unequivocally.
Figure 62 represents one of the forms assumed by the
Figure 62.
Figure 63.
Figure 64.
49
Figures 63 to 66 are all drawn from Assyrian sources.
Figure 65.
Figure 69.
Isis, the fruit of the fig, and the yoni. When a garment of
this shape is made and worn, it becomes the “pallium”
donned alike by the male and female individuals
consecrated to Roman worship.
King, in his Ancient Gnostics, remarks: “The circle of
the sun is the navel, which marks the natural poition of the
womb—the navel being considered in the microcosm as
corresponding to the sun in the universe, an idea more fully
exemplified in the famous hallucination of the Greek ancho-
rites touching the mystical ‘Light of Tabor,’ which was
revealed to the devotee after a fast of many days, all the
time staring fixedly upon the region of the navel, whence at
length this light streamed as from a focus.” Pages 153, 154.
Figures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop,
and a modern nun wearing the emblem of the female sex.
In the former, said (in Old England Pictorially Illustrated,
by Knight) to be a drawing of St. Augustine, the amount of
symbolism is great. The “nimbus” and the tonsure are
solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded
with phallic crosses; its lower end is the ancient T, the
mark of the masculine triad; the right hand has the fore-
finger extended, like the Assyrian priests whilst doing
homage to the grove, and with it is the fruit, tappuach,
which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons
the pallium in worship, he becomes the representative of the
trinity in the unity, the arba, or mystic four. See Ancient
Faiths, second edition, Vol. II., pp. 915-918.
I take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of
King’s Gnostics and their Remains, (Bell & Daldy, London,
52
1864). “To this period belongs a beautiful sard in my
collection representing Serapis, . . . whilst before him
stands Isis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other
Figure 74.
Figure 79.
Figure 80.
Figure 82.
Figure 83.
coins which bear the figures are of brass, and were found at
Volaterre. In one the double head is associated with a
dolphin and cresent moon on the reverse, and the letters
VELATHRI, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the
one containing the club. The club, formed as in Figure 83.
occurs frequently on Etruscan coins. For example, two
clubs are joined with four balls on a Tudertine coin, having
on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for fighting, and
58
four balls arranged in a square. On other coins are to
be seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripli-
form figures, associated with three balls in a triangle; some-
times two, and sometimes one. The double head with
two balls is seen on a Telamonian coin, having on the
reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned
upwards. In a coin of Populonia the club is associated with
a spear and two balls, whilst on the reverse is a single head.
I must notice, too, that on other coins a hammer and pincers,
or tongs, appear, as if the idea was to show that a maker,
fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be symbolised.
What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which
a head appears thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two
statuettes of silver have been found, representing a double-
faced individual. A lion’s head for a cap, a collar, and
buskins are the sole articles of dress worn. One face
appears to be feminine, and the other masculine, but neither
is bearded. The pectorals and the general form indicate
the male, but the usual marks of sex are absent. On these
have been found Etruscan inscriptions (1) V. CVINTI ARNTIAS
CULPIANSI ALPAN TURCE; (2) V. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ
ALPAN TURCE. Which may be rendered (1) “V. Quintus of
Aruntia, to Culpian pleasing, a gift”; (2) “V. Quintus of
Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a gift,” evidently showing
that they were ex voto offerings.
Figure 84. The figure here represented is, under one
form or another, extremely com-
mon amongst the sculptured stones
in Scotland. Four varieties may be
Figure 84.
seen in plate 48 of Col. Forbes
Leslie’s Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49
it is associated with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The
design is spoken of as “the spectacle ornament,” and it is
very commonly associated with another figure closely resem-
bling the letter Z. It is very natural for the inquirer to
associate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or the sun
59
and moon. On one Scottish monument the circles represent
wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot. As
yet I have only been able to meet with the Z and “spectacle
ornament” once out of Scotland; it is figured on apparently
a Gnostic gem (The Gnostics and their Remains, by C. W.
King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig. 5). In that we see in a
serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having the down
stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating
in a circle; besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray termi-
nating in a circle, precisely resembling the star in Plate IV.,
Fig. 3, supra. I can offer no satisfactory explanation of the
emblem.
Figures 85, 86, represent a Yorkshire and an Indian
Figure 85.
Figure 86.
Figure 87.
61
Figure 87 indicates the solar wheel, emblem of the
chariot of Apollo. This sign is a very common one upon
ancient coins; sometimes the rays or spokes are four, at
others they are more numerous. Occasionally the tire of
the wheel is absent, and amongst the Etruscans the nave is
omitted. The solar cross is very common in Ireland, and
amongst the Romanists generally as a head dress for male
saints.
Figure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the
Figure 88.
Figure 89.
Figure 90.
Figure 91.
64
Museum of University College, London. It is essentially
the same symbol as the crux ansata, and is emblematic of
the male triad and the female unit.
Figure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal
tiara has not about it anything particularly Christian, a
Figure 92.
Figure 93.
Figure 94.
66
out by considering the words to be very bad Greek, and the
letters to be much transposed.
