GRICE E CAZZANIGA: L'IMPLICATURA CONVERSAZIONALE DELL'INIZIAZIONE -- YOU ONLY GET FIRST PENETRATED ONCE -- BACCHANALIUM -- FILOSOFIA ITALIANA -- LUIGI SPERANZA

 

Grice e Cazzaniga: l’implicatura conversazionale dell’iniziazione – You only get first penetrated once – BACCHANALIUM -- filosofia italiana – Luigi Speranza (Torino). Filosofo. Grice: “I like Cazzaniga – he shows that latitdunial unity is not a myth! He has researched on Cocconato – and he has seriously spoken of the ‘catene d’unione’ – the handshake – which is crosses the longitudinal and latitudinal unities – consider Thatcher: “There’s no such thing as societies; only individuals! The ‘catene d’unione’ is represented most easily by a handshake, but this is in a catena usually a circle – need it be a close circle? It should be! Perhaps Austin and the Play Group formed such a circle!” -- Gian Mario Cazzaniga (Torino), filosofo. Studia a Milano. Si laurea a Pisa con Massolo. Insegna a Pisa. Quaderno Rosso. Il potere operaio. Funzione e conflitto. Forme e classi nella teoria marxista dello sviluppo, Napoli, Liguori); La religione dei moderni, Pisa, ETS); Metamorfosi della sovranità: fra stati nazionali e ordinamenti giuridici mondiali. Società geografica italiana, Roma, Pisa, ETS); La democrazia come sistema simbolico "Belfagor" (LV); Le Muse in loggia. Massoneria e letteratura nel Settecento (Milano, UNICOPLI); Storia d'Italia. Annali 21: La Massoneria, Torino, Einaudi) Storia d'Italia. Annali 25: Esoterismo, Torino, Einaudi). Gian Mario Cazzaniga, “Massoneria e letteratura: Dalla 'République des lettres' alla lettera- tura nazionale,” in Le muse in Loggia, ed. Gian Mario Cazzaniga et al. (Milan: Unicopli, 2002),  Gian Mario Cazzaniga, “Origine ed evoluzione dei rituali carbonari italiani,” in Cazzaniga, La Massoneria,  Chi anche in questa fine di millennio continua a nutrire interesse per la storia delle vicende umane, per la storia delle idee e dei tentativi messi in atto per concretarle - soprattutto se le idee in questione sono quelle di libertà, fraternità, uguaglianza - trova in libreria un testo di sicuro interesse: “La religione dei moderni”. Convinto con Eraclito che per trovare oro è necessario scavare molta terra, Cazzaniga ha dissodato a fondo un terreno a prima vista assai ingrato: l'arcipelago multiforme e delirante della massoneria e delle sue sette. Il risultato è però la dimostrazione di come la nottola di Minerva possa tornare con un bottino non solo erudito, ma capace anzi di rinnovare la nostra stessa auto-comprensione spiccando con metodo il suo volo anche sulle strane isole e penisole culturali in cui vivono illuminati, teofilantropi, filaleti, U.S.D. (leggasi: Uomini Senza Dio) e come diavolo con nome di rigenerazione si sono ribattezzati i mille e mille fratelli costruttori decisi ad erigere una carcere per il vizio e un templi alla virtù. Tra loro spiccano in ogni caso alcuni tra i massimi intellettuali italiani: e anche Lessing, Herder, Goethe, a Mirabeau, Condorcet, Fichte, Heine. Chi indotto da recenti vicende italiche rischiasse di confondere massoneria e piduismo, può finalmente scoprire momenti e figure assai più nobili e rilevanti di questa istituzione e apprende come nella loggia e nato praticamente ogni ideologia - liberalismo, democrazia cristiana, comunismo... - risultati costituitivi della modernità occidentale. A chi si chiedesse cosa e chi ha spinto allo studio dell'ambiente massonico un intellettuale lucido, raffinato e dalla ben nota militanza nel movimento operaio come Cazzaniga, il saggui non manca di rispondere. Da esso emerge netta l'opzione per una filosofia curiosa dei luoghi storico-sociali capaci di generare il nuovo e attenta ai valori della differenza, nutrita da quella passione per le radici culturali del nostro mondo che già aveva indotto Cazzaniga a esplorare "Fin'amors e cortezia nella poesia trabadorica" quali matrici dello "spirito laico". Nel caso attuale si aggiunge un'indicazione di Marx che, in compagnia di Engels, criticava i "critici-critici" tedeschi alla luce delle esperienze realizzate della critica pratica del cervello sociale messo in moto dalla Rivoluzione Francese. Cazzaniga stesso segnala il debito con i dioscuri fondatori del moderno partito politico di massa. Lo fa con ironica signorilità citando a conclusione del commento su Nicolas de Bonneville le parole che hanno costituito l'input decisivo per l'avvio di un'indagine che, partita dal Cercle social indicato dalle pagine della Sacra Famiglia quale origine del "movimento rivoluzionario moderno", si è poi allargata all'intero mondo delle logge rivelatosi uno dei luoghi più fecondi dell'attività mito-poietica alla base della "invenzione" del legame sociale, soprattutto allorquando i membri dell'istituzione muratoria si sono fatti "massoneria pubblica", identificando il luogo di rifondazione del legame sociale nel terreno dell'attività politica organizzata. Fenomeno che abbraccia l'Europa e le due Americhe, la massoneria si rivela uno dei più rilevanti tentativi moderni di fornire risposta alla crisi aperta nel fondamento del legame sociale dalle guerre di religione del Cinquecento-Seicento. Per molti cittadini della République des Lettres la massoneria più che società segreta è infatti una società che tratta segreti, terreno embrionale di una nuova possibile convivenza inter-umana, progetto e luogo possibile di rifondazione di quel legame sociale posto in crisi dalla nascita dell'individuo come nuovo protagonista spirituale della storia europea e dalla distinzione tra religione naturale e religioni positive. Con le sue radici giusnaturalistiche e neo-stoiche, dal mondo classico il progetto massonico recupera anzitutto l'idea di cittadinanza, primo grande esperimento riuscito di costruzione artificiale di un legame sociale ispirandosene per costruire, nella situazione di crisi dell'ancien régime, un progetto analogo. Collocandosi da questa prospettiva la ricerca di Cazzaniga trascende ampiamente la storiografia auto-celebrativa intra-massonica e illumina di nuova luce origine e natura della politica, identificata, in sintonia con Giarrizzo, come una “religione”. L'elezione del mondo delle logge massoniche quale oggetto di analisi avviene cioè in base alla convinzione storica-teorica circa il loro carattere di "laboratorio" di nuove forme del vivere associato, anzitutto a proposito del vero opus magnum ch'esse hanno contribuito ad edificare, ovvero la costruzione di quella forma politica, sostenuta da partiti di massa, che fu lo stato-nazione d’Italia. Che poi la nottola filosofica spicchi il suo volo in condizioni oggi hegelianamente ideali, al tramonto dell'egemonia organizzativa, culturale e morale dei partiti politici di massa, per oltre un secolo protagonisti della democrazia rappresentativa e di una vita politica basata sulla cittadinanza, insieme al tempismo di Cazzaniga è dimostrazione di come la sua fedeltà al marxismo intelligente non abbia spedito in soffitta neppure quell'Hegel che qui, insieme a Heine, ottiene il tributo di due splendidi saggi. Oggi la storia ha cominciato un capitolo nuovo e l'autore non ha dubbi che si stia voltando pagina. Non condivide però la convinzione che ciò significhi fine della modernità. Se le crepe nella sovranità degli stati nazionali pongono in crisi partiti e sindacati, ovvero "i legami sociali artificiali sui cui la modernità ha costruito la propria storia", la transizione in atto "lungi dall'essere una negazione dei principi costitutivi della modernità, è in realtà "un'affermazione radicale di essa". E la prospettiva indicata da Marx non è affatto radiata in secula seculorum dalla storia. Il comunismo resta all'ordine del giorno, solo che se ne riprospetti il nucleo vivo e fondamentale non costituito né dall'eguaglianza, né dalla giustizia sociale, né tantomeno dal recupero di una dimensione comunitaria solidaristica, ma dalla capacità progettuale collettiva, dal controllo consapevole del ricambio con l'ambiente naturale, dalla possibilità storica che si apre per la società e per i singoli, in rapporto alla rivoluzione scientifica e tecnologica, di essere finalmente padroni del proprio destino. Nessun dubbio per noi che qui l'impeccabile storico di questa religione  riveli la sua personale cifra ideologica e la passione per il marxismo. E' l'unico luogo in cui la sua prosa, peraltro sobria, cede a frasi fatte come la padronanza del destino. Una espressione, questa, inerente, più che alla politica, a un ambito filosofico-esistenziale, a tematiche, cioè, con cui questa religione deve forse ancora imparare a cimentarsi.   THE    MASCULINE   CROSS   t PHALLIC WORSHIP     PHALLIC WORSHIP    A DESCRIPTION OF THE MYSTERIES   OF THE   SEX WORSHIP OF THE ANCIENTS   WITH THE HISTORY OF   THE MASCULINE CROSS    AN ACCOUNT OF   PRIMITIVE SYMBOLISM, HEBREW PHALLICISM,  BACCHIC FESTIVALS, SEXUAL RITES, AND  THE MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT FAITHS    LONDON   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 issuedfor 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,  Kolle, 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 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 doubt¬  less 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 priesthood who 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 prosti¬  tution 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 Phoenicians, 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.    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.     P 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 through¬  out 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.    IO    Phallic Worship    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.”  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 re¬  ligious 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 German pfahl, and pole in English. Phallus is supposed     Phallic Worship    ii    to be of Phoenician origin, the Greek word pallo, or  phallo , “ 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 to phal, “ to burst,” “ to produce,” “ to  be fruitful ” ; then, again, phal is “ 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.”   