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Figure 62 represents one of the forms assumed by the sistrum of Isis. Sometimes the instrument is oval, and occasionally it terminates below in a horizontal line, instead of in an acute angle. The inquirer can very readily recognise in the emblem the symbol of the female creator. If there should be any doubt in his mind, he will be satisfied after a reference to Maffei'sGemme Antiche Figurate(Rome, 1707), vol. ii., plate 61, wherein Diana of the Ephesians is depicted as having a body of the exact shape of the sistrum figured in Payne Knight's work on the remains of the worship of Priapus, etc. The bars across the sistrum show that it denotes a pure virgin (seeAncient Faiths, second edition, Vol. n., pp. 743-746). On its handle is seen the figure of a cat—a sacred animal amongst the Egyptians, for the same reason that Isis was figured sometimes as a cow—viz., for its salacity and its love for its offspring.
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Figures 63 to 66 are all drawn from Assyrian sources.
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The central figure, which is probably the biblical "grove," represents the delta, or female "door." To it the attendant genii offer the pine cone and basket. The signification of these is explained subsequently. I was unable at first to quote any authority to demonstrate that the pine cone was a distinct masculine symbol, but now the reader may be referred to Maffei,Gemme Antiche Figurate(Rome, 1708), where, in vol. iii., he will see a Venus Tirsigera.
The goddess in plate 8, is nude, and carries in her hand the tripliform arrow, emblem of the male triad, whilst in the other she bears a thyrsus, terminating in a pine or fir cone. Now this cone and stem are carried in the Bacchic festivities, and can be readily recognised asvirga cum ovo. Sometimes the thyrsus is replaced by ivy leaves, which, like the fig, are symbolic of the triple creator. Occasionally the thyrsus was a lance or pike, round which vine leaves and berries were clustered; Bacchuscum vinobeing the companion of Venuscum cerere. But a stronger confirmation of my views may be found in a remarkable group (see Fig. 124 infra). This is entitledSacrifizio di Priapo, and represents a female offering to Priapus. The figure of the god stands upon a pillar of three stones, and it bears a thyrsus from which depend two ribbons. The devotee is accompanied by a boy, who carries a pine- or fir- cone in his hand, and a basket on his head, in which may be recognised a male effigy. In Figure 64 the position of the advanced hand of each of the priests nearest to the grove is very suggestive to the physiologist. It resembles one limb of the Buddhist cross, Fig. 37,supra. The finger or thumb when thus pointed are figurative of Asher, in a horizontal position, with Anu or Hea hanging from one end. Figure 65 is explained similarly. It is to be noticed that a door is adopted amongst modern Hindoos as an emblem of the sacti (see Figs. 152, 153,infra).
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My friend Mr. Newton, who has taken great interest in the subject of symbolism, regards these "groves" as not being simply emblems of the yoni, but of the union of that part with the lingam, or mystic palm tree. As his ideas are extremely ingenious, and his theory perfect, I have requested him to introduce them at the end of this work.
Figures 67, 68, 69, are fancy sketches intended to represent the "sacred shields" spoken of in Jewish and other history. The last is drawn from memory, and represents a Templar's shield. According to the method in which the shield is viewed, it appears like theos tincæor the navel. Figures 70, 71, represent the shape of the sistrum of Isis, the fruit of the fig, and the yoni. When a garment of this shape is made and worn, it becomes the "pallium" donned alike by the male and female individuals consecrated to Roman worship.
King, in hisAncient Gnostics, remarks: "The circle of the sun is the navel, which marks the natural position of the womb—the navel being considered in the microcosm as corresponding to the sun in the universe, an idea more fully exemplified in the famous hallucination of the Greek anchorites touching the mystical 'Light of Tabor,' which was revealed to the dèvotee after a fast of many days, all the time staring fixedly upon the region of the navel, whence at length this light streamed as from a focus." Pages 158, 154.