Figure 94 is copied by Higgins, Anacalypsis, on the
authority of Dubois, who states, vol. iii., p. 33, that it was
found on a stone in a church in France, where it had
been kept religiously for six hundred years. Dubois regards
it as wholly astrological, and as having no reference to
the story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on
the draped figures as representatives of Adam and Eve.
We have introduced it to show how such tales are inter-
mingled with Sabeanism.
Figure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (Nineveh
and Babylon, p. 156), and represents Harpocrates seated on
a lotus, adoring the mundane representative of the
mother of creation. I have not yet met with any
ancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify
the yoni so completely with various goddesses.
Compare this with Figure 138, infra, wherein the Figure 95.
emblem is even more strikingly identified with woman, and
with the virgin Mary. Those who are familiar with the
rude designs too often chalked on hoardings, will see that
learned ancients and boorish moderns represent certain ideas
in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the mystic
meaning of O and Γ. I have elsewhere called attention to
the idea that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and
a charm against evil spirits; however grotesque the idea
may be, it has existed in all ages, and in civilised and savage
nations alike. A rude image of a woman who shamelessly
exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches in
Ireland, and at Servator, in Spain, where she is standing on
one side of the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on
the other. The same has been found in Mexico, Peru, and
in North America. Nor must we forget how Baubo cured
the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a strange
fashion to the distressed goddess. Arnobius, op. cit.,
pp. 249, 250.
67
As I have already noticed modern notioned on the
influence produced by the exhibition of the yoni on those
who are suffering, the legend referred to may be shortly
described. The goddess, in the story, was miserable in
consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen
away by Pluto. In her agony, snatching two Etna-lighted
torches, she wanders round the earth in search of the lost
one, and in due course visits Eleusis. Baubo receives her
hospitably; but nothing that the hostess doues induces the
guest to depose her grief for a moment. In despair the
mortal bethinks her of a scheme, shaves off what is called
in Isaiah “the hair of the feet” and then exposes herself to
the goddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the denuded spot, is
pleased with the strange form of consolation, consents to
take food and is resotred to comfort.
Figure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 3, of Lajard’s
Culte de Venus. He states that it is an impression of
Figure 96.
Figure 97.
Figure 99.
Figure 107.
72
Figure 108.
Figure 109.
73
yoni, which amongst the Indians are regarded as holy
emblems, much in the same way as a crucifix is esteemed by
certain modern Christians. In worship, ghee, or oil, or
water, is poured over the pillar, and allowed to run off by the
spout. Sometimes the pillar is adorned by a necklace, and
is associated with the serpent emblem. In Lucian’s account
of Alexander, the false prophet, which we have condensed in
Ancient Faiths, second edition, there is a reference to one of
his dupes, who was a distinguished Roman officer, but so very
superstitious, or, as he would say of himself, so deeply
imbued with religion, that at the sight of a stone he would
fall prostrate and adore it for a considerable time, offering
prayers and vows thereto. This may by some be thought
quite as reasonable as the practice once enforced in Christian
Rome, which obliged all persons in the street to kneel in
reverence when an ugly black doll, called “the bambino,” or
a bit of bread, over which some cabalistic words had been
muttered, was being carried in procession past them. Arno-
bius, op. cit., p. 31, says, “I worshipped images produced
from the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers,
the bones of elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees;
whenever I espied an anointed stone, and one bedaubed with
olive oil, as if some person resided in it, I worshipped it,
I addressed myself to it, and begged blessings from a
senseless stock.” Compare Gen. xxviii. 18, wherein we find
that Jacob set up a stone and anointed it with oil, and
called the place Bethel, and Is. xxvii. 19, xl. 20, xliv. 10-20.
I copy the following remarks from a paper by Mr. Edward
Sellon, in Memoirs of the London Anthropological Society,
for 1863-4. Speaking of Hindostan, he remarks, “As
every village has its temple so every temple has its Lingam,
and these parochial Lingams are usually from two to three
feet in height, and rather broad at the base. Here the
village girls, who are anxious for lovers or husbands, repair
early in the morning. They make a lustration by sprinkling
the god with water brought from the Ganges; they deck the
74
Linga with garlands of the sweet-smelling bilwa flower;
they perform the mudra, or gesticulation with the fingers,
and, reciting the prescribed mantras, or incantations, they
rub themselves against the emblem, and entreat the deity to
make them fruitful mothers of pulee-pullum (i.e., child
fruit).
“This is the celebrated Linga puja, during the perform-
ance of which the phanchaty, or five lamps, must be lighted,
and the gantha, or bell, be frequently rung to scare away
the evil demons. The mala, or rosary of a hundred and
eight round beads, is also used in this puja.”
