PREFACE
The present somewhat slight sketch of a most interesting subject, whilst not claiming entire originality, yet embraces the cream, so to speak, of various learned works of great cost, some of which being issued for private circulation only, are almost unobtainable.
During the past few years several books have been written upon Phallicism in conjunction with other kindred matters, but not devoting themselves entirely to one ancient mystery, the writers have only partially ventilated the subject. The present work seeks to obviate this failing by confining its attention entirely to the Sex Worship or Phallicism of the ancient world.
Many of the topics have received only slight treatment, being little more than indicated; but the work will enable the reader to understand and possess the truth concerning the Phallic Worship of the Ancients.
Those who desire to know more, or to authenticate the statements and facts given in this book, should consult the large and important works of Payne Knight, Higgins, Dulaure, Rolle, Inman, and other writers.
It was intended to give with this volume a list of works and miscellaneous pieces written on the subject, but the length of the list prevented its being added.
PHALLIC WORSHIP
PHALLIC WORSHIP
PHALLIC WORSHIP
NATURE AND SEX WORSHIP
Sex Worship has prevailed among all peoples of ancient times, sometimes contemporaneous and often mixed with Star, Serpent, and Tree Worship. The powers of nature were sexualised and endowed with the same feelings, passions, and performing the same functions as human beings.
Among the ancients, whether the Sun, the Serpent, or the Phallic Emblem was worshipped, the idea was the same—the veneration of the generative principle. Thus we find a close relationship between the various mythologies of the ancient nations, and by a comparison of the creeds, ideas, and symbols, can see that they spring from the same source, namely, the worship of the forces and operations of nature, the original of which was doubtless Sun worship. It is not necessary to prove that in primitive times the Sun must have been worshipped under various names, and venerated as the Creator, Light, Source of Life, and the Giver of Food.
In the earliest times the worship of the generative power was of the most simple and pure character, rude in manner, primitive in form, pure in idea, the homage of man to the supreme power, the Author of life.
Afterwards the worship became more depraved, a religion of feeling, sensuous bliss, corrupted by a priesthoodwho were not slow to take advantage of this state of affairs, and inculcated with it profligate and mysterious ceremonies, union of gods with women, religious prostitution and other degrading rites. Thus it was not long before the emblems lost their pure and simple meaning and became licentious statues and debased objects.
Hence we have the depraved ceremonies at the worship of Bacchus, who became, not only the representative of the creative power, but the God of pleasure and licentiousness.
The corrupted religion always found eager votaries, willing to be captives to a pleasant bondage by the impulse of physical bliss, as was the case in India and Egypt, and among the Phœnicians, Babylonians, Jews and other nations.
Sex worship once personified became the supreme and governing deity, enthroned as the ruling God over all; dissent therefrom was impious and punished. The priests of the worship compelled obedience; monarchs complied to the prevailing faith and became willing devotees to the shrines of Isis and Venus on the one hand, and of Bacchus and Priapus on the other, by appealing to the most animating passion of nature.
PHALLICISM
This is the worship of the reproductive powers, the sexual appointments revered as the emblems of the Creator. The one male, the active creative power; the other the female or passive power; ideas which were represented by various emblems in different countries.
These emblems were of a pure and sacred character, and used at a time when the prophets and priests spoke plain speech, understood by a rude and primitive people; although doubtless by the common people the emblems were worshipped themselves, even as at the present day in Roman Catholic countries the more ignorant, in many cases, actually worship the images and pictures themselves, while to the higher and more intelligent minds they are only symbols of a hidden object of worship. In the same manner, the concealed meaning or hidden truth was to the ignorant and rude people of early times entirely unknown, while the priests and the more learned kept studiously concealed the meaning of the ceremonies and symbols. Thus, the primitive idea became mixed with profligate, debased ceremonies, and lascivious rites, which in time caused the more pure part of the worship to be forgotten. But Phallicism is not to be judged from these sacred orgies, any more than Christianity from the religious excitement and wild excesses of a few Christian sects during the Middle Ages.
In a work on the “Worship of the Generative Powers during the Middle Ages,” the writer traces the superstition westward, and gives an account of its prevalence throughout Southern and Western Europe during that period.
The worship was very prevalent in Italy, and was invariably carried by the Romans into the countries they conquered, where they introduced their own institutions and forms of worship. Accordingly, in Britain have been found numerous relics and remains; and many of our ancient customs are traced to a Phallic origin. “When we cross over to Britain,” says the writer, “we find this worship established no less firmly and extensively in that island; statuettes of Priapus, Phallic bronzes,pottery covered with obscene pictures, are found wherever there are any extensive remains of Roman occupation, as our antiquaries know well. The numerous Phallic figures in bronze found in England are perfectly identical in character with those that occur in France and Italy.”