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Figures 72, 73, represent an ancient Christian bishop, and a modern nun wearing the emblem of the female sex. In the former, said (inOld England Pictorially Illustrated, by Knight) to be a drawing of St. Augustine, the amount of symbolism is great. The "nimbus" and the tonsure are solar emblems; the pallium, the feminine sign, is studded with phallic crosses; its lower end is the ancient T the mark of the masculine triad; the right hand has the forefinger extended, like the Assyrian priests whilst doing homage to the grove, and within it is the fruit,tappuach, which is said to have tempted Eve. When a male dons the pallium in worship, he becomes the representative of the trinity in the unity, thearba, or mystic four. SeeAncient Faiths, second edition, Vol. n., pp. 915-918.
I take this opportunity to quote here a pregnant page of King'sGnostics and their Remains, (Bell & Daldy, London, 1864). To this period belongs a beautiful sard in my collection representing Serapis,... whilst before himstandsIsis, holding in one hand the sistrum, in the other a wheatsheaf, with the legend... 'Immaculate is our lady Isis,' the very terms applied afterwards to that personage who succeeded to her form (the 'Black Virgins,' so highly reverenced in certain French Cathedrals during the middle ages, proved, when examined critically, basalt figures of Isis), her symbols, rites, and ceremonies.... Her devotees carried into the new priesthood the former badges of their profession, the obligation to celibacy, the tonsure, and the surplice, omitting, unfortunately, the frequent ablutions prescribed by the ancient creed. The sacred image still moves in procession as when Juvenal laughed at it, vi. 530.
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Escorted by the tonsured surpliced train. Her proper title, Domina, the exact translation of Sanscrit Isi, survives with slight change in the modern Madonna, Mater Domina.
By a singular permutation the flower borne by each, the lotus—ancient emblem of the sun and fecundity—now re-named the lily, is interpreted as significant of the opposing quality. The tinkling sistrum... is replaced by... the bell, taken from Buddhist usages.... The erect oval symbol of the Female Principle of Nature became the Vesica Piscis, and the Crux Ansata, testifying the union of the male and female in the most obvious manner, is transformed into the orb surmounted by the cross, as an ensign of royalty. Pp. 71, 72.
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Figure 74 is a well known Christian emblem, called "a foul anchor." The anchor, as a symbol, is of great antiquity. It may be seen on an old Etruscan coin in the British Museum, depicted inVeterum Popvlorum et Regum Nummi, etc. (London, 1814), plate ii., fig. 1. On the reverse there is a chariot wheel. The foul anchor represents the crescent moon, the yoni, ark, navis, or boat; in this is placed the mast, round which the serpent, the emblem of life in the "verge," entwines itself. The cross beam completes the mystic four, symbolic alike of the sun and of androgeneity. The whole is a covert emblem of that union which results in fecundity. It is said by Christians to be the anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast. This it certainly cannot be, for a foul anchor will not hold the ground.
Figures 75 to 79 are Asiatic and Egyptian emblems in use amongst ourselves, and receive their explanation similarly to preceding ones.
Figure 80 is copied from Godfrey Higgins'Anacalypsis, vol. ii., fig. 27. It is drawn from Montfauçon, vol. ii., pi. cxxxii., fig. 6. In his text, Higgins refers to two similar groups, one which exists in the Egyptian temple of Ipsambal in Nubia, and is described by Wilson,On Buddhists and Jeynes, p. 127, another, found in a cave temple in the south of India, described by Col. Tod, in hisHistory of Raj-pootanah. The group is not explained by Montfauçon. It is apparently Greek, and combines the story of Hercules with the seductiveness of Circe. The tree and serpent are common emblems, and have even been found in Indian temples in central America, grouped as in the woodcut.