See also Moor’s Hindu Pantheon, plate xxii., pp. 68, 69,
70. Again, in the Dabistan, a work written in the Persian
language, by a travelled Mahometan, about A.D. 1660, and
translated by David Shea, for the Oriental Translation Fund
of Great Britain and Ireland (3 vols., 8vo., Allen and Co.,
Leadenhall Street, London), we read, vol. ii., pp. 148-160,
“The belief of the Saktian is that Siva, that is, Mahadeva,
who with little exception is the highest of deities and the
greatest of the spirits, has a spouse whom they call Maya
Sakti. . . . . With them the power of Mahadeva’s
wife, who is Bhavani, surpassed that of the husband. The
zealous of this sect worship the Siva Linga, though other
Hindoos also venerate it. Linga is called the virile organ,
and they say, on behalf of this worship, that as men and all
living beings derive their existence from it, adoration is duly
bestowed upon it. As the linga of Mahadeva, so do they
venerate the bhaga, that is, the female organ. A man very
familiar with them gave the information that, according to
their belief, the high altar, or principal place in a mosque of
the Mussulmans, is an emblem of the bhaga. Another man
among them said that as the just-named place emblems the
bhaga, the minar or turret of the mosque represents the
linga.” The author then goes on to describe the practices
of the sect, which may be summed up in the words—the
most absolute freedom of love.
75
Apropos of the Mahometan mineret and Christian church
towers and spires, I may mention that Lucian describes the
magnificent temple of the Syrian goddess as having two vast
phalli before its main entrance, and how at certain seasons
men ascended to their summit, and remained there some
days, so as to utter from thence the prayers of the faithful.
Figures 110, 111, both from Moor, plate lxxxvi., are
forms of the argha, or sacred sacrificial cup, bowl, or basin,
which represent the yoni, and some other things besides.
See Moor, Hindu Pantheon, pp. 393. 394.
Figure 110.
Figure 111.
Figure 112.
76
chies, vol. i., p. 176, symbolises Ishtar, the Assyrian repre-
sentative of Devi, Parvati, Isis, Astarte, Venus, and Mary.
The virgin and child are to be found everywhere, even in
ancient Mexico.
Figure 113.
Figure 114.
unmarried women in a mixed assemblage were indicated by
wearing upon their foreheads a crescent moon.
Figure 117.
Figure 118.
Figure 119.
Figure 120.
Figure 121.
Figure 122.
Figure 123.
and the dove hovering over it, all all symbolical; but
though the author of it is right in his grouping, it is clear
that he is not aware of its full signification. The reader
will readily gather the true meaning from our articles upon
the ARK and WATER, and from our remarks upon the DOVE
in Ancient Faiths, second edition.
84
Figure 124 is copied from Maffei’s Gemme Antiche
Figurate, vol. 3, plate xl. In the original, the figure upon
Figure 124.
Figure 128.
Figure 132.
Figure 133.
Figure 134.
Figure 135.
Fig. 136.
91
emblem of woman and of the virgin, as may be seen in the
two following woodcuts.
Figures 137, 138, are copied from an acient Rosary
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, printed at Venice, 1524, with a
Figure 137.
Figure 138.
Fig. 139 Fig. 140. Fig. 141. Fig. 142.. Fig. 143.
Fig. 144. Fig. 145. Fig. 146. Fig. 147. Fig. 148.
Figure 154.
Figure 155.
98
represents a temple in a conventionalised form; whilst below,
Ceres appears seated within a horse-shoe shaped ornament.
Figure 158.
Figure 159.
of Isis (in Fig. 161), and with the double triangle (in
Fig. 162).
Figure 163 represents a tortoise. When one sees a
Figure 163.
Figure 166.
Figure 167.
103
the Mayer collection in the Free Museum, Liverpool. It
represents the feminine creator holding a well marked lingam
in her hand, and is thus emblematic of the four, or the
trinity and the virgin.
Figure 168 represents two Egyptian deities in worship
before an emblem of the male, which closely resembles
an Irish round tower.
Figure 168.
Figure 171.
Figure 172.
APPENDIX.
———
THE ASSYRIAN “GROVE” AND OTHER EMBLEMS,
BY
JOHN NEWTON, M. R. C. S.
The study of sacred symbols is as yet in its infancy. It
has hitherto been almost ignored by sacerdotal historians;
and thus a rich mine of knowledge on the most interesting
of all subjects—the history of the Religious Idea in man—
remains comparatively unexplored. The topic has a two-fold
interest, for it equally applies to the present and the past.
As nothing on earth is more conservative than religion, we
have still a world of symbolism existing amongst us which is
far older than our sects and books, our creeds and articles,
a relic of a forgotten, pre-historic past. Untold ages before
writing was invented., it is believed that men attempted
to express their ideas in visible forms. Yet how can a
savage, who is unable to count his fingers up to five, and has
no idea of abstract number, apart from things, whose habits
and thoughts are of the earth, earthy, form a conception of
the high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity? Even
under the highest forms of ancient civilisation, abundant
proofs exist that the imagination of men, brooding over
the idea of the Unseen and the Infinite, were bounded by
the things which were presented in their daily experience,
and which most moved their passions, hopes and fears.
Through these, then, they attempted to embody such reli-
gious ideas as they felt. They could not teach others with-
out visible symbols to assist their conceptions; and emblems
were rather crutches for the halting than wings to help the
healthy to soar. Mankind in all ages has clung to the
visible and tangible. The people care little for the abstract
108
and unseen. The Israelites preferred a calf of gold to the
invisible Jehovah; and senusous forms of worship still fasci-
nate the multitude.