All antiquaries of any experience know the great number of obscene subjects which are met with among the fine red pottery which is termed Samian ware, found so abundantly in all Roman sites in our island. “They represent erotic scenes, in every sense of the word, with figures of Priapus and Phallic emblems.”
PHALLUS
The Phallus, or Lingam, which stood for the image of the male organ, or emblem of creation, has been worshipped from time immemorial. Payne Knight describes it as of the greatest antiquity, and as having prevailed in Egypt and all over Asia.
The women of the former country carried in their religious processions, a movable Phallus of disproportionate magnitude, which Deodorus Siculus informs us signified the generative attribute. It has also been observed among the idols of the native Americans and ancient Scandinavians, while the Greeks represented the Phallus alone, and changed the personified attribute into a distinct deity, called Priapus.
Phallus, or privy member (membrum virile), signifies, “he breaks through, or passes into.” This word survives in Germanpfahl, andpolein English. Phallus is supposedto be of Phœnician origin, the Greek wordpallo, orphallo, “to brandish preparatory to throwing a missile,” is so near in assonance and meaning to Phallus, that one is quite likely to be parent of the other. In Sanskrit it can be traced tophal, “to burst,” “to produce,” “to be fruitful”; then, again,phalis “a ploughshare,” and is also the name of Siva and Mahadeva, who are Hindu deities. Phallus, then, was the ancient emblem of creation: a divinity who was companion to Bacchus.
The Indian designation of this idol was Lingam, and those who dedicated themselves to its service were to observe inviolable chastity. “If it were discovered,” says Crawford, “that they had in any way departed from them, the punishment is death. They go naked, and being considered as sanctified persons, the women approach without scruple, nor is it thought that their modesty should be offended by it.”
SYMBOLS OR EMBLEMS
The Phallus and its emblems were representative of the gods Bacchus, Priapus, Hercules, Siva, Osiris, Baal, and Asher, who were all Phallic deities. The symbols were used as signs of the great creative energy or operating power of God from no sense of mere animal appetite, but in the highest reverence. Payne Knight, describing the emblems, says:—
“Forms and ceremonials of a religion are not always to be understood in their direct and obvious sense, butare to be considered as symbolical representations of some hidden meaning extremely wise and just, though the symbols themselves, to those who know not their true signification, may appear in the highest degree absurd and extravagant. It has often happened that avarice and superstition have continued these symbolical representations for ages after their original meaning has been lost and forgotten; they must, of course, appear nonsensical and ridiculous, if not impious and extravagant. Such is the case with the rite now under consideration, than which nothing can be more monstrous and indecent, if considered in its plain and obvious meaning, or as part of the Christian worship; but which will be found to be a very natural symbol of a very natural and philosophical system of religion, if considered according to its original use and intention.”
The natural emblems were those which from their character were most suitable representatives; such as poles, pillars, stones, which were sacred to Hindu, Egyptian, and Jewish divinities.
Blavalsky gives an account of the Bimlang Stone, to be found at Narmada and other places, which is sacred to the Hindu deity Siva; these emblem stones were anointed, like the stone consecrated by the Patriarch Jacob.
Blavalsky further says that these stones are “identical in shape, meaning, and purpose with the ‘pillars’ set up by the several patriarchs to mark their adoration of the Lord God. In fact, one of these patriarchal lithoi might even now be carried in the Sivaitic processions of Calcutta without its Hebrew derivation being suspected.”
THE POLE
The Pole was an emblem of the Phallus, and with the serpent upon it, was a representative of its divine wisdom and symbol of life. The serpent upon the tree is the same in character, both are representative of the tree of life. The story of Moses will well illustrate this, when he erected in the wilderness this effigy, which stood as a sign of hope and life, as the cross is used by the Catholics of the present day; the cross then, as now, being simply an emblem of the Creator, used as a token of resurrection or regeneration. Æsculapius, as the restorer of health, has a rod or Phallus with a serpent entwined.
The Rev. M. Morris has shown that the raising of the May-pole is of Phallic origin, the remains of a custom of India or Egypt, and is typical of the fructifying powers of spring.
The May festival was carried on with great licentiousness by the Romans, and was celebrated by nearly all peoples as the month consecrated to Love. The May-day in England was the scene of riotous enjoyment, very nearly approaching to the Roman Floralia. No wonder the Puritans looked upon the May-pole as a relic of Paganism, and in their writings may be gleaned much of the licentious character of the festival.