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Figure 81 is copied from Lajard,Culte de Venus, plate xix., fig. 11, The origin of this, which is a silver statuette in that author's possession, is unknown. The female represents Venus bearing in one hand an apple; her arm rests upon what seems to be a representative of the mystic triad (the two additions to the upright stem not being seen in a front view) round which a dolphin for 'womb' is entwined, from whose mouth comes the stream of life. The apple plays a strange part in Greek and Hebrew mythology. The story of "the apple of discord," awarded by Paris to Venus, seems to indicate that where beauty contends against majesty and wisdom for the love of youth, it is sure to win the day. We learn from Arnobius that a certain Nana conceived a son by an apple (Op, Cit., p. 286), although in another place the prolific fruit is said to have been a pomegranate. Mythologically, that writer sees no difficulty in the story, for those who affirm that rocks and hard stones have brought forth. In the Song of Solomon, apples and the tree that bears them are often referred to; and we have in Ch. ii. 5 the curious expression, "Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love." We are familiar with the account of Eve being tempted by the same fruit. Critics imagine that as the apple in Palestine is not good eating, the quince is meant; if so, we know that a leaf of that tree is to be seen in every amorous picture found in Pompeii, the plant having been supposed to increase virile power. Others imagine that the citron is intended, whose shape makes it an emblem of the testis. However this may be decided, it is tolerably clear, from all the tales and pictures in which a fruit like the apple figures, that the emblem symbolised a desire for an intimate union between the sexes. The reader will doubtless remember how, in Genesis xxx, Leah is represented as purchasing her husband's company for a night by means of mandrakes, the result being the birth of Issachar; and in the well-known story of the Creation we find that the apple gives birth to desire, as shown in the recognition for the first time of the respective nudity of the couple, which was followed immediately, or as soon as it was possible afterwards, by sexual intercourse and the conception of Cain.
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Figure 82 is from Lajard (Op. Cit.), plate xivb, fig. 3.
The gem is of unknown origin, but is apparently Babylonish; it represents the male and female in conjunction: each appears to be holding the symbol of the triad in much respect, whilst the curious cross suggests a new reading to an ancient symbol.
I have of late heard it asserted, by a man of considerable learning, though of a very narrow mind in everything which bears upon religious subjects, that there is no proof that the sun was commonly regarded as a male, or the moon as a female; and he based his strange assertion solely upon the ground that in German and some other languages the sun was represented by a feminine, and the moon by a masculine noun. The argument is of no value, for [—Greek—] and other Greek and Latin names of the yoni, are masculine nouns, and Virga and Mentula, the Roman words for the Linga, are feminine. In Hindostan, the sun is always represented as a God; the moon is occasionally a male, and sometimes a female deity. In ancient Gaulish and Scandinavian figures, the sun was always a male, and the moon a female. Their identification will be seen in Figure 118—as their conjunction is in the one before us—in the position of the individuals, and in thefleur-de-lysand oval symbol.
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Figure 88 may be found in Fabretti'sCorpus Inscriptionum Italicarum(Turin, 1867), plate xxv., fig. 808 f. The coins which bear the figures are of brass, and were found at Volaterræ. In one the double head is associated with a dolphin and crescent moon on the reverse, and the letters Velathri, in Etruscan. A similar inscription exists on the one containing the club. The club, formed as in Figure 88, occurs frequently on Etruscan coins. For example, two clubs are joined with four balls on a Tudertine coin, having on the reverse a hand apparently gauntleted for fighting, and four balls arranged in a square. On other coins are to be seen a bee, a trident, a spear head, and other tripliform figures, associated with three balls in a triangle; sometimes two, and sometimes one. The double head with two balls is seen on a Telamonian coin, having on the reverse what appears to be a leg with the foot turned upwards. In a coin of Populonia the club is associated with a spear and two balls, whilst on the reverse is a single head. I must notice, too, that on other coins a hammer and pincers, or tongs, appear, as if the idea was to show that a maker, fabricator, or heavy hitter was intended to be symbolised. What that was is further indicated by other coins, on which a head appears thrusting out the tongue. At Cortona two statuettes of silver have been found, representing a double-faced individual. A lion's head for a cap, a collar, and buskins are the sole articles of dress worn. One face appears to be feminine, and the other masculine, but neither is bearded. The pectorals and the general form indicate the male, but the usual marks of sex are absent. On these have been found Etruscan inscriptions (1) v. cvinti arntias CULPIANSI ALP AN TURCE; (2) V. CVINTE ARNTIAS SELANSE TEZ alpan TUBCE. Which may be rendered (1) "V. Quintus of Aruntia, to Culpian pleasing, a gift"; (2) "V. Quintus of Aruntia to Vulcan pleasing gave a gift," evidently showing that they were ex voto offerings.