Whilst studying a collection of symbolism, gathered: from
many climes and ages, such as this volume presents, I feel
sure that every intelligent student will have asked himself
more than once—Is there not some key which unlocks these
enigmas, some grand idea which runs through them all,
connecting them like a string of beads? I believe that there
is, and that it is not far to seek. What do men desire and
long for most? Life. “Skin for skin; all that a man
hath will he give for his life,” is a saying as true now as in
the days of Job. “Give me back my youth, and I will give
you all I possess,” was said by the aged Voltaire to his
physician. And our poet laureate has sung,
’T is Life, whereof our nerves scant,
O life, not death, for which we pant;
More life, and fuller, that I want.
* We may point out that according the all the Gospels, Christ expired towards
sunset, and the sun became eclipsed as he was dying. He rose again exactly at day-
break.
112
kept up by the sedulous care of priests or priestesses, formed
an important part of the religions of Judea, Babylonia,
Persia, Greece and Rome, and the superstition lingers
amongst us still. So late as the advent of the Reformation,
a sacred fire was kept over burning on a shrine at Kildare,
in Ireland, and attended by virgins of high rank, called
“inghean au dagha,” or daughters of fire. Every year is
the ceremony repeated at Jerusalem of the miraculous kin-
dling of the Holy Fire at the reputed sepulchre, and men
and women crowd to light tapers at the sacred flame, which
they pass through with a naked body. Indeed, solar myths
form no unimportant part of ancient mythology. Thus
the death of nature in the winter time, through the with-
drawal of the sun, was supposed to be caused by the mourn-
ing of the earth-goddess oyer the sickness and disappearance
into the realms of darkness of her hasband and mate, the
sun.
Mr. Fox Talbot has lately given the translation of an
Egyptian poem, more than three thousand years old, and
having for its subject the descent of Ishtar into Hades. To
this region of darkness and death the goddess goes in search
of her beloved Osiris, or Tammuz. This Ishtar is identical
with the Assyrian female in the celestial quartette, the later
Phœnician Astarte, “The Queen of Heaven with crescent
horns,” the moon-godess) also with the Greek Aphrodite
and Roman Venus; and the Egyptian legend reappears in
the west as the mourning of Venus for the loss of Adonis.
Again, the fable of Ceres mourning the death of her
daughter Proserpine is another Sun-myth. The Roman
Ceres was the Greek Dhm»thr or gÁ-m»thr, Mother Earth,
who through the winter time wanders inconsolable. Per-
sephone, her daughter, is the vegetable world, whose seeds
or roots lie concealed underground in the darkness of
winter. These, when Spring comes with its brightness,
bud forth and dwell in the realm of light during a part or
the year, and provide ample nourishment for men and
113
animals with their fruits. The sun, being the active fructi-
fying cause in nature, was generally regarded as male. Thus,
in the Jewish scriptures, he is compared to “a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber” (Ps. xix. 5), i.e. as a man full
of generative, procreative vigour. The moon and the earth,
being receptive only, were naturally regarded as female.
At the vernal equinox, the ancients celebrated the bridal
of the sun and the earth. Yet, inasmuch as the orbs of heaven
and the face of nature remain the same from year to year, and
perpetually renew light and life, themselves remaining fresh,
in vigour and unharmed by age, the ancients conceived the
bride and mate of the sun-god as continuing ever virgin.
Again, as the ancient month was always reckoned by the
interval between one new mon and the next,—an interval
which also marks a certain recurring event in women,
that ceases at once on the occurence of pregnancy,—the
lunar crescent became a symbol of virginity, and as such
adorns the brow of the Greek Artemis and Roman Diana.
This was used as a talisman at a very remote period, and
was fixed over the doors of the early lake-dwellers in Switzer-
land, like the horse-shoe is to modern side-posts. With the
sun and moon were often associated the five visible planets,
forming a sacred seven,—a figure which is continually crop-
ping up in religious emblems.
So much for the great cosmic symbols of Life. But the
primitive races of mankind found others nearer home, and
still more suggestive—the generative parts in the two sexes,
by the union of which all animated life, and mankind, the
most interesting of all to human beings, appeared to be
created. This reverence for, or worship of, the organs of
generation, has been traced to a very early period in the
history of the human race. In a bone-cave recently exca-
vated near Venice, and beneath its ten feet of stalagmite,
were found bones of animals, flint implements, a bone
needle, and a phallus in baked clay. And if we turn to
those savage tribes who still reproduce for us the pre-
114
historic past, this form of religious symbolism meets us
everywhere. In Dahomey, beyond the Ashantees, it is,
according to Captain Burton, most uncomfortably prominent.
In every street of their settlements are priapic figurcs. The
“Tree of Life” is annointed with palm oil, which drips into
a pot or shard placed below it, and the would-be mother of
children prays before the image that the great god Legba
would make her fertile.
Burton tells us that he peeped into an Egbe temple
or lodge, and found it a building with three courts, of which
the innermost was a sort of holy of holies. Its doors had
carvings on them of a leopard, a fish, a serpent, and a land
tortoise. The first two of these are female symbols, the two
latter emblems of the male. There were also two rude
figures representing their god Obatala, the deity of life, who
is worshipped under two forms, a male and a female. Oppo-
site to these was the male symbol or phallus, conjoined
in coitu with the female emblem. Du Chaillu met with
some tribes in Africa who adore the female only. His guide,
he informs us, carried a hideous little image of wood with
him, and at every meal he would take the little fetish out of
his pocket, and pour a libation over its feet before he would
drink himself.