Philip Stubbes, a Puritan writer in the reign of Elizabeth, thus describes a May-day in England: “Every parishe, towne, and village assemble themselves together, bothe men, women, and children, olde and younge even indifferently; and either goyng all together, or devidyng themselves into companies, they go some to the woods and groves, some to one place, some to another, where thei spend all the night in pleasant pastymes; and in themornyng they returne, bryngyng with them birch bowes and branches of trees, to deck their assemblies withall.... But their cheerest jewell thei bryng from thence is their Maie pole, whiche thei bryng home with great veneration, as thus: thei have twentie or fortie yoke of oxen, every oxe havyng a sweet nosegaie of flowers placed on the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie pole (this stinckyng idoll rather), which is covered all over with flowers and hearbes, bound rounde aboute with strynges from the top to the bottome, and sometyme painted with variable colours, with two or three hundred men, women, and children, followyng it with great devotion. And thus beyng reared up, with handekerchiefes and flagges streamyng on the top, thei strawe the grounde aboute, binde greene boughes aboute it, sett up sommer haules, bowers, and arbours hard by it. And then fall thei to banquet and feast, to leape and daunce aboute it, as the heathen people did at the dedication of their idols, whereof this is a perfect patterne, or rather the thyng itself.”
The ceremony was almost identical with the Roman festival, where the Phallus was introduced with garlands. Both were attended with the same licentiousness, for Stubbes gives a further account of the depravity attending the festivities.
PILLARS
Another type of emblem was the stone pillar, remains of which still exist in the British Isles. These pillars or so called crosses generally consist of a shaft of granite witha carved head. In the West of England crosses are very common, standing in the market and receiving the name of “The Cross.”
These stone pillars were first erected in honour of the Phallic deity, and on the introduction of Christianity were not destroyed, but consecrated to the new faith, doubtless to honour the prejudices of the people. These monolisks abound in the Highlands, they are stones set up on end, some twenty-four or thirty feet high, others higher or lower and this sometimes where no such stones are to be quarried.
We learn that the Bacchus of the Thebans was a pillar. The Assyrian Nebo was represented by a plain pillar, consecrated by anointing with oil. Arnobius gives an account of this practice, as also does Theophrastus, who speaks of it as a custom for a superstitious man, when he passed by these anointed stones in the streets to take out a phial of oil and pour it upon them and having fallen on his knees to make his adorations, and so depart.
In various parts of the Bible the Pillar is referred to as of a sacred character, as in Isaiah xix. 19, 20, “In that day shall there be an altar to Jehovah in the midst of the land of Egypt, and apillarat the border thereof to Jehovah, and it should be for a sign and a witness to the Lord.”
The Orphic Temples were doubtless emblems of the same principle of the mystic faiths of the ancients, the same as the Round Towers of Ireland, a history of which was collected by O’Brien, who describes the Towers as “Temples constructed by the early Indian colonists of the country in honour of theFructifyingprinciple of nature, emanating as was supposed from the Sun, or the deity of desire instrumental in that principle of universal generativeness diffused throughout all nature.”
According to the same author these towers were very ancient, and of Phœnician origin, as similar towers have been found in Phœnicia. “The Irish themselves,” says O’Brien, “designated them ‘Bail-toir,’ that is the tower of Baal. Baal was the name of the Phallic deity, and the priest who attended them ‘Aoi Bail-toir’ or superintendent of Baal tower.” This Baal was worshipped wherever the Phœnicians went, and was represented by a pillar or stone or similar objects. The stone that Jacob set up, and anointed as a rallying place for worship, became afterwards an object of worship to the Phœnicians.
The earliest navigators of the world were the Phœnicians, they founded colonies and extended their commerce first to the isles of the Mediterranean, from thence to Spain, and then to the British Isles. Historians have accorded to them the settlements of the most remote localities. They formed settlements in Cyprus, and Atticum, according to Josephus, was the principal settlement of the Tyrians upon this island. Strabo’s testimony is, that the Phœnicians, even before Homer, had possessed themselves of the best part of Spain.
Where the Phœnicians settled, there they introduced their religion, and it is in these countries we find the remains of ancient stone and pillar worship.
LOGGIN STONES, ETC.
Loggin stones are by Payne Knight considered as Phallic emblems. “Their remains,” he says, “are still extant, and appear to have been composed of a crone set into the ground, and another placed upon the point ofit and so nicely balanced that the wind could move it, though so ponderous that no human force, unaided by machinery, can displace it; whence they are called ‘logging rocks’ and ‘pendre stones,’ as they were anciently ‘living stones’ and ‘stones of God,’ titles which differ very little in meaning from that on the Tyrian coins. Damascius saw several of them in the neighbourhood of Heliopolis or Baalbeck, in Syria, particularly one which was then moved by the wind; and they are equally found in the Western extremities of Europe and the Eastern extremities of Asia, in Britain, and in China.”