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Col. Forbes Leslie's Early Races of Scotland. In plate 49 it is associated with a serpent, apparently the cobra. The design is spoken of as "the spectacle ornament," and it is very commonly associated with another figure closely resembling the letter Z. It is very natural for the inquirer to associate the twin circles with the sun and earth, or the sun common amongst the sculptured stones in Scotland. Four varieties may be seen in plate 48 of sun and moon. On one Scottish monument the circles represent wheels, and they probably indicate the solar chariot. As yet I have only been able to meet with the Z and "spectacle ornament" once out of Scotland; it is figured on apparently a Gnostic gem (The Gnostics and their Remains, by C. W. King, London, 1864, plate ii., fig. 5). In that we see in a serpent cartouche two Z figures, each having the down stroke crossed by a horizontal line, both ends terminating in a circle; besides them is a six-rayed star, each ray terminating in a circle, precisely resembling the star in Plate in., Fig. 8, supra. I can offer no satisfactory explanation of the emblem.
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Figures 85, 86, represent a Yorkshire and an Indian stone circle. The first is copied fromDescriptions of Cairns, Cromlechs, Kistvaens, and other Celtic, Druidical, or Scythian Monuments in the Dekkan, by Col. Meadows Taylor,Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv. The mound exists at Twizell, Yorkshire, and the centre of the circle indicates an ancient tomb, very similar to those found by Taylor in the Dekkan; this contained only one single urn, but many of the Indian ones contained, besides the skeleton of the great man buried therein, skeletons of other individuals who had been slaughtered over his tomb, and buried above the kistvaen containing his bones; in one instance two bodies and three heads were found in the principal grave, and twenty other skeletons above and beside it. A perusal of this very interesting paper will well repay the study bestowed upon it. Figure 86 is copied from Forbes Leslie's book mentioned above, plate 59. It represents a modern stone circle in the Dekkan, of very recent construction. The dots upon the stones represent dabs of red paint, which again represent blood. The circles are similar to some which have been found in Palestine, and give evidence of the presence of the same religious ideas existing in ancient England and Hindostan, as well as in modern India. The name of the god worshipped in these recent shrines is Vetal, or Betal. It is worth mentioning, in passing, that there is a celebrated monolith in Scotland called the Newton Stone, on which are inscribed, evidently with a graving tool, an inscription in the Ogham, and another in some ancient Aryan character (see Moore's Ancient Pillar Stones of Scotland).
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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.
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Figure 88 is copied from Hyslop, who gives it on the authority of Col. Hamilton Smith, who copied it from the original collection made by the artists of the French Institute of Cairo. It is said to represent Osiris, but this is doubtful. There is much that is intensely mystical about the figure. The whip, or flagellum, placed over the tail, and the head passing through the yoni, the circular spots with their central dot, the horns with solar disc, and two curiously shaped feathers (?), the calf reclining upon a plinth, wherein a division into three is conspicuous, all have a meaning in reference to the mystic four.
I have long had a doubt respecting the symbolic meaning of the scourge. Some inquirers have asserted that it is simply an emblem of power or superiority, inasmuch as he who can castigate must be in a higher position than the one who is punished. But of this view I can find no proof. On the other hand, any one who is familiar with the effect upon the male produced by flagellation, and who notices that the representations of Osiris and the scourge show evidence that the deity is in the same condition as one who has been subjected to the rod, will be disposed to believe that the flagellum is an indication or symbol of the god who gives to man the power to reproduce his like, or who can restore the faculty after it has faded. It is not for a moment to be supposed that a deity who was to be worshipped would be depicted as a task-master, whose hands are more familiar with punishment than blessing.
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Figure 89 is taken from Lajard'sCulte de Venus, plate i., fig. 14, and is an enlarged impression of a gem. A similar figure is to be found in Payne Knight's workOn the Worship of Priapus. In both instances the female is fringed with male emblems. In the one before us a fish, apparently a dolphin, is borne in one hand. In the other the woman is bearded. These are representations of Ashtaroth—the androgyne deity in which the female predominates.