We know that a similar superstition prevailed in Ireland
long after the advent of Christianity. There a female,
pointing to her symbol, was placed over the portal of many
a church as a protector from evil spirits; and the elaborate
though rude manner in 'whichthese figures were sculptured
shows that they were considered as objects of great import-
ance. It was the universal practice among the Arabs of
Northern Africa to stick up over the door of their house or
tent the genital parts of a cow, mare, or female camel, as a
talisman to avert the influence of the evil eye. The figure of
this organ being less definite than that of the male, it has
assumed in symbolism very various forms. The commonest
substitution for the part itself has been a horse-shoe, which
115
is to this day fastened over many of the doors of stables and
shippons in the country, and was formerly supposed to pro-
tect the cattle from witchcraft. From a lively story by
Beroalde de Verville, we learn that in France a sight of the
female organ was believed, as late as the sixteenth century,
to be a powerful charm in curing any disease in, and for
prolonging the life of, the fortunate beholder.
As civilisation advanced, the gross symbols of creative
power were cast aside, and priestly ingenuity was taxed to
the utmost in inventing a crowd of less obvious emblems,
which should represent the ancient ideas in a decorous
manner. The old belief was retained, but in a mysterious or
sublimated form. As symbols of the male or active element
in creation, the sun, light, fire, a torch, the phallus or
linga, an erect serpent, a tall straight tree, especially the
palm and the fir or pine, were adopted. Equally useful
for symbolism were a tall upright stone (menhir), a cone, a
pyramid, a thumb or finger pointed straight, a mast, a rod,
a trident, a narrow bottle or amphora, a bow, an arrow, a
lance, a horse, a bull, a lion, and many other animals
conspicuous for masculine power. As symbols of the female,
the passive though fruitful element in creation, the crescent
moon, the earth, darkness, water, and its emblem a triangle
with the apex downwards, “the yoni,” a shallow vessel or
cup for pouring fluid into (cratera), a ring or oval, a lozenge,
any narrow cleft, either natural or artificial, an arch or
doorway, were employed. In the same category of symbols
came a ship or boat, the female date-palm bearing fruit, a
cow with her calf by her side, the fish, fruits having many
seeds, such as the pomegranate, a shell (concha), a cavern,
a garden, a fountain, a bower, a rose, a. fig, and other things,
of suggestive form, etc.
These two great classes of conventional symbols were
often represented in conjunction with each other, and
thus symbolised in the highest degree the great source of
life, ever originating, ever renewed. The Egyptian temple
116
at Denderah has lately been explored by M. Mariette. In a
niche of the Holy of Holies he discovered the sacred secret.
This was simply a GOLDEN SISTRUM (see ante, pp. 44 and
70), an emblem formed by uniting the female oval 0 with the
male sacred Tau T; and thus identical in meaning with the
coarse emblem seen by Captain Burton in the African idol
temple. A similar emblem is the linga standing in the
centre of a yoni, the adoration of which is to this day
characteristic of the leading dogma of Hindu religion.
There is scarcely a temple in India which has not its lingam;
and in numerous instances this symbol is the only form
under which the great god Siva is worshipped. (See ante,
pp. 72, 73.)
The linga is generally a tall, polished, cylindrical, black
stone, apparently inserted into another stone formed like an
elongated saucer, though in reality the whole is sculptured
out of one block of basalt. The outline of the frame, which
reminds us of a Jew’s harp (the conventional form of the
female member), is termed argha or yoni. The former, or
round perpendicular stone, the type of the virile organ, is
the linga. The entire symbol, to which the name lingyoni
is given, is also occasionally called lingam. This representa-
tive of the union of the sexes typifies the divine sacti, or
productive energy, in union with the procreative, generative
power seen throughout nature. The earth was the primitive
pudendum, or yoni, which is fecundated by the solar heat,
the sun, the primitive linga, to whose vivifying rays man
and animals, plants and the fruits of the earth, owe their
being and continued existence. These “lingas” vary in size
from the tiny amulets worn about the neck, to the great
monoliths of the temples. Thus the lingam is an emblem of
the Creator, the fountain of all life, who is represented in
Hindu mythology as uniting in Himself the two sexes.