Bryant mentions it as very usual among the Egyptians to place with much labour one vast stone upon another for a religious memorial.
Such immense masses, being moved by causes seeming so inadequate, must naturally have conveyed the idea of spontaneous motion to ignorant observers, and persuaded them that they were animated by an emanation of the vital spirit, whence they were consulted as oracles, the responses of which could always be easily obtained by interpreting the different oscillatory movements into nods of approbation or dissent.
Phallic emblems abounded at Heliopolis in Syria, and many other places, even in modern times. A physician, writing to Dr. Inman, says: “I was in Egypt last winter (1865-66), and there certainly are numerous figures of gods and kings, on the walls of the temple at Thebes, depicted with the male genital erect. The great temple at Karnak is, in particular, full of such figures, and the temple of Danclesa likewise, though that is of much later date, and built merely in imitation of old Egyptian art. The same inspiringbas-reliefsare pointed out by Ezek.xxiii. 14. I remember one scene of a king (Rameses II) returning in triumph with captives, many of whom were undergoing the process of castration.”
Obelisks were also representative of the same emblem. Payne Knight mentions several terminating in a cross, which had exactly the appearance of one of those crosses erected in churchyards and at cross roads for the adoration of devout persons, when devotions were more prevalent than at present. Stones, pillars, obelisks, stumps of trees, upright stones have all the same signification, and are means by which the male element was symbolised.
TRIADS
The Triune idea is to be found in the system of almost every nation. All have their Trinity in Unity, three in one, which can be distinctly recognised in the cross. The Triad is the male or triple, the constitution of the three persons of most sacred Trinity forming the Triune system. In the analysis of the subject by Rawlinson, we find the Trinity consisted of Asshur or Asher, associated with Anu and Hea or Hoa. Asshur, the supreme god of the Assyrians, represents the Phallus or central organ or the Linga, themembrum virile. The cognomen Anu was given to the right testis, while that of Hea designated the left.
It was only natural that Asshur being deified, his appendages should be deified also. “Beltus,” says Inman, “was the goddess associated with them, the four together made up Arba or Arba-il, the four great gods,” the Trinity in Unity. The idea thus broached receivesgreat confirmation when we examine the particular stress laid in ancient times respecting the right and left side of the body in connection with the Triad names given to offspring mentioned in the scriptures with the titles given to Anu and Hea. The male or active principle was typified by the idea of “solidity” and “firmness,” and the females or passive by the principles of “water,” “softness,” and other feminine principles. Thus the goddess Hea was associated with water, and according to Forlong, the Serpent, the ruler of the Abyss, was sometimes represented to be the great Hea, without whom there was no creation or life, and whose godhead embraced also the female element water.
Rawlinson also gives a similar conclusion, and states as far as he could determine the third divinity or left side was named Hea, and he considered this deity to correspond to Neptune. Neptune was the presiding deity of the deep, ruler of the abyss, and king of the rivers. As Darwin and his coadjutors teach, mankind, in common with all animal life, originally sprung from the sea; so physiology teaches that each individual had origin in a pond of water. The fruit of man is both solid and fluid. It was natural to imagine that the two male appendages had a distinct duty, that one formed the infant, the other water in which it lived, that one generated the male, the other the female offspring; and the inference was then drawn that water must be feminine, the emblem of all possible powers of creation.
It will be seen that the names and signification of the gods and their attributes had no ideal meaning. Thus in Genesis xxx. 13, we find Asher given as a personality, which signifies “to be straight,” “upright,” “fortunate,” “happy.” Asher was the supreme god of the Assyrians,the Vedic Mahadeva, the emblem of the human male structure and creative energy. The same idea of the creator is still to be seen in India, Egypt, Phœnicia, the Mediterranean, Europe, and Denmark, depicted on stone relics.
To a rude and ignorant people, enslaved with such a religion, it was an easy step from the crude to the more refined sign, from the offensive to a more pictured and less obnoxious symbol, from the plain and self-evident to the mixed, disguised, and mystified, from the unclothed privy member to the cross.
THE CROSS
The Triad, or Trinity, has been traced to Phœnicia, Egypt, Japan, and India; the triple deities Asshur, Anu, and Hea forming the “tau.” This mark of the Christians, Greeks, and Hebrews became the sign or type of the deities representing the Phallic trinity, and in time became the figure of the cross. It is remarked by Payne Knight that “The male organs of generation are sometimes found represented by signs of the same sort, which properly should be called the symbol of symbols. One of the most remarkable of these is a cross, in the form of the letter (T), which thus served as the emblem of creation and generation before the Church adopted it as a sign of salvation.”