Fig. 90 represents an ancient Italian form of the Indian Ling Yoni. It is copied from a part of the Frontispiece of Faber'sDissertation on the Cabiri, where it is stated that the plate is a copy of a picture of a nymphoeum found when excavating a foundation for the Barbarini Palace at Rome. It deserves notice, because the round mound of masonry surmounted by the short pillars is precisely similar to similar erections found in Hindostan on the East and America on the West, as well as in varions parts of Europe. The oval in the pediment and the solitary pillar have the same meaning as the Caaba and hole—the upright stone and pit revered at Mecca long before Mahomet's time—the tree serves to identify the pillar, andvice versa. Apertures were common in ancient sepulchral monuments, alike in Hindostan and England; one perforated stone is preserved as a relic in the precincts of an old church in modern Rome. The aperture is blackish with the grease of many hands, which have been put therein whilst their owners took a sacred oath. We have already remarked how ancient Abraham and a modern Arab have sworn by the Linga; it is therefore by no means remarkable that some of a different form of faith should swear by the Yoni.
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Figure 91 is stated by Higgins, Anacalypm, p. 217, to be a mark on the breast of an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of University College, London. It is essentially the same symbol as thecrux ansata, and is emblematic of the male triad and the female unit.
Figure 92 is simply introduced to show that the papal tiara has not about it anything particularly Christian, a similar head-dress having been worn by gods or angels in ancient Assyria, where it appeared crowned by an emblem of "the trinity." We may mention, in passing, that as the Romanists adopted the mitre and the tiara from "the cursed brood of Ham," so they adopted the episcopalian crook from the augurs of Etruria, and the artistic form with which they clothe their angels from the painters and um-makers of Magna Gracia and Central Italy.
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Figure 98 is the Mithraic lion. It may be seen in Hyde'sReligion of the Ancient Persians, second edition, plate i. It may also be seen in vol. ii., plates 10 and 11, of Maffei'sGemme Antiche Figurate(Rome, 1707). In plate 10 the Mithraic lion has seven stars above it, around which are placed respectively, words written in Greek, Etruscan and Phoenician characters, ZEDCH. TELKAN. TELKON. TELKON. QIDEKH. UNEULK. LNKELLP., apparently showing that the emblem was adopted by the Gnostics. It would be unprofitable to dwell upon the meaning of these letters. After puzzling over them, I fancy that "Bad spirits, pity us," "Just one, I call on thee," may be made out by considering the words to be very bad Greek, and the letters to be much transposed.
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Figure 94 is copied by Higgins,Anacalypsis, on the authority of Dubois, who states, vol. iii., p. 88, that it was found on a stone in a church in France, where it had been kept religiously for six hundred years. Dubois regards it as wholly astrological, and as having no reference to the story told in Genesis. It is unprofitable to speculate on the draped figures as representatives of Adam and Eve. We have introduced it to show how such tales are intermingled with Sabeanism.
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Figure 95 is a copy of a gem figured by Layard (Nineveh and Babylon, p. 156), and represents Harpocrates seated on a lotus, adoring the mundane representative of the mother of creation. I have not yet met with any ancient gem or sculpture which seems to identify the yoni so completely with various goddesses.
Compare this with Figure 138,infra, wherein the Figure 95. emblem is even more strikingly identified with woman, and with the virgin Mary. Those who are familiar with the rude designs too often chalked on hoardings, will see that learned ancients and boorish moderns represent certain ideas in precisely similar fashion, and will understand the mystic meaning of O —— I have elsewhere called attention to the idea that a sight of the yoni is a source of health, and a charm against evil spirits; however grotesque the idea may be, it has existed in all ages, and in civilised and savage nations alike. A rude image of a woman who shamelessly exhibits herself has been found over the doors of churches in Ireland, and at Servatos, in Spain, where she is standing on one side of the doorway, and an equally conspicuous man on the other. The same has been found in Mexico, Peru, and in North America. Nor must we forget how Baubo cured the intense grief of Ceres by exposing herself in a strange fashion to the distressed goddess. Arnobius,Op. Cit., pp. 249, 250.