Another symbol, the caduceus, older than Greek and
Roman art, in which it is associated with Esculapius and
Hermes, the gods of health and fertility, has precisely the
117
same signification as the sistrum and the lingam. This is
made clear enough in the following extract from a letter by
Dr. C. E. Balfour, published in Fergusson’s Tree
and Serpent Worship, 1873. “I have only once
seen living snakes in the form of the Esculapian
rod. It was at Ahmednuggar, in 1841, on a clear
moonlight night. They dropped into the garden Fig. 173
from the thatched roof of my house and stood erect. They
were all cobras, and no one could have seen them without at
once recognising that they were in congress. Natives of
India consider that it is most fortunate to witness serpents
so engaged, and believe that if a person can throw a cloth at
the pair so as to touch them with it, the material becomes
a representative form of Lakshmi,* of the highest virtue,
and is preserved as such.” The serpent, which casts its
skin and seems to renew its youth every year, has been
used from remotest times as a living symbol of generative
energy, and of immortality; indeed, in the most ancient
Eastern languages, the name for the serpent also signifies
life.† It has been usually worshipped as the Agathodæmon,
the god of good fortune, life, and health; though in the
Hebrew scriptures, and elsewhere, we meet with a good and
a bad serpent—Oriantal dualism. The Kakodæmon, how-
ever, is usually represented as winged—the Dragon, as in.
the following example.
In the remarkable Babylonian seal, Plate iv., Fig. 3, the
deity is represented as uniting in himself the male and the
female. On each side is a serpent, as the emblem of the life
flowing from the Creator; that on the male side, having
round his head the solar glory, is compared to the sun-god,
as the active principle in creation; that on the female side,
over whose head is the lunar crescent, to the moon- and
earth-goddess, the passive principle in creation. Both are
* The lupanars at Pompeii were distinguished by a sign over the street door,
representing the erect phallus, painted or carved, and having the words
underneath, “Hic habitat felicitas.”
121
an epithet of Baal. Doubtless this was also identical with
the Egyptian Osiris, = the sun, = the phallus. He was
said to have suffered death like the sun; and Plutarch
tells us that Isis, unable to discover all the remains of her
husband, consecrated the phallus as his representative. Thus
“the Asharim” were male symbols used in Baal-worship,
and sometimcs consisted of multiple phalli, of which the
branch carried by an Assyrian priest, in Plate iii. Fig. 4. is a
conventional form. They were then counterparts of the
“multimammia” of Greek and Roman worship.* This is
confirmed by a curious passage, 1 Kings XV. 13 (repeated
2 Chron. xv. 16). We learn (xiv. 23) that the Jews, under
Rehoboam, son of Solomon, having lapsed into idolatry, had
“built them high places, images, and Asharim (“groves,”
A. V.) on every high hill, and under every green tree; and
that there were also consecrated ones (“sodomites,” A. V.)
in the land.” But Asa, his brother, on succeeding to the
throne, swept away all these things, and (xv. 13) deposed
the queen mother, Maachab, because she had made a miphlet-
zeth to an Asherah (“an idol in a grove,” A. V.) hx@l)p&m,!
miphletzeth, is rendered by the Vulgate “simulacrum Priapi,”
The word is derived from {lp, palatz, “to be broken,” “terri-
fied,” or the cognate clp, phalash, palash, “to break or go
through,” “to open up a way;” a word or root found in the
Hebrew, Phœnician, Syriac, and Ethiopic. Doubtless the
Greek falloj, phallos, was hence derived, since it has no
independent meaning in Greek; and Herodotus and Dio-
dorus expressly assert that the chief gods of Greece and their
mysteries, especially the Dionysiac or Bacchic revels, in
which the phallus was carried in procession, were derived
from the east. Compare also the Latin pales, English
pale, pole, = Maypole. A similar word, with a corres-
ponding meaning, exists in the Sanskrit. Thus, then,
according to the Hebrew scriptures, there were two chief
Figure 175.
Figure 176.
Figure 177.
* The first letter, Aleph, = an ox, is, even on the Moabite stone, written thus, ,
and has become the modern A. In the earlier hieroglyphs is must have been thus .
The Egyptian hieroglpyh for ten is Í. Compare the Greek Deka and the Latin Decem.
† The first of the Orphic Hymns is addressed to the goddess Artemisias Proquraia,
(Prothuraia) or the Door-keeper, who presided over childbirths, like the Roman
Diana Lucina.
128
worshipper of Baal entered to the kadeshah, the living
embodiment of the goddess, the analogy to the Asherah
became complete, as we shall now show.
The central object in the Assyrian “grove” is a male
date-palm, which was well known as an emblem of Baal,
the sun, the phallus, and life. This remarkable tree,
rm*T/, m., Tamar, in Phœnician and Hebrew, the phœnix
(Ð fo…nix) in Greek, was formerly abundant in Palestine and
the neighbouring regions. The word Phœnicia (Acts xi.19,
xv. 3) is derived from fo…nix,, phoinix, as the country of
palms; like the “Idumeæ palmæ” of Virgil. Palmyra, the
city of the sun, was called in the Hebrew Tamar (1 Kings
ix. 18). In Vespasian’s famous coin, “Judea capta,”
Judea is represented as a female sitting under a palm-tree.
The tree can at once be identified by its tall, straight,
branchless stem, of equal thickness throughout, crowned at
the top with a cluster of long, curved, feather-like branches,
and by its singularly wrinkled bark. All these
charactenstics are readily recognised in the highly
conventional forms of the religious emblem, even in the
ornament on the king’s robe, fig. 174. The date-palm is
diœcious, the female trees, which are sometimes used as
emblem, being always distingnished by the clusters of date
fruit. “Thy stature is like to a palmtree; thy breasts to
clusters.” (Cant. vii. 7). “The righteious shall flourish like
the palm-tree” (Ps. xcii. 12), fruitful and ever green. “They
are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not” (Jer. x. 3-5).