Another writer says, “Reverse the position of the triple deities Asshur, Anu, Hea, and we have the figure of the ancient ‘tau’ of the Christians, Greeks, and ancient Hebrews. It is one of the oldest conventional forms ofthe cross. It is also met with in Gallic, Oscan, Arcadian, Etruscan, original Egyptian, Phœnician, Ethiopic, and Pelasgian forms. The Ethiopic form of the ‘tau’ is the exact prototype and image of the cross, or rather, to state the fact in order of merit and time, the cross is made in the exact image of the Ethiopic ‘tau.’ The fig-leaf, having three lobes to it, became a symbol of the triad. As the male genital organs were held in early times to exemplify the actual male creative power, various natural objects were seized upon to express the theistic idea, and at the same time point to those parts of the human form. Hence, a similitude was recognised in a pillar, a heap of stones, a tree between two rocks, a club between two pine cones, a trident, a thyrsus tied round with two ribbons with the two ends pendant, a thumb and two fingers, the caduceus. Again, the conspicuous part of the sacred triad Asshur is symbolised by a single stone placed upright—the stump of a tree, a block, a tower, spire, minaret, pole, pine, poplar, or palm tree, while eggs, apples, or citrons, plums, grapes, and the like represented the remaining two portions, altogether called Phallic emblems. Baal-Shalisha is a name which seems designed to perpetuate the triad, since it signifies ‘my Lord the Trinity,’ or ‘my God is three.’”
We must not omit to mention other Phallic emblems, such as the bull, the ram, the goat, the serpent, the torch, fire, a knobbed stick, the crozier; and still further personified, as Bacchus, Priapus, Dionysius, Hercules, Hermes, Mahadeva, Siva, Osiris, Jupiter, Moloch, Baal, Asher, and others.
If Ezekiel is to be credited, the triad, T, as Asshur, Anu, and Hea, was made of gold and silver, and was in his day not symbolically used, but actually employed;for he bluntly says “whoredom was committed with the images of men,” or, as the marginal note has it, images of “a male” (Ezek. xvi. 17). It was with this god-mark—a cross in the form of the letter T—that Ezekiel was directed to stamp the foreheads of the men of Judæa who feared the Lord (Ezek. ix. 4).
That the cross, or crucifix, has a sexual origin we determine by a similar rule of research to that by which comparative anatomists determine the place and habits of an animal by a single tooth. The cross is a metaphoric tooth which belongs to an antique religious body physical, and that essentially human. A study of some of the earliest forms of faith will lift the veil and explain the mystery.
India, China, and Egypt have furnished the world with agenusof religion. Time and culture have divided and modified it into many species and countless varieties. However much the imagination was allowed to play upon it, the animus of that religion was sexuality—worship of the generative principle of man and nature, male and female. The cross became the emblem of the male feature, under the term of thetriad—three in one. The female was theunit; and, joined to the male triad, constituted a sacred four. Rites and adoration were sometimes paid to the male, sometimes to the female, or to the two in one.
So great was the veneration of the cross among the ancients that it was carried as a Phallic symbol in the religious processions of the Egyptians and Persians. Higgins also describes the cross as used from the earliest times of Paganism by the Egyptians as a banner, above which was carried the device of the Egyptian cities.
The cross was also used by the ancient Druids, who heldit as a sacred emblem. In Egypt it stood for the signification of eternal life. Schedeus describes it as customary for the Druids “to seek studiously for an oak tree, large and handsome, growing up withtwo principal arms in the form of a cross, besides the main stem upright. If the two horizontal arms are not sufficiently adapted to the figure, they fasten across-beamto it. This tree they consecrate in this manner: Upon the right branch they cut in the bark, in fair characters, the word ‘Hesus’; upon the middle, or upright stem, the word ‘Taranius’; upon the left branch ‘Belenus’; over this, above the going off of the arms, they cut the name of the godThau; under all, the same repeated,Thau.”
YONI
There is in Hindostan an emblem of great sanctity, which is known as the “Linga-Yoni.” It consists of a simple pillar in the centre of a figure resembling the outline of a conical ear-ring. It is expressive of the female genital organ both in shape and idea. The Greek letter “Delta” is also expressive of it, signifying the door of a house.