As I have already noticed modern notions on the influence produced by the exhibition of the yoni on those who are suffering, the legend referred to may be shortly described. The goddess, in the story, was miserable in consequence of her daughter, Proserpine, having been stolen away by Pluto. In her agony, snatching two Etna-lighted torches, she wanders round the earth in search of the lost one, and in due course visits Eleusis. Baubo receives her hospitably; but nothing that the hostess does induces the guest to depose her grief for a moment. In despair the mortal bethinks her of a scheme, shaves off what is called in Isaiah "the hair of the feet" and then exposes herself to the goddess. Ceres fixes her eyes upon the denuded spot, is pleased with the strange form of consolation, consents to take food and is restored to comfort.
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Figure 96 is copied from plate 22, fig. 8, of Lajard'sCulte de Venus. He states that it is an impression of a cornelian cylinder, in the collection of the late Sir William Ouseley, and is supposed to represent Oannes, or Bel and two fish gods, the authors of fecundity. It is thought that Dagon of the Philistines resembled the two figures supporting the central one.
Figure 97 is a side view of plate 1. The idol represents a female. Dagon, the fish god, male above, piscine below, was one of the many symbols of an androgyne creator. In the first of the Avatars of Vishnu, he is represented as emerging from the mouth of a fish, and being a fish himself; the legend being that he was to be the saviour of the world in a deluge which was to follow. See Moor'sHindu Pantheon, and Coleman'sMythology of the Hindus.
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Figure 98 is a fancy sketch of thefleur-de-lys, the lily of France. It symbolises the male triad, whilst the ring around it represents the female. The identification of this emblem of the trinity with the tripliform Mahadeva, and of the ring with his sacti, may be seen in the next figure.
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Figure 99, which we have already given on page 46, is one of great value to the inquirer into the signification of certain symbols. It has been reintroduced here to show the identification of the eye, fish, or oval shape, with the yoni, and of thefleur-de-lyswith the lingam, which is recognised by the respective positions of the emblems in front of particular parts of the mystic animals, who both, on their part, adore the symbolic palm tree, with its pistil and stamens. The rayed branches of the upper part of the tree, and the nearness to it of the crescent moon, seem to indicate that the palm was a solar as well as a sexual emblem.
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The great similarity of the palm tree to the ancient round towers in Ireland and elsewhere will naturally strike the observer. He will perhaps remember also that on certain occasions dancing, feasting, and debauchery were practised about a round tower in Wicklow, such as were practised round the English may-pole, the modern substitute of the mystic palm tree. We have now humanised our practice, but we have not purified our land of all its veiled symbols.
In some parts, where probably the palm tree does not flourish, the pine takes its place as an emblem. It was sacred to the mother of the gods, whose names, Rhoea, Ceres, Cybele, are paraphrastic of the yoni. We learn from Araobius,Op. Cit., p. 239, that on fixed days that tree was introduced into the sanctuary of that august personage, being decorated by fleeces and violets. It does not require any recondite knowledge to understand the signification of the entrance of the pine into the temple of the divine mother, nor what the tree when buried in the midst of a fleece depicts. Those who have heard of the origin of the Spanish Royal Order of the Golden Fleece know that the word is an enphemism for thelanugoof the Romans. Parsley round a carrot root is a modern symbol, and the violet is as good an emblem of the lingam as the modern pistol.
It has long been known that the ancient custom of erecting a may-pole, surrounding it with wreaths of flowers, and then dancing round it in wild orgy, was a relic of the ancient custom of reverencing the symbol of creation, invigorated by the returning spring time, without whose powers the flocks and herds would fail to increase. It will not fail to attract the notice of my readers, that a pine cone is constantly being offered to the sacred "grove" by the priests of Assyria.
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Figures 100, 101, represent the Buddhist cross and one of its arms. The first shows the union of four phalli. The single one being a conventional form of a well-known organ. This form of cross does not essentially differ from the Maltese cross. In the latter, Asher stands perpendicularly to Anu and Hea; in the former it is at right angles to them. "The pistol" is a well-known name amongst our soldiery, and four such joined together by the muzzle would form the Buddhist cross. Compare Figure 37,ante.