The prophet is evidently describing the making of an
Asherah. There was a Canaanite city called Baal-Tamar, =
Baal, the palm-tree, designated so, it is probable, from the
worship of Baal there “under the form of a priapus-
column,” says Fürst, Heb. Lex. The real form was doubtIess
an “Asherim,” a modified palm-tree, as we have already
shown. Palm branches have been used in all ages
as emblems of life, peace, and victory. They were strewn
before Christ. Palm-Sunday, the feast of palms, is still
kept. Even within the present century, on this festival, in
129
many towns of France, women and children carried in pro-
cession at the end of their palm-branches a phallus made of
bread, which they called, undisguisedly, “la pine,” whence
the festival was called “La Fête des Pinnes.” The “pine”
having been blest by the priest, the women carefully pre-
served it during the following year as an amulet. (Dulaure,
Hist. des différens Cultes.)
Again, the Greek name for the palm-tree, phœnix, was
also the name of that mythical Egyptian bird, sacred to
Osiris, and a symbol of the resurrection. With some early
Christian writers, Christ was “the Phœnix.” The date-palm
is figured as a tree of life on an Egyptian sepulchral tablet,
older than the Exodus, now preserved in the museum at
Berlin. Two arms issue from the top of the tree; one of
which presents a tray of dates to the deceased, whilst the
othet gives him water, “the water of life.” The tree of life is
represented too by a date-palm on some of the earliest
Christian mosaics at Rome. Something very like the Assy-
rian Asherah, or sacred emblem, was sculptured on the great
doors of Solomon’s temple, by Hiram, the Tyrian (1 Kings
vii. 13-21). We read “he carved upon them carvings of
cherubims and palm-trees and open flowers, and spread gold
upon the cherubims and palm-trees” (1 Kings vi. 32-35).
He also erected two phallic pillars in front of the Temple,
Jachin and Boaz, = It stands—In strength. No wonder
Solomon fell to worship Astarte, Chemosh, and Milcom.
Although to our modern ideas the mystical tree, symbol
of life and immortality, seems ont of place in Judaism,
yet no sooner did the Jews possess a national coinage
under the Maccabees than the palm-tree reappears, always
with seven branches (like the golden candlestick, Ex. xxv.),
as on the shekel represented Plate xvii., Fig. 4. The Assyrian
tree has always the same number, and the tufts of foliage
(symbolising the entire female tree) which deck the margins
of the mystic —apt emblems of ferlility—have also
invariably seven branches. This may remind us of the
130
seven visible spheres that move around our earth “in mystic
dance,” and of Balak’s offering, upon seven altars, seven
bulls and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1; Rev. ii. 1). The mystic
door is also barred, like the Egyptian sistrum carried by the
priestesses of Isis, to represent the inviolable purity and
eternal perfection which were associated with the idea of
divinity. When Mary, the mother of Jesus, took the place
in Christendom of “the great goddess,” the dogmas which
propounded her immaculate conception and perpetual vir-
ginity followed as a matter of course.
Thus, then, we explain the greatest symbol in Eastern
worship,—it is the “Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden,”
which has remained so long a mystery. To Dr. Inman
belongs the distinguished merit of having first broken ground
in the right direction. In his Ancient Faiths, vol. 1, 1868,
he identified the Assyrian “Asherah” with the female “door
of life,” and pointed out its analogy to the barred sistrum.
We have seen that it is really much more complex, being
precisely analogous in meaning to the famous crux ansata
(Fig. 170), the central mystery of Egyptian worship; to the
lingam or lingyoni of India (Fig. 109), the great emblem of
Siva-worship; and to the caduceus of Greece and Rome. As
represented on the Assyrian sculptures, it is always
substantially the same. Probably this stereotyped form was
the result of a gradual refinement upon some rude primitive
type, perhaps as coarse as that seen by Captain Burton in
the African idol-temple.
To exhibit all the strange developments and modifications
which this idea has assumed in the religions symbolism of
Eastern and Western nations would require a large volume.
But the subject is so rich in varied interest that we cannot
conclude without taking a glance at it. First, the simple ,
barred, is reproduced with a contraction towards the base, as
in the Indian “yoni,” and the Egyptian sistrum, used in the
worship of Isis. Second, within the was represented the
goddess herself, as revealed within her own symbol. This
131
is illustrated in Plate xvii., Fig. 5, where Demeter or Ceres
is thus depicted, with her cornucopia, from a bronze coin of
Damascus. Thirdly, but much more commonly, the goddess
holds in her hands emblems of the male potency in creation,
and thus completes the symbol. As in the coin figured Plate
xvii., Fig. 8, the goddess, standing within the , the portico
of her temple, holds in her right hand the gross, that most
ancient emblem of the male and of life. In the beautiful
Greek coin of Sidon next figured, the goddess—evidently
Astarte, the moon-goddess, the Queen of Heaven—stands
on a ship, the mystic Argha or Ark, holding in one hand a
crozier, in the other the the cross. (Plate xvii., Fig. 7.)