Yoni is of Sanskrit origin. Yanna, or Yoni, means (1) the vulva, (2) the womb, (3) the place of birth, (4) origin, (5) water, (6) a mine, a hole, or pit. As Asshur and Jupiter were the representatives of the male potency, so Juno and Venus were representatives of the female attribute. Moore, in his “Oriental Fragments,” says: “Oriental writers have generally spelled the word, ‘Yoni,’ which I prefer to write ‘IOni.’ As Lingamwas the vocalised cognomen of the male organ, or deity, so IOni was that of hers.” Says R. P. Knight: “The female organs of generation were revered as symbols of the generative powers of nature or of matter, as those of the male were of the generative powers of God. They are usually represented emblematically by the shellConcha Veneris, which was therefore worn by devout persons of antiquity, as it still continues to be by the pilgrims of many of the common people of Italy” (“On the worship of Priapus,” p. 28).
If Asshur, the conspicuous feature of the male Creator, is supplied with types and representative figures of himself, so the female feature is furnished with substitutes and typical imagery of herself.
One of these is technically known as thesistrumof Isis. It is the virgin’s symbol. The bars across thefenestrum, or opening, are bent so that they cannot be taken out, and indicate that the door is closed. It signifies that the mother is stillvirgo intacta—a truly immaculate female—if the truth can be strained to so denominate amother. The pure virginity of the Celestial Mother was a tenet of faith for 2,000 years before the accepted Virgin Mary now adored was born. We might infer that Solomon was acquainted with the figure of thesistrum, when he said, “A garden enclosed is my spouse, a spring shut up, afountain sealed” (Song of Sol. iv. 12). Thesistrum, we are told, was only used in the worship of Isis, to drive away Typhon (evil).
The Argha is a contrite form, or boat-shaped dish or plate used as a sacrificial cup in the worship of Astarte, Isis, and Venus. Its shape portrays its own significance. The Argha andcrux ansatawere often seen on Egyptian monuments, and yet more frequently on bas-reliefs.
Equivalent to Iao, or the Lingam, we find Ab, the Father, the Trinity; Asshur, Anu, Hea, Abraham, Adam, Esau, Edom, Ach, Sol, Helios (Greek for Sun), Dionysius, Bacchus, Apollo, Hercules, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, Jupiter, Zeus, Aides, Adonis, Baal, Osiris, Thor, Oden; the cross, tower, spire, pillar, minaret, tolmen, and a host of others; while the Yoni was represented by IO, Isis, Astarte, Juno, Venus, Diana, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hera, Rhea, Cybele, Ceres, Eve, Frea, Frigga; the queen of Heaven, the oval, the trough, the delta, the door, the ark, the ship, the chasm, a ring, a lozenge, cave, hole, pit, Celestial Virgin, and a number of other names. Lucian, who was an Assyrian, and visited the temple of Dea Syria, near the Euphrates, says there are two Phalli standing in the porch with this inscription on them, “These Phalli I, Bacchus, dedicate to my step-mother Juno.”
The Papal religion is essentially the feminine, and built on the ancient Chaldean basis. It clings to the female element in the person of the Virgin Mary. Naphtali (Gen. xxx. 8) was a descendant of such worshippers, if there be any meaning in a concrete name. Bear in mind, names and pictures perpetuate the faith of many peoples. Neptoah is Hebrew for “the vulva,” and, Al or El being God, one of the unavoidable renderings of Naphtali is “the Yoni is my God,” or “I worship the Celestial Virgin.” The Philistine towns generally had names strongly connected with sexual ideas. Ashdod,aishoresh, means “fire, heat,” anddodmeans “love, to love,” “boiled up,” “be agitated,” the whole signifying “the heat of love,” or “the fire which impels to union.” Could not those people exclaim, Our “God is love”? (1 John iv. 8).
The amatory drift of Solomon’s song is undisguised,though the language is dressed in the habiliments of seeming decency. The burden of thought of most of it bears direct reference to the Linga-Yoni. He makes a woman say, “He shall lie all night betwixt my breasts” (S. of S. i. 13). Again, of the Phallus, or Linga, she says, “I will go up the palm-tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof” (vii. 8). Palm-tree and boughs are euphemisms of the male genitals.
HEBREW PHALLICISM
The nations surrounding the Jews practising the Phallic rites and worshipping the Phallic deities, it is not to be supposed that the Jews escaped their influence. It is indeed certain that the worship of the Phallics was a great and important part of the Hebrew worship.
This will be the more plainly seen when we bear in mind the importance given to circumcision as a covenant between God and man. Another equally suggestive custom among the Patriarchs was the act of taking the oath, or making a sacred promise, which is commented upon by Dr. Ginsingburg in Kitto’sCyclopædia. He says: “Another primitive custom which obtained in the patriarchal age was, that the one who took the oath put his hand under the thigh of the adjurer (Gen. xxiv. 2, and xlvii. 29). This practice evidently arose from the fact that the genital member, which is meant by the euphemistic expressionthigh, was regarded as the most sacred part of the body, being the symbol of union in the tenderest relation of matrimonial life, and the seat whence all issueproceeds and the perpetuity so much coveted by the ancients. Compare Gen. xlvi. 26; Exod. i. 5; Judges vii. 30. Hence the creative organ became the symbol of theCreator, and the object of worship among all nations of antiquity. It is for this reason that God claimed it as a sign of the covenant between himself and his chosen people in the rite of circumcision. Nothing therefore could render the oath more solemn in those days than touching the symbol of creation, the sign of the covenant, and the source of that issue who may at any future period avenge the breaking a compact made with their progenitor.” From this we learn that Abraham, himself a Chaldee, had reverence for the Phallus as an emblem of the Creator. We also learn that the rite of circumcision touches Phallic or Lingasic worship. From Herodotus we are informed that the Syrians learned circumcision from the Egyptians, as did the Hebrews. Says Dr. Inman: “I do not know anything which illustrates the difference between ancient and modern times more than the frequency with which circumcision is spoken of in the sacred books, and the carefulness with which the subject is avoided now.”
The mutilation of male captives, as practised by Saul and David, was another custom among the worshippers of Baal, Asshur, and other Phallic deities. The practice was to debase the victims and render them unfit to take part in the worship and mysteries. Some idea can be formed of the esteem in which people in former times cherished the male or Phallic emblems of creative power when we note the sway that power exercised over them. If these organs were lost or disabled, the unfortunate one was unfitted to meet in the congregation of the Lord, and disqualified to minister in the holy temples. Excessivepunishment was inflicted upon the person who had the temerity to injure the sacred structure. If a woman were guilty of inflicting injury, her hand was cut off without pity (Deut. xxv. 12). The great object of veneration in the Ark of the Covenant was doubtless a Phallic emblem, a symbol of the preservation of the germ of life.
In the historical and prophetic books of the Old Testament we have repeated evidence that the Hebrew worship was a mixture of Paganism and Judaism, and that Jehovah was worshipped in connection with other deities. Hezekiah is recorded in 2 Kings xviii. 3, to have “removed the high places, and broken the images, and cut down the groves (Ashera), and broken in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made, for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it.” The Ashera, or sacred groves here alluded to are named from the goddess Ashtaroth, which Dr. Smith describes as the proper name of the goddess; while Ashera is the name of the image of the goddess. Rawlinson, in hisFive Great Monarchies of the Ancient World, describes Ashera to imply something that stood straight up, and probably its essential element was the stem of a tree, an analogy suggestive of the Assyrian emblem of the Tree of Life of the Scriptures. This stem, which stood for the emblem of life, was probably a pillar, or Phallus, like the Lingi of the Hindus, sometimes erected in a grove or sacred hollow, signifying the Yoni and Lingi. We read in 2 Kings xxi. 7, that Manasseh “set up a graven image in the grove,” and, according to Dr. Oort, the older reading is in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 7, 15, where it is an image or pillar. During the reigns of the Jewish kings, the worship of Baal, the Priapus of the Greeks and Romans,was extensively practised by the Jews. Pillars and groves were reared in his name.
In front of the Temple of Baal, in Samaria, was erected an Ashera (1 Kings xvi. 31, 32) which even survived the temple itself, for although Jehu destroyed the Temple of Baal, he allowed the Ashera to remain (2 Kings x. 18, 19; xiii. 6). Bernstein, in an important work on the origin of the legends of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, undoubtedly proves that during the monarchial period of Israel, the sanguinary wars and violent conflicts between the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel were between the Elohistic and Jehovahic faiths, kept alive by the priesthood at the chief places of worship, concerning the true patriarch, and each party manufacturing and inserting legends to give a more ancient and important part to its own faith.
It is not at all improbable that the conflict was between the two portions of the Phallic faith, the Lingam and Yoni parties. The cause of this conflict was the erection of the consecrated stones or pillars which were put up by the Hebrews as objects of Divine worship. The altar erected by Jacob at Bethel was a pillar, for according to Bernstein the word altar can only be used for the erection of a pillar. Jacob likewise set up a Matzebah, or pillar of stone, in Gilead, and finally he set one up upon the tomb of Rachel.
A great portion of the facts have been suppressed by the translators, who have given to the world histories which have glossed over the ancient rites and practices of the Jews.
An instance is given by Forlong on the important word “Rock or Stone,” a Phallic emblem to which the Jews addressed their devotions. He says, “It shouldnot be, but I fear it is, necessary to explain to mere English readers of the Old Testament that theStoneorRock Tsurwasthe real old god of all Arabs, Jews, and Phœnicians, that this would be clear to Christians were the Jewish writings translated according to the first ideas of the people andRockused as it ought to be, instead of ‘God,’ ‘Theos,’ ‘Lord,’ etc., being written where Tsur occurs.” Numerous instances of this are given in Dr. Ort’s worship of Baal in Israel, where praises, addresses, and adorations are addressed to theRock, instance, Deut. xxxii. 4, 18. Stone pillars were also used by the Hebrews as a memorial of a sacred covenant, for we find Jacob setting up a pillar as a witness, that he would not pass over it. Connected with this pillar worship is the ceremony of anointing by pouring oil upon the pillar, as practised by Jacob at Bethel. According to Sir W. Forbes, in hisOriental Memoirs, the “pouring of oil upon a stone is practised at this day upon many a shapeless stone throughout Hindostan.”
Toland gives a similar account of the Druids as practising the same rite, and describes many of the stones found in England as having a cavity at the top made to receive the offering. The worship of Baal like the worship of Priapus was attended with prostitution, and we find the Jews having a similar custom to the Babylonians.
Payne Knight gives the following account of it in his work: “The women of every rank and condition held it to be an indispensable duty of religion to prostitute themselves once in their lives in her temple to any stranger who came and offered money, which, whether little or much, was accepted, and applied to a sacred purpose. Women sat in the temple of Venus awaiting the selection of the stranger, who had the liberty of choosing whomhe liked. A woman once seated must remain until she has been selected by a piece of silver being cast into her lap, and the rite performed outside the temple.”
Similar customs existed in Armenia, Phrygia, and even in Palestine, and were a feature of the worship of Baal Peor. The Hebrew prophets described and denounced these excesses which had the same characteristics as the rites of the Babylonian priesthood. The identical custom is referred to in 1 Sam. ii. 22, where “the sons of Eli lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Words and history corroborate each other, or are apt to do so if contemporaneous. Thuskadesh, orkaesh, designate in Hebrew “a consecrated one,” and history tells the unworthy tale in descriptive plainness, as will be shown in the sequel.
That the religion was dominating and imperative is determined by Deut. xvii. 12, where presumptuous refusal to listen to the priest was death to the offender. To us it is inconceivable that the indulgence of passion could be associated with religion, but so it was. Much as it is covered over by altered words and substituted expressions in the Bible—an example of which seemenfor male organ, Ezek. xvi. 17—it yet stands out offensively bold. The words expressive of “sanctuary,” “consecrated,” and “Sodomite,” are in the Hebrew essentially the same. They indicate the passion of amatory devotion. It is among the Hindus of to-day as it was in Greece and Italy of classic times; and we find that “holy women” is a title given to those who devote their bodies to be used for hire, the price of which hire goes to the service of the temple.
As a general rule, we may assume that priests who makeor expound the laws, which they declare to be from God, are men, and, consequently, through all time, have thought, and do think, of the gratification of the masculine half of humanity. The ancient and modern Orientals are not exceptions. They lay it down as a momentous fact that virginity is the most precious of all the possessions of a woman, and, being so, it ought, in some way or other, to be devoted to God.
Throughout India, and also through the densely inhabited parts of Asia, and modern Turkey there is a class of females who dedicate themselves to the service of the deity whom they adore; and the rewards accruing from their prostitution are devoted to the service of the temple and the priests officiating therein.
The temples of the Hindus in the Dekkan possessed their establishments. They had bands of consecrated dancing-girls called theWomen of the Idol, selected in their infancy by the priests for the beauty of their persons, and trained up with every elegant accomplishment that could render them attractive.
We also find David and the daughters of Shiloh performing a wild and enticing dance; likewise we have the leaping of the prophets of Baal.
It is again significant that a great proportion of Bible names relate to “divine,” sexual, generative, or creative power; such as Alah, “the strong one”; Ariel, “the strong Jas is El”; Amasai, “Jah is firm”; Asher, “the male” or “the upright organ”; Elijah, “El is Jah”; Eliab, “the strong father”; Elisha, “El is upright”; Ara, “the strong one,” “the hero”; Aram, “high,” or, “to be uncovered”; Baal Shalisha, “my Lord the trinity,” or “my God is three”; Ben-zohett, “son of firmness”; Camon, “the erect One”; Cainan,“he stands upright”; these are only a few of the many names of a similar signification.
It will be seen, from what has been given, that the Jews, like the Phœnicians (if they were not the same), had the same ceremonies, rites, and gods as the surrounding nations, but enough has been said to show that Phallic worship was much practised by the Jews. It was very doubtful whether the Jehovah-worship was not of a monotheistic character, but those who desire to have a further insight into the mysteries of the wars between the tribes should consult Bernstein’s valuable work.