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, but are 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 repre¬  sentations 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 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. iEsculapius, 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 licentious¬  ness 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 indiffer¬  ently ; 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 the  mornyng 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 homes, 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, foliowyng  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 with     Phallic Worship    i5    a 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 oi the  land of Egypt, and a pillar at 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 the 'Fructifying principle 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.”    i6    Phallic Worship    According to the same author these towers were very  ancient, and of Phoenician origin, as similar towers have  been found in Phoenicia. “ 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 superin¬  tendent of Baal tower.” This Baal was worshipped  wherever the Phoenicians 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 Phoenicians.   The earliest navigators of the world were the Phoenicians,  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 settle¬  ment of the Tyrians upon this island. Strabo’s testimony  is, that the Phoenicians, even before Homer, had possessed  themselves of the best part of Spain.   Where the Phoenicians settled, there they introduced  their religion, and it is in these countries we find the  remains of ancient stone and pillar worship.    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 of  it 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 inspiring bas-reliefs are pointed out by Ezek.   B     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. 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, the membrum 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 receives great 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,” “ soft¬  ness,” and other feminine principles. Thus the goddess  Hea was associated with water, and according to Forlong,  the Serpent, the ruler ot the Abyss, was sometimes repre¬  sented 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, Phoenicia, 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 Phoenicia,  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 c tau ’ of the Christians, Greeks, and ancient  Hebrews. It is one of the oldest conventional forms of     Phallic Worship    21    the cross. It is also met with in Gallic, Oscan, Arcadian,  Etruscan, original Egyptian, Phoenician, 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 per¬  sonified, 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 Judata  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  a genus of 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 the triad —three in one. The  female was the unit ; and, joined to the male triad, con¬  stituted 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 held    Phallic Worship    23    it as a sacred emblem. In Egypt it stood for the significa¬  tion of eternal life. Schedeus describes it as customary  for the Druids “ to seek studiously for an oak tree, large  and handsome, growing up with two 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 a cross-beam to 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 god Thau ;  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 Lingam     24    Phallic Worship    was 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 shell  Concoa 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 the sistrum of  Isis. It is the virgin’s symbol. The bars across the  fenestrum, or opening, are bent so that they cannot be  taken out, and indicate that the door is closed. It signifies  that the mother is still virgo intacta —a truly immaculate  female—if the truth can be strained to so denominate  a mother. 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 the  sistrum , when he said, “ A garden enclosed is my spouse,  a spring shut up, a fountain sealed ” (Song of Sol. iv. 12).  The sistrum, 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 and crux ansata were often seen on Egyptian  monuments, and yet more frequently on bas-reliefs.    Phallic Worship    *5    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, A 1 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, aisb or  esb, means “ fire, heat,” and dod means “ 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 ” ?  (i John iv. 8).   The amatory drift of Solomon’s song is undisguised.    26    Phallic Worship    though the language is dressed in the habiliments of seem¬  ing 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.  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’s Cyclopedia. 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 euphe¬  mistic expression thigh, 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 issue proceeds 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 the Creator, 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. Excessive    28    Phallic Worship    punishment 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 his  Five 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,    Phallic Worship    2 9   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 (i 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 should    3°    Phallic Worship    not be, but I fear it is, necessary to explain to mere English  readers of the Old Testament that the Stone or Rock Tsur  was the real old god of all Arabs, Jews, and Phoenicians,  that this would be clear to Christians were the Jewish  writings translated according to the first ideas of the  people and Rock used 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 the Rock, 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 his Oriental  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 whom he 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 i 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. Thus kadesh , or kaesh,  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 see men  for male organ, Ezek. xvi. 17—it yet stands out offensively  bold. The words expressive of “ sanctuary,” “ conse¬  crated,” 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 make or 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 the Women 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 per¬  forming 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 Phoenicians (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.    EARTH MOTHER   The following interesting chapter is taken from a  valuable book issued a few years ago anonymously :   “ Mother Earth ” is a legitimate expression, only of  the most general type. Religious genius gave the female  quality to the earth with a special meaning. When once  the idea obtained that our world was feminine, it was  easy to induce the faithful to believe that natural chasms  were typical of that part which characterises woman.  As at birth the new being emerges from the mother,  so it was supposed that emergence from a terrestrial  cleft was equivalent to a new birth. In direct proportion  to the resemblance between the sign and the thing signified  was the sacredness of the chink, and the amount of virtue  which was imparted by passing through it. From natural  caverns being considered holy, the veneration for apertures  in stones, as being equally symbolical, was a natural transition. Holes, such as we refer to, are still to be seen  in those structures which are called Druidical, both in  the British Isles and in India. It is impossible to say  when these first arose; it is certain that they survive in  India to this day. We recognise the existence of the  emblem among the Jews in Isaiah li. i, in the charge to  look “ to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” We  have also an indication that chasms were symbolical  among the same people in Isaiah lvii. 5, where the wicked  among the Jews were described as “ inflaming themselves  with idols under every green tree, and slaying the children  in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks.” It is possible  that the “ hole in the wall ” (Ezek. viii. 7) had a similar  signification. In modern Rome, in the vestibule of the  church close to the Temple of Vesta, I have seen a large  perforated stone, in the hole of which the ancient Romans  are said to have placed their hands when they swore a  solemn oath, in imitation, or, rather, a counterpart, of  Abraham swearing his servant upon his thigh—that is  the male organ. Higgins dwells upon these holes, and  says: “ These stones are so placed as to have a hole under  them, through which devotees passed for religious  purposes. There is one of the same kind in Ireland,  called St. Declau’s stone. In the mass of rocks at Bramham  Crags there is a place made for the devotees to pass  through. We read in the accounts of Hindostan that  there is a very celebrated place in Upper India, to which  immense numbers of pilgrims go, to pass through a place  in the mountains called “ The Cow’s Belly.” In the  Island of Bombay, at Malabar Hill, there is a rock upon  the surface of which there is a natural crevice, which  communicates with a cavity opening below. This place  is used by the Gentoos as a purification of their sins, which they say is effected by their going in at the opening  below, and emerging at the cavity above—“ born again.”  The ceremony is in such high repute in the neighbouring  countries that the famous Conajee Angria ventured by  stealth, one night, upon the Island, on purpose to perform  the ceremony, and got off undiscovered. The early  Christians gave them a bad name, as if from envy; they  called these holes “ Cunni Diaboli ” ( Anacalypsis , p. 346). The Romans call the feasts of Bacchus, Bacchanalia  and Liberalia, because Bacchus and Liber, while two names  for the same god, the festivals were celebrated  at different times and in a somewhat different manner. The Liberalia is celebrated  on the 17th of March, with the most licentious gaiety,  when an image of a Phallus is carried openly in  triumph. These festivities are more particularly celebrated among the rural or agricultural population, who, when the preparatory labour of the agriculturist is over,  celebrate with joyful activity Nature’s reproductive  powers, which in due time is to bring forth the fruits.  During the festival, a car containing a huge phallus is  drawn along accompanied by its worshippers, who indulge in rather obscene songs and dances of wild and extravagant character. The gravest and proudest matron suddenly lays aside her decency and runs screaming  among the woods and hills half-naked, with dishevelled  hair, interwoven with which were pieces of ivy or vine.  The Bacchanalian feasts are celebrated in the latter part  of October when the harvest is completed. Wine and  figs are carried in the procession of the Bacchants, and  lastly come the Phalli, followed by honourable virgins,  called canephora , who carry baskets of fruit. These were  followed by a company of men who carry poles, at the end of which are figures representing the organ of  generation. The men sing the Phallica and are crowned  with violets and ivy, and have their faces covered with  other kinds of herbs. These are followed by some  dressed in women’s apparel, striped with white, reaching  to their ancles, with garlands on their heads, and wreaths  of flowers in their hands, imitating by their gestures the  state of inebriety. The priestesses run in every direction  shouting and screaming, each with a thyrsus in their  hands. Men and women all intermingle, dancing and  frolicking with suggestive gesticulations. Deodorus says  the festivals are carried into the night, and it is then  frenzy reaches its height. Deodorus says, “ In performing  the solemnity virgins carry the thyrsus, and run about  frantic, halloing ‘ Evoe ’ in honour of the god; then  the women in a body offer the sacrifices, and roar out the  praises of Bacchus in song as if he were present, in imitation  of the ancient Mamades, who accompanied him.” These  festivities are carried into the night, and as the celebrators  become heated with wine, they degenerate into extreme  licentiousness.   Similar enthusiastic frenzy is exhibited at the Lupercalian Feasts instituted in honour of the god Pan (under the shape of a Goat) whose priests, according to Owen in  his Worship of Serpents , on the morning of the Feast run naked through the streets, striking the women  they met on the hands and belly, which is held as an omen promising fruitfulness. The nymphs performing  the same ostentatious display as the Bacchants at the  festival of Bacchanalia.   The festival of Venus is celebrated towards the beginning of April, and the Phallus is again drawn in a car,  followed by a procession of Roman women to the temple  of Venus. Says a writer, “ The loose women of the town  and its neighbourhood, called together by the sounding  of horns, mix with the multitude in perfect nakedness,  and excite their passions with obscene motions and  language until the festival ends in a scene of mad revelry,  in which all restraint is laid aside.”   It is said that these festivals take their rise from Egypt,  from whence they were brought into Greece by Metampus,  where the triumph of Osiris was celebrated with secret  rites, and from thence the Bacchanals drew their original;  and from the feasts instituted by Isis came the orgies of  Bacchus.  It seems not at all improbable that the deities wor¬  shipped by the ancient Britons and the Irish, were no  other then the Phallic deities of the ancient Syrians and  Greeks, and also the Baal of the Hebrews. Dionysius  Periegites, who lived in the time of Augustus Caesar,  states that the rites of Bacchus were celebrated in the  British Isles ; while Strabo, who lived in the time of  Augustus and Tiberius, asserts that a much earlier writer  described the worship of the Cabiri to have come originally from Phoenicia. Higgins, in his History of the Druids,  says, the supreme god above the rest was called Seodhoc  and Baal. The name of Baal is found both in Wales,  Gaul, and Germany, and is the same as the Hebrew Baal.   The same god, according to O’Brien, was the chief deity  of the Irish, in whose honour the round towers were  erected, which structures the ancient Irish themselves  designated Bail-toir, or the towers of Baal. In Numbers,  xxii, will be found a mention of a similar pillar consecrated  to Baa]. Many of the same customs and superstitions  that existed among the Druids and ancient Irish, will  likewise be found among the Israelites. On the first  day of May, the Irish made great fires in honour of Baal,  likewise offering him sacrifices. A similar account is  given of a custom of the Druids by Toland, in an account  of the festival of the fires ; he says :—“ on May-day eve  the Druids made prodigious fires on these earns, which  being everyone in sight of some other, could not but  afford a glorious show over a whole nation.” These  fires are said to be lit even to the present day by the  Aboriginal Irish, on the first of May, called by them  Bealtine, or the day of Belan’s fire, the same name as  given them in the Highlands of Scotland.   A similar practice to this will be noticed as mentioned in  the II Book of Kings, where the Canaanites in their worship  of Baal, are said to have passed their children through the  fire of Baal, which seems to have been a common practice,  as Ahaz, King of Israel, is blamed for having done the  same thing. Higgins in his Anacalypsis, says this super¬  stitious custom still continues, and that on “ particular  days great fires are lighted, and the fathers taking the  children in their arms, jump or run through them, and  thus pass their children through them; they also light two fires at a little distance from each other, and drive  their cattle between them.” It will be found on reference  to Deuteronomy, that this very practice is specially for¬  bidden. In the rites of Numa, we have also the sacred  fire of the Irish; of St. Bridget, of Moses, of Mithra,  and of India, accompanied with an establishment of  nuns or vestal virgins. A sacred fire is said to have been  kept burning by the nuns of Kildare, which was established  by St. Bridget. This fire was never blown with the  mouth, that it might not be polluted, but only with  bellows; this fire was similar to that of the Jews, kept  burning only with peeled wood, and never blown with  the mouth. Hyde describes a similar fire which was kept  burning in the same way by the ancient Persians, who  kept their sacred fire fed with a certain tree called Hawm  Mogorum; and Colonel Vallancey says the sacred fire  of the Irish was fed with the wood of the tree called  Hawm. Ware, the Romish priest, relates that at Kildare,  the glorious Bridget was rendered illustrious by many  miracles, amongst which was the sacred fire, which had  been kept burning by nuns ever since the time of the  Virgin.   The earliest sacred places of the Jews were evidently  sacred stones, or stone circles, succeeded in time by  temples. These early rude stones, emblems of the  Creator, were erected by the Israelites, which in no way  differed from the erections of the Gentiles. It will be  found that the Jews to commemorate a great victory,  or to bear witness of the Lord, were all signfied by stones :  thus, Joshua erected a stone to bear witness ; Jacob  put up a stone to make a place sacred ; Abel set up the  same for a place of worship; Samuel erected a stone as  a boundary, which was to be the token of an agreement made in the name of God. Even Maundrel in his travels  names several that he saw in Palestine. It is curious that  where a pillar was erected there, sometime after, a temple  was put up in the same manner that the Round Towers  of Ireland were,—always near a church, but never formed  part of it. We find many instances in the Scriptures of the  erection of a number of stones among the early Israelites,  which would lead us to conclude that it was not at all  unlikely that the early places of worship among them, were  similar to the temples found in various parts of Great  Britain and Ireland. It is written in Exodus xxiv. 4,  that Moses rose up early in the morning, and builded  an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to  the twelve tribes of Israel, were erected. It is also  given out that when the children of Israel should pass  over the Jordan, unto the land which the Lord giveth  them, they should set up great stones, and plaster them  with plaster, and also the words of the law were to be  written thereon. In many other places stones were  ordered to be set up in the name of the Lord, and repeated  instances are given that the stones should be twelve  in number and unhewn.   Stone temples seem to have been erected in all countries  of the world, and even in America, where, among the  early American races are to be found customs, superstitions,  and religious objects of veneration, similar to the  Phoenicians. An American writer says:—“ There is  sufficient evidence that the religious customs of the  Mexicans, Peruvians and other American races, are  nearly identical with those of the ancient Phoenicians. . . .  We moreover discover that many of their religious terms  have, etymologically, the same origin.” Payne Knight,  in his Worship of Priapus, devotes much of his work to    Phallic Worship    4i    show that the temples erected at Stonehenge and other  places, were of a Phoenician origin, which was simply  a temple of the god Bacchus.  Of all the nations of antiquity the Persians were the  most simple and direct in the worship of the Creator.  They were the puritans of the heathen world, and not  only rejected all images of God and his agents, but also  temples and altars, according to Herodotus, whose  authority we prefer to any other, because he had an  opportunity of conversing with them before they had  adopted any foreign superstitions. As they worshipped  the ethereal fire without any medium of personification  or allegory, they thought it unworthy of the dignity of  the god to be represented by any definite form, or cir¬  cumscribed to any particular place. The universe was  his temple, and the all-pervading element of fire his only  symbol. The Greeks appear originally to have held  similar opinions, for they were long without statues  and Pausanias speaks of a temple at Siciyon, built by  Adrastus—who lived in an age before the Trojan war—  which consisted of columns only, without wall or roof,  like the Celtic temples of our northern ancestors, or the  Phyroetheia of the Persians, which were circles of stones  in the centre of which was kindled the sacred fire, the  symbol of the god. Homer frequently speaks of places  of worship consisting of an area and altar only, which were  probably enclosures like those of the Persians, with an     42    Phallic Worship    altar in the centre. The temples dedicated to the creator  Bacchus, which the Greek architects called kypcethral,  seem to have been anciently of this kind, whence probably  came the title (“ surround with columns ”) attributed  to that god in the Orphic litanies. The remains of one of  these are still extant at Puzznoli, near Naples, which the  inhabitants call the temple of Serapis ; but the ornaments  of grapes, vases, etc., found among the ruins, prove it  to have been of Bacchus. Serapis was indeed the same  deity worshipped under another form, being usually a  personification of the sun. The architecture is of the  Roman times ; but the ground plan is probably that of a  very ancient one, which this was made to replace—for  it exactly resembles that of a Celtic temple in Zeeland,  published in Stukeley’s Itinerary. The ranges of square  buildings which enclose it are not properly parts of the  temple, but apartments of the priests, places for victims  and sacred utensils, and chapels dedicated to the sub¬  ordinate deities, introduced by a more complicated and  corrupt worship and probably unknown to the founder  of the original edifice. The portico, which runs parallel  with these buildings, encloses the temenss , or area of  sacred ground, which in the pyratheia of the Persians was  circular, but is here quadrangular, as in the Celtic temple  in Zeeland, and the Indian pagoda before described.  In the centre was the holy of holies, the seat of the god,  consisting of a circle of columns raised upon a basement,  without roof or walls, in the middle of which was probably  the sacred fire or some other symbol of the deity. The  square area in which it stood was sunk below the natural  level of the ground, and, like that of the Indian pagoda,  appears to have been occasionally floated with water;  the drains and conduits being still to be seen, as also several  fragments of sculpture representing waves, serpents, and  various aquatic animals, which once adorned the basement.  The Bacchus here worshipped, was, as we learn from the  Orphic hymn above cited, the sun in his character of  extinguisher of the fires which once pervaded the earth.  He is supposed to have done this by exhaling the waters  of the ocean and scattering them over the land, which was  thus supposed to have acquired its proper temperature  and fertility. For this reason the sacred fire, the essential  image of the god, was surrounded by the element which  was principally employed in giving effect to the beneficial  exertions of the great attribute.   From a passage of Hecatasus, preserved by Diodorus  Siculus, it seems evident that Stonehenge and all the monu¬  ments of the same kind found in the north, belong to the  same religion which appears at some remote period to  have prevailed over the whole northern hemisphere.  According to that ancient historian, the Hyperboreans  inhabited an island beyond Gaul , as large as Sicily , in which  Apollo was worshipped in a circular temple considerable for  its si^e and riches. Apollo, we know, in the language of  the Greeks of that age, can mean no other than the sun,  which according to Caesar was worshipped by the Germans,  when they knew of no other deities except fire and the  moon. The island can evidently be no other than Britain,  which at that time was only known to the Greeks by the  vague reports of the Phoenician mariners ; and so uncertain  and obscure that Herodotus, the most inquisitive and  credulous of historians, doubts of its existence. The  circular temple of the sun being noticed in such slight and  imperfect accounts, proves that it must have been some¬  thing singular and important; for if it had been an  inconsiderable structure, it would not have been mentioned at all; and if there had been many such in the country,  the historian would not have employed the singular  number.   Stonehenge has certainly been a circular temple, nearly  the same as that already described of the Bacchus at.  Puzznoli, except that in the latter the nice execution and  beautiful symmetry of the parts are in every respect the  reverse of the rude but majestic simplicity of the former.  In the original design they differ but in the form of the  area. It may therefore be reasonably supposed that we  have still the ruins of the identical temple described by  Hecatasus, who, being an Asiatic Greek, might have  received his information from Phoenician merchants, who  had visited the interior parts of Britain when trading there  for tin. Anacrobius mentions a temple of the same kind  and form, upon Mount Zilmissus, in Thrace, dedicated  to the sun under the title of Bacchus Sebrazius. The  large obelisks of stone found in many parts of the north,  such as those at Rudstone, and near Boroughbridge, in  Yorkshire, belong to the same religion; obelisks being,  as Pliny observes, sacred to the sun, whose rays they  represented both by their form and name .—Pajne Knight’s  Worship of Priapus.    Says Hyslop :—“ The hot cross-buns of Good Friday,  and the dyed eggs of Pasch or Easter Sunday, figured in  the Chaldean rites just as they do now. The buns known,  too, by that identical name, were used in the worship of the Queen of Heaven, the goddess Easter (Ishtar or Astarte),  as early as the days of Cecrops, the founder of Athens,  1,500 years before the Christian era.” “ One species of  bread,” says Bryant, “ ‘ which used to be offered to the  gods, was of great antiquity, and called Boun’ Diogenes  mentioned * they were made of flour and honey.’ ” It  appears that Jeremiah the Prophet was familiar with this  lecherous worship. He says :—“ The children gather  wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead  the dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven (Jer.  vii., 18). Hyslop does not add that the “ buns ” offered  to the Queen of Heaven, and in sacrifices to other deities,  were framed in the shape of the sexual organs, but that  they were so in ancient limes we have abundance of  evidence.   Martial distinctly speaks of such things in two epigrams,  first, wherein the male organ is spoken of, second, wherein  the female part is commemorated ; the cakes being made  of the finest flour, and kept especially for the palate of the  fair one.   Captain Wilford (“ Asiatic Researches,” viii., p. 365)  says :—“ When the people of Syracuse were sacrificing to  goddesses, they offered cakes called mulloi, shaped like the  female organ, and in some temples where the priestesses  were probably ventriloquists, they so far imposed on the  credulous multitude who came to adore the Vulva as to  make them believe that it spoke and gave oracles.”   We can understand how such things were allowed in  licentious Rome, but we can scarcely comprehend how  they were tolerated in Christian Europe, as, to all innocent  surprise we find they were, from the second part of the  “ Remains of the Worship of Priapus ” : that in Saintonge,  in the neighbourhood of La Rochelle, small cakes baked in    46    Phallic Worship    the form of the Phallus are made as offerings at Easter,  carried and presented from house to house. Dulare  states that in his time the festival of Palm Sunday, in the  town of Saintes, was called le fete des pinnes —feast of the  privy members—and that during its continuance the  women and children carried in the procession a Phallus  made of bread, which they called a pinne , at the end of their  palm branches ; these pinnes were subsequently blessed  by priests, and carefully preserved by the women during  the year. Palm Sunday 1 Palm, it is to be remembered,  is a euphemism of the male organ, and it is curious to see  it united with the Phallus in Christendom. Dulare also  says that, in some of the earlier inedited French books on  cookery, receipts are given for making cakes of the  salacious form in question, which are broadly named. He  further tells us those cakes symbolized the male, in Lower  Limousin, and especially at Brives ; while the female  emblem was adopted at Clermont, in Auvergne, and other  places.    THE ARK AND GOOD FRIDAY   The ark of the covenant was a most sacred symbol in  the worship of the Jews, and like the sacred boat, or  ark of Osiris, contained the symbol of the principle of  life, or creative power. The symbol was preserved with  great veneration in a miniature tabernacle, which was  considered the special and sanctified abode of the god.  In size and manner of construction the ark of the Jews  and the sacred chest of Osiris of the Egyptians were exactly alike, and were carried in processions in a similar  manner   The ark or chest of Osiris was attended by the priests,  and was borne on the shoulders of men by means of  staves. The ark when taken from the temple was placed  upon a table, or stand, made expressly for the purpose,  and was attended by a procession similar to that which  followed the Jewish ark. According to Faber, the ark  was a symbol of the earth or female principle, containing  the germ of all animated nature, and regarded as the  great mother whence all tilings sprung. Thus the ark,  earth, and goddess, were represented by common symbols,  and spoken of in the old Testament as the “ ashera.”   The sacred emblems carried in the ark of the Egyptians  were the Phallus, the Egg, and the Serpent; the first  representing the sun, fire, and male or generative principle  —the Creator; the second, the passive or female, the  germ of all animated things—the Preserver; and the  last the Destroyer: the Three of the sacred Trinity.  The Hindu women, according to Payne Knight, still  carry the lingam, or consecrated symbol of the generative  attribute of the deity, in solemn procession between two  serpents; and in a sacred casket, which held the Egg  and the Phallus in the mystic processions of the Greeks,  was also a Serpent.   “ The ark,” says Faber, “ was reverenced in all the  ancient religions.” It was often represented in the form of  a boat, or ship, as well as an oblong chest. The rites of  the Druids, with those of Phoenicia and Hindostan, show  that an ark, chest, cell, boat, or cavern, held an important  place in their mysteries. In the story of Osiris, like that  of the Siva, will be found the reason for the emblem being  carried in the sacred chest, and the explanation of one of    48    Phallic Worship    the mysteries of the Egyptian priests. It is said that  Osiris was torn to pieces by the wicked Typhon, who  after cutting up the body, distributed the parts over the  earth. Isis recovered the scattered limbs, and brought  them back to Egypt; but, being unable to find the part  which distinguished his sex, she had an image made of  wood, which was enshrined in an ark, and ordered to  be solemnly carried about in the festivals she had instituted  in his honour, and celebrated with certain secret rites.   The Egg, which accompanied the Phallus in the ark was  a very common symbol of the ancient faiths, which was  considered as containing the generation of life. The  image of that which generated all things in itself. Jacob  Bryant says :—“ The Egg, as it contained the principles  of life was thought no improper emblem of the ark,  in which were preserved the future world. Hence in the  Dionysian and in other mysteries, one part of the nocturnal  ceremony consisted in the consecration of an egg.”  This egg was called the Mundane Egg.   The ark was likewise the symbol of salvation, the place  of safety, the secret receptacle of the divine wisdom.  Hence we find the ark of the Jews containing the tables  of the law; we find too that the Jews were ordered to  place in the ark Aaron’s rod, which budded, conveying  the idea of symbolised fertility : showing that the ark  was considered as the receptacle of the life principle—as  an emblem of the Creator.   With the Egyptians Osiris was supposed to be buried in  the ark, which represented the disappearance of the deity.  His loss, or death, constituted the first part of the mysteries,  which consisted of lamentations for his decease. After the  third day from his death, a procession went down to the  seaside in the night, carrying the ark with them. During    Phallic Worship    49    the passage they poured drink offerings from the river, and  when the ceremony had been duly performed, they raised a  shout that Osiris had again risen—that the dead had been  restored to life. After this followed the second or joyful  part of the mysteries. The s imila rity of this custom with  the Good Friday celebrations of the death of Jesus, and the  rejoicings on account of his resurrection on Easter Sunday,  will be at once observed. It is further said that the missing  part of Osiris was eaten by a fish, which made the fish a  sacred symbol. Thus we have the Ark, Fish, and Good  Friday brought together, also the Egg, for the origin of  the Easter eggs is very ancient. A bull is represented as  breaking an egg with his horn, which signified the  liberating of imprisoned life at the opening or spring of  the year, which had been destroyed by Typhon. The  opening of the year at that time commenced in the spring,  not according to our present reckoning; thus, the Egg  was a symbol of the resurrection of life at the spring, or  our Easter time. The author of the “ Worship of the  Generative Powers,” describes the origin of the hot cross¬  bun at Easter, which is a further parallelism of the Christian  and Pagan festivals. The author also draws a further  conclusion—that the cakes or buns have in reality a  Phallic origin, for in France and other parts, the Easter  cakes were called after the membrun virile. The writer  says :—“ In the primitive Teutonic mythology, there  was a female deity named in old German, Ostara, and in  Anglo-Saxon, Eastre or Eostre ; but all we know of her  is the simple statement of our father of history, Bede,  that her festival was celebrated by the ancient Saxons in  the month of April, from which circumstance that month  was named by the Anglo-Saxons, Easter-mona or Eoster-  mona, and that the name of the goddess had been frequently given to the Paschal time, with which it was identical. The  name of this goddess was given to the same month by  the old Germans and by the Franks, so that she must have  been one of the most highly honoured of the Teutonic  deities, and her festival must have been a very important  one and deeply implanted in the popular feelings, or the  Church would not have sought to identify it with one of  the greatest Christian festivals of the year. It is under¬  stood that the Romans considered this month as dedicated  to Venus, no doubt because it was that in which the  productive powers of nature began to be visibly developed.  When the Pagan festival was adopted by the Church, it  became a moveable feast, instead of being fixed to the  month of April. Among other objects offered to the  goddess at this time were cakes, made no doubt of fine  flour, but of their form we are ignorant. The Christians  when they seized upon the Easter festival, gave them the  form of a bun, which indeed was at that time the ordinary  form of bread ; and to protect themselves and those who  ate them from any enchantment—or other evil influences  which might arise from their former heathen character—  they marked them with the Christian symbol—the cross.  Hence we derived the cakes we still eat at Easter under  the name of hot cross-buns, and the superstitious feelings  attached to them; for multitudes of people still believe  that if they failed to eat a hot cross-bun on Good Friday,  they would be unlucky all the rest of the year.”  The earliest capital seems to have been the bell or  seed vessel, simply copied without alteration, except a  little expansion at the bottom to give it stability. The  leaves of some other plant were then added to it, and  varied in different capitals according to the different  meanings intended to be signified by the accessory symbols.  The Greeks decorated it in the same manner, with the  foliage of various plants, sometimes of the acanthus and  sometimes of the aquatic kind, which are, however,  generally so transformed by excessive attention to elegance,  that it is difficult to distinguish them. The most usual  seems to be the Egyptian acacia, which was probably  adopted as a mystic symbol for the same reasons as the  olive, it being equally remarkable for its powers of  reproduction. Theophrastus mentions a large wood of  it in the “ Thebaid,” where the olive will not grow, so  that we reasonably suppose it to have been employed by  the Egyptians in the same symbolical sense. From  them the Greeks seem to have borrowed it about the  time of the Macedonian conquest, it not occurring in any  of their buildings of a much earlier date ; and as for the  story of the Corinthian architect, who is said to have  invented this kind of capital from observing a thorn  growing round a basket, it deserved no credit, being fully  contradicted by the buildings still remaining in Upper  Egypt.   The Doric column, which appears to have been the  only one known to the very ancient Greeks, was equally  derived from the Nelumbo; its capital being the same  seed-vessel pressed flat, as it appears when withered and  dry—the only state probably in which it had been seen in  Europe. The flutes in the shaft were made to hold  spears and staves, whence a spear-holder is spoken of in  the “ Odyssey ” as part of a column. The triglyphs and  blocks of the cornice were also derived from utility,  they having been intended to represent the projecting  ends of the beams and rafters which formed the roof.   The Ionic capital has no bell, but volutes formed in  imitation of sea-shells, which have the same symbolical  meaning. To them is frequently added the ornament which  architects call a honeysuckle, but which seems to be  meant for the young petals of the same flower viewed  horixontally, before they are opened or expanded. Another  ornament is also introduced in this capital, which they  call eggs and anchors, but which is, in fact, composed of  eggs and spear-heads, the symbols of female generation  and male destructive power, or in the language of  mythology, of Venus and Mars .—Payne Knight.  Stripped, however, of all this splendour and magnifi¬  cence it was probably nothing more than a symbolical  instrument, signifying originally the motion of the  elements, like the sistrum of Isis, the cymbals of Cybele,  the bells of Bacchus, etc., whence Jupiter is said to have  overcome the Titans with his aegis, as Isis drove away  Typhon with her sistrum, and the ringing of the bells  and clatter of metals were almost universally employed  as a means of consecration, and a charm against the destroying and inert powers. Even the Jews welcomed  the new moon with such noises, which the simplicity of  the early ages employed almost everywhere to relieve  her during eclipses, supposed then to be morbid affections  brought on by the influence of an adverse power. The  title Priapus , by which the generative attribute is distinguished, seems to be merely a corruption of Brt'apuos  (clamorous); the beta and pi being commutable letters,  and epithets of similar meaning, being continually applied  both to Jupiter and Bacchus by the poets. Many  Priapic figures, too, still extant, have bells attached to  them, as the symbolical statues and temples of the Hindus  are; and to wear them was a part of the worship of  Bacchus among the Greeks : whence we sometimes find  them of extremely small size, evidently meant to be worn  as amulets with the phalli, lunulas, etc. The chief priests  of the Egyptians and also the high priests of the Jews,  hung them as sacred emblems to their sacerdotal garments ;  and the Brahmins still continue to ring a small bell at the  interval of their prayers, ablutions, and other acts of  devotion; which custom is still preserved in the Roman  Catholic Church at the elevation of the host. The  Lacedaemonians beat upon a brass vessel or pan, on the  death of their kings, and we still retain the custom of  tolling a bell on such occasions, though the reason of it  is not generally known, any more than that of other  remnants of ancient ceremonies still existing. 1 It will  be observed that the bells used by the Christians very  probably came direct from the Buddhists. And from the  same source are derived the beads and rosaries of the  Roman Catholics, which have been used by the Buddhist   1 The above description is from Payne Knight’s “ Symbolical  Language of ancient Art and Mythology.” monks for over 2,000 years. Tinkling bells were  suspended before the shrine of Jupiter Ammon, and  during the service the gods were invited to descend upon  the altars by the ringing of bells ; they were likewise  sacred to Siva. Bells were used at the worship of Bacchus,  and were worn on the garments of the Bacchantes, much  in the same manner as they are used at our carnivals and  masquerades.The following curious fable is given by Sir William  Jones, as one of the stories of the Hindus for the origin of  Phallic devotion:—“ Certain devotees in a remote time had  acquired great renown and respect, but the purity of the  art was wanting, nor did their motives and secret thoughts  correspond with their professions and exterior conduct.  They affected poverty, but were attached to the things of  this world, and the princes and nobles were constantly  sending their offerings. They seemed to sequester them¬  selves from this world ; they lived retired from the towns ;  but their dwellings were commodious, and their women  numerous and handsome. But nothing can be hid from  their gods, and Sheevah resolved to put them to shame.  He desired Prakeety (nature) to accompany him; and  assumed the appearance of a Pandaram of a graceful  form. Prakeety was herself a damsel of matchless worth.  She went before the devotees who were assembled with  their disciples, awaiting the rising of the sun, to perform  their ablutions and religious ceremonies. As she advanced  the refreshing breeze moved her flowing robe, showed  the exquisite shape which it seemed intended to conceal.  With eyes cast down, though sometimes opening with a  timid but tender look, she approached them, and with a  low enchanting voice desired to be admitted to the sacrifice.  The devotees gazed on her with astonishment. The  sun appeared, but the purifications were forgotten;  the things of the Poojah (worship) lay neglected; nor  was any worship thought of but that of her. Quitting the  gravity of their manners, they gathered round her as  flies round the lamp at night—attracted by its splendour,  but consumed by its flame. They asked from whence  she came; whither she was going. ‘ Be not offended  with us for approaching thee, forgive us our importunities.  But thou art incapable of anger, thou who art made to  convey bliss ; to thee, who mayest kill by indifference,  indignation and resentment are unknown. But whoever  thou mayest be, whatever motive or accident might have  brought thee amongst us, admit us into the number of  thy slaves; let us at least have the comfort to behold  thee.’ Here the words faltered on the lip, and the soul  seemed ready to take its flight; the vow was forgotten,  and the policy of years destroyed.   “ Whilst the devotees were lost in their passions, and  absent from their homes, Sheevah entered their village  with a musical instrument in his hand, playing and singing  like some of those who solicit charity. At the sound of his  voice, the women immediately quitted their occupation;  they ran to see from whom it came. He was as beautiful  as Krishen on the plains of Matra. Some dropped their  jewels without turning to look for them ; others let  fall their garments without perceiving that they discovered  those abodes of pleasure which jealousy as well as decency had ordered to be concealed. All pressed forward with  their offerings, all wished to speak, all wished to be taken  notice of, and bringing flowers and scattering them before  him, said—‘ Askest thou alms ! thou who are made to  govern hearts. Thou whose countenance is as fresh as  the morning, whose voice is the voice of pleasure, and  they breath like that of Vassant (Spring) in the opening of  the rose! Stay with us and we will serve thee; not  will we trouble thy repose, but only be zealous how to  please thee.’ The Pandaram continued to play, and sung  the loves of Kama (God of Love), of Krishen and the  Gopia, and smiling the gentle smiles of fond desire. . . .   “ But the desire of repose succeeds the waste of pleasure.  Sleep closed the eyes and lulled the senses. In the  morning the Pandaram was gone. When they awoke  they looked round with astonishment, and again cast  their eyes on the ground. Some directed to those who  had formerly been remarked for their scrupulous manners,  but their faces were covered with their veils. After  sitting awhile in silence they arose and went back to their  houses, with slow and troubled steps. The devotees  returned about the same time from their wanderings after  Prakeety. The days that followed were days of embarrass¬  ment and shame. If the women had failed in their  modesty, the devotees had broken their vows. They  were vexed at their weakness, they were sorry for what  they had done; yet the tender sigh sometimes broke  forth, and the eyes often turned to where the men first  saw the maid—the women, the Pandaram.   “ But the women began to perceive that what the  devotees foretold came not to pass. Their disciples,  in consequence, neglected to attend them, and the offerings  from the princes and nobles became less frequent than    Phallic Worship    57    before. They then performed various penances; they  sought for secret places among the woods unfrequented  by man; and having at last shut their eyes from the  things of this world, retired within themselves in deep  meditation, that Sheevah was the author of their  misfortunes. Their understanding being imperfect,  instead of bowing the head with humility, they were  inflamed with anger; instead of contrition for their  hypocrisy, they sought for vengeance. They performed  new sacrifices and incantations, which were only allowed  to have effect in the end, to show the extreme folly of  man in not submitting to the will of heaven.   “ Their incantations produced a tiger, whose mouth  was like a cavern and his voice like thunder among the  mountains. They sent him against Sheevah, who with  Prakeety was amusing himself in the vale. He smiled  at their weakness, and killing the tiger at one blow with  his club, he covered himself with his skin. Seeing them¬  selves frustrated in this attempt, the devotees had recourse  to another, and sent serpents against him of the most  deadly kind; but on approaching him they became  harmless, and he twisted them round his neck. They  then sent their curses and imprecations against him, but  they all recoiled upon themselves. Not yet disheartened  by all these disappointments, they collected all their  prayers, their penances, their charities, and other good  works, the most acceptable sacrifices ; and demanding  in return only vengeance against Sheevah, they sent a  fire to destroy his genital parts. Sheevah, incensed at  this attempt, turned the fire witti indignation against the  human race; and mankind would soon have been  destroyed, had not Vishnu, alarmed at the danger,  implored him to suspend his wrath. At his entreaties Sheevah relented ; but it was ordained that in his temples  those parts should be worshipped, which the false doctrines  had impiously attempted to destroy.”    THE CROSS AND ROSARY   The key which is still worn with the Priapic hand, as an  amulet, by the women of Italy appears to have been an  emblem of the equivocal use of the name, as the language  of that country implies. Of the same kind, too, appears to  have been the cross in the form of the letter tau, attached  to a circle, which many of the figures of Egyptian deities,  both male and female, carry in their left hand ; and by the  Syrians, Phoenicians and other inhabitants of Asia,  representing the planet Venus, worshipped by them as the  emblem or image of that goddess. The cross in this  form is sometimes observable on coins, and several of  them were found in a temple of Serapis, demolished at the  general destruction of those edifices by the Emperor  Theodosius, and were said by the Christian antiquaries  of that time to signify the future life. In solemn sacrifices,  all the Lapland idols were marked with it from the blood  of the victims ; and it occurs on many Runic ornaments  found in Sweden and Denmark, which are of an age  long anterior to the approach of Christianity to those  countries, and probably to its appearance in the world.  On some of the early coins of the Phoenicians, we find it  attached to a chaplet of beads placed in a circle, so as to  form a complete rosary, such as the Lamas of Thibet  and China, the Hindus, and the Roman Catholics now  tell over while they pray.     Phallic Worship    59    BEADS   Beads were anciently used to reckon time, and a circle,  being a line without termination, was the natural emblem  of its perpetual continuity ; whence we often find circles  of beads upon the heads of deities, and enclosing the  sacred symbols upon coins and other monuments.  Perforated beads are also frequently found in tombs, both  in the northern and southern parts of Europe and Asia,  whence are fragments of the chaplets of consecration  buried with the deceased. The simple diadem, or fillet,  worn round the head as a mark of sovereignty, had a  similar meaning, and was originally confined to the statues  of deities and deified personages, as we find it upon the  most ancient coins. Chryses, the priest of Apollo, in  the “ Iliad,” brings the diadem, or sacred fillet, of the  god upon his sceptre, as the most imposing and invocable  emblem of sanctity ; but no mention is made of its being  worn by kings in either of the Homeric poems, nor of any  other ensign of temporal power and command, except the  royal staff or sceptre.    THE LOTUS   The double sex typified by the Argha and its contents is  by the Hindus represented by the “ Mymphoea ” or  Lotus, floating like a boat on the boundless ocean, where  the whole plant signifies both the earth and the two  principles of its fecundation. The germ is both Meru and  the Linga; the petals and filaments are the mountains  which encircle Meru, and are also a type of the Yoni;  the leaves of the calyx are the four vast regions to the  cardinal points of Meru ; and the leaves of the plant are  the Dwipas or isles round the land of Jambu. As this  plant or lily was probably the most celebrated of all the  vegetable creation among the mystics of the ancient world,  and is to be found in thousands of the most beautiful and  sacred paintings of the Christians of this day—I detain  my reader with a few observations respecting it. This is  the more necessary as it appears that the priests have now  lost the meaning of it; at least this is the case with everyone  of whom I have made enquiry ; but it is like many other  very odd things, probably understood in the Vatican,  or the crypt of St. Peter’s. Maurice says that among the  different plants which ornament our globe, there is not  one which has received so much honour from man as  the Lotus or Lily, in whose consecrated bosom Brahma  was born, and Osiris delighted to float. This is the  sublime, the hallowed symbol that eternally occurs in  oriental mythology, and in truth not without reason, for it  is itself a lovely prodigy. Throughout all the northern  hemispheres it was everywhere held in profound  veneration, and from Savary we learn that the veneration  is yet continued among the modern Egyptians. And  we find that it still continues to receive the respect if  not the adoration of a great part of the Christian world,  unconscious, perhaps, of the original reason of this  conduct. Higgins's Anacalypsis.   The following is an account given of it by Payne  Knight, in his curious dissertation on Phallic Worship :—  “ The Lotus is the Nelumbo of Linnaeus. This plant  grows in the water, among its broad leaves puts forth  a flower, in the centre of which is formed the seed vessel. shaped like a bell or inverted cone, and perforated on the  top with little cavities or cells, in which the seeds grow.  The orifices of these cells being too small to let the seeds  drop out when ripe, they shoot forth into new plants in  the places where tney are formed : the bulb of the vessel  serving as a matrix to nourish them, until they acquire  such a degree of magnitude as to burst it open and release  themselves, after which, likfe other aquatic weeds, they  take root wherever the current deposits them. This  plant, therefore, being thus productive of itself, and  vegetating from its own matrix, without being fostered  in the earth, was naturally adopted as the symbol of the  productive power of the waters, upon which the active  spirit of the Creator operated in giving life and vegetation,  to matter. We accordingly find it employed in every  part of the northern hemisphere, where the symbolical  religion, improperly called idolatry , does or ever did prevail.  The sacred images of rhe Tartars, Japanese, and Indians  are almost placed upon it, of which numerous instances  occur in the publications of Kcempfer, Sonnerat, etc.  The Brahma of India is represented as sitting upon his  Lotus throne, and the figure upon the Isaaic table holds the  stem of this plant surmounted by the seed vessel in one  hand, and the Cross representing the male organs of  generation in the other; thus signifying the universal  power, both active and passive, attributed to that goddess.”   Nimrod says :—“ The Lotus is a well-known allegory,  of which the expansive calyx represents the ship of the  gods floating on the surface of the water ; and the erect  flower arising out of it, the mast thereof. The one was  the galley or cockboat, and the other the mast of cockayne ;  but as the ship was Isis or Magna Mater, the female  principle, and the mast in it the male deity, these parts of  the flower came to have certain other significations, which  seem to have been as well known at Samosata as at Benares.  This plant was also used in the sacred offices of the Jewish  religion. In the ornaments of the temple of Solomon,  the Lotus or lily is often seen.”   The figure of Isis is frequently represented holding the  stem of the plant in one hand, and the cross and circle  in the other. Columns and capitals resembling the  plant are still existing among the ruins of Thebes, in  Egypt, and the island of Pbilce. The Chinese goddess,  Pussa, is represented sitting upon the Lotus, called in  that country Lin, with many arms, having symbols  signifying the various operations of nature, while similar  attributes are expressed in the Scandinavian goddess  Isa or Disa.   The Lotus is also a prominent symbol in Hindu and  Egyptian cosmogony. This plant appears to have the  same tendency with the Sphinx, of marking the connection  between that which produces and that which is produced.  The Egyptian Ceres (Virgo) bears in her hand the blue  Lotus, which plant is acknowledged to be the emblem of  celestial love so frequently seen mounted on the back of  Leo in the ancient remains. The following is a translation  of the Purana relating to the cosmogony of the Hindus,  and will be found interesting as showing the importance  attached to the Lotus in the worship of the ancients :—  “ We find Brahma emerging from the Lotus. The whole  universe was dark and covered with water. On this  primeval water did Bhagavat (God), in a masculine  form, repose for the space of one Calpho (a thousand  years); after which period the intention of creating  other beings for his own wise purposes became pre¬  dominant in the mind of the Great Creator . In the first    Phallic Worship    63    place, by his sovereign will was produced the flower  of the Lotus, afterwards, by the same will, was brought  to light the form of Brahma from the said flower ; Brahma,  emerging from the cup of the Lotus, looked round on all  the four sides, and beheld from the eyes of his four heads  an immeasurable expanse of water. Observing the whole  world thus involved in darkness and submerged in water,  he was stricken with prodigious amazement, and began  to consider with himself, £ Who is it that produced me ? ’  * whence came I ? ’ ‘ and where am I ? *   “ Brahma, thus kept two hundred years in contem¬  plation, prayers, and devotions, and having pondered in  his mind that without connection of male and female an  abundant generation could not be effected—again entered  into profound meditation on the power of the Supreme,  when, on a sudden by the omnipotence of God, was  produced from his right side Swayambhuvah Menu , a man  of perfect beauty; and from the Brahma’s left side a  woman named Satarupa. The prayer of Brahma runs  thus :—‘ O Bhagavat! since thou broughtest me from  nonentity into existence for a particular purpose,  accomplish by thy benevolence that purpose.’ In a  short time a small white boar appeared, which soon  grew to the size of an elephant. He now felt God in all,  and that all is from Him, and all in Him. At length the  power of the Omnipotent had assumed the body of Vara.  He began to use the instinct of that animal. Having  divided the water, he saw the earth a mighty barren  stratum. He then took up the mighty ponderous globe  (freed from the water) and spread the earth like a carpet  on the face of the water; Brahma, contemplating the  whole earth, performed due reverence, and rejoicing  exceedingly, began to consider the means of peopling the renovated world.” Pjag, now Allahabad, was the  first land said to have appeared, but with the Brahmins  it is a disputed point, for many affirm that Cast or Benares  was the sacred ground.    MERU   The learned Higgins, an English judge, who for some  years spent ten hours a day in antiquarian studies, says  that Moriah, of Isaiah and Abraham, is the Meru of the  Hindus, and the Olympus of the Greeks. Solomon  built high places for Ashtoreth, Astarte, or Venus, which  because mounts of Venus, mans veneris —Meru and Mount  Calvary—each a slightly skull-shaped mount, that might  be represented by a bare head. The Bible translators  perpetuate the same idea in the word “ calvaria.” Prof.  Stanley denies that “ Mount Calvary ” took its name  from its being the place of the crucifixion of Jesus.  Looking elsewhere and in earlier times for the bare calvaria,  we find among Oriental women, the Mount of Venus,  mons veneris , through motives of neatness or religious  sentiment, deprived of all hirsute appendage. We see  Mount Calvary imitated in the shaved poll of the head of  a priest. The priests of China, says Mr. J. M. Peebles,  continue to shave the head. To make a place holy,  among the Hindus, Tartars, and people of Thibet, it  was necessary to have a mount Meru, also a Linga-Yoni,  or Arba. This marvellous work of excavation by the slow process  of the chisel, was visited by Capt. Seeley, who afterwards  published a volume describing the temple and its vast  statues. The beauty of its architectural ornaments, the  innumerable statues or emblems, all hewn out of solid  rock, dispute with the Pyramids for the first place among  the works undertaken to display power and embody  feeling. The stupendous temple is detached from the  neighbouring mountain by a spacious area all round, and  is nearly 2 5 o feet deep and 15 o feet broad, reaching to the  height of 100 feet and in length about 145 feet. It has  well-formed doorways, windows, staircases, upper floors,  containing fine large rooms of a smooth and polished  surface, regularly divided by rows of pillars ; the whole  bulk of this immense block of isolated excavation being  upwards of 500 feet in circumference, and having beyond  its areas three handsome figure galleries or verandas  supported by regular pillars. Outside the temple are  two large obelisks or phalli standing, “ of quadrangular  form, eleven feet square, prettily and variously carved, and  are estimated at forty-one feet high; the shaft above the  pedestal is seven feet two inches, being larger at the base  than Cleopatra’s Needle.”   In one oi the smaller temples was an image of Lingam,  “ covered with oil and red ochre, and flowers were daily  strewed on its circular top. This Lingam is larger than  usual, occupying with the altar, a great part of the room.  In most Ling rooms a sufficient space is left for the votaries  to walk round whilst making the usual invocations to the  deity (Maha Deo). This deity is much frequented by  female votaries, who take especial care to keep it clean washed, and often perfume it with oderiferous oils and  flowers, whilst the attendant Brahmins sweep the apartment  and attend the five oil lights and bell ringing.” This oil  vessel resembled the Yoni (circular frame), into which the  light itself was placed. No symbol was more venerated  or more frequently met with than the altar and Ling, Siva,  or Maha Deo. “ Barren women constantly resort to it to  supplicate for children,” says Seeley. The mysteries  attended upon them is not described, but doubtless they  were of a very similar character to those described by the  author of the “ Worship of the Generative Powers of  the Western Nations,” showing again the similarity of  the custom with those practised by the Catholics in France.  The writer says :—“ Women sought a remedy for barren¬  ness by kissing the end of the Phallus ; sometimes they  appear to have placed a part of their body, naked, against  the image of the saint, or to have sat upon it. This latter  trait was perhaps too bold an adoption of the indecencies  of Pagan worship to last long, or to be practised openly ;  but it appears to have been innocently represented by  lying upon the body of the saint, or sitting upon a stone,  understood to represent him without the presence of the  energetic member. In a corner in the church of the  village of St. Fiacre, near Monceaux, in France, there is a  stone called the chair of St. Fiacre, which confers fecundity  upon women who sit upon it; but it is necessary nothing  should intervene between their bare skin and the stone.  In the church of Orcival in Auvergne, there was a pillar  which barren women kissed for the same purpose and  which had perhaps replaced some less equivocal object.”   The principal object of worship at Elora is the stone, so  frequently spoken of ; “ the Lingam,” says Seeley, and he  apologises for using the word so often, but asks to be excused, “ is an emblem not generally known, but as  frequently met with as the Cross in Catholic worship.”  It is the god Siva, a symbol of his generative character,  the base of which is usually inserted in the Yoni. The  stone is of a conical shape, often black stone, covered  with flowers (the Bella and Asuca shrubs). The flowers  hang pendant from the crown of the Ling stone to the  spout of the Argha or Yoni (mystical matrix) ; the same  as the Phallus of the Greeks. Five lamps are commonly  used in the worship at the symbol, or one lamp with five  wicks. The Lotus is often seen on the top of the Ling. The characteristic attribute of the passive generative  power was expressed in symbolical writing, by different  enigmatical representations of the most distinguished  characteristic of the female sex: such as the shell or  Concha Veneris , the fig-leaf, barley corn, and the letter  Delta, all of which occur very frequently upon coins and  other ancient monuments in this sense. The same  attribute personified as the goddess of Love, or desire,  is usually represented under the voluptuous form of a  beautiful woman, frequently distinguished by one of these  symbols, and called Venus, Kypris, or Aphrodite, names  of rather uncertain mythology. She is said to be the  daughter of Jupiter and Dione, that is of the male and  female personifications of the all-pervading Spirit of the  Universe ; Dione being the female Dis or Zeus, and there¬  fore associated with him in the most ancient oraculai   temple of Greece at Dodona. No other genealogy appears  to have been known in the Homeric times ; though a  different one is employed to account for the name of  Aphrodite in the “ Theogony ” attributed to Hesiod.   The Genelullides or Genoidai were the original and  appropriate ministers or companions of Venus, who was  however, afterwards attended by the Graces, the proper  and original attendants of Juno; but as both these  goddesses were occasionally united and represented in  one image, the personifications of their respective sub¬  ordinate attributes were on other occasions added:  whence the symbolical statue of Venus at Paphos had a  beard, and other appearances of virility, which seems to  have been the most ancient mode of representing the  celestial as distinguished from the popular goddess of that  name—the one being a personification of a general  procreative power, and the other only of animal desire or  concupiscence. The refinement of Grecian art, however,  when advanced to maturity, contrived more elegant  modes of distinguishing them ; and, in a celebrated work  of Phidias, we find the former represented with her foot  upon a tortoise ; and in a no less celebrated one of Scopas,  the latter sitting upon a goat. The tortoise, being an  androgynous animal, was aptly chosen as a symbol of  the double power ; and the goat was equally appropriate  to what was meant to be expressed in the other.   The same attribute was on other occasions signified by a  dove or pigeon, by the sparrow, and perhaps by the  polypus, which often appears upon coins with the head  of the goddess, and which was accounted an aphrodisiac,  though it is likewise of the androgynous class. The fig  was a still more common symbol, the statue of Priapus  being made of the tree, and the fruit being carried with the    Phallic Worship    69    Phallus in the ancient processions in honour of Bacchus,  and still continuing among the common people of Italy  to be an emblem of what it anciently meant: whence  we often see portraits of persons of that country painted  with it in one hand, to signify their orthodox elevation to  the fair sex. Hence, also arose the Italian expression far la  fica , which was done by putting the thumb between the  middle and fore-fingers, as it appears in many Priapic orna¬  ments extant; or by putting the finger or thumb into the  corner of the mouth and drawing it down, of which there  is a representation in a small Priapic figure of exquisite  sculpture, engraved among the Antiquities of Herculaneum. The same liberal and humane spirit still prevails among  those nations whose religion is founded on the same  principles. “ The Siamese,” says a traveller of the  seventeenth century, “ shun disputes and believe that  almost all religions are good ” (“ Journal du Voyage de  Siam ”). When the ambassador of Louis XIV asked their  king, in his master’s name, to embrace Christianity, he  replied, “ that it was strange that the king of France  should interest himself so much in an affair which concerns  only God, whilst He, whom it did concern, seemed to  leave it wholly to our discretion. Had it been agreeable  to the Creator that all nations should have had the same  form of worship, would it not have been as easy to His  omnipotence to have created all men with the same sentiments and dispositions, and to have inspired them with the  same notions of the True Religion, as to endow them with  such different tempers and inclinations ? Ought they  not rather to believe that the true God has as much pleasure  in being honoured by a variety of forms and ceremonies,  as in being praised and glorified by a number of different  creatures ? Or why should that beauty and variety,  so admirable in the natural order of things, be less  admirable or less worthy of the wisdom of God in the  supernatural ? ”   The Hindus profess exactly the same opinion. “ They  would readily admit the truth of the Gospel,” says a very  learned writer long resident among them, “ but they  contend that it is perfectly consistent with their Shastras.  The Deity, they say, has appeared innumerable times in  many parts of this world and in all worlds, for the salvation  of his creatures ; and we adore, they say, the same God, to  whom our several worships, though different in form, are  equally acceptable if they be sincere in substance.”   The Chinese sacrifice to the spirits of the air the  mountains and the rivers ; while the Emperor himself  sacrifices to the sovereign Lord of Heaven, to whom all  these spirits are subordinate, and from whom they are  derived. The sectaries of Fohi have, indeed, surcharged  this primitive elementary worship with some of the  allegorical fables of their neighbours ; but still as their  creed—like that of the Greeks and Romans—remains  undefined, it admits of no dogmatical theology, and of  course no persecution for opinion. Obscure and  sanguinary rites have, indeed, been wisely prescribed on  many occasions ; but still as actions and not as opinions.  Atheism is said to have been punished with death at  Athens ; but nevertheless it may be reasonably doubted  whether the atheism, against which the citizens of that  republic expressed such fury, consisted in a denial of the  existence of the gods ; for Diagoras, who was obliged  to fly for this crime, was accused of revealing and calum¬  niating the doctrines taught in the Mysteries ; and from  the opinions ascribed to Socrates, there is reason to believe  that his offence was of the same kind, though he had not  been initiated.   These were the only two martyrs to religion among the  ancient Greeks, such as were punished for actively violating  or insulting the Mysteries, the only part of their worship  which seems to have possessed any vitality; for as to  the popular deities, they were publicly ridiculed and  censured with impunity by those who dared not utter a  word against the populace that worshipped them; and  as to the forms and ceremonies of devotion, they were  held to be no otherwise important, then as they were  constituted a part of civil government of the state; the  Phythian priestess having pronounced from the tripod,  that whoever performed the rites of his religion according to the  laws of his country, performed them in a manner pleasing to the  Deity. Hence the Romans made no alterations in the  religious institutions of any of the conquered countries ;  but allowed the inhabitants to be as absurd and extravagant  as they pleased, and to enforce their absurdities and  extravagances wherever they had any pre-existing laws  in their favour. An Egyptian magistrate would put  one of his fellow-subjects to death for killing a cat ora  monkey; and though the religious fanaticism of the  Jews was too sanguinary and too violent to be left entirely  free from restraint, a chief of the synagogue could order  anyone of his congregation to be whipped for neglecting  or violating any part of the Mosaic Ritual. The principle underlying the system of emanations  was, that all things were of one substance, from which they  were fashioned and into which they were again dissolved,  by the operation of one plastic spirit universally diffused  and expanded. The polytheist of ancient Greece and  Rome candidly thought, like the modern Hindu, that all  rites of worship and forms of devotion were directed  to the same end, though in different modes and through  different channels. “ Even they who worship other gods, says  Krishna, the incarnate Deity, in an ancient Indian poem  ( Bhagavat-Gita ), “worship me although they know it not ''—  Payne Knight.  Mario Cazzaniga. Gian Mario Cazzaniga. Keywords: rito di passage, solo una volta, l’iniziazione, massoneria, esoterismo, democrazia come sistema simbolico, sovranita, stato nazionale, conflitto, liberta, fraternita, iguaglianza. Refs.: Luigi Speranza, “Grice e Cazzaniga” – The Swimming-Pool Library. Cazzaniga.