Under Christianity, the Virgin Mary, who, as Queen of
Heaven, stands on the crescent moon, is pictured beneath
the mystic doorway, with (the God as) a male child in her
arms. See Plate xviii., copied from the woodcut title to the
Psalter of the Blessed Virgin, printed at Czenna, in old
Prussia, 1492. Like Isis, she is the mother and yet the
spouse of God, “clothed with the sun, and having the moon
under her feet” (Rev. xii. 1). The upper half of the picture
is very like the Assyrian scenes. On either side is a king,
Frederick III. and his son the Emperor Maximilian, at their
devotions. The alcove is of roses, an emblem of virginity.
The famous Mediæval “Romaunt de la Rose” turns upon
this. Among the many titles given to “the Virgin” in
Mediæval times, we find Santa Maria della Rosa, that
flower being consecrated to her. Hence it is often
represented in her hand. Dante writes:—
INDEX.
———
Abraham, xxviii., 63. Arab swearing, xxviii, 63.
Abricot fendu, 7. Arabs and yoni, 114.
Abuse does not chage facts, 43. Arba, the four, 6, 9, 11, 13, 14, 24,
Acorn, 132. 51.
Adam and Eve, 66. Arbor Vitæ, 3, 8, 130.
Adonis, 112. Arcana, 11.
Adultery, how punished, 19. Architecture, 111.
Aërolite, 6, 133. Arddha-nari, 9, 89.
African and fetish, xv. Argha, 75, 116.
Agathodæmon, 117 Aritia cup, 109
Ahriman, 5. Ark, xiii, xiv, 8, 83.
Al, 118 Arnobius, 34, 55, 66, 69, 73, 119.
Albe, 104. Arrectation, 4, 5.
Alcmena, 92. Arrow, 49.
Alcolve, 127. Art, Christian, 16.
Aleph, 127. Artemis, 113.
Alexander false prophet, 73. Aryans, xvii, 19.
Alexandrian library, 92. Asherah, 119 sqq., 126.
Allah, prohphet of, ix. Asher, Anu and Hea, 4, 10, 41,
Altar, 74 42, 50, 70, 120.
and fire, 9. Ashtaroth, 4, 11, 62, 119.
Amphibolus, saint, a cloak, 84. Ass, 84.
Amravati top, 133. the golden, 25.
Anacalypsis, Higgins’, 54, 66. Assur, 122.
Anatolia, 70 Assurbanipal, 122.
Anchor, a symbol, 53 Assyrian, 21, 31, 49, 99.
Ancient faiths and names, xi, 130. Astarte, 11, 25, 112, 129.
Androgyne, xxii, 9, 89, 93. Athanasius, xxxii.
Angels, 84. Atheists, 43.
Animals live peacably, xvii. Athor, 12.
Antelope, 3, 71. Augurs, 86.
Anu and Hea, 4, 10, 50, 70. Aureole, 34, 35, 36.
Aphrodite, 112. Avatars, 68.
Apollo, 61. Aztec ruins, x.
Apollyon, 118.
Appendix, 107. Baal, 10, 119 sqq.
Apple, 55. Baalim, 4, 11, 118.
Apuleius, 25. Baal-Peor, 119.
Arabian paradise, 110. Baal-Tamar, 128.
138 INDEX.
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EDITORIAL NOTE TO THE ELECTRONIC EDITION.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
This e-text of Pagan and Christian Symbolism was key-entered / OCR’d
and proofed by Frater T.S. from page images of the expanded second
edition (1874, reprinted 1875). A few obvious compositor’s errors have
been corrected. Layout has been conformed as far as possible to the 1874
printing, with the exception of the position of plates II-XIX, which have
here been so arranged as to minimise the number of blank pages.
The title page (leaving aside the substitution of the publisher’s name)
neither entirely follows the 1874 printing, which omitted the reference to
Newton’s essay, or the 1875 printing, which omitted “Exposed and
Explained” from the main title.
Those of the figures which were simple geometric designs have been
redrawn; the rest were scanned from a copy of the 1874 printing in the
collection of Leeds City Library, with the exception of Fig. 155 which was
taken from page images of Payne Knight’s Worship of Priapus found online
at the Digital Library of India, as in the original printing of Symbolism
Inman had, as he notes on p. 96, Bowdlerised the figure by turning the
phallus on the side of the instrument into an inverted Tau. Several figures
have been slightly retouched or cleaned up from the scans.
As indicated by the preface, the body of Symbolism essentially consists
of the illustrations (with a few omissions for reasons which are unclear)
from Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names with the explanatory text
which was prefixed to that work (in vol. II of the first edition, vol. I of the
second edition), with various rants and digressions interspersed. The first
edition ran to about half the page count (68pp + 16 plates) and omitted
Newton’s essay; I have not had a chance to examine a copy.
A complete e-text of Ancient Faiths … Ancient Names is projected by
Celephaïs Press but owing to its length (a little under 2000 octavo pages),
the number of other large texts in my wish list of “mad 19th century works
on Comparative Religion and speculative prehistory” (Massey, Forlong,
Higgins, &c.) and the fact that I really need to get a day job, is unlikely to
manifest any time soon.