Figures 102, 108, 104, indicate the union of the four creators, the trinity and the unity. Not having at hand any copy of an ancient key, I have used a modern one; but this makes no essential difference in the symbol.
Figures 105, 106, are copied from Lajard,Sur le Culte de Venus, plate ii. They represent ornaments held in the hands of a great female figure, sculptured in bas relief on a rock at Yazili Kaia, near to Boghaz Keni, in Anatolia, and described by M. C. Texier in 1834. The goddess is crowned with a tower, to indicate virginity; in her right hand she holds a staff, shown in Figure 106; in the other, that given in Figure 105, she stands upon a lioness, and is attended by an antelope. Figure 105 is a complicated emblem of the four.
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Figures 107, 108, 109, are copied from Moor'sHindu Pantheon, plate lxxxiii. They represent the lingam and then yoni, which amongst the Indians are regarded as holy emblems, much in the same way as a crucifix is esteemed by certain modern Christians.
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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 inAncient Faiths, second edition, there is a reference to one of his dupes, who was a distinguished Roman officer, but so very superstitious, or, as he would say of himself, so deeply imbued with religion, that at the sight of a stone he would fall prostrate and adore it for a considerable time, offering prayers and vows thereto. This may by some be thought quite as reasonable as the practice once enforced in Christian Rome, which obliged all persons in the street to kneel in reverence when an ugly black doll, called "the bambino," or a bit of bread, over which some cabalistic words had been muttered, was being carried in procession past them. Arnobins,Op, Cit., p. 81, says, "I worshipped images produced from the furnace, gods made on anvils and by hammers, the bones of elephants, paintings, wreaths on aged trees; whenever I espied an anointed stone, and one bedaubed with olive oil, as if some person resided in it, I worshipped it, I addressed myself to it, and begged blessings from a senseless stock." Compare Gen. xxviii. 18, wherein we find that Jacob set up a stone and anointed it with oil, and called the place Bethel, and Is. xxvii. 19, xl. 20, xliv. 10-20.
I copy the following remarks from a paper by Mr. Sellon, inMemoirs of the London Anthropological Society, for 1868-4. Speaking of Hindostan, he remarks, "As every village has its temple so every temple has its Lingam, and these parochial Lingams are usually from two to three feet in height, and rather broad at the base. Here the village girls, who are anxious for lovers or husbands, repair early in the morning. They make a lustration by sprinkling the god with water brought from the Ganges; they deck the Linga with garlands of the sweet-smelling bilwa flower; they perform themudra, or gesticulation with the fingers, and, reciting the prescribedmantras, or incantations, they rub themselves against the emblem, and entreat the deity to make them fruitful mothers ofpulee-pullum(i.e., child fruit).
"This is the celebrated Linga puja, during the performance of which thepanchaty, or five lamps, must be lighted, and thegantha, or bell, be frequently rung to scare away the evil demons. Themala, or rosary of a hundred and eight round beads, is also used in this puja."
See also Moor'sHindu Pantheon, plate xxii, pp. 68, 69, 70. Again, in theDabistan, a work written in the Persian language, by a travelled Mahometan, about a. d. 1660, and translated by David Shea, for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland (8 vols., 8vo., Allen and Co., Leadenhall Street, London), we read, vol. ii., pp. 148-160, "The belief of the Saktian is that Siva, that is, Mahadeva, who with little exception is the highest of deities and the greatest of the spirits, has a spouse whom they callMayaSakti.....With them the power of Mahadeva's wife, who is Bhavani, surpasses that of the husband. The zealous of this sect worship theSiva Linga, although other Hindoos also venerate it.Lingais 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 thebhaga, 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 thebhaga. 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.
Aproposof the Mahometan minaret and Christian church towers and spires, I may mention that Lucian describes the magnificent temple of the Syrian goddess as having two vast phalli before its main entrance, and how at certain seasons men ascended to their summit, and remained there some days, so as to utter from thence the prayers of the faithful.
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Figures 110, 111, both from Moor, plate lxxxvi., are forms of theargha, or sacred sacrificial cup, bowl, or basin, which represent the yoni, and some other things besides. See Moor,Hindu Pantheon, pp. 898, 894.
Figure 112. Copied from Rawlinson'sAncient Monarchies, vol. i., p. 176, symbolises Ishtar, the Assyrian representative of Devi, Parvati, Isis, Astarte, Venus, and Mary. The virgin and child are to be found everywhere, even in ancient Mexico.
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Figure 118 is copied from Lajard,Sur le Culte de Venus, plate xix., fig. 6, and represents the male and female as the sun and moon, thus identifying the symbolic sex of those luminaries. The legend in the Pehlevi characters has not been interpreted.
Figure 114 is taken from a mediæval woodcut, lent to me by my friend, Mr. John Newton, to whom I am indebted for the sight of, and the privilege to copy, many other figures. In it the virgin Mary is seen as the Queen of Heaven, nursing her infant, and identified with the crescent moon, the emblem of virginity. Being before the sun, she almost eclipses its light. Than this, nothing could more completely identify the Christian mother and child with Isis and Horus, Ishtar, Venus, Juno, and a host of other pagan goddesses, who have been called 'Queen of Heaven,' 'Queen of the Universe' 'Mother of God,' 'Spouse of God,' the 'Celestial Virgin,' the 'Heavenly Peace Maker,' etc.
Figures 115, 116, are common devices in papal churches and pagan symbolism. They are intended to indicate the sun and moon in conjunction, the union of the triad with the unit. I may notice, in passing, that Mr. Newton has showed to me some mediæval woodcuts, in which the young unmarried women in a mixed assemblage were indicated by wearing upon their foreheads a crescent moon.
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Figure 117 is a Buddhist symbol, or rather a copy of Maityna Bodhisatwa, from the monastery of Gopach, in the valley of Nepaul.
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It is taken from Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xviii., p. 894. The horse-shoe, like thevesica piscisof the Roman church, indicates the yoni; the last, taken from some cow, mare, or donkey, being used in eastern parts where we now use their shoes, to keep off the evil eye. It is remarkable that some nations should use the female organ, or an effigy thereof, as a charm against ill luck, whilst others adopt the male symbol. In Ireland, as we have previously remarked, a female shamelessly exhibiting herself, and called Shelah-na-gig, was to be seen in stone over the door of certain churches, within the last century.
From the resemblance in the shape of the horse-shoe to the "grove" of the Assyrian worshippers, and from the man standing within it as the symbolic pine tree stands in the Mesopotamian, "Asherah," I think we may fairly conclude that the Indian, like the Shemitic emblem, typifies the union of the sexes—the androgyne creator.
That some Buddhists have mingled sexuality with their ideas of religion, may be seen in plate ii. of Emil Schlagintweit'sAtlas of Buddhism in Tibet, wherein Vajarsattva, "The God above all," is represented as a male and female conjoined. Rays, as of the sun, pass from the group; and all are enclosed in an ornate oval, or horse-shoe, like that in this figure. Few, however, but the initiated would recognise the nature of the group at first sight.
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I may also notice, in passing, that the goddess Doljang (a.d. 617-98) has the stigmata in her hands and feet, like those assigned to Jesus of Nazareth and Francis of Assisi.
Figure 118 is a copy of the medal issued to pilgrims at the shrine of the virgin at Loretto. It was lent to me by Mr. Newton, but the engraver has omitted to make the face of the mother and child black, as the most ancient and renowned ones usually are.
Instead of the explanation given inAncient Faiths, Vol. ii., p. 262, of the adoption of a black skin for Mary and her son, D'Harcanville suggests that it represents night, the period during which the feminine creator is most propitious or attentive to her duties. It is unnecessary to contest the point, for almost every symbol has more interpretations given to it than one. I have sought in vain for even a plausible reason for the blackness of sacred virgins and children, in certain papal shrines, which is compatible with decency and Christianity. It is clear that the matter will not bear